Synclavier FM ESX24 library demo

[uscript]

mark snow used one of these on the xfiles

[NoMac90]

Nice tune, nice sounds. I wish there would be ressources for music like this on the web. I'd even pay for it..

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

hmm, i use the sinclavier II

[lufillolufilli]

Well well......Can I have one for me???I can give my HOUSE and car for this!!!

Ahhhh what a dream!

[RetroElectroville]

Awesome! So, do you think the sound effect at the beginning of "Dirty Diana" is a Synclav, DX-7, DX-1, or PPG Waveterm?

[vonmandzaro]

Hi,

Could you tell something more about your patch bay?

I rack my brain about the most optimal way to connect Capybara (4I/O) with MOTM.

Did you have any issue with balancing/unbalancing connections?

[dahlmanns]

Hey euphonia001. I am thinking about a synclavier II (with DTD mono). would you recommend it for sounddesign/effects more than a pacarana (I already ordered)?

[euphonia001]

@dahlmanns If your main focus is sound design, then start with Kyma and later on add a Synclavier. The combination is great, modern vs vintage. I would however try to go for a smaller Synclavier with polyphonic sampling and FM, instead of the mono DTD.

I personally use a Kyma Capybara 360 as my Synclav / Kyma audio interface, together with three custom Pacaranas for DSP.

[dahlmanns]

@euphonia001 You're using the Capybara as a mixer for the synclavier? great!

[euphonia001]

@dahlmanns Yes! Capybara is my sub mixer/ patchbay/ SFX DSP. Because of the near zero latency Kyma DSP, it allows me to freely internally patch between Kyma sound objects, the Synclavier and my MOTM modular. Since all the analog ins and outs are part of the Kyma instrument, it makes it very easy to save large complex hybrid patches

[vonmandzaro]

@euphonia001

Greate sound !

Could you tell more please how you integrate your MOTM with Kyma ?

[euphonia001]

@vonmandzaro MOTM and Kyma are linked via MIDI and Audio through a custom patchbay panel on my MOTM. I've dedicated 4in 4 out on my Capybara360 for the MOTM (the other 4 in outs are reserved for the synclav)

Inside Kyma, I can now insert real analog filters/oscilators in the audio chain, and control them via midi.

[vonmandzaro]

@euphonia001 Thank you

[shairaptor]

euphonia: can the EXS24 library be inported into Kontakt 4 without any problems? Kontakt is compatible with EXS24 soundbanks I think. Thanks!

[euphonia001]

@shairaptor I have not tried it, but it shouldn't be a problem. The library is very straight forward, no key release, legato or key switching, only velocity layers.

[shairaptor]

@euphonia001 Thanks! Please come back to me about that, thanks. Have a nice weekend, cheers!

[shairaptor]

Did you know the famous THX sound came from a Synclavier and the sound was developed/programmed in 1983??? 20.000 lines of C-program code afaik. That's incredibly cool! =)

[euphonia001]

@shairaptor There's a few THX like sounds in the FM library. The feature of sliding polyphonic harmonics is fairly unique to the Synclavier system.

You can actually achieve the sound straight from the keyboard, without too much programing.

[shairaptor]

@euphonia001 Cool! Yeah, I heard a preset demo sound or song from the Synclavier, and the patch used there resembled the THX sound very much (a church organ sound followed after the sound in the demo song). That's great. :)

[zenmachinefilms]

Nice work Tobias. One day I will own an actual Synclavier.

[PimpinBassie2]

Where's the Beat It gong?

[shairaptor]

@PimpinBassie2 thats as far as I know a sample and doesn't come from the FM unit of the synclavier. the syn is as you know a combined digital sampler and FM synthesizer among other things

[Edbrad]

Would be nice to have a Kontakt version! :)

[euphonia001]

Ok, good feedback. I'll work on a Kontakt version in the new year.

[blaharns]

@euphonia001 All this "Synclavier sounds sooo much better than anything else" is pure elitist BS. It´s no fun for you to think that everyone nowadays can afford professional equipment. Yes, I have owned a 9600 system, but a sold it a few years ago, and now I only use software and I have never regret it.

[euphonia001]

Pro sound has very little to do with price. Some of the best sounding software out there is for free.

My goal is to not discriminate any gear or software, free nor expensive.

By being an omni consumer of music gear, I've learned that many brilliant engineering techniques goes lost, simply because we are used to working a certain way.

[euphonia001]

In the world of samplers, I simply wish we could step away from the softsamplers for a moment, and just remind ourselves how alive and good hardware sounds when done right. Why does forward momentum in technology have to mean increased convenience but sacrifice in sound quality

[euphonia001]

No doubt the Synclavier is for everyone. It's an old Behemoth.

It is certainly not a practical tool you sit and work with on the plane etc.

Sonically it still rocks. Here's a simple test that demonstrates this.

Load a single sample to your softsampler, and play that sample an octave down in pitch. Now compare that to the Synclavier an octave down, and you will be blown away.

[euphonia001]

The reason is because each soundcard in the synclavier runs at an individual variable clock speed, adjusting to the selected keyboard pitch. Very similar in sound to slowing down or speeding up a tape machine.

Software has to do this through an algorithm, preferably in realtime without eating too much CPU. And then intepolate the sample back to 44.1 (or whatever master clock is set to)

[euphonia001]

This is usually not that pretty sounding. So to cover up that side effect software tends to use very large multi sample sets all sampled at original pitch.

[yermyahu]

Some sly geek noodled out a bunch of sounds from a Yamaha DX/Korg DS-8 burned it on a CD with some catchy Synclaviery imagery and passed it off as an authentic reproduction...me thinks you were scammed. Yeah, I looked at the website.

[euphonia001]

The Synclaviers you see on my website are the machines I use daily in my studio. They are also the very same machines I used to create the library. No more and no less.

[euphonia001]

The EXS24 Library, is a great way to actually hear how the FM portion of a Synclavier sounds. If you have ever played with a Synclavier you would instantly recognize the sound.

Each instrument has been sampled throughout the entire keyboard range, so all the nuances of the 8bit sound cards are represented.

[yermyahu]

I made a comment some time ago that this kind of sounded like a Yamaha CX-5...I guess what I'm trying to say is sorry man, I'm nut convinced. I've heard comparable music on a YM2612 Sega Genesis, and If this is the 'high-end' Synclavier sound, I churned out more high-end sounds out of a $400 Yamaha SY77. Not that the music sounds bad...it's a cool track - kind of reminds me of Phantasy Star.

[Bp1033]

It sounds allot like those Yamaha opl chips that were so popular(or just cheap) in the 90's. I love Fm Synthesizer such grate sounds and fun to tweak. But the closest I have ever got to having a synthesizer work station was with Reality Adlib Tracker. I would love to just play with one of these for a day.

[euphonia001]

At the time when the Synclavier was realized, it was a true marvel way ahead of its time. With technology moving ahead as fast as it is, it's actually amazing that the machine still somewhat holds up even today.

You are very correct when you compare it to a vintage car. It comes with all the faults of an old char, yet with wonderful characteristics that you sometimes miss in a new car.

[NewShimmer]

I had Synclavier lust in the 1980s. The problem was I had no money or talent. I still have no talent and not much money, but for $200, I bought Logic Express (the little brother to Logic Studio) for the Mac.

In most respects, a $1000 iMac with Logic is more powerful than the Synclavier or Fairlight. It's twenty years of Moore's law at work. Unfortunately, because I have more power at my fingers than a $500,000 synclavier from 1988, I lost my excuse for making music that sounds like sh

[roncstelep]

Yes, you are right. But a vintage Ferrari is a car which you shouldn't exceed a speed limit for maintencing purposes and a Mini Morris is a car which today is able to run at the same speed and even if so, then one make the distinguishing according to many else factors as: comfort, gas-consuming.Good music can be made on a 100USD pc today, no doubt but somehow I haven't heard any good music yet made on any PC-only circumestances and that's the most important

[synthisist]

Are Synclavias/Fairlights STILL the Best Synth/Sampler Workstations of all time? They are still used to make professional film/documentary music! 30 years on, does anything come close? I know this is a personal question, but do "Oasys/M3", "Lionstracs Mediastation", "Open Labs", "Kurzweil", "Motif", "Fantom G", Ketron Ayuda" "C.Nord", "A.Virus" + others get close? Are they reliable? Is it worth paying more to buy a s/h Synclav/Fairlight or are they too complicated & expensive to maintain etc?

[daniel32nicolosi]

I believe to own a syncla you must have a buttload of money. I saw one recently go for 350,000 dollars. These samplers are extremely expensive.

[backindauk]

Unlikely. You can buy pretty much the highest spec system from Synhouse for $20,000. It's not just a sampler. It can be a polyphonic sampler, direct to disk recorder, FM/Additive synth and a digital transfer unit.

[backindauk]

Arguably yes. Sure, they are very limited compared to the modern PC/Mac based DAW or studio. But the sound quality is still far superior.

[euphonia001]

A synclavier is by todays standards a rather bulky and complicated machine. However because of the use of individual sound cards per polyphony, combined with analog VCA and analog summing. You have a machine that sonically is far superior to any sampler out there today.

The sad thing is though, is that even IF you were to recreate the architecture today and host it in a modern OS, it would still be a very expensive machine. Simply because of the huge amount of parts.

[MarsHottentot]

Well put. The thing is, you'd really have to be in the room with it and hear it in action to truly understand the difference.

[euphonia001]

Exactly, an online MP3 demo will not really do it justice =)

[MarsHottentot]

Well, you'd think that would be obvious, right? Ahhh, the internet....

[beatnikcafe]

@euphonia001 I think you have a good point about the analog summing. I know from experience that if you bring your sofsynths out of the box in as many streams as possible and then sum them on a nice desk like a Nieve the sound quality is night and day, in terms of feel mostly. It still actually sounds the same but the feeling is better. I know some guys that have pretty much scrapped midi sequencing and just record all their synths as audio, the final mix usually comes out a lot better.

[backindauk]

Incredibly reliable. The Synclavier uses military specified components for pretty much everything thus the original price in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars range.

I have a Fairlight CMI III and so far nothing has failed in 22 years. Far more reliable than any of the computers i've owned!

[roncstelep]

The usage of the military spec parts sounds good as a sloggan but the creators of the Synclav was NOTHING to do to the audioquality. It's an extremely twisted and crazy found-out system.The whole result is very ad-hoc as it used to be when somebody engineers something.But the most important of all:all engineering based on writen,already discovered technical principals which are not necessarily match with their contibution to the soundquality, so an enginer who.....

[roncstelep]

...an enginer who have no strict, personal experiences in audiophile-effects produced by the certain components,tech solutions, will NEVER know how to engineering audiphile-wise. Audioquality engineering is nowhere taught in the engineering schools. All the instuments in the world made like that. Made by non-audiophile engineers and were thought out PURELY functionally, technically, financially.There's NO exception.Otherwise synths could have been brutal soundquality.

[euphonia001]

I use my Synclavier professionally every day.

When I'm on a project I usually leave the machine on all the time. It never fails me. Rock solid, with a boot time of less than 20s.

However I cant event count the endless amount of times I've had to restart my Logic sessions.

[RediForKing]

I would say the Oasys is the only one who can come close to the power of the Synclavier because it has not only the sample synth engine like most of the workstations it also offers true FM synthesis, Analog modelling, Physical modeling and a modelled tonewheel organ . But the most important point why bothering about getting an old sampler is the vintage digital but kind of analog sound.

[RediForKing]

None of the synths made today can replicate that sound. I personaly love it much more than all that 32 bit 388 khz stuff today. If I had the money to buy one of them I would do it strait away.

[euphonia001]

I agree.

I've chosen my tools based on what to me sounds the absolute best.

In a A/B shootout, nothing comes close to the Synclavier sonically.

My main setup consists of a Synclavier 9600 with 96 (PSV voices, the older sweeter sounding) 32 voice FM and 200 meg RAM.

I run the Synclav in tandem with my large MOTM modular synth, into my Kyma system (3 Pacaranas with 30 gig of RAM)

This way I have total sound and routing flexibility, and the entire system behaves almost like one single unit.

[roncstelep]

What they say about all misterious item are usually hype and based upon belief. There are no such as best especially not of all time concerning the not yet happened time of the future. Best from what point? People are very subjective. I'd approach it all from strict points as: soundquality, character, ease of use, MB, polyphony and those can easily be told and then maybe I'd add some points are matter of personal taste.

[joaxTV]

I want to see the screen of "Edit View".

[oS2006DE]

You and every adventurous home-made VSTi developer on the planet! There's a site that talked about how strangely fluid the paramater access was on the SyncII.

[sauermusicDE]

That song sounds awesome!

[JarreYuri]

Nice demo of the FM! REALLY!

What I am trying to get a hold of in my mind is the resynthesis.

Is this something You can do with Your equipment?

I previously owned a Fairlight series IIx and it had it. But could just do it in the 127 slices undipendently how long the sampling was.

If You listen to some of the Janet Jackson and a song from David Bowie (afraid of the amaricans), You can certainly hear the resythesis.

Am I wrong?

Any demo on this?

Thanks for a cool FM demo!!!!!!!!

[euphonia001]

Yes, resynthesis is one of the many ways you can use the FM synth engine.

There's a few different set of tools in the OS that allows for variations on the resynthesis.

I tend to use it as a "fatten up the sound", by letting the FM synth imitate and double up with a sample. Very effective, as you now have two very different synth engines doubling the same sound.

[roncstelep]

If you give me your email adress I can send you pics!

[roncstelep]

Hello! I also have a large Synclavier with the addtive synth, the sampling, and the HD-recording tower! 3 Towers. Users let's get together!

[euphonia001]

Wow, that's a serious setup! Any pictures of the rig?

[TheSkepticalIdealist]

Hey do you have the synclavier sound libraries? Ive been looking for proper Synclavier samples for some time. Choirs, string FX stuff. CAnt find them anywhere

[Hiro139]

This sounds beautiful, im a Dx7 owner and this is like what FM synthesized music should sound like.

How many Operators did the Synclavier have to work with?

[euphonia001]

Thank you!

The Synclavier is a 64 partial additive synthesizer in four layers. Each of those four layers has FM with a dedicated envelope. You can get more FM by robbing polyphony (32v).

Furthermore you can perform resynthesis and convolution from the computer terminal, and let the FM engine play it back.