My next dabble in new gear...Zynthian

[ElmerJFudd]

Up to V4.6 - gets a little better every time. 
 

https://shop.zynthian.org

[Baggypants]

I did a gig using the new looper in the summer, people liked it a lot!

[ElmerJFudd]

16 minutes ago, Baggypants said:

I did a gig using the new looper in the summer, people liked it a lot!

What kind of latency and performance are you getting on it with Pianoteq? When running just a single engine can it compete with an iPad or the PC in the Kronos for playability? Or even a cheap windows laptop about the same price and spec? 

[Baggypants]

Heh, I'm not using Pianoteq, sorry. I barely ever use a piano sound when I gig. I use ob-xd, Nois3maker and setBfree and also audio in from my vr09 and Nintendo DS

 

There have been improvements reported recently though: https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pi-4-sample-rate-pianoteq-config-changes/7285/4?u=baggypants

[ElmerJFudd]

1 minute ago, Baggypants said:

Heh, I'm not using Pianoteq, sorry. I barely ever use a piano sound when I gig. I use ob-xd, Nois3maker and setBfree and also audio in from my vr09 and Nintendo DS

 

There have been improvements reported recently though: https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/pi-4-sample-rate-pianoteq-config-changes/7285/4?u=baggypants

Fun! 

[uhoh7]

Regarding polyphony, ram is now at 4 or 8gb and other improvements have helped, I gather. Mine is on the way...

The current Zynthian Kit:

https://shop.zynthian.org/shop/product/zynthian-kit-v4-6-448?category=13

 

Two HDMI outs on back....

 

I really want to try this out, which is included, as I understand:

 

 

https://zynthian.org/engines/_engine-list/engine-aeolus

 

Support for 3 manuals and Pedalboard, of course. I'm impressed by the sound, honestly. I've listened to many sampled organs in the past few years. You get the "realverb" of each church, big time, which is not a bad thing, but it's also nice, for example if you are learning to resolve your dissonances "correctly", to have a very pure and clean sound at hand. I may need to brush up on my bash, which I did spent some time learning about 5 years ago, and I loaded various flavors of Linux. It's helpful to watch him type

 

This Modular emulation apparently could be loaded right on top:

 

[Baggypants]

If you're unfamiliar with Linux it's going to be tricky to run sunvox with the zynthian ui. Although zynthian has it's own sequencer so you could get a similar workflow just using the zynth plugins.

 

Aeolus is currently recieving a bit of dev focus, and the next stable os release should be much easier to manage. https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/aeolus-show-us-your-organs/7637

[uhoh7]

On 2/1/2023 at 1:59 AM, Baggypants said:

If you're unfamiliar with Linux it's going to be tricky to run sunvox with the zynthian ui. Although zynthian has it's own sequencer so you could get a similar workflow just using the zynth plugins.

 

Aeolus is currently recieving a bit of dev focus, and the next stable os release should be much easier to manage. https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/aeolus-show-us-your-organs/7637

Very fair point

 

I went through a phase of restoring old laptops etc with Linux. I'm no hand, but I've tried 5 flavors or so, and fought driver issues. Not to say I imagine it's gonna be like IOS  I have to remember all those friggin commands @ directories....(I have flash cards someplace) well..better than some pointless memory game. We picks our fights...either at the outset...or after frustration. 

 

The Aeolus guy was kind enough to remind me: "please note Zynthian does not have the display active by default, you'll need to remote ssh into zynthian to see the editor !"

 

remote SSH is not like coding C++ or even writing Roland Sysex commands. And of course you can do it from your MBP. Once setup you are a few clicks out. The real issues come with the various updates and flavor choices, which, like Catalina, break stuff. 

 

I plan to start simple I'll use the organ that's in there.  I do crave midi 32-note pedals. But meanwhile I'm practicing Irish jigs and reels (slowly) on the RT-3 

[Baggypants]

12 hours ago, uhoh7 said:

The Aeolus guy was kind enough to remind me: "please note Zynthian does not have the display active by default, you'll need to remote ssh into zynthian to see the editor !"

 

That's true of all the plugins. Zynthian isn't the best tool for editing sounds over a plugin gui, it's more of a keyboard workstation/stage instrument. Run aeoleus on a linux pc for editing and copy the resulting patches to the zynthian with the webui. However, there is also a built in web VNC option you can use to view the editors. It takes up a chunk of cpu so it's not reccomended to be on all the time.

https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Accessing_Zynthian_from_your_computer

[uhoh7]

Zynthian v4.6 arrived

 

Assembly easy. I plugged in one cable incorrectly, and had help in the Zynthian forum in less than an hour. Used Etcher to burn OS to microSD. The Pi burner did not work, and you would not want any options, like user or pass at first. So Etcher is two clicks you are done.

Step one is to update everything. This can be done with Zynth or your laptop. Very easy remote access. 

The interface: most crucially four knobs which can be pressed in 3 ways. The config here is simple and really well thought out, but would be hard to guess. These two videos give you an idea on what's on the Zynthian, and how the 4 knobs really work:

 

 

 

 

You can see how it's really designed in a way that could be fantastic for live use, much simpler than mouse: you really don't have to look, once you have set your options.

You should get an idea of how loaded this thing is, also. You can add or remove from a huge set of instruments/effects/synths/utilites which are downloaded or deleted as needed.

 

@Baggypants I'm sure you are right about that in particular cases, but as shown in these short demos, you can very quickly change all sorts of aspects, both with the knobs and MIDIlearn, and then save those changes as a mappable button on your controller. That button could just turn rotary on/off, or load an entire instrument set with your desired layers, mix, channels, etc. 

 

Or that is my impression as naive new user.....I will report as we go. But no remorse yet  

 

This box is a real labor of love by a bunch of folks, who also appear quite accessible for help. Here is the forum:

https://discourse.zynthian.org

 

Word of mouth is key to open source success. No big ad budgets for users to fund. I could have built one for maybe $150...but the custom DACs heatsink etc etc. I would have been sourcing that stuf for days. So nice to just get one. 

 

I did try out the ssh, remote entry via terminal, and refresh my knowledge of Linux cmds. They are pretty simple actually, and very easy to reference. I think with Xserver a mac will also see the graphical interface, like the organ editor in video above. I will test that someday. But everything at base is a text edit. The trick is learning to use the texteditor correctly, LOL. A few years ago I spent a little time with the most famous one: VIM. A very powerful thing with all kinds of flavors. It is one of  the fundamental tools to configure and maintain these servers we depend on these days, like the ones serving this great site

 

It's as old as Linux:

 

 

[uhoh7]

So this thing has a pretty elablorate B3 on board.....to give you an idea, here is a guy showing his pedal configuration, where you also get to hear some sounds from "setBfree". He has modded a SL 113 and that's the screen you see. 

 

 

The B3 simulator seems to have easy access to the usual tweaks you might want on a real one. 

 

Now I'm browsing synth patches, and I'm pretty impressed by the audio quality of the Zynthian. I have a bunch of hardware lying around which I have on the mixer, lately Model D and 2600, also got a E-mu command station, MOXF...well this murders the MOXF. It must be the DACs and the audioboard the Zynth team has selected, you can see what that is above, on his site.

 

One synth I'm in now has large number of presets and they sound fantastic to be honest. Each of these allows what appears to be deep access to critical elements, which you adjust realtime, release, cutoff....LFO whatever. I don't yet know the synth structure of this one, but it resembles romplers like the Rolands and Yamahas. 

 

I also came accross a huge number of MIDI tools, and the effects list is very long. It has stereo inputs, of course, so......and it appears to sample, and sequence. I'm pretty sure it's a real USB midi Host....but I need to verify that...now that RK has schooled me

 

If your desert island had power, this would be something to take along maybe.....it is very light.