Cherry Audio GX-80!

[Dave Bryce]

Wait until you see this thing.  A combination of the Yaqmaha CS-80 and GX-1, and more! 🤩🥳

 

 

We've actually been working on a team review of this for the past few weeks.  It's just gone live in the Gearlab forum.  

 

Come join us... 😊

 

dB

 

 

 

[EscapeRocks]

They've got my money

 

I was turned on to Cherry Audio with MiniMode, then SINES, and now THIS?!?!?!?!

 

Good thing I have no gigs this week, as I'll be in the lab with this beast 

 

[Mike Martin]

It is a beautiful and expressive instrument. The "LAST" mode they've done for last note priority on aftertouch (for those of us without Polyphonic aftertouch) is just brilliant.  I was on the preset team for this one. Here is a track I made.
 

 

[David Emm]

Nicely done, Mike. Its pleasantly Vangelis-y without being blatant, but as with workstations and "How's the piano?," the first question for many will be "How's the 'Blade Runner?'" Pretty good, obviously. I expected as much. I'm going to buy the HELL out of this one.

 

Now all I need is a free-standing, USB-equipped touch strip to wail on. 

[Dave Bryce]

I've also made a track using the GX-80s sounds and effects.  Some of the drums come from the GX-80 as well, but most of them are from my Alesis DM-Pro

 

 

Craig Anderton did the video for me.

 

This thing is insane. So much power and flexibility....and what a sound... 🤯

 

dB

[EscapeRocks]

Hey Mike, that is stunning.   I can't wait to break away from day job and get it installed!

 

[RABid]

SynthStack 3 now available. As a SynthStack 2 owner I have been waiting for this. All their new synths including GX-80 are included. The upgrade price is good enough that I will be getting it.

[RABid]

21 minutes ago, Dave Bryce said:

I've also made a track using the GX-80s sounds and effects.

Sounds like a track that could have been on Beyond the Mind's Eye.

[zeronyne]

Are there any a/b comparisons with the Arturia clone?

[Stokely]

Is Cherry a huge company or something?  They churn out so many products--and by "churn" I don't mean anything negative--compared to most other plugin companies like u-he/synapse/etc.

[RABid]

Early impression. I'm using the demo right now and in a couple of days when my SS Check arrives I plan to upgrade to SynthStack 3.:

 

This synth sits in a very different place for me. Normally when it comes to programing a synth I want to explore what happens when I crank the LFO into audible range, or see how hollow I can make the square wave sound. But when I look at the extensive amount of sliders here I feel no encouragement to program. Instead I want to lightly tweak while holding a chord. And when the sound is just right and I am holding a Cm, I want to lightly tap a 9th for a split second to see what that does to the mood. While other synths make me want to explore sounds, the GX-80 makes me want to explore chord structure and experiment with theory. It screams "build on me" and takes a place in the foundation of a song. I immediately wanted to attach my best Juno Chorus emulation and a pattern based echo, then launch into some space trance. I expect it will pair very nicely with Signs with the GX-80 being the foundation and Signs providing the little background flourishes. 

[Tusker]

Love that Evil Genius came back Dave. A great song. That sync lead sounds as authentically dB as ever. Hmmh, dare I mention Balthazar? Mike, I think you took us to the third Bladerunner movie, close enough to the other two that we could hear the family resemblance but still it's own very special thing. I'm digging your preset bank.

 

Downloading and loading this up was a snap. I was digging into the controls and then I noticed a preset called Baked Alaska? Could it be? Turns out it could. Instant Eddie Jobson. There is a search function. Within five minutes I had located Blade, then Layered Blade, then Fanfare Brass, Fanfare Comp. Dreaming of Sheep, Roy Batty's Revenge, Mr. V's lead  .... it's great stuff.

 

A note of caution. Fanfare Comp can cause some people to loop ELP's Peter Gunn and spend a half hour jamming with a silly grin on their face. I wouldn't know from personal experience. Just saying.

 

Thanks to everyone who made this possible.

 

 

 

 

[RABid]

2 hours ago, zeronyne said:

Are there any a/b comparisons with the Arturia clone?

The comparisons I found on YouTube were not very good. Almost sounding like two different synths. From my own tests I prefer the filter on the Arturia. I also prefer some of the controls on the Arturia that are more computer structured rather than hardware emulated. But there are some things that the GX-80 can do that the Arturia version cannot not. Also, I prefer some of the more open brass and string sections on the GX-80. It's really like two different instruments. Don't know which sounds more like the original.

[Motif88]

Instant buy for me….

[Mike Martin]

7 hours ago, David Emm said:

Nicely done, Mike. Its pleasantly Vangelis-y without being blatant, but as with workstations and "How's the piano?," the first question for many will be "How's the 'Blade Runner?'" Pretty good, obviously. I expected as much. I'm going to buy the HELL out of this one.

 

Now all I need is a free-standing, USB-equipped touch strip to wail on. 

 

Thank you very much. Anyone that has heard my music over the years knows that I'm obsessed with all things Vangelis. I desperately try to make my music sound like me, but in this case I pushed things further than I normally would. It was absolutely my goal to try to pull off some of the trademark sounds but also try to explore other areas. The Dual & Split modes really open up some incredible options. 

 

7 hours ago, EscapeRocks said:

Hey Mike, that is stunning.   I can't wait to break away from day job and get it installed!

 

Huge thanks. 

We have some things going on at home, my studio was completely disassembled after I completed my preset bank and I told the team at Cherry that I probably would not have time to do a song.  On Sunday night I was able to get part of my home studio working again and I wrote this in one sitting, that proves how inspiring this instrument was for me. 

[AnotherScott]

10 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

The "LAST" mode they've done for last note priority on aftertouch (for those of us without Polyphonic aftertouch) is just brilliant.

The Arturia Origin (which was supposed to have a CS-80 emulation mode that never arrived) called this "duophonic afterouch," and it could be set to top note, bottom note, or last note priority. Nice to see another implementation of this!

 

 

[Reverend Rhythm]

22 hours ago, Tusker said:

I was digging into the controls and then I noticed a preset called Baked Alaska? Could it be? Turns out it could. Instant Eddie Jobson. There is a search function. Within five minutes I had located Blade, then Layered Blade, then Fanfare Brass, Fanfare Comp. Dreaming of Sheep, Roy Batty's Revenge, Mr. V's lead  .... it's great stuff.

 

A note of caution. Fanfare Comp can cause some people to loop ELP's Peter Gunn and spend a half hour jamming with a silly grin on their face. I wouldn't know from personal experience. Just saying.

Mike Martin's preset, Mr. V's Lead is exquisite!  Thanks for posting this list.  With 1000 presets it's hard to track down these little gems.  I need to put in the "Vangelis" key word on some of them.

[RABid]

Upgraded to SynthStack 3 this morning and downloaded the new synths. I have to say, the more I play with the GX-80 the more I hate the interface. I'm sure it is great as a 4 feet control panel on top of a keyboard. Using it on a 13" Mac, well, it is just too crowded and busy. Glad it has a focus button. In addition, some of the controls are a bit cryptic in their naming. I really hate the short throw sliders to the right of the tone selector. I do really like a lot of the patches. I'm thinking this will mostly be a preset machine for me.

[analogman1]

I grabbed it immediately afer hearing those great demos! I have a lot of their synths; by far, super accurate and insanely inexpensive prices! 

Can't wait to use this on a few upcoming tracks.

 

I grabbed it immediately afer hearing those great demos! I have a lot of their synths; by far, super accurate and insanely inexpensive prices! 

Can't wait to use this on a few upcoming tracks.

[jazzpiano88]

I want to play with the ring modulator

 

No brainer at half the price of a piano tuning on Long Island.

 

I wonder if they could incorporate, or create a GS1, which still isn't quite emulated by any FM engine yet.  Esp. when combined with the ensemble effect. 

[lsj]

wondering how is the CPU usage for this plug-in

[KuruPrionz]

I'll be getting this synth, the sounds are really nice. 

[Dave Bryce]

5 hours ago, lsj said:

wondering how is the CPU usage for this plug-in

 

It’s actually variable.  The oversampling rate can be changed (using the little Q button in the top toolbar).

 

The manual sez:

 

“Internal processing can be set to 1x (same rate as the current sample rate for the host DAW, or in the settings -> Audio/MIDI window in standalone mode), or to 2x, 3x or 4x the current sample rate. The sample rate is downsampled at the instrument output stage to match the current host sample rate.  

 

For example, if the current DAW/instrument sample rate is 48 kHz and oversampling is set to 2x, GX-80’s internal processing runs at 96 kHz and is then reduced back to 48 kHz at the output stage.”

 

dB

 

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Instant purchase. I haven't had much time with it yet, nor have I done direct comparisons with the same settings yet, but my initial impression is that this emulation is more three-dimensional and organic sounding than Arturia's. I'm not having any CPU issues yet at my end.

[David Emm]

I've been happily walking through the main GX presets. To my ear, the instrument has a certain "band-reject" element to its character. For example, certain woodwind-like or string patches seem too thin, with mixed results from tweaking. However, the resonant filters and ring mod give the various bells a lot of weight you rarely hear from analog synths. Woodwind sections seem a bit flaccid, but the solo winds, especially several hybrids, are superior. That seems flipped for strings. Solo brass is sometimes tweezy, but several sections sound ideal for Logic or Spitfire layering. First-impression things like that keep alternating.

 

The Yamaha home organ pedigree is self-evident. It made me recall the early circuit-bending Vangelis did on a couple of organs to get different tones and longer envelope-type releases. The GX-80 feels like their best home organ all Hulked out with full access to every parameter. 

 

I'll get to the manual, but first, I wanted to see how creative my fumbling might be. It'll take time due to a few of its Yama- quirks, but a lot of it is coming easily. I find the GUI welcoming after squinting at the ME80 for a long while now.        

 

It reminds me of seeing Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz on the "Flags" tour, where Patrick was on a lone Kurzweil K250. Its one of those rare synths you can play two-fisted that still gives you the full orchestral monty.   

 

OK, back to preset review and trying not to spit mashed taters on the keyboard. 🦃

[Reverend Rhythm]

It takes a long time to wade through the presets.  I keep getting distracted by how fun some of there sounds are.

[Radagast]

Now all we need is a keyboard controller with poly AT and a ribbon controller.

[mate stubb]

1 hour ago, Radagast said:

Now all we need is a keyboard controller with poly AT and a ribbon controller.

 

AND the YamaPaddles.

 

 

[humannoyed]

Nice tracks guys!

Both Mike and dB have always impressed in their exceptional sonic palette skills, and it shows here again!

 

So what did you guys use to program your sounds? Mouse and monitor, or controller cc mapped knobs and sliders? 

[Reverend Rhythm]

50 minutes ago, humannoyed said:

Nice tracks guys!

Both Mike and dB have always impressed in their exceptional sonic palette skills, and it shows here again!

 

So what did you guys use to program your sounds? Mouse and monitor, or controller cc mapped knobs and sliders? 

I agree with the complement, and I'd love to hear the answer to the question.  I'm thinking a "Programing the GX-80" video would be interesting.