A new "poly synth" from Dave Smith

[Ski 1642606170]

An excerpt from a recent email from Dave...

 

"Meanwhile it's back to work on the poly synth - hardware is looking good so far."

 

I'm looking forward to this one a LOT... something that will probably be what amounts to a polyphonic Evolver.

 

Dave also finished another Evolver OS beta update (v1.5), which includes yet even more features, and hopes to have a finished "OS2" available within a few weeks.

[Dave Bryce]

Not surprising. He hinted at this when I got my Evolver from him. I'm sure I'm gonna need one...

 

I'm gonna have to ask Dave if he'll let me write some programs for him.

 

dB

[Ski 1642606170]

Ha! Yeah... "need" is the operative word there!

[Odyssian]

Whoa, cool! Will it be like a poly Evolver, or something different?

[Ski 1642606170]

I can honestly only guess. I don't know any real details. Upon first getting to program a beta Evolver, I was immediately intrigued by what Dave could possibly do as a "next step" in the way of a polyphonic analog/digital hybrid synth. I told him what I thought (though I'm sure it had already occurred to him!), and even threw out a few potential details.

 

Hard to say with confidence exactly what the DSI poly synth will be. However, it's hard for me to imagine that it would be anything other than a polyphonic Evolver on steroids - maybe in tabletop form, maybe in keyboard form, maybe in both. And that would be wonderful.

 

You never know, though... Dave may have a serious surprise up his sleeve. He certainly surprised us with some of the features in the new Evolver OS that's in beta. I wouldn't have thought that some of those new features would have even been possible without a hardware update.

[Odyssian]

Awesome... Here's a tip o' the hat to Dave!

[Analogaddict]

Aaaargh! More G.A.S! I have to stop browsing this forum!

 

/J nas

[Magpel]

Sigh.

 

The more time I spend with Evolver, the more I love the sound of it, and the more frustrated I get with its tiny UI and two-level editing matrix. Don't get me wrong: it's a very efficient and logical way of managing all of those features on so small a box, but I realize I'm going to NEED an PC editor for it. I'm glad I've learned how to work it from the front panel. Now's it time to luxuriate on a big screen.

 

Anyway, I have a hard time making a bad or boring sound on Evolver, which is not I problem I usually have with synths. There's an animated quality to the raw sound that takes time to appreciate if you're not used to it.

 

And now the prspect of polyphonic evo. Yikes.

[Ski 1642606170]

Magpel - A dedicated commercial editor is in the works, and is expected to cost in the $50 range. (I'm not involved in this effort, so I don't know any more details.)

 

While I don't intend to ever build an editor (I'm comfortable with the Evolver's UI), I HAVE built a "Program Visualization Utility" that lets you import an Evolver SysEx patch dump, and displays ALL the parameters of a given patch on one organized screen. I am also building in a full set of librarian features (the ability to store a library of patches, and the ability to pick and choose your favorites and build a SysEx file of them for loading into the Evolver). Because of the new OS updates, though, my work on this is being delayed a bit - I'm aiming at a moving target!

 

Take a look at the link below for details and a screenshot of my utility:

 

Evolver "Program Visualization Utility"

 

 

(Whoops! - Sidenote to Dave B.: My utility will be a freebie; I'm not hawking commercial products here.)

[aeon]

Magpel said:

The more time I spend with Evolver, the more I love the sound of it, and the more frustrated I get with its tiny UI and two-level editing matrix.

DSI Evolver + Peavey PC1600x (or equivalent) = good times.

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by Ski · EX5Tech ·:

(Whoops! - Sidenote to Dave B.: My utility will be a freebie; I'm not hawking commercial products here.)

No problem at all, Ski.

 

Now, if you'd only make a version for my Mac...

 

dB

[Synthmatic]

I would like to see an updated Wavestation with Evolver's osc's, filters and amps. It would be great to have all the waves from the WS for the wave sequencing and vectoring effects. Pretty tall order though.

 

No tellin' what ol' Dave will come out with but it'll be interesting...

[synthetic]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to hearing this.

[Ski 1642606170]

Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

Now, if you'd only make a version for my Mac...

dB

If I still had a Mac (which I don't - please, no flames!) it wouldn't be out of the question, because the utility is Excel/VBA based (which some of you probably already know because you looked at the screen shot). My existing utility would *almost* work on a Mac, but not quite, because it uses PC specific file i/o commands.

 

-

 

Originally posted by Synthmatic:

I would like to see an updated Wavestation with Evolver's osc's, filters and amps. It would be great to have all the waves from the WS for the wave sequencing and vectoring effects. Pretty tall order though.

Wow, I hadn't thought of that, and it's certainly within the realm of possibilities. The Evolver isn't that far from being able to do this now. I don't think it's a "tall order" at all, and wouldn't be very surprised to see it happen. Great prediction!

[Magpel]

Ski, the PVU looks awesome and extremely useful. I can't wait to look at some of the presets in that way. I too am more or less comfortable with Evolver's UI. Well, I'm conceptually comfortable with it, but not ergonomically comfortable all the time.

 

Good lord, though, the sounds this thing can make. I've just modified a patch from the evolutionaries set in which I'm modulating feedback level with velocity and feedback frequency with Midi Note Number. The sound is so unpredictable that it's not really a compositonally useful sound. It is its own artifact, if you know what I'm saying. But it's simply beautiful, in a harrowing kind of way...

 

Also: I found a typo in the Evo manual, though I'd bet I'm not the first t catch it.

 

On the Mod Destination table on pg 33 FbA is incorrectly identified as "Filter Amount," when it obviously should be "Feedback Amount."

[Ski 1642606170]

Thanks, Magpel. The PVU is already a very useful tool for me, and I want to finish the complementing librarian utility before releasing it. I'll probably also include a utility to convert a 128 sample length .WAV file into an Evolver format SysEx file so that you can create and load custom waveforms. I already have 96 custom waveforms (4 banks of 32) that I'll release to everyone as soon as I can write a few patches that use at least the first bank of 32.

 

Back on the PVU... again, the release has been slowed by the fact that I have to significantly update it for the new OS, which isn't yet finished. But that's a GOOD kind of delay!

 

Regarding your bizarre new Evolver patch... I'd love to hear it! Please email it to me if you're willing to share it.

 

Regarding the manual... I found a couple of minor errors myself, as I was going through the MIDI implementation and file format details in the back of the manual. I foolishly forgot to mark them though!

 

Regarding the new poly synth... Dave just told me some details, but didn't indicate that he wanted to make them public. I'll share them soon if I can. I can promise two things, though... Most people will think it's simply *great*, and it will be a *very* natural complement to the Evolver.

[Magpel]

Ski, I'd love to send you a mini bank of original pacthes when I've assembled enough that I like. I'm a little loath to call the one I just described "original" because I really just modified (disfigured might be more like it) 2-41 from the Evolutionaries collection, which is a gorgeous patch to begin with.

[Ski 1642606170]

"Disfigured"! Ha! I love that one!

 

I remember 2-41, because it is a favorite of mine - it's the VERY nice "Warm Lead" patch from Paul Nagle. If I remember correctly, "Warm Lead" is in turn a modification of one of the presets. Apologies to Paul if I'm remembering wrong (!), but my point is that there's nothing wrong with modifying/mangling/disfiguring another patch. I love to take other people's already great work, and tweak it to another level. On the flip-side, I really do enjoy hearing the results of other people taking MY work, and tweaking it to another level!

 

By all means, please email me your patches whenever you have a batch of them you'd like to share. We could include them in another future group soundset, or package them up on their own for sharing with the rest of the community if you like.

[Synthguy]

All right, this really is it. I have to have this polywundersynth. The Evolver is simply too hip for words, but I must have polyphony... and now I must have this. I simply must. It may not be an Andromeda, but in this case, that's a good thing. If you give it wave sequencing and a polypressure keyboard, I'll sell organs if I must.

[Ski 1642606170]

Well... no, the Evo most certainly is not an Andromeda. There are things the Andromeda can do that the Evolver can't, but the opposite is true in spades, as well. Dave B. could comment more, since he owns both.

 

Regarding "wave sequencing"... the existing Evolver is already capable of elementary wave sequencing. The sequencer can specify the waveshape number for the two digital oscillators (osc 3 & 4 which use the Prophet VS waveforms). So, you can play a line on the keyboard, while the sequencer continuously changes the waveshape. Unlike the Wavestation or the VS, these waveshape changes can't be blended or cross-faded, though; the sound just jumps from one waveshape to the next. It's also cool to let a track (or two or three) of the Evolver sequencer play a riff or arpeggio-like line, while another track changes the waveshape. I've done a lot of sequences like this, and it's a great effect, especially since each sequencer track doesn't have to have the same number of steps. As an example, you can have a vanilla 16 step (pitch) sequence, but with a 15 step wave sequence, so that the waveshapes do not fall in the same place for every bar of your 16 step (pitch) sequence. Kind of hard to word, but hopefully that made sense! Some of the "Evolver demo loops" I posted at ampfea.org illustrate this effect.

[Ski 1642606170]

OK, with his permission, here's the scoop from Dave on the poly synth.

 

The bottom line: The new synth will essentially be four Evolvers packed into a 1U rack with a 16x2 LCD screen.

 

Dave's Notes:

The poly is basically 4 Evolvers in a 1U rack. The voices are identical to Evolver, for obvious connection reasons. Lots of jacks on the back - stereo mix outs, individual stereo voice outs, a stereo mix inputs, and stereo ext ins. An Evolver can be used as a controller, and the Evolver out can be put into the mix in, essentially giving you a 5 voice Evolver. There will be a dinky 16x2 LCD, but as usual programming on a 1U rack is pretty silly. Of course, this is one of the reasons for a 16 character program name in Evolver - it fits nicely on the bottom line of the LCD on the poly.

 

Beyond that, it's fairly straight-forward, since it is just multiple Evolvers. That's why it's been quick so far getting it running - just today I started playing it polyphonically already. The voicing will have to be much different in a polyphonic environment. The sequencers will still be there, separate in each voice, so quad synced sequencing should be fun to play with. Or, one voice sequencing while the other 3 are played from the keyboard. No overall sequencer, tho. Another trick is that the ext in can be routed to any or all of the voices, for possible quad processing. Or, take the individual voice out from one voice and put it in the ext in, and route it to another voice for additional processing.

 

Anyway, that's the basic overview.

 

Very cool possibilities, no?

 

Regarding Dave's reference above to the "16 character program name in Evolver"... that's a new feature in the upcoming OS update.

[Synthmatic]

Well this new Evolver should be interesting. When I spoke to Dave a while back he said he was kicking around the idea of producing the equivalent of 4 Evolvers in a box. He really stuck to his plan.

 

Any guesses what the price will be? It more than likely wouldn't be equal to or more than the price of 4 Evolvers but if I were to venture a guess it would be somewhere between 1199.00 and 1500.00.

 

It would be nice if he had a name the synth contest.