Are there any antique synths left to emulate?

[Al Coda]

Matrix 12

 

Arturia Marix12V

 

 

A.C.

[16251]

Matrix 12

 

Arturia Marix12V

 

 

A.C.

 

(excuse my ignorance.)Isn't that software in a box, unlike Behringer 2600, etc.?

[Al Coda]

Matrix 12

 

Arturia Marix12V

 

 

A.C.

 

(excuse my ignorance.)Isn't that software in a box, unlike Behringer 2600, etc.?

 

Did you miss the topic of the thread ?

We´re talking software emulations of "antique synths",- no ?

 

Hardware re-builds of "ancient synths" I´d call "replications",- not "emulations".

 

Behringer is hardware replicas !

 

A.C.

[GovernorSilver]

I, too, had assumed that any emulation in any form is fine as far as the OP is concerned.

[Al Coda]

I, too, had assumed that any emulation in any form is fine as far as the OP is concerned.

 

Yes, both, hardware replica and software emulation qualify.

And there´s the difference between "native" and DSP-chip based software emulations to consider as well as also these "hardware" devices, running the software in a hardware keyboard shell.

Many ways possible ...

 

But that means,- Arturia Matrix12V still IS the emulation of a Matrix-12.

And it´s the only one I´m aware of !

 

A.C.

[16251]

I thought of Matrix12 after seeing this video I saw on FB today. Back when Matrix12 came out I had GAS for synths (not much now,) but I still certainly can appreciate having a setup like this dude.

 

https://www.facebook.com/santiago.bosch.3/videos/693004375000891

[David Emm]

Yes, the OP is open to any emulations. I was jazzed to see Roland's Space Echo crop up, for example.

 

I lost my very good K1 emulator when my Intel iMac died and I ended up in M1/Big Sur world. Here is the link to the K1 (please donate if you like it) and a page on his efforts concerning a K4. The M1 chip is hampering a lot of programmers, sadly, so its hard to say if he will want to go there, but his work is solid. I played with his K1 emulation and it was a real pleasure, early digital warts and all. The K4 had a much better sound and release velocity, so I'd love to have that as an AU plug.

 

K1 emulator

 

K4 maybe-ware plans

[David Emm]

Hammond Novachord, arguably the first commercially available synthesizer.

 

Soniccouture offers one, Kontakt-Player compatible, but only for Intel with Macs. You don't realize you've heard one until you do. It was an early sci-fi staple.

 

[David Emm]

I"m more than a little amused at the term 'antique synths'!

Well, as I see it, a guitarist is someone who plays guitar and a bassist is someone who plays bass, so if there's a forum packed to the rafters with antique synthesists, it stands to reason that there are antique synths for them to play. Logic.

 

Said the GREYBEARD, bonking on the Monolith with a tapir's thigh bone.

[KuruPrionz]

Hammond Novachord, arguably the first commercially available synthesizer.

 

Soniccouture offers one, Kontakt-Player compatible, but only for Intel with Macs. You don't realize you've heard one until you do. It was an early sci-fi staple.

 

 

 

Good to know and Soniccouture makes great sounding plugins in my experience. The Array Mbira is fantastic.

 

Don't worry, everybody will catch up with the M1 chip over time. Even Apple, read Elmer J. Fudd's thread about the latest updates in Logic Pro and you will see that Apple is still adjusting to the new system requirements as well.

I got a refurb Mac Mini that came with Big Sur and I am going to stay there for now. Some things did go away forever and some were salvageable with a re-install. IK wanted $9.95 to reboot all of my sounds for 180 days - I have probably almost 100 gb of their sounds. I had $3 in Jam Points so I spent the $7 and some things that didn't work before are up and running. My main concern was Miroslav Philharmonik 2, that was 46 gb of cool stuff right there.

 

Love the speed of the new computer, it dusts my 2014 Mac Book Pro with the same 16gb of RAM, just rips.

[GovernorSilver]

I, too, had assumed that any emulation in any form is fine as far as the OP is concerned.

 

Yes, both, hardware replica and software emulation qualify.

And there´s the difference between "native" and DSP-chip based software emulations to consider as well as also these "hardware" devices, running the software in a hardware keyboard shell.

Many ways possible ...

.

 

Yes, I understand some people prefer to distinguish between software running on dedicated hardware vs. general purpose computers.

 

I have also had discussions with certain people who care greatly about whether the emulation includes emulation of circuit components and to what degree of atomicity - in particular comparisons of Roland's ACB vs. ABM. I honestly found the drama in such conversations to be more entertaining than the actual technologies involved.

 

I really have nothing to add, personally, about what emulations I feel have not been done yet. The record will show that I was really interested in the Korg ARP-2600FS at one time, but thanks to some friends my attention was diverted towards the Moog Matriarch instead.

[AnotherScott]

To me, sampling is not emulating, unless thing thing you're trying to emulate was a sampler. ;-)

[Al Coda]

To me, sampling is not emulating, unless thing thing you're trying to emulate was a sampler. ;-)

 

A bit of a balancing act,-

 

some "physical modelling" devices use samples as reference.

It´s often both,- samples and modelling.

 

And emulation is also not urgently modelling.

 

IMO, when a instrument is multi-sampled and it´s original functionality incl. access to it´s originally available parameters is "cloned" in a whatever UI,- allowing not only playing a sample set, but changing the sound like it was possible on the hardware original,- that´s a emulation.

And it also doesn´t matter how good it is,- there will good and bad emulations always.

So it´s good to have many options !

 

In software, it´s questionable if all these emulations are necessary at all.

In fact, buy 3 top notch devices,- let´s say uHe Zebra 2/ Dark Zebra, Arturia Pigments 2 and Spectrasonics Omnisphere,- and you´d be able to get out almost every synth sound imaginable in great quality.

Have a bundle like NI Komplete in addition,- and when learnig all in depth and make you own presets, you´re done,- soundwise.

Leaves the fun factor "haptics" in the dust though.

 

"Component modelling" ...

IMO, that´s often advertisement.

I doubt it´s essential in digital world at all because you can,- at least partially,- achieve same sonic results in different ways when coding stuff.

I agree, when cloning analog dyno-synths, to achive halfway "natural" tiuning-drift behaviour, some separate voice design makes sense.

 

But it´s all much more difficult w/ hardware clones.

It´s more investment and you´d have to buy more clones because in hardware, you´ll get all the old limitations (count of LFOs, ENVs and voices) back more or less.

And there´s limited estate on hardware surfaces, so,- more features, more menue diving (= digital control) or extremely limited modifiers.

So, for analogue, you don´t get it more compact than Eurorack format and then do w/o preset memory, deal w/ patchcords again and "memorize" by making photos or use ancient patch sheets.

 

YMMV

 

 

A.C.

[marino]

Crumar GDS

 

Yamaha VP-1

 

Hartmann Neuron

[AnotherScott]

"Component modelling" ...

IMO, that´s often advertisement.

I doubt it´s essential in digital world at all because you can,- at least partially,- achieve same sonic results in different ways when coding stuff.

It's interesting that Roland takes both approaches, I think that's the only instance where we can compare what a developer has been able to do with each approach. So for example, to emulate the Jupiter 8, they have their ACB implementations (JP-08, System 8), which emulate the hardware circuits of the original, and they have the Jupiter X/Zenology approach, I forget the acronym they use, but they are modeling the sonic behaviors rather than the circuitry. By all accounts I've read, while both are good, the ACB implementation acheives the most faithful sonic results.

[Anderton]

Kawai K1.

 

(kidding)

 

There's a free VST.

 

I was hoping they would have gone all the way and done the K4, with the filters.

 

No K3m fans? That was my favorite of Kawai's K-run.

[Anderton]

RMI Rock-Si-Chord (both the harpsichord and piano presets) and Electra-Piano.

 

Soniccouture free:

 

RMI Rocksichord

 

 

A.C.

 

Thank you!! Downloaded and working. It's not quite the same sound as the one used in Mandrake (we had the first production prototype), but it's more than close enough.

[engineerjoel]

I would love to see these synths in a VST:

 

Yamaha CS70

Yamaha SK30

Crumar Orchestrator

Crumar Performer

Crumar DS2

[midinut]

Ensoniq VFX/VFX-SD/SD-1

Ensoniq TS-10/TS-12

Ensoniq SQ1/SQ2/SQR

Ensoniq ASR-10 + all the sample libraries that came on floppy disks

+1 on ARP Pro Soloist

Kurzweil K250/K2500/K2600

+1 on Rhodes Chroma

+1 on Eletrocomp EML-101

+1 on RMI stuff

 

Unicord/Vox? made a synth kind of like the Korg 700S (or maybe it was the predecessor to it)

and didn't Roland make a similar piece as well?

[AnotherScott]

Unicord/Vox? made a synth kind of like the Korg 700S (or maybe it was the predecessor to it)

They were the American distributor for Korg, and initially, products had the Univox branding, but it was the same product. The first Mini-Korg was the same thing as the 700. The K2 (aka 700S) had the second oscillator. There was also the Maxi-Korg which was kind of (but not exactly) two Mini-Korgs in a single chassis, and it was also known as the DV-800 (DV presumably for Dual Voice) or K3.

[Al Coda]

I would love to see these synths in a VST:

 

Yamaha CS70

 

KX PolyM CSE

 

But don´t expect photorealistc GUI.

His plugins sound good!

 

download section

 

Once downloaded, unzip and read the "readme" file for installation (impotrtant basics below):

 

The unzipped folder is the VST3 folder already !!! - so move it to "common files\vst3"

You just only move the VSTpresets folder to your prefered location then (user\username\vst3 presets p.ex.)

.

For VST2 64Bit, just rename the.vst3 to .dll after moving the complete folder to your prefered 64Bit VSTplugins folder.

 

 

A.C.

[Synthaholic]

Kawai K1.

 

(kidding)

 

There's a free VST.

 

I was hoping they would have gone all the way and done the K4, with the filters.

I liked the K5 with the additive synthesis.

[Synthaholic]

I haven't seen any emulations of classic Crumar. The Orchestrator and the DS-2 were both unique, competing against the ARP String Ensemble and Minimoog. We had both of them in my early 1980s band. The Orchestrator, particularly, sounded great.

[SteveCoscia]

I haven't seen any emulations of classic Crumar. The Orchestrator and the DS-2 were both unique, competing against the ARP String Ensemble and Minimoog. We had both of them in my early 1980s band. The Orchestrator, particularly, sounded great.

 

I had the Ochestrator's predecessor, the Univox Multiman. Versatile keyboard. A real workhorse.

[Rod S]

Yes, the OP is open to any emulations. I was jazzed to see Roland's Space Echo crop up, for example.

 

I lost my very good K1 emulator when my Intel iMac died and I ended up in M1/Big Sur world. Here is the link to the K1 (please donate if you like it) and a page on his efforts concerning a K4. The M1 chip is hampering a lot of programmers, sadly, so its hard to say if he will want to go there, but his work is solid. I played with his K1 emulation and it was a real pleasure, early digital warts and all. The K4 had a much better sound and release velocity, so I'd love to have that as an AU plug.

 

K1 emulator

 

K4 maybe-ware plans

 

Thanks David. Was not aware he was looking to emulate the K4. I've yet to try out the K1, but I have it on my 'wish list' as I owned it several years back and would love to play around with it; if I do I'll definitely donate.

[Rod S]

Kawai K1.

(kidding)

There's a free VST.

 

I was hoping they would have gone all the way and done the K4, with the filters.

No K3m fans? That was my favorite of Kawai's K-run.

Had to look this one up, Craig. I remember the K1, K4 and K5. K3 seems to be similar to K4, minus the effects, but not sure if the filters are different. I remember drooling for the K5 from one of those Keyboard soundpages (? Whatever those flexible disks were called).

[RABid]

Another vote for Rhodes Chroma. I don't just want a copy of the synth structure, which was great and ahead of its time with the ability to connect to a computer and play 16 different sounds. I want the original patches. I think the Chroma had the best factory patches of any synth ever.

[David Emm]

I know the feeling. I only got to sit at one for an hour or so, but its rich and unforgettable. A lot of that comes from the excellent keybed, which made the player connection very satisfying, with just enough bounce-back not to be draggy. Its a rare treat.

 

"Best factory patches" could be debated, but less so in this case, as the Chroma really WAS ahead of its time, by just a regretful hair. If it had appeared about two generations of personal computer later, it might be even more of a classic.

[EricBarker]

I'd love to see an ARP Pro Soloist plugin!

 

A mediocre one existed briefly before that company went belly-up.

 

This is TRUE. I had it, but it was honestly pretty bad. I think the tone generator was sampled and you could hear the cycles. Another thing, let's be honest, when people say "ARP Pro Soloist", they mean "Tony Banks". And the reality is the synth was really only half his sound. The ProSoloist itself was a pretty borderline synth, but what made it really sing was his extensive array of custom-made effects boxes. If someone wants to make a good MARKETABLE Pro Soloist emulation, they're going to seriously want to build-in an effects chain. Otherwise, I suspect most people purchasing it are going to feel a bit let-down by it's rudimentary sound. It was a single-OSC monosynth with an early ARP filter (ie: not the crunchy Ladder or SEM filters that really took off). It's literally 1/3rd of a 2600 with presets and without the patch bay, it's raw sound wasn't anything to write home about. But where it shined was its versatility in having presets, and its ability to instantly switch into different sounds for complex live performances. But without a good delay, phaser, and chorus, the little runt really isn't going to sing.

 

All this said, I'd KILL for a Hardware ARP Pro Soloist. But once again, build in a few effects or it's gonna disappoint. It's main selling point, originally, is that it was a cheap, simple unit that was all ready to go for live performance. But a raw Pro Soloist sound just isn't going to cut it on today's stage, hence the inclusion of effects. Behringer should get on this.

[jazzpiano88]

Yamaha GS-1