XILS-lab is proud to announce availability of its third soft synth plug-in. Synthix is an AU, VST and RTAS virtual recreation of the much-sought-after Synthex, a lush-sounding, 1982-vintage, eight-voice programmable analogue polysynth independently designed by Mario Maggi and built by Italian home-organ manufacturer Elka.

The Synthex was much beloved by synth luminaries of day, such as Jean-Michel Jarre, whose well-known Laser Harp performances still emanate exclusively from an awesome-sounding Synthex patch produced by one-time UK demonstrator/programmer Paul Wiffen (audible in isolation in ‘Second Rendez-Vouz’ on Jarre’s multi-million-copy-selling Rendez-Vouz album of 1986). Pity, then, that the Synthex did not sell in such Jarre-like quantities during a four-year, three-stage (50-, 800-, and 1,000-unit) production run, with one last post-production unit being made especially for Steve Wonder, such was the legendary American singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/record producer’s love for the future-classic instrument that effectively failed to fly in the face of the-then ‘art nouveau’ digital age of dominating desirable FM synthesis from Yamaha’s considerably cheaper, MIDI-equipped DX7, and subsequent super-selling, all- singing, all-dancing digital designs from the likes of Roland (D50) and Korg (M1).

That said, with 30 knobs, six sliders, 80 switches, a joystick (replacing traditional pitch and modulation wheels to allow greater variable real-time control over the two LFOs, oscillator, and filter modulation) spread across its spacious front panel, the Synthex had some unique features for its time, including two stable DCOs (Digitally- Controlled Oscillators) per voice; oscillator cross-modulation of pulse width; multimode (Low-Pass 24dB/octave, 1st Band-Pass 6dB/octave, 2nd Band-Pass 12dB/octave, and High-Pass >12dB/octave) filters; separate envelope generators; Chorus effect; and Dual or Layer keyboard modes — little wonder, then, that many came to consider it a worthy adversary to the dominating American analogue programmable polysynths of the day, such as Sequential Circuits’ Prophet 5 and Oberheim’s OBXa. Better sounding, some said, and arguably more reliable to boot, thanks to those trusty DCOs!

So how, exactly, did they get from Synthex to Synthix? Says XILS-lab CEO Xavier Oudin: “After developing the PolyKB, I received lots of requests regarding recreating the Elka Synthex and began to look for more information, initially discovering its ‘Laser Harp’ sound, then all the well-known artists who used it, and, of course, its features. It’s a polyphonic synthesizer, but very different to the RSF Polykobol II — each oscillator having its own PWM and ring-modulator module in addition to standard hard sync-able sawtooth, triangle, and pulse waves; furthermore, the filter is a multimode design, offering self-oscillating band-pass and high-pass filtering, as well as standard low-pass. Interestingly, its keyboard can be spilt to play two different sounds at the same time, so I thought, ‘Why only two sounds? Why couldn’t it be multi-layer?’ The answer was obvious: this should become the next XILS-lab product!

Synthix audio demos

As a virtual analogue synthesizer, and then some, Synthix successfully combines now-standard analogue features with several new and exciting ones — truly more than the sum of its parts:

• Two oscillators with four selectable (seven available) waveforms — triangle, PWM triangle, sawtooth, PWM sawtooth, square, and PWM pulse (plus a PWM cross modulation mode and a ring modulator).
• One multimode filter, based on a Curtis CEM3320 24dB/octave (multi) chip emulation — provides low-pass 12dB and 24dB, band-pass 6dB and 12dB, and high-pass 12dB.
• Four D-ADSR — enhanced standard ADSR envelopes, each with a MIDI-sync-able delay.
• Two polyphonic LFOs — each capable of modulating the oscillators’ pitch and width, filter frequency (with host application tempo synchronisation), and amplifier level, or as a modulation matrix source.
• Four embedded effects — delay, chorus, phaser, and dual EQ.
• Polyphonic sequencer — up to four tracks (with legato mode).
• Chaox — an LFO module that calculates the movement of a point in a 2D space (with each axis capable of modulating any of 132 destinations).
• Rhythm — an LFO module dedicated to rhythmic effects (with five modulations assignable to any of 132 destinations).
• Split keyboard — each with an individual arpeggiator and MIDI management settings, and capable of managing up to 16 freely-chosen voices to make full use of the multi-layering capabilities (with eight totally independent layers).
• Guitar mode — two voices can be assigned to up to six MIDI channels to play various sounds with each guitar string (when using a MIDI-to-guitar converter).

A wide range of sounds — from straightforward recreations of vintage or modern analogue synths to more complex patches — can be created using Simple Mode Edit or easy-to-operate Split and Layer modes; Synthix is bundled with 250-plus presets produced by a talented team of notable sound designers (including Kelvin Ford, Thomas Hook, Kire, Lotuzia, Peter Schelfhout, Soundsdivine, Tzadi, and Vivolator).

On the Mac, Synthix requires OSX 10.3.9 or later, a 2 GHz processor, 1 GB of available RAM and a VST, Audio Unit, or RTAS (Pro Tools 7.0 and later) compatible host application. Synthix is currently a 32-bit plug-in, but a 64-bit version is promised soon.

XILS-lab Synthix is available now for €169 (including VAT for EU countries) from the XILS-lab Store or through a growing list of online retailers.

http://www.xils-lab.com/pages/Synthix.html

XILS-lab, a new music software company, is proud to announce its first product. The XILS 3 is a new matrix-style virtual modular synthesizer. Based on the architecture of the legendary EMS VCS3 synth, the XILS 3 is capable of creating both ‘classic’ sounds and totally new ones.

The XILS 3‘s matrix design is capable of more than 450 connection permutations, offering more routing possibilities than any other commercially available virtual synthesizer.

In addition, a built-in sequencer, based on the EMS 256 sequencer, can be used to create original and complex sequences.

The XILS 3 comes with hundreds of presets that provide instant access to a broad range of sounds  and styles ranging from modern electronica to classic 1970s retro and experimental. You can also program it yourself to create your own unique sounds.

The XILS 3 offers:

• Three aliasing-free oscillators: sine, ramp, square, triangle
• One 2/4 poles low pass filter (a 3 pole self-oscillating mode is also planned)
• One envelope, based on two different designs, trapezoid and ADSR
• One spring reverb
• One ring modulator
• One 128 steps sequencer
• Two output static filters
• One joy stick
• Three connection matrix
• One input gate
• One input envelope follower
• One pitch tracker
• One transient tracker
• Mono/Unison/Polyphonic playing mode, up to 18 voices of polyphony
• All parameters MIDI controllable
• Many presets made by famous sound designers (Kevin Lamb, Chris Pitman, Cliff Douse, to name but a few)

The Mac version of the XILS 3 requires OSX 10.3.9 or later. It comes in VST, Audio Unit, and RTAS (Protools 7.0 and later) flavors.

The XILS 3 is now available for purchase direct from XILS-lab.

Discuss the XILS 3 in our Instruments forum.