DCAM: Synth Squad underrated?

[penguinfromdeep]

Yeah it's kinda true, there are some annoying bugs still in the D-Cam suite, no fix in sight I have noticed also this oversampling bug in cypher, very annoying

[4damind]

Underrated, but I think there are reasons why they are not as popular as I think they should be.

1.The whole 3 synths and then Fusor is unnecessarily complicated. I think Strobe and Cypher should have been on one plug-in, selectable from a switch on the GUI maybe. It should have the basic fx section of Fusor strapped on to it too.

2. Slightly less cartoony GUI would have helped. But especially Cypher looks pretty cluttered.

3. Overly complicated way of doing true unison. I say this because I think a number of people have perhaps never heard Strobe or Cypher do true unison, or never programmed their own patches with it. It's in the manual but you know, who reads those?

4.1x oversampling by default. It sounds great at 4x but dull and lifeless at 1x.

Finally I think they could have done with better presets and better demos. 7Skies should have been onboard for example in the first place, or some other trance & dance artists.

I think Strobe is the stand out for me because of it's simplicity but excellent sound.

True... A combination of Cypher and Strobe (and/or Strobe with an easier to use Unison) could help a bit. The modulation system is very powerful but some of the most used features should have extra controls to make it more easy to use (like Unison spread/wide)
Oversampling default for offline rendering is Afaik 8x... so people will hear the difference but a bit too late if they have not changed the default for realtime oversampling

Afaik David was very early on board, he made also a video at the FXpansion office to show Strobe for bass and similar trance sounds. I don't know if it lacks presets or demos but it shows a bit that also other artists prefer only one synth from the Synth Squad: Strobe!

[masterhiggins]

Yeah, they're secretive kind of like apple. Kind of annoying. I always get the impression that they're not quite up to maintaining Andy's code for synth squad or DCAM dynamics. When you ask on fxpansion's DEAD forum about bugfixes they simply say they're working on stuff and won't elaborate. Working on what?! It almost makes me wish Andy still worked at fxpansion. Then maybe they'd have someone actually fixing it.

-Sam

[himalaya]

Also, I think FXpansion did themselves a disservice by making 1x oversampling the default setting. Even the bare-bones init patches are robbed of the high-end at 1x oversampling. If you're considering demoing it, make switching to at least 2x your first action before you try anything else.

2x should be the default, agreed, at least in the current releases since nowadays most people have more powerful computers than what was available 5 years ago.

Also, in Cypher, set the filter resonance to 1%. This opens up the cutoff fully. If the resonance is left at 0% the cutoff is slightly rolled off. The difference is clearly audible and can be seen in the visualiser.

[himalaya]

double post?

[Numanoid]

Another thing that made me hostile towards trying out the pack was the presentation, I just don't like the EDM superhero comic book look

[gamecat666]

Finally I think they could have done with better presets and better demos. 7Skies should have been onboard for example in the first place, or some other trance & dance artists.

strobe got the best demo ever, its own track name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKi9Z-f6qX4

(IIRC, that is..)

[masterhiggins]

Finally I think they could have done with better presets and better demos. 7Skies should have been onboard for example in the first place, or some other trance & dance artists.

strobe got the best demo ever, its own track name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKi9Z-f6qX4

(IIRC, that is..)

Yeah too bad it doesn't do anything to demonstrate it's power or flexibility. Other than that, great demo.

-Sam

[Aiynzahev]

Another thing that made me hostile towards trying out the pack was the presentation, I just don't like the EDM superhero comic book look

Same here! Although I warmed up to it after I used them for a while.

Unfortunately their whole design looked childish, when in fact the instruments were very advanced.

[Aiynzahev]

Finally I think they could have done with better presets and better demos. 7Skies should have been onboard for example in the first place, or some other trance & dance artists.

strobe got the best demo ever, its own track name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKi9Z-f6qX4

(IIRC, that is..)

Wait did Deadmau5 actually name this track after Fxpansion Strobe? I never knew.

I think I recall some advertisements about Armin Van Buuren using SS too. But I can't say his endorsement means a lot to me, maybe to others.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Those who perpetuate the myth that Andy Cytomic coded everything might like to check their fact dropping

[dexterbella]

Personally I'd have to say that I think D-Cam is a bit underrated - for the money you get three fantastic sounding synths, great modulation options and a plugin chainer/mega arpegiator/effects rack in Fusor. Got to agree, though, that it could do with an update (including some bugfixes) and a fresh lick of paint.

[4damind]

Those who perpetuate the myth that Andy Cytomic coded everything might like to check their fact dropping

This is true. Andy (Andrew Simper) stated some times back that he had the product idea for Synth Squad and created the Trans Mode system and the analog modelling algorithms but left FXpansion and finished Synth Squad on contract to FXpansion while he started up Cytomic.

[ezelkow1]

Finally I think they could have done with better presets and better demos. 7Skies should have been onboard for example in the first place, or some other trance & dance artists.

strobe got the best demo ever, its own track name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKi9Z-f6qX4

(IIRC, that is..)

Wait did Deadmau5 actually name this track after Fxpansion Strobe? I never knew.

I think I recall some advertisements about Armin Van Buuren using SS too. But I can't say his endorsement means a lot to me, maybe to others.

He does endorse it or use it in some manner, one of the freebie sample packs has presets from him

[masterhiggins]

Those who perpetuate the myth that Andy Cytomic coded everything might like to check their fact dropping

At what point did I say he coded the entire program? He did all of the DSP programming. That is documented fact from the user guide as well as being reiterated by Andy several times. Thats all.

-Sam