One Synth Challenge #131: Syncla-X (Voting Over, results pending)

[IV!]

I know, there has already been some conversation about the Carrier bands early on with Ex finding out that they are mathematically "correct", but practically you can forget Band 5,6,7 and almost 8 as well, because they will ruin any delicate FM modulation frequency, because they are not sympathetic with the base frequencies...or how ever one would say that?! If they were on stable mathematical grounds, logarithmic powers of 2 or the likes, they wouldn't destroy all hope, but...alas..they are not! And you won't need math or oscilloscopes to find that out, but just your ears! Instant information!

I also use this method of tuning: in Partials, I select only one harmonic, for example 6, then use FM and FM Fine (rough and precise frequency tuning, as I understand it) to find a unison, and then experiment with the other seven harmonics. In most cases, it turns out something terrible, but the rest are pleasant and unique.

[IV!]

Here's another observation: the synthesizer interface eats the RAM of my FL Studio. That is, when I play it polyphonically with complex sounds, RAM usage increases and decreases slightly. But when I close or collapse the Syncla-X interface, it gives away 300Mb of RAM. And when I open it again, it takes 600Mb. And so constantly, starting from the first launch: +600Mb,- 300Mb, +600Mb, -300Mb, +600Mb, ... When I reach my limit of 8Gb RAM (sometimes even more, up to 9Gb... how???! ) my computer is slowly trying to commit suicide and merge with infinity in an endlessly long attempt to close FL Studio with a "cursed" synthesizer inside...
Having a limited number of attempts, I save the patch on the approach to the RAM limit and restart FL Studio (by the way, after starting Syncla-X, FL Studio always closes with an error)
Ehhh...

[Taron]

Ugh...more hints for why it did get "abandoned", I suppose.

[doctorbob]

… but memory leaks shouldn't really happen in your own code, and can be fixed. Not so easy if the fault is in the sdk!!!!!

dB

[Taron]

One of the many reasons why I generally dislike higher "SDK" such as SynthEdit or the likes. Not that the vstsdk and -gui would feel fool-proof by any means, especially once you stray from the given options. Then there is the obvious lack of consensus among hosts on how to deal with vsts, especially during initialization, apparently. So, yeah, it's all still surprisingly rogue, but that goes for the entire software world.

[exponent1]

(Deleted)

[doctorbob]

Writing software was the main part of my job for many years! Early on our head of systems programming would prepare and patch the TOPS10 operating system on the live system! Running a DECSystem10 on a KL10 processor. Brave person to believe in his code! I was what they called an "applications programmer", I wrote and maintained software for people to do their work, given that we didn't have PC's, just large multiuser beasts! Stats, graphics, database systems and generic stuff (like the registration system for the Uni!), was my bag. Moved on to HPC and HTC stuff later along with the high performance networking stuff (40Gb and injecting your own light frequency into the long haul networks etc etc!). Was also on the international panel called PEACHES - Panel of Experts for Arts, Culture, Humanities E-Science), as well as Eurographics.

dB

[exponent1]

Just to be clear, there is no glide/portamento available for Syncla-X right?

[IV!]

Alas, no. All we have at our disposal is a parameter "Fine" with a width of 5 tones.

[Medniex]

I took every shared preset here and tried to understand all the conclusions you discussed here, but looks like I"ll just make something just for the sake of participation I started a small loop already I hope for the luck to discover valuable presets by accident

[IV!]

I think this is the right approach for Syncla-X! I can say that I got most of the good presets by accident when I was looking for completely different sounds

[exponent1]

I think this is the right approach for Syncla-X!

[doctorbob]

Yeah, Syncla-X is a big accident! I found once that I had what was a kick like thing, moved a couple of the decays to full, and lo and behold, a harpsichord like sound! Moved them back, and it was a kick again … so weird this thing. Just gonna do a simple thing with a little perc and maybe 2 or 3 instruments. Very sparse - but then, I can't go burying things in a big mush of pads or orchestral element - hehe!

Not much time left either, not had a whole heap of time at all this month, for many reasons.

dB

[IV!]

I think that's right! I have already spent more than 30 hours on 8 sounds and am still not happy with them, and I would like at least 8 more sounds, but... guys, is this month almost over? This synthesizer is both addictive and repulsive, encourages randomness and scolds for trying to understand it, it is very simple... but very complex! I think these 8-10 sounds, maybe even without percussion... otherwise, I won't even have time to finish my track. But the immersion in its magic of harmonic / modulating synthesis was worth it 100%! I congratulate everyone who will make a track at all this month, even if it will be with one sound, but what a sound!

[functionform]

This synthesizer is both addictive and repulsive,

Hah, exactly. Struggling to get into my idea, which I like, and the sound which I like, but programming this thing is a pain - typical for most old school additives. Syne (not a paid sponsor) seems to have a fresh take on this kind of stuff. You guys should check it out.