Synclavier II plugin

[Sounds.is]

What part of the Synclav are you trying to recreate here?

The controller? The older FM synthesis? The Direct to disc recording feature? The 100 khz converters?

The thing that is most powerful about the Synclav is how you can work with it, not the sound banks (the best ones are all custom made anyway, to get your hands on them you have to trade your firstborn :P).

If you want a Synclav, they can still be purchased second hand. They are still widely used, especially for film sound design, where they truly excel.

It's not really something you can emulate in a plugin with a fancy GUI and slap the Synclav name on it.



As far as some of the sounds, they are out there in other formats already. Synclav strings, Synclav bells, etc

[elambo]

So it would need to be hardware AND software. Create the plugin, then provide a MIDI control surface of some sort. My guess is that there wouldn't be enough demand to merit the effort.

[carllock]

IMHO I think it's done with the introduction of the Open Labs Miko's and Neko's...there is very little things they can't do, I swear by that (Not a shill by the least bit)

[joris de man]

Why is this in new product alert? Unless we're actually talking about an upcoming product, this is not even vaporware but wishful thinking....

[elambo]

Originally Posted by joris de man

Why is this in new product alert?

It shouldn't be.

[RepairMatt]

As a proud new Synclavier owner, I can tell you that it won't be easy to recreate this in a plugin.
First off the sample engine uses a variable sample rate playback method. Only a handful of hardware samplers can do that..(all of the high end ones) and to the best of my knowledge, no computer plugin sampler can do that. This is part of it's characteristic. It can sample from 1khz - 100khz and play them all back together effortlessly. The A/D D/A converters are also of high quality.
The other really important thing to consider is that there are ANALOG Voltage Controlled Amplifiers on every one of the voice cards. So there is no threat of lowering bit depth when the volume of a sound is lowered. This also makes it sound massive, warm and wide.
In order to make a plugin that accurate, you would have to have a special audio card that works along with it. Another huge part of the system is the VPK keyboard and it's user interface. It makes it very easy to use.

Good luck making the plugin though... It will probably cost a fortune if it is done right. There was a reason why these old systems cost so much in the 80's.. they were built to military spec.

[SWAN808]

EXS24 Synclavier FM Library - $96.00 : enhus.com

[elambo]

Nearly all of what made the Synclavier so revolutionary back then is now irrelevant. Variable sample rate was and is a strong feature, but that alone isn't going to get many people to part with their money for a re-release or emulation.

What else would set it apart from current technology?

[Muser]

It does Fourier synthesis. ?

It's processor was used in Satellites because it has a custom Fortran and C+ Scientific grade OS called Scientific XPL. You can program that and add custom Hardware.

The highest quality DACs money could buy, as used by NASA and Boeing in flight simulators. The 32 Voice had 64 of them.

32 separate balanced line outputs.

Sampling from 1khz to 50Khz in 0.1khz steps.

I think it might even have a fully wooden weighted Keyboard with optical tracking of polyphonic After-touch.


oh and no operating Manual. LOL.

[Dirty Halo]

Owned a full PMST system and I can say that a majority of the sound is the 100k converters, in many respects, unrivaled to this day!

The samples are the samples, roll your own, whatever, it's the sound of the system playing them.

And yes, like Fairlight, you can argue that computers have long since passed capabilities, but that would be missing the point.

In my experience, one THE best parts of the Synclavier was that everything you brought into it, came out with a sort of "Exciter" quality to it. Hard to even describe.

-Andrews

[triez]

Originally Posted by Dirty Halo

Owned a full PMST system and I can say that a majority of the sound is the 100k converters, in many respects, unrivaled to this day!

The samples are the samples, roll your own, whatever, it's the sound of the system playing them.

And yes, like Fairlight, you can argue that computers have long since passed capabilities, but that would be missing the point.

In my experience, one THE best parts of the Synclavier was that everything you brought into it, came out with a sort of "Exciter" quality to it. Hard to even describe.

-Andrews

I owned a Synclavier II and a Fairlight CMI series IIx, foolishly sold them both as they were just so big to move around. A plug in for the Synclavier? It would be but a shadow of the real thing.

[gregwar]

i know this isn't exactly what you guys had in mind but i really dig this:
112dB

add a synclavier 2 vpk-88 controller:
SYNCLAVIER 2 VPK-2 88 KEY HAMMER ACTION SYNTH CONTROLLER.

[waveterm]

You do realize that with only the VPK you cannot do anything ?

It is only a controller. No Midi on that one. Midi sits in the rack.

WT

[AngelRho]

Originally Posted by waveterm

You do realize that with only the VPK you cannot do anything ?

It is only a controller. No Midi on that one. Midi sits in the rack.

WT

What you would have to do is order a custom Synclavier with only the computer and the MIDI option. While that might seem counterintuitive, not having any on-board sampling or synthesis, it WOULD run your entire MIDI studio setup.

Of course, you'd have a lot of useless buttons on there. But it might be worth it if all you want is the VPK as a controller.