Les Diffuseurs (La Palme and Le Metallique bundle) are inspired by famous and highly unique speakers (called “diffuseurs”) that came with the Ondes Martenot, featuring a palm-shaped resonance chamber laced with 12 strings or a gong cabinet, which adds a specific metallic character to the Ondes Martenot sound.
With the help of Nori Ubukata and Yves Usson we reproduced these classic speakers, La Palme and Le Metallique. In addition, more possibilities have been added, such as the ability to mute any string, global transposition and real-time change of the gong's size.
But this was not enough!
The True Stereo Dynamic Engine ( TSDE ):
We pushed the concept even further by offering a True Stereo engine, so that you could position the two units, left and right, in a stereo image. True Stereo doesn’t mean a simple panoramic tool, with our TSDE you can place a speaker in front of the stereo field or farther back: You master the Space!
"XILS-lab creates KaoX as virtual instrument inspired by legendary FM synthesizer bolstered by virtual analogue and chaotic algorithms
GRENOBLE, FRANCE: virtual instrument- and effect plug-in-specialising software company XILS-lab is proud to announce availability of KaoX — a virtual instrument inspired by a legendary FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesizer, albeit bolstered by virtual analogue sound synthesis and additional chaotic algorithms in an advanced two-layer architecture allowing for a powerful sound creation tool to fuel DAW-driven synthesizer dreams with a much more easily understood signal path than its iconic FM forefather — as of April 12…
To appreciate its iconic inspiration is to truly appreciate the power of KaoX, XILS-lab’s latest virtual instrument. Indeed, the early-Eighties synthesizer market was dominated by analogue synthesizers using analogue circuits and analogue signals to generate sounds electronically, which, when made available as programmable polysynths with patch storage, were costly with limited polyphony. Putting paid to that dominance, an Eighties-dominating 16-voice FM synthesizer changed course — changing the course of musical history in the process — by generating sounds via frequency modulation, a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of a waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. Mass manufactured using very-large- scale integration chips by a Japanese giant of a company who had licensed the technology from Stanford University, California — composer, musician, and professor John Chowning developed the digital implementation of FM synthesis while there, the world’s first commercially-successful digital synthesizer subsequently sold over 200,000 units within three years — around 20 times more than the most iconic analogue synthesizer of all time sold in its impressive decade-long lifespan — and its preset sounds soon became staples of the Eighties pop pantheon with E PIANO 1 purportedly ending up on 40% of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers throughout 1986. Therein lay the rub. Really complex menus and a lack of conventional controls meant that few learned to program the comparatively keenly-priced instrument in depth — despite FM synthesis lending itself to creating brighter, glassier sounds, as well as imitative acoustic sounds so much better than its instantly unfashionable analogue adversaries, programmable polyphonic or otherwise. Of course, fashions change with time and technology; the instrument in question has long since fallen out of favour. Although analogue synthesizers — somewhat ironically — are now more commonplace than they ever were with a perceived warmth of sound and appealing hands-on control working in their favour, the convenience of an ITB (in the box) workflow with DAW-driven virtual instruments and effect plug-ins has far from lost its appeal for today’s music-making masses. Time to revisit the wonderful world of FM synthesis with a modern-day twist? Knowingly, KaoX does just that. After all, as a virtual instrument- and effect plug-in-specialising software company, XILS-lab loves to create tools that inspire its users to create more imaginative music than they ever dreamed possible!
Put it this way: with KaoX, XILS-lab has created a virtual instrument inspired by that legendary FM synthesizer, albeit bolstered by virtual analogue sound synthesis and additional chaotic algorithms in an advanced two-layer architecture allowing for a powerful sound creation tool to fuel DAW-driven synthesizer dreams with a much more easily understood signal path than its iconic FM forefather since said signal path is easily understood through the use of illuminated modules in a GUI (Graphical User Interface) that is equally easy on the eye. KaoX’s knowing nod towards the preset-powered popularity of its iconic FM forefather is immediately obvious for all to see and hear in an easy-to-tweak simplified view allowing its UP (upper) and LO (lower) synthesizer layers — each with independent synthesis modules — to be combined in three different ways. Working in single mode, only the selected layer is active and heard, while both layers are active and heard in SPLIT and DOUBLE modes — the lower part of the keyboard playing the LO layer and the upper part of the keyboard playing the UP layer in the case of the former, while both the UP and LO layers are simultaneously played across the keyboard in the case of the latter. Limited controls are available in this simplified view, including TUNE, DRIFT, GLIDE, VIBRATO, FREQ (vibrato frequency), DEPTH (vibrato), W (wheel), TREMOLO, FREQ (tremolo frequency), and DEPTH (tremolo), plus CHORUS, DELAY, PHASER, and REVERB effects, enabling users to easily play presets and to tweak them accordingly — adding vibrato and tremolo or switching effects on and off, for instance.
Alternatively, activating an advanced settings view brings the wonderful world of KaoX into full view, allowing more adventurous users access to the virtual instrument’s internal modules to tweak or change any parameter therein, aided by contextual help windows, while active modules are helpfully illuminated. FM synthesis options are available on each of the two available layers with eight operators grouped in two banks with independent pitch — perfect for creating chorus-like FM sounds or punchy stereo patches — and two outputs (O1 and O2). Each FM OPERATOR features one LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator), one envelope, WHEEL and VEL (velocity aftertouch) access, two user-definable external modulators (assignable to any KaoX modulation source), KEYB (keyboard follower) 2D pad, RATIO or FIXED frequency selection, and a lowpass filter. Furthermore, virtual analogue synthesis options are also available on each of the two available layers with two continuous waveform analogue oscillators (ANALOG OSCILLATOR 1 and ANALOG OSCILLATOR 2), two zero-delay-like analogue filters (FILTER 1 and FILTER 2), four D-ADSR envelopes, and four VCA outputs for bringing a depth and warmth to the sound creation table. That said, KaoX also allows its users to create sounds that they had never thought possible, thanks to two chaotic oscillators (CHAOS OSCILLATOR 1 and CHAOS OSCILLATOR 2) and two chaotic ring modulators (CHAOX 1 and CHAOX 2). And as if that was not enough to keep committed sound creators seriously satisfied, KaoX comes complete with a flexible four-track step SEQUENCER, where each track can be assigned to the UP or LO layer with independent sustain and gating or used as a modulation source.
Sound-wise, KaoX comes packed with 500-plus presets programmed by world-class sound designers Mikael Adle, Soundsdivine, Status, Nori Ubukata, Tom Wolfe, Xenos, Yuli-Yolo, Zensound, and many more — more than enough to point anyone of any ability in the general direction of where they might musically want to go. Getting there is made much easier with its integrated single-window preset manager making finding the right patch for the task, managing presets and sound banks, as well as creating custom tags, an efficient easy-going experience that could barely be dreamt of back in the early Eighties. Today the time has clearly come to revisit the wonderful world of FM synthesis with a modern-day twist and appreciate the power of KaoX, XILS- lab’s latest virtual instrument par excellence — from France with love... and all without the need for very-large-scale integration chip mass manufacture!"
"This is a demo of the presets from the 'Retro Wave' soundset for Xils-Lab's PolyKB.
For more information, please follow the link below: https://soundsdivine.com/product/poly...
00:00 Intro
00:10 Soft Brass
00:27 Arctic Techno
01:01 Elastic Response
01:16 Octave Giants
01:43 Retro Wave
02:09 Racing Trains
02:47 Vintage Chorus
03:04 Deep Delays
03:30 Rising Sun
03:51 Tape Delays
04:19 Rising Resonance
04:44 Telemark
05:08 Twin Triangles
05:26 Famous Replica
05:52 Analog Noise
06:11 Jet Flanger
#xilslab #polykb #presets"
"This soundset emulates some of the most recognisable sounds from the 70s & 80s , made famous by artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre , Tangerine Dream , Vangelis , The Pet Shop Boys , Human League and Pink Floyd.
These sounds capture the character and vibe of the early days of synthesizer music , and feature liquid funky basses , swirling pads , berlin analogue style sequences , screaming sync leads , tape delay synth sounds , classic arpeggios and many more.
Discount available to anyone who has purchased the 'Horizon' soundset .
"This Syn'X 2.5 tutorial explains how to reproduce the synthex laser harp preset, using the unique cross-oscillator PWM + hard synchronization features."
Syn'X 2.5: Using the Easy Mode
Published on Oct 28, 2019 xilslab
"In this tutorial, we will see how to use the Easy mode of the Syn'X 2.5, a powerful 8 layers synthesizer.
This mode, reproducing the old synthex feature, is a simple 2 layers synthesizer. Lower and Upper are named according to the part of the keyboard they are assigned when SPLIT is engaged. Among the 8 layer of the Syn'X, Lower is playing layer A and Upper Layer H
At the end of the tutorial we will see how this mode is linked to the Advanced LAYER mode of the Syn'X 2.5"
"Some of the new presets added in version 2.5 of our MiniSyn'X synthesizer.
These presets are also included in our MiniWorks add-on soundbank for the Syn'X 2 synthesizer.
Path Function :
-------------------------
Draw path for each voice : To each note it's own journey
Natural sounding Reverb added
New Preset Manager
New GUI/UI
New modulation targets for all Matrixes and Vectors
1. PolyM Preset Manager Tutorial : saving newly created preset, changing its tags, save and duplicate it. You will also see the Main GUI preset functions.
2. PolyM Preset Manager Tutorial 2 : Browsing, selecting, sorting, managing presets in the one window Preset manager.
"GRENOBLE, FRANCE: after almost a year of diligent development, music software specialist XILS-lab is proud to announce availability of V1.0 of StiX by Xils — a virtual analogue and multi-synthesis-driven drum machine with sophisticated sequencer plug-in for Mac (OS X 10.5 and later) and PC (Windows XP, Vista, and 7/8), inspired by a whole host of trailblazing drum machines that have helped make music technology what it is today, all adapted to the modern-day digital paradigm and fast-footed user workflow with ease — as of April 5…
35 years is a veritable lifetime when it comes to music technology. Today’s computer-based music-makers bombarded by staggering software developments on an almost daily basis may mock at the idea of hefty hardware blazing the trail back in the 1980s. But breakthroughs came throughout that genre-defining decade — often at a prohibitive price. Take the wonderful world of drum machines, for instance. Innovative American designer Roger Linn’s revolutionary Linn LM-1 Drum Computer was first to use digital samples of acoustic drums — albeit at 8-bit/28kHz — and also one of the first fully-programmable drum machines to boot. But back in 1981 most musicians could only dream about accessing a $5,000 USD digital drum machine, revolutionary or otherwise!
Only programmability in itself would be a dream come true for many musicians of the time, tied to realistically restrictive constraints when it came to auto-accompaniment budgets. But the technological tide turned in their favour that same year with the timely arrival of the STIX PROGRAMMA ST-305 from (now-long-lost) Italian manufacturer SoundMaster as one of the first affordable analogue drum machines to feature programmable patterns rather than just presets. Proactively, perhaps, the STIX PROGRAMMA ST-305 included individual outputs for several sounds — unlike its main competitor, the breakthrough Boss DR-55, though, similarly, ‘programmability’ was restricted to basic bar-based patterns, which would soon become its downfall. Within a year, Roland’s radical TR-606 Drumatix was a better buy as an affordable analogue drum machine offering a higher number of fully-programmable patterns and, crucially, an ability to chain them together into songs, such was the speed of technological change… before long, the advent of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and affordable digital drum machines changed everything. Endgame? Paradoxically, an ‘analogue renaissance’ is still being felt (and heard) today — a fact far from lost on XILS-lab CEO Xavier Oudin.
Obviously, times change as, of course, does technology — music and otherwise. Today, then, StiX by Xils takes the best ideas (and subtly-different, yet strangely contemporary-sounding sounds) from the likes of the STIX PROGRAMMA ST-305 and Roland TR-606 Drumatix — and many more notable drum machines besides — and successfully transports them to a virtual analogue and multi-synthesis drum machine plug-in for Mac and PC, pumped up for a truly 21st Century computer-based music-making experience that is second to none.
Central to the StiX by Xils workflow with fast-footed users in mind — and centrally positioned in a GUI that’s as easy on the eye as it is to understand — is its engagingly-expressive XoX Sequencer, boasting a multitude of fanciful features, including a multilane editor with customisable steps per beat; per step division trigger (for fills and stutters); customisable beats per bar; and global swing, as well as a single line editor (for in-depth editing of individual sequencer lines), plus pattern and song modes (for speedy song building).
Building upon traditional analogue drum machine design, several sounds — BD (bass drum), SNARE, HH CL (hi-hat closed), HH OP (hi-hat open), TOM L (tom low), TOM H (tom high), and CRASH — are always accessible — alongside additional user-definable PERC 1 (percussion 1), PERC 2 (percussion 2), and MISC (miscellaneous) ones — via the drum pads bar at the top of that intuitive GUI. There the similarity ends, though, as StiX by Xils takes things to another level entirely as an inspired piece of contemporary software design that leaves the historic hardware from which it took its initial inspiration standing (way back in the early-Eighties)! Fit for today, StiX by Xils comes complete with 10 full-featured synthesisers — one for each sound being hosted by those 10 drum pads, each of which can call upon several sound engines, including virtual analogue (with components closely modelled upon a selection of prestigious and rare analogue synthesisers for percussion and drum sounds with unmatched analogue authenticity) and FM sine oscillators (with wave shaping and a third oscillator that can load samples), as well as easy and advanced synthesis pages. Put it this way: yesteryear’s hardware drum machine users couldn’t have imagined such heightened levels of control in their wildest dreams!
Desirable StiX by Xils features well worth noting in that regard include MIDI output (for controlling virtual instruments or recording MIDI data within a DAW); MIDI learn (with full automation of all synthesis parameters of each drum pad and associated mixer, etc); multi-criteria database (for finding the right preset efficiently as well as creating custom tags); randomise (drum kits, sequences, and full patterns); live control (for chaining patterns, plus muting/un-muting tracks on the fly); multi outputs (with volume, groups, and pan preservation); high-quality effects (including natural-sounding reverb, analogue delay, and analogue phaser, plus per drum crusher and distortion); sample-accurate synchronisation and audio engine (to create the tightest beats imaginable); hundreds of simultaneous modulation targets; and gang mode (to edit sequencer lanes, mixer, and effects sends).
Stacked with 390 exclusive samples — including 15 drum kits sourced by production partner Wave Alchemy from classic drum machines of the past (including Roland’s revered TR- series as well as trailblazing digital dream machines such as the E-mu SP-12 and LinnDrum); 2,000 presets; 120-plus global presets; 720-plus patterns; 700 drum pads; and 60 drum kits, StiX by Xils means more sounds and styles are available to the modern-day discerning (virtual) drum machine user than ever… roll on some truly 21st Century computer-based music-making!
StiX by Xils is available to purchase as a USB eLicenser or iLok (soft or USB iLok dongle) protected plug-in for an introductory (30% discounted) price of €125.00 EUR until April 30, 2016 — rising to €179.00 EUR thereafter — from the XILS-lab web store here: https://www.xils-lab.com/products/StiX-by-Xils.html
StiX by Xils can be directly downloaded as a multi-format (AAX, AU, RTAS, VST), 32- and 64-bit-compatible virtual drum machine plug-in for Mac (OS X 10.5 and later) and Windows (XP, Vista, and 7/8) from here: https://www.xils-lab.com/pages/StiXbyXils_Download.html"
