Yea, linear, Xils is a real company and has been around many years.

If you are into sound design sounds Alchemy is great.

Too my mind a good soft synth (and physical ones, too - I've still got my minimoog and arp) doesn't get old.  New stuff is nice, but it is amazing what you can twist out of an old favorite if you come to it w/ an open mind.

@

I should stay away from these topics. I've got more than enough soft synths to keep me busy to the day I die, but then I read something like this and I want to try out someone else's suggestion.

As for synths getting old linear, they may be old, but still do the business. As long as I get two oscs with the usual range of simple waves, some adsr env gens, filters etc. I'm a happy bunny. So what I sometimes look for is a new way of manipulating everything and how well the GUI is laid out.

So, I'm off to see what Oxium is all about lol

  As for the Arturia & Xils connection, you can see this interview here: Xils Lab Interview

Yes, five years is a long time in the software world. However, it's also more time to root out bugs and refine the user interface. In such a fast-paced environment, far too many products remain in a perpetual state of half-finished-ness. 

It takes a good 18 months or so for a new program just to settle down and stabilize, longer if it's very complex. What distinguishes a world-class vendor is what happens to the product next; is it abandoned, or does it continue to be enhanced and refined? 

I would not reject a 5-year-old synth out of hand. I'd look at its history and the history of the company or individual that created it. Omnisphere is close to 5 years old, and few other products are anywhere close to catching up to it. Kontakt is more than 5 years old and over that time has gone from a minor player to ruling the sampler world.

another voice from the wilderness...

These days I've been on a real emulation kick, using FM8, Pro-53, the GForce synths, the Xils 3, and so on. But it is a phase, and I'll outgrow it soon enough<G>.

When I do return to synths that don't try to recreate my favorite oldies my main synths are Tassman (which I picked up with a version of Sonar a long time ago but continued to upgrade), and Alchemy. Between these two there's probably little that I can't do - they are both very deep, and I doubt I'll ever master either one!

And then there are all the synths that came with various Komplete packages...

Bit brings up a very good point about mature code too!

I like deep synths kinda sorta..  I really like having Rapture; because its deep, albeit not endless like Max.  My music mission statement could actually be something like, "consistent, efficient simplicity."  Synthesizers are not something I am buying all the time..  I much prefer to buy a new EQ, or a new Filter..  (I've got my eye on Cytomic's Drop.  There seems to be a beta out now for Mac.  I think this is going to be a, "must have product," when it is released.)

Synthesizers have a learning curve far beyond most, if not all eq's, verbs, delays, filters, effects and other devices.  For me, what intersests me most in a synthesizer is its sound, and not its infinite ability to generate complex sound-scapes that could quite easily take 10, 20, and no doubt 30 hours of sound design per patch.

So when I say my synths are sounding a little aged, it means that on a personal level, since the release of synth squad, I have noticed several developers pushing current limits not by creating complex modular architectures capable of sound-scape from galaxies far away... Pushing the limits by creating software synths that have a unique and beautiful sound quality to their raw sounds..

Linear Phase


Does anybody own a Xilx Lab synth? What synth? Have you owned it for a year +? How is Customer support?

Cheers

LP...I haven't used it personally....I did listen to the demos....

You can get an LE version from Musicians Friend for $39....then I'm sure there would be an upgrade path
from there if you liked it....that way..if you didn't like it...you'd only be out $39 and not $179.


http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/xils-lab-xils3le-virtual-instrument

Just read that the full version requires an Ilok or eLicenser....

I also just read that if you have the lite version and upgrade to the full version that you
get free upgrades for life.....not too shabby...

http://www.xils-lab.com/pages/XILS3LE_FULL-version-upgrade.html#Upgrade

Hey cclarry, Oxium is serial key only, which imo is very, very cool!  :-)


Unfortunately I own one Arturia Product, and I know exactly how eLicenser works, and I will not buy any more products that use this kind of copy protect...  I dislike how long it takes to initialize a plugin for use in a daw, and dislike the syncrosoft update procedures, and I feel like this is, "punishing copy protect."


Cheers