Xpantastic!

Hey There Jeremy,
First off, I agree that Tom's accumulated experience with synth 
design created an incredibly sounding synth. 

I have spent a great deal of time trying to figure this out myself.
Bottom line: The Oscillators are always slightly out of tune and out 
of sync with each other. As PeWe has pointed out in other posts you 
can pile up digital emulations and all you get is a louder version of 
the tone. Doing this with the M12/expander creates a sound which 
seems to be almost alive, as the waves drift with each other and 
never lock up in a synchronous way. BTW Every once in awhile they 
will go 180 degrees out of phase with each other which will almost 
mute the tone. Re-tuning or Layering two voices together will fix 
this most of the time 

Experiment:
Set up a drone patch by turning the VCA2 all the way up. Go to master 
page turn all but one of the voices off. Trigger a tone in the lower 
octave. Run an autotune and listen carefully. As time goes on the 
oscillators will slowly drift in tuning creating a wonderful 
chorusing sound. The rate at which this happens is not a constant 
thing. Depending on warm up time and ambient temperature the rate at 
which this happens will be different. This will cause each note 
played on an analog synth to be slightly different. So your ear does 
not get bored with sound.  The digital emulations try to model this 
but I suspect other feature in the design take first chair.  

This motion of the sound gives all analog synths their distinct 
sound. Back in the 80's there was a lot of complaining about this, 
because guys who were trying to synthesize an orchestra could not 
pile up more than a few voices before the sound became muddy. 
Demanding more precision in their instrument's tuning, pushed 
designers to the DCO and finally complete digital emulation.  
 
Karl



--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, Jeremy Smith <jeremy@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering why the Xpander, made from 'crummy' Curtis chips, 
can 
> out-sound any of the VST soft synths I've heard.
> 
> The conclusion I came to is this: The right pair of ears, but not 
just 
> that - enough technological knowledge to influence prototyping.
> 
> As an example, Stevie Wonder was instrumental in some synth 
creations. 
> Kraftwerk were too. And Thomas Dolby. And I guess Tom Oberheim has 
great 
> ears.
> 
> Are the soft synth creators not using the best producer's or 
artist's 
> ears? Or is analogue circuitry just better-sounding? Or have I just 
not 
> heard the best soft synths?
> 
> Jeremy.
>