Hi Folks,
Just got my first Zynthian running, really exciting! still need to install the display and controllers.
I notice that the standard synths are pretty good, but most of them miss some pepper and salt.
What I know from other hard/software synths I own, all units consist of a soundengine combined with a multieffects unit.
On Zynthian one works with layers, which can be set up as synth, audio-fx, midi-fx, etc.
That’s great but how do they work together? I mean; how do I route a synth layer thru an audio-fx layer? How do I put audio-fx in series with eachother??
Create a synth layer and then add extra effects or create a new Audio-Fx layer.
The wiring is done in the bold-click menu from a layer:
Just to add an Audio FX to this synth layer:
Add Audio-FX => Add an Audio-FX unit to the layer’s audio chain.
To wire a synth layer to an existing top level Audio FX layer:
Audio Output => Route the layer’s audio output to any available audio input port, allowing to process the audio in almost any way you can imagine. You can use this feature for creating your own customized/bizarre FX chains. If this is not enough for you, try MOD-UI engine with the MOD-UI web GUI. This option is not available on MIDI-FX layers.
You can access the Layer Options Menu using a USB mouse. After adding a synth layer, navigate back to the Layers menu. Once there, hover over the synth layer you wish to add an effect to. Then press and hold your left mouse button for about one second. This should bring up the Options menu and you can select Add Audio-FX. Then select an effect. The FX control pages will be added to the bottom of the synth’s control pages. You can continue adding more effects and will be prompted to select a Chain Mode, Serial or Parallel.
You will find the Options page has many other useful functions as explained in the wiki.
Clear about the layers and routing. But this means that you can only store snapshots, which is the total setup of the Zynthian? That would be quite user-unfriendly. Everytime you start from scratch going thru synths within a layer, there is no FX programmed with this synth. You have to manually make a routing thru a FX layer to spice up a synth sound, correct?
Zynthian is kinda a blank canvas but very flexible. We are looking at how to improve the out-of-box-experience and improve workflows. If you have a preferred default you can save it as a snapshot then use it as a template to create new configurations, e.g. you may save a piano and organ and some drums with reverb and compressor, etc. It is kinda impossible to know what effects everyone will want so we don’t set up default routing - that is completely up to you. No two users seem to use the same set of effects. Some don’t want any and would prefer to keep all that processing power to run more synth engines concurrently whilst others may just want a single, mega effects chain for their guitar. I don’t think there is great benefit in saying there is a reverb and chorus available for everything (like Roland did with their Sound Canvas).
Go ahead and spice up your Zynth however you want - bling it up to the hilt and enjoy .
It’s the starting from scratch bit. If your scratch is a carefully crafted selection of base starting sounds that you adapt and develop and build cumulatively from then you are probably closer to the truth.
We are dealing with some very simple structure built around the jack audio server. What we’ve been working at is providing as much control and management throu’ four encoders and four function switches as is sensibly possible. And I hope you agree with me a pretty efficient environment has emerged.
What becomes default setups are taking shape and user input is actively encouraged because that’s how open source is done.
The routing issue you describe is a classic success problem! Adding processing into the audio chain only really became important when we got external audio input ( The original zynth lacked it …) and it became obvious that lv2 processing of an audio source ( which quickly extended from external source to internal as well) was a useful concept.
Obviously we are running into an issue with displaying and editing some fairly complicated graphs but that is simply because of what we’ve seen the layer effects have produced. What we do have is a fairly battle hardened audio routing machine that can pull snapshots of these up pretty efficiently, and that is genuinely not something to be dismissed except as to what a compliment it is to the implementation to make that stuff seem natural and simple. . .
And if you can pick that sentence apart, you’ll fit right in.
That brings me to the big question; for who is the Zynthian actually meant??
I consider myself a semi-professional musician/producer with about 30 years experiance in studiorecording and live performance. Being an electronics freak building/improving/repairing my own stuff, I was curious what the Zynthian could offer me, besides having fun of building it.
Playing around in my studio with Zynthian gives me a bit of a deja-vu from the late 80’s begin '90’s; the era of the first midi digital synthesizers and soundmodules. That means a dark box with minimalistic display and a lot of menu-diving. The built-in synthizers also sound a bit outdated, mainly because of the lack of good presets and lack of proper FX routing as mentioned above.
I don’t want to sound like a wise guy or mister know-it-all. Just speaking my mind. I think Zynthian is a great initiative and concept! But maybe aiming a bit too much on building a first musical instrument and exploring your first made sounds than a serious tool in musicproduction or liveperformance.
If you are interested, I can share my thoughts of improving this great project
The original description was a swiss army knife for music. I think we have all been amazed by quite where it has ended up and what it has become. For me It replaced my rather abortive attempts at doing something similar to get low latency for audio, and I used it pretty much as a mellotron replacement ( I’m of that age, don’t ask…) for a long while. Once it gained the audio input that became my main concern as I wanted to easily turn up at open mic nights and just plug in and play. So I’ve got a zynth that does that ( and also works as a mellotron if I want it to, and I have a MIDI keyboasrd handy). Then I started looking at the pedal board that my father built twenty years ago with it’s fairly faulty intermittent ( Electronics & Music Maker Magazine for those with long memories ), and so I’ve been building a zynth into that.
Meanwhile I’ve been into a local music studio with a zynth and we used it to be an accurate remotely operated signal generator to test mixer channels and polarity. I’ve also transferred 1990’s cassette tapes to digital files. . . And that makes no mention of the Roland A88 keyboard with a hifiberry amp zynthian and a couple of JBL control ones a that I lent to a friend to be her piano for six months. She just thought it was a piano and it was never turned off or not played every day with no complaints… It’s now sitting in my room here being used by my kids as their piano. They know where the volume control is but no more …
We obviously wont speak about the peculiar portable zynthian that made strange noises in some local tunnels or the zynth that played background music for seven hours at a party or the touch screen zynthian I use to record Church bells . . .
So as you see I get to music and sound in all kinds of strange places without having to drag a PC, Mac or laptop around with me… . .
Please share your thoughts. As you will discover we delight in arguing about tiny issues like colours of icons and screen calibration because we know that the overall benefit is general. As a last example of this I would point to the Audio monitor status. IT’s not difficult to make bars move in such a situation but just have a look at the actual details of why this is actually useful,
Because it’s been done properly, by a BBC staff member who does this stuff for a living… ( well so he claims, I’m beginning to think he actually works in Comet but who knows … )
I concur. Please do give us your feedback and suggestions for improvement. The project aspires to providing a professional quality, versatile tool for musicians and producers and is particular liked for being portable, replacing a computer in many setups.
It doesn’t quite yet meet the quality and resilient requirements of the professional gigging musician but I hope to see that change soon. Progress has been rapid and has become more targeted, like a product rather than a project.
I wouldn’t yet recommend it to replace someone’s synths and processors unless they have the time to work around a few issues.
With the help of everyone, including you we can get over the peak.
Will work on my feedback, but give me some time to go after more features/testing of the Z.
Might also be an idea for a new nice topic; what’s your future Zynthian wishlist, haha.
One other thing I was questioning; what’s the proper power off routine for the Zynthian.
I know from my last Raspi projects(Domoticz) that switching off a raspi by just pulling the powerplug(when your webconfig and ssh is down), frequently ruins the SD card.
How is this organised with Zynthian? Probably Z runs a adapted Rasbian version which uses a swapfile on the SD card, which is a sore spot. Also check Google for “raspi eats my sd-card” and you get many response
Aah, must remember that one.
Isn’t it possible to disable the swapfile on the SD card, so the powerplug can be pulled without corrupting the SD?
I ask this because all my studio equipment is switched with one main powerswitch. Surely I will mostly forget to officially power off the Zynthian on itself
As long as nothing much is going on sound wise they generally behave themselves, but backup your environment frequently, for general zynthian sanity…
I don’t take this advice of course, well, just, because you know . . . . I’ve generally been able to get files from an old zynth ssd in spite of that SSD’s rather failed attempts to turn a Pi into a living breathing zynth . . .
I dont’ know if we might need a clean eject on USB removal or similar with some GUI control, but it only really transfers the problem not entirely solve it.
My thoughts are going along the lines of the perpetually powered zynth, with battery backup, but my researches are fairly specialized …
Just out of interest do you power off the PC &/or Mac in your studio in this fashion? ( I certainly used to )
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