I’ve been watching the zynthian for quite awhile now and have been really interested in picking up a zynthian to play around with.
Specifically, the thing I’m most interested in is basic using zynthian as a multitimbral synth and sequencing from my deluge. I’m curious if anyone can give me the rundown on sequencing externally across multiple midi channels or if there are any issues trying to sequence multiple zynthian engines externally. (I’m really hoping for basically a synth plugin box to control with other hardware.)
I’m also curious if anyone has messed around with TR808/909 sound fonts and if anybody has worked out a TR8 style setup with tone control (ex, snap, decay on snare) or if there are any dedicated 808/909 plugins.
If its not entirely obvious, I’m particularly interested in hosting multiple roland synth emulation patches on a single device and am not particularly enthusiastic about their current product lineup, seen some cool plugins for more roland tones.
Anyway, thanks in advance.
TLDR how does zynthian work with multimberal external sequencing?
I am sequencing multitimbral Zynthian externally on many Midi channels (about 10x) and many different instruments/synthesizers for many years now. It works like a charm. So it was intended by the developers.
I can second this. I had a multi instrument (6), multi audio input setup (10) which was a fun to use. All controlled by an external device connected to USB or midi DIN.
Sometimes, for heavy CPU load instrument plugins, you can bring Zynthian to the CPU limit. So be carefull in choosing the instruments.
Another interesting feature in sequencing and triggering Zynthian chains are the built in Midi tools. Years ago I was looking for a feature which delays a percussion triggering for 1/4 bar to achieve a more interesting drum part. In one minute it was configured and sounded stunning (with help of the amazing Zynthianians).
There is not dedicated TR808 plugins already available, but it’s planned a TR808 soundfont based on this sample set:
that would have all the original TR808 controls. I hope this is available in the next few weeks/months,
It works really well, while you don’t push the CPU over the limit. If you reach the limit, you will have XRUNs (clicks & pops). This depends a lot of the engines you run. If you are thinking on running TUS emulators, like the JE8086, Osirus, OsTIrus, etc., you will reach the limit very soon (1 - 2 instances at most!). If using the JV-880, you would have more room. The presets you use also have influence.
In the other hand, if you only use native VAS, like ZynAddSubFX, OBXd, Vaporizer, SurgeXT, etc. you can run a good bunch of channels simultaneously without problem.
A sound interface, obviously. USB ones work nicely, although they have more latency than I2S ones. If you are thinking on sequencing, this probably is not too important for you, you can always compensate the latency in your sequencer.
More RAM is always good, specially for using very large soundfonts, but this is not probably your case. If i were you, i will go for the 8GB version without a doubt and save the bucks for some other toy.
The V5 kit is brilliant. Absolutely high quality, all connections(Midi in out, 6,3mm Audio), easy to assemble. In my opinion you can’t go wrong with the official Zynthian kit.
I am seeing the V5.1 Kit with 8GB RPi or without RPi showing in stock on the website but only @jofemodo can be sure of stock levels.
You can build a simple zynthian with any HDMI screen, USB mouse and USB audio interface. You could try using the HDMI audio. The Raspberry Pi (5?) would need some cooling, e.g. official heatsink and fan. This may be sufficient to get you going until you can build a full kit. You will really benefit from the V5.1 kit as you get the full (and fully supported) zynthian experience for which the software is targetted and workflows optimised.
Hi @vhs, as already stated, one of the primary functions of the whole Zynthian music environment is to work as a capable multi-timbral expander, across up to 16 Midi channels. Keep in mind that this is a theoretical specification, which, as in most commercial solutions, depends heavily on the computational workload of every chosen processor.
My main use case of the Zynthian is for multi-timbral sequencing, and I can confirm that this is a particularly successful application of the system and device.
If in your specific scenario you aim at using mostly VirtualJV and JE-8086, be aware of the significant limitations to the number of channels that can be actually supported with this CPU-demanding emulators, within the available power of the four Pi5’s ARM cores. It is already possible, with a workaround, to instantiate some of the DSP563XX engines in multi-timbral mode, thus saving resources to a certain extent, but the required burden of calculations under the hood is still quite brutal. Full multi-channel on-board implementation of some emulators is in the plans: I don’t know how close it is or how high in the priority cue.
Yes, there is a convincing TR808 emulation, available with the Fabla drum engine.
There seems to be a lot of attention to the DSP563XX emulation in response but this was not mentioned in the OP. Zynthian had lots of engines that will run simultaneously, most of which ramp their resource usage as they are driven, i.e. consume less CPU & RAM when idle. You can further optimise performance by using multiple instances of engines that share a single instance (under the bonnet) like fluidsynth, sfz, obxd, etc. You can run 16 synth chains if you are careful with your selection.
There was an attempt to benchmark engines to give an indication of their relative resource usage but this proved challenging because the selected patch / preset can have substantial impact, e.g. SurgeXT has some very light and some extremely heavy patches.
yeah, im really not 100% set on using any particular set of the plugins. also totally fine with resampling as its already a necessary part of the deluge workflow. the 8086 is one of the synths i am particularly stoked on, but there is a whole lot of very cool stuff on zynthian as well as a couple plugins ive seen recently. i am mostly doing acid techno, acid house, and electro. so mainly trying to get decent synth pads, pianos, and basses and more so padding what delly can do vs just using zynthian.
just as a quick note, thank yall for all the replies. super cool to see an active community that can help answer questions.
