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.