Softsynths for Roland HP-2800G

Hi all-- I've been posting on the Tuning List about this, but I'm betting it would be
better to discuss it here.

I'm wanting to use my Roland HP-2800G as a MIDI controller outputting to a
softsynth and am wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to which
softsynths are the most flexible and intuitive/easy-to-use for Mac OS X?

I looked into NI Reaktor 4.0, but it looks like you have to do a lot of programming to
tune with it, which isn't my game.

- Justin

Hi Justin,

{you wrote...}
>I'm wanting to use my Roland HP-2800G as a MIDI controller outputting to a >softsynth and am wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to which >softsynths are the most flexible and intuitive/easy-to-use for Mac OS X?

I'm hoping some of the Max users will jump in. From what I see on the boards, not only are you in a niche (Mac <> PC) but OSX users seem to be an even smaller subset, at least when it comes to software availability.

Of the softies I've auditioned, only one appears to support the OSX platform, CronoX:

http://www.linplug.com/Products/CronoX/cronox.htm

I've just started using it, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun, a good tandem with the z3ta+ softie. One real bonus is the CronoX directly supports the .tun file standard, which allows you to supply a base note as well as the alternate tunings (the z3 uses .scl files, and I'll have to tweak octave settings, etc.)

I'm not saying there aren't others out there. I *love* the sounds of NI's Absynth2, but here's the rub: the demo is 1.2, and while it 'supports' microtuning it is as small included set. Now 2.0 is supposed to have an internal editor (and already we can see it is more work than just importing Scala information), but they have not built a demo of 2.0, so I can't test out that function. I also need to go back and check out the Orion system and a. see how well it works and b. see if it supports Mac/OSX.

It is a real growth period for microtuning capabilities. I hope enough people will get one or more of these and use them to create compelling music; if no one does, then the current interest in supporting microtonal programming will go away. These manufacturers will *not* respond to theoretical treatise, only the music that they can hear that their products have made!

>I looked into NI Reaktor 4.0, but it looks like you have to do a lot >of programming to tune with it, which isn't my game.

That is my impression as well.

Let's keep at it - I'd like to find a real-time solution for you!

Cheers,
Jon

Has anyone here looked at the ZR-3 soft synth?

http://zr-3.sourceforge.net/

It's open-source... If we have any programmers here, it might be easy
enough for someone to drop in the Anamark tuning source

http://www.anamark.de/files/tuning.zip

to make another microtonal soft synth...!

Rick

Rick,

{you wrote...}
>It's open-source... If we have any programmers here, it might be easy >enough for someone to drop in the Anamark tuning source...

Speaking of which, I got around to loading the Anamark synth. It has fairly nice sounds, but one of the features that is turned off in the demo is tuning. I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would do that! Based on the sounds alone, in 12tet, it doesn't really have much to offer compared to the couple others I'm using, but if you've had any experience with it in microtuning, please let us know how it was.

I'm happy so far with the implementations of CronoX and z3ta+, but I may very well go ahead and get Rhino. Depends on whether or not Absynth2 comes through with a good, flexible tuning support, and/or I can find a sampler that easily implements microtuning.

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> Of the softies I've auditioned, only one appears to support the OSX
> platform, CronoX:
>
> http://www.linplug.com/Products/CronoX/cronox.htm

Yeah, that's the only one I found for Mac OS X as well.

It requires a VST host application. Both of the sequencers I have
(Logic and Numerology) are Audio Unit hosts in OS X and do not
support VST directly, so to use CronoX with either of them, one must
get a VST-Audio Unit adapter. FXExpansion's product
(http://www.fxpansion.com/) was recommended to me, but I'm sure there
are other VST-AU adapters out there.

Paolo

Rick McGowan wrote:

>Has anyone here looked at the ZR-3 soft synth?
>
>http://zr-3.sourceforge.net/
>
>It's open-source... If we have any programmers here, it might be easy >enough for someone to drop in the Anamark tuning source
> >
It doesn't have a makefile or any documentation. I think it's Windows only. And the latest version only claims to work with Visual C++.

Graham