Monday, July 29, 2013
MOOD INDIGO
Access Virus Indigo/Virus OS v4
Reviews : Keyboard |
Ways not to start the day: 1) Find a leaking radiator flooding the floor behind a large, vintage — and probably irreplaceable — Yamaha synth. 2) Hear a nasty rattle when removing the Access Virus Indigo from its box, and disassemble it to remove the unattached screw lodged among the tracks and exposed connections on the keyboard decoder board. As Arthur Dent said in the original Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy, "It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
Apart from the rattle, the thing I first noticed about the Indigo was its weight. I had no idea that its chassis and chunky aluminium (note to American readers: that's a word with two 'i's) end-cheeks would be quite as substantial as they are. This may only be a three-octave instrument, but it has the weight and presence of many five-octave synths. This is good... flimsy is bad.
Before proceeding any further, I ought to explain that this is essentially two reviews in one: a look at the Indigo itself, and the v4 operating system that drives all the latest models of the Virus. So, for those of you unacquainted with the Virus family, I recommend a quick trip back to Sound On Sound's May 1998 and February 2000 issues (or www.soundonsound.com/sos/may98/articles/access.html and www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb00/articles/accesvirus.htm respectively), in which Paul Nagle reviewed the earlier original Virus (now known as the Virus a) and the later, still current Virus b and kb models. I'm not going to retread old ground here, and will concentrate on the differences between the Indigo and its siblings, and on the enhancements offered by the new operating system.
Beauty Is Skin Deep
Let's start by getting the hype out of the way. Access call the Indigo 'The Virtual Roadster'. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, but maybe they think it implies the open road, the sun in your hair, a beautiful woman gazing adoringly into your eyes as you sweep towards a horizon of endless possibilities... Oops, sorry. To me it means comfortable suspension and every mod con imaginable, and, for me, this is something the Indigo does not really deliver — as you will see.
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Nevertheless, it's worth taking a moment to admire the Indigo. In a world of conservative Japanese keyboards, and ghastly German/American synths that try to be stylish, but end up looking cheap and garish, the Indigo is a rarity — something unconventional that looks excellent. It's no bigger than a small '70s monosynth, but shares the clean-cut good looks of the rare and lovely Akai VX600.
Unfortunately, there's a downside to the Indigo's compact design. Unlike on the Virus kb, the performance wheels are above, rather than alongside, the keyboard. I hated this layout on the Moog Rogue and the Crumar Bit One, and I still do. The Indigo's size has also prevented Access from enlarging the LCD. With so many keyboards now offering large, graphic displays, the provision of a 2 x 16-character screen and the inevitable reliance on abbreviated parameter names is most unwelcome. Worse, the three-octave velocity-sensitive (but unweighted) keyboard feels cheap. I liked the keyboard on the Virus kb, so I have to ask why the Indigo's feels like such a step backwards. The Indigo also lacks the ability to generate channel pressure data, although it responds to it well enough. The Virus kb has aftertouch, so what are Access thinking of?
As for the keyboard length... in my opinion, 37 notes aren't enough on a monosynth, let alone a 16-part multitimbral polysynth like the Indigo. On the other hand, a small synth is ideal for chucking into the back of the car to go to a mate's, or for grabbing a pair of headphones and hiding yourself away in the spare bedroom.
The OS v4 Upgrade
If, like most people, your last encounter with a Virus was somewhere in Version 3-land, you'll find that v4 offers many additional benefits. For me, the most important of these are the new reverbs and improved delay effects. Although this isn't so important in the studio, I find keyboards without reverbs a real pain when I play live. This is because, whenever I need to use dedicated outboard effects (as opposed to simple FOH ambience) it doubles the number of cables in my rig, and significantly increases setup times.
The reverbs themselves ('Ambience', 'Small Room', 'Large Room' and 'Hall') are more than acceptable, and you can program each of the algorithms in one of three modes: as a standard digital reverb, 'reverb+feedback1', and 'reverb+feedback2'. The last two of these are the same as having a delay line followed by a reverb; they treat the pre-delay within the reverb algorithm as a repeating delay (which you can sync to the internal clock if desired) and then regenerate the reverberant effect for each of these repeats.
The delay is also great fun. This is not just because it offers numerous patterns, modulation, ping-pong effects, and synchronisation to the master clock. It's because you can tweak the parameters in real-time without generating digital glitching. I did this in the 1970s using a Pearl analogue delay, and it's a potent way to generate weird effects during performance. Set the feedback to maximum, play a few notes, and then sweep the delay time... it's hugely effective, and without artefacts. Oh yes, and while on the subject of effects, v4 offers an additional saturation stage as well as distortion and a range of grungy 'lo-fi' effects. Nice!
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On the other hand, Access claim that the Virus now offers up to 82 simultaneous effects, but this doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Sure, five effects are available on a 'per-part' basis, and with up to 16-part multitimbrality, this suggests that 80 is the correct number. But look at the effects list... 'Ring Modulator', 'Distortion', 'Analogue Boost', 'Phaser', 'Chorus'. When did you last see a ring modulator described as an effect? In my opinion, that's part of the voice structure, as is 'Boost'. That leaves the distortion, phaser, and chorus. Hang on... where is the reverb/delay? Well, this is only available as a master effect applied to an entire Multi. That's right... there's just one of 'em, no matter how multitimbral you are trying to be. This is more Waldorf Q than Novation Supernova, and very disappointing given the quality of the effects. Nonetheless, it's an inevitable consequence of the Virus's single 56303 processor. To paraphrase a cliché: you can't pour a quart from a pint pot.
The arpeggiator in v4 is a huge leap forward from the rather mundane implementation in previous OS versions. There are now 40 rhythmic patterns that you can apply to the six arpeggio modes: 'up', 'down', 'up and down', 'as played', 'random', and 'chord'. There's also a Swing parameter that does as you would expect, with all timings referenced to the synth's master clock. Unfortunately, the Indigo has no front-panel controls for the arpeggiator: no latch switch, no rate knob... nothing! I thought that this was a bit naff on the original Virus a and, with all the additional capabilities of v4, it's doubly so.
Moving on, v4 now lets you process incoming audio through the Indigo's effects section without using up polyphony. This makes the synth a powerful stand-alone audio processor, with up to seven simultaneous effects in series. If you want to mutilate your audio even further, you can pass it down the internal signal chain, through the filters, overdrives, and envelopes, even gating it with the arpeggiator to chop it up into unrecognisable little chunks. Whatever turns you on, I guess.
There are no radical changes in the voicing, but Access have added three more things that make v4 sexier than earlier Viruses. The first of these is a random patch generator. This offers two parameters; one to determine how many parameters will be changed, and another to limit the amount by which the generator is allowed to affect them. Used with restraint, this can create interesting results, but when given free reign... it's fun, but in many hours of pressing the button, I didn't once create a patch that I considered worth saving.
The next upgrade is, for me, more interesting, because it creates genuinely new synthesis possibilities. It's a Surround capability that allows you to position the sound in a quadraphonic space. You can distribute a signal between four of the six outputs, panning it left/right and front/back in real time. You can even modulate this to send the audio swirling around your head in ways that The Moody Blues and Keith Emerson could only dream about in the '70s.
Finally, Access have added sound categories to the Virus. You can allocate two out of 16 such categories to every patch. Then, using the Find command, you can search for patches within these classes. Unfortunately, you can't define your own category names, so the facility is of annoyingly limited use.
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Wish List
I first encountered the original Virus back in 1998, and I was very impressed with its sound. Indeed, my thoughts at the time were that analogue die-hards should be sent to their bedrooms and only allowed out when they had had time to reconsider their anti-DSP prejudices. The Indigo does nothing to change my view, and I would challenge anyone to spot its digital heritage in a mix, unless I was intentionally creating sounds of a digital nature.
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There are also several areas in which the Viruses themselves could be improved. For example, the filters will not self-oscillate without input from the oscillators. Sure, all filters need a small kick to get them going, but it should not be necessary to have a permanent input driving them.
I would also love to see more waveshapes on board. I've long been a fan of the PPG Wave, and sweeping through the Virus's existing 64 waves can be very gratifying. OK, so I'm converting the Virus from a Virtual Analogue to a Virtual Wavetable Synth, but why not? The Waldorf Q does this, albeit in limited fashion.
On the functional side, the Virus could still do with a handful of tweaks. For example, there's still no way to copy effects from one patch to another, and — notwithstanding the limitations of the reverbs/delays — this can be a real pain when trying to recreate a Single within a Multi. Furthermore, it's all very well having 32 modulation sources and 97 destinations, but you need more than three source and six destination slots in the onboard modulation matrix if you're going to take full advantage of this.
I also want another manual. Not to augment this one, but to replace it. It tries to be clear and instructive, but with no index, no block diagrams, and no specifications, it's more trouble than it's worth.
But now for the biggie... Given the number and importance of the software upgrades to the Virus' OS over the past two years, I think that Access should have taken the opportunity to redesign the Indigo's front panel in a much more significant fashion. I'm not complaining about the clearer graphics and the improved panel hardware, but why not find room to give the third oscillator and arpeggiator their own controls (they're still buried in a menu), and bring some of the effects to the front? Sure, you would need a bigger panel, but I'm not a fan of the Indigo's size, anyway. Imagine how much better it would be with a 61-note keyboard, and a comprehensive control panel. Virus Pro, anybody?
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Conclusions
• VIRUS OS v4
This software upgrade incorporates several improvements that have been on owners' wish-lists since the launch of the original Virus in 1998 (and more improvements are on the way — see the 'Software Support & Upgrades' box elsewhere in this article). For me, the reverbs and the enhanced delay algorithms are the most important of these, and they make an already first-class synth sound better than ever. Nevertheless, I can see that random patch-generation, the sound categories, and the improved arpeggiator are going to be just as attractive to many people. Other upgrades such as the lo-fi effects, the improved processing of external signals, and the pattern delays are aimed squarely at modern dance music, and bring the Virus more into line with competitors such as the Supernova II. Some people may bemoan the lack of a step sequencer, but I'm not one of them. I'm pleased that Access have concentrated on producing an excellent OS with so few bugs.
• THE VIRUS INDIGO
Now let's consider the Indigo... That it's super-cute, sexy, and will appeal to players for whom style is a major attraction is without question. That — from a traditional keyboard player's point of view — its cheapo three-octave keyboard is about as useful as a one-string guitar is also without question. So let's accept that you're unlikely to see Vladimir Ashkenazy, Oscar Petersen, or even Tony Banks playing one, and admit that there are many other ways that synths are used in 2001. As a compact sound effects generator on a small stage, as a sound source and signal processor in a tiny studio, or in any other discipline where piano-style playing is not required, the Indigo's amputated design could be a benefit rather than a hindrance.
But despite trying to maintain these positive thoughts, I soon found myself treating the Indigo like the Nord Modular Keyboard. I occasionally used the Clavia's itsy-bitsy keyboard when programming, but always played it via MIDI from a 76-note, pressure-sensitive Roland JV1000 or Trinity Pro. Why? Because the Indigo sounds great, and it deserves to be played across a much wider range than its own hardware permits. Furthermore, the Trinity's ribbon controller offers many possibilities that the Indigo can't provide.
Of course, using the Indigo in this way demotes it to the role of a sound module, so you may be tempted to ignore it altogether and wait for the forthcoming Virus Rack. Unfortunately, it is already clear from Access' advance publicity that the sound engine in the Rack is significantly inferior to that in the Indigo (see the 'Other Modules' box elsewhere in this article). Consequently, pose-value and flashing blue LEDs notwithstanding, I can't help feeling that — provided you have the space — you would be better off with a Virus kb, or a Virus b hooked up to the controller keyboard of your choice.
Now, I wonder where that screw came from?
Published in SOS June 2001
Saturday, July 27, 2013
SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Crumar Spirit Analogue Monosynth (retro)
Reviews : Keyboard |
Nowadays, when you think of synthesizers your mind probably makes a geographic leap across various ponds to Japan, home of Roland, Korg and Yamaha. When you think about vintage synthesizers, you will almost certainly think of the USA, home of all things Moog-y and ARP-ish. You may even spare a stray thought for the UK's quirky analogue synths -- EMS and Analogue Systems among others -- or the strange and frequently unfinished Teutonic species from PPG and Waldorf. However, as your consciousness flits around the synthesizer world, it's unlikely that you'll spare much thought for Italy, the the home of ghastly Ekos, insignificant Jens and uninspiring Siels. Yet Italy is the home of two of the greatest analogue synths ever manufactured. In the polyphonic world, the Elka Synthex ranks alongside the Oberheim Matrix 12 and Prophet VS, in terms of both price and desirability. And in the monophonic world, there's the Crumar Spirit, a synth so obscure, and of such overwhelming eccentricity, that nobody bought it, nobody used it, and almost nobody remembers it. This month, we're going to change all that.
Cru... Who?
You may be surprised to know that some of the world's best accordions originate in Italy. Indeed, a whole accordion industry developed around the city of Castelfidardo (on the Adriatic coast) at the tail-end of the 19th century. Next, in the first half of the 20th century, the Italians embraced traditional organ technology and then, in the '60s and '70s, they jumped on the electronic home-organ bandwagon. By this time, numerous
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Anticipating the imminent collapse of the home organ market in the early '70s, Mario Crucianelli directed Crumar down a new path, and the company soon became famous for the cheap and nasty electric pianos that were to be its hallmark for the next decade. Fortunately, Crumar's next batch of products was far more interesting, embracing primitive string and brass synthesis, and the company enjoyed a short-lived burst of fame when Emerson Lake & Palmer, Greenslade and The Enid adopted its quirky Stringman and Brassman keyboards. Unfortunately, the affordability of Crumar's instruments conjured an image of cheap shoddiness, so most serious players avoided them, no matter how innovative later models proved to be. From the groundbreaking Multiman to the company's first true synthesizers, the DS1 and DS2 (see 'Before The Spirit: The Crumar DS2' box), there was much that was unconventional about the Crumars of the late '70s. Even the cost-cutting engineered into 1982's Stratus and Trilogy helped to create unconventional synths that remain unique to this day.
Nevertheless, Crumar singularly failed to make it into the big league, so when they announced the Spirit in 1983, nobody took any notice. The world's interest was only marginally more piqued when Crumar let it be known that Jim Scott (one of the co-designers of the Minimoog), Tom Rhea (another Moog employee best known for writing many of Moog's synthesizer manuals) and none other than Bob Moog himself had helped design it. And that's a shame, because, as you will see, the Spirit is one of the most complex, challenging, and -- above all -- powerful monosynths ever produced.
Technologically Speaking
It's hard to know where to start when describing the Spirit. This is because it is much deeper than other analogue synthesizers. So
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On the surface, Oscillator A couldn't be simpler, offering just one control, to select the waveform produced. Much like the Minimoog, there are six options: triangle; square; 30, 15 and five percent pulse; and sawtooth. The master tuning control lets you select the Oscillator A octave, with options ranging from 32' to 4'.
Oscillator B is more complex. Its six waveforms are triangle, 40, 20, 10 and three percent pulse, plus sawtooth, and it has four 'octave' ranges (-1, unison, +1 and +2 with respect to Oscillator A) and a detune control that spans ±8 semitones. But what of those range settings marked 'Bass' and 'Wide'? These disconnect Oscillator B from the pitch CV generated by the keyboard, instead offering frequency ranges from 30Hz-300Hz (Bass) and 2Hz-10kHz (Wide) that you can modulate and/or use as modulators within a patch. Used with -- for example -- oscillator sync (oops, didn't I mention that?), this allows you to create all manner of unusual and pow
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The filter is, as always, the next stage in the signal path. Well... no, that's not quite right. Let's start again... The dual multi-mode filters are the next stage in just one of the signal paths. Still with me? No, I didn't think so. So let's continue by looking at the filters themselves.
Crumar called the primary signal path the Filter/ADSR path, for the simple reason that the output from the oscillators passes through the filter and ADSR/VCA stages in conventional fashion. As I've already stated above, there are two filters, named U and L, for Upper and Lower. However, don't for a moment think that these are low-pass and high-pass filters. The names describe their physical positions on the control panel, not their functions.
Filter U is the more conventional of the two. This is a low-pass device with a master cutoff-frequency control, variable keyboard tracking from zero to approximately 110 percent, and a dedicated ADSR contour generator with variable depth and both positive and inverted polarities. Furthermore, a simple rocker–switch selects between the 12dB/octave and 24dB/octave cutoff slopes of the filter, allowing you to choose between Oberheim SEM/early ARP-style (12dB/oct) or Moog/late ARP-style (24dB/oct) filtering. (There's nothing remotely Japanese about the Spirit's character, but the ARPs of early Genesis LPs leap out almost unbidden.) Filter U also offers resonance, controlled by a switch that selects between a fixed 'Low'
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Filter L is the weird one. This offers four modes. The first is 'Out', wherein the filter is simply removed from the signal path. In contrast, Overdrive mode introduces a distortion circuit between Filter U and Filter L, and configures Filter L as a parametric EQ that adds a peak at its cutoff frequency, but without attenuating the signal on either side of the boost. The third mode is Band-pass, which is similar to Overdrive mode but without the distortion. Finally, High-pass mode acts as you would expect, making the Spirit a more conventional dual-filter synth with high-pass and low-pass filters.
Further to this, the Spirit offers a range of controls over the modes listed above. The first of these is the Dynamic/Formant switch. In the 'Formant' position, this disconnects Filter L from the keyboard tracking, filter envelope and other filter CVs, allowing you to introduce a fixed (indeed, formant) filter into the signal path. Filter U is unaffected, so you can impose this formant on to a conventional LPF sound... nice! Furthermore, the Resonance knob always affects the parametric boost or high-pass filter resonance, whether or not you use the Low/Variable switch to disconnect the low-pass (U) filter.
Confused yet? No? Well, how about this: Filter L provides a second filter cutoff knob but, rather than controlling an absolute value for filter cutoff, it moves the cut-off relative to that of Filter U. The two fil
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Now, if you make the two filters' cutoffs coincident and select either Overdrive or Band-pass mode for Filter L, you can play the self-oscillating filters conventionally over most of the range of the keyboard. However, if you offset them slightly you obtain a range of ghostly timbres unique to the Spirit. (This is because the 'knees' of the filters no longer coincide.) And, don't forget, you can have one filter tracking the pitch CVs while the other is stationary, so the filter characteristic can change as you play up and down the keyboard. This architecture makes the Spirit hugely flexible and, ultimately, hugely rewarding. However, the filters are far from the end of the story.
The next stage in the Filter/ADSR signal path is a simple VCA with an associated ADSR envelope. You can bypass the envelope generator using the Bypass switch, and Gate the envelope from a variety of sources. Most conventionally, you'll want to Gate it from the keyboard, using the Single or Multiple triggering option. The keyboard's priority is primarily last-note, but the Spirit also remembers the first note played. Consequently, if you release all subsequent notes while holding the first, the pitch returns to this, but without a re-trigger. This has an important and beneficial consequence: if you brush an unwanted note last, the Spirit will ignore it once you have released it, leaving the desired note sounding, and sparing your blushes. Again, I believe this to be unique to the Spirit, making it a first-class instrument for lead and bass lines. What's more, the keying system also makes the Spirit ideal for lines or phrases where you may wish to return to a 'root' drone between notes or phrases. Wonderful stuff!
There are three other sources of Gate: 'X', 'Y', and 'EXT'. So this is an ideal time to look at what is perhaps the most confusing and most powerful part of the Spirit's architecture: the modulation sources with the nattiest names in synthesis: Mod X and Shaper Y.
What's In A Name?
When you think about it, most integrated monosynths offer little in the way of modulation sources. Sure, there's usually an assignable LFO, and some synths have dedicated LFOs for pulse–width modulation and so on. But unless you fork out for one of the better endowed dual- or triple-oscillator synths, there's little or no chance of audio–frequency AM or FM, sample & hold, or an arpeggiator. Inevitably (or I wouldn't have mentioned it), the Spirit has all of these, and much more.
Let's begin with Mod X. This offers six modulation sources: triangle wave, square wave, S&H, Shaper Y, red noise, and oscillator B. There's also a dedicated LFO, which doubles as the S&H clock if th
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Organiser £50 A portable drawbar organ that sounds great through a Leslie simulator.Of course, you'll want to control something with Mod X, and a quick hunt to the far left of the control panel will lead you to the Wheel Destinations section, which allows you to direct the modulation to five destinations: the pitches of Oscillators A and B; the pitch of Osc A alone; the pulse width of Osc A; the Upper and Lower filter cutoff frequencies; or the cutoff frequency of filter U alone.
The reason why this is called the Wheel Destinations panel (rather than the Mod X Destinations panel) is because the modulating CV produced by Mod X passes through the dedicated Mod X wheel before being routed to its destination. This gives you full control over the amplitude of the modulation.
The action of Shaper Y is, if anything, less obvious than that of Mod X. This, too, has an LFO with a Rate knob, but in this case it's a 'triangular' generator whose waveform can be varied from sawtooth, through triangle, to ramp wave, using the Shape control. But the real power of Shaper Y lies in its Mode control, which adds four more options to the Spirit's already over-burdened feature-list.
'Free' turns Shaper Y into a simple LFO centred on 0V, thus making it ideal for simple vibrato or tremolo. In contrast, KB Hold gates the Shaper Y waveform, so you can use it as a secondary ASR contour generator whose A and R rates are determined by the Shape and Rate selected. The Reset option is similar to KB Hold, except that it describes an AD contour rather than an ASR contour (as long as you don't retrigger it before it's completed the cycle. If you do this, it resets to zero, and starts the AD contour again.). Finally, 'Run' is an unconditional AD contour that always completes its cycle, even if you take your hands away from the Spirit and start playing something else. This can be very useful for sound effects and drones that you've programmed to continue developing after you've moved your hands to other instruments.
Like Mod X, Shaper Y passes through a dedicated wheel before being presented with a list of possible destinations. These are: the pitches of Oscillators A and B (again); the pitch of Osc B alone; the pu
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But hang on a minute -- there's also a switch in the Wheel Destinations panel that lets you modulate (or contour) the output from Mod X with that of Shaper Y. And, if you think back, you'll remember that I've already said that one of the modulation sources within Mod X is Shaper Y. And now I've stated that one of the Shaper Y destinations is the LFO in Mod X.
Have you got a headache yet? Well, it's just about to get worse. Do you remember that the Spirit has two signal paths? The second of these is the Shaper Y path, and this passes all the sound sources, including the Ring Modulator (which I haven't yet mentioned) through a simple 6dB/octave low-pass filter and then through another VCA whose gain is controlled (or 'shaped' -- hence the name) by Shaper Y. Furthermore, all the Mod X and Shaper Y modulations are still applied to this signal.
On top of that, the Mixer section allows you to mix the Oscillator A and B levels, plus Noise, within the Filter/ADSR path, to the Oscillator A and B levels, Ring Mod level, and Noise level within the Shaper Y path. And, like so much else in the Spirit, this turns out to be more than it seems. This is because -- even ignoring the myriad other possibilities offered by this architecture -- the U and L filters introduce tiny phase shifts in the signal that fatten up the sound considerably when you mix Filter/ADSR sounds with the same sources passed through the Shaper Y path.
In Use
Clearly, the Spirit is a fantastically complex synth. Indeed, you would be hard pressed to emulate its intricacies using a modular instrument, if only because you would run out of CV inputs and patch leads long before you recreated all its weird and wonderful routings. But if you want to patch the Spirit in simpler fashion, you can ignore Mod X, Shaper Y, and most of the oscillator and filtering options, and play it like any other dual-oscillator synth. Unfortunately, ignoring and/or switching off all the complex bits is not straightforward, and I've seen experienced players almost reduced to tears when presented with a Spirit for the first time.
But once you've mastered it... Wow! For example, you can build a simple lead patch with just one oscillator, a touch of vibrato, a touch of filtering, and appropriate envelopes to taste. Now add a little portamento (yet another facility I've failed to mention), grab the pitch-bend wheel (there's another one) and the Spirit is showing its colours as a superb performance synth with depth and character. Now add the second filter in Band-pass or Overdrive mode, set the controls, and you're moving into very expensive sonic territory. And we haven't yet touched the second oscillator and the myriad modulation options, let alone added the Shaper Y path to the signal.
Of course, no vintage synth is complete without a selection of rear-panel inputs and outputs, and -- as you might expect -- the Spirit is no slouch in this department, either. For one thing, it offers individual outputs for the Filter/ADSR and Shaper Y audio paths, thus allowing you to direct the two timbres to different mixer inputs and effects paths. There's also an audio input that replaces Noise in the internal signal paths, so the phenomenal filtering and shaping power of the Spirit can be applied to external signals.
As for voltage control, there's a Filter Pedal input that controls the Lower and/or Upper filter cutoff frequencies, and an Osc B input that controls the pitch of oscillator B (which is ideal for sync sounds). Of course, there's nothing stopping you from using these inputs as general CV inputs, if you wish. Oh yes, and there are conventional CV and Gate inputs and outputs too.
All of this means that, despite its 'integrated' appearance, the Spirit is a superb addition to a modular analogue synth setup. It can provide all the keyboard functions needed, and offers a bountiful supply of voltage controlled wotsits to patch into the modular system itself.
Unfortunately, we'll probably never know whether we can attribute the power of the Spirit directly to Bob Moog, but there's no doubt in my mind that, as a performance synth, it ranks alongside the Minimoog. Sure, they sound different, but they both beg you to play them. If there is a difference between the two, it's in the Minimoog's immediacy: you can hardly fail to conjure superb sounds from it, whereas the Spirit demands that you learn and understand its complexities. Above all, the Spirit is a synth that rewards patience, experience, and a lot of thought, rather than aimless knob twiddling. But once you've mastered it, all the classic analogue timbres are at your fingertips.
And Afterwards...?
Despite its power and flexibility, the Spirit was to be the last monosynth produced by Crumar. Indeed, it was the last instrument to bear the Crumar name because, in 1984, the company launched an analogue polysynth under the name 'Bit'. Designed by none other than Mario Maggi -- the man responsible for the Elka Synthex -- with dual oscillators, dual contour generators, and bonuses s
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To give Crumar credit, even in the late '70s they were well aware that the era of analogue synthesis had passed. But whereas adding a microprocessor to an analogue synth was not too expensive -- either in terms of development time or cost -- designing a true digital synth was beyond its means. Furthermore, Castelfidardo did not have a large industrial base or a university with which to share the R&D burden, so Crumar turned to the USA to co-develop a generation of digital instruments to release alongside its low-cost synths.
In collaboration with a New York company called Music Technology, Crumar first produced a groundbreaking digital synth called the GDS (the General Development System) which was used extensively by Wendy Carlos. This then became the precursor to the Synergy, another pioneering instrument, and one that deserves to sit alongside the Fairlight CMI and the early Synclaviers in the pantheon of synthesizer hist
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Epilogue
Although Crumar disappeared in the late '80s, other Italian manufacturers were more fortunate. Elka were reinvented as manufacturers of MIDI master keyboards, while Siel were purchased by Roland Corporation, and survived as that company's European division. Generalmusic (GEM) manufacture digital synths and workstations to this day. But of the deceased Italian synth manufacturers of the '70s and '80s, Crumar is the saddest loss. In retrospect, they were a hugely important company because they made keyboards that were cheap enough for players who would otherwise have been restricted to lusting after unattainable instruments in shop windows. And who knows what they may have developed had they survived? If Crumar had released a polyphonic version of the Spirit it could -- with perhaps the honourable exception of the Yamaha GX1 -- have become the most sought-after analogue polysynth on the planet. How's that for an endorsement?
Friday, July 26, 2013
Clavia Nord Lead 3
Advanced Subtractive Performance Synthesizer
Reviews : Keyboard |
It was six years ago that a small Swedish company by the name of Clavia propelled itself onto the world stage with its Nord Lead synthesizer. At the vanguard of the 'real synth' renaissance in the latter half of the '90s, the Nord Lead included all the key elements of that renaissance: physical modelling of classic analogue subtractive synthesis, the controller-rich front panel for 'hands-on' editing, and stylish and striking case design, with an evocative name thrown in. Oh, and it was European in its parentage, if American in its ancestral heritage. For this renaissance has also been about the rebirth of the European synth industry, and Clavia can take credit for kick-starting that as well with its famous 'red synth'. While subsequent years have seen a slew of virtual analogue synths from European and Japanese manufacturers come onto the market, with the Nord Lead and its various siblings Clavia is in the enviable position of having a synth 'brand' that has proved to be uniquely and durably desirable to musicians. The company followed the release of the original model with an expander board that increased the original modest four-voice polyphony to 12 voices and added PCMCIA card-based patch storage via a rear-panel slot. Version 2.0 OS software (which required a new EPROM chip) was also released, introducing a number of tweaks such as an additional filter type, aftertouch sensitivity via MIDI, a synth-generated delay effect, a random arpeggio mode, and arpeggio note transmission via MIDI, along with 10 analogue percussion kit Programs in ROM.
Then, two years after the release of the original Nord came the Nord Lead 2. This provided 16-voice polyphony and a rear-panel PCMCIA memory card slot as standard, upped the number of audio outs from two to four, added a second rear-panel foot controller input, introduced two-way keyboard splits, and added new sonic features such as a sine wave option and sync'able noise in the oscillator section, distortion, and more keyboard tracking options in the filter section. Essentially it was an evolution of the original Nord and subsequent expander and 2.0 software.
The Nord Lead 2 was released in 1997, so it's taken twice as long for Clavia to come up with the next Nord Lead. In the meantime the company has turned to the interfacing and integration of hardware and computer-based software with the Nord Modular and Nord Micro Modular, and introduced the Nord Electro, a performance instrument dedicated to reproducing classic electro-mechanical organ and electric piano instruments (look out for an SOS review soon!).
So does the long wait for the Nord Lead 3 mean that we can expect any dramatic advances or changes in the Lead concept and functionality? Or, like the Lead 2, is the latest model an evolutionary instrument? Clavia came up with a winning recipe when they developed the original instrument, and the challenge in keeping the Lead line going is perhaps to not upset the overall flavour, but throw in enough new ingredients to keep it fresh and still relevant in a changing world.
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The first thing to notice about the Nord Lead 3 is that Clavia have kept to essentially the same 'red synth' design. The front-panel layout has been rejigged a bit, but the overall appearance will be very familiar to Lead users. Consequently Clavia's Lead synth looks as desirable as ever. The sprung wooden Pitch Stick and thin mod/morph wheel controller are still in place, but just above them you'll notice a new feature: the Nord Lead has finally got an LCD screen. Appropriately enough, perhaps, it's an '80s 'retro' two-by-16-character backlit affair; Clavia are having nothing to do with large graphical touchscreens (although probably large graphical touchscreens will be considered retro one day). One of the nice consequences of having the LCD is that you get a display of Patch, Performance and parameter names. Four mode buttons above the display — Master Clock, MIDI, Synth, and Sound — operate in conjunction with the adjacent up/down/left/right Navigator buttons and the large parameter value Edit/Patch Select knob to navigate you around a relatively small number of parameters in the display. Because the synthesis parameter editing is done via the wealth of dedicated front-panel knobs and buttons in the main panel, and the Nord Lead doesn't have a huge number of parameters beyond the patch edits, parameter editing via the LCD isn't particularly arduous.
Clavia have kept the four-octave keyboard span of the Lead 3's predecessors (though like them, it has a five-position Octave Shift function on the front panel to give an effective span of eight octaves). This in turn means that the synth retains its 'cutely compact' size and balance of proportions. However, for the first time the Nord Lead series gets an aftertouch-sensitive keyboard. The keyboard action is light yet not insubstantial, and has a sprightly bounce to it, while the travel is reasonably deep, so you need to pick up those fingers and thumbs and articulate clearly. All in all, it's quite a satisfying keyboard to play.
Lights Fantastic
Getting back to the looks, easily the most striking visual aspect of the new Lead is the colourful latticework of red and yellow-green LEDs that lights up in the main synthesis editing panel. For the most part, this is down to a new feature on the Lead 3 — the stepped circular LED 'collars' around all 26 sound editing knobs, which illuminate in segments to show the current position of the control. The knobs themselves are of the infinite rotary type (ie. you can keep twisting them round in either direction). The LED collars themselves do have start and stop points, roughly speaking at the five and seven o'clock positions.
When you call up a Program, the appropriate LEDs light up in each collar to roughly indicate the associated parameter value. For the most part these are red; however, if the parameter value is zero then the LED is yellow-green. Because the there is no physical position as such for each knob, when you twist a knob it automatically 'picks up' the LED parameter position and 'moves' the collar LEDs in the direction that it's being turned. It's a very neat (though presumably not cheap) solution to the problem of how to reconcile physical controllers with virtual parameters and at the same time provide meaningful visual feedback on parameter settings. And at the same time, the profusion of LEDs means that the front panel is lit up like a Christmas tree, especially in the dark. Perhaps most strikingly of all, thanks to the Nord Lead 3's multi-parameter morphing function, when you move the wheel you can get multiple LED sweeps all going on at once, in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions, depending on the parameter polarity. It's a great kinetic effect, especially if you're using the wheel to create rhythmically pulsing timbral effects. And it also has the advantage that you can see at a glance which parameters are being controlled from the wheel. Software synths would kill to have a hardware control surface like this.
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Performing Lead
Where the previous Nord Lead models were designated Lead Synthesizers by Clavia, the Nord Lead 3 is entitled Performance Synthesizer instead. This no doubt reflects the fact that the synth is no longer solely useful for monophonic leads as a result of the growth in its polyphony (it's now up to 24 notes — see the 'Quick Spec' box at the end of this review). Presumably, Clavia have retained the Nord Lead name, rather than opting for, say, the Nord Ensemble, for continuity reasons. However, they're also seeking to emphasise the keyboard performance aspect, with ready access to new features such as glide (mono or poly), mono (high or low priority), legato (mono or poly) and vibrato (from wheel or aftertouch), as well as the established arpeggiator (on/off, rate, and keyboard, internal master or MIDI sync, plus up, down, up/down and random directions, and a range of 1-4 octaves). You can even enable these options individually for each of the four patch Slots A-D, to which Programs are assigned for keyboard split and layer performances (see the box on synth architecture above). Each Slot can even have its own arpeggio settings; together with the other slot-assignable functions, this opens up a wide range of live performance possibilities. Other useful new features are Keyboard Hold and the Chord Memoriser (both accessible from dedicated buttons below the LCD window). If you enable Keyboard Hold, any note(s) you play on the keyboard will be sustained until you play one or more other notes, which in turn will be sustained. In conjunction with the arpeggiator, this acts as an arpeggio latch function. The Chord Memoriser function remembers any group of notes being played on the keyboard when you press its button; you can then trigger the chord from individual keys (suitably transposed of course). This function can be turned on or off for individual Slots. What's more, if you play the same note(s) multiple times while holding Shift and Chord Memoriser, you can stack voices to create bigger sounds.
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FM Returns!
While Clavia's newest Lead has style aplenty, ultimately it needs to be backed up by substance. The Nord Lead's strength, and ultimately the reason for its durability, has always been that it has real sonic substance to back up the style. Clavia have even dropped the Virtual Analogue tag in favour of Advanced Subtractive because, as they put it in the manual, "it can do so much more".
Falling firmly into the "so much more" category, the basic FM capability of the previous models is expanded somewhat on the new Nord Lead by the introduction of a new Dual Sine FM option for the oscillators and an associated ability for the two oscillators to be combined in a four-operator configuration. Clavia have also introduced a new FM mode called Differential FM, which is the type of FM that Yamaha used in its DX synths. FM on the Nord Lead 3 is not as sophisticated as Yamaha's six-operator implementation with its multiple algorithms (ie. operator configurations), but it's worth bearing in mind that you can use FM in one oscillator together with traditional analogue in the other, and route both through a versatile multi-mode analogue-modelled filter. Yamaha didn't add traditional filtering to the FM mix until the SY85 in the early '90s, at which time it seemed like an acknowledgement of the failure of FM in the face of sample-based subtractive synthesis.
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The Nord Lead remains resolutely sample-free, and while the reintroduction of FM has a certain retro '80s appeal, it more importantly highlights the enduring sonic uniqueness and validity of FM synthesis (see 'The Bluffer's Guide to FM' box in the review of the Yamaha DX200, elsewhere in this month's SOS). And it seems entirely appropriate that Clavia should have opted to utilise FM rather than go the Yamaha and Korg route of integrating modelled acoustic instruments alongside modelled analogue synthesis. The Nord Lead is about creating interesting electronic synth sounds, and FM fits in well with that modus operandi. In fact, the revelation of the Nord Lead is that it gives FM synthesis the real-time editability and responsiveness that it always deserved but lacked. Anyone who ever got a headache as a result of trying to edit FM sounds via the poky interface and endless button-pushing on Yamaha's original DX synths will appreciate this. And it's an object lesson in what a difference a user interface can make. When you're twisting parameter knobs and listening to the real-time sonic interaction of the parameters, you're just dealing in sound, not mathematical abstractions. I'd love to see Clavia do a full-blown virtual implementation of FM synthesis like Yamaha, but with a Nord-style front panel and interactivity.
As it is, the FM synthesis on the Nord Lead 3 still offers plenty of sonic versatility, and lets you create, for instance, classic FM electric pianos and basses, bell-like sounds and metallic drones. Both oscillators can be independently put into Dual Sine FM mode. Oscillator 1 has a simpler implementation, in that the Carrier and Modulator represented by the two sine waves have a fixed 1:1 frequency relationship. With Oscillator 2, you can change the coarse (partial) tuning of the Carrier and the fine-tuning of the Modulator. When both oscillators are in Dual Sine FM mode, you can use the Osc Mod knob to set the amount by which the output of the (modulated) Oscillator 2 Carrier modulates the Oscillator 1 Carrier — effectively creating a four-operator configuration.
The Nord Lead 3 lets you select from six different types of oscillator modulation for each of the two oscillators. I've already mentioned FM and Differential FM. Ring Modulation will also be familiar from the Nord Lead 2. However, there are three other options. The fourth is Filter Frequency Modulation, in which the signal of Oscillator 2 frequency-modulates the cutoff frequency parameters Frequency 1 and Frequency 2 in the Filter section. With the fifth, Distortion, the mixed output from the two oscillators is routed through a distortion processor, with the Modulation knob controlling the amount of clip distortion. Finally, there is Distortion Modulation, in which the combined output of the two oscillators is amplitude-modulated by a third, 'hidden' oscillator whose pitch is controlled by the Modulation knob, and the result is routed through a distortion processor — a good way to create weird enharmonic sounds. You can readily switch through all these options from a single button and audition the results, allowing you to try out a wide range of sounds from the same source material.
Another area in which the Nord Lead 3 has been developed significantly from its predecessors is the filter section. You now have a choice of Single Filter and Multi Filter modes. The former gives you a choice of six filter types: Band-pass, High-Pass, Low-pass, Band-Reject, Classic (a Minimoog-style low-pass filter), and Distortion Low-pass (a low-pass filter with adjustable feedback loop for overdrive-type distortion). 24db, 12db and 6db roll-off options are available, you have filter cutoff and resonance knobs, and you can turn keyboard tracking on or off.
Alternatively you can select the Multi Filter Mode, which gives you six options that represent various combinations of filter types in parallel or series, with predefined roll-offs. Here the Freq2/Distortion knob lets you set a second cutoff frequency for the additional filter. All these options significantly increase the range of sounds you can generate, and as with the oscillator mode selections, you can quickly audition the various options from the dedicated 'multi-step' buttons.
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The Unison feature is worth a mention, as it has undergone significant development. When you activate this feature from its dedicated front-panel button (which you can do per Slot within a Program), you get five simultaneous voices per note, with two in the left channel, two in the right, and one in the centre, giving a good stereo spread. You can detune these voices against one another using the Detune knob to fatten up the sound. But even more impressively, Unison mode doesn't reduce the available polyphony — playing a single Program in Unison mode still gives you 24 voices!
Finally, the Morph function, which on the Nord Lead 2 lets you create two 'snapshots' of synthesis parameter settings and 'morph' between them from the modulation wheel has now metamorphosed, so to speak, into a Multi-Morph function, in which you can create four Morph Groups, each able to change up to 26 parameters. In addition to the modulation wheel you can control separate morphs from keyboard velocity, keyboard range, and aftertouch/control pedal. This can get pretty amazing, because you can use these morphs together. So you can be generating one morph from aftertouch while at the same time moving the mod wheel to generate another morph. In each case the morph isn't just a straight A-B change, but is relative to the position of the controller at any given moment, so you have a fine degree of control over the multi-morphed sound.
Conclusions
Clavia have done a fine job of developing and enhancing the sonic versatility and flexibility of the Nord Lead in a way which could be described as organic — existing Nord Lead users will find the Nord Lead 3 a natural outgrowth or extension of their instrument, and will take to it like the proverbial duck to water. The enhanced FM synthesis capabilities, new oscillator modes and new filtering options are all welcome additions, and particularly effective is the way the FM-generated sounds blend into the overall rich, warm sonic character of the synth, while giving it a broader range. And it's good to see that Clavia have responded to criticisms of the earlier Leads by providing keyboard aftertouch control, an additional two audio outs, a MIDI Thru socket, an LED window, and a much healthier number of Program and Performance memories. Also praiseworthy is the ability for users to upgrade the OS themselves via the Internet.
On the other hand, the Nord Lead 3 is a pricey instrument but it still doesn't have features taken for granted on many other synths, namely built-in multi-effects processing, an onboard multitrack sequencer, and a disk drive. Whether or not the absence of these features matters on a purist's synthesizer like the Nord Lead, which certainly isn't trying to be an all-singing all-dancing workstation, is ultimately an individual decision.
All in all, though, the Nord Lead 3 is a worthy if not earth-shattering or mould-breaking addition to the Lead series.
Published in SOS July 2001
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