Ableton Forum

@dum, anybody humans sonicstate link give you a pretty good idea.
Sounds good over laptop speakers, really good actually. iLock only, puts in the, "when I get $3,000 together for a Receptor with internal iLock",
category for me.

Yeah, the PolyKB is a pretty damn exciting synth. I don't own it (yet) but have demo'd it, and the first thing that struck me was the "virtual placement" of each voice. I've never seen anything like it! You literally drag around little red dots that represent each voice, placing them from left to right and back to front. It's just freaking magical! (and yes it sounds as good as it should...)

I think XILS is a pretty impressive company, and yep, the guy used to work for Arturia, so there's that...(I'm a huge fan of Prophet V and ARP2600V, two of my favorites out there, emulation or otherwise...)

arrggghh just one more synth to buy...

-M

I'm rockin an iLok, and XILS, ... plus I'm entitled to a discount on PolyKB

BUT... my studio machine crapped out on me before I got a chance to demo PolyKB, and I don't demo shit unless I'm in a position to buy & use it. But ya, if XILS is anything to go by, PolyKB probably sounds dope.

*checking out the sonicstate link*

dum wrote:I'm rockin an iLok, and XILS, ... plus I'm entitled to a discount on PolyKB

BUT... my studio machine crapped out on me before I got a chance to demo PolyKB, and I don't demo shit unless I'm in a position to buy & use it. But ya, if XILS is anything to go by, PolyKB probably sounds dope.

*checking out the sonicstate link*

Exactly why I won't demo it, sounds freaking great, I would probably want it.
I'll bet you jump on it, it's got a lot of things going for it I'm aware you're into:
-sequncer/arp built in
-spatial placement of sound
- LFOs everywhere
-unique oscillators

I would if I had the $.
As it is I'm trying to decide what I can sell to upgrade DP to 7 and get the Tassman deal before the 31st.

Machinesworking wrote:

dum wrote:I'm rockin an iLok, and XILS, ... plus I'm entitled to a discount on PolyKB

BUT... my studio machine crapped out on me before I got a chance to demo PolyKB, and I don't demo shit unless I'm in a position to buy & use it. But ya, if XILS is anything to go by, PolyKB probably sounds dope.

*checking out the sonicstate link*

Exactly why I won't demo it, sounds freaking great, I would probably want it.
I'll bet you jump on it, it's got a lot of things going for it I'm aware you're into:
-sequncer/arp built in
-spatial placement of sound
- LFOs everywhere
-unique oscillators

I would if I had the $.
As it is I'm trying to decide what I can sell to upgrade DP to 7 and get the Tassman deal before the 31st.

Ya, it does sound boss. The arp & lfos are boss, all those things you listed are boss. They should just call it 'The Boss'

Will have to stay away from the demo for a while

BTW I should have said that Xils3 sounds really good, I just haven't put in the time with it.

Another synth which has become a cool collector analogue synth is the Russian built Polivoks



there was a really interesting write up about it in the July 2010 Sound On Sound and several groups have been trying to find one of these rare beasts in working order.

The article in full is available to esubs but the opening is here.
https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul10/ ... livoks.htm


and this is the final paragraph
So that’s the Polivoks; a bit dodgy, a bit unpredictable, offering a psychotic filter and suffering from horrendous distortion in the signal path. But before I go, I would like to offer the last word to Polak, who recently wrote: “I have come to realise that everything is shite about it. It’s clanky. It’s squeaky. The plastic looks sturdy but is actually very brittle. Uncleaned knobs (ie. the ones you buy it with) crackle devastatingly, and the keyboard feels terrible. I love it! It’s my favourite synth. It’s sexy as hell, too.”

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul10/a ... saudio.htm

dum wrote: Ya, it does sound boss. The arp & lfos are boss, all those things you listed are boss. They should just call it 'The Boss'

Will have to stay away from the demo for a while

Yup total agreement, not going near that demo! Still trying to come up with Tassman deal $99 before the 31st as it is.
Plus DP7 upgrades and eventual Live 8 upgrade, that's about my budget for 2010. Not buying Live 8 until they announce 9 though.
I'm on a strict policy of being a version behind with my live show sequencer.

leedsquietman wrote:Another synth which has become a cool collector analogue synth is the Russian built Polivoks



there was a really interesting write up about it in the July 2010 Sound On Sound and several groups have been trying to find one of these rare beasts in working order.

The article in full is available to esubs but the opening is here.
https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul10/ ... livoks.htm


and this is the final paragraph
So that’s the Polivoks; a bit dodgy, a bit unpredictable, offering a psychotic filter and suffering from horrendous distortion in the signal path. But before I go, I would like to offer the last word to Polak, who recently wrote: “I have come to realise that everything is shite about it. It’s clanky. It’s squeaky. The plastic looks sturdy but is actually very brittle. Uncleaned knobs (ie. the ones you buy it with) crackle devastatingly, and the keyboard feels terrible. I love it! It’s my favourite synth. It’s sexy as hell, too.”
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul10/a ... saudio.htm

???? They tweaked your meds didn't they??? Soft synths is what being discussed. Unless you're working for some company that's making an emulation!

Yeah I've thought about picking one of those up, they're funky as hell sounding and would be a fun live instrument... Some Russian company should start making them again.
Sort of disappointing that other people figured out how freaking awesome those things really are. Hoping they'd stay at around $800 on ebay.
They sound like a Yamaha and Minimoog combined. IE ugly filters that give a pleasant distortion like the Moog, but two of them and multiple filter types like the Yamaha's.

Ebay still has them for cheap, problem is you're taking the Ukraine challenge. IE will you actually get the synth?
http://cgi.ebay.com/POLIVOKS-Soviet-Min ... 856wt_1139

Well, we've kind of strayed from the topic of Analog (the virtual synth) into the hardware vs soft debate, so although not on topic, it's not totally irrelevant. Some of those audio examples of the Polivoks are pretty cool.

And I got the XILS3-LE version as a 20 dollar audiomidi.com no brainer some time ago and it's pretty great and different, although not really too alike sonically to the EMS synth it's based upon (detailed review in August Sound On Sound 2010 which just hit the shelves or e-sub) in the opinion of synth guru Gordon Reid, who nevertheless still liked the plugin a lot.

leedsquietman wrote:Well, we've kind of strayed from the topic of Analog (the virtual synth) into the hardware vs soft debate, so although not on topic, it's not totally irrelevant. Some of those audio examples of the Polivoks are pretty cool.

No, people kept on confusing me saying Analog sounded like a VA synth rather than a real Analogue synth with me saying real analogue synths sound different than the soft synth Analog.... bleh! bit of a mess really.

Ableton and naming things as retardedly simple as they can!
I'm Playing live using Live with my analogue synth and Analog on my laptop. My sampler is Sampler and my other sampler is Kontakt.

For me Analog is really a great emulation of classic analog filter, the way I can turn sounds into selfresonance is great, didn`t expect that from a software synth. The routing is a bit reduced, should be done as in Operator, but with 2 LFO`s.....but I like the Analog LFO`s with Attack, Delay and Widthparameter.

ckluxen wrote:For me Analog is really a great emulation of classic analog filter, the way I can turn sounds into selfresonance is great, didn`t expect that from a software synth. The routing is a bit reduced, should be done as in Operator, but with 2 LFO`s.....but I like the Analog LFO`s with Attack, Delay and Widthparameter.

Yes, there are actually a few virtual analogue synths on the market whose filter resonance can feedback and function as oscillation. U-he's ACE and Zebra2, again, are nice synths to demonstrate such features.

I agree with you that it is good to be able to shift LFO wave phase and envelope the LFO's seperately in Live's Analog. This is a nice source for evolving sounds which have multiple stages, rhythmic sequences with variation and much more.

How did you mean that the routing is "a bit reduced" and that it should be as in Operator?

Operator is of course employing FM, Subtractive and Additive functionality. I believe Analog is modelled completely different, only sharing a similar shell to conform to Live's interface. Operator was developed by Ableton without AAS collaboration, as far as I know.

I think the "you should stick with Analog" point of view is being done to death by now.

OP asked for alternatives.