Info from NAMM regarding XITE, Scope 5 and Solaris

[garyb]

yes.

also, for clarity's sake, i never mentioned anything about whether there would or would not be a buyback on old boards. i'd really doubt it, since they're still selling them, but i know NOTHING about such things.

[garyb]

that new, mass produced neve and toft stuff is NOT the same as the old stuff was...

[Warp69]

that new, mass produced neve and toft stuff is NOT the same as the old stuff was...

But they still quite good - I have a NEVE 1073 myself (but since they have EQ's I couldn't compare that to Xite) - but no matter what - the preamps of the Xite aint in the same league. Let us be realistic and not be blinded by our wish that Xite should succeed.

[siriusbliss]

that new, mass produced neve and toft stuff is NOT the same as the old stuff was...

But they still quite good - I have a NEVE 1073 myself (but since they have EQ's I couldn't compare that to Xite) - but no matter what - the preamps of the Xite aint in the same league. Let us be realistic and not be blinded by our wish that Xite should succeed.

I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the AKM (or whichever) A/D's used in Xite, or the preamps. Yes, not dedicated boxes, but they should still be pretty dang good circuits IMO.

Greg

[Warp69]

Yes, not dedicated boxes, but they should still be pretty dang good circuits IMO.

Compared to what?

[siriusbliss]

Yes, not dedicated boxes, but they should still be pretty dang good circuits IMO.

Compared to what?

hell if I know.

Good A/D circuits with good chips are a science.

Everybody wants to relate everything to everything else, when it's still an apples/oranges comparison.
As long as the overall circuit is well designed with good grounding/power, impedance control, etc. then we should be good to go.

Greg

[garyb]

that new, mass produced neve and toft stuff is NOT the same as the old stuff was...

But they still quite good - I have a NEVE 1073 myself (but since they have EQ's I couldn't compare that to Xite) - but no matter what - the preamps of the Xite aint in the same league. Let us be realistic and not be blinded by our wish that Xite should succeed.

no, not as good as the best stuff in those brand names! but the cheaper stuff with good names often is even made in china. let's face it, the main designs have been well defined and studied by now, there is still art involved, but a lot is just the quality of the parts. both Mr. Toft and Mr. Neve have licensed products of late that, while very good products, were not of the quality and impact of the work that made the names famous. they have also made some products that were worthy of the namesake, no big deal. i think the difference is in the mass production. items that are mass made, but are only for the professional, not the enthusiast or fringe professional are still practically hand made one offs. they are made to last a lifetime or more. they are expensive, but only bought once, and they are usually special.

anyway, i never intended to compare the 1073 to the XITE. if the XITE's pres are the quality of an FMR RNP, that would be more than useful...

[Warp69]

anyway, i never intended to compare the 1073 to the XITE. if the XITE's pres are the quality of an FMR RNP, that would be more than useful...

I know you didn't intended to compare the 1073 with the Xite. I agree - A rather good preamp in Xite would absolutely be usefull.

[dawman]

Let us be fair - The reverbs in PCM96 and M7 are in another league - they're not just a little bit better - they are WAY better.

Is there a reverb God worthy of the challenge?
Fooling " consumers " isn't difficult, so for a multichannel live application, I'll be happy, but yes for a trained ear ( 1-3% ) of the general public, musicians included, I would want a higher quality for recording. But even then I find so many forums full of enthusiastic engineers and producers that have lengthy discussions on SIR, Altiverb and other generic verbs that they seem to think sound marvellous. One can convince themselves of this with freeware I suppose, those apps make my eyes squint.
A good example is a successful Lawyer I know loves Movie soundtracks, Dances With Wolves,
Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc. Mostly the powerful French Horn / String stuff. I gave him some headphones to listen to various demos on the Vienna Ensemble website.
He was so impressed he wants a DAW built to do this stuff and learn to play music......( I should let him, and after he fails due to a short attention span, scoop up the gear for 1/2 price... ankyu ).
My point is he is very educated in the arts from a listeners point of view and the demos using the new MIR from VE sounded........GREEEAAAA88888...to him.
So once again I believe the needs of the many outwiegh the needs of the few or the one..........Star Trek V.....Spock.
Perhaps an exclusive reverb developer for Scope can bring us a higher grade of editability and quality......HINT>>HINT.

Trying to please everyone is too demanding of a task, we are all aware of this, we can choose what works and what doesn't work in SFP and add the missing pieces.
Which won't be very many IMHO........but then again I haven't landed a major motion picture film scoring gig for a year or so now.............

[dehuszar]

I assume the 96k hardware version cannot be mimicked by the software, as I have both.

What's the action on the keys, Jimmy? Are they weighted or the standard plasticky fare?

Sam

[dawman]

They are just the basic plastic keys, but I actually had to think about how it felt, just now for the first time....

[siriusbliss]

NAMM Solaris video on SonicState.com

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/01/ ... roduction/

Greg

[garyb]

I assume the 96k hardware version cannot be mimicked by the software, as I have both.

What's the action on the keys, Jimmy? Are they weighted or the standard plasticky fare?

Sam

weighted keys would be most untraditional for a true synthesizer. organs don't have weighted keys...

[dehuszar]

I assume the 96k hardware version cannot be mimicked by the software, as I have both.

What's the action on the keys, Jimmy? Are they weighted or the standard plasticky fare?

Sam

weighted keys would be most untraditional for a true synthesizer. organs don't have weighted keys...

No, but they should.

Does anyone know if there are plans for an ASB style Solaris, or is it safe to say that it's either Sonic-Core or the big daddy? If it sounds that much better in hardware, then I'm tempted, but I'm kinda anal about the keys I tap on. I need to keep those fingers strong and trained for when I play on actual pianos.

[johnbowen]

Sam,
Maybe then you'd be a good candidate for what RichardKC6 has asked me, both privately and on the Forum here:
http://forums.johnbowen.com/viewtopic.php?t=496

If there's enough interest, we can look into producing a small number of 88 weighted hammer-style key bed versions of Solaris....but it does depend on how many would want to do this.
cheers,
john b.

[dawman]

Well shit count me in then too.
PAT w/ an FPWood action like Fatar has.
The hell w/ a truck...

I think for MultiMode more than 61 keys would be cruciual.
Whatever you make I'll buy...even an ASB.
It would actually mean " Authentic Solaris Box. " .... ....ankyu.

[le_tigre]

So once again I believe the needs of the many outwiegh the needs of the few or the one..........Star Trek V.....Spock.

That's from "Star Trek 2: Electric Boogaloo," silly.

[marzzz]

I would absolutely kill (or at least pay a very handsome sum of money) for a Solaris, at least 76 key, with PolyAT. I shan't hold my breath, though.....

[valis]

no, not as good as the best stuff in those brand names! but the cheaper stuff with good names often is even made in china. let's face it, the main designs have been well defined and studied by now, there is still art involved, but a lot is just the quality of the parts. both Mr. Toft and Mr. Neve have licensed products of late that, while very good products, were not of the quality and impact of the work that made the names famous. they have also made some products that were worthy of the namesake, no big deal. i think the difference is in the mass production. items that are mass made, but are only for the professional, not the enthusiast or fringe professional are still practically hand made one offs. they are made to last a lifetime or more. they are expensive, but only bought once, and they are usually special.

anyway, i never intended to compare the 1073 to the XITE. if the XITE's pres are the quality of an FMR RNP, that would be more than useful...

From reading several DIY forums, it's my understanding that when buying boutique gear from the 'high' end guys the stuff that is not mass produced not only usually uses hand-matched components during production, but also if you were to attempt to order the very same part #'s from their source you would get parts that differ in subtle ways from what Neve et. al. use in their higher end gear. None of the parts sources would ever state directly HOW the parts differed, but this seems to be evident in more than one discussion on this subject.

[garyb]

afaik, the main differences would be tolerances. yes, of course the top shelf stuff is hand matched components and that's a big part of what's being paid for, but the "affordable" models by the same maker are not the same...