For years, anyone with doubts that soft synths had become commodity needed only to look to Crystal. Not only is this proprietary synth completely free-as-in-beer for Windows and Mac, but it could easily be your only synth if you so desired. Crystal is a semi-modular instrument with the usual trimmings – subtractive and FM synthesis, modulation, multi-stage, graphical envelopes, tempo sync, chorus, flanger, comb filter, delay, and even a band splitter for adding effects per frequency band. If the bread-and-butter stuff doesn’t satisfy, Crystal also has Granular and Wave Density parameters for wavetable synthesis that can be used for granular-style effects and more out-there sounds.

Now, Crystal pairs the absurd value of its free desktop instrument with a mobile version that starts at 99 cents.

While it’s not quite the round-trip workflow of bleep!BOX, mentioned earlier today, Crystal’s new mobile edition for iPhone and iPad could be ideal for people who can never find enough time (cough) to do all the sound design they want. Once the currently-unreleased (and premium-priced) XT plug-in is available, you’ll be able to share patches between desktop and modular versions. You’ll also be able to use MIDI input via the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit, using a compatible USB MIDI class-compliant device. And if you’re stuck for ideas, the mobile version also uses the “Breed” feature. That means that you can do some idle sound design while on the go, so that knob-tweaking doesn’t have to distract you when you’re back at your desk and ready to actually finish a production.

Now, we have quite a few readers who aren’t terribly interested in mobile versions of software – and with good reason. While Crystal on an iPhone or iPad is portable, you lose a lot. Some of that involves sacrifices in Crystal itself. Some editing, import, and patch browsing is missing. The limited real estate of the iPhone screen knocks out editing, which is largely copied from the desktop version – meaning, as well, this isn’t necessarily designed from the ground up for mobile use. And, oh yeah, you lose polyphony. Other restrictions have to do with the iPad itself: finding compatible MIDI hardware is trickier, and the single dock connector – for now – means that you can pick one option from MIDI, external audio, and power, but not all three, depending on your hardware. (Want MIDI? Load up the battery. Want audio? Stick to the headphone jack. Update/correction: Glad to hear from substrain that hardware with class support for audio and MIDI in one device should work, and that there’s hope from third-party, non-Apple adapters! More on that soon; have to experiment.) Then there’s the fact that just sequencing an instrument is easier on a computer. For half the price of an iPad, you could get a netbook with all these features and still have something light and compact. My guess is, then, that Crystal will be best for doing sonic exploration on the go, particularly with the iPad editing interface – and that makes the availability of the free plug-in version all the more critical. On mobile only, this has questionable utility. When you have a desktop, too, it could be a killer app.

The news isn’t just for mobile users, however. While some pricey synths and effects aren’t available in 64-bit versions, an update last week also delivered 64-bit compatibility for both Mac AU and Windows VST. That gives you full 64-bit compatibility on both operating systems; no bridge needed. Cost: entirely free.

Thanks to readers who reminded me of this, especially Flplsx of In & Out fest. Full details:

http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/indexDesktop.html [Desktop version]
Crystal on the iTunes App Store (eagerly anticipating that XT version!)

Dave’s got a new keyboard, and the headline gives it all away: it’s a Mopho, but adding keys and more control, all for $800.

There’s a myth out there that the computer music user and hardware synth lover are two different people. Au contraire, mon ami. Thanks, indeed, to Dave Smith himself, the computer and the synth get along just fine. But if you’ve got scant few dollars, which synth is really unique enough, elegant enough in use to justify those dollars?

Dave Smith Instruments is on the top of the list. They’ve got personality, accessibility, and terrific sound. And the DSI instruments are even starting to look like they themselves recognize the invention of the computer, with the addition of USB MIDI and software editors. Oh, yeah, and Dave Smith’s creations are also uncommonly good values: analog synths the everyman can afford. The new Mopho keyboard is in late prototype phase, and it already looks to fill that mold.

The Mopho keyboard has all the analog sonic goodness of the mopho synth module, an overwhelming CDM reader favorite in 2008. Like the Mopho module, you get a rich monophonic analog synth on a budget. That voice is roughly the equivalent of a single voice from the Prophet ’08, but with the addition of sub-octave generators and audio input and feedback options. Because you can input audio signal, that makes the Mopho a doubly-interesting possibility alongside a computer, as basically a big modulation source. (The Moog Little Phatty has earned some fans for the same reason.)

The one thing I didn’t much like on the Mopho module was its minimalist controller section. The keyboard is different, as you can see in our rough video walk-through. There’s a clever set of controls that let you manipulate either oscillator 1, oscillator 2, or both simultaneously. The knobs themselves feel lovely, too, and you have a lot more onboard programmability. There’s MIDI-controlled feedback. And there are pots everywhere, without any menu diving – nearly everything is accessible via shift keys.

What I also love about the Mopho is its compact size; it’s easy to carry and lift.

As always, some of the biggest competition to Dave Smith’s synths are other Dave Smith synths. So you do have to weight the Mopho keyboard against the Mono and Poly Evolver keyboards. Those have deeper sound architectures (even on the Mono Evolver), and while they don’t have 100% analog signal path, you don’t (cough) really need that, necessarily.

There aren’t any specs up on the Dave Smith site, and even the final appearance may differ slightly. (I liked the little bit of yellow peeking out from beneath the more refined wood and front panel; I hope that makes it onto the finished model.) But you can expect the Mopho keyboard very soon, some time this spring, at MAP US$799. Stay tuned.

Dave Smith Instruments

(PS, I’m blanking on the name of the gentleman in the video and I neglected to photo your name badge as I should, so since my memory is worse than a preset-less early analog synth, please drop me a line.)

In some of the news I’ve missed in the last couple of days are some unusual announcements. Urs Heckmann can be fairly considered one of the great soft synth designers, with accomplishments like Zebra. His latest, Bazille, like many recent soft synths, is a hybrid: FM synthesis plus phase distortion plus the obligatory subtractive synthesis. In an early teaser video (he apologizes for audio quality), he shows off its modular design. Now, modular routing is something we’ve seen in some form in other recent synths, from Maschine to Future Audio’s Circle. But for Bazille, the layout of the whole synth is clearly set up with rack-style modular routing and free-form patching in mind. There’s definitely some promise here. Oliver Chesler of the utterly brilliant wire to the ear found this first and has some other good thoughts.

The surprise news, though, is that Fairlight may be re-releasing the Fairlight CMI, their original digital sampler. The Fairlight Instruments site teases a “CMI Series 30A (Thirtieth Anniversary) Limited Edition.” Peter Vogel’s CMI, ubiquitous sound of the 80s, established many things we take for granted in computer music. Heck, it even had a light pen. So, too, will the 30A re-release. They’ll make 100 of them, you’ll get WAV import and improved sound quality, and… no, you won’t be able to afford it, though Vogel says it’ll be cheaper than the original. (In other words, it’ll be cheaper to get a new Fairlight than a new Buchla.)

Sonic State scoops the details from the man himself:
More Anniversary Fairlight Details: A little more information from Mr Vogel

Of course, I dream of a successor to the Fairlight CVI, their ground-breaking video instrument.

Alternatively… Synclavier: The Next Generation, anyone?