The first item in our series of synthesizers is the 16 x multi-timbre polyphonic JAX SUPERSONIC, which is able of loading Standard MIDI files. But it is NOT a General MIDI player (rompler) based on samples, but …
it is a virtual analog monster with 15 sound channels and one sample based drum channel ( channel 0x09/ 10 ). The public beta for jamming tests is available.
We wanted to create a synthesizer, which can produce complete song arrangements out of the box, with just a MIDI sequencer connected. A rather minimalistic song creation setup, limiting to one tone generator device, although the sound of just a single voice from JAX SUPERSONIC is NOT minimalistic but optimized for modern sound. Tjis is the return of our memories, working with just one or two Access Viri (Virus b & c) and building complete arrangements with that…
Thank goodness, the JAX Supersonic is one of those soft synth’s, that you will have no trouble in getting it to sit in the mix. It has that beautiful rounded sound that was so popular in the late nineties, like Alice Deejay, and many other dance acts of that era. And now that the 90’s sound is back in vogue again, the timing and release of the JAX Supersonic Synth couldn’t be better. So I have just one question to ask… when can I BUY IT!!!
Yeah, we should have it named SuperCheesy or such.
The focus here was (again) on the easiness of usage (without a 128 slot modulation matrix for instance) and the optimisation of the tone generation for dance and pop sounds. It also should get a GM compatible sound set, so that just playing (any?) MIDI files with 16 channels is possible. Because I am an old fashion MIDI fanatic. ^^
I remember the time, where I owned a VIRUS b/c hardware synth. Theoretically you could play on 16 channels… but practically, after 24 voices – mostly much much less, one such device was not able to handle it. It was barely possible to write a complete song arrangement for it. You needed multiple devices for that.
Unfortunately this approach got then very popular with the arising of the VST Standard. Multi-timbre was banned from synthesizers completely, making minimalistic device setups and arrangements with just a MIDI sequencer and a sole synth device nearly impossible.
I am often thinking, all that diversity and availability, all those “one trick ponies” we have today, took away allot of the initial music creation process and creativity, where you were fixed to a certain studio setup and forced to be productive with just that. This is still the major problem today, I think. Most of the home-made music today sounds like crap therefore.
On the other side, this late 90”s nostalgia is available to anyone for free today. The complete Virus b/c (next also Virus IT) is emulated and one can recreate the original setups from that time completely virtual.
In fact I could load my old songs directly into any pro grade MIDI sequencer, transferring the SysEx chunks to these emulations and start playing them with the sounds I created in the late ‘90s early 2000s.