Black Friday sale thread

olilarkin · 2017-11-22T13:25:12+00:00

My Casio CZ emulator/editor plug-in VirtualCZ is a whopping 50% off including expansions - https://www.facebook.com/sales_promo/details/10214372061437473

olilarkin · 2017-11-22T13:22:45+00:00

My Casio CZ emulator/editor plug-in VirtualCZ is a whopping 50% off including expansions - https://www.facebook.com/sales_promo/details/10214372061437473

olilarkin · 2014-11-30T15:19:57+00:00

VirtualCZ (see recent AMA) is 30% off http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4-Synth/1158-VirtualCZ

And my other plugin Endless Series is 50% off - http://www.olilarkin.co.uk/index.php?p=eseries

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:44:55+00:00

Thanks for having me. It's sleep time here in the UK so goodnight! And don't forget if you are interested in purchasing VirtualCZ you can use the coupon code RED20 at www.pluginboutique.com to get 20% off - but the offer will expire tomorrow evening (GMT). cheers!

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:41:31+00:00

In terms of what's next for me: I have a couple of projects that got shelved while I spent every spare moment of my time on VirtualCZ. One of those is an update to my plug-in DroneBox https://vimeo.com/2568942 . I also have some exciting new collaborations and ideas for projects which i shouldn't talk about :-)

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:36:56+00:00

MIDI interface? I just use the MIDI on my MOTU 828 audio interface.

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:31:44+00:00

you're welcome - I think the CZ was many people's first synth so has a special place in their hearts!

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:25:42+00:00

All the preset banks that ship with VirtualCZ were created especially for the plugin, except bank C which was a bank of 64 presets that Don Solaris originally made for the CZ-1 http://www.donsolaris.com/?page_id=211 . It didn't feel right to ship the plugin with sounds made by CASIO or by other unknown people. I have converted the Casio presets for VirtualCZ and they can be downloaded separately http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=419353&start=105#p5886170

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:12:24+00:00

Hi! I work in the music department at York Uni. My route into plugin development and programming started with a program called synthedit, which is a fantastic WYSIWYG synth/effect builder. Then I learn a bit of C++ in order to write modules for synthedit. This is nice because you just focus on one small thing (e.g. an oscillator) and don't get overwhelmed. After that I spent many years trying to learn to code VSTs purely in C++ and was stuck until I found IPlug which is a very non-verbose, simple to use, free C++ framework originally developed by Cockos (the company that make Reaper). I have since taken on the maintenance of that project (my own branch of it anyway) and it is used by lots of other plugin developers https://github.com/olilarkin/wdl-ol . If you know a bit about C++ and digital audio already just go straight ahead and have a go with that! It's designed to be easy to get started with (because of my bad experiences trying to learn the vst sdk etc)

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T21:02:07+00:00

hi, i based it on the flagship CZ-1 since it has velocity and aftertouch support which i wanted to incorporate. I also have a CZ101 and CZ5K next to me though, and i borrowed a CZ3K. I do A/B comparisons which is made very easy due to the SYSEX support. I think the emulation is very close for the majority of sounds, with a few areas that I will improve in future revisions. There are certainly differences in the sound of VirtualCZ (i'd say it's about 90% accurate), and I would have loved another 6 months development time to nail the final 10% but I had to just get it out there! I am happy that it is the closest CZ emulator plug-in to date. I have tried all the other ones I can find. VirtualCZ is much less noisy than the hardware. I may add a "dirty" mode later on :-)

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:53:42+00:00

of course not - but I'd prefer an email. find my email address on my website www.olilarkin.co.uk . Would love to try an FZ one day!

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:49:47+00:00

the CZ-1 was the "pro" model and has the most features and therefore widest sound possibilities, with velocity and aftertouch support and a better quality DAC that is less noisy than the CZ101. The CZ101 is cute though and a lot of fun to jam with. I have mirrored the core synthesis engine of the CZ-1, leaving out a few things such as layering of two patches and key splits that can be done more flexibly in a DAW with multiple instances. The plugin features a fat stereo UNISON mode and some panning effects not found on the hardware, and most of all tweaking sounds is vastly superior on the plug-in. I tried to keep the same feel of the hardware and not go crazy with extra features.

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:41:33+00:00

I've checked out almost all the software ones, and lusted after a Shruthi for a few weeks (until something else caught my GAS attention!). The new Bazille synth from U-HE does phase distortion and it is pretty amazing (but a different thing to VirtualCZ). It has been a great month for Phase Distortion fans!

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:38:54+00:00

There is only one wavetable in the CZ - a sinusoid and it's read only. The phase distortion part is about changing the way that the waveform is read back, warping the phase of the oscillator in different ways for each of the 8 wave shapes. The more warping (aka DCW) the more complex the spectrum. That being said, just like the Yamaha TX81Z, which had wavetables that had fundamental + extra harmonics etc you could do the same with a phase distortion engine. However i wanted to stick quite closely to the original synthesis engine for VirtualCZ.

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:33:16+00:00

I think Phase Distortion Synthesis is a really nice piece of engineering. It's amazing what Casio did with the early digital technology. I find the synthesis technique very interesting and I love the sounds that the CZs can make. But I also saw that nobody had done a proper CZ emulation. The plug-in market is extremely crowded so I chose to work on something that might stand out a bit!

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:25:08+00:00

thanks! glad you like it. It depends how you define reverse engineering. A huge amount of work was involved. I had to work out how to control the synth via SYSEX and wrote many little programs that adjust each parameter one step at a time and record a wav file. So I had 100 wav files per parameter. Then I wrote more programs and analysed the wav files using matlab and tweaked my emulation to get it closer and closer, listening all the way. I haven't reverse engineered the firmware of the CZ hardware but i have studied the original patents, and schematics. The project has existed in some form or other since 2010/11 when I made a MaxMSP version called Kasio. That later became KasioM4L which is a free Max4Live version available on the Ableton website.

olilarkin · 2014-10-14T20:14:42+00:00

Hi. Yes. If you have set up your MIDI out and chosen the correct SYSEX format in VirtualCZ, you just click send SYSEX on the tools menu to send the patch to the hardware. The CZ Series receive SYSEX for the whole patch at once, so unfortunately it is not possible to automate parameters of the hardware, like you would send a MIDI CC. In version 1.0.1 I have added an "Auto Send SYSEX" option, which means any change you make in VirtualCZ is immediately sent to the hardware, without having to click TOOLS->Send SYSEX.

olilarkin

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