Author: bloodySunday77
Length: 09:46
This is a demo of the Novation Xiosynth. It was made using a series of videos at the Gearwire site, and the shots of presets and sounds that appear were edited by me. It is a brief demonstration of some (SOME, not all) of the patches available. I have included some of the most interesting ones in this video. Unfortunately, the demo guy himself (in the usual Gearwire tradition) is doing an AWFUL job at giving a good impression of what this amazing value-for-money MIDI controller and synth is capable of. (Note: go for the 49 key one, not its tiny little brother). It seems the "reviewer" is only interested in making it go "blink, blieeeank, woouuuuieaaaw", but once you sit down and work with it, you'll be amazed at the options available, which are impressive for such a cheap virtual analog synth which also has great templates for controlling tens of parameters of Cubase, Ableton, Atmosphere, Reason, Reaktor etc...It is also true that its layout is a bit complicated, and the controls too thrown together in a tiny space. If one could step up a little in price, I would STRONGLY suggest the Novation X Station instead, which has a far better layout and is also a truly excellent MIDI interface with a very interesting virtual analog synth side (and the best feel from a synth keyboard that I have ever seen).A small secret: the X Station accepts the Xiosynth's nice artist created presets... ;-) I didn't note that the Xiosynth has 10 voices instead of the X Station's 8, as well as the X Gator arpeggiator, but even these wouldn't make me want to change my original choice (which makes a little difference because both are monotimbral anyway).The keyboard feel, the layout and the connectivity of the X Station are far superior (not to mention that the Xiosynth doesn't have aftertouch, which the X Station does).Tip: it really helps if you put a pair of headphones on and minimise the YouTube window (so that you're not looking at the video). It really helps concentrating on the sounds themselves!!It is true that some of the synth preset patches are not terrific, but that's where your imagination comes in... ;-)A small demo of the synth side of the X Station is in the works, but I am very busy with my PhD, so have a little patience!!P.S. Most of the questions that people ask have already been answered in the comments so far. Please browse through them.