Although this is the longest video I ever made, I'm sure there's still a lot of things you want to know. Please post your questions here and I'll answer them in a follow-up video! Zynthian is here: zynthian.org/
I really like the hardware and am contemplating a purchase. I am curious why the GUI is so unrefined? I gather that resources are an issue but with the MPC as an example, shouldn't a better user experience be possible? Technically a raspi has better hardware does it not?
hi :) I've recently stumbled upon Zynthian when searching for "open source hardware desktop synth" and it is impressive. I don't particularly fancy the menu diving and patching on board to be honest. Hence the question: is it possible to create patches on a computer using the plethora of FLOSS synths and transfer it to the device? Please and thank you
PI4 is a powerful computer, comparable to older smartphones perhaps. If you get the 8GB version, you can without problems use it as a desktop computer. (And it's at the core of a number of modern hardware synths as well).
@@mr_floydstNot a fan of it as a desktop experience tbh. The new rpi5 would be better obviously but for how much they sell for now you could buy a proper mini-PC for this purpose
At first it seems like a lot of money, but when you think about it, this is like the modern day fairlight. Back in those days it cost as much as a house but this thing is just as cool and the possibilities are endless. It's also very repairable and ethical in that it uses "design for disassembly" as a principle. I'll be more than happy to buy this when I get the chance.
Amazing product and the build is very straightforward it seems! Also great to read on their forum that they're looking at making things compatible with an RPi5.
Thanks, just finished building my Zynthian, your video inspired me! It seems to be working, now I need to wrap my head around it. I'm especially interested in using the Guitar amp sims with sooperlooper, midi pedals and a rhythm track. I'd love to see a video on how to use the PD environment, but I'd be happy with any Zynthian content. Thanks so much!
Thanks for your kind works! I didn't dip my toes into PD yet - but maybe I will. I will certainly do more Zynthian videos in the future. I heard there are important updates on the way, let's see what we get! :-)
Hot diggety damn, what an impressive little workstation! I would love to have one of these when travelling. It's nicely compact and full of features! Simply great.
Hi Floyd, I think your wright about it's shortfalls, hopefully this can be put wright in the next firmware update. Always a pleasure to watch your work. Respect.
Interesting! I used to have a V2 version, and I bricked it during an update, so I never got around fixing it and ended up using the Raspberry for something else. Quite happy to see how much it evolved, might get aroung getting that new version!
I always feel a spark of joy when the Yellow Submarine shows up! I love the idea of the Zynthian hardware. But there's a part of my brain that says "You can get a ready made synth for that price!" and it tends to win. I guess I don't have enough of the DIY DNA in me. Still always fascinating to watch.
I think this is amazing-- what an incredible live solution for a solo musician or electro-based group without having to rely on a laptop! Just a question: Can you import pre-created .midi files and assign the channels to specific instruments?
This isn't possible, unfortunately. The sequencer is not there yet - it's good for live looping and arranging songs, but exporting and importing MIDI isn't there yet.
@@mr_floydst Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. While it is disappointing that it does not have MIDI import&export, I'm still very happy to see more tools using open source components. Maybe one day it will!
Very interesting! I was thinking to buy until I read the comment that said it can't do side-chaining.. It can't be far from supporting that tho in the future, the inputs can already make use of effects 😁
@@mr_floydst- holy molene! You Said IT! My upbringing brought me through so much and so many radically transformative shifts in, "How do I learn how to use this for 'my own' music? Then it was three full decades of supporting Windows machine and now, at 69 years of age, some parts ready to just plain give-up and become complacent the rest a 3 to 5 year-old kid with a treasure box of toys that gets put away each end-of-day (some days lasting nearly a week when and/or if my will to create returns). I CRIED when the piano sound arrived. Reminding me of my first hardware buy-in point, the absolutely impressive EMU ULTRAPROTEUS, with my dream, Z-Plane Filters! oh, Goody, I can make 3D SoundShapes I Am In Heaven" Between the GRAND PIANO and something Cello? I never left. Side-tracked, what brought me to comment here EVERYTHING REMAINS IN FLUX - a soldering reference, eh ;-) I truly CracksMeUp when those TECHIE doodzzz put up their "The FINAL WORD Optimizing Windows for DAW" or whatever> Listing work-around after fudge method, after HOT TIP and then? That applied during release this through those patches, then was addressed and no longer applies unless. AND I NEVER MAKE ANY SOUND besides grumbling now, they put too much effort 'Creating' a reputation for building a mythology of DIY to fix stuff, but none of it applies anymore, since that was fixed ages ago. Take Care I have been hunting through 'Drum Machine' vs. "Groove Box" deciding, and nearly got tied-up into another GAS purchase. then 'something' held me back, leaving about 3 or 4 incomplete shopping carts behind. Then my fingertips somehow managed to land me accidentally on a 'saved' link I had said, "THIS IS IT!" Zynthian drew me out of my slumber and... HOLY MOLENE People gotta learn, to make this stuff affordable, mass market. But Individuality has the draw Education brings so many choices to the for, even with no gear available. Leave the work-arounds as a point on the map, a waypoint, a bouy, call that 'mine' and produce. BE SAFE TAKE CARE we will get through this unspeakable horror and come out a better people for it united as one celestial chorus, if we do not clean-up or mess and prove we are worthy of more air supply, less than 50 years left. mehumzzz ;-) I had aspirations of greatness when PAIA shipped their GNOME kit. But there was a cold solder joint in the filter circuit that gave me a 3rd oscillator as it was pushed into a high-Q zone and self-oscillate, then not, but Craig Anderton and then Maestro Wilson of Music From Mars,a ND and and I bought Empress Effects' ZOIA and Poly Effects Beebo/Digit. and they sit teasing me, "How do I simulate ZOIA and Beebo-Digit performing "Dueling Banjos" as if being kids growing up learning how to Entertain?" Zynthian as Conductor is what I missed!
One little thing I have to complain is, that the first piano simulation with pianoteq plugin is not free and runs only as limited version when not paying additional 130€ licence.
I'm afraid I can't answer that as I never had a Deluge. If you happen to have a touchscreen and a USB audio interface and a PI4, you can always try to get your own impression by installing Zynthian. Just download the SD image: os.zynthian.org/zynthianos-last-stable.zip They have a major update called "Oram" in the works which among other things will improve the usability of the piano roll editor, which was one of my major criticisms.
By the way, what the budget for the Zynthian v5 ?? as the info is not listed in their "invitational only for the moment" shop ... Very detailed showcase vidéo of the device capabilities, thanks
I have the V4, love this thing, but i can't really sidechain anything using his own sidechain compressors. I think it's a big because i tryed everything in the book and It doesn't sidechain..
I see that you control the Zynthian with a Yamahe Reface that has midi+audio USB and an internal speaker. So can you confirm that the Zynthian can be controlled by midi by the Reface and the audio from the Zynthian back in the Reface speaker, with just one usb cable ? Is the Zynthian the only harware synth that act as a midi host ? Thanks, I love your videos
Hi, thanks for watching! The Reface does not support USB audio, only MIDI. But if it did, Zynthian would be able to route it's audio there. In case you're looking for "commercial" alternatives to Zynthian, MPC and Maschine standalone come to mind.
But MPC or Maschine are Midi devices, not Midi hosts, right ? I have a cheap Yamaha PSR-E453 arranger keyboard, with good speakers, that supports USB Midi+Audio, but without Midi DIN connectors, and I'm looking for a little synth companion that I can connect easily with a single cable...
The price will come down, but not significantly. I guess the only way to bring down the price are some massive sales which put confidence into the product's market performance. ;-)
I think the MOD pedals are build around PI3 / PI4 SBCs, or am I mistaken? I didn't measure Zynthians actual latency yet. I'll do in my next Zynthian video.
Interesting enough that I headed over to see how much these kits go for, and for a peasant like me, it's overly expensive for what it is. I don't think it really competes with the MPC One tbh, which requires minimal setup and is near enough the exact same price, but much, much cheaper if you buy second hand, which because the Zynthian is so niche, there is virtually no second hand market for. It's an amazing device though, and I would love Raspberry Pi devices like this to become a huge market. The less niche they become, the more competitive prices will be.
You're right, the kit is not cheap. It's a problem open source developers are facing all the time : buying components in relatively small numbers isn't cheap. On the other hand, the minimum config here is a touch screen and a raspberry pi 4, so if you have those already, all you need is a bit of time to install it. Zynthian is both more and less useful / powerful than MPC. It's sequencer still needs work. But it also comes with a lot of useful stuff MPC doesn't have.
I enjoyed the video btw. I notice you do a lot of these kit based niche devices. a great way for a virtual pauper like me to see these interesting pieces of hardware ;-) @@mr_floydst
Thanks for watching! You can use your own plugins, but the downside is they need to be ARM64 compatible, which rules out all Windows plugins immediately.
A far better value than a TE Field but still not inexpensive. It’s might be something I take a stab at. An MPC isn’t way more expensive as of this writing and you get more for the money.
You're getting a more refined and overall more capable system with MPC. With Zynthian, you get freedom ;-) - due to it's open source nature, you can change it however you see fit. Plus it does not have that annyoing 4-note limit on it's plugins. Buying the kit is an act of support for it's creators, and building affordable yet robust hardware is quite the challenge for small projects that only order and sell comparably small numbers.
I got excited for a few seconds. I thought it was going to be able to run Windows plugins. I'm waiting for a company to make a hardware synth/effects units, that allows Windows/Mac plugins. This shouldn't be a difficult task. All that a company would need to do is put a windows computer into a controller, with an interface with high end AD/DA conversion, and multiple I/O's. In all seriousness, the computer side could be for customers to pick and add themself. I've thought about building my own since Open Labs introduced the Neko and Meko. Taking something like a SSL SIX, Novation 49SL, and a Windows PC with a touch screen, is basically what I want. Adding some extras like analog filters, and maybe a an analog mono synth for bass and leads, would make it even better. I would also prefer that it would be easy to upgrade the PC side. Why hasn't any of these companies done something like this... In my opinion the Neko failed because they used cheap parts. If they made it with less plastic, and easy to upgrade parts, I think they would still be selling units. They basically sold cheap hardware, for way too much. It was still a great idea, just not executed well.
well, I guess such a project would be doable with Hermann Seib's VST Host software www.hermannseib.com/vsthost.htm, a PC stick and a touchscreen (and a custom made metal case). Install Windows home edition, make it not ask for a password, put the VST software into the autostart options, and you should have a humble beginning. (That software can store "patches" that can be loaded using MIDI program change commands)
Maybe it could be done using yabridge, which is a compatibility tool for running Windows VSTs on Linux (similar to proton for steam games). I don't know if it's easy to run on Zynthian, but maybe it has already been discussed in the forums. If not, I think it would be a pertinent discussion.
@@mr_floydst wow I'm so glad I commented. I've been watching your old zynthian videos for the past few days and now this pops up. I will try this, thanks!
Hi Floyd thanks for all the fantastic videos and explanations! I just subscribe to your channel. How this device does compare with SMPLTREK from Sonicware? I understand that the latter is not at all a synth, but are the recording capabilities comparable?
Hi, thank you very much! No, I'd say smpltrek is specifically designed for quick and convenient sampling, so that's the go-to device if you want to work with samples first and foremost. Zynthian is more like a synthesizer workstation, a jack-of-all-trades so to speak.
Hallo Floyd, Guten Abend, I'm wondering, from what I noticed, there's no video out from the Zynthian, so no way to connect to an external screen, to see the GUI of any of the synths or effects that are loaded in. This means sacrificing the video outputs of the Raspberry Pi...? Danke für die Klarstellung.
Moin moin, ;-) indeed, there's no HDMI out port "in the box". The PCB has some traces reading "HDMI" so I guess there's something planned in future versions.
Thanks for watching! I never tried to measure that specific latency time. The Zynthian team has put in all efforts to make latency as low as possible, though.
If you are looking for a VST host for live performances that runs all the plugins you normally use on Apple or Windows, this here might not be the right thing. If you're looking for something that's a bit like Mainstage (VST host that has a good "Live" UI), you could try Kushview Elements or Niall Moody's Pedalboard 2 on that Mini PC I made a video on and that you commented on as well.
It comes with a Pianoteq demo (which sounds quite good) and a lot of sampled pianos. I guess something of that will suit your taste... You can always download the OS image and pop it into a Raspberry PI4 and try it before buying the actual hardware.
@@mr_floydst Thanks for the reply! That’s unfortunate, I’m sure it’s probably still a work In progress. I already own an MPC live 2, but I still really like the whole portable, open source, DIY aspect of it! (Plus I have an extra 3b+ I could drop in it!) lol But that feature alone would definitely be a good thing to implement, especially with the existing pad layout and design! (that as well as some minor graphical UI improvements here and there I believe could really help the sales out a lot! Or maybe some other housing options like ABS etc… would be nice as well! Definitely keep us posted on any future updates! I’m curious to see how it shapes out in the future
is this KYMA yet? I wonder if it could handle resynthesizing an audio input then re-pitching the pitch including the harmonic partials via MPE? Or SIMILAR 😂
I'm still confused about what this is, even after browsing the zynthian site, which I'm starting to think is intentional... Is this just a linux digital software syth with some extra hardware buttons?
@@mr_floydst you did, which is why I'm confused, the _giant title_ on the zynthian website is 'open synth platform', the title of your video has 'open source synthesizer' right in it, and yet what you describe is not a synthesizer engine at all... it's a groovebox?
Hi, the title says "synthesizer workstation" - and that's pretty accurate, I think. "Synth platform" isn't too bad, either - it's a computer that has a specialised software that runs VST/LV2... plugins (and other musical applications as seen in the video). MPC is the next closest thing.
Hi, thanks for watching! I never used either of these two, but in Zynthian, you can assign an audio player to the "grid" shown in this video. This will play any audio clip you specify in sync to the music.
@@mr_floydst Nice! I will test out :) I "built" it (installed it in my pi4) but I'm using it w/ a qwerty queyboard and usb audio interface for now since its to expensive to ship the v5 to Brazil :(
Selecting soundfonts is straightforward: You get a list of all directories and files on the SD card. Zynthian has a web interface that can be used for uploading soundfont files. You can also copy them to an USB stick or to the SD card.
Zynthian is built by the Zynthian project, www.zynthian.org Raspberry PI is used in a lot of commercial products as of lately: The Korg keyboard synths like OP6 and WaveState, most notably.
570.00 € for the set with rasbeery. This is not really cheap. Especial when i think that I can get a MPC one for near same price and it is ready to use. Do you think it is really worth to buy Zynthian?
I mentioned this is the end of the video, the price is quite steep indeed. I'd recommend this to people who love synths and tech (building stuff) who already have a PI4 at home. For the money, you get a very well built, high quality audio hardware you can tinker with and that won't let you down in live situations. Both MPC and Zynthian have their share of advantages/disadvantages. The nice thing about Zynthian is you can try it for free by downloading the open source software and installing it on a PI. You can then decide if it's something you like or not.
In terms of the idea, it's a good synthesizer! Unfortunately, they use cheap mechanical encoders that have a lifespan of only 30,000 cycles🤔 - an absolute no-go for me
You don't need a fan in every application. I can't think of any time I've used a fan on a pi project. It also clearly works, you can see it from the videos, and nobody is really posting that they are overheating. ....Maybe if you kept it between some pillows it might.... Friend had one being played off and on randomly and it was on for at least four hours. I guess if you really think it is doing nothing you could just leave it out...but I wouldn't recommend it. Passive cooling is a thing.
It more than 3 times the price of this box, but as I never had a chance to try it, I can't make comparisons. This box has been receiving a steady stream of updates since it's first version and it's future potential is certainly bigger than other devices, because you can upgrade the computer inside any time.
From a money standpoint, it is pointless. From an interesting concept, home run. Back to reality though for most of us. 600 usd? My new mpc one plus was 699 usd.
Thanks! You're right, price is hardly competitive. It's a problem most open source developers who produce limited numbers of kits will face: They have to pay consumer prices for electronic components. In Zynthians case, you can always opt to buy a RasPi, a screen, some rotary encoders and build it yourself. If you own a 3D printer and are able to print the case yourself, you'll land somewhere between $100 to $250, depending on what you already have at home and how luxurious your intended built is.
Yeah, I bought my MPC One used for 410€ ... That being said, I built my own Zynthian for next to no money, as I already owned a Raspberry Pi 4, a screen and an audio interface.
Hi, thanks for watching! That's up to you to decide. My job/hobby is to explain what this particular box can do and then try to reach as many people as possible. ;-) Keyboard workstations tend to be more expensive, though it might be possible to get a used MPC for the same price.
Yeahhhhh, and plus taxation this becomes like 6 months of a minimal wage for Brazilian Although, being and opensource could be something that could lead for a solution to this problem But now imagine this with a pianoteq license? Oh gawd I did the math yesterday, couldn't sleep after 😢
I made a video on how to build the DIY version of this last year: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--r2zDXNBrzM.html You don't really need the pianoteq license - the box comes with a collection of sampled pianos, too. I didn't show those in this video.
