A lot of people will say that hardware synths sound better than software synths.

I disagree - I think that software synths usually sound better than hardware synths. Or should I say, I have a list of software synths that I think have raised the bar in terms of sound quality and presets. Native Instruments Reaktor5, B4II and Absynth3 sit at the top of my list, as do Arturia's minimoog V, WayOutWare's timewARP 2600, fxpansion's BFD, and Korg's Legacy colection.

One of my goals when I started programming for the XS was - could I get the same quality from the XS as I got from my list of fave softsynths. Putting mega-gigabyte sample-based VI's like BFD and Vienna Instruments aside, and just focusing on "synthesizer" type sounds (my favorite, as many of you know) - could a hardware workstation even approach what I was getting from virtual instruments on my computer?

It didn't take long to prove that I could. About an hour into programming the XS, I realized I finally had a workstation that could meet (and sometimes exceed) the sound quality and capabilities of virtual instruments. Part of this was due to the expanded set of new synth and effects waves in the XS - many courtesy of fellow Yamaha programmer Peter Krischker, others from our brilliant Yamaha samplists in Tokyo and Hamamatsu. With the XS it's like having the best waveforms from ultra-top end exotic synths like the Hartmann Neuron, Access Virus, Roland V-synth, Tassman, Waldorf Q and much much more. A real smorgasbord of cool, kick-ass sonic material!

But the waveforms are just a small part of the story. How about this - the common LFO can now be routed to INSERT EFFECT PARAMETERS and locked to tempo ( either the XS' internal MIDI tempo or external MIDI sync). This is awesome - imagine being able to route a sample-and-hold LFO (or user-definable LFO) to flanger feedback or wah depth, or an EQ parameter, chorus speed, delay time - sound design heaven. Of course, I got busy right away taking advantage of this feature.

This time around, for the XS, we really threw off the gloves and went for a ton of great electronic and synth sounds. Thanks in large part to Yamaha's insistence that we make the XS a much more "cutting edge" machine sound-wise than the ES was. One of the concepts that Yamaha Japan came up with (thanks Eric) was the "8-zone drumkit". Since voices now have 8 elements in the XS, this means that an 8-element drumkit can be constructed in voice mode. I got busy right away making custom glitch, lo-fi, metallic and downtempo kits which I knew (naturally) would be useful in Performances. Our orders for the 8-zone kits were "anything goes" and it was a blast just coming up with these really cool "abnormal" drumkits.

Now, imagine this - place a metallic, stretched out, warped glitchy 8-zone drumkit in a Peformance. Add a morphing, evolving twisted pad, a sprinkling of electro-synth blips and slashes, a wave-sequenced voice, apply independent arpeggiators to as many as all four parts of the Performance, stir and simmer. Wow - Reaktor5, eat your heart out. This was exactly what I wanted, not only for the XS, but for my own music production.

Did I mention filters? Thanks to the new XS chip, the filters are the tastiest, most transparent and smoothest digital filters I've ever heard. Which means, they are as close to analog as you'll get on a digital machine. That "weedy, reedy, scratchy" digital filter thing is gone.

How about legato portamento in mono mode that works just like it does on a real analog synth? Yep, the XS has that now. Ok, I'll admit, it was a tad iffy on the ES, but on the XS, it's smooth sailing with the portamento.

Let's see - 8 elements times 18 different filter types - that's at least 144 different combinations of filters per voice. Plus individual EQ per element, individual zones and velocity limits per element, the ability to group elements so different combinations can be switched on and off via the assignable switches - ok, I'll come right out and say it. This is not available on the Fantom X or any current Korg model, period. I have yet to get my hands on a Korg M3, but from the looks of their info, it doesn't look like you have this kind of flexibility in "program" mode on the M3 either.

Wave-sequencing - ahh, that's the subject of yet another blog. Let me sum it up - the XS is a sound designer's dream. If you went to the NAMM show and played the XS and didn't get that impression - sorry, you just didn't select the right voices or Performances. As Wayne from Wayne's World might have said - "it's there - oh yes, it's there". I'm jonesing to get an XS back here in my studio pronto, I suppose I'll have to wait awhile until Athan lets me get one back here. Before the NAMM show, I had the opportunity to complete "B's Knees" for the XS - it is night and day different from the ES, it's that much better. I can't wait to start back on "Vintage Keys" and "Motronix" and the rest of the DCP libraries. Yee-haw!