A few weeks ago a friend gave me this curious looking box. A Suzuki synthesizer? Surely not.

A google search turned up very little, except a page at Hollow Sun. Essentially the Suzuki SX500 is a rebadged Siel EX80 which in turn was a copy of the Korg EX800.

Here’s what we know. There are two DCOs offering sawtooth and square waveforms (the square waveform can mix up to 4 octaves of square waves together). There is an analogue 24db Low Pass Filter (SSM Filter IC). Two amp envelopes (yes two!), filter envelope, two LFOs (hardwired to osc pitch and filter frequency), chorus effect and a basic record/playback sequencer.

Unfortunately it’s not a true polyphonic synth. It’s paraphonic, meaning that there is only one filter and amp for all 8 voices (actually there are two amps for a slightly odd ‘double’ mode which gives 2 x 4 voices with an interval setting for detuning the 2nd set of voices).

Here’s a quick demo I knocked up. It’s raw SX500 except for some delay (even the best analogue synths can sound a bit lifeless without effects). I think it sounds rather fine!

Suzuki SX500 / Siel EX80 Demo by Rozzer

Apparently when the unit was shipped, the SSM filter chip was tweaked to tame its resonance. Presumably the engineers believed that extreme resonance settings weren’t good for realistic sounds, which is clearly what this was aimed at (check out the list of preset patches printed on the top of the unit). Luckily there is a pot which can be tweaked inside which will restore the SSM chip to it’s screaming former glory. More details on the pot tweak here.

One of the nice aspects of the unit is that every parameter is controllable via midi cc#. This gives a good opportunity for control via your DAW. I knocked up a controller for Ableton Max For Live, which if nothing else, should give you a good idea of all the parameter the synth has to offer. Download the SX500 / ES80 controller.

Overall the SX500 / EX80 is far from perfect. The envelopes are really slow, the oscillators are limited in waveforms, it’s not truly polyphonic and some of the features are esoteric by todays standards but it has a definite charm. I think if you can find one, they can be had for very reasonable prices. Definitely worth a punt.

Above, you can see my controller for the DSI Evolver. There’s a fair amount of controls here, oscillator functions, filters, envelopes and delays. All the knobs spit out the correct midi control numbers for that parameter. Underneath the Amp Envelope settings you can see the program change functions. I can select any patch from the four internal banks and click up/down to audition successive patches. Because of the way Max integrates with Live, I can even midi learn the up/down buttons and use a midi controller to skip through patches. As my Evolver isn’t directly infront of me when I’m at the computer, this is a real time-saver.

The down side, if there is one, is that Ableton Live cannot process sysex. This limits the number of controls and devices you can control in this manner as a lot of hardware can only be controller using sysex. In the case of the Evolver, there are many more controls which cannot be accessed using conventional midi control changes, so a larger ‘all inclusive’ Max For Live controller isn’t possible. Generally though, manufacturers make the most common parameters available via midi control change so there is still plenty that can be done.

The next logical step is to create a rack containing the controller, along with an External Instrument device. The Live External Instrument device is amazingly useful if you have multiple inputs on your soundcard. With my Evolver hooked up to a dedicated pair of inputs on my soundcard, the External Instrument device allows me to specify which midi port and channel the Evolver is attached to, as well as which inputs to use on the soundcard. Once the rack is saved this means I never have to worry about routing midi and audio when I want to use my Evolver. I simply drag the saved rack to an empty midi track, and my dedicated controller is there along with all the midi and audio routing. Ready to go!

If you look closely at the rack picture you’ll also see an Arpeggiator device in the rack. The point here is that the rack can contain any midi or audio processing plugin. I could put a limiter after the External Audio plugin to stop any scary peaks getting through to my speakers, or a midi Scale device to always force my Evolver to play in a selected scale. Once the rack chain is decided, using an external synth like this is as easy as adding a software plugin. All the configuration is done, you just drag and drop a preset to an empty midi track and start browsing patches.

Update 19/04/2011
For all those interested in downloading the Evolver controller. Here it is. It’s still not 100% finished due to other commitments. All that is missing is some controls needs Inspector parameters adjusting to allow automation in Live. Should be easy enough to do if you have a spare hour (I don’t!).

Download the Evolver Max For Live controller

Update 10/07/2011

A few people have asked about specifics of putting together the Max for Live devices. I’m not going to go into detail on this blog, but I did write an article in Sound on Sound magazine which went into more detail. It was published in the April 2011 edition, or you can get the article on esub here for a reasonable 99p.

On the surface it’s reasonably standard. It’s a grid based sequencer – notes, gate, tie, velocity and two control changes. What’s unique about it is that you can set different loop points for each of those elements, which allows for anything from simple 303-style basslines to endlessly evolving, rotating, mutating melody lines.

The other unique thing about this is that it’s designed to work solely within musical scales. The sequencer ‘grid’ adapts itself to whatever scale you choose. Choose a chromatic scale, and you get a full 12 steps to play with, but choose a pentatonic scale and the grid automatically adapts itself to show only 5 rows. You don’t need to know any music theory to get great results.

Add to all that a bunch of useful randomisation options and it becomes a really useful tool.

Anyway, this video will explain better.

Download M4L patch here