Xpantastic!

I have to agree with James,

The Chroma sounds better than the Xpander/M12. 
I was suprised when I got my Chroma a couple of months ago, and
compared it to the M12 in mono (as opposed to having the voices panned
as usually) The M12 sounded a bit "boxy" and lacked low-and-highend
compared to the Chroma.
The Chroma also has a more defined 3D sound. 

Before any flame starts, I want to say that I love the M12 to death. 
It can do stuff which no other synth can do, and I´m sure as hell
ain´t getting rid of mine. And of course every synth has "its" sound.
I´m talking about the actual soundquality here, where the difference
might be explained by: 

1.Chroma has discrete oscillators

2.Xpander/Matrix-12 has inferior OP-amps in it´s signal chain.

As a matter of fact I´m in touch with a guy who changed the OP-amps in
his M12. This is what he said:

"The sound differences compared to the horrible TL072's that were in
there,are better low end and clearer top end. TL072's have the same
effect on sound that clock jitter has in digital systems; a folding of
the high frequency content into the mid bass band, in the form of ugly
grunge. Due to other design issues the Matrix-12 will never have the
huge sound of a modular Moog. There are too many compromises in the
design and CEM chips. But it can be made much better"

He also bypassed the pan-circuit which degrades the overall soundquality.

He is going to explain in detail what he did (and how) as soon as he
finds the time.

Xp/M12 is one of the greatest synths EVER, and IMHO it deserves to
sound as good as it can. 

Of course YMMV








 





-- In xpantastic@...m, "James R. Coplin" <james@...> wrote:
>
> I own both and I'd probably burn to death in a fire if I had to run
back in
> to the house and decide between one or the other.  I actually think the
> Chroma sounds better.  However, the Xpander wins hands down for
reliability.
> I have recently upgraded the power supply and main board for my
Chroma so it
> is stable now.  As wonderful as the Xpander is to program, the Chroma is
> infuriating.  However, the MIDI implementation on the Chroma
(through the
> new MIDI interface or the KromaKult) gives you CC controls over
everything
> as opposed to a couple on the Xpander.
> 
>  
> 
> James R. Coplin
> 
>  
> 
> From: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com [mailto:xpantastic@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of mattvrazo
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:18 PM
> To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [xpantastic] Re: Xpander Vs. Rhodes Chroma
> 
>  
> 
> --- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:xpantastic%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> vco3@ wrote:
> >
> > HI the rhodes arp chroma does not use 3374/3372's, the chroma
> polaris uses 
> > these. The rhodes arp chroma is a very different voice compared to
the 
> > xpander...hope this helps.. cya analog-jeff
> >
> 
> ahhh... ok... how did I miss that?! (Doesn't help with the similar
> name!) Ok, I guess they have a discrete oscillator and different CEM
> chips for VCF/VCA. 
> 
> I guess that makes it a little less xpander related at this point, but
> if anyone has any comments, would still be interested to hear them.
>