Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about Sonicware Liven XFM. Is this 2022 FM groovebox able to compete with the big players in both, the groovebox game and field of FM synthesis like Elektron, Korg and Roland?

Thanks to Florian Oberhauser of Studio Deep Space 199 for sending me this XFM.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro tune
01:07 Overview Liven XFM
01:36 FM Sound Generator, Presets
02:54 The Twist: X-LAB
03:15 XFORM
03:31 X-LFO
03:42 Sounds
03:56 Resonant Filter
04:14 Filter Envelope Presets and Filter Shapes, LFO
04:30 Polyphony, Sequencer
04:58 Program Locks
05:12 Voice Management, Arpeggiator, FX Section
05:38 UI Structure, Deep FM Editing
06:02 Shift/Func Operation, Build Quality
06:15 What else??? Pricing, Thanks
06:31 Hate
06:56 Jam 1 (Groovebox Solo)
07:55 Jam 2 (DAWless setup)
08:48 Finale (Sega Genesis Electropop)
09:15 Verdict