-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

Synths, synths, synths, let us talk about all the synthesizers

They're great instruments.

SYNTH FACT OF THE DAY: Despite performing what is called "photosynthesis", plants are in fact NOT synthesizers.

do you a favorite synthesizer?

Are you an old school analog synth fetishist?

Fave synth, that's a hard question. I like synths where every function has a knob you can twist, so let's go with that. The Yamaha CS-80 is my dream machine, though. The recent Dave Smith synths like Prophet 12 are good contenders for My Fave Synth as well.

Analog synths do sound great (I own a Microbrute) but some of the analog-fetishism (or rather digital hatred) can seem ridiculous for some. After all, it's the player that makes an instrument sound good, not the other way around.

Speaking of analog and fav synths, if I owned this synth I would be happy for the rest of my life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imuCQ3Do6lk

I am interested in what envelopes and VCAs sound like, usually the first thing I do when I check out a synth is how "snappy" the envelopes can get, how nicely the VCAs and filters respond to it, the percussive qualities. Buchlas sound like "pk" then "pup" then "plup". ARP 2600s sounds like "clk" then "cluck". Rolands and new DSIs do not have any percussive qualities that are as useful as those synths.

I love the sound of FM synth + analog filters these days and have been tooling around with a couple of Mutable Instruments objects that are very interesting. Switchable tuning! turn a knob and it's real, it's Pythagorean, pretty cool stuff.

FM synthesis definitely needs a comeback

My first encounter with FM synth (outside of pre-pubescent .cmf programming, and I didn't really get what was happening) (ditto a DX7 in high school) was with a Nord Wave, where it was suddenly like oh! I don't need to artificially create an overtone series? I really love the pairing of FM oscillators and analog filters, the Mutable stuff has been super fun. A friend of mine has a... Wave, PPG? what is it. Something like that. The big one. I played around with it but again the envelopes were mushy, it was all tone and no snap.

A studio I worked in had a CS-80 and it's not all that. When it came time for futuristic polysynth it was always the Jupiter 8-- which at this point has an equally ridiculous price tag

I know the CS-80 is mostly associated with Vangelis sounds although it is capable of more and may be not that great after all... but just look at that design! It seems like no other synth that came before and after the CS series has the same looks/design influences. As far as reliability goes.. at least it's not the PolyMoog.

Actually, now that I think about it, the Polymoog DOES share some design similarities with the CS-80

The CS-80 is surprisingly difficult to get into "dialling in" a sound, its interface isn't as intuitive later synths. Also tbrr I need MIDI or CV/gate connectivity, have the computer play the line while I work with the sound, and I don't know if that's a possibility for CS-80s (or if any owner would go for it if it was)

I don't have much use for MIDI to be honest, sitting at a computer and programming notes, I am unable to work like that (and I tried). It just doesn't give me the same kind of joy that touching a keyboard while twisting knobs does. But it's helpful when I need to synchronize several synthesizers.

You can also buy a MIDI kit for your CS-80 at a bargain price of 470 £!

Hmm, I get you. My process is this: typically I dial in a sound, record the take simultaneously as MIDI info and as audio, then save the patch (if applicable). When the song develops and suddenly I realize the synth is too glassy or too dark or whatever, or just wrong, I just feed the already-recorded MIDI info back into the synth and fix the patch in realtime. Not so fastidious, just an easy way to make changes.

A side note to this is that I've gotten so enamoured of my ARP 2600 that I rarely use any analog poly synths, I typically track each voice monophonically using MIDI-to-CV. The signal-to-noise on the ARP is so ridiculously low that you can track 10+ tracks of it and still have silence (provided you keep the spring muted). I love my ARP. I bought it with the money from a soul-destroying film gig several years ago, best decision ever-- though I'm told the Cwejman 2600alike is just as good/better (and cheaper and easier to service)

I usually dial in a sound, play along to the track and slightly change the settings until it fits in well, record (often with a metronome) and hope for a good take or two. Sounds risky and not as professional as your method, but personally I don't like having all these "safety nets" while working on creative stuff. Having this slight tenseness helps me concentrate and evaluate certain synth sounds, mixes and parts more. Like, every part you record could be the last one of your life.

The ARP 2600 is awesome and I wish I could own one. In fact, I wish I could own every classic monosynth. I'm more of a poly guy anyway, although in our multi-tracking DAW age monophonic synthesizers work just as well for me.

Speaking of awesome monosynths, Soviet synthesizers are rarely talked about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMpElp0a_Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rceP4hDkXi4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYEYzPW6mes

i was digital only for a few years but i'm getting into using analog synths more and more. it's baby steps, but i've been using a Microbrute (running straight audio) and i just got the Korg Volca Keys (controlled via MIDI).

i know a lot of dudes who are more into messing around with old gear and than they are into making records and i never want to be that, so i'm just getting hardware when i'm having a specific sound that i'm not satisfied with the digital version of.

speaking of, i really do think they both have their place...soft synths can sometimes cut through a mix much more easily.

haven't messed around with FM synthesis yet but i really want to, probably going to get NI FM8 to learn on.

"Always appreciate all kinds of synths and syntheses." - Synthfucius

Speaking of digital synths and new purchases - I'm about to get a Yamaha AN1x for 250 €. Way underrated VA synth in my opinion. And even if I don't need its sounds I can use it as a MIDI controller with velocity and aftertouch and whatnot.

Jordan, I agree with you re: creating music vs. farting around, but making bloopy shit can be fun and even cathartic sometimes.

Anyone get a Microbrute? Looks pretty sweet, especially for the price.

I use a Prodigy that someone in our practice space owns, and I love it, but the newer Moog stuff is $$.

I also just bought Korg Gadget for my iPad mini, which is pretty neat. I cannot find a software synth that comes close to sounding as good as the Prodigy, though.

Whoops just saw your post Jordan. What do you think of the Microbrute? Can you get big, squelchy sounds out of it?

i loooove it, and yes. mostly i've been using it for thick saw basslines and square-ish leads, and lfo chaos. it's very intuitive imo.

Awesome. I think I'm gonna get one. I wish it had another octave, and full-size keys, but other than that it looks sweet.

Unfortunately my main keyboard (Nord Electro) does not have pitch/mod wheels.

Also, I got to play a Jupiter 8 on our latest record, and DAMN that is fun to play.

Does anybody want to recommended sites or tutorials for gaining a practical understanding of synthesis? All I do is play with free VST synths at this point and I get the basics but I want to have a better handle on it.

Also own a Microbrute - it's brilliant. The minikeys aren't as shitty as on the MicroKorg, allowing you play quite smoothly. And it can do anything from exquisite to big and squelchy.

St3ve, check out the Synth Secrets series, should teach you a bit (start from the bottom): http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Oh yeah, I had started in on those Synth Secrets articles but gotten sidetracked, thanks for reminding me.

i've had the most luck looking on youtube for either the VST i'm working with or general synthesis tutorials.

what are your favorite synths for bass sounds? that's the #1 thing I'm lacking right now. I've got an Oberheim Matrix 6 (I finally got it fixed!) which makes some really lovely & mellow sounds, and I also recently bought an MS-20 Mini but haven't done anything too ambitious with it yet.

the Matrix isn't very good for heavy tweaking on the fly though

read that as heavy twerking on the fly

uhm, I think your MS-20 mini should be able to produce some great bass sounds, although I personally don't like the KORG Sound, it's just too.. "crispy" and "defined" for my taste.

The MS-20 is a fabulous bass synth, probably the best currently-available combo going, in that regard? I always forget about it! So great.

yay for fixed matrix!

my fave bass machines are juno 60 & pro one

i'm in a snit with vintage machines at the moment though since my really fucking expensive prophet 5 hasn't worked at all since i got midi installed

Vintage synths can be so uncompromising, that's why I like them

Well, until they stop working of course.

ha. it wouldn't hurt so much if it didn't sound so incredible when it's working

Speaking of vintage synths, I just realized how much 70's and 80's library music has this sci-fi synth soundscape thing going on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_HMqlO28E

So many broken synthesizers. ;_;

Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Synths

Actually I'm wondering: Has anyone here played a Synclavier?

no, but if i did i would make it say jammin on the one

I am fascinated/curious about what makes people say this or that synth is good for particular applications, or how to to understand the different character of different synths besides the dry technical details about oscillators and such. e.g. electricsound says he likes the Juno 60 for bass sounds but for whatever reason I associate Juno 60s more with string pads and like mini Moogs or Korg SH101s with bass sounds? Maybe those are just more obvious cliches?

Yeah, it's interesting since I always thought synths to be sonic all-rounders, even with their various configurations and designs. But maybe some people like the sonic capabilites of, let's say, an ARP Odyssey more than the capabilites of a Minimoog in terms of bass/lead/pad?/... sounds.

personally when i say the 60 is good for bass it is because it has nice snappy envelopes and very tight but not wooly low end. it can do string pads well too though, it it a p amazing machine tbh. i appreciate it even more now after five years than i did in my initial rushes of excitement when i first got it

also i have never played a minimoog or sh101

i need to step up my pad game

One day I'll type out my synth adventures but not today. I own a lot of synths. Maybe I will type it. Here we go.

Juno-106 - great entry level synth. Start here and end here if you plan to own house or children. Only issue is that the oscillators like to burn out, and replacing them involves ordering chips and soldering.

Juno-Alpha - teeny tiny, the B is velocity sensitive, super light, super durable, mine got the shit kicked out of it and it still works. There is a cool fifth- and sixth-stage on the envelopes, it's like an ADADSR, so you can make stuttery sounds. It is a pain to program. I bought a PG-300 (the programmer) from a guy who was looking at me like I was a sucker and then I sold it to somebody and understood what a sucker looks like. This takes a little effort to program properly but it's easier than a DX-7. It's good if you're somebody who needs to travel light.

Juno-60 - I think it's this one that has the miracle arpeggiator. Any time I want to do something arpeggiated I borrow one of these guys. I have never owned one but I use them a tonne. It receives clock in so you can send it pulses from Logic using beat mapper to live drum takes and have the arpeggiation stay in time. It also has CV-out so you can double it up with an ARP or a Minimoog. The "ensemble" function is famous and it sounds good, I never felt comfortable using it because any time I turn it on it's like "oh, that sound". This is a great synth and I'd own one except that I own a Jupiter 8.

Jupiter-8 - a weird synth. It's hella expensive, I bought it with a film score budget for a sci-fi movie. It is heavy (a two-person lift, really) and runs hot. The envelopes are too mushy to be really useful for percussion but they are good for bass and pads. I was working on a film where the director hated synthesizers, and he came by the house and kept asking for any noodles to be removed, he just wanted lame-ass indie piano/ukelele plunky-plunks. The Jupiter was the one exception, he loved the Jupiter. It does sound otherworldly, like The Best Synth Ever! But its arpeggiator sucks, it can't be controlled without MIDIfying it (and the kits are poorly reviewed so I haven't done it), it's not particularly routable, and it's too heavy and expensive to really be useful in any home studio. Mine is out on semi-permanent loan to a friend's studio until I get my own space for it, which will probably never happen. I don't know what to do with it, it's kind of like having a convertible in the garage.

Nords - they sound bad. There is something in that frequency spectrum that drives me crazy. Their pianos and organs sound "realistic" without sounding good, and they never sound good in a band. Nord synths are slightly better but still bad-sounding. All that said, I travel with and play a Nord Wave because it's light, it samples, the FM synths sound good, it's got built-in delay and reverb. You have to wrestle hard with these synths to make them sound good but the lightness, durability and usability makes it work it.

Nord Modular - especially these ones. Capable of sounding unbearably good. This is a DSP-run synth where you built a virtual modular on your PC and upload it into the hardware. Like, you drag and drop your modules on to an environment and connect them with patch cords. Super steep learning curve and, like other Nords, sounds terrible 99% of the time, but it worth it for that 1%. I am a thief, not a programmer, I download other people's architectures and tweak them. I have a Memorymoog clone on mine that is so precise in its emulation that it's uncanny. My Nord Modular is my DX-7 and my drum machine, what a great synth. Any time I need to do a shitty film score real quick I turn it on and the score is done.

ARP 2600 - my favourite synth ever, and the only one I use on recordings that I want to be proud of. It never sounds bad. The envelopes are enormously flexible, the CV modulation is amazing, you can build anything and get absolutely lost in creating self-generating patches. Sometimes if I have a houseguest I make a seagull + seashore patch and put it in their room. The spring is noisy but is fun to route sound through it and then back into other things. I am sending mine in to a synth spa in Savannah to get the ring modulator repaired and the connections tricked out. There is no HPF so you have to figure that out if you want to make hi-hats. There is no MIDI, but I use a lightpipe-to-CV converter; the added control of the Silent Way plug-ins is miraculous. I wish I was at home playing with this synth right now. Todd Terje says that the Cwejman S1 is just as good, better in other ways, and less expensive and that he's been using that these days instead of his ARP.

Mutable Instruments - I have a Shruthi and an Ambika. They are both totally awesome but I haven't found a use for either of them just yet.

I have a modular, too. I've lost a week of my life into creating beautiful, useless music with it, but haven't cracked it yet, made it feel like an instrument. I'll type about it another time.

the 106 is weird, i can't stand the results i get from playing one, but other people seem to be able to coax really nice things out of it

Sometimes if I have a houseguest I make a seagull + seashore patch and put it in their room

aw.

This is all really interesting. I'm drowning in free VST plugins and should really pare down, but I've also made my microscopic first step into hardware 'synth' world by ordering one of these http://www.gear4music.com/Keyboards-and-Pianos/Korg-Monotron-Delay-Analogue-Ribbon-Synthesizer/HTN. I was thinking about getting a Microbrute too but money got tight and now I must wait. The Microbrute seems to be in a class of its own for that price range (next step up being the MS-20 Mini, I suppose?), is that right?

don't discount the volca keys (which imo sounds better than the arturia anaolgues)

lol. anaolg sysnthiziers

The Microbrute's real appeal, afaic, is that it's the most cost-efficient way of getting MIDI-to-CV conversion, it's as useful as a controller/interpreter as it is as it's own sound source. Definitely a fun mono synth on its own, reminds me more of an SH-101 than an MS-20. It really can't be overstated how great the MS-20 Mini is.

God, reading this thread makes me realise, despite having played synths for way over a decade, I am a shitty shitty synth person. No tech ability at all, I just press stuff and twiddle knobs and eventually something sounds good.

front not can i, i am a chronic preset-relier

that doesn't make one a shitty synth person!

goon tie, that's an impressive list. All I own is a Microbrute (awesome), a Novation K-Station (awesome, it also has VCO drift and filter drive settings which every VA should have) and a MicroKorg (Baby's First Synth, which I'm also selling right now). Oh, also the AN1x that should arrive soon. Not as cool as all the vintage stuff, but it gets the job done.
I especially agree with you on the Nords - the Nord Leads sound too commercial and "nice" to me and most people seem to use it solely as a keyboard with 70s Moog lead/organ presets. I'll never buy a Nord Lead.

There's nothing wrong with ribbon synthesizers, they look cute and sound awesome. And while you're at it you might as well get a Stylophone, too.

Twisting knobs and pressing stuff = Playfulness, and that doesn't make you a shitty synth person at all

Yeah I must admit I'm a bit sheepish about the synth collecting habit, as it's the result of workaholism + no car + no house + no kids + no joy in taking vacations. My real gear-embarrassment is the number of CP-70s (Yamaha electro-acoustic pianos, i.e. Joe Jackson "Steppin' Out") that I've bought in strange places for peanuts. I love CP-70s so much. (I hate digital pianos so much; I actually bought one specifically for aero to use while we were touring together because I couldn't stand to hear him play a digital piano every night it was making me crazy.)

I've used a bunch of DSI stuff too. I started off by hating the Prophet 8 because the knobs were drifty and the sound was very un-Prophetlike. I've semi-come around on them since I used a modified one where the knobs didn't drift? Or a later issue? And also stopped comparing them to Prophet 5s. But still unsure about how I feel. I know a couple people who've recently given up on their Mophos and unloaded them.

I've never used a Novation anything!

I always quite liked the Nord Lead, but agree with fgti about the piano sound.

MicroKorg (Baby's First Synth, which I'm also selling right now)

No need to be so dismissive - I'm using one of these now (my analogues are fucked and 'my' MS2000 stayed with the old band, oh yeah, and my AN1X is fucked too, oh god why am I so terrible?) and it's actually pretty great. Yeah, ideally you want more, but I'd consider having at least one of this range to be essential. I am a massive Korg stan, though.

Yeah, it sounds dismissive, but the MicroKorg was literally the first synth I owned and learned synthesis on. After I bought more synths I took it out again, played my patches - and remembered why I hungered for more synths, because something about that KORG Sound doesn't please me at all. Thank you for everything, MicroKorg, but bye bye.

It's kinda weird that people make Dave Smith look like he lost his grip on building synthesizers and it's also kinda sad that almost every polysynth he makes has to face the comparison to the legendary Prophet 5. I think he's still able to design great synths nowadays.

BTW emil.y how was the AN1x like?

I think it's a great synth, though it was vastly underused for most of my ownership as it didn't go with my band's sound, and I was under-confident and under-equipped for doing solo stuff... which is possibly why it broke when I started using it a fair amount ten years later. I mostly made horrible grotesque noises on it (I love horrible grotesque noises) but it seemed good for sequenced electro things too.

"Horrible grotesque noises" sounds good! "Electro things" sounds good as well. Can't wait!

my ARP 2600 VST plugin just made my laptop overheat and crash. Feels like I got some of the genuine vintage analogue synth experience there.

Did it go out of tune?

always wanted to try an an1x. i've played lots of romplers & fm synths but never done much in the way of VA

i have a fair amount of time for the DSI synths but i found the 'pro one' reference on the mopho circuit board laughable - it's a cool synth on its own but sounds nothing like an SCI synth no matter how hard i tried..

Which 2600 VST were you using? I used the TimewARP, very useful to learn, not at all like the real thing, not even a little, but still good for familiarizing yourself with "this does that"

I already downloaded the AN1x editing software from the Yamaha webpage. And from the looks of it the synth seems to have impressive features, eg. it has four automation tracks where you can record/draw automation lines and assign them to ~30 settings. I'm getting hyped!!!

Were you using the Arturia Arp VST?

it's a free knockoff one with the very subtle name 'Arppe2600va'. I have very little sense of how to use it (tbh I have very little sense of how synths work in general beyond ADSR) but it seems fun.

first thing i got to grips with after adsr was lfo modulation, v useful

I suggest getting an oscillator VST plugin so you can see how various synth settings affect the waveform. Helped me a bit

^^^

http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4

That's exactly the VST plugin I use, can't recommend it highly enough

The other Smartelectronix plugins are awesome, too

ooh that's useful, thanks.

I multi-tracked my Microbrute to play chords on one of my songs and it sounded good, really really good... It's a shame that the price gap between monolog and polylog synthesizers is still so huge nowadays. If Arturia released a four-voiced affordable Polybrute they would cause another revolution in the synth market... Alas...

I'm still hyped about the AN1x though!

i've been meaning to try the same thing with the microbrute.

on the same note, i finally got the routing set up so that i can send midi out to my Volca Keys and record it back in as audio, and it's that thick analog poly saw sound that i've been trying to get for years.

unfortunately i couldn't get it to record as stereo, i think it might be the 1/8" to 1/4" cable that i'm using? i don't know why most of these little analog synths make you use the 1/8" headphone jack as an out...it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to have a 1/4" line out but what do i know. so after a lot of fucking around where i could only get it to return as the left or right half of a stereo channel, i set up the send/return as mono and that sounds fine (i usually end up copying the audio to a stereo channel to add stereo effects, this feels like i'm doing something dumb but it works for me).

Most line out jacks are mono anyway, most synths use two line outs for stereo recording and I don't think you can coax a convincing stereo sound out of a simple mono synth without effects like chorus/panning/delay...

If C&P'ing synth recordings feels like doing something dumb you can always double-track a synth line, ie. record it twice on two mono channels, pan them left/right and add effects so it doesn't sound so samey.

As for the mini synths using mini line outs, I guess it's just a "mini" thing. (Microbrute has 1/4" jack tho)

I hate digital pianos so much

OTM! no sympathetic string vibrations = you are not actually playing a piano part, even though you think you are

thanks - so i think the mini jack is stereo but my cable is converting the signal to mono, maybe?

i don't mind my current method at all but since i usually just futz with my setup until it works, i assume i'm probably reinventing the wheel and that there's an easier way that i don't know about.

So I checked the manual and the mini jack is indeed stereo - it's probably the cable and/or recording jack you use. Do you have a 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm twin mono cable?

nope, i'm just using 3.5mm -> 1/4" single mono i guess (need 1/4" to go into my audio interface, of course).

If you get tired of fitzing around with stereo jacks mono cables: This cable should solve everything.

If you want a cheaper cable just search for "3.5mm mini stereo jack to 2x mono"

stereo jacks and mono cables*

or get a Cordial cable that's not 6 metres long

UK-only, huh? i'll probably look for a cheaper cable but ty!

i think i prefer recording synths in mono unless it's the sole tenor instrument

otm, record synths in mono, fear nothing

BTW, when I posted the cable recommendation yesterday I thought the Volca Keys was monophonic when it's in fact a three-voice monolog synthesizer! That makes me almost want to get it if the filter wouldn't have this obvious stepping problem. Anyway, now I can imagine some stereo shenanigans going on with the VK, but yeah, recording synths in mono is the norm anyway, you can always stereoize it with FX like chorus..

stepping problem?

You can hear it in this vid at ~2:30:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVTm0mT53fU

The filter seems to react in quantized steps instead of a "smooth slide" like you would expect from an analog synth - I think it's so it can be compatible to MIDI but for me it's the deal killer

But no synth is perfect and I'm a bit of a pedant when it comes to stuff like that

ah, interesting. i haven't done much recording with it yet but so far it sounds a million times better than using Massive or whatever for saw chords.

Haha, Massive, I actually played around with Massive a few months ago and it was pretty okay, but way too overused in certain electronic music genres IMO.

And I realized that you can connect the Volca Keys to the Microbrute to use the smooth MB filter so my criticism pretty much went up in smoke

oh, connect them how exactly?

i like how quickly i can create and modulate a patch in Massive but i'm getting sick of how it sounds, i'm only using it for certain things these days (big fan of the 'Classic' waveform).

1. Use one of the orange patch cables to patch "Gate In" to "Gate Out" on the back of the Microbrute
2. Connect audio output to the Microbrute "Input" jack and set the Input Level
3. Press a key on the Microbrute and the audio input signal is permamently triggered! Have fun!

Oh, you should also turn off all MB oscillators and set the VCO to Gate (I think)

uhm, VCA, not VCO. Sorry, it's been a while since I did that with my Microbrute. But you should get some sweet results out of that. Anything from simple filtering to overdriving the filter and making a mess with the Brute Factor knob.

Also I misspelled "permamently", why am I doing all these mistakes today

And I did it again....

aargh... just outbid on a Voyager

The Minimoog Voyager?? I don't see many people talking about that synth for some reason... a shame.

So my AN1x finally arrived today...

... yeah, it's a pretty good synth. Some of the factory presets are cheesy though. What's with synths and truly cheesy factory presets?

If your on PC there is a great midi manager /patch randomizer program called an1x genetix.

Gonna check that out, thanks!

The Minimoog Voyager?? I don't see many people talking about that synth for some reason... a shame.

Well, Moog have sold huge quantities of them. The consensus of the cognoscenti is that it's powerful and good-sounding, but somewhat clinical, lacking the grungy magic of the original Minimoog. I've never heard of anyone who liked the touchpad feature, and it's been notable by its absence from the many, many spin-offs that Moog have brought to market since launching the Voyager.
I've never bothered checking one out myself, as I own an early-'70s Mini, which is all the Moog I'll ever need.

I have a pretty random collection of hardware synths.

Best luck was with the first one, which I got in high school: the Akai AX-80. which was a completely bizarre attempt to produce an 'analog' version of a DX-7. Same stripped down simple knobless / faderless interface. Presets were disgusting. But like the DX-7, the second you dip below the surface and begin to tweak it, absolutely bizarre sounding, mutant techno to Sun Ra / Residents squall, sounds more unique by the year. There's one patch from it I always I end up putting on nearly every album like a Wilhelm scream.

Other purchases since have been two cheap Casio CZ-101s, a Roland V-Synth and an OP-1. All very quirky, absolutely useless as go-to workhorses -- the basic presets are far too generic & silly, but they're all great for distinctive what-in-hell-is-that solos and ornamental ear candy details.

I listened to some Voyager demos and despite the "improvements" it definitely has the Moog thing going on. But TBH when you're able to afford the Minimoog Voyager you might as well buy a vintage Minimoog.

Milton, your collection sounds like a vintage synth enthusiast's nightmare - that's awesome! And I love the sound of vintage Akai synths. Teisco synths, too.

In other news, I was looking for a bag for my AN1x and ended up buying a Korg Monotron Duo. Woops. I know I've mentioned how I didn't like the Korg sound (especially the filters) but I looked at the Monotron and just couldn't help it.

As someone who's most comfortable with SH-101 or MS-20 knob tweaky synths, the Voyager's powerful preset programming is a bit weird. Kind of like having a soft synth... sound is great but v clean.

I thought this was a cool article about programming bass sounds, and it also touches on some reasons some synths are seen as better for e.g. bass sounds than others:

http://www.darksonus.com/DS_articles_analogbass01.php

http://www.korg.com/us/news/2014/0217/

Dannnnng

Whoaaaaa. Korg have already gone full tilt into the neo-analogue thing, but this is something else again...

Announcement timed to mess with Roland and their new VA line up?

If you look closely at that prototype pic you can see a mini-slider next to the filter sliders - looks like the KORGyssey will maybe include both MKI and MKII filters... That's awesome, although I'm more in the mood for crystal-clear digital synths now (bidding on a Waldorf Blofeld)

Maybe, although OTOH prototypes often have extra controls that don't appear on the final product. Anyway, interested to know if this is going to be a 85% sized version like the MS-20 mini - if so, it might be almost as cheap.
http://www.djfood.org/djfood/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Florian-Autobahn-smile.gif

looks genuinely awesome. the ody is discrete right? korg should bring back curtis chips as well 8)

otm

ow hope it's not stupid mini version of the arp, hate mini keys

Yep, looks like it's gonna be a bit tinier than the original model

http://i.imgur.com/293L5xi.jpg

man i've been living in maxmsp land for ages now, miss playing with the synths :(

(i don't own many of these, landlord is an ex synth-junkie who lets me use all his stuff. also, i work in a recording studio doing programming/engineering)

korg ms-20 - original. badass. the best. new thing doesn't really compare imo. the originals really scream. maybe it's just age and worn components.
sequential circuits pro 1 - filthy filthy. surprisingly versatile. love the seq/arp and modulation madness.
moog taurus 2 bass pedals - got that moog sound. kinda wooly. mine's a bit scratchy.
waldrof pulse - monster sounds, huge. v annoying to program from the front panel. not really mastered this one yet.
minibrute - does some really interesting things. don't really go to it for classic sounds out of but good for experimenting.
novation bassstation 2 - it's growing on me, started using one of these in a band. really good for overdriven dubsteppy type sounds.
moog micromoog - hugely underrated, S+H etc. have had 2 and they both sounded v different.
moog minitaur - fucking great.
little doepfer modular setup - love it. rarely use it on its own. need to try out that cv software thingy
mc-202 - does what a 101 does but without the keyboard afaict
tb303 - broken but when it worked it was… eh alright. 202 does a good enough job.
prophet 12 - getting into it. i always end up in terry riley land for some reason. spent a few days doing rudimentary things like making drums / basic sounds to get a feel for it. it's a v powerful synth but it's not good at everything. the wave morphing stuff is cool but eh, computers are better at that imo.
roland gaia - LOL
juno 106 - with electricsound on this one. i'm not the greatest keyboard player but i've heard people make them sound great.
alpha juno - keyed has gone on mine again. which is fine. i like it for drones
matrix 1000 - love the sound of this. amazing value for money.
walford q - cheeky little number. like the pulse it's annoying to program, i quite like to make it freeze and crash it does all manner of weird things.
yamaha fs1r - my favourite synth in the world
casio cz101 - these sound really really great
roland jd800 - pretty cool. too many knobs and things, always have fun playing with it but don't find it partic useful.
jv1080 and all those - these are all great if you want vintage, err, digital
volca keys, beats, bass - fantastic stuff
novation supernova - v v cool, always end up getting useable stuff out of this
logan string machine - lush as fuck

really wanna play with:

more arp, buchla, ems stuff. flood's studio isn't far from where i work, really wanna get in there for a night.

synths synths synths. a lot of fun, but i think i've got to a point where i'd be quite happy with just a laptop and max/reaktor.

That list... wow

Also re: Roland, one might think they'd change their stance on VA/analog gear after the bad reception of the GAIA but oh well...

waldrof pulse - monster sounds, huge. v annoying to program from the front panel. not really mastered this one yet

yeah this needs a controller beside it to really shine. i have the kiwitechnics PE which opens this thing right up. i got mine mega cheap from someone who clearly gave up trying to program it.

aaaand I bought the Blofeld!

Gonna sell my K-Station.

wow that kiwitechnics thing looks great! want want want arghh

this is a dumb question well below the level of what everyone here is doing BUT ANYWAY: i have one of these http://www.atarimusic.net/featured-articles/retro-review-articles/271-yamaha-pss-680-retro-review, ostensibly a cheap beginners keyboard but with some surprising fm synthesis features, and even more surprisingly what seems to be fairly advanced fm synthesis hardware that can't be manipulated with the keyboard itself but can be using the midi in. i downloaded some software for that purpose but i get errors when i try to send my edited patches to the keyboard, perhaps because the software is like 15 years old. is there any general purpose software (for pc) that would do this job?

You tried that PSS Edit software, right?

Hmm... Did you try installing it in compability mode (assuming you're using Windows 7)?

If the PSS is able to work with SysEx commands you can maybe try a SysEx program but I don't know if editing SysEx files is possible without good results...

general purpose probably not, the only thing i could think of that deals with multiple types of synth sysex editing is midi quest which is notoriously unstable and very expensive for that. what is the editor you're using? also make sure the synth memory has any write protect settings set to off..

xpost

ya it's PSS Edit I've been using. I think the keyboard may be to blame, I noticed that while it initially saves my patches (the ones I make on the keyboard itself) to the banks they eventually disappear to be replaced by the default. Oh well. It still works as a MIDI controller, and has the interesting side effect of producing weird random sequences out of thin air when I use the pitch wheel. Ghost synth.

does the PSS use an internal battery?

oh, it has that option but I use mains power. Definitely something wrong with its storage though, the chord memory function doesn't work either. Never miiiiind.

now that i finally got the midi in + audio out set up for my Volca Keys, i'm really happy with it. noticed something weird though...after i took an audio track of chords that i recorded with it and pitched it down an octave, there was a super unpleasant high frequency hum in there that made it unusable.

the original pitch version sounds just fine, although maybe there's something in it that's higher than i can hear?

Possibly the delay:
http://audiocookbook.org/korg-volca-keys-delay-circuit-noise/

oooh thanks! i'm sure that's it...i was definitely using a sound with a low cutoff and i wasn't entirely sure how to turn off the delay entirely. i guess you do that by turning the feedback all the way down? the manual says "FEEDBACK knob: This knob sets the amount of delay feedback as well as the mix level of
the effect and dry sounds."

The Blofeld is tons of fun... I don't have the Sampling License but there is a free Wavetable Editor for it and I've been transferring my Microbrute's waves to the Blo.. interesting, especially with the huge amount of options this synth has. Almost modular-esque.

i obtain microbrute

have spent last 20 minutes grooving on 'I feel love' sequence; went all 'patrick cowley remix' for a bit

So we have a Moog Prodigy at our studio, and I LOVE the crazy filter modulation that I can get out of it. Is there ANY modern synth that can sound like that, or should I just start saving my bucks for my own Prodigy? Wondering if maybe the Novation Bass Station II can match it...

Everyone needs to have a Moog in their life once. Often copied, never matched.

But what exactly do you mean with crazy filter modulation? Assigning the LFO to the filter cutoff and then setting the LFO speed so fast that it's audible and changing the sound?

Every (good) analog synthesizer should be able to do that (like the Microbrute)

No, I mean assigning something in the filter (Contour? Not sure exactly what is going on - or maybe it's modding an oscillator?) to the mod wheel, and riding it. It gets these crazy braaaps and squelches. When I try to do something similar with a software synth (I know, I know), it sounds all wimpy and lame.

Sorry, I think I was actually using the PITCH wheel to modify the second oscillator sync. I'll have to look more closely.

Yep.Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCY28P-rgN8

Sounds like you can do it with the bass station 2 (needs 2 oscillators, so maybe not with the microbrute).

Sounds like something only a Moog could pull off well. However, both Microbrute and Bass Station II have the ability to distort the filter which should give you similar squelchy results.

Looks like the bass station 2 allows you to oscillator sync, and then control the second oscillator pitch with the mod wheel, which is the sound I was looking for! Now to save my $$... Maybe I should just trade my Retina iPad Mini for one. Anyone want to do that trade?

Your post gave me two good reasons why I should own a Bass Station II.. now if I had one... hnnnnnnng (<- sound of Synth Desire)

speaking of Synth Desire, can anyone tell me if the Oberheim OB-12 is any good?

also should I get a foot pedal?

i'd never even heard of one before! xpost

Yeah, the OB-12 has been widely decried by synth geeks because it's a VA synth made by Viscout, that Italian company that bought Oberheim and it had huge OS bugs when it was released. I don't care. It looks beautiful and has IMO one of the best interfaces I've seen. But - does it sound good and does it work well nowadays? Hmmmmmm?

Viscount*

lucky it was the n and not the o

Heh

I think I'll pass on the OB-12 and save up for an used Mopho X4. Or maybe I'll buy a second AN1x (lol).

But I definitely want a foot pedal. I basically just want a MIDI expression pedal so I can use it as a second modulation wheel. Does anyone have recommendations?

On the analog ones, can't you just plug them into a CV input?

I use the one from Moog with my Nord electro to act as a volume/wah-wah pedal: http://www.moogmusic.com/products/accessories/ep-3-expression-pedal

Yeah, I realized basically all expression pedals don't use MIDI but a CV/audio jack. So that's what I'm looking for.

Does the EP-3 also register/transmit subtle presses?

Yep, and it has a scale knob so you can adjust how sensitive it is (though usually you get a similar thing on the digital side). I had one from Roland, but it was shittier, and died after a year or so (of not that much use).

That sounds great! BOUGHT

worked out DAF 'der mussolini' sequence, then just played it endlessly doing gabi delgado impression. wonder what the neighbours think?

haha awesome

Haaaaa, so good.

Check out this Waldorf product announcement. Imagine if this thing would initiate a renaissance of string synthesizers... that would be GNARLY

Last sentence was gramatically incorrect, but I don't care. String synths.

BTW my Moog expression pedal arrived and, damn, it's huge (never had an expression pedal before) but awesome and helpful. THX schwantz!!!

i was interested until "bus powered"

Glad you like the pedal (x-post)! Just heading to the studio with my new Bass Station II! This thing sounds huge.

Dis is cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJXDMQGkcI

So I played a bunch more with my Bass Station 2. Sounds incredible. Best synth for the money ($425 at GC), IMO. Two oscillators (plus subs , noise, ring mod, osc sync) and tons of routing options. The DCO aspect makes it a little less buttery-smooth than a real VCO synth, but it means I can store patches, etc. (and I imagine it makes all of the routing a bit easier). LOVING IT!

For those who care, here's a sound demo of the Streichfett:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZUDxfWwNCc

That ensemble setting sounds OK!

I'm always looking for Solina substitutes and that thing sounds comparable from the demo

THREAD, I need your opinions. I finally want to fulfill my Synth Dream of getting an analog polysynth. In the beginning of this thread I stated that my Dream Synth would be the Prophet 12... Well, I found out it uses digital/wavetable oscillators with an analog filter. I can pull that shit off with my Blofeld + Microbrute.
So now I'm still looking for a bread-and-butter analog polysynth. I don't care about sequencing, but about a nice sound and many modulation options. To cut a long story short, I want a Prophet 08. The sound demos have convinced me, but there are other alternatives out there. And since I actually trust you more than the people on, let's say, Gearslutz, I ask thou: Does/Did someone own the Prophet 08 and is it actually WORTH IT? Or should I go for the Vermona PerFOURmer? Or the Elektron Analog Four?

Just for reference: An used Prophet 08 rack costs less than the Per4mer/Analog 4 in new condition where I live

The Analog Four is a fantastic little machine, but it's not what you want if, as you say, bread-and-butter polysynth sounds are what you're after. Would you prefer for all of the parameters to be accessible from the front panel? If so, go for the P08 or look for a Juno-106.

the 08 is definitely the best of those three choices. i kinda expected to be really impressed by the vermona but was not

"definitely" ha. i mean imo

The latter day DSI synths have lousy sounding filters, drifty knobs and are of limited use. I use a P08 all the time and I hate it. Preferable to the P08 imo is the Tetra; cheaper, poly-timbral, and features sequencers. I have never tried a Prophet 12 but Caribou Dan got one and doesn't like it at all.

My dream is for a mini Korg PS-3100 but I doubt it will ever happen :(

If you're planning on touring your new synth I'd really recommend sticking with virtual analog. If not, I'd get a 106

it seems like a bit of a wasteland for truly great polys out there right now. i'd almost reckon it would be worth waiting for a v5 mks80 rack

Thank you for all your opinions. To clarify: I definitely prefer knobby/slidery over slick synths because you can have this beautiful workflow on them. Like, you just fuck around with the knobs, and voila - new patch. Every synthesizer should be like that. That's also why I was eyeing on the P8 and not the Tetra because the Tetra's interface looks like a nightmare compared to the P8. But since the P8 is apparently lame for its price I might as well look out for other alternatives.
The Juno-106 looks like a nice candidate but I can easily imagine reaching the limits of its sound engine. I know I said "bread and butter" but the Juno seems to be like a dry pumpernickel with rancid spread fat. I know limitations can fuel your creativity but I should mention that I'm using these instruments in a home studio/sound design setting so I am also open to more adventurous/fragile instruments. I can use my An1x/Blofeld live (when they don't glitch out). Also a Juno-106 costs around the same as an used P8 rack.
Sigh. It sucks that synth companies keep churning out monosynth after monosynth yet I have to make these stupid compromises when it comes to the grim world of analog polysynths. Maybe my Synth Dream needs to stay just that, a dream. Maybe I need to lower my standards - maybe I need to concentrate more on cool vintage monosynths and less on lame modern analog polysynths. Someone around me is selling a Roland SH2000 for 500 bucks and I'm starting to like these weird old preset synth sounds.

#SynthProblems

Oh, I mean the Tetra keyboard version, which is almost exactly the same as the P08, interface-wise. Same dull filters, those things don't put out any sound above 2kHz, but the multi-timbrality, light-weight, and sequencing options make it preferable to the P08; unless you're looking to use it like an "analog piano" like James Blake does. Say whatever about Mr. Blake, he makes his P08 sound good

The good thing about the DSI synths is the four internal LFOs, it's pretty easy to get CS-80-like sounds with some creative detuning and wobbling. And the other modulation sources can be patched anywhere, which offers considerably more performance options than the Juno/Jupiter series.

I didn't know 106s cost the same as used P8 racks, that is weird to me; did the P8s go down or the 106s go down? I bought three 106s between 2006 and 2008 and they were in the $600-800 price range

Used Prophet 8 rack (classified ad): 1050 €
Juno-106 (Buy Now on Ebay): 1100 €. But that's a classic case of Buy Now Prize Syndrome. When they are auctioned the price goes to 600 - 700 €. That's roughly 900-1000 $. So Junos actually went up if anything. Maybe it's like that because I'm in Europe. It's crazy and also a bit stupid.

And when I think about it I'll also skip the SH-2000, even though I'm a sucker for camp stuff (it has a Popcorn preset!)

But I think I mixed up the Ebay auction prices of the Juno-60 and the Juno-106, so let's say 500-700 €.

Oh, wow, just as I posted this I saw a classified ad selling a SH-2000 (with the Moog filter copy) for only 300 €. Now I'm torn.

It's official: My newest synth is neither a modern modulation masterpiece nor a cult classic of polyphonic beauty, but a monophonic preset home organ with presets such as "Popcorn", "Frogman" and "Funny Cat", essentially the Juno of the 70's. Can't be that bad for 290 €, right?

For all the DIY synth fans out there: Check out this Arp 2600 clone kit - shipping is unfortunately on hold right now though.

Say whatever about Mr. Blake, he makes his P08 sound good

for real, he knows that thing inside and out.

shipping is unfortunately on hold right now though.

sample & hold?

:J

In other unrelated news, I'm selling my SH-2000 right now. Yep. After living with it for a few weeks I realized I actually hate it. Too much camp, not enough usefulness. Too performance-oriented (that's why I compared it to the Juno earlier) and not enough tweakability. Too much synthesized tuba. Not even the Moog filter copy could save it, although I liked the "Electric Bass" preset. This relationship is over. I think I'll just buy a Novation UltraNova.

a local electro band here makes heavy use of that sh2k preset on their records. it is a nice sound.

Yes, it's a blissful bass. I'm even using it for the bassline of a song I'm currently working on. My "making tracks with synths" philosophy: Even if your newest synth acquisition turns out to be a dud, you should still try to use it for a part in your composition. Don't waste important oscillators.

Don't THROW AWAY*

I've had an SH-2000 for years and really like it for some stuff - I make heavy use of bass, cello, basically most in that row, presets but use some others - and I always use pedals - it's great with delay, octave, chorus (not nec at the same time). That's for loud weird rock band stuff though, maybe not what you're into making.

I definitely wouldn't mind one of those but I'm in no position to be throwing away any more money on music gear right now :/

Yeah, the Roland SH-2000's presets have this classic 70's sound ("French Horn" with slow chorus through a tube amp sounds magical), which isn't a bad thing, just not my cup of tea. Some of the other presets remind me of 70's children's TV shows! Nice but not my cup of tea either. If you're in Europe and interested in buying one, let me know.

Okay.. Actually, I just fell in love with the SH-2000. I was fucking around with the settings until I found out that when you tweak the "Tuba" preset enough, you can get a truly PHAT (yeah, I know) bass sound. Even better than the "Electric Bass" preset. Not selling anymore.

For all the Kraftwerk fans out there: People are saying that Kraftwerk or Kling Klang Studios are selling their gear on Ebay right now. I don't know whether that's true or not since the Ebay seller says they're closing the studio - and I haven't heard about Kling Klang closing their doors. Would suck, though. But still, lots of interesting (East German and Soviet) stuff on there.

Just clicked through the auctions and almost all of them have a pic of the Elektro Müller sign - so yeah, it's Kraftwerk-affiliated.

buying an RS-202 for cheap tomorrow.

Sweet, some nice string action! Nobody can deny a fine string machine.

Speaking of new purchases, I kept my Synth Dream alive and actually bought an analog polysynth - an Ensoniq ESQ-1. Okay, not completely analog, it has digital oscillators and an analog filter. So it's more like a hybrid, just like the Juno-106. But I prefer the Ensoniq's sound and it also has more modulation options. So yeah, ESQ-1.

That was the first keyboard I ever had! Bought with my own money in high school. I thought it sounded crappy at the time, compared to fancier synths, but it was all I could afford, and it had a sweet (for the time) little sequencer too.

(BTW not saying it actually SOUNDS crappy, just that I was lusting after Fairlights and Emulator 3s and shit back in high school!)

bought an alpha juno 1 last week - it's like the 'one lady owner' of polysynths, the woman i bought it from has had it since she was six! but mostly playing with microbrute this week. waiting for the programmer to turn up before I go deep into the JU1.

crucially it still has the 'what the?' patch in the user memory, aka the base for the hoover of 'dominator', 'charly', 'mentasm' fame. I basically plan on a full bank of hoover variations.

no sequencer or arp, but I gotta learn to play better/properly anyways.

Can I just say

I love the Juno 1, light and durable and sounds kind of hilariously good. Love the weird six-stage envelope. Not hard to program once you get used to it. I don't recommend a PG-300 (the programmer) unless you really, really need to have your fingers on the frequency knob at all times. Try the software editor first until you figure out what does what, then learn how to use the wheel

schwantz, I can understand that if you want a good workstation, the Ensoniq ESQ-1 could be a bit of a disappointment. It's a kind of clumsy attempt to be a budget workstation (right when workstations became a thing), but to me it's also a synth that is unique, gritty yet beautiful at the same time.

As for the Alpha Juno interface... man, the DX7 truly brought in the dark age of synthesizer interfaces. And actually paying money so you can program the synth more easily is a bit scummy. At least it sounds cool. And it's funny how the DX7 gets famous for its "clean" piano sound while the AJ hoovers around in a Gabber nightclub.

Forgot to mention: I sold my SH-2000.

crucially it still has the 'what the?' patch in the user memory, aka the base for the hoover of 'dominator', 'charly', 'mentasm' fame. I basically plan on a full bank of hoover variations.

First thing I checked when I got mine two months ago for $85 from a pawn shop. Thinking about getting a BCR2000 for it as I can't get the Alpha Juno Control app to work. Maybe I can try to sysex something from my 106 if possible.

BTW, this guy did a dead-on hoover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FYfRSTvspk
The parameters are listed in the video's description.

goon tie, my eyesight is not great to be honest so the less I am peering at the screen the better!

plus you must admit this video is quite seductive: http://youtu.be/Oll0NYC1PpY

I remember the look on the Craigslist guy's face when I handed over $300 for a PG-300, at the time I thought it was "a bittersweet parting with a beloved object".

Six months later I'm in the carpool parking lot, selling the PG-300 to a new Craigslist sucker, $300, and I know the bittersweetness was a chump recognizing a chump

It is awkward and large and somewhat unreliable and requires its own wall wart AC and a MIDI hookup. Fantasies of playing live evaporate in minutes. Even when I still had it lying around I had switched to using one of the virtual PG-300s that are available for download, where you can edit the patch names with your computer keyboard instead of dialling the new names in character-by-character. If you want dials and knobs you can program an Akai MPK or equivalent to act as a controller in less than an hour.

Bumping this thread because I just ordered a Volca Keys + Volca Beats.

Question -- I have a USB MIDI controller that I want to use to control the Volca keys and I want to sync both of them with each other and with my laptop (running Reaper) and to output audio through my interface. I was thinking I could plug the keyboard into my computer via USB, then run a MIDI cable out from my audio interface to one of the Volcas, then from the sync out of the first Volca to the sync in of the 2nd, and from the audio out of (one or both?) Volcas into my interface. Would that work?

I guess your USB MIDI controller doesn't have a MIDI out in addition to the USB output?

No, it's an Akai LPK25, it just has mini-USB out. I might get something nicer in a bit, but what can I do for the time being? Is there no way to make Reaper send a clock sync and also the MIDI messages from my controller out of my audio interface's MIDI out to the Volca?

See, 'cause I was going to suggest going from your controller's MIDI-out into your Volca's MIDI-thru and thereby simplifying things for you a bit. At this point I can't help myself from mentioning the Rube Goldbergian aspect of your proposed set-up. I'm thinking there's got to be a better way than what you described, but my MIDI knowledge/experience is hardly expert-level. Good luck is all I offer at this point.

I was thinking about going USB-to-MIDI from the Akai to the synth but the Akai is powered via USB so that wouldn't work, and also I'm not sure how I'd sync the devices to the computer in that case.

I think your original set-up might work. But don't you have an old keyboard that has MIDI out or something? It might simplify things a bit.

Hm, yeah I actually do, it's just kind of big and unwieldy for my workspace.

But let's say I do go straight MIDI out from one keyboard or another, I'm still wondering how I'd sync everything to my computer's clock, like if I've got other things playing on the computer. Or is that not possible?

And since the Volca keys is polyphonic, would it be possible to have some notes being triggered by the computer, and also trigger notes on top of that with a keyboard? Maybe with some kind of MIDI box?

So a simple keyboard is unwieldy but lots of cables going from/to your computer & interface aren't? Just get a Korg microKONTROL or something.

You can use MIDI quantization in your music editing program to sync MIDI messages to the computer clock.

A instrument that has MIDI-in capabilties should be able to recieve MIDI messages from two sources (computer and the Volca Keys keyboard)

The cables can be managed but the keyboard I have is too large for my space and I wouldn't want to take it to shows. The Korg micoKontrol looks like it only has USB like my Akai, so I don't see what it would offer me.

I guess I'll have to do some experimenting when these things show up.

Woops, didn't know the Kontrol doesn't have MIDI out! I'm sure there has to be a similarily small-ish MIDI controller.

I run a Arturia Keyboard to my laptop via USB, then midi out from my interface to Korg Monotribe, then sync out from monotribe ( which converts midi clock from Ableton) into Volca Beats, then Volca Beats sync out into my modular.

and audio from all three into my interface ( with modular using a stereo in).

not sure its tight enough for a professional recording but it works.

however, I've just bought a iconectivity mio for £25 so I could run two midi connections and control both Korgs

it'll allow me to run sequences to them both via Ableton.

Volca thoughts so far:

Still getting the hang of using these things and figuring out a good workflow with them, but I'm having lots of fun with them already.

So this was discussed upthread, although I managed to miss it, so to reiterate, audio output from the Volcas should use an 1/8" stereo to dual 1/4" mono cable. But there's no actual stereo going on, so leaving one of the 1/4" leads unplugged doesn't seem to matter unless you hate dangling cables.

Controlling the Keys with my MIDI controller is easy enough: keyboard -> computer via USB, audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 in my case) -> Volca via MIDI. Then I make one track in Reaper with my MIDI controller as input and the Scarlett as a MIDI output, and another track with the Volca's audio out as the input.

But sending clock sync from my computer to the Keys, as opposed to just notes, seems to be of limited use, unless I'm missing something. If I send clock with "step trigger" off, the Keys will trigger my notes at the right time but the notes will only sustain for a 16th note value, even though my MIDI notes are sustaining and sustain is turned up etc. If I turn "step trigger" on, they will re-trigger on each 16th note for the whole time they should be sustaining.

The Keys is mostly working like a charm though. Not sure if I'll have much use for the built-in delay, but I've gotten some neat sounds already by sending it through my Corona Chorus pedal.

I'm having some trouble getting the beats to sync with my DAW properly though. It seems to basically work, I'll hit play in Reaper and the Beats will play, but it won't be on the right beat and it'll be slightly late like there's some latency. I might be missing something. I also wasn't able to get it to respond to my MIDI controller. I found the MIDI spec on Korg's site so maybe later I'll be able to make sense of that. This snare mod for the Beats seems intriguing too.

anybody seen this yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCyiDaM3boc

thinking of going this sat in la

i'm kinda interested but i have been 100% cured of all modular desires which dulls the interest a little. looks well made by all accounts

I really enjoyed it and it made me wanna get a system 700!!

nobody needs to justify wanting a system 700

just looming there looking all knobby

old sound on sound review says doepfer used to sell eurorack s700 clone package - sounded spendy, but

"I Dream of Wires" -- Documentary on the Modular Synth

i find it very comforting to have zero interest in modular synths.

that lack of interest will save you money, that is for sure

in related news, was in Austin last weekend and visited Switched-On, and the vintage keyboards they had available to play in the showroom there pretty much blew my mind. Prophet T-8, two Putneys, a Fairlight Mark I, all kinds of generic but absolutely beautiful 70's piano/clav workhorses (Roedelius-land), and a hefty Makenoise / Euro rack. It was very educational. And the guys have a service where they let you track in there using anything in the showroom for $25 an hour, which is remarkable.

http://www.switchedonaustin.com/shop

My monotron has died. Just stopped working. I have another but I can't get the output to work - is it worth taking the working one apart to see if there's a loose connection or something? Bearing in mind I haven't soldered since I was at school.

poor monotron :(. i'm pretty sure the sound of mine has changed, maybe it too is on its way out...

guys can we do drum machines in this thread or are they not synthy enuff

fine w/ me

ok, good! got roland TR-8 a couple days ago.

pluses:
- sounds are good. dat modded 808 kick, bewwwwwwwww.
- does indeed have the promised 'analogue' variance in the sound, without being like obvious gross fakery.
- sequencing is exactly what you'd expect.
- the onboard delay and reverb are... pretty dece! also got several varieties of each to suit yer taste.
- sidechaining of external audio feature is pretty sweet - get that throbbing sound on the beat. probably easy for you DAW types, but still!
- not a metal enclosure, but the knobs and faders are top notch, it's really well built.

minuses:
- the manual is hilariously useless. didn't roland used to write good manuals?
- each pattern has an A and B variation, you can use either one, or both for a 32-step pattern - but can't copy from A to B or vice versa. so dumb! they'd have to be rectifying this in the update.
- 'scatter' mostly lollllllll. although a couple of options are ok as variation if you were performing live at lighter depth settings - there's a nice distortion mode and a reverse beat one.
- I guess more advanced users will want 'parameter locks' and what have you - think the full MIDI implementation is out there now (also missing from the manual!) so that stuff could be handled by the DAW set.
- could probably do with ability to make the green highilghts another colour. you can change the sequencer button colours apaz, I haven't yet.

didn't roland used to write good manuals?

i've not read it but i'm led to understand the original 303 manual was vaguely baffling

I missed this thread even though I started this board!

In reference to Juno-106 - great entry level synth. Start here and end here if you plan to own house or children. Only issue is that the oscillators like to burn out, and replacing them involves ordering chips and soldering.

That's not true. For years the problem was one of the voices would go all crackly and the initial response was swapping them out for clones. I did that when my first voice chip went and was satisfied with the result. Then a year or two later another voice went. At that point there was new research. What was happening was that the chips were coated with some kind of plastic which was melting over the years, and that would short them out. Somebody discovered if you remove the chip, soak it in acetone or something to dissolver the coating, and put it back in, it was good as new! Think about all those chips people probably trashed thinking they were bad. So I had like two more dying voice chips and found a guy on eBay and sent him my entire motherboard. He removed all the voice chips, soaked them, put them back, tuned and calibrated it and sent it back, and it hasn't given me a problem since.

In any case, I love my 106. It never sounds bad to me, but I find myself focusing on a few basic types of sounds. It has it's limitations, but it just has such a nice sound to me, a lot of my tracks are built out of 106.

I also have a Juno 1 which I bought because I wanted a controller and figured I could spend 50 to 150 bucks on a midi controller that didn't make any noise, or spend 125 (the going rate at the time) on an alpha juno. I love it. Got a javascript app sysex programmer thingy that makes editing it nice and quick. Have never seen a pg-300 for reasonable price. I think about buying the Kiwitechnics Patch Editor, which looks great, but costs more than the Juno. If I ever own a few more synths that it works with,maybe then it'd be a good buy.

I also have an Arp 2600 that I use a lot but it's very broken. Finally thought about sending it to CMS for their repairs and some of the basic upgrades, didn't hear back from them until he wrote to apologize and say he was busy on Pete Townshend's Arp. By that point I decided I could not afford to fix it, but one day.

Recently bought an Arturia Beatstep to control the Arp. A whole lot cheaper than an Arp Sequencer.

Also if you haven't seen this....

http://kiwitechnics.com/kiwi-106.htm

it's pretty cool.

I think about buying the Kiwitechnics Patch Editor, which looks great, but costs more than the Juno. If I ever own a few more synths that it works with,maybe then it'd be a good buy.

i have it, and it really is great, but also i have (i think) 7 synths it can control so it is worth it. one of them being the mks-80, the controller of which is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Izotope Iris looks amazing, like what I've always wanted. Anyone messed around with it?

(not gonna lie, I checked it out after reading that Arca interview)

i sprung for it, it's pretty amazing what it's capable of and how easy it is to use, and it's even easier to spend an hour drawing pictures and fiddling with sounds. not sure yet if it will result in usable sounds for the kind of records i want to make.

also i've been having a lot of fun w/my pocket piano (Critter & Guitari). getting a little sick of the sound, but the next thing i want to try is running midi out to record crazy arpeggio patterns, then using that to drive a sample-based soft synth.

Iris is a lot of fun, very good for textural and sound design-y stuff. I can see with a bit of application you could makes some more musical or melodic noises, but I haven't really tried yet.

that's my experience so far, it would be amazing if you were scoring a horror movie or just need some background noise. i'm hoping to get some nice glassy organ-like sounds out of the right sample though.

even if i never use the crazy spectral manipulation functions, it still works as a sampler plugin and i was in need of one (since i don't use Ableton or Kontakt).

Does anyone know of any good tutorials for Korg Gadget for my friend who just purchased it as his first music production tool?

Also any thoughts on the Oberheim Matrix 6? I see it mentioned a few times way up thread. There's one that just arrived at the music shop down the street, listed for $600. I looked at and was turned off at first by the interface, but researched some more and was thinking I should grab it.

I was in the store today ready to buy it and figured I had to test all the functionality first. I played every key, messed with the levers, browsed the presets, tweaked some patches, and everything seemed in order. But when I plugged into the right audio output, there was no sound except scratchiness when adjusting the volume slider what seemed like faint crosstalk from the left channel. And the store didn't have any way for me to check the headphone out, pedal jacks, or MIDI functions. So I guess I should go back there with headphones, my laptop, a sustain pedal, and an audio interface and make sure all that shit works? Maybe if the headphone out is fine then it's not a big deal that the right output doesn't, assuming they can come down a little on price? And how should I check out the MIDI stuff -- I've heard this thing requires particular software to program and sequence.

No special software to sequence, same as any midi synth. For programming there are sysex programs you can find, probably more than most other synths because the architecture is the same as the matrix 1000 which doesn't have any ability to program without the software.

http://www.tonetweakers.com/used/access_matrix.1.htm

hardware version too, if you prefer that sort of thing

http://www.matrixsynth.com/2014/10/the-harvestman-iron-curtain-electronics.html

how badass does this look??

access matrix would be a lot more useful if the mod matrix was accessible but sadly not - i think unless you were mad collectro it would be a pretty disappointing experience vs some of the p good software editors

There's also this slightly expensive but totally awesome editor:

http://kiwitechnics.com/patcheditor.htm

I can't justify buying it just for my Alpha Juno, (and hope to use an iPad app instead if I ever get one of those), but if I had a few of those synths maybe I would. They also have this crazy 106 upgrade that ads all kinds of features.

I think it's great when people hack these old synths. I have a broken Prophet 600 that I've been waiting to get fixed for years, and I'm glad I waited because someone came up with new software that apparently makes it a ton better.

oh yeah, I see me talking about the Kiwi editor just a page or two up there. sorry.

haha i probably did too. PE is ace

I have the 6R. Love it. i use a now no-longer-updated iPad editor for it.

I am curious how many people who have somewhat involved synth/electronic live setups use a laptop at shows, why/why not, and what do you use if not?

i hate having a laptop onstage for a litany of reasons, mostly associated with experiencing countless fuckups back in the days when i did.

i have an mpc1000 for all my drum sounds & sequencing now

I would be curious to hear about how exactly you use the MPC. I'm kind of ignorant about non-software-based workflows.

i'm p much just using it as a "dumb" midi sequence playback machine (i create the sequences in pro tools then export em) plus programming the drum patterns directly into it, really only using a tiny tiny fraction of what it's capable of. it's super reliable and really quick to get set up at shows/rehearsals..

Ok, so if you'll bear with the stupid questions: you have a synth/multiple synths on stage with MIDI in/MIDI through, and you sequence the synth parts for your whole set ahead of time and load those onto the MPC along with your drum patterns and basically hit play? Is that about right?

How do you get the MIDI data from PT -> MPC?

1st q: yes exactly, then i am free to sing and sweep the filters

the mpc can be mounted as an external drive so the .mid files can be dragged straight in and are recognised by the mpc

*via usb

I use an MPC 1000 at the start of all my tracks. I love it. It's limitations, compared to computer, help keep it simple, and halfway through or near the end I usually transfer things into the computer for more editing and processing.

It has a compact flash card that can be used instead of the USB.

You can use the MPC in a more performative way in a bunch of different ways. You can have multiple sequence patterns and each pattern is assigned to one of 16 pads...with 4 banks of the 16, and trigger a new sequence with the pad. Or you can have a sequence with 16 (of 32, 48 or 64) tracks and use the pads to mute/unmute tracks. Kind of a simplified way that people use Live with various controllers these days.

Meanwhile the MPC has two MIDI outs, so you've got 32 channels running out of 2 cables to control synths with sequencing, but it also is a sampler and can be playing drum sounds, samples or entire measures of recorded bits, coming out of 2 stereo or 4 mono outputs.

Just for starters.

Very cool, I appreciate all the info.

Right now I'm bouncing backing tracks as audio with synths (minus solos) and drum machines, laying all of those out in Reaper with tempo changes and a click track synced up and transition samples in between songs, and sending that from my laptop through a Focusrite 6i6 to the house and the drummer (the drummer gets the track plus a click). I strum guitar and sing, another vocalist harmonizes, the drummer plays an acoustic kit, and for the solos I play an Arturia controller + TAL U-NO-LX on my laptop with patches saved for each song.

I haven't had problems with that setup, but I've been wondering if there's a better way. I kind of wish it were more "live," but I'm thinking sequencing everything with an MPC wouldn't be much different. I did find an MPC2000 for sale on craigslist for $200, and I'm tempted. Although if I were to pick it up, I'd still have to straight up play backing tracks for the synths the way I am now, because all I have for a hardware synth is the Volca keys, which wouldn't cut it. Still looking at that Matrix 6 though...

I think the bottom line might be if I want to do more stuff live without getting super clever with looping/live-sampling, which would be awkward since my songs are pretty much verse-chorus and not really loop-based, I'm going to need another bandmate to take over either guitars or synths. Still not sure if it's worth it to ditch the computer for an MPC though. I guess I'd have one less piece of gear to carry, since taking the computer means taking the audio interface too.

on stage i use an SP404-SX running into a Korg Kaoss Quad into a mixer, and live drums. i basically have full tracks or edits thereof assigned to the pads, along with one-shot samples that i can add over the top. no syncing, i just use the tap tempo for quantized effects.

i love not having a laptop on stage b/c i feel like everybody in the world runs Ableton or Traktor, and also i do not own a laptop. it's also super simple and reliable.

on the other hand, it would be really nice to have the freedom to vary track lengths & structure on the fly, and to have more flexibility with effects (i wish the Kaoss Pad Quad had a triplet division!). it just never seems worth it to invest in a computer + soundcard + controller, especially since i'm a little burnt out on playing shows right now.

So I ended up buying the Matrix 6 a couple of weeks ago after finding the manual and realizing the right output wasn't broken, it just only sends a signal when stereo is enabled in the master edit and you're in split mode.

BUT, I got it home and realized the aftertouch doesn't work (unless I plug my Arturia controller into it, in which case it responds to aftertouch just fine). It also has some very occasional crackling on the output (but not in any specific voice), so I got some Deoxit and I was planning to open it up and have a look.

Does anyone have any ideas what I might be looking for with the aftertouch? I looked through the manual and the service manual but didn't see much that seemed useful.

assisted esoj in build of MS-20 kit on the weekend, what a wacky beast. there's some hilarious patches both in the supplied guide and on the internets - weird fake duophonic stuff, buchla-esque sample+hold craziness... electric bass w/ upwards string bend thru the momentary button was probably funniest.

we misinterpreted the dang instructions slightly (they really could be a little clearer in this regard) and had to do open it up again last night but now it is all sorted. i love it though, probably the most immediately fun synth i've played since my poor broken prophet 5

the automatic octave bass sequence thing is hell of fun

must admit I'm scoping out minis on ebay. might get one with the tote bag!

have you sung into the ESP yet, that looks pretty hilaire on the videos

no i will try

So I opened up the Matrix 6 and found that the aftertouch strip was sitting upside down and in the wrong place, shoved under the lip of the case, so it wasn't being contacted by the keybed at all. I seated it properly and closed up the synth, but then aftertouch only worked for the lower half of the keyboard. Then I resoldered the joint halfway down the aftertouch strip and now it works for the whole keyboard.

Incidentally, I also stumbled on a trick to use a few MIDI controller knobs/sliders to control the Matrix in realtime. I think I've read murmurings about this before but not really the full story. Basically you can tell the Matrix what CC number to assign to pedal 1 and 2 and lever 2 and 3, and assign it the same CC as your controller sends, and then program a patch where those things are modulating whatever you want. Here I set up these sliders to control the filter cutoff, amp envelope attack and release, and resonance.

spent last night riffing on human league 'last man on earth' on the MS-20 mini with the mood lighting on, ooooooh yeah. thunderstorm patch added atmosphere on that one.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kilpatrickaudio/phenol-patchable-analog-synthesizer

nice 'my first buchla' vibe around this.

got a microbrute. so far my method of finding my way around it has been twisting knobs while playing the 'i feel love' sequence into eternity.

as good a method as any other

was basically my method

while playing the 'i feel love' sequence into eternity.

...from here to eternity?

I got a Bass Station II btw, love that guy

any tips on how i can control the filter cutoff on my Volca Keys using midi? i'm sending the notes in with midi, but i want to have a pulsing cutoff and doing it manually is too touchy. pretty sure this is possible but i have no idea how. is it just a matter of finding the right parameter and drawing in the automation on my midi out channel in the DAW?

I don't own a Volca keys but out of curiosity about the synth I did a search for "volca keys MIDI implementation" and it returned this doc

http://media.aadl.org/files/catalog_guides/1444140_chart.pdf

CC 44 should do it

thanks!!

fgti is correct; however, sorry if you've tried this and there's some reason it won't work, but that seems like something you'd use the LFO for. Set speed with the LFO -> RATE knob and the intensity with the LFO -> CUTOFF INT knob. If the Volca Keys is receiving a MIDI clock signal the LFO rate should sync to a multiple of the tempo.

Also check out this neat $8 app which opens up the Volcas for more DAW control: http://www.fabriziopoce.com/volcacontrol.html

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2015/01/odyssey-back-korgs-arp-remake-revealed/

this past NAMM was freaking bonkers. So many awesome toys.

Meanwhile I finally started to understand by TX-802 the other night. That's a monster of a digital synth.

i've bearly turned mine on, i'm kind of scared of it

barely*

I ended up buying Midi Quest Pro just to make it easier. Kinda dumb since the software cost me more than 100$ more than the synth did! But I figured it'd help me make it easier to use and can be useful for other synths as well in the long run.

I was really confused at first...I had taken the output of just one or two of the voices and was playing and was like why does this sound shitty and only playing every 3rd or 4th note I hit? I thought it was broken. Then I realized what I was doing wrong and listened to the output of I and II panned left and right and it just opened up into this massive sounding FM beast.

Awesome, Dan.

Gonna look into MidiQuest as well.

i've been meaning to get midi quest for the longest time, considering how many rack synths i have it's kinda stupid i don't have it already. i think part of it was that it was notorious for being unreliable before the latest version

oh i have no confidence that Midi Quest will work smoothly. It's not the most osx looking thing and the UX is eh but it's the only thing left. I once owned MOTU Unisyn back in system 9 days.

one think you may be interested in capitaine, is the more expensive pro version has two features the other doesnt. Works as a plug-in, which can be need, I guess automating sysex stuff w/ ease, but in reference to something I think you used to talk about, it has the ability to take any of it's library of synths and export TouchOSC templates. I think that's cool?

New synth day:

https://igcdn-photos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/10838580_656329977829971_628990351_n.jpg

slick

mucked around on various things that were new to me at 'synth sunday' event, here's my HOT TAKES

- korg odyssey: played with one of the whiteface ones for five minutes (big line for this). oscillators sound good. the three filters all sound noticeably different; the moogalike one that got them in trouble noticeably loses the bottom end when you turn the resonance up, the other two are better I reckon. ring mod when playing duophonically sounds amazing. sliders had a lil bit of play from side to side, felt good when actually sliding tho. the PPC mod buttons are very lol, what were they thinking here first time around - not pleasant to use. keyboard is fine, not minikeys no matter what the forum dorks (who are all concert-grade pianists I'm sure) say.

- korg kronos: I sat in front of this for a bit, scrolled through the menus and backed away in fear. some musical director type bro demoed it a bit later, the piano sounded pretty dead-on.

- volca keys: this was quite entertaining for the size, especially poly ring mode. cruuuuunchy digi-delay.

- DSI prophet 12: was in a dark corner of the room, couldn't see enough to get a dece sound out of it! (had similar problem with other volcas and and an elektron analog 4.) no prophet 6 in attendance sadly.

- DSI mopho x4: didn't really grab me after a quick tweak.

- minibrute SE: luuuuuurve my microbrute so thought I'd get along quite well with this, but it wasn't doing it for me - couldn't put a finger on why, maybe I'm too used to the extra restrictions. does look pretty sweet tho with the silver case and wood ends.

- moog voyager: sassy electric blue backlight model. people seem to hate on these a bit as overpriced/hyped/whatever but I was feelin' it, having all the mod bus options on the front panel really opens you up to thinking about what you can do with it. most solid build quality of anything I tried. had to take a phone call right at the moment that I was getting on top of it, would've loved another five minutes. (well, hours)

- moog theremini: fun. obviously it quantises a bit, so not as forbidding as the old-school wood case one I played with in sydney years ago. looks like a spaceship.

- buchla music easel: OK I didn't actually get a go on this, it did look pretty bangin' tho.

Who took the reigns at Roland? After 20+ years of making shitty ROMpler versions of their classic analogs, they debuted a new analog synth at NAMM. Two months later, at MusikMesse, they've gone full Eurorack. Must've gotten tired of Korg eating their lunch.

Reins, I meant reins.

kakehashi (the founder) retired in 2013, and there was a management buyout last year.

I guess it always takes time to get things done in a bigger company, too - roland is nearly 3,000 employees, korg is closer to 300.

can I just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nMmzO_Rpbg

just think, if we all chipped in our life savings...

unrelated: synthex reissue crowdfunding campaign - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/elka-synthex-synthesisers-by-generalmusic

I made a MIDI-enabled Juno-106 emulation that runs in the web browser: 106.js

Chrome/Desktop only for now.

That's awesome, St3ve! I'd like to try it over MIDI, but need a new interface.

If it was accurate, the Chorus would make a clicking noise and one or more of the voice chips would be crackling.

seriously though, fun stuff.

wow!

The chorus on my 106 is loud af, sounds like the ocean when it's engaged.

Thanks for checking it out! I'll add "failing voice chips" to the list of future features. ;)

I want to take a break from working on it because I've been super immersed in this thing for a few weeks, but I also kind of want to dive back in and implement MIDI learn -- WebMIDI is quite young still, and I haven't come across any other websynths that do that yet.

broken roland chorus is a known issue. Both my 106 and Alpha Juno have the problem, it's pretty much unusable at this point, especially on the Alpha Juno.

The crackling voice chip is a whole other epidemic with an interesting history, with years of people swapping out chips then putting in cloned chips before the discovery that the crackling was because the roland plastic coating was melting and causing it to short and the realization that you didn't need to replace the chip, just remove it, melt off the rubber insulation with acetone, and put the chip back in and it's 100% good.

never knew about the chorus problem before... mine works ok (though with a lot of hiss).
had the chip fix a couple years ago.

here's a juno question: in unison mode, does everybody experience sort of a weird in-and-out of sync effect with the oscillators? kind of a rapidly changing timbre, note to note?

On my 106, yes. It's nearly unusable except for with percussive sounds. On my Alpha Juno 1 it's fine.

It might be a calibration issue. I need to get the 106 serviced anyway.

There's no oscillator spread in the Juno's unison mode, so it doesn't sound very good. There are some aftermarket mods that address this, like this one for 6/60 which has been going around today and looks really neat: http://tubbutec.de/juno-66/

oh that polysex mod looks nice... I'd love the detuning function!

I updated my synth so you can share patches. For example: Smooth Pad

But apparently I can't format a link. Once more:

Smooth Pad

Also Chrome 43, which includes WebMIDI, is the new stable version, very exciting times

In a similar vein to the Juno-66, has anyone tried one of these for their 106?

http://kiwitechnics.com/kiwi-106.htm ?

No but I dream of it. And getting the appropriate overlay:

http://www.synthgraphics.com/kiwi-106.html

Indeed, especially the Jupiter version.

You should jump on it - it's a bit of a slap in the face for here as they don't accept Australian or New Zealand dollars...

106 owners: did you replace your 80017As with clones or acetone-bath the existing chips?

I replaced the first crackly one with a clone, back before anyone knew about the acetone bath.

Then when further ones started to go, I sent the entire motherboard to Synth Spa on eBay to do the acetone on all the voice chips and it's been perfect since.

Now the chorus is extra noisy though. I'll get that fixed eventually but actually don't use it that much.

synth spa here... worked like a charm, but now I need to replace the battery since I can't store patch memory anymore!

I've read bad things about synth spa's turnaround times, but his work has a good reputation.

That said, I might try to find a local tech. I've got an Akai AX-60 in worse shape that was super-cheap. If they can get that fully working, I'll trust 'em with the Juno.

New 106.js update that I'm pretty excited about.

You can now map every control to any MIDI CC message, so you can play and tweak with your hardware controller. It supports 7-bit or 14-bit CCs for those smooth filter sweeps. Your mappings will be remembered per-input, so you can have multiple mappings for multiple devices, and your last-used device is loaded by default when you bring up the page. As far as I know, this is the first web synth with a MIDI learn feature.

So I went to my boss' house yesterday for my party. He collects Fairlights, and Fairlight discs, and check out one of the discs that he's acquired:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/382/18319804365_98198f2c9f_b.jpg

!!!

no way!!

that's beautiful

whoa

"collects Fairlights"

What is he, a hedge fund manager?

holy smokes

nbd, I collect Synclaviers and RCA Mark IIs.

fucking hell

that is fucking rad

Founder of D@nger (which sold to MS)...

Just ordered the JP-08 (http://20khz.gizmodo.com/mini-versions-of-classic-roland-synths-let-you-recaptur-1734254763). I got to play a real Jupiter-8 a few sessions ago, and LOVED it, so hopefully I won't regret this purchase.

I really want the new Moog Mother-32.

maaan, i want that JP-08. such a sucker for tiny synths (especially since i have a very limited amount of space in my little studio).

Anyone try the JD-XA yet?

this looks kinda dumb/unnecessary but also fun, like if you got one for free: http://uk.novationmusic.com/circuit/circuit#

i wonder how playing chords works with the pad layout.

Pretty cool, but those grid controllers are pretty mystifying for this piano player...

Those Rolandz are nifty, but I like my tiny synths to be REAL COOL DIGITAL like the Reface DX (or the DX100 for that matter) (or the VSS-200)

^ All machines by Yamaha, the best musical toymaker

yeah, as i already own actual juno 106 and alpha juno 1, i'd probably go with the Reface DX. Been wanting to add some FM to my arsenal and bought a TX-802 which is about as badass as FM gets, if you can get it to work, something I'm having a good deal of trouble with. The Reface DX looks fun, would love to play around with it.

Holy shit, that Page R screenshot!

had a play with a reface CS - don't really want a VA synth (it sounds p good) but it felt like a high quality build, miles beyond old mate microbrute. I want a DX one. or the piano!

I'm trying to avoid anything that doesn't have patch memory these days. Actually I'm trying to avoid buying anything for a while now as i probably have more than enough synthesizers for my budget and lifestyle.

you can still get a DX7 pretty cheap, right? i kinda want the electric piano one, although for that money i might be able to get a used Rhodes of some type if i haunted craigslist.

plenty of DX7s round for cheaper than a reface. they're a hefty beast, though! I honestly don't have room for one.

Check out the Yamaha DX100 then!

Don't have room and DX's aren't super cheap. I'm curious about the way the reface is programmable, how different it is.

Otherwise if you just want a 4op FM, DX100 or TX81Z aren't that expensive.

Wow

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMS-Synthi-100-insanely-rare-analogue-synthesizer-/281819554519?roken=cUgayN

guys let's pool all our resources, we can do this

I've got $8.

so we have $9 then!

I'm in for $10

it probably only works out at $10 a knob 8)

(i was o_O at the size of that patch panel. then i noticed there were two)

melbourne conservatorium of music (part of melb uni) has one, the head of the department retired this year but his last major project was restoring it! some dudes from the local modular synth mailing list/user group got to go down there and have a play - exactly as cool as you'd imagine, apparently.

I can't offer any money but I can store the synth!

Essentially the synths is complete and almost no money needs to be spent on it other than labour time and any spare to fix any faulty boards.

Good luck with that.

can ppl post more pictures in here i love pictures

you should follow factmag on instagram surm -- it's all studio pix!

you're smart

http://www.sequencer.de/blog/synthesizer/2007/11/alec909.jpg

NICE

that poor thing

you guys, I got one of these: http://www.kilpatrickaudio.com/?p=phenol

it is higly entertaining

any experience with the roland mt-32? everyone on synth forums seems to absolutely hate them but i'm guessing it's mostly anti "very midi-sounding" sounds (which i like and want in my music) -- are they really all that bad?

really, really want the Korg Minilogue, seems like what i've been waiting for.

Totally! Need to try it first, but it looks pretty sweet.

yeah, can't believe it. looks beautiful, amazing features for the price. Got the basics down well and some unique extras. No stupid dated effects.

This video shows some cool stuff. The voice modes are very cool and unique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGeHKF_DrrA

This thing looks ridiculous!

https://www.arturia.com/matrixbrute/overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfLTlbGwXD0

I played with a Minilogue a few days ago. It was great. I'll get one even though I don't really need it.

want that matrixbrute soooooo bad. alpha juno, that and the kilpatrick should keep me entertained for a while.

I just bought a Machinedrum. They cut the price in HALF. Now orders are all backed up. Sweetwaters supposed to get it to me in 4 weeks.

I got my minilogue yesterday. I'm LOVING it. It's just fun to play with. Nearly everything is on a knob (other than portamento time, which I miss), and there's no switching between envelopes or LFOs with a button to confuse you. The different voice modes are cool, and well-thought-through. The little OLED waveform display is a little gimmicky, but it's neat as a teaching/learning tool.

Mostly, it just sounds great. It's intuitive, and musical, which is the best thing you can say about an electronic instrument.

Cons? The delay is a little noisy, but I have a SpaceEcho pedal, so it's nbd. I'd rather have full-size keys, I guess (though I'd rather have 37 smaller keys than just 25 full-size ones). I wish there was a mod wheel, but the knobs are all pretty big, so it's not a huge loss...

nice. the only thing preventing me from getting one at this point is that i honestly don't know where i would put it. my studio space is super tight, really need to re-arrange that room (currently i store my drums behind my synths, and risk knocking them over every time i pack up for a gig).

I'm going to get rid of my JP-08 (it's cute, but not fun to play, and constantly reminds me that is is not actually analog) and my midi controller keyboard (never could get it to work right - it was designed to work with Live, and other uses seem pretty unsupported), and just putting the bass station 2 and the minilogue next to eachother on a board on top of my keyboard stand.

the motion sequencing on this thing seems like a masterstroke to me. gets around it only having the one LFO to an extent.

http://www.factmag.com/2016/03/22/melbourne-electronic-sound-studio-mess-vintage-synth-workshop/

I have just taken out a membership here!

Oooh, I would love something like that. Well, there's a guy who runs his own thing here, but uh I do not want to spend any time in his company.

This is pretty neat:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2016/05/19/200000-synclavier-now-a-200-app/#more-71357

just got my minlogue from sweetwater. only ordered in in mid march!

I love it. Sounds cool, fun to play with. love the little built in sequencer. Probably won't use most of the modes except for the arpeggiator and chord, which is a really smart implementation. Sure you can't use chord memory on some weird chord you come up with, but it covers all the basics.

here's me ripping it up on two VCS3s at once:

https://soundcloud.com/incrementalcontroller/vcs3-explorations

amazing setup - VCS3 x2, sample and hold module, filter bank module, pitch to voltage module and the keyboard! barely scratched the surface...

I'm thinking of upgrading from a Microkorg at some point - not particularly fussed on analogue or not but ideally something with lots of hands-on options for tweaking sounds in real time. I'm looking at the Sledge 2.0, Minilogue and Minibrute SE. I know lots of people don't like the GAIA. Is there anything else in the same sort of price range that stands out?

I think the Minibrute wins out unless you're really set on polyphony. The Sledge 2.0 seems to work best when it's hooked up to a computer, so that might remove some of it's hands on appeal. A Korg Volca Keys/Bass/FM combo works out at about the same price, the FM even managing to make FM synthesis moderately tweakable. The Novation Ultranova is in the same price range, but it's not much more accessible than the Microkorg, although it does have an LCD display running under the knobs to indicate what's what.

Thanks!

Also:
Moog Minitaur - it can do non-bass sounds but it's a little more work.
Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms SV-1 Black Box - a standalone synth, but it can be interfaced easily Eurorack modules and can even be removed from it's desktop case to be installed in a regular Eurorack case with other stuff.
Makenoise 0-Coast - might be too far out sonically and a lot of the functions are hidden and accessed through 'program pages' (tapping on the two buttons labelled PGM).

Don't forget the Moog Mother-32 as well.

For mono stuff, I really like the bass station 2, as well. It's got 2 oscillators (whereas the minibrute only has one, I think), so you can do osc sync. It also has sub oscillator and ring mod. It could use a couple more knobs rather than context switches, but it's still pretty tweakable.

That being said, the Minilogue has most of that, but has 4 voices! The only things I miss on the Minilogue is a mod wheel and the lack of aftertouch modulation.

you guys I played an OB6 last night, phwoarrrrrrr

This looks pretty dope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmwxoho-o4o

ha holy shit I was coming here to post that video - just found out about it

Looks like a lot of fun.

Korg volca Kick demo - I have to admit that I thought this would be a bit limited but this video sells it a bit better by explaining how it actually works.

Also a more in depth review of the Arturia DrumBeast

(amazed that this is £379 although by the time the £ falls against the Euro and the $ it'll probably be more like £500)

played drumbrute last night, placed preorder swiftly after

Sweet. I want one too!

the 808-y kick goes loooooooooooow

luv all the cool sequencing stuff, I basically use my TR-8 with the beatstep pro exclusively so stuffing it all in the one box with extras, sign me up thanks

briefly tinkered with the matrixbrute too - hoo boy there's a lot going on there, will have to give it serious thought I think (after convincing myself I didn't need it). so many possibilities!

anyone have any of the yamaha reface series? my friend has the electric piano one and he loves it as a more portable option than his big rhodes, but i am tempted by the combo organ one. i love organ sounds and the simplicity/focus of it are appealing to me.

I'm excited about the new Korg Monologue

NA all the refaces sound really good and they are built solidly for the size and form factor. (I've got the DX one, bit of a sucker for that sound at times.)

and by that sound I mean fake gongs and bells and shit.

OK, the Teenage Engineering OP-1 looks urgent and key. Especially with the little antenna accessory that lets you apparently just sample right off of any FM station.

I own one and love it. Only drawback for me is the limited recording space and having to dump all recorded files to a computer after the 6 minutes are used up.

i know this is not meant to be the iOS synth/VST thread but I have to take the opportunity to say that Korg's iOS recreation of the ARP Odyssey is fucking killllerrrrr

Poison 202 is also pretty feature-rich for the price.

So I hear. That has Audio Units integration as well, which ODYSSEi doesn't.

ODYSSEi has the coolest fucking arpeggiator though. Simultaneously with the usual melodic arpeggiator you have three independent lanes of a 'parameters arpeggiator' which can be arping the values of just about any knob in the app. You can even have one of its lanes modulating the speed of the arpeggiator itself which is a wonderfully perverse effect.

Cool!

Also all the Korg stuff is 50% off in the App Store right now. So it's opportune that you bring it up!

If you have both Gadget and ODYSSEi, you can deploy and sequence multiple instances of Ody within Gadget (its in-gadget version lacks the arpeggiator unfortunately, but then again you can automate almost all those parameters in Gadget's piano roll... not as fun, though) (also, ODYSSEi is very demanding and I can't run more than two instances of it at once in Gadget before my device freaks out. Its sound is incredible, so I don't begrudge it its CPU hunger.)

The thing I don't like about soft synths is when you turn the (virtual) oscillator pitch knobs, you can hear stepping as it goes up and down. This makes for lame sounding osc sync sweeps, etc. How does the Odyssei do in that regard?

ok the OP-1 maybe has too many goofy hipster accessories

https://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Engineering-002-XS-903-Accessory-Synthesizer/dp/B00KRENSIA/

You don't need them. Accessories don't take away from how great a machine it is.

Xpost its sweeps sound really good to me -- I'm usually automating those movements with the envelope or the parameters arp* though rather than riding the ui knob/slider.

*The parameters arp has a lag slider which can smooth the transitions between arp steps

odyssey, hardware or virtual, ownz. here's mine on the drone tip:

https://soundcloud.com/incrementalcontroller/sunrise-drones

You can get the new Arturia Mini V filter for free if you download it from their site before the 25th:

https://www.arturia.com/arturia-festive-gift

Downloads are SLOW!

Got a DrumBrute this week. It's pretty fresh, and very fun to play. Downside is that none of the knob settings are saved, and cannot be midi controlled, so pretty much you want to work on one song at a time with it, or else you will need to take pictures of the knob positions or something. I'm thinking I'll use it to play a bunch of stuff live into... Live, and then cut together bits from there. The note repeat pads are super-fun, and the filter is a nice addition.

Downloaded that Mini V filter, but looked at their page for offline activation and realized I'm never going to do all that. :/

OK, the Teenage Engineering OP-1 looks urgent and key. Especially with the little antenna accessory that lets you apparently just sample right off of any FM station.
― El Tomboto, Sunday, December 11, 2016 11:20 PM

watched a video on that, not something i need but that interface/menu is amazing

I got the OP-1 and a PO-24 and have spent the intervening period playing with the ARP Odyssey and iDS-10 on my iPad instead. This is mainly because super hip Swedish UX design is actually fairly unintuitive and feels unwelcoming to me

also I need stereo mini patch cables now. lol the future

iDS-10 is so much fun. I do really wish that the quantization could go like one level finer than it does. But I really love the way it does knob automation (long pressing any knob bringing up its own piano roll)

i want a volca fm

I used to play the DS-10 on my nintendo DS. Esp. at the time it was really impressive feature-wise.

I'm fairly certain my entire contribution to the "no line on the horizon" ILX pre-cover compilation is made of DS-10 noises

hey yall, i've always wanted an MPC and now i'm seriously considering grabbing one. now that akai has basically discontinued the line in favor of a hardware/software combo, i imagine the older models are only going to get more expensive. any MPC users have any tips/tricks/advice for buying one? i'm looking at one of the tricked out refurbed 2500s from mpcstuff. also, any JJOS users? trying to figure out if its worthwhile to try and learn akaiOS first and then switch over

also, any alternatives for a hardware-only pad-based midi/sample workstation in 2016?

I have an MPC 1000 and have always used JJOS. It is 1000000% better than Akai OS. Don't even bother with Akai.

JJOS has had a bunch of different versions and it can be confusing. I was really used to one version then I upgraded and haven't used it as much since and a few things were shuffled about. There's no great documentation so it's annoying, but EVERYTHING is so much better in JJOS. Even just naming songs, adding grid edit, the last JJOS even had loop recording.

I'd pay for just the grid edit for starters. But everything is so much better.

ahh good to know. the lack of documentation with JJOS was making me nervous, given that i can barely even piece together which version of it i should be using

I know. That's confusing. But in the end, just get one of them and it'll be better than Akai's and you'll figure it out.

new standalone MPCs are on the way with touch screens and all that jazz like the hybrid 'touch' model from last year, probably announced at the trade shows. one's the portable form factor of the touch, the other is a big old-style one with heaps of extra encoders and stuff.

interesting.. i'll have to wait and see

welp: http://www.factmag.com/2017/01/09/akai-mpc-live-mpc-x-video/

the portable one, if it's got enuff grunt to run standalone proper-like, should be siqqqqq

I am banning myself from more gear though

mpc x looks cool, cv/gate outputs are nice, but it's a bit out of my price range.
mpc live looks like it has potential, but i guess it really boils down to how the software is. specifically for me, how the touch UI feels.

does anyone have any experience with the mpc touch or the mpc desktop software and can give their 2 cents?

Tip for the OP-1 - if you have a smartphone that can browse file structures, get an adaptor like this and you can back up onto your phone while you're out.

er, like this

http://www.dhresource.com/0x0s/f2-albu-g1-M01-4D-B1-rBVaGFXs9NGAFbkPAACe22w_e4I052.jpg/18cm-usb-3-1-usb-c-type-c-male-to-usb-3-0.jpg

Has anyone gone for one of the boutique 303s Roland put out last year?

this morning in the tunnel that connects the F train to the 1 train, late-middle-aged busker rocking a MASSIVE Korg Triton

Ha amazing.

Got to mess around with one of those again recently, a friend has been using it. It still had the Grindin' presets and everything.

https://teenageengineering.com/products/op-z_preview

I'm so mad I just got my OP-1 and then they do this

I'm not a fan of their user interfaces. Too many key modifiers. I tried playing around with one of the pocket operators, and was able to make a beat, but just couldn't get into it. I guess you just have to make it over the learning curve. I love their PCB design, though! Planning to use some of their techniques (using gold etch + silkscreen) with some boards in working on.

Anyone know if Nord is releasing a Stage 3 any time soon? I'm thinking of upgrading my old Electro 2, but I don't want to get burned.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/folktek-mescaline-3-part-synthesis-and-sequencing#/

That seems remarkably good value for $450.

wanna know something cool? I just took an old really busted Prophet 600 and got it fixed up and had the gigli teensy mod installed. These mods people are doing are really great, the idea that you can add so much life and features to an old synth. Maybe one day I'll do the Kiwi 106.

Is anyone currently working with a Eurorack or other modular system?

It appeals to me as a dorky, expensive hobby rather than a particularly practical musical tool but the idea of having that flexibility, and the option to - for example - integrate Wasp, Polivoks, etc elements into a set-up, is interesting.

Yay!
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-stage-3

http://www.waldorf-music.info/media/rokgallery/9/9823bcc9-27c6-4ce2-cb4f-a750b3697e15/f1fe24c5-4192-4746-e03b-1104f6d78733.jpg

mike huckaby probably air-punching rn

Video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phi8zPZcWtw

Is anyone currently working with a Eurorack or other modular system?

I have this small self-contained kilpatrick modular - uses banana jacks, not part of a rack so it keeps the desire to expand it at bay (a bit). I work differently with it to the way I worked with, say, anything with a keyboard - has tuned envelopes so I can get sweeping apreggiations going really quickly, I'm more likely to spend time routing things to other things and exploring the sound rather than just working on a melodic line, etc. can be self-indulgent, but doesn't have to be - you can play it or sequence it as easily as any other regular monosynth.

That look cool! I've got the Roland System 1m and the Makenoise 0 coast which are both patchable and Eurorack compatible so I am getting my head around them at the moment - the temptation to expand in the future looks pretty irresistible.

This looks pretty sweet: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2017/04/19/novation-peak-8-voice-polyphonic-synthesizer-debuts-at-superbooth-17/

Interesting:

http://www.factmag.com/2017/04/20/behringer-deepmind-6-analog-synth-announced/

The Deepmind 12 is supposed to be good. You can also pre-order their controversial Minimoog clone now.

That thing looks pretty sweet, especially for the price. I think I'm done buying synths for now. Although the Peak looks pretty sweet...

Anyone here have a Moog Mother 32? I've been so taken up with programming patches for the OWL that I'm budgeting myself for a small Eurorack system.

Complete neophyte - Minibrute, Bass Station II, MS-20 Mini? Or is there a virtual analog to look at? Or the Roland JD-xi?

Eager for simple and to the point - watching Teenage Engineering OP-1 videos was overwhelming without even seeing one in person.

Those are good, but also consider the Korg Minilogue (polyphonic; can play chords up to 4 notes) or Monologue (monophonic; can only play single notes). Of your choices, I think the MS-20 Mini would be the toughest because of the knob layout. BSII seems good also.

Is there a particular kind of music you want to play?

On the virtual side, it might be worth looking at the Roland System 1.

Weird/ambient + wannabe Portishead, I think? I forgot the System-1, that and the the BSII were the two I was mainly looking at earlier tonight. Will check out the Korgs too.

Bought a used MiniBrute recently but wish I'd bought the Monologue.

It's the Minilogue for you son, six years

The Minilogue is a good bet. iirc it has four voice polyphony which I guess is enough for ambient pads.

It is definitely worth trying to play around with something in a shop if you can. Ease of programming is one thing but key size is another huge factor for me as a terrible keyboardist.

If you are completely new to synths, it might also be worth looking at a decent midi/USB keyboard and a good VST package. It isn't quite as tactile (or not without a bit of work) but you aren't wedded to mini keys and are not stuck with hardware limitations.

As a decent guitarist but mediocre keyboardist I actually find I respond really well to weak-resistance mini keys like the Nanokey. Full size keys seem so much bigger than they need to be...

My issue is probably being a terrible guitarist as well then.

ideal for me would be two mini keyboards one above the other so its easy to make larger intervalic leaps without having to fling my arm out wayyy over therrre

minilogue is so great, and I can't say enough about how much I love it's weird noisy delay. It adds a lot of life and grit and air and noise. I'll take that over 1,000 "brutalizer" knobs or whatever.

Has anyone dug into the new features on the teenage OP-1 that will be released this fall? Thinking about getting the current version... don't know if I can wait.

What's this? Are you not thinking of the OP-Z?

Oh I thought the Z was a new model of the OP1. It's a different beast altogether?

Yeah i believe so although they share a few similarities. I'm still finding it hard to get my head round how the OPZ works with no display, but i love the OP-1 so much (especially for its midi note sequencing abilities) that i'm sure it will be worthwhile

oooh:

http://www.factmag.com/2017/06/20/roland-se-02-synth-studio-electronics/

I appreciate that 'what the world needs from Roland is an analogue monosynth Minimoog clone' is a minority opinion but that sounds pretty great.

I feel a bit like they should've made the filter more roland-y

Yep, to my untrained ears it does sound more or less like a straight Studio Electronics synth at a more accessible price point. Though, tbh, with an apparent list price of £509 / €600 - one that looks set to cost a bit more than the trailed $499 in Europe.

I am pretty keen to try the MFB Dominion Club too.

you guys

novation peak!!

Did you get one? Is it good?

I did and it is great. very tweakable from the front panel, can go from glassy to nasty, great arpeggiator. 24-oscillator unison mode is quite an experience.

really it's the perfect long evolving pad machine, though.

It really seems like a beast! I have the BS2, and it's such a great monosynth. I need to go check out the Peak - I wish they had one with a keyboard.

24-oscillator unison mode

wheeeeeee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXbaiWmjhQA

Great video!

his story of pink floyd throwing away an ondioline ffs

Oh wow, those tennis racket instruments (w/joystick and photo sensor!).

Boutique SH-01 and 808 coming!

http://www.soundonsound.com/news/roland-unveil-boutique-sh-01-tr-08-and-aira-sampler

I havne't bothered with them but that 101 looks pretty fun. Adding polyphony was smart. Have to hear it.

I'm really tempted by that SH-101 if it's not too $$$.

$349

http://cdm.link/2017/08/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-roland-boutique-101-808-remakes/

Heh that might be exactly the most I could justify spending on a synth.

https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/08/14/a-classic-uk-synth-in-your-browser-free-and-open-source-musicmonday/

a Synthi done in javascript.

^that is pretty clever!

spent wednesday night mucking around with IRL synthis and VCS3s, and the crazy transaudio pro case 6: http://www.matrixsynth.com/2016/06/the-transaudio-procase-6-custom-dual.html

it's not quite the dual VCS3 that article suggests - lots of different functions. envelopes were a bit weird though.

what are some good places to get synths and gear online? I've looked around the area but it doesn't look like there are any local retailers that carry anything interesting.

reverb

Analogue Haven is supposed to be good.

I like Perfect Circuit Audio - https://www.perfectcircuitaudio.com

ebay and craigory's list. i've noticed dc listings > baltimore selection-wise

Also the buy/sell section of Muffwiggler, come to think of it.

perfect circuit audio send sweets with your order!

you guys are awesome, thank you

Uh oh looks like I'm buying some stuff.

https://youtu.be/MBzBGLuPIcY