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realtrance

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About realtrance

  • Birthday 11/30/1999

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    Retiree
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    Coyote Country

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  1. Can’t go wrong with either a Makenoise Shared System Plus or 0-Coast/0-Control/Strega combo, if you want even more portable and inexpensive. You can hunt for the perfect module combo forever, or just go with things that work really well together. Some don’t like MakeNoise’s interfaces, but I find them extremely intuitive and inspiring after just a small amount of familiarization.
  2. Also confirming the Supersaw’s origin on the JP-8000 (and rack 8080). Even Roland didn’t replicate it well after this synth. I always took it as a result of years of experience developing electronic synthesis that would sound like a string section — something that was a known strength on pre-Supersaw Roland synths — and an interesting next step in that area. Fortunately/unfortunately, like many previous Roland things, it became the trademark for a style of music. Often emulated, never exactly like the original, like the TB-303 sound that created acid house, or the TR-808 that created house.
  3. Only thing I'd add to this excellent overview is a reminder that a lot of the original engine Arturia developed was done in conjunction with the person who did some modules as Mutable Instruments; some of the later oscillator engines as well are from Noise Engineering. If you review their work, you'll discover more about the characteristics of the oscillator types. There's also the influence of Buchla and Verbos (particularly in the latter case with the Harmonic engine) present in the design. Not worth at this point discussing what was originated and what was borrowed; all synthesizer designs are at some level borrowed from other designs, that's always been the case with instrument design (and music, for that matter! <G>), so I don't give those issues any credence. I got the Minifreak, after having the Microfreak since launch, and they're each wonderful in their own way. I love the effort to capture the capacitive touch aspect of the Buchla Easel, along with some other aspects, on the Micro; and on the Mini, there's also lots more Arturia have produced for this new synth. I agree it's a bit more conventional in design than the Microfreak, which is a good thing, as it will appeal to a wider audience. The overall physical design takes many cues from Arturia's Keystep Pro, which is a fantastic MIDI as well as CV controller; but it also improves on its sequencer, which is already a monster. Arturia's really hit its stride here, along with in its software; the FX Collections they've released are second to none, and again provide some of the substance, I suspect, for the excellent FX section on the Minifreak. All in all, an incredible value for the money, as is the Minifreak.
  4. You don't have to be, and I agree, whatever others might say. I refer to Michael Caloroso because I know he was closely involved with the development of the A6, and the A6's architecture owes a lot to close consideration of Oberheim architecture (among others), and I've always been appreciative of all that. It amazes me to this day what Keith Barr and Alesis were able to pull off with the Andromeda; to this day, no-one's achieved anything like a replacement for it. Moog One excels in many ways, but the price is quite high. I don't think an "emulation" of the A6 will ever be possible, though aspects of its architecture have been matched and exceeded in a variety of places since its debut.
  5. All thoughtful and excellent and informative replies; I've always relied on people here to provide in-depth, reliable and trustworthy info on these things. I try my best to do myself, from my own hobbyist enthusiasm. You're quite right re: sampled piano vs. modeled; modeled for audiences tends to sound too lightweight and thin, compared with the sampled-piano work. The latter may not be as micro-responsive, but they often represent the sonics of the piano, particularly at high and low registers, more accurately from a listening perspective. In any event, as is emphasized by the rejoinders, there are very good reasons all the major keyboard MI manufacturers stick with the approaches they have, and they're not in the least bad, IMHO, and obviously have done the job for decades now, and will continue to do so. Roland and I suspect Yamaha and Korg as well are all extremely conscientious about the pressures on MIDI and internal bandwidth in the performance aspects of a keyboard, and those factors have to provide constraints on everything else that can be done, including the more niche issues of poly aftertouch, MPE and the like. I'm certainly not one to imagine second-guessing them and complaining about "cheaping out on RAM or CPU" or all the usual online crap; the engineering balance of providing just enough tech to do the job without getting in the way is, in my humble opinion at least, the real challenge of good engineering, not just using the maximum of what's available at its limit with every effort. Roland, Yamaha and Korg all excel at this.
  6. Well, plus I showed Michael C.’s flowchart to my wife, and she went promptly to my synth closet and asked, “how many synths do you have in here?” — to which I replied, “Blasphemy!” We had a good chuckle. Moving big, expensive synths around at my age also takes the wind out of me, increasingly, so there’s also that.
  7. I believe V-Piano, and RD, for Roland, is much more like what Modartt's Pianoteq is -- purely a physical modeling process, developed mathematically, no sampling involved. This is the dilemma with all these keyboards, regardless of manufacture, vs. other techniques now which really require a PC of some sort to support. They simply aren't built with either the CPU performance, RAM or bus bandwidth to handle the same level of sampling and phrase articulation which can now be taken as standard and extensive in PC/Mac-based technologies. The question is really whether the microarticulations and expressiveness and modeling capabilities possible in the latter environment is "necessary" in everyday use, especially for either gigging or the kind of orchestration being done regularly for film, tv and online media. Take Pianoteq as one example. Modartt have released a significant number of incredibly detailed models of pianos, many of them endorsed by the piano manufacturers themselves (Steinway, Bechstein, Bluthner, Petrov). I find this kind of thing fascinating, and invested years ago in "Pianoteq Pro," which essentially gives you access to the complete controls over all of the physical modeling parameters (it ain't cheap, but if you're interested in physical modeling, it's a benchmark, and a source of a serious education therein). The caveat here is that aside from solo performance and recording, you're going to lose the expressiveness and subtlety of all that detail quite quickly, the moment you start to combine the piano with other instruments. Psychoacoustic tells us simply (I know I'm lecturing to the informed here <G>) that the moment you have more complex sounds hitting the ear, all sorts of masking effects start to "distort" the sound being processed by ear and brain, and the result is highly different from hearing sounds distinctly in an environment where there is no "noise." Nevertheless, if you're a pianist, like I am or at least was, trained deeply in the baroque/classical/romantic/modern repertoire, combining Pianoteq with the right keyboard interface is going to give you something you find nowhere else for simulation of playing a real piano. At the other extreme, take Native Instruments' many, wonderful, massive sampled libraries of individual instruments and small ensembles, orchestra sections and percussion. With I think Cremona Quartet and Stradivari Cello and Guarneri Violin, Native Instruments has on offer (sorry if this is sounding like an ad!) some of the most incredible sample-based models of instruments possible now. These also come with an extensive library each of programmed microarticulations and a large variety of expressive phrases, which I suspect are primarily used in high-level professional film scoring at this point (the price for each would certainly suggest so). Again, it's almost a lifetime of mastery needed to really use this level of microarticulative detail in way which does it justice and gives plausibility to any performance of these instruments recorded by someone who is not fully trained on these instruments; but it's an amazing study of the extent to which the practices of instrument playing surrounding each instrument can be captured in software, for those who understand these practices and can make use of them. No keyboard instrument currently available can in itself, with its onboard technologies, compare with the above stuff, though the physically modeled work is much easier to manage with the typical resources available in a keyboard synth, as V-Piano/RD Piano and Yamaha's SA/SA2 work have proven. I'd say, finally, going back to Zen Core: Roland has certainly not ignored the physical modeling aspect of microarticulations and circuit behavior in the history of their work, from the JP-8000, their first prominent effort in this direction, down to the latest ZenCore and AIRA libraries and models. They're much more secretive about the advances they've made and continue to make on these fronts, but I'm sure they haven't been standing still during all these years. There's an expressiveness to their latest synth work and patch design work which is a qualitative step forward in Zen Core from what they've done before. You can hear it most readily, I think, in the ACB models, the separate models of Roland's modeling of their own vintage history in Roland Cloud (available outside Zen Core), and most immediately, say, in the patches made for the Axe Edge, which is like the V-Synth designed most specifically to highlight the microarticulation technologies used to impart greater expressiveness to synth-based instruments. It all remains a very satisfying study to me in my old age, as you can tell! :)
  8. So I can add this as a good excuse in my head to spend such an exorbitant amount of money, for me, already stuffed to the gills with synths, on the OBX8? I'd love to think so! OTOH if TheRealMC tells me my A6 will suffice for hobbyist retirees like myself and I'd be better off saving for my inevitable dentures... I'll listen to that, too. My usual feeling with such instruments is the opposite: "don't waste such a great instrument on your own introvert private studio where no-one but you will hear it and enjoy it; leave it to the Big Boys who actually gig and play and record with it" -- my usual justification for being perfectly happy with, say, the VSTs OB-E (GForce), OP-X (Arturia) and Obsession (Synapse) in this case.
  9. I've grown into a real fan of Zencore, am a member of Roland Cloud, etc. and have a Jupiter Xm (couldn't justify the full-size X in my space and at this point in my life). In a nutshell, Zencore is a compendium and evolution of Roland's core technologies since JV-1080 days (or maybe even JD-800 days, really). It's basically the same architecture, and a library of approximately 4,000 patches, covering the whole history of SR-JV forward, up to the present-day work done for the Axe Edge and the MCs and Zencore keyboards (Jupiter X/Xm, Juno X). I won't bore you with the marketing distinctions between ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) tech being promoted for the AIRA stuff (System-1 and System-8) vs. the ABM (Analog Behavior Modeling) for Zencore. Suffice to say with the latter Roland have essentially extended their VA tech, past what was on the JD-Xa when it released, so that you have much finer (1024 values vs. 127) control in a number of areas, and a wider variety of filter types to choose from (still wrapped around the typical R for Roland, M for Moog and S for Sequential they've had for their VCFs for years now). It sounds as good as it always has. Roland have a tendency to ship with patches which are pretty complex in their initial design, but also quite conservative, some would say "vanilla," in sonic timbral result. Once you grow familiar with the architecture, though, it's very easy to massage those patches into something you prefer, and the design and control is as subtle as it is on any other synth, just, because of Roland's heavily layered architecture, a bit more work. If you buy an instrument primarily to play, as I recall you do, you may find the core sound a little too vanilla; if it's too late in your life to dig into patch tweaking, that may prove a limitation. But the kinds of tweaks one needs doing are pretty basic, after all; if you're a synthesist, you know how to get where you're going, and the science and psychoacoustics of doing so are no different here than they are on any other synth. Roland Cloud was frustrating for a good long while, primarily because Roland Cloud Manager started off as a pretty amateur piece of software, developed by and under the control of Virtual Sonics up in Seattle, WA. It has improved dramatically the past few years, though, and is far more transparent and less intrusive than it has been. I consider Roland Cloud right up there with Arturia now, and NI, as companies well worth a coupla hundred bucks a year to have access to not only everything that's been done, but the ongoing new work on the way in their online suite offerings. Roland Cloud just released an ACB emulation of the Jupiter-4 that works as a VST on your PC/Mac (I use it now on an M2 Mac Air), and it's absolutely lovely, and as far as I'm concerned, true to the subtleties and overtones of the original (those thinking of ditching their JP-4s for it might pause and have other opinions, as always). It also "plugs out" to the System-8, but not the Zencore synths. Hope that's useful! :)
  10. Sad to say, 'Jump' is the very first one..... But there are quite a few others! Well worth it, sounds great and gets right to the Oberheim sound, if you like that. Plus the added FX and modulation capabilities, along with voices detune and Stereo pan/spread options, let you quickly get to the monster sounds unique to this synth.
  11. I got kicked out at the end of 2016. Entertained myself for a couple of years looking around, but yeah, there"s not much out there that"s a good match for experience and wisdom. Businesses are increasingly stuck paying cut rate pay for cut rate talent, preferably abroad, as it"s still cheaper, despite the plummeting quality of work and living in the US. We"re getting there, we"re somewhere near Somalia in quality of life already. No offense meant to Somalia. My deepest condolences, Mike. Look back at how long you got to stay in one great place, and see if you can swing retirement at this point. It"s great!
  12. Also true. And it's clearly not just Roland who's going this way, so I don't blame them in particular. It's a characteristic of the workplace now; we're all dispensable.
  13. Interesting side note: the end of the paid product specialist position and replacement of it by YouTubers strikes me as very much the marketing industry equivalent of Lyft and Uber replacing taxi companies. You have people with no training, licensing, benefits or wage and employment structure - gig workers, so euphemistically called - replacing more expensive labor. Almost all work in tech has also become 'contract' work, to the point that companies now rarely hire FT employees, but instead negotiate from pools of temp workers with temp agencies. This is becoming the new norm everywhere it"s possible, and it"s a radical shift of employment to something that is far more precarious than it used to be.
  14. Ed, Thank you for your service all these years! You did great. It has been people like you, Mike Acosta and Jim Stout who"ve been the foundation for my enthusiasm for Roland keyboards. When Roland let Mike and Jim go in the early 2000"s, I have to say, my interest in Roland cooled quite a bit. Actually, it was about a decade before I bought anything new from them again! There were other factors, of course, but I don"t think Roland recognizes, in this small community, the bad blood that can be generated by decisions like these. The intangible work of many in companies is the first they fail to recognize, so when they go through 'cost cutting cycles,' to put it euphemistically, they often cut their own hands off and hearts out in the process, and when things subsequently start to fail.... they have no idea what hit them! I"ve been through many cycles of downturns, throughout multiple careers, and finally had a chance to retire and get away from all the BS forever, despite what I"m told were repeated successes all along the way. I can finally see, looking back, that my successes were very real, and my layoffs had nothing to do with me or the quality of my work. So I"m free to speak my piece now, without the corporate or social media yoke around my neck; freedom is a wonderful thing! I wish you luck with your YouTube channel; I"d much prefer to tune in there than to the many, 'wassup guys' squeegees trained to squeal with joy in return for being bribed with free synths, and offer little of substance or experience in their presentations. You don"t have much good competition out there, honestly. You"re moving out of a dying profession and into a growing one, and I"m sure will have many opportunities. I will subscribe soon. Don"t forget the little guys, like ASM, Baloran, Waldorf, even Moog and Sequential, they all cling by their fingernails in the face of an overload of work every day, and I"m sure could all use your help. Best, Steven
  15. My dream Roland next step would be for them to yes, integrate ACB/DCB with their Integra engine and sampleset in a full, solid workstation. It would be a kind of 'roll your own Roland Classic Synth,' with access to all the existing models of filters and oscillators to mix and match, such as they"ve started to evolve the System 8 towards. Then you could mix those results with anything in Integra (or nothing) you"d like. With the full suite of COSM models, to boot, and Roland"s wide array of tasty and very flexible effects. This could be a real capstone of the company"s efforts the past decade. OTOH Roland is always full of surprises, so it might be something else entirely! The remainder of the System 100/700 modules in their System 500 series; more Boutiques; something entirely new! Will be fun to see, in any event. Just hope they don"t ship it right into a global recession, which seems to be their luck sometimes.
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