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loxley11

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Everything posted by loxley11

  1. Bumping this thread as I’ve picked back up the idea for a functional children’s learning synth exhibit. tldr summary: want to make a basic analog style synth with an interface that is kid-friendly and instructive, for use as a kids museum or science center exhibit. - I think the simplest way to accomplish this would be to build a physically robust hardware interface for an existing soft synth. - I think the simplest way to pay for it would be to appeal to the soft synth manufacturer to subsidize the project in return for advertising printed on the unit. (if anyone has any better suggestions I’m open to ideas) All that being said, seems like the first step would be to select the soft synth. I haven’t really kept up with advances in soft synths over the past 10 years or so (going back to school and having a kid and all), so less familiar with the options. Required features: - 2 oscillators with at least hard sync, coarse and fine pitch controls - square, saw, and tri (or sine) waveforms - LPF with cutoff and resonance control - standard ADSR-type AEG & FEG - at least 1 LFO with common assignments (pitch, amp, PW, LPF cutoff, rez) and standard waveforms (tri/sine, saw up/down, sqr, s/h) Not required, but highly desirable: - mono/poly modes - portamento - noise generator - split mode - pitch envelope generator (at least 2 levels/rates - basic FX (reverb, chorus, delay) - my Matrix 6 let’s you modify the saw osc wave shape to essentially morph it smoothly into a triangle wave. Haven’t seen this on many other units tho. Any products come to mind? I’ve heard good things about the Arturia modelers and the u-he DIVA but not familiar with every feature. Are there any software products that let you custom-build your own soft synth? As always, any input is greatly appreciated. You guys are a remarkable community and I consider myself lucky to be able to pick your collective brains. Thanks! Drew
  2. Anyone ever tried the open source program SynthEdit?
  3. Jazz Piano School podcast (and YouTube videos) have quite a few episodes on one and two handed comping techniques. Check it out. The 'classic' rootless LH voicings are just 3-5-7-9 (all chord types), 3-5-6-9 (M6 and m6), and 3-6-7-9 (dominant chords). Generally keep 3 or 7 on the bottom and use inversions for smooth voice leading. I still prefer 1-3-5-7 for the m7b5 as the 9th can be problematic if used carelessly. There are many other equally useful voicings though, but those are perhaps the most 'systematically' taught. Most jazz education books will have some section about LH voicings (do people still read books these days?)
  4. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. Although what I probably didn"t make clear in my OP was that I was imagining an exhibit for an actual children"s museum. A simple synth with a larger-than-life display that several kids could gather around and interact with at once. Although I"m totally on board with your concept for visuals, stillearning. I pictured two old-school style oscilloscopes for each VCO, showing the saw or pulse waveform (with proper pulse width of course, to illustrate how that affects tone), a screen displaying the ADSR envelope as it"s modified in real-time, and 2nd screen animating the changes in cutoff frequency and resonance. A basic arpeggiator and portamento functions would be cool too, and perhaps an LFO section, if it didn"t make things too complicated. Although my idea was for a museum exhibit, I don"t see why you couldn"t make a scaled-down model for consumer use. I did find a few items like that in my initial search; Blipbox doesn"t even have words on the panel and looks like a toddler could use it. But regarding the original idea, my first two questions are: - where could I find extra durable pots and sliders for the control panel? Sliders would look cool for the envelope generator, but I don"t think they"re as durable as pots, and man those kids can destroy everything (you should see the condition of the old upright piano they have there ð®) - second, what"s involved in making what is essentially a hardware controller for a soft synth? Would you need proprietary data, or are there some open-source synths that would be easy to interface with? Or would it be easier to use the chips from low-cost hardware modulars, like the LittleBits set mentioned above, replacing the pots and buttons with much beefier, sturdier ones?
  5. So I was taking my 5-yr old through our local children"s museum for the umpteenth time, but this time I got an idea: there are all sorts of objects for kids to play on or play with to learn; why not make a kid-friendly, kid-proof synth for them to twiddle with and learn all about sound design? I did a quick search online and didn"t turn up anything. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? My thought was to have a simple soft synth but with a large kid-friendly interface: lots of colorful buttons and knobs on a great big panel with lots of visuals explaining what waveforms and their overtones look like, what a filter does, how an ADSR envelope works, and lines showing the signal path from keyboard to speakers. Most importantly, the analog-style interface would let them edit sound in real-time and hear the results as they twiddle with the knobs. Obviously not for the toddler crowd, but definitely something kids 6-12 could interact with. The software would be the easiest part - just a basic minimoog-style modeler. Customizing the software to the unique interface would be more work. I think the main obstacle would be having ultra-durable or cheap/easily replaceable moving parts. But probably not impossible. Would think something like this could be done for under a grand. Might even be able to get some help from a soft synth company, since it would be great publicity, at least locally, and could definitely get young musicians interested in sound design. Any helpful thoughts or critiques?
  6. Yeah, I had done the same thing a while back with Transcribe! Had it all notated out in Cakewalk too. There's a left hand baseline also. most of what I see above is correct, only I think the Bdim/C mentioned earlier has a G, making it a G/C or G7/C; then it does move to a full dim7. Very much in the baroque style. I used to practice on the big organ at our church, and every now and then, when no one was around, I would pull that one out. Sounds pretty awesome on a giant pipe organ The initial drawbar setting sounds like something simple, 888400000 or even 888000000. Regards, Drew
  7. Hi guys, First posting in this thread; hope my post is in line. I've been working on Stardust lately, as a request from a friend. Does anyone have anything fresh for that song? I like the original chords but the song is so long that they start to get repetitive by the end. One change I particularly like was (in the chorus) to use a bVII(#11)(13) in place of the V over the lyric "love was new" -it descends nicely to the V of ii. How do you treat the first 4 measures of the chorus? This seems like a place that could use some movement - Gb root for three whole measures! Anyway, I'll quit prodding. Thanks for reading, Drew
  8. yeah, me too. first it was only within 6 months, now 4? WTF??!!?? I give up.
  9. still doesn't work. I tried Roland+vk8, roland +vk8, roland AND vk8, RolandANDvk8. What I get is every thread that even mentions a roland. When is the search function going to get fixed? I've pretty much quit using this forum because of the new layout and worthless search function. The search engine here used to be the best one out there, now it's just as bad if not worse.
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