CyberGene

So, what is it? I didn’t have patience to watch more than half a minute to hear if he explains it. Probably a fancy way to say “wolf pack”?

Stop watching YouTube. The SNR is so low I always feel wasted after one hour of almost completely meaningless content. Could’ve practiced instead, or read a book, or listened to music. Even watching Netflix is more satisfying.

Not sure if the Minimoog first introduced the hinged control panel above the keyboard but to me it’s the most beautiful/iconic looking synth. And an honorable mention. I really love the military design of the Soviet Polivoks:

The grey Triton is IMO the ugliest and cheapest looking keyboard one can see on stages.

Yes, listened to them today. I'm still not convinced by the Atmos stuff, to me it's not even a gimmick because it just doesn't work for me. I've been trying it on my AirPods Pro and HomePod but there's not a lot of surround effect audible, more like a very short delay/echo. I even tried creating a custom ear profile for my AirPods Pro by making pictures of my head, etc., it's something Apple introduced in a recent update but I think it even made it worse than the generic profile. As to this album, I've been trying to like it but I just can't... I already started feeling a certain aversion to it. And the very first chords of the first track Panopticum are so cheesy, I just can't be quick enough to change it. I believe in a week I won't even remember this album... 🤨

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I listened a few times through both mixes in my car this week. Frankly, I am a bit disappointed with the album, despite all the raving reviews, so can hardly speak which mix I prefer but I caught myself checking which mix was one track that I thought sounded better and it was the dark mix.

That’s a possibility too. We can only rely on algorithms (AI?) to hear new releases nowadays but it works by suggesting similar music to what you already have, so it’s kind of siloed…

Well, that’s an interesting phenomenon that I’ve observed too. There’s a huge interest in (vintage) analog synths and you can hear how YouTube reviews and audio demos are all about patches that sound “old”, or should we say nostalgic, yet you would basically hear no such sounds in any music production nowadays. It’s only the so called synthwave that got traction but first, it’s a niche genre for the same synth nerds, and second, it’s an imitation/revival genre, so not exactly a new application of vintage synth sounds. Which leaves us with people buying those modern analog synths out of nostalgia, because they lusted for them in the past but couldn’t afford them. And they can buy them now.

I have the Take 5. Sounds creamy. I’m in the minority that loves how portable and compact it is. But it gives me nothing that the Hydrasynth couldn’t give me. And then I hate all these synths (UB-XA included) where you load a patch and the pots are not reflecting the actual value. Which is why I tried to sell it but nobody seems interested and I won’t give it away. So for now it stays mine.

Nice but €300 for an upgrade from my current v8 is a bit steep. Will pass for now. But at €100 would have purchased it.

Sure but some pianos more than the others 😉 I guess it’s hard to generalize but from my occasional reading of PW technician forums I’ve seen a lot of bashing for Steinway and how their quality can be all over the place whereas Yamaha seem to have consistent quality and better durability, preferred for servicing, regulation and restoration.

Very valuable info, thanks. I’m wondering if such a thorough reconditioning would have been necessary if it was a Yamaha. Not meaning to start any Steinway VS Yamaha war 😉

Actually it was me who misquoted ProfD by using “rompler”, while in fact he’s usually referring to workstations that offer many types of synthesis, not just sample-based (which is what rompler implies).

If you can describe a sound as buzzing, it’s saw, not sine 😀

I've been thinking a lot about that common assumption of synths as an infinite playground where you can basically create any possible sound there is. And of course, there's always minute differences between all the zillions of patches on earth, especially taking in mind all possible synthesis methods, and different implementations, and different synth programmers, etc, etc. Even two Minimoogs won't sound exactly the same. But then, if you look at all that from above, because that's how we listen to music, aren't all possible sounds actually a limited set of general sound types, like e.g. some synth brasses, brighter, duller, some more analog, some more digital, reso, no-reso, then strings, pads, leads, basses, bells, etc., etc. you name it, but ultimately a collection of, say, 1000 patches would cover the entire spectrum. And it leads me to a common refrain by @ProfD about how the big manufacturers have been rehashing sounds on their romplers for ages. Well, yes, because what revolutionary new sounds there can be? 😉

This may have already been discussed in the thread but around Beethoven's time some instruments, especially brass (and probably woodwinds) could only play well the diatonic tones of a limited number of keys. Maybe that was also a factor when choosing key?

Man, this thread makes me feel so sad 😞 I’m so glad my parents dissuaded me from studying music 30 years ago and I became a software engineer instead.

I have no time to read the entire thread, so I’d be thankful if someone can summarize the consensus on the Stage 4. I guess it’s the best keyboard available today? 🧌

Most of the time when I try to replay in my head some of the most famous classical works, I get it right, for instance Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, those (in)famous G G G Eb. But other times I can be up to two semitones off 😕

If I listen to that video without paying a lot of attention, I wouldn't think there's some special instrument with different type of control/expression. Sounds like he's using pitch band and modulation. I guess what's actually important from a keyboardist's standpoint, and gets lost in the context, is that he uses his left hand on the Rhodes instead of "wasting" it on the pitch/mod wheels. Basically, it's a practical upgrade that allows you to use only your playing hand to also create pitch/mod controls. But is it really ground-breaking or deserving an uncontrolled flatulence AKA GAS. Well, at least to me, not. And while we're again at J3PO, I love the guy and he's one of the brightest young keyboardist, I'm envious of his feel and improvisation skills. But, I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of that particular style of improvisation, does it have a name, with a lot of R&B licks? There's another player called Mike Pensini who also does it and to my ears it just cheeses it out a bit too much.

To be honest, I also kind of hear some difference between the real OB-Xa and the UB-Xa in that video, and I prefer the former (but I may be influenced by what I'm seeing). Maybe in a blind test I will fail. But before being accused of joining Jim's team, I think that the best software emulations nowadays can emulate the real thing pretty well, or maybe even better than the Behringer 😀 So, why bother with either a real OB or a Behringer. Just get a GForce, or whatever your flavor is, there are many of them now.

+1, same here in Bulgaria. I'd go even further than that. It's about politics, geopolitics and woke culture. But I know how just saying the magic trigger-word "woke" here will suddenly make certain people burst, I will say no more. It's a sad world we live in. But maybe some people don't feel like that. I really hope that's the case. Because I have some suspicions those same people are actually never happy about anything. They just want everybody to be angry about anything. Just like them.

I don't disagree with that but unless we're talking about small independent developers, the big companies such as PA should have at least one QA/integration engineer to always test their set of plugins with various OS/platforms. It doesn't take much and can basically be done in a few hours. I'm not saying they need to jump into fixing their plugins right away (although why not?), but at least there needs to be some clarity and transparency with their customers. I have never received an email from PA that says something along the lines of: since you're a customer of this and that plugin, we would like to inform you that they won't work with the forthcoming macOS update and we're doing our best to support and will let you know as soon as possible.

I’ve had problems with one of the PA plugins, the Knifonium (citing the name off my memory, might not be exact) even before Ventura and they said it was not compatible with some of the previous macOS update. The other PA plugin I have, the Oberhausen, has been OK. So, yeah, indeed I’ve had problems with PA, now that you mentioned it. But I think it may also be a developer issue since the API-s and betas are available long before the official release and apparently they do nothing to test and fix and wait for people to start complaining. Not a huge fan of PA for that reason although both plugins sound really good.