jverghese

From Sound On Sound magazine: "This limitation regarding sustain was the biggest frustration for most Mellotron players and it spawned a unique 'crawling spider' playing technique, whereby sounds would be artificially sustained by playing different inversions of chords before the tapes ran out."

The Chroma is very much an ARP synth, not so much in terms of circuitry, but certainly in terms of voice architecture, and how the modulation routing is built up. On the 2600 or Odyssey, for instance, if you want to modulate the filter by the LFO, you go to the filter section, select (or patch) the LFO as source on one of the CV inputs, and raise the associated slider. The Chroma has the same workflow -- you head to the filter section (called Cutoff), select LFO on one of the three modulation inputs, then raise the depth control for that input. I guess you could call it 'destination centric' modulation routing. In contrast, on a Prophet-5 or MemoryMoog, you go to the modulation source, and press one of the routing buttons to set the destination. The Chroma had very a flexible modulation scheme, allowing you to select almost any source for each modulation input, and most importantly set modulation depth individually for each input. It was actually 'matrix modulation' well ahead of the Oberheim Xpander, and it was all done in software using the THEN latest and greatest 8-bit Motorola 6809 microprocessor. As for the AXXESS, what impresses me at this point is the 3D rendering seen in the video. I really thought they were launching a hardware synth.

By the way, when you say 'Octave', are you referring to the software package that is similar to Matlab? I'm a bit surprised that 16 angular positions is enough for such an authentic sound. I assume you interpolate between adjacent pairs of IRs, in a similar fashion to what the vibrato scanner does. Great work anyhow.

Very pleasant and natural sound. Always nice to see a sim that is not 'obsessive' with the Doppler effect. Percussion sounds great, too. It would be interesting to hear how it sounds with brighter drawbar settings.

Day job: Engineering manager at a company in the electrical utility field. Sideline: Analog and digital synth design. I always wanted to work in the music biz, but the music industry sector is minimal in my country (apart from two major speaker manufacturers, which are located too far away from civilization).

I had a lowly Yamaha YC-10 combo organ as a kid, my first keyboard instrument. I sometimes hated it because it wasn't a Hammond. It was only after I had sold it that I realized it had the same super smooth 'paddle' controls as the mighty CS-80. 😀

Indeed, most big names used the CS-80 in the late '70s, including the guy in the Fame tv-series (whom I was super envious of), but Vangelis was one of the few who made full use of the special features like aftertouch and ring mod.

Sounds exciting. I believe this is the first product to use a 4-octave TP8SK action, previously only 5- and 6-octave versions have been available, as in the Quantum. Personally, I prefer the TP8 over the omnipresent TP9, because of the longer key sticks. Anyhow, I wonder if the poly pressure thing is something Waldorf have added themselves, or if it is provided by Fatar. The shorter key travel might point to the former, but who knows. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Some 15 - 20 years back I ordered spare parts for my RMI 368 from Allen Organ. I was really surprised they were still available, and Clark Ferguson at Allen Organ was very helpful. The good thing about these "horrible" instruments was that they forced you to be creative, if you had some patience and talent (I never had). Here's a good article on RMI: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/rmi-keyboards-retrozone

That was completely unexpected, to me at least. I too meant to re-read the "Prophet From Silicon Valley" book, not least because of the great story, and the funny anecdotes. Now I'll be reading it with a different perspective.

As mentioned, the MIDI protocol does not allow transmission of multiple contact data. To circumvent that, you could transmit different types of contact data on different MIDI channels. As an example, normal low trigger point with velocity on channel 0, high trigger point with fixed velocity on channel 1, and low trigger point with fixed velocity on channel 2. It is then up to the receiver to decide which contact data to utilize. That's a lot of real-time data for a 31250 baud channel, obviously, but I think it could work. In fact, I'd be surprised if it hasn't already been done.

A true legend, Tom Oberheim. Incidentally, the video also reminded me of another legend (and often unsung hero) that is Dave Rossum. It's incredible how much he contributed to the synth industry -- from the Oberheim VCOs and keyboard scanning to the SSM chips and voice boards of the rev1/2 Prophet-5. Not to mention all of the E-mu stuff he was responsible for.

[video:youtube] Favourite quote (in reference to the 2021 set list): "Obviously there's no new music in the set, which, for most people in the audience is something of a relief, actually. (laughs)" -- Tony Banks

Yes, a slow vibrato coupled with echo or reverb can sound really good -- candy for you ears, especially in contrast to all of that that multi-oscillator EDM stuff you hear on the radio (although I like some of that too).

Bill, I sent you a PM.

Kiitti Jyrki, didn't know about that, will check it out!

Sometimes a single-oscillator synth sound run through a slap-back echo or good reverb can sound refreshingly original compared to the 'usual' buzzing of two or more oscillators. But you need a good oscillator, and fortunately the Pro Soloist had that. To stay on topic, here's another vote for a good recreation of the ARP/Rhodes Chroma. Another synth I would like to see emulated (although it probably never will happen) is the Knifonium tube synth, because I hear it sounds great, but could never afford one.

I've been working on a successor to the ProSoloist+ rack unit I made years back, I think it was in 2009. However, the current component shortage has made it almost impossible to proceed with the project, and that is annoying the hell out of me right now. Incidentally, I was looking in my archives the other day and found a demo VSTi that I had intended to use to demonstrate the emulation algorithms developed for the rack unit. I can share it if anyone's interested. Executables or zip files cannot be uploaded here, but I can try to make it available some other way. It's Windows only, unfortunately.

Well, my prejudices are exposed. #5 seemed weaker than the others (not only in terms of volume), so I automatically assumed that was the senior contestant (NE2). Interesting how many people seem to appreciate, or even prefer, the 'first generation' Leslie sims such as the one in the NE2. The Ventilator (which of course wasn't represented in this shootout) belongs to this category as well, and still has a strong following. Personally, I tend to prefer the later, more advanced Leslie sims that more realistically model the resonances captured by placing the mics close to the cabinet. It's also interesting to note how an organ shootout often becomes a rotary sim shootout -- the rotary effect being such an integral part of the organ sound. At least to me it did. Adding sound clips of C/V and percussion was therefore very welcome. Many thanks to Scott for all the work.

Incidentally, I have been using the Amplitube/T-Racks Leslie a lot (same as the B-3X Leslie), so I find it fairly easy to identify. I fully understand it would require a lot of tweaking to get the various models to sound similar (or like the reference track). No problem there, this is an interesting shootout anyhow. I also agree that even if you do a lot of tweaking, most models still have their own characteristic 'voice' that comes through. Interesting that you had to tweak the B-3X chorus to make it stand out. One would think they'd had got that right from the 'factory'. As for the other clips, my guesses are: 1 - VB3m (wide spectrum, but with a certain flatness) 2 - Gemini (expecting this to be similar to the VB3m, but perhaps with a twist - brightness) 3 - SK Pro (dark, yet beautifully resonant) 5 - Electro 2 #1 and #2 could be the other way round. Or I could of course be completely wrong.

Ah yes, the bleed. Absolutely worth mentioning.

Chorus demo: 1 - Both the rotary and chorus simulations sound simplistic (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). A very neutral but somewhat flat sound. 2 - Simplistic again, and rather shallow and bright. Difficult to tell the difference between chorus and rotary effects. 3 - Nice and deep rotary effect, but it completely overshadows the chorus. 4 - Complex and detailed. Rotary and chorus are clearly discernible. Again, this must be the B-3X. 5 - Work in progress Percussion demo: 1 - Academic sounding - a demonstration of additive synthesis 2 - Bright but workable 3 - Dark but nicely ...organic 4 - Very authentic and balanced. Nice resonances as you hit certain notes, just like the real thing. 5 - Forgettable I'm beginning to like number 3 more and more. Funny how number 4 (which I believe is the highly acclaimed B-3X) did not sound too great for Yours..., but perhaps some tweaking could have made it more like the original (180 deg mic position instead of 90 deg?).

I love these shootouts. Some quick observations: 1 - Nice overall sound, perhaps a bit too bright and generic, though 2 - Overdrive mainly affects low frequencies, overall sound is too electronic 3 - Resonant rotary effect, which is interesting, but sounds too flanger-like 4 - Very detailed and authentic rotary effect, identifiably IK Multimedia 5 - Odd tonality, not unusable, but not a favourite

Great, Alan. Some day I will finish that, ehm, third model...

Yes, they create a nice atmosphere -- gotta love the guys!