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Not enough synths!


Dave Bryce

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I think my next Synth score will be this Modular Analog synth Module:

 

two channel MIDI Interface

 

Gas attack. :sick::sick:

 

I just realized that a couple of those in parallel will provide the 5-6 midi cc's (cc1, cc2 cc4 and 2-3 others) of smoothable analog control, I told myself I could never find in modular land. Must not look. :laugh:

 

Wait, it reads only cc1, cc4 and cc7 right? So I would need a midi controller whose controllers send midi on two distinct channels, than have a device to remap the cc's. I am feeling a bit better but not much. :sick:

 

I read it as Channels 1,3,5, 7 configurable via jumper. So Two interfaces can easily handle 4 discrete channels. So yeah, if you wanted 5 or more "polyphony" some sort of mapper might be needed, that or two discrete transmission sources.

Steve Force,

Durham, North Carolina

--------

My Professional Websites

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I just bought a MoogerFooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter. Runing my Clavinet E7 through it. Should have done this a long time ago.

 

That sounds pretty freaking awesome.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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My most recent hardware acquisition would be the Kore64 expansion board in my PC3x. There's so much good stuff on this that it was almost like getting a new synth. :cool:

 

As far as hardware synths, I spend my sound tweaking time pretty evenly between my PC3x and my Blofeld. Both of these are deep enough to keep me tweaking for years, partly because just one good sound gets me playing for hours! I've had my Blofeld for a year and a half now, and I'm still not sure I've played every preset yet, because I keep getting "distracted" by musical ideas. I suppose that's quite a compliment, and a good "problem" to have! :cool: And as for the PC3x...This beast is so ridiculously deep that I'll probably physically wear it out long before I reach the bottom of its synth capabilities. Otherwise I could almost say it's the last hardware synth I'd need. Don't tell my wife I said that, though! :laugh:

 

Then there are softsynths and iPad apps. I'm still using Cubase 4 with its embedded softsynths on my old XP PC. I've got Arturia's Minimoog, modular and CS80 clones, and Waldorf's Largo. Again, enough synth power here to keep me happy for a long time. For the iPad I've accumulated so many synth apps that I sometimes actually forget about an app or two in it, especially when I get to playing with something new. My latest favorite is Waldorf's Nave. Fun to play, easy to tweak, and sounds so good it's almost hard to believe the sound is coming from my humble iPad2.

 

So yeah, I'll happily confess to being a synth junkie. The difference between now and 30 years ago is that I can now afford all the sounds I could once only dream about! :)

><>

Steve

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I bought some wood for one of my synths.... does that count?

 

The last hardware synth I bought was the Prophet 08. I paid £3,000 for the XF-8 when it was first launched only to find that the end-cheeks were made from MDF!

 

My local master woodworker was very obliging in making up replacements in Mahogany.

 

Complements the P-08 nicely :)

 

http://www.f-music.co.uk/synths.jpg

 

 

Gig rig: Motif XF8,Roland A37~laptop,Prophet 08,Yam WX5~VL70m.

Studio: V-Synth GT,Korg DW8000,A33,Blofeld,N1R,KS Rack,too many VSTs

Freefall www.f-music.co.uk

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Nice! Bonus points for the possibility of confusing a few gear spotters. - "What keyboard is this? Looks sort of like a Motif but has wood endcaps."

 

By the way, they look nice with the black.

 

+1 :thu: Very cool you gig with your Prophet, mine stays at home.

:nopity:
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Alright, I'll start a thread about new softsynt designs, that escape the mire of the always-similar-sounding DAW and standard NI and so on stuff.

 

I could even throw in a spectacularly different-than-most-things FPGA synth design, with dedicated processor, that I never got to make yet, how about that ? Even Open Source!

 

It's the way of the future. New Very High Sampling frequency sampled and "modulatable" designs have to wait until the Parallella board becomes available, or I'm done with some heavy graphics card accellerated high accuracy video processing programs I am working on.

 

Or I have to somehow make the money to get a Prophet 12 (and Chick-Boom), that'd be so cool.

 

T

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I would love to actually play a Prophet 12... I can't find a single demo on YouTube (Or anywhere) that doesn't sound like that P12 is up too loud, overly distorted, and can only play metalic melodies and noises.

 

Can it actually play a classic warm Saw pad? I imagine so, but you wouldn't know it by the demos people upload. Not that we need another boring pad, but it would at least offer a nice reference as to how it sounds compared to other "saw pads". Mountain out of a mole hill? Perhaps.

 

Too bad it's so new that music stores won't even think of puting one on the floor. I guess I'll just play catch up with other synths for now. But if anyone finds a decent well rounded demo of a P12 please post it. Thanks!!!

~ That guy

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have received my Prophet 12 a few days ago. I love it, the first thing that attracts me so much is the interface, really easy and intuitive, I appreciate the fact that, despite its complexity, you can still use it without having to look at the display all the time.

 

And yes, it can do those warm and embracing saw pads even with just one oscillator. I have prepared a few patches using only the first oscillator and some modulations, and I swear it can play really fat. The idea to insert the "character" and the "feedback" sections within the synthesis chain really helps to improve and personalize the sound of the whole instrument, it can be a chameleon, can change its own nature every way *you* like.

 

Unfortunately, I've also found a bunch of bugs, and I already have contacted the DSI support, even though I didn't feel fully satisfied by the first answers I got, but I'm still in touch with them, and hopefully all the issues I have found will be fixed by a new firmware update.

 

As a M.I. manufacturer myself I know how these things go, so I'm confident that they'll find their way to optimize this wonderful synthesizer and make it really worth every single penny it costs.

 

 

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Unfortunately, the K2600 had to be returned. There was a weird flam at the very beginning of the note when I played about half the programs. Weirder still was the fact that it only happened on the first note, then everything was fine after that.

 

Only occurred on the non-piano programs, too, and not every other program as well. Even Kurz tech Support had never heard of the issue. Several hard resets, OS update, diagnostics mode; nothing seemed to help...

 

Ah, well, put the K2500 back in the rig, and back to the quest for the ultimate setup...

 

..Joe

 

PS: Good thing was, while I had the 2500 off the stand I installed 64 meg of sample RAM. These things aren't nearly as hard to open up as people make out!

Setup: Korg Kronos 61, Roland XV-88, Korg Triton-Rack, Motif-Rack, Korg N1r, Alesis QSR, Roland M-GS64 Yamaha KX-88, KX76, Roland Super-JX, E-Mu Longboard 61, Kawai K1II, Kawai K4.
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Broke down and bought a used Jupiter-80 in perfect condition. Compared to my Kronos is it big, heavy, and missing a few knobs and sliders. Even so, I enjoy playing it more than the Kronos. Roland's premium synth action has always been my favorite and the Roland joystick does not feel as fragil as the one on the Kronos. It is also quicker to return to center. If I took just one keyboard on stage I think this would be the one.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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As far as hardware synths, I spend my sound tweaking time pretty evenly between my PC3x and my Blofeld. : And as for the PC3x...This beast is so ridiculously deep that I'll probably physically wear it out long before I reach the bottom of its synth capabilities. Otherwise I could almost say it's the last hardware synth I'd need. Don't tell my wife I said that, though! :laugh:

 

Then there are softsynths and iPad apps. For the iPad I've accumulated so many synth apps that I sometimes actually forget about an app or two in it, especially when I get to playing with something new. My latest favorite is Waldorf's Nave. Fun to play, easy to tweak, and sounds so good it's almost hard to believe the sound is coming from my humble iPad2.

 

So yeah, I'll happily confess to being a synth junkie. The difference between now and 30 years ago is that I can now afford all the sounds I could once only dream about!

 

This is very much like my situation lately. I had no idea how deep the Kurz PC series could go and how much flexibility it has. It is my latest addition (6 months ago). The Ipad apps keep coming as well and the Thor and Nave are just the latest and greatest to keep me busy

Kurzweil Forte 7, Mojo 61, Yamaha P-125,

Kronos X61, Nautilus 73

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Hardware purchases this year:

 

Elektron Octatrack

I originally got it to be a looper for my viola, as well as to use its sequencer to trigger audio slices extracted from recorded loops. I find the learning curve to be quite steep, but have made enough progress to persevere. At some point, I'll start using it to sample synths too.

 

Korg Volca Beats, Bass, and Keys

I preordered these three as a bundle at a good discount. I haven't received them yet, so nothing to report.

 

Software purchases this year - mostly iPad apps:

 

Thor - sounds great, versatile, nice UI, good MIDI implementation

Nave - Waldorf's IOS entry was worth the hype and wait. I plan to explore the ability to generate wavetables from external audio files.

iMS20 - Originally purchased to gain experience with MS20 patching before buying an MS20 Mini. Admittedly, I haven't played with it (or its Korg sibling iPolySix) since getting Thor and Nave.

Orphion - All it does is physical modelling but it's very expressive to play

 

Lust list:

 

Miselu C.24 - 2 octave keyboard for iPad which doubles as a case. Would be perfect for the daily train ride.

 

Casio... oh wait, it's a piano

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Been getting all nostalgic and added a D-110 and U-220 as I want to re-record some old music of mine that used them. D-110 has some nice sounds and the U-220 sounds better than I remember, but will probably program it's sounds into the D-70 (very related) and sell it. Looking at a Minitaur and Volca to add soon.
Roland Fantom G6, D-70, JP-8000, Juno-106, JV-1080, Moog Minitaur, Korg Volca Keys, Yamaha DX-7. TG33, Logic Pro, NI plugs, Arturia plugs etc etc
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Broke down and bought a used Jupiter-80 in perfect condition. Compared to my Kronos is it big, heavy, and missing a few knobs and sliders. Even so, I enjoy playing it more than the Kronos. Roland's premium synth action has always been my favorite and the Roland joystick does not feel as fragil as the one on the Kronos. It is also quicker to return to center. If I took just one keyboard on stage I think this would be the one.

 

Really? That's quite a statement.

 

Of course I haven't even seen either of the Jupiters in any of our local music stores so I can't make a personal comparison. Considering how long it took for GC to get a Kronos in stock, maybe I'll be able to audition a Jupiter-80 right before it's discontinued.

 

:mad:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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I installed the latest OS on my OP-1 to get the new DNA synth and CWO effect. I do like the concept of a synth engine that is based on something unique to a specific unit (in this case the Blackfin processor ID) - it sound sufficiently wacky to satisfy my taste for weird sounds, yet can still be used for tonal stuff (I think). CWO is a frequency shifting delay.

 

In a sense I did get a new synth with this OS update ;)

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I want a Prophet 12 but it's completely impractical for me right now (don't need it for anything that makes money).

 

Love the Prophet 12... First inspiring keyboard I have played in years!

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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  • 3 months later...
Looking at the front page, there's just too many threads about pianos and organs, and not enough synth threads. :cop:

 

So, who's bought a new synth recently? Or what are you lusting after? :idk:

 

dB

 

 

Confession time (I think its on topic): I was thinking of buying another Moogerfooger over the last few weeks. Instead and for the first time ever I started messing with my synth audio inputs. In this case I ran the Voyager into the PEK. I almost didn't know where to begin - but I soon found messing with the filters on both synths to be the holy grail. With all its oscillators turned down the PEK acts like one huge effects device. Having the Voyager filter and both PEK fiilters in series and then the feedback = total Fun. Eventually turning up the PEK's own oscillator (I only needed one)increased the sound exploration by several orders of magnitude.

I always had this on the back burner but some how never got around to it. Next step is to try this with the A6. Anyone else here into this?

 

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Looking at the front page, there's just too many threads about pianos and organs, and not enough synth threads. :cop:

 

So, who's bought a new synth recently? Or what are you lusting after? :idk:

 

dB

 

 

Confession time (I think its on topic): I was thinking of buying another Moogerfooger over the last few weeks. Instead and for the first time ever I started messing with my synth audio inputs. In this case I ran the Voyager into the PEK. I almost didn't know where to begin - but I soon found messing with the filters on both synths to be the holy grail. With all its oscillators turned down the PEK acts like one huge effects device. Having the Voyager filter and both PEK fiilters in series and then the feedback = total Fun. Eventually turning up the PEK's own oscillator (I only needed one)increased the sound exploration by several orders of magnitude.

I always had this on the back burner but some how never got around to it. Next step is to try this with the A6. Anyone else here into this?

 

That's cool!

Steve Force,

Durham, North Carolina

--------

My Professional Websites

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I bought an MS-20 Mini in June. It arrived in September, right in the midst of my busy travel season so I haven't had much time to play it.

 

First impressions are FUN. No knob shortage. The patch cords enable routing for cool effects - sample and hold is my favorite.

 

http://www.coscia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/keyboards-e1386418923996.jpg

 

Business travel has slowed down for the Holidays, so I'll invest more time with it.

Steve Coscia

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