Guest Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Hi, In the 80´s, when there were new synths coming out each and every year and the NAMM show was a fest for gear heads like myself, there was this eagerness for creating new sounds. Of course this was helped by new technologies coming out every so often and a good price point. The introduction of products like Roland Juno-6 (affordable polysynth), Korg Polysix (affordable and programmable), Yamaha DX7 (definitely new sounds, velocity senitive and MIDI), Roland D-50 (Native Dance), Korg M1 (wavetable synthesis) was followed by new and exiting sounds on demos and records from every part of the globe. Since the Korg M1 there has been fairly little real development in machines generating new sounds. Most companies seem to be putting their R&D efforts in refining existing concepts or making modeling synths simulating old synths. Some hope can be seen in the plug-in market where old synths that were very good but too expensive are now hitting the market. Native Instruments' Pro-52 and Waldorf's PPG 2.v are excellent examples of this. The low price combined with the ease of use may get some new milage out of these classics. The ever increasing processing power of computers may take products like Native Instruments' Reaktor into exciting and unchartered sonic waters. That, however, remains to be seen. Now someone please prove me wrong in my pessimistic thoughts that the tools for making musical and playable sounds are not forthcoming. Maybe they are even already out there? What tools are you using to make musical noise? I'm open to all suggestions but am most interested in thngs you can play in real time from a MIDI keybard or guitar. Thanks for helping out! Mats Nermark Kungsbacka Sweden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alphajerk Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 um, you can load anything you want into a sampler and play it to your hearts content. maybe thats not what you were getting at. alphajerk FATcompilation "if god is truly just, i tremble for the fate of my country" -thomas jefferson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uh Clem Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 I think you can go pretty far with a mic and resonating found objects. Steve Powell - Bull Moon Digital www.bullmoondigital.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richt Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 I have to agree with steve. I was really into synths/samplers in the 80's/early 90's and then got into digital recording/manipulation and the synths disappeared. It is so much easier to create your own ear candy using the tools of today. If you have a midi keyboard you can play sound files back (with the Gigasampler this got taken to the next level). I rarely use the synths anymore, I just have fun creating the timbres by really playing something and then tweaking it in the computer/processor until the ear's content! Ciao, Richt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 Originally posted by stevepow: I think you can go pretty far with a mic and resonating found objects. Ooh, now you're talking my language. I do not even own a synthesizer. It's so much more rewarding and unique to experiment with different weird sounds that you can get with a mic, effects processing and whatever you can find around the house. I tried to explain this to someone the other day who was looking for a drum machine. When I lived in an apartment and couldn't play loud, I used to use a cardboard box for a kick drum and a paper bag for a snare and crumple a piece of plastic wrap between my fingers for a shaker. Add some reverb or whatever and you can get some amazing sounds. WAY more fun and creative than a drum machine. I don't think this guy "got it", though. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif And this was all with 4 track analog - nowadays with computers and such you can REALLY go nuts! --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2000 Share Posted October 11, 2000 Cool...don't forget "water cymbals"...take a metal cooking pot with a little water at the bottom. Gives some reeeaaally bizarre sounds. There's a British indie band called Big Block 454 that does a lot of experimental stuff. I'll try and find their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faeflora Posted October 14, 2000 Share Posted October 14, 2000 ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG you engineers! Blah, synthesis is very alive! Plugins and fx are cool but sythesis is cooler! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif Ok, I'm a synthesist so I care about this a lot... Well I think that there have been a few interesting synths released in the past few years-- Kawai K5000- 128 formant with envelope additive synthesis and more Roland JP8000- and other analogue modeling synthesizers are a variant on the old analogues but it's a good use of DSP. Sample Based Sythesis- I think it shouldn't be dismissed. Representational samples can really kick ass nowdays! It's not quite pure synthesis but it's a cousin. I think it would be cool to see a keyboard with a built in sampler and with knobs for the mod matrix and filters etc. I know that there's sampling keyboards but blah, they're menu driven. I want a keyboard with a screen so I can name my samples, load them and then tweak them with knobs! I think that the synthesis engine is not as important as the sound that is produced. Lots of synthesizers have identical types of engines-- subtractive, additive, wavetable etc but they all sound different. Different synth, different manufactuer=different sound. I was fuking around in guitar center a while ago on the Waldorf Microwave XT. I have a wave-based synthesizer but this sounded sooo different! ok, that's it. F. If you live in the Washington Metro area, check out Slave Audio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 14, 2000 Share Posted October 14, 2000 Originally posted by tedsblues@yahoo.com: Cool...don't forget "water cymbals"...take a metal cooking pot with a little water at the bottom. Gives some reeeaaally bizarre sounds. There's a British indie band called Big Block 454 that does a lot of experimental stuff. I'll try and find their site. Yeah, water is great for cool sounds. Water filled glasses, water filled hoses, dripping water on different surfaces. Anybody seen STOMP? I'm really not into "experimental music" per se, but I do like to put interesting sounds into more conventional songs for coloration. --Lee [This message has been edited by lflier@mindspring.com (edited 10-13-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 14, 2000 Share Posted October 14, 2000 I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Nord Modular or the Kyma Capybara. Talk about ability to come up with new sounds.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted October 14, 2000 Share Posted October 14, 2000 I'm definitely down with software synthesis. It makes it possible for me to create so many cool sounds I was never able to do with a keyboard synth. Programs like VAZ Modular, Reality, and Reaktor are amazing to play with if you're into sounds. Better yet, there are also plug-ins to warp those sounds beyond recognition. Compared to a "real" synth, the biggest problem is that this is a construction process, not a real time playing process. How long that will remain the case is uncertain, as computers are getting so fast that latency will probably cease to be an issue. But most "real" synths aren't very player-friendly anyway...especially the 80s-type models with calculator keypads and a 2-line LCD. What I also like about software synthesis is you can usually capture the sound to disk. This makes it easy to create sounds you can load into a sampler, or play from a software sampler. Yeah, I really like virtual instruments!! Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Triny Posted October 14, 2000 Share Posted October 14, 2000 Originally posted by Anderton: . But most "real" synths aren't very player-friendly anyway...especially the 80s-type models with calculator keypads and a 2-line LCD. Eventually some HW vendor will realize that you can combine laptop/lcd technology, Win2000 embedded with a keyboard/controller and Native Instruments software. That's the synth I want! -david abraham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted October 15, 2000 Share Posted October 15, 2000 >>Eventually some HW vendor will realize that you can combine laptop/lcd technology, Win2000 embedded with a keyboard/controller and Native Instruments software. That's the synth I want!<< Interesting you'd mention that. CreamWare showed something along those lines at the Frankfurt show earlier this year. It was basically a computer and monitor with a keyboard attached, and dedicated to running software synthesizers. There was some confusion about whether this was going to be a "real" instrument, or something developed more for dealers to demo software synths (particularly the ones for CreamWare's sytesms). But even if this doesn't happen, someone else will tumble to the same concept. Years ago I predicted that computers would have synth cards you could plug in -- a minimoog card, an oberheim card, whatever. Well, I was pretty close to totally wrong, as the world went to a single, universal sound card concept. But at least the "resurrect your vintage synths in a ccomputer" idea survived with software synths! Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2000 Share Posted October 16, 2000 Hi guys, I really appreciate all your input and have started to look into several suggestions. As creation is a never ending process I hope you keep the suggestions and opinions coming in! Thanks. Mats Nermark Kungsbacka Sweden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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