-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

So the Microfreak is fun for easy & quick modulations, especially getting pitch-bending sounds, but it just doesn't sound great in a mix? I feel like I have to either add a pile of effects to make it plausible, or I end up replacing it with samples or a different synth. Not universally true, but it can have a quality that's a little aggressive and brittle/thin.

With the Volca FM, on the other hand, I almost feel bad that I'm barely doing any processing to the sound. It just sounds great raw.

This has become increasingly true, to the point where I've made multiple keeper tracks based on the Volca FM, and will probably sell the Microfreak (RIP).

I'd like to replace it with another desktop synth to complement the Volca, maybe that Modal Skulpt? Any other ideas? Or maybe I'll just pull out the ol' Volca Keys.

I downloaded the demo of U-he Repro 1 and now I want one of the Behringer Pro-1 copies.

https://www.dreadbox-fx.com/chromatic-modules/

$100 a pop, curious as to how they sound. i bought the filter (looks like a MS-20 style make yr own bandpass thing) and the attenuverter/mixer/lfo, awaiting delivery

they sound bad

haha :(

ok, so like the LFO on the attenuverter/mixer/lfo thing was normalled to the final output mix unless you stuck a dummy cable in its output--and the mixer is kinda noisy the LFO acts as a VCA, so you've got triangle-wave amplitude modulated background noise at all times. unless you stick a dummy cable in there, which is very stupid.

the filter was kinda cool but the resonance slider was super super twitchy and i almost icepicked my own eardrums a couple times

That’s a shame. The unconventional approach seemed like the best thing they had going for them, otherwise you might as well stick with Doepfer.

how are you getting along with your digitakt? i am tempted to get the digitakt/digitone combo, or a rytm.

lately i've been playing guitar into a mess of mutable modules and it's fun but i want to do something more composition-oriented and i never finish anything in ableton

i've had the digitakt for about two years now and i love it, it's at the center of everything i make. the lack of song mode and stereo sampling is a limitation, but it's very fast and easy to use

Yep, I use it much more as a sampler and drum machine than a sequencer for my modular but it’s really fast and intuitive.

the other option is trying to bend ableton to my will with the push 2, anyone fuck with one of those?

maybe we should have a gear/process intersection thread, i am always looking for new gear solutions to creative problems which is incredibly stupid.

Not necessarily, I also like creative solutions to gear problems though.

I have a Push 2 but I almost never use it except as a step sequencer - even though I'm a unbelievably shitty keyboard player I can't get used to the pads as an alternative, I don't use the clip mode

Actually, I should look more seriously into crossgrading to Cubase and selling Ableton.

lol whoops i sort of accidentally solved my own problem by lowballing for an octatrack on ebay, the journey begins

Congrats!

I just got a Basimilus Iteritas Alter to sit alongside the Intellijel Plonk. It sounds immense.

i had one of those. it was awesome, i think my shitty monitors didn't do it justice.

i'll be going on a post-octatrack module austerity kick alas

Actually, I should look more seriously into crossgrading to Cubase and selling Ableton.

I've never heard anyone say this but I'm for it

I still use Cubase because it's what I learned on, and it's very fast for me, but it's my secret shame since literally everyone uses Ableton (and the ones that don't use Logic or FL Studio).

I know I'm missing out on easy warping, some crazy effects routing probably, and Max for Live. And that 'Ableton' quality that everything has today (I think of it as a little thin but with a lot of clarity and strong transients), which is a trade-off obviously. But at least I finish tracks, and I get '90s drum & bass pitch-shifting & time-stretching effects for free. :)

I'd like to think that the limitations are good for creativity, but maybe I'm just holding myself back, who knows.

I know a couple people who still use Digital Performer. Just wanted to confess to that. I was using it till I switched to Ableton.

It feels good to know that getting tracks done in Ableton is a common problem. I wish I had better work habits to overcome this.

And that 'Ableton' quality that everything has today (I think of it as a little thin but with a lot of clarity and strong transients)

i've been pondering the x-constructed club sound, like that high-gloss jeff koons balloon dog feel--do you think they are related?

lol @ balloon dog production

But yeah, I really do. A lot of the 'hard drum' tracks in particular sound extremely Ableton to me, maybe has something to do with Drum Buss and some of the stock plugins/samples? I do think that everything being made with similar tools helps them sit together in a dj mix, but also gives it a generic veneer (which has really lost its luster for me, at least in terms of the more maximal/blown-out end of things).

That sounds right to me - everything in Ableton seems too loud because of the way default faders/presets/drum racks are set up. Step one in loading a drum rack is lowering every sample 5-6db.

Bitwig (at least with the demo) has some annoyances recording but a secondhand license can be had very cheap and it's even easier to use for crazy effects chains and stuff (without the scripting power of Max but I'm no coder). No setting up racks, just drop a flanger in the tank of the reverb or w/e.

I've def been curious about Bitwig as a 'best of both worlds' sort of deal, same for Studio One, but haven't had time to mess around with a brand new DAW yet.

In Cubase it's easy to build up an effects chain and re-order the plugins (same as any DAW I'd imagine), not so easy to assign an LFO to anything, say. Although I should probably experiment more with side-chaining effects besides a compressor.

bitwig looks great but i love max for live and the midi effects. i was working on bringing some of my pre-ableton max/msp patches into ableton but i had an unfortunate hard drive meltdown.

interested in what it is about Live that encourages not finishing things? Live user here and I finish things- they are just rubbish! (ha, maybe that means they aren't finished...)

It's very easy to make lots of cool loops in session view and never turn them into an actual track.

I thought I’d be doing my session view work and then recording a performance of shopping and starting them into arrangement, but more often I use the clips as like a pasteboard and just drag them into arrangement view to start structuring a track. Dual monitor is very helpful for this.

With dual monitors you're able to see both at the same time? I'll have to look into this. I have an older version of Live so it might not do this.

Yea and tab swaps them. While shift tab swaps the bottoms so you see the midi info on Jen side and devices in the other. I’m a multiple monitor baby, can’t do anything with one.

Same set up as Dan. I make a bunch of clips in session view then jam them down into the bones of a track in arrangement. then add drops/whatever, melodic elements in arrange.

I can completely see getting stuck making the clips and just jamming, never pressing record- maybe the ominous presence of the arrange view in the second monitor encourage actually making something?

set up a 2nd monitor for imminent telecommuting reasons but am excited to put these ideas into practice

octatrack is wonderful so far, far more approachable and intuitive than its reputation suggests

Social distancing means I've finally started to learn my way around VCV Rack. Please enjoy some noises:

https://soundcloud.com/found-river/dr000446

Cherry Audio made their virtual rack thing free:
https://cherryaudio.com/free

Moog made their Minimoog iPad app free and Korg's Kaossilator app for iOS and Android

The Moog one sounds fantastic, was easily worth the $15-20 it normally costs

Thanks for the heads-up on that Cherry Audio, I'm excited to try something VCV Rack-esque that looks like it fully functions as a VST.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY-5mqkpsUg

50-oscillator ambient drone synth from Russia now available to pre-order.

That sounds cool! I dig the touchpad design. the tiny knobs look like they could be a pain but it's neat that they fit all those controls on such a relatively small box.

LOL @ 2 ppl playing it at once

Finally got a Korg NTS-1. This little guy rules. It has an "open" setting in the envelope generator which means drones for days

Speaking of which, hey drone demons, any fun tricks for creating drones out of audio apart from Paulstretch or infinite reverb? I don't generally venture into these waters but I have a use case.

check the gleetchlab x program i linked in the VST thread, i've been droning by layering tiny samples (bordering on "granular" i guess), looping them, and running them through some of the software's portfolio of wild effects and processors. it's a compiled max/msp patch so there are interface quirks but it is fun as hell.

https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net/softwares/

idk what the demo limitations are cause i bought it after about 5 minutes of playing with it

i know you are not an ableton guy but you could achieve drony results in a similar manner with the granulator ii m4l device modulated with a ton of lfo devices to give the drone a little movement

Thanks! I've got some vsts I can use for LFOs, and maybe I'll try Hysteresis for some granular fx. Maybe just adding a bunch of different layers with different pitches and effects to add movement.

I don't really know where to put this but I love the droney/ambient clips this guy is posting to twitter/youtube from his homemade softsynth:
https://twitter.com/jeonghopark
youtube

It takes visual input for both synth waveform and score data, kind of like Daphne Oram's "Oramics" system, except you no longer need to rig up an overhead projector with thousands of pounds worth of homewired electronics into something the size of your entire living room, you can have it on your laptop.

...I mean, I haven't got any particularly good noises out of it yet myself, but I have faith in ilx:
github for source and Mac/Win installers

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233572384063

dang

this is off topic but being sold by the same dude, the item description is WELL WORTH YOUR TIME https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pyradyne-Owned-by-DR-FRED-BELL-DevaStar-Orb-Patrick-Flanagan-Marcel-Vogel/233557492440

i think it was Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith who was doing a (late junction?) session for the bbc and put polysynthi down as a required for the session because they had one and she'd never seen one.

oh, it's there in the pictures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0422qwl/p0422qr9