-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

Synths, synths, synths, let us talk about all the synthesizers

They're great instruments.

SYNTH FACT OF THE DAY: Despite performing what is called "photosynthesis", plants are in fact NOT synthesizers.

do you a favorite synthesizer?

Are you an old school analog synth fetishist?

Fave synth, that's a hard question. I like synths where every function has a knob you can twist, so let's go with that. The Yamaha CS-80 is my dream machine, though. The recent Dave Smith synths like Prophet 12 are good contenders for My Fave Synth as well.

Analog synths do sound great (I own a Microbrute) but some of the analog-fetishism (or rather digital hatred) can seem ridiculous for some. After all, it's the player that makes an instrument sound good, not the other way around.

Speaking of analog and fav synths, if I owned this synth I would be happy for the rest of my life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imuCQ3Do6lk

I am interested in what envelopes and VCAs sound like, usually the first thing I do when I check out a synth is how "snappy" the envelopes can get, how nicely the VCAs and filters respond to it, the percussive qualities. Buchlas sound like "pk" then "pup" then "plup". ARP 2600s sounds like "clk" then "cluck". Rolands and new DSIs do not have any percussive qualities that are as useful as those synths.

I love the sound of FM synth + analog filters these days and have been tooling around with a couple of Mutable Instruments objects that are very interesting. Switchable tuning! turn a knob and it's real, it's Pythagorean, pretty cool stuff.

FM synthesis definitely needs a comeback

My first encounter with FM synth (outside of pre-pubescent .cmf programming, and I didn't really get what was happening) (ditto a DX7 in high school) was with a Nord Wave, where it was suddenly like oh! I don't need to artificially create an overtone series? I really love the pairing of FM oscillators and analog filters, the Mutable stuff has been super fun. A friend of mine has a... Wave, PPG? what is it. Something like that. The big one. I played around with it but again the envelopes were mushy, it was all tone and no snap.

A studio I worked in had a CS-80 and it's not all that. When it came time for futuristic polysynth it was always the Jupiter 8-- which at this point has an equally ridiculous price tag

I know the CS-80 is mostly associated with Vangelis sounds although it is capable of more and may be not that great after all... but just look at that design! It seems like no other synth that came before and after the CS series has the same looks/design influences. As far as reliability goes.. at least it's not the PolyMoog.

Actually, now that I think about it, the Polymoog DOES share some design similarities with the CS-80

The CS-80 is surprisingly difficult to get into "dialling in" a sound, its interface isn't as intuitive later synths. Also tbrr I need MIDI or CV/gate connectivity, have the computer play the line while I work with the sound, and I don't know if that's a possibility for CS-80s (or if any owner would go for it if it was)

I don't have much use for MIDI to be honest, sitting at a computer and programming notes, I am unable to work like that (and I tried). It just doesn't give me the same kind of joy that touching a keyboard while twisting knobs does. But it's helpful when I need to synchronize several synthesizers.

You can also buy a MIDI kit for your CS-80 at a bargain price of 470 £!

Hmm, I get you. My process is this: typically I dial in a sound, record the take simultaneously as MIDI info and as audio, then save the patch (if applicable). When the song develops and suddenly I realize the synth is too glassy or too dark or whatever, or just wrong, I just feed the already-recorded MIDI info back into the synth and fix the patch in realtime. Not so fastidious, just an easy way to make changes.

A side note to this is that I've gotten so enamoured of my ARP 2600 that I rarely use any analog poly synths, I typically track each voice monophonically using MIDI-to-CV. The signal-to-noise on the ARP is so ridiculously low that you can track 10+ tracks of it and still have silence (provided you keep the spring muted). I love my ARP. I bought it with the money from a soul-destroying film gig several years ago, best decision ever-- though I'm told the Cwejman 2600alike is just as good/better (and cheaper and easier to service)

I usually dial in a sound, play along to the track and slightly change the settings until it fits in well, record (often with a metronome) and hope for a good take or two. Sounds risky and not as professional as your method, but personally I don't like having all these "safety nets" while working on creative stuff. Having this slight tenseness helps me concentrate and evaluate certain synth sounds, mixes and parts more. Like, every part you record could be the last one of your life.

The ARP 2600 is awesome and I wish I could own one. In fact, I wish I could own every classic monosynth. I'm more of a poly guy anyway, although in our multi-tracking DAW age monophonic synthesizers work just as well for me.

Speaking of awesome monosynths, Soviet synthesizers are rarely talked about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMpElp0a_Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rceP4hDkXi4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYEYzPW6mes

i was digital only for a few years but i'm getting into using analog synths more and more. it's baby steps, but i've been using a Microbrute (running straight audio) and i just got the Korg Volca Keys (controlled via MIDI).

i know a lot of dudes who are more into messing around with old gear and than they are into making records and i never want to be that, so i'm just getting hardware when i'm having a specific sound that i'm not satisfied with the digital version of.

speaking of, i really do think they both have their place...soft synths can sometimes cut through a mix much more easily.

haven't messed around with FM synthesis yet but i really want to, probably going to get NI FM8 to learn on.

"Always appreciate all kinds of synths and syntheses." - Synthfucius

Speaking of digital synths and new purchases - I'm about to get a Yamaha AN1x for 250 €. Way underrated VA synth in my opinion. And even if I don't need its sounds I can use it as a MIDI controller with velocity and aftertouch and whatnot.

Jordan, I agree with you re: creating music vs. farting around, but making bloopy shit can be fun and even cathartic sometimes.

Anyone get a Microbrute? Looks pretty sweet, especially for the price.

I use a Prodigy that someone in our practice space owns, and I love it, but the newer Moog stuff is $$.

I also just bought Korg Gadget for my iPad mini, which is pretty neat. I cannot find a software synth that comes close to sounding as good as the Prodigy, though.

Whoops just saw your post Jordan. What do you think of the Microbrute? Can you get big, squelchy sounds out of it?

i loooove it, and yes. mostly i've been using it for thick saw basslines and square-ish leads, and lfo chaos. it's very intuitive imo.

Awesome. I think I'm gonna get one. I wish it had another octave, and full-size keys, but other than that it looks sweet.

Unfortunately my main keyboard (Nord Electro) does not have pitch/mod wheels.

Also, I got to play a Jupiter 8 on our latest record, and DAMN that is fun to play.

Does anybody want to recommended sites or tutorials for gaining a practical understanding of synthesis? All I do is play with free VST synths at this point and I get the basics but I want to have a better handle on it.

Also own a Microbrute - it's brilliant. The minikeys aren't as shitty as on the MicroKorg, allowing you play quite smoothly. And it can do anything from exquisite to big and squelchy.

St3ve, check out the Synth Secrets series, should teach you a bit (start from the bottom): http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Oh yeah, I had started in on those Synth Secrets articles but gotten sidetracked, thanks for reminding me.

i've had the most luck looking on youtube for either the VST i'm working with or general synthesis tutorials.

what are your favorite synths for bass sounds? that's the #1 thing I'm lacking right now. I've got an Oberheim Matrix 6 (I finally got it fixed!) which makes some really lovely & mellow sounds, and I also recently bought an MS-20 Mini but haven't done anything too ambitious with it yet.

the Matrix isn't very good for heavy tweaking on the fly though

read that as heavy twerking on the fly

uhm, I think your MS-20 mini should be able to produce some great bass sounds, although I personally don't like the KORG Sound, it's just too.. "crispy" and "defined" for my taste.

The MS-20 is a fabulous bass synth, probably the best currently-available combo going, in that regard? I always forget about it! So great.

yay for fixed matrix!

my fave bass machines are juno 60 & pro one

i'm in a snit with vintage machines at the moment though since my really fucking expensive prophet 5 hasn't worked at all since i got midi installed

Vintage synths can be so uncompromising, that's why I like them

Well, until they stop working of course.

ha. it wouldn't hurt so much if it didn't sound so incredible when it's working

Speaking of vintage synths, I just realized how much 70's and 80's library music has this sci-fi synth soundscape thing going on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_HMqlO28E

So many broken synthesizers. ;_;

Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Synths

Actually I'm wondering: Has anyone here played a Synclavier?

no, but if i did i would make it say jammin on the one

I am fascinated/curious about what makes people say this or that synth is good for particular applications, or how to to understand the different character of different synths besides the dry technical details about oscillators and such. e.g. electricsound says he likes the Juno 60 for bass sounds but for whatever reason I associate Juno 60s more with string pads and like mini Moogs or Korg SH101s with bass sounds? Maybe those are just more obvious cliches?

Yeah, it's interesting since I always thought synths to be sonic all-rounders, even with their various configurations and designs. But maybe some people like the sonic capabilites of, let's say, an ARP Odyssey more than the capabilites of a Minimoog in terms of bass/lead/pad?/... sounds.

personally when i say the 60 is good for bass it is because it has nice snappy envelopes and very tight but not wooly low end. it can do string pads well too though, it it a p amazing machine tbh. i appreciate it even more now after five years than i did in my initial rushes of excitement when i first got it

also i have never played a minimoog or sh101

i need to step up my pad game

One day I'll type out my synth adventures but not today. I own a lot of synths. Maybe I will type it. Here we go.

Juno-106 - great entry level synth. Start here and end here if you plan to own house or children. Only issue is that the oscillators like to burn out, and replacing them involves ordering chips and soldering.

Juno-Alpha - teeny tiny, the B is velocity sensitive, super light, super durable, mine got the shit kicked out of it and it still works. There is a cool fifth- and sixth-stage on the envelopes, it's like an ADADSR, so you can make stuttery sounds. It is a pain to program. I bought a PG-300 (the programmer) from a guy who was looking at me like I was a sucker and then I sold it to somebody and understood what a sucker looks like. This takes a little effort to program properly but it's easier than a DX-7. It's good if you're somebody who needs to travel light.

Juno-60 - I think it's this one that has the miracle arpeggiator. Any time I want to do something arpeggiated I borrow one of these guys. I have never owned one but I use them a tonne. It receives clock in so you can send it pulses from Logic using beat mapper to live drum takes and have the arpeggiation stay in time. It also has CV-out so you can double it up with an ARP or a Minimoog. The "ensemble" function is famous and it sounds good, I never felt comfortable using it because any time I turn it on it's like "oh, that sound". This is a great synth and I'd own one except that I own a Jupiter 8.

Jupiter-8 - a weird synth. It's hella expensive, I bought it with a film score budget for a sci-fi movie. It is heavy (a two-person lift, really) and runs hot. The envelopes are too mushy to be really useful for percussion but they are good for bass and pads. I was working on a film where the director hated synthesizers, and he came by the house and kept asking for any noodles to be removed, he just wanted lame-ass indie piano/ukelele plunky-plunks. The Jupiter was the one exception, he loved the Jupiter. It does sound otherworldly, like The Best Synth Ever! But its arpeggiator sucks, it can't be controlled without MIDIfying it (and the kits are poorly reviewed so I haven't done it), it's not particularly routable, and it's too heavy and expensive to really be useful in any home studio. Mine is out on semi-permanent loan to a friend's studio until I get my own space for it, which will probably never happen. I don't know what to do with it, it's kind of like having a convertible in the garage.

Nords - they sound bad. There is something in that frequency spectrum that drives me crazy. Their pianos and organs sound "realistic" without sounding good, and they never sound good in a band. Nord synths are slightly better but still bad-sounding. All that said, I travel with and play a Nord Wave because it's light, it samples, the FM synths sound good, it's got built-in delay and reverb. You have to wrestle hard with these synths to make them sound good but the lightness, durability and usability makes it work it.

Nord Modular - especially these ones. Capable of sounding unbearably good. This is a DSP-run synth where you built a virtual modular on your PC and upload it into the hardware. Like, you drag and drop your modules on to an environment and connect them with patch cords. Super steep learning curve and, like other Nords, sounds terrible 99% of the time, but it worth it for that 1%. I am a thief, not a programmer, I download other people's architectures and tweak them. I have a Memorymoog clone on mine that is so precise in its emulation that it's uncanny. My Nord Modular is my DX-7 and my drum machine, what a great synth. Any time I need to do a shitty film score real quick I turn it on and the score is done.

ARP 2600 - my favourite synth ever, and the only one I use on recordings that I want to be proud of. It never sounds bad. The envelopes are enormously flexible, the CV modulation is amazing, you can build anything and get absolutely lost in creating self-generating patches. Sometimes if I have a houseguest I make a seagull + seashore patch and put it in their room. The spring is noisy but is fun to route sound through it and then back into other things. I am sending mine in to a synth spa in Savannah to get the ring modulator repaired and the connections tricked out. There is no HPF so you have to figure that out if you want to make hi-hats. There is no MIDI, but I use a lightpipe-to-CV converter; the added control of the Silent Way plug-ins is miraculous. I wish I was at home playing with this synth right now. Todd Terje says that the Cwejman S1 is just as good, better in other ways, and less expensive and that he's been using that these days instead of his ARP.

Mutable Instruments - I have a Shruthi and an Ambika. They are both totally awesome but I haven't found a use for either of them just yet.

I have a modular, too. I've lost a week of my life into creating beautiful, useless music with it, but haven't cracked it yet, made it feel like an instrument. I'll type about it another time.

the 106 is weird, i can't stand the results i get from playing one, but other people seem to be able to coax really nice things out of it

i impulsively bought an electribe sampler from a sketchy guy on craigslist (his price was $100+ cheaper than on reverb, he showed me a photo of his storage space filled with boxed music gear, and tried to sell me a moog out of his car when he dropped it off). i don't know what i'm doing yet but it seems pretty intuitive. i don't really know what i want to make with it yet either. i don't have a spare SD card so i can't save my samples/patterns yet, but that's probably a good thing at this point. i spent my lunch break today sampling orchestral strings and then pitching them up and down and layering them to sound gross and seasick. pretty fun.

I finally have a place at to play in my house! Here’s a little jam with my Circuit controlling some external synths:


https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=dX8W7jADLwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX8W7jADLwE

awesome!

want 2 put in a good word for the moog subsequent 37. recently got one and it was instantly the most fun synth i've ever touched

today ordered the new hotness from a new synth company called ASM, v excited to learn to program it: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/asm-hydrasynth

How are you getting on with the Hydrasynth, Davey?

Happy 909 Day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-UsvYbIV0

The Wizard!

shoot, xps, sorry i missed this earlier sharivari. i didn’t end up ordering the hydrasynth after all. actually i thought i had, but didn’t quite complete the transaction on ebay. then i took a look at my credit card statements, and while i’m not in debt, i couldn’t justify the purchase :/

i DID finally restore my DSI Prophet ‘08, though. it took a few operations. on the second to last, i tried to fix the two dead keys it had and, after much painstaking effort, when i pieced it all together found that something like half the keys were dead! i had to laugh. no idea where i went wrong. anyway, i got a new keybed for it and it everything works, finally. it’s a beautiful machine

I made a little jungle-ish jam using a Circuit, Streichfett, Minilogue, Bass Station 2 synths and MD500, RE20 and BigSky pedals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKZUHgidf1E

Arturia Polybrute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on1gP5J0_NA

I've been making some dreadful noises with a Lyra-8. great stuff.

Is it easy to get started? It seems like it would be

The Lyra-8 is the best

Tom I think so - I just tuned all the voices around the same pitch and started from there, good way to see how changing something effected everything else. once you grasp that you can just tune some intervals up by ear and make your own scales or whatever.

my sister's not quite 2-year-old was obsessed with it when they came to visit last week, and was delighted by endless delay feedback when I let her have a play! (her older brother was not impressed, what a normie)

I'm tempted by the Lyra-FX Eurorack module for when i expand my case.

i think i've said i really regret selling my lyra-8. the pulsar drum thing looks bananas, i like that guy's russian business hippie vibes

https://808303.studio/

Very sad news:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/10/25/british-synth-designer-chris-huggett-has-died/

My bass station 2 is still my favorite synth - Huggett was a legend.

Hello thread, I bought a DFAM and a Subharmonicon last month with my redundancy money and have been annoying the tits off everyone here ever since they arrived. Absolute instruments of joy and madness! The DFAM especially is a unit of raging destruction. Have been eyeing up quantizer modules so I can patch in more melodic sequences and somewhat tame its chaos, but I think it would be a bad idea to start buying eurorack while I don't have a job. I do have a thing for pursuing bad ideas though

a used 4ms pod full of cheap and versatile doepfer utility modules would be one way to pursue that bad idea.

i just been making trash ambient with an op-1 and some guitar pedals and--secret weapon--an alesis wedge desktop reverb, love that 90s digital sound

Keep telling myself that buying any sort of case is basically investing in a coffin for my bank account. I'll look into that though, just for research purposes of course!

Other gear I have at the moment, clogging up my desk and generally hijacking all my evenings: minilogue, volca fm, behringer model d, drumbrute impact, and indeed a bunch of guitar pedals. Still don't know what I'm doing at all tbh, just merrily whiling away the hours making a terrible racket

A pod case plus a Disting already does a lot but yes, you won’t stop there lol.

Yeah a disting would do very nicely indeed

I'm selling my Arturia Microfreak, it just didn't get used and I don't love the overall sound. It took way too much work to make it sit in a track, whereas my Volcas (FM & Keys) just work even with minimal processing. The keyboard is cool, I thought about keeping it around as a controller, but I do almost everything with midi anyway.

Also selling an old Korg Microsampler than I inherited from a friend. If I can sell these I've got my eye on the Yamaha Reface CP, the electric pianos sound really good from everything I've heard and I like the idea of doing crazy midi-controlled arps with them, in addition to having something pleasant to actually practice piano with.

Would love else something as small, affordable, and usable as the Volcas, haven't found the right thing but suggestions would be welcome.

bit bigger than a volca by about 50% and twice the price but i have a model:samples and that's pretty fun to use once you figure out the sample library. or there's the cycles now which is the fm synth counterpart

how much u selling yr microfreak for

Mmmm want to dm me? I'll give you the ilx discount if you're interested. :)

I've got an Electribe 2 Sampler, and I kind of think of it as a Supervolca. The workflow and sequencing is largely similar. It gets a lot of hate from gear nerds, and to be fair there are some annoying limitations, but limitations are good IMO. You can probably find one for relatively cheap used (how I picked up mine).

Notation usually have big Black Friday sales if any of their grooveboxes/ synths look interesting.

Argh I better not

Xpost to Jordan

Goddamn. I have a Peak, and it is currently my favorite synth. RIP Chris, you went out on top

The Peak/Summits are so rad-looking. I've spent enough on gear this year, but maybe in a couple years.

Has anyone messed with the Behringer Pro-1?

Just got one a "B-stock" Pro-1 a few days ago (Alto Music and Pro Audio Star sell Behringers as B-Stock to get lower prices but they're usually unopened IME). It's really good - different kind of bold, easier to make work with other instruments than the Model D. The small knobs on the Behringers might bother me in the dark on a stage, but in normal use they're fine.

New Korg "Altered FM" synth looks pretty sweet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6X4QSP0NpY

would be nice if in future it could have looping envelopes, and the modulation processors off the wavestate - that stuff seemed really cool to me!

I stumbled into a (gold) Korg Monologue, after someone offered it in trade for my microfreak. Haven't tried it yet but I think it might be just the sort of thing I was after!

Not a lot of great synth deals this year but i picked up a 4MS Ensemble Oscillator anyway as it looks really fun.

https://plogue.com/store.html

Plogue's various retro VSTs are 50% off; I'm probably going to pull the trigger on the chipsynth MD

I used to use that one a lot around 2012, it sounds great. I should fire it up again.

Oops I used to use Chipsounds, not Chipsynth my bad

Also 2gether Audio is doing a 'pay what you want' (minimum $10) for everything

Yeah, Chipsynth MD is an emulation of the Sega Megadrive/Genesis FM chip. So far I'm loving it. It sounds great, the UI is very clean, and there's tons of nice presets to start with.

Grabbed cherry audios realistic radio shack moog plugin for free. It’s great.

Nice, I grabbed that too, haven't tried it yet.

Gotta say I'm loving the Monologue so far, more than I ever liked the Microbrute. It seems deep but also very intuitive -- haven't even cracked some of the features yet, but I was able to create some very nice patches in pretty short order. Loooove that there's a noise generator, that makes any sound 1000% better to my ears and I'm sure I will abuse it.

Also I'm very curious what my Reface CP will sound like if I put it through the Monologue's analog filter *devil emoji*

This looks so pretty!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gptuycTPIE

https://cdn.korg.com/uk/products/upload/471e56e78b461340842283a4f79941e9_pc.jpg
https://cdn.korg.com/uk/products/upload/ad45b27465992081d0614f2fe85c91d1_pc.jpg

dang