-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

ok, good! got roland TR-8 a couple days ago.

pluses:
- sounds are good. dat modded 808 kick, bewwwwwwwww.
- does indeed have the promised 'analogue' variance in the sound, without being like obvious gross fakery.
- sequencing is exactly what you'd expect.
- the onboard delay and reverb are... pretty dece! also got several varieties of each to suit yer taste.
- sidechaining of external audio feature is pretty sweet - get that throbbing sound on the beat. probably easy for you DAW types, but still!
- not a metal enclosure, but the knobs and faders are top notch, it's really well built.

minuses:
- the manual is hilariously useless. didn't roland used to write good manuals?
- each pattern has an A and B variation, you can use either one, or both for a 32-step pattern - but can't copy from A to B or vice versa. so dumb! they'd have to be rectifying this in the update.
- 'scatter' mostly lollllllll. although a couple of options are ok as variation if you were performing live at lighter depth settings - there's a nice distortion mode and a reverse beat one.
- I guess more advanced users will want 'parameter locks' and what have you - think the full MIDI implementation is out there now (also missing from the manual!) so that stuff could be handled by the DAW set.
- could probably do with ability to make the green highilghts another colour. you can change the sequencer button colours apaz, I haven't yet.

didn't roland used to write good manuals?

i've not read it but i'm led to understand the original 303 manual was vaguely baffling

I missed this thread even though I started this board!

In reference to 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.

That's not true. For years the problem was one of the voices would go all crackly and the initial response was swapping them out for clones. I did that when my first voice chip went and was satisfied with the result. Then a year or two later another voice went. At that point there was new research. What was happening was that the chips were coated with some kind of plastic which was melting over the years, and that would short them out. Somebody discovered if you remove the chip, soak it in acetone or something to dissolver the coating, and put it back in, it was good as new! Think about all those chips people probably trashed thinking they were bad. So I had like two more dying voice chips and found a guy on eBay and sent him my entire motherboard. He removed all the voice chips, soaked them, put them back, tuned and calibrated it and sent it back, and it hasn't given me a problem since.

In any case, I love my 106. It never sounds bad to me, but I find myself focusing on a few basic types of sounds. It has it's limitations, but it just has such a nice sound to me, a lot of my tracks are built out of 106.

I also have a Juno 1 which I bought because I wanted a controller and figured I could spend 50 to 150 bucks on a midi controller that didn't make any noise, or spend 125 (the going rate at the time) on an alpha juno. I love it. Got a javascript app sysex programmer thingy that makes editing it nice and quick. Have never seen a pg-300 for reasonable price. I think about buying the Kiwitechnics Patch Editor, which looks great, but costs more than the Juno. If I ever own a few more synths that it works with,maybe then it'd be a good buy.

I also have an Arp 2600 that I use a lot but it's very broken. Finally thought about sending it to CMS for their repairs and some of the basic upgrades, didn't hear back from them until he wrote to apologize and say he was busy on Pete Townshend's Arp. By that point I decided I could not afford to fix it, but one day.

Recently bought an Arturia Beatstep to control the Arp. A whole lot cheaper than an Arp Sequencer.

Also if you haven't seen this....

http://kiwitechnics.com/kiwi-106.htm

it's pretty cool.

I think about buying the Kiwitechnics Patch Editor, which looks great, but costs more than the Juno. If I ever own a few more synths that it works with,maybe then it'd be a good buy.

i have it, and it really is great, but also i have (i think) 7 synths it can control so it is worth it. one of them being the mks-80, the controller of which is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Izotope Iris looks amazing, like what I've always wanted. Anyone messed around with it?

(not gonna lie, I checked it out after reading that Arca interview)

i sprung for it, it's pretty amazing what it's capable of and how easy it is to use, and it's even easier to spend an hour drawing pictures and fiddling with sounds. not sure yet if it will result in usable sounds for the kind of records i want to make.

also i've been having a lot of fun w/my pocket piano (Critter & Guitari). getting a little sick of the sound, but the next thing i want to try is running midi out to record crazy arpeggio patterns, then using that to drive a sample-based soft synth.

Iris is a lot of fun, very good for textural and sound design-y stuff. I can see with a bit of application you could makes some more musical or melodic noises, but I haven't really tried yet.

that's my experience so far, it would be amazing if you were scoring a horror movie or just need some background noise. i'm hoping to get some nice glassy organ-like sounds out of the right sample though.

even if i never use the crazy spectral manipulation functions, it still works as a sampler plugin and i was in need of one (since i don't use Ableton or Kontakt).

Does anyone know of any good tutorials for Korg Gadget for my friend who just purchased it as his first music production tool?

Also any thoughts on the Oberheim Matrix 6? I see it mentioned a few times way up thread. There's one that just arrived at the music shop down the street, listed for $600. I looked at and was turned off at first by the interface, but researched some more and was thinking I should grab it.

I was in the store today ready to buy it and figured I had to test all the functionality first. I played every key, messed with the levers, browsed the presets, tweaked some patches, and everything seemed in order. But when I plugged into the right audio output, there was no sound except scratchiness when adjusting the volume slider what seemed like faint crosstalk from the left channel. And the store didn't have any way for me to check the headphone out, pedal jacks, or MIDI functions. So I guess I should go back there with headphones, my laptop, a sustain pedal, and an audio interface and make sure all that shit works? Maybe if the headphone out is fine then it's not a big deal that the right output doesn't, assuming they can come down a little on price? And how should I check out the MIDI stuff -- I've heard this thing requires particular software to program and sequence.

No special software to sequence, same as any midi synth. For programming there are sysex programs you can find, probably more than most other synths because the architecture is the same as the matrix 1000 which doesn't have any ability to program without the software.

http://www.tonetweakers.com/used/access_matrix.1.htm

hardware version too, if you prefer that sort of thing

http://www.matrixsynth.com/2014/10/the-harvestman-iron-curtain-electronics.html

how badass does this look??

access matrix would be a lot more useful if the mod matrix was accessible but sadly not - i think unless you were mad collectro it would be a pretty disappointing experience vs some of the p good software editors

There's also this slightly expensive but totally awesome editor:

http://kiwitechnics.com/patcheditor.htm

I can't justify buying it just for my Alpha Juno, (and hope to use an iPad app instead if I ever get one of those), but if I had a few of those synths maybe I would. They also have this crazy 106 upgrade that ads all kinds of features.

I think it's great when people hack these old synths. I have a broken Prophet 600 that I've been waiting to get fixed for years, and I'm glad I waited because someone came up with new software that apparently makes it a ton better.

oh yeah, I see me talking about the Kiwi editor just a page or two up there. sorry.

haha i probably did too. PE is ace

I have the 6R. Love it. i use a now no-longer-updated iPad editor for it.

I am curious how many people who have somewhat involved synth/electronic live setups use a laptop at shows, why/why not, and what do you use if not?

i hate having a laptop onstage for a litany of reasons, mostly associated with experiencing countless fuckups back in the days when i did.

i have an mpc1000 for all my drum sounds & sequencing now

I would be curious to hear about how exactly you use the MPC. I'm kind of ignorant about non-software-based workflows.

i'm p much just using it as a "dumb" midi sequence playback machine (i create the sequences in pro tools then export em) plus programming the drum patterns directly into it, really only using a tiny tiny fraction of what it's capable of. it's super reliable and really quick to get set up at shows/rehearsals..

Ok, so if you'll bear with the stupid questions: you have a synth/multiple synths on stage with MIDI in/MIDI through, and you sequence the synth parts for your whole set ahead of time and load those onto the MPC along with your drum patterns and basically hit play? Is that about right?

How do you get the MIDI data from PT -> MPC?

1st q: yes exactly, then i am free to sing and sweep the filters

the mpc can be mounted as an external drive so the .mid files can be dragged straight in and are recognised by the mpc

*via usb

I use an MPC 1000 at the start of all my tracks. I love it. It's limitations, compared to computer, help keep it simple, and halfway through or near the end I usually transfer things into the computer for more editing and processing.

It has a compact flash card that can be used instead of the USB.

You can use the MPC in a more performative way in a bunch of different ways. You can have multiple sequence patterns and each pattern is assigned to one of 16 pads...with 4 banks of the 16, and trigger a new sequence with the pad. Or you can have a sequence with 16 (of 32, 48 or 64) tracks and use the pads to mute/unmute tracks. Kind of a simplified way that people use Live with various controllers these days.

Meanwhile the MPC has two MIDI outs, so you've got 32 channels running out of 2 cables to control synths with sequencing, but it also is a sampler and can be playing drum sounds, samples or entire measures of recorded bits, coming out of 2 stereo or 4 mono outputs.

Just for starters.

Very cool, I appreciate all the info.

Right now I'm bouncing backing tracks as audio with synths (minus solos) and drum machines, laying all of those out in Reaper with tempo changes and a click track synced up and transition samples in between songs, and sending that from my laptop through a Focusrite 6i6 to the house and the drummer (the drummer gets the track plus a click). I strum guitar and sing, another vocalist harmonizes, the drummer plays an acoustic kit, and for the solos I play an Arturia controller + TAL U-NO-LX on my laptop with patches saved for each song.

I haven't had problems with that setup, but I've been wondering if there's a better way. I kind of wish it were more "live," but I'm thinking sequencing everything with an MPC wouldn't be much different. I did find an MPC2000 for sale on craigslist for $200, and I'm tempted. Although if I were to pick it up, I'd still have to straight up play backing tracks for the synths the way I am now, because all I have for a hardware synth is the Volca keys, which wouldn't cut it. Still looking at that Matrix 6 though...

I think the bottom line might be if I want to do more stuff live without getting super clever with looping/live-sampling, which would be awkward since my songs are pretty much verse-chorus and not really loop-based, I'm going to need another bandmate to take over either guitars or synths. Still not sure if it's worth it to ditch the computer for an MPC though. I guess I'd have one less piece of gear to carry, since taking the computer means taking the audio interface too.

on stage i use an SP404-SX running into a Korg Kaoss Quad into a mixer, and live drums. i basically have full tracks or edits thereof assigned to the pads, along with one-shot samples that i can add over the top. no syncing, i just use the tap tempo for quantized effects.

i love not having a laptop on stage b/c i feel like everybody in the world runs Ableton or Traktor, and also i do not own a laptop. it's also super simple and reliable.

on the other hand, it would be really nice to have the freedom to vary track lengths & structure on the fly, and to have more flexibility with effects (i wish the Kaoss Pad Quad had a triplet division!). it just never seems worth it to invest in a computer + soundcard + controller, especially since i'm a little burnt out on playing shows right now.

So I ended up buying the Matrix 6 a couple of weeks ago after finding the manual and realizing the right output wasn't broken, it just only sends a signal when stereo is enabled in the master edit and you're in split mode.

BUT, I got it home and realized the aftertouch doesn't work (unless I plug my Arturia controller into it, in which case it responds to aftertouch just fine). It also has some very occasional crackling on the output (but not in any specific voice), so I got some Deoxit and I was planning to open it up and have a look.

Does anyone have any ideas what I might be looking for with the aftertouch? I looked through the manual and the service manual but didn't see much that seemed useful.

assisted esoj in build of MS-20 kit on the weekend, what a wacky beast. there's some hilarious patches both in the supplied guide and on the internets - weird fake duophonic stuff, buchla-esque sample+hold craziness... electric bass w/ upwards string bend thru the momentary button was probably funniest.

we misinterpreted the dang instructions slightly (they really could be a little clearer in this regard) and had to do open it up again last night but now it is all sorted. i love it though, probably the most immediately fun synth i've played since my poor broken prophet 5

the automatic octave bass sequence thing is hell of fun

must admit I'm scoping out minis on ebay. might get one with the tote bag!

have you sung into the ESP yet, that looks pretty hilaire on the videos

no i will try

So I opened up the Matrix 6 and found that the aftertouch strip was sitting upside down and in the wrong place, shoved under the lip of the case, so it wasn't being contacted by the keybed at all. I seated it properly and closed up the synth, but then aftertouch only worked for the lower half of the keyboard. Then I resoldered the joint halfway down the aftertouch strip and now it works for the whole keyboard.

Incidentally, I also stumbled on a trick to use a few MIDI controller knobs/sliders to control the Matrix in realtime. I think I've read murmurings about this before but not really the full story. Basically you can tell the Matrix what CC number to assign to pedal 1 and 2 and lever 2 and 3, and assign it the same CC as your controller sends, and then program a patch where those things are modulating whatever you want. Here I set up these sliders to control the filter cutoff, amp envelope attack and release, and resonance.

spent last night riffing on human league 'last man on earth' on the MS-20 mini with the mood lighting on, ooooooh yeah. thunderstorm patch added atmosphere on that one.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kilpatrickaudio/phenol-patchable-analog-synthesizer

nice 'my first buchla' vibe around this.

got a microbrute. so far my method of finding my way around it has been twisting knobs while playing the 'i feel love' sequence into eternity.

as good a method as any other

was basically my method

while playing the 'i feel love' sequence into eternity.

...from here to eternity?

I got a Bass Station II btw, love that guy

any tips on how i can control the filter cutoff on my Volca Keys using midi? i'm sending the notes in with midi, but i want to have a pulsing cutoff and doing it manually is too touchy. pretty sure this is possible but i have no idea how. is it just a matter of finding the right parameter and drawing in the automation on my midi out channel in the DAW?

I don't own a Volca keys but out of curiosity about the synth I did a search for "volca keys MIDI implementation" and it returned this doc

http://media.aadl.org/files/catalog_guides/1444140_chart.pdf

CC 44 should do it

thanks!!

fgti is correct; however, sorry if you've tried this and there's some reason it won't work, but that seems like something you'd use the LFO for. Set speed with the LFO -> RATE knob and the intensity with the LFO -> CUTOFF INT knob. If the Volca Keys is receiving a MIDI clock signal the LFO rate should sync to a multiple of the tempo.

Also check out this neat $8 app which opens up the Volcas for more DAW control: http://www.fabriziopoce.com/volcacontrol.html

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2015/01/odyssey-back-korgs-arp-remake-revealed/

this past NAMM was freaking bonkers. So many awesome toys.

Meanwhile I finally started to understand by TX-802 the other night. That's a monster of a digital synth.