-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

Anyway I might just get some Crank Sturgeon contact mics & toys instead

I want to get that multi-plunk gamelan thing and strap it to my bargain-bin cajon

That's what I ordered, super excited tbh

I reaaally want one of these cassette synthesizers, it's just a bit too pricey for me. So cool. And Marantz-PMD222 modded into a tape echo.

https://www.instagram.com/ondemagnetique/

i been having a little volca renaissance lately, never really found much use for the keys but FM through a few effects can do some good stuff

Not a synth but I have a Soma ETHER on the way to me from Russia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdiGn0LPMPs

That's some Quatermass type sound there.

http://cdm.link/2019/02/vcv-rack-1-0/

VCV rack 1.0 and 2.0 should be coming fairly shortly - with full DAW / VST integration for $99.

volca modular is a fun ole time. I keep it in my bag at work and break it out for jams at boring times!

I was messing around with VCV rack at a friend's studio (he's using it to test the firmware for an actual module he's releasing, and make presets), it's pretty wild. I'll definitely go in for a plugin version, for easy sampling.

Hopefully virtual modular isn't as much of a non-finishing-tracks time sink as real modular. Unless your music is based on recording modular-only jams, I really think the key is to just use it as sample fodder and chop out the good bits.

I received the ETHER today. This is the sound of my apartment:

https://soundcloud.com/user-414919605/ether-home

Pretty cool! I suppose it would be fun to chop that up and make it into a drum kit.

Yeah, I think it’s gonna be great for sampling purposes. And a fun listen on walks around town.

I recently got a new iPad, and have been playing with Beatmaker pro. It's pretty sweet, but a little tough to grok immediately. I made a little jam by recording some stuff from my Nord and adding some other stuff from Beatmaker - plan to post it when it's finished.

I want to play around with the Samplr app, but what I learned from my last dive into iPad apps is that it was just too much of a pain to integrate into my DAW workflow, so I stopped doing it quickly.

Yeah apparently there are some iPad apps that will export to Ableton .als files. That would be sweet. Otherwise it’s going to be annoying. I can render out stems to my Dropbox with Beatmaker, though, which isn’t too bad.

I just got a Rackbrute and Plaits to pair with a Mother 32 and it is lots of fun.

thinking of selling some stuff off, and was simultaneously feeling a bit uninspired by the toy selection, so acquired a minibrute 2s last week.

still feeling my way with it a bit (work's been p. intense lately) but it's really hitting the spot for me, really good balance of immediacy and complexity, even without cross-patching it with eurorack stuff or another semi-modular it's got so many ways to quickly alter the sound. the sequencer rules - being able to switch the velocity and pressure lanes to be an auxillary LFO, or random source, or envelope, or various free voltages... so good. absolutely savage sync for your cars 'let's go' impressions or whatever, too.

feels very solid too if anyone is still worried about arturia QA issues. lots to get lost in if you're not a keys player and like an alternate interface.

i recently sold my drumbrute but yeah the arturia sequencers are really nice, definitely the best part of the machine as i felt the voices were kind of anemic.

The Microfreak looks fun. It has a bunch of the Braids oscillator code and an unusual Buchla-style touchpad.

I just got a Rackbrute and Plaits to pair with a Mother 32 and it is lots of fun.

― ShariVari, Friday, 22 March 2019 15:14 (two weeks ago)

This escalated quickly tbh.

https://i.postimg.cc/g0yYR4F2/0-F66-AA93-FE91-4-A98-8-D03-2-C8-BAB0-B3-C6-F.png

is that a mutable instruments blinds on the bottom row? i just bought one

my monome teletype should be delivered today about which i am fuckin psyched

It’s Veils on the left and Tides on the right. Èmilie from Mutable is such an inspiration. I saw her called the Bob Moog of the 21st century the other day and it’s hard to disagree. There is so much thought and invention in all their stuff.

yeah she's amazing. just the manuals on the mutable site make for good bored office reading.

my next few purchases are going to be some mannequins modules (https://www.whimsicalraps.com/) which are sort of mysterious in aspect but seem really interesting in practice.

i had been going a cheaper DIY route of buying simple kits, building them, and trying to have fun with them. eventually i realized that while making interesting sounds from first principles is a noble goal i don't really have the time or skill. maybe when my daughter is older i can really go full Synth Dad and DIY up some cool stuff.

If everybody's gone modular this might not be of interest, but noted synthesizer guy Jexus recently came out of hiding and posted all of his patches for download. So if you have any of the synths listed in the downloads section on this page you might want to check it out: http://syntezatory.net.pl/wcog_synth_patches.htm

(they're really, really poorly labeled and basically completely unorganized but some sound very good!)

https://reverb.com/item/20707002-gnomik-w-box-manual-soviet-vintage-analog-toy-synthesizer-made-in-ussr-80s

is this the coolest-looking synth ever

of course not, but look how cool it looks

that is very cool

if we're posting attractive synths from reverb then https://reverb.com/item/18493509-jomox-resonator-neuronium-rns-n6

I'm just waiting out this whole modular thing until VCV Rack 2.0 comes out

daaaaaaaaaamn that jomox

really wasn't interested in the microfreak...cheesy promo vid, questionable name and design etc, but these videos have me more intrigued.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2019/04/20/arturia-microfreak-synthesizer-review/

That's a very comprehensive video. Certainly sells the Microfreak a lot better than the other demos I've seen. I'm not interested in the keyboard mechanism, but if they made a desktop module version I'd be more likely to pick one up. However although there are a lot of the oscillator engines, each one feels kind of limited in what it can do and how much it's sound can be varied. The Microfreak has some of the code from the Braids module, but the module would be part of a larger modular system. When it's more isolated like it is in the Microfreak, the limitations of each engine become more apparent. I like the filter though, it's nice to hear a filter that seems to have been designed to be usable when the synth is used in a track rather than make the most obnoxious screaming sound possible. I guess the nearest synth, both in size and price, is the Modal SKULPT, but that seems more firmly routed in being a VA synth rather than multi-engine like the Microfreak. I suppose one way of comparing them would be that the SKULPT has deeper programming but the Microfreak has a broader range.

A friend of mine finally released the modules that he's been working on for the last few years. I'm not a modular person but having been able to play around with them and see them develop, they're pretty unique and cool imo:

https://starling.space/via

Nice quick demos here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwVrOaylb0V/

into that gateseq. i also appreciate the kit coming with the smd stuff already attached, might pick one up.

I am v much down for the freak. love the randomizing stuff in the sequencer.

maybe it could be a keyboard and digital osc for the minibrute!

Synthi, CZ and Mellotron now added to Arturia V collection. I didn’t upgrade to 6 but will now, I think.

i just bought an ipad to sequence hardware via a midi-to-cv module (and to entertain my daughter on a long flight). anyone done this? i hope to give it a shot during naptime or later tonight.

I haven't used it much but Lemur seems excellent for that.

i ended up returning the expert sleepers fh-2 i was going to use for midi/cv as it seemed like a tremendous drag to configure. lemur into a less feature-rich module might be the way to go.

the ipad itself is a fuckin synth goldmine--been running a whole mess of softsynths and effects through AUM and having a great time for cheap (compared to say eurorack).

Yes. There are so many tremendous iPhone/iPad synths one hardly knows where to start the list.

Have you got Korg Odyssei and Arturia iSEM? Sunrizer and Volt also incredible. And and and

I've been having fun with BeatMaker 3 on the iPad, which will also host soft synths. Don't forget about Moog's amazing Animoog!

animoog is so good! i made kind of a corny planetarium patch and ran it through fugue machine (a very fun if gimmicky sequencer) for a couple hours the other day.

so many good ones to get

i had iVCS3 on my phone but it's actually usable on the ipad. and it looks amazing.

iVCS3 is wonderful, even on phone

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1009010446/bitty-a-pocket-drum-machine?ref=thanks-tweet

Ooh, that is very appealing, at least as a sample generator.

Novation Summit looks sick.

http://cdm.link/app/uploads/2019/05/novation_summit.jpg

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

Some patches from Patricia Wolf

https://soundcloud.com/patriciawolf_music/summit-multi

good joke was they didn't have the legal permission to call it Twin Peaks

i cant stop looking at that guy's watch

LOL