-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

right, I don't need a full music production box, and I don't want MPC style samplers.

I went ahead and purchased the two boxes I mentioned off ebay for somewhat reduced prices, guess we'll see if it works for me! I took a hard look at both drumbrute options, I like the way the impact sounds, but was worried it would lead me to use the same drums on everything.

oh cool, have fun moodles!

btw just noticed that bad gear just did a video on the DBI, so you can see whether to rue your decision or not! it's a pretty fair review imo, though i can't say i noticed any knob-wobble on mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzujay4tUtE

TR-8S would be my top contender for a HW drum machine, too. I tried the TR-8 and loved the intuitive design, but its sound pallet was obviously limited. The 8S seems like it should solve that. I hope you have a blast with it!

it looks like it has just the right amount of complexity to get creative with it without being completely mind boggling

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g02027/

The Casio Employee Behind the “Sleng Teng” Riddim

Surprised it doesn't mention the Bowie Hang On To Yourself theory.

I've been spending the day with the minibrute 2s, going through the manual and coming to grips with programming it. The manual is really well written, very friendly and conversational rather than purely technical. It guides you through examples to help learn what everything does. It's really the perfect first synth for me: fairly basic, but with enough bells and whistles to keep it interesting, and it's gotten me thinking how I might get it to work with other synths or eurorack stuff. At this point, I'm feeling pretty comfortable with dialing up patches, but the one thing I haven't wrapped my head around is what all the alternate track options are for on the sequencer. For example, what does it mean to sequence envelope or control voltage or LFO, and when would I want to use that?

I'm hoping to do a similar deep dive with the TR-8S, but the manual and other materials for it are not quite as welcoming, it may take some warming up to truly appreciate what I can do with it. I'm slightly intimidated.

This ancient (in Youtube years) video of Adrian Utley screwing around with a Minibrute popped up in recommendations recently, has me wanting to keep an eye on Craigslist for a 1 or 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtc1qNYCeHY

For example, what does it mean to sequence envelope or control voltage or LFO, and when would I want to use that?

Not Minibrute specific but CV sequencing something other than pitch would generally be used for things like automating changes to volume, how open the filter is, note length, pulse width, etc,

You could, for example, have a sixteen step melodic sequence with the filter set to nine o’clock and trigger an envelope on the fifth and thirteenth steps to open the filter dynamically through to three o’clock.

put some polyrhythmic sequencing on envelope segment lengths (like on different slopes of a MN maths) and you can get real weird real quick

the buchla music easel and the buchla-inspired aalto VST from madrona labs both have a sequencer that's designed to be patched into all kinds of things. sequencing delay time is fun. sequencing the modulation index on the complex osc is even more fun.

I’ve got a Make Noise 0-Ctrl with 3 controllable CV outputs per its 8 steps (among other things) and it’s been fun uncovering all the weird possibilities.

i used to have a MN rene and pressure points combo, which i think is somewhat similar to the 0-ctrl, and it was the best hardware sequencer i've ever used.

the arturia pigments sequencer, discussed in depth on the pigments thread, is also terrific

Arturia's manual game is top notch, the Microfreak manual is very also super readable. And sequencing stuff besides just note values/length/velocity is where synthesis gets really fun, imo. You can discover all kinds of strange grooves this way.

I can more or less understand applying an LFO or envelope to something at a particular point in time, but I don't really know what it means to apply a control voltage to something or why I'd select one control voltage over another.

Control voltage is mostly for controlling other pieces of hardware (in lieu of midi), right?

Control voltage is what drives everything, including pitch. Your sequencer sends a control voltage to the oscillator to determine the note it is playing. You can equally send CV to anything else that can be controlled automatically via a patch point, for example to change the frequency of a filter, to change the amount of an effect, to have precise control over amplitude, etc.

Yes, you could also use a CV output to connect a sequencer to another synth with a CV input.

there are different standards for CV (like, the range that the input is expecting) so interconnections can get funky--eurorack is mostly +/- 10v iirc but not everything is. but you're unlikely to fry anything.

some of the most useful eurorack modules are just like 4 attenuverters on a panel that let you tweak incoming cv or invert it or blend it together into some bizarre waveform.

then when you lose your mind and start buying banana jack synths you have to connect them to common ground b/c bananas don't carry ground and then eventually you start buying diy synth kids and soldering stuff when your kid is napping.

(and it all still sounds like crickets in a bag inside a helicopter)

I had a late night session with the TR-8S, and it's starting sink in just how powerful it is. Getting comfortable with setting parameter locks opens the whole thing up.

Synth dads <3

https://i.postimg.cc/3N8tJ6Yn/0-C8-D28-ED-53-F0-4-F03-A8-C7-90-B9-CE7-FC84-A.jpg

I’ve had my eye on a Winterbloom Castor & Pollux for a while but they’ve been impossible to get here until now. It’s great - a really versatile Juno-inspired dual oscillator.

beautiful, love the mixer and waveform sum outs, curious how the chorusing works in practice, post bleeps

loving the minibrute 2s, it sounds really, really good, especially if you are into buzzy, distorted sequences. kind of reminds me of the classic korg synth (the MS20?). I wish there was a way to save patches, I keep finding really great sounds, but then can't resist tweaking then, and then find I'm unable to re-create them. I may just try to remember to take pics of them and attempt to catalog the pics somehow.

I am moving into a new place that will have a detached garage (for the bikes / tools) and studio (for the ~synth zone~) building in the back yard that I have been given domain over. I am excited to setup the studio furniture from scratch. I plan on transferring over my standard Ikea DJ booth (2 x 4 Kallax on it's side + legs to get it to proper height) but am totally free to build / buy the desk / rack for my hardware gear setup. The center of my setup is the MC-707, and I've got a 61 key controller keyboard and a handful of other outboard kit (couple of td3's, electribeS, fx boxes). Should I put it all on one flat surface? Make some kind of tiered setup? standing desk or sitting desk?

I have one of those Output desks, and I like how it has a big tray underneath for my keyboard. My back definitely misses my standing desk, though.

Hardware is fun and cool, but lately I'm trying to save $$ and I'm diving into some VSTs. And holy cow, I want to strongly recommend Vital. I've ponied up for the "Pro" edition, but the basic version is free. The sound-design and modulation possibilities with this thing are utterly wild, and it's got one of the user-friendliest VST UIs I've ever seen (assuming you're already familiar with some synthesis basics).

This guy has a bunch of cool hard techno videos featuring the Roland TR-8S, it's cool to see it in action getting stretched well beyond drum sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go0CLlh3Js0

I recently downloaded the new operating system for the Elektron Machinedrum, not from Elektron. And it's really a beat. I went ahead and bought the little controller thing that also gives a more advanced sequencer.

Just more ways to make/program electronic sounds and melodies beyond the percussive sounds.

Vital looks extremely up my alley, ty!

Wish I'd gotten a Machinedrum and/or Monomachine when they were just 'old' instead of 'vintage digital' and $2500-3000 each.

Ethics and vapourware suspicions aside, this really is the most extraordinary undertaking:

https://musictech.com/guides/buyers-guide/behringer-synthesizers/

Behringer claims to have 50 synths in the design / testing phase, including a Polivoks, Kobol, LinnDrum, CS80, Solina, etc.

Yeah I got my non user wave machinedrum when they were just cancelling it and it was like 600 bucks. The price immediately started climbing.

Behringer’s desktop Solina String is the one I’m most interested in.

Surprised they haven’t floated something like a Farfisa combo organ in a MS-1 sized package.

Yep, the Solina and Polivoks, for me. Particularly as they are working with Vladimir Kuzman on the latter.

They’ve just announced they’re planning a $399 copy of the Buchla Easel 208….

Hmm. Still trying to save $$ but that mkII Volca FM looks pretty nice...2x the voices and patch memory of the original, but in the same price range. Still kinda baffled that they don't put USB ports on these though

Ha, they finally added velocity to it too. I wish this had been a firmware update to the regular Volca FM, I'd love to have the upgrades but not enough to sell mine and buy a new one.

Surprised they haven’t floated something like a Farfisa combo organ in a MS-1 sized package.

Yamaha's Reface YC is pretty damn close to this. I kinda prefer it more than my actual Farfisa just because I know it'll work.

I had a real YC for almost twenty years and forced myself to sell it when I moved across the country because it weighed like 100 pounds and I hadn’t used it in years. Instantly regretted it and will probably buy that Reface YC someday just for the comfort nostalgia vibes.

Like your Farfisa, the real YC would break a lot though!

I've had Vital downloaded forever but never really dove into because the interface was a bit intimidating/flipping through presets made it worse.

Started going just from the init patch and I really like it going easy on the modulation and macros. The text-to-wavetable ability + making an LFO stereo so you start in the middle of a wavetable and have it modulating in and out going the opposite way in each channel is a lot of fun.

Looks like Elektron are dropping something new very soon...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVX0AThBNPE

https://www.dublab.com/archive/elektron-presents-new-sounds-from-a-new-place-04-19-22

Syntakt's probably pretty fun, but seems like kind of just a cobbling together of existing Elektron parts. Like maybe a slicker Model: Cycles mixed with a RYTM lite? Still using the old RYTM analogue engines too, which really need a overhaul at this point. Curious to see how it lands, but considering their big releases the past few years have been minimally upgraded re-releases of classics, the budget Model stuff, and now this, they're kinda not looking too inspired these days. I know some key (or at least public facing) talent has left these past few years.

Yeah it seems a little underwhelming, particularly given the 1K pricetag. I was hoping it would be a little more fully-featured for what they're asking. I think the budget Model stuff is good--I own a Samples and it's what got me into Elektron gear. Apparently Korg has been working on a "Drumlogue" with a similar feature set to the Syntakt, so maybe that will prove to be an affordable alternative.

New Oberheim for all the Van Halen tribute bands out there to really nail that "Jump" sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eOSXipp-MI

I'm all about tiny budget synths, and those Rolands *look* very nice, but function-wise don't seem very interesting to me, since I don't really make acid techno/pick your choice of uptempo 4/4 dance music.

The new Polyend box (it's a sample-playback groovebox, so not a "synth" technically) looks very fun, but that's gonna be out of my price range for the foreseeable future.

Has anyone tried out Dreadbox Nymphes? It looks like it could be really nice.

ooh, the Eowave Quadrantid Swarm is one I might actually have to get, seems really good for making gnarly techno sequences

this mylarmelodies fellow can pretty much sell me on anything

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

Dawesome Novum is the most interesting granular plugin I've seen (not cheap or free but there's a 90 day demo) - it splits an audio file into six spectral layers that can be turned on or off or individual layers swapped out with layers for other sounds.