-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

There are cheap audio interfaces that also have MIDI. Something like the Arturia MiniFuse 2

a lot of options under 200 dollars.

Universal Audio Volt 1 and 2. Focusrite Scarlett 4i4. Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD.

the last two have 4 audio inputs and can feed your monitors. You can totally bypass getting a mixer. Just plug the Moog and 3 other devices/drum machines/mic set in at a time and use whatever software they come with to control the mix to the monitors.

I've ordered some cheap monitors, the key step, and a cheap audio interface. That should keep me busy for a few months (or years) while I learn some basics. I already see this hobby hitting my gearhead gene hard.

Thanks for all the recommendations. One more question: are there any basic websites, forums, or books you recommend for beginners?

There's a ton of tutorials on YouTube, depends a bit on the specific topic you are trying to tackle. For example, there are several lengthy tutorials on the Moog Mother.

The videos from Loopop and, particularly, Chris Meyer are good places to start.

I just watched a Loopop video where they were connecting the Key Step with the M32 and got very excited.

Start your Youtube synthfluencer career by covering Danzig with the Mother-32

I wish the Mother 32 was more exciting. It’s a single oscillator synth, can only sound so interesting.

The DFAM totally rules though. Two oscillators and it can kick your head in.

I don’t know I have a lot of fun with single osc synths. Juno 106 and alpha Juno are both single osc.

Why do synth manufacturers have to make such cool looking gear? Looking at you Make Noise and Endorphin.es.

That Lyra-8 video upthread makes it sound like a nightmare machine. Drool.

xp

Yeah, that was a broad declaration. But the Mother was clearly designed to be used with their other units, it’s kinda bland on its own. I was going to sell mine, but with this Moog news I’ll be holding onto it.

Just ordered one of the Behringer VS Minis from the UK - $105 shipped to the US, cheaper than it will be with sales tax from Sweetwater whenever they get them.

I’ve been having the time of my life with the demo of Synplant 2 over the last few days.

You get any sample, drop it onto the VST and its AI does multiple attempts at resynthesizing it. All local processing so doesn’t even need to be online. You can save it as a synth at any point of the resynthesizing process, and the results range from uncannily accurate to complete Autechre insanity.

I ripped the vocals from Aha ‘Take On Me’ via Moises.ai, fed them into Synplant and now have a pretty usable Morten Haarket choir from resynthesizing ‘take’, ‘me’ and ‘on’ lol

Also going through all my dusty old stab samples and resynthing them has been amazing. Literally bringing them to life with ADSR, filters, accurate oscillator settings etc.

Not sure if you can tell but I’m pretty giddy with excitement about this one. The possibilities are pretty endless and it actually doesn’t sound shit.

Been waiting for this, can't wait to try it

It’s nuts. I just tried putting a few breakbeats through it and ended up with bizarre spectral sweeps that belong on a mid 90’s Ken Ishii album.

this looks really cool, I like the whole organic approach

I predict a glut of Synplant ambient albums to come

Got an ad for this thing and normally I'm annoyed by the tiny digital machines that could just as well be a plugin but this seems pretty cool actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKPq1Chm9Tg

I finally got to spend several hours today with the Mother 32 and had a blast.

I did the 3 week trial for Synplant 2 and had a lot of fun with it. I tried feeding it sounds from one of my tracks and then seeing how I could reshape them. I really like how intuitive it is when you are trying craft a sound, a lot can be done by manipulating the little strands and then you can tweak it even more in the synth settings. The synth is pretty basic and the envelope in particular could be improved, but it can generally get you where you want to go.

One common problem I have with synths is that I might land on a cool sound, but then lose it as I'm playing around with it and find that I can't get back to something I like. Synplant worked very well for getting me back on track when this happened.

My biggest positive surprise was CPU load. I never once had a problem with this and had about 12 different instances of Synplant 2 running simultaneously in one song file. By contrast, even a single instance of Pigments can completely crash Ableton for me.

I ended up getting a track together with core sounds almost entirely from Synplant 2. Let me know what you think. It's a private link, so you need to be logged into Soundcloud to access.

https://on.soundcloud.com/KtCpS

A guy in my town makes these naturey synth tshirt designs if anyone is into that kind of thing
www.teepublic.com/user/timbient

Having played around with Synplant now I can definitely hear the plants in that track Moodles, ie the kinds of sounds it seems to come up with (it's cool though!).

Although I know it's going to be fun with automation and sound design when I get to that, so far I've been using it to re-synthesize acoustic drum samples. It's pretty incredible with one-shots, good for giving something a little more bite, and I got some especially cool results with cymbals. But I was a bit disappointed when I fed it a longer phrase. It was a snare pattern with some different tones and dynamics, and it spit back a pretty stiff version that tried to emulate the ghost notes with a delay. Still very excited about the possibilites though, one of those things that I'll have to try with every part just to see if something cool happens.

Agreed about cymbals, I tend to gravitate toward weird synthetic or hard metallic hats, so this works great for me. Also got a lot of mileage out of throwing automation on the bass track. Longer loops are definitely not going to be as effective, for sure.

this (free) emulation of the Kawai K1 is fun

https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/

Looks fun, thanks for the link

finally traded in my Korg Opsix and some other guitars and gear for a nice Stratocaster. Ended up getting the same in trade as I paid initially so harm done but I gotta be honest I ended up hating that fucking thing.

Ha, I sold mine too. I realized that the Volca FM is all I need for those sounds, and for whatever I reason I got better results out of it and had more fun.

So this sounds potentially amazing, like Synplant except for synth patches:
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2023/12/05/micromusic-vital

It's free and works with Vital, which is also free. You can drop in an audio sample and it will do its best to create synth patches that replicate the sound. Sounds ripe for abuse.

not sure how that is different from Synplant

Similar I guess, but in Vital you'll get more standard synth controls over the resulting patch.

I guess I'm more compelled to start with non-synth-sounding patches with Synplant. And with this, while I definitely want to try random audio clips, it sounds like it's geared more toward stuff that starts out sounding like a synth patch?

I realized that the Volca FM is all I need for those sounds

I might check one of those out, so cheap used it's like buying a soft synth

The Opsix reminded me of a wacky boutique guitar pedal called the Infinity Discombobulator that is designed to demo well at a guitar store cuz it makes all these "wow" sounds then you try to make actual music with it and you can't find anything that works

I know it's only 4op and not 6, but for FM/digital synthesis on the cheap, do not forget the Reface DX. It sounds great and is fun to use.

fun to use

ultimately this is what did the opsix in for me...just always found it somewhat irritating to interact with.

Stylophone Theremin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eupwp-EPMmo

Yall crazy. The Opsix rules. I get wild ass tones out of it everytime I go in for programming. The firmware update added some nice features like more sequencer program controls. I will never sell it.

They really nailed it with the Reface DX. Super fun and immediate, small and cute. That whole series is awesome. I sold mine when the Waldorf Quantum got 6-op FM. Not like FM plugs are anything new, buttttt...the Opsix plugin is only $99.

Has anyone tried the Opal synth plug-in from Fors FM? Seems to be a max-for-live device that does Elektron style sequencing. Would love to know if it's any good.

I bought it and never used it and forgot I had it until now. Thanks. Sorry I'm not more helpful.

Give it a try and report back!