faetal on 30/6/2020 at 14:14
Hello.
Since I'm summering in TTLG land, I thought I'd see if anyone else on here is into this stuff, since it's what takes up most of my free time these days.
Here's a list of gear I own and have owned, in order of when I owned it (items I still own denoted with an asterisk):
Casio VL tone*
Yamaha CS-01
Roland XP-60
Roland D-50
Korg DW-8000
Novation Nova*
Access Virus C
Roland JP-8000
Korg Triton
Access Virus TI desktop*
Sequential Prophet 6*
Behring Neutron*
Arturia Minibrute 2S*
Arturia Rackbrute 6U*
Mutable Instruments Clouds clone*
As you may be able to tell from the end there, I've just decided to make the jump into modular, which probably means I'll never write a meaningful piece of music again (I kid, but a mild worry, it's a rabbit hole).
I've owned synths for years, and only recently made the effort to actually learn how to program them, having spend years just tweaking presets to make them sound slightly different. It's become a bit of an obsession. Anyone else here? I know demagogue will likely be down.
PigLick on 30/6/2020 at 15:38
I am absolutely into this, but my budget prevents me from being a gear hound, so i just use vst's, which while not as satisfying as having actual analog stuff, still scratched the itch. Really tempted to get one of the new moog subphattys though.
A drummer friend of mine plays in a duo and he does left handed bass on the moog while drums on right hand, sounds boss.
Aja on 30/6/2020 at 15:45
So much time and energy spent thinking about this stuff.
My list includes a Korg MS20-Mini and Minilogue, Nord Electro 3, Yamaha Reface DX, Volca Sample, Make Noise 0-Coast/0-Ctrl, and 6U/~96HP of Eurorack with a little bit of DIY. Highlights of my modular include an Intellijel Shapeshifter and a Make Noise Morphagene and Mimeophon.
Eurorack is definitely a rabbit hole in the sense that it's really hard to stop thinking about what else your rack needs even when you've just finally bought whatever it is you've been dreaming about. It can be instantly gratifying, but it also rewards being patient and methodical. For productivity's sake I try to split my modular time between "making sounds/fooling around" and "actually working with intent" although the two certainly overlap sometimes. It's ridiculous and expensive and I've definitely thought about selling it, but it's also just so much fun to play with and invent new sounds. All that being said, in the end I think I've been more productive with the Eurorack overall because I tend to record my output more often, and I keep all these snippets around that eventually sometimes inspire me to develop them. I mostly make (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DQ4XefxL50) ambient music, though, and I treat the modular as an instrument, not a complete production tool. I think it's better suited to that.
demagogue on 1/7/2020 at 00:19
I have a Yamaha Mox8, which has more synth capability than it gets credit for, but most of the things I do are with soft synths. I've made I don't know how many 100s of voices in Absynth and I make patches on VCV Rack. Some of the stuff I've recorded is on my (
https://soundcloud.com/user9513654) Soundcloud page.
I've even messed with generating my own voices directly from code in Python, but that was a bit extreme (although really educational!), and now that interest has morphed into plans to make some of my own custom VCV Rack modules. In particular, I want to use some machine language algorithms. The idea I like is a module that randomizes the module selection from your library and a feature to randomize a working patch from the selection you have (using a "synth grammar" and deconstructing elements into the grammar, waves, filter settings, envelope, effects, sequence, etc.). What's really cool about that idea is you can input a tune, or a set of tunes, and it'll get the modules and make a patch that best-fits it or the collective sound of it. And then I want to have some set styles that it patches to as landmarks, a NIN/industrial-sound, New Wave, dark ambient, etc., and then a dial that you can mix between styles and add increasing randomness.
But I've got ideas for some smaller modules for things like a ML-driven sequencer and a delay. And if one of them really works well, I have a kind of vision to actually make a Eurorack module out of it just to see if I can do it.
I am thinking to get some gear. Right now I'm debating between the ASM Hydrasynth and the Novation Summit. Probably the Summit first, and the Hydrasynth someday; I'm curious if they'll come out with a follow-up that has another 2 octaves or so and multi-timbrality (play at least two different voices at the same time, so e.g., you could have another voice on that nice strip controller). There's other things that look interesting like the Moog32, DFAM, & Subharmonic trio would be cool to have. I'm very keyboard-based performance oriented though, so if it's hardware, I'll want a keyboard. I do like the puzzles and logic of patching modules, but playing with those ideas in VCV Rack is usually enough for me. Well I can use a keyboard as a controller, so I'm not counting out getting a modular set up.
faetal on 1/7/2020 at 00:54
I was really tempted by Hydrasynth and had the cash saved to get one, but something held me back.
I love the idea of it, but every time I watch videos of it, I don't enjoy how it sounds, even though I know I could probably make my own patches which I would love.
I think also, I have my wavetable + oodles of modulation needs more than covered by the Virus plus increasingly good VSTs (Ableton's Wavetable, Arturia's Pigments, NI's Massive X to name a few).
I absolutely adore the Prophet for just firing up and using as an instrument, and many tracks I have written lately have it as the signature sound of the track, simply because it's such a good workflow to sequence a melody or some chords and then just noodle on the P6 until it sounds perfect.
I'm really looking forward to getting more into eurorack. I went ahead and ordered a Disting Mk4 today as well, as that seems to be a ridiculous amount of functionality in a small footprint, and will probably help inform what my future module purchases will be.
I gave a tentative rack build planned out (
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1250706) here, but this will likely change as time moves on and I learn what I need from a modular setup.
Aja - I am really loving that track you linked above. Dema, where's your soundcloud?
faetal on 1/7/2020 at 01:10
Quote Posted by PigLick
I am absolutely into this, but my budget prevents me from being a gear hound, so i just use vst's, which while not as satisfying as having actual analog stuff, still scratched the itch. Really tempted to get one of the new moog subphattys though.
A drummer friend of mine plays in a duo and he does left handed bass on the moog while drums on right hand, sounds boss.
I've been seeing a lot of slim phatties on reverb.com of late. Was tempted a few times.
demagogue on 1/7/2020 at 01:19
Quote Posted by faetal
Dema, where's your soundcloud?
Here it is --> (
https://soundcloud.com/user9513654)
------
Edit.
I know what you mean about really getting to understand the scene only recently, even after years of knob fiddling.
I remember watching I Dream of Wires like around late 2018 or so and thinking wow that's the most obscure scene, and not really understanding what the modules were actually doing or why you had to wire them to each other. On Absynth, I used to always just hit "randomize patch" until I got lucky, and then I'd tweak a few things. And to me that was "synthing", but I didn't understand a thing.
But something happened in the last year or so, and it feels like the scene is exploding out of nowhere. And I don't know if that's just my perception, just getting into the scene and following the forums recently, or if it's a bona fide movement happening. But it seems like now there are tutorials everywhere, a new synth coming out every 2 weeks, there's VCV Rack. And I feel like I've learned how it really works for the first time.
Since maybe the end of last year, I started making Absynth patches from scratch, setting every parameter how I want it, with an actual plan not just random dial turning, and developing my own sound. (It's interesting how much it's like visual art, where you can start to hear the author in a patch.) And of course with VCV Rack, like Eurorack, you have to literally wire it up to even get a sound, nevermind you have to think about what you're doing to get a good sound. You can't get away without understanding at least something about what you're doing. Now even when I twist things randomly, at least I have an idea what it's doing.
Oh the other thing I'd never really done. I have had my Mox8 like 6 years now, and I just realized really recently that I could set the knobs to the filter cutoff and resonance. And for the first time ever, I'm actually dialing those knobs while I'm performing as part of the performance.
One nice thing about the scene is, it's almost always the same basic elements--oscillators, filters, LFOs, envelopes, effects, sequences--so once you learn it for one system, the same ideas will basically apply to every other system. But each one will handle it a little differently, or it'll have a different sound (like the Mox8 filter cutoff can have quite steppy aliasing, which I hated at first, but now I kind of like it because it has a lowfi early '90s vibe). It means you can pick up new gear and know what to do out of the box, but you also have to re-think the old ideas in new ways to get the most out of each new gizmo. I gather that's where the GAS, the gear acquisition syndrome, comes from.
------
Edit2.
Shit, now I remember what I wanted to ask. I had this idea before for Team TTLG, after I learned there were a couple of us that did this, and I almost made a thread about it. But would anyone be interested in having a kind of ... well I guess you could call it a contest. Somebody comes up with a theme, like a genre (best 80s New Wave patch) or an instrument (best steel guitar sound) or even a context (best tension sound in a horror movie), give ourselves like 2 weeks or so, and everybody that wants tries to make a cool sound that fits the theme on whatever system they want, record it, put up a soundcloud link or Youtube video of it (if they make a video recording of it being performed all the better), maybe a few notes about how they made it (the settings for the different parameters) for everyone's education, and then just for kicks people can vote on them to make it a bit of competition.
Does that sound like something fun we could do? I thought about it because I was making all these random patches anyway. It'd be a bit more interesting if I was asked to make a patch that sounded like something specific, which would force me to expand my horizons a bit.
faetal on 1/7/2020 at 20:47
Hey Dema. I'd be up for that. I'm off work next week too, so potentially a good time too. Not sure if that's maybe too short notice.
henke on 2/7/2020 at 00:42
Paging Jason Moyer.
I don't own, play, or know anything about synths, but I'm also loving this synth jam/contest idea and will gladly listen and vote if y'all go through with it. :)
Jason Moyer on 2/7/2020 at 04:14
I don't like synths, they're coarse and rough and irritating and get everywhere.