demagogue on 27/4/2021 at 08:38
Well this is news.
(
https://www.musicradar.com/news/focusrite-buys-sequential-taking-ownership-of-dave-smiths-analogue-synths) Focusrite buys Sequential, taking ownership of Dave Smith's analogue synths
Focusrite also owns Novation, so at least it's in good company and they can share tech. They'll get better financing. And I'm sure they're smart enough to let Sequential keep its name, considering how long it took for DS to get it back, and that they keep its design philosophy.
And Dave seems happy with the acquisition, so that's a good sign.
faetal on 27/4/2021 at 12:30
I own Focusrite, Novation & Sequential products, and I really like the Focusrite support, so I don't see any way this will be bad.
Novation's latest flagship synth is really nice, so any crossover of in house expertise ought to be interesting.
Jason Moyer on 28/4/2021 at 02:55
Speaking of Sequential, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get either an OB-6 or a P5Rev4 this summer. I keep fluctuating wildly back and forth between which one I want though, or whether buying another polysynth is a smart thing to do, especially when I know PghMod are releasing some new instruments later this year.
Aja on 28/4/2021 at 13:03
As someone who’s been starting to feel the limitations of his Minilogue lately, I say do it.
faetal on 28/4/2021 at 16:04
OB-6 is beautiful.
I never stop wondering if I should have got one instead of the P6, but can never make my mind up.
Worth noting that recent firmware for both P6 & OB-6 includes a global option to turn the slop parameter into the new P5's vintage parameter.
From what I have read, slop applies increasing detune to the oscillators to mimic tuning instability in older synths, whereas the vintage parameter adds drift to per voice filter cutoff, envelope timing, pitch and amplitude to mimic older stuff. I have my P6 set to this now and it sounds a million times better than slop did.
What's more, I've started applying the principle to patches I make in VSTs and it makes them sound a lot more alive and interesting. So I'll generally add a tiny amount of key-triggered randomness to the aforementioned parameters (it isn't per voice unfortunately as I don't think any of my VSTs have that level of modulation granularity). With the addition of some emulated saturation, I really can't tell a difference between what is analogue and what isn't on my tracks.
On the subject of VSTs, I cannt praise Arturia Pigments highly enough - it is currently on its second free update which included new synth engines (additive mainly), oscillator types, effects, filters and more. It is one of the best synth UIs ever designed I think and sounds amazing (no surprise when you conisder how much R&D they have put into emulating classic analogue & digital synths).
Aja on 28/4/2021 at 16:59
Yeah, one of the best things you can do with the Minilogue is use the LFO to create a subtle pitch variation. Its oscillators aren’t totally stable anyway, but that’s what makes it sound good. A while ago I was playing a single chord on it into a giant reverb, and it was remarkable how much variation there was in the sound — subtle phasing, overlapping, harmonics coming in and out. Then I tried with my Reface DX, and it sounded flat by comparison. That’s kinda why I sold it. There just weren’t enough modulation options to make it sound not static, which isn’t what I want for drones (in a pop band it would be awesome, though).
I’m a little bewildered when people nitpick synths for their so-called flaws. Maybe I’ve just never played a synth I didn’t like, and in my experience the flaws are what give them character and make them interesting. I guess the fact that we have “slop” parameters speaks to that. One of my favourite patches on the Minilogue uses voice stealing in an interesting way that sounds disjointed but pleasing. You gotta work with what you have (I say as I contemplate buying new things).
faetal on 11/5/2021 at 13:06
Holy shit.
[video=youtube_share;GSiJS93H6Kk]https://youtu.be/GSiJS93H6Kk[/video]
Jason Moyer on 11/5/2021 at 19:43
The colossus is gorgeous, but you can't beat the original Synthi 100.
Jason Moyer on 22/5/2021 at 19:00
I just watched Hainbach's Strega video finally, and I think I'm going to eventually get one. It seems like it would be a good VRL companion feature-wise.
[video=youtube;9HOI3zSwhPg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HOI3zSwhPg[/video]
Aja on 25/5/2021 at 20:28
I haven't used mine much since the weather started to get nice, but I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping it. It feels so mysterious and alive, and it's a lot of fun to experiment with.
I'm finding it a little harder to be productive with it, however, because of a few things. I wish that there was either a second filter or low-pass gate that came after the oscillator but before the delay or else give me a direct wavefolded output that I could filter it myself and then inject back into the delay.
The other thing is that the oscillator, while it sounds great, has suboctaves in two-thirds of its wavefolding range, and sometimes they're tricky to rein in. If you just transpose it an octave up, you get this organ-y sound that's cool but you might not always want. A filter might help with this. Guess that's not what they were going for, and the fact that you can't really do traditional synth sounds with it could be seen as a positive.