Aja on 6/11/2021 at 15:47
Two extra voices and a weightier sound, mainly. And a much better keybed. If I tried, though, I could probably get the minilogue to sound close to the OB-6, especially with some external EQ and compression. As for the modular, well, I’m starting to think of it more as a toy than a productive tool. It’s fun to play with and easy to waste so much time (enjoyable time!) but I rarely get results that I actually want to use in a release (and for me the phrase “one take, no edits” is almost an immediate pass).
demagogue on 7/11/2021 at 03:11
Sort of on topic, Ricky Tinez dropped a (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F7lsJPMQFQ) video recently on this topic of spending more time developing what you've got then spinning your wheels looking for new ways to make sounds.
Whenever I visit the synth shop here, the two synths I always play with, and keep playing with for a long while, are the Minilogue & the Prophet 12. The Minilogue just shouts out at to you from across the room to be played with, and it doesn't let you go especially when you start playing with the modulation of what are ultimately pretty simple sounds, like you're saying.
The Prophet 12 is harder to explain maybe. It's more byzantine, but it does have a lot of knobs, when it sounds good it sounds really good, & I treat it like some kind of riddle to be solved.
Lately I've also been getting back to playing with the Plasmonic (soft synth) with my workhorse keyboard. It's specifically made for making patches that you modulate in performance as part of the patch itself. I mean any good synth lets you set up performance modulation, but it's like the central design focus here. You're making these patches from the perspective of modulating them as part of the performance, like in addition to playing the notes, you're "playing" a spectrum in timbre or resonance, and then you're thinking about that when you're making the patch. I'm really digging it.
Jason Moyer on 7/11/2021 at 03:20
Quote Posted by Aja
As for the modular, well, I'm starting to think of it more as a toy than a productive tool. It's fun to play with and easy to waste so much time (enjoyable time!) but I rarely get results that I actually want to use in a release (and for me the phrase “one take, no edits” is almost an immediate pass).
That's funny because I'm basically the exact opposite. I have tons of keyboards and I love patching them and playing them for my own enjoyment, but if I want to actually create anything interesting I pull out the modular/semi-modular stuff. I pretty much hate every aspect of music making that doesn't involve rehearsing/playing with good musicians or going on sound/compositional exploratory journeys.
Aja on 7/11/2021 at 16:29
I haven’t watched the Ricky Tinez video, but what dema said resonates (lol) for me. I have more than enough gear to make the kind of music I want, yet time and time again I buy something new in the hope that it will finally be the thing that kickstarts me into being productive. And of course it never does because the real problem isn’t lack of gear; it’s lack of skill and dedication and discipline. As a musician I’ve spent so much time coasting on skills that I developed years ago rather than practising and studying and pushing myself to do better. Not saying everyone should do that, but in my case I do because I’m often not able to realize what I imagine my music should be.
Now that I think about it, that’s true of modular, too. It’s easy to mess around with it, but the people who make the best music with it are the ones with a more innate understanding of how to get the results they want, and you get that from practise.
The other day I tried to follow along with a youtube tutorial on how to play piano with a groove and was shocked at how uncoordinated I was. My taste in music has certainly exceeded my ability at this point, and I want to work on that.
Aja on 11/11/2021 at 18:18
But maybe a nice reverb pedal would???
Instead of the Take 5 I'm now looking at a Strymon Night Sky/Volante combo. I've been wanting a good hardware reverb for a while but I always convince myself in the end I don't need it. But it will make all the synths I already have sound great and let me stop working so much with plugins, which might lead to productivity! Who knows?
faetal on 11/11/2021 at 18:33
Have you considered FX aid for your modular?
Aja on 12/11/2021 at 01:44
Yes, but I don't like the form factor; too many functions that change with every algorithm and no screen to tell you what they are, plus it's a cramped layout. Give me fewer modules and more space to use them any day. Plus, I love Mimeophon. It's just not designed for line-level signals (it gets noisy), and I generally don't enjoy having to fuss with all the cables and preamps/attenuators necessary to interface modular with everything else. Then again, Morphagene and Mimeophon combined are probably the most interesting effects I have, so maybe this is a problem I should finally solve. Maybe an input module with quarter-inch jacks and a strong preamp. I'm always tempted to put them in a little 4MS pod and treat them like a pedal, but what stops me is knowing that they work best with all the other modulation sources in the rack. Well, I'm just rambling now.
faetal on 12/11/2021 at 08:27
I use expert sleepers ES3 & ES6 into my Scarlett 18i20 and just use my modular as an external effect in ableton - works fine and also lets me basically extend my modular setup into VCV rack / Softube modular pretty seamlessly.
demagogue on 14/11/2021 at 03:45
The little mini ARP 2600M that Korg is releasing looks fun: (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bj7KIzw-wQ) Bobeats' review, (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp5rs4Aiw7Y) Loopop's review, (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KdLBf8T9b0) Alex Ball's review & demos
Aside from the fact it's a classic, the scene has come so full circle that it looks fresh. With so many synths coming out having some kind of gimmick, it's nice to see almost everything you could want on one surface, with sliders & patch sockets for almost everything. So it's fun to patch & to play. It's pricey, more than these massive workstation keyboards I've been looking at, although still well under the Summit. And it's really great for productions like this...
[video=youtube;3pCUR9hdRnI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pCUR9hdRnI[/video]
