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I've recently started down the synth-collecting k-hole. Bought one on a whim, then another a week later, now I'm aggressively cruising ebay and craigslist on a daily basis. AND I BLAME THIS THREAD FOR ALL OF IT. One question though, I'm trying to figure out if there's anything out there on the internet like what I have in my brain. Here's my situation: I picked up a MicroBrute a few months back because though I've been making music for quite a while now, anything I did with synths was all plugins and leaned heavily on presets. I know the MB has a lot of shortcomings, but it's perfect for me: I like the sound, and it's a nicely immediate, knobby unit. I've learned a great deal about basic subtractive synthesis (more than I ever did ITB) just by spending a lot of time on the couch messing with the various parameters on it and seeing what I get. What I'm curious about is this: are there any other hard synths that fulfill this kind of place for other types of synthesis? i.e.: -Reasonably portable -Straightforward physical interface -Limited parameters (I tend to get lost when there's too much to tweak) -Relatively easy on the wallet I've done some looking, but there's so much out there that it's hard to parse what might fit this niche, but still be different enough from the Brute that I'll still learn something from using it. I know it's a pipe dream, but I'd love a portable FM synth that I can experiment on. I love FM8, but I sometimes get the thousand-yard stare trying to program patches in it. If it's relevant, the only other things I have are a Volca Keys, and an Electribe ER-1 & Mopho on the way. EDIT: I know my way around a soldering iron, so kits are definitely an option. It figures I found this thread just in time to find out that the Shruthi XT kit is no more. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 08:23
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Sjoewe posted:By looking at the list you've made of this you have already, I'd day you're pretty sorted for now and that is I were you I'd rather invest in a delay/reverb stompbox and just make music until it becomes clear to you what you think is lacking from you setup. Cool, thanks for the advice. I will say it's less GAS that I'm experiencing than just wanting to learn more about programming different types of synthesis, and for better or worse, I find that to be more comprehensible on hardware than in a plugin. I got the ER-1 for the similar reason that right now I stink at writing drums. The mopho I got because I love the sound and it was too cheap to pass up.
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Dec 15, 2014 19:11
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So I scrapped the idea of trying to buy another small desktop synth, and I think instead I'm going to save up and start piecing together a modular. I've found a ton of info on muffwiggler and elsewhere, but there's two things I'd love some opinions on: 1. I get the impression that my best bet in terms of price-to-functionality is to build my own case, plan what I'd like to get, then wait and pick up modules used. Is this always a better option than getting a package deal "starter system"? I know it will drive me insane if I end up with nothing but a case and a VCF for a month or something, but I'll deal with it if it'll help me in the long run. 2. If I do end up piecing one together from used modules, what do I need for minimal functionality? Am I best off doing a Moog-esque VCO-Filter-VCA-ADSR (and probably LFO) plus some sort of pitch CV source? Is there anything else I absolutely need that may not be obvious if I have no experience with modulars? I've heard tell of multis and clocks being sort of essential once you get a sizeable system. I've spent the last two hours just trying to figure out what I should shoot for with a first oscillator. Modular boggles my mind and I think I'm going to love it.
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Dec 16, 2014 04:52
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Sizone posted:Nope. Stop there. Startyde posted:You don't ever catch the dragon, friend. Alright, okay, I'm convinced. Closing MW tabs, getting out of Modular Grid, done. I apologize if it seems like I'm a complete noob to this, because I more or less am. The MicroBrute was my first hardware, and it inspired me in a way no plugin ever did, completely changed how I approached music, so obviously I'm trying to recreate that situation with other hardware. But I hear you loud and clear-- I'm setting myself up for disappointment and/or fiscal collapse if I start down that road. I may do the modular thing at some point, but I think I need to figure out what I'm doing first, not rely on a modular to teach me what I'm doing. That said, I definitely am going to check out some of the suggestions offered as an alternative (well, maybe not the KingKorg). I just got my MoPho in today, and I think that will keep me busy for a while, but the programming is anything but immediate. Also, I was reading through the thread from the beginning, and saw everyone's moment of clarity about how they had too much hardware that wasn't helping them, so I'm a little less surprised by the response I got. I appreciate everyone's cooler heads prevailing. I swear I'll figure this poo poo out before I go into debt.
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Dec 16, 2014 19:23
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stillvisions posted:One thing to consider is something to tie all the parts together - you've got an ER-1, MoPho and Microbrute, maybe a groovebox that will output midi to tie them together and produce all-purpose sounds? I loved my old Korg EMX (again, stolen) and I also used that as the master brain for all the synths lacking in the front end (MoPho, Evolver) and some sort of mixer, if you're planning to control it all from hardware. You can set all the channels on the EMX to individual channels too. I'm sure there's one without an audio engine that's cheaper, but you can't go too wrong with that if you're going in hardware. I was considering this, actually. I don't ever play live, and I haven't had any issues with DAW/hardware integration to date, but I think the idea of being able to arrange something without even opening up a DAW appeals to me. Unfortunately it's something I know literally nothing about, having been effectively born into the DAW era. I was looking into something like the EMX, or hell, even my iPad. Theoretically, all I need is something that I can create multiple sequences on, then send them separately on discrete MIDI channels, right?
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Dec 16, 2014 23:28
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Sizone posted:The thing you're looking for is, unsurprisingly, called a "sequencer". genome and das lauflicht are decent ios ones. Well yeah, I know what a sequencer is, I more meant that I didn't know whether there is much in the way of multitrack sequencing available in hardware units. Thanks for the recommendations, though, I think I'll try one of those apps rather than go the hardware route.
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Dec 17, 2014 01:51
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Startyde posted:Yep! I've seen some stuff that's pretty Lowgain does do 5U conversion nbut I think he's pretty back logged til he's done with NAMM.
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Dec 17, 2014 04:21
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like leaving panel mounted knobs as they were and wiring all the jacks in rows at the bottom, but I've seen good work too. I'm not sure of who's actively building atm, I'm not in 5U, but I think lowgain and manhattan both do so on the reg.
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Sizone posted:When you're ready for hardware, there is the Yamaha Rs7000 (akai MPCs are also super popular). I've been noticing that ever since I got my iPad, I sort of really prefer sequencing on it. I'm also pretty sure that the quality of the stuff I've made has gone down. Thanks for the suggestion. I've messed around with the MPCs (I think it was a 1000) a little and I'm not crazy about them. I know plenty of people who swear by them, though. I think I might casually keep an eye out for an Rm1x, I feel like it's worth it to at least give it a try.
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Dec 17, 2014 20:32
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Sizone posted:Trust me, you want the RS7000 if anything. Rm1x has the fatal flaw that, in grid record mode, it only plays back the track you're recording, all the others are muted. That alone made me sell mine and pick up its bigger brother. Hmm, good to know. Well the increase in cost makes it a less attractive "buy it and try it out" option, but I won't rule it out entirely.
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Dec 17, 2014 21:07
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Guys, I think I found the best GAS cure: Stop buying sub-$500 synths, and just fall in love with one or two that you won't be able to afford for who knows how long. If I'm lucky, I'll get over it before I can buy either. For the curious, I'm lusting hard after a Pro2 and/or a Monomachine. Alternatively, spend a day on Gearslutz. Never been on the site much before, but my god, nothing will make me want gear less than reading through people's $10,000+ pissing matches.
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Dec 18, 2014 08:33
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A Winner is Jew posted:This guy gets it... only it's really easy to start looking at effects pedals while you're saving up for an expensive synth. Thankfully I've never been bitten by that bug. I have one crappy distortion pedal that's appealing in how terrible it is, but I bought that two years ago and haven't felt like I needed anything new. Maybe I'll buy a decent delay, but I've been saying that for a few months already.
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Dec 19, 2014 02:02
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Sizone posted:Still a poor metric. The only synths I have that cost more than 500$ are my microwave xt and my fizmo. Neither of which cost all that much more than 500. What I've used the most is my tg-77 which was -well- sub 500, what I used the absolute most are the rm-1x which was sub 200 and the gameboy which was sub 100. Equating cost with value is loving stupid. Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that cost was a metric of a synths worth, I guess the focus should have been stop buying synths entirely, unless you absolutely need a change. Also I was trying to be funny in the fact that I've fallen in love with a synth I probably can't afford, and now don't want anything else. But I suck at humor on the internet. On another note, my Korg ER-1 came in yesterday, and I can already tell it was a good choice for me, because I royally suck at using it. I think I may spend the next month trying to write "music" on this box alone.
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Dec 21, 2014 19:24
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The Cleaner posted:If anything, Ive seen ALOT of the opposite - people making GBS threads on someones expensive gear, saying it was a waste of money, how they cant make music with it, how its not worth it, they cant write songs with it, they got ripped off, etc... basically jealous haters. Now THAT Ive seen in abundance. It is weird to me that I see a ton of mocking towards my friends who've dropped $3000 on a modular setup that they genuinely try to make music with, but nobody mocks the guy that spent upwards of $10,000 worth of guitars and amps that get touched maybe once a year. This is more an observation of my friend group than anything, but drat do people not take fart boxes seriously. Edit: sorry for double post
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Dec 21, 2014 19:29
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Tagging on to this Behringer Odyssey clone discussion (which I have no idea how to feel about), what's everybody's perspective on a recreation like this: would you rather have a highly accurate recreation of the Odyssey at a premium, or a reasonable but not totally faithful recreation for a more attractive price? What's an acceptable trade off?
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Dec 24, 2014 08:10
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Sizone posted:Same, there are -a poo poo ton- of limitations on old synth design that people just take as convention. Eg., ADSR envelopes are loving dumb, there's gently caress all reason in TYOOL 2014 for envelopes not to be multistage looping. Every synth should have a mod matrix, every amp should be velocity sensitive, every synth should adhere to the midi tuning standard, every synth should have an lcd display capable of telling you the patch name, bank and preset number. While at this point I agree with you that some of the limitations imposed by modern synth builders are idiotic, I will say that it makes sense for some of the entry-level synths to stick to convention. If the Microbrute had more than an ADSR I would have been pretty lost for longer than I was. That being said, it wasn't as much of a challenge to wrap my head around the mod/envelope matrix on it, and I'm glad to have it on there, even if it is pretty small.
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Dec 24, 2014 20:29
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Anybody have any opinion on the Groovesizer stuff? The Red intrigues me.
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Dec 31, 2014 07:11
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For anyone that's interested, Uli Behringer is talking about the company's new line of synths on Gearslutz. Trigger warning: being a 'slutz thread, it has the prerequisite amount of analog dickwaving, fanboys actually using the phrase "the haters" unironically, and people suggesting that polyphonic aftertouch is a valuable addition to a budget synthesizer.
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Dec 31, 2014 19:39
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I posted this in the iOS music thread too, but the Moog apps are on sale, probably til late tomorrow.
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Dec 31, 2014 22:38
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Sizone posted:This is actually, in part, correct. PAT's super badass and it would be nice if there were, at least, a decent, moderately priced controller that had it. I agree in theory, but considering the majority of first-time synth buyers probably couldn't take advantage of PAT it seems like it might not be the best concentration of resources, if that's what they're going for.
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Jan 1, 2015 00:26
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Sizone posted:First synth purchase of the new year: an electribe er-1. I liked the ios app so much that I wanted one in hardware. That is the most gameboy sounding tone generator I've run across outside of the gameboy. Yeah, I was pretty surprised when I got mine, since i had no clue what i was getting myself into. Any ER-1 tips for a synth newb?
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Jan 2, 2015 19:55
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Sizone posted:ER-1 Thanks a bunch for this. I'll definitely try all that out. I always read manuals, but i wish gear came with a "here's neat poo poo you can do" page in common language. I suppose thats what the internet is for though.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:50
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mrbradlymrmartin posted:it put the sq80 ahead of the crowd Alright, I concede. I just meant that for a newbie, poly is mystifying and demands a level of playing that a lot of people don't have, myself included. But then again, I don't know that many newbies would be clamoring at Korg/Behringer's gates for an Odyssey remake.
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Jan 6, 2015 02:36
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mrbradlymrmartin posted:idk, i always thought polyphony made it easier for trained keyboardists to move to synths. all my buddies who ever took a piano lesson have goofed around on the polysix, but the XS surrounded by moogerfoogers sems much more intimidating. Yeah, that all makes sense. I suppose I may be an edge case since I'm not remotely a trained keyboardist.
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Jan 6, 2015 02:59
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Anybody have any good suggestions on cool stuff I could try with the Aira VT-3? I bought one for dirt cheap off of a friend, but I'm finding I have no better idea of what to do with it than he did. I doubt I'll ever actually use it on vocals.
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Jan 6, 2015 20:44
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Radiapathy posted:
I think i have the midi to the song that always gets referred to by that title, if that matters.
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Jan 8, 2015 03:11
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Your Computer posted:Every time I've seen someone refer to that title it has always been a Touhou song, don't think I've ever heard the actual piece The piece can't actually be played, the best you could hope for is an "interpretation". That being said, I'd love to see a fully staged production, with cattle and Lakers, etc. Edit: Anybody know anything about Camel Audio possibly closing shop? I heard a rumor to that effect from a friend, and it seems like all the links on their page redirect you to the support/login page. I hope not, I was planning on getting Alchemy sometime soon. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 06:13
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BKPR posted:I'd gotten away from using Alchemy for anything but specific granular stuff, but it's still a bummer to see them close up. Hopefully those guys will be back with something cool someday. I think CamelPhat was one of the first non-packaged plugin I ever used, and I still use it to this day. Pretty bummed that I missed the boat on Alchemy, so yes I hope they make it back some day too. I've wanted to get into some of the granular stuff you can/could do with it.
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Jan 8, 2015 07:15
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A Winner is Jew posted:I really can't recommend the Mangler enough for a 1U rack effects unit. No joke, you've single-handedly made me consider buying a Mangler, even though I have more effects plugins than I know what to do with, and have literally no need for a hardware unit.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:04
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BonoMan posted:Yeah no poo poo. I went from "scaling back to just looking at a DAW" to "ohhh this Ableton Live Studio + Push + Novation Impulse 25 for $950 looks great!" If you see any good deals while you're out, let us know. On another note, just got my Groovesizer RED kit in yesterday, I'm stupidly excited to sit around and solder things to a PCB. Oh, also I hope it's a decent synth, or at least worth $80.
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Jan 11, 2015 23:50
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BKPR posted:The Rhythm Wolf fell flat, didn't it? They're launching another drum machine so quick? It does seem a little weird that they'd announce another drum machine so quickly on the tail of one that a lot of people, including (hilariously) Guitar Center employees, didn't know actually existed to begin with.
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Jan 22, 2015 03:52
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Startyde posted:The best boners are hasty and unplanned. I think we have a new out of context thread title. On another note, did Korg hint at any kind of price for the MS-20 module? I couldnt find a dollar amount anywhere, but maybe i missed something obvious.
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Jan 23, 2015 16:56
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toadee posted:Yeah it's $1200 at Sweetwater http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MS20MSQ1LTD Yikes. Never mind. I'll just buy a mini used. And I literally just searched on Sweetwater for it, i swear something's wrong with their search function.
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Jan 23, 2015 17:07
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VoodooXT posted:Oh hay guys, John Carpenter's new album just dropped on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2015/01/25/379336431/first-listen-john-carpenter-lost-themes This just made my day.
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Jan 27, 2015 03:22
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Radiapathy posted:I hadn't been paying as much attention to the NAMM stuff as some of you guys have, and I know you've already talked about the new Roland stuff- but after seeing this Gearslutz interview about the JD-Xi, it is actually sounding like a crazy little monster of a synth for only $400. Sorry to double post, but dang, this might be the first modern Roland synth I'll actually consider. I'm interested to see what a final product ends up like.
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Jan 27, 2015 03:30
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I just finished soldering together my Groovesizer Red! Trip report: -Dropping $100+ on a soldering iron was the best investment I've made in years. I didn't know the squalor I was living in prior to this. -The build quality on this little guy is pretty crap, but that's reflected in the kit cost. I know I'm the one building it, but I mean the pots and switches. They don't feel like they'll stand much abuse, and the tension on the pots is hilariously uneven. -It's got its own unique brand of brokenness, probably due to me loving up a couple of solder joints, then fixing them later. I have no idea if I'm hearing what I should be. That being said, it's kind of charmingly lo-fi and unpredictable; in the step sequencer mode, you set pitch in a pretty clumsy button press + knob turn fashion, which is fun in its terribleness. It'll probably end up being another midi module. All told, there are worse things I could have spent $80 on. However, there are likely much better things that money could have been spent on too, but I wanted to get into synth kits, and for that this was great. I may have hosed the thing up, but I don't really know one way or the other, and I'm not out a ridiculous sum if I did.
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Jan 27, 2015 09:09
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VoodooXT posted:Seriously this. When I first started out seriously with synthesizers a year or two ago, I didn't know anything about synthesizers. Ended up buying a Virus KC and played around with all the knobs and routings in the modulation matrix and now I know that synth (and similar synths like it) pretty well. Nothing beats actually having a well laid-out synth in front of you and playing around with the knobs. The key lesson (and seemingly the hardest lesson for noobs like me) is that you really need to sit down with ONE synth and turn knobs. Get to know one noisemaker inside out, and only then think about expanding beyond that. If you pick up too much gear too early on, you're really only hobbling yourself and your learning process. Plus the more time you invest with a synth, the easier it is to dial in a specific sound when inspiration hits. Not to mention actually knowing the intricacies and oddities of a particular unit's step sequencer/patch memory/pattern mode/whatever. If you get a MicroBrute, don't treat it like a stepping stone to your next bigger, badder synth, treat it like a piano or guitar. Become fluent in one instrument before learning your next one. Now one of these days I'll actually do what I just suggested, ha!
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Jan 28, 2015 07:00
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VoodooXT posted:Synths only lead to one thing: GAS. It's all self-regulating though; eventually you sell 5 synths you don't need. To buy one synth you really don't need.
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Jan 31, 2015 21:06
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BonoMan posted:Yay: my Microbrute came in! I've had boxes beat up from B&H too, what is it with them? That's actually why I stopped buying from them. I would return it if I were you. Don't want to find out three months down the road that the oscillator drifts and is untunable because it fell off the top of a stack in the warehouse or something.
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Feb 3, 2015 06:22
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Bolange posted:That's where I got hung up with Jack. I could not, despite following pretty clear instructions from the internet, get 'Stereo Mix' to show up on my Windows 7 install. I'm coming up with this from memory, so apologies if it's kind of confusing, but I think if you change the audio driver in the dropdown menu near the record function on Audacity's toolbar, you should be able to change it to WASAPI driver. Do that, then there should be a "loop thru" as an option under the source. This worked for me, though I had to manually go into my integrated sound card settings and enable the stereo mix as a source, even though I don't actually use the integrated card at all. Worth a try, and much less clunky than any of the virtual card solutions that exist for Windows. EDIT: Here's a description of what I was talking about, starting at the bolded sentence a few lines into it.
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Feb 3, 2015 18:50
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Your Computer posted:RE: How to get samples from Timbre Wolf video, don't install poo poo or try to ghetto record it, just use http://www.youtube-mp3.org/ . It's perfectly safe, legal (as of right now) and run by an awesome dude. Oh poo poo, how did I forget about this? Somebody said Audacity and my mind just followed that track.
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Feb 3, 2015 22:51
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