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Sizone posted:Probably not. That's a lot of money for not a lot of synth. Well it's not really about how much money for how much synth, but will it provide a decent "guts" learning experience. And if the answer is still no, then is there any other better option or recommended reading for really learning the ins and outs?
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# ? Jan 27, 2015 23:50 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 21:43 |
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If you're looking for something small with a mod matrix, the MicroBrute is not too bad. Cheaper too, with more usable keys. And a sequencer!
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# ? Jan 27, 2015 23:54 |
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AxeBreaker posted:If you're looking for something small with a mod matrix, the MicroBrute is not too bad. Cheaper too, with more usable keys. And a sequencer! I'm probably gonna get the MicroBrute or something soon, but the Workstatt thing is more about putting together a synth from the ground up...soldering and what not... to give you an actual understanding of HOW a synth really works before moving on to bigger and better things. I'm not really interested in it as a synth for synth's sake... just a learning tool.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 00:29 |
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The version sold now isn't the workshop version- no soldering required. It just snaps together.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 00:38 |
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AxeBreaker posted:The version sold now isn't the workshop version- no soldering required. It just snaps together. Oh. Well. That's loving pointless! And answers my questions, thanks!
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 00:41 |
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I think all of y'all should watch this video about the Werkstatt-Ø1, especially from 7:15 on, because: 1. Assembly is screwing it into a case, you're not going to learn soldering from just the thing you get from Moog. 2. On the other hand it has all these documented break and insert points (inside the case, so beyond the external patch points) and even a freestanding patch matrix for modding and rerouting the thing in and out of other electronics, which makes this a thing suitable for starting cuircuitbenders. It was pretty much made for that. So, just looking at the specs and the control panel and saying it's not a lot of synth for the money is also not really cutting it when describing what the thing is. But if you're interested in a solder-by-the-numbers thing, this isn't it, unless you're already checking out modding instructions for it and plan on buying additional crap for that.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 00:49 |
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Yeah honestly, with all of the CV options on there, you're basically getting a modular synth voice for $300 which isn't bad.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 01:17 |
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It can also make Moog sounds. It's on my list along with finding the Kurzweil MicroEnsemble for under $200.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 03:49 |
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BonoMan posted:I'm probably gonna get the MicroBrute or something soon, but the Workstatt thing is more about putting together a synth from the ground up...soldering and what not... to give you an actual understanding of HOW a synth really works before moving on to bigger and better things. I'm not really interested in it as a synth for synth's sake... just a learning tool. In that case this will probably be what you're after: http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 04:22 |
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Flipperwaldt posted:I think all of y'all should watch this video about the Werkstatt-Ø1, especially from 7:15 on, because: Good to know. The only thing I was trying to get out of it is "will it help me actually understand the basics of a synth, why things do what they do and why elements are called what they are?" Whether it's soldering or made with cheese and string or what I really don't care... just if it actually helps learn as that's what out seems made to do. ozmunkeh posted:In that case this will probably be what you're after: http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/ Perfect thanks! BonoMan fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jan 28, 2015 |
# ? Jan 28, 2015 04:23 |
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BonoMan posted:Good to know. The only thing I was trying to get out of it is "will it help me actually understand the basics of a synth, why things do what they do and why elements are called what they are?" Whether it's soldering or made with cheese and string or what I really don't care... just if it actually helps learn as that's what out seems made to do. Honestly there are a ton of low cost analog synths on the market right now. You'll learn more from actually playing with each knob than you ever would from actually building it. You don't need to know the engineering to know how to make music with a synth, or even what each part does in an abstract way. This cheesy 80's series here explains everything pretty well: http://www.producingbeats.com/videos/new-york-school-synthesis-intro-synthesis That said, I'd stay away from DIY until you know how it's supposed to work or you'll never figure out what the hell you broke. And for the love of god stay away from modular until you know your way around regular synths, it's a gear junkies money pit. Seriously, get a MicroBrute($300) or even a Volca Keys($150), something cheap. Lots of folks have these, they can give you tips.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 06:00 |
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AxeBreaker posted:You'll learn more from actually playing with each knob than you ever would from actually building it.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 06:08 |
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AxeBreaker posted:Honestly there are a ton of low cost analog synths on the market right now. You'll learn more from actually playing with each knob than you ever would from actually building it. You don't need to know the engineering to know how to make music with a synth, or even what each part does in an abstract way. This cheesy 80's series here explains everything pretty well: That MFOS link gave me ask the info I think I'll need. But it wasn't about thinking I needed that info to make music... I was just interested in how they worked. I was prob gonna get a microbrute regardless and this was just something I was looking at in parallel as a learning tool. I'll skip it though. (And yeah I think I'll stay away from DIY for now) BonoMan fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Jan 28, 2015 |
# ? Jan 28, 2015 06:14 |
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renderful posted:AxeBreaker quote 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.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 06:40 |
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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MockingQuantum posted: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. Just learn the basics of substractive synthesis, applies to any and all analog style synth and beyond. Microbrute by itself isn't going to do much, mono and the sequencer is just slightly better than arpeggiator. If youre just starting out hardware will be more of a hinderance beyond "turning knobs" if the goal is to get something resembling music/song out of it.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 07:31 |
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In the middle of recording my boner jam and realizing that this doesn't sound sexy at all.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 10:58 |
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MrLonghair posted:It can also make Moog sounds. It's on my list along with finding the Kurzweil MicroEnsemble for under $200. Think you might be real disappointed with how little a single osc, single a/d envelope box ends up sounding like a mini. VoodooXT posted:In the middle of recording my boner jam and realizing that this doesn't sound sexy at all. It's cool. When startyde sequences the tracks, maybe he'll do a hard side and a soft side.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 12:18 |
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Here's my Boner Jamz '14 submission: KYH - Private Dick Listen to my terrible keyboard solo Anyway Startyde, I'll PM you the link to the WAV file on my Google Drive.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 12:32 |
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Sizone posted:It's cool. When startyde sequences the tracks, maybe he'll do a hard side and a soft side. Ya got ta get up for the down stroke
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 13:07 |
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MockingQuantum posted: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. depending on your personality i would also suggest starting out with a synth with fewer features, not more, and definitely lean towards something that has a lot of knobs instead of involving menu diving. my first synth was an Ultranova and i had no flippin' clue how to make it do anything beyond the presets / changing the waveform and filter cutoff. the flexibility was crushing when it should have been liberating. even now, if i can't get the sound that i want it feels like it's because i haven't tried hard enough to get what i want out of it. it wasn't until i sat down with a much simpler synth and really learned what its limitations were that i really (a) understood subtractive synthesis and (b) knew how to grow into the additional features of the ultranova. creativity thrives under constraint.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 15:02 |
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I'm definitely down with starting with fewer features. I was looking at that JD-XI and it seems nice, but it seems like it's got some menu diving. Probably gonna order the Microbrute today...the ONLY thing that has me a bit hesitant (and yeah I know it's a little stupid for such a newbie) is the lack of an apreggiator... that's one of the few things I did understand what it is right off the bat and I like it's function. Tell me I'm being stupid and just go ahead and spend the monies.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 16:04 |
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I'd rather have a sequencer than an arpeggiator, personally. The arpeggiator is a better live performance tool, but aside from that, the sequencer does everything that the arpeggiator does.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 16:28 |
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sliderule posted:I'd rather have a sequencer than an arpeggiator, personally. The arpeggiator is a better live performance tool, but aside from that, the sequencer does everything that the arpeggiator does. White MicroBrute ordered! So excited. Also forgot that I ordered the TE PO series thingamajigs as well. I shall be creating tons of terrible bleeps and bloops in no time.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 16:53 |
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Does anyone here have the Volca Sample? A cheap and small sampler seems fun, so I'm curious if it has any drawbacks beyond having to use Korg's iOS app or CEVS to load in samples.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 18:39 |
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Vlad the Retailer posted:Does anyone here have the Volca Sample? A cheap and small sampler seems fun, so I'm curious if it has any drawbacks beyond having to use Korg's iOS app or CEVS to load in samples. I had some issues with CEVS with my desktop, laptop worked on first try. Other than that and for the money, no complains. Simple but powerful mangling/automation, sounds great etc.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 18:50 |
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Vlad the Retailer posted:Does anyone here have the Volca Sample? A cheap and small sampler seems fun, so I'm curious if it has any drawbacks beyond having to use Korg's iOS app or CEVS to load in samples. The only one I can think of is there isn't much storage for sequences (10 total is really small) but that's standard for the Volca stuff and it's not really a huge drawback since it forces you to be a bit more spontaneous and focused instead of having libraries of stuff you'll save and maybe use later.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 19:26 |
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Mr. Glass posted:depending on your personality i would also suggest starting out with a synth with fewer features, not more, and definitely lean towards something that has a lot of knobs instead of involving menu diving. my first synth was an Ultranova and i had no flippin' clue how to make it do anything beyond the presets / changing the waveform and filter cutoff. the flexibility was crushing when it should have been liberating. even now, if i can't get the sound that i want it feels like it's because i haven't tried hard enough to get what i want out of it. My own synth story was deciding that getting every feature would be great for a monosynth so I could learn everything in a single synth. After doing the research on what could give me everything at a sorta reasonable price, I picked up a DSI Evolver... ...now don't get me wrong, the DSI Evolver is a fine little synth, and can do ridiculous things for a monosynth, but it was a really bad choice for a starter. For one, you only got to see the value of one parameter at a time on the front panel, and can only adjust one parameter at a time on it. You really want the visual feedback of the entire chain to start with. Also the Evolver was full of parameters that if set to the wrong value could make a patch unusable, so it's really bad for just playing around with when you spend 10 minutes just trying to get a sound out of it again. Long story short, the deep end was the wrong end to start in. Oh, and my Bonerjamz track has been cut down - I'll be sending the unmastered version off today. Here's the screaming 80's guitars and string machines now that I've got rid of some redundant parts and tried to get the sections to flow a bit better together: https://soundcloud.com/stillvisions/hot-california-nights I gotta work on my keyboard solo skills but I think it goes okay with the cheese theme. Oh and for the sake of science I processed the soundcloud version through https://www.landr.com/ - it purports to be an automatic mastering solution so I figured to drop the mp3 version in there. Interesting concept for a business, I guess time will tell if it works well or goes bankrupt as a business model and as a technology.
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 19:57 |
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Got a not-quite-BonerJamz idea of doing Paul Hardcastle's 19 but in the Brentalfloss way and making it about Ubisoft games but that would require annotation work and so much cutting conference & presentation voice samples (But it would be pretty freaking cool so if I get over this cold then maybe) Ghosts n Gopniks fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Jan 28, 2015 |
# ? Jan 28, 2015 20:11 |
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stillvisions posted:My own synth story was deciding that getting every feature would be great for a monosynth so I could learn everything in a single synth. After doing the research on what could give me everything at a sorta reasonable price, I picked up a DSI Evolver... haha yeah i haven't even used an evolver but from what i've seen i would think it would be an absolutely terrible first synth
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 20:12 |
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Evolver (desktop) is ok with an editor, the front panel is loving terribe confusing mess. Colors,fonts,parameter groupings, everything
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# ? Jan 28, 2015 20:24 |
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stillvisions posted:
A beanie a hoody and a chain. They are failing to sell me with their image. Also their masering process didn't do anything except drop the sample quality significantly and gently caress up the stereo image. Assuming it probably works better for music made by people who wear beanies chains and hoodies.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 00:06 |
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AxeBreaker posted:And for the love of god stay away from modular until you know your way around regular synths, it's a gear junkies money pit. A few weeks ago I got my first synth: a Make Noise System 0 (modular). It's definitely a money pit -- I'm already obsessed with scoping out new modules. I regret nothing, though. For some reason it's easier for me to experiment with a steady drone than with a keyboard. $300 for a Microbrute is hard to argue with, though. That's like a single low-end module! hepatizon fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jan 29, 2015 |
# ? Jan 29, 2015 00:23 |
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I really need to stop watching these Marc Doty videos on the Pro-2. I should not go and spend $2000+ on a Pro2. I am probably going to spend $2000+ on a Pro2.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 00:32 |
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Lol now I'm GASing for a microbrute while waiting for Korg to fix the electribe.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 04:56 |
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So what is the submission process? send a render with nothing on the master to the address mentioned? what kind of headroom should we be aiming for, etc? Flipperwaldt, thanks a load for those samples! They sound much better than the emulations I'd been toying with. While I'm generally a lofi kinda guy who just stretches one note across the keyboard, I'm working on setting the whole lot up for Sforzando (plogue's free aria engine sampler), and I'll upload the sfz file for everyone when I'm done. field balm fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jan 29, 2015 |
# ? Jan 29, 2015 05:47 |
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Sizone posted:A beanie a hoody and a chain. They are failing to sell me with their image. Also their masering process didn't do anything except drop the sample quality significantly and gently caress up the stereo image. Assuming it probably works better for music made by people who wear beanies chains and hoodies. Uh it's actually for everyone bro. It's for people who wear beanies, chains and hoonies (and who should shave their scruffs), people with long greasy hair, hipster women wearing polka dot shirts, people with leather jackets, insufferable bastards wearing incredibly ugly caps and flannel shirts AND EVEN smartly dressed black people. If you can't find yourself on this list get a life and make real music that you can master with LANDR Instant Online Music Mastering service by MixGenius for only $19 a month you disgusting goon.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 08:35 |
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field balm posted:So what is the submission process? send a render with nothing on the master to the address mentioned? what kind of headroom should we be aiming for, etc? The man promised svhs to be involved in the process so probably make your render loving loud to avoid signal-to-noise problems as it will probably be leaving the digital domain right quick. Last time we tried this some one sent stems and got pissed when the volunteerer masterer had the audacity to play around with them, so yeah, single stereo track, lossless, no metadata. Just make sure it's clear whose it is and what the name of the song is. CAT rear end now!!! posted:Uh it's actually for everyone bro. It's for people who wear beanies, chains and hoonies (and who should shave their scruffs), people with long greasy hair, hipster women wearing polka dot shirts, people with leather jackets, insufferable bastards wearing incredibly ugly caps and flannel shirts AND EVEN smartly dressed black people. If you can't find yourself on this list get a life and make real music that you can master with LANDR Instant Online Music Mastering service by MixGenius for only $19 a month you disgusting goon. I'm excluded and I'm pretty sure danes or whatever flavor of viking you are are also excluded.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 09:55 |
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Sizone posted:, Actually I fit all the descriptors above. I'm a greasy-haired black hipster woman wearing a polka-dot leather hoodie with a flannel shirt underneath and an ugly beanie-cap (ie. smartly dressed). LANDR is obviously perfect for my music.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 10:04 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 21:43 |
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VoodooXT posted:Here's my Boner Jamz '14 submission: KYH - Private Dick This desparately needs a noir voice over from a Private Dick.
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# ? Jan 29, 2015 13:11 |