Synths and Synthesis MkII: All gear is shit, Hail Satan

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > Synths and Synthesis MkII: All gear is shit, Hail Satan

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Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

The Cleaner posted:

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you cannot get 1 MIDI cable into your Minibrute and then 1 instrument cable back into your interface without tripping on wires, having your computer crash and ripping your hair out... I'm a little concerned.

It's not about that at all.

You say:

The Cleaner posted:

All I've ever done is simply send MIDI notes to whatever synth and then recording back into the DAW, with on-the-fly knob tweaking.

But what some other people might want is not having to print anything to tape (so to speak) until everything is finished. This requires total instant recall of presets and parameters and midi automation in and out. Since it does not have all that, the MicroBrute doesn't integrate in my setup, not nearly as well as vsts.

Now I know better than anyone else that such a workflow is based on a thick layer of fear of commitment, insecurity and likely the real inability to produce anything ok-sounding live even in a thousand takes -even if it just concerns twiddling a single filter knob.

I'm not going to buy a MicroBrute, because I can read the marketing blurb and conclude it doesn't have the features I want. Someone with a couple of weeks of experience with FL Studio or whatever, and to whom it's all still very much black magic, might not, but might still be very eager to buy what all the other guys on the internet say is the greatest thing. And be disappointed.

I don't think any of that is extremely odd or incomprehensible. And, you know, vsts do enable me to maintain that non-committing workflow, so why the gently caress not.

I respect that you can do things on the fly and I understand that it's pretty simple if you build your workflow around that. It's just not for me.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2014 19:25

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 15:23

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

I'm not reading whatever is behind that link out of a sense of egotistical self-preservation tyvm.

"Have motivation to work hard and regularly, have enough self discipline and detachment to finish things, learn from others as you go, don't get caught up in pie in the sky, network, network, network."

If you take away the obnoxious "awesome professional artists go blee blee blee, loser amateurs go bloo blo bloo" tone, there's really nothing to it. You know all these things because it works like that for every work-from-home business and if it were really paramount that you started making money with your music, that's what you'd be doing. As a hobby that comes with the vague idea "how sweet it would be to get paid for this", there's really no problem with dropping a bunch of those requirements to keep it fun rather than work.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 12:25

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

FLX posted:

If I remember correctly, the "Lack" series of couch tables, etc. is perfect for 19" rack gear. You can just drill screws into the thick wooden legs/sides.

The legs were made of particle board and would never really carry any weight. I've read they've changed them so only the upper quarter is particle board now and the rest is literally geometrically reinforced cardboard.

If it ever was, it's not a good recommendation now. Even way back it was something for that things perfectly fitting into other things tumbler more than anything else.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 20:12

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

e. Slow again, staring at screenshots in GIS

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

edit: Does anyone know how to set up (in live) a reverb that only effects the upper frequencies of a channel?

From screenshots I can see Live's native Reverb plugin has an input processing section with a filter that can cut the lows out of the input signal. That should be all there is to it. I'm assuming that it doesn't affect what is coming through as dry signal. If it does, you can still set it up 100% wet in a return channel and use the send. If you're using a different reverb plugin that doesn't offer the built in input filter, set it up in a return channel but add a filter or equalizer in front of it.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 10:49

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

No, make the entire track an octave higher. And in double speed. Project samplerate 88.2kHz.

When you're completely finished, halve the playback rate.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 19:17

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Hey, Wayfinder, is this you?

Pretty trippy track.

I was on the MAZ Tracked Worx cds too as Cantaloup.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2014 11:18

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

VoodooXT posted:

In recent news, it looks like Waldorf is actually getting off their asses and getting a stable firmware released for the Blofeld.

They pulled it from the site for some reason. I don't know when they did a redesign for the site, but it used to be the case that all firmware versions since 1.15 or something were available for download. Now there is none for the desktop version.

I found this KVR thread which has a link to supposedly "stable" 1.21 on page 4, but I'm not going to try it before I've verified that I have 1.16b and the recovery thing lying around somewhere. Or I guess I'll just wait for more news anyway.

Bolange posted:

Did you see actual release notes somewhere? I'm a little concerned that they went from 1.2 to 1.2.1 to 1.3 in a span of 2-3 days...

The way it's worded on the site, suggests to me that this is firmware for the keyboard part of the Blofeld Keyboard and not for the Blofeld part of it, maybe? 1.3 isn't a logical follower in the sequence 1.15 > 1.16b > 1.20 > 1.21 anyway and the Blofeld so far has always shared firmware between desktop and keyboard versions otherwise.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 14:02

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

VoodooXT posted:

They pulled 1.20/1.21 because they were unstable (random volume changes, unisono was always on, etc). One of the OS programmers posts in the Waldorf Blofeld Facebook group just posted the link to 1.22 which, according to him, is out of beta. http://bucket.waldorfmusic.de/blofeld/BlofeldV122.zip

EDIT: That 1.3 firmware is for the keyboard scanner (fixes some velocity stuff).

According to the OS programmer guy:

Thanks for the link! I'm a bit bothered by the fact that these things are only accessible through a facebook group that you need approval for to join. That I didn't even know existed until today. Not just this; there was apparently a 1.18b update last year that fixed encoder issues for a lot of people that never made it to the site. Also annoys me they took the old firmwares off the site.

The result is that the release notes you posted are 1.21 > 1.22 and there's no way for me to find out what happened since 1.16b, which was the recommended firmware for years.

Mostly wondering whether the arpeggiator will sync to tempo properly now.

Again thanks though.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 17:37

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

VoodooXT posted:

It might be something they can't even fix since the DSP in that thing is hilariously underpowered.

At this point I'd even take it if they got it working properly with effects and unison disabled.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 21:31

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Startyde posted:

Saw this poking around for more info on the blofeld update. Seems like a pretty good deal, 177EU for a Rocket, plus it comes with a free license for the Waldorf Edition VSTs.

I think I've got that Waldorf Edition thing lying around too, yet so far never bothered with it. I'm trying to remember, but I think it came with the Blofeld Sample License, which I ordered from Thomann as well (seems relevant, since they're calling this Rocket a "Thomann Edition").

Now I'm curious whether these plugins ever got updated to 64 bit. Could be a bit of an empty gesture to some otherwise.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 02:52

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Radiapathy posted:

The Edition plugins are all 64-bit. (At least the Windows versions are.)

I've never worked with the filter or PPG plugin, but Attack is pretty cool and useful once you understand its many many quirks.

Cool, maybe I should check them out.

From what I remember from my piracy days, the filter is pretty wicked.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 13:09

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

I think we're just roleplaying people who do make music.

You're in a forest. Your foot is stuck in an entanglement of midi cables. To your left you see a TB-303 being attacked by an iPad with Bejeweled on it. On your right a computer endlessly plays an odd three bar loop.

Let's roll for inspiration!

Oh no! A boutique synth manufacturer pushes an ad through to the iPad and kicks you in the wallet! You pre-order their newest vaporware. Subtract $2800.

Sorry Gaia, you went over budget which caused a quick divorce! Use Ramen? [Y/n]_

# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 09:13

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Radiapathy posted:

Hello fellow Redditors,

Rude.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 18:52

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

wayfinder posted:

Hah! Took a break from the forums at exactly the right point Yeah that's me! I still have that CD somewhere tucked away in a box :P

Cool! The track works fine without filters, for what it's worth

DosBox doesn't do MMX, I found out shortly after that post. I've set up a Dos machine on VirtualBox, but I've got to choose between stuttering or sample preview/envelopes not visually updating, which annoys the crap out of me. 20 years on and I can't emulate a Prentium 166 MMX 100% in software, what the gently caress. Plus exchanging files with the system is a hassle.

Well, back to SchismTracker's rough approximation.

Anyway, you had some good poo poo on there, you should revisit them some day.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 02:13

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Scatterfold posted:

Lots (too much? no) sidechain compression

It's making me seasick. Like literally.

Cool tracks otherwise.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 15:57

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

My best finds were a 61 key Casio keyboard with midi out and no less than four levels of velocity sensitivity and rudimentary sound editing and a fully functioning MiniDisc deck.

I think you can do better by just getting a job at the local dump though.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 00:25

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

AFAIK, 16GB is the maximum size you can have on one IDE partition.

That would be a limitation of the filesystem used, in turn dictated by what the OS of the device that's going to read/write on it supports. Not the bus type used.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 21:28

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Korg's Dorks

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 23:27

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

If you can get it fixed under warranty, definitely do. You'd be cheating yourself out of a big chunk of the re-sale value if you didn't.

Keyboard or key swap shouldn't exactly be a complicated operation either.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2014 17:09

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Super cool. Upcycling stuff gets me so hard.

Now if you could have it charge the battery pack through the normal power adapter and add a color changing led to indicate charging status...

# ¿ Aug 28, 2014 00:14

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Lichtenstein posted:

Assuming I'm a total beginner enticed by the idea of pressing buttons to hear my computer fart, is getting a used Arturia Minilab for what amounts to 80 bucks a good idea?

The controller is toy-like garbage. That's not an overstatement of the lack of quality.

The software might vaguely be worth it to some, if they're into a bunch of vintage emulation sounds. Actually I don't know, because I never installed it. I think it requires you to have the controller connected as the world's largest copy protection dongle though.

I cheaped out on my first midi controller keyboard back in 2005 and as a result I barely used it and then put in in storage for a couple of years. I regret that. I have the Minilab now sitting in its box doing nothing.

I recommend against it. Find at least $150-200 for a controller and maybe another $120-150 for a solid softsynth (or play around with the decent free stuff you can find). Cheaping out will leave a sour taste.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2014 22:06

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

net work error posted:

So what do you consider a "song"? I have some jams I just recorded but I'm not sure if you count that as a song.

Anything, anything at all that is more than a 4/8/16 bar loop. So if you chained a few patterns and not all patterns are the same and maybe you twiddled the filter and resonance knob, that totally qualifies. To me at least.

I'm going to try. Not using my MC-303 though; gently caress that. But to put something on soundcloud that lives up to those standards before Columbus day. I won't promise that I'll succeed at that. But I'll try.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2014 22:23

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

A Winner is Jew posted:

It's not analog emulation though, it's all analogue but it's analogue poo poo.

For shame.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 01:31

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Radiapathy posted:

(does Gaia have drum sounds?)

Like a lot of Roland stuff, it weirdly has a complete GM module built in. In the case of the Gaia it's completely inaccessible from the front panel though. But it's multitimbral and everything over the midi in.

edit: That implies there are drums. Probably an acoustic, electronic and jazz kit.

edit 2: My favorite free vsti currently is Tone2 Firebird.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Sep 3, 2014

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 19:33

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Startyde posted:

Speaking of, how's everybody doing on the one box jam for ~synthtember~?

I'm using Thetys and BeatDesigner to stay in the spirit somewhat. Picked my drum sounds. Trying to remember how automation works in Cubase. Getting organized mainly. The music so far is garbage.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 23:01

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Which obviously is a mixing problem

It's more of a monitoring problem if you're trying to incorporate frequencies in your mix that you can't hear.

To be honest, I think a bandpass filter should be standard on every mixer channel by default, but still. Need some decent speakers and/or have them set up properly.

toadee posted:

Turn the volume on the channels down and the volume on the master up.

Master volume on the monitors themselves, sure. If you mean all within Live's mixer, then that doesn't do poo poo.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 20:36

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

#synthember entry - or "synthember inspired" that should be.

Cheated aggressively by using whatever Cubase had to offer me that I felt I needed, because gently caress your arbitrary rules :tipshat:

# ¿ Sep 18, 2014 20:00

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

AxeBreaker posted:

Anybody know what expression does on a Volca keys? Is it aftertouch, or pressure sensitivity or what? It's only mentioned in the MIDI chart and not in the extremely short and lovely manual.

They gave proper designations for where the controlled parameters differ from those in the midi spec, so expression has just got to be expression. Probably.

Midi spec has two volume controls, envisioned as cc#7 for setting a fixed max level and cc#11 (expression) for manipulating/automating during a performance, usually organ style with a pedal. So it's likely a simple volume control, I'd guess.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2014 11:01

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

toadee posted:

Synthember, minus the synth's (all sounds produced by the mouth and lungs of my wife and I):
https://soundcloud.com/david-gates-2/in-a-bunker-with-you

This is nothing short of amazing. Love it, love it, love it.

_{You clearly need to give me all your synths 'cause you don't need them. I'll even pay for shipping, isn't that ever so nice of me.}

# ¿ Sep 26, 2014 00:00

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

toadee posted:

(Synthtober now?)

OSCtober.

I like the odd and offbeat things coming out of this. I'm sure if we'll make it a regular thing, it'll die in no time.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 19:30

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

With the stated budget, for my money I'd go with the most advanced Virus that buys. For cheap, a used Blofeld, if you can find it between $300-$350 is amazing value for money though.

I have a weakness for the JP-8080 as well, but it apparently has some quirks I wouldn't want to deal with today.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2014 19:14

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

field balm posted:

I need recommendations for some software while I build stuff again! Particularly a decent free monosynth (I don't get along with synth1, oatmeal or iblit, I don't know why), and a synth that can make/load custom wavetables and morph between them. I can maybe drop $50 on the second but would prefer free!

Wavetable related, Zebralette is pretty much what you are looking for, I think. I'd look at SynthMasterCM and Curve2CM as well, though the first doesn't do custom waveforms (long list to choose from though) and the second one can only crosfade between two custom ones. But it's good stuff and somewhat related. Aalto Solo (or Beat edition) is an interesting, flexible modular monosynth; shouldn't be too hard to understand with a background in Synthedit.

All these are stripped down versions of commercial synths. Some of them require hoops to jump through, like downloading the demo of the full version, making an account on some website or even buying a specific magazine. Not sure if you can even still get all of them. Zebralette shouldn't be a problem though.

In addition to that, some more generic recommendations for simple synths with good interfaces: TAL Noisemaker and Tone2 Firebird. Angular Momentum also has some okay freeware synths that lets you draw/save/load oscillators, but no morphing, or, lets you morph based on harmonics (but no drawing).

# ¿ Oct 11, 2014 12:52

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

A MIRACLE posted:

I got all excited about the volca sample until I realized it has no audio in, only sync over iOS. kinda disappointing

First time I hear of the thing existing, but :wtc:

Even just a MicroSD slot would have made the thing great.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2014 23:12

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

vkeios posted:

Wait, you really don't understand why the sampler works with a phone? The device with a microphone that most people carry around at all times?

If that was the point, they could have skipped the hardware entirely and made an app called volca sampler.

It just doesn't make any sense.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2014 00:54

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

cubicle gangster posted:

I already have a midi keyboard, was hoping for a smaller box that just did one job.

You should specify whether you want something to make entire songs in or if a flexible-ish 16/32 step thing will do.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2014 21:26

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

What will be missing from the electribe sampler that the electribe is going to have? Thomann suggests they will cost the same.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2014 16:01

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

AxeBreaker posted:

From the reviews I've watched and the specs, basically the Electribe is a synthesizer groove box and the Electribe Sampler is a sampler groove box. From the sepecs (if tldr;) the Electribe has more filters and probably oscillators, that stuff is replaced by sampling space on the Electribe Sampler.

Yeah, I've been staring at those lists for a while and couldn't really parse it. The filters thing I missed and is a bit of a bummer. If otherwise the synth engine really is the same and it's just a matter of exchanging (some/most) factory pcm for user samples, then the electribe sampler is decidedly the better deal for me.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2014 18:00

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

A MIRACLE posted:

so are there still two electribes coming out? the synth and the sampler?

Yes.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2014 18:19

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

I'm just going to have to wait until it's out, I think. As long as I can stick in a one note sample with a loop in it, put a filter on top and play music with that, the sampler is the cool one in my book and I won't mourn the loss of presets and onboard oscillator types. Add the sequencer and some built in VA type engine that isn't too constricted and we're cooking.

If on the other hand it's too much drumloop oriented, I really couldn't care less for it.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2014 19:10

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 15:23

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Solstice album contribution:

https://soundcloud.com/flipperwaldt/tantrum

All done in the free Windows version of Caustic, which is surprisingly powerful, runs on poo poo computers and tablets and seems like the perfect no-budget entry level package to teach someone the basics. It reminds me in a way of a modern day Impulse Tracker; no distractions and if there's something it can't do, you're probably overthinking it all anyway.

e: .com J, if you need more filler, my Synthember track is possibly even more wintery themed. Just let me know and I'll dig up the wav version.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Nov 23, 2014

# ¿ Nov 23, 2014 19:12

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > Synths and Synthesis MkII: All gear is shit, Hail Satan

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