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

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Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Nice OP, OP.

Your Dead Gay Son posted:

So I need something to record my synths with. I guess just get one of those 8 track thingies? I don't want to use my computer because its in another room and poo poo.

There was one posted in the last thread but I can't remember it to save my life. It was like 400 dollars or something.

Probably thinking of the Zoom R8 or R16.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 04:05

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:17

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

So, YEAH Dubz is 100% a goon, right?

Pop Tart box MIDI controller tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh4Vfoon6s4

Sound like Skrillex in 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vt0kQ7G4pg

Sound like Will.I.Am in 30 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsGAU0K9VGw

Since he can't not be a goon, the only real question is which one of you is he?

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Mar 19, 2014

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 15:43

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Also I bought Sausage Fattener, am I a bad person? I figure that if something can help me stop loving with processing each sound then I'll be happier and make more music, and it seems pretty well liked even if it is a bit of a cop out.

Strap it across a drum bus some time. I'm still trying to figure out what it does (it does NOT turn your waveforms into a greasy sausage) but it seems to do something magic on drum buses. I've used it for exclusively that purpose on 5 or 6 tracks. I'm actually planning to do some more detailed analysis of this in the next couple of weeks, to see if it's more than just a placebo effect. I THINK it's awesome? But I'm not sure I can trust my ears on this one.

EDIT:

Swagger Dagger posted:

I'm looking for a new midi keyboard since the M-Audio Keystation I have blows, the keys feel terrible and I hate it. Does anyone have recommendations for anything in the $150 range?

I don't need knobs or pads on it because I have a Maschine, so I'm really just looking for something with nice keys, pitch/mod wheels and either 25 or 49 keys since space is at a premium for me

I have and love the Roland A-49. It's close to your price range, it's super small and light, and it feels great. I was apprehensive about the combo mod/pitch stick, but I actually really like it. Some folks don't like it because the mod returns to zero when you release. I actually prefer that behavior, but it's an issue for some.

Also:

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 19, 2014

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 19:06

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

A 6-minute summary of the TR-808's role in music, from Graham Massey of 808 State.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vzj7v

My man sounds Manchester as hell.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 15:28

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

renderful posted:

I generally post on Soundcloud whenever I have something that I like, although it's not always a fully thought out or organized track. In fact, it's almost always not. Let's call them jams. So I was reviewing my previous posts just now and ran across this, which I am pretty proud of, as it's one of the only things I've done that has some sort of hook:

https://soundcloud.com/renderful/cracker-barrel (named cracker barrel because I ate there and bought pop rocks and a plastic noise making tube there, then sampled them and that's what started this session)

Then I realized that I have it, and 100's of other projects on a hard drive from my old Macbook that died last year, that I'd not touched or listened to in a while. I ended up finding the original Live set, in tact(works perfectly on new machine with Live9). I'm thinking that I could turn the above track into something nice, if I focus the arrangement a bit, and give it quite a bit more structure and less repetition and more melody, percussion and effects variation. Pretty stoked to dig through the rest of these tracks from 2010 on.

Do you guys revisit/revive old projects? Do you ever find hidden treasures that then translate into new things? This is one of the things I really appreciate computers for.

Not in a place where I can hear audio ATM, but will check the track out later.

Last week I actually ordered one of those music tubes because I remember loving that sound when I was a kid, and I wanted to have one to sample. But yesterday Amazon told me the shipment was undeliverable (with no explanation), and the vendor mysteriously refunded my order this morning. I want that tube more than ever now!

Re: Revisiting old projects, this is something I've done ever since I started making music. I've re-recorded some songs up to five different times over the years (even covers!), although in my case it was usually a matter of getting new instruments or better equipment. I rarely (perhaps never?) altered the lyrics or song structure, but I sometimes added new harmonies or melodic lines, or changed the mood and tempo of a song. (I'm also currently going through my "back catalog" of original songs and am about to re-record a large number of them from scratch. I don't have digital copies/sequencer projects of any of them. Just some cassettes. Unfortunately it looks like there are at least six songs I had completed and recorded, but don't have any tape of anymore. All I've got is lyrics, and I don't remember enough of the music to be able to re-create them. :argh:

)

Also about once a year I'll go through all my "works in progress" and see if any of those unfinished projects are sparking anything new in me. That sometimes results in good stuff.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Mar 24, 2014

# ¿ Mar 24, 2014 20:45

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

MJP posted:

(also this is the most awesome promo video ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCWnm98gcgo)

Why was Jazz Fusion the go-to genre for all 80s/90s synth demos?

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 15:32

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

ashgromnies posted:

I've gotten three different answers on whether having more headroom in digital recording is good or not. I'm so confused. Mixing thread was like "uhh headroom doesn't matter in digital" but in the home recording thread it was recommended to record to -6dB

Yes, headroom matters in digital, but it's tied to bit depth, although even at lowish bit depths you still have more headroom than traditional analog systems afforded. Most DAWs seem to default to 24-bit, which is better than CDs (which are 16-bit), and suitable for most people and purposes.

When you're talking about "recording to -6dB", do you mean when tracking individual parts, or mixing, or mastering?

When I'm tracking, I try to record as loud as I can without clipping, the idea being that I like to have my source material as loud as possible, so I can mix by cutting rather than boosting. If the material's dynamic, like vocals, I try to dial it in so that I don't notice anything going in over -4dB.

I also bus everything (vocals bus, drums bus, synths bus), and when mixing, I usually start with each group bus at around -12 to -18dB (when mixed together the combined result's much louder), and when my mixing stage is done, it's usually peaking at around -4 to -6dB.

At mastering stage I drive it all the way up to about -0.3db. By that point all my peaks are already under control, compression's doing its job, and I'm just trying to get the highest reliable volume, because my car stereo's not that loud.

Your Computer posted:

I don't really know much about this, but I do know that in Ableton the audio will clip considerably if your signal is over 0. As far as I see it, the reason to never have the signal go above 0 is to avoid clipping, though I guess in digital it CAN be irrelevant (but as I said, in Ableton it certainly isn't).

True digital 0dB is the clipping point for all digital recording; you can't go over it- when you hit zero you're dead. I've read that some DAWs either lie about peaks or engage some built-in soft-clipping to let users push their signals harder than they should, but if your metering is accurate, you should never touch zero.

Something I've noticed about Live is that when you use the Normalize option when rendering audio (which just raises the overall volume of the track until the highest peak in the song reaches zero), the rendered track almost always clips, if you analyze it in Audacity or WaveLab. I don't know what Ableton's doing there, but when I use Live these days I'll just aim for a mastered final that's as high as I'm comfortable with in Live, and then just normalize the WAV to -0.3dB in WaveLab after that.

*** Also, an unrelated question ***
So, I'm making some demo tracks of these rack synths I'm going to sell, and I would like to have automation control over the filters (and have found it a fool's errand to try to do this via SysEx on a modern system), so I'm thinking about relying on filter plugins instead of the synths' native filters, giving me total control over cutoff and resonance during playback.

The thing is, the synths' built-in filters offer key tracking, whereas most standalone filters don't. So unless your synth part is just a single note repeating through the whole song, you need a way to adjust cutoff as the music changes. So, I've been looking for filters that DO offer key tracking, which would let me route the MIDI from my synth parts to the filter.

None of the filters I currently own support this option. It looks like these filters do have it: Cytomic's The Drop, Waves MetaFilter, and FabFilter Volcano 2.

Anyone have experience with these plugs? Ever use 'em for key tracking?

Or any other suggestions on how to simulate automation on these old rack synths?

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 19:11

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Clip detection is not as an exact science as you'd hope it would be. A value reaching the maximum can (technically, mathematically) be intentional and doesn't need to be an indication information was lost. Iirc, most clipping detection algorithms decide that three subsequent samples at the maximum value very very likely means clipping has occured. But it essentially can only guess; it can't know if information was lost or whether it was never there. Other algorithms play it more safe than sorry and raise the alarm when a single sample reaches the maximum value.

I just remembered why I was analyzing my Live renders to begin with. A few times I ran into problems converting rendered WAVs I'd made using Live's Normalize function, where LAME bailed out, reporting errors when attempting to convert them to MP3. That's when I started looking at the WAVs to see what was up. Whether it was a true clip or not, WaveLab, Audacity, and LAME didn't like what they saw. :shrug:

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 21:09

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

Right now all of the patches are recorded into 4-5 clips of 128 waveforms each. I know I can use Ableton's slice options to cut each patch to a sample on a Drum Rack, but I'm looking for a way to easily cut out each individual sample and save it separately. The samples themselves have about a bar of silence between them, it would be very easy for software to detect the beginning and end of each sound. I'm basically looking for an equivalent to the MPC auto-chop feature but on my Mac. Any suggestions for a way to do this in Ableton/Logic/Audacity or can someone recommend other software?

Oh man, doing that in Live is an exercise in pain. Even if you get all the latency math right, you can still run into problems with samples not lining up right- and sample editing was never Live's strong suit anyway. I also dropped a ton on ReCycle only to find that it works MUCH better with the sample clips included with the demo version than with anything I recorded.

I use SampleRobot for this stuff, and Extreme Sample Converter is a popular alternative.

Things get more complicated when sampling VSTs (gotta deal with plugin hosts, virtual audio cables and crazy latency) but for sampling hardware synths, that's exactly what SampleRobot and ESC are for.

The full SampleRobot is pretty expensive, but you can get "single-X" versions which just export to a single format. (I got the WAV version, considering getting the Kontakt one.)

http://www.samplerobot.com/funktionalitaet.htm
http://www.extranslator.com/

I often use SoX as a final step on samples recorded from hardware/virtual synths, to trim silence at the start and end, and to normalize:
http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Mar 29, 2014

# ¿ Mar 29, 2014 23:49

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Ortazel posted:

I'm just starting to get into this too, sampling hardware drum machines through my Mirage and then recording it into Ableton and using the "Slice to MIDI" option. I've done the manual work of trimming ~70 individual samples already, but is there an easy way to output the Sampler template to individual .wav files?

I started writing a blog post about this several months ago when I had gotten as streamlined a workflow as I could manage to figure out using Live and Sampler, but I kept running into this problem where the attack of some samples would end up at the tail end of samples before them, and the whole process of fixing things was incredibly fiddly.

Here's what I wrote before I gave up that path in favor of SampleRobot: Batch Sampling Drum Kits with Ableton Live

The stuff I was going to describe where it trails off at the end was writing SoX scripts to do a number of things. Took me days to figure that poo poo out.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 09:01

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Sooo close to selling the Virus TI Desktop, but the gearslut in me says I still need the Virus's hypersaw oscillator. (The hypersaw lets you dial in up to 9 detunable saw waves off a single OSC slot, and is separate from the additional Unison feature.)

Is there a softsynth that does something similar to the Virus's hypersaw OSC for supersaw-type sounds? I normally use Massive as a Virus substitute, but it doesn't really work like the Virus in this one specific area.

I have seen people talk about Spire, Zebra, and Sylenth1 for hypersaws, and am curious to hear any confirmation of them, or suggestions of other plugs that do something similar.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Apr 1, 2014

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 19:06

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

From looking at the screenshots, Spire, Zebra and Sylenth1 all allow for a similar thing in principle at least. Haven't listened to any of them, but Spire seems to have an excellent user interface. I like it for that.

Kilmers Elbow posted:

I use Sylenth for long ambient pads, and of all the VSTs I've demo'd I still find Sylenth's detuned-multi-saw/sq/whatever to be the warmest of them all. It sounds utterly gorgeous; you can just set up a wall of sound a let it go.

I own Sylenth1 but I spent very little real time working with it before I ramped up on Massive. I'm gonna see what I can do with Sylenth tonight.

Also, it appears that u-he Diva actually has a "megasaw" OSC for up to 7 saw waves- so similar in concept to the Virus hypersaw. It's unclear from the Diva manual whether this megasaw operates independently of Diva's "stack" (unison) feature. I might have to check the demo. I've avoided Diva up to now because my computer's not exactly new and even u-he's own page is like, "woah guys, this thing uses crazy CPU."

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 20:39

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

A few days back I posted that the only thing holding me back from selling the Virus was that I wasn't sure I could find a replacement for its wide, fizzy "hypersaw OSC" sound. Based on suggestions from here and KVR I spent some time with a number of plugins, and actually found several that get close enough for me that the Virus is hitting eBay this Sunday.

I recorded a MIDI chord progression and designed a bare-bones supersaw patch on the Virus and six different plugins. Every patch had only a few elements: single-OSC, 2-pole LP filter (wide open as saved in preset), fast attack/smooth release ENV, whatever detuning/stacking features the synth offered. I ran each patch through the same delay and reverb and posted the results to SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/supersaw-comparison

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 15:45

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

The Massive one is extra chorusy, which makes it stand out somewhat.

I prefer Alchemy the most, then Spire, for thickness and high frequency sparkle. A lot of this is comparing filter implementations in the plugins just as much as what the supersaws sound like. Especially Alchemy's filter has a nice low rumble with the filter closed. To me, these two just sound better than the Virus, in fact.

The fairness of the comparison depends somewhat on how close you got the settings to each other though.

I agree with your assessment- I like Alchemy and Spire best, as far as alternatives to the Virus's sound go. I tried hard to get things as close sounding as possible, given the often wildly different feature sets and parameters available. (For example, the A D and R on Alchemy envelopes go up to 20 seconds each! And Diva's envelopes were a little hard for me to tweak because of the logarithmic controls.) A big part of the Virus's sound is its stereo width control with the unison, and the synths that I felt sounded the closest had similar controls.

As far as the filters go, those do play a major role. The sequence is 16 bars total and bars 6-8 and 14-16 have the filter wide open so you can hear the raw oscillator. I had a huge pain of a time automating the Sylenth1 filter because of its separate Filter and Filter Control sections. I read the manual several times, but what I experienced did not match what the manual described. That's why its filter seems to open up way before the other ones do.

This was as much about programmability as it was sound, for me. I always found the Virus a breeze to program, and it's one of the reasons I've used Massive so much, despite my biggest complaint with it. I don't know if you can hear it (it doesn't seem to come out on my computer speakers but is pretty obvious on my monitors), but Massive always seems to have poppy/clicky attacks. Even if you ease up on the attack to the point of audibly fading in, there's almost always this little pop that I've rarely been able to eliminate from my patches. If they do a 2.0 I'd like to see that addressed (and also like to see actual parameter values somewhere in the UI when you're changing them).

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 17:42

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Is there one other than Massive that jumped at you in a positive way as far as that is concerned?

And for science , since you've now got the comparison material at hand, I'd be very interested in how close you can actually get with Curve using this general technique to fake a supersaw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0a-OPbCI88

If you don't care for trying yourself, could you give me some more clues as to what values you used to create the patch?

MUX is the only one where I didn't have to look parameters up in the manual at all (despite it being a pretty sophisticated and deep plugin), and Alchemy's a close second. (Read up on what the NOsc control does.) Diva's voicing was a bit of a bear, and the Spire filter section required some reading.

I appear to have Plugin Acquisition Syndrome (ended up buying Diva, MUX, and Spire this week) and I fear looking into any others will eliminate any financial gains the sale of the Virus might bring.

However, tonight or tomorrow I'll zip up the FXPs and a MIDI clip of my sequence and put it on Dropbox or Onedrive.

Basically, I just started with an init patch, turned off everything except for one OSC and one filter, set key tracking on the filter so that frequencies were consistent across the board with filter applied (this was the hardest thing to get consistent across all synths, they all use different metrics and ranges), and set up an envelope with zero attack, gentle decay to a sustain of 80%, and just a little bit of a release tail. Then I'd adjust the voicing/stacking/detune settings of the OSC and any separate unison feature, and adjusted stereo width where available.

With the automation, I'd start with filter cutoff at 50%, building to 100% open by the end of bar 5 of each of the 8-bar sections.

Oh I used Waves Manny Maroquin stereo delay custom patch as an insert on each track and had them send to an FX channel in Cubase that had one of the NI Reverb classics plugins, RC 24.

EDIT: Oh, and I used WaveLab's "loudness normalize" feature to bring all of the clips to -18 LUFS, with a peak ceiling of -0.3dB. (WaveLab did this non-destructively, with no limiting or compression.)

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Apr 4, 2014

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 22:18

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Radiapathy posted:

However, tonight or tomorrow I'll zip up the FXPs and a MIDI clip of my sequence and put it on Dropbox or Onedrive.

Which you can find right here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4apm4il6t9rc7b1/SupersawStuff.zip

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 05:03

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

"I will sell all my euro and some other synths and pare down what I've got to essentials. Then I shall take the money from selling these synths, put half into savings, and take the other half and get more synths for some veriety and a fun time..."

I'm putting the proceeds from my Virus toward a wedding ring, apparently.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 00:44

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

net work error posted:

All I see is synths, who is that? Should I know? I don't like missing the joke.

Her name is Johallyn Luy Tecladista-de AraVan. I only know of her because she posted the above photo on KORG's Facebook page.

She likes synths and satan. Really, what else is there?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 07:17

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

No keyboardcats here.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2014 08:00

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2014 20:47

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Sjoewe posted:

I don't know, it sounds amazing in it's own right and it's incredibly well played, but I can't help thinking that these kind of electronic bands are the main reason a lot of people still dislike synth music. I mean, I never really got the reason why you'd want synths to sound like 'real' instruments, when they can be so much more.

I know what you mean, and I think there's more to it than just the technology used.

As much as I can appreciate the technical performance in that video, I would put it in the same class as like Mannheim Steamroller, who are quite talented musicians who make music which is as far from anything I would ever voluntarily listen to as I can imagine.

But then there's the purely synthesized classical soundtrack that Wendy Carlos did for Clockwork Orange, which I could listen to all day- but then you've also got the "Hooked on Classics" stuff from the 70s and 80s and all of that was pure garbage. Thing is, I can't really put my finger on what makes the difference.

And also this:

Startyde posted:

a lot of what's out there is awful jazz fusion with bad soprano sax patches.

So there are plenty of examples of artists who used synthesizers to simulate "real" instruments or to play traditional music. And then you have Dawn of MIDI who almost do the opposite; they use traditional instruments to simulate computer music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOAb0qjYnAs

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Apr 9, 2014

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 16:14

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

So, I had put the whole "softsynths that sound like Virus hypersaw" thing to rest until late Saturday night, when I logged into my SoundCloud to find I had gotten like 1700 listens in that one day. Sunday the same thing. Turned out someone on Reddit had found my KVR thread and posted about it. My listens are back down to virtually nothing again, but I did add a few more synths to the playlist as a result, although I really am seriously done with this particular endeavor, fingers crossed:

The playlist now includes 2 hardware synths and 10 softsynths:

HW: Virus, Blofeld
SW: Alchemy, Diva, DUNE, LuSH-101, Massive, MUX, Spire, Sylenth1, Z3TA+, Zebra2

I re-recorded the Diva example with a higher voice count (had to switch into muti-proc mode) and tried to get it closer to the Virus, but simply wasn't able to make it as bright/fizzy as the Virus. (It's a great synth! I just wasn't able to reproduce that specific sound using only one OSC and the voicing parameters.)

https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/sets/supersaw-comparison

Guys on Reddit really hated the Massive patch. I dunno what to say; I actually know Massive better than any of the other synths I used (other than the Virus itself) and I just couldn't get it any closer to the Virus sound than that. :shrug:

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 17:47

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

https://soundcloud.com/flipperwaldt/sets/supersaw-compariso

Awesome. Bookmarked; gonna have a listen when I have audio.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 23:08

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

If your goal is supersaws and you're doing it on the cheap, you could do worse than SynthMaster CM and/or Firebird. Curve is awesome but for different reasons. And I guess todays protip is: layer that poo poo; the mix of all the different implementations (approaching 50 oscillators simultaneously!) sounds best to me. More is better.

For the standalones I liked your Firebird patch the best; did you add noise to it or is that just the saws doing that?

But yeah the whole shebang one was great!

EDIT: Oh Flipperwaldt- something I meant to ask you- do you have any docs on the Blofeld MIDI implementation? The only CC I know is Filter 1 cutoff (69). I've been searching, but all I find are a bunch of ancient 404ed links. And the Waldorf site's surprisingly less useful than Access's. The manual's also very skimpy on details.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Apr 10, 2014

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 04:57

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Your Computer posted:

Couple of pages earlier he linked me this: http://cl.ly/T6L3/download/Waldorf_Blofeld_CC_List_Fixed.xls

Hot drat, that's what I needed. Thanks!

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 06:11

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Apart from a few mistakes, the manual has the full list in an appendix. My list doesn't add a lot of details then.

Haha, well for whatever reason searching my PDF of the manual wasn't turning up any results- in fact it was open on my other monitor when I posted my question. But I just now scrolled most of the way down and found it. I at least tried to RTFM.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 15:12

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Not to defend reddit, but I found the Massive patch to be noticeably less enjoyable than the others. And I love Massive.

I think it just wasn't the tool for that specific job, particularly given my self-imposed restrictions when programming (single OSC, no FX, no EQ, etc). I use it all the time, and think it's great.

My only complaint with that patch was the attack pops, which is something I often have trouble eliminating from Massive patches; it's usually not noticeable in a mixed track though. I liked several others better though, yes.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 17:21

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Sample library controversy: A company called Binary Music just released a Kontakt library that's basically just the entire bank of original D-50 presets (for only $23!). But on Synthtopia's Facebook page, Eric Persing (legendary Roland sound designer) is claiming the product is an illegal rip of Roland's copyrighted work (because of all the PCMs... part of the reason why there aren't any commercial D-50 emulations).

I'm half wanting to grab it, as the D-50 was one of my dream synths of the 80s, and I'll never have room in my life for a real one. But then there's that other issue...

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 04:53

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Swagger Dagger posted:

So what you're saying is that you should buy it before they have to take it off their website.

Pretty much.

Sizone posted:

Roland -always- catered to wedding bands.

Thread title.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 06:06

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Laserjet 4P posted:

I was ready to blast this one because lots of this poo poo appears on eBay and it's usually some rear end in a top hat who bought a Fantom/Motif/Kronos, hooked it up to a lovely computer, installed SampleRobot or AutoSampler or whatever, and let it run for a week or so, but it appears that they actually did their homework and sampled stuff separately and dry the way it should be done.

Yeah, I bought it. It really is well recorded, and I like how they implemented the effects. They even have it so the layers are adjustable. It would be nice if they did what some other libraries do and calibrate the envelope sliders to the middle, so you can both increase AND decrease the attack like you would on the actual synth. I know it's different with samples, but UVI and Heavyocity seem to have figured it out.

Anyway, yeah. I can hear why people say it was better than the D-110.

Facebook blows, but I just discovered some buried comments where Persing was answering peoples' questions about the matter. He says that the PCMs used on the D-50 were his as well, and that Roland still actually licenses their old sounds to companies willing to play along. Interesting stuff.

Laserjet 4P posted:

D50s are still relatively affordable. Get one. Just put it under your bed, that's what MIDI was invented for.

But that's where my SY85 is. (Really.) I don't even have rack space for a 550.

Laserjet 4P posted:

No, this should be:

lol

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Apr 11, 2014

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 07:52

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

This just in, re: LA-50

quote:

Following comments from the original sound designer of the D-50, we have withdrawn the LA-50 from sale until such time that hopefully, we can release it in a way that everyone would be happy with. Thanks for your understanding.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 15:03

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

BKPR posted:

I have a question for those of you who actually still make music: Do you have problems getting sounds that gel well from different devices?

I've had issues recently where I'll go to add another synth patch to something I'm working on and have a lot of trouble getting it to mesh well with what's already there. This is probably compounded because I'm working with software, where everything has built in effects put onto the patches. Anyway, how do you guys deal with this?

I use Halion Sonic and Nexus a lot, which are basically software ROMplers. Their presets mostly sound fantastic on their own, but if I drop them into a mix as-is everything turns to mush. If I find a patch I like, I either turn the synth effects off or back them off a lot. And then surgical EQ to make sure I'm only getting what I need.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2014 01:36

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

So, how are you guys integrating the Roland AIRAs into your rigs? USB sounds like it's the way to go for full functionality- especially for the TR-8, but anyone who already uses an audio interfacee is going to have to get creative to use the TR-8 effectively, at least on Windows.

Anyone have all 3 of the available AIRAs working together yet? How are you routing your MIDI/audio/USB, etc?

Is the TR-8 truly locked to 32-bit/96kHz? (Yet another complication for people with other gear.)

EDIT: Also, have you started investigating Scatter mods for all your vintage boards yet?

EDIT 2: Woah, is this seriously the only manual for the TR-8? Tell me the installer gives you something more than a quick start poster.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Apr 14, 2014

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 18:11

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Just got approved for the Zebra Dinosaur Crossgrade offer and sent the Virus safely on its way to California this morning.

I've also begun work on a demo track for the Roland MKS-30 which I'll use to sell it in my eBay listing.

Once I've sold enough synths I'm going to reward myself... with some synths.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 17:49

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

75%-90% of the time I spend making music is sperging the gently caress out over a kick drum until I'm happy with it, which realistically is getting stupid because I'm terrible at making them 90% of the time and I'm just recycling the same samples over and over...

Are you having fun? If so, maybe that's just your thing. Ain't nothing wrong with it.

Sometimes I give myself a hard time about not being as productive as I'd like, or even as I used to be- but the fact is, every minute I sit down with my DAW and my synths I'm having a blast, even if I don't have much to show for it. I watch almost zero TV or movies, play almost zero games, and I haven't listened to music recreationally for like three years. And I don't miss any of it. Having too much fun.

What I'm getting at, is are you judging yourself unfairly? Or do you have some clear personal goals you're struggling to achieve?

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

some good advice I heard once was to just lay a track down as quickly as possible with whatever sounds you have handy and later on tweak the sounds to your hearts content.

This is how I work when I'm serious about getting something done, and it's quite effective. I actually lay down everything with General MIDI patches (used to use actual GM modules, but Cubase's Halion Sonic plugin has a complete GM set and it doesn't have polyphony issues). "Synth bass here, pad there" and within a couple of hours, there's the skeleton for a complete song. Then I can spend all the time I want on replacing patches and getting things sounding right.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 06:59

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Also, honest question, but I know we've talked here about what the "next 909" or similar decade defining synth is, is there any reason not to say Vengeance samples?

I think that by design (and by customer demand), Vengeance and similar sample packs are not about forging new ground, but about replicating things that have already been done. You buy their Trap pack when you want to sound like Lil B. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

For something to become considered a defining instrument, it has to be used in a way that's initially pioneering. I don't think that's ever going to happen with a sample pack, because that's not what they're for- they're for quickly getting to a sound you already know you want. They will capture the defining instruments of the future (I predict: 303/808/909), but they won't be making history- they'll be reflecting it.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Apr 16, 2014

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 15:18

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

I get what you're saying but I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment. I think the "initially pioneering" thing is secondary to it being absolutely everywhere when it comes to looking at a certain instruments influence.

That's what I'm saying, though. It's not going to be in a sample pack until it's already been used in enough places to be in demand.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 15:38

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

Speaking of Vengeance, they just released a new plugin called Glitch Bitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS5db_Lx5D0

Glitch Bitch.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 19:14

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

toadee posted:

So they gave dbBlue's Glitch a shittier user interface and released it what, 9 years later?

It's Scatter times a thousand.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 19:55

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:17

Radiapathy: Dec 3, 2011; Snooping as usual, I see.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Attempts at using vengeance samples #1: I have no idea how to make drums cut through a mix

This both overlaps with and assumes Sjoewe's advice, but in that clip, the levels of the different parts is really unbalanced. The cymbals are drawing far too much attention and the kick is barely audible (had to switch headphones to be able to hear it over the bass at all).

In addition to just basic volumes, it seems like you've got a sub osc or some other low-end enhancement going on in the synth bass that's stepping all over the kick. The kick could be more clicky too, but you mainly need to give it room to thump.

If you're intentionally going for a really thin snare sound, perhaps some transient adjustment to make it crack more, and also EQ some room for it so it doesn't have to fight with the cymbals so much.

EDIT: What is your monitoring environment like?

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Apr 16, 2014

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 20:52

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

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