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

sliderule posted:

Is there anything else on the market like Reaktor? I've been using it to scratch my NES/8bit itch and it's a lot of fun.

If Nord came out with a Modular G3 tomorrow I would buy it, just so I can do all the design on a computer and not have to drag it with me to perform. Also dedicated control surfaces would be nice (yeah, yeah, BCR2000).

Max 4 Live (Live-specific version of Max): https://www.ableton.com/en/live/max-for-live/

Max (more than just music): http://cycling74.com/products/max/

Bidule: http://www.plogue.com/products/bidule/

UNRELATED EDIT:

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Now can we move the gently caress on? I'm fine eating however many Wavestation jokes get thrown my way...

I'm sorry I didn't say something about the Wafflepile earlier. Be nice, guys. We all have a shared love for this stuff.

I also support a moratorium on Wavestation jokes.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Apr 17, 2014

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 17:28

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 06:31

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

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Since I'm not going to buy an OP-1, any suggestions on apps for the iPad? I usually have that with me and can noodle on that a bit.

Waldorf Nave is insane. If that thing were a hardware instrument, I'd be all over it. Like Animoog I guess part of the appeal is the cool display, which wouldn't translate so well to standalone hardware- but really you can make some cool and interesting sounds with it. Text-to-synth, for example.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 19:53

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

VoodooXT posted:

So, an update regarding my Waldorf Microwave: the guy I bought it from doesn't accept returns and depending on how he responds, I may have to take this to arbitration with eBay.

Buying vintage stuff online is too drat risky. Out of 7 synths I bought in 2012, only TWO of them worked as described. Thing is, this poo poo's so old, the seller can just say, "well it was working fine when I shipped it," and who am I to say that it didn't finally crap out in transit.

I feel for ya though, man.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2014 06:40

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

Spent part of yesterday building a nice round-robin drum kit based on Hammond Auto-Vari 64 samples that I found in the KB6 drum samples library.

Weirdly enough just this morning I got an email from the KB6 guy saying they just updated the archive with the following samples:

quote:

There are 15 New Machines:
> Dave Smith Instruments Tempest > Elka X-1000 > Eminent Solina Rhitmix > Kawai K4 > Keytek MPD 40 > Korg 01-W > Roland MC-909 > Roland E-10 > Roland U-110 > Roland U-220 > Wersi Prisma DX5 > Yamaha DD-6 > Yamaha DD-65 > Yamaha SHS-200 > Yamaha SY-85...
and 3 Updates:
> Alesis D4 > EMU ProCussion > Roland TR-505...

I could easily spend my entire musical "career" doing nothing but building vintage drum kits. I love this poo poo so much.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2014 17:54

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

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

I got that email too but can't freaking remember my login information. I'm pretty sure my thought when I bought the initial access was "I'm never going to use this again I'll just make something completely absurd up". This also happens to come at a time when I've got samples ready to be chopped for my Tempest, MC-909, and RS-7000. I'll have to see how his samples compare to mine (if I can ever get back on their server).

FWIW, it's a generic user/pass that you should find in the first email he sent you when you bought the samples.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2014 18:37

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

Dessert Rose posted:

It made me realize that in the end, if I produce some music that fits together and inspires me to continue working on it, it's a success, no matter how I came there; and if I didn't succeed in making something like that, then at least I learned one way of not making good music. And it doesn't matter if the specific things I'm doing are making progress in exactly what I want, because there's a set of more meta-skills that I'm improving that will help me everywhere.

Amen, brother. (get it)

There is a limit though, somewhere. I can't necessarily define where the limit is, but I can say that Washed Out crossed it, for example:

Washed Out - Feel It All Around (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DkslcOhytU

Gary Low - I Want You (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVpQKGjn-c

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Apr 21, 2014

# ¿ Apr 21, 2014 21:02

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

renderful posted:

Most synths do not have computer control(Arturia *Brute for instance), but it's becoming a more popular feature. Dave Smith Instruments stuff tends to get that, the Virus TI is based around this idea.

Elektron is about to catch up, but for the time being, Virus TI is still unchallenged for true DAW integration. And yet I ended up selling mine last week, because as cool as TI is, I wasn't getting any sounds out of the Virus that I couldn't get with a plugin. And while the TI has a metric ton of knobs and blinking lights, it's hardly one-knob-per function- and I just got frustrated trying to program it from hardware. I'd either just program it from the TI plugin, or use a soft synth instead.

I had the opposite problem with all the old Rolands that I'm about to sell. I spent at least $2K in software and hardware solutions that I hoped would facilitate programming and automating these things. The software simply didn't work as advertised (I'm on Windows), and the hardware programmers were either limited or still too complicated, depending on what I needed to do. And even in the best case (MKS-30 with PG-200), I still can't do automation, because these things all use SysEx for that; simple CC mappings won't do the trick.

So, I had one super-advanced synth that didn't have a unique-enough sound to justify the real estate, and a tower of relatively unique sounding rack synths that are a nightmare to program and/or automate.

I'm keeping the Blofeld, since I love its sound, it's easy to program from hardware, and it's pretty much fully automatable.

Once I free up some more shelf space, I will also be picking up the Pulse 2 and Rocket (and probably Streichfett when it comes out). They're good-sounding modern synths that don't take up much physical space, are easy to program from the HW, and will let me control synth parameters from my DAW. That's what I need right now.

net work error posted:

I'm a big fan of the SonicState reviews of stuff. He's pretty fair in what he praises and calls out.

I find that Nick seems to look for the same features and complain about the same shortcomings I do, so I do like his reviews. And the podcast is hilarious.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Apr 22, 2014

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 19:44

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

Your Computer posted:

That stuff isn't vaporware? I could swear it looked like that last time I checked. If I could control my Blofeld like a VST that'd be the most amazing thing ever

You already can (if you're still 32-bit). Getting it set up so that you can both edit patches AND audition them if you have a Desktop model took me a while to figure out (wrote a blog post about how to do it a couple years ago).

Flipperwaldt posted:

Can't say I looked into it that deeply. Last update of the page you can download some sort of alpha from was in january. Guess I just was happy to see some movement beyond the 32 bit version from 2010.

Looking at the recent changes of the Wiki, he updated some pages on a parallel project he's doing for the Pulse 2 in the last 30 days somewhere.

Alternatively there's also this guy with Blofeld, Rocket, and Wave editors (says he's working on a Pulse 2 one too). The editors are standalone, but all have "experimental" VST and planned AU modules. Cross-platform and 32/64. But SoftKnobs was there first.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Apr 22, 2014

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 23:29

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

Your Computer posted:

That's okay, I can't use 64-bit VST's in Ableton anyway.... Oh wait, this plugin doesn't even work in Ableton

Hmm, works for me in both Live and Cubase- although I haven't tried in Live 9. I did the blog thing on Live 8, 32-bit and Cubase 6 I think?

But yeah, if it works in Bitwig...

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 23:44

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

Flipperwaldt posted:

Hadn't seen this one. $50 isn't too bad. Not even a real screenshot on the website though and it isn't even linked from the software section. That's just bad marketing, 'cause it looks good and doesn't seem to be the standalone-editor-hacked-into-a-vst that the SofKnobs one is.

Have you used it?

There was some excited talk about it on GearSlutz when it came out, but I haven't heard from anyone who's actually used it. (I don't have any of 'em yet.)

The guy did post a YouTube with the VST versions in action though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA4kTMP85hw

I'm waiting for someone to guinea pig these too.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 00:00

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

renderful posted:

IMO this is the synth thread, not the hardware synth thread. The title is a misnomer.

Agreed. The VST thread is more of a catch-all for all plugin related stuff (effects, tools, libraries, etc.) that doesn't necessarily have to do with synthesis.

Bolange posted:

I certainly understand there are trade offs with soft synths (having to lug around a laptop for example) but the value is hard for me ignore. What do folks usually do about controlling them? Suffer through the mouse?

I once had an awesome fader/knob controller (BCF2000) and an awesome dedicated drum pad device (Korg padKontrol) and a keyboard controller with a ton of pads, knobs, and faders (Akai MPK49) and I never used ANY of it. I have a Steinberg CC121 now, which for my purposes is just a transport control and macro launcher for Cubase.

It really comes down to personal preference. I decided that hardware control wasn't for me, at least for plugins and other software stuff.

EDIT: I should say, though, that I think part of the reason I never utilized the hardware control options was I never invested the time necessary to put together templates and mappings and whatnot to suit my setup or workflow. I'm just really not a customizer. In 95% of cases, I install a product and I use it without ever even looking at configuration settings. But I also honestly don't feel I'm missing out on anything by sticking with mouse/keyboard for everything other than playing notes.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 24, 2014

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 17:03

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

BKPR posted:

A "sound library" that consists of someone noodling with their monotron for an hour, uncut. In beautiful 44800kHz.

"I did not make any loops, special melodies sample banks or any improvements. You are welcome to do that by yourself in a way it fits your sampler or DAW. I think you can find at least 1000 really cool analog sounds , loops & special effects in this recording"

Exactly the caliber of material I'd expect from a business called "Best Sample Libraries."

EDIT: Oh my god, ALL of his synth "libraries" are just 1-2 hour WAV files of noodling. The only things he's got that are apparently individual sample files at all are female vocal ones. And they are not good.

This one almost had me pissing myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbKyHLzRTNM

EDIT 2: I can't stop listening to that thing.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Apr 27, 2014

# ¿ Apr 27, 2014 06:12

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

Got the MIDI all tracked out for a song I'd planned for my MKS-30. Ready to record the audio, so I powered the MKS up, got everything patched in and routed, and... discovered that voice 5 is dead.

:ughh:

I guess this will be an MKS-80 track then...

AnnoyBot posted:

Had a moment with the family last night. I set the RM1x up on the stereo in the living room and just dicked around the preset patterns while my 4 year old daughter danced and the 14 month old danced and tried to eat the knobs. Then my wife took the helm, found the acid style presets and just zoned out. After a while she was all "I feel super guilty because all I want to do now is __relax__ and play with this thing, and I'm ignoring my kids."

Yeah, good times. We have lil moments like that now and then. But usually it devolves into violence because my son and daughter are always fighting for control over the keys.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 07:16

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

Worked with one of the MKS-80s a bit last night. Reflections:

This is the one where SynthSpa babysat it for 9 months without fixing it and then sent it back minus the rack ears. I just took the rack ears off the MKS-30, since that one's currently broken.
The thing is noisy as poo poo, actually both of mine are. I think it's why they offer balanced XLR outs in addition to the standard TS unbalanced. It doesn't get rid of the noise, but you at least get a hotter signal out of it. Gonna slap a noise gate on every track of the song I'm recording with it.
The MKS-80 has to have the worst bank of presets ever designed on a commercial synthesizer. Very little variety, and a lot of just plain useless, ugly sounds. (My song will only use original patches.)
I have it set in U/L mode, where the upper and lower boards each use their own mono outputs. Running them into the DAW as a single stereo channel so I can use detuning for width. Judging by the presets, this seems to be a common use. Many of the patches use virtually the same tone for the U/L layers.
On the plus side, this thing has the gnarliest bass I've ever heard come out of a synthesizer. I don't understand how it works; I can't get this kind of phatness out of a plugin, and I don't understand why.

# ¿ May 1, 2014 15:45

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

I couldn't wait.

Too bad I still gotta work. I'm right here staring at the things, but can't touch 'em yet.

# ¿ May 2, 2014 21:24

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

Your Computer posted:

Now I just need to find a working soundfont VST. Any tips on that?
Cakewalk SFZ+ doesn't really work on a multi-core CPU (), and using Ableton's Sampler is a hassle since it has to import each and every sound and convert it to its own format, in addition to the fact that I won't be able to use it once I make the switch to Bitwig.

So yeah, just looking for a VST that can browse and play a soundfont. Not really interested in included filters and stuff, I have plenty of those already.

Check out Plogue sforzando, it's a free SFZ player that supports most formats (vst, au, rtas, standalone), in both 32-bit and 64-bit Mac and PC.

http://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O62kISpCN9Y

Not used it (or any SFZ player) personally, but Plogue makes bad-rear end stuff, so that's the first thing I'd try.

EDIT: That sample pack looks rad as hell, BTW.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 00:06 on May 4, 2014

# ¿ May 4, 2014 00:04

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

Turns out I have an additional license for EzDrummer Lite, and it can only be used to get the $70 discount on full EzDrummer for the next day or two (they're dropping "Lite" support on the 6th). If you're interested in getting a discount on EzDrummer 2 (which you'll get upon its release if you upgrade your Lite license to full EzDrummer 1), PM me for the code. Basically, you make a Toontrack account, register the "Lite" code, and then buy EzDrummer 1 using the "Lite Upgrade" option. When EzD 2 comes out this week you'll automatically be upgraded. (I happened to do this while they were in the middle of site updates and accidentally was able to download EzDrummer 2... but at the moment it's not available until the 6th.)

Back on topic, hooked up the Pulse 2 and Rocket yesterday. The Pulse 2's signal is really hot compared to the Blofeld (and as far as I can tell they both have unbalanced outs); I have the Blofeld cranked to 127 at all times, but had to dial the Pulse back to 64 to keep it from overloading my interface inputs. I used Waldorf's SPECTRE program to upgrade the firmware of both the Pulse and the Rocket.

The Rocket is physically bigger than I expected; it's about 2/3 the width of the Pulse and Blofeld and its top surface is as high as their tallest points. It's quite fun to play with. The lack of a display and preset slots is a frustration, but the sound is pretty impressive. Some of the pots do different things depending on switch settings and range. This is the first subtractive style synth I've ever used where I am sometimes completely surprised at the sound that happens when I change a setting. It's very odd, but also potentially inspiring. I just bought the Monstrum Media rocket editor that I can hopefully use for storing patches. The synth is sort of restrictive by design- for example, you need to choose whether to have LFO->OSC, LFO->VCF, or use the Arp. It's almost a game to see how much you can squeak out of it based on the strange decisions you have to make. But the sound is really interesting... especially the filter. This is a synth that was made to be automated.

EDIT: The Rocket editor I bought has proven... quirky. (I really just wanted to use it as a way to store and recall patches I design on the synth.) Have had some back/forth with the dev about it. Will have to give it some more time before I can judge whether it's useful.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 03:39 on May 5, 2014

# ¿ May 4, 2014 23:05

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

A Winner is Jew posted:

Sell it and get this.

C'mon man, that thing's gonna cost at least 4 Schmidts.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 17:21

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

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

Added a Juno 2 to the family today. Protip: you can never have too much Roland

Former Juno 1 owner (R.I.P.) current MKS-50 owner.

I think the Alpha Junos/MKS-50 are underrated. They're more than just hoover generators. The alpha dial makes the keyboards really easy to program (not FAST but easy), and when I listen through old tapes I made with my Juno-1 I clearly made a lot of use of inverted envelopes, which isn't a very common feature on HW/SW synths.

Only complaint is how the filter resonance cuts bass frequencies as much as it boosts at the cutoff. There is a bass boost feature, but if I remember right, it's mutually exclusive with some other settings, so not always available.

# ¿ May 6, 2014 19:16

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

Fors Yard posted:

Messing around with the synths over the weekend turned into a little cover of Julius by Starfucker. That's one of the few songs I've heard by them, but I actually like it. I was surprised how it sounds with so little gear. JX-3P is doing triple duty. Playing back in realtime, and I was just messing around with the reverb on the DEP-5. Quantization messed up one of the notes in the chorus, but I was too tired to fix it. Fumbled around with free mastering plugins once it was recorded.

https://soundcloud.com/fors_yard/julius-jx-3p-sh-101-tr-707-dep-5

Sounds good man. Oooh how I wanted an MC-500 when I was a kid.

# ¿ May 7, 2014 20:41

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

HaB posted:

I guess my only other requirement would be: simplicity. Since I already have to deal with a guitar rig at gigs, I don't want a complicated setup where I'm running a MIDI controller into a laptop, which has a breakout box for audio, etc. I just want to plug the keyboard in, power it on and go.

So for years and years, the nicest keyboard I ever had my hands on was a Nord. The keys just FEEL so good, the sounds are all good, and every keyboardist I know of who has one SWEARS by them. I know one guy who has like 6 different keyboards, and his go-to is the Nord Stage 2. Was poking around today looking for comparable things and the Korg Kronos came up. I watched a quite thorough comparison on Youtube, and honestly - it's basically a dead heat. Both had Pros and Cons. The one advantage for Korg is that the Kronos comes in a 61 key version which is a good bit cheaper.

The first thing I was thinking when reading your post was, "Nord Stage 2" and then I saw you were already considering them, so that's good.

The second thing I was thinking was, "Why no mention of the Rolands?" Because Roland traditionally makes some of the easiest to use, most rugged stage boards you can get (and they sound good too). But then I had a look at their current stage piano line! The only "classic" stage board they've got right now is the RD-800, which I'm sure is a fantastic board (and far more affordable than the Korg or Nord), but it's 88-keys only. Roland's current compact offerings probably sound great, but might actually be a little too simple (they don't even have displays?), and don't look particularly rugged to me. I don't know what they're thinking, at the moment.

It's been a long time since I had to lug keyboards around to live shows, but my priorities for stage boards was: light, small, rugged, simple.

In that respect I'd probably stick with the Nord compact model. 73 keys, but only 3 inches wider than the 61-key Kronos, and 2 inches less deep. Also it weights less than Korg's 61-key model (and it's less than HALF the weight of Korg's 73 key board!!!)

In terms of simplicity though... well the Nord's controls are pretty daunting, perhaps, but if you're doing a live show all you need to do is pick a preset and play. Any current stage board will let you do that.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 15:42

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

wayfinder posted:

Heads up, Cakewalk is running a promotion, I just scored z3ta+2 for �36.75

Nice catch. That was the only plugin I demoed during my supersaw frenzy a few weeks ago that I didn't purchase, since its demo was so generous. Definitely worth getting at this sale price.

Also, WTF you can buy plugins on Steam now?

# ¿ May 23, 2014 22:50

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

Trig Discipline posted:

I'd had Reaktor for a couple of years without really messing with it, as I got KU mostly for Kontakt and all the associated content. I just started poking around in the Reaktor user content area on NI's site, though, and holy freaking poo poo.

Yeah. So much interesting stuff.

Aside from Absynth, Reaktor's the NI product I understand the least. Thinking about picking up the Groove3 tutorial on it this weekend. (Much as I love MacProVideo, their Reaktor thing isn't very good.)

# ¿ May 24, 2014 05:11

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

A MIRACLE posted:

The beats have great sounds for what I'm doing but again, I wish it had big clicky trigger buttons like an 808 or something. Changing up the sequence live is frustrating because the interface is so tiny, especially if your other hand is playing a bassline or pads. Considering a groovebox to replace it until I get a rhythm wolf or tr-8.

Even I experienced some minor gearlust watching this demo of the upcoming Analog Rytm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGn53AFXwZ0

And when they flip the Overbridge switch, I might not be able to resist.

# ¿ May 28, 2014 22:25

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

A Winner is Jew posted:

I have to say, the RYTM looks cool if I had $1500 to spend on an instrument, I was super obsessed with percussion in my music, and I nothing else to spend money on, but really not getting things like FM or sampler support on an analogue machine isn't a big deal to me. I mean I fully agree that it's an awesome little machine and if someone has one then cool, but for me at least it's just way too much to spend on something when there are a ton of other drum machines out there that cost a fraction of what it does and comes really close, especially when the A4 overlaps with it quite a bit while covering things I care way more about.

You will order one within a fortnight.

# ¿ May 29, 2014 04:47

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

CAT rear end now!!! posted:

Yeah, there was that one really short one at some point somewhere, but I can't find it anymore and jesus christ is this seriously how they think you're supposed to build up hype for a music instrument

This was it (but it's since been debunked as fake.)

TOTALLY UNRELATED EDIT: Anyone here doing MIDI guitar? I want to be able to use a real guitar to do 6-string poly MIDI input into a computer. There are nine zillion options ranging from a hundred bucks to like $4300, and I just do not know where to start. (I also need a guitar, and will likely bug Guitar Thread about that.)

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 23:57 on May 29, 2014

# ¿ May 29, 2014 23:53

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

Bill Posters posted:

Try this. It has a demo and I've found it works well enough. At $100 for the full version it's easily worth it.

That and the Fishman Triple Play deal Jew mentioned seem like the least risky options for me. Those Moog guitars are rad as gently caress but I'm probably not in this for more than $1500 (for guitar + pickup + midi and whatnot).

The thought "guess I'll have to stop by Guitar Center" just went through my mind and I literally shuddered. drat I wish that place didn't creep me out so much.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 07:33

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

minidracula posted:

Never mind, I just went to re-read the Wikipedia page, and it seems like you need at least a singer library (male or female) in a minimum of whatever language(s) you want singing done in, along with the score editor and synthesis engine. I don't know what I found so confusing some months back; maybe the Wikipedia page became clearer, or maybe I'm just reading closer now. It does seem like you'd have to buy (looking at http://www.vocaloid.com/en/lineup/vocaloid3/) at least the "VOCALOID 3 Editor" package and one of the "VOCALOID 3 Library" packages to do anything with it. Still tempts me...

The Vocaloid Editor for Cubase does seem to be the way to go. I bought it somewhat blind. The editor's UI is in English (yay!) but the official documentation is Japanese (boo!). I don't think they even list it for sale on their English language site. (I got mine via a gray market seller on Amazon Marketplace.)

It's true that most of the vocaloids are not intended for English, but the number of English language versions is growing. You have to look around a bit, though. I think Best Service has some that aren't (or at least weren't) on the Vocaloid Wiki.

The vocaloids that I've seen recently come with "mini" versions of Vocaloid 3 if you don't already have the Cubase Editor or the standalone product. I haven't messed with them, but those appear to come with English documentation. The mini version does appear to be Windows only (at least in the packages I've looked into), but I don't know whether that means that the actual vocaloid library itself is necessarily PC only. I really just don't know.

I haven't messed with the editor yet other than to see that it installed properly. I will employ it the next time I do a song that calls for female vocals.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 17:12

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

Trig Discipline posted:

Doesn't Vocaloid have some massively draconian license agreement that means that anything you make with it belongs to them, though? I thought I'd heard that.

No, it IS more restrictive than the license for a VST, but it's pretty similar to the kind of license you get with most sample libraries... except for one really weird clause.

Mainly they just don't want you making certain kinds of commercial products with it, which is the same with sample libraries. So no reselling the phoneme samples, and they specifically call out ringtones and karaoke disc background vocals as prohibited uses.

The weird part is where they say you're basically not allowed to use the synthesized voices to record illegal or offensive content (so any of you guys planning to program your ransom demands as Hatsune Miku had better come up with a different scheme), or anything that might be "harmful to the moral rights" of the human who sang the original vocals used in the product. (!?!)

# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 22:55

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

Kilmers Elbow posted:

The hardware spell is broken!

The moral? Dunno. Maybe in the future when hardware synths can be integrated as transparently as VSTs into DAWs then I might take another look.

Workflow is a legitimate concern and should certainly factor into your buying (and selling) decisions.

I came to my own epiphany on this matter a few months ago and am actively in the process of preparing my vintage gear for sale. I'm only keeping hardware synths that I can easily program from the hardware, but are modern enough that I can automate them from Cubase. Also, they must have a distinct enough sound that they justify the space they take up in my room. So, Blofeld, Pulse 2, and Rocket stay. Everything else goes.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2014 01:08

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

The Cleaner posted:

No I mean, what I've been hearing from people is "I bought an analog, couldn't get it to integrate with my DAW, how do people use hardware?"

In my own case I have a tower of Roland rack synths. Some are extremely difficult to program from the hardware, so I spent waaaaaay too much time and money trying to get a solid software-based patch editing and automation solution set up for them. It was a fool's errand in the end. Some tools work some of the time for some synths, but nothing is without its quirks and limitations. The Rolands weren't even designed for what we usually think of in terms of "automation." In some cases you're literally uploading a whole patch just to tweak a single parameter, so performance can be very poor and unpredictable.

Ended up getting a Kiwi Technics Patch Editor and a couple Roland original programmers for the synths the PE didn't support, but that only addresses the patch programming side- and it can be unsatisfactory at that. (I've found it easier to program the MKS-80 from the front panel.) I ultimately realized I wanted true plugin-style control, and there are plenty of plugins and libraries that cover all my personal Roland needs (plus just about anything else I could possibly want to do musically).

I still love my gear. I'll just get better mileage out of software.

EDIT: The Waldorf synths I'm keeping are not only easy to program and automate- they're FUN to use, too. I like fun.

EDIT 2: And I will probably die with the SY-85, only because it would cost more to ship than I could sell it for on eBay and CL stresses me the gently caress out.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Jun 7, 2014

# ¿ Jun 7, 2014 09:31

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

Sjoewe posted:

The bottom line is that if you buy (vintage) hardware and expect it to work just like a real life VST, you're just going to end up regretting it.
The biggest eyeopener for me was that I shouldn't aim for a complete result in one go, but that I have to treat it more like a classic recording studio type of deal.
First I record drums and basslines then some melodies, then FX etc. Then there's some arranging , some editing, then a mixdown.

This works really great for me, and it forces me to keep my tracks 'simple' because you don't want to do a billion takes on 9000 channels when you have to record them one by one.

I grew up on hardware synths, and I recorded for years like you described- laying down one track at a time (each part, full song, straight to tape, mistakes and all).

When I eventually got an Atari ST I had zero problems getting the most out of my instruments in a MIDI setup. I really just naively assumed that in the 21st century, computers would work at least as well with synths as they did back then (but hopefully better!). In some respects that's really not the case though. There are tons of products that claim to solve the problems that Atari developers had solved 25 years ago, but most of them work like garbage (on the PC anyway).

So I didn't go into this blind- I had lots of experience with hardware and with computer/synth integration (and even using synths as straight-up performance instruments). But today's solutions for legacy synths just don't cut it, for me. I still have lots of musical ideas I need to bring to life, and I will definitely choose the quickest route to get there (plugins) over trying to get a modern DAW spit proprietary data chunks at my decades-old rack synths. I fought the fight. It just wasn't worth the effort.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2014 20:34

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

MrLonghair posted:

Gearslutz reminds me terribly of what I saw when I was into photography, people with all of the money and none of the sense or learning ability, a kitchentable full of white Canon lenses to a single camera and no training, just post upon post asking for hints of how to do the basics.

MrLonghair posted:

(But that's more of an "urgh" allergic reaction. See the "photographers". Teens with rich parents who get them a white Canon lens collection.)

I've never moved in those circles, but I've heard that "GAS" originated with camera hobbyists, and I can totally see the parallels. I just saw that 9 Warning Signs of an Amateur Artist thing for the first time the other day, and I felt pretty proud of myself until I hit number 8, which I think goes hand in hand with GAS. Definitely guilty (I actually took 2 and a half years off of songwriting to learn how to mix), but if the learning and the gear weren't so much fun I'd probably get a lot more tracks finished.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 02:27

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

jesus christ this thread.

obligatory synth talk: This weekend I'm beginning another track that will only use Waldorf products. Vive la Blofeld!

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 06:34

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

magiccarpet posted:

A bunch of Native Instrument stuff is 50% off. I'm picking up the Maschine update for $50 and it still comes with the $25 voucher. Cool.

I got the Maschine update too, even though for my purposes, Maschine's role in my studio is "World's Most Expensive Drum Sample Library."

I was interested in the drum synth, though. Hope to check it out this weekend.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2014 17:57

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

ohmygod.

DubTurbo 4.0 is going to be an actual DAW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UytdF8p9EFs

In other news: The current product is a Flash app?

# ¿ Jun 18, 2014 05:12

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

VoodooXT posted:

The Waldorf Pulse 2 has an 8 voice paraphonic mode but it's not as complex as the Pro 2's 4 voice.

The Rocket's got a couple paraphonic tricks too.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 20:13

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

WorldWarWonderful posted:

I've tried a few other VAs like Diva or that Sylenth but I like Monark so, so much more and it's more or less sold me on the bundle.

Monark is rad as gently caress. Definitely my favorite bass synth.

You've already got Massive, FM8, Absynth, and Reaktor? (You've already basically paid for Komplete.)

Ultimate is the obvious way to go for you. For me the real stars of K9 Ultimate are the effects. Some really solid stuff there. But the Kontakt libraries K9U includes always come in handy.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2014 07:37

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

Scatterfold posted:

lmao jesus christ Waldorf sort it out

Sorry, they're too busy breaking 64-bit Largo.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 22:50

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 06:31

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

Okay the plug-out thing with the System-1 is rad as gently caress.

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

The System-1 itself is not something I would be able to put to good use, but I really like both the idea and the implementation.

Let's see how many plug-outs Roland makes, though. (Although I genuinely hope it's successful.)

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 05:17

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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