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

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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renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Live9's pitch to MIDI does not work in real time.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 02:17

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:56

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

toadee posted:

No faster!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zcuh1dh81gwthpw/challenge-tweaked.mp3

TUNE!

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 03:50

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Human After All is so so as far as home listening is concerned, but it was absolutely insane live.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 05:22

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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.

renderful fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Mar 24, 2014

# ¿ Mar 24, 2014 07:26

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

It's usually somewhat of a trip down memory lane for me. Remembering how the track came about and being surprised at the fact that I made something that sounded ok before X, Y and Z skills were present. Then deciding how I can apply the tools, interests and knowledge that I'm currently into, to the old idea.

Musical structure is a major thing that I'm trying to work on lately. Trying to think about where the payoff is in the track and how to build and release tension more lately.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2014 20:32

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

I think the sketch I posted needs to pay off sooner. Also needs a more interesting bass source, and less melody repetition, and I want to expand the glitchy bits.

Hindsight is 20/20, but in this case, I can change the past.

renderful fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Mar 24, 2014

# ¿ Mar 24, 2014 21:10

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Samplr, AudioBus and Loopy HD will keep you busy for a long time.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 05:54

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Also SynthX is really cool, I made this with it(warning, repetitive noodling ahead): https://soundcloud.com/renderful/blooze

renderful fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Mar 25, 2014

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 16:42

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Griff Lee posted:

like the n-word

Migger-Figger? No way, MOE GUR FOE GUR

MuggerFugger would be pretty good tho.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 01:25

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

BitWig demo time! Ready to play with that sick looking modulation system. mmmph. Anyone else getting into that action today?

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 15:50

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

From what I understand, the UI is Java. The About window in Bitwig shows the Java version, so I'd say it is required. That being said, the UI is very smooth in response and rendering.

So far, I am impressed. I just got some incredibly alive/moving polysynth tones using the built in polysynth, LFO, blur effect and frequency shifter. The ability to openly map LFOs within the built in devices is super intuitive and powerful. Although, while doing so, Bitwig is using 21% of my CPU with only 1 channel and the synth/effects/control chain I've described. This has lead to some audio glitches while switching apps. My work computer is a 2008 Macbook, but Ableton's audio engine is far more tolerant of low performance, although when you consider that I'm doing modulation things that would usually require Max4Live(which takes A LOT of resources compared to vanilla Ableton) I can let it off the hook.

I imagine that optimization will occur in short order, and that most people will be using better machines than this one. Even so, I can imagine myself using the demo to export audio. Even though I can't save, I can patch up some really interesting instruments/effects chains immediately and record them directly into Live or whatever.

What's also interesting is that each new track starts off with its volume fader at half, rather than almost full. This could lead to more headroom being the rule rather than the exception.

renderful fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Mar 26, 2014

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 21:49

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

I'm really hot for a few features: Feedback FX(effects hosted in the feedback path of the delay), Tank FX(effects hosted inside the reverb tank of the verb) and the Unified Modulation System. There are some absolutely insane possibilities that are super easy to access. It has lead me to try things that I'd not have tried before due to them being very hard.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 19:20

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

ejstheman posted:

I'm not sure I understand what this means. Is it an effect on the wet signal, prior to the dry/wet knob in the reverb's interface?

I believe so, and on that same note they have a bunch of effects that have Wet FX that do the same thing.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 04:31

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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

When I discuss headroom, I am talking about the control that I have over dynamic range. If your channels are at full volume, then the amount of dynamic range that you can possibly put onto each track is limited. I like to mix around -6 because I can keep it quiet if that's what is needed musically, and if I need to push it louder, that's also possible. Signal to noise ration is also a huge thing to consider. Recording that low with a horrible signal to noise ratio, when perhaps recording older gear, will leave you with takes that must be processed for noise in order be made louder. When it comes to digital audio, the signal to noise ratio is quite good, however.

This a good discussion and video of the topics revolving this domain(watching it again myself, as a refresher): http://www.analogindustries.com/b1848/The+Depths+Of+My+Bits+And+The+Rates+Of+My+Samples/

The video itself is great, and as Chris says: "if you're a musician that records digital audio, you owe it to yourself to spend a half hour watching this."

They get into some discussion about headroom on page 4 of the comments section.

renderful fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 28, 2014

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 18:05

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

The Drop definitely has it, and is an incredible set of filter circuit models. It's still in beta, but the release beta release is totally usable and the full release sounds like it will be soon.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 19:54

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Dotcom Jillionaire posted:

Hey who here is traxus12 on Youtube?

I liked the new jam (and the new setup!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9eq5s4YSeQ

I believe that's Skeletron, and I agree that it's quite good.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 21:13

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

This is beauty out of the OP-1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROMOOs-k24

Whether it sounds great or not, it looks hella fun with a very usable set of workflows/functions.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 07:07

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Our own Skeletron made Synthtopia, congrats!

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/03/30/slow-jam-with-korg-polysix-korg-er-1-roland-tr-606-tr-707/

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 21:19

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

The Launchpad is built like a tank, but the Novation Zero SL MKii that I had was like a toy, and it broke quickly.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 23:33

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

New Luke Vibert release incoming. Yeah this is the synth thread, not music discussion, but holy poo poo Vibert is forever linked to the 303.

https://bleep.com/release/50748-luke-vibert-ridmiks

# ¿ Apr 2, 2014 19:01

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Sjoewe posted:

So I tried to make some music, and then this happened.

https://soundcloud.com/sjoewe/cosmic-love

Do I need to go and see some sort of therapist now?

I dig it. What's up with the vocals? What effects?

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 00:14

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Your Computer posted:

You're a friggin wizard. Absolutely everything you said is spot on (and so quick!) and I got everything working perfectly now. I tried ctrl-f'ing the manual (it being 90 pages long) with several keywords to try and find this info, but somehow it eluded me. Thanks a million!

As for the power supply, you're absolutely right on that too. I might have a similar model, as I just checked and mine's 500 mA as well. I've checked all the shops I can think of here and it's hard to find something with 9V that has even 1A though (and I've yet to find a single place selling 9V 2A). Probably won't need that anyway now that you fixed the problem for me though!

To add, I use a USB hub with no latency issues. The USB bus on your computer is already shared. That's how the bus works, unless you buy a separate USB card, all of the USB ports are using an internal hub, and expanding that with a quality(important) external hub should introduce no more latency. If the hub is lovely, or you are flooding the bus with constant high volume of MIDI messages, then you might run into problems. These are the same problems you'd run into if you had 8 USB ports on your machine, though.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 13:38

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

WorldWarWonderful posted:

A few questions.

I finally picked up an audio interface (Scarlett 6i6) so I could record over USB, but I'm running into a few weird issues, and I think the issue is more on the software side than hardware and maybe someone's run into the same issues.

1) Whether I run things through a DAW or just through Windows, everything goes through one of my stereo speakers, but it will record to mono. For example, when playing my Electribe, which is plugged from the mono jack to one of the inputs, it only plays through my left speaker. When I record it into something like Live Lite or Audacity, it'll record and play back as mono. Windows seems to treat each input as one channel of a stereo input.

2) The other issue is that it only seems to recognize my front two inputs when playing back through windows. Anything plugged into the back seems to get picked up since I can see the bars in the mixer jump around, but no audio comes through to the computer. I suspect this has something to do with ASIO drivers but I'm not having a heck of a lot of luck figuring out a solution.

1) Are you using the Scarlett MixControl software to do direct monitoring(not through your DAW?) When I am doing direct monitoring, I use MOTU's CueMix FX(I have a MOTU Ultralite). This software allows me to select which channels are MONO or Stereo. Each input can be toggled to be either a MONO input(which comes out of both speakers) or half of a Stereo pair(in which case it's linked with the next channel, in stereo).

As far as your DAW is concerned, it has its own monitoring configuration, and should be able to turn any MONO input into a stereo channel by choosing the MONO version of the input for a channel.

2) The software also allows me to mute and unmute the other inputs and outputs.

In this Scarlett MixControl tutorial, it says that the same features exist for your interface: http://us.focusrite.com/answerbase/saffire-mixcontrol-tutorial

If you are currently using Windows mixer, you should be using the bundled software for direct monitoring(at least for configuration, but it has a bunch of other uses as well).

renderful fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Apr 5, 2014

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 00:29

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Eh, I'll wait for the software update so I can get Asperger's too

# ¿ Apr 8, 2014 17:26

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

She's got good taste

# ¿ Apr 8, 2014 23:16

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Laserjet 4P posted:

What interests me is the uncanny valley of synth sounds

^--This post, as well as all the talk of wedding band keyboards, reminds me of Oneohtrix Point Never's most recent record: R Plus Seven. It uses cheesy digital emulations of real instruments, computer singing and a bit of audio cut and paste to create a musical uncanny valley. The sound he pulls off is mesmerizing, and it's become one of my favorite albums.

For your consideration: http://vimeo.com/82021800

In true gearslut fashion, that album inspired me(lol) to buy the Korg M1 vst. Lots of fun to be had there. It's actually very fun to design patches for.

renderful fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 11, 2014

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 21:27

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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?

e: The first answer will likely be "make your own patches." I know. I usually do. But I still have this come up.

Think about the frequency range you're trying to occupy with said synth and modify/design the patch accordingly. Use a spectrum analyzer if you need to visualize. Keep this in mind as you're adding elements.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2014 02:30

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Just rediscovered some great synthy stuff on Rephlex that sounds oddly similar to AFX's Analord series, but I fully welcome it:

http://www.rephlex.com/releases/view/129/Jodey%20Kendrick/Plus%20Ten/CAT%20203-A

renderful fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Apr 14, 2014

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 03:27

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

I'm imagining a device which takes standard USB audio and has ~8 discrete audio outputs, as well as handling of USB MIDI(similar to the iConnectMIDI) with physical MIDI ports. It seems like it might sell/be useful to many, although maybe it will just lead to more hardware companies not giving real individual outs and instead relying on USB, as is the current trend.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 19:39

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Awesome Art + Music + Technology podcast where they interview people like Randy Jones(Madrona Labs), Matthew Davidson(Stretta), Julien Bayle(Max), Olivier Gillet(Mutable Instruments) and many others

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-+-music-+-technology/id736102938?mt=2

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 21:48

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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? They're a hallmark of sound design of dance music from the last few years almost to the point of mimicking the 909 in terms of presence.

Samples aren't instruments. They are static, and do nothing without a sampler(which places its own sound via envelopes, filters and how it's used). They are more akin to the idea of synth presets than the 909.

Are you just trying to form this argument to create a sea change in the perception of Vengeance samples so that you don't have to feel bad about using them?

renderful fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Apr 16, 2014

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 17:07

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Of course it's pedantic. I think the idea of classifying sounds into categories like "decade defining" is pedantic in and of itself.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 18:31

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

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

From all the demos I've heard that use Scatter if I get one of those boxes I may just take off "ER" from the label so it's more accurate.

The drums on this one sound a lot more muffled and muddy compared to any of the previous tracks you've posted/sent me.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 20:14

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Jonesing for what? Did you flip the Tempest already?

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 02:11

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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. Certainly don't assume this is the case when buying synths, and confirm that this feature exists if you care about it. For me, getting away from the computer is half the reason why I like hardware, but I understand the need for integration if you want to be efficient.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 18:28

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

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

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 16:18

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

lol http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2014/04/25/moog-music-intros-new-emerson-modular-system/

# ¿ Apr 25, 2014 19:48

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

There's a very digital, stepping sound at high resonance. There are also oddities with regard to the accent, env mod, cutoff, resonance interactions. I've seen/heard a few good A/B's that were posted as Facebook videos.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 17:04

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

Could we get some audio demos of that printer?? Curious to hear the difference between that inkjet and the bubble jet I have at home!

# ¿ May 18, 2014 02:14

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:56

renderful: Mar 24, 2003; You'll love me, I promise.

The Kronos looks like a super fun board that I'd love to play with. That MOD 7 FM engine seems amazing and the Kronos itself seems very flexible. There's a synth guy/artist called Noisetheorem that swears by it, and creates some really amazing stuff with a mixture of the Kronos and modular gear. The Nord Stage 2 doesn't interest me very much.

# ¿ May 25, 2014 03:59

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