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Digital synth love


jmbf44

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Analog vs Digital is the most useless and annoying argument in electronic music production and I'm so tired of the debate still getting any attention. There are obvious differences which in the end are simply that.

 

I've only ever owned digital synths and I am quite happy.

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Analogue vs digital is comparing an axe over a scalpel both have their advantages and disadvantages. It's nice to have a bit of both as I find it requires a different mindset for both disciplines i.e. one you tame the other you build up, the rest is a matter of compromise over workflow.

 

Although in theory a VST can emulate any other digital synth however I can seen a fetish of interest in the DA converters, chips and other elements that will give old digital hardware a classic vintage following especially those with a special lo-fi quality.

 

Boutique stuff like The Sidstation, Der OTO among others come to mind plus the sonic differences between the generations of Nord Leads have causes much debate. I certainly prefer the G1 Nord Modular sound over the G2 (which I found a little sterile) and I haven't heard any softsynth that sounds anything like it. It will also do sounds that no analogue modular will get near. Messing around taming a Vostok is more immediate but can also be less productive

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I certainly prefer the G1 Nord Modular sound over the G2 (which I found a little sterile) and I haven't heard any softsynth that sounds anything like it. It will also do sounds that no analogue modular will get near. Messing around taming a Vostok is more immediate but can also be less productive

interesting, I've heard the same thing from a friend who prefers it as well and somehow he's managed to hard-wire in patch points under each knob input for his modular synthesizer. seems almost too good to be true. Too bad the G2 has no panel knobs whatsoever

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The engine has no knobs. The keyboard has 8 endless encoders with LCD displays

are you talking about the G2? Yeah the keyboard looks nice but i like to conserve space with my gear if i can help it. That's why the G1 attracted me because its nice small and compact but has a front panel with knobs

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probably the Yamaha Vl1 , its the only synth that I own 3x over. Now i can do 6 voices of VL with the same breath controller :)
i got the other 2 later for very good prices since they had broken floppy drives and fucked up screens, but since im using them more as slaves they serve their purpose.

The Yamaha FS1r is a close contender, but I feel like an amateur trying to craft sounds with it.

I occasionally will covet digital synths, especially ones I haven't heard. Eventually id like to at least demo an Arturia Origin and a Roland Jupiter 80. Also the Yamaha VP-1, which is a polyphonic VL1 but only 4 of them are said to exist currently, a guy in japan has been trying to sell his for around $30k, which relatively speaking is cheaper than you'd find some coveted analog synths for.

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dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)
edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

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Tthree of 'em? Shit, you should post a little demo or something.

 

 

Next time I have a huge hunk of money (which might be soon actually) I kinda wanna buy some Ensoniq stuff. Like the ESQ-1 or the Mirage or something. Anyone have any thoughts?

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dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

 

dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

 

Ever heard of or played with this. http://www.squest.com/Products/MidiQuest11/Instruments/YamahaVL1/index.html

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Next time I have a huge hunk of money (which might be soon actually) I kinda wanna buy some Ensoniq stuff. Like the ESQ-1 or the Mirage or something. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

People have practically been throwing Mirage's after buyers for a few years.Got mine for about 50USD in almost mint shape, with original manuals, additional professional sample packs, etc. Some wonderful sounds on the disks I got, but it's a very limited sampler by today's standard.

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dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

Ever heard of or played with this. http://www.squest.com/Products/MidiQuest11/Instruments/YamahaVL1/index.html

 

yes that is 'midiquest' the one that only works on Windows with my Vl-1. It works fine as a librarian or a patch morpher, but the actual real-time editing controls have no effect over Mac. I prefer the sounddiver 3rd party front end, simply because it has a better layout with each section color coded

Midiquest is a crap-shoot, about 75% of the things I've tried it on don't work at all besides librarian functions, even on windows. The FS1r doesn't work on either and neither does the Kawai K5000. The most recent synth I have on load, the marion Msr-2 only does librarian functions and no real-time control. It's a little misleading the way they've overpopulated the google search results when you type X + software editor.

 

here is a screenshot of what I used last time for a noise show, and sound diver lets you load multiple front-ends at once, so i was using 2 for 2 vl-1 synths

 

1_Driver.jpg

2_Pipe.jpg

 

3_KeyScalings.jpg

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It's a difference between analogue and digital signals. Maybe you guys should go take some electric engineering courses. There are some pretty good ones on coursera.

 

Analogue electronics vs. digital

 

You are welcome.

 

i don't really get your point?

 

no point, it seemed some people were confused what analogue and digital difference is. Just trying to be helpful with a wikipedia link. Sorry, I'll try not to waste my time next time.

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dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

dude absolutely, i have a keyboard and a rack and an extra breath controller. Would love to let you borrow it actually.

edit: if you have access to a PC running windows, I have a pretty nice 3rd party panel software front-end someone made for the Windows sounddiver, works great for editing it. Still haven't figured out how to properly send CCs to sounddiver though, maybe if you're dedicated enough you'll solve that mystery :)

edit2: the reason it needs to be windows is because Soundflower on Mac doesn't appear to work with the VL1,i've noticed that with the Midiquest front-end as well, works fine on the Windows version but no functionality on mac.

Ever heard of or played with this. http://www.squest.com/Products/MidiQuest11/Instruments/YamahaVL1/index.html

 

yes that is 'midiquest' the one that only works on Windows with my Vl-1. It works fine as a librarian or a patch morpher, but the actual real-time editing controls have no effect over Mac. I prefer the sounddiver 3rd party front end, simply because it has a better layout with each section color coded

Midiquest is a crap-shoot, about 75% of the things I've tried it on don't work at all besides librarian functions, even on windows. The FS1r doesn't work on either and neither does the Kawai K5000. The most recent synth I have on load, the marion Msr-2 only does librarian functions and no real-time control. It's a little misleading the way they've overpopulated the google search results when you type X + software editor.

 

here is a screenshot of what I used last time for a noise show, and sound diver lets you load multiple front-ends at once, so i was using 2 for 2 vl-1 synths

 

1_Driver.jpg

2_Pipe.jpg

 

3_KeyScalings.jpg

 

I HATE HATE HATE midiquest. It is the most awful piece of shit I have ever used. Not in the least since it would be so AWESOME if it worked well.

 

I'm seriously tempted to just learn fucking C++ just to make a midi librarian + editor that is in someway modern. Blackhole niche for software which is super weird considering how many people are getting back into hardware stuff, and digital is super cheap ATM. I actually found a copy of Unisyn which kicks the shit out of Midiquest, and it's still clunky as fuck! It's from 2001 and it's the best thing around!

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Ctrlr is a pretty promising world, I was able to get the JD-990 panel working pretty well. Unfortunately there just aren't many panels out for it yet (especially for the synths I own)

I need to check out Unisyn, how does one 'obtain' a copy of it? Is it free/commercial/out of print? I know its mac only because its an older MOTU program but i've never tried it. The Emagic Sounddiver program is probably the most consistently effective multi-purpose software editor I've used. When i buy synths now I research them heavily to see what the software editing options are first. It's unfortunate that I've had such a bad experience with the Tempest, because the best software editors out there as far as I'm concerned are for all the Dave Smith product line, made by 3rd party company Sound Tower. The Poly Evolver editor is fucking amazing, pretty much flawless

and yes slightlydrybeans, Midiquest is one of the biggest bait and switch scam pieces of software I've encountered, its really lame the way that they come up #1 or #2 on google for any synth + software editor search string. It has a dirty feel to the way they did that, almost like some kind of click-bait spyware website tactic.

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Guest AsylumSeaker

Hopefully the resurgence of analogue gear will see the virtual analogue concept lose a bit of ground.

 

Also, there's a lot of interesting digital-analogue hybrid stuff around lately, analogue with digital controls and shit, which I think is quite cool. Modular synths making use of both analogue and digital modules can sound really fresh.

 

I almost got a DX7 the other month but it was like 3cm too long for the spare space I've got :facepalm:

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