Dave Smith Tetr4

sounds very evolver-ey to me. dave needs new preset designers. :wizard:

also, i'd like to hear it actually being a polysynth plz.

keyboard mag posted the video from the pissup that resulted in the original "cocktail plus igor" pic...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid14080861001?bctid=27758213001

Think I'm going to be ordering one of these bad boys next week. I can't afford it but that's what credit cards are for when gear lust takes hold!!

I took the plunge & bought a Tera from DV last week. It sounds bloody great. I'm gonna have me some fun with this thing ;)

  On 10/25/2009 at 2:50 PM, Dogboy73 said:

I took the plunge & bought a Tera from DV last week. It sounds bloody great. I'm gonna have me some fun with this thing ;)

make some mp3 demos! or youtube...I love the sound of the thing. Those sub oscs + more than one voice is pure win.

  On 10/26/2009 at 4:42 AM, Brandi_B said:

  On 10/25/2009 at 2:50 PM, Dogboy73 said:

I took the plunge & bought a Tera from DV last week. It sounds bloody great. I'm gonna have me some fun with this thing ;)

make some mp3 demos! or youtube...I love the sound of the thing. Those sub oscs + more than one voice is pure win.

I'm going to do that. I'll post up when I've uploaded something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QKlRsbkNlI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2598dKD4dF0

MFB 522 ftw

  On 11/16/2009 at 12:06 AM, Berk said:

MFB 522 ftw

Yep. Loving that as well. Great little box for the money.

I've listened to a whole lot of TETRA demos now, and sound wise it is officially IDENTICAL to the Oberheim Matrix 6/6r/1000.

You can say "blah blah feedback loop" or "blah blah sub oscillators" or "blah blah its a slightly revised version of the 1986 chip" but I'm going with my ears not the spec sheet and my ears have not once said "oh snap the Matrix can't make THAT cool sound"

That doesnt take away from the TETRA at all, it just emphasises (again) how hugely underrated the Obies are.

Also shows how good Dave Smith is at taking 23 year old synth tech and dressing it up with modern glitchy presets and a cool UI (enough of the glitchy presets, Dave, you are actually making your synths seem less poweful than they really are)

awesome sounds! thx dogboy, i assume you are the same dogboy from kvr, if so i enjoy some of your posts over there.

I am loving the tetr sound and really want one, but i would still buy a nord g2 first and then a tetr, and maybe by that time they will have an affordable kb tetr or an updated prophet 08 with the sub oscs.

  On 11/29/2009 at 3:57 PM, Brandi_B said:

awesome sounds! thx dogboy, i assume you are the same dogboy from kvr, if so i enjoy some of your posts over there.

Cheers, Brandi. Yep that's me over at KVR as well

these clips have reminded me what i like about the dsi stuff. it's really the antithesis of the moog style fat warm ladder filter. The DSI filters are certainly analogue, but a bit cold, but not cold in that digital way. But the 12 db filter on the evolver i had was thick as all get out. But that's what i like, if i want the moog sound i'd get a voyager or a phatty, but i like the flexibility of the dsi much more than the moog stuff. I just hated the evolver layout, and the sound editor for it was dreadful. Luckily there's a much better one for the tetr and mopho, by the same company that did the evolver editor. It's still not what i would like out of an editor but it's good enough. I hope they update the prophet or make an affordable tetr kb with the GOOD knobs. Those clicky old style dsi knobs are not to my liking either.

I have gotten a pretty good idea of the prophets sound and capabilities. I spent about on hour straight alone with headphones and some monitors in guitar center on one last fall. The kb section of the store was dead and it was a delight. The tweakablility on that thing amazed me. I had thought from the looks that it was a straight up analog no frills, or it woul dbe hard to program deep sounds, but i was totally wrong. It's almost every bit as flexible as the poly evolver kb, minus the digital stuff. But there was a noticeable gap in the low end, but since the mopho and tetr came out that completely fixed that issue and that makes it a pretty much a dream synth for me. I still have priorities though, have to get a nord modular g2 1st, upgrade to cubase 5, get waldorf largo, and THEN i can get a dsi product, hopefully a kb tetr :) i guess i should put out more music for people to buy (lol) so i can afford all of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqmZOZWdxyM

just some clips i saw on matrixsynth today :)

also the linn drum II with dave and roger is officially dead, but they are still working together in some way or something. BUt mostly doing their own separate products. Could be a drum box from dsi, who knows. In his message from just a couple days ago, roger linn seemed to hint a bit that DSI might be showing something new at NAMM next month! I hope it's a kb tertr with pots!

Cool. That guy did a great job with his TETR4 rendition of 'On the run'.

Somehow i missed this one until today?

I dunno guys all in all this is a pretty sweet deal. And there's no point comparing it to other synths, this particular architecture is pretty unique, unless you count virii and the blofeld and sofsynths and basically anything digital.

The filters are quite abrasive (in a good way) on the evolver (at least what i've heard from this friend of mine's unit), tetr4 has the same ones?

  On 12/25/2009 at 12:01 AM, Lube Saibot said:

The filters are quite abrasive (in a good way) on the evolver (at least what i've heard from this friend of mine's unit), tetr4 has the same ones?

Yes and no. The tetra has the prohphet 08 filters (plus added sub oscs for the wonk wonk). The prophet 08 filter was BASED on the evolver filter, but modified to be less harsh and a bit creamier and smooth, and they are exactly that. Comparing them to a MOOG ladder style they sound a little cold, but they have a completely different sound than the MOOG and that's in a good way. The MOOG ladder filter is what it is, and get a MOOG if you want that sound, but this is closer to the prophet 5 filter (though notably a bit different).

SO basically it is a modified Evolver filter. There were some threads about it on KSS or Vintage synth when the prophet came out I'll try and track them down and see what specifically was done.

That said, the signal path is all analog unlike the evolver and myself being a previous evolver owner and having played with the prophet in the store about 2 hours, and heard all these prophet 08, mopho, and tetra demos, I can verify they are indeed quite different, but with some similarities.

I will also add that the 12/db filter (which doesn't self oscillate) is very very very nice and if you are feeling a little too modern with the 24/db sound it quickly shoots into vintage mode. Anyway, more about the filter from the Sound On Sound Prophet 08 Review:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb08/articles/dsiprophet08.htm

  Quote

Knowing that the traditional CEM chips used in the early Prophets no longer exist in significant quantities, I asked Smith how the Prophet '08 came to have Curtis filters. He told me: "We're using a customised part that Doug Curtis designed a few years back for the Evolver. As you may know, Doug passed away recently, but his company, OnChip Systems, are still manufacturing the chips for us. The part is similar to the one that Tom Oberheim used in his 'Marion' series of synths a few years back, which in turn was a variation of an older CEM part. In my opinion, this filter has a ballsier sound — I usually avoid using descriptors like that, but everyone knows what it means — than the CEM3320s we used in the later Prophet 5s, the Prophet 10, and the Pro One, and I think that this is noticeable if you compare the Prophet 08 to the older synths."

 

 

I decided to check this, but was surprised to find that filtered sounds on the 08 sounded very different from (ostensibly) identical patches created on my original Prophets. This was most noticeable when I turned up the resonance to invoke filter self-oscillation; sounds that use this can be played in tune across the whole keyboard on many vintage synths, whereas the oscillation generated by the 08's filters in 24dB/oct mode was not. I mentioned this to Smith, and he suggested that I invoke the calibration routine. What a difference! The filters in the 08 now sounded consistent and tracked almost perfectly.

 

There are two filter modes; a self-oscillating 24dB/octave (four-pole) mode, which recalls the original Prophets, and a non-self-oscillating 12dB/octave (two-pole) mode, as used on the Oberheim OB series and the Yamaha CS series. Programming the filters in 12dB/octave mode created a different palette of sounds that some commentators have already compared to the OB family. This is a knee-jerk reaction that occurs whenever people see a two-pole filter, and is no more accurate than saying that every polysynth with a four-pole filter sounds like a Memorymoog. In truth, the 12dB/oct mode on the 08 has its own pleasing and flexible character, and in some ways I prefer this to the rather distinctive sound of the OBs.

 

Inevitably, the 08 offers facilities in the filter section that the original Prophets did not, including such things as fully variable keyboard tracking and inverted contour control. I also found that the amount by which the filter could be swept was far greater on the 08 than on previous models. In contrast, the amount of audio frequency modulation that you can apply to the filter is not as great as I had expected, and whereas vintage Prophets can use any combination of their oscillators' waveforms as modulators, the 08 is limited to a single waveform. This means that filter modulation on the older synths tends to stray deeper into sci-fi territory, whereas the 08 is more cultured and musical, especially when the frequency of the modulating oscillator is swept or the depth of modulation is varied. Yet, despite all of these differences, no Prophet aficionado will feel ill at ease with the 08's filter architecture or sound. It is still recognisably a Prophet.

  On 12/25/2009 at 12:38 AM, Brandi_B said:

  On 12/25/2009 at 12:01 AM, Lube Saibot said:

The filters are quite abrasive (in a good way) on the evolver (at least what i've heard from this friend of mine's unit), tetr4 has the same ones?

 

 

Yes and no. The tetra has the prohphet 08 filters (plus added sub oscs for the wonk wonk). The prophet 08 filter was BASED on the evolver filter, but modified to be less harsh and a bit creamier and smooth, and they are exactly that. Comparing them to a MOOG ladder style they sound a little cold, but they have a completely different sound than the MOOG and that's in a good way. The MOOG ladder filter is what it is, and get a MOOG if you want that sound, but this is closer to the prophet 5 filter (though notably a bit different).

 

SO basically it is a modified Evolver filter. There were some threads about it on KSS or Vintage synth when the prophet came out I'll try and track them down and see what specifically was done.

 

That said, the signal path is all analog unlike the evolver and myself being a previous evolver owner and having played with the prophet in the store about 2 hours, and heard all these prophet 08, mopho, and tetra demos, I can verify they are indeed quite different, but with some similarities.

I agree and disagree. I actually own a voyager, and the moog filter is sublime, and untouchable. Both modes have their strengths and there is no more satisfying filter to sweep with. And the self-oscillation, while it may appear to be a simple status symbol (i guess?) is a gateway to some of the coolest patches you can imagine (and this is truly a feature exclusive to moogs).

Having said that, the DSI filters are great too. This friend i mentioned did a gig where all he used was his Evolver and a Casio, so to more discerning listeners it was basically a big Evolver workout. While the envelopes sounded kinda shitty (or he was using them wrong, i dunno, they just sounded waaaay too abrupt), the filter is kinda dinghy but very present. Like, nothing really lush was coming out of the thing, but instead tons of nice shrapnel and grime and shit. I could never get over the evolver interface, it's just abysmal. The tetr4 and mopho ones look much more functional. If the newer filters are indeed as dinghy and in-your-face yet subtly warmer, i would definitely consider a tetr4 or at least a mopho as my next purchase.

Don't bother suggesting that i check demos\youtube out for myself, i can never tell with those things. Sadly i don't think there's any chance one'll pop up at the local gear store so i can gauge its sound firsthand, romanian importers only seem aware of Roland, Korg and Nord. This evolver friend might buy a tetr4 first, i think i'll wait for him to become my synth gourmet.

Apparently mopho and tetr4 can also self-oscillate. Oops.

Yeah the evolvers are really good at spurting out tons of harsh shrapnel sounds for sure. And I agree their interface was absolute hell, that why I sold mine. I miss the sound so much and loved it and used it in every song I made while I had it, but trying to make a sound while grooving to a track I was making and then suddenly be thrown into programming limbo I just couldn't take it anymore. Plus the two digit LCD I newer knew wtf a patch was gonna be. I initialized it when I got it after a day or two messing with sounds, but then i somehow ended up saving patches all over the place, and whle performing live its not very fun to have a whole sheet full or 200 names or descriptions of patches.

Anyway I wasn't knocking the moog filter at all if you were thinking that. I absolutely love the moog filter, the first time I actually was able to use one I just kinda melted into the ground. It was everything I had ever wanted or tried to make a vst or digital sound like,but so much more butter! BUt that's what I like about the dsi/older sequential filters, is that they do their OWN thing and it's still a great analog sound, it's really almost the complete opposite of the butter cream moog, and the drippy oberheims.

But yeah def. try one out before buying because a LOT of people bought prophet 08's and hated the filter and considered it a deal breaker. But I think if you had a minimoog/voyager/phatty, etc and the tetra was an ADDITION then it is fantastic. You can certainly get great sounds out of the prophet.

lol, I really want a tetra or a poly evolver with a mopho, but i've still gotta get my g2 first. So much to do. I srsly need to get more hours at work or get a second job i'm beginning to get quite gear lusty again (it's been almost 2 years since I sold the last of my hardware, and I'm really feeling the pain now).

  On 12/25/2009 at 2:32 AM, Lube Saibot said:

Apparently mopho and tetr4 can also self-oscillate. Oops.

yes! very much so. It's only the 12db filter that can't. The 24db filters can go into crazy resonate land, and you can easily play it across the KB. Sounded epic with the sound hack, and feedback loop on my evolver.