Digital synth love

Oh, to add to that, just saw this:

 

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/effects/molekular/

 

OMG. :)

I love my microkorg. I think I already blurted that out in this thread, but it's really an awesome little workhorse.

  On 4/3/2014 at 8:34 AM, MisterE said:

those metallic squink sounds were actually kinda cool in that radius vid. the only newer digital synth i'm vaguely interested in is the m-audio venom:[youtubehd]6F1nCjgSpfM[/youtubehd]

 

seems pretty rad to me. but i've seen mentions of buggy issues with it (have i already mentioned and maybe even linked to this thing in this thread?! gettin old)

I've seen these go for as low as £100 on Gumtree.

Yeah, I remember reading up on that synth at some point in time when somebody was practically giving it away and concluding that it's a POS. I can't remember what it was but there is some sort of idiotic design flaw in there somewhere that ruins it.

woah that sounds excellent

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

just preordered elements. the new modules are insane ! olivier from mutable instruments is a genius !

Edited December 21, 2014 by 2202

  On 12/21/2014 at 11:47 AM, xy_politics said:

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

Oh, for sure. If I had to choose I'd go with digital synths any day. Analog synths are just cute little additions to introduce some instability to my compositions

  On 12/21/2014 at 11:47 AM, xy_politics said:

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

I think this is an extremely interesting point that warrants its own topic, although I wouldn't even know where to begin writing about it.

 

Suffice to say for now that there are pretty successful module shops focusing on CV-controlled, but otherwise digital, sound eurorack modules. And this speaks a lot to certain aspects (e.g. user interface, automation/control, latency) of electronic music technology that analog still mostly gets right that digital still mostly gets wrong. And that I think the idea of analog authenticity is changing now in light of this as well as the wealth of excellent analog emulations and also of cheap analog synths.

Edited December 21, 2014 by sweepstakes

  On 12/21/2014 at 11:47 AM, xy_politics said:

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

 

yeah! what I think matters a great deal is the control a given unit gives you over sound. for obvious reasons, analog has to deal most of the time with one control for one parameter of the sound, which ends up in machines having a lot of controls that one can tweak with his hands. and that is a big part in what one can make with this machine, it gives the instrument more physical existence and the relation the musician can develop with it is way more direct. I have the feeling this argument is often forgotten in this debate. It's not about the sound - some synths sounds good and other synths less good. the way you can interact with the instrument is very determining though. imo

  On 12/21/2014 at 1:14 PM, psn said:

So how much does this thing cost anyway?

  On 12/21/2014 at 9:17 PM, Antape said:

 

  On 12/21/2014 at 11:47 AM, xy_politics said:

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

 

yeah! what I think matters a great deal is the control a given unit gives you over sound. for obvious reasons, analog has to deal most of the time with one control for one parameter of the sound, which ends up in machines having a lot of controls that one can tweak with his hands. and that is a big part in what one can make with this machine, it gives the instrument more physical existence and the relation the musician can develop with it is way more direct. I have the feeling this argument is often forgotten in this debate. It's not about the sound - some synths sounds good and other synths less good. the way you can interact with the instrument is very determining though. imo

 

 

Yeah, all this, and the immediacy (i.e. plug anything into anything else) and resolution of CV.

  On 12/22/2014 at 12:40 AM, modey said:

 

So how much does this thing cost anyway?

 

 

Only price I could find was on modulargrid - $709

i like hardware digital synths that dont have emulations in software. and even still, the emulations dont usually include the charming details or personality that i find when playing with said hardware synths.

yeah, I'm very much ok with digital oscillators through analog filters.

oh nice! Yeah I'm a big fan of aliased digital synth/sampled sounds. I grew up listening to protracker music :D

  On 12/22/2014 at 1:52 AM, xy_politics said:

 

  On 12/22/2014 at 12:40 AM, modey said:

 

So how much does this thing cost anyway?

 

 

Only price I could find was on modulargrid - $709

 

500 euros (maybe a little bit more) for elements

That's pretty good. Something I'll consider if I end up getting more CV stuff

  On 12/22/2014 at 5:17 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

also might have been mentioned here but be on the lookout for an esoniq esq1. it's a 12 bit sampler with analogue filters! heard it's great. hope i'm getting the name right there

The EPS is Ensoniq's 12-bit (actually 13-bit) sampler. But I don't think it has analog filters.

The Mirage was their first sampler and it does have analog filters but it's 8-bit. Sounds great but very CRUNCHY and GRIMY.

The ESQ-1 is actually a 3-osc digital synth with analog filters. Also 8-bit. The SQ80 is similar but it has a disk drive and some other snacks.

  On 12/21/2014 at 9:17 PM, Antape said:

 

  On 12/21/2014 at 11:47 AM, xy_politics said:

The video above demonstrates the truth of this matter very well - that there is no 'digital' vs 'analog' argument. That's a digital synthesizer, controlled by analog means, in an analog framework. You go to the places where real analog heads hang out and they are just as, if not more excited by the new digital modules being made available, such as in that video. All that matters is whether something sounds good; everything else is just posing.

 

yeah! what I think matters a great deal is the control a given unit gives you over sound. for obvious reasons, analog has to deal most of the time with one control for one parameter of the sound, which ends up in machines having a lot of controls that one can tweak with his hands. and that is a big part in what one can make with this machine, it gives the instrument more physical existence and the relation the musician can develop with it is way more direct. I have the feeling this argument is often forgotten in this debate. It's not about the sound - some synths sounds good and other synths less good. the way you can interact with the instrument is very determining though. imo

 

This. Never believed much in the analogue sound in itself. You can always overload a soft synth and record it to tape or something, even simulated. It's just sound and frequencies in the end.

I'd buy an analogue synth or drum machine or sampler only for the live tweaking possibilities, for the pleasure of touching something. Jamming with a mouse and some MIDI pads feels very dull sometimes...

Edited December 22, 2014 by Perezvon

just ordered

I pretty much only like digital synths now. Guess it will be fun to build a doepfer with a whole row of various character filters though.

 

These ancient rack synths remind me of a remote time when i used the A to D on my sound blaster. But thats a different thread

Edited December 23, 2014 by skibby

That kawai synth sounds fkn awesome