Roland Boutique?! [new synths]

absolutely crazy how many electronic musicians are sleeping so hard on Roland's digital synths and rack synths from the 80s that haven't been turned into 'classics' yet. Its actually overall good for people who have been using them since they will continue to stay affordable while people get distracted by all these weak analog re-issues and piece meal eurorack modules.

  On 10/20/2015 at 12:42 AM, modey said:

 

 

https://refund.bandcamp.com/album/zirkon-modular-idm

when I think of 'modular idm' i would imagine something more along the lines of Brisbot, where it feels like it had to have been made on something with a modular setup. This is nice though. Has a very modular/ray synth sound palette which I dig, structurally it sounds like it could have been made on a regular sequencer with CV controllable synths

  On 10/20/2015 at 2:14 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

absolutely crazy how many electronic musicians are sleeping so hard on Roland's digital synths and rack synths from the 80s that haven't been turned into 'classics' yet. Its actually overall good for people who have been using them since they will continue to stay affordable while people get distracted by all these weak analog re-issues and piece meal eurorack modules.

  On 10/20/2015 at 12:42 AM, modey said:

 

 

https://refund.bandcamp.com/album/zirkon-modular-idm

when I think of 'modular idm' i would imagine something more along the lines of Brisbot, where it feels like it had to have been made on something with a modular setup. This is nice though. Has a very modular/ray synth sound palette which I dig, structurally it sounds like it could have been made on a regular sequencer with CV controllable synths

Which synths are you speaking of? I love my yamaha digital racks, some of the sounds I've gotten out of those have gotten more of the 'how the fuck did you get THAT sound?' reaction out of my friends than pretty much any of my old analog gear.

Just curious as to which ones you consider to be sleepers?

not to be a cunt (i know I often am on this forum in other discussions) but I've decided to only tease and not reveal 'secret weapon' affordable old hardware anymore. I'm usually really transparent about this on the forum, but I feel like after the RDJ soundcloud thing too many plebs are coming here to suck watmm of info. We should setup some kind of private email or forum for secret gear discussion/knowledge. Not suggesting other people should hold back general info, but if you have a secret weapon mid 80s digital synth that makes can make a killer 1-hour long ambient song with one patch... probably best to keep it to yourself for a while until you make a few albums with it.

Meh, fair enough. I don't think you're a cunt

I sort of agree John. It's pretty sick what people do to the second hand market on ebay and whatnot.

Basically, it's safe to say that all the big synth companie' rack synths sound amazing so if you can handle learning some not so intuitive interfaces, most are safe bets if the specs meet your requirements.

Obviously some will be better than others in a pure subjective way.

I think the key to buying synths is to not let any hype take you. No synth will blow you away with never heard before sounds or timbres. Even the top tier vintage synths are not as golden as the money they command leads you to believe.

All these synths are going to do standard synth stuff and some even go into wacky territories but unless you have never heard music before you are not going to so surprised you're going to be sick from shock.

I love synths, isn't it evident? or is it evident that I don't want to pay over the odds for my next synth purchase.

;););)

That is the reason I said I sort of agree.

Entitlement is an ugly trait but we all do it to a degree.

Oh well. I just want things to be what I think they are worth (ha) and not what some dick thinks they are worth just because some known entity used it.

But you're right, a synth has enough options for everyone and if you have any individuality you can come up with new things. No one uses synths dry anyway nowadays.

The tools are out there for anyone to make music that sounds like no one. There are so many options available now that anyone's configuration is most likely unique to them and should produce results that are equally as unique.

If you sound like somebody else, its most likely that you were trying to.

yup.

Not sharing names of specific hardware is one thing, but keeping specific techniques a secret is another. I have found some very quirky behaviour that happens when you combine certain hardware sequencers with certain 80s synthesizers. The MIDI software in the various hardware seems to have been implemented with differing interpretations of the MIDI standard, and the results are borderline generative composition when you exploit the shortcomings correctly. I'm definitely not giving away any details until I have fully explored the possibilities and released recordings of them.

Can we please make a "I've found something, but i won't tell you." thread?

I think we're discussing it on a meta level... :)

  On 10/20/2015 at 5:29 PM, psn said:

Not sharing names of specific hardware is one thing, but keeping specific techniques a secret is another. I have found some very quirky behaviour that happens when you combine certain hardware sequencers with certain 80s synthesizers. The MIDI software in the various hardware seems to have been implemented with differing interpretations of the MIDI standard, and the results are borderline generative composition when you exploit the shortcomings correctly. I'm definitely not giving away any details until I have fully explored the possibilities and released recordings of them.

this is more along the lines of what I meant, because as soon as I start talking about how awesome something like the JD990 is, ill likely accidentally spill the beans about a particular quirk because I can't help myself. Its really just a problem I have with knowing when and when not to hold musical secrets close to the chest.

when it comes to stuff like the FS1R or Kawai K5000 or even the VL1 I feel comfortable talking those because they are deep beast-like machines that you could spend your whole lifetime learning. Nobody can just sit on one of those with a 'secret' tricks faq and be able to produce really satisfying results, it takes a lot of time. there is no easy path to mastering synths like those.

  On 10/20/2015 at 12:33 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

 

  On 10/20/2015 at 7:22 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

not to be a cunt (i know I often am on this forum in other discussions) but I've decided to only tease and not reveal 'secret weapon' affordable old hardware anymore. I'm usually really transparent about this on the forum, but I feel like after the RDJ soundcloud thing too many plebs are coming here to suck watmm of info. We should setup some kind of private email or forum for secret gear discussion/knowledge. Not suggesting other people should hold back general info, but if you have a secret weapon mid 80s digital synth that makes can make a killer 1-hour long ambient song with one patch... probably best to keep it to yourself for a while until you make a few albums with it.

i don't agree with this attitude, music and production is an inclusive thing imo. you shouldn't have to worry about anyone else making that theoretical album/s in your example because you are you and they are they, and if anyone could make that album with that gear, then it can't be that unique of an album to begin with. it's what you do with the gear that counts, and I reckon the people that browse this forum know about tweaking and being creative with synthesis, and the bits of gear you're talking about have a ton of options so you shouldn't have to worry about someone stumbling upon the same ideas and using them in the same way. that being said, i can respect not wanting to share combinations of gear + technique for the gear that is specific to your own music if it pulls back the layers on your craft in a way that makes you uncomfortable.

 

Agreed, although I DO see the value of trying to keep eBay prices from getting blown up out of proportion.

A few months ago I bumped into someone at a show who I hadn't seen in a couple of years. We got talking gear and he said that these days he has stopped playing out with any of his stuff and just uses prerecorded cassettes to keep people from "copying his setup," and the only thing I could think was that if the gear you're using is so important to the identity of what you do that you have to protect it then maybe it's time to reevaluate how you're approaching music. I know that personally I would hope that anything I did would sound like something I did no matter what kind of music it was and what kind of instruments I used to make it. OBviously everyone has different goals and priorities in what they do but I think that's a pretty good thing to keep aware of most of the time.

There ARE definitely people who lift ideas from other people and pass them off as their own, and that can be frustrating but I just don't really feel like it's worth the effort of worrying about it too much. Especially since we all do it to some degree whether we know it or not.

Sonic lab are starting to upload their review/overviews on these.

The JU 06 sounds wicked. Will be selling some stuff to get this beaut.

It sounds really fkn great. The sequencer is cool as well.

Lack of MIDI CC input is a bit of a dealbreaker for me though, unfortunately.

  On 11/10/2015 at 12:19 PM, modey said:

It sounds really fkn great. The sequencer is cool as well.

 

Lack of MIDI CC input is a bit of a dealbreaker for me though, unfortunately.

You use a monomachine right? Can you get similar tones out of it?

Also just saw this in the youtube comments...

I contacted roland about the lack of CC and this was the response they sent me. Hope it happens :P "We have already been letting the engineering teams in Japan know that users could use more options via MIDI, so we are hoping they could release an update in the future to add some of these types of features. We can't promise anything, but are hoping. Best Regards, Product Support Roland Corp. U.S."

^ Is that Adolf Titler or Adolf Nippler? Always get the two of them confused.

Lets go with Titler.

You certainly couldn't get Juno tones from the monomachine but I don't know how close the Ju08 is to the juno.

will watch later

The Juno sounded the best when I played them and sounded the most like the original. Didn't spend too much time on the Jupiter one. Having played on a Jupiter 8 and 6 for extended periods of time, it just made me cringe to hear it. The JX was good but it lacked a lot of the sonic character the JX I have. It's got much less throat and expression when it comes to the filter, which is one of the things that made the JX great, as it shares its filter with a lot of the other famous Roland poly's (the j8 and a juno if I remember correctly)

They arevery worthwhile, just not the synths they try to be, which brings me back to the page all of us seem to be on of 'why don't companies just make new synths?' -- Dave Smith is IMO my favorite modern synth maker. Having owned 3 of his new synths, and currently owning the beast (pro-2) , I'm very excited to see the prophet 6 and where he takes his builds next! But, I do like expensive instruments, so this is just personal preference.

It's cool that this'll get more kids trying their first synths 'entry-level look at me cuz I'm getting them analog sounds' to actually get into subtractive synthesis instead of using stock sounds/presets on their VST's. I recently visited a friend at the studio of a local college as they just got a Modulus 2 in there - it was shocking to see just how little most 'music production/engineering' dudes there knew about synthesis or sound design. You could almost hear their parents money going down the drain every time they failed to produce anything besides what most children could whip up on said incredibly powerful synths.

(BTW: The Mod2 was INSANE, if you have the ability to mess with one, do so immediately and then devise ways to steal said hardware)

ahhh the modulus looks so damn amazing, waaaay out of my price range though.

  On 11/10/2015 at 4:20 PM, Chesney said:

You certainly couldn't get Juno tones from the monomachine

But yeah, some of that super lush chorus piano stuff Nick gets in that video sounds great. Especially when he adds the noise; I suppose that's something you can't do on the monomachine without chaining tracks together.

yeah i'll prob get one, or a waldorf blofeld, to suit my needs of portable polyphony

the basic problem of male possession is demonstrated in this thread.

"i'll sell some gear to get this"

the parallel w/ how men treat women...

women want to be sheltered. it's the truth:

https://soundcloud.com/kupfer/sad-001-b

not about having what you want but wanting what you have

  On 11/10/2015 at 9:15 PM, modey said:

ahhh the modulus looks so damn amazing, waaaay out of my price range though.

Indeed. I'd love to try one out.