Synthesizers

Finally got this after years of waiting. I’ve had a couple monosynths but eventually realized I wanted a poly synth. I’ve used VSTs but mostly presets. How should I go about learning to program the synth? Just make tracks? Improvise? Syntorial? I’m interested in modern “IDM” type music like Rival Consoles, Jon Hopkins, Lapalux, floating Points, Four tet, etc. I went to undergrad and grad school for music, classical, jazz studies, lots of theory, piano lessons. Much more green with actually finishing independent electronic music tracks. I have Ableton and Logic. I’ve done a lot more in Logic recording bands and demos. Just recently got Ableton. I’m controlling Peak with Novation SLMKIII. Got a bunch of other instruments but only this one synth. Thanks.

Quite interesting result of "disassembling" square wave with Fourier transform and "assembling in different order"

I think one of the things that helped keep r/synthesizers active was the automatic creation of weekly threads like "Friday Hangout", where you could leave casual thoughts that might not feel worthy of a top-level post. So, why not try something similar here?

Consider this a trial run. If people like it, maybe we'll make it a weekly thing. I welcome suggestions for a better title.

Shortly before my track "Mit Rossby am Meer" was completed after months. There comes wistfulness…

where (vaugely) do you live? where do you take your equipment for repair? how much did you pay? ... and what did you have done? just curioous... thanks!

many years ago, i took a MC303 to the local shop that works on synths.. I said "it wont turn on and the power suppy is OK and the power connection to the board is OK, can you help me?" they said.. "sure, we can take a look at it" when i went back, they brought it out and said "it wont turn on but the power suppy is OK and the power connection to the board is OK too, so we cannot help you, you will have to send it back to Roland???" this expert opinion cost me $60 20 years ago.

Just before the start of our band rehearsal for a worship evening in a few weeks.

Eurorack module that allows you to use a Wii Fit balance board to control CV.

Old school way - recording with vintage gear. Disclamer: video is not mine.

I realize this community isn't about product promotions, but I thought this one might be of general interest. Syntorial gives you a software synth and a very thorough series of lessons and challenges that teach you to relate the sound you hear or imagine to the knobs on your synthesizer. Each challenge gives you a sound which you have to recreate on the synth, and there are some quizzes too. It trains you to listen analytically and understand what you're hearing in a subtractive synth patch. I'm a user, not the maker of this software, but I have found it very helpful.

Lowrey Organ model D-575. "Cotillion - 1983 - Theatre organ with memory presets and extensive features, including human voices and other sound effects" (from Wikipedia).

We don’t have a memes community so I figured I’d just share here.

After a delightful information gathering period of mulitple weeks I decided to go for an Argon8. The primary reasons were:

• Contrast to the analog gear possibilities in oscillation
• Usable 8bar sequencer with realtime non step recording
• Solid build quality including nice keys.
• Many on top controlls

It was intended as starting point for chord progressions and melody ideas. For that it works quite well. The sequence can be easily deleted and rerecorded or entered stepwise. THis works well on the minilogue xD too with the advantage that you can directly access the steps for editing within 1 bar 16 steps.

Soundwise it fits in pretty well. The waveform banks are not overly exciting but there is enough modulation with the OSCmod and wavemod possible. Serves well for HipHop Melodys and man DNB leads and pads so far. Epianoesque keys are achieavable as well of course.

Iḿ not sure why modal does this but they seem to like shift functions this time in the wrong place. Currently you have to switch one encoder with shift between scanning trough the wavetable and the bank selection. Not sure about you but on a wavetable synth I like these seperate to scan through stuff quickly. Having the OSC pitch on shift would have been wiser. As I usually set this once or at least it is not set in combination with another parameter frequently. Same with spread/ glide, its in the main OSC section and I can´t remember twisting spread constantly during sound design, this could have been a shift thing and been used for the wavemodes instead fe.

The menu! While it has a clean structure I often find myself thinking of what I have to push and thats why my sequences are only named with a single letter :D There are supportive modes where it shows actually tweaked stuff and I tried to set it so that I have the menu encoder as the wavetable bank selector but its gone as soon as you turn something else and you have to go back to the menu page manually. Could have been a fix.

Effects- I like them, al pretty useful and interesting. Extra digi distortion always handy.

Mod - assignment - Fast and easy, never ran out so far.

Envelopes - easy to use and direct access.

Secondary settings are all nicely presented within the 16 buttons. Quite memorable.

Input Output is nice too.

I still have the LCD protector on, that worrys me a little and Iḿ not too sure where the journey goes with it. NIce piece of hardware but the OSC thing bothers me as I spend a lot of time there.

Sorry for the Instagram link, I can't directly post a video. Took my new synth out for a spin by running the MIDI for the bassline of a track I was working on through it.

Speaking of which, is there a way to find out the total number of subscribers to a community? I think I can only see the number on each particular instance.

I’m trying to drive a Donner B1 with my PO-33, but I gather the voltage is not enough. Could I use a headphone amp? I need to boost it from 1V to >=2.5V for the B1. I gather that Volcas need something similar for this setup…

Just want some feedback before I go buy one. I looked at special purpose devices but they are sold out or hard to find. LMKWYT!

I'll start by saying that I'm new to synthesizers and not really musically inclined...

I have a Behringer Neutron that I purchased second-hand and it seems like the oscillators flutter and go a little sharp/flat as they play. The fluttering happens pretty quickly so even during a short key press it sounds like the note is going into and out of tune repeatedly. It's not really rythmic, just kind of random fluttering that makes all of the notes sound kind of bad.

To rule out any of the other parts of the synth I grab the OSC1 (or OSC2, both behave poorly) output directly and play through an amp. I have the LFO rate dialed down, although I don't think that should have an impact given that I'm listening right at OSC1. The noise is dialed down, both attenuators are at minimum, but again, I don't think those should have an impact because they are being skipped since I'm listening at the OSC1 output directly. All of the different octave ranges have the same behaviour.

When I enter tune mode (by holding the corresponding OSC 'Range' button and watching the LEDs around the LFO shape knob) and adjust the OSC1 tuning knob I can never get just the center LED lit showing it's in tune. The closest I can get is the center mostly lit and the two adjacent LEDs flutter like the pitch does so you can even see what I'm hearing on the built-in tuner.

An additional indicator that something is wrong is that it takes anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes to go through it's calibration routine whenever it is powered on. In other words, it's sits with the LEDs around the LFO shape knob going back and forth and the octave LEDs ever-so-slowly advancing.

Does anyone have any experience troubleshooting something like this? I'm not really sure where to go from here.

Thanks,

Hey, I thought it would be fun to take some time and talk about what we all use to make music/sounds/whatever it is we do with it.

I've preordered a Dirtywave M8 which seems like an awesome piece of gear and it's got me really excited at the prospect of using interesting dedicated hardware machines that I can take to the park or mess with on the sofa.

The obvious ones I've come across so far are:

• Korg Volca range
• Roland mini synths and aira compact ranges
• Teenage Engineering OP and POs

But these all seem a little uninteresting to me and just rehashed tiny versions of older gear and/or aimed at lo-fi producers.

Some less obvious ones that have my attention are:

• Monome Norns
• 1010music lemondrop, fireball & razzmatazz (not battery powered but easily powered by a USB powerbank)
• Bastl microgranny and kastl
• Korg NTS-1
• Korg Monotrons
• Audiothingies Micromonsta 2 (again not battery powered but can be via powerbank)

Are there any you know of that fit the bill?

I have a bit of a hardware synth addiction and spend way too much time talking about them... but we're trying to get a new community started so I felt the urge to jump in and talk about them some more.

The two Nords are my favorites. The Wave 2 is great for beautiful layered soundscapes, while the Lead 4 can quickly go into unusual and striking FM sounds. I love both for how easy it is to dial in performance controls affecting as many parameters as you want in different amounts.

In the middle between them, I'm experimenting with Nina. It has so much potential and so many clever ideas, but first impressions were not good with buggy firmware. I had to put it aside to actually get work done, but I'm about to give it another chance. I'll probably be posting more about it later.

I only keep 3 synths fully connected and ready to use at a time, mostly because I don't want to buy an audio interface with more inputs right now, but it also reduces option paralysis a bit. Everything to the right is basically on standby to be swapped out with the 3 on the left from time to time.

The Prophet 12 probably gets the most use out of everything on the right. It's quirky and a little hard to find interesting sweet spots, but the few good sounds I've made on it (and even a few factory presets) keep me coming back. It's probably the most unique-sounding synth I own.

The Peak is my go-to for anything I can't do on the Nords, if I'm not specifically looking for the unusual character of the Prophet 12. It's deep/flexible enough for most things I'd want to do, without being too menu divey. I really want to upgrade to a Summit some day.

The Modwave is the deepest synth I own, but I kind of hate the interface. Some basic things like unison are buried several pages deep in menu, and it's the only synth here I don't feel like I fully understand yet. I'll have to find time to reread the manual again soon.

The SH-4D is the newest addition, and I've got mixed feelings about it. Multi-purpose buttons make it really easy to accidentally lose work, the mod matrix is missing a lot of destinations I hoped for, and "D-Motion" is probably the most pointless feature I've ever seen on a synth. Who in the world actually wants to pick up a synth and tilt it in the air while cables are hanging off it during a performance? However, it's pretty easy to dial in some really solid bass and pad sounds, and the drum kits are pretty good too.

I saved the Korg Prologue for last because I'm probably going to sell it. It's a pleasure to use and sounds great, but it's pretty limited without 3rd party oscillators and I haven't had a lot of luck with those so far. I also don't like waiting for warm up and tuning when every other synth I own is ready to go in seconds.

Aaand I probably spent way too long rambling about all those, but I hope it was interesting to someone.

A look at Roland's System 100 from 1975, their first foray in (semi) modular synthesis.

(This is not my video)

Hi there!

I am currently working on getting the technical stuff up and running. Please bear with me as the service today might be a bit flaky.