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From the last thread:Startyde posted:The WX5 isn't too bad and has direct MIDI out. The older ones need the hip-pack translator to poop out midi, so it's not just some glue logic. I was actually looking for the electrical interface for the breath control in jack on a DX7. I can massage the signal out of a readily available pressure sensor if I know what kind of signal the port is expecting. I don't want to have to pay $HUNDREDS when I could rig something up for $TENS.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:10
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Startyde posted:oh, oh, oh. It expects a (from pre-coffee memory) cv from the ref given on the jack, -9V on tip, wiper is ring, ground is sleeve. ynohtna posted:Off the top of my head, the BC1 eats -9V on the tip of the stereo plug, and returns it voltage divided on the ring. Thank you both, and yeah I'd like to see that service manual if it's not too much bother.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:09
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SOUNDS!
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Mar 26, 2014 13:49
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Sizone posted:cracking the thing open has revealed that the voices are -painfully- discreet. They do their best to avoid arousing suspicion. They'll never give up your secrets.
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Mar 27, 2014 13:06
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MJP posted:A thought: I have a digital piano. It has 88 keys and weighted action. Is it at all doable to hook up audio or MIDI output to modules? That way I can do my futzing with envelopes to get synthesis going on and add as I need, rather than paying out the rear end for an 88 key weighted action synth. A piano is going to lack expressive controls like a modulation/pitch bend wheel or aftertouch. Other than that, yes you can drive synthesizers with MIDI inputs with your digital piano.
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Mar 30, 2014 21:57
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ynohtna posted:Here's the schematic of the Yamaha BC1 breath controller: Awesome! Thanks for that, I really appreciate it. I've really warmed up to the DX7IIFD. When I initially got it I was unimpressed. It sounded clean and bright, and I only really liked the sound of struck (marimba, vibes, etc) and plucked instruments. The envelopes and dynamics of FM really shine there, and it was something that subtractive synth could not do well in my experience. It seemed like a one-trick pony. Then I picked up a new mixing board with a sweepable mid on the EQ, and spent some time dialing out some of the brightness. This managed to really improve the sound to my ears. The past few nights I have been playing the preset voices. I initially wrote off most of these as uninteresting, but having switched back and forth between the Yamaha and the KingKorg, I was able to appreciate the innate nature of the motion of sound with FM. Without even considering the LFO, it's easy to make a sound that moves. And the motion is far more interesting and has much more character than oscillator detuning. I have a bank of voices exclusively for 90's sci-fi / Sega Genesis soundtracks and metallic pads evolve beautifully. That said, for all of the sounds that I've been exploring, I can't stop playing the String Bass preset, which is a shocking reversal to the yawn it initially elicited. I just set up a swing beat on my groovebox and walk up and down a minor scale for hours. If I ever get a chance to play a Motif, I'm sure my impression of the old FM sound will change, but my conscience tells me that samples are cheating.
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Apr 4, 2014 13:12
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How prevalent are free-running oscillators in VA synths? The KingKorg annoyingly seems to have them, as combining two oscillators in a single Timbre produces different waveforms for each gate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se00IabOYQI I was unable to capture the audio, but the effect is evident. Sounds like garbage anyways. This timbre has 2 oscillators, each an identically configured pulse oscillator. The "Analog Tune" parameter is set to 0, and I think it's applied at the Timbre level anyways. It's not a tuning difference, because the waveform is static. They're simply offset a different amount at each gate. It's been a really annoying feature, as creating a voice using in-tune oscillators is more or less destined to fail.
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Apr 5, 2014 18:34
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wayfinder posted:With rising numbers of voices in unison, freerunning oscs is something you want, actually! If they're all in sync, you'll get a flanging effect on the beginning of a note. Massive for example has an optional sync feature that can do either free-running or sync for all oscs (unfortunately not PER osc, but at least you can adjust the initial phase per osc). Perhaps with more than two or three voices or any amount of detuning, the effect is good, but with only a few, it seems to be nothing but detrimental. I can't make a voice sound the same at each gate, and in the case of pulse waveforms, they can make a sound move from medium-fat to pencil thin. Like it would be neat to mix a 50% pulse with a 75% pulse if they were synchronized, but any range from intended neatness to garbage if not. Experimentation has revealed that the phase difference is not random, but cyclical, likely modulated with a triangle wave. I'm not sure if it's keyed to the gate or if it, too is free-running as I simply used an arpeggiator. I see that the Access Virus line has a phase init parameter. I really should have gotten a used one of those instead of this, but I was uneducated at purchase time. Edit: I mean how can this be desirable? Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 19:25
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No! The DWGS oscillators are not affected, and are phase sync'd. I wasn't comprehensive with testing the "analog" oscillators, so I did some more. It seems that the only oscillators that are free-running are: Saw, Pulse, Dual Square, Dual Pulse.... the only set I had initially tested, of course. And of course the pulse wave is the only oscillator that can PWM. Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 21:35
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There are subtle hints, but if I heard that recording without knowing, I'd be hard-pressed to tell that it was synthesized. What's the little one used for the trombone solo? Edit: On second listen, it's not so subtle. Still sounds fantastic though. Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 12:55
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So the E-mu Morpheus sounds interesting. Is it $150 interesting though? How many Wavestations is it worth? Edit: I currently have 0 romplers, and this one caught my ear.
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Apr 9, 2014 20:31
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Sizone posted:50-100$ more than it's really worth. Try haggling. Place is also selling a Proteus 2000, asking same price. It seems to have better modulation capabilities, different filters, and a ton more voices built-in, although I doubt I'd get much use out of hundreds of EPs, hundreds of Basses, etc. As long as it can do anything a Morpheus can do with respect to ambient, developing pads, I can imagine that it's the more worthwhile unit?
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Apr 10, 2014 13:50
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I'm in Canada, so shipping, exchange and customs makes anything from there automatically $50-$100 more. I'm going to contact the seller and see what's included. Thanks for the info!
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Apr 10, 2014 14:53
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:Not a joke: Do you want a wavestation? I'm in BC. I'd take one, but I'm in Ontario.
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Apr 10, 2014 17:01
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:Whereabouts? A large chunk of my family is in Brampton/Cambridge so I could easily have an excuse to head out that way. Even then, shipping within the country shouldn't be abysmal and I'd probably be happier to sell it than put it in storage for a few years. PM sent!
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Apr 10, 2014 17:07
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Is there anything else on the market like Reaktor? I've been using it to scratch my NES/8bit itch and it's a lot of fun. If Nord came out with a Modular G3 tomorrow I would buy it, just so I can do all the design on a computer and not have to drag it with me to perform. Also dedicated control surfaces would be nice (yeah, yeah, BCR2000).
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Apr 17, 2014 15:07
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Last jam session, I had to fill in for the bassist with the DX7IIFD. My experience with the unit did not lead me to think that it was very capable of bass sounds. It always seemed a bit thin in the bottom end to me. I was surprised to hear it plugged in to the bass amp. It really shows how much my home setup needs a subwoofer. I had a bank of bass instruments pre-loaded thanks to my attempting to prep the unit with an array of sounds, and all of the patches sounded a lot better than my initial impression. FM synthesis: A+++ would bassjam again.
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Apr 21, 2014 17:52
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net work error posted:I'm gonna outmyself here and admit I'm a big closet vocaloid fan and I want one too. What's the overlap between English and Japanese phonemes, I wonder. Because that's pretty cool. edit: Japanese: 5 vowels, 17 consonants. English: 20 vowels, 24 consonants. Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 13:05
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Continuing my hunt for a rompler / sampler, I stumbled upon an E-MU E6400 Ultra with voice expansion, 40 gig drive loaded with samples/libraries, Proteus included. Any reason why this shouldn't be able to whet my evolving pad whistle? I understand it has fewer of the Morpheus filters, but the added functionality of it being a sampler should compensate for the loss in value there.
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Apr 23, 2014 15:32
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4.10, is it something end-users can upgrade or is it tied to the hardware revision?
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Apr 23, 2014 16:49
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My luck with purchasing E-MU gear is loving terrible. I have now lost out on 3 of them. Perhaps I should stop posting about them before hand. 
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Apr 24, 2014 13:04
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So I never really made much use of the KingKorg's tube. I wasn't keen on the overdrive distortion characteristics, and it otherwise just seemed like another volume knob. Since reading more about them, I started using it as a sort of compressor, bringing it near distortion. I added a subwoofer to my setup, and I noticed a new characteristic of the tube. It seems to add a bass pop to every gate on/off, regardless of pitch. It almost sounds like it might be DC bias, but I don't have a scope to check. Is this common or is this an indication of poor design / calibration?
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Apr 27, 2014 17:13
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From an instrument-agnostic standpoint, you're looking for a loop station. edit: I guess that's the Boss name for the product type. Perhaps it's called a looper? In any event, I can't find something inexpensive that fits your bill. Anything multi-track is $500+. Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 15:42 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 15:32
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Gotta be honest, half of the reason I'm rompler hunting is for pizzicato and tremolo strings. I can't believe how hard it is to find a decent unit at a reasonable price, though.
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May 2, 2014 16:04
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Still lovin' me some FM. Owns bones for industrial tones. I just wish the DX7 let you modulate the operator ratio. My data slider is getting an awful lot of use as a performance control, and drat it sounds good. Also marimbas.
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May 6, 2014 20:08
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0dB posted:DX200 in your future. One up on craigslist for 450 (CAD), which is a no-go for me. What are they actually worth?
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May 7, 2014 14:24
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I finally picked up a Proteus 2000 to fill my romper gap. After noticing it had fewer filters than the manual claimed, I found it needed new firmware. Luckily the firmware tool worked on windows 8, and now it's up to date. There now appears to be an arpeggiator on board. Works pretty well, but there's a mysterious "pattern" option that I can't get to do anything. All 100 user bank entries are blank. Anyone know how to populate the patterns? There's no hint of the arp in the manual, and my Google-fu has failed me.
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May 17, 2014 20:20
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VoodooXT posted:Apparently it's the same as the one in the E-mu XL-7 Command Station, so try looking for the manual for that. On the XL7, there is an Edit User Pattern screen for this. Can't find anything of the sort on the P2K.
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May 17, 2014 20:59
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After a weekend of toying with the P2K's Z-Plane filters, I have to ask: are they a passe relic, cherished for their novelty? I can't find anything any too musical about most of them and the analog emulations sound positively bad at high Q in comparison to the KingKorg. Maybe I haven't found the right combinations, or maybe the P2K's limited implementation of the Z-Plane system precludes the more interesting applications of them. To my ears, they just don't sound all that good. I haven't found any demonstrations to lead me to believe otherwise. Am I missing something?
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May 20, 2014 19:14
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sliderule posted:There now appears to be an arpeggiator on board. Works pretty well, but there's a mysterious "pattern" option that I can't get to do anything. All 100 user bank entries are blank. Found an answer to this. Open source prodatum allows for the editing of all preset parameters of P1K/P2K romplers, including arpeggiators.
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May 20, 2014 20:22
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Startyde posted:Like most filters they're better animated. Approach them like you're wavesequencing/vector synthing rather than using a static filter. I tested them with both an envelope and a delayed LFO mapped to frequency, but in retrospect I never really tweaked the modulation depth from my initial setting. Also, maybe the magic is in modulating Q on some of them. I'll keep noodling, thanks! e: Q is only note-on modulatable. Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 22:42 on May 20, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 20:58
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KingKorg, preset 2: Synth 1984
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May 26, 2014 14:45
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Tonight I was able to reproduce the old Law and Order theme pretty accurately between the DX7 and the Proteus 2000. It was easy to fit all 4 instruments onto one keyboard thanks to the Grey Matter E! expansion allowing 8 zone splits. It got me wondering about other controller keyboards in case I wanted to trade away the DX7. Are features like Floating Split and 8-way split/layer common? I know the P2k can do such splits and layers internally, but that doesn't help if I want to target other devices.
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Jun 3, 2014 00:28
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Startyde posted:Not anymore they're not. Typically you'll 2-4 get zones, maybe layerable. Most controllers these days can't be split at all though, so double check specs when you're shopping. Floating, I doubt it, maybe the Midiboard did that, I can't think of anything else. They just assume you're going to plug in via usb and play a VST at a time now. I half-expected that. I was pretty impressed at the simplicity of the floating split concept, and was hoping to find something with a more streamlined/dedicated configuration interface. For all the features that Grey Matter E! brings to the table, it's hampered by shoehorning them onto the DX7's editing interface. I've been avoiding the sequencer because my initial experience with it was excruciating, but it looks like I'll be biting the bullet and trying a composition there. It's just such a nasty feeling dealing with the disjointed / illogical nature of the process that I would almost rather shell out for a tablet for sequencing. I have a Boss SP-505, but I can't seem to use it as a sequencer for external stuff--the sequencer MUST trigger an internal voice to be recorded/played back. I guess I could sample a few banks worth of silence, but even then I have the problem of it being limited to a single octave seemingly. (A separate complaint: when triggering voices from MIDI, the master device needs to send a program change to select a bank. This makes the Alesis Percpad only able to trigger from Bank 1, which is write protected )
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Jun 3, 2014 15:24
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Hehe, I'll keep my eye out for those two models, thanks. I really want to see if I can make a workflow that doesn't involve a DAW-like. Got the SP505 for cheap, and I've seen a couple of them go quickly on craigslist for 50% more (presumably) than I paid so I should be able to pick one of those up without too much sting.
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Jun 3, 2014 18:33
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Hooooo boy I just started composing arpeggiators for the Proteus2k. It's amazingly flexible. Look at all dem possibilities: e: In case the image never loads... 
Tan Dumplord fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 17:15
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Sadly, the KingKorg exhibits stepping in several of the models, namely sync sweeps and high res Acid filter sweeps. The latter case goes to the other point though: having no experience with a 303, the model might be accurate. I already experienced this with the VPM oscillators, where steps during sweeps at high modulation depths were actually inherent to FM, not a limitation in the model. That said, the legitimate complaints are edge cases, and they're limitations in the VA modelling. There seems to be sufficient resolution in the encoders or interpolation in the model that transitions are free of aliasing.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:38
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Managed to track down a Roland MC80. Now I can truly purge myself of general purpose computers. It wasn't a hard choice. I could have bought an iPad mini and some sequencing app for a bit more, but there's a special place in my heart for a dedicated tool. Also gently caress touch screens. Honestly I am so jarred by DAW workflows that I couldn't bring myself to truly use a computer for jamming / recording. Working with computers my whole life has left a vile film on the desktop that taints my perception. I hate the mouse cursor, and don't want to involve it in any music making. The time that I have spent adjusting piano rolls has felt like an eternity, and I have very little to show for it. I suppose I could have got an old DOS tracker working, but even that would be a chore with USB MIDI. At very least I'd be in a VM/DOSBOX window, and the desktop would forever lurk, waiting to inform me of its pending updates. Would that I could find an RM1x in decent shape and at a decent price. Everything I have seen is well-used, missing knobs, AND expensive. Oh well, I don't need another synth. Just a sequencer. So I can record all of my lovely, lovely jams. My wife tells me I need to layer my music more. I'm such a bad keyboardist that I can't even handle getting bass octaves/fifths correct when I'm focusing on the right hand. Now, surely, this piece of hardware will make me a better musician. It... it just has to. ... GAS? What's that?
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Jun 11, 2014 14:55
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You mean a QY100 for $220 or a QY70 for $180, right? I can only F5 for so long. Also gently caress silver plastic. Edit: I would accept silver plastic for the RS-7000 but it's too much machine, and too pricy.
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Jun 11, 2014 16:15
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MrLonghair posted:Those are some expensive QY100s and QY70s even if I were to convert my currency to USD Those prices are in CAD, so it's not as bad as it seems. But all the F5ing in the world is not going to net me a sequencer for cheap around here.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:41
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