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DreadCthulhu posted:Am I the only idiot who tries to make synth music in a DAW by re-using that one single hardware synth on 3-4 different tracks? I like my OB-6 a lot, and I want to juice the hell out of it, so I'll have it do the bass line, the pads, the plucky lead, a nice bassy crescendo wave thingy. BUT that also means that now I'm using one piece of hardware for 4 jobs, so 3 of those tracks need to be frozen at all times (I use CodeKnobs) and only one midi track is actually actively using the synth. Can't you sample the patch and then play it through sampler VST? That way you have a close-ish sound and can still change notes around without so much back and forth. Then when you want to finish the track, you'd probably do the process you described.
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Apr 26, 2020 09:40
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DreadCthulhu posted:Thanks for the tips! Sounds like then a reasonable compromise is to "prototype" in VSTs and get it close enough to what I want, and if the track is begging for a specific hardware sound that I just can't get through my soft synths, I can bust out the hardware synth and re-do a particular track with it. That seems sensible. The challenge I've been having was primarily during the creative and exploratory phase of writing a track, where I'd write a pad part, freeze it, switch to bass, freeze it, then go back to the pad, unfreeze it, tweak it, freeze it again, then go do plucky leads poo poo.. it takes forever compared to just having 3 Serums running side by side... In the 90s, you had real studios that used tape or digital recording systems (you could have Fostex DMT8 or Alesis ADAT recorder that would put its stuff on a VHS tape). However, in most bedroom studios you didn't have that luxury, so you'd keep everything in MIDI. At most, you'd get a stereo recording option - aforementioned CD writer (not in a PC, it was one of those audio component system things), Minidisc, or just cassette. A maxed out sampler would be big enough to record short vocal snippets, meaning you didn't have to sacrifice a tape track - and you could at least sync the signal just fine, because a single note would play back an entire vocal line. In the little space that was left, you could probably also dump a few percussion instruments. As a result, you'd hold off recording to the last minute, and everything became a matter of resource management and clever allocation. That means multitimbral MIDI machines with sufficient on-board effects would be the centerpieces of the studio. I have the Roland XP-30. The default soundset in there has lots of samples of real, traditional acoustic instruments - pianos, brass, strings, etc. It's got the SR-JV-11 Techno Collection expansion built in. http://www.synthmania.com/sr-jv80-11.htm Several of these sounds are just emulations of real analog synths. It's not that they sound particularly convincing and have all kinds of circuit modeling - far from that. But the analog-like sounds it can do are OK. Fairly vanilla, but hey. Any sound that didn't need to make an impact - background bleeps and boops basically, where you couldn't hear whether it was real analog or not - would just be the XP-30's responsibility. The sound was in the background, so being able to hear that was a real analog filter wasn't a priority; you'd keep the good stuff for the main sounds. The OB6 is in that sense really inefficient. You have a monotimbral synthesizer - with on-board effects, but not usable by other devices - and 6 voices. Compared to that, a Nord Lead 2 looks a lot better - 4 timbres, 16 voices. Sure, no effects, but often you had a multi-effects device kicking around anyway, and again, by saving the good stuff for the main sounds, you could probably get away with putting no effects on the minor background things. We had a Juno-106 in the studio which offered MIDI (good), no effects except chorus (bad), only 6 voices (OK I guess) and was monotimbral (bad). It mostly got relegated to bass duties because that's where it did really well. We had external effects, but tended to save that for the sampler, which didn't have any effects at all and "baking in" the effect would cost more memory. The AN1x which offered MIDI (good), on-board effects (yay!), 10 note polyphony (good) and a kind of fake multitimbrality as long as you could accept a split (eh, better than nothing) got the lead parts, and in a lot of cases it was used monotimbrally only - but it was the biggest star of the show, so we could put up with that. The XP-30 was the workhorse - somewhat underappreciated, but definititely noticeable if it wasn't there - and its multitimbrality was deeply appreciated, even though this came with its own set of resource management issues - only 1 insert effect and 2 sends, and a single note could use up to 4 voices of polyphony because the polyphony is really the number of "sample-based oscillators that can be triggered at once", and 1 voice could use up to 4 of those. The use of prototyping is one where you acknowledge that the real hardware would be preferable (and sounds better), but you're using software just so you can actually get done with composing. Still, I've heard of someone doing exactly this - but they also realized that during the production, they realized that the software had the more preferable sound - not because of any superiority, but more because the mix was already geared towards acknowledging that as a worthy part. Replacing the plugin with the hardware didn't necessarily improve things, or make the shocking difference. Anyway, it's TYOOL 2020 now so none of these restrictions apply. At least you can record pristine multitracks, effectively removing all shackles of polyphony and processing. How difficult/easy you want to make it for yourself is up to you. What Rifter17 says is also a good idea - if you want to use 1 synth for everything, Yaz(oo) style, just sample the individual notes you need. That removes some of the ~magic analog variance~ but can be a really good option for say, percussion and effects. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 12:00 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 11:58
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It’s funny that ppl are talking about this stuff like it’s a big limitation and all I’m seeing is “creative workflow” like there isn’t some art student somewhere furiously trying to recreate this exact working setup, but on purpose instead of by circumstance.
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Apr 26, 2020 12:15
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Ok Comboomer posted:It’s funny that ppl are talking about this stuff like it’s a big limitation and all I’m seeing is “creative workflow” like there isn’t some art student somewhere furiously trying to recreate this exact working setup, but on purpose instead of by circumstance. Indeed they're building galvanized domain specific tools as love letters to limitation (the aforementioned Polyend Tracker). Wild times. 
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Apr 26, 2020 12:26
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Laserjet 4P posted:I have the Roland XP-30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1UzNmE34d4
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Apr 26, 2020 15:21
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Ok Comboomer posted:It’s funny that ppl are talking about this stuff like it’s a big limitation and all I’m seeing is “creative workflow” like there isn’t some art student somewhere furiously trying to recreate this exact working setup, but on purpose instead of by circumstance. Art students? Grognards ranting about how this is the One True Way to make music, you mean.
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Apr 26, 2020 17:42
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Laserjet 4P posted:
This is what happened with the cello sound in Cuts You Up by Peter Murphy. They recorded a real cellist, but decided the placeholder worked better for the song and stuck with that.
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Apr 26, 2020 18:38
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Also what (sort of) happened with the Terminator 2 soundtrack. Brad Fiedel did the soundtrack with the Fairlight CMI3 intending to re-record it with an actual orchestra but decided against it because of the sound/timbre of the samples in the CMI3 and there were things you could only get with the CMI3 that you couldn't get with a live orchestra.
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Apr 26, 2020 19:18
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Moved all my modules around and noticed my Nano Rings was playing a pattern fed by Marbles, but then would go completely out of tune for about 5 seconds then back to normal. After glaring at it and testing the various Rings modes and finding it was losing its tune in all of them I tried different cables. Same thing. I glared at it a bit more wondering if maybe this is why the dude who I bought it from sold it pretty cheap. I touched the cable going into the VOCT input and everything went out of tune. AHA. I let it go back in tune and barely touched it again. Immediately went out of tune again. Found you. I took the module out, and flipped it over. One of the jacks soldering points had a clearly see-through hole one of side of it. Dry joint. I flipped it over, and it was the VOCT jack. I reflowed what was there and added a little bit more of my own. The kit looks like it was done entirely by a machine and everything was soldered incredibly well. Just that one jack never got enough added. Strange. Problem solved. I am guessing I never noticed this before because I had my Marbles feeding Rings from the right instead of the left and maybe the cable being "strained" differently never induced the issue. Who knows. Once I moved Marbles over to the left the problem became apparent. Looked like this but with less solder. (Not my photo) 
Philthy fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 26, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 19:46
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Quick, everyone tell So Math how much you like their music and what a beautiful person they are so that they have the confidence and energy to finish mastering the boner jams. #nojoeyesjocko
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Apr 26, 2020 21:01
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Ok Comboomer posted:It’s funny that ppl are talking about this stuff like it’s a big limitation and all I’m seeing is “creative workflow” like there isn’t some art student somewhere furiously trying to recreate this exact working setup, but on purpose instead of by circumstance. This is the entire Teenage Engineering business model.
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Apr 26, 2020 21:12
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If these guys can cut a record, you can cut 90 seconds of beats. I believe in you!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsFFvthfEZg
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Apr 26, 2020 21:13
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The Voice of Labor posted:#nojoeyesjocko Hey, it's still Sunday for you! I got time. (But seriously, thanks for the reminder.)
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Apr 26, 2020 21:13
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Laserjet 4P posted:stuff That's a lot of super interesting context. I was entirely unaware of the history there as someone who started this far after everything moved to digital. It's now almost hard to imagine a time when the average bedroom Joe wasn't using the same tools that the people on the radio were. Except it wasn't even that long ago.. I like the idea that you can't buy your way into writing a great song, you actually have to sweat your way there. And yes, it sounds like I'll stick around working with VSTs for now as much as humanly possible and bring in the specialized tooling if I can't get a particular sound I'm looking for. I'm guessing though that the more I invest in building quality presets the less I will ultimately feel like going back unless I'm running out of all timbral ideas and need a box with knobs.
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Apr 26, 2020 21:21
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i now want to make a 1-synth track, either ms-101 for bare bones spirit or prologue for poly/patch/effects capabilities edit: after some initial loving around and finding out, it's gotta be the prologue or else i can't do proper kicks Pillow Face fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 26, 2020 22:41
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Apr 27, 2020 00:37
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 I just sent you a dropbox link for the masters.
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Apr 27, 2020 01:00
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oh it is lovely
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Apr 27, 2020 01:07
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Apr 27, 2020 01:43
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https://synthgoons.bandcamp.com/album/boners-for-labor Go, spread the gospel
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Apr 27, 2020 03:47
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I’m still in the market for a decent budget mixer. I have like five portable synths now but also like to play stuff from my gba/ds synths and I’m planning on expanding. I’d like to keep things DAWless but wouldn’t mind some kind of connectivity to my pc or record feature. My used behringer thing I picked up from guitar center has horrible static and I’m well post the return date. Sucks but oh well.
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Apr 27, 2020 07:43
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The Voice of Labor posted:https://synthgoons.bandcamp.com/album/boners-for-labor What was done in the mastering? My track is crackling when the master file I sent wasn't.
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Apr 27, 2020 07:59
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Stan Taylor posted:I’m still in the market for a decent budget mixer. I have like five portable synths now but also like to play stuff from my gba/ds synths and I’m planning on expanding. I’d like to keep things DAWless but wouldn’t mind some kind of connectivity to my pc or record feature. My used behringer thing I picked up from guitar center has horrible static and I’m well post the return date. Sucks but oh well. Smaller mixers with USB will usually only have stereo out/stereo in and not so fun latency. You could consider one of those Zoom boxes - https://www.thomann.de/gb/zoom_r16.htm . Tascam also has something like this.
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Apr 27, 2020 08:34
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Stan Taylor posted:I’m still in the market for a decent budget mixer. I have like five portable synths now but also like to play stuff from my gba/ds synths and I’m planning on expanding. I’d like to keep things DAWless but wouldn’t mind some kind of connectivity to my pc or record feature. My used behringer thing I picked up from guitar center has horrible static and I’m well post the return date. Sucks but oh well. I got a Maker Hart Loop for my Volca briefcase -- five channels on minijacks. The adapter it came with is a little noisy, but I like it fine with a 1Spot.
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Apr 27, 2020 08:40
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Stan Taylor posted:I’m still in the market for a decent budget mixer. I have like five portable synths now but also like to play stuff from my gba/ds synths and I’m planning on expanding. I’d like to keep things DAWless but wouldn’t mind some kind of connectivity to my pc or record feature. My used behringer thing I picked up from guitar center has horrible static and I’m well post the return date. Sucks but oh well. If you can spend the cash on something like a Soundcraft Signature/MTK, I’d say go for it. There’s stuff from pretty much everyone reputable (Soundcraft, Mackie, Yamaha, Allen + Heath, etc) in the $150-$250 range that I’d look at for small stereo-out dealies too. Anything more than that and the USB multitracking really comes in useful, even with the limitations/quirks imposed by the price point. I love having a mixer.
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Apr 27, 2020 08:46
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Can't wait to listen to all y'all boners
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Apr 27, 2020 09:44
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Unrelated to boners, I released another long-form ambient/Berlin-school style piece Saturday night. It's good for naps. https://dumbledog.bandcamp.com Eurorack nerds may be interested in how the 'bells' were composed. 4ms's Dual Looping Delay does a great job of letting the user set less common delay ratios -- not just the usual dotted 8th or straight 16th but 3/16, 27/16 and everything in between. I set it to 13/16 and since 13 and 16 are relatively prime the echos 'fill' in the rest of the sixteenth notes in a rhythm, even when feeding it essentially random notes from an LFO. The bass used the same LFO for the notes, but quantized much slower, so it tracked the bells every couple of bars. I like how it turned out, although I was surprised when filling in pads and such around it and the track turned out to be in some weird time signature, like 12/8 or something.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:06
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The Voice of Labor posted:https://synthgoons.bandcamp.com/album/boners-for-labor soooo not to be a squeaky wheel but this is the old version of my track before i revised it based on feedback, that mighta been my fault, i should have named it something differently. anyways, i understand if you don't wanna update, would prob be a hassle to re-master and send files back and forth buuut if you like the final version better and wanna do so, here it is: https://we.tl/t-tKIPpdwDbM otherwise i just tossed it up on the soundcloud as "extended" https://soundcloud.com/yjk-art/jessfordelaware thanks for the work you put into this!
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Apr 27, 2020 18:43
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Pillow Face posted:soooo not to be a squeaky wheel but lol that makes two of us 
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Apr 27, 2020 20:11
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Pillow Face posted:soooo not to be a squeaky wheel but this is the old version of my track before i revised it based on feedback, that mighta been my fault, i should have named it something differently. anyways, i understand if you don't wanna update, would prob be a hassle to re-master and send files back and forth buuut if you like the final version better and wanna do so, here it is: That's my fault for getting the files mixed up. I'll get that fixed up ASAP. E: Should be live on Bandcamp now. So Math fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 21:30
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So Math posted:That's my fault for getting the files mixed up. I'll get that fixed up ASAP. thank you!
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Apr 27, 2020 23:24
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Any advice on patching pads/pad usage? I'm starting to feel comfortable laying drums and basslines, and some little (terrible) leads in MIDI, but I'm struggling with the more ambient aspects of music.
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Apr 28, 2020 00:25
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Highpass your pads so they're not fighting your low-end. Scoop out the mids to keep them out of the way of your lead. Pitch modulation will give you nice thick chorusing when you add delay and reverb. When you mix them, take a quiet passage and bring up the pads track until you can hear it doing its job. Your pads typically don't need to be any louder than this; don't worry if you can't hear them. Their volume should be a lot quieter than other elements in the track, so that everything else has plenty of space. Your pads are the chord-colored dust sparkling through the air in an empty room, your other tracks are the band. The Voice of Labor posted:https://synthgoons.bandcamp.com/album/boners-for-labor Excellent work comrades, the sweat from your brows will fuel a thousand revolutions. snorch fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Apr 28, 2020 |
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Apr 28, 2020 00:38
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Wavetable synthesis is p good for texture. Modulate your modulators then modulate the gently caress out of the wave index.
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Apr 28, 2020 02:15
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It’s always fun to scan the wavetable with a looping envelope.
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Apr 28, 2020 03:36
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This may be of interest to folks here. The Library of Congress is building a "Citizen DJ" website, which I guess is supposed to go live in the summer, but can be tested now, where you can download and (on the site) sequnce and play around with all kinds of public domain music, clips, and sounds. This seems pretty amazing: http://citizendj.labs.loc.gov.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
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Apr 28, 2020 04:11
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New Mother-32 firmware is a good surprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZujbZICfoc https://www.moogmusic.com/news/mother-32-firmware-update-now-available
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Apr 28, 2020 15:59
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magiccarpet posted:New Mother-32 firmware is a good surprise oh wow, i really hate this Moog website why can't they just post a PDF with a breakdown of what the update has?
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Apr 28, 2020 16:40
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magiccarpet posted:New Mother-32 firmware is a good surprise Aw yiss. Too bad I'm currently 1500 miles from mine. Clavavisage posted:oh wow, i really hate this Moog website It's in the manual addendum in the .zip file. It's mostly sequencer changes, tempo input changes and fixes to work with more standards, and a couple added bits of MIDI functionality.
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Apr 28, 2020 16:42
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Heyo! Wasn't sure if I should post my question in here or the audio interface thread, but contemplating expanding my repertoire from just playing bass to loving with synth keys, either through a computer or an amp. I don't know much about the subject but I read the first page and the last, and my goal is to have a keyboard I can use with programs like Garageband and that I would also be able to jam into an amp to play with other people. The bloke I had a convo with at Guitar Center said the Akai Professional MPK225 (https://www.amazon.com/Akai-Professional-MPK261-Semi-Weighted-Workstations/dp/B00IJ77TRI?th=1) would do the trick. Its small, but I don't need much to start with. Didn't see anything about a 1/4 inch jack or TRS port (if that's the correct language), but what do you guys think? Like that it comes with a version of Ableton. e: welp this thing doesn't generate sound on its own. I'm an idiot, sorry. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Apr 28, 2020 |
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Apr 28, 2020 18:09
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