Turtlerock Forum

I am working on some new synthesizer modules at the moment, and exploring some of the newer chips that are available, and I would really like some feedback as to what everyones favorite modules are, or what people would like in an ideal synth... for example, what filter types do you prefer, (Moog, Steiner parker, Korg, state-variable, the Curtis sound, SSM, Yamaha CS style etc.), or what other modules have you used, or would like to have, such as effects, wave shapers, distortion, X-mod, or any other functionality that you have particularly liked in a synth, or wished that it had. Step sequencer? unusual controllers? microtonal tuning? Weird envelope generators? Chorus? I am keeping it to mono or duophonic.

Hi thirteen,

I'm pretty old school ( as you know ;) and i just like really fat sounding synths with moog type filters (i prefer lpf 24) and curtis filters after that.

i just got the cynindustries animator for my dotcom and that sounds like a 7 osc supersaw !

Once i have my 960 seq and 962 i think i'll put my modular expansion on hold !

I do miss an analog style delay that could be part of the modular, like a blacet dark star chaos, but a little cleaner.

At the moment i have a couple of melos delays that i use but they are external.
I also have some old school digital like H949, Primetime 93, ibanez ad 230.
So i like low bandwidth stuff !

Not sure that any of that helps you.

cheers
N
Y
M
O

www.myspace.com/redberryrecords

Thanks Nymo, I have been thinking about analog delays, I wonder if anyone is making BBD chips any more? I don't want to have to depend on old supplies for them. I have noticed that there are loads of old synth chips being sold on Ebay out of Hong Kong at low prices, I suspect that they are newer chips re-printed to look like originals, so I avoid them completely, although it's tempting to just buy a batch of CA3080's or CA3280 op-amps to see if they are real, they are becoming very hard to find.

The Cynindustries animator sounds like a good idea, can you put up a review thread once you have spent some time using it?

Mmmm, step sequencer, arpeggiator clock sync, triggers ! I love clocky things.

BBD's are cool too - delay or the dimension d sound. (I have a dim-d that I love).

There are new chips too - http://www.visualsound.net/bbd.htm

replacements for existing fossilised chips....


rachel

Native Instruments Absynth 3...and or 4....

that is...crazy shit....


yeah, i know it aint vintage!! hahahaha

jkhuri44 wrote:Native Instruments Absynth 3...and or 4....

that is...crazy shit....


yeah, i know it aint vintage!! hahahaha

It will be vintage one day, probably about the time the next OS comes out for your computer ;- )

yo!

Code: Select all

It will be vintage one day, probably about the time the next OS comes out for your computer ;- )

good one....how true huh? i reckon that would be the time 64 bit machine's really take off....maybe they already have, and i havent adopted??

anyhooz...back to the discussion on hand....

my perfect synth would be a combination of the best of old and new....

toss in a "wave seekng module"....that extracts timbral combinations from short wav snippets , with 4 or 5 oscillators/sample players...a wav morphing feature....complete digital recall......analog processing modules/distortions/filters.....combo's of ribbon control and keyboard controls....cutting edge sequencers and clock pulses (now that i read that mmmmm thread).... new and innovate MIDI tricks, like note gliding, pitch randomisation, rhythmic/pitch delays and whammy sequencers....(dont ask what that is, just invent it!!! hahaha)...a modern vocoder that doesnt only do robot sounds.....extensive live audio inputs and cross modulation....

im sure i would want lots more...thats just what comes into mind at the moment....

get all that into a modern synth, and i reckon i would be pretty happy, but not pretty happy with the price....

alot of the above stuff is already a part of some computer software...however, would be nice to use in little boxes/modules....OHH ALL THE BLUE LIGHTS!!

Peace,

JK.

Thanks for those ideas, I am building odd circuits and trying them out with my modular to see how practical they are, hopefully then I can come up with some good circuits to actually build into a production synth. Distortion seems to be a popular one, clock stuff, and analog delays. Rachel put me onto some newly available delay chips, so I am waiting to breadboard some.

yeah,

different distortions are good shit....ie. distorting odd harmonics, even ones,
etc...

and also hardcore spectral shaping ....i dunno if you can do that in the analog world??

JK.

Some of the routing on the DS Polyevolver are interesting
I like the feedback options

Thirteen wrote:I am working on some new synthesizer modules at the moment, and exploring some of the newer chips that are available, and I would really like some feedback as to what everyones favorite modules are, or what people would like in an ideal synth... for example, what filter types do you prefer, (Moog, Steiner parker, Korg, state-variable, the Curtis sound, SSM, Yamaha CS style etc.), or what other modules have you used, or would like to have, such as effects, wave shapers, distortion, X-mod, or any other functionality that you have particularly liked in a synth, or wished that it had. Step sequencer? unusual controllers? microtonal tuning? Weird envelope generators? Chorus? I am keeping it to mono or duophonic.

The answer have all been looking for........
http://www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com/schmapple/dreamonpro.html

rofl!


that funny shit!

one day im gonna make my own of those!!

Steve, I'm guessing you mean modular as in Doepfer / Blacet / Harvestman etc..?

I'm a big fan of wave shapers & bit crunchers etc..

Cycling through waveforms a-la PPG would be rad (You gotta keep it 8bit though!) .. or vector synthesis Like a Prophet VS?

Those SpeakJet ICs are pretty cool and unusual too..

Mike.

Futureman wrote:Steve, I'm guessing you mean modular as in Doepfer / Blacet / Harvestman etc..?

I'm a big fan of wave shapers & bit crunchers etc..

Cycling through waveforms a-la PPG would be rad (You gotta keep it 8bit though!) .. or vector synthesis Like a Prophet VS?

Those SpeakJet ICs are pretty cool and unusual too..

Mike.

There seem to be a lot of waveshaper and bit cruncher modules coming out now, I guess people are getting tired of the VCO-VCF-VCA traditional format, after all it has been done to death, so the new thing seems to be modules that mess with the sound and basic waveforms more. I am still amazed that the mid 2000's turned out to be the golden age of the modular synthesizer, particularly in the face of the all pervasive personal computer and virtual instruments. I think there are more paradigms to be explored yet, Serge and Buchla seem to be thriving, and they were the least conventional of the analog designers, there are some exciting avenues of sound creation to be explored still, including, especially I believe, non-DSP digital stuff, ie: Old school digital without CPU's, but using 4000 series logic creatively.