all things SYNTH & KEYBOARD thread

[mortlock]

the synth circle is sick as fuck!! you could charge admission to sit inside that thing..

foot and mouth disease is getting busy again. moog mutilating power electronics. im running moog concertmate mg-1 through a dod death metal pedal.. I get some great HNW tones and soundscapes..got a few other synths in the mix as well. the moog is my only keyboard synth.. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Foot-and-Mouth-Disease/272250709456435

[jibberish]

ok, your tard filter got me. I couldn't figure out how/where to make it play a song. I even got redirected to some musician site with a star at the top.

/nextleveltard

[eyeprod]

this thing looks interesting to dick around with, but these types of things are just not very musical or useable imo.

I am however, buying one of these new akai samplers. I love the sampler I currently own, but not enough memory to be totally useful on stage.

[eyeprod]

More stuff from my as-yet-unnamed project. The first track uses a few samples that I made on my minibrute and used during a recent live solo set that i performed at a local bar. Water theme. My partner just bought a microbrute, so we'ire looking forward to utilizing that when it arrives. I'm interested in an organ too, but it needs to be portable. I've been playing my synths through dedicated amps, but I am planning on setting up a small mixer to plug everything into and going out to a stereo mix, so I can add panning and such to my bag of tricks.

[cloudset]https://soundcloud.com/rtrippz/sets/11-3-2014-robert-and-cody[/cloudset]

[RAGER]

Way cool stuff there man.   Dig.

As far as that Olegtron goes, I love stuff like that because with a little delay and some modulation or filtering you can make it musical or rhythmic.

[eyeprod]

Thanks man. most things do sound better with delay and modulation, but I think I'd rather have something that can be more easily tweaked on the fly to produce a predictable variety of sounds that are beyond blips and bleeps. It is a cool toy tho.

[Lumpy]

I'm not really all that impressed with the Electrix Mofx either.  But sometimes it just takes a while to figure out where and in what combination things work together.  

Check out the Sherman Filterbank, they are luscious.

Is that an Arturia BeatStep? How useful is that, for you?

Thinking about a Microbrute, but probably won't do it. I'm not that into keyboards. My dream machine is an EMS VCS3, they are rare and expensive and low-tech. If I was going to revamp what I do (super low-tech - just oscillators and stompboxes) I would probably go into modular units, or laptops (tired of dragging my stuff around on the subway).

EMS VCS3, one of the Pere Ubu/Hawkwind/Dr. Who synths:

[eyeprod]

oh yeah, that's the one to have right there, but too hard to come by.

There is, however, a vst plugin called CYNTHIA which is modelled after that synthi. It's really fun to use, and makes you realize how awesome that joystick and patchboard are. Plus. just look at those knobs. Beautiful.

laptops are the lame. don't do it

[Lumpy]

I know, it's so boring to watch somebody play a laptop. But they only weigh 5 pounds! My low-tech rig weighs like 50 pounds, and I don't have a car.

There's an EMS ap for iPads, I'm about to go get one right now...

Holy cow, Microbrutes are so cheap. $235 with free shipping on Ebay. But what would I do with it? I guess I would need a controller, sequencer, something like that (derp).

[eyeprod]

you just set it to drone and go.

[eyeprod]

it has a built in sequencer btw.

synths aren't really hard to play. If you can play guitar, you can learn to play a keyboard. These little things are monophonic (one note at a time) so you never use chords. 

[RAGER]

The Microbrute does way more than just a keyboard.  It has a sequencer but it wouldn't hurt to get a beatstep for it either.  I don't actually touch the keys much on mine but I usually have it connected midi and cv/pitch with my Minibrute.

[jibberish]

1st gen microbrute new with some extra cables $272 from B&H

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1012037&gclid=CJWU0oLW58ECFcFDMgodkQUAxg&Q=&is=REG&A=details

the 1st gen minibrutes are like $299 used also.
the reason is arturia came out with mini/micro brute SE's ($529,$329 respectively)

[jibberish]

eyeprod. I was reading about you wanting an organ. 

would you do me a favor and lay out what your performance goals are?
I am sensing somewhere between pure bleep bloop and keith emerson.
the reason I was wondering is that my goals are smack in between bleep bloop and keith emerson. I want to make a wall of sound using sustain pedals and sequencers and multiple controllers/keyboards.


I am practicing piano like a freak. I believe that being able to deftly hit keys is a huge advantage to getting it done.
I MAY look at loopers and samplers if I still cant go big enough. those seem like cool ideas the more they keep appearing.

my old school synths basically can only be played simply(or controlled simply). or put another way, they either get played by a maestro, or they need lots of effects and sequencer type help.
I have an old Hammond organ (1959) that got real boring real fast if you weren't a pretty adept player. 2 keyboards AND foot pedals. and stops...it was too much for my skills.
now the 18watt and 50watt tube amps are sitting on top heh.  "radical tubectomy surgery was a complete success"
-------------------------------

but now I am raising hell and having a blast with my korg x50. it is 50/50 playable  and tweakable.  I pretty much could entertain a crowd for a few hours just by ad-libbing from inspirations from selecting different patches. my next score is going to be a mininova. that is an amazing little synth, and the price dropped $100 to $399.

I want a microbrute, but I said way long ago:"i want that parker steiner filter, it has external inputs"  I look at the microbrute as a really nice filter module more than a keyboard.
wtf can you play on 10 keys anyways? they are handy bleep bloop actuators and quicky "test your patch as you tweak"-ers.

and it may be the best quality sounding low price synth I have heard. 

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If i could get one of the indian kids from across the street, or some other middle eastern music fan in the hood to help on some percussion and add that mystical Persian vibe, it would really get special.
(listen to "An Emerald City" to see just how huge the Iranian dude is in their music HUGE, AWESOME EMERALD CITY, KIWI'S!!! check em out m8.)

if you guys were in like, let's say Parma, heh, I would totally try out for your band. once I knew what you were intending on doing that is..

[eyeprod]

well first, thanks for asking. I am a big fan of popol vuh. have been for a long time, but never considered that I might ever play music in a similar vein. I really like the quasi-mystical stuff from them and certain other 70's music that often used organ sounds. It gets kinda "churchy" or spiritual in timbre. I think it also has a grounding effect. Especially when you're using synths that produce a more unearthly sound. Now that I am treading those waters, I would like to use organ for when I want to transition from deep space to a more mundane level. Nothing fancy. My goals are deliberate minimalism and thoughtful precision, not virtuosity.

I also like building up little walls of sound, but there is a limit. I have been digging the Superego pedal lately. Since it's not a true loop pedal it produces a nice, soft edged drone from any sound you put into it. I use it in my mic chain with phaser and delay, and I use that mic for acoustic guitar, voice, ethnic reeds, flutes, and percussion. I look at loopers like an extra trick to utilize, but I wouldn't want to be relying on them too much, specifically because you have no control over level and have to find ways to end loops tastefully. I've got that boss vocal pedal on my minibrute, but mainly use it for the effects and harmony, only occasionally using the loop feature. Samplers, on the other hand are great. The new one I'm getting will be used to hold a library of sounds in various keys, so when I'm in G I  have a nice selection of pre-constructed synth blasts and drum pulses at my disposal, etc etc. After I get that thing then I want to reach out and find locals who have cool synths that I can get my hands on and use to create samples. Having lots of synths is not practical nor necessary for me, but I appreciate the tonal qualities that different models offer. Have sampler, will travel.

Yeah, a good ethnic drummer with spaced out sensibilities would be cool. I know some good drummers who know a lot of trance beats, but most if not all have issues that make it hard for me to want to invite them into the circle. Same with other musicians I know that want to jam. Good people, just not in the right place musically to collaborate with on mellow stuff. That's where I'm at. Reluctant to let anyone in, for fear that they'll break the spell. Pretty guarded about my new baby.

[RAGER]

Good people, just not in the right place musically to collaborate with on mellow stuff. That's where I'm at. Reluctant to let anyone in, for fear that they'll break the spell. Pretty guarded about my new baby.

That's pretty much me too but I've just reconnected with my old drummer and had lots of fun.  We'll see how it goes in a couple weeks.

Recorded this little thing this morning before work. Lots of gear used in this one.

[jibberish]

^ that is a great trance piece. you are really coming along well with that shit.
the best part is that little stutter-step with the beat.  next level maneuver.

[mortlock]

[RAGER]

^^ Shit like that just blows my mind.

This is somewhat obtainable.  GRP A4.

But not 8 of the sumbitches

[RAGER]

One of the things I like to do is play along with a sequencer or arpeggiated riff on drums.  But I have to figure out how to keep it not so repetitive.  Like changing the sequencer or changing the cutoff or envelop manipulation somehow.  Here's a brief snippet with the envelope amp doing random things on the Minibrute. it was a while ago.

Then today while browsing youtube I found this guy.  Not exactly what I want to do but logistically along the same lines but I don't want to use a laptop or an MPC I don;t think.  Maybe I should look into those.  i think it's gonna be the whole clock thing that is gonna force me into something like that.  IDK.

[eyeprod]

it's sequencing. nowadays they do it with computers or an mpc type of unit.

That guy's stuff is skillfully programmed and executed, but he's riding on tracks.

[jibberish]

yeah timing. sweetwater has these 1 in 4 out pure 1 way midi expanders for $50. they scavenge power off the MIDI (really RS-232 old protocol = lots of volts to power add on stuff)
and correct clock skewing. someone used like 5 of those to spread his drum machine timing out 16 ways so evidently they mitigate propagation degradation even in a chain.
next time I order from them I have to get at least 1.

the sequence thing for me is all about having a shitload of sequence steps. this beatstep max at 16 is already making me think around nice complex 4 measure patterns.
the roland tr-3? aira bass module has a 32 step sequencer and if any of the new brutes have a 64 step one, or maybe an octatrack or w/e with better sequencer,or a computer with infinite sequencing via MIDI+DAW.

next option is to program 4 different sequences into beatstep, then change sequences, but that requires pedal pushing of some sort live

the beatstep hooked right into my old alesis drum machine with clock in OFF and note in ON = sequencer can play the drums or I can drum by hand on the pads in the control setting. I wanted to split midi channels and play a sequence thru a synth  on ch1 and hand play drums on ch2, but I still haven't got past anything seeing anything other than Omni or ch1

[RAGER]

Introducing the new AS-606 sequencer

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/01/20/ambient-sequencer-as-606-designed-specifically-for-ambient-drone-music/

[jibberish]

nice. I think Dave Mason used that on his albums. ..pink Floyd too haha

[RAGER]

Mangled Rhythm Wolf