all things SYNTH & KEYBOARD thread

jibberish · December 20, 2014, 06:54:01 AM

I spent some time with mr sun ra. very interesting. that fucker put out as many albums as zappa did.
he is definitely some kind of avante garde jazz thing, but could he be one of the forefathers of the noise genre also?

when those guys get musical, it is pretty amazing. that seemingly random sax section grows on you after a while.

mortlock · December 21, 2014, 11:57:39 PM

welcome to free jazz.. its the heaviest music on the planet..

mortlock · December 21, 2014, 11:58:53 PM

noise music is directly spun off of the avant jazz cats..

jibberish · December 22, 2014, 07:46:46 AM

I have to spend even more time with them. that catalog is huge and he went through so many phases/bands the names of his bands are pretty funny. I worked the 70's era mostly hoping to see more from the middle of his run than either end. I learned that listening to any one album doesn't really help with the next one. I only listened to 3 or 4 and sampled a few more for a couple minutes.

do you have any recommendations as to when his hottest streak was? I can only compare to zappa and his 100+ albums. I tell people to start at albums that were from the 1970's, so I started sun ra there too heh.

mortlock · December 22, 2014, 05:48:17 PM

1968 to 1975 are the freak out years. thats my favorite stuff. probably can contribute that to miles davis breaking down traditional jazz with his electric period at the same time.

I personally have these in my collection. all great. id look for the live stuff. much of sun ras material can be painfully normal, but the good stuff is pure avant jazz freak out awesomeness..

eyeprod · December 22, 2014, 07:51:09 PM

yeah, I prefer the chants, 70's afro-vibe, and spaced out 60's stuff more than the big band era, but there's some nice material in all eras, as well as some so-so, imo. I actually tend to like some of the older versions better than the 70's, probably because the chick singing can be a little intense sometimes. I revere him for his motto: discipline and precision. I believe that even the freakout stuff is actually composed and directed, probably practiced to death. Seemingly random events are planned.

Listening to some of it, it almost seems as if he keeps the keys loose and jammy in a certain framework, but the winds and percussion are very precise. Kinda like the concept of a rock band with a really solid rhythm section and a freak out guitar player.

if you wake up now.....it might not be too late.

space is the place.

mortlock · December 22, 2014, 08:32:08 PM

jib, when you've digested all the sun ra and electric period miles davis you can handle, youll be ready to graduate to alan silvas celestial communication orchestra. not for the weak..

jibberish · December 22, 2014, 11:03:56 PM

my only defense to that might be a Morton Subotnik "Silver Apples on the Moon" gambit. you have to be stoked to get through that journey too.

but yeah, i'll link what I am checking out in a new sun ra thread in general. this may take a while. that guy seems more and more like zappa. every squeak and silly noise in zappa's songs were written in the score also.
what's it like to be a couple hundred IQ points beyond everyone else? maybe those 2 were it.

liquidsmoke · December 30, 2014, 02:49:08 PM

Any of you guys have one of these?

RAGER · December 30, 2014, 03:58:07 PM

I've got approx. 8 pieces of gear that do that. So yes.

jibberish · December 30, 2014, 04:03:32 PM

heh, rager I was just going to post :well yes and no.

that is what is called sample and hold.
the rest is envelope/filtering/portamento/eq/a ring modulator and some time based effects like reverb

the basics of analog synths.

edit: I liked all the modules "effecting" that little S&H box. cool stage shit for sure.

jibberish · December 31, 2014, 07:05:17 AM

I hope korg does put out a nice re-creation of the ARP Odyssey.
I still am PO'd at myself for not just boxing it up and packing it away vs selling it.
but wtf. that was way long time ago so different priorities at the time I guess. still not pleased at the decision tho.

maybe I can find some info. I would like that synth back again, and if korg can digitize the tuning section and leave the analog path like the original, that's what i want. I think there is debate over which filter circuit to use or something. several very revered filter designs are in the mix or w/e.
so we'll see.

this guy gives an odyssey a pretty good workout in the video there

they said in sept they were shipping early 2015, wtf that means
also korg is shipping that little volca samples thing supposedly in January too.

RAGER · December 31, 2014, 02:32:30 PM

First off, I abso-love Olo's demos. Thee fucking best no nonsense no talkey demos.

Secondly, yes you are an idiot for sell your Arp. As much an idiot as I am for selling my Taurus 1's. hurrrrrr! Still kick myself.

Thirdly, I remember Korg saying something about unleashing it Jan. 22 which is the opening of NAMM. Unveiling? Yes. Shipping? Not likely.

Fourthly, Beringer has threatened to get into the analog synth game stating with mono's and talking of an Arp clone for $500. Whaaaa???!!! We'll see if they follow through with something decent that holds up longer than 6 months.

RAGER · January 02, 2015, 03:05:41 PM

Hey whaddaya know, Moog Sub37 in top 10 hardware synths of the year.

duh

tombhex · January 02, 2015, 05:20:15 PM

Quote from: RAGER on December 31, 2014, 02:32:30 PM
Fourthly, Beringer has threatened to get into the analog synth game stating with mono's and talking of an Arp clone for $500. Whaaaa???!!! We'll see if they follow through with something decent that holds up longer than 6 months.

Frankly, if it came out and sounded great I'd take the risk and buy it. I have a few friends who have had Bugera (Behringer tube) heads that sound really great. Only about half of them literally started on fire while being played between about 2006 and now.

jibberish · January 02, 2015, 10:41:58 PM

I did some looking on behringer's website. they are a year+ out on their synths, but if they do what they are hinting at, they are going to bum some other folks out.
i'll be watching.

sweetwater has all the Pittsburgh modular stuff now.

that sub 37 is a killer piece. actually it is a new place for moog. I wonder how long those older way too expensive moogs are going to hang around.

I have to get an organ style pedalboard for bass that really moves. there is no way that 12-step can be played for bass. that thing is more a pad controller.

my use for the 12-step right now is to figure out how to make a decent imitation of a mellotron and play those long mellotron notes on it, while I play the piano part up top to play the song "changes". I am going to try to generate 3 violin/string section sounds from the dx7, the kawaii kr-4 module and the boss GM module and send each one through its own set of effects to try to get them all to gently float in and out of tune and maybe warble one of them a little etc. if I get this dialed in, it should be pretty special. the korg piano patch has a combo with some strings too. and the korg has a nice reverb section, so I don't need to effect it externally.
The whole shebang should be phatt as phuck

edit: I am really appreciating this mixer now. I don't have to go apeshit with the wiring to make that setup happen. just different aux out settings, done.

RAGER · January 03, 2015, 02:14:27 PM

I've been really milling around the synthesizers.com site lately. I really think this year I will be getting into modular. I will go the MU route as opposed to eurorack. I can always go with different sequencers in lieu of the Moog style. I really like the Oberkorn. I digress. Dot com has a fucking ridiculous plan of getting just about anybody into modulars that want to. It's an entry 2 osc. system capable of up to 22 spaces in a 48" case but comes with 8 basic modules and some patch cables. They set it up so you pay $155 a month until it's done. Case first to stylize how you want, then power supply, then a module and so on for 11 months. You can pay more and get shit faster or even skip 3 months if times are rough. Thinking about doing this so I can customize my own. Fuck yes!

Besides that they have some entry level systems for about $1300 and up.

http://www.synthesizers.com/system-entry2.html

eyeprod · January 03, 2015, 06:28:15 PM

that sounds pretty good. I might buy a couple of modules like filters and an osc or two at some point, but I have plenty of stuff to keep me making music with right now.

Here's my main key rig now. I finally completed the trade with my friend for this yamaha cs-15, so it's officially mine. Easily the centerpiece of my whole sonic rig. The Roland arrived the other day and it's quite a fun toy too. It nails the organ/elec piano/synth I was hoping to find. Cost me under $500, which was pushing my budget, but it's totally programmable while remaining simple. The casio 1000p has also turned out to be pretty damn nice for what it does, but I don't think I will gig with it when I have the roland. Got the sweet stand for $60, and it's a pleasure to use. It's one of these two tier pro stands.

The akai sampler is nice, but it does glitch out sometimes. It seems to forget what LOOP means and when I load a set of samples into it (called a kit), not only does it take almost 2 minutes to load, but I have to change the trigger setting back and forth before it takes proper effect and loops or one-shots as programmed. It's also too easy to accidentally hit the knob that reverts back to some other kit. Then you have to reload the kit you which takes another 2 minutes. Pain in the ass and needs a firmware update to fix those issues. It should have an "are you sure?" popup when you try to inadvertently switch kits. It is fun as hell to play finger drums on it though. Comes loaded with some 808 and 909 drum sounds and the pads are very nice and velocity sensitive.

RAGER · January 03, 2015, 08:43:56 PM

You've got some cool stuff there dude. I'm totally in love with those CS-15's. I would love to have one. I've seen the 5 and the 10 here locally but they just don't do it for me but the 15, that's where the fun starts with those CS units.

eyeprod · January 03, 2015, 11:35:40 PM

yeah, totally; cs15 then the 30.... that thing looks tits.

forgot to mention how well the minibrute fits in with these synths. It's a great piece of kit, as they say.

jibberish · January 04, 2015, 07:55:20 AM

very nice pile of stuff. they even say that Yamaha is killer for bleeps and bloops because of the filter.
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is anyone else getting the feeling that it is always all about the filter? dave smith has his really famous filter out for sale alone $179
the hangup on the korg arp odyssey repro is which of the 3 yummy filters they want to use
behringer talks all 3 filters.
that Yamaha cs-15 is legendary because of the filters(ok and the routing is cool too)
and on and on...oberheim....moog......
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here, I linked this in general, but this is where it counts. I stumbled on this guy in Memphis in like 1977. we were just up there dicking around in Memphis one weekend (ole miss was about 80 miles away, so reasonable drive) and checked out a record store. my buddy mike from kennet, MO bought "The Cosmic Jokers" youtube that shit. the this amazing rubberband sound going. he melted the tweeters out of his large advents with his sansui 120w/ch receiver. we all watched.
he grabbed it randomly based on the cover, so I grabbed a random badass looking album. this one. wow was I surprised at how cool it was. like the demon walter carlos.
Mort Garson. 100% giant modular moog like carlos and tomita and the synergy dude all had

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I just stumbled on this regarding the state of the art of moog albums in 1970. they have the sun ra purple moon album..., 12 dreams of dr sardonicus. I love that album. it is one of those perfect albums all songs are great, anyway I want to listen to all these albums now. and howabout letting karma show me the way through sun ra folks ah? ah? ah? haha.

http://thomholmes.com/Noise_and_Notations/Noise_and_Notations_Blog/Entries/2013/1/14_The_Greatest_Moog_Albums_of_1970.html

RAGER · January 06, 2015, 01:41:06 PM

Ok I'm off to the races......modularily speaking. Just placed an order for the basic case and the first modules. I'm fucked.

tombhex · January 06, 2015, 01:45:06 PM

Quote from: RAGER on January 06, 2015, 01:41:06 PM
Ok I'm off to the races......modularily speaking. Just placed an order for the basic case and the first modules. I'm fucked.

I am so. fucking. excited. for these vids to roll in...

RAGER · January 06, 2015, 01:53:02 PM

Imma need more patch cables

Like a lot more

jibberish · January 07, 2015, 04:41:52 PM

I checked that synthesizer.com site out. cool toys. I was comparing pitsburgh to that place. the 2 seem quite similar. I really know nothing about either.
if I win the lotto, I'll orderyou that biggest triple rack full of shit including filling the blank slot hahaha. shit. it's only like 16g's way more worth it than a big harley

the Pittsburgh delay module looks righteous. $349 is a righteous price too.

my 12 step is getting smoother now that I have been stomping on it more. evidently even those need to break in a little. the legato has a crazy pitch bend if you really push down. have to set midi in controllers on or wtf. one of my 3 modules is pitch bending and the other 2 are not heh. I don't need the pitch bend so i'm not going into utility menus to set up midi for pitch bending unless I need it.

I am going to try to use my alesis drum machine as a sequencer. if I can set drum kits up which use different midi notes and just output the midi, maybe I can make long drum songs which will play like a sequencer via MIDI out. if this is possible, I can make extremely long and complex sequences made of drum phrases and patterns.
plus I can still clock it from some master clock device like the beatstep.