Synth Thread

Discö Rice · February 01, 2011, 03:11:24 AM

Quote from: lordfinesse on February 01, 2011, 01:39:44 AM
Guitar players are just a dime a dozen I guess. I also play keys though, if there's ever any interest about talkin' keys. I have a Kurzweil K2500s that I love dearly and usually comes in handy for Husky stuff in the form of ambient synth pad stuff or organ sounds. At the moment though, I just use it to entertain my kids with Billy Joel songs. They don't care.

I have a friend who has been into synths for probably 20 years, and he has an impressive collection. Easily the most I've seen in one place. I mean crazy shit, like Arps, Oberheims, Sequential Circuits', Ensoniqs, a Linndrum, Yamaha DX7s, a Fairlight (!). Who has a fucking Fairlight? It's a monster! Anyway, I've gotten more interested in these, and hope to pick up an old synth just to play around with. Thinking about an Ensoniq Mirage if I can find one at a decent price, in decent condition. Anyway...

I'm not running anything too fancy or high end. I have a Korg MS2000, which is an analog modeling synth with a built in vocoder and all kinds of other useful things in a fairly compact package. It doesn't do piano stuff, but that's not what I bought it for.

justinhedrick · February 01, 2011, 09:28:59 AM

we have a synth player in our band. he used a prophet and the moog anniversary voyager, i think. he recently sold the prophet and is getting something else, not sure what. he is a big analog guy.

he runs his synth through one of those line 6 M13 pedals and a roland keyboard amp. sounds pretty awesome and gets crazy loud.

he doesn't to much piano type stuff, but i'd like him to, i think that would add something.

VOLVO))) · February 01, 2011, 11:57:10 AM

I have an MS2000, and it's fucking great. I only use it for intro-y shit. It's a pretty powerful synth. I never really understood sound modulation on synths until one of my buddies, who is a total master, explained it like the mechanics explained technical things on my truck. "It's just filters, man, opening and closing filters. Hit a button, and turn a knob, you just opened and closed some filters... and you have a great new sound."

clockwork green · February 01, 2011, 01:00:59 PM

I have a micro korg and while it's a lot of fun I've never used it with the band. When I turn it on I can twiddle the knobs for hours but then I turn it off and forget everything cool I just came up with. I had a thread on hear about the Monotron which is also cool especially if you run it into pedals (use a boost first to get it up to the right level). I wish I could find a larger, inexpensive maybe polyphonic ribbon controller. I've seen one cool one but it was thousands.

Discö Rice · February 01, 2011, 01:15:42 PM

Quote from: SunnO))) on February 01, 2011, 11:57:10 AM
I have an MS2000, and it's fucking great. I only use it for intro-y shit. It's a pretty powerful synth. I never really understood sound modulation on synths until one of my buddies, who is a total master, explained it like the mechanics explained technical things on my truck. "It's just filters, man, opening and closing filters. Hit a button, and turn a knob, you just opened and closed some filters... and you have a great new sound."

I used to run mine through my Buzz Box, for the ear-splitting treble boost and unfiltered octave effect. Those things also work well with the vocoder. I think the next thing I add to that setup will be a Digitech Whammy, so I can generate more polyphony.

giantchris · February 01, 2011, 01:30:19 PM

I have an Alesis micron which I really like but you kinda need to really know the manual to get the most out of it and I haven't had time to really do that yet. Just been using the stock organ sounds with minor tweaking a little which is working great for what I'm doing. I do like the fact that it doesn't have rinky dink sized keys like the Microkorg but otherwise they are very similar soundwise.

VOLVO))) · February 01, 2011, 02:26:14 PM

I've always enjoyed the idea of manual stomp-boxes instead of a bunch of onboard effects. I'd rather circuit bend a Casio something or another, and run it through a bunch of shit for true-analog sounds. Too much digital technology kills the feel. You can get some pretty convincing organ sounds out of an EHX POG, and a guitar though...

Taboo, but... what about those Roland Guitar Synths? Robert Marcello makes them seem pretty rad...

3:30 in that video is the funniest thing I've ever seen done on that thing.

Discö Rice · February 01, 2011, 02:45:15 PM

Quote from: SunnO))) on February 01, 2011, 02:26:14 PM
I've always enjoyed the idea of manual stomp-boxes instead of a bunch of onboard effects. I'd rather circuit bend a Casio something or another, and run it through a bunch of shit for true-analog sounds. Too much digital technology kills the feel. You can get some pretty convincing organ sounds out of an EHX POG, and a guitar though...

Taboo, but... what about those Roland Guitar Synths? Robert Marcello makes them seem pretty rad...

3:30 in that video is the funniest thing I've ever seen done on that thing.

It might be cool if you could use the MS2000 voices with it. I don't know why, but everything about that feels wrong.

dk419 · February 01, 2011, 03:41:20 PM

This is what our keyboard player uses for our shows, but he supposedly has two giant rooms full of more stuff. I guess he also has a pretty awesome collection, although I don't know that much about synths & shit.

Discö Rice · February 01, 2011, 04:06:25 PM

Ooh a Karma.

I don't have a picture of my MS2000, but here's one I found.

EddieMullet · February 01, 2011, 08:53:03 PM

I have a Realistic MG-1 which is the synth Moog made for Radio Shack in the early 80's it is basically a stripped down Moog Rouge, through a Marshall with distortion you can make sounds like the beginning of Tarot Woman by Rainbow.

I also have a Sequential Circuits Six Trak, but other than the synth bass intro to Uriah Heep's On The Rebound and the first few bars of Rush's Subdivisions I really can't play anything on that either. It also has a preset called Lucky Man which sounds like yep you guessed it.

Both are loads of fun to play with, but as for making any actual music with them, my abilities don't go that far.

I have no idea how to post pictures.

VOLVO))) · February 02, 2011, 09:58:49 AM

Quote from: EddieMullet on February 01, 2011, 08:53:03 PM
I have no idea how to post pictures.

Find a picture on google, or upload to imageshack (or whatever you use.) On google, right click "copy image location."

The button between the umbrella lookin' thing, and the world that looks like a picture gives you the IMG tags.

You have to have a direct link to your image.