For those that make music with synthesizers.

[SignOfZeta]

How's it going, eh?

There was a thread like "show us your synthesizers" or something on another forum and it didn't really go in all that interesting of a direction in my opinion, probably because huge lists of shit are boring.

So I thought I'd start a similar thread here and see how it turns out with a different cast.

So, hi. You make music with synthesizers and samplers and shit.  What's that like?

I'm currently working almost totally modular analog with the only digital device being a Volca Sample. My style is highly variable but always has a bit of DIY genre busting stank on it to make sure it never really fits in a specific type. Currently I'm trying for something like a revival of pure trance. I recently got a TASCAM DPS24SD and it's improved my recording quality a lot while also being way less frustrating than a DAW.

I made this yesterday.

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/petals

[ParanoiaDragon]

I really only use my  Roland Juno-D & my Alesis MMT-8 for my tunes.  I record & tweak them in Sound Forge.  I have a Roland JV-880 & a Peavey SP sampler, but really havn't used them.  All my stuff is old & basic. 

I really haven't had time or energy the last couple months to work on anything.  My current project is still Mega Man, for Bonknuts CD Mega Man project.  I've got quite a lot done, including some extra songs. What I have left is an extra boss song for the Copy Robot battle(maybe, still deciding on this one), a title theme, an alternative Wily Castle 1 theme for the 2nd Wily level(this is the one I'm currently in the middle of), & an alternative Wily Castle 2 theme(for the 4th Wily level).  I do have some tweaks to do on the regular boss theme, & the regular Wily Castle 2 theme.  That's it, but like I said, haven't had the energy to work on anything lately, but I think my energy is gradually coming back.

[Arkhan]

Funny seeing this thread here.

I just rebuilt my computer with new hardware.   I overlooked the lack of PCI slot.  PCI-E only.  Now my Audiophile 2496 can't be used. 

Angry, I ended up buying a Roland Duo-Capture EX, hoping for the best.   So far, the latency is low, and it doesn't seem to f*ck up me recording anything.   This is a good thing.

Anyway,

I use a MIDI controller (hence needing a Roland thingy, instead of just some decent line-in soundcard) to control VSTs of synthesizers that cost 940020902409$ now.

but I also feed an SH-101 and sometimes a Suzuki Omnichord into the mix.  And guitar.

I have some old drum machines.  There's a RX-5, RX-11, and DR-550

The RX-5 and RX-11 have some button issues that I can't seem to fix, and really, the things are sort of a pain in the ass to use anymore.  I just want drum sounds. 

These same samples exist in FruityLoops with VSTs, so I find it easier to just use a piano roll to sequence the same crap out so I can play over all of it.

It's way easier than running the real drum machine into the mixer that goes into the computer... and syncing it up with MIDI on a computer that could ultimately be doing the same exact thing with less wires/bullshit involved. 

I don't even use any other MIDI hardware other than the controller, anyway.

It always cracks me up when those weird audio purists gripe about using VST drum machines, as if one thing playing samples is really any different than their real drum machine also playing samples.


I need to upgrade FruityLoops though.   I'm like 6 years out of date.

[wildfruit]

I have listened to a few of your tracks Zeta. So far my favourite track is look mum no computer. Evokes memories of early 90s European games. Very Amiga.

[Otaking]

Years back I used to have a studio where the gear took up the whole room, mostly the large mixing console but also rackmounted hardware (samplers, compressors, effects etc.) and various synths.
I'm happy that time has passed though and for the last ten years I've gone to just a computer with a midi controller keyboard and good quality monitor speakers.
Soft synths these days are absolutely amazing.

[SignOfZeta]

I have listened to a few of your tracks Zeta. So far my favourite track is look mum no computer. Evokes memories of early 90s European games. Very Amiga.

That's not me! It's a band called Zibra (in this case I'm pretty sure it's just the main guy, Sam) who I've discovered and reposted to my Soundcloud stream. Soundcloud, like every other site now it seams, runs in Autoplay so it eventually starts juat playing whatever.

[SignOfZeta]

Funny seeing this thread here.

I just rebuilt my computer with new hardware.   I overlooked the lack of PCI slot.  PCI-E only.  Now my Audiophile 2496 can't be used. 

Angry, I ended up buying a Roland Duo-Capture EX, hoping for the best.   So far, the latency is low, and it doesn't seem to f*ck up me recording anything.   This is a good thing.

Anyway,

I use a MIDI controller (hence needing a Roland thingy, instead of just some decent line-in soundcard) to control VSTs of synthesizers that cost 940020902409$ now.

but I also feed an SH-101 and sometimes a Suzuki Omnichord into the mix.  And guitar.

I have some old drum machines.  There's a RX-5, RX-11, and DR-550

The RX-5 and RX-11 have some button issues that I can't seem to fix, and really, the things are sort of a pain in the ass to use anymore.  I just want drum sounds. 

These same samples exist in FruityLoops with VSTs, so I find it easier to just use a piano roll to sequence the same crap out so I can play over all of it.

It's way easier than running the real drum machine into the mixer that goes into the computer... and syncing it up with MIDI on a computer that could ultimately be doing the same exact thing with less wires/bullshit involved. 

I don't even use any other MIDI hardware other than the controller, anyway.

It always cracks me up when those weird audio purists gripe about using VST drum machines, as if one thing playing samples is really any different than their real drum machine also playing samples.


I need to upgrade FruityLoops though.   I'm like 6 years out of date.

When I was poor I used software exclusively because you can't pirate the physical objects otherwise needed for this kind of music. I started with things like Rebirth, AudioMulch, and eventually really latched onto Reason which I used for years on all sorts of shit. My favorite thing about something like Reason is that you can not only add a massive synth you'd never be able to afford in real life, you can also add 12 of them. Or 24, or however many you need as long as you have CPU for it. It's a lot better than spending $250 on an oscillator. Just an oscillator. 

My problem was that I feel so claustrophobic and pissed off when I use a mouse to make music. It's like being in a recording studio and having only one figure with which to adjust every knob slider and switch. It drives me NUTs so I decided I'd rather blow thousands on less capable stuff since it drives my creativity through the roof. And yes, I have several MIDI controllers with extended functionality, extra knobs and such. That stuff kinda adds to the frustration now though as you are constantly remapping shit and trying to decide which 8 knobs you want mapped since the virtual synth has 36 of them. The price is low and the sound quality high, but you're ALWAYS configuring something and there's always something wrong, something to work around. It saps my energy big time. I can easily make a new track every day as long as I have time to do it with the new stuff.

One of my favorite Japanese artists, Susumu Hirasawa switched entirely to software since he's a motivated by conservation and a huge stack of analog gear draws like...1000 times the current of Apple Logic running some VST. Everyone has their own motivations for working.

In the past few years though I've done the opposite. I've massively updated my junk collection so I'm now at the point where no PC is used except to take the .wav from my SD card and upload it somewhere. I can't even begin to explain how much more I like this than Reason, which I really liked.

[Arkhan]

I find myself getting a bit overwhelmed (read: frustrated/annoyed) when there's a bunch of real stuff, mostly because there's f*cking cable gremlins that somehow play cats cradle and tangle EVERYTHING.   

It'd be cool if I was rich and famous, and had some goober that did all that for me.   I've got cable ties/velcros, but somehow, shit still goes full-retard in the tangle department.

So then I start getting annoyed that the wires aren't wiring where I want them to go.

This is ultimately why I ditched having MIDI stuff all synced up when trying to record on the computer. 

I may try using the DR-220 though.  I just got it in Japan for the low low price of 200 yen.   

Also, it was always kind of mental trying to sync everything using FruityLoops, since my SH-101 isn't MIDI, so trying to sync that up isn't a thing without blowing $$$$ on mods.    I could just buy a new synth instead.   Roland has some newer synths that are pretty great for not being analog.   The SH-201, and the Gaia come to mind immediately.   

I tend to make mostly 80s dance-jam sounding shit, so the drumming is never particularly complicated.   It's all smoke and mirrors with panned tom rolling ontop of the drum beat those little wind up monkies make....

What I've started doing is even using an SH-101 VST.   I get the real one setup how I want it to sound while noodling around, and then I just adjust the onscreen one to the same stuff, and save it.   Then, I punch in whatever I was arpeggiating or hamfisting.

fortunately, drum machines don't really lose much when you go from a box on table, to a thing on screen.   

but, it is definitely a bit unfulfilling to adjust a Moog with a mouse.   Twisting knobs with a mouse is just lame, so I can definitely see the appeal of using all real stuff.   My problem with that is also that I don't have a ton of room.     If I did, my dumb ass would've bought a Jupiter-8 by now.   Eventually!


The one thing I do prefer with software vs real things, is any FM synth stuff.   Those VSTs are 90000x easier than trying to program an FM instrument on a 16x2 LCD screen.    Those things feel like you're trying to program a TI-83.   The VSTs have much easier setups for those...

After I finish doing some of this MSX game music stuff, I might play around with some Suicide esque "K-I-S-S" stuff.

1 drum machine, repetitive bass with the SH-101, and a guitar on top.

No software other than to record the mixer input.





This reminds me though of how clueless some people are I've seen at the music shops.    There were some college kids that didn't seem to understand that back in the 70s/80s... there were no DAWs.   

There was no software, really (until the mid to late 80s).   

Maybe you'd have some companion program to program a synth (Sequential Circuits had that program for their Six Trak). 

but there wasn't some fancy computer recording software.   It was a bunch of shit plugged in to a bunch of boxes, and then you press the record button and hope it works out.

[SignOfZeta]

I think the sequencers for the BBC Mircro were probably pretty important, but as for recording...yeah, mid 90s and Pro Tools and all that. Before that it was HD recorders no more advanced that tape.

I actually saw a YouTube video titled "Can you make music without DAW?" which then proceeded to explain that you could. I would hope that one would come to that conclusion based on the fact that The Beatles existed.

Have you seen the Roland JU-06? It's suposed to be pretty good.

I spent some time using Logic and I found intigrating hardware to be very much an afterthought so I went back to recording straight to stereo until I eventually got the Portastudio a month ago or so. If I were to use a DAW now I'd probably use nothing but virtual instruments and bass guitar.

The Portastudio...how I love it. Almost no menues, never map anything, it's incredibly freeing. 24 tracks, 8 inputs, built on dynamic effects, and an 80 page manual. The way things were before touch screens and 64 levels deep menus. The $450 price is honestly kind of amazing considering what you'd pay just for a soundcard with similar inputs.

[Arkhan]

Yeah.  Portastudios look pretty useful.  If I didn't have the computer setup for recording, I'd probably invest in something like that.    Or if I was recording with other people, because I don't want a bunch of people crowding around my room with instruments.   Everyone I know is clumsy as f*ck and knocks things over.    The one dude had his beverage privileges revoked unless hes outside or in the laundry room.

Right now, I am using a 16 line Roland mixer from like 1986, and I plug a Roland guitar processor in, and the synth.   Most of the mixer is not used.  It was 30$ on eBay with free shipping.   Hard to say no to that.

I just feed the mixer's line outs into the soundcard to record over whatever rhythm section has been sequenced out in FL.   

FruityLoops' midi support is pretty solid.  As is Sonar.   But, I unfortunately was too young to grow up accumulating tons of useful MIDI hardware, so most of the point is lost for me personally. 

Those old synths are too damn expensive now, especially with free or cheap VSTs available that make the same noises.  So, I don't have a great need to go setup a spider web of MIDI things that all work in unison.

I'm also starting to lean away from a lot of the analog stuff simply due to the unattainable nature of them now.   Even a simple Juno-106 has become some cunt's trophy.

All of those cunty audio snobs have been buying them up so they can

1) make shitty YouTube demos to make themselves feel good about owning some 30 year old synth 
2) Circuit Bend them
3) f*cking throw them in a closet and do nothing with them except brag online that they own it.

.... they're kind of like the collectards in the video game world.

Roland does such a good job of recreating the glory days in these new models, that there's little point to most of the old stuff unless you already had it, or you want to be a complete dick and talk down to people.   Even Paul Humphreys from OMD was recently interviewed making fun of these people.

He sold his old synths off to all kinds of people and laughed his ass off.  He just recreated all of his sounds with a Fantom, and shrugged.   

Old hardware breaks down.  The oscillators go out of tune.   My SH-101 does this if it takes a hard bump.   It's all pretty irritating at times for little gain.

It is a nice thing to have such reliable new stuff.

You could buy one old Roland Jupiter, or you could get like 4 of these f*ckers.

I've been contemplating an SH-201, a Gaia/Di, or one of those Alesis Microns.

The Gaia is seeming like the best of the bunch.  I could ditch my old CreativeLabs MIDI keyboard that I spraypainted red and put dragonquest stickers all over... and just use that instead.

Lots of synthy rock bands in Japan right now are using the new lineup of Roland stuff.   Every band I saw last month, if there were keyboards, they were bright white Roland ones.

This goofy girl poprock band Silent Siren's synth player uses a Gaia and a Juno-Di

The diabetes inducing pop music might not be your thing, but the synths, especially at the end, sound just like the crap that was spewing out of the 80s.

For way less money.

Plus, it's Roland.  They kind of know what they're doing.   

EDIT: Duhr, and yeah, the Roland JU-06 is great.

Basically, as fanboy as it sounds, if something new comes out that says Roland on it, it's probably good.

It's one of those brands you can still sort of just trust isn't selling you a pile of shit that has their logo on it.

[SignOfZeta]

I'm into analog but not so much old as new. There are more analog devices being made now than ever before but many are pricey.

The Arturia Microbrute is just shit hot, no joke. I love that thing. That's the main baseline in the track I posted. I think this unit is like $250 and it's an absolute steal. Korg's Volca Keys is a pretty sweat polyphonic analog synth (how many of those are on the market?) that's like $150 and it's great for pads, drum sounds, or almost anything. It's main weakness is that it only has a single envelope so it retriggers everything every time you hit a key like a cheap 80s home organ.

On the other hand we have stuff like my mostly Pittsburgh Modular eurorack system where every dumb little thing in it is at least $100 and it takes $1200 just to do most of what a Microbrute does.

Beyond that we have stuff like ground up recreations of TB-303s with period correct transistors and shit, which to me is crazy land.

The nice thing about 1) and 2) is that they stay in tune. The Microbrute actually needs to warm up, but my Pittsbugh stuff doesn't. They have really good temperature compensation circuits so that's never an issue.

Wires...I have to admit, they are an issue. Using the Portastudio helps a lot since you aren't wiring up all the individual shit it replaces. I like to use guitar pedals for FX and I usually run those in line rather than as a send effect so that's more simplicity. Still, it's crazy. I basically bathe in wires. The only reason I know where anything is is because I usually rip the entire setup apart for every track I do.

We haven't talked about hardware sequencers, another thing one might want if ditching computers. I have two Yamahas, a QY-10 and a QY-70. The 70 is way more powerful but the 10 is sometimes better for not having all that shit. The 10 is also much smaller, it came in a clamshell VHS case for storage. I never use the sounds in either unless it's the metronome.

[SignOfZeta]

Oh, btw. I recently bought a Roland A-49, which may have been the white keyboard you saw so often. It's pretty nice. It doesn't do much other than have really good keys, which is why I bought it. I bought it because my second M-Audio keyboard also had its MIDI port die (only works over USB MIDI now) so f*ck those guys.

[Arkhan]

nah, it's a Roland Juno Di



It's pretty sexy.  I want to buy one eventually. 

Some of the new analog stuff is pretty great.    There's even those crossovers like the Juno DXi

   

Goddamn.  The Photographic part.   

For what I often do, the Roland analog modeling stuff kicks ass though.

Yeah, I'm a RolandFag, basically.   I've been using their pedals/guitar things since I can remember.   I use a Zoom 9002 for guitars.  Everyone's sitting over here jerking off on overpriced Line6 shit, and I just bought another zoom9002 for 300 yen....

lol.

The MicroBrute was fun.  I played one at GuitarCenter, but it didn't have enough keys for the stupid shit I tend to start hamfisting.    I'm usually doing octave hopping basslines so it's always going to end up missing a key I want to hit.   The SH-101 is slightly longer so it has the keys I look for.

What I am finding nowadays though, is that a lot of people buy a lot of these things and have no clue what to do with them.

Or maybe it was always this way.   Maybe YouTube just made it more apparent.

It's hard to see what some of this stuff does because the people on youtube suck at life.

and I'm sometimes too lazy to go to Guitar Center.


and by lazy, I mean, I don't feel like dealing with the salespeople.

[SignOfZeta]

It's best to think of the Microbrute as a module and it's keyboard only a diagnostic aid or for use in programming the sequencer. Otherwise use an external controller. It actually plays across a pretty wide range for a single voice machine. The filter tracks the keyboard too to help the sound stay consistent up and down the range. It's LFO not only syncs to tempo but will also cycle at audio rates so you can cross modulate like you had two VCOs.

My only real complaint is that it has some settings I have to change once in a while and you need to hook it to a PC which is a pain. It also has the same stupid deal a lot of new machines have where they only have USB MIDI on the IN and OUT but only one actual MIDI, IN or OUT randomly chosen, which can sometimes leave you in some connectivity situations.

[Arkhan]

Yeah.  When I see a keyboard on a thing, I assume it's meant for use like that.  I'm usually using the keyboards to play stuff over already sequenced stuff.

It'd be a little weird for me to plug a better keyboard into it.

but, if I can find one cheaper, I might grab one.   There's all kinds of little devices I see online or at stores that I think might be fun to try.

That's how I found the Alesis Micron.   I was like "what's this thing. it looks like a 1960s Sci Fi movie prop".

I'm curious, what kind of FX pedals do you use ?

I've got a whole board full of guitar pedals (mostly Boss).   I enjoy plugging the SH 101 into my guitar setup.

SH-101 with some analog delay + slight flange = <3