#895

Anyone had any success using Piston Honda Mk3 for lush ambient pads? The stock wavetables are all quite metallic, as you’d expect and require from IME modules. However I would like to know about the possibilities for taking it into kinder territory, either by loading a new set of wavetables onto it (links to specific ones would be appreciated) or just by patching it differently.

Thanks!

#896

Another vote for Ferry here. Have one as well as two Hyrlo mixers, nice and compact, quality is great

2 Likes
#897

There’s the Strymon AA.1 I don’t have one, but heard good things about it.

Edit: Also the Intellijel Audio I/O

#898

If you want reasons to go against DPO I’m no help but I have to say, I really, really dig my DPO. I was having problems justifying one too, but bit the bullet and it’s great. I love the sound, but even bigger reason for me is ergonomics and ease of patching. Two fully featured single oscillators, bunch of utilities and waveshaper would be more flexible than dedicated complex oscillator, but especially with the built-in attenuators/attenuverters of DPO it’s super simple and quick to patch, and easy to tweak, because very complex timbres can be made with just few patch cables, and the internal architecture and layout makes a lot of sense, at least to me. I like to think it as an instrument inside an instrument, it’s a piece that makes sound and works cleverly internally, so it’s fine I lose some flexibility compared to building equivalent thing from it’s pieces.

But, I have to say, follow is not more than simple slew between the oscillator pitches. The sync sounds heavenly, though.

1 Like
#899

This discussion of the DPO (and complex oscillators) has made me curious - I don’t have a DPO or dedicated complex oscillator module in my system, but I’m pretty certain I’ve got the building blocks (VCOs, wavefolder, utilities) - is there a high-level block overview of what makes up the DPO (or a canonical complex oscillator) so I can patch it up in my system?

3 Likes
#900

This thread has been super helpful

I have a lot of the elements myself bt the two semi mods, but there’s a lot to say for things being normaled to one another.

2 Likes
#901

Thank you, that’s very helpful. Enough material in that thread for a long Easter weekend exploring complex oscillators.

1 Like
#902

I use the mk2 but have had luck chilling out the metallic tones by running the thing thru a low pass filter + reverb.

#903

I can’t argue against the DPO, it’s a really wonderful module. I’ve also tried the “maybe I can patch other stuff together to get me close” route. When I finally got a DPO, I found that the workflow and design of the module made it clear that workarounds were never going to get me as far as the real thing. So consider this a vote to find a way to get DPO in your life.

4 Likes
#904

While I understand the urge for a specific sound, aka DPO, I would consider the fact that If you get DPO you are pretty much going to be jumping into euro, because you are going to be losing a lot of functions of the m32: a vca, a filter, random, noise, sequencer, etc. I know the Microvolt has all of that, but unless you are going to be just doing drones, you’ll need that stuff to compliment the new voice of the DPO. Also, the Microvolt’s vco is very much in the same camp as the DPO, so you are already getting that flavor. With all of this said, sometimes you want what you want, and that won’t be quelled until you get it. I understand that fully, that happens to me all the time, just be prepared for more purchases down the road! lol

2 Likes
#905

Thank you for your insight. One of the things that I really struggle with is that, until I add a MIDI module, I am left with only the MVs MIDI converter, which would not allow me to use discreet pitches from my Octatrack. I think I’m comfortable with losing the utility as I can patch it into the MV. But, you’re right, that way it would essentially then be an additional voice to my MV.

Maybe I’ll cool out and bide my time until I can build a little system around it. The struggle is real.

Thank you!

1 Like
#906

Hear hear.

What you said was somehow both exactly what I did and did not want to hear. :wink:

Thanks everyone! Extremely helpful.

1 Like
#907

Any Doepfer A-110-6 users here? Been eyeing it for a while.

1 Like
#908

I have one, what would you like to know about it?

#909

Yes, these are the utitlies that are built into those desktop units that you forget you are going to loose when you go Euro, and then it costs ways more to add them. For example, on the 0-Coast, there is a 2 channel midi-cv convertor, which is a huge plus. I had the M32 and the 0-Coast when I started, so very similiar state to you, and then when I jumped into Euro and sold that stuff I was like, ‘fuck, now I need all this extra stuff that I was getting at a bonus before’. For the price of the m32 and microvolt I feel like it would take you at least a grand more to accomplish in euro, not even considering the power supply and case. I have a 6u 104hp system now, and I probably have 3 grand sunk into it at least, and honestly sometimes I want to go back to the desktop stuff because I think I need limitations. I hear the music I made with the desktop stuff and I still like it just as much and it still sounds like me. I’m considering selling everything and getting the Buchla 208c desktop when its available, its very tempting.

5 Likes
#911

You can actually set the config on the 0-Coast to output two separate streams of cv/gate from separate midi channels to output on A and B. So if you have something like a Keystep, you can have a sequence going from one midi channel and then play over the top of it with another midi channel. Yes of course since there is only one VCO on the 0-Coast that tracks v/o, you’d need another vco. But thats what I did, I sent that output of B from the 0-coast to another vco and envelope generator. But yeah, its not true polyphony like a duophonic keyboard. Regardless, finding a midi-cv convertor that outputs on two separate midi channels isn’t that common or cheap, so its one of those nice to haves.

2 Likes
#913

I haven’t either, come to think of it; I’ve not used it with MIDI very much, really, but perhaps I should.

#914

Yeah 0-Coast is such a great desktop synth. The only thing I didn’t actually live about it was the sound of the wavefolder, it sounded kinda thin to me. I also thought the LPG didn’t sound very LPG much like traditional LPG, compared to something like a Optomix. But adding vactrols to 0-Coast would have just upped the cost I’m sure.

#915

i’m curious what the trapezoid outputs sound like, and if all those outputs are useful! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#916

The trapezoid is sonically identical to a triangle. Just using the output by itself does not sound any different. However, I do like using it a lot for things like ring modulation, phase modulation and FM. It folds slightly differently and I like the sound. Hard to describe the actual difference though.

I will say that most of the outputs I haven’t found much use for. I don’t really know what to do with the same waveforms at different phases and I have tried things like crossfading between them but I haven’t found much interesting sound there.
I would trade them for oscillator sync and PWM in a heartbeat.

I think the main selling point is that it’s one of the cheapest analog oscillators that do TZFM and it does that well, if a bit finicky (but most of the other TZFM oscillators I’ve seen seem to also be quite finicky).

3 Likes