#312

Sounds great…! Thanks for the examples.

#313

Mmm. Loveliness x 20 chars

#314

I’m curious what options there are at this time for polyphonic synths that you could plug a grid straight into and use as isomorphic keyboard. Organelle and Norns are frontrunners right now. But if there aren’t many options for synthesis in those from the get go, I’m just thinking of picking up an SWN and using the multipass Earthsea to control it— but if there are more elegant (or simply fun!) routes to take, in or out of the rack, I’m all ears! I’d just really love to see earthsea get some more love. It’s a fun instrument to play.
Cheers!

#315

norns earthsea has a pretty nice subtractive polysynth, and the script could be modified to drive other available polysynths (such as @markeats mollythepoly)… or the script could be easily changed for midi output (i should do this)

6 Likes
#316

Diva and Zebra are awesome. My suggestion is that if you’re using Diva in Ableton Live, do all your playing and sequencing in Draft Mode (which still sounds amazing and is much easier on your CPU) and then switch it to the best mode right before rendering your final mix.

Zebra is one of my few “if I had to start over with just a couple of VIs I would choose this” plugins, just because it’s so damn versatile and sounds so damn good. SynthMaster is another one. And the GSampler engine beasties, which gets spendy when you add up all the sound libraries… :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#317

I have the 16 voice. Never compared the 16 and the 8, my local shop had the 16 in stock and once I played it I fell for the sound almost immediately.

Modulation is limited, sound is excellent, feel is excellent, I love it completely.

Happy to answer any questions if I can, but as you can probably tell from the above you won’t get an unbiased answer.

The 16 I think works out as better value £ per voice in most places, has the compressor, the extra octave, and the dedicated controls for splitting / layering sounds (plus each split is 8 voices!). For these reasons, personally the 16 is a much more attractive proposition. I noticed that some reviewers who only had the 8 got frustrated with creating multi-timbral patches. The multi-timbral patches are a large part of the joy of this instrument for me, so I would find it hard to have to dive into menus to have to access that.

However, funnily enough, when I am carrying the 16 to and from the studio I do sometimes dream about the lighter weight and smaller size of the 8!

Top 3 faults as far as I am concerned:

  1. No aftertouch generated by the keybed (it now receives aftertouch over MIDI) - obviously not a dealbreaker for me. Personally I find the keybed really inviting to play. If adding aftertouch sensitivity would have negatively affected the keybed then I prefer Korg having left it off. Obviously everything else being equal I would prefer that the keybed generated aftertouch.
  2. Switches not knobs for a few key parameters (drive, key tracking on the filter, low cut filter) - Actually my objection here is not that Korg fitted switches rather than knobs. In a way, having a simple on / off switch, or a 0 / 50% / 100% switch is liberating from a sound design perspective (no more time wasted wondering whether 49% drive sounds better than 51%!, plus when designing its easier to get back to a previous state of a patch rather than having to remember the exact position of a knob). My objection is that in switching between the states on the switches there is a noticeable click / jump. This means that it would be difficult to flick the switches in a performance without the listener being aware that something has changed in a very glitchy way. It would have been more musical to build in a soft switch / phased transition between the states. Not particularly an issue for my uses, obviously you can work around while recording.
  3. The user programmable digital oscillators and effects have an incredible amount of potential, and some developers are coming up with really exciting possibilties on a daily basis (check out hammondeggsmusic on youtube for example, just this week he has released an interactive live looper you can upload as a user effect, and a virtual analog style delay). BUT Korg seems to be giving this feature very little support. It is only really open to experienced programmers. If Korg released an app which allowed civillian Prologue owners to design their own oscillators with a more user friendly interface that would be incredible.
1 Like
#318

I’ve been using my Pro 2 as a polysynth probably 3/4 of the time I’ve had it. The envelopes are a bit weird on sustained notes, sort of half-way between paraphony and polyphony, but you still get at least partial articulation of each note which is nice.

Something I really love about it though is the ability to have a different waveform per voice. Setting three oscillators to triangles and the fourth to a square for example, then playing arpeggios of 5 or more notes causes a sort of secondary melody to form from your ear wanting to follow the brighter oscillator as it phases through the pattern. Makes for some really nice passages that I haven’t been able to get out of other polysynths.

4 Likes
#319

Just wanted to ask if anyone has experience with Roland SH32. The sound samples I’ve heard on YT sound great for that 80s digital synth sound I love! On the surface it seems easy to use too.

#320

I tried to do a sampled waveform polysynth in eurorack several times with different sampler modules but had miserable results trying to set up clickless envelopes, assigning triggers, and blah. But arbhar is like magic.

19 Likes
#321

Sweet Moses on the river, this has cemented my desire to go with an Ahbar above a morphagene. That Oscillator is no dang slouch either!!! Absolutely stunning and if you have a longer version, please, I’d love a link.

2 Likes
#322

This is sooo good man

1 Like
#323

I just tried this and it’s so easy and sounds so good. This module keeps surprising me. Nice find.

1 Like
#324

Would you mind elaborating on this patch?

2 Likes
#325

I’ll chime in with my Polysynth collection. The only true polysynths I have right now are Digitone (but that’s on the to sell list…) and the Minilogue XD. I also have the Deluge and Circuit which can technically be polysynths but isn’t frequently how I use them.

Digitone sounds great (especially the Jogging House presets!) but I’ve determined that really diving into FM synthesis isn’t really how I want to spend my limited creative energy right now so I’m planning on selling it. I already know I’ll miss the arpeggiator.

Minilogue XD really, really punches above its weight given its relatively limited architecture and only having 4 voices. This is the only keyboard synth I own right now and I’m really happy with it. Sounds fantastic on its own and I’m having even more fun running in through my modular system.

Deluge just arrived so I can’t speak to its synth engine but initial preset surfing has been underwhelming…

Finally the Circuit! It’s 2 mininovas with 8 macro-control knobs and a very novel interface! I’ve gotten some great sounds out of this using the computer editor. You are tied to the editor for full control which I know is a huge drawback for many but I actually really like the interface for poly duties. Usually I’ll leave the sequencer off and use one page of the sequencer as a “chord bank” where pressing each pad plays a different (completely user programmable) chord. It’s a great way to work out chord progressions for new songs too. There was also a recent update that made infinite sustaining drones easier.

#326

Super simple really. Sampled 6 seconds of a filter swept buchla red panel oscillator. Then triggered “grains” with a clock and sequenced the pitch of the grains through the v/oct input on arbhar. There are other intervals added with the funky on board pitch quantizer. Each “grain” has a built in envelope. The position in the sample where the grain fires is randomized with the built in sample and hold feature creating some resonant notes and some softer more filtered notes.

8 Likes
#327

https://www.futur3soundz.com/xfm2

This looks quite interesting. XFM2 is a diy FM synthesizer with 32 voice polyphony. Uses FPGA development board as the brains and 24bit DAC for stereo sounds. Looks easy to recreate. Interested to see where this project grows!

6 Likes
#328

I was lucky enough to get a Perfourmer MkII at a very reasonable price a few weeks ago. (Sold most of my mono modular VCOs to help fund it, and managed to keep hold of my Dom 1 too, which I’m pleased about.)

This is the most musical sounding synthesizer I’ve heard. People compare it to analog Roland gear - I don’t know if that’s fair, but if it is I will be seeking out some old Roland synths. I realise that ‘musical’ is vague, but the tones are just really pleasing in themselves. It also feels very much like a musical instrument in that the controls are sensitive and fine tweaks produce tangible changes. It’s also very well built and very tactile. Really nice pots.

I think I was slightly naive about using it in polyphonic mode just because I haven’t used a 4 voice analog before, and there are limitations with long release times. But overall it is what I expected and what I wanted - an instrument with great design decisions, some depth, some limitations, overall very inspiring.
Sounds great.

6 Likes
#329

I’ve really been enjoying my new Perfourmer as well. For poly, it helps to add delay/reverb to the chain to cover note stealing. It does have a Rolandy vibe, which I love. If you want real poly you can’t go wrong with a Juno

2 Likes
#330

I’ve caught the Perfourmer bug as well. What a gorgeous instrument. I’m just scratching the surface, but it’s pretty hard to make a bad sound with this machine. Low end here is the Sub 25, but everything else is the Vermona.

8 Likes
#331

lovely. are you controlling both the perfourmer and the sub25 with the keystep?

1 Like