Polysynths

[Deru]

MPE adds sooooo much to these imo. It feels like new life in my ob6.

[Mangrove]

This is so exciting. Will load the beta on my OB-6, might hold off on my Prophet 12 for now, just because I have more patches dependent on the old firmware. Thank you so much for sharing!

[G4B3]

I can’t afford it but MPE on the OB-6 gives me an itch to make something like “John Carpenter via Vangelis”. I’ll have to stick to OB-Xd for now.

[lilskullymane]

damn, this is a really nice surprise. wasn’t ever expecting an update to the p6, especially not one that sounds so good

Prophet 6 vintage knob is great

[geoffroy]

And a video of MPE support (Linnstrument + OB6)

OB6 ~ MPE ~ OMG! Jamuary 2021 with Linnstrument

[equipoise]

Funny enough, the updates to the P6/OB-6 have encouraged me to take advantage of the low prices on the massively underrated Prophet 12 and I’ve got one of those (in keyboard form) on the way now. Whether my Rev2 stays or goes will depend on whether I want to replace it with a more vintage synth in light of the P12’s capabilities or if I feel it does a good enough job filling in the gaps. I’m not terribly nostalgic for the extremely detuned sounds (frankly I sort of hated the slop knob’s default algorithms on the Rev2), but if they brought this subtler, more nuanced vintage mode to it, that might retain it firmly in the keeper position as it would free up the mod slots and gated sequencer positions I use for VCM.

I couldn’t personally care less about MPE, but I’m very glad to see Sequential continue to improve even their older gear. Certainly gives the P6 a new lease on life. J3PO’s great comparison vid shows some of the areas that the P6 really shines and this vintage knob update closes the gap further. If I were willing to spend that kind of money on a low-voice-count poly (I’m not, at least yet), the choice just got narrowed to “nostalgia” versus “features”.

[Khnshs]

Using this for creating weird complex timbre and love it very much

[encephalitislethargi]

dream synth. are you posting your explorations anywhere? ig or something maybe? i’d love to see how people are using this one

[Smapti]

Yeah the Iridium is amazing! Kernel mode is bonkers. It could have just that mode alone and be a fantastic synth. Also, I think Waldorf really should emphasize the fact that the digital former effects are per voice, which is a great sound design tool – reading the manual it isn’t clear that this is the case.

[Khnshs]

Very soon I just had it this week

[Blit]

Funny, i thought that it was very easy to configure and make patches without the software. I supposed the build aspect definitively influence more how one use and “feel” a synth rather than the synth engine itself.

[eblomquist]

Off topic of poly synths, but the battery comment reminded me that I have an ancient SansAmp fuzz box that turns into an insane alien life form when the battery gets too low… I need to try my synth through it! Talk about unpredictable

[jessemiller]

Recently had the Juno-66 mod kit installed in my Juno-60 and I really like it. I made a video going over some of the features and then wrote a Max patch to control it all in a bit more streamlined fasion.

Demo of Roland Juno-60 with Tubbutec Juno-66 retrofit

Juno-60 Max Patch for Juno-66 MIDI mod

[lleicamun]

Any Clavia Nord Lead/Rack enthusiast here?

I personally have the Rack2x which I love since day one, it’s been my first synthesizer I bought with my first paycheck years ago. A synth which can be used for a lot of purposes, it’s very expressive, it sounds amazing, it’s simple, 4 parts multitimbral and so much versatile, maybe not the fattest soundIng oscillators (multi timbral can helps!), but it’s super punchy (thx Clavia envelopes) and
the FM sounds wonderful,

The “Morph” parameter is amazing, easily achievable modular style patches, you can basically modulate every single parameter of the panel via midi velocity and/or mod wheel and you can set an offset/range for the modulation destination simply pressing the “morph” button while you turn the parameter knob you want to modulate.
I love to “patch” the velocity of my midi controller pads to the envelopes and to the arpeggiator clock, hitting the pads with 3 different velocities (very slow/medium/strong) to create asynchronous random FM percussion/bongo sequences/rhythms.
You would say it’s a modular synth sound if you’re not in front it listening…

It is a drum synth as well! (at least the Lead/Rack2x)
It has a “special mode” where you can create 8 sounds within one preset.
Basically the AFX mode you can find on the Bass Station2 by Novation…

Another wonderful and expressive sound the Clavia Nord Rack 2x can do easily is “tape warble“ emulation: gently modulating osc1 via osc2 as heavy filtered noise (the osc2 coarse freq become filter/clour for the osc2 when in noise mode)

It’s an inspiring polysynth… I’d love to know if someone else feel it as I am

[muied_lumens]

@lleicamun

It’s an inspiring polysynth… I’d love to know if someone else feel it as I am

Absolutely. I got the first NL when it came out in 1995. When I saw it I just knew I had to have it and traded in a lot of stuff for it. Since then I upgraded through both the 2 and 2X models and now have the NL4. It doesn’t have the percussion mode but you can kind of achieve the same thing with impulse morphs.

There’s another interesting trick on the 2/2X that you didn’t mention: you can decouple the amp and filter envelopes and trigger them from different midi channels. This brings you even further into modular land.

[lleicamun]

@muied_lumens

There’s another interesting trick on the 2/2X that you didn’t mention: you can decouple the amp and filter envelopes and trigger them from different midi channels. This brings you even further into modular land.

Yes, I know, you’re totally right!

I should have mention it, but I’ve already wrote too much ahah…
If I remember well, NL2 (which probably sounds richer/rougher than the 2X, due to different converters/amp??) had even a “trick” to achieve a strange behavior right? Something like powering the synth on while pressing some buttons, in order to let the synth sounds very weird and unpredictable, do you remember it??

How do you like the 4? I’m really curious, It’s the only one that never never tried, the last one I touched was the A1, it’s nice, but I prefer NL2X actually…

[chiasticon]

@lleicamun

It’s an inspiring polysynth… I’d love to know if someone else feel it as I am

agreed 100% it’s an awesome synth! first synth I ever laid hands on was a Nord. I instantly fell in love and learned a lot from it, and everything synth-wise just grew for me from there. I no longer own one, but despite acquiring a bunch of analog modulars/semi-modulars and poly synths since that first experience, I’d still love one. it has a very distinct sound and is just so flexible.

[lleicamun]

@chiasticon

it has a very distinct sound and is just so flexible.

For sure!

It’s one of those synths which change timbre drastically with just a few tweaks!
I’m totally biased at this point eheh!

[muied_lumens]

@lleicamun

trick” to achieve a strange behavior right?

Ah yes, Pelle Mode. It was an alternate firmware hidden in the NL1 and 2. It’s not available on the 2X as far as I know.

The NL4 is great. I love the filters in it and the impulse morph is great to program on the fly. You can send it CC messages to trigger impulse morphs while programming them in, which is a powerful feature. I still miss percussion mode some times though. The fx is nice but a dedicated knob for delay feedback is missing. I’d rather have that than a reverb.

Actually I think I would be just as happy with the 2X as the 4. I had both for a short while but ultimately decided to let the 2X go. I don’t regret that (most of the time), as I like to keep my setup compact.

[Struggle]

I’ve owned the Nord Wave, Lead 2x, 3 and A1 in the past and miss them all. I’d like to get a poly sometime this year and considering the A1 again. It was so fun to play and just get lost in.