#122

Current situation:

Juno 106. fixed dead voices a few years ago but seems like it may have been a shoddy job? or it’s the crackly chorus issue now (or both). Havent done full diagnostic on it yet, but looking into the Analogue Renaissance Gravitational Slingshot when it’s available (if it’s still happening). Was my first analog synth and will always be close to my heart.

TX-81z. Need to spend more time programming but just loading up lately bass always leads to goofy jams and good times. Anybody have one of those stereoping synth controllers?

Volca FM. to play with the 81z

JD-990. Don’t have the vintage synth expander but it’s lots of fun as it is. The first music i really fell in love with as a kid was mid/late 90’s jungle, so a lot of presets sounds on here fire off lots of happy neurons.

OB-6. It’s the go-to now to sketch ideas and it sounds so good on it’s own…but I need to level up mixing skills cause it’s seems to take up a lot of space in tracks (just turn the sub osc down, dummy).

Also will mess around with a pocket piano and microkorg (mostly vocoder) around the house.

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#123

I have access to an 81Z and a bunch of midi CC hardware. Been thinking about hacking on it…

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#125

ive been hanging around with a d-05 since they launched. i absolutely love it. programming it isnt ~that~ bad once one learns the logic of the menu labyrinth. i actually get a lot of joy out of flying through the menus. getting a grasp of the different ways to input data is critical. still, a software editor is obviously way faster for envelope editing - i have made a few different preset starting points for common envelope shapes that i use.

#126

with you on the somehow-lacking X—it just sounded thin to me compared to the rev2, for example.

curious to check out the ob-6 in more detail at first possible opportunity!

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#127

Same here - bought a DX7iid and really enjoying it - the whole interface is really well thought through, things like quickly copying across envelopes to other operators, flicking oscillators on and off with dedicated keys. There aren’t really many menus. Plus it has two assignable faders which might be CV-able via expression pedal inputs. They were not messing about when they built this thing.
One disappointment is that the MIDI implementation isn’t real-time. You can change any parameter with sysex messages, but the sound currently playing stops when the message arrives, so you can’t - as far as I can see - map 6 knobs to 6 operator frequencies, hold down a chord and tweak each oscillator as it plays.
Vast endless soundbanks online, although literally 1/3rd of every sound ever programmed for the thing was a variation of a Rhodes… There’a a Riyuchi Sakamoto bank (a bit underwhelming) , a Toto bank (includes the original sounds from Africa👍) and amazing intricate patches (VRC-107) by Dave Bristow, who did the original factory sounds but then got more and more advanced - including speech synthesis patches that say “1”, “2”, “3”, etc.
I really like that the engine is so pure - everything is just 6 sine waves; no samples or waveforms.
However, it does need a tonne of reverb and effects to sound good, though. DX7 + H9 = :fire::tornado::rainbow::sparkles:

9 Likes
#128

I have owned:

Prophet 6, OB6, Prophet 12, Pro Two. Only one I regret selling (although others were great too), was the P12. Will probably try to grab another someday.

Current:
PPG Wave 2.2, Jupiter 8, OBXA (which I restored myself), Prophet 5 rev 3.

Yea, I have a problem and will probably cull the herd, but I love and use them all.

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#129

I think my favorite trick is to thicken my patches up with detune, especially within an operator stack. I do love hitting mine with chorus and reverb as well though, makes me feel especially 80s :joy:

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#130

My dad just gave me a DX21 that he stumbled upon a few years ago. I also have an FB-01 in storage that I should pull out. Sound-wise they’re pretty comparable, but I’m excited to have a big keyboard to bang around on!

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#131

I’ve been using the Korg Prologue 8 and it’s proved to be very fruitful on my latest Ep having used it for big pads and a cutting lead

#132

Someone collected all 31k+ and made a single track out of them.
https://soundcloud.com/bwhitman/the-31380-unique-voices-of-the-dx7
More detail in the track notes.

As @mzero remarked:

It is very odd listening to that DX7 voice track - if you skip around it feels exactly the same no matter where you start

I guess the voices would likely sound more different from one another if they were modulated in some way.

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#133

It’s Autechre’s latest track! :wink:

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#134

I guess in kind of the way that all traffic sounds the same even though it’s all different

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#135

hey, it’s Brian Whitman, founder of the Echo Nest, brother of Keith, maker of modules:

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#136

had an OB-6 for a while and while it was full of beautiful character, sold it mostly because I had a hard time getting sounds out of it that werent super fizzy 80’s…could never get the dark sounds I was hoping for, likely due to the 12db filter always letting in a little extra fizz.

replaced it with a Juno-6 many months ago and haven’t thought about other polysynths since, just absolutely in love with it and can’t imagine ever selling it. felt an almost personal connection with it right away, there’s really something magical about its sound, it just feels alive.

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#137

I really don’t use polysynths much anymore – I started cutting back before I even got into modular.

I suppose Rings counts though :slight_smile:

LuSH-101 is my go-to polysynth, ironically enough – it’s just so much more than an SH-101.

Rather than DX-7, I’ve been charmed by Chipsynth PortaFM. Sometimes I wish the modulator was freely tunable and other parameters weren’t so steppy, though it would badly violate the concept of a retro FM emulation.

Aalto and ArcSyn sometimes, but I mostly use them monophonically.

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#139

Anyone have experience with the Minilogue? Seems like a pretty decent synth for the price, kind of want to get a keyboard so I have a better way of writing songs. I feel like right now with the grid I’m just pressing buttons and not really putting much thought into what I’m making so brushing up on a more conventional instrument I think would be beneficial for me to use the grid in a more meaningful way. I’d like a Prophet but I’m also not trying to spend a ton.

#140

I’ve had the minilogue and loved it but went and replaced it with the prologue 8 which is awesome but I’m actually doing the opposite to you. In that I design the sound but have a friend play it for me as I can’t play and so I just want to use modular grid and Norns to be my sonic extension. Currently selling my prologue

#141

i had a minilogue for a short amount of time at the beginning of this year that my band got for touring. it’s a fun little synth and great for making your own patches because there is really no menu diving, just changing knobs.

i was however extremely underwhelmed and not very inspired by the sound and that was ultimately why we got rid of it… but that’s just my opinion. also, i would recommend playing one first because while it is polyphonic, it’s only got 4 voice polyphony which is actually pretty sucky to be playing chords and melodies at the same time. i almost always want to be playing at least 4 notes just in my chord alone.

a rack ploy synth that hasn’t been mentioned that i think is really really overlooked is the oberheim matrix 1000. i’ve been on the lookout for a good deal for a while but apparently there is a power quirk which causes a physical rattling inside the chassis that makes me nervous to buy one. they sound incredible though.

3 Likes
#142

Yeah the four voice polyphony is my main concern and ultimately why I think something like a Prophet might be better for me in the long run. The sound seems a bit basic too yeah, it’s not the worst thing I’ve heard but it’s not very distinct either from the demos I’ve heard. Really appreciate the input though, I think I’ll check one out in person first for sure. Thanks!

1 Like
#143

Three hardware polys had long lives in my studio and on stage:
Korg PS3100 was my first (something like $450 used at guitar center. don’t kill me. it was the early 80s, no one there knew what it was or cared). I adored it. It spoiled me as far as having a true knob per function interface, and I never got used to menus as a result. IT had three major issues though:

  1. straight ahead subtractive synthesis isn’t that exciting to me as a player - though the AMAZING amplitude modulation, the resonator, and general ability to slightly muck about with a sort-of patch bay went a long way toward alleviating this.;
  2. No velocity sensitivity.
  3. Really noisy output.

I then moved on to a DX7 and later an SY77. I fell head over heels in love with FM synthesis and its possibilities. Still am. But the limitation as to how much I could tweak in real time, combined with my first realization that the coarse resolution of midi control makes me insane, were major problems.

Tried various Prophets, OBs, Yamaha CS80 but none excited me, though I loved the real time control options on the yamaha.

Give me an SY77 sound engine with a knob/fader/button per function interface, MPE, smoothed aftertouch, and OSC or 14-bit midi resolution control over everything and I might even ditch the modular and the computer.
OK, no, not the computer, because Pianoteq and Bidule :wink:

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