Synths and Synths and Synths

[Ocular]

Are we talking about hardware synths in here too? If we are, the Novation Bass Station II is coming out soon and I'm so excited /)o3o(\

Look at this beast.



<3

[Acsii]

Fuck I only just found this thread...
So who here owns an analog... which one? and what do you use it for mostly?

[Acsii]

No metion of Nexus2 in this thread?

Nexus is a pretty bad synth because basically everyone who uses it uses just presets... mainly because it takes a while to work out how to actually get the sound you want

[Acsii]

Just found this beast of a synth today, anyone wanna buy it for me?

holy shit that thing is perfect... How much will it be though?

[Acsii]

true I'd like it if it was say 12 voices or something...
On a side note I'm currently building a synth that uses the same oscillators as a Minimoog Model D

[Acsii]

Hardware I bought an original service manual and it came with huge a1 schematics :3

[Acsii]

I could scan them in if you want them?

[Alycs]

I have no real synths, analogue or digital; but my dad has a multi-disk digital record player that can do some cool stuff; and I have a Tesla Coil I built in my garage that I can theoretically use as a analogue synth if I had that much ambition and time.

[Acsii]

Decided I'm gonna design my own VCO because sourcing some of ICs for the Moog ones will be insanely difficult

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

No metion of Nexus2 in this thread?

Nexus is a pretty bad synth because basically everyone who uses it uses just presets... mainly because it takes a while to work out how to actually get the sound you want

Welcome to the synthetic world.
I figure that's basically how everyone uses synths and that some people who are actually into sound design figure out how the synth works and are then able to make their own crap. XD

I much prefer making things myself.

I think it's more fun and gratifying if you can just make it from scratch.

I'm even trying to do my own drums

[Acsii]

Nexus is a pretty bad synth because basically everyone who uses it uses just presets... mainly because it takes a while to work out how to actually get the sound you want

Welcome to the synthetic world.
I figure that's basically how everyone uses synths and that some people who are actually into sound design figure out how the synth works and are then able to make their own crap. XD

I much prefer making things myself.

I think it's more fun and gratifying if you can just make it from scratch.

I'm even trying to do my own drums

I prefer doing my own sound design because it allows to work out how this particular synth works... plus I'm from the analog world so...

[Acsii]

Speaking of the synth I'm making if you wanna keep track of my work on it check out: http://pendersynthdesigns.tumblr.com

[the4thImpulse]

Just found this beast of a synth today, anyone wanna buy it for me?

holy shit that thing is perfect... How much will it be though?

Tens of thousands, there is only one in existence so far and Hans zimmer owns it (that's was his there in the video in case they didn't say).

8 voices with four oscillators and 7 filters per voice, it's enough for analog.

[Acsii]

4th you can probably help me with this:
Will this work as a volume controller for a VCO

The switch is just for turning the channel off

[the4thImpulse]

4th you can probably help me with this:
Will this work as a volume controller for a VCO
The switch is just for turning the channel off

Are you talking about a way of mixing the wave forms together, before the channel switch?

I don't know much about VCO chips but the signal path looks right, those would be variable resistors?

I am no expert on this kind of stuff, I've only lightly dabbled with it in my audio engineering courses (made a DI box). maybe ask cyrricky.

[Acsii]

Yea it's a way of mixing the wave forms before combining all 3 of the VCOs into one. I have a VCO that transmits a pulse/square, a sawtooth, a triangle, and a sine. Each of which can be turned on and off then these are sent through this circuit. the variable resistors are used to control the voltage (volume) coming from the wave form. The diodes are just to stop any 'back flow' from each wave form and will be germanium to minimise voltage drop through the combining bit. the more I think about the more I realise the diodes should be on the arms from the VResistors not on the common line.

[Acsii]

Circuitry update:

[Acsii]

Final Circuitry:

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I learnt that there's a shop in brisbane (next town from where I live) that has all kinds of synths.

So they have a Novation Mininova for about $479 (Australian, obviously) and I'm gonna browse their website for other stuff and make a list of things to research.

In the mean time, I saw some reviews of the Mininova and rather liked what I saw. But can anyone tell me a little more? Is it worth getting? Is the vocoding customizable like you'd expect? Are there any synths with similar functions that I should look into? Those sorts of things.

[Acsii]

You may want to look at the MicroKorg as well
but the mininova is a beautiful synth and it has really nice features. And the vocoder is customisable basically you set the synth parameters you want and then you chuck it into vocoder mode. Also the mic you get with it is pretty good quality (better than the MicroKorg)

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I have heard that name tossed around a little.

I'll do some more research tonight.

And I figured the vocoder would be easily programmable.
I do like that it can be manipulated using the keys.

[the4thImpulse]

I personally don't recommend the microkorg, if it were 200 dollars (US) cheaper I might be worth looking at but otherwise.. I can't reccomend it. Its a wallmart level synth, cheap, sounds like plastic, I've used it a bunch.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

It does look very similar to the Mini, but it doesn't seem to sound as nice.
Has some extra bands in the vocoder and nicer looking keys though.

I dunno, I'm gonna look into it some more.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Also, does the Mini sound any better than the Korg, 4th?

[the4thImpulse]

Also, does the Mini sound any better than the Korg, 4th?

From the demo's I've heard I would pick it over the microkorg, but I have not used it hands on like I have the mocrokorg.

I honestly would save up a bit more and get a synth that will last, look up the minibrute.