KVR Audio

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:19 pm

damoog wrote:i wanted a minitaur but impatience took hold and i purchased a moog phatty second hand off ebay!,i can honestly say im not bothered as the LP is just amazing,minitaur sounds great though,i plan to buy one next year if the reviews stand up

I have to be honest and say that this is the year of small analogs, not software.
My toplist is:
Moog Minitaur
Korg Monotribe
Mutable instruments Shruti-1. The standard filter is amazing, and you can get SSM filter too! The digital osc work well , and it gets a lot of praise at Gearslutz.
Macbeth MiniMac. Sounds perfect - but expensive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96RRAkfW ... r_embedded
Mos-Lab system 8A. Sounds - sounds so good. A little bit bigger than the rest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMTouJJP51A
Doepfer Dark Energy. (Just one oscillator is a drawback).

Korg Monotribe MS20 filter is amazing, and my ear heard possbilities that is possible with lead playing with reverb. Almost all youtube videos are arpeggios, but i can hear great potential for normal keyboard soloing with that module. The midi-hack is easy to do- there is a sonicstate video for it. I want a hack for gate VCF cutoff in too....
Two demos that show some Monotribe potential:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KWZu8J4Mx4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA-nRRCc ... re=related

All the best
gunnare

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:08 pm

gunnare wrote:I got mail from JR shop where they say that it will be in stock in May.

Sorry, that person made a mistake. Moog told me it's arriving soon.

I want to check this crazy idea: To send my synts output to left out, and the filter modulation to right output, and use one of this small analogs to do real analog filters for my softsynths. I will then have to make a special "filter bypass" mode. In poly mode this will work like the polymoog and MG1 realistic poly mode. (Only one filter envelope for all voices.)

Cool!

Cheeso · Post by **Cheeso** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:27 am

I got one! Low serial #...booyah!!!

Dogboy73 · Post by **Dogboy73** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:19 pm

gunnare wrote:But it is very difficult to use CCs for hidden parameters, because there is no monitoring of what you are doing. Like the hidden parameters for volume-in, filter tracking, osc2 fine tune. The controller will only display the cc number, and you will have to learn what it is doing in your head. It is especially a shame for the MPK49 controller that has a very large and high-quality LCD screen, but it will not display any useful information. The Novations will display the text of the function name set in the editor, and will have an advantage over the other controller keyboards. You can just move a slider (or touch it) and it will display its function.

I think this is only a minor problem. I have an MPK49 that I use to control (amongst other things) a Spectal Audio Neptune 2. This has some functions that are controlled with CC's or Progam Change messages. Sometimes, depending on how I have the thing set-up, it's difficult to know if these are actually working because you don't get any visual feedback. But at least with the Minitaur the main functions are all on the front panel. And don't forget there is a software editor for the Minitaur so all of the synths functions should be accessible this way. Can't wait for this thing. Reading the manual has just made me want it even more

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:41 pm

Yes, but it would be so much better if AKAI implemented a name, or text for all sliders that will be displayed on the LCD screen like Novations do. The AKAI MPK49 LCD screen is much bigger than the novations screens, and could give a lot of useful info. And the touch/velocity curve is wrong and the keys are springy and stiff. But it looks good at least.......

If this is the year of small analogs, I hope next year is the year of quality controllers.

I found a solution to one problem in the manual. The pitch cv in is 0-5 volts. And 1 volt is one octave. This will solve the C5 midi limit. Seems like midi and CV pitch works with independent systems, and it can be CV transposed 5 octaves above midi C5!!!!!
The Keyboardmag stated that Taurus3 was just up to C4, but the CV pitch had no limits (at least up to 5 volts). So we just have to find a way of putting 1 or 2 volts into the pitch CV jack to transpose it. Oh, best thing would be a pitch ribbon that also could output fixed octave voltages. Hm, a selector for quantisize off/semitones/octaves/ would be great for a ribbon controller.

Cheeso! How is the minitur - there are no hands on reports from users yet, only Nam reports and the Future music review.....

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:05 pm

From the Minitaur manual:
• A steady control voltage applied to the PITCH jack will
offset the base pitch of both oscillators. You can use this
feature to transpose the oscillators to any desired interval.

So I wonder: Are there limiters on the oscillators pitch voltage?

And pitch-bend can be set independently for up and down. Up to 2 octaves, it may be another way of transposing the instrument.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:25 pm

gunnare wrote:I found a solution to one problem in the manual. The pitch cv in is 0-5 volts. And 1 volt is one octave. This will solve the C5 midi limit. Seems like midi and CV pitch works with independent systems, and it can be CV transposed 5 octaves above midi C5!!!!!
The Keyboardmag stated that Taurus3 was just up to C4, but the CV pitch had no limits (at least up to 5 volts). So we just have to find a way of putting 1 or 2 volts into the pitch CV jack to transpose it.

gunnare wrote:From the Minitaur manual:
• A steady control voltage applied to the PITCH jack will
offset the base pitch of both oscillators. You can use this
feature to transpose the oscillators to any desired interval.

So I wonder: Are there limiters on the oscillators pitch voltage?

There is a physical limit dictated by the oscillator design. Although the CV in is V/Oct the oscillators themselves are V/Hz. This means there is conversion going on from V/Oct to V/Hz.

The V/Hz system means that as you get higher notes, you start getting really high voltages compared to a V/Oct system. Eventually it all just becomes too much to be practical.

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:46 pm

Yes, I understand. But we dont know what the limit is. Osc 1 can be tuned 1 octave up (and down) with the pitch knob. I guess that is 1 octave up from C5 (note 72). So it should at least be possible to transpose 1 octave up for both oscillators. I think both oscillators must have the same limit.

The Yamaha CS80 has volt/hz oscillators. (Same goes for ME80). This means that vibrato goes more downwards in pitch than upwards, and they say the result is a more natural vibrato.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:38 pm

gunnare wrote:Yes, I understand. But we dont know what the limit is.

Well I think we do. It's note 72. Here's Amos explaining why on Gearslutz:

"Yes. In a Hz/V system, it takes exponentially more voltage to go up an octave, rather than a linear change in CV. Eventually you run out of volts (the CV to achieve C above middle C is over 13V)...

Don't worry though, pitch CV input is volt/octave; it's rescaled internally for the Hz/V oscillators."

So to achieve the extra octave over the Taurus 3, the Minitaur has a CV already over 13V - so you can see any higher in pitch (and remember it's rising exponentially) and you're going to have one high voltage circuit going on there. So it will have an actual physical voltage limit. The PSU is 12V DC.

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:48 pm

Yes, but still I hope for only 1 octave extra from CV or bender. Since it is possible to tune osc2 one octave up from C5 (I hope). Then I assume that both oscillators have the same pitch limit. Or I can just use osc2 tuned up an octave and turn down osc1 volume.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:07 am

gunnare wrote:Or I can just use osc2 tuned up an octave and turn down osc1 volume.

Just found this in the manual:

"NOTE: If playing
between notes 60 and 72, the pitch of VCO 2 is limited to note 72 (C4)
regardless of this control setting."

I think that is a typo, it should read: "note 72 (C5)".

I would assume the CV will be limited in the same manner.

gunnare · Post by **gunnare** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:12 am

Yes, that means that C5 (note 72) is the limit. Thanks a lot!

Cheeso · Post by **Cheeso** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:09 pm

gunnare wrote:
Cheeso! How is the minitur - there are no hands on reports from users yet, only Nam reports and the Future music review.....

It sounds great and it's fun to play!

I'm playing through a guitar amp, in my house, so I'm not cranking up the volume too loud, so I'm probably not getting the full potential of it, but it sounds really nice and fat, especially with the oscillators in unison. It seems to excel at growly basses, naturally. I made a sort of rising sound that was fun to play, and some different sci-fi type effects that would sound good with some delay.

The Minitaur is actually really small, but accessing all the knobs and stuff is easy and trouble-free. The software editor is not available for download yet, but, it's so tweakable, it's fun to just keep twisting the knobs (no pun intended). And when I found a sound I liked I just took a picture with my phone.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:43 pm

Uncle E wrote:
gunnare wrote:I got mail from JR shop where they say that it will be in stock in May.
Sorry, that person made a mistake. Moog told me it's arriving soon.

Sorry, it turns out I was the one who was mistaken. Moog told me today we're not receiving our order till May.

sata_fortuna · Post by **sata_fortuna** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:38 am

http://hungry-media.com/2012/03/moog-mi ... ith-audio/