Ready for my first analog synth - Suggestions?

[breakmixer]

I still prefer the Minimax for Minimoog-style leads and basses and the Pro-12 for Prophet/Jupiter-style leads and pads. Where DIVA blows me away is its MS20 oscillators through the MS20 or Minimoog filters. I've never gotten that brown MS20 sound out of ANYTHING, not even other analogs, other than DIVA or the real thing.

http://sonic-core.net/joomla.soniccore/ ... 22&lang=us



Is this what you own, I'm a bit confused by that bit of kit, is it an audio card or synth? Do you get all the plugiator synths with that then and do you get better non glitchy vst's. their website doesn't explain it all that well to me, maybe I should write them - I bet it's expensive...

I'll try Diva demo again trying what you said...it's demo is still installed, just hidden...

[zerocrossing]

Thanks for all the suggestions people. Been doing a lot of searching and it is very hard to find videos of people not pointlessly doodling on the synths, this probably is a lot of fun when actually doing it though.

Ya I heard that the dark energy is being discontinued, actually made me want it a bit more when I heard that I found some nice videos here showing it off

A review from sonic state:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLs6XQxO ... r_embedded

Some guy made a few tracks here
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/ ... rk-energy/

Some good videos around for the SP too.

The Dominion X looks like a lot for the money, only 2 videos on YouTube for this so far but some nice audio demos on their Soundcloud page
http://soundcloud.com/mfb-instruments

Found a few good videos for the Telemark too, looks great but don't know would I get as much use out of it as some others mentioned here.

Right now I'm thinking I may just hold off 3 or 4 weeks (if I can resist) and see how much more I can get together. May even sell some plugins that I've been thinking about for a while. I may go for the Dominion I think. With all the filter modes and 3 oscillators I think it could do a lot, does anybody know when this gets released?

I will go to try out the Minitaur when it comes out though and see how it clicks with me. Starting to wonder too if can get enough saved would it be a good idea to get both Minitaur (or SP) and a Dark Energy.

Hm, those tracks seem to be doing nothing to sell the MFB to me. I'd even go so far as to say they sound kind of horrible to me. The oscs sound kind of dull and the filters stiff. If that's a true representation of it's sound I'd suggest Diva instead, as others have.

The Dark Energy sounds a lot better IMO. I considered it myself, but I don't want to have to noodle about every time I want a new sound. I love patch memory, but that's me. Check out some Diva examples:

I collected all the sound examples users made when DIVA was still in the closed beta (And some time after that):

Urs:
http://www.u-he.com/music/DivaNoodle.wav
http://www.u-he.com/music/DN2.wav
http://www.u-he.com/music/DivaSubBass.wav

pdxindy:
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-beta1.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-beta2.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-3.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-4.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-5.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-6.wav
http://draigathar.org/sounds/Diva-7.wav

chacka:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Diva_pre-party_1.wav
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Happy_Diva_Birthday.wav
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Pads.wav
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2148367/Running ... _money.wav

justin3am:
http://www.3amnoise.net/diva_demo_01.wav
http://www.3amnoise.net/diva_demo_02.wav

Bronto Scorpio:
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAarp.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAlush.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAbass.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Mus ... simple.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVApluck.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAdrums.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAdust.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVApad.mp3
http://www.bronto-scorpio-music.com/Music/DIVAdrone.mp3

aMUSEd:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5646041/Audio/DivaSyncbass.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5646041/Audio/DivaSynclead.mp3

From one of the beta testers:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lisa.milli ... iva303.wav
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lisa.millington/divaDG.wav
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lisa.milli ... holdDG.wav
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lisa.milli ... ingsDG.wav
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lisa.milli ... ss5_DG.wav

metalifuxx:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6185854/kvr%20s ... 20Diva.mp3 (+ Valhalla Shimmer)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6185854/kvr%20s ... %29%20.mp3 (+ Valhalla Shimmer on the pad and compression and BaxterEQ on the master)

rockin1:
https://files.me.com/musical.matthew/zsxizm.aif
https://files.me.com/musical.matthew/a9euaa.aif

Cheers
Dennis

[Uncle E]

Is this what you own, I'm a bit confused by that bit of kit, is it an audio card or synth? Do you get all the plugiator synths with that then and do you get better non glitchy vst's. their website doesn't explain it all that well to me, maybe I should write them - I bet it's expensive...

I use an earlier version of this and, yes, it's expensive. They announced at the NAMM show the possibility of releasing native versions.

[breakmixer]

Is this what you own, I'm a bit confused by that bit of kit, is it an audio card or synth? Do you get all the plugiator synths with that then and do you get better non glitchy vst's. their website doesn't explain it all that well to me, maybe I should write them - I bet it's expensive...

I use an earlier version of this and, yes, it's expensive. They announced at the NAMM show the possibility of releasing native versions.

Wow, out of my priceband completely, just found the prices

I'll carry on with plugiator and my workarounds, thing that gets me is it's only the vst's need fixing, not the hardware itself....

[himalaya]

Hm, those tracks seem to be doing nothing to sell the MFB to me

Unfortunately, a lot of these demos are not well executed, leaving a bad impression. As to the sound, there are moments in those demos which are very nice, I think.

I tend to approach such demos with caution. I mean, you can find demos (or user tracks more like) of huge modular synths which sound absolutely horrible, more than they ought to. But it doesn't mean that this horrible sound is the true signature sound of the synth in question. Even simple synths suffer the same fate. So, personally I take such demos as a 10% flavour of what is possible (the 10% being scientifically proven in case some one wants to debate it ).

However. Diva vs real analogs. There isn't a 'vs'. Diva is a must buy. But then, for a synth enthusiast a real analog synth with full access to all parameters is equally worthy of experience (and appreciation). This eliminates a lot of synths here however (which suffer from lack of direct control).

[_leras]

Don't know if anyone has mentioned a Waldorf Pulse, you can pick them up on ebay pretty cheaply and they make a very firm rich and solid analog sound.

Very modern and clean sound, something you still can't get out of DIVA, but that you still want!


.

[Jace-BeOS]

so, really, is it the sound, or the hands-on control that makes this stuff so compelling? i've never played anything like these synths in the real world. i've only ever heard them in recordings and demos and they all pretty much sound the same to me. They sound like analog synths. The only time i've felt one synth was better than another as far as sound quality goes, was when comparing professionally made VSTi to many quirky and cute but cheesy Synth Edit freebies. People make great stuff with Synth Edit, but it takes work and i've tried at least 50 SE freebies that didn't last through half the presets (and you know how many that is on an unregistered SE version).

Otherwise, it's all "samey" to me. i'm surely curious about playing something like a Moog Voyager or whatnot in person, to see if i'm just missing something via samples and online demos, but i'm unlikely to have such a chance and live performance isn't my thing any way.

Those of you that like the classic Korg MS-20, what do you think of Korg's software "Legacy Collection" version? i was lucky enough to get one of the Legacy Series sets with the now discontinued mini MS-20 controller and it's quite fun having all those knobs and patch cable possibilities This is as close as i've been to anything like a semi-modular analog synth.

[_leras]

Then at the end of the day it's the sheer musicality of that demo which carries it through. I mean check this fella's other videos, especially this I'd love an album of music like this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtbuYRV ... re=related

Whole album like that, but better?

Isolee - Wearemonster

e.g
<youtube>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBfhQisZDpg</youtube>


.

[himalaya]

so, really, is it the sound, or the hands-on control that makes this stuff so compelling?

For me, it's both. Always.

[himalaya]

Whole album like that, but better?

Isolee - Wearemonster

e.g
<youtube>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBfhQisZDpg</youtube>


.

Thanks for the link. The track is very nice, I'll have to explore that artist some more. However, it's in a completely different sonic world to that DSI demo. Very different styles, one is 100% Electro/Synth Poppish ditty, the other is more Lounge/Chill Out/'Hawaiian Surf Dreams' kinda stuff.

[Uncle E]

so, really, is it the sound, or the hands-on control that makes this stuff so compelling?

Not for me. While I appreciate having a Virus TI's knobs for automation, I generally manipulate the software interface more than the actual unit.

i'm surely curious about playing something like a Moog Voyager or whatnot in person, to see if i'm just missing something via samples and online demos, but i'm unlikely to have such a chance and live performance isn't my thing any way.

The Minitaur stands further apart from softsynths than the Voyager and a lot of these other synths do, IMO.

Those of you that like the classic Korg MS-20, what do you think of Korg's software "Legacy Collection" version? i was lucky enough to get one of the Legacy Series sets with the now discontinued mini MS-20 controller and it's quite fun having all those knobs and patch cable possibilities This is as close as i've been to anything like a semi-modular analog synth.

DIVA sounds much more like an MS-20 than the Legacy Collection does. I do get how cool it is to use with that little modular controller, though.

[zerocrossing]

so, really, is it the sound, or the hands-on control that makes this stuff so compelling?

For me it's really the sound. My first analog was a Juno 106. After that I had a bunch of analog synths over the years... all 80s DCO based polys though. At one point, in the 90s I found I needed something more "workstation" like and I stupidly ended up getting rid of them all in favor of an Ensoniq TS-10. Don't get me wrong, it had it's charms, but analog sound wasn't one of them. Now, I still made a lot of music then and I still think some of it holds up. It did let me be a lot more productive, that's for sure.

Later though, when computers became more powerful and I was a bit more flush, I went to a Mac based system and replaced the TS-10 with a bunch of VAs and ROMplers. Again, I made a lot of music and I was pretty happy. So when I had to downsize years later, it was super easy to go VSTi. Synths like Dimension Pro, Zebra 2, Syrtus, KLC easily blew away my hardware and I really don't miss it.

So for a long time I felt like you. Analogs? Who needs 'em? Depends on how you define "need." When I get put in a home I'm sure I'll have some crusty old laptop and maybe my old Novation Remote and probably not much else... and I'll be content. There is something about the hardware though. With the Phatty there is an immediacy of the sound... weight. I can get this kind of "wooliness" out of pads on my Prophet '08 that I can't get in hardware. I smooth hi-fi juiciness in the filter of the ATC-1 that hasn't been bested in software. Show me the software that can do the scream my MoPho does when you crank the feedback... etc.

[Uncle E]

I'll carry on with plugiator and my workarounds, thing that gets me is it's only the vst's need fixing, not the hardware itself....

The midi implementation starts on page 52 of the manual if you want to bypass the VST interface altogether:

http://www.use-audio.com/downloads/Plug ... l_v100.pdf

[Cheeso]

remember that u-he Diva exists now! better than any VA i have owned..

Why do software wankers always recommend a VA software synth when the OP clearly requested an ANALOG synth in the HARDWARE forum?

[aciddose]

synthesizers like the sh-09 are not bad, they're just horribly over-priced and difficult to maintain.

i'd suggest about ten mods for the sh-09 which are way beyond a beginner's ability to bring it to a standard that is more usable.

(one example: the glide is part of the keyboard circuit so isn't applyed to cv control. it also is BEFORE the sample and hold, so releasing a key mid-glide forces it to maintain the pitch when released.)

on top of any analog you get without midi support, you'll need a good quality midi->cv. i've got my own design of which i have three laying around here. the problem is the commercial ones you can buy in a "works out of the box" format are going to be $100-$200 at least. then if you really want things to work smoothly you'll need to mod the synthesizer to build in the midi->cv and add features like cutoff control.

if you're wanting to do something serious with an analog synthesizer and you don't want to get serious about doing mods you're looking at a cost of around $2000. you're going to need something that already has midi and all the features you need.

juno-60,106,alpha,jx,jupiter are all good bets, some are more affordable than others.

they also pretty much all lack the real flavor of a lot of monophonics like the ms-10, mono/poly or sh-09, 101, mc-202 and so on.

the one thing you can bet on though is that you'll get very close if not right on top of the sh-101 with a juno-60 since they're nearly the same synthesizer.