One Synth Challenge #75: PG-8X (Jasinski Wins!)

[bjporter]

A bunch of good ideas. Just to remind everyone I think the spirit of why the rules became what they are is to

1. limit any effect that sounded like it could be some kind of Synth modulation or setting. So ring modulation, pitch modulation, various types of panning / unison settings and modulation, and so forth. As for distortion, it was more or less to keep the timbre of the synth sounding truer to the original, which is why we say not to push it too hard. This should be more obvious in the rules, and hopefully we can define the gray line better.

2. Another part of the spirit is being a challenge. Every synth has some kind of challenge it will bring that is different to each person. Having to deal with crazy synths, or CPU problems is all in the purview of being a challenge. Even having another computer to load a mac or PC synth could be within this.

Maybe we can make the rules more streamlined and obvious. I'll start a draft this weekend, and then we can discuss it more in the discussion forum later.

There will always be gray lines no matter what, so even if we decide to change the rules, there will still be things people will want changing, or having gripes with.

[Mojo42]

Yes, but that belongs to the point: Simply use the opportunity to create something different when joining OSC. As a general conclusion we can say that OSC is not open for each style of music, because some doesn`t work without all this effects, but I don`t see a big problem if one is simply a bit flexible and open for other styles too.

I comply


I had similar feeling in the beginning. Too restrictive, too many rules, bla bla bla...
Finally I jumped into the ice cold glacier water coming out of the sauna. And here I am, having a lot of fun, and probably learning a lot of new stuff.

I believe everybody should go outside of his comfort zone, otherwise he'll be stuck forever Nothing in this reality is made 100% for your satisfaction anyway. In short: Quit whining and start having fun.

Signed

One can use effects to create harmony can they not?

It doesn`t matters much if they can or not, fact is that you may not use it at OSC and so you have to find different ways to express yourself with music.

To be honest, I put the question forward as a sort of philosophical curve ball because it sounded like you were implying some sort of superiority with your statement about harmony, going back to basic principles and not relying on '1000's of effects'. Harmony is but one small part of the grand scheme of 'music' and, significantly, harmony is not excluded through the use of effects. Much of my favourite organised noise has very little in the way of harmony going on. And, I don't personally differentiate between an effect and an instrument too much when I'm composing - I just see it all as one big modular organism that can be pushed and pulled in different directions whether that's hitting notes on a keyboard or tweaking knobs on a delay.

Okay, okay. I agree. But I hope that the sense of what I wished to say originally became neverthless clear.

Well, 36 years of frustration finally came to a head this week so my apologies to everyone for my jackass behavior. No excuses, moving on.

Oh don`t worry much about this. OSC would be incredible boring without the outrages and the all the drama

Your track sound good by the way. Very modern

Concerning the grey lines: Rather grey lines than too much rigid rules. In my opinion it is perfect as it is and for the case that I feel unsure I can post my track and simply ask if the use of effects is still tolerable.

[psmacmur]

One aspect of OSC I've grown to quite like is that the "spirit" rules can be enforced by voters, rather than draconian disqualification. If it's a grey area, make it a guideline, that sort of thing. In fact, maybe the rules should have a parallel voting guidelines draft that might start with, for example, Jasinski's excellent 5 point post from earlier (in another thread, maybe Dexed?).

I believe CM had an article late in 2014 about network rendering for audio. That would indeed be an interesting technical challenge.

2. Another part of the spirit is being a challenge. Every synth has some kind of challenge it will bring that is different to each person. Having to deal with crazy synths, or CPU problems is all in the purview of being a challenge. Even having another computer to load a mac or PC synth could be within this.

Maybe we can make the rules more streamlined and obvious. I'll start a draft this weekend, and then we can discuss it more in the discussion forum later.

There will always be gray lines no matter what, so even if we decide to change the rules, there will still be things people will want changing, or having gripes with.

[Skelpolu]

Concerning the grey lines: Rather grey lines than too much rigid rules. In my opinion it is perfect as it is and for the case that I feel unsure I can post my track and simply ask if the use of effects is still tolerable.

Agreed. Best to just go for it and double check by posting it here - Nobody complained about my submission, I've written down the uses of my FX along the way, got nothing to hide.

In fact, I am providing you guys with some Presets now:

• 2-parter Kick-Drum
• House Organ
• Tremolo Noise Synth (Percussive)
• Deep Chorus Pad

Whether or not these presets are of use for you guys is up to you,
just thought I might add some of my favorites from my track.

[mehum]

I just impulse ordered these, so expect some sick drumming (in that it will literally make you sick) if they arrive in time!

http://aerodrums.com

[wagtunes]

I just impulse ordered these, so expect some sick drumming (in that it will literally make you sick) if they arrive in time!

http://aerodrums.com

Are these at all DAW compatible or are they stand alone only?

[mehum]

I just impulse ordered these, so expect some sick drumming (in that it will literally make you sick) if they arrive in time!

http://aerodrums.com

Are these at all DAW compatible or are they stand alone only?

They should work as a Midi controller as well as standalone.

[wagtunes]

I just impulse ordered these, so expect some sick drumming (in that it will literally make you sick) if they arrive in time!

http://aerodrums.com

Are these at all DAW compatible or are they stand alone only?

They should work as a Midi controller as well as standalone.

So I guess if you wanted to use them with something like, say, Battery, you'd have to map it just as you would your keyboard to each drum sound.

[mehum]

I just impulse ordered these, so expect some sick drumming (in that it will literally make you sick) if they arrive in time!

http://aerodrums.com

Are these at all DAW compatible or are they stand alone only?

They should work as a Midi controller as well as standalone.

So I guess if you wanted to use them with something like, say, Battery, you'd have to map it just as you would your keyboard to each drum sound.

Seems like they provide mappings for some common drum samplers but that's the general idea, yes.
I will try and set it up in Reaper with some Midi-filtering and be able to play the drum sounds from PG8X on the fly.
Amazon says it may arrive at the end of next week...

[Mojo42]

Have you all already recognized that you can click twice on the buttons for the key mode??? This changes the sound dramatically. It happened just by accident in my case. Oh and be careful with the use of the LFO`s I have never heard so many "fart" sounds and "wahwah effects" like I did in the case of PG-8X

But I`m in love with some funk music from the 70`s where wahwah bass was used and I actually could make one pretty easily with PG-8X, that`s cool

Here is an example of wahwah bass, it`s cool you should try (the first 40 seconds there is not much to hear at this video apart from a strange, silent sound, skip that or wait):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofq2mc8_EpU

[bjporter]

New Prize : stardustmedia professional mixing and mastering!




Also


Check out the Mix Challenge #10 on the Production Techniques Sub - the song this month is H-man. The Mix Challenge gives you a chance to use your mixing skills and win cool stuff

Link to his song: https://soundcloud.com/hehirman/h-man-smoke-em-out

[H-man]

Hi all,

When the guys from the Mix Challenge asked if I would like to share a track for their competition I was pretty excited ....which in turn gave way to apprehension and anxiety It honestly feels like having your homework graded

Still, I figured that it would be a good insight for others to have a look at what goes into an OSC submission, and for us OSC'ers to try our hand at mixing with an opportunity to learn from the Gurus. At the very least you can break out all those fancy commercial FX plug-ins that have been gathering dust (I know some of mine have) and apply them liberally for a change.

I actually participated in the first two of these Mix competitions and while I didn't do very well, it certainly gave me a clear picture of just how much I had failed to grasp, which is sometimes just what we need

[tatsy]

hi, i might tweak this track later if it gets accepted

https://soundcloud.com/tatsava/pg8x-2_2

i felt like doing something diferent so here it is.... ha! have a good evening


**********
EDIT - i've renamed the track

i use (so far):
6 PG-8X

all cubase native effects:

delays, reverbs, eq, compressors

4 distortion effects (3 quadrafuzz +1 DaTube)----(and 1 BassAmp) hope this is within the rules, neither of these is overdistorting (changing) the sound imo
i've tryed to used |"subtle" enhancing effects| without changing the characteristic of the synth sound
*******************

[Gamma-UT]

One aspect of OSC I've grown to quite like is that the "spirit" rules can be enforced by voters, rather than draconian disqualification. If it's a grey area, make it a guideline, that sort of thing.

The big problem with this is that the voter doesn't necessarily know how a particular sound was achieved and I think it works against the newer entrants, which is where I think some of the comments about it being a bit of an insiders' stitch-up have come from. It can seem that some stalwarts get away with a bit more rule-bending than others.

There are several tracks in the current voting where I'm thinking it can't be done without a diode clipper or some other obvious distortion and therefore has strayed into altering the timbre beyond the spirit of the rules...or maybe it's genius sound design through layering. That's a big difference in how it could be scored but it's not something that I want to delve deeply into while voting.

Given that flanging and chorus are reasonably simple to emulate within a DAW, I'd be inclined to say either: use distortion and these other effects as you see fit and not even bother with the "too much" rule; or go back to the older much more stripped-down format of "nothing shall touch the timbre" and accept that there are some genres or track ideas that aren't going to come off. I don't have a strong opinion either way but I think the current situation is not stable and will lead to ill feeling that disrupts an otherwise good-natured contest.

Then again, I don't enter very often, so...

[psmacmur]

The big problem with this is that the voter doesn't necessarily know how a particular sound was achieved and I think it works against the newer entrants, which is where I think some of the comments about it being a bit of an insiders' stitch-up have come from. It can seem that some stalwarts get away with a bit more rule-bending than others.

You have a very good point there. As a noob, I was afraid to touch distortion and filters, and would in fact turn filters off if they existed on e.g. a delay. And my tracks sucked. Eventually, I saw a track with blatant bitcrusher use make it to the top 5 so I started using distortion (though either for saturation or as a send effect) and now I filter all the things (via EQ). Much nicer mixes and somewhat improved scores. So yeah: black & white rules are much better for new entrants, and we do get a fair number of those each month, which is great and should be encouraged.