Repro-5

[AnX]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

[pdxindy]

Off-topic:

Urs, have you ever considered doing an Andromeda A6? That would be fantastic also!

Sure, we've considered a lot... pretty much all of those 50+ analogue synths we have. But you know... Repro-1 was one year for the whole team, Repro-5 is going to be almost another year for half the team.

It's much faster doing original stuff where no-one has to pull his hair out over schematics.

I would rather have original new synths at a faster development rate than more emulations.

Sure, i also rather have original new synths. Repro-1 and Monark are the only emulations that i have. But since some emulations have been done by U-He and some have been talked about (The Cat), out of all the synths out there i think that the Andromeda is something that is really worth doing. Great synth with a lot of features and has not been done yet, i think.

Having said that, this was just an off-topic question.
Looking forward to Repro-5 and specially Zebra 3!

I love Repro-1... and I'm sure what has been learned in making such a world class emulation will inform future development.

As for the Andromeda, I think the name would sell, but as for the synth itself, I don't think it has such an iconic sound that it is so important to emulate it. It is 16 voices, and super flexible as a sound engine and that is more its strength than raw tone.

[pdxindy]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Bazille

[AnX]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Nothing's 100% original, of course. We've got a long history of making instruments. Electronic instruments, less so, but we've found motifs (pun intended) that we like, so you'll see them over and over again. So, a Prophet 5 emulation might not seem original at first glance, but Urs already showed the per voice distortion thing that puts it in totally new territory.

All well and good (for us) but its still basically a subtractive synth.

"It" (any synth) might be subtractive/fm/wavetable etc etc, but its nothing new or original.

FX are not original. Mixing various types of synthesis and fx isnt original.

Variations on a theme.

Stuff like Alchemy/Zebra/Dune2 et all all offer us combinations in software we could only dream of (affording if it existed) 30 years ago, but they are not original at a basic level

Lots of amazing creative stuff out there by Urs and others, im certainly not saying otherwise

[AnX]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Bazille

Phase Distortion? Nah.

[Cinebient]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Waverazor, since it uses a "new" kind of synthesis.....but i don´t know if i like the sound of it yet
Sure we already have million synths which share the same ground.
But where you still can get very different things is the GUI, workflow, performance.
I personally wait still for new amazing things about physical modeling.
But if that´s all too boring try something else and stop using synths

[EvilDragon]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Bazille

Phase Distortion? Nah.

Bazille is a LOT more than just PD. It's a "digital modular" and as such is original and one of a kind.

[pdxindy]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Bazille

Phase Distortion? Nah.

The question was about original synths (and specifically used as a term meaning not an emulation)... not original methods of synthesis...

Bazille is a fresh original synth... nothing quite like it out there and it is not emulating anything in particular. Phonem is another original synth.

If you want to get into a pedantic argument about the meaning of 'original', not doubt you can find peeps to engage with you.

[ghettosynth]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Emulations prob sell way more, gotta pay the bills...

How much originality is perceived is a matter of perspective, but, with respect to Urs' comment it simply has to do with being directly based off of a hardware design vs being something that does not provide an exact basis for comparison.

Nobody can say that Diva doesn't sound exactly like a minimoog when you do X because it isn't a minimoog clone. That level of "originality" is all that one needs to free themselves from the burden of an exact clone.

Synths like Bazille and ACE don't even really do exact component models of hardware synths, per se, so nobody expects, e.g., the filters to behave exactly like any particular analogue or the oscillators to act like a Casio.

I don't think that one needs to go all the way to a new synthesis method to claim an original design for a synthesizer. That's like saying the Prius isn't an original design because we've had cars with four wheels for decades.

[AnX]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Bazille

Phase Distortion? Nah.

Bazille is a LOT more than just PD. It's a "digital modular" and as such is original and one of a kind.

You mean like ACE or Softube etc.

[ghettosynth]

Bazille is a LOT more than just PD. It's a "digital modular" and as such is original and one of a kind.

You mean like ACE or Softube etc.

No, the operative word, "digital" is overloaded in that sentence, it's meant to refer to digital vs virtual analog, not that the synths are implemented using digital logic.

[spunkmuffin]

I'm almost as exited to see the new text search as to try Repro-5 itself!

I just tried it for the first time. It needs some polishing, but I think it is pretty spectacular. You can search for "Vintage* #mono" and you'll get all "mono" tagged presets with "Vintage" in the name or the description. A right-click lets you save this to a Smart Folder which automatically keeps up-to-date, say, when you install a new soundset.

Also, we have multiple colours for favourites (but we kept it to one at a time). Each colour has its own folder. So yep, Favourites Folders are finally coming as well.

Wow, it's a database! Superpower text search.

Saving a search in the form of a virtual folder is a great idea, and Smart Folder is a great name.

Favourites & colours! I like colours.

[pdxindy]

I'm almost as exited to see the new text search as to try Repro-5 itself!

I just tried it for the first time. It needs some polishing, but I think it is pretty spectacular. You can search for "Vintage* #mono" and you'll get all "mono" tagged presets with "Vintage" in the name or the description. A right-click lets you save this to a Smart Folder which automatically keeps up-to-date, say, when you install a new soundset.

Also, we have multiple colours for favourites (but we kept it to one at a time). Each colour has its own folder. So yep, Favourites Folders are finally coming as well.

Wow, it's a database! Superpower text search.

Saving a search in the form of a virtual folder is a great idea, and Smart Folder is a great name.

Favourites & colours! I like colours.

Sounds useful...

[Toxie]

Is there such a thing as an 'original' synth these days?

Yes...

Any examples?

Waverazor, since it uses a "new" kind of synthesis.....but i don´t know if i like the sound of it yet
Sure we already have million synths which share the same ground.
But where you still can get very different things is the GUI, workflow, performance.
I personally wait still for new amazing things about physical modeling.
But if that´s all too boring try something else and stop using synths

Roland actually came up with Waverazor's approach in the early '90s on the D-70. It was called Differential Loop Modulation (DLM) and it allowed you to alter a wave's start and end points to create a unique waveform. Sounded super digital and not too many famous sounds came of it -- not a very pretty sound. From first listens, Waverazor's sound is also very digital and reminiscent of DLM. But it is aggressive and fresh-sounding, compared to more heavily-used subtractive, FM, etc., and this to say recycled ideas can still be good when combined with other elements/features.

[noiseboyuk]

Our concept is indeed very complex, but mainly also because I wanted to keep things based on a folder structure. So any search is always within the scope of the currently chosen folder and its subdirectories.

Also, in Repro-1 or Diva, if you right-click the save button and "tag this preset", you'll see how painless our implementation is. It's nearly tab free and it's nothing like some implementations we've seen elsewhere, in the sense that the tags we have always stay at the same place. There's nothing dynamic in this - i.e. one does not need to search for tags -, such that tagging becomes a matter of muscle memory. It'll become easier to find with the advent of the tag browser.

(and hey, maybe we find the time to add an init button to our stuff as well)

This all sounds great, very much looking forward to this. Good luck next week with the integration.