Kjaerhus Synth coming up

[nutsadamus]

I have two questions while trying the demo:
- Does anyone other like me have short noise bursts when switching presets ?
- Is this normal that the first preset of each category is silent ?

Same here.

Also, I like the sound of this synth but it's crashing Ext standalone several times while editing various parameters.

[Kriminal]

Wasnt impressed with the presets in this, but will have a mess around to see what it can really do later.

[AdmiralQuality]

I have two questions while trying the demo:
- Does anyone other like me have short noise bursts when switching presets ?
- Is this normal that the first preset of each category is silent ?

Yes, experienced both of those things as well.

- I'd guess the first point you mention is by design. If no sound is playing, you don't hear the glitch. And as the synth is in the process of switching from one set of parameters to another, who's to say what it should sound like? Really, I think what's happening is it's taking a short moment to draw new waveforms for the oscillators and you're hearing the wave lookup tables as they're being filled in. I don't see this as a big deal, very few classic synths could switch smoothly from one sound to another, there was usually a glitch of some kind.


- I also noticed weird stuff while jumping categories.

- Another thing I noticed but didn't really spend enough time with it to know if it was because I was missing something or if it's a bug. I created a sound with no harmonics at all, and an open low pass filter with no resonance, and when I played I heard a weird buzzing where I'd expect to hear nothing at all. I did this experiment exactly because I was hearing this weird buzz in all the sounds, particularly in the low end. But I couldn't make it go away, or make a sound that was "empty".

Again, could be just because I haven't spent much time with it yet. Dunno.

[TotcProductions]

Wasnt impressed with the presets in this, but will have a mess around to see what it can really do later.

That's because the pro-sounds presets aren't in there yet.

peace

frank.

[TotcProductions]

Here Krim, and anyone else who's still reading, are a few mp3's of presets pro-sounds made for Spectra. They will be in a future release. These are only a handfull of a total 128, so keep in mind if you don't like what you're hearing here, there will be more to listen to. Also keep in mind that my keyboard playing sux sometimes.

Stream/Download them as follows:

BANJO

DX EPIANO

DARK STRING

JAZZ GUITAR IN SPACE

FAT BASS

PSEUDO VOCODER

SUBWOOFER BOMB

TOUGH PEAKS BASS

UNSTABLE MOOG PWM

Hope someone enjoys them.

EDIT: BY the way, all these mp3's are completely un-proccessed.
No external fx or dynamics processing was used at all.

peace

frank

[emdot_ambient]

Here Krim, and anyone else who's still reading, are a few mp3's of presets pro-sounds made for Spectra.

Cool! Great presets. I've been anxious to hear what others came up with. This was the first soft synth I set out to do any real sound design on, though I've done plenty of sound design for myself in the past on hardware synths and samplers. It was an interesting experience.

[TotcProductions]

Here Krim, and anyone else who's still reading, are a few mp3's of presets pro-sounds made for Spectra.

Cool! Great presets. I've been anxious to hear what others came up with. This was the first soft synth I set out to do any real sound design on, though I've done plenty of sound design for myself in the past on hardware synths and samplers. It was an interesting experience.

Thanx Emdot.

I tried to focus mainly on recreating real instruments. There are also some stunning woodwinds (clarinet, oboe, saxaphone, etc.), lots of acoustic and electric bass guitars, and of course, plenty of analog and digital synth recreations.

Peace!

Frank

[emdot_ambient]

I'm rather inhibited by the fact that this would be the most expensive synth I've ever bought (if I do), even on discount.

You kids crack me up. I spent about $400 on my first synthesizer, a second hand ARP Axxe monosynth, back in 1977. In the early '80's I bought a low-end Roland synth (the JX-3P) for about $1,300. That's about the same as spending $2,466 in 2004 dollars. And nowadays people are inhibited about spending $140 for a synth that will do, well, let's just say a LOT more than a Roland JX-3P!

[ianweb123]

... well, let's just say a LOT more than a Roland JX-3P!

Blimey, that will get the analog junkies all steamed up

[nuisance sonore]

I'm rather inhibited by the fact that this would be the most expensive synth I've ever bought (if I do), even on discount.

You kids crack me up. I spent about $400 on my first synthesizer, a second hand ARP Axxe monosynth, back in 1977. In the early '80's I bought a low-end Roland synth (the JX-3P) for about $1,300. That's about the same as spending $2,466 in 2004 dollars. And nowadays people are inhibited about spending $140 for a synth that will do, well, let's just say a LOT more than a Roland JX-3P!

Not really a fair comparaison thought. The hardware synths you mention are self standing, you just need to hook them up to an amp and your ready to go. Soft synths need a whole lot of extra hardware and software (as in extra expenses) before you can get any sound off of them.

[emdot_ambient]

Thanx Emdot.
I tried to focus mainly on recreating real instruments. There are also some stunning woodwinds (clarinet, oboe, saxaphone, etc.), lots of acoustic and electric bass guitars, and of course, plenty of analog and digital synth recreations.

I didn't really have a focus to start with . . . I don't really have a technical undertanding enough to do acoustic instrument emulations, though I came up with a pretty convincing handbell . . . but I ended up working a lot on purely electronic, mostly FM type sounds. I did a collection of FM bell sounds that I really like. Also I found Spectra does really good string synth emulations, sounds like the Crumar Performer and ARP Solina. So I did several of those. And I did a lot of synth leads with several trying to do similar presets to the ARP Pro Soloist (Oboe, Clarinet, Flute, Basson, English Horn). Those ended up being my favorite lead sounds.

Another thing Spectra kept doing was Indian style string drones. And, of course, trippy pads. I found myself naturally drawn toward creating sounds that Eno might have used in his ambient works.

The deeper you go in this synth, the more you realize how potent it is.

[TotcProductions]

The deeper you go in this synth, the more you realize how potent it is.

Agreed

[emdot_ambient]

I'm rather inhibited by the fact that this would be the most expensive synth I've ever bought (if I do), even on discount.

You kids crack me up. I spent about $400 on my first synthesizer, a second hand ARP Axxe monosynth, back in 1977. In the early '80's I bought a low-end Roland synth (the JX-3P) for about $1,300. That's about the same as spending $2,466 in 2004 dollars. And nowadays people are inhibited about spending $140 for a synth that will do, well, let's just say a LOT more than a Roland JX-3P!

Not really a fair comparaison thought. The hardware synths you mention are self standing, you just need to hook them up to an amp and your ready to go. Soft synths need a whole lot of extra hardware and software (as in extra expenses) before you can get any sound off of them.

Yeah, true. But you don't have to buy all the expensive extra hardware for every synth. Buy it once and you're done. So my DAW cost me about $4,500. If I have 150 soft synths, which in today's market isn't really outrageous considering all the freebies, then the "expensive" hardware I had to buy to use them only cost an extra $30 per synth.

The point is that the whole mindset of what is expensive has completely changed over the years.

Put it another way, if you play online games, it would not be unusual to pay $50 for the software and another $15 per month for the online fee. If you play for a year that's $230. So Spectra's cost still doesn't seem enough to be inhibited about to me.

[pw]

Another thing Spectra kept doing was Indian style string drones. And, of course, trippy pads.

Yes, This is where I see some great potential with Spectra! Beautiful resonant drones that sound crisp and clear.

[emdot_ambient]

... well, let's just say a LOT more than a Roland JX-3P!

Blimey, that will get the analog junkies all steamed up

Actually, while programming presets I found that Spectra is one of the only VSTi's I've found that will do convincing JX-3P sounds. There was a Metal setting in the oscillator sync section (IIRC) of the JX-3P that produced a unique sound. Spectra's digital nature and analog sounding filters is really able to pull that sound off.

I might have to sit down and do some A/B trials and test that statement.