One-Synth-Challenge #66: ODsay by Elektrostudio (Keith303 Wins!)

[bjporter]

But once I clear off all the wav files for DJing that I never use...I might hit up those youtube videos on installing them side-by-side. Thx for the heads up!

You could also try the cheap JBridge - 32bit -> 32bit bridge with FL Studio. Supposed to be very very good: http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

[SirKen]

Here is a very early submission

https://soundcloud.com/sir_ken/the-odsay

Plugins Used:

Elektrostudio ODsay
Ambience
MEqualizer
MCompressor
ReaDelay
piz MidiNotestoCC
piz MidiPolyphony

I expect to be pretty busy for the rest of the month, so I wanted to submit something as soon as possible. When I have the time I will come back and update the number of instances I used. If I find a solution to ODsay crashing Reaper (x64) when I have more than N instances I might even expand the song itself

[z.prime]

+1 for reaper

So, I've used a handful of DAWs now for at completing at least one full-length track, I think I'm reasonably qualified to assess them... as it stands, I would probably pick Live! as my favorite of the bunch I've used, but not by far.

As a software developer and human being, I really like the Reaper / Cockos crew, though. Fair pricing and a bloat-free product that's really easy to use and the best performance of any DAW (read: you can run more plugins with it!) make it a great option for lots of people. These guys are seriously talented developers and I will probably give them $ for a copy of Reaper until the day they stop selling it or the day I die or they raise the price like crazy...

That said, the things Reaper could use work on:

• MIDI - the editing is decent, but just somehow a little clunkier/slower than other DAWs and I'm pretty sure responsible for most of the crashes I encounter, the recording timing is often iffy
• Automation - editing automation just needs some interaction improvements, various operations sometimes incorrectly split automation; tedious to use on the arrange view - e.g. show/hide, can be overcome by keystroke tweaks some
• Track FX chains - limited to a simple chain, often requires lots of tracks to do stacking

For me, inevitably, the automation issues in arrange coupled with the lack of more flexible fx chains leads to projects that are HUGE vertically - I have to scroll up/down for days to find a track in the mix sometimes!! Global show/hide automation + being able to have a nice FX chain like Bitwig / Live would solve this (actually a very bad problem). There are also some other features I'd like, but really aren't too much of a problem...

But, really, that's about it. EVERYTHING ELSE about it is awesome:

• Audio - it is built for audio: editing audio on arrange is CRAZY EASY. Chopping vocals, anything you want, really is way better than any other DAW
• Performance: it LITERALLY doubled the amount of plugins I could run simultaneously over Cubase. Make more music without drop-outs!!
• Arranging: Regions are AWESOME (except a couple issues with the automation), just work great for massive or small track arrangements. Just Shift-R to make a region from a loop, drag it around, ctrl-drag to copy! Done!
• Technical stuff: auto bridging 32 AND 64-bit plugins... no matter if you're running 32 or 64-bit Reaper!

Both good & bad category:

• Customizable: awesome!! ... but required... and if you lose your setup??? nice themes for it; a couple nice plugins that do some things with the UI - just do the right thing out of the box!
• Some people complain about the default plugins - there are a decent number of varying quality and usefulness, lacks a great EQ (there's reaFIR but it adds horrible latency); I'm actually glad they don't really spend much time on 'em - everyone has other plugins they prefer and so much free stuff out there

I very much encourage everyone to give REAPER a real try - use it for an OSC! It gives you 30 days with no restrictions (and then just continues to nag)!

If you do try reaper, however, remember these couple things:

• almost everything is available with just the mouse & some combination of Shift, Ctrl, Alt! Resizing, cutting, stretching, etc., etc.. Things really aren't hidden in the menus, it's really pretty intuitive.
• route anything anywhere: just drag the IO box from one track to another one or click it to edit the routings: you can route MIDI or Audio or both; it is AWESOME and enables you to do anything you want, albeit less conveniently than other DAWs sometimes (e.g. for plugin stacking, you often need multiple tracks because you want to apply EQ or other FX differently)

Anyway, I should just stop posting about it. I probably sound like a broken record.

Yay, Reaper!!!

[bjporter]

Dang, I mention Reaper... and and see this enthusiasm WOW... it's gotta be good. You guys are packing it on hard here...

[SirKen]

This synth is fun. I was fooling around with it and couldn't help myself but go for the one below.

https://soundcloud.com/sir_ken/2001-a-space-odsay

THose drums dude!!!!!!!! Is that odsy??

Yep. 3 Layers with individual compressors. MEqualizer, ReaDelay and Ambience (reverb) on the mix.

EDIT - Forgot to mention the EQ.

Unbelievable.

I wish it had 2 ADSR envelopes, so that I could use one for the LPF and one for the VCA. As things stand, I have to choose timbre or the articulation since AR envelope is generally too primitive to work with.

Then it wouldn't be a challenge

There is also the issue with the note velocity on Reaper. I am assuming this is a "feature" of the original ARP Odyssey.

The original arp odyssey didn't have a velocity/pressure sensitive keyboard or midi

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_ar ... yssey.html

Be interesting to see if Korg implement it in the new version, which I'm sure they will.

Well, until then, you can use piz MidiNotestoCC. You can assign the note velocity to a CC value which you can midi learn to the VCA mixer slider. This lets you modify the volume and add extra modulation through the velocity of the notes you are playing. Makes the patches very expressive and playable

[ImNotDedYet]

But once I clear off all the wav files for DJing that I never use...I might hit up those youtube videos on installing them side-by-side. Thx for the heads up!

You could also try the cheap JBridge - 32bit -> 32bit bridge with FL Studio. Supposed to be very very good: http://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

I researched the bridge. Enough people had issues with it that it scared me away from trying it. I'll survive w/ FL Studio on this one, but the effects that come with it suck!

[bjporter]

Here is a very early submission
...

Great!!!

Don't forget to share here: https://soundcloud.com/groups/kvr-one-synth-challenge

[artao]

A couple things real quick here:
Slight correction to z.prime regarding Reaper ...

... use it for an OSC! It gives you 30 days with no restrictions (and then just continues to nag)!

......... It's actually 60 days.
Minor correction, but there it is.

Onward then!! Questions ..
I'm having a bit of difficulty wrapping my mind around how S/H works. It does stand for "sample and hold" doesn't it? .. I get that I can mix 2 switchable sources, and adjust "lag" .. Okay ...
I don't really get what the "LFO Trig/Keyboard Trig" switch does or how I'd use it. Also, I don't really get how S/H affects the FM modulation of the two VCO's .. I mean, I hear that it does affect them, obviously. But I don't really get how it does that.
And then there's S/H affecting the VCF, in two possible ways. The S/H - LFO switch, and the Keyboard CV - S/H Mixer switch ... I particularly don't understand the latter.
Finally, there's the Ring Mod .. I've seen a few patches where neither VCO had any output volume, but the Ring Mod was cranked. .. So the Ring Mod itself can produce audio based upon inaudible inputs from the VCO's? Interesting.
Somewhat related, I've noticed that when ODsay is in Duophonic mode, that I need to have BOTH VCO's audible to actually get duophony. Or am I missing something.

OH!! One last thing I guess .... to the right of the keyboard. The "Mod" and "Rate" knobs .. what exactly are they controlling, and how? Again, I do hear changes when fiddling with them, but don't really get where those changes are coming from or why.

Thanks!! =D

[artao]

Been browsing that site that BK1 posted back on pg 1 of this thread .. http://www.arpodyssey.com/directory.html
It's got some great manuals and patching instructions.
SO! For anyone looking for some decent percussion sounds, try starting here. I tried it and tweaked it and came up with a few sounds I liked:
Roger Powell Patching Tutorial: Bass Drum
http://www.arpodyssey.com/Patches/rppat ... ch-22.html

[chilledpanda]

Been browsing that site that BK1 posted back on pg 1 of this thread .. http://www.arpodyssey.com/directory.html
It's got some great manuals and patching instructions.
SO! For anyone looking for some decent percussion sounds, try starting here. I tried it and tweaked it and came up with a few sounds I liked:
Roger Powell Patching Tutorial: Bass Drum
http://www.arpodyssey.com/Patches/rppat ... ch-22.html

http://www.arpodyssey.com/Patches/rppat ... torial.mp3 (cue cheesy 70s music) Hello and welcome to the world of electronic music

[chilledpanda]

damn double posting

[chilledpanda]

+1 for reaper

Anyway, I should just stop posting about it. I probably sound like a broken record.

Yay, Reaper!!!

Actually if you don't mind, I'd be interested in your thoughts on Bitwig, since you used it for OSC, especially on how you got on with Bitwig compared to Reaper. I do miss kinda miss the advantage of using a session view for generally quickly testing ideas, as I used to use Live when I first started.
Can just pm me rather than post here, if you have a spare minute to brain dump.

[z.prime]

... use it for an OSC! It gives you 30 days with no restrictions (and then just continues to nag)!

......... It's actually 60 days.

[artao]

Here's an interesting little experiment I've just been messing with.
I've got three free Arp Odyssey emulators: Elektrostudio ODsay (hereafter EO), Roberson Audio Oddy-free (RAO), and Synth School Odyssey (SSO).

So I ran the exact same patch in all of them. ONLY Osc 1 saw wave all the way open, using AR envelope with both at 0, and the VCA at 1/2.
EO and SSO sounded mostly the same, but RAO sounded ... different. Kinda "fatter" in a way, and certainly more unstable. WAY more unstable. Interesting, eh?
Next I cranked the Ring Mod(EDIT: not Resonance LOL) to max in the mixer, and closed all the oscillators. Here all three had very different sounds. Again, RAO sounded fatter and far more unstable, but more "ring mod-y". SSO seemed to, I don't know, lose something. It started sounding "steppy" if that makes sense. EO sounded stable but a bit thin, similar to SSO but more stable and smooth; but not as much like I'd expect ring mod to sound as RAO sounded.

So here's my question: Which of the three is the most accurate representation of an actual Arp Odyssey? It seems to me that it's the EO, since the oscillators are way more stable than RAO. However, EO maybe sounds a bit thin -- maybe. ... What do you think?

Certainly an interesting experiment to mess with, comparing the three. I'd say that I mostly prefer the sound of EO, even tho RAO sounds fatter; the oscillator just sounds too unstable with RAO. From what I can tell, the Odyssey had a pretty stable oscillator.

[SirKen]

Here is a very early submission
...

Great!!!

Don't forget to share here: https://soundcloud.com/groups/kvr-one-synth-challenge

I think I am going to add some more stuff to the track. Do I just delete the old one and share the new one when it's ready? As far as I know, I cannot replace the track with an updated one without a soundcloud pro account, right?