One Synth Challenge #68: Synth1 by Ichiro Toda

[Chris-S]

Maybe someone finds this usefull. Zorniko's unofficial Synth1 manual.
(Zorniko site is no longer available).

http://chris-s.bplaced.net/div/Synth1_v ... Ver2.1.pdf

[doctorbob]

Maybe someone finds this usefull. Zorniko's unofficial Synth1 manual.
(Original site is no longer available).

Yes, many thanks, really good to read in depth about the beast. Now I may just have to go and tweak some of my sounds - just when I thought my track was done and dusted, dammit.

dB the confuser.

[z.prime]

...just when I thought my track was done and dusted, dammit...

You. Are. Welcome.

-Z (the enlightener)

[ParticleRay]

Just finished up my submission. I'm mad I never played with this VST before. This time I chose not to use any preset sounds and start from ground zero as a bit of an extra challenge to myself. Ended up with one of my best pieces overall and am really pleased with the results.

https://soundcloud.com/particleray/part ... pha-osc-68

DAW: FLStudio 11

16x Instances of Synth1

DAW effects
3x Fruity Parametric EQ 2
1x Fruity Fast Dist
1x Fruity Compressor
1x Fruity Delay 2
1x Fruity Reverb 2 (used on send track)

Free VST Effects
2x TAL BitCrusher
1x 2RuleFilter (used on send track)
1x Volume Eleven (master)

[loris16148]

https://soundcloud.com/loris-solic/lori ... ght-affair

Loris DS - Midnight affair

I really had no inspiration for this song, I just placed a beat down and started adding melodies. Little overdriven on the low end as far as mixing is concerned. But I dont have a lot of time to spend on mixing it, if I do find some time I will reupload. I keep finding imperfections every time I listen. Wanted to do something a little different than usual, so I came up with this song. I would write a longer description but I got beans on the stove, Ill add stuff later, gotta run...pce....

42 instances of Synth 1 in Reaper

FX used

MEqalizer
ReaXcomp
ReaEQ
TalDubII
TalVerbII
MstereoExpander
ReaComp
Frohmage
Limiter No6

[Chris-S]

Nice, the clap is a little too present IMHO.

[doctorbob]

Nice, the clap is a little too present IMHO.

It's a good clap, but yes, perhaps back a tad into the mix ...

dB

[H-man]

i also wondered about the asterisks and first thing that came to mind was: "nice, that dev is so obliging to tag the most popular parameters with an asterisk for a more convenient search experience !"

Yeah did cross my mind. Given the vintage and pedigree of this synth I would say you are right. It's a nice touch, especially when the parameter lists are huge (...and the devs use different names to those in the GUI )

but whatever it actually stands for, the whole filter envelope and even LFO activity (when routed to the filter) is set out of order as soon as you start automating the cutoff or the amount controls of filter EG or LFO.

You know that rather fancy manual above ^^^ (props to the author ) does state the the LFO is "Free-Running" unless you select the KEY button ...this could account for some of the issue

Also, in testing, I have found that setting host-sync for the LFO to (2), (4), (8) etc. ensures that the LFO wave form ( Ramp for example) re-starts when you expect it to ( As opposed to (1)/3 ...unless that is what you are going for).

Anyways just thoughts, mostly I want to sort this out myself as I find the envelops as snappy-as-all-get-out on this thing which is perfect for some intense rhythmic stuff

[loris16148]

Nice, the clap is a little too present IMHO.

sure is. ill look into it.

[Pulse Width Modulation]

I'm trying a new technique with this synth. I'm approaching some sounds almost like you would i creating a multi-sampled instrument in a sampler. For things like an electric piano, I am going to use several different instances of Synth 1, all split into specific key ranges on the keyboard and played together as one instrument. So each instanceof Synth 1would be designed to cover about an octave of the piano, and then I use my DAW to filter the MIDI input to he specific key range. So far it's working pretty good on the e-piano, and I might try the same thing on a choral sound! I'm only looking at 2-3 instances, so it's pretty simple, but using the technique, it's also conceivable to have something ambitious, like an 88-instance grand piano that would have each instance cover only one key of the instrument! Synth 1's EQ section seems to really compliment this, since you can boost a lot of emphasis in the midrange and give it a more acoustic sound, and then tweak that mid-range frequency to better match the specific keyboard range you are programming it for. I think the only thing that would have helped this more would be keyboard tracking on Synth 1 to modulate more than the filter cutoff. If you can use keyboard tracking to modulate things like pulse width modulation or FM amount, you can really shape and extend the realism of the sound up and down the keyboard. I used this a lot on the PolyIblit OSC for orchestral sounds, and I really miss it here, but Synth 1 also has some great unique abilities of it's own, like the EQ, chorus and phaser, and filter saturation! I'm really enjoying it!

[Pulse Width Modulation]

I'm trying a new technique with this synth. I'm approaching some sounds almost like you would i creating a multi-sampled instrument in a sampler. For things like an electric piano, I am going to use several different instances of Synth 1, all split into specific key ranges on the keyboard and played together as one instrument. So each instanceof Synth 1would be designed to cover about an octave of the piano, and then I use my DAW to filter the MIDI input to he specific key range. So far it's working pretty good on the e-piano, and I might try the same thing on a choral sound! I'm only looking at 2-3 instances, so it's pretty simple, but using the technique, it's also conceivable to have something ambitious, like an 88-instance grand piano that would have each instance cover only one key of the instrument! Synth 1's EQ section seems to really compliment this, since you can boost a lot of emphasis in the midrange and give it a more acoustic sound, and then tweak that mid-range frequency to better match the specific keyboard range you are programming it for. I think the only thing that would have helped this more would be keyboard tracking on Synth 1 to modulate more than the filter cutoff. If you can use keyboard tracking to modulate things like pulse width modulation or FM amount, you can really shape and extend the realism of the sound up and down the keyboard. I used this a lot on the PolyIblit OSC for orchestral sounds, and I really miss it here, but Synth 1 also has some great unique abilities of it's own, like the EQ, chorus and phaser, and filter saturation! I'm really enjoying it!

[RichardSemper]

I'm trying a new technique with this synth. I'm approaching some sounds almost like you would i creating a multi-sampled instrument in a sampler. For things like an electric piano, I am going to use several different instances of Synth 1, all split into specific key ranges on the keyboard and played together as one instrument. So each instanceof Synth 1would be designed to cover about an octave of the piano, and then I use my DAW to filter the MIDI input to he specific key range.

That's a really interesting approach. Something similar occured to me while programming an acoustic guitar patch, as its only good for about one octave before its necessary to change some parameters to keep the realism. How do you get the DAW to filter the midi input to key range?

[z.prime]

I'm trying a new technique with this synth. I'm approaching some sounds almost like you would i creating a multi-sampled instrument in a sampler. For things like an electric piano, I am going to use several different instances of Synth 1, all split into specific key ranges on the keyboard and played together as one instrument. So each instanceof Synth 1would be designed to cover about an octave of the piano, and then I use my DAW to filter the MIDI input to he specific key range.

That's a really interesting approach. Something similar occured to me while programming an acoustic guitar patch, as its only good for about one octave before its necessary to change some parameters to keep the realism. How do you get the DAW to filter the midi input to key range?

piz midi plugins have pretty much everything you need for that. http://www.thepiz.org/plugins/?p=pizmidi (site seems to be down; you can download them here: https://code.google.com/p/pizmidi/downloads/list)

[RichardSemper]

piz midi plugins have pretty much everything you need for that. http://www.thepiz.org/plugins/?p=pizmidi (site seems to be down; you can download them here: https://code.google.com/p/pizmidi/downloads/list)

Thanks Z for the tip. Lotsa stuff there

[EDGEK8D]

Has anyone gotten this to work in Logic 9 or X? I can't. I was excited to see that there was now an AU version, but only 32-bit, so I tried to load it u in Logic 9 instead of X, bummer, but no biggie.

Attached is the error I keep getting

Screen Shot 2014-10-12 at 2.03.06 PM.png

It says that the developer name must have one no-lower case letter.....can I change this myself?

I wanna play

Any help appreciated.