One Synth Challenge #76: Mantra Evo (Syntax Project Wins!)

[Taron]

One of my dearest friends has just jokingly asked me to make a little lullaby with this thing. One need not ask me twice, hahaha:
https://soundcloud.com/taronium/sleep-fine-my-love

But it's just a little silly snippit and has nothing to do with the OSC, except that it totally adheres to the rules, hahaha. All Mantra Evo, all my own patches from scratch and so on... although I did do a tiny fade out afterwards. Anyway, it's not my entry anyway!!!
It'll come in a moment... ...still pondering over some things.

[Xenobioz]

I doubt i can make it 64 bit, it seems to only support 32 bit.
Now i was able to save it as VST, but when i load it in Renoise the whole interface is gone, all is left is a lot of unlabeled sliders.
I thought i did exactly as the tutorial, but maybe i forgot something? Ah, well, spent the whole day with this thing now. Pretty happy with the result though, even though it lacks an interface.

Synthedit 1.2 can save as 64 bit, but it doesn't still work as well as 1.1. Also many old third party modules are only 32 bit. There are many new 64bit modules made all the time though. Just recently I think there might have been almost a hundred new 64bit modules released.

Did you use a demo version of SE? I think it doesn't save the GUI or something.

Would like to hear how that cymbal sounds.

[stone1]

One of my dearest friends has just jokingly asked me to make a little lullaby with this thing. One need not ask me twice, hahaha:
https://soundcloud.com/taronium/sleep-fine-my-love

But it's just a little silly snippit and has nothing to do with the OSC, except that it totally adheres to the rules, hahaha. All Mantra Evo, all my own patches from scratch and so on... although I did do a tiny fade out afterwards. Anyway, it's not my entry anyway!!!
It'll come in a moment... ...still pondering over some things.

So good! Would make a very competitive entry. Drums sound amazing! And very pleasant ditty with great synth sounds.

[Taron]

THANKS, Stone1! Oh, yeah, the drums I did for my OSC entry, actually, and the first lead is similar to what I made for it, too. I'm kind of thrilled by what the Mantra can spit out in terms of drums - and lead, actually!
My OSC piece "Mantrolls" is a far more wicked trip and I can imagine it may never do as well as something like this lullaby could, if I worked it out, but what I've got for us totally comes from my heart and I'm excited about it. I very much hope some of you will enjoy it, too.

I also trying really hard to improve my mixing, which won't show in the lullaby up there, but hopefully it does in my final track for here.

[doctorbob]

Uh, I really like the percussion a lot! Some nice patches, too.

Thanks ... it's a tricky synth, but one you start to "tame" it ... you can get some good sounds. Not always the ones you want, but nevertheless, quite good!

It gets a little chaotic

The chaos is quite deliberate ... many many tracks and motifs playing ... all in key and tuned/tuneful though

and the mid loudness feels pretty aggressive, kind of swallowing everything. But maybe it's just my "loudness envy", hahaha.... I yet have to figure out what I have to do to push stuff up properly. Ah well...

That's probably my 65 year old ears - too many loud concerts in ye olden days I'll get a scope on the stuff and maybe do a little more master EQ and see if I can "tame" those mids.

It's not like I wasn't using heavy compression, hmmm.... ah well.

It's not really too compressed ... I stuck comps on the bass tracks (5 of them!). And on one of the hat/snare tracks to get that extra "fizz". Most of the work was getting each track EQ'd to sit in the audio spectrum - and then also adding some movement to those more "static" sounds - a long held chord can get lost, so making it trundle around the stereo space a little allows the brain to pick it out and fit it into the overall sound.

Anyway, wicked track, doctorbob!

Thanks for the above, much appreciated, and so glad you enjoyed my little "ditty".

dB

[Taron]

You bet I did enjoy it!
You, I've got my main compression on the drums and bass, but also feed a few pad like sounds into it, to avoid them drowning the mix. I somehow just got inspired to consider sidechain compression, but it hasn't made it into any of my songs, yet.
Yeah, I've got a bunch of sounds wandering about the stereo field, hehehe, it's working wonders for sure. I generally try to choreograph the movement, too, sort of acting out a dance of some kind, or communicating certain ideas, especially in a duet like situation (confrontation, retreat, hugging, hahaha...that sort of stuff).

Anyway, soon I'll make my OSC entry official. It's already up, but I haven't shared it yet with the group as I'm still possible noodling around a little.

[doctorbob]

Thanks Taron - I have scoped the track and made some EQ and balance changes to tame some of the mid peaks, but to be honest, the power in the bands is pretty much constant, so it's probably down to the sounds I am using which makes it very "bright". But some sounds were just a tad bit too much in your face.

I think the "manic" section now is better - better balance of the 20 or so tracks mixed in there as well as some changes to the stereo placement - oh, so much to do and tweak.

I have also added FerricTDS into the master chain to "smooth" stuff as well before the Comp/Limiter.

Hope you like this NEW version better (download and play LOUD!)...

Cheers, and looking forward to your entry ...

dB

[TheBellows]

I doubt i can make it 64 bit, it seems to only support 32 bit.
Now i was able to save it as VST, but when i load it in Renoise the whole interface is gone, all is left is a lot of unlabeled sliders.
I thought i did exactly as the tutorial, but maybe i forgot something? Ah, well, spent the whole day with this thing now. Pretty happy with the result though, even though it lacks an interface.

Synthedit 1.2 can save as 64 bit, but it doesn't still work as well as 1.1. Also many old third party modules are only 32 bit. There are many new 64bit modules made all the time though. Just recently I think there might have been almost a hundred new 64bit modules released.

Did you use a demo version of SE? I think it doesn't save the GUI or something.

Would like to hear how that cymbal sounds.

I got it finished now, it has a GUI, but with DEMO written all over it. Still fully functional though. Also made a few presets, one with a cymbal like sound. Hope you'll enjoy it: http://www.mediafire.com/download/cpq2a ... 414/BB.zip

Edit: Here's a short demonstration of some of the sounds it can produce: https://archive.org/download/BBVSTiTest ... 20test.mp3

Taron: Wow, sounds great, guess i need to stop playing with synthedit and work on my track instead. Seems like i'm disqualified at the moment....

[TheBellows]

I uploaded a new mix (See original post: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 5#p6165496)
and changed both name and picture, hopefully no one is offended by it anymore.

[Taron]

Well, did you check your private messages? Maybe bj was writing you a pm already?
I do see that you use filters, but it's a tricky subject, because they also can just be EQs (peak with gain and Q or cutoffs to avoid energy outside of a desired frequency range(24.5k+ or 21hz-).
This synth has real fun producing those spikes, hehe.

Anyway, if that was a problem, I cannot imagine that nobody would let you know why you weren't added. Oh, have you properly shared your song with the soundcloud group, download enabled and all?
(Just troubleshooting)

[Meakaale]

Hello!

Here's my entry for this month! I hope you will enjoy it. This synth had some odd features but it turned out to be fun to use anyways. Thanks for all the votes and feedback last month.

https://soundcloud.com/meakaale/meakaal ... t-migraine

All sounds are made from init preset.

Track specs:

~20 Instances of Evo Mantra
DAW: FL Studio
DAW FX: Maximus, Fruity Reverb 1+2, Fruity Compressor, EQUO, Fruity Filter, Fruity Parametric EQ, Fruity Stereo enhancer, Fruity Peak controller.

[TheBellows]

Well, did you check your private messages? Maybe bj was writing you a pm already?
I do see that you use filters, but it's a tricky subject, because they also can just be EQs (peak with gain and Q or cutoffs to avoid energy outside of a desired frequency range(24.5k+ or 21hz-).
This synth has real fun producing those spikes, hehe.

Anyway, if that was a problem, I cannot imagine that nobody would let you know why you weren't added. Oh, have you properly shared your song with the soundcloud group, download enabled and all?
(Just troubleshooting)

I got a PM from BJ where he told me he liked the song and that i needed to add the soundcloud link to the post, which i did. Nothing else.
I changed the name and url now, so the old one wouldn't have worked anyway now. I reupped it so we'll see what happens.

[doctorbob]

I got a PM from BJ where he told me he liked the song and that i needed to add the soundcloud link to the post, which i did. Nothing else.
I changed the name and url now, so the old one wouldn't have worked anyway now. I reupped it so we'll see what happens.

You also need to add it to the Mantra Evo OSC Soundcloud group (not just post the link!). 3rd item along under the Soundcloud track, "Add to Group".

See the front page, "Here's how it works" item 3.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=439602

Forgive me if you know all this already.

dB

[alienoiz]

I had enough of this. The project beatassist.eu will be closed on the end of the month.
I guess is always funny to joke with one that never had one lesson of music or audio engeneering, sitting 3 years behind a PC trying to join knowledge in order to bring something up to himself and then just SHARE it on internet for those who might like and give value to his work.

This is not a question of beatassist.eu being a VSTi selling company cause its not, this was a personal project that i developed to fullfill my spare time. I was very happy for the things ive learnned but it seems i will not learn anything else here.

It is better to be ashamed (considering some of you) of sharing what i accomplished almost by my own, than to be happy and emotionaly disposed to continue learnning.

Now, besides one or two of you guys, who else made improvemments or shared info in order for me to get the synth working well?!! All just limited themselves to joke and point offensive criticism almost personal than rather to the synth.

I heard the entries to this month OSC that were published so far, i find them beatyfull, i cannot even see why you complain so much. The synth might suck a lot as you say, but what ive heard does not sucks at my ears nor inside my head. You make better music with this single synth than the one i make with my simple MiniNova synthesizer.

I didnt had dreams about this, thats for sure, but messing with SynthEdit and having a space to share what i do, sure was a joy. I guess i will continue to mess with SynthEdit but i will not share any of my creations.

It seems the wolves say i´m making the community worse than what it is, and there is no credit, just funny jokes.

Know what? you know and i believe in what you know so i´m out of this!

Regards and best tunes for you all,
Duarte V.

[pmj_rit]

I had to check out Synthedit, the app used to make the Mantra Evo, i like making lofi analog noise machines and stuff and i think making softsynths could be fun.
Synthedit was made in 1987 and the guy who made it claims that he's still improving it, though it still looks like something from Windows 3.1. Looking a bit deeper i found some familiar knobs. Yes, the knobs.

Now here is my question: How can someone in 2015 still hang on to these knobs? He has developed the software for 30 years and this is how it works?
I was a bit tempted to buy it when i read about it, but after i tried the demo i soon became more sceptical. I couldn't even figure out how to get sound out of it. This could have been so great, but it looks like it was outdated 15 years ago and that really puts me off. He's charging quite a bit of money for it too, so one would expect that he was doing some work to keep it updated, but it certainly doesn't look like it.

Does anyone know this software? I'd love to build my own synths, but i can't afford to throw money around, so is it worth it. I see some synth examples looks and sound good and with better knobs, so it should be possible to create, but is it actually possible to make these with no programming skills or expensive modules?

Hello everyone, after a long absence. I still visit the forum and the soundcloud groups now and then. Still busy with "other things" and not all musical unfortunately. It's great to see OSC is still going strong and inspiring creativity.

Anyway I feel moved to reply to you TheBellows. I believe Sweirk was also made with SynthEdit. It helped me, and others make some very interesting sounds and I learned a lot from using it. Also this whole thing is about free synths and effects. Doubtless there are criticisms that could be made of Swierk, or any of the many other SynthEdit synths around but I don't accept the description of it as a toy.