One Synth Challenge #82: BR808 (Zendorf Wins!)

[bjporter]

Voting Closed

Welcome to the 82nd One Synth Challenge! It's a friendly music competition where you can win cool prizes but most importantly, meet amazing musicians, and learn a lot about mixing, sound design, and more!


BR808 is an all round powerful synth with modulation matrix, effects, and full range of oscillators






Prizes:
(Would you like to be a donator? Contact me via PM or go ahead and post your intended donation here! Get a cool mention on our donator wall of honor)


MuTools : (First come first serve) MuLab 6 + MUX Modular 6 bundle


KV331 Audio : Synthmaster


Dmitry Sches : Diversion


Tritik : 1 tkDelay Plugin


Guda Audio : Euterpe XL


Wusik : 1 bundle of Wusik 8000, Wusik Station 8, and Wusik EVE v3


Abstract Cats Music : AbiTron Bank for Synthmaster (Soon to be released!)


Squaredheads : Nora Arpeggiator plugin


JRR Shop : UVI: Mello


satYatunes : One of any commercial product


stardustmedia : Professional studio mix down and mastering on one track of your choosing (See Disclaimer)


MaxSynths : Free choice of either Crisalys, Cryologic, Teutonic Tension or aPiano


Ghostwave Audio : Any two soundsets of Choice


Twolegs Toneworks : Any one soundset


The Unfinished : Any two soundsets of Choice


Rob Lee Music : A soundset for either: Sylenth1, Predator, Largo, Blofeld, PPGV3 or Dune


Luftrum : One soundset free of choice.


Ridan: FM8 soundbank "Niteshade"
haunting soundscapes, atmospheric chords, layered pads, anamorphic guitars,
brass and woodwind-esque, rhythmic/melodic sequences, and macabre sound effects.


Kreativ Sound: RAW Bundle
(RAW Bass, RAW Drums, RAW TranSID, RAW Textures)


Aiyn Zahev Sounds: 2 Soundsets of choice
(Uplifting Trance Presets)


Studio 13.37: Pro audio studio on a USB stick


Pooya Payvar (Stonail) : 1 custom made Max for [Ableton] Live: controller, midi or audio effect


Mulperi : 1 Soundbank of Choice


Dream Audio Tools : 1 Indie Fingers bundle (Indie Fingers volumes One and Two)


Bjulin : Inspire soundset for Zebra²


LeapIntoTheVoid : Enchantment Of Absynth Trilogy


Bluff Munkey - 2 soundsets of choice


Solidtrax : 1 Soundset of choice


Any other offers of prizes will be greatly appreciated.


Questions? Comments? Concerns? You want some love? Just post here in this thread


Want to try out your skills in other contests / competitions /challenges?

• Indaba - Has a mix of popular and indie artists with various contests like remixing and song writing. Some people from OSC have had success here, including Irion Da Ronin.
• KVR Mix Challenge (see stickies) - Who can mix a song the best (Without adding extra recordings /musical additions)? Each person starts out with the same stems.
• Music Cafe (KVR, see stickies) - A thematic monthly competition. Use recording, real instruments, synths and samples.
• RemixComps - An aggregator for remix contests from a variety of artists and genres (mostly EDM) - indie and popular.
• Soundevotion (SDCOMPO) Competition - Even longer running than the OSC, the SDCOMPO is even more niche in that you must use a tracker, and set of specific effects. Great community. OSC participant OrganicIO has been a regular there.

[wagtunes]

Oh well, looks like I'm really going to have to sit this one out.

Tried loading it up in Cubase 7 and no GUI. None.

I have other DAWs but don't know how to use them and don't have the time to learn a new one, not that I even know if it'll work in any of them. And one is a demo version of MuLab which can only use 5 tracks anyway.

Shame, this really looked like a cool synth.

I guess I could try JBridge but with no GUI, I don't hold out much hope.

** EDIT ** One last thing before anybody attempts this. You WILL need a manual to use this. I can't find one and after loading it in MuLab (it did finally load) I can't make heads or tails of it. Nothing I do seems to have much effect other than when I change waveforms. I realize that I'm an idiot when it comes to using synths but not even Madrona Labs stuff has me this perplexed.

Anyway, good luck to those brave enough to tackle this one.

I'm outa here.

[z.prime]

Looks like a nice flexible synth. I'm envious!

[wagtunes]

Looks like a nice flexible synth. I'm envious!

Don't be. It's the least intuitive thing I've ever attempted to use. Sure, with a manual, I could, but just opening this thing up the only thing I've been able to do is change the waveform from the default sine to something else. Nothing I do with the envelopes or anything else seems to have any effect. So there must be some kind of routing or something you have to do. Either that, or it's not working in MuLab.

Either way, I'm stumped and even if I could get it working in Cubase, I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it.

[ontrackp]

I'm disappointed this is Win only. December is the month that I probably have the most free time for an OSC project!

[wagtunes]

Okay, I really have to ask. How was it decided to make this the current OSC? Did anybody even download and use this synth? I found an old thread (about 4 years old) that seems to discuss all the same problems that I'm finding with this thing, so I am not alone.

It does specifically say in the thread that it's for Windows X86 only so it's not going to work on 64 bit machines. So not only does this exclude all the non Windows users, it also excludes all the 64 bit users as well.

Add to that the complexity of this thing and I can't help but wonder if we're even going to hit 20 submissions this month.

And the developer, who signed up in 2004, hasn't been here in ages. Does he even know we're using this thing?

Sorry, but I really think KVR dropped the ball with this one.

Just my opinion, for whatever it's worth.

[HitEmTrue]

I'm disappointed this is Win only. December is the month that I probably have the most free time for an OSC project!

me too...on both counts.

[HitEmTrue]

oops, somehow it doubled posted...

[bjporter]

Okay, I really have to ask. How was it decided to make this the current OSC? Did anybody even download and use this synth? I found an old thread (about 4 years old) that seems to discuss all the same problems that I'm finding with t

You can run x86 things just fine on 64 bit machines BTW. I've been doing that since 2011, as many other have been.

And also, BTW, this is a challenge, and the synths are all chosen from suggestions by you guys on the discussion forum or by PM. Please suggest something. This kind of complaining is not very constructive to be honest.

Also, the OSC is not run by KVR.

[wagtunes]

Okay, I really have to ask. How was it decided to make this the current OSC? Did anybody even download and use this synth? I found an old thread (about 4 years old) that seems to discuss all the same problems that I'm finding with t

You can run x86 things just fine on 64 bit machines BTW. I've been doing that since 2011, as many other have been.

And also, BTW, this is a challenge, and the synths are all chosen from suggestions by you guys on the discussion forum or by PM. Please suggest something. This kind of complaining is not very constructive to be honest.

Also, the OSC is not run by KVR.

Then I'd like to know who suggested this. I never even heard of this synth until today and I've downloaded 100s of free VSTs over the last couple of years.

What's not constructive is hosting a synth that the majority of the people here either can't use or can't figure out.

But okay, I'll be constructive. Can somebody here point me to a manual so I can figure this thing out?

[Touch The Universe]

Phase Modulation
Ring Modulation
Amplitude Modulation
Additive
Subtractive
Frequency Modulation
Phase Mul Modulation
Frequency Mul Modulation

[bjporter]

I never even heard of this synth until today and I've downloaded 100s of free VSTs over the last couple of years.

What's not constructive is hosting a synth that the majority of the people here either can't use or can't figure out.

But okay, I'll be constructive. Can somebody here point me to a manual so I can figure this thing out?

I haven't heard of it ether - mainly because it didn't pick up much steam. V'ger - who helped organize the OSC before me, took a keen interest in BR808 back in 2011 (Not the person who suggested it though). The key thing here is that BR808 used to be commercial - the BR404's big brother.

So we're working with an old commercial synth.

This should explain a few things (comment from dev on his site):

The parameters in BR4034 and BR808 are automatable over MIDI controllers through the modulation matrix, and in Picatune2 over the pattern envelopes. And yeah, a manual would be nice, but I’m a coder (and a musician), not a documentation writer So I’ll maybe search somebody then, who’ll write so a such manual.

[wagtunes]

Well, then I'm afraid I have no choice but to bow out this month because this thing is beyond me.

Shame, because it looks like it had a lot of potential.

[ghettosynth]

I just wanted to report that I found the sliders to control the screen color immediately intuitive.

[Touch The Universe]

After a few minutes -- this thing is complex but pleasantly so. So many options and quite easy to get good sounds. Love it!! Thanks for bringing yet another beauty to my attention. Wag- you have to activate the adsr or envelope in the modulation matrix. For the env (multi-point), be sure to click the active button to use. Nice sounds so far!!

Are there presets?