KVR Audio

trimph1 · Post by **trimph1** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:24 am

For around $200 I would buy something else.

HunterKiller · Post by **HunterKiller** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:12 am

chk071 wrote:Monark sounds amazing, and has the snappiest envelopes i've ever witnessed on a soft synth. The only reason i got rid of it was that i don't really have a use for such a limited, monophonic synth, and the distortion on the filter was also a tad too much sometimes. But i have yet to come along a soft synth which seemed to do the analog thing better to my ears than Monark. I've demo'd Diva right after, and sorry, not the same class. I know i might get bashed for saying that, but compared, Diva sounded like yet another soft synth to me. It's surely is good, but Monark is just excellent at what it does.

Yeah I had the same feeling doing the exact same test. Btw, did you ever compare Monark and TimewARP2600?

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:05 pm

HunterKiller wrote:Btw, did you ever compare Monark and TimewARP2600?

???!!!

fluffy_little_something · Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:15 pm

pdxindy wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Well, isn't that what the different mono modes are there for? With various note priority and retrigger options?
Yes, they are there for that... but there is more to it. How does the filter behave when you use the techniques jancivil is talking about. How does the envelope behave? And how do they interact with each other? It's a quite complex set of potentially non-linear relationships that requires significant cpu to emulate (most older digital synths didn't even attempt it).

A real analog filter can have such a lovely character in how it jumps when you do a mono 'hammer-on' (which is essentially a super fast modulation). Tweak the env while you are playing mono notes and there is quite a bit of tonal diversity/nuance. And analog circuits have no sample rate so (near) immediate changes have a dynamic coherent vitality that also takes cpu to emulate.

I suppose many developers of poly synths have studied that mono behavior as well when they implemented their mono modes. I suppose many of those programmers have explored Minimoogs and other classic synths.

In Sylenth I miss a combined retrigger + last note priority mono mode. UA2 has it, one of the few things I like about it, I wish I could just take it from the latter and stuff it into the former

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:09 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Well, isn't that what the different mono modes are there for? With various note priority and retrigger options?
Yes, they are there for that... but there is more to it. How does the filter behave when you use the techniques jancivil is talking about. How does the envelope behave? And how do they interact with each other? It's a quite complex set of potentially non-linear relationships that requires significant cpu to emulate (most older digital synths didn't even attempt it).
I suppose many developers of poly synths have studied that mono behavior as well when they implemented their mono modes. I suppose many of those programmers have explored Minimoogs and other classic synths.

So, essentially you don't have any real interest in the matter, these general suppositions suffice for you. I will say that note priority and <retrigger options> vis a vis the design and the factors now put to you on can't have been thought-through very far or an essential difference will tend to have occurred to you. But if you don't want to understand, that's your business. I suppose it would take a much better technical writer than myself to bring this home to you as undeniable fact, and even then...

fluffy_little_something · Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:17 pm

What's your problem? All I am saying is that some developers certainly know about all those behaviors of mono synths as well and have tried to implement them as well, at least partially.
There is nothing magical about it, it is just physics that can be analyzed and then emulated, just like developers have managed to emulate other aspects of hw synths, some to perfection.

jbuonacc · Post by **jbuonacc** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:28 pm

f'ing people always want every synth to do everything. if Monark were polyphonic, you'd be bitching that it didn't have supersaws, unison, fx, and who knows what else... then they ruin every thread with their complaining about it, again and again for years.

get a life. there's plenty of synths out there, if you're not able to grasp the idea of specific synths for specific uses we don't want to hear about it anymore.

fluffy_little_something · Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:36 pm

I don't see anyone complaining about it, just mentioning it

After all, both Minimonsta and Oddity2 are optionally polyphonic as well...

In the case of Monark it is probably a good thing that it is monophonic only. When it is so hungry, entire chords would be a problem for many computers.

trimph1 · Post by **trimph1** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:37 pm

Next. 256 note polyphonic synths plugins.

beely · Post by **beely** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:57 pm

trimph1 wrote:Next. 256 note polyphonic synths plugins.

The Korg Wavestation is 256-voice polyphonic.
Though it really needs them, as one standard performance *can* use up to 256-voices for a single note... ( ! )

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:53 pm

jbuonacc wrote:f'ing people always want every synth to do everything. if Monark were polyphonic, you'd be bitching that it didn't have supersaws, unison, fx, and who knows what else... then they ruin every thread with their complaining about it, again and again for years.

Rather untrue i, for one, tend to complain that most current synth have already all (and even more) the features i'd love to complain about their absence...

- terribly frustrating !

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:59 pm

beely wrote:
trimph1 wrote:Next. 256 note polyphonic synths plugins.
The Korg Wavestation is 256-voice polyphonic.

So is Terratec Komplexer, Waldorf Largo, and probably more plugins.

trimph1 · Post by **trimph1** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:02 pm

chk071 wrote:
beely wrote:
trimph1 wrote:Next. 256 note polyphonic synths plugins.
The Korg Wavestation is 256-voice polyphonic.
So is Terratec Komplexer, Waldorf Largo, and probably more plugins.

OK...maybe go for 512 voice polyphonic then.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:15 pm

Been making a patch with Dune CM the other day, and frankly, when you use unison, and do a pad sound with long release times, it's pretty easy to run out of the 72 max voices... so, the moar the better.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 12:30 am

fluffy_little_something wrote:What's your problem? All I am saying is that some developers certainly know about all those behaviors of mono synths as well and have tried to implement them as well, at least partially.
There is nothing magical about it, it is just physics that can be analyzed and then emulated, just like developers have managed to emulate other aspects of hw synths, some to perfection.

Well, I notice that as reductive, so I suppose it is more complex than you will entertain. "I suppose many developers of poly synths have studied that..." appears to be argumentative ("There is nothing magical about it" surely is), like you've doubled down on your refusal (of the point of a mono-only design). So, the discussion becomes circular, rather than an exchange.

Minimonsta is 11 years old and it still sounds like the best VA to me.