KVR Audio

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 8:56 pm

kensuguro wrote:btw, is it generally ok to talk about the contest synth in this thread? In creating the patches for the contest, I got the feeling that it was difficult to set up MIDI input as a modulator.. it's possible, but was a bit confusing since all "MIDI" stuff is in its own popup. So was wondering what people's thoughts were.

Sure! I complain about 'em all the time

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 8:57 pm

kensuguro wrote:btw, is it generally ok to talk about the contest synth in this thread? In creating the patches for the contest, I got the feeling that it was difficult to set up MIDI input as a modulator.. it's possible, but was a bit confusing since all "MIDI" stuff is in its own popup. So was wondering what people's thoughts were.

heck yeah... this IS the contest thread, so contest thread away!

bh9090 · Post by **bh9090** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 9:01 pm

kensuguro wrote:btw, is it generally ok to talk about the contest synth in this thread? In creating the patches for the contest, I got the feeling that it was difficult to set up MIDI input as a modulator.. it's possible, but was a bit confusing since all "MIDI" stuff is in its own popup. So was wondering what people's thoughts were.

I've done a number of these now, and a number of less intuitive ones (VOPM / BR808) but I have to say, this thing was very aggravating to work with. But hey, everyone is different and with a proper mindset, maybe some people would love it. It's very clinical. It's just hard to find everything.

doctorbob · Post by **doctorbob** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:43 pm

bh9090 wrote: ... but I have to say, this thing was very aggravating to work with. But hey, everyone is different and with a proper mindset, maybe some people would love it. It's very clinical. It's just hard to find everything.

I agree there. Maybe it's just my "old" mindset, and just having turned 66, it just gets harder to remember where everything is

... now where did I put that mouse?

dB

ontrackp · Post by **ontrackp** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:10 pm

bh9090 wrote:
kensuguro wrote:btw, is it generally ok to talk about the contest synth in this thread? In creating the patches for the contest, I got the feeling that it was difficult to set up MIDI input as a modulator.. it's possible, but was a bit confusing since all "MIDI" stuff is in its own popup. So was wondering what people's thoughts were.
I've done a number of these now, and a number of less intuitive ones (VOPM / BR808) but I have to say, this thing was very aggravating to work with. But hey, everyone is different and with a proper mindset, maybe some people would love it. It's very clinical. It's just hard to find everything.

Setting up midi modulations was a pain to figure out, but even though the interface is a little clumsy, the modulation possibilities were very powerful.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 6:01 am

ok, so synth ranting is kosher.

The problem I had with mapping MIDI controls was that beyond mapping, there was very little I could do with it. Mapping the range was great, but esp for things like velocity, you can't scale it or add curves to it. I guess that's asking a lot, but with all the other rather detailed stuff this MPowerSynth does, it seems like it's not a stretch.

Also, I don't think I saw "note number" as a MIDI control source. For whatever reason, the filters have a "by note" section, that does key scaling, but other than that, I couldn't figure out how to key scale a param. This would be very useful in controlling OSC shape. Being able to add curve and offset to this would also make this very powerful since some changes in instrument behavior suddenly kick in at a particular key range. I guess that's a very "acoustic" kind of behavior, but anyway. (ex: Rhodes only really "barks" down low)

One other sad thing I couldn't figure out was how to modulate the ABCD morph. I figured out that it morphed between patches assigned to the ABCD slots, but I couldn't find any morph position related mod target. I couldn't find it as a morph target or a MIDI controller target. (can't joystick it?) I mean, how useful's a morph feature if it's mainly static?

In general though, I was a little overwhelmed by the depth of the synth. My impression was that it was somewhat in the vein of Zebra. Lots of fiddling with the waveform itself, through shape or through spectral content. Bulk of the character created there and almost just fine tuned in the filter stage. The effects setup is also extremely robust. This was my first time doing OSC and I was expecting the monthly synths to be cute tiny ones... but MPowerSynth was the exact opposite. Feels almost similar to Alchemy in the breadth it's trying to cover. (different genre I know, but big scale stuff) I'm surprised I'd never heard of MPowerSynth. I feel it's still not ergonomic enough, but it's definitely up there with the likes of Alchemy, Zebra, and Synthmaster in terms of versatility. (basically modular synth in a bag)

I was like, "well, this is a lot to learn in a short while. I could just do standard synth stuff, but ideally, I need to take advantage of MPowerSynth's unique features" Which was hard, because I typically don't like getting too tweaky with the waveforms. (my Zebra is gathering dust) The difficulty with these "big" synths is that it takes too much time to make patches compared to say, a Prophet clone. The Prophet probably won't make world changing sounds (well, it did, when it came out) but it can be set up in like 5 min, but a modern big ass synth can take days to program. Results are much more versatile, but still... it's difficult to compose AND create patches on the fly. Sort of messes up my routine. I'm sure speed comes with practice but still, seems order of magnitude more effort relatively speaking.

ontrackp · Post by **ontrackp** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:05 pm

kensuguro wrote: it's difficult to compose AND create patches on the fly. Sort of messes up my routine. I'm sure speed comes with practice but still, seems order of magnitude more effort relatively speaking.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the OSC! Just add mixing and mastering to the equation, and then having to vote for 50 songs, 1/2 of which will blow you away because they're so good!

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 1:55 am

BTW has anyone figured out a way to modulate ABCD morph? Or is there really no way?

kokotte · Post by **kokotte** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 6:59 am

no way.
you can find a lot of info in the Melda forum(atKVR)

kokotte · Post by **kokotte** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 3:28 pm

my first entry:
KVR One Synth Challenge #83: MPowerSynth
54 MPS, 1 reacomp for sidechain, 1 TDRnova, 1 Mlimiter and 5 Mutility

https://soundcloud.com/kokotteonline/su ... powersynth

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 3:55 pm

kokotte wrote:54 MPS

That's the spirit! A man of my own heart.

singplumb · Post by **singplumb** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:08 pm

Can't wait for next month--how does the voting happen, I looked around but I'm still not clear on how it's accomplished...through soundcloud or kvr and is voting somewhat private?

Thanks singplumb aka JackKetch
P.S Xylentify is crazy good!

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:18 pm

singplumb wrote:Can't wait for next month--how does the voting happen, I looked around but I'm still not clear on how it's accomplished...through soundcloud or kvr and is voting somewhat private? Thanks singplumb aka JackKetch
P.S Xylentify is crazy good!

You'll get a link to the voting app at the start of next month.

singplumb · Post by **singplumb** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:24 pm

Thanks!

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:26 pm

kokotte, wow that is some kick ass tracking!

One Synth Challenge #83: MPowerSynth by MeldaProduction (Z.Prime Wins!)