KVR Audio

Laxplanet · Post by **Laxplanet** » Mon May 09, 2016 8:32 am

ATN69 wrote:
DruMunkey wrote:
ATN69 wrote:After one hour tweaking the so called "snare" I only managed to get something like a poor and cheap version of a Kraftwerk snare ..layering and reverb would for sure have given me a better result but let's face it, all though Podolski is a great synth it will never be a great drum machine ..so I just accepted the fact.
I'm looking at this (an electronic music in general) as "f**k it... It's not a snare. Why does it have to sound like a snare?" The main point is that there's a rhythmic sound that occupies the same frequency spectrum.
Yup! Good Point. Kraftwerk, Jean-Michelle Jarre, etc, had many snare sounds in their early years that actually did not sound like a snare at all.

I have more of a rim tap type sound happening. Using the click to ad punch to the attack seems to work quite nicely.

rghvdberg · Post by **rghvdberg** » Mon May 09, 2016 9:11 am

people submitting whole songs and all I got so far is this

https://soundcloud.com/rghvdberg/osc87- ... -rghvdberg

finally getting the sound I was searching for
kick is 3 layers - 1 sub, 1 body and 1 transient
snare is 2; top sizzle and bottom 'tom' like
clap is basically a short noisy cluster of notes played 3 times 'around' the beat

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Mon May 09, 2016 10:36 am

Very nice, Rob!

I must say, though, without wanting to bitch around, but I'm not as thrilled about Podolski as I thought I'd be. I remember having played with the previous version years ago and felt it was a good asset. But it is really not a very musical synth, because of various troubles. My main beef is with the filter, which I just can't deal with. The sound is mysteriously empty, if you go for anything but lowpass and it's damn near impossible to tune it, least of all intuitively.
I'm fairly certain I found out everything there is to know about how to design sounds with it, but the limitations given don't quite satisfy me in terms of sounds you can achieve with them. Compared to, say, Sinnah, for example, which appears to have half the controls, yet, you can get much greater control over the musicality of the sound, spectrum and tuning aspects, Podolski is surprisingly disappointing to me.
Maybe I'll find the secret behind what might work, but it seems to be a really flat thing thus far... kinda "meh".

Anyway, maybe that makes the challenge fascinating in a different way!

Laxplanet · Post by **Laxplanet** » Mon May 09, 2016 11:27 am

moviemovies1 wrote:oh wow im doing this again ok all right.

Introvert

DAW: FL Studio 12.2

13 instances of Podolski

Effects:
Fruity Limiter (FL plugin)
Fruity parametric EQ 2 (FL plugin)
Maximus (FL plugin)
Ambience (VST)

hahaha this was fun as always, i should do more oscs.

This is cool

overhishead · Post by **overhishead** » Mon May 09, 2016 11:53 am

I've wanted to use Podolski and for that matter Zebralette many times, but I've always ran into problems getting the sound I wanted. I always end up reaching for Charlatan and Synth1 instead. I think Uhe is a really great software maker, but there is a kind of 'glass ceiling' between ending up with a dull sound and reaching nirvana for me. There are always some sort of obfuscation or esoteric hindrance for me. I've tried all their synths. Easy to drift off topic though, good luck with the contest everybody!

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:02 pm

Isn't it maddening?! You can virtually swear it's brilliant programming, super solid, mighty clean, carefully crafted and all that, but... sort of... without soul. It's like the spirit is missing, something in the way it processes that steals the desirable frequencies away or pushes the
"undesirables". I feel the exact same way. Zebra should be one of the best v-synths ever written, but... it just doesn't work for me.

Anyway, I'm not giving up and am taking on the challenge, though with an actual headache (argh).

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:07 pm

Taron wrote:Isn't it maddening?! You can virtually swear it's brilliant programming, super solid, mighty clean, carefully crafted and all that, but... sort of... without soul. It's like the spirit is missing, something in the way it processes that steals the desirable frequencies away or pushes the
"undesirables". I feel the exact same way. Zebra should be one of the best v-synths ever written, but... it just doesn't work for me.

Anyway, I'm not giving up and am taking on the challenge, though with an actual headache (argh).

Think of it as a challenge for yourself. If someone gave you one single oscillator and a LP filter and nothing else, the question is that how far you could take it and make music out of it

..I am sure it will be great

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:21 pm

Hehe, I have ended everyone of my comments, agreeing with that!

I think, we're kinda spoiled with wacky, but amazing synths. It's just a curiously different thing to be confronted with the exact opposite?

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:30 pm

Taron wrote:Hehe, I have ended everyone of my comments, agreeing with that!
I think, we're kinda spoiled with wacky, but amazing synths. It's just a curiously different thing to be confronted with the exact opposite?

It is so easy to let yourself be spoiled. And then I remember my first Moog back in 1979 with the 2 osc's, 1 filter, sliders, no FX, no ADSR (just attack and decay) and duophonic at best. And forget about saving patches. We had patch sheets. And good luck perfectly recreating a patch with inexact knob and slider movements. And my ARPs (AXXE, Odyssey) were no better.

We've come a long way, and yes, we're spoiled rotten.

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:33 pm

My first synth ever was a Korg MS20

..Podolski is a bloody miracle feature wise compared to that

..but I miss my old MS20. We had a lot of fun together

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Mon May 09, 2016 12:50 pm

ATN69 wrote:My first synth ever was a Korg MS20 ..Podolski is a bloody miracle feature wise compared to that ..but I miss my old MS20. We had a lot of fun together

Best filters ever made. And the emulation by Korg is dead 100% on the money. I can't tell the difference.

bjporter · Post by **bjporter** » Mon May 09, 2016 2:00 pm

Jazzaria wrote:https://soundcloud.com/jazzaria/redundant-robot

Reaper with 10 instances of Podolski
FX: ReaEQ, ReaXcomp

wow what a trip!

Dragonsongz · Post by **Dragonsongz** » Mon May 09, 2016 2:08 pm

rghvdberg wrote:people submitting whole songs and all I got so far is this

https://soundcloud.com/rghvdberg/osc87- ... -rghvdberg

finally getting the sound I was searching for
kick is 3 layers - 1 sub, 1 body and 1 transient
snare is 2; top sizzle and bottom 'tom' like
clap is basically a short noisy cluster of notes played 3 times 'around' the beat

And your 15 second loop sounds miles better than my 4 minute song XD

Seriously though, good work

zippy731 · Post by **zippy731** » Mon May 09, 2016 4:41 pm

Enjoying using Podolski.

I agree with prior comments.. this is a far more conventional synth than Sinnah. And sound is a bit "twangy" vs the organic soundscape that was Sinnah. I guess I just need to tweak the music I'm writing to suit Podolski's strengths.

The delay and chorus are allowing for some interesting music capabilities, and I'm very impressed with the arp.. quick and easy and I think I've found my new acid bass engine!

Unfortunately, work is getting in the way of my music making. Darn real life!

-Z

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Mon May 09, 2016 5:39 pm

Yeah, that's a bit my extra-trouble, allowing myself to go for a Podolski track. I'm sure most of us always try to wrestle a synth at least somewhat our way, simply featuring its character, if possible or even necessary (remember that trollish synth...Mantra Evo, HA, that was it!)...this synth would automatically sound like itself, hahaha, but it had a ton of character for sure (still terrible

)

I still have a Moog Prodigy (with extra osc), yet, my first was Korg M1 (still my favorite keyboard, but its temporarily dead

). Got a bunch of racks Roland JV series, but my favorite synth ever was Ensoniq ESQ-1, seriously. That sound and the editing made me feel some sincere love, as weird as this may come across, needless to mention the pure joy of playing. So, yeah, any vst has a hard time living up to those sensations, seriously!

One Synth Challenge #87: Podolski by U-he (Jasinski Wins!)