One Synth Challenge #92: Digits 2 by Extent of the Jam (z.prime wins!)

[rghvdberg]

The gui wasn't showing up in Linux and crashed the DAW.
Got a tip via irc (#winehq) to disable the d2d1 dll in winecfg. Now it works!
Bonus, gui of OTT works too.

[Taron]

omg... ...for the first time I decided to look for OTT vst because of your post, Rob. Pfffff...that is immense, what a brutal little bugger that vst is!
Funny, because Digits, of all synths, is very, very dirty and even has a dirty dial, hahaha, and something like OTT really, really pushes the dirt to the top!

Anyway, I'm already having some fun with this thing (Digits)!

[doctorbob]

awesome. the Casio CZ synths are some of my all time favorite! This is my kind of contest. A great challenge.

Hehe - got rid of my CZ1000 not so long ago. It could make some awesome sounds. Even the MIDI worked pretty well too!

Looking forward to getting into the guts of this one ...

dB

[Yeager]

Regardless of phase reset unticking itself, the oscillator's phases are still reseting for me which is fine by me.. maybe its just a GUI bug.

I think so too , same goes with the sin/cos reverting to sin even though it's cos

[Taron]

...and flanger, too. All checkboxes have troubles, though, it seems it's really just the gui?!

[jasinski]

awesome. the Casio CZ synths are some of my all time favorite! This is my kind of contest. A great challenge.

Hehe - got rid of my CZ1000 not so long ago. It could make some awesome sounds. Even the MIDI worked pretty well too!

Looking forward to getting into the guts of this one ...

dB

I've found this synth is not like the CZ architecture at all.

[Taron]

Guess some people might think that, because it only does waveshaping, not really having filters, I think. Still gets some crazy sounds. I'm sure you'll like it, too!

[jasinski]

I didn't say that I don't like it

[rghvdberg]

Taron gonna do wubbz and drops!

[Taron]

Hoooh, that's A GREAT idea!
...perfect opportunity to make a fool out of myself, because I'd have no idea what I'm doing! ...I like the challenge, let me try!

[574X]

What an incredibly fun synth! The workflow is top tier and the unique parameters that I’m not familiar with somehow help my get creative juices flowing.

You guys are on point with the sound design. Not sure if anybody mentioned snares but I usually use FM or distorted squares with some noise.
I like to shoot for 200hz while playing the keyboard as a solid starting point.

You might enjoy these stax of snarey patches I made for you guys.

Digits Synth Pack of Snares - 574X.rar

Some can even be toms or bass drums. On pc, just extract the folder to Documents > Extent of the Jam > Digits > Patches

As a drummer, I’d also suggest adding a very small amount of high-passed reverb to emulate that Steve Albini live tone, or you can add a very small amount of the built-in delay.

I've noticed that a gate plugin or silence automation is important because the synth generates a lot of noise at idle that you'll be able to hear if you have multiple compression stages.

[Guenon]

I've noticed that a gate plugin or silence automation is important because the synth generates a lot of noise at idle that you'll be able to hear if you have multiple compression stages.

And on the other hand, if there's a need for some nice hiss, that's the cleanest way to get pure noise out of this thing . Push up the dirt knob in the fx section, set the tone to your liking and then raise the gain in your daw by something like 30+ dB. Add volume automation --> you now have a pure noise component for layering and filling a suitable sound nicely.

[version782]

This vst does not seem to work with reapers "send all keyboard input to virtual midi keyboard" option, does anyone here use this feature? When I click the synth it takes focus away and I can't play midi notes unless I click the keyboard again, which makes editing the synth laborious (with just a computer keyboard)

[doctorbob]

This vst does not seem to work with reapers "send all keyboard input to virtual midi keyboard" option, does anyone here use this feature? When I click the synth it takes focus away and I can't play midi notes unless I click the keyboard again, which makes editing the synth laborious (with just a computer keyboard)

Just tried this with Reaper v5.25, works as it should I can play the vkb on the computer keypad, move the Digits GUI around, change values etc, all works like a charm ... must be something else wrong in your setup somewhere ...

dB

[Frostline]

This vst does not seem to work with reapers "send all keyboard input to virtual midi keyboard" option, does anyone here use this feature? When I click the synth it takes focus away and I can't play midi notes unless I click the keyboard again, which makes editing the synth laborious (with just a computer keyboard)

Are you using 64 bit Reaper? If so it somewhat makes sense to me that the issue you are having might occur. I could see that way the 32 bit bridge works it could cause problems.
Have you tried just recording a measure or two of midi(or draw it in the piano roll) with the notes and rhythm you want, set Reaper to solo and loop that section and then adjusting the sound in Digits as the pattern you wrote loops? That is the way I use most of the time when trying to make sounds since I can't play in any consistent pattern/rhythm while also trying to make mouse adjustments on various knobs of the VSTi.