What modern synthesizer would you like to see emulated in software?

[Michael L]

... and here's Morton Subotnick describing how to use the "Multi-Dimensional Kinesthetic Input" for a Buchla going into Ableton, at the Red Bull Music Academy:

[Urs]

Hehe, I tried to like Morton Subotnick's work, mainly because Tony Rolando always mentions him, but I find it hard to access. I keep trying though. The sound is pristine, I really like the atmosphere he sets. Much of it is very pleasant, but I guess I'm more into repetitive structures. Nonetheless, every now and then within a 15 minute piece there's a minute or two which I find jaw dropping.

@Wags: No worries, a bit more than a year ago I wouldn't have known a Buchla synthesizer had I had one in front of me. All I knew was "it sounds like a bongo", which I didn't find appealing. Pretty much exactly a year ago during the Superbooth event in Berlin, I attended some performances which triggered my interest. One of those was this performance on a Make Noise system by Robert Lowe, who also samples his voice in realtime:



A few months later I added JAWS to Repro-1 - which is a stompbox style effect incorporating two typical Buchla-style modules: Wavefolder and Function Generator. There you go.

[Urs]

Interesting foray into modulars and west coast synthesis.

But I guess the market is going to dictate where things go in the modern synth world for now.

If you look at the developments in the Eurorack format, it seems that West Coast has become a serious market. When you sort modules by popularity on modulargrid.net it seems that Make Noise dominates this thing, with the first standard VCO and Filter coming up after like 40 mostly buchla-style modules and a whole bunch of ADSR envelopes. Moog Mother is up there, but it takes some time until the first transistor ladder pops up.

Not saying that West Coast is all better and that, but I'm a bit surprised how little influx there is in the plug-in world. Reaktor Blocks indeed has a mouthwatering selection (and seems to be utterly successful), but I can't yet comprehend how it's supposed to be interacted with. Will check it out.

[spunkmuffin]

I knew nothing about synths at all before late 2013. However I think now if you have internet access and Youtube you have no excuse.

My personal excuse for buying more softsynths than I need is that I would be spending many times more on hardware. I like to watch demonstration videos of modular stuff. 2 of my favourites are...


This thing is HUGE Can somebody cook up a quick PC version please?


And this. Love the way it looks. Love the way it sounds.

[Michael L]

I'm more into repetitive structures.

Well there you go-- I dislike repetition! But what I liked about Morton's talk is the central role of his controller to fulfil his "intention" to quickly and easily explore the many continua between notes and timbres. That goes hand-in-hand with the problem of notation of those hardware synth sounds in performance (and Subotnick was involved that exploration too). So perhaps software emulations of modern hardware should emulate more than just the circuits??

[egbert101]

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[Turello]

Korg Oasys...

[egbert101]

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[Hanz Meyzer]

Korg radias! Most misunderstood, underrated VA ever with the best oscs and waveshaping ever :





(though I like the ex-radias extension for m3 much more, since it uses the filters from m3)

[goldenanalog]

(...) - Just another reminder why I sometimes hate this place so much.

Lol! Please don't take any of it too seriously, wagtunes! This place is supposed to be primarily educational plug-in fun, but what a mixed bag it all is, indeed -

My name - goldenanalog - came from the single best 'purchase' that I ever made in my life - which got me into analog in a big way -

A music store that I used to frequent traded me their Oberheim 4-voice (which needed a little work - that they ended up paying for) otherwise in really good shape, for my pair of powered Yamaha speakers! Zero dollars outlay on my part, other then what I had into the speakers.

I had had a couple of analog synths in the past - one I owned & sold; one on trial which I wound up returning) but nothing like the FVS-1 - that was a whole 'nother level of synthesis.

All this is to say that it was pure luck - right place/right time - that got me access to golden analog - that FVS-1 was the sh!t -

And in spite if the fact that there are indeed some really good people that hang out here - present company included - its still a good idea to step away every now and then, and take a vacation from your problems - maybe go sailing, like Bob does:

[goldenanalog]

I'd like to see that Roland V-synth done good

- but I also agree with you, Hanz - the Korg Radias is awesome!

[egbert101]

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[Urs]

Ok, Reaktor Blocks are depressingly good. They're the equivalent of a late harvest. Very sweet.

I guess one can get over the missing patch cables if one just keeps working with it.

Might spend some more time with it, it's certainly as much a benchmark as Softube for that kind of thing.

[.jon]

I like the Aalto GUI and the synth in general... unique with excellent sound quality... but Aalto is not semi-modular. The signal path is fixed. It is a fixed architecture synth with wired modulation instead of a mod matrix. It is no more modular than something like Hive or many other fixed architecture synths with a mod matrix.

True, I brought it up because it's an implementation of west coast style synthesis as someone thought it has not been done before.

I rather like that the wires do not obscure modules in Aalto. I'm doubtful that would even be possible with something like Bazille (though I wish it would be). Bazille has far more inputs and outputs and they can be wired in many more combinations. Sound sources can be modulators, so you could not have a nice tidy separation like with Aalto (modulators top / audio path bottom). Aalto sound sources cannot be modulators like in Bazille. Bazille has 4 times as many modulation sources and many more modules so they could not be lined up in 2 organized rows like Aalto.

I'd love to see a mock up of a more visually clear method for Bazille!

The important improvement taken from Aalto (and Bitwig, Serum etc) to Bazille would be the modulation amount visualisations on the knobs. As Bazille can combine modulation sources, and can produce rather exotic modulation waveforms, it would be really beneficial to see how the target parameter is actually modulated. I don't personally mind the Bazille cables that much, I have them in "line + see-thru" and everything stays reasonably clear. With complex patches Aalto style isn't perfectly clear either anymore, nor they are in any software or hardware that uses the cable paradigm. Just something to deal with.

[KBSoundSmith]

Hehe, I tried to like Morton Subotnick's work, mainly because Tony Rolando always mentions him, but I find it hard to access. I keep trying though. The sound is pristine, I really like the atmosphere he sets. Much of it is very pleasant, but I guess I'm more into repetitive structures. Nonetheless, every now and then within a 15 minute piece there's a minute or two which I find jaw dropping.

Haha, Subotnick isn't exactly my favorite composer either, although some of his work I do enjoy. He's certainly an easier listen than Iannis Xenakis.

But (for wagtunes) any study of Buchla synths is woefully incomplete without discussion of Subotnick -- he did, after all, commission Buchla to design the original Buchla 100 series, along with Ramon Sender and a Rockefeller grant. And Silver Apples of the Moon was also the first electronic album to be commissioned by a record company. The history and development of Buchla synths can't be divorced from the influence and musical thought of Subotnick.