One Synth Challenge #102: The blooo by Full Bucket Music (Meakaale wins!)

[Halonmusic]

I got pretty stable kicks with both oscillators, osc 1 - Sine wave (-24 semitones), osc 2 - square wave one Octave above and ring modulation. No resonance. I believe i used soft sync, cant remember as im on my phone right now.

[mehum]

Yeah, oscillator sine works great as well! I'm just so used to using filter resonance so that's usually my go-to technique. It's nice since it doesn't matter what pitch I use when sequencing.

I currently have four different kicks in my track, using slightly different strategies... I got a kind of drum-and-bass groove going and needed different accenting...

[Halonmusic]

Yeah using resonance is something i do a lot too, but for harder kicks.

[psmacmur]

Big thanks to everyone who verified the reso drop issue; always reassuring to hear it's not incompentence! Even bigger thanks to Full Bucket for the quick fix; got my blooo drum machine kicking away relentlessly now!

[ilmai]

My track is almost ready, really only some polish and mixing left, but I still think it's kinda lacking something. I would love to have some crash cymbals there for added emphasis, but I can't seem to make them sound good using the de facto enveloped noise method of creating hi-hats. Are good-sounding crash cymbals even possible using a simple subtractive synth like The blooo, any tips to a sound design newb?

[mehum]

I haven't made any cymbals but ring modulation can yield some really metallic sounds so that's where I'd begin. Stacking is generally your friend when it comes to cymbals to get that range of frequencies. Band passing or high passing with a bit of envelope. No resonance on filters. Try notes in different octaves and carefully tuning the oscillators to get the right metallic sound.

However, in a mix sometimes just noise with some filter envelope will sound fine so try not to focus too much on the individual sound.

[Dee.P.Tree]

Do we have velocity sensitivity for this synth..? Or have to find alternate methods similar to "Nabla"..?

[Full Bucket]

Yes.

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[Full Bucket]

BTW #1: Note that the blooo can run two Allpass filters in parallel. Adding their output may result in some cool filter effects... see/hear for example the built-in preset #7 "Poly: Allpass Magic" or the simple attached FXP.
Of course you can try other filter types, add some resonance etc.

AllpassExample.zip

BTW #2: There is a manual available for the blooo...

Cheers, Björn

[Dee.P.Tree]

Yes.

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Thanks, Björn..!

I had tried to play with it but I think I had not got the effect on note velocity (for percussion, hats loop, etc.).

I'll have now deeper look to get it done.

[Eauson]

https://soundcloud.com/eauson/fullbuckets-blooo-kvr

24 instances of Full buckets blooo
Msed
Air windows pressure 432*2
Rubberfilter *2
WOK xdel2 *3
Slew32 air windows
Air windows iron oxide*2
Dcaasain
Transdesk
Epicverb
Limiter no6
UV22hr

[Cruba]

Well... Hmm... Well...

I'm in!

[Halonmusic]

https://soundcloud.com/eauson/fullbuckets-blooo-kvr


Not much detail yet

Awesome.

[ilmai]

Here's my final entry. Took a lot more effort this time (last month was my first time in OSC) and learned a lot. I'm quite happy with the results.

http://soundcloud.com/ilmai/please-hurry-watson

This one is using 16 instances of The blooo

DAW: Bitwig Studio 2.1.3

Bitwig plugins used:
2x Compressor
2x Delay-1
13x EQ-5
1x Filter
2x FX Layer
1x Mid-Side Split
2x Peak Limiter
2x Reverb
5x Tool

3rd party plugins used:
5x Bittersweet V3
2x Klanghelm MJUCjr
1x TDR Nova (free version)
1x Youlean Loudness Meter

[mehum]

Noticed a quirk when working with automation. If I automate portamento and set it to minimum value, pitch for each note start to get pretty much random (but consistent)... This is in Reaper in an automation lane.