One Synth Challenge #112: Synth1 by Ichiro Toda (Photonic Wins!)

[generaldiomedes]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

[TheNeverScene]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

Yeah, mine too atm. Definitely a bit of a pita.

[TheNeverScene]

Hey Trojak, VERY cool track but what you mentioned is one of the first things that hit me. Maybe try backing off of the master limiter some to see if that helps and go from there. It seems a bit louder than it needs to be....just my 2 cents though

[Eauson]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

Yeah, mine too atm. Definitely a bit of a pita.

I use an old gem ws1, brought for its sine bass
Try and locate a used keyboard, many have midi, my spares are an old midiman with a dodgy power supply ( shocked the shi** outta me once ) and a Yamaha psr 400, none are state of the art, but they do the job i needz...
I think I paid about £40 for all 3, although my memory of buying the WS1 is a bit hazy. I used to use my D50 or M1 but don't have access to them any longer

[løkken]

It seems like I won't be able to finish my track this month, so I just want to share the short sketch I came up with:
https://soundcloud.com/l-k-k-n/synth1-sketch/s-cQe8h

[TheNeverScene]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

Yeah, mine too atm. Definitely a bit of a pita.

I use an old gem ws1, brought for its sine bass
Try and locate a used keyboard, many have midi, my spares are an old midiman with a dodgy power supply ( shocked the shi** outta me once ) and a Yamaha psr 400, none are state of the art, but they do the job i needz...
I think I paid about £40 for all 3, although my memory of buying the WS1 is a bit hazy. I used to use my D50 or M1 but don't have access to them any longer

Yeah, my situation is just temporary while we move and everything has been shipped. Usually either a crusty Keystation 88 or more recently a MiniLogue. I feel like I'm back to my Reason 2.0 and ReBirth days...

[Dee.P.Tree]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

Yeah, mine too atm. Definitely a bit of a pita.

I use an old gem ws1, brought for its sine bass
Try and locate a used keyboard, many have midi, my spares are an old midiman with a dodgy power supply ( shocked the shi** outta me once ) and a Yamaha psr 400, none are state of the art, but they do the job i needz...
I think I paid about £40 for all 3, although my memory of buying the WS1 is a bit hazy. I used to use my D50 or M1 but don't have access to them any longer

Yeah, my situation is just temporary while we move and everything has been shipped. Usually either a crusty Keystation 88 or more recently a MiniLogue. I feel like I'm back to my Reason 2.0 and ReBirth days...

Can we use minilogue just as midi keyboard too? One fine day, I want to have a hardware synth.

[Eauson]

Or may be PC keyboard, like me? You are master. These small hiccups can't stop you.

haha I am all PC keyboard these days .. maybe that's my problem .. ?

Yeah, mine too atm. Definitely a bit of a pita.

I use an old gem ws1, brought for its sine bass
Try and locate a used keyboard, many have midi, my spares are an old midiman with a dodgy power supply ( shocked the shi** outta me once ) and a Yamaha psr 400, none are state of the art, but they do the job i needz...
I think I paid about £40 for all 3, although my memory of buying the WS1 is a bit hazy. I used to use my D50 or M1 but don't have access to them any longer

Yeah, my situation is just temporary while we move and everything has been shipped. Usually either a crusty Keystation 88 or more recently a MiniLogue. I feel like I'm back to my Reason 2.0 and ReBirth days...

Can we use minilogue just as midi keyboard too? One fine day, I want to have a hardware synth. [/quoDee,

Hey Dee,
Not sure what your 2nd hand situation is but just an example from a very quick search
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Korg-Prophec ... Sw4Q5a~Uzp
The marketing on this is pure gold , someone here might even get into the action
Writeup
http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/prph.php

Yes, I know the bidding is not over on this, and its not exactly a " bargain basement price" in fact I could happily feed my family for 2 months + on the starting bid
But it shows what's available, I have a laptop setup with a sound blaster live ( now thats ancient )which doesn't have midi, I located a behringer b control which gives me midi in and a controller work surface, mixer control soft synth control all over USB. It also has midi, so for a layout of, I dont know, £10 SCard, b or r control, second hand let's say under £100 and something akin to the korg, £300 total, I don't know what's floating about these days though. its about patience, good things come too those that and so on and so forth.
You could probaby find similar products with similar capabilities 2nd hand, bit of homework on your behalf and bobs your uncle

[TrojakEW]

Maybe try backing off of the master limiter some to see if that helps and go from there. It seems a bit louder than it needs to be....just my 2 cents though

Well problem is mix itself or rather individial instruments sound. Master limiter is set to very gentle and minimum compression just to avoid clipping in some place of the track.. What is problem to me is to find balanced output in order to make them sounds good on all headphones I have and at the same time not to loose basic charasteristic of sound. Balancing between very cheap headphone (noname earplug), Magnat LZR 580 (bass heavy), DT 880 and AKG k240 is almost impossible for me. Don't have studio speakers and even if I have there is no room for them. So only options for me are headphones. I also at the end test it with very cheap 2+1 speakers I have, but I ussually hear more buzz from outside. Place and people here are too loud . There is alway somebody who is knocking on the wall or some neighborhood screaming on each other.


BTW I'm maybe only mouse warrior here. I do all dynamics, automation, events with mouse in post.

[Eauson]

Maybe try backing off of the master limiter some to see if that helps and go from there. It seems a bit louder than it needs to be....just my 2 cents though

Well problem is mix itself or rather individial instruments sound. Master limiter is set to very gentle and minimum compression just to avoid clipping in some place of the track.. What is problem to me is to find balanced output in order to make them sounds good on all headphones I have and at the same time not to loose basic charasteristic of sound. Balancing between very cheap headphone (noname earplug), Magnat LZR 580 (bass heavy), DT 880 and AKG k240 is almost impossible for me. Don't have studio speakers and even if I have there is no room for them. So only options for me are headphones. I also at the end test it with very cheap 2+1 speakers I have, but I ussually hear more buzz from outside. Place and people here are too loud . There is alway somebody who is knocking on the wall or some neighborhood screaming on each other.


BTW I'm maybe only mouse warrior here. I do all dynamics, automation, events with mouse in post.

Okay having a listen now, the items you are referring to are the big production style drums? 1st jumps to mind, have you got compression or distortion etc on the fx unit on synth 1 on, additionally squishing the track with furttherr compression ?
Can you make another copy of the offending sounds, as synth1 is very lite on CPU? and try combination of them to a send track?
Just initial thoughts, please get back to us and see if one of us OSC ERS can help

PS I didn't even realise my mod wheel until recently, still haven't used it, I tend to stay away from automation as my previous 14 yr old daw was not that compassionate

[Dee.P.Tree]

Thank you, but as you can hear there is big problem with harsh sound here. The more I make it sound balancced accross different headphones and speakers the worse it become overall. Most of time on this track I spent with taming those frequencies but I failed .

I heard your track through my mobile speakers. So, I may have missed mix related problems you yourself have identified.

But, you have time of almost a week to justify your composition and win.

[Dee.P.Tree]

..... Don't have studio speakers and even if I have there is no room for them. So only options for me are headphones. I also at the end test it with very cheap 2+1 speakers I have.....


BTW I'm maybe only mouse warrior here. I do all dynamics, automation, events with mouse in post.

Sounds like me. He he...

I have been used to this, though. I have understood power of "know your setup" and "use reference tracks" and Voxengo Span.

[Dee.P.Tree]

Can we use minilogue just as midi keyboard too? One fine day, I want to have a hardware synth. [/quoDee,

Hey Dee,
Not sure what your 2nd hand situation is but just an example from a very quick search
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Korg-Prophec ... Sw4Q5a~Uzp
The marketing on this is pure gold , someone here might even get into the action
Writeup
http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/prph.php

Yes, I know the bidding is not over on this, and its not exactly a " bargain basement price" in fact I could happily feed my family for 2 months + on the starting bid
But it shows what's available, I have a laptop setup with a sound blaster live ( now thats ancient )which doesn't have midi, I located a behringer b control which gives me midi in and a controller work surface, mixer control soft synth control all over USB. It also has midi, so for a layout of, I dont know, £10 SCard, b or r control, second hand let's say under £100 and something akin to the korg, £300 total, I don't know what's floating about these days though. its about patience, good things come too those that and so on and so forth.
You could probaby find similar products with similar capabilities 2nd hand, bit of homework on your behalf and bobs your uncle

Thanks for suggestions.

Unfortunately, ebay india website does not have any listing of this product. I think it is UK specific.

I have noticed that there is very narrow second hand audio gear market within india yet because of less owners of pro gear which is due to less affordability. (high USD to INR conversion cost.) But, it is changing due to development of e-commerce in India.

In last three years, I have been used to this set up and now don't feel need of the same. May be some day... who knows future?

Time to time I keep visting novation / arturia / korg etc. websites after seeing youtube videos to get infected with GAS.

[Eauson]

Can we use minilogue just as midi keyboard too? One fine day, I want to have a hardware synth. [/quoDee,

Hey Dee,
Not sure what your 2nd hand situation is but just an example from a very quick search
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Korg-Prophec ... Sw4Q5a~Uzp
The marketing on this is pure gold , someone here might even get into the action
Writeup
http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/prph.php

Yes, I know the bidding is not over on this, and its not exactly a " bargain basement price" in fact I could happily feed my family for 2 months + on the starting bid
But it shows what's available, I have a laptop setup with a sound blaster live ( now thats ancient )which doesn't have midi, I located a behringer b control which gives me midi in and a controller work surface, mixer control soft synth control all over USB. It also has midi, so for a layout of, I dont know, £10 SCard, b or r control, second hand let's say under £100 and something akin to the korg, £300 total, I don't know what's floating about these days though. its about patience, good things come too those that and so on and so forth.
You could probaby find similar products with similar capabilities 2nd hand, bit of homework on your behalf and bobs your uncle

Thanks for suggestions.

Unfortunately, ebay india website does not have any listing of this product. I think it is UK specific.

I have noticed that there is very narrow second hand audio gear market within india yet because of less owners of pro gear which is due to less affordability. (high USD to INR conversion cost.) But, it is changing due to development of e-commerce in India.

In last three years, I have been used to this set up and now don't feel need of the same. May be some day... who knows future?

Time to time I keep visting novation / arturia / korg etc. websites after seeing youtube videos to get infected with GAS.

Warning are to signify words/phrase's that you may not be totally familiar with, if you think I am talking down to you then please let me know

It wasn't those particular products that I was telling you to buy, it was just an example of a way to achieve a midi keyboard setup using a variety of things, all sourced at a lower cost than purchasing new. I don't know if you have any relatives who live/work abroad, maybe if you do you could ask them to purchase items that you find?
So
https://blog.landr.com/50-best-midi-controllers/
Personally I try and stay away from new products due to a proliferation of already manufactured items, this is the crux in my idea regarding 2nd hand items. This can also be precarious, as not all items are offered the same amount of care from person to person.

So if you need a hand, such as if you're unsure of an items to use within your setup, you are currently virtually in the right place/ space
KVR is filled with serious gearheadz, I'm unsure the state of play in the buy and sell section as its not somewhere I visit.
Hope my English has not left you scratching your head , as it has been pointed out to me, as a/an English speaker, there is sometimes a chance of confusing non native speakers with our choices of phrases/ localised dialect.
Same can be said between English and American, but that's a whole other kettle of fish

[Kontrollgruppe]

My submission for this month is a track in something like an 80s synthpop style:
https://soundcloud.com/wush-1/enclave-k ... submission
DAW:
- Cakewalk Sonar Platinum
FX:
- 1x Cakewalk Classic Phaser
- 1x Cakewalk L-Phase Multiband
- 8x ProChannel
- 2x Sonitus Compressor
- 1x Sonitus Multiband
- 4x Sonitus Reverb
Synths:
- 8x Daichi Synth1