It does a few things I like, but the sounds all sound real spaced-out. Like if I wanna either do the Orb or Skrillex.
I have not seen one at my local guitar centers to try. I have only seen online demos, which have me GASsed and then not so much.
Can the mininova cut through the fuzz, distortion, overdrive, and my sovtek mig100 powered guitars? I think it can be friends with my nord2 and volca bass. I am trying to put together a new sound and it is on my short list.
mininova for noise rock?
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- KVRAF
- 35436 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
I thought about getting a Mininova a few times, but, in the end, none of the sound demos could really convince me. IMO, sounds worse than many soft synths, and doesn't have a lot of character either. Shame that, since the Nova/Supernova synths, Novation's VA synths rather got worse than better. For that price, you almost can get a Blofeld, which is, IMO, miles ahead in terms of sound. Not sure if it would fit in your case though. I don't know much about Noise Rock, but, i assume there's a lot of harsh, distorted, aggressive sounds? I'd definitely steer clear of the Mininova then, doesn't sound very aggressive to me, and the onboard distortion seems to sound very digital.
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- KVRAF
- 2565 posts since 2 Jul, 2010
Skrillex wubs wouldn't cut through noise rock guitars either. You need to figure out how to carve up the frequency/dynamic space between synths and guitars. Have you made the sound you want in-the-box yet?
My post/proggy rock setup was Novation X-station, Waldorf Blofeld and guitar. Novation's arpeggiators are pretty handy, but only if you play to a click. The X-station will happily do distorted filter squelch sounds; have a listen to the arpeggiator part in this track:
https://seismographbath.bandcamp.com/track/i-am-titan
Mininova should be similar; for a studio project it wouldn't bring anything you don't have in software. It's only a bit edgier than the Nord Lead, you might be better off just adding some distortion pedals to that if you have one.
The Blofeld on the other hand will do outrageous shrill crunchy digital noises. It's a super-flexible synth that can do self-FM with wavetable oscillators and run that into comb filters being snapped about by steppy sequences generated by bitwise operations on LFOs. But you have to pay extra if you want that to come with keys. Also there are some minor issues with the multitimbral mode and the clock sync is terrible.
My post/proggy rock setup was Novation X-station, Waldorf Blofeld and guitar. Novation's arpeggiators are pretty handy, but only if you play to a click. The X-station will happily do distorted filter squelch sounds; have a listen to the arpeggiator part in this track:
https://seismographbath.bandcamp.com/track/i-am-titan
Mininova should be similar; for a studio project it wouldn't bring anything you don't have in software. It's only a bit edgier than the Nord Lead, you might be better off just adding some distortion pedals to that if you have one.
The Blofeld on the other hand will do outrageous shrill crunchy digital noises. It's a super-flexible synth that can do self-FM with wavetable oscillators and run that into comb filters being snapped about by steppy sequences generated by bitwise operations on LFOs. But you have to pay extra if you want that to come with keys. Also there are some minor issues with the multitimbral mode and the clock sync is terrible.
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- KVRAF
- 23102 posts since 7 Jan, 2009 from Croatia
Works fine over here syncing to a DAW... Blofeld expects a certain order of transport sync messages, and some hardware sequencers don't comply to that (from the top of my head, Electribe doesn't seem to play nice with Blofeld because of this).imrae wrote:and the clock sync is terrible.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 53 posts since 11 Mar, 2007
Thanks for the input everyone. Noise rock is hard to categorize. Sonic Youth, a few Nirvana songs, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Unsane, Melvins. My guitar sound is like a darker Shellac/the Jesus Lizard...with effects like MBV/Surfers...with a bit of Maiden, Sabbath and Voivod from my metalhead teen years. And i like Pink Floyd. Not a lot of synth in there, but Throbbing Gristle and the prime Skinny Puppy, Ministry years come pretty close to the sound i want.
My nord2 does fine without effects. I have had it 20years and I am deep into its guts and can make it do unusual stuff. I run a volca bass through a boss hm2 heavy metal for bass and craziness. My boss dr5, nord, and the volca play through A 1978 peavey markii 130 watt pa. Lots of EQ options, reverb, and OD. An alesis quadraverb gt and +, as well as a delta labs effectron complete my effects loop.
I looked into the xstation, i like it, it can do a lot of what i want...but it looked a bit flimsy and seems overpriced at $300.
Can the blofeld accept audio in that can trigger midi out notes? I am not very good at figuring out beats for the odd time signatures i come up with on guitar. Cheesy as it sounds, i could really use the mininova’s auto tune too. I looked at it and micromonsta. It all depends on how much i can get for my emax. One is selling for $1200 right now. His is mint, mine has a few bruises...but i like the market i guess.
I looked hard at the korg ms20 reissue, but its lack of midi options and awkward size killed it for me.
I am really good at getting my sound out of gear. The mininova is made for the club scene, which is not me. But yeah, from demos i get a glimpse of a sound i am looking for, but then it goes default electro dance mode.
My nord2 does fine without effects. I have had it 20years and I am deep into its guts and can make it do unusual stuff. I run a volca bass through a boss hm2 heavy metal for bass and craziness. My boss dr5, nord, and the volca play through A 1978 peavey markii 130 watt pa. Lots of EQ options, reverb, and OD. An alesis quadraverb gt and +, as well as a delta labs effectron complete my effects loop.
I looked into the xstation, i like it, it can do a lot of what i want...but it looked a bit flimsy and seems overpriced at $300.
Can the blofeld accept audio in that can trigger midi out notes? I am not very good at figuring out beats for the odd time signatures i come up with on guitar. Cheesy as it sounds, i could really use the mininova’s auto tune too. I looked at it and micromonsta. It all depends on how much i can get for my emax. One is selling for $1200 right now. His is mint, mine has a few bruises...but i like the market i guess.
I looked hard at the korg ms20 reissue, but its lack of midi options and awkward size killed it for me.
I am really good at getting my sound out of gear. The mininova is made for the club scene, which is not me. But yeah, from demos i get a glimpse of a sound i am looking for, but then it goes default electro dance mode.
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- KVRAF
- 23102 posts since 7 Jan, 2009 from Croatia
Blofeld has no audio input at all.
Micromonsta is also pretty great, but a very clean character. Blofeld sounds like it'd be just the right thing for noise rock to me.
Micromonsta is also pretty great, but a very clean character. Blofeld sounds like it'd be just the right thing for noise rock to me.
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- KVRAF
- 2565 posts since 2 Jul, 2010
Yes, xstation is outdated now; I just wanted be clear that is my reference point for Novation sound; the Nova series should be similar and slightly nicer. I don't think they would be different enough from your Nord.
(I wouldn't say it was flimsy though, has survived having a guitar thrown at it!)
I still don't really know what sound you're after though. I suggest you experiment with software to determine what features you need.
(I wouldn't say it was flimsy though, has survived having a guitar thrown at it!)
I still don't really know what sound you're after though. I suggest you experiment with software to determine what features you need.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 53 posts since 11 Mar, 2007
Maybe I will stick some stuff on Bandcamp later to give you the idea. I haven't been happy with my recorded guitar tone...but it was directly recorded through amplitube, and I decided that digital is crap for my particular guitar sound.
I am now miked through an analog Mackie and into an HQ VHS setup, which sounds perfect.
If I get enough money I will go Miniak and used blofeld desktop. If I get less I will just get a $100 controller and maybe more volcas.
I am now miked through an analog Mackie and into an HQ VHS setup, which sounds perfect.
If I get enough money I will go Miniak and used blofeld desktop. If I get less I will just get a $100 controller and maybe more volcas.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 53 posts since 11 Mar, 2007
Ressurecting an old Post in the off chance that anyone is curious. My gear choices were a Monologue, which is fantastic... great noise wave, sequencer, aggressive filter. And a Roland mc09 phrase lab. Total garbage, but great at the same time. Really aggressive, very acid sounding...which is not what I was going for...but perfect. I found a couple Delta lab Effectron racks, and with my quadraverbs my noise fantasies are realized.
The kick to my head was a $5 battery I neglected to replace in my nordrack2's pcmcia card...corrupted all my patches and performances to non-existence. Instead of spending my summer recording, I am now spending it recreating from scratch. Yay me.
And this: https://youtu.be/Vr-aUoKPnkI
The kick to my head was a $5 battery I neglected to replace in my nordrack2's pcmcia card...corrupted all my patches and performances to non-existence. Instead of spending my summer recording, I am now spending it recreating from scratch. Yay me.
And this: https://youtu.be/Vr-aUoKPnkI
