DUNE 3 is now available!!

[Teksonik]

A lot of your presets sound complete already, which will work for some producers/composers but not for others.

Kevin's Presets show what Dune 3 can do not what it must do.

You can take D3 all the way down to a single Voice (Layer) with a single Osc and go from there. It can be the simplest synth in the world but it can also do very complex sounds for those of us who got bored with simple sounds many years ago.

Sure you could take one of Kevin's patches, add a drum track and have a nearly complete song or you could shut the Arps off in that patch and use your own sequence data.

Anybody who refuses to use any presets made by someone else is simply missing out on musical inspiration and failing to take advantage of other people's skills and talents. I have nothing but pity for them.

I love making my own patches but I'll use another person's patch in a heartbeat if I find it musically inspiring. This snobbery that we have to do everything ourselves is ridiculous in my opinion. But that's the difference between musicians and "producers". Musicians know that inspiration can come from others since they have been in what were called "Bands" where several musicians freely exchanged ideas and inspiration.

[fluffy_little_something]

When changing the GUI size, the GUI is screwed up. One has to close it and reopen it. That's fine, but it would be better if the old size stayed until one closes and reopens it. The immediate butchered GUI looks a bit unprofessional.

[zvenx]

........
Anybody who refuses to use any presets made by someone else is simply missing out on musical inspiration and failing to take advantage of other people's skills and talents. I have nothing but pity for them.

I love making my own patches but I'll use another person's patch in a heartbeat if I find it musically inspiring. This snobbery that we have to do everything ourselves is ridiculous in my opinion. But that's the difference between musicians and "producers". Musicians know that inspiration can come from others since they have been in what were called "Bands" where several musicians freely exchanged ideas and inspiration.

We are in full and total agreement here.
Well except the part about making my own patches
rsp

[Teksonik]

I'm working on a couple of color edits for Dune 3. If anybody is interested and Synapse doesn't mind me sharing I'd be happy to post them when finished. Nothing wrong with the default, I just personally find Red a bit harsh on the eyes for long hours and I do plan on putting in some long hours.

if it's purple you get a hug.

I'll try to do a Purple one as well. My editing "skills" are pretty limited so sometimes I can't get exactly the color I'm after but I'll give it a shot....

[recursive one]

I doubt I hear sample-precision modulation

I think audio-rate modulation is mostly essential for FM-like sounds (filter FM, cross-osc pitch modulation, extremely fast LFOs). I mostly use it myself for various sci-fi/metallic/SFX sounds which you don't like, iirc. In case of slower LFO modulation which is typically used for more "normal" sounds it doesn't make a big difference.

[recursive one]

When changing the GUI size, the GUI is screwed up. One has to close it and reopen it.

Same here (WIn7, Studio One 3)

[wagtunes]

In all fairness, if I listen to whatever audio clips are out there of a synth and don't like what I hear, why would I waste my time downloading the demo?

Without mentioning any names (because I want to avoid all the inevitable "man you're crazy, that's a great synth" comment) I listened to the sound demos of this one synth that was up on the company site and couldn't believe they could release something that sounded so dull and lifeless. If the company itself can't put together a track that doesn't sound like pure crap, what possible reason could I have to waste my time thinking I can do better?

Conversely, if I hear a track on the company's site that absolutely blows me away, the only reason I'd even download the demo is to see if it works in my DAW. Otherwise, I'd probably buy it without having to try it myself.

The synth itself has to sound good for me to even bother with it. If it doesn't, I don't waste my time.

Point is, I can understand people wanting to at least hear what the synth sounds like first.

Your entitled to have your own opinion.
But relying your purchase purely on video/track example is utter bullocks
Assumming the synth sounds reasonably good from the start , any synth in the right hands will be able to attrackt the listener ..and convince him her of purchasing it .
You weren't aware that dune 2 had an @sample level updated modulation engine , how would you then base your buying decision based on a track if you hadn't explored the synth yourself .
That feature alone imho is a mayor selling point
If more people would actually know something about synthesis ( not saying you don't ) and explore the synth ,we wouldn't have these numerous ridiculous threads about which synth versus which synth , is sytnh X for dub .bro edm etc..

Do people know how to read? I didn't say I wouldn't then demo it if I "liked" the sound. I said I wouldn't waste my time if the company who made the synth can't even put up a convincing musical track that didn't sound like utter garbage.

And if you think there aren't some crappy demos out there, you haven't listened to some of the garbage I've listened to.

[Vortifex]

..

[Ghost Dog]

Can you imagine people arguing about using the DX7 Bass 1 or E. Piano 1 presets back in the day?

Maybe not the best example. Programming the DX7 was a "bit" of a hassle for most people.

[fluffy_little_something]

Can you imagine people arguing about using the DX7 Bass 1 or E. Piano 1 presets back in the day?

Maybe not the best example. Programming the DX7 was a "bit" of a hassle for most people.

That's quite a euphemism
But at least those sounds were new back then, does Dune make any sounds that were not known before? Or do I have to get a Tone2 for that?

[DavidCarlyon]

I love making my own patches but I'll use another person's patch in a heartbeat if I find it musically inspiring. This snobbery that we have to do everything ourselves is ridiculous in my opinion. But that's the difference between musicians and "producers". Musicians know that inspiration can come from others since they have been in what were called "Bands" where several musicians freely exchanged ideas and inspiration.
[/quote]


This is a great post. I couldnt agree more! I love making patches and mostly ill start with an init when im making a sound. But if i find a patch that inspires me, ill use it. Its absolutely a good idea to take advantage of other peoples skills and talents. Many sound designers that make these patches for synths are extremely talented people, same goes for sample packs - some of the sound design im hearing these days in sample packs is breath taking. I dont use them loads, but when i come across something that makes my jaw drop, ill use it!

Back to the synth - man this thing sounds INSANE!! The oscillators and filters sound incredible. I made a patch with just oscillators and filters - sent it into spectre and WOW!!
One gripe - no automation with the demo. I think all demos should be 30 days full feature...that way you can hook people in and make the synth an essential part of someones workflow. As such i cant really use the demo that much, or try it out in a real world situation....but with that said, i am highly impressed with what i'm hearing. I overlooked Dune in the past (have a lot of beastly synths) but now im seriously considering it.
Its certainly not cheap!! plus i want to get voltage modular...then there is this arturia thing which is supposed to be released.......man, so many synths atm!

[fluffy_little_something]

I like the huge number of mod slots
Accidentally changed some mod matrix settings, though, because I missed the scroll bar when using my mouse wheel

[iHartBeats]

Each of his soundsets with about 64 patches is currently $20 in our shop. So the new patch library alone is worth the upgrade fee from this perspective.

Wow, that's a poor & slippery slope argument.
In that case I would be more than happy to but Dune 3 without any of those patches (since I won't use them) for a low $29. Seems more than fair from this perspective, no?

Overall I'm very underwhelmed & won't be upgrading.
May as well just use Serum now. It's clearly established itself as the thought leader in the VST world.

[Ghost Dog]

My 2 cents: using a Blade Runner type of lead is one thing even though Vangelis was the first one to use it (probably not; it was a bit before my time, so I don't legitimately remember), but using a highly recognizable evolving pad or an arp sequence, usually associated with artist_x is quite another, especially if used in a way they're using it ( unless it's an homage).

[DonaldM75]

True. Personally, i'd never use such a high number of voices and layers. Tends to mush up the sound.

Kevin's multilayered Dune sounds/sequences have been used successfully in many productions though. The latest example that comes to mind is JMJ's latest and very good album Equinoxe Infinity, with a sequence straight from World Of Cinematic (possibly other Dune 2 sounds in there too, not sure)

So it really depends. If all sounds had to be as simple as possible, quite a few genres wouldn't even exist today - like all supersaw-based EDM, for instance.

Richard

The Yamaha Motif series synths and workstations have, since early 2000's, been structured with using up to 8 "elements" (or parts) per patch, with waveforms assignable to each element (over 4000 factory waveforms as I recall). Then, in Performance mode you can combine up to 4 patches, including with arps and effects. Dune 2 & 3 are structured in a very similar way (minus the Performance mode). Having done a lot of sound programming over the years for my Motif XS8, I've never felt there was any "mush" problem. If I was careful with how I blended waveforms and elements, things came out rather nicely most of the time. The same is true for Dune 2 & 3 as far as I can tell. That said, I've only tried to create a couple patches using all 8 voices in Dune. But I've had some nice outcomes using 5 or 6 in several cases.