Babylon Synth by W.A Production

[Saffran]

If that Aleksi P. music is about micro-tonality i'll pass. Sounds like reverb and delay plus other fx built that. Nothing new?
(Nothing wrong with the music though.)

[jacqueslacouth]

I have come to the conclusion that I am nowhere near smart enough to appreciate/understand what all this microtonal stuff is all about (a bit like jazz and opera for me). At the end of the day to my unsophisticated and primitive ears it just sounds like shite music being played on out of tune instruments.

[zoidkirb]

What's the advantage of this synth over something like Synthmaster One which allows for the importation of .scl files? Is it that Babylon allows direct customisation of the scales?

[BONES]

If that Aleksi P. music is about micro-tonality i'll pass. Sounds like reverb and delay plus other fx built that. Nothing new?
(Nothing wrong with the music though.)

Except that it sounds out of tune half the time, based on my skipping thorough it.

I have come to the conclusion that I am nowhere near smart enough to appreciate/understand what all this microtonal stuff is all about (a bit like jazz and opera for me). At the end of the day to my unsophisticated and primitive ears it just sounds like shite music being played on out of tune instruments.

Exactly!

[Astralv]

You need to turn on Sync in the LFO and then it should follow your host's tempo and be in time. From there you can change the note division to get the length you want/need.

Thank you for your reply. I been looking for it- I don't see anything Sync in there. Where do you see it? Thank you.

[BONES]

It's in the LFOs, where the keyboard is by default. In the bottom-left corner are the buttons to bring it up. Press the MODULATORS button and you can see the LFO parameters.

[Tj Shredder]

If that Aleksi P. music is about micro-tonality i'll pass. Sounds like reverb and delay plus other fx built that. Nothing new?
(Nothing wrong with the music though.)

Except that it sounds out of tune half the time, based on my skipping thorough it.

Just intonation is in tune! We are so used to out of tune equal temperament, that we think its out of tune. And on top, if your tuning incorporates higher rational divisions you get many more in tune intervals than you could create with only 12 pitch classes.
Once you overcome equal temperament and learn to listen to pure ratios, a whole new universe opens up...

[BONES]

Music is all about what sounds right. We aren't simply "used to" equal temperament, we like equal temperament because it sounds right to our ears. You can come up with whatever esoteric justification you like but the fact is that if something sounds out of tune, it sounds horrible. It's why my father wasn't allowed to sing in the shower - he could find 50 notes in an octave.

[jacqueslacouth]

Music is all about what sounds right. We aren't simply "used to" equal temperament, we like equal temperament because it sounds right to our ears. You can come up with whatever esoteric justification you like but the fact is that if something sounds out of tune, it sounds horrible. It's why my father wasn't allowed to sing in the shower - he could find 50 notes in an octave.

Your father may have been regarded a virtuoso in these more enlightened times by those who have overcome equal temperament and learnt to listen to pure ratios. A genius before his time, unrecognised and unappreciated.

[Tj Shredder]

Why has Wendy Carlos named her iconic masterpiece a „beauty in the beast“? She never looked back and never did equal temperament again, because that would be out of tune...
But anybody has the right to stay in the self selected cage, opening doors is not enough to gain freedom as it seems...

[Saffran]

I did not find the music out of tune.
I think of it as relaxing and that i could make the same sounds with lot of reverb and delay.
So...it seems i have a lack of "equal temperament".
If i were tonedeaf it would have come up in the comments in OSC. Even if they tried to be polite someone of those that voted it as shit should have told the truth.

[BONES]

Why has Wendy Carlos named her iconic masterpiece a „beauty in the beast“?

Umm, because she used to be a bloke. Beauty in the beast - a woman trapped inside a man's body. Blindingly obvious, I'd have thought. In any event, I'd suggest that if she has an "iconic masterpiece", most people would think it was Switched on Bach, although I doubt most people even know who did that record.

She never looked back

She looked back plenty, most notably with Switched on Bach 2000.

... never did equal temperament again

Except for Switched on Bach 2000 and Peter & the Wolf. Take those out and she's only made two other albums in 30 years.

Wendy Carlos is a perfect example of someone who is more into the process than the result so I doubt she'd even care if the music was listenable or not. The whole purpose of Beauty in the Beast is to use that shit, not to make good music. It's a completely arse-backwards approach.

[Tj Shredder]

Why has Wendy Carlos named her iconic masterpiece a „beauty in the beast“?

Umm, because she used to be a bloke. Beauty in the beast - a woman trapped inside a man's body. Blindingly obvious, I'd have thought. In any event, I'd suggest that if she has an "iconic masterpiece", most people would think it was Switched on Bach, although I doubt most people even know who did that record.

She never looked back

She looked back plenty, most notably with Switched on Bach 2000.

... never did equal temperament again

Except for Switched on Bach 2000 and Peter & the Wolf. Take those out and she's only made two other albums in 30 years.

Wendy Carlos is a perfect example of someone who is more into the process than the result so I doubt she'd even care if the music was listenable or not. The whole purpose of Beauty in the Beast is to use that shit, not to make good music. It's a completely arse-backwards approach.

Your ignorance just lets you miss the beauty... You know everything in your genre and your little cage, but please do not assume you know anything outside of that cage. Your judgement will just fall back on yourself and will not convince anybody who can judge about music outside of your small world...
Btw. I would not want to miss your world and your music, but there is much much more out there as valuable...

[BONES]

I know what sounds good and can appreciate many things on their merits. What I cannot do is appreciate anything that doesn't sound good, nor can I have any respect of self-indulgent wankery that has no point. I quite like Babylon, though, it's a nice sounding synth that's really easy to work with. I think it might be a bit over-priced at full retail but it holds its own against most synths around the $50 mark. (Jus tin case anyone wants to know about the thing we are supposed to be discussing.)

[muki]

here's something i found that maybe might help getting into microtonality a little bit: