Upcoming Synapse OB-Xa: Obsession

[e-crooner]

The layout of the GUI is odd somehow, e.g. the oscillators so far down, all knobs of the same size.
Maybe it is not the final GUI, like with new cars that have ugly fake parts to disguise the final design while they are being tested on the road
I think the whole Liberace bling is just for the video, not part of the GUI.

Shimmer reverb, cool

[mholloway]

I actually prefer the Arturia GUI. No, the blue lines don't bother me, and it looks very much like the synth its emulating. This looks...kinda weird? Things aren't really located where I'd expect them to be, as e-crooner mentioned.

But, for me it's ultimately all about the sound, so we shall see

[Yorrrrrr]

Be assured, the sound and behavior is superior to the competition. As for the GUI, you get used to it quickly and it's pleasant and usable enough.

[mholloway]

not clear to me what the 'voice adjustment edit' buttons are for. I'd hope they are for panning per voice like on the Arturia, but they look like simple on/off buttons.

[PAK]

not clear to me what the 'voice adjustment edit' buttons are for. I'd hope they are for panning per voice like on the Arturia, but they look like simple on/off buttons.

Clue is in the name. It may bring up an edit page for each voice - unless it's a destination for the step sequencer, in which case it would indeed be on/off but the actual adjustments would be made in the step sequencer.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The layout of the GUI is odd somehow, e.g. the oscillators so far down, all knobs of the same size.

Yeah, not loving the GUI either. The color is kind of eh, but the layout is so bizarre. It was like the rule was "make it the same dimensions as The Legend even if that makes no sense here." That said, I'm looking forward to hearing it. I don't like the Arturia GUI either, and that one sounds bad to me. So maybe this will look bad but just happen to sound great.

[Teksonik]

Probably not a good idea to judge the GUI based on a highly processed Facebook video nor the workflow until the demo is available.

[mholloway]

Probably not a good idea to judge the GUI based on a highly processed Facebook video nor the workflow until the demo is available.

Why not? we aren't talking about the resolution of the display, we are talking about the layout of elements on the synth, which we can clearly deduce from the video.

[mholloway]

Clue is in the name. It may bring up an edit page for each voice - unless it's a destination for the step sequencer, in which case it would indeed be on/off but the actual adjustments would be made in the step sequencer.

that would have to be a pop-up window or overlapping sort of display, which would be very atypical for Synapse's UI design. I think it's more likely a Dune style thing, where you can click a voice button, and then change settings on all the UI's knobs *for that voice*.

But if that's true, I'm still not seeing any per-voice panning ability, which would be a crying shame as every Oberheim emulation should have it. But, might be there, dunno yet!

[Muziksculp]

[Teksonik]

Why not? we aren't talking about the resolution of the display, we are talking about the layout of elements on the synth, which we can clearly deduce from the video.

You are trying to judge the workflow of a synth you've never touched going only on a highly processed Facebook video ? Got it.

I wonder what's on the rest of the back page ?

"make it the same dimensions as The Legend even if that makes no sense here."

Perhaps it's so they could use the same GUI framework alleviating the need to create a new one. Perhaps that same framework could be used in the hinted on P600 and MemoryMoog emulations as well (if they are indeed planned).

[Kian Russell]

Perhaps it's so they could use the same GUI framework alleviating the need to create a new one. Perhaps that same framework could be used in the hinted on P600 and MemoryMoog emulations as well (if they are indeed planned).

Please no more hype about new Synapse Synths, at least wait until this one is finally released

[e-crooner]

"cringeworthy by today's standards"
I just don't share that view at all. For instance the pad in the intro (Jupiter 8?) still sounds beautiful to me. The bass too, it sounds fine to me.

You mean the chord stab right at the start? That's the cringeworthy bit for sure. The bass sound is anodyne, at best. Catchy riff but that's about the extent of it.

The sounds came from the same synths which developers today are trying hard to recreate in software, ideally sounding exactly like the originals 40 years ago, because that still appeals to people.

It all comes back to what I said about people being stupid.

even tape is being emulated because of its sound.

Not exactly, a certain element of what happened to your sound when you recorded it to tape has been emulated but it's mostly Emperor's New Clothes stuff anyway.

Overall the sound quality has improved little since the 80s, despite the shift from analog to digital.

If that were true we wouldn't feel we have to add tape saturation back in to make it sound more "natural", would we?

Regarding connections, I still love the music I loved 40 or 30 years ago.

So do I. My all-time favourite album is from 1980 and to this day I still listen to it fairly regularly. Of course, it is something else I can guarantee you've never heard of but that is of no consequence. But my Top 10 albums would contain records from every decade since then. I don't allow myself to be stuck in the past, it's counter-productive. Imagine if Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones had been stuck 40 years in their past - Thriller would have featured a brass section and upright bass, not a Jupiter 8 and a MiniMoog.

But musically I find some older Jackson stuff very appealing, not because of Jackson, but because of the composers, musicians, arrangers, producers etc.

That's because none of those guys were stuck in the past. They were looking to create the next big thing, not to recreate some old thing from their childhood.

No, I meant the background pad, from :21 to :37 of the MJ video.
The Jupiter 8 sounded so fine, one can also hear it on the video of the guy who copied the song:


Yes, as I said, the sound has become too sterile, that's why some people try to make it more analog with the help of effects. But the difference is not big, anyway. And one can make good music on digital equipment as well. There is only so much to sound. When the platform supports the full frequency range, that helps a lot. I remember my old boombox, its cassette player had a reduced frequency response, and it sounded muted because of that, compared to records with all their sparkling treble. THAT was an audible difference in sound quality.

It was easier back then to make something slightly new (the Thriller album from 1982 was not really new, it was just the next step from Off the Wall 3 years before). Around 1980 synths were still a bit special, very much unlike the 90's let alone today when synths have become boring due to their omnipresence.

I think there are people who feel they need to innovate, while others feel at home and happy with what they know and like. There is no law that says one approach is right or better than the other. Most people probably belong to the second group, not just regarding music.

But we are a bit off-topic, we might talk about such things in another
thread in Production Techniques or Everything Else (music-related) if you wish. Let's not further derail the Synapse thread

[PAK]

I think it's more likely a Dune style thing, where you can click a voice button, and then change settings on all the UI's knobs *for that voice*.

But if that's true, I'm still not seeing any per-voice panning ability, which would be a crying shame as every Oberheim emulation should have it. But, might be there, dunno yet!

I'm sure it will be there but, like you said, it's not obvious how it'd be done on the main GUI, which is why I thought either a window or the step-sequencer. Those 8 steps would give you a way to do left and right, with the middle being centre, for each of the 8 voices. If it's not that then I'm not sure how you'd do it.. maybe spread only affecting the voice buttons you select?

[Aliens]

Perhaps it's so they could use the same GUI framework alleviating the need to create a new one. Perhaps that same framework could be used in the hinted on P600 and MemoryMoog emulations as well (if they are indeed planned).

I'd be disappointed if they use this square box format for a memorymoog vsti.