One Synth Challenge #143: Any Hardware or Emulation (Taron Wins!)

[RuediRena]

... I urge ... you to use this month as a challenge to yourself! Uncover your wildest sound boxes...!

Hear, hear!

I am really tempted to have a go and do some sound calculation on my old and not quite forgotten Casio VL-Tone/VL-1 that's resting at the bottom of some drawer. Hmmm.

Apart from that:

I got a feeling 21 is gonna be a good year.

Greetings to all you guys!
Ruedi

[IV!]

Hello, Ruedi! Happy to see you!
I'm glad someone heard me! Usually I am" lucky " to send the last post on the page, which is quickly turned over and forgotten...
Yes, it seems that this was the essence of the month! Challenge! VL-1 is a great challenge! Also, the interesting thing is that already two or three people (including you) have volunteered to go with VL-1, it will be a battle of the Titans! In addition, the battle of hardware against its own emulation) I was already interested in joining the emulation team...

[Leonard Bowman]

I think I'm done with my track.

https://soundcloud.com/anotherbenjamin/all-grown-up

I dug out our Bleep Labs Nebulophone, hooked it up through my Zoom H4N as an interface, and started jamming. Four days later I have this song.

For those of you who have not experienced the joy of the Nebulophone, it's a small kit-built synthesizer that runs on a 9v battery. It has 3 knobs, 2 buttons, a photocell and a monophonic stylus keyboard. From that interface you can get a surprising variety of sounds.
I'm pretty sure we got ours around 2013. It's been mostly collecting dust since then... Now that I know what it can do I will probably use it significantly more.

I ended up with 128 recordings (325 MB in total), from which 119 audio clips made the final cut. These sit on 47 tracks in Reaper, each with some panning, volume, and fade-ins/fade-outs as needed.

No other processing or effects were used. Everything was played by hand. The synth doesn't have any built-in tempo sync functionality and I don't have a clock to sync it to so anything that seems to line up with the tempo was achieved by a very precise knob twist.


Best of luck to everyone with finding a synth they can enjoy using as much as I enjoyed making this!

[garliccorgi]

If one chooses to use a Roland Juno/TAL-U-NO-LX/Arturia JUN-6/etc are you still not allowed to use the chorus?? Certainly a reasonable stance given the rules but that would severely limit using those instruments

[briefcasemanx]

If one chooses to use a Roland Juno/TAL-U-NO-LX/Arturia JUN-6/etc are you still not allowed to use the chorus?? Certainly a reasonable stance given the rules but that would severely limit using those instruments

The chorus is on the hardware Juno synths, I don't see the issue?

Even if you were to choose the TAL J8, which has a Juno chorus that didn't exist on the Jupiter 8, emulations of hardware effects are allowed so even that would be fine in my opinion.

[FrogsInPants]

If one chooses to use a Roland Juno/TAL-U-NO-LX/Arturia JUN-6/etc are you still not allowed to use the chorus?? Certainly a reasonable stance given the rules but that would severely limit using those instruments

The rules about chorus and other effects are for external effects only. You may go wild with any effects that are part of the synth itself.

[ELEX]

If one chooses to use a Roland Juno/TAL-U-NO-LX/Arturia JUN-6/etc are you still not allowed to use the chorus?? Certainly a reasonable stance given the rules but that would severely limit using those instruments

Personally, I feel that, in the case of VSTs, a fair approach to buit-in effects ( for this OSC only, of course ! ) would be to limit oneself and follow the emulated hardware. So, if the original had chorus, as the Juno 6, 60, or 106 did, use it. If it didn't, as with the Jupiter 8, then don't. The same would apply to cases like the much mentioned Diva.

That's all IMHO, of course.

For myself, I chose to use KORG's Odyssey emulation, and will use it as the emulated hardware, without built-in effects or enhancements. No unison, polyphony, etc. Not even velocity...ouch ! It's already proving to be an interesting experience.

[RuediRena]

Status update on the Casio project

So I took a deep dive in the drawer and found my old VL-1 hardware unit and its old external power supply - still working. After some five minutes of vigorously sliding sliders from left to right all the crackling disappeared and I found a copy of the manual on the web to look up how you programmed sounds on the beast via the calculator function. Success!

Next I had a shot at starving the voltage of the power supply like having dying batteries in the unit - and guess what I found:
Down with the voltage a tiny bit and you can use the VL-1's volume slider as some kind of pitch wheel! In your face VSTi plugin!

So this evening I will give it a go and try to catch some inspiration what to do with the box.
Big fun!

[doctorbob]

Hey Ruedi, I found my PT-10 lying around too. Still works! I Might give it a go, but would maybe use the DX-11, but then, if I do that, why not an emulation? Will frag the DX from the attic and see how it goes. I had to dismantle is recently to put in a new NVRAM battery. They don't make access easy at all!

dB

[Spring Goose]

I'm thinking Waldorf PPG Wave 3. I don't have any hardware synth. I tried a couple of tracks with PPG Wave 3 and i have a nice kick drum i made. I'm struggling with snares and hihats and other percussion but i don't think my song will necessarily need snares and hihats and or other percussion.

I bought Waldorf PPG Wave 3 recently (new for less than £30) and so far its quite inspirational.

It (PPG Wave 3) isn't what i'd use every day but for this competition its quite inspirational.

[garliccorgi]

If one chooses to use a Roland Juno/TAL-U-NO-LX/Arturia JUN-6/etc are you still not allowed to use the chorus?? Certainly a reasonable stance given the rules but that would severely limit using those instruments

Personally, I feel that, in the case of VSTs, a fair approach to buit-in effects ( for this OSC only, of course ! ) would be to limit oneself and follow the emulated hardware. So, if the original had chorus, as the Juno 6, 60, or 106 did, use it. If it didn't, as with the Jupiter 8, then don't. The same would apply to cases like the much mentioned Diva.

That's all IMHO, of course.

For myself, I chose to use KORG's Odyssey emulation, and will use it as the emulated hardware, without built-in effects or enhancements. No unison, polyphony, etc. Not even velocity...ouch ! It's already proving to be an interesting experience.

Yeah I misread the rules (added a "not" before "allowed" on the bit with onboard effects) but I think this makes with like, the korg monopoly vst that basically has an mde-x instance stapled to it vs. the polysix which has the ensemble control built in

[z.prime]

... programmed sounds on the beast via the calculator function.
... down with the voltage a tiny bit and you can use the VL-1's volume slider as some kind of pitch wheel! In your face VSTi plugin!

HAHA! That is just excellent: true genius at work, I'm sure!

[ELEX]

...
Yeah I misread the rules (added a "not" before "allowed" on the bit with onboard effects) but I think this makes with like, the korg monopoly vst that basically has an mde-x instance stapled to it vs. the polysix which has the ensemble control built in

Exactly ! A fine example. Chorus/ensemble lovers should choose Polysix, not the MonoPoly. Both excellent choices, though.

I'm thinking Waldorf PPG Wave 3...

As is that one ! Nice buy. Seriously contemplated that one myself, looking forward to the results. You're braver than me. I'm avoiding the somewhat fiddly programming and will take a bit more time getting acquainted with that one.

Btw, I made my earlier remark based on the thought that sorry hardware-less characters such as myself, should at least try to have a hardware-like experience. And not just choose the emulation with the most extras. The hardware users do not have that luxury after all.

[IV!]

Here are two beauties that are at my disposal (photos are not mine yet):

1.jpg

1) "Электроника ЭМ-14 Venta" - organ-bass-synthesizer, has a dynamic keyboard of 5 octaves, extendable controls-registers on the panel, 3 independent sections of sound formation - bass, organ, synthesizer (percussion registers, flutes), as well as vibrato and chorus effects with variable parameters-depth, brightness, etc. Created in the USSR after 1985 on the prototype of the Hammond organ, but with engineering " additives") I've just finished cleaning his insides

2.jpg

2) Vermona Piano-Strings - well, something like a piano and something like a strings... To say that it sounds good, stylish or original, can only be someone who needs to sell it urgently) But by passing it through a reverb and delay, you can get a beautiful romantic-nostalgic atmosphere!

Both are analog, sing beautifully, and don't have midi. Vermona has something like presets, nothing like that on Venta. I'll go with one of them, and maybe even do a track with each of them, if I can find the time.

[Spring Goose]

I'm thinking Waldorf PPG Wave 3...

As is that one ! Nice buy. Seriously contemplated that one myself, looking forward to the results. You're braver than me. I'm avoiding the somewhat fiddly programming and will take a bit more time getting acquainted with that one.

Btw, I made my earlier remark based on the thought that sorry hardware-less characters such as myself, should at least try to have a hardware-like experience. And not just choose the emulation with the most extras. The hardware users do not have that luxury after all.

To be fair, the fiddly programming was daunting to begin with, but once used to it it's not so bad at all. I had a harder time with Monique, i'm finding PPG Wave 3 easier. Did you say what you're planning to using this month Elex?