First hardware synth: Behringer edition

[zerocrossing]

I remember I once kept the same settings on my Mono/Poly for three months because I didn't want to lose the patch I had.

Yes, it can be delicate the very spot on knobs where it glows.

Controls like
- vcf attack
- vcf decay
- vca attack
- vca decay
- envelope amount on vcf and pitch env too if any
- filter cutoff
- filter resonance
are the ones I move back and forth probably 50 times each, just tiny bits, to find the spot on each for a preset. If having velocity amount that matters too.

They are so intimately related these controls, just "breath" on one and it matters. The attack/decay on filter and amp is very delicate in how they interact(but the rest mentioned too).

And that is why DeepMind lack some in not having separate controls for the envelopes, it become cumbersome to go back and forth like that. Nordlead and Prologue are my gotos, and just ordered a Polybrute too.

And if you have large amount of memory locations you can frequently do intermediate saves too, and you come back to and go in another direction. If having 200 or more I probably save 20-30 an hour. And are discarded over time later.

This exploring thing of every corner that synth can go is the core fun of it.

This is one of the main things that killed my fledgling modular. I’d spend a lot of time coming up with something really interesting... and then not want to change it. I’d do some jamming with it and take a photo... but getting back to it seemed a chore and that was that. I also realized that I’d have to spend about a grand just on utility modules to get the kind of functionality that I easily had with my Pro 2, or far exceeded in Reaktor.

[Jkist]

Yeah modular seems like more trouble than its worth for where I'm at. I understand the Neutron can be a good starting point for a modular setup, but I just dont see myself going that deep down the rabbit hole. I can already tell that I'm going to like fiddling with something I can actually hold and feel though, so maybe there is a hybrid synth, some sort of VA digital, down the road for me.

Still, I love my plugins too. Been playing with the obsession demo, and its on my list lol. Just not a priority at all.

[AdvancedFollower]

How do you figure that? Id' suggest that having presets you can dissect is a much better way to learn synth programming. If anything, not being able to recall patches stymies learning because when you create a really nice sound, you'll be reluctant to move on until you've found a good use for it. I remember I once kept the same settings on my Mono/Poly for three months because I didn't want to lose the patch I had.

Unpopular opinion, but for learning synthesis, I actually think a simple plugin is better than a hardware synth, with or without presets.

With hardware synths, when you recall a preset, the knobs and sliders on the panel don't match the loaded patch. This makes it hard to dissect the patch. You have to wiggle each knob until the panel matches the preset (if you're lucky, the synth has some kind of indicator to show you when a knob matches the stored value). With a plugin, the panel changes to reflect the loaded preset, so you can quickly load different sounds and visualize how they were done.

[lfm]

Maybe for you but I can't think of anything less fun. The only presets I save are the ones used in a song and the only time I do any patching is to find a sound for a song. I have much better things to do with my time than sit and play with a synth, just to see what might happen.

So gigging you don't want same sound again as when recorded?
Me with home studio can get away with that.

Certain sound inspire for song ideas as well while doing it. Doing only poly synths you can do chord progressions and color sounds in many ways. And sometimes it's just in one octave that happends. Part of the creative process as you fine tune that preset. So not boring for me. And later maybe just swapping oscillator waveforms on the same preset and start tweaking that - new things arise that you do intermediate saves on.

It's similar with guitar and amps and pedals - a sound inspire an idea.

But different strokes for different folks as they say.

[chk071]

With hardware synths, when you recall a preset, the knobs and sliders on the panel don't match the loaded patch. This makes it hard to dissect the patch. You have to wiggle each knob until the panel matches the preset (if you're lucky, the synth has some kind of indicator to show you when a knob matches the stored value).

That's what I was thinking about earlier as well... with no display to show the exact parameter value, and the fact that analog is pretty random, I don't think you can even recall the exact same patch with photos from the panel...

[lfm]

With a plugin, the panel changes to reflect the loaded preset, so you can quickly load different sounds and visualize how they were done.

That is an advantage for plugins.

I miss that on Nordlead 2X. They could have made the dot in display lit when passing the saved value or something when moving a knob. Especially since they have morph you can assign to mod wheel or velocity having two end values for each parameter if you want. Nordlead had morph for 20 years and Polybrute now do the same.

Nordlead 3 had leds all around knobs, but not sure why they left that idea.

But Prologue has clever arrows in display which way to go until you are spot on and a '*' is shown in display.

Some synths has options for knobs - chase or jump - as mode how they behave.

But having knobs and buttons on a panel encourage tweaking much more than mouse click fest IMO. The hands on thingy - unbeatable. I tried with a UC33 controller and plugins that also had premade panel overlays and preset for controller - better but still not there.

And sit down and fiddle a bit there is only a power button and off you go in seconds. Just turning Prologue on I find myself being there for hours.

[BONES]

So gigging you don't want same sound again as when recorded?

In that situation, the patch will be stored with the song, there is no need to save it separately. Unless it's hardware, in which case you will need to save the patch. Just another cross against hardware.

[lfm]

So gigging you don't want same sound again as when recorded?

In that situation, the patch will be stored with the song, there is no need to save it separately. Unless it's hardware, in which case you will need to save the patch. Just another cross against hardware.

Or store as sysex with the song - unless using StudioOne which does not support sysex. Have to use program change method.
Just a short record program sysex dump on a clip before song begins works rather well, I think, in most daws. Works in Cubase and Reaper and Sonar/Cakewalk.
Or as Sonar/Cakewalk sysex manager is set to send it as recorded if you prefer.
In this case no program change and stuff are needed - sysex data received in edit buffer in synth disregarding which program synth is on.

But no doubt, VST instruments are smoothly embedded in daw.

[telecode]

i am not rich enough for real modular. but i have a baby korg volca modular and love the little thing. lots of fun to use and play with.

[BONES]

Or store as sysex with the song - unless using StudioOne which does not support sysex. Have to use program change method. Just a short record program sysex dump on a clip before song begins works rather well, I think, in most daws. Works in Cubase and Reaper and Sonar/Cakewalk.

I tried to use SysEx with Cubase and it didn't work, either. Rocket lets you send a SysEx dump but Cubase never recorded it.

[lfm]

Or store as sysex with the song - unless using StudioOne which does not support sysex. Have to use program change method. Just a short record program sysex dump on a clip before song begins works rather well, I think, in most daws. Works in Cubase and Reaper and Sonar/Cakewalk.

I tried to use SysEx with Cubase and it didn't work, either. Rocket lets you send a SysEx dump but Cubase never recorded it.

Most daws have checkboxes if to record sysex and aftertouch and stuff in settings, nothing there?
Been a couple of years since Cubase, but will have a look next time daw is up.

Manual say this
"1. In the Preferences dialog, select MIDI > MIDI Filter.
2. In the Record section, deactivate the SysEx checkbox to make sure that the recording of
SysEx data is not filtered.
This way, SysEx messages are recorded but not echoed back to the instrument. This can
lead to unpredictable results.
3. Activate recording on a MIDI track and initiate the dump from the front panel of the
instrument.
4. When you have finished recording, select the new part and select MIDI > List Editor.
This allows you to check that the SysEx dump was recorded. There should be one or
several SysEx events in the part/event list."