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

[ontrackp]

Here's my submission for this month. I really wanted to use hardware, but my only remaining hardware synths are both heavily sample based so I went with Diva - sticking to the Jupiter 8 / 6 Roland configuration. Around 42 instances in Logic ProX. Hardware emulation plugins include PA Neve, Focusrite and SSL consoles, Neold Compressor, CLA-3 leveling amp, Abbey Road plates, Abbey Road mastering chain. Free digital plugin - Limiter Number 6. Logic reverb and tape delay.

Congratulations and tremendous respect for everyone who used actual hardware!

https://soundcloud.com/ontrackp/diva-osc143-hot-pickles

P.S. the title is a tribute to the Amazing Xeon Knight.

[h.s.j.e.]

I used Cherry Audio's Surrealistic MG-1 Plus. Kind surprised by how much I liked it. I ended up getting caught up in other things, and barely had time to finish it, so if parts of this come across as rough-draft-y, it's because they are.

https://soundcloud.com/h_s_j_e/this-time-i-will

Daw: Reaper 6.2
Surrealistic MG-1 Plus x 29
ReaEQ x 12
ReaComp x 12
Limiter No 6 x 2
Dragonfly Early Reflections x 1
Dragonfly Room x 1
Dragonfly Plate x 1
Dragonfly Hall x 2
Valhalla Supermassive x 5
Transpire x 5
BlueArp x 2
Kilohearts free Delay x 5
YouLean Loudness Meter x 1
TDR Nova EQ x 1
SPAN x 1

[L-EctroBit]

My entry this month: "DexoLectro". I had a long time without making music on Linux and wanted to try the latest Ardour updates, so I took the opportunity to make this little track.

https://soundcloud.com/l-ectrobit/l-ect ... tro-osc143

DAW: Ardour 6.5.0

Synth: Dexed x 15

FX Plugins:
LoudMax
Calf Saturator
Calf Filter
Calf Equalizer
Calf Limiter
Calf Vintage Delay
Tal-Filter-2
Tal-Reverb-III
Airwindows Drive
Luftikus
Dragonfly Plate Reverb
EQ6Q Stereo

[H-man]

Okay, rushed as always, no real idea how to use this thing and a rather different workflow but hey..

This uses the Nord Modular G1 Keyboard, a DSP synth with controls via software. I haven't really the first idea when it comes to modular so most of the patches are reasonably simple VA and FM creations. Maybe a sequencer here and there.

Just so we're clear, the Nord Modular has no sampling - sample playback capabilities at all.

Edit: The serial on this one starts with M98 so I'm guessing this one was made in 1998.

https://soundcloud.com/hehirman/h-man-training-waves

Track made with Ableton Live 10.1 and The Nord Modular G1

3rd Party plugs;

Focusrite Console (Plugin Alliance) on each track (it's supposed to be transparent....)
Valhalla Plate (one or two i think)

Also from the built-in set:
Utility

EQ Eight

Compressor

Glue Compressor

Limiter
Reverb
Delay

[jasinski]

do you need to tell us what and how many you used?

Updated with info.

[gigue07]

https://soundcloud.com/gigue07/nord-lead-mood

Gigue07 Nord Lead Mood
Synth1 (Nord Lead 2)

DAW Ableton Live Suite
Stock Plugins
Eq8
Compressor
Reverb
Delay
Multiband Dynamics
Pan
Utility
Arpeggio

3rd PartyPlugins
Voxengo MSED
Voxengo Time Delay
KR-Reverb FS

# of Tracks 16

[kylebenjamin]

https://soundcloud.com/kylebenjamin/recursion

My first submission to this forum. Ran out of time so I'm throwing in what I've got (and just under the wire)!

Synth:
Nord Lead 2x

Plugins:
TDR Nova Eq (Tokyo Dawn Labs)
TAL Reverb 4 (TAL)
LoudMax Limiter (Thomas Mundt)

Update (2/6/21):
I forgot to include the number of tracks and the DAW I used. There are 14 tracks of the Nord, and everything was done in Reaper v6.21/OSX64

[3lu5iv3]

-Made on ArchLinux, DAW MusE 4.0-pre2, Mastered in Ardour 6.5
-18 instances of Casio's VL1 synth (1981-1984), emulated with https://github.com/linuxmao-org/VL1-emulator by jpcima.

Hope you enjoy it!

Never heard of MusE before, is it any good?
I'm looking for a new DAW.

[MyLoFy]

MyLoFy, it looks like your track has a problem specifically with one of the rules.

-Made on ArchLinux, DAW MusE 4.0-pre2, Mastered in Ardour 6.5

Rules

Samples:

Audio must not be touched at all once it leaves the DAW (i.e. after bouncing a track or a stem). For example: One cannot master the audio in another software or service.

Sorry to tell you this bad news, but you still have time to fix it.

Dude, thanks!! Just found your post, completely forgot about that one...
I copied all master processing to the MusE Out and exported again. Hope it's not too late!
Here we go again:
https://soundcloud.com/mylofymusic/mylo ... l-business
-Made on ArchLinux, DAW MusE 4.0-pre2
-18 instances of Casio's VL1 synth (1981-1984), emulated with https://github.com/linuxmao-org/VL1-emulator by jpcima.

Further effects used (all FOSS):
-TAP Tubewarmth
-Dragonfly Reverb
-Calf Limiter
-Calf Vintage Delay
-LSP Multiband Compressor
-LSP Stereo Compressor
-LSP Parametric EQ
-LSP Artistic Delay
-LSP Gate
-ZaMultiCompX2
-ZamDelay
-ZamTube
-ambiX Widener

Master Bus chain:
-Luftikus EQ
-LSP parametric EQ
-LSP Multiband Compressor
-Chow Tape Model
-LSP Limiter
-Calf Limiter

[MyLoFy]

Never heard of MusE before, is it any good?
I'm looking for a new DAW.

Well, it's under heavy development, so you'd have to compile it from github to test the latest version. Also, it only runs on linux. I like it because I have a fable for open source software and try to report the bugs I find.
So if you don't mind crashes/unexpected behavior it's fun to use, but I wouldn't consider it a substitute for a full-blown DAW.

[3lu5iv3]

Never heard of MusE before, is it any good?
I'm looking for a new DAW.

Well, it's under heavy development, so you'd have to compile it from github to test the latest version. Also, it only runs on linux. I like it because I have a fable for open source software and try to report the bugs I find.
So if you don't mind crashes/unexpected behavior it's fun to use, but I wouldn't consider it a substitute for a full-blown DAW.

I see, thanks for the quick answer.

[Tj Shredder]

My entry for OSC #143. A single instance of Cherry Audios CA2600. Played live directly into Bitwig with my LinnStrument and a Tecontrol breath and bite controller for some modulation and arp control...
One take, no editing no fx, pure synth...

https://soundcloud.com/ondes-memorielle ... ne-osc-143

I was in a hurry to finish last night, and want to give some insight for my choice...
A real Arp 2600 was the one hardware synth I realy got attached to in the 90's. I bought one for, even for that time, very little money. I had to sell it later for being a broke musician and had to feed my kids somehow. At least I got a reasonable good price for it...
I stopped doing much synth stuff and instead dived deep into Max/MSP. Until in late 2016 I bought my LinnStrument which indirectly introduced me to KVR. Suddenly synths became interesting again, as I could play them expressively (my acoustic background is a violin...).
Of course I had an eye on virtual Arp2600. The first I got was Arturia including a bunch of other dream machines. Then I got also the TimeWarp with the charity auction. I could get some nice sounds out of both, but it was far from the inspiration the original gave me decades before. I never really did much with them, but its nice to feed some nostalgia.
And then last year Cherry Audio released CA2600. And that is closer to the original in terms what it can do. Arturia and TimeWarp ran into the trap to make their emulations polyphonic and that way the duo/paraphonic features of the original where missing. The CA is allowing that and had a really inspiring sound setup which inspired me to this impro:

It was a perfect match, so I enhanced my piece a bit to create this OSC version. That patch intermodulates two oscillators. If you play a single pitch, its just that. If you play two notes, you get a four note chord. The two notes and their sum and difference frequencies... It sounds just gorgeous...
In Bitwig I created a Midi FX layer. One layer would pass Midi through, the other would have an arpeggiator. I could switch between the layers with a sustain pedal, and could modulate the gate length with the breath. I used the bite to modulate the filter.
The arpeggio alone would create chords if the gate length is longer than 100% and the notes overlap. If I first play a note without arpeggio, and then switch to the arpeggio, the first not would be held, and only the others would be arpeggiating. If I would shorten the gate length, it would turn into a single pitch arpeggio... Endless fun to just play with that... A lot of variation under control...

[Local Man]

My entry for OSC #143. A single instance of Cherry Audios CA2600. Played live directly into Bitwig with my LinnStrument and a Tecontrol breath and bite controller for some modulation and arp control...
One take, no editing no fx, pure synth...

https://soundcloud.com/ondes-memorielle ... ne-osc-143

I was in a hurry to finish last night, and want to give some insight for my choice...
A real Arp 2600 was the one hardware synth I realy got attached to in the 90's. I bought one for, even for that time, very little money. I had to sell it later for being a broke musician and had to feed my kids somehow. At least I got a reasonable good price for it...
I stopped doing much synth stuff and instead dived deep into Max/MSP. Until in late 2016 I bought my LinnStrument which indirectly introduced me to KVR. Suddenly synths became interesting again, as I could play them expressively (my acoustic background is a violin...).
Of course I had an eye on virtual Arp2600. The first I got was Arturia including a bunch of other dream machines. Then I got also the TimeWarp with the charity auction. I could get some nice sounds out of both, but it was far from the inspiration the original gave me decades before. I never really did much with them, but its nice to feed some nostalgia.
And then last year Cherry Audio released CA2600. And that is closer to the original in terms what it can do. Arturia and TimeWarp ran into the trap to make their emulations polyphonic and that way the duo/paraphonic features of the original where missing. The CA is allowing that and had a really inspiring sound setup which inspired me to this impro:

It was a perfect match, so I enhanced my piece a bit to create this OSC version. That patch intermodulates two oscillators. If you play a single pitch, its just that. If you play two notes, you get a four note chord. The two notes and their sum and difference frequencies... It sounds just gorgeous...
In Bitwig I created a Midi FX layer. One layer would pass Midi through, the other would have an arpeggiator. I could switch between the layers with a sustain pedal, and could modulate the gate length with the breath. I used the bite to modulate the filter.
The arpeggio alone would create chords if the gate length is longer than 100% and the notes overlap. If I first play a note without arpeggio, and then switch to the arpeggio, the first not would be held, and only the others would be arpeggiating. If I would shorten the gate length, it would turn into a single pitch arpeggio... Endless fun to just play with that... A lot of variation under control...

Beautiful!

[MalToné]

https://soundcloud.com/kylebenjamin/recursion

My first submission to this forum. Ran out of time so I'm throwing in what I've got (and just under the wire)!
...

Hey Kyle, welcome to OSC, I'm glad you could participate.

I was noticing that you need to set your track so that it is downloadable for the competition.

Good luck!

[doctorbob]

Well done all

20 tracks using hardware as the sound source. Most mix/mastering ITB with software FX.

32 tracks using hardware emulators, and all mix/mastering ITB. (Correct me if I missed some hardware FX, not everyone puts details on the Soundcloud page for the track).

Going to be fun stacking the emulator tracks up against the "real thing" tracks.

See you all on the other side of voting ....

dB