One Synth Challenge #161: Synth1 by Ichiro Toda (Vospi Wins!)

[ELEX]

Also, these two statements may seem contradictory to each other:

However ..... as a working musician, I would always encourage users of free synths/fx to part with the odd couple of quid here and there to support the work of those who create the software which supports our creativity

... anyone spending any cash on commercial fx ..... errrr ..

No contradiction there, probably. Not if the first statement refers to donating the odd couple of quid to the creators of the free plugins we use.

[IV!]

No contradiction there, probably. Not if the first statement refers to donating the odd couple of quid to the creators of the free plugins we use.

Ah, in this case there is no contradiction and I completely agree with the author!

[tattiemannie]

Thanks for clarifying Elex

I do however need to clarify my comment 'anyone spending cash on commercial fx'.

Of course folks should spend on commercial fx ... what I meant was, I don't think folks should feel pressure or need to buy commercial fx in order to compete in any particular OSC.

For me, (to answer Peter H's question) the purpose of the competition is to explore the chosen synth, and make use of a wide variety of sounds, acknowledging the limits as well as the expanse of the particular synth.

Limitations, and looking at overcoming same are as much part of the challenge as the final composition. Limitations can take you out of your 'comfort zone' ... challenging you to adapt, taking an unfamiliar approach to your composition ... which might be a pain, but can also be refreshing and educational

Anyway, just my opinion ... worth no more or less than any other on here.

As I said, great to hear some fantastic music being made - and I still hold out hope that I will find the time in future to participate. Anyway ... all the best with your creations

[schiing]

I haven't done the research or anything, but judging by memory, I actually think the commercial fx rounds posed a detriment to the quality of my tracks.

Too hung up on utilizing effects that weren't usually in play, I probably over-thought / over-produced those entries in the effect chain.

Same with synths - if they had everything built in, like chorus, delays, reverbs and phasers, I had a tendency to drown those tracks in effects. A "choose your synth" round comes to mind - I used Massive X, and went massively overboard with the effects.

Perhaps less really is more??

[Double Tap]

This isn't a plea for us to be able to use commercial fx every month, but just to explain why I think it's a good thing ...

For me it's an issue of time. Doing OSC properly takes time and doing tracks makes you learn your tools. As a result, I know Rand and Monique and Synth1 a lot better than I know Echoboy. Why? Because most of the music I make with purpose is OSC - most of the rest is just fiddling around because I don't make time to complete it. I don't think I'd get any particular advantage from using Echoboy in OSC because I can't use it for mucking around with the synth's sound, but I still want to learn it.

Having done OSC for more than a year, the standard months have stopped challenging me to adapt because I end up using the same stock DAW plugins time after time. I think limitations are crucial for helping you focus, and OSC is really important for that because it gives you limited tools and limited time. But that spirit of adaptability and challenging you to get out of your comfort zone applies more, for me, for commercial fx than DAW stock.

I imagine it's different for people who have other projects going on, maybe because they're sound designers/composers/developers or students or professionally involved in music somehow - OSC is for them a way of blowing off steam. For hobbyists who don't really have any expectation of making a career out of music, OSC is more of a vital creative prompt and a vibrant, interesting community where people will listen to your stuff and point out some amazing ideas. The main problem hobbyists have IMO is a sense of purpose, because why make music if no one will listen to it? Making music is much more fun than finding an audience, after all.

[RichardSemper]

Thanks for clarifying Elex

I do however need to clarify my comment 'anyone spending cash on commercial fx'.

Of course folks should spend on commercial fx ... what I meant was, I don't think folks should feel pressure or need to buy commercial fx in order to compete in any particular OSC.

For me, (to answer Peter H's question) the purpose of the competition is to explore the chosen synth, and make use of a wide variety of sounds, acknowledging the limits as well as the expanse of the particular synth.

Limitations, and looking at overcoming same are as much part of the challenge as the final composition. Limitations can take you out of your 'comfort zone' ... challenging you to adapt, taking an unfamiliar approach to your composition ... which might be a pain, but can also be refreshing and educational

Anyway, just my opinion ... worth no more or less than any other on here.

As I said, great to hear some fantastic music being made - and I still hold out hope that I will find the time in future to participate. Anyway ... all the best with your creations

Good to hear from you, and I really hope you get a chance to participate again soon

The longevity of OSC is imo down to the openness encouraged from the very beginning, and the genuine challenge to get into the nuts and bolts of synthesis. It's also the chance to get heard, collaborate and discuss with other synth enthusiasts. So Many thanks for starting this all off - and long may it continue

[tattiemannie]

You make a good point Double Tap, now I think about it, if I was too look back on what I used through many comps, I would find I used the same fx plugs time and time again. In part, it was my choice to use simple plugins which 'did what it said on the tin' and little more, as a way making it clear that the synth was 'centre stage' ... but yeah, there was an element of using what I knew in order to maintain a certain 'comfort zone'.

Thanks for raising that issue. I can see how it may well have raised the 'challenge' level ... in a good and engaging way if I had played around with a greater range of fx plugs .... after all, I did 'take the plunge' and use a couple of different DAWs in a couple of my later ventures

[Double Tap]

So, Synth1 seems to have a bug which means it won't load in the DAW. In Live I'm trying to open up the plugin from the track and nothing happens - the yellow dot toggles on, but no Synth1 appears. I had got a work around going where if I created a new track with a new instance of Synth1, then saved and rebooted, it would reactivate plugins in all the tracks. But now that's stopped working so I have 20 tracks of midi and automation but no sounds.

Anyone got any suggestions?

For everyone else, make sure you save any sound you're planning to use as a preset otherwise it will default to init.

[Double Tap]

So, Synth1 seems to have a bug which means it won't load in the DAW. In Live I'm trying to open up the plugin from the track and nothing happens - the yellow dot toggles on, but no Synth1 appears. I had got a work around going where if I created a new track with a new instance of Synth1, then saved and rebooted, it would reactivate plugins in all the tracks. But now that's stopped working so I have 20 tracks of midi and automation but no sounds.

Anyone got any suggestions?

For everyone else, make sure you save any sound you're planning to use as a preset otherwise it will default to init.

Turns out that adding another instance *to a rack* woke it up again.

[YouSampleMe]

Here is my entry, this time an abstract ambient track.

https://soundcloud.com/sampleme/yousamp ... al_sharing

I used Ableton Live 11 and 10 instances of Synth1.

Stock Plugins:
Utility
Reverb
Delay

Commercial plugins:
Waves Tune
SPL Iron
Amek EQ 200
UrsaDSP Boost
TDR Limiter6 GE

Thank you for listening.

Sample Me

[glenzo]

Hello! Here is my entry this month, a slow-jam:

https://soundcloud.com/therealgl3n/glen ... al_sharing

Using Logic 10.4.8, with 36 instances of Synth1.

Stock plugins:
Channel EQ

Commercial plugins:
Lindell 80
WUMTdeluxe
bx-digital
UAD: Neve 33609, Pulteq EQ, Distressor, Capitol Chambers Korg DDelay, EMT 140, Ampex ATR-102
SPL Iron
SSL Bus Compressor (native)
OTT
Waves: Ren De-esser, Puigchild 770, Manny M Distortion
Vahalla Supermassive
Fabfilter Pro L 2

It's always been challenging with this plugin and Logic - a lot of random crashes when opening certain presets, and no matter how much quantizing and freezing, there's always a few tennis balls in the dryer.

It was fun creating this - celebrates my current mood these days. Enjoy! G

[Spring Goose]

Why now and not when we were torturing ourselves while having to use Synister? Sorry all if this is not the first time this question has been asked.

It's best not to ask these questions, like asking a magician about how his magic works.

[MadMcMan]

Here's my OSC for this month.

https://soundcloud.com/madmcman/far-away-from-mind

Using 30 instances of Synth1 in Reaper

Free VST:
TDR Nova
STFU
Dragonfly Room Reverb
Dragonfly Plate Reverb
Pancake2
Gatelab
Valhalla Supermassive
epicVerb
Wider

AirWindows:
Air2
BussColors4
Console8
PureGain
Texturize

Reaper JSFX:
Event Horizon Limter/Clipper
Dynamic poly/mono MIDI router
ReEQ
MIDI Delay
Midi Tool II

Commercial Vst:
SmartComp
TDR Kotelnikov GE
TDR Limiter 6 GE
Ozone 9 Elements
ADPTR MetricAB

AI Image made by https://www.craiyon.com/

[ChristopherWD]

https://soundcloud.com/christopher_dorg ... istopherwd

Here's my submission for this month. It's inspired by the limited sound capabilities of a certain handheld game console, where heavily compressed samples and an 8-bit PSG chip was all you really had to work with. The audio hardware was not well recieved and was quite noisy too, but a lot of musicians ended up creating very unique sounding music with an arrangement style that still sticks with me to this day, and I wanted to channel that in this submission.

Synth1's own decimator is putting most of this work here to give things that compressed sample sound, it's quite noticable on the strings and choir. The decimator's ctl2 is also what makes the majority of the 8-bit wavetable-like sounds.

Synth1 Instances: 50
DAW: REAPER

Free / Stock Plugins Used:
ReaEQ (x15)
ReaGate (x4)
ReaLimit (x1)
airwindows Verbity (x15)
airwindows Point (x3)

Commercial Plugins Used:
IK Multimedia ONE (x1)
IK Multimedia Tape Machine 440 (x1)
Nembrini Audio PSA1000 (x1)

[doctorbob]

... and here is entry #101 from DoctorBob. Something different and slightly "strange". I hope you enjoy the departure.

DAW: Reaper

Track Details:
9 * Synth 1
Waves VEQ4 (Commercial), OTT, TAL Dub Delay, Twin Delay, Waves Maxxbass (Commercial), Valhalla Room (Commercial)

Master:
Stillwell 1973 (Commercial), FerricTDSMkII, Ozone 8 Elements (Commercial, but was a free download!)

Meter:
Youlean Loudness ,SPAN

Stats:
LUFS: -16.2, DR: 10

https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/the-ze ... 161-synth1