One Synth Challenge #163: Cardinal by DISTRHO (Voting Started!)

[IV!]

Congratulations to the winners.
I guess I came about where I expected but would have liked to be a bit higher all the same.
Looking at the scores it would seem the majority didn't like single instance tracks as all of us were very much down the bottom. That said the spread in scores seems a lot closer than the last few at least as the bottom got well over half the winner's score.

My fast view on this:
Firstly, with a modular synthesizer, one instance is not as impressive as with a "normal" synthesizer - modularity is simply created for this!) This is also a question of processor power, which, for example, I was surely lacking with Cardinal.
Secondly, most of the one instances were generative, and this direction really may not be the most popular. For example, absolutely not my cup of tea...

May I make a suggestion if we do a modular synth again can we please have a week or 2 more to do it as there is a bit learning curve you have to get over before you can start to make anything decent compared to normal synths? Maybe tell us the synth on the equivalent to today after the voting has finished and the winners have been announced? I easily spent twice as long as usual and barely finished what I made in time.

Well, I think if you understand modular synthesis once, then it will be for life, as with a bicycle!) Cardinal/VCV are probably the best options for this now. Besides, we really don't have enough modular synthesizers for OSC. In the concept of an unexpected appearance of a new synthesizer at the same time every month, as well as always the same and equal time for everyone to create a track - there is still something good and right in it) Although sometimes it can be circumvented - for example, if you start a track for Vital now, you will most likely soon find out that you were not mistaken!

[IV!]

Ah, sorry, I should have said: Thanks to BJ Porter and Richard Semper for their great work in the shadows! Just Thank you! Yesterday, today, all the previous and next months and years! This challenge is more than tracks and prizes, and it exists thanks to you!
And also a big thanks to Z'prime for generously posting my track in his SC!
As a prize, I would be happy to receive UVI Digital Synsations!

[MilksterX]

Congrats Treeheated! all the top 5 winners and everyone else too. I really enjoyed listening to so many great tracks this month and using cardinal, even though it missing some of my go to modules from vcv it was good in that it forced me to discover new ones. Thanks again Rich & Brian

[Cronbrick]

Congratulations! I enjoyed to listen every track. Everybody did a good job. It was my first challange and I happy with the result. It motivated me to dive deep in modular synths and making a single instance track was an interesting challenge.

[BrainBeatMusic]

I get what you are saying, but I wonder if that popular take is not how everyone should be looking at a modular synth. If you think about it IRL are you likely to have more than 1 modular synth when creating a piece of music? I guess you could in some ways make this argument for every synth but I do think this was a special case all the same. So in some ways, those of us who took on the challenge to make what we could fulling just using patches were "more creative". I don't want this to sound like I am sour with my position at all I am just proposing an argument that maybe the marking on this occasion may have been using the lens of a traditional synth may have led to lower marks. That said all of our tracks may have been less good which is fine I am just prompting a discussion.

On the time topic true we are all given the same amount of time to work on a track except we are not all in the same timezones. For me in Australia, I often don't find out on a normal month until mid the 2nd of the month. That said I do also then have until mid the 1st of the next month to submit the final version. So at least it would be good if there was some overlap and have (if possible) the next synth announcement at midnight UTC on the first of a month. But I do still think if we had even cardinal again an extra week would still be extremely useful for those who are new to it and those who are more seasoned. It is not as if we had close to a record number of entries this time (except possibly lowest???).

[Frank Geppert]

Congrats from me too. I always wonder about the ranking, but I guess it is a matter of taste. I liked most of them.
Looking forward to the next one. My song is already done.
Regards.

[emikaela]

a single instance just feels more intuitive to me when using a modular synth (or perhaps vcv/cardinal in particular), at least for generative stuff. respect to the people who made the extra effort to juggle multiple instances!

in general, it's best to not expect extra points for following self-imposed challenges. voters tend to care more about what your track sounds like than about how it was made.

[silverpants]

Well done everyone! My first time on the podium! How exciting. Thanks to the admins for running a great show.

My selected prize is Nusofting Modelonia please.

[IV!]

I get what you are saying, but I wonder if that popular take is not how everyone should be looking at a modular synth. If you think about it IRL are you likely to have more than 1 modular synth when creating a piece of music? I guess you could in some ways make this argument for every synth but I do think this was a special case all the same. So in some ways, those of us who took on the challenge to make what we could fulling just using patches were "more creative". I don't want this to sound like I am sour with my position at all I am just proposing an argument that maybe the marking on this occasion may have been using the lens of a traditional synth may have led to lower marks. That said all of our tracks may have been less good which is fine I am just prompting a discussion.

On the time topic true we are all given the same amount of time to work on a track except we are not all in the same timezones. For me in Australia, I often don't find out on a normal month until mid the 2nd of the month. That said I do also then have until mid the 1st of the next month to submit the final version. So at least it would be good if there was some overlap and have (if possible) the next synth announcement at midnight UTC on the first of a month. But I do still think if we had even cardinal again an extra week would still be extremely useful for those who are new to it and those who are more seasoned. It is not as if we had close to a record number of entries this time (except possibly lowest???).

Well, everyone shouldn't be, I think) OSC wouldn't have such a rich variety if everyone followed a certain pattern. Again, a performance issue - for example, I froze all my tracks and I had no more than 12 modules in each patch - this is also an uncharacteristic limitation for hardware modular! But in general, I like your line of comparison with hardware and I know that some participants added points for one instance!)

I also said that I (and perhaps someone else) am rather less impressed by generative music, due to the shortage of a musician's intervention in the composition process. And that was the majority among one instances. See what you can do with one instance - I'm sure such a track would be in the top 5!



On the time topic, I assume that for Richard and BJ, choosing a new synthesizer is not such an obvious task. This is evidenced by a lot of unexpected decisions. They are trying to make the challenge interesting and diverse!)
But it may be useful for you to know that there is a common KVR OSC branch where we offer new candidate synthesizers and discuss it.

viewtopic.php?p=8504641#p8504641

For example, the current Ghost was offered a few days before the end of the month, but the Cardinal was offered several times during a couple of months, so it was pretty obvious that it would appear sooner or later. From here I also made an assumption about Vital over the next 3 months) We are also discussing this in Discord, you are there.

By the way, here is another link for everyone who wants to take a closer part in the life of the OSC community:
https://discord.gg/EtvMt3F6