I'm sick of vintage analog fx plugins

[Jafo]

I'd also like to point out that while judicious application of eq and noise (and compression) can go a long way, most analog gear adds harmonics and softens transients, which none of the above can do. But hey, I'm a guitarist, so I'm very, very picky about my tube emulations.

[Jafo]

Heh. Somebody's got to point out that for most analog effects, the market is pretty much, err... saturated...

perhaps it is

but i wouldnt complain about having a wide choice

Very, very true!

[Funkybot]

I don't know why everyone's getting themselves in a bunch about this, I kind of feel bad for poor Mark there, you know his being completely deaf and all.

And Mark since you obviously can't hear very well since you think everything sounds the same and also can't know much about what is available on the plug-in scene, why don't you take the few analog-modeling-regular-boring-old-plug-ins you do have, and do something new with them (you know you can route a few together, or even do interesting things by doing this on aux busses), or even do something new with your music itself using the technology you do have. Or hell, just try to find a way to get a reverb plug-in to make a cool noise by hitting it's GUI with a hammer.

[shamann]

I imagine that in certain circles, the 'Buchla mentality' vs. 'Moog mentality' was the PC vs. Mac debate of its day...

I've always had problems with the keyboardist monopoly on synthesizers. Never minded that keyboard synths existed, but alternatives are always rare. The stranglehold really took off with the MIDI spec.

I suppose there might be something to be said for keyboard-style interfaces, which would explain the general typewriter affordance used in the design of personal computers. Handy to have a large set of option triggers arrayed at your fingertips, but it's not the be all end all.

Consider most synth plugins, and how difficult/impossible it can be to turn them into free running drones. I've opted mostly for modulars for that very reason, as it seems to me that at least 90% of all synth plugins won't make a noise without MIDI Note On gating.

I share the general fatigue for analogue emulations (Wot, another one?), but a variety of sound colour options can't be a bad thing. Some things in the before time sounded really good, not a bad idea to recapture that sound for a new application.

Also consider how one can use analogue modelled plugs in computers, definitely beyond their realworld counterparts. I can chain dozens of them in one project realtime with a computer, which would have been cost prohibitive in the 70s.

And full parameter automation grows modulation capability exponentially. 1000s of will-deprived monkeys would have been needed to do what one simple host application can do now.

Cheers,
Steve

[cron]

Consider most synth plugins, and how difficult/impossible it can be to turn them into free running drones. I've opted mostly for modulars for that very reason, as it seems to me that at least 90% of all synth plugins won't make a noise without MIDI Note On gating.

I find this extremely annoying being an Audiomulch user. Mulch is wonderful, but it's certainly not the best (ok, ok, it's close to being the worst) as far as its MIDI implementation goes. Though I tend to avoid synths anyway and just mulch prerecorded acoustic audio (I prefer the resulting timbres), it'd be nice to have the option. I'd love a plug which behaves like a Doepfer modular system or somesuch.

[shamann]

Mulch is wonderful, but it's certainly not the best (ok, ok, it's close to being the worst) as far as its MIDI implementation goes.

I think Mulch's MIDI implementation is actually quite good for what it was designed to do, but it's very design is particularly limited/inflexible (absence of discreet MIDI paths, no MIDI filtering/rerouting). Ross has mentioned in the past that his intent was to design something somewhat MIDI-less, in that he wanted an instrument played through alternate means.

I play synths with a keyboard all the time through Mulch, and it receives MIDI notes just fine. Same goes with MIDI CC values, a fairly robust setup there.

[fishbowl.tucson.az]

I've always had problems with the keyboardist monopoly on synthesizers.

I never thought about it like that. I've been playing piano since 1968. Synths have always been clavier instruments, and there have been attempts on the fringe to make things like guitar and wind and drum controllers, sure.

Why didn't the Theremin interface take hold?

[cron]

Mulch is wonderful, but it's certainly not the best (ok, ok, it's close to being the worst) as far as its MIDI implementation goes.

I think Mulch's MIDI implementation is actually quite good for what it was designed to do, but it's very design is particularly limited/inflexible (absence of discreet MIDI paths, no MIDI filtering/rerouting). Ross has mentioned in the past that his intent was to design something somewhat MIDI-less, in that he wanted an instrument played through alternate means.

I play synths with a keyboard all the time through Mulch, and it receives MIDI notes just fine. Same goes with MIDI CC values, a fairly robust setup there.

Fair dos, but it's a little annoying to me picking up my keyboard every time I want to generate a signal, especially since my keyboard's giving me "this USB device has malfunctioned..." messages 90% of the time I plug it in, and the other 10% it stops transmitting MIDI after about a minute. I really hope it's the cable.

I bought EnergyXT for use as a signal generator within Mulch, but sadly they don't seem to get along terribly well. XT always brings Mulch down after about 5 minutes of toying.

[Amberience]

XT is evolving into the perfect modular mangler for me. For everything else there's mastercard .. no wait, Ableton Live I mean.

[cron]

^

That's the guy who made me buy XT

[dystonia_ek]

I've always had problems with the keyboardist monopoly on synthesizers.

I never thought about it like that. I've been playing piano since 1968. Synths have always been clavier instruments, and there have been attempts on the fringe to make things like guitar and wind and drum controllers, sure.

Only one of the first two major synths was a clavier instrument. The original Buchla (built for Morton Subotnik) was keyboardless and used touch plates, though they did give in to keyboards in later models. The original Moog (built for Walter Carlos) was a keyboard instrument from the start. The difference between Subotnik and Carlos sort of defines the difference in mentality between the keyboard/no-keyboard types. Carlos was notoriously resistant to 'new music', dismissing it out of hand as 'unpleasant noise'.

[cron]

[Walter] Carlos was notoriously resistant to 'new music', dismissing it out of hand as 'unpleasant noise'.

But, confusingly, Wendy Carlos put out Beauty in the Beast in the mid 80s, an album full of tonal experimentation and non-standard tunings. Weird how these things turn out.

[Amberience]

^

That's the guy who made me buy XT

To be fair, what I did with our installation would have been possible in near enough ANY host, but I like the way XT handles itself.

Its the difference between a British whore and an American one... the Brit has more teeth.

[Sicklecell666]

the Brit has more teeth.

You sure about that? I heard it was the other way around..

[cron]

the Brit has more teeth.

You sure about that? I heard it was the other way around..

Oh yeah. Aren't us Brits notorious for having bad teeth? Mine are pretty f**ked, I'll say that.