One Synth Challenge #203: Synthmaster (ZioMau Wins!)

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Parduz wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 4:37 pm Could I ask for some teaching?
If you wanna hop on a discord call (username Vospi), I could help you out;
Just from the mp3s:
• your Vital patch sounds like it has a "sub wave" in it. So it's something like a square an octave down, or similar tricks with odd harmonics that "add to the saw". So, in short, be sure to replicate that.
• if you keep all OSCs with the locked phase, they don't "snap out" from each other and are unable to form the "stereo randomness" + "pitch randomness" that you're likely used to, cause you stop the note early enough for that to happen.

You probably had the click because you "asked" the OSC to just stop and start again. Start again from "phase 0". Which is, combined with the stacked waveforms with locked phases and maybe some processing, gives you the click. It's just a sudden jump of amplitude "as requested".

Like, if you have a bunch of detuned waveforms, but they all start at phase 0 and you pluck them short enough, they won't "have enough time to show that they are detuned", if that makes sense. They do have stereo, but it's always locked to "one variant" out of hundreds of different sum variants, and it might be one the "less lucky" ones. You might even cancel one wave with another, it's that much less bass.

Bump up the phase spread; press the FREE button (top left).

Serum, Massive, Vital have their OSCs run "free" by default. Some synths, like Phase Plant, opt for the phase locked approach. Both have their pros and cons. So that would make sense that you wouldn't account for that.
Last edited by Vospi on Mon Jan 05, 2026 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
https://soundcloud.com/vospi
I love music, worked with a number of music/rhythm/dance games like Pump It Up, In The Groove, Cytus and Deemo, and teach music production.

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Vospi wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 9:28 pm I know it's not a praise thread or anything, but...
Just so happens: I'm an experienced synth geek and composer, and I've never saw Synthmaster before.

Now imagine me using Synthmaster 3 for the first time...
[...]
I think KV331 would enjoy reading your praise in the "official" SM3 release thread elsewhere in the instruments section ... might help them, because afai get their sales is low and they are struggeling economically a bit.

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Yeah, once I get my s together and get into the English speaking market, I'll give it all the praise that it deserves. But I barely scratched the surface, hope I didn't speak too soon. Just, the things that _are_ there are very thought-out. My first impression is... very very very good.
https://soundcloud.com/vospi
I love music, worked with a number of music/rhythm/dance games like Pump It Up, In The Groove, Cytus and Deemo, and teach music production.

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Anyone see the soundcloud entries from Peter:H and myself showing up now?
They were showing up yesterday and a few hours ago, now not showing any link to soundcloud :(

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Sometimes the links take a while to load... like many, many seconds. Especially now, when SoundCloud is down.

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z.prime wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 11:48 pm Sometimes the links take a while to load... like many, many seconds. Especially now, when SoundCloud is down.
Yeah noticed soundcloud is borked at present.
It sucks.

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Although the soundcloud status page is showing :

Current status: Operational

Yet it is not :(

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Working now ... but yes, they lied ...

dB

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spidergod wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 12:26 am
I was looking through past OSCs a few months back when learning about the competition, and I saw "spidergod" in several threads. It's so cool to see you return. Welcome back! And you work fast! Both you and PeterH 🤯 I'm envious.

And nice track!

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Vospi wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 9:28 pm I don't often say these things: I'm blown away, and it's just a bliss to play. I don't even want to design. I just play like a keyboardist, and I'm so happy.
Alright, I just finally played with SM3 Player Free (even less functional than the regular player), and it sounds SOOOO GOOD 😍

I did the same thing; just sitting at my keyboard getting lost in a few presets. Now time to throw a little test together and see how limiting it really is...wish me luck lol

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aarongrooves wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 7:02 am
spidergod wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 12:26 am
I was looking through past OSCs a few months back when learning about the competition, and I saw "spidergod" in several threads. It's so cool to see you return. Welcome back! And you work fast! Both you and PeterH 🤯 I'm envious.

And nice track!
Hello
Thanks for your kind words, much appreciated.
Last OSC I entered was approx 7 years ago.
I should really take more time to created OSC entrys, but I came up with something I liked and just stuck with it and entered it for this months OSC

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spidergod wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 1:50 pm I should really take more time to created OSC entrys, but I came up with something I liked and just stuck with it and entered it for this months OSC
That's great advice. I've been really struggling to finish in time -- each month is the same struggle. But after reading that, I just went and started laying down whatever popped into my mind that the sounds inspired, and I almost have a complete track!

It still needs some tweaking, but the fact that I can export this and it stands as a complete work is amazing.

So thank you thank you thank you for lighting that fire. And PeterH! 😉

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Right clicking the cutoff and then clicking clear modulations does nothing. Is this normal?
I still have mod envelope 1 and LFO1 under remove modulation. First time using Synthmaster One and i am bad at sound design so i'm not sure.
SoundCloud
"I believe every music producer inherently has something unique about the way they make music. They just have to identify what makes them different, and develop it" - Max Martin

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aarongrooves wrote: Wed Jan 07, 2026 8:09 am
That's great advice. I've been really struggling to finish in time -- each month is the same struggle. But after reading that, I just went and started laying down whatever popped into my mind that the sounds inspired, and I almost have a complete track!

It still needs some tweaking, but the fact that I can export this and it stands as a complete work is amazing.

So thank you thank you thank you for lighting that fire. And PeterH! 😉
I am glad I inspired you, I am looking forward to your hearing your track.
One thing I have also found is using the fx presets instead of usual sounds (e.g pads/guitars etc) can come with some interesting strange sound textures.

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https://soundcloud.com/colettetrash/dio ... llenge-203
Made in Bitwig Studio
10 instances of Synthmaster 3
1 instance of Bitwig's Note Repeats
1 instance of Bitwig's Tool

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