One Synth Challenge #86: Sinnah by NUSofting (Penguinfromdeep wins!)

[Taron]

Alrighty, I'm taking the plunge. I think, this is far enough away from Jasinski's track!



OSC#86: Sinnah
"Deep Cavern of Sin"
This is the journey of a cave explorer into the fabled cavern of sin. Shortly after entering, he slips, hits his head and enters into a brief dreamworld. Upon waking up again, he finds his footing, though mildly bewildered, only to encounter a rock formation so very similar to what he had just dreamed of. Following the trail he simply encounters a beautiful cave to skip through...

https://soundcloud.com/taronium/osc86-p ... to/s-xST12

DAW: MULab (http://www.mutools.com)
Sinnah instances: 33
DAW effects:
- Level Compressor
- TeaVerb2 x3
- delay cross x6
- simple echo
- Vintage Echo 1
- 2 Band EQ x3
- 4 Band EQ x3
- Crusher x6
- various automation mux for pitch bend envelopes

3rd Party:
- Nova 67P
- LoudMax64 x3
- Ambience 64 x7
- SPAN

And that's about it. )

[doctorbob]

^^^^^^ gotta say - now that's one hell of track ... sound design, composition, mixing, performance, realisation of a dream ... brilliant all the way through, not a dull moment.

dB

[Taron]

Thank you, dB!
I've had one heck of a blast making it, too! Not to mention the great joy of getting to know Luigi, who's a mighty fine fellow with a great off-the-wall thinking! Pretty snazzy what such a minimalist synth can produce with a bit of care.
Again, thanks a lot!

[doctorbob]

Yup, the synth can make some pretty decent sounds. But, as you say, a lot of care is needed as you can easily end up with gritty harsh sounds by pushing a parameter too far But, it does make some sweet sounds which can meld together really well (hence my quite intense soundscape sections, which had around 20-25 tracks carefully mixed ). I was surprised how well it actually made decent "piano" as well as "EP" sounds, which have a decent enough tonal quality to sit in the mix well (... with some careful EQ-ing etc etc). I didn't push the parameter automation much because I wanted relatively "pure" sounds which didn't change much when they "appeared" in the track - sort of like having a different person playing an instrument always sounds different, and can be "distracting", which I didn't want.

I'm sure the synth will improve again and again with more features added and will be quite a beast to tame! So, thanks Luigi, nice one!

dB

[Taron]

Oh yes, it's pretty easy to go all freaky with Sinnah, creating strange phase impressions that make it feel impossible to mix. But when the changes came, especially the "full" mode, things improved steeply and standard sounds became possible, greatly diversifying Sinnah's potential.
The most automation found in my track is actually not of parameters, but just midi pitchbending. After a brief request, Jo finally added a pitch generator to MuLab, making it possible to hook up envelopes and lfos to pitch bend modulation. Armed with that it was amazing to work with Sinnah.
Hopefully it will get more internal features to support vibrato and the likes, which I do believe will happen. Luigi has a little diamond in the rough on his hands, which could become a bright beacon to draw in people to all his creations. Needless to say that Sinnah could eventually become a great inspiration/foundation for a great commercial piece later on. I wish him really, really only the best! He deserves it!

[rghvdberg]

Here's mine
https://soundcloud.com/rghvdberg/rghvdb ... rboy-osc86

17 instances of Sinnah
DAW: Ardour 4.7
OS Linux Mint 17.3 + KX Studio repos
Win32 vst hosts Airwave & Carla(git)
FX Used:
Calf Equalizer, Calf Compressor Calf Reverb, Calf Gate, Calf Saturator, Calf Vintage Delay, Calf Multiband Limiter

Expect for the piano patch ("piano for songs"), all patches from scratch.
I never really got into the delay-matrix but the patches for this track didn't really need it. Maybe this doesn't do justice to this synth but then again maybe it does for showing how versatile this thing is.

I started with creating kick/snare/hihat.
Now I always read about compressing kick drums but this is kinda dark magic for me so I did what I should've done ages ago; google for it and 1st hit was this :
http://www.benvesco.com/blog/mixing/200 ... mpression/ .
Found several 'recipes' for compressing and EQ-ing kick,snare and bass. Exactly the hand-holding i needed.

Made a simple groove and created a bass. Came up with a baseline, decided it need a little glide/pitch-bend and added some guitarlike chords.
Ok, [A] part done, now I needed a part.
Just derped on the keyboard with the bass patch and suddenly le wild funky bassline appeared. A bit later I tried it on a lead patch and it worked quite well.
Then I came up with the idea to create a finger snap ... that failed ended with a sort of claves which I liked anyway and left it there.
When arranging the parts I needed some little 'holes' to be filled up. Maybe a 'mute guitar' sound could do. This finally became the melody.
Then I needed some keys. I was gonna go with some EP but found the awesome 'Piano for Songs' patch and I never could do better than that.

When finally the song was arranged (I know it's a bit short) I needed some more 'lift' on the last part. So I created a cymbal patch and put it on the off-beat. Needed more ... so I put in high strings .. genius ;p

For my living I play and teach piano/keyboards. But ... on Saturdays I'm the mailman While doing my round I had this track I was working in my head (I never listen to radio or music, I have an in-built music player in my head, sometimes drives me mad) and it's perfect for keeping a steady pace. I was gonna call it mailman but paperboy I like better. I know (from tv and videogames) that paperboys throw the newspaper in the frontyard but here in the Netherlands newspaper and mail are delivered in the mailbox .. on foot ..

That's my story of this short track. I really had to push myself to work, because I didn't have a song or idea in my head when I started this. But I really wanted (needed?) to make a track this time.
Thanks for this great synth and thanks fellow OSC-ers for always inspiring me.

[Spitfire31]

Very nice bouncy, upbeat track, Rob van den Berg! I like it a lot and the variations on the basic theme keeps the interest to the end. Good work, says my ears!

/Joachim

[rghvdberg]

Very nice bouncy, upbeat track, Rob van den Berg! I like it a lot and the variations on the basic theme keeps the interest to the end. Good work, says my ears!

/Joachim

Thanks

[penguinfromdeep]

Great tracks Taron & Rob!

[Taron]

Thanks, Peng!

[rghvdberg]

Great tracks Taron & Rob!

Thanks, although Taron's track is quite of a different magnitude then mine. Now that's an amazing piece of work .

[rghvdberg]

I think the beauty of this synth is that if you listen to all the different tracks one would never guess that; each track is made with just this plugin i.e. no other synths or samples and that ALL tracks use the same synth. They all are very diverse.

PLUS. it's a synth with very limited parameters. I think this is just amazing.

[liqih]

I think the beauty of this synth is that if you listen to all the different tracks one would never guess that; each track is made with just this plugin i.e. no other synths or samples and that ALL tracks use the same synth. They all are very diverse.

PLUS. it's a synth with very limited parameters. I think this is just amazing.

Amazing for me too!
#You guys are so good with sounds.
I like every tracks so far, some of them may suit more my taste, but all have something to say. (will be hard time voting)
Thanks so much for pushing Sinnah high.

BTW I'm flattered by all your nice words too.
Thanks again, Taron ,dB, and everyone

[Comrade]

Started a bit later in the month this time but managed to get it done. Sinnah is a strange synth that has taken a bit of getting used to. I didn't feel like I designed the sounds this time so much as I engaged in a patch making dialogue with the synth itself, a meeting halfway sort of deal. As such I took this one step further and allowed the synth to also direct much of the music (So no forcing it into a sonata form or anything of the like) and at the end of it all this song was made. Whether through coincidence or the subliminal suggestion of the synths name the song ended up being about a Sinful Oscillator which seemed an appropriate description/embodiment for this song.

https://soundcloud.com/comrade-68241369 ... ator-osc86

These thoughts aside we have the lineup of pieces and details of the song.
All patches from init.
34 instances of Sinnah (pretty sure 2 are not used)
DAW: FL Studio 12.2
Plugins
Fruity Parametric EQ 2
Maximus
Patcher
Fruity Limiter
Voxengo SPAN
Wave Candy
Gross Beat (those gates)
Classic Delay
Fruity Reeverb 2
Ambience
Fruity Convolver
And a fair amount of automation

[liqih]

With much shame after such entries of yours, here is mine, a dirty dark gloomy track, with a longish contemplative intro.
Honestly I haven't spent much time on the mix, the bassline is buried but I think it could fit with the dark gloomy feel.

https://soundcloud.com/liqih/liqih-words-of-sinnah

- Sinnah instances: 7
- DAW: Ableton Live
- Effects:
Live: EQs Reverb Delays Limiter
NUSofting TGB (comp and sat)
- Automations on all tracks levels
and Sinnah "harmonics" and "tuning"