One-Synth-Challenge 5! (yes 5!) - CRYSTAL

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Well Well....
I did fool around with this a LOT last night but I'm afraid to say I'm not getting much done in terms of an actual track.
Firstly I tried automapping Crystal to my Novation Nocturn but unfortunately that didn't work as I hoped. I've mapped quite a few synth so far but doing it manually with Crystal takes up 49 PAGES!!! :shock: :o . Usually freebie VA's are around 3 or 4 pages. Surely it tells you that Crstal is a highly advanced VST but unfortunately you also get an impression that actually using it is more a question about engineering than making music: Something that really turns me off! :?
Also, Crystal doesn't seem very stable at least on my system (Vista/FL8). It crashed quite few times namely when I was flicking through presets. Anyone else have that problem? At present, it kind of takes the fun out of this for me.
I haven't given up on this contest yet though, but as I pointed out above, it's a VERY technical task indeed and in all honesty, the TAL Elec7ro was a walk in the park compared to this. Hell, only my DX7 could be more difficult to program
:lol:

I still have hope though....we'll see for how long :hihi:
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tattiemannie wrote:As I said before, its worth choosing a single preset and stripping it right back. If you can copy/clone said stripped back preset, it gives you a less confused place to start, and by finding out how to strip back, you will have found all the features you need to rebuild the way you want, and an insight on how to go about tweaking other presets to your liking.
I guarantee you will find things progressively easier from there on.
Thanks for clearing up the font/patch issue Tattie, I'm working on something a bit dark now...

As a tip to the group, look for the "unused" spots in the preset banks that are available. This gives you a completely clear canvas to build a preset from scratch from.

Personally, I've found it pretty easy getting some beats on the go by using one voice instance only with a modified amplitude envelope. You can use either the standard waveform types or the included sample waves to build your drums up from - whatever sound you need really.

Remember that Crystal is really a mutated additive synth where you are blending sounds together rather than taking the normal VA approach. It's not as difficult as it might appear!

Have fun all,
Mouxbar
http://www.myspace.com/mouxbar
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Tattie and fellow KVR's,

As befits a guy with too much time on his hands, I've posted my offering of "Crystal Meth (Where's Dog?)" for inclusion in the fun.

Can you please note that I've posted this to your "free" area on 4shared as in your sig. The main link on page one didn't have any tools to upload when I tried it. I guess you can shuffle this about into the right place from there but let me know if not...

After going back to Crystal after so long I remember now why I avoid it - it's a bit CPU hungry for my humble system and I could only manage 6 live instances of it. As such, probably not the best way to show off a synth when you have to run it really prudently :hihi:

As you may guess from the title I weirdly took a bit of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" spirit and imagined him working over some dingy apartment block in the search for a naughty meth head. It sort of fitted.

Dark and simplistic, I'm sure I'll hear some very different entries :D

Have fun all,
Mouxbar
http://www.myspace.com/mouxbar
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slugfest99 wrote:As a tip to the group, look for the "unused" spots in the preset banks that are available. This gives you a completely clear canvas to build a preset from scratch from.
That's what I call brilliant advice!!! I Didn't even think of starting from scratch :dog: I'm building a drumkit as I write this :D
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slugfest99 .. cheers for the heads up re. the hosting folder :tu:
... I'd forgotten to enable the upload after clearing out entries from last comp. Working fine now I assume, and since it seems we have submissions on the way, here's the link again.

http://onesynthcomp.4shared.com/

I'll shift those files no probs.... and thanks for submitting :)

K-Bee ... sorry to hear you're having probs with Crystal, hope you get it sorted out.
I've never had a crash with crystal (Xp/FL8/512RAM), but maybe I'm not demanding as much from my system as I'm progging straight from the piano roll, and not using any automapping. Got my fingers crossed for you .. good luck, and hope you get through the difficulties with your sanity intact :hihi:


Unfortunately I'm gonna have to lay off working on my track for now .... just typical on a weekend I dont have any gigs/travel away ...and therefore have an abundance of spare time, I get a bad cold which is fking up my sinuses and has gone into my ears to the point that all I can hear on the left is my teeth, skull and saliva!! Not to worry, I've been through this before, I'll keep inhaling the menthol, and it'll clear up in the next 2/3 days..... bloody annoying for now though!! :(
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Feel better. Try to get that sound of "teeth, skull, and saliva" turned into a Crystal preset!! :)
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Funny enough, the menthol I'm using is in crystal form! :hihi: .... so yeah, a theme may well be forming,... !

Ha ha , just realised slugfest99's track is called crystal meth!!! ... i might have to call mine 'crystal menth' ... :hihi:

Its not all bad though, I was supposed to be busy recording for a performance poet, doing CD reviews for a magazine, working on my track, and getting in some bouzouki practice, but I've had to drop the lot and have started learning C++ from online tutorials .... something I've been trying to motivate myself to do for months! ... and so far so good! :)
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LOL @ crystal menth :) Off-topic, could you send me some of those C++ links? I'm trying to motivate myself to work on a plugin project since my best programmer colleague isn't really available until September or so.
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I dont know if it'll be much use to you, I'm learning from absolute scratch and a long way from usjng it for music stuff, but heres one of the sites I'm plodding through

http://www.functionx.com/cppbcb/index.htm

... if you're planning on working on a plug, then I assume your present skill level will be way, way beyond this level.

Also, I'm using Borland Turbo C++ builder, so if you have a different builder/compiler, then it might not be what you're looking for.

However, I managed to code a simple 'pick a number' game to amuse the kids, and I've also managed to code an equally simple console to calculate my annual tax and national insurance figures from my input and expenditure figures .... not bad for two days study whilst not in the best of health! :lol:

Anyway, I'm off to bed and hoping to be a good bit better tomorrow ... catch you all then.
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K-Bee ... sorry to hear you're having probs with Crystal, hope you get it sorted out.
I've never had a crash with crystal (Xp/FL8/512RAM), but maybe I'm not demanding as much from my system as I'm progging straight from the piano roll, and not using any automapping. Got my fingers crossed for you .. good luck, and hope you get through the difficulties with your sanity intact
I lost my sanity the day I joined KVR!!! :lol: There's no way back now! :hihi:
As for the whole Crystal/automapping thing, it was Nocturn causing the problem I think. If I used a non-automapped instance of Crystal everything worked OK so I've decided NOT to use mapping for this vst at all in the future, and with 4 GB RAM I should be able to have plenty of Crystals running simultaneously.
I'm working on my subsission now and I must admit that I've pretty much seen the light with this synth! Once you get how this works, this is absolutely awesome!
Still struggling to make a decent kick drum though :hihi:
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Thats great news K-Bee, good to hear you're enjoying crystal. As for making a bass drum, Its one of those things in life that are so easy to , but surprisingly tricky to get just right!

There is such a variety of different sounds that can be used as a bass drum, but because the character of bass drum does so much to define the mood of a track, anything but the right one is like swapping your mother for another another woman exactly like your mother .... !

Because I have done the vast majority of my music with a real drummer, I cant help going for sounds which are close to a real bass drum. So I break it down into beater, skin, and shell.

Beater is usually a saw/square, fast attack and fast dec, no sus or release, and lo pass filter set around 2k, res pushed til theres a 'click'

Skin .. again, saw/square ( or triangle sometimes ) ... either use the envelope to make the tone descend, or use a band pass filter on the filter to sweep down quickly.

Shell ... noise through a band pass, med res, cutoff set around 200hz

Mix these and adjust to taste.

If you're still having probs, gimme a shout and I'll post screenshots of the voice page settings of a roughly thrown together kick, and you can tweak it to suit.

.... other good news .... my ears are recovering well! Hope to get back 'on track' tomorrow :)
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MadPsyance wrote: I just got a decent kick by modulating the pitch and cut off (of a sine wave)at the very start of the envelope. First point a positive curve, the second a negative curve. Basic low pass filter(resonance up real high). Then I layered a noise wave and did the same thing, but much lower in the mix. Adjust horizontal placement of envelope points to taste so the timing is good. Hope this helps people who are having a hard time getting started.

:lol:
From page 2. Works for me. :wink:
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Beater is usually a saw/square, fast attack and fast dec, no sus or release, and lo pass filter set around 2k, res pushed til theres a 'click'
Yeah pretty close to what I found out myself but thanks for clarifying. It sound better now than yesterday that's for sure. Still not quite there yet though :wink:
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Sounds like some good motion on this, unlike myself though I did manage to get Crystal and my current work in progress over to a new computer so I should be able to work on it more soon. I also finally downloaded those extra soundfonts on the Crystal site so I might consider throwing something from there in my entry.
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K-Bee, your track and notes are now in the comp hosting folder!

Other news, ( other than I'm so happy to have my hearing back to 'normal' ) ... Got a very nice participants prize coming along! Preview the basic mono version if you dare! .... Oh, and because its a freebie, you can use it in your tracks if you like! :)

Heres the link
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 03#3606703
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