Tal J-8

[chk071]

Dunno. They just had a 20% off sales in the Black Week.

[Niowiad]

Hi. I’m having hard times with cross modulation : I can’t make it sound but too harsh. Do you have any settings to recommand for « not so destroyed » sounds ? The calibration setting is not described in the user manual and changing it doesn’t make any « usefull » change. Thanks !

I didn't even notice there was an X-MOD calibration knob. It seems like it removes the inharmonic content turning it clockwise, preserving those harmonics which are more strictly related to the fundamental. But that's still a messy sound.

It's likely going to be a lost cause, considering you're modulating the harmonic-rich soundwave of Osc1 with the one from Osc2.

Anyway some factors which have influence on the sonic chaos:

- use low X-MOD depth (duh )
- use the lowest amount of simultaneous notes (monophonic being the best, a 12 voice chord being the worst )
- detune Osc2 as little as possible
- use the "cleanest" soundwaves (triangle carrier and sine modulator) although it's always going to be far from dealing with properly clean sinewaves
- route the X-MOD to ENV1 (which doesn't look like it was available on the hardware) so that it's not going to be a constant mess but you can modulate it to affect a limited portion of time, such as a fast attack part

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

What's the lowest sale price for TAL J-8? I like the sound of the Roland Cloud Jupiter 8, but the CPU usage is too high. TAL did a great job with CPU efficiency.

I don't think they ever do huge sales (20 to 30% max maybe) and not very often. It's reasonably priced. Maybe you can get lucky and find a used one, but I think it's such a great product that you don't see a ton of used licenses. Totally kills the Roland version in terms of quality IMO.

I'd say, don't worry about paying full price if you can at all afford it or hope to find a secondhand license.

[waltercruz]

Right now, if you buy Lutrum 24 ($40) you receive a 40% discount on TAL. Maybe if you find someone who already has TAL, wants the soundbank and give the discount code to you, but that will be hard to find I guess, so best to do is wait for the 20% normal discounts on TAL. The last one was on Black Friday, so it will be a wait game.

https://www.luftrum.com/luftrum24/

[e-crooner]

Hi. I’m having hard times with cross modulation : I can’t make it sound but too harsh. Do you have any settings to recommand for « not so destroyed » sounds ? The calibration setting is not described in the user manual and changing it doesn’t make any « usefull » change. Thanks !

Depends on how you set the Sync switch located between osc 1 and 2. When I set it to VCO1, I can use any waveform and xmod amount, and it sounds fine, even with chords.

[Niowiad]

Hi. I’m having hard times with cross modulation : I can’t make it sound but too harsh. Do you have any settings to recommand for « not so destroyed » sounds ? The calibration setting is not described in the user manual and changing it doesn’t make any « usefull » change. Thanks !

Depends on how you set the Sync switch located between osc 1 and 2. When I set it to VCO1, I can use any waveform and xmod amount, and it sounds fine, even with chords.

That's a very good tip actually.
Even with what I'd call extreme settings (two saws and X-MOD depth to the max), setting sync to 'VCO-1' gives a very playable and actually really nice "vintage analog clav" tone.

I've honestly always tended to shy away from using more than a few % points of X-MOD depth on the Arturia and now TAL Jup8 plugins, just enough to sprinkle some grit on patches.
I've also just quickly checked out the factory presets, and it's quite rare to see high X-MOD amounts being used, especially in conjunction to osc sync.

So, thank you for the tip

[mholloway]

That's what has always led me back again and again to Repro-5 over other polyphonic analog synth emulations (notably, J-8): the cross-mod feels more musically useful, whereas on the J-8 (and various other Roland and Oberheim synths) the cross-mod is basically a noise dial.

Sure, it does work in a "non-noise chaos" style on the Rolands / Oberheims if you put Osc 2 in Sync mode, but that's because you're forcing the tuning of Osc 2 to Osc 1 regardless of whatever cross-mod is going on, and at the end of the day, you're just making Sync sounds, no matter how much cross-mod you're using (to my ears, sync sounds always sound like synch sounds; there's not a lot of range to them, shrug.)

What's amazing about the Prophet / Repro-5 is that the cross-mod is so much more flexible and can be either noisy or musical sounding, all without needing to turn Sync on one of the Oscillators. And it's polyphonic, too. You can do the basic roland stuff (Osc B > Osc A) but also Osc B > Osc A PWM or Osc B > Filter.

I realize this isn't a thread about the Repro-5, though, sorry! But I guess what I'm wondering is: is this just a major perk of the Prophet over the Rolands, or is there 'more' to using cross-mod on the Rolands that I'm just not understanding? Outside of creating sync sounds, it is, as noted already here, just Noisy Chaos. It's not musically useful. Whereas like 70% of my Repro-5 patches, I'm using the Poly-mod section for all kinds of new (musical) timbres.....it's night and day.

(And yet, sadly, I vastly prefer the FILTER on the J-8....ha!)

[Rastkovic]

Sure, it does work in a "non-noise chaos" style on the Rolands / Oberheims if you put Osc 2 in Sync mode, but that's because you're forcing the tuning of Osc 2 to Osc 1 regardless of whatever cross-mod is going on, and at the end of the day, you're just making Sync sounds, no matter how much cross-mod you're using (to my ears, sync sounds always sound like synch sounds; there's not a lot of range to them, shrug.)

Sync + FM/XM is actually waveshaping. Afaik.

[SebAV]

Hi. I’m having hard times with cross modulation : I can’t make it sound but too harsh. Do you have any settings to recommand for « not so destroyed » sounds ? The calibration setting is not described in the user manual and changing it doesn’t make any « usefull » change. Thanks !

Depends on how you set the Sync switch located between osc 1 and 2. When I set it to VCO1, I can use any waveform and xmod amount, and it sounds fine, even with chords.

Thank you ! I’ll try that tip

[ukm]

Still one of the best instruments soundwise but I can't get MIDI learn to work in Studio One (latest version, TAL J8 vst3).
In addition I'd like to restrict the range of the parameter - seems there is no option to do it.
Any ideas appreciated.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

1. Try the VST2 version instead of VST3, or use Studio One's Control Link functionality. I believe proper MIDI Learn was only just recently added to the VST3 spec and it's possible it's not implemented in TAL's VST3's.

2. Restricting parameter ranges is not available. A few companies offer it, but I'd say most do not.

[Introspective]

I believe proper MIDI Learn was only just recently added to the VST3 spec and it's possible it's not implemented in TAL's VST3's.

I am beginning to wonder if there is ANY reason to use VST3 at all.

EDIT: let me rephrase that:

I am beginning to think there are compelling reasons to NEVER use VST3.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I believe proper MIDI Learn was only just recently added to the VST3 spec and it's possible it's not implemented in TAL's VST3's.

I am beginning to wonder if there is ANY reason to use VST3 at all.

EDIT: let me rephrase that:

I am beginning to think there are compelling reasons to NEVER use VST3.

I came to that conclusion a long time ago. I only use it when VST2 isn't available. I'm hoping the CLAP audio plugin format will gain enough popularity that at least my main DAWs use it and a large number of developers begin supporting it. Call me crazy, but I'm optimistic that might actually happen. Seems like the right people are behind it and developing it in such a way that it could become the first format people develop for, then spit out other formats from it. But I digress.

[dermage]

There are times when VST3 works better than vst2. Eg in Ableton Live only in VST3 adaptiverb does report the latency correctly on changing a preset. That may not be dependent on the vst format but it seems the developer (Ableton or zynaptiq) can use it differently.

[sQeetz]

If Reason ditched vst altogether in favor for AU I would not install a single vst no matter if 2 or 3