Now the Landscape Stereo Field is looking at me funny......
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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
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I briefly got to fiddle with one of those at Moog Fest last year. Seemed neat, but I didn't have time to really see what it could do and I was already blowing too much money by just being there.
As an aside: Moogfest was canceled this year, even before the pandemic. Sad.
I briefly got to fiddle with one of those at Moog Fest last year. Seemed neat, but I didn't have time to really see what it could do and I was already blowing too much money by just being there.
As an aside: Moogfest was canceled this year, even before the pandemic. Sad.
i should absolutely not be asking you this question but....
....how is the granular engine on this thing, and how is it at sampling?
Well, let's just say I'm having a lot of fun with it.
So far, there's not a lot I find lacking that won't be addressed in updates. I will say, though, that there's no time stretching of samples, and that also, unfortunately happens with the granular engine, as you can see the different grain indicators running at different speeds, when you're playing more than one note. That said, I have made some pretty interesting patches with this thing, even with that particular quirk. The upside, though, is you have so much control over the grains, density, position, jitter, and a host of other things.
As to sampling, well, it's okay, but I don't think that's what this thing is really designed to excel in. It can be a bit laborious to map out samples to various keys. I had some original Mellotron tape sample sets, and it took me a while to map them out to the keys, and that's without any looping in it. I made a few last night, they sound great. But with the right librarian, I could have gotten them together in 15 minutes instead of 90.
Also, as far as I know, there's no velocity curves for samples. You get one sample per key. I think this synth more sees samples as something you mangle and make new sounds with, as opposed to using it like a rompler. There's also no real PC based library management. They don't give you much ram for samples, and it really needs some sort of librarian so you can figure out what patches use what samples. There was a lot of presets on there I deleted, but I couldn't really go and delete the samples, because I have no way of knowing what other patches they're used in.
But again, as I mentioned to the @steubig, this synth is so damn intuitive because of the way it's constructed, especially for someone who's always struggled with sound design, like I have. And the dual filters are so much fun, you can set them up so they follow each other, just a bit offset, or contradict each other and a bunch of other ways to do it. Then, there's the Komplex modulator. It's basically 2 LFOS that you can pretty much customize the shape to, and then use one, or the other, or a mixture of two. I've been modding the particle position and other attributes to really get some crazy stuff going on with the granular synthesis.
Again, sorry, folks, they really hit it out of the park on this one. I was gonna get the Hydrasynth, which, especially from a sound and design perspective, is incredible, but it really can't touch a lot of what this can do, sonically. But it's not supposed to, because it's a different thing, altogether (and I'll likely get one, anyway, when the Virus dies). Since I've gotten it, I'm not using my VST's nearly as much... mostly I used complex libraries in Kontakt, and this one can get those kinds of sounds, and more.
I've never been so productive with a synth in such a short period of time, and I say that after having a good initial run with the Wavestate, too. I think it compliments this, well.
And noiseboys, this thing can make sounds that could peel paint, remove warts and cause brain leakage.
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Yeah, considering I'd already bought plane tix and got a sweet Air BnB. Moogfest 2017 was one of the most fun things I've ever been to, in a life changing way, as it was strange to go into a bar, hear Eno's Music For Films on the stereo, then see an entire room of people utterly entranced by the strange kinds of stuff I like happening on stage. It's kinda lonely in Vermont if you're into this stuff.
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Ya know, when shimmer first came out, it floored me. Now I think it's overused, and it's actually a bit intrusive. This was further clarified to me at my last jam, when my partner tried out his Keeley Canyons for the first time and went way overkill with it (that whole new toy thing). The shimmer on the Meris Mercury 7 is a bit more subtle than a lot of the other ones, and you can also change the pitch of the shimmer.
I took a train when I went, from Alexandria to Durham it's a straight shot on Amtrak, but I couldn't get a room close to the station so I needed an Uber to get to the hotel.
This was all in the Before Times, of course.
Now my band hasn't seen each other since the end of February and one of our guitarists is basically terrified to even leave his house. Electronic gigs aren't happening either, of course. At least I've been doing a little recording lately. Don't think I'm putting out the volume of effort you sound like you're doing in recent posts, though.
I tells ya, I don't sleep much. Between the workload, school, husbanding and music time, I don't have time for much else. As much as I miss playing out, I really turned the negative into the positive, this time. My keyboard chops are now out of the 'does not suck' territory into 'hey, in certain scenarios, not tooo baaad'.
Feeling inspired to learn, to get better. I need to, because with this kind of music and where I live, if I don't make it happen, it ain't happenin'.
Thanks @lordradish .
I’m confused: what are you saying about the granular—that it does timestretch, but regular sampling doesn’t?
Also, any word on MPE for it?
And do you need to use the touchscreen for controlling it or can you do everything with knobs and buttons?
I have been doing granular in the box since 2002 or so. I keep waiting for the right hardware. On the Quantum I like the idea it’s inside a full synth.
I have a Qu-Bit Nebulae v2 which is the best I found but has a few gotchas for how I want to use it.
I tried a Tastychips GR-1 last time I was in Berlin (maybe 15 months ago now). It got some good sounds but the interface wasn’t great and I didn’t love the build quality.
A friend got the Quantum and it piqued my interest. But I do not want a keyboard—I have a Linnstrument for control.
I’m confused: what are you saying about the granular—that it does timestretch, but regular sampling doesn’t?
Also, any word on MPE for it?
And do you need to use the touchscreen for controlling it or can you do everything with knobs and buttons?
I have been doing granular in the box since 2002 or so. I keep waiting for the right hardware. On the Quantum I like the idea it’s inside a full synth.
I have a Qu-Bit Nebulae v2 which is the best I found but has a few gotchas for how I want to use it.
I tried a Tastychips GR-1 last time I was in Berlin (maybe 15 months ago now). It got some good sounds but the interface wasn’t great and I didn’t love the build quality.
A friend got the Quantum and it piqued my interest. But I do not want a keyboard—I have a Linnstrument for control.
Same for me! I miss my band and I absolutely hate the “you can be productive during Covid” positivity BS, but I have logged more practice hours than any time since I was a teenager, and finished a major project. Classes are killing me though. Or I should say courseware. The students are great.
@lordradish, re your comments, imo, the iridium and hs are kind of different animals.
and i got both the hs key and desktop for about what one iridium would’ve been. and then there’s the poly aftertouch keybed and pads, which really float my boat.
really before the hs came out, i was seriously considering the quantum, but too big and too much $$ for what i needed. still, i lust after the iridium. i think rolf is a top-notch designer.
re shimmer reverb: truly, i’ve always found them pretty annoying, but i have gotten a few things i thought were okay out of the boss 500 stuff.
last: not that i don’t freak out (today being one of those days), but i’m kind of built for times like this. i’m a hermit, so i just keep on practicing, working on recording projects. i can get a fair amount of stuff done if i’m not screwing around too much.
and i got both the hs key and desktop for about what one iridium would’ve been. and then there’s the poly aftertouch keybed and pads, which really float my boat.
really before the hs came out, i was seriously considering the quantum, but too big and too much $$ for what i needed. still, i lust after the iridium. i think rolf is a top-notch designer.
re shimmer reverb: truly, i’ve always found them pretty annoying, but i have gotten a few things i thought were okay out of the boss 500 stuff.
last: not that i don’t freak out (today being one of those days), but i’m kind of built for times like this. i’m a hermit, so i just keep on practicing, working on recording projects. i can get a fair amount of stuff done if i’m not screwing around too much.
p.s. about the sample stuff on the iridium, i think ken “flux” pierce mentioned something about how he was mapping sample sets he already had to the iridium. he runs the hs page on fb.
No, it doesn't do timestretch for the granular, either... you can see it move faster, the higher the note goes.
MPE, not yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if it does happen.
It's a combination of panel knobs, touchscreen, and knobs next to the touchscreen. Took me a little while to get the flow, but it's good to work with.
There's a lot of good vids starting to show up. Although some of it is a bit redundant, I'm finding tjontheroad's 'Deep Dive' series pretty helpful, not so much as a tutorial, but just to show all of the great things it does. Here's the first one, where he demonstrates the first three oscillator types - waveform, wavetable, and granular. It's worth watching the whole series, even if you have to skip over some parts (like where he demonstrates every filter type).
Is it just me, or are these new guitar "pedals" starting to look more and more like rack unit computers in a box? Not complaining (okay maybe a little) but the complexity level of these things keeps getting higher and when a guitar pedal starts needing firmware updates I start looking to my older school effects more often.
Rant aside, some of these fancy ones are still on my GAS list....
Rant aside, some of these fancy ones are still on my GAS list....
You're not wrong. My Aeros has a color touch screen that shows waveform lanes.
i was thinking they’re providing automation or treatments in live performance that were once the province of computer programming.
it doesn’t look like it will work for my process, as it feels like it’s going to take away spontaneity, but i have a feeling i’m not the demographic.
it doesn’t look like it will work for my process, as it feels like it’s going to take away spontaneity, but i have a feeling i’m not the demographic.
strymon yawn. even the OC-5. glad to see stuff coming out, but nothing that's got me excited.
on the boss instagram announcement of the oc-5, i commented that they should roll its features into a ps-500.
