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bye bye synthpedals

D

Devo-lution

Jun 24, 2009
535
4
#1
Just to share that I'm very excited about my new purchase :ninja:... A reissued Oberheim SEM! And, it has an internal preamp to enhance the gain of external signals, so it'll be used both to filter my bass sound and with a midi-controller (microkorg).

I play new wave and parliamentish funk and I have tried many pedals through the years to get that synth sound (BOSS SYB-5, EHX micro synth, fuzz+octaver+filter, ...).

Then I bought the Microkorg. Easier, but sounds a bit plastic to my ears (although I really like it). Went out looking for a hardware synth to lose the plasticness and fell in love with sound clips of the SEM :p. Have one on order with a 30 days trial period.

Hope that this 'll be the final stop in synth GAS :').

Anyone else the new SEM yet?
 
#5
SEM pro... Couldn't really decide between the patch pannel and the midi version :p.

Mopho seems wickedly cool too and the minitaur is also awesome. I've read a lot of good reviews (except for the minitaur, which hasn't been released yet :p) and I guess all of them are good in their own sort of way.

Minitaur has the moog filter, Mopho has two sub-oscillators that can make it sound really big and the SEM has the oberheim sound/filter.
 
#6
DeltaPhoenix said:
I am interested in how functional the Mopho is with bass. I have a Roland GR-55. Cool for my personal use, and solo stuff. Kind of a PIA for using in a band setting when I use a lot of other effects and I don't want to install the pickup in my Warwick.
Click to expand...

Don't know about using it with bass... If you want to plug your bass in via an external input, enough gain is needed to drive it and I don't know whether the filter would be triggered without using keys.

I love hardware mono synths for bassy stuff, but I prefer having a MIDI controller to play them.

By the way, Doepfer Dark Energy also seems very cool!
 
#7
You can only use filters on the Mopho with the bass guitar, no patches. The signal gets very weak when doing so though. I use the Mopho with a keyboard controller. Didn't want to give the wrong impression with my earlier post. I've tried, Sonuus, Roland, etc pitch to midi and the latency on all of them is something I can't live with. Spoke to a Roland rep and he said the only device they make that can get under a quarter second latency is the GR-55, and only if you play above the fifth fret. I tried it and it's more like above the 9th fret or so. Been getting great sounds from the Mopho and also using a MacBook Pro with Reason for some amazing sub bass sounds. Saw Stu Brooks with Dub Trio a couple of months ago and he was using some sort of keyboard controller with a sampler/ laptop to get his insanely low tones. His Jazz Bass sounded awesome through an Aguilar 4 x 12 cabinet but the keyboard thing went WAY lower. Rattled the room in fact, much like what you'd hear at the Perry's tent at Lollapalooza.
 
#8
Saw Dub Trio open up for melt banana and he did indeed use a keyboard for his deeps. Rattled the filling out of my teeth.

@ jbenarski
That's why I'm giving the SEM a spin. Internal preamp that can crank the gain of external signals and a multi-mode filter (lowpass, bandpass and highpass)
 
#10
Congrats on the new synth, should sound awesome. I always looked at bass synth pedals as a completely different animal than keyboard synths. We have an Access Virus Kb, a Nord lead 2 and a Korg Triton, but I still like playing with synth pedals as well. They each have their own niche.
 
#11
I've been using VSTs of classic synths, which aren't as good as the real thing, but I do need thousands of dollars to get me a Prophet '08. Or, I could get an old synth, which would be smarter. And cheaper. And hip.
 
#15
I got an old SEM-based Obie synth last year, and love it. The filters make that instrument- aggressive and upfront, cutting, and not overwhelming in a mix. I've really grown to like the two-pole/12db filters ala the SEMs, Yamaha CSs, Rolands, etc.

You'll love the patch panel (wish my SEMs had that!). You could run your Korg's audio thru it while controlling the SEM w/MIDI, and you might even want to hang onto that EHX... That would be fun to integrate into patches (run an osc thru it and back into the ext input, patch it into the FM or sync path between oscillators, etc...). I have an old Maestro W-2 (fuzz/octave/trem/filter thing) that's a blast to use with synths like that... Pedals in general can be fun with it, especially given that the SEM Pro is a mini-modular synth.

At any rate, congrats!
 
#16
Wow, if it's like that, I think I'm going to be a very happy guy :D.

That cutting sound is the main reason I chose the Obie. I 'm not a fan of when a synth gives too much push and not enough definition. Often had this with the Microkorg and it was one of the reasons why I didn't want to wait for the minitaur (too subby for my taste).

Read in some articles that two pole synths usually make a bad bass synth, but the same writers noted that SEM is an exception to that rule.

Anyway, Running the Microkorg (or vocoder) through it on occasion was part of the plan. I still have a lot of pedals lying around in my "crappy personal studio/room". Seems like a great idea running one of the oscillators through a phaser, a dirty sub octave pedal, a groove regulator, a ring mod, ...

Good times :p
 
#17
Devo-lution said:
Read in some articles that two pole synths usually make a bad bass synth, but the same writers noted that SEM is an exception to that rule.
Click to expand...

What they don't always mention is that there is a lot besides the filters that can contribute to a strong bass patch. A lot of the magic with the old Minimoogs, for example, is the sum of the parts, and in some cases the "happy accidents" - the fact that the mixer clips the signal beyond a certain gain setting (great overdrive), that the envelopes clip and flatten out between the attack and decay stages (doubt that was intentional, but seems to add punch), the feedback trick wherein you patch one of the outputs back to the mixer input... stuff like that.

To some degree, that's all stuff you can mimic with a patchable SEM (patch the mixer out through an OD and then back to the filter; run one of the osc outs back to the external input, etc...). Hard sync'ing two oscillators, or just using one osc can help too. Sometimes that makes for a stronger bass than two detuned oscs beating against each other, especially when combined with those other tricks. The filters are just the icing on the cake, and those SEM VCFs can impart these biting, complex mids that really complement a bass patch. Good stuff!
 
#18
Hell, talked to the store manager today...

The SEM is coming my way in about 5 weeks. There's a waiting line and they have to import them to Europe batch by batch.

@ Chromium
I've never used a patch pannel before but it seems to open up so many options (that's why I went for the pro). Can't wait to be experimenting with it.
 
#19
Just got rid of my last synth pedal. Using a Studio Electronics SE-1 and really interested in a mopho. Project of the month is resurrecting an old JX-3P to use as my main controller. Got it working. Probably will pick up a mopho table table. Although the keyboard version is really cool.

Gonna have to check out the Oberhiem SEM
 

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