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bye bye synthpedals
- Thread starter Devo-lution
- Start date
It'd be worth hunting down an old PG-200 programmer to use with that - you'll really have a good time with it then!
I run one with a GR-700 guitar synth... a close cousin to the 3P. Works really nice
I used to have a Dark Energy, and it can be a lot of fun (especially if you have other CV stuff to combine it with). Not sure if I would recommend it for bass stuff though. It can certainly get pretty heavy with a filtered square wave, but it's still just a single oscillator. Maybe if you linked up two of them and detuned one slightly... although at that point I'd be more inclined towards the Minitaur.
On the other hand, I do think the DE does great with leads and weird sound design stuff. And I really love the way it's built/laid out - totally classy, and a pleasure to fiddle with.
@ Chromium
Read an article regarding the Arturia MiniBrute and I must say that I'm tempted to swap my MicroKorg for one of those.
How do you think it would fare as a "midi/CV controller + extra vco" for the Obie? It's also very small so it'd fit in a hardcase together with the Obie and my drumcomputer, thus making transport a lot easier.
Arturia also recommends connecting drumcomputer's trigger outputs to the gate input but they don't seem to explain what it'd do exactly. My drumcomputer has a trigger output, so seems like it'd be another plus if it'd do something cool.
Read an article regarding the Arturia MiniBrute and I must say that I'm tempted to swap my MicroKorg for one of those
.How do you think it would fare as a "midi/CV controller + extra vco" for the Obie? It's also very small so it'd fit in a hardcase together with the Obie and my drumcomputer, thus making transport a lot easier.
Arturia also recommends connecting drumcomputer's trigger outputs to the gate input but they don't seem to explain what it'd do exactly. My drumcomputer has a trigger output, so seems like it'd be another plus if it'd do something cool.
Yes it is... I really had to put this back together... Get keys working etc. Still trying to find some cosmetic parts
It'd be worth hunting down an old PG-200 programmer to use with that - you'll really have a good time with it then!
I run one with a GR-700 guitar synth... a close cousin to the 3P. Works really nice
Looking for one now... Need to find one at a REASONABLE price. I used to own one of those GR700s. Great synths
Its tough on Ebay, but keep an eye out on Craigslist. I got mine there, along with the 700 and a box of those 24-pin cables. Selling the cables paid for that whole setup. I've found several of the old GR systems at low prices on there.
Watch for the rackmount MKS-30s too - a lot of times you'll find the PG200 programmers with those.
@ Chromium
Read an article regarding the Arturia MiniBrute and I must say that I'm tempted to swap my MicroKorg for one of those
How do you think it would fare as a "midi/CV controller + extra vco" for the Obie? It's also very small so it'd fit in a hardcase together with the Obie and my drumcomputer, thus making transport a lot easier.
Arturia also recommends connecting drumcomputer's trigger outputs to the gate input but they don't seem to explain what it'd do exactly. My drumcomputer has a trigger output, so seems like it'd be another plus if it'd do something cool.
That looks pretty slick!
The SEM works with the same scaling for pitch control (1 volt-per-ovtave), and it expects a 0-5V gate signal to turn notes on/off. I'd speculate that's the same gate standard that Arturia used, although I couldn't find where they mention that explicitly. Assuming that is the case, however, then you'd have the ability to interface the MiniBrute and SEM via midi or voltage-control, and route the audio (extra oscillator) into the SEM's external input.
I'm not sure how your drumcomputer's triggers behave, but typically gate inputs will sense the rising edge of a DC voltage and turn the note on as long as that voltage remains high. When the signal drops back to zero volts, the note turns off. There are some exceptions, like on old Moog gear, but generally that's how its implemented. If those triggers are, say, a 0-5V spike, then yeah- they would probably be able to trigger sounds on the MiniBrute.
True, Arturia doesn't mention what kind of gate they implement. Might be worth waiting until the manual is published.
My drumcomputer is a petite Boss DR 110. The only information I have regarding it's trigger is that it's considered a negative trigger.
edit: thank you wikipedia!
"The DR-110 could output a "V-trig" clock pulse (+6V, 10ms duration), via a 3.5mm mini-jack, to allow other slave units (e.g. arpeggiators) to synchronize to its tempo."
Hmm, I wonder whether the Minibrute's arpeggiator could be synchronized to this trigger.
Ah ok.. I know of the DR-110.
From what I've read, the triggers used internally in that unit to fire the individual drum voices are negative going - meaning that their state is high when the sound is off, and the sound activates when the trigger pulse goes low. That is an important distinction, and some of the 70s/80s Japanese synths and drum machines worked that way.
The accent trigger output on the back of the DR-110 is supposedly a positive trigger, and you should be able to clock the Obie or Arturia with that (I'd assume Arturia will probably implement a positive trigger... but that's something to verify).
Those old drum machines are really popular for modifications to interface them with external sequencers, and one of the things done with the DR-110 is to adapt and duplicate that accent trigger circuit for each drum voice, providing independent trigger outputs. There's a ton of info out there about that kind of stuff.
Also, when you see reference to "v-trig", that stands for "voltage trigger" and in many cases is synonymous with "gate" - those are what we are talking about here. Those types of trigger are implemented as either positive or negative going, depending on the synth. A trigger (if offered) is just a quick transient, momentary pulse, and a gate would remain on as long as a key is depressed. Most analog drum machines operate with triggers, since the sounds tend to have a fast decay.
The other common type of trigger was referred to as "s-trig", or switch trigger. The old Moog synths used that, and it works by switching a connection to ground to turn the note on or off. I have to use a special v-trig to s-trig adapter to send a gate to my old Minimoog from other (v-trig) synths because of this.
How does that work exactly ? Two VCO sync'ed but detuned ? Or do you have to modulate one of them with an envelope or LFO or something ?
Under normal conditions, the two oscillators will never be perfectly in tune with each other. If both are tuned to the same pitch, they will have that swirling, phasing, beating effect. Tuning one osc differently will result in some interval (ranging from complete dissonance to a perfect 5th, octave, etc...)
If the synth has a sync feature, what that does is place the oscillators into a master/slave relationship as it relates to their waveform cycles. The master will forcibly restart the cycle of the slave - and this keeps the waveforms locked into _exact_ pitch relative to each other. This eliminates any beating/phasing when they are tuned in unison (sounds more like one big, beefy oscillator), and adjusting the pitch of the slave will no longer detune it but rather sweep through the overtone series - making for some complex and somewhat "metallic" sounds at the wider intervals.
Hope that helps a bit! It's easier to hear it than to describe... This clip offers a good demo of sync:
Okay, so far, all this I understand ...
I was kind of anticipating the sound of one oscillator, without the 'beefy'
Ahh right, that's what I was missing ... I hadn't thought to make it detuned by big intervals, I was only thinking of a few cents.
Thanks a lot, I will now go away and play with oscillator sync
