Sonicsmith Pitch Tacking Analog Synths (Converter and Squaver P1)

[thumbslapper]

I just ordered a Converter+ specifically for the purpose of controlling my Minitaur. It arrives tomorrow and I'm absolutely stoked.

Now I just need to figure out if I can use midi sustain/hold commands with pitch/gate data coming from CV. I'm trying to jigger it so that I can drop long pedal tones on the synth and then play the clean sound of my bass over top of it (like with the hold function on my old boss syb-5) I'm already splitting the signal so I can mix in the clean bass signal separately. I just need to figure out a way to get the synth to ignore incoming pitch/gate CV to hold the same note until I tell it otherwise. Hmmm...

Dfunk -

I hope you have more luck then i do - i have a Convertor and a Minitaur as well, but have had less then stellar luck in getting it functional.

90% of the problem lies wth the Minitaur - its CV implementation is sh*t. do a search on moog forums for minitaur and CV and you will see what I mean - from what i could tell you have to recalibrate everytime the minitaur is turned on (you need a laptop to do so), it won't hold its settings. I also was unable to get it to play the same note that my bass was - if i played a C it played a G. Often times while recalibrating the whole moog took a crap and could only emit a single pitch for whatever note i played and had to get rebooted again. the 0-5v CV pitch range is sh*t as well and will result in you playing 2 octaves off of where you want to be.

The Minitaur sounds great, don't get me wrong - I played it with Jam Origins MIDI Bass software and got good results (problems here too - it seems that Jam origin has either shut down shop or is taking a long vacation - their last updates were a few years ago and they don't respond to emails - and they never implemented pitch bend (!) on the bass side, so it was best triggered using a guitar as a bass), and playing with a MIDI keyboard is awesome - the Minitaur is great sounding, especially when you figure out the hidden parameters.

These problems are with the Minitaur not hte ConverTor tho, but i found pitch tracking on the convertor to be pretty susceptible to any overtones at all, so i found the best triggering with the tone knob all the way down and plucking pretty close to the 1st harmonic (half the string length).

I'm *almost* ready to buy another mono synth that has a better CV implementation, like maybe a Arturia Minibrute (original or 2, but there is a big price diff). I've had this "I want my bass to trigger a synth" dream for a long time - first playing a Peavey CyberBass which worked pretty well until its electronics broke & I couldn't fix it, then with Jam Origin, now convertor... I'm almost ready to pick up a Future Synth and give up the idea of triggering external synths (I did just order a FMeron).

I really hope you have better luck, and if you do please post here how you did it!

good luck!

-ts

 

[Brian Kaczynski]

Dfunk -

I hope you have more luck then i do - i have a Convertor and a Minitaur as well, but have had less then stellar luck in getting it functional.

90% of the problem lies wth the Minitaur - its CV implementation is sh*t. do a search on moog forums for minitaur and CV and you will see what I mean - from what i could tell you have to recalibrate everytime the minitaur is turned on (you need a laptop to do so), it won't hold its settings...
-ts

I think some of this stuff depends on the Minitaur version, firmware update, etc. Did you try updating your Minitaur to the latest firmware? After I calibrated the Minitaur, it held the calibration after power cycling. As for shifting the pitch back up to unison, I'm pretty sure you can use any MIDI controller to send a MIDI note on command to the Minitaur to pitch shift it anywhere you want. I'm less certain about whether that setting will hold up after power cycling... But yeah I agree, the Minitaur should really have better pitch shift capability via the software interface...

 

[Zeflyingcat]

Hey there,

Is 6 month already "necromancing threads ?" Anyway, this is the thread that comes up when looking for info on the Sonicsmiths stuffs with bass so here we go :

I made a few videos showcasing the Sonicsmith's synths interacting with various CV gear. Including one controlling the Behringer Model D.



That's one way to answer the "if you wanna sound like a synth, play a synth" dilema.

Other videos on my channel features some of the MoogerFoogers, and it opens some nice possibilities, though I'm not sure the "hassle" is worth it for live use. (the MoogerFoogers don't always use the CV standard and... I don't know, it's my personal opinion, but I never felt completely at ease using the MF live. I hope for you that YMMV but that's a different thread! )

But the combination of the Sonicsmith Squaver P1+ (or ConVertor + if you just want to control the Model D) and the Behringer Model D is really easy to use and rewarding.

I don't know if I said this before, but for me the main thing with the Sonicsmith's synth is how natural it "feels" to play it, whatever you're playing with. Don't know if it make any sens, but playing the Model D doesn't feel that different than playing my bass. Once again YMMV I guess

Anyway, I am super slow to shoot videos, and even slower to upload them. Then, I forgot to post them here...
But if you have anything you'd like to see/hear, let me know!

BTW, I'm down the slippery slope of modular, thanks to/because of this Sonicsmith thing, so beware if you try one out ...

Cheers !

Maxime

 

[DeltaPhoenix]

Ha, I went modular 5 or 6 years ago because of the bass synth dilemma. I mostly stopped playing bass because it was so fun/different/liberating. I have been picking the bass back up a bit lately and picked up a Convertor +. I am using it with a Boog Model D too.Very fun times! I am going to decide to keep the Convertor + or not soon though because I have a Peavey CyberBass and can play synths polyphonically with that.

Again, I agree with all of the points above and see that it could be the gateway for Eurorack for some folks. The Sonicsmith pedals do deliver.

 

[thumbslapper]

Man that Behringer Model D sounds awesome, and the price is amazing. It looks like they really nailed the CV implementation as well on (unlike other synths, looking at you Minitaur).

DeltaPhoenix - how do you find the convertor+ tracking with the Model D? I have a convertor but have it shelved right now mainly due to the Minitaur's crappy CV implementation (& i bought the Future Impact which tracks pretty good and is a pretty deep synth, but not having a bunch of knobs i can tweak make it harder to work).

I owned a Peavey Cyberbass for a long time as well - worked great when it did, but it being 25+ years old it had too many hardware issues and eventually stopped working (the A string was completely unresponsive) and I sold it for spares.

thx all (thx Maxime for the video!)

 

[DeltaPhoenix]

So far, I have found the tracking to be pretty darn good with Convertor + and Boog Model D combo. It is very expressive due to how well velocity is picked up.

Regard the CyberBass - I am hoping mine hangs on for the next year at least. I would love an Industrial Radio but can't afford that for awhile.

 

[ecmjazz]

Hello,

Has anyone compared Converter+ to Meris Enzo? I would like to use them with a fretless, and be able to slide through several semitones without any configurations about how much semitones would be the slide. Seems like Converter+ is capable in doing that, but what about Enzo, and how do they compare to each other in terms of that? I like Enzo's ability to blend between two states (i.e. dry/wet) with an expression pedal, where with Convetrer+ it is missing, but on the other hand I would like to control an external synth, and Boog Model D is really a nice candidate, with great sound, less it doesn't allow patch-saving. And mentioning that, what affordable synths are out there, which allow pitch and gate CVs, and also have patch saving?

 

[thumbslapper]

Hello,

Has anyone compared Converter+ to Meris Enzo? I would like to use them with a fretless, and be able to slide through several semitones without any configurations about how much semitones would be the slide. Seems like Converter+ is capable in doing that, but what about Enzo, and how do they compare to each other in terms of that? I like Enzo's ability to blend between two states (i.e. dry/wet) with an expression pedal, where with Convetrer+ it is missing, but on the other hand I would like to control an external synth, and Boog Model D is really a nice candidate, with great sound, less it doesn't allow patch-saving. And mentioning that, what affordable synths are out there, which allow pitch and gate CVs, and also have patch saving?

I'm waiting to see what the new Boss/Roland SY-1000 looks like, esp the MIDI output of it. Does require 13 pin pickup GKRB installed, but if the MIDI out doens't have too much latency it will be the best (& most expensive) option outside a Industrial Radio MIDI bass. It has a ton of built in DSP as well and looks very powerful.

I'm waiting for a review from @Proton Lenny or someone similiar...