chuck pump
oldschooluser
so.. i got a suggestion from another post and this looks amazing...plus room for growth..any thoughts... ? any other modulars i should take a look at? thanks
synthesizers entry 1 modular synth... how about it
- Thread starter chuck pump
- Start date
chuck pump
oldschooluser
yes yes...and you are the person i was hoping would see this...
you have been helping me directly or indirectly since 03 now...
i never use patches...and feel like every synth i have had is awesom but lacking in for a better word power.... i like to build everything from scratch and like to be able to expand and use things in any order...
a modular system seems to be the way to go and this was suggested to me... seems like a great cost effective way to get into it (at 120 a month or 1440 all together...
wondering if this is the best thing to do or are there other modulars out there that may be better....
1. i dont want to go over about 1500.... for a decent setup..that i can expand apon overtime....
2. i am also looking at stuff like a sunsyn, andromeda... and a few others still gotta decide what would be best for me....may
other then that your thoughts and ideas are apprecaited... if you have aim or yahoo or msn i would love to bounce ideas off of you... i talk to quite a few people from fp by email or messenger
i learned about my md from you even i think.
aaaanyways... yea
you have been helping me directly or indirectly since 03 now...
i never use patches...and feel like every synth i have had is awesom but lacking in for a better word power.... i like to build everything from scratch and like to be able to expand and use things in any order...
a modular system seems to be the way to go and this was suggested to me... seems like a great cost effective way to get into it (at 120 a month or 1440 all together...
wondering if this is the best thing to do or are there other modulars out there that may be better....
1. i dont want to go over about 1500.... for a decent setup..that i can expand apon overtime....
2. i am also looking at stuff like a sunsyn, andromeda... and a few others still gotta decide what would be best for me....may
other then that your thoughts and ideas are apprecaited... if you have aim or yahoo or msn i would love to bounce ideas off of you... i talk to quite a few people from fp by email or messenger
i learned about my md from you even i think.
aaaanyways... yea
Kojak
New member
Well you were complaining about the ASR being too big, a module-by-module modular synthesizer is going to be enormous. If you're really set on a modular, I'd suggest going with a pre-built rack modular synth like the analogue solutions Red Square, the SMS Planet 7 or the Vermona Perfourmer (even though it's semimodular, but it does 4 voices).
Personally I'd suggest against a modular, their ease in modulation routing and flexibility comes at a cost, first off, no patch storage, secondly they make it a bit painful to crank out a sound. Third, they tend to be monophonic. I think you should just research and see what fits you best. My andromeda makes modulation patching fairly painless with a MOD button on each group as well as the large screen and rarely used soft-knobs. Other synths to look at would be the Monomachine, Poly-evolver, Prophet 08, and Nord G-2. Just do some research think about how you use your synthesizers, and think about which one would suit you best. I would think more in terms of functionality and ease of use moreso than sound simply because I don't think there's that great of a difference in sound between most a lot of these synths, any one will most likely give you the ability to get the sound you want.
Personally I'd suggest against a modular, their ease in modulation routing and flexibility comes at a cost, first off, no patch storage, secondly they make it a bit painful to crank out a sound. Third, they tend to be monophonic. I think you should just research and see what fits you best. My andromeda makes modulation patching fairly painless with a MOD button on each group as well as the large screen and rarely used soft-knobs. Other synths to look at would be the Monomachine, Poly-evolver, Prophet 08, and Nord G-2. Just do some research think about how you use your synthesizers, and think about which one would suit you best. I would think more in terms of functionality and ease of use moreso than sound simply because I don't think there's that great of a difference in sound between most a lot of these synths, any one will most likely give you the ability to get the sound you want.
chuck pump
oldschooluser
Kojak said:
kojak i think you just brought me down to earth.. the other synths i am looking at (price permited) are PEK.. nord something, sunsyn, andromeda... i am still searching
modular is still very appealing to me... i dont care so much about the presets or time it takes... i could also have another keyboard but eventually...i would not mind spending an hour or more on every sound i make.. the style of music i make permits it for the most part...
but overall...your right
Kojak
New member
I kind of thought you might have gotten caught up in it a little bit. You kind of said in another thread that you were looking for a workhorse, a modular won't really fill that role. I'd keep looking if you really feel a dire need to get something modular right now, maybe pick up a Chimera BC-16 and just see how much you use it and how well it works for you first.
I'm sure, but if you spend a few hours patching up one sound perfectly, it would be nice to save it, you know, so you can work on another sound and come back to the earlier one without spending an hour patching it back up, you end up having to manually write out the patching and the setting so you can build it back in reasonable amount of time. Those hours of patching can really just start to just drive you away from it completely. Not to mention the problems with performing live. Trust me, dialing a sound into an old moog after each song is pain enough, repatching a modular and dialing it back in is many times worse.
I'm sure, but if you spend a few hours patching up one sound perfectly, it would be nice to save it, you know, so you can work on another sound and come back to the earlier one without spending an hour patching it back up, you end up having to manually write out the patching and the setting so you can build it back in reasonable amount of time. Those hours of patching can really just start to just drive you away from it completely. Not to mention the problems with performing live. Trust me, dialing a sound into an old moog after each song is pain enough, repatching a modular and dialing it back in is many times worse.
chuck pump
oldschooluser
ill wait a weekend definatly... let me know whenever
In regards to what Kojak said, I think that it's important to choose the right tool for the job at hand. If you want to make simple sounds, polyphonic sounds, and/or have the ability to save your patches, your Virus B should suffice. If you want modular capabilities, polyphony, and the possibility to save patches, the Nord Modular series from Clavia would work. It really depends on what kind of sounds you are after from a modular though, as a $500 Evolver Desktop from Dave Smith Instruments could satisfy 90% of one's need for a modular in some cases. If you REALLY want to get down and dirty with synthesis, though, and need something that you can experiment with on a very "in your face immediate satisfaction" level, a modular synthesizer may very well be the way to go.
As far as formats go....The .Com (as in synthesizers.com) format is about as vanilla as they get. Granted they sound great, have a very reasonable price point, and, by all accounts, have good build quality, the modules they offer are very "plain Jane" in nature. Off the top of my head, there are 3 manufacturers which make modules for the .com format. Obviously theres synthesizers.com, then there's STG Soundlabs ( http://www.stgsoundlabs.com/ ), and Cyndustries ( www.cyndustries.com ). Synthesizers.com offers the basic modules that you need to emulate a classic Moog Synthesizer system, STG Soundlabs has a good mix of some more traditional modules as well as some that are more esoteric in nature, while Cyndustries modules are incredibly innovative, but also incredibly expensive.
As an alternative to the .Com format, I would suggest looking into Euro Rack instead. Euro provides for all of the basic modules (oscillators, filters, amps, envelope generators) not from just one manufacturer, but from well over a dozen. This allows you to mix and match modules based on your preference for sound, functionality, design aesthetic, and even price. You want a super expensive oscillator but don't want to pay out the ass for a decent amp? The choice is yours. That and theres a ton of really crazy modules out there that will blow most people's minds. Want hifi digital effects under analog control? Here you go:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/tiptopaudio/z5000/
How about a voltage controlled sampler module? They have one of those too:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/theharvestman/tymesefari/
A voltage controlled bit crusher? Yup!
http://www.analoguehaven.com/theharvestman/malgorithm
If you want to check out some specific Euro Rack manufacturers, I suggest you google Livewire, Plan-B, The Harvestman, Doepfer, Cwejman, and the aforementioned Cyndustries. That or you can browse around the Analoguehaven.com site. They sell gear from most of the modular manufacturers out there.
As far as formats go....The .Com (as in synthesizers.com) format is about as vanilla as they get. Granted they sound great, have a very reasonable price point, and, by all accounts, have good build quality, the modules they offer are very "plain Jane" in nature. Off the top of my head, there are 3 manufacturers which make modules for the .com format. Obviously theres synthesizers.com, then there's STG Soundlabs ( http://www.stgsoundlabs.com/ ), and Cyndustries ( www.cyndustries.com ). Synthesizers.com offers the basic modules that you need to emulate a classic Moog Synthesizer system, STG Soundlabs has a good mix of some more traditional modules as well as some that are more esoteric in nature, while Cyndustries modules are incredibly innovative, but also incredibly expensive.
As an alternative to the .Com format, I would suggest looking into Euro Rack instead. Euro provides for all of the basic modules (oscillators, filters, amps, envelope generators) not from just one manufacturer, but from well over a dozen. This allows you to mix and match modules based on your preference for sound, functionality, design aesthetic, and even price. You want a super expensive oscillator but don't want to pay out the ass for a decent amp? The choice is yours. That and theres a ton of really crazy modules out there that will blow most people's minds. Want hifi digital effects under analog control? Here you go:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/tiptopaudio/z5000/
How about a voltage controlled sampler module? They have one of those too:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/theharvestman/tymesefari/
A voltage controlled bit crusher? Yup!
http://www.analoguehaven.com/theharvestman/malgorithm
If you want to check out some specific Euro Rack manufacturers, I suggest you google Livewire, Plan-B, The Harvestman, Doepfer, Cwejman, and the aforementioned Cyndustries. That or you can browse around the Analoguehaven.com site. They sell gear from most of the modular manufacturers out there.
THM
New member
Hi Chuck - there I'm back...
I own a pretty big Synthesizers.com system (88-space - fully filled now with mainly DotCom, and a few STG, a few MOTM, and a few Yusson modules with the same sized and looking front panels).
First I'd like to say the DotCom systems look superb. Great size, great knobs (same size and look as the Minimoog and modular MOOG's main knobs), very smoothly turning 'though still very solid knobs, nice price for modules of this quality.
Only minor point if you have not much room: they're big (same size as the old MOOG modular systems).
Otherwise I can only recommend these DotCom systems: their sound quality, their build quality, their look, and the excellent communication with the manufacturer (Roger Arrick) - he answers almost any of your questions within the 8 hours) - as well as the accurate shipping times and the speed of delivery (that is not so obvious with other modular manufacturers) make these systems as an absolute recommendation.
Another smaller minor point if you want to go some steps further: the DotCom module assortiment itself is pretty limited (almost only basic modules, somewhere comparable with the old MOOG systems), I mean all basic modules are present - with all sorts of CV inputs etc... - like the VCO, Noise, S/H, RM, VCF, EG, VCA, mixer and multiples modules, a small CV-to MIDI converter, lag module, simple signal processor/inverter, and some more. If you want to have more sorts of specific filters, or really crazy chaos (extensive S/H and noise), etc... you 'll have to look at the modules of e.g. STG Soundlabs or Cyndustries (like Array mentioned hereabove).
And now about the most important part: the sound. Well I can only say it sounds great !! For this price you won't find any better; it is also very respected by big modular systems owners and former MOOG modular owners, so that means something...
The sound is great, warm, pure analog, the Q150 Filter comes *very* close to the classic MOOG 24dB filter, the VCO's and VCA's are pretty smooth but sound great, LFO is included in the VCO's from DotCom, yeah almost everything is really great.
A few modules that are imho not recommended: the Q107 Filter (yeah I know I still mentioned it here below, but if you want you can replace that one by a better filter from an other manufacturer than Synthesizers.com; it just sounds not so good - I still mentioned it below 'cause the Q150 Filter is only a Low Pass Filter while the Q107 offers the choice between LP/BP/HP). I'll receive the STG Mankato Filter this week - so maybe that could be a nice one to replace my Q107 - I'll tell you more once I've got it. Also e.g. the Q141 Oscillator Aid (not interesting; I'll sell that one from me soon), and e.g. the Q115 Reverb (Spring Reverb, but imho not a good tank quality - sounds way too noisy to me) are less good. But that's all.
So a really basic start out system should have imho at least these modules:
3x Q106 VCO (incl. LFO)
2x Q109 EG
2x Q108 VCA
2x Q112 Mixer
1x Q107 State Variable Filter
1x Q150 Transistor Ladder Filter
1x Q124 Multiples
1x Q104 MIDI-to-CV (only if you need MIDI control of Pitch)(incl. Velocity too)
1x Q110 Noise
1x Q117 S/H
1x Q116 Ring Modulator
1x Q130 Clipper/Rectifier (kind of distortion)
Good luck and more questions are still welcome. Cheers !
I own a pretty big Synthesizers.com system (88-space - fully filled now with mainly DotCom, and a few STG, a few MOTM, and a few Yusson modules with the same sized and looking front panels).
First I'd like to say the DotCom systems look superb. Great size, great knobs (same size and look as the Minimoog and modular MOOG's main knobs), very smoothly turning 'though still very solid knobs, nice price for modules of this quality.
Only minor point if you have not much room: they're big (same size as the old MOOG modular systems).
Otherwise I can only recommend these DotCom systems: their sound quality, their build quality, their look, and the excellent communication with the manufacturer (Roger Arrick) - he answers almost any of your questions within the 8 hours) - as well as the accurate shipping times and the speed of delivery (that is not so obvious with other modular manufacturers) make these systems as an absolute recommendation.
Another smaller minor point if you want to go some steps further: the DotCom module assortiment itself is pretty limited (almost only basic modules, somewhere comparable with the old MOOG systems), I mean all basic modules are present - with all sorts of CV inputs etc... - like the VCO, Noise, S/H, RM, VCF, EG, VCA, mixer and multiples modules, a small CV-to MIDI converter, lag module, simple signal processor/inverter, and some more. If you want to have more sorts of specific filters, or really crazy chaos (extensive S/H and noise), etc... you 'll have to look at the modules of e.g. STG Soundlabs or Cyndustries (like Array mentioned hereabove).
And now about the most important part: the sound. Well I can only say it sounds great !! For this price you won't find any better; it is also very respected by big modular systems owners and former MOOG modular owners, so that means something...
The sound is great, warm, pure analog, the Q150 Filter comes *very* close to the classic MOOG 24dB filter, the VCO's and VCA's are pretty smooth but sound great, LFO is included in the VCO's from DotCom, yeah almost everything is really great.
A few modules that are imho not recommended: the Q107 Filter (yeah I know I still mentioned it here below, but if you want you can replace that one by a better filter from an other manufacturer than Synthesizers.com; it just sounds not so good - I still mentioned it below 'cause the Q150 Filter is only a Low Pass Filter while the Q107 offers the choice between LP/BP/HP). I'll receive the STG Mankato Filter this week - so maybe that could be a nice one to replace my Q107 - I'll tell you more once I've got it. Also e.g. the Q141 Oscillator Aid (not interesting; I'll sell that one from me soon), and e.g. the Q115 Reverb (Spring Reverb, but imho not a good tank quality - sounds way too noisy to me) are less good. But that's all.
So a really basic start out system should have imho at least these modules:
3x Q106 VCO (incl. LFO)
2x Q109 EG
2x Q108 VCA
2x Q112 Mixer
1x Q107 State Variable Filter
1x Q150 Transistor Ladder Filter
1x Q124 Multiples
1x Q104 MIDI-to-CV (only if you need MIDI control of Pitch)(incl. Velocity too)
1x Q110 Noise
1x Q117 S/H
1x Q116 Ring Modulator
1x Q130 Clipper/Rectifier (kind of distortion)
Good luck and more questions are still welcome. Cheers !
chuck pump
oldschooluser
oh i am here for sure....sorry i guess i somehow clicked on the email and didnt come back to the post.. thanks for the extra post... well pretty much what you said is a great basic setup..and then of course i can add anything i want...i think i am gonna start off slow...and see where it goes..... this stuff gives me a "culinary boner" to quote top chef