The Synth Thread...

All instruments that aren't guitars (or bass guitars).
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Singlebladepickup
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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by Singlebladepickup » Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:50 am

I'd gladly give up metal and wood for plastic 70's dashboard looks if it saves $3k on the final price.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by OffYourFace » Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:22 pm

We have a pre-production unit and I think the quality is fine. It seems good enough to gig with, def more so than the Roland Boutique modules.
The D is your average Eurorack quality... the knobs are a bit too close together for me but not bad.

I don't know if the actual production units use a different build quality. The sound definitely blew me away. Moog needs to make their own version to keep up... and maybe even stay in business ;)
People will gladly pay for a Moog-branded Mini-minimoog for twice as much or more ($650-$800-ish).
Behringer got the important thing right... the way the VCOs overdrive the filter. I was really impressed as I hear and play vintage minis at least once a week.

A more stable Memory Moog clone should be on the way... has to be!

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Sun Jan 21, 2018 4:13 pm

matbard wrote:
Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:14 am
Really.

It resembled me the dashboard of a '70s Italian city car. Thus, the sound is quite good.

But for the assembly it would have cost half of the price requested.
If it comes apart reasonably easily, you could make a custom metal panel and transplant it... It'd be kinda cool actually...
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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by mackerelmint » Sun Jan 21, 2018 4:47 pm

matbard wrote:
Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:13 am
mackerelmint wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:30 pm
I ran to the arms of the Google machine and now I'm peeing my pants. Ahhhhhhh! :-*

Don't run so quickly: the product - if they decide to release it - is more then a year ahead of it's real availability. And having tried a Behringer Model D I'm not so excited: it'a plasticky piece of crap.
That's the cool thing about Google, it told me exactly where things stand in terms of production and when I might reasonably expect it to become available in addition to a ton of other things.

So, thanks just the same.
This is an excellent rectangle

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by Whiny Minotaur » Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:04 am

I finally pulled the trigger on a Korg MS-20 Mini! It should be coming to my house in a day or two.

Plug-ins have been serving me fine for unmodulated synth sounds, but I wanted something that's a bit more crazy, a little bit dirty and I wanted to modulation on the fly. It's my first hardware synth, I'm super excited.
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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by BlixaFan » Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:58 pm

Whiny Minotaur wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:04 am
I finally pulled the trigger on a Korg MS-20 Mini! It should be coming to my house in a day or two.

Plug-ins have been serving me fine for unmodulated synth sounds, but I wanted something that's a bit more crazy, a little bit dirty and I wanted to modulation on the fly. It's my first hardware synth, I'm super excited.
woohoo! i still want one too haha. it's gritty and nasty sounding, they are great. (p.s. i see your pic is of Blixa, so i'm sure you're familiar with all the MS-20 all over early Neubauten. Schwarz comes to mind)

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by InLimbo » Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:32 am

Whiny Minotaur wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:04 am
I finally pulled the trigger on a Korg MS-20 Mini! It should be coming to my house in a day or two.

Plug-ins have been serving me fine for unmodulated synth sounds, but I wanted something that's a bit more crazy, a little bit dirty and I wanted to modulation on the fly. It's my first hardware synth, I'm super excited.
My best friend / bandmate has one and I can attest to the gnarly-ness of it. I remember when we were have a little "show" at a party a while back and nearly everyone was drawn to it's stage prescence, the knobs, patch cables, etc.

I really wish I had the draw to synths once they were in my hands. I love looking at them and listening to them, but playing them is such a foreign concept to me. I even purchased a Minilogue a while back and it's now in his possession.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by eggwheat » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:05 am

MS20 is one of the best classic mono’s imo. Never tried the mini version though.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by StevenO » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:48 am

I'd love a MS20. I love fat dirty synth bass. I wish they (Korg) still sold the modules without the keyboard. I'd get one!

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by OffYourFace » Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:37 pm

I have to admit something. I'm not into the MS20... it's not bad but it doesn't do it for me. I actually prefer the MS10! It sounds bigger in a band situation for some reason (as a bass instrument) and it has PWM. (so weird that the MS20 does not but it's a simple mod to add.)

I think the 770 blows them both away as an overall synth but probably not in the bass territory. My favorite is the 700/700s. It doesn't have many features but it's a much cooler instrument performance wise, IMO. People are starting to catch on to the 700s and now it's fetching higher prices than the vintage MS20s. One just sold for $1850 and I see old MS20s go for $1000-1200 all the time. Pretty crazy.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by StevenO » Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:54 am

I think that's fair.

I never really wanted an MS20 until I saw Arcade Fire live, and they have two live that they seemed to be using A LOT. They also had a Prophet 600 (I believe), a Moog Rogue, and a Taurus, but the MS20 seemed to be carrying a lot of the weight. Not a huge Arcade Fire fan, but good sounds are good sounds!

I've actually wanted a 770 for awhile. They look great, almost like something built from a kit, which I'm into, and they seem to have a really interesting sound.

Speaking of synths that I wasn't liking for awhile. I now dig my Moog Prodigy quite a bit. Not sure what happened, but something kind of "clicked" and now it sounds and works the way I want it to. I think I still might get it modded for CV/Gate and maybe even to get a lower octave out of it, if possible. I really like the character it gets when I have I manually tune it down, unfortunately it doesn't get a perfect octave down, it's slightly sharp and only about 11.5 notes down.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by Whiny Minotaur » Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:00 am

Update: The very day I got my MS-20 I caught the flu and have been bed ridden for a good amount of time, but I've finally been able to tinker around with it a bit.

It can't get clear, round bass sounds that well which is sorta disappointing, but plugins do a very good job in replicating that sound, and it isn't what I was trying to do with this synth anyway.

The HPF and LPF on this beast are insane. So powerful, nasty and screechy. I've been replacing some of the plugin sounds in my songs with this synth, and it's bringing a whole new level of aggression and life.

I'm still getting my head around the patch bay. So far the only thing I'm able to without relying on Youtube is making it feedback into itself using the ESP. It's a foreign way of working, and it can get a bit frustrating sometimes, but I've already gotten a lot of sounds which I didn't even dream of creating.

All in all, I'm super happy with this synth.

Unfortunately, it's been less than a week since I got this and I'm already looking forwards to getting a polyphonic synth :fp:
BlixaFan wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:58 pm
woohoo! i still want one too haha. it's gritty and nasty sounding, they are great. (p.s. i see your pic is of Blixa, so i'm sure you're familiar with all the MS-20 all over early Neubauten. Schwarz comes to mind)
I had no idea that Neubauten used an MS-20 before you told me, actually. After seeing your post I tried to duplicate the tone of Schwarz. I did a pretty good job, but it lacked Blixa shouting in his smoky, still young voice, unfortunately :(
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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by OffYourFace » Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:05 pm

StevenO wrote:
Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:54 am

Speaking of synths that I wasn't liking for awhile. I now dig my Moog Prodigy quite a bit. Not sure what happened, but something kind of "clicked" and now it sounds and works the way I want it to. I think I still might get it modded for CV/Gate and maybe even to get a lower octave out of it, if possible. I really like the character it gets when I have I manually tune it down, unfortunately it doesn't get a perfect octave down, it's slightly sharp and only about 11.5 notes down.
That's great! You can put MIDI in it. There's these great mini PCB midi kits out now that we've been using. http://midimplant.com/
The Prodigy is pretty easy to tune. Everyone who owns a vintage analog synth should learn how to tune it. Or are talking about trying to get it down to 32'/16' manually with the master tune knob?

Re: MS20, etc.

The discrete LP and HP filters in the miniKorg 700/700S and in the MaxiKorg 800DV are my favorite sounding Korg Filters. The MS20 uses an IC based design and there were two versions. The early ones used a Korg designed IC (the Korg35) and the later versions used a more common type of IC. The earlier ones are a bit noisier and distort more. The later ones are cleaner sounding. You can all this info on the MS20 Wiki page but I've heard both in person. I'm assuming the later ones do bass better. People seem to like the Korg35 version more for 'screaming' distorted lead sounds. I'm not sure what's in the mini reissue but I know you could choose which one you wanted in the full size DIY Kit.

When I was looking for my first bass-monosynth, I was told to get an MS20. I was disappointed in it. A few years later I had better luck getting a sound I wanted from the Moog Rogue and bought that. Later I heard an MS10 and I thought it did bass pretty well. Like I said before, I'm in love with the miniKorg 700. It does bass and lead stuff well even though it is super limited. I became obsessed with Johnny Jewel and his sound that I just had to have one. Now I have two :fp:

Btw, nothing beats a vintage MiniMoog for bass.... it is what it is. I'll get one one day.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by StevenO » Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:12 am

OffYourFace wrote:
Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:05 pm
StevenO wrote:
Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:54 am

Speaking of synths that I wasn't liking for awhile. I now dig my Moog Prodigy quite a bit. Not sure what happened, but something kind of "clicked" and now it sounds and works the way I want it to. I think I still might get it modded for CV/Gate and maybe even to get a lower octave out of it, if possible. I really like the character it gets when I have I manually tune it down, unfortunately it doesn't get a perfect octave down, it's slightly sharp and only about 11.5 notes down.
That's great! You can put MIDI in it. There's these great mini PCB midi kits out now that we've been using. http://midimplant.com/
The Prodigy is pretty easy to tune. Everyone who owns a vintage analog synth should learn how to tune it. Or are talking about trying to get it down to 32'/16' manually with the master tune knob?
I didn't even know that was a possibility. What's the deal with that? Is it just midi in? As for the tuning, I was wondering if the three way switches could be changed out for four way switches to get the extra octaves.

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Re: The Synth Thread...

Post by shadowplay » Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:32 am

OffYourFace wrote:
Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:05 pm
. Like I said before, I'm in love with the miniKorg 700. It does bass and lead stuff well even though it is super limited. I became obsessed with Johnny Jewel and his sound that I just had to have one. Now I have two :fp:
It always stuck me as amazing that when I saw Glass Candy live (IIRC) it was pretty much just a Minikorg and not a lot else. It's a crying shame there's not been a Glass Candy single since Warm in the Winter and I am DYING for a new album and them playing out because the gigs are just a joy. It must be pretty frustrating for folk who got into his music through it being in films and the like and missed them playing out a lot. My kids would love to see them.

You heard the new solo album Digital Rain? Mrs S has been playing it all weekend.

D
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