Mono synth for dark ambient/industrial

[jshell]

@HisMostDarxxxellent

“My concern with this is that the Synthacon is now deemed desirable not because it was a wonderful synth, but because it’s rare…”

My piano teacher had a Synthacon! he brought it in one day to show us (it was a group lesson) when I was around 11-12 and had it hooked to an oscilloscope. I thought it was the coolest looking thing I had ever seen. I forgot the name - I only found out it was a Synthacon a few months ago - but remembered its silver faceplate and knobs. It was much cooler than the electronic pianos we all played there, and much much cooler than the DX7 he had in his home studio.

A lot of my initial (brief) foray into Eurorack was with Pittsburgh Modular stuff and my first Elektrons are the silver boxes. I think that early Synthacon experience shaped a lot of my aesthetic

[HisMostDarxxxellent]

I am so glad to have pulled the trigger to your nostalgia gun!
That is a cool story, and I love cool stories!

[HisMostDarxxxellent]

Building on @bradleyallen and his words of praise towards your Analog Keys it may not be a synth you are looking for, it could be a different piece of gear all together. I’d heavily peruse the Octatrack if I were in your shoes. It is capable of abstract sonic textures of an alien kind and if, by what bradley says is true, then this paring would fill your boots.

Or be squirrel like and get nuts! Go berserk! Buy the Evolver, use your Analog Keys, and run them into the Octatrack. This could be your holy grail!

[jim5]

Another vote for the Desktop Evolver. If you want dark cold to dark warm to dirty noisy sounds, that’s the synth to get. And as the name suggests, you can have different type of sounds evolve from one type to another in one patch.

[OBOLUS]

@bradleyallen

Then I would be annoying and mention how you can already make great sounds on the Analog Keys. You’ve got four analog subtractive synthesis mono synths all in one box, they just share a keyboard. Hook up an Evolver to it and you can play notes, and use one synth to process the other via its stereo inputs. My dear dark lord, trust me, you would go nuts if you heard that.

So when you say that, do you mean that the Evolver’s efx would process the AK’s sound?

[jim5]

He probably means to hook up the Evolver to your AK and process Evolver sounds using AK FX and filters etc…

[SolitaryScience]

I’ve had GAS too! ( gear acquisition syndrome ) . A4 does have a unique “transistor-ish” tone palette , needs lots of tweaking to simplify many presets. but I hear the A4-Keys might be a little warmer and versatile . Keep tweaking it. try the new FM settings for sharp tones.

DSI - most of their previous “hybrid” oscillator synths all are sharper sounding ; try a P-12, I’ve been wrestling with one for 2 1/2 years ! Unique , harsher , “DEVO” ," NIN", Gary Numan-esque, metallic, sound palette ; warms up w outboard filters i.e., A4 as filter bank !!! So Evolver might fit your bill. Or Waldorf Blofeld

Got a MnM when price dropped ! Very nice ; like 6 modulars, or 6 FM mono synths , or 2wav+2 Dig+2 FM =6 mono synths …etc… Great filter algorithms warm or sharpen all of the above.

jshell example above is excellent

Check videos by LEM on MnM - those sold me.

[OBOLUS]

@jim5

He probably means to hook up the Evolver to your AK and process Evolver sounds using AK FX and filters etc…

Maybe it would be either/or. The Evolver appears to have built-in distortion, which would be cool to tack on carefully at the end of the mix.

[jshell]

@OBOLUS

Maybe it would be either/or. The Evolver appears to have built-in distortion, which would be cool to tack on carefully at the end of the mix.

The Evolver’s effects and modulation capabilities are what set it apart from most other DSI instruments. It has a few distortion options, envelope following, peak tracking, and a lot of ways to decide how to treat external input and how to route the signals it can gleam from it. That’s basically how I’m using it in my upcoming noise show - for half the time it’s like a Q-Tron (envelope filter stomp box, which I also have in the chain for extra fun) or MoogerFooger FreqBox (turning envelope into oscillator frequencies). I haven’t delved into this too much outside of running contact mics through pedals into it, but after this show I want to explore it further, possibly in tandem with the Monomachine which can direct certain tracks to individual outs and then back into the Mono. Oh man, that could be fun.

The combination of analog and digital oscillators on the Evolver do sound awesome - a nice combination of grit and cold. Now that it’s out of production, it might be a good time to scoop one up (especially right now as the Monomachine is hard to get one’s hands on). Also in the Evolver’s favor are a comprehensive MIDI implementation and a MIDI-Through port, which seems increasingly rare on boxes of that size. So you can easily pair it with the Streichfett in a small setup (I love the combination of MD, MnM, Evolver, and Streichfett).

[OBOLUS]

@jshell

Also in the Evolver’s favor are a comprehensive MIDI implementation and a MIDI-Through port, which seems increasingly rare on boxes of that size. So you can easily pair it with the Streichfett in a small setup (I love the combination of MD, MnM, Evolver, and Streichfett).

That’s an interesting prospect. Giving it sweet and gritty at the same time. I already kinda do that with the AK and an SR-16 to mix beats, as the Zaquencer has out A and out B. Thru opens up more options.

I grabbed an Evolver last night on ebay. I’m excited to see what it can do.

[HisMostDarxxxellent]

Totally got GAS for an Evolver thanks to this thread. Processing is so much fun in my eyes, but the GAS is bad according to my wife and wallet. One was up on Craigs List, Tokyo recently - an exchange could be on the cards. I love filthy, gritty, real grimey sounds and SFX.