Poly synth suggestions

antonborisov · 2013-07-09T10:48:36.000Z

I think Prophet 12 module will be released soon, hopefully without big sacrifice in knob number and also a bit cheaper.

nedavine · 2013-07-09T13:09:09.000Z

How about something old and simple? I have a Juno 106 and I love it (although i wasnt to keen at first). Its a very basic synth, but its cheap and huge. 6 voice analog for $260, you can’t complain.

The P08 is nice the P12 looks amazing. If money isn’t an option theres always a poly evolver, but I’d go classic and cheap first.

nightfade · 2013-07-09T13:11:36.000Z

If a desktop module gets released I will be all over that!

Whats your impression of the Prophet 08 boboter? Can you make any comparisons with the A4?

Thanks nedavine, seems that love for the Juno is a universal thing.

void · 2013-07-09T14:01:21.000Z

I’ve just been playing with the A4 as polysynth for a couple hours straight, this is quite addictive!

What I did was write a little app which

[ul]
[li]mirrors knob turns on any synth tracks back to all tracks[/li]
[li]handles note channel routing from a connected MIDI keyboard[/li]
[/ul]

I’m not a keyboard player, so I found that 4 voices are plenty for me…

Last time I’ve tried to use the A4 polyphonically, I thought it just didn’t sound very good in this way, but the problem was simply that the sounds from all 4 channels were independent, so that it was a chore to have them match up in a nice poly kit.

But with this app, the A4 feels like a full polyphonic synth, as the voices are unified. And it sounds really nice. If you’re interested I could record a demo (be warned though, i suck at keys).

What doesn’t work well yet is recording polyphonic phrases into patterns, as the A4 only records on the active track (? i think it works this way…)
But keyboard noodling, while tweaking the kit, is super fun.

Until now, the Analog Four to me was mostly this compact Elektron techno box…
but with a full size keyboard (probably helps that it’s old and heavy), it feels like something much bigger and way more epic.

So yeah, 2 A4s would give a pretty impressive poly synth for the money imho…

boboter · 2013-07-09T14:25:04.000Z

""nightfade"":

If a desktop module gets released I will be all over that!

Whats your impression of the Prophet 08 boboter? Can you make any comparisons with the A4?

Thanks nedavine, seems that love for the Juno is a universal thing.

I love the P08. Can’t compare it to the A4 since I never used that.
The P08 has a very 80s sound, kinda cheesy at times. That is what I’m looking for in an analogue poly synth. The sound is very distinct. I love that specific sound but some people here really don’t. So I guess you should try it out first. It’s the one synth that stayed with me over the years.

The Ambika is kinda new - just a few months - and it can come pretty close to the P08 in some areas. That’s why I was thinking about an P12 upgrade. If there would be a desktop version of the P12, I’d probably go for it as I don’t need the keyboard. But I’m in no hurry.

xmit · 2013-07-09T15:12:36.000Z

I recently realized I needed a really compact polysynth. I wasn’t bothered about ‘real’ analogue, or multitimbral operation, or anything particularly fancy - just a great user interface & sound. I got a great deal on something I’d thought might be the right option for me : a s/h creamware Prodyssey ASB. yeah it’s a VA…but bloody hell does it sound good & the interface is great for a menu diving-refusnik like me. it’s a bit of a weird option - a poly-capable recreation of a classic monosynth! But I’m absolutely in love with it !

chad · 2013-07-09T17:27:01.000Z

""void"":

I’ve just been playing with the A4 as polysynth for a couple hours straight, this is quite addictive!

What I did was write a little app which

[ul]
[li]mirrors knob turns on any synth tracks back to all tracks[/li]
[li]handles note channel routing from a connected MIDI keyboard[/li]
[/ul]

I’m not a keyboard player, so I found that 4 voices are plenty for me…

Last time I’ve tried to use the A4 polyphonically, I thought it just didn’t sound very good in this way, but the problem was simply that the sounds from all 4 channels were independent, so that it was a chore to have them match up in a nice poly kit.

Your app sounds nice! I made a little Max/MSP utility to do the same thing, although I didn’t add controls to sync/mirror all tracks.

One idea if you play around with this more, is add a Spread amount. I’ve found I want almost identical settings between the voices, but some variance of filter freq, and envelopes goes a long way. Especially if you trigger the voices in unison.

void · 2013-07-09T21:35:47.000Z

that’s a cool idea!
haven’t even tried unison yet hehe.
definitely also needs options for voice allocation, so that you can have e.g. a bassline playing undisturbed on one track, with the other three being cycled for poly keyboard stuff.

darenager · 2013-07-10T18:12:21.000Z

""xmit"":

I recently realized I needed a really compact polysynth. I wasn’t bothered about ‘real’ analogue, or multitimbral operation, or anything particularly fancy - just a great user interface & sound. I got a great deal on something I’d thought might be the right option for me : a s/h creamware Prodyssey ASB. yeah it’s a VA…but bloody hell does it sound good & the interface is great for a menu diving-refusnik like me. it’s a bit of a weird option - a poly-capable recreation of a classic monosynth! But I’m absolutely in love with it !

Often quite fancied one of those myself!

xmit · 2013-07-10T19:17:48.000Z

^
It’s great Daren. Really much better sounding than I could have hoped for tbh, as although I’d thought about getting one for ages I’d never actually heard / seen one IRL…& the online vids etc were fairly crappy. So it was a bit of a gamble, well apart I knew I’d more than get my money back if I decided to sell.
But yeah - it sounds ace & the interface is a dream - you can’t help but tweak away. The minimax filter is also really nice on it … Dunno what the other ASBs were like ( Prophet5/Minimoog) but this is really quite lovely … I’d always fancied an Odyssey …& this is both less & more than one I suppose … But for something relatively tiny that sounds huge I don’t think I could have done much better. Highly recommended.

natrixgli · 2013-07-10T19:32:21.000Z

I just got a Waldorf Blofeld and for the price it’s pretty amazing. I am working on acquiring an Octatrack to sequence it, but for the time being just playing it live is a blast. It’s capable of a lot of different kind of sounds, and the interface is pretty good for a grid with only 6 knobs. (not counting volume and the data knob.) Novamusik has several for $499 right now.

tIB · 2013-07-10T21:21:40.000Z

I made the mistake of looking at the prophet 12 today- looks very nice indeed.

Fuseball · 2013-07-10T23:07:01.000Z

""boboter"":

Nice. I’m a big DSI fan, even though they don’t have the best reputation on this board. I was thinking about selling my P08 to fund a P12. But wasn’t sure because of the digital OSCs. I don’t mind digital at all but it’s still a change of route for DSI. Do you have experiences with some of their other synths and can compare the sound?

I’m quite a DSI fan too. The oscillators sounded great. I think they have a high resolution and I didn’t hear any aliasing or artifacts. I too have a P08 and although I couldn’t do a side-by-side test, the sawtooth, pulse and triangle oscillators sounded similar enough for me not to worry about them being digital on the P12. You have considerably more waveshaping options on the P12 as well as FM, AM and the character section. I got the feeling that they went digital for that part of the synth because they could get a lot more tonal flexibility without sacrificing quality.

I still think a high quality VCO will sound better than a DCO (which the P08 has) or digital oscillators, but you won’t see those on a polysynth anyway.

I tried recreating some of my own P08 patches on the P12 and they sounded very close. The filters are the same curtis design for the low pass and behave the same way. I also absolutely loved the resonant high pass, which pushes the sound into places way beyond the P08.

It might be harder to get the P12 to behave like the Evolver, which has the VS waves and an unusual parallel filter configuration though.

Like yourself, I’m considering selling my P08 to put towards the P12. My feeling is there’s nothing the P08 can do that the P12 cannot with a bit of programming, and that’s only scratching the surface of what the P12 can do on top of that.

poonti · 2013-07-11T02:36:06.000Z

Nobody mentioned the JX3P? 6 voice analog 2-osc poly with chord sequencer, and still relatively cheap? Better with a MIDI expansion kit, for sure…but still affordable.

Jon9 · 2013-07-11T03:15:27.000Z

""tIB"":

I made the mistake of looking at the prophet 12 today- looks very nice indeed.

Oh hell yes. G.A.S. Buzzy as!

nightfade · 2013-07-11T03:17:45.000Z

Now I definitely want a P12! I think in the meantime though one of the vintage suggestions or another MonoMachine (run through A4 filters) will be the go

OSCar · 2013-07-11T03:36:04.000Z

If I could score and old Kawai K1M for around $50 it would do the biz with the A4’s Filters and effects in tow for my needs.

CliffordMilk · 2013-10-22T15:41:17.000Z

I’m currently stuck between a Prophet 08 module and a Virus TI. This would be to run alongside and OT and A4 and be used mainly for pads and textures.
I love analogue but don’t want to spite myself by being an analogue snob.

Does anyone own both?

Accent · 2014-05-09T17:37:53.000Z

Since it was brought up earlier in this thread, just throwing another vote in for the Alpha Juno. I’ve been getting some cool results sending it sequences from the Mono and using chord memory to trigger 6 voice chords. Putting the SID arp on and programming chords on certain steps leads to some excellent variations. The slow LFOs are also nice for giving more movement over more than 64 steps. Plus, it’s a bass monster. Totally worth grabbing for the prices they go for.

NickD · 2014-05-13T08:57:49.000Z

If you’re not tied to analogue, I have a lot of time for the Ultranova. I think it suffers from unattractive presets, but under the hood there are some really powerful modulation and control options. If you play or perform live, or just like jamming, the touch encoders are a great feature - a tap of the finger can switch a whole host of mods around, and they all stack up, so it’s like having a little modular routing system if you set it up right (the only pain is you can’t lock them, though I think you can on the Mininova).

In addition to that there are some really interesting LFO options, such as musical scales, which work really well when synced to the arp and the gator effect (and repeating envelopes) - it’s definitely a playground for rhythmical patches. And there’s a chord mode too, so throw that into a slow latched arp and you’ve instantly got several bars of chord changes automated, which you can then mutate with the touch controls, mod wheel and what have you.

I always try to make time to recommend it when people are looking at polys, because I think it delivers a hell of a lot but, as I said, it’s not really apparent from the presets or most of the demos.