Cuckoo musing on Svensson. ( from MusicRadar )
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Sounds goodâŚ
I havenât quite understood how tempo works on the Svensson, since you can just start playing and save it afterwards and then export it as midi.
Does it detect your tempo from the playing? Or does it always save it at the tempo the metronome is set to and thus ignore if you have played in a different tempo? So you have to make sure that you play in time with the metronome if you want to use the output midi in another system. Or sync up manually, by adlusting the tempo in the other system, if you want to add parts there.
In their FAQ they say :
Weâre also evaluating the best options for sending and receiving sync.
I read that too. But it doesnât answer my question about how it handles tempo while recording.
As I understand it, you can speed up or slow down your recordings by adjusting the tempo setting. But does it analyze your playing to deternine what the tempo is, to begin with?
The 2020 version ( ? )
If they could open up the synth parameters somehow with that interface I think it could really be a great product. I hate the idea of just having presets, I use my sounds⌠so I need to make them. It looks really cool though, I like the idea.
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Weâre looking at ways to solve this. One option is to allow importing standard formats for multi-sampled instruments. Like SFZ etc. Another would be to build our own synth UI or support presets from a certain plugin that we can run on device. Curious what kinds of sounds you would most likely want to edit and transfer to Svensson?
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If you record a loop without the metronome, we determine the exact length between the first note and when you press Loop. Since we have the time, we can determine a BPM in 4/4 that fits.
If you record with click on, we allow any length but will snap the loop to even beats. So then you can do e.g. 5/4 or 6/8.
Once there is at least one loop active, all following loops must be either the same length (but not the same phase), or a division or multiple of the length, following some rules depending on which time signature youâre in.
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Internally we think of this as âwhat you play is what you getâ and it was a decision to not have any arpeggiators, step sequencers, chord modes, etc.
Trying to answer more questions but new users are apparently limited to 3 posts in a topic. 
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Me needs money !
For sound editing it would be great to have access to the standard synth-style parameters: pitch, ad(s)r envelope, filters (bright/dull tone shaping), wavefolding/waveshaping, and similar controls.
Maybe you could provide a lightweight companion app for this.
Loading custom samples would be great, there are already several multisampling tools available. As a starting point, it could simply allow importing a json file containing file paths and note mappings with corresponding sample start positions inside the audio file.
Yeah the sample sound case is straightforward. The synth stuff too, but is it really interesting to have a simplified synth that you program and send off to a device where you cannot change the sounds on the fly?
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Thanks for stopping by and sorry we were hard to find! We booked late and had to change last minute cause the original spot wasnât nice at all. Will plan ahead better for next time.
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Fun fact: We actually considered generating a random seed for every keyboard and then using an algorithm for generating unlimited unique presets, so that preset selection can only move forward and potentially back in time. Still think thereâs something interesting about that in terms of getting sounds that can spark unique ideas.
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Loading user samples is valuable regardless, e.g. for drums.
For sound editing you mentioned randomizing presets. That would also work if sound editing doesnât fit your design. I think itâs important not to be limited to the built-in sounds. Personally, I actually prefer to randomize sounds rather than edit them. This also fits the immediacy of your device.
You ended up in a nice spot, at least, with some natural light and room. Best of luck with the release of this instrument! I appreciate your willingness to engage in detail on this forum.
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As long as weâre seeing interesting things done by others âŚ
I really like your use of the keyboard to store away sequences, and bring them back using shift and a key. Keyboardists already have that sort of key memory developed.
I am wondering about ways the player will have access on Svensson to the about 100 different patches within the limitations of the screen ? I realize you might organize the patches into associated banks, or some other scheme.
Hereâs another idea. There was a new keyboard synth that has become available this year at Superbooth. The Melancholytron from FRAKnoise.
That synth has approximately 300 patches, and no screen. What they did was provide a single button, and then map the patches in combination to that button, to keyboard key combinations. It occurs to me how easy it would be with this synth to write patch changes into your sheet music, and also it fits into the basic memory system that keyboardist have when they learn a piece as well.
This would seem to me a possible system to use with Svensson to navigate through patch changes. It also is nice that it is similar to your method of storing / recalling sequences.
By the way the Melancholytron is another example of a synth whose core idea is built around a set of carefully crafted patches, with front panel controls to give variation to those patches, but no ability to create your own patches otherwise.
This is my own opinion on this, but i really like that focus with Svensson, i have plenty of other synths for sound design, that i could always use with MIDI out from Svensson, if i would like.
I really like the focus with this synth on compositional performance, without distraction.
Another thought about patch creation for Svensson
Perhaps, for those that really want to do their own patches, as an open option, having a way to import patches made elsewhere might be easily enough done. As a general example of this approach some wavetable synths can import the non proprietary file format used by Xfer Serum and other programs.
For me though patch creation is so not what Svensson is about.
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And i really also like your idea for the random patch generation option too.
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Perhaps different people have different kind of memory, but I just think itâs really easy to remember patch numbers. And if not, itâs at least really easy to make a note of numbers. We might even put a fun sticker with the preset names and numbers on the device, and we talked about the idea to make a little note book with the patch names and space for notes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what the best setup is for sync. Is MIDI clock enough?