Synths, Sequencers, MIDI & FX.

[NIN]

There seems to be quite a few members who are interested in the creation of electronic music and technology, I hope this may be a thread that is an opportunity to share information, tips & techniques as a sister thread to 'BillyBunters Guitar Thread'

I've been using synths since they were connected by 'Control Voltage' & through the early years of MIDI and have seen the tech become much more versatile & affordable (& with that, increasingly complex.).

.. After losing touch with the developments over the last 15 years and trying to re-immerse myself in recording again there are considerable blind spots in my knowledge which is where the Hive-Mind of VEF Members could be of great help in sharing tips & advice.

From early analogues to todays' digital DAWs, they are all still used, abused heard & desired, some stuff quickly becomes vintage when it is manufactured in a limited run & if you just want to talk about or show us your set-up.., that's cool too.

[Desert Dream]

Great idea for a thread

I been toying with the idea of farting about again with making some electronic music again and been looking into some of the latest gear in sonic creations as well as looking at the going rate for gear that dates back 20 years plus and was surprised by the prices you can get some stuff today.

Latest tech out today that looks like fun to mess around with is these:




From left to right the korg kaoss pad kp3, great for sampling, looper and effects, the korg kaossilator pro, looper that can allow internal sounds mixed with external sound sources and the korg microkorg XL, lil jack of all trades, can do old skool analogue sounds as well as digital, great arpeggiator, easy to edit via usb and even has a vocoder too. All 3 can accept line inputs for plugging in any sound source and mic inputs with trim controls.

Last week saw synths that back in the day would set you back £1200 to £1500 quid !! But thanks to vst plugins on DAWs etc some makes are going cheap ish on ebay which made me wanna go and buy one LoL like these.




Though at the time i kinda didnt like those LoL for they were more digital than analogue and never gave em a chance but my mind was changed after hearing demos on you tube and heard some great sounds that would compliment analogue. Of course analogue gear even today still sells well and is still way outta my price league and forever will be unless i won the lotto. But the likes of Korgs M1 ( yes its a daft name ) and roland d50 you can get on ebay for a decent price from a good seller and been verrrrrrry tempted to try one of em out, whether i do or not, um, will see LoL

If i do end up getting into it again, prolly be needing help myself as i never got into mixing desks and recording properly. I just used line inputs and outputs on a break out box for an old sound card and a copy of audacity

[NIN]

Originally Posted by Desert Dream

If i do end up getting into it again, prolly be needing help myself as i never got into mixing desks and recording properly. I just used line inputs and outputs on a break out box for an old sound card and a copy of audacity

Thanks for getting the thread rolling nicely DD
I remember seriously considering the Korg M1 when it came out, it sounded like it was from another time & planet , & when you see how much monetary depreciation happens to the popular digital keyboards.. probably just as well i didn't.
I certainly have to take a demo of the Korg kaossilator & kaoss pad, I've been tempted to try them for a while now (I love my Zoom multi FXs ).

If you want to step up from Audacity, which is certainly capable of multi track recording, I recommend you search 'Reaper Audio' (best that i dont put a link).
They have a free download currently of V3.6, & it's the most comprehensive & instinctive multitrack I've used. With FX chaining & easy editing, even a decent mixer section, definitely worth a tinker around with.
Have fun with it,

[TripleM]

I own a Korg Triton & Karma, Sequential Circuits Pro-One analog synth and a Casio 101 synth. I've been creating electronic music since the mid 80s. Put out one cd in '04 and shopped around wellness and meditation centers. I record mostly on either a Korg D12 digital recorder or my iMac desktop on GarageBand. Also have used Digital Performer, Reason and Ableton Live. Im terrible at techie stuff. Im better at finding and creating sounds and making music than hooking stuff up. Took me years to even start using Garageband after i got my MAC.

The Kaoss stuff is great. Pretty much everything Korg makes is great.

[tony_grego]

Hi boys. This thread has struck a cord with me
Perhaps i'm a nostalgic of keyboards, (or maybe a dinosaur) , but this is my tool, since 2000



PSR 540 of Yamaha. It's pre-USB, so still load the midi files from floppy

But my start with keyboards was with this wonder



Yamaha DSR 2000. Synthesizer, drum machine generator, voices generator...
It was around 1980, and could not ask for much more. I still keep in good condition, as can be seen

And when I started acting with my band at some restaurants, I had to supplement with some standard rhythms, having to do people dance.
My solution was a second keyboard



Yamaha PSR 48.
Very simple one, but he gave me the rythms that i needed, allowed me a second voice on the keys, and was very nice mounted on the double support

At that time were still the early days of MIDI, and all the music we played was "manual". Currently I have a collection of approx. 8000 midi of all types.
Even I am a nostalgic with my sequencer. I'm still working with the old Cakewalk.
But the truth is I am very happy with the results

Salut !

[karloschaos]

Currently using a Korg MS2000 & a Roland JP8000, both running on their own & used mainly for Hawkwind type swooshes & wibbles. Also been offered to buy back an Oberheim OB-12 that I flogged to a mate a few years ago when I was skint. It seemed to get a bit of a slagging off at the time but I think it's as good as the 2 I've got now, fantastic for slowly evolving pads & ambient sounds. I've also got a Korg Wavestation but can't get my head round programming the bugger.

[Futuro]

Thank You for this great thread my friends!
I have twiddled knobs quite many years too, mostly I like distortion, feedback noise and stuff like that, I like my music "grainy".
So, Korg`s Kaosspads are all cool gadgets to go intuitive and mess up with noisier or cheesier side, I love them and will get Kaossilator Pro soon. I have two keyboards, YAMAHA DX-7 and GEM Sprinter`49, which I mostly use, it has that cheap plastic sound with nicely resonative vibratos, so I usually play it through guitar distortion pedal, like MXR-Double Shot, which is very good or JOMOX-M-Resonator, which is 2-channel mono-analog filtermachine with few very wicked tricks, mostly I like its feedback-noise. I also have stuff like MFB`S Synth-lite 2 analog synth and ALISA-1387, very sci-fi synthesizer from 80`s Soviet Union. I have done some drumming too decades ago so I still like to hold sticks in my hand, to combine both, live and electronic side, I use ROLAND SPD-S Sampling Pad, you can sample with it and play samples live or import samples from computer, It`s my most important workhorse along GEM-combo-organ!
Another cool "instrument" I really like is Digitana`s MicroPunkRobot, you can create amazing stuff with it, which is maybe not that amazing if you ask your neighbours, which I luckily don`t have!
I really recommend to check this video about Micro Punk Robot, it tells much more than me, babbling here some technical jargon which even I don`t understand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo2HcJFVnbU

[Gbnf]

[hamhound]

Some vintage eye candy, followed by some contemporary replicants!!

[TripleM]

Uhh.. So do we have enough interest in collaborating on a musical theme(s) for Vintage Erotica.com??? Or did I miss that project already??