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Knifonium VST

I think @Markrs has done or is still doing the Syntoriol courses. I have learned my “chops” on many many hardware synths. First ever synthesis back in the mid eighties was Yammie FM, so that’s still kind of my go-to, but I do like subtractive and wavetable synthesis as well.

What has always amazed me and still does, is the advent of wavetable synthesis as sort of the most uniquitous “plain vanilla” type of architecture nowadays. Like it’s the starting point for many. I get why it may have evolved like this (basically once you’re conceiving a softsynth you might as well just add wavetable scanning capable osc’s, as the rest of the architecture is basically just subtractive anyway) - but back in the day it was pretty marginal.

For a long period of time, when memory became sort of affordable, we had romplers. M1, D50, AWM and all the derivatives. Never spoke to me, other than in the most practical sense (“I need a shakuhachi like sound”, browse 500 patches, found it, play track). Can’t say that I have ever programmed one of those sample based synths for fun. I do have Xpand2! and honestly… for a tenner it is a ridiculously close emulation of the entire Roland JVxxxx universe. At least to me it is.

What feels weird to me, looking at the current state of affairs, is that I may enjoy the little hardware emulations companies like Arturia and Cherry Audio (and PA) put out almost better than some of the large workhorse synths. That includes UI, but I’m a romantic sucker for skeumorphic shit. What’s even weirder is that it seems to be that’s where the money’s at. Where are the spiritual successors to Yamaha’s 1990s VL1 physical modelling synth? AAS stuff is cool. Audio Modelling, Aaron Venture: cool. But not “hey we’re 30 years in the future” cool somehow?

Anyway… yeah. Restrict yourself to a bunch of synths that you really want to LEARN and program. Buy all the rest (you know you will) for browsing presets ;)
Interesting story for sure.

I grew up in the Rompler days. The M1 was my first synth and then I got a Korg O1W/FD and Roland Jv880 with some EMU drum box that I can't remember the name of. To this day because I started with that I still have better luck with Rompler style synthesis and I notice that when I'm composing I'll often create a synth sound, sample it then manipulate the sample. It just works better for me given my years of being a rompler preset tweaker.

My big passion though these days are digital synths that emulated analog. like the JD800. Somehow that's the midway point for me and was my jumping off point into software synths.

You are right about Wavetable. Somehow that became the go to for the young guns but man when I was growing up the PPG was a marginal synth that nobody owned and wavetable synths for me I only became somewhat familiar with Reason's Maelstrom that used what it called graintable synthesis.
 
@KEM

Also, Hans recommended a book a long time ago called Vintage Synthesizers. I keep a copy of that near my studio and also on Kindle. It explains in great loving detail what made each of the classic synths unique and interesting. It helps to weed through all the B.S. that's all there now that every programmer can made a synth.

Another thing I came across was an old Roland Modular manual. That one was great because it explained in plain English what each module does and how it relates to other modules. Goldmine
 
I’ll look into those as well, anything to help me get better I’m all in for. I love presets for quick inspiration, but I always feel like I’m cheating myself but using them on final tracks, especially if their the main focus of a track, just feels like I’m lying to myself
 
I notice that when I'm composing I'll often create a synth sound, sample it then manipulate the sample. It just works better for me given my years of being a rompler preset tweaker.
I bet when Tom Holkenborg would read this, he’d be like:

2814A0B5-C4B6-4FF0-97FB-283F026D423E.gif

We need to hook you up with a Roland S50, to sample your stuff in, before rendering it out to a WAV in your DAW / preferred sampler plugin. You know… for more street cred… I mean… a way better sound. ;)

 
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@KEM

Also, Hans recommended a book a long time ago called Vintage Synthesizers. I keep a copy of that near my studio and also on Kindle. It explains in great loving detail what made each of the classic synths unique and interesting. It helps to weed through all the B.S. that's all there now that every programmer can made a synth.

Another thing I came across was an old Roland Modular manual. That one was great because it explained in plain English what each module does and how it relates to other modules. Goldmine
Is it this one?

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I bet when Tom Holkenborg would read this, he’d be like:

2814A0B5-C4B6-4FF0-97FB-283F026D423E.gif

We need to hook you up with a Roland S50, to sample your stuff in, before rendering it out to a WAV in your DAW / preferred sampler plugin. You know… for more street cred… I mean… a way better sound. ;)


It is so funny because CUbase now has a built in sampler track that sounds almost identical in vintage mode. Also Reason has a sampler that has a lofi mode as well. I also bought a Reason RE that makes everything sound like an old AKIa sampler. It just sounds so right to me.
 
Oh one warning about Syntorial. I loved the course but after a while the synth he's using just started to grate on my ears. My only critique is the course would be a lot better if the sound quality of the synth used in the instruction was better quality.
You can do the lessons with Massive, Serum, or Sylenth1 instead of Primer - there are presets on the Syntorial site for each. One of the reasons I upgraded to Komplete Select was to get Massive to use with Syntorial.
 
You can do the lessons with Massive, Serum, or Sylenth1 instead of Primer - there are presets on the Syntorial site for each. One of the reasons I upgraded to Komplete Select was to get Massive to use with Syntorial.
Oh man great! You just saved me from suffering another night with that aliasing saw wave.
 
I've demoed knifonium and it's not really for me, I enjoy the rough "analog" type stuff sometimes, but I've found it hard to do the hour long streams with them, I'm not much of a keyboard player is the first problem too
I hear you. Stuff like LION is more suited for something like that, huh?
 
How did I just now find out Plug-in Alliance has a monthly subscription?! I’m signing up right now, Knifonium here I come!!
 
Or you could just wait for the next sale and get Knifonium for ~$25-30.
Aim lower.
During most of the sales utilizing a $25 voucher, $15 for any of the PA synths is not that unusual.

p.s. fwiw : I have every PA synth except for the disaster aka Matcha and I paid $15 for each using vouchers.
Of course you have to be patient and wait for a few sales but in
the Plugin Alliance Universe sales happen generally every 3 or 4 weeks.

$25-$30? no way………….
 
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