Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!

Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« on: September 11, 2017, 01:22:00 PM »
Hi All! If such a thread exists already, please point me in the right direction and I can delete this. Since I can't seem to find one, here we are. Any ideas you have, programming tricks, discoveries, happy accidents, whatever, share them. I'd love to see what kind of stuff you guys are coming up with!

I'll start with a few things I've found in my first few days of Prophet ownership. Nothing crazy or groundbreaking, but useful to me nonetheless, figured they might be worth sharing.

- Set up a Mod slot to route Note Number to the pitch of one oscillator, say Osc 2, with a small value, like 1. Set Osc Mix so you can hear both oscillators, then bring down the fine tuning of Osc 2 to -20 or so. Set this way, you'll have a small difference in pitch between the oscillators that varies dependent upon where you're playing on the keyboard. Use the fine tune control to control how in or out of tune the second oscillator is as you move up or down the keybed. 

- Reducing the Env Amout knob in Amp settings seems to smooth out the sound a bit. My instinct is to keep this knob all the way up, or at a value of 127 when combined with the Velocity knob, but keeping the max volume lower seems to sound nice to me. Maybe I am just insane.

- If a Mod Amount of 1 is more than what you're looking for, you can use another slot for an envelope, the mod wheel, or velocity to control that initial Mod slot Amount, giving finer control of the range between 0 and 1.






Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2017, 05:41:52 PM »
Great thread idea!

You can stack keynote modulations a few times in a row to limit the range meaning the entirety of the effect happens within less octaves. So you could go from 0 noise to full noise in 3 octaves. I used this with a few modulators to create this single timbre drum patch that I sequenced in Ableton. https://clyp.it/xpzps55h

You probably know this already, but you can hold the lfo slot number and twist the destination.

Here is one I just found out about! You can actually hold the Misc Params button and use certain shortcuts. Holding the misc param and moving the pitch wheel brings you right to the pitch bend amt setting within the misc params. I believe it works on detune as well.

Holding an LFO slot and moving pan spread links it to actual panning (not the spread knob) but this is super fun once you get into the audio range.

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2017, 02:19:20 PM »
You can actually hold the Misc Params button and use certain shortcuts. Holding the misc param and moving the pitch wheel brings you right to the pitch bend amt setting within the misc params. I believe it works on detune as well.

Hadn't realized that, cool! I noticed that when holding the source button for a mod slot, if you press a key multiple times, it will cycle through Velocity, Pressure, and Note Number as sources. Nice little shortcut, especially when you find yourself using Note Number as often as I do.

Shape Mod Slop (Kind Of!)

Last night I stumbled upon a useful little trick. I assigned a random LFO to the Shape Mod of one oscillator in a two oscillator patch. I then set the LFO as slow as it would go, with key sync on. Depending on which waveform you're using, you'll probably want a small value, like 1 or 2. Pulse, for example, is a little more forgiving with it's Shape Mod compared to, say, the Triangle, in regards to subtlety. But the idea here is that each time you press a new note, you shift the Shape Mod just a little bit, giving your oscillators just a bit of extra movement.

If you want to take it further, you can assign the mod wheel to increase the frequency and depth of said LFO, for a much more obvious effect that can be brought in and out when you please. Good times  8)

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2017, 10:47:14 AM »
I guess most of you guys like to keep your tricks secret   ;)

Even if you just have some old standard analog sound design tricks, I'd love to hear them!

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthrecipes/comments/3ex4ay/everything_in_its_right_place/

I came across this write-up about recreating the synth sound from Radiohead's Everything in its Right Place. I was able to make a patch I really liked from it, similar enough to the recorded sound, which is quite simple anyway, but this is the interesting part. At the end of the post you'll find this bit:
---
 If you’d like to mix in a dash of Rhodes authenticity, you can use a second oscillator to recreate the super-high pitched Rhodes tine noise. You can use a thin pulse wave or a triangle wave, and set the interval two octaves, nine half steps, and 50 cents above the main oscillator (this is the same as 33 half steps and 50 cents). You’ll want to fine tune the mix level. You might also need to open up the cutoff frequency to let that little guy through.
---
This technique is totally new to me! By using this and a simple triangle wave, I was able to recreate a reasonably close approximation of the famous DX7 electric piano. I set Env 3 to control Osc Mix, using the velocity to make the tine sound (2nd Osc) louder as I hit the keys harder. Throw on some tasty chorus and bask in the cheese  8)
I know it's a super cheesy sound, but I traded my DX7 for the Rev 2, and often used said cheesy sound to work out song ideas or write things. It's helpful for me, when I'm focusing on writing, to have a simple, piano-ish sort of tone to work with. I was very happy to have found a close enough approximation of this for my needs. 

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2017, 05:49:12 PM »
I guess most of you guys like to keep your tricks secret   ;)

Even if you just have some old standard analog sound design tricks, I'd love to hear them!

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthrecipes/comments/3ex4ay/everything_in_its_right_place/

I came across this write-up about recreating the synth sound from Radiohead's Everything in its Right Place. I was able to make a patch I really liked from it, similar enough to the recorded sound, which is quite simple anyway, but this is the interesting part. At the end of the post you'll find this bit:
---
 If you’d like to mix in a dash of Rhodes authenticity, you can use a second oscillator to recreate the super-high pitched Rhodes tine noise. You can use a thin pulse wave or a triangle wave, and set the interval two octaves, nine half steps, and 50 cents above the main oscillator (this is the same as 33 half steps and 50 cents). You’ll want to fine tune the mix level. You might also need to open up the cutoff frequency to let that little guy through.
---
This technique is totally new to me! By using this and a simple triangle wave, I was able to recreate a reasonably close approximation of the famous DX7 electric piano. I set Env 3 to control Osc Mix, using the velocity to make the tine sound (2nd Osc) louder as I hit the keys harder. Throw on some tasty chorus and bask in the cheese  8)
I know it's a super cheesy sound, but I traded my DX7 for the Rev 2, and often used said cheesy sound to work out song ideas or write things. It's helpful for me, when I'm focusing on writing, to have a simple, piano-ish sort of tone to work with. I was very happy to have found a close enough approximation of this for my needs.

dude, Everything in its right place is why I knew I wanted a Prophet before I even knew I wanted a synth. (and ultimately why I ended up with the REV2 now.)

Very cool tips bud. Going to try this right now. I'm in a Reddit/Synthesizers Discord chat and I think you might like it over there. I'm always trying to spark conversations about tips/tricks/ideas and there is always someone talking about something.

Feel free to Gchat me at philkop@gmail.com. As a fellow rev2 owner, it would be cool to talk shop and share ideas.

I like setting env 3 to pitch with a high AMT, no attack and a very quick delay. Adjust ENV AMT to taste. This gives you a bit of a click at the begging. You could just map velocity straight to osc mix via the mod matrix and have env 3 serving as a nice little click.

Another radioish trick I picked up from someone somewhere at one point is using noise as a modulation source to modify filter cutoff by a very small amount. Like 0-5. Just gives it a little roughness.

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2017, 06:22:00 PM »
Also, two new tips!

Tip 1: Holding Misc Parameteres is great for seeing what a certain knob's value is at. But a neat trick is holding it to move the knob where you want it to be to avoid jumping. Take cutoff for example.. You can tell the cutoff is closed a lot but the knob is wide open. You can hold the Misc Param/Show button to kind of mute the knob while you move it closer to the range you know its actually at. This is great for performance. You could also change knob modes but I like the stock knob mode and this fixed my one and only issue with the knobs jumping around.

Tip 2: More of a general synth tip but I just figured it out and its fun! You can have a sequence going on the rev2 and play on top of it. Playing with the Amps ENV can essentially bring in/out the sequence vs your live playing. I made a little example https://clyp.it/emhr5jkt - kind of sloppy but it shows how you can adjust your live playing dynamically alongside a sequence. In this example I just play with the ADS knobs while a sequence is going the whole time and play a little on top of it.

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2017, 09:39:33 AM »
One more tip:

Use a sub OSC so you have a note and an octave. Use OSC 2 tuned to D#

Assign mod wheel to OSC2 pitch with an amount of 2

This gives you a pseudo auto chorder by switching between major and minor third. You just have to be a little savy on when to use which but play around enough and you can tell what sounds good.

This works even better when combined with the unison chord mode. Hold 2 notes and hit unison for really nice complex chords that you can shift around.

Made a little video of the effect!

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPPTV67T3zcio8FUDrYP7teuN0RsrkuLS8AEZC2RqlhuL1Mv2Es2bFeaxZzfVE70Q/photo/AF1QipNWyhwXrQKwFT5AjqTWXno2LoHuvDhhdGyoIqhH?key=aDZuVDhHQVQ5bnBCSlNydGx2VVEzRVFZSDBKSGVB

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2017, 01:59:24 PM »
dude, Everything in its right place is why I knew I wanted a Prophet before I even knew I wanted a synth. (and ultimately why I ended up with the REV2 now.)

Very cool tips bud. Going to try this right now. I'm in a Reddit/Synthesizers Discord chat and I think you might like it over there. I'm always trying to spark conversations about tips/tricks/ideas and there is always someone talking about something.

Feel free to Gchat me at philkop@gmail.com. As a fellow rev2 owner, it would be cool to talk shop and share ideas.

I like setting env 3 to pitch with a high AMT, no attack and a very quick delay. Adjust ENV AMT to taste. This gives you a bit of a click at the begging. You could just map velocity straight to osc mix via the mod matrix and have env 3 serving as a nice little click.

Another radioish trick I picked up from someone somewhere at one point is using noise as a modulation source to modify filter cutoff by a very small amount. Like 0-5. Just gives it a little roughness.

I know how you feel about the Radiohead tune! It's important to remember that sometimes very simple sounds are the exact thing a song needs, to, uh, you know... put everything in its right place haha :o

Great tips man, I love the Env 3 click trick, thanks for that :D Also the example with the Env adjustments during a sequence is awesome! I'm going to have to try that out. I'm not sure exactly how you're getting that to work though. Are you using two patches at once, with one playing a sequence and the other playing live? I guess I'm not understanding how the envelope is effecting the sequencer but not the live playing.

In regards to sending Noise to Cutoff via the Mod Matrix, I concur this is a great sound. I've also been routing Noise to Osc 1 and 2 pitches, set at 0 for the amount. I'll then set the mod wheel to control the depth for each of those slots, +1 and -1 respectively, or +1 on only one Osc, leaving the other alone. This allows for very fine control over small tuning changes via the mod wheel. Just seems to add a nice and tasteful movement to the oscillators.

I'll definitely be checking out the Reddit page, thanks man!

joesh

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2017, 08:29:16 AM »
Wow, just what I was looking for, I just bought myself a Rev2 (8 voice) and was looking for a few tips to get started. I hope that someone - one day - writes a more complete manual with tips and tricks, it would be very useful. I used to have a PolyEvolver on loan for a while, there was/is a great manual that someone wrote to explain various tricks etc, the link is below, it may inspire someone to have a go, or just get some good ideas. In the meanwhile I'm off to try some of your great suggestions!

Thanks.

* PolyEvolver guide: The Definitive Guide To Evolver - Carbon111.com www.carbon111.com/evolverguide.pdf

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2017, 11:48:28 AM »
Here's a tip if your new to synths in general:

Look up tips for other synths on youtube! Especially the more budget friendly synths like minilogue/microkorg/ultra nova since they usually have more videos. You'll find a whole lot of stuff that you can also pull off on the REV2.

jg666

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Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2017, 01:30:07 AM »
You may all already know this one, but there might be others who, like myself, are new to DSI synths :)

I was having difficulty sometimes getting the exact value I wanted with some of the pots (for example cutoff and resonance) because the values would sometimes skip a couple of numbers when turned. I've found that in these cases you can use the Value knob next to the display to fine tune the current setting that you're changing. This knob on my synth seems to be more precise.
DSI Prophet Rev2, DSI Pro 2, Moog Sub37, Korg Minilogue, Yamaha MOXF6, Yamaha MODX6, Yamaha Montage6

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2017, 07:01:24 PM »
Sound something neat today. I do a lot of manual filter cutoff sweeps.

If you have the cutoff lowered and instead sweep the "key amount" it its basically like sweeping the filter but it has a different response since it is affecting notes differently as you go up the keyboard.

Kind of a "you have to try it to get it" and it is subtle, but another neat tool to keep in your back pocket with the powerful synth.

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #12 on: November 03, 2017, 01:43:36 PM »
Great stuff!
Thanks a lot. Looking forward to see more post in this thread.
joesh link to evolverguide was also a really nice link.


Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #13 on: November 03, 2017, 03:29:30 PM »
Excellent stuff so far everyone...

Unison Sounds: Try setting the Unison Detune to 0 and use the Osc Slop instead. Can be useful when the unison detune range isn't subtle enough.
Original Model D <> Sub 37 <> Minitaur <> Slim Phatty <> OB-6 <> Prophet Rev2 8Voice <> Integra 7 <> SE-02 <> Prologue16 <> Triton Le <> Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55 <> Sound Gizmo

"They're not aliens...they're Americans!"
(The Mouse That Roared, 1959)

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2017, 01:47:39 AM »
To increase workflow when creating patches from scratch:

pre-define some modulation source / destination settings and also other patch settings, save it to a default patch and start from there so you have to menu-dive / turn those rotary knobs less when making new presets...

For example: I use a foot control pedal most of the time to control VCF freq modulation, so I can set this up in a default patch already. For the kind of sounds I use and program the most, I also like some default pitch and / vcf modulation by a LFO, and add a slight touch of slop and / or a chorus FX already to my default patch.

So just try to see what paramaters you always need to program more or less the same in most of your patches (like LFO destinations), and save that to a default patch!


aeonn

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2017, 07:11:36 AM »
Here is my time-saving tip for you guys !

When assigning the modulation slots to your desired source and destination, hold the SOURCE button while turning the amount knob to scroll through the sources available.
You can do the same by holding DESTINATION and turning the amount knob as well.
Once you have the source and destination set, just use the amount knob alone to set it to your taste. Quick and easy.

I find it useful because it allows me to set a modulation with one hand only so I can carry on playing something :)

Hope that you find that useful !

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2018, 11:29:46 AM »
I seem to be having some trouble getting a self-oscillating filter to track pitch accurately for a simple sine wave, play the filter sort of patch. I've made sure there's nothing else effecting the cutoff aside from the key tracking, set to 64. I've tried 63 as well and the pitch is still wonky and about a quarter step (just a guess, might be more) away from where it should be.
 
Do I need to do a calibration routine (haven't done this yet) or am I perhaps missing something in my programming? I'd appreciate some insight on this one. Thanks!

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2018, 01:51:51 PM »
I seem to be having some trouble getting a self-oscillating filter to track pitch accurately for a simple sine wave, play the filter sort of patch. I've made sure there's nothing else effecting the cutoff aside from the key tracking, set to 64. I've tried 63 as well and the pitch is still wonky and about a quarter step (just a guess, might be more) away from where it should be.
 
Do I need to do a calibration routine (haven't done this yet) or am I perhaps missing something in my programming? I'd appreciate some insight on this one. Thanks!

Yes, doing a calibration should bring the filter keyboard tracking back on track with a value of 64.
Oberheim OB-X8, Minimoog D (vintage), OB6 (Desktop), Oberheim Matrix-6 (MIDI Controller for OB6), VC340

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2018, 02:28:26 PM »
Yes, doing a calibration should bring the filter keyboard tracking back on track with a value of 64.

Right on, I'll try that out tonight, thanks!

In other news, and keeping on track with this thread, I've been applying a mid-paced (80ish or so) LFO to Osc. Slop for an interesting take on pitch vibrato. This gives something a little more lively than the typical LFO patched directly to Osc. Freq. If you like the warbling, dinky, dying sort of sounds I enjoy so much, you might get some use out of this little trick :D

Re: Rev 2 Tips and Tricks!
« Reply #19 on: February 05, 2018, 03:33:02 PM »
A couple random things I've been enjoying as of late:
After I updated my firmware and did the calibration routine, I've had much better results "playing the filter" by cranking resonance and setting key tracking to 64. Wonderfully warm sine waves, and they're even in tune this time! A few things to make it more interesting?

-I set the mod wheel to control the noise level. Adding some noise to feed into the filter creates some very interesting textures and warbles that are really nice for my taste! Setting it too high will change the overall pitch, so try to find a happy medium. I also set the patch up with envelope 3 controlling noise, with a super slow attack, to bring in a bit of this funkiness over time for sustained chords.

-Another little thing I discovered was that you can use audio mod to function as a pitch bend! Of course, you could also just change the cutoff value to accomplish the same thing, but audio mod will do different things depending upon how you have Oscillator 1 set, so it's worth experimenting with. In case you're wondering how to change Osc 1 to effect audio mod without sending the oscillator through the filter, you can set your mix knob all the way to Osc 2, (with Osc 2 set to off) allowing you to make changes to Osc 1 without actually sending Osc 1 through the filter.

I can post up the patch I made if anyone is interested in checking it out. While I'm running my mouth here, if anyone has tricks or advice for working with the envelopes, I'd be interested to hear them. Do you have any go-to methods for setting your filter and amplifier envelopes differently? Or maybe your favorite shapes and destinations for the third envelope? Do you find yourself modulating envelopes often? I tend to leave them alone aside from modulation the VCA env. amount for tremolo sort of effects.