Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #180 on: October 02, 2020, 01:38:26 PM »
I am mostly divesting from eurorack in conjunction with getting a Pro-3. I prefer to avoid having multiple synthesizers in favor of a clean space.

I can't get out of euro entirely, because I developed a fairly popular eurorack product, and I can't just leave it behind, and don't really want to.

Also, there are things that the Pro-3 doesn't do, and eurorack modules can fill in these gaps. So I'm basically going to start my eurorack system from near-scratch after I get the Pro-3.

My four years of nearly-exclusive eurorack use have been valuable, though. I learned a lot more about synthesis in general, and there are techniques that I can adapt that I wouldn't have considered before, that are supported by the Pro-3.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #181 on: October 02, 2020, 01:52:48 PM »
In my view the best aspect of a Eurorack or even semi-modular experience is that it forces one to kind of think from the ground up and to recognize that all the single building blocks can have multiple purposes like VCAs for example. That can spur some creativity and also help in understanding how certain outcomes can be achieved most efficiently. It's a bit like going back to school. And I'm sure you will continue to benefit from that. In addition, using the Pro 3 might be very motivational as well, as Sequential improved so many things with regard to the workflow since the instruments you last used by them (I believe the Mopho, Tetra, and Evolver).

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #182 on: October 02, 2020, 02:20:52 PM »
In my view the best aspect of a Eurorack or even semi-modular experience is that it forces one to kind of think from the ground up and to recognize that all the single building blocks can have multiple purposes like VCAs for example.

Yes, that’s surely a part of it. Another part of it is the diversity in the kinds of building blocks you have. Things that are generally missing in most hard-wired synths include logic, switches, rectifiers, inverters, shift registers, comparators, lag processors, and many others... things that allow a synth to make decisions based on human control, or indirectly based on something that happened elsewhere.

But, the Pro-3 has these CV jacks, so I shan’t miss those things. Even just a Pro-3 and Hemisphere Suite will cover almost all those bases.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #183 on: October 03, 2020, 08:50:07 PM »
I spent some time today getting started on a Pro-3 wavetable library in C. My wav2evolver PCM library gave me a really good start and, using that, I'll be able to do some things that Sequential's web-based wavetable generator can't yet do (automatic bit depth conversion, sample size conversion using linear interpolation, handling of stereo waves, use of raw PCM data).

I have a pretty good understanding of the wavetable sysex format at this point, as it's mostly straightforward; but since I don't have a Pro-3 yet, I have some gaps in knowledge. For example, there are 16 "reference" waves, but the format puts two extra waveforms between each of these, for a total of 48 waveforms.

My first idea was that maybe the Pro-3 doesn't calculate morphing between waveforms in real time, and that that is done by the generator. But this doesn't seem to be borne out by the content of the interstitial waves. My second idea was that maybe they're for future expansion for another Sequential synth, probably not the Pro-3. My third idea is that they're for transposition, as they appear to contain interpolated variations of the reference waveform at different frequencies. I think the third idea is the most likely.

I'd welcome insight on this if anybody has some. Otherwise, I'll figure it out through experimentation later this month.

One of the things you'll be able to do from a wav2evolver update is generate a Pro-3 wavetable from an Evolver custom waveform. That is, you'll get a Pro-3 wavetable containing a single Evolver waveform  :) . This absurd feature will be dedicated to Razmo, because I think he'd have gotten a kick out of it.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2020, 09:00:37 PM by chysn »
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #184 on: October 04, 2020, 06:30:49 AM »
I shouldn't look at them as 48 waveforms. It's sixteen groups of a single waveform at 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/4, and (1/8)x8. I get the format now.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #185 on: December 07, 2020, 06:05:35 PM »
Well, there it is. I've ordered a Pro 3.

I decided to go with the standard edition. I went back and forth about a million times, with the understanding that I'll be happy with either one. In the end, I framed the decision as one between the "Minimoog Aesthetic" and the "Pro-One Aesthetic," and came down on the side of tradition.

But with that little matter out of the way, I'm excited for my instrument's arrival. I've got a good start on my wavetable generation software, and I'll take another look at the manual while my Pro 3 slowly makes its way from California to Michigan.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2020, 06:07:36 PM by chysn »
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

Sacred Synthesis

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #186 on: December 07, 2020, 06:12:05 PM »
Congratulations, Chysn.  I'm sure the Pro 3 will add some excitement and inspiration to your music-making.

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #187 on: December 07, 2020, 08:19:18 PM »
Congratulations, Chysn.  I'm sure the Pro 3 will add some excitement and inspiration to your music-making.

It will be both a radical departure and a homecoming. The Pro 3 is exactly what I wanted in 2016, but then I took a four-year detour. When it was introduced a year ago, I started making long-term plans to get one. When Sequential made the user wavetable update, that pretty much sealed my fate.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #188 on: December 08, 2020, 01:51:44 AM »
Congratulations! Looking forward to hearing what you will come up with.

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #189 on: December 08, 2020, 06:19:59 AM »
Congrats. I got my SE at the weekend (for the same price as the standard so a no-brainer). It’s lovely. Sadly I’ll need to get an exchange as one of the encoders is defective. But it’s so nice to play. Found a couple of weird bugs which I’ve reported too: single program dump isn’t working - the write button does nothing in that case. Also some weird stuff happening with the ladder filter on one patch I made where it sounds like the filter is being FM’d when it isn’t and the other two filters are fine.

My Subsequent’s future is looking less secure.

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #190 on: December 08, 2020, 06:38:10 PM »
December 15th.

Good news is, I'm off from the 18th to the end of the year, so I'll have plenty of time to learn it.

Bad news is, it's going to be a l...o...n...g... week.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #191 on: December 15, 2020, 02:38:23 PM »
'Tis the season to connect my new Pro 3 to the Voltage-Controlled Christmas Tree! In real life, it's flashing courtesy a couple of LFOs at different rates.

Well, the Pro 3 has four CV outputs, so for next year I'll have to work on the Voltage Controlled Christmas Tree Mark 2.

« Last Edit: December 15, 2020, 02:40:15 PM by chysn »
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #192 on: December 16, 2020, 02:50:45 PM »
I'm reading through the manual from the beginning, so that I don't miss anything. It's a really good manual, and I have a pretty good handle on basic editing, and the capabilities of the sound engine. I'm thrilled with the more knob-per-function design of the panel, as compared to the Mopho Keyboard, with each oscillator having its own knobs, and most envelopes having their own knobs.

I've gone into the sequencer a little bit, without having actually reached the sequencer section of the manual. So there's quite a bit of mystery there. I'm still surprised to see so many new colors pop up on those buttons.

I have successfully imported a wavetable generated by wav2evolver. I found that I needed to slow down sysex transmission to get that to work. Once I've got a good handle on the instrument itself, I'll continue working on my wavetable generator C library.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #193 on: December 18, 2020, 11:09:27 AM »
Here's a thing that the Pro 3 standard edition really should've come with, in my opinion. I got this on Ebay for a few bucks.

The positioning to the right of the wheels might seem odd, but this is where the badge was on the Pro One, probably because there was a screw in the way of flushing it left.

I've always wondered where the "Circuits" went when the Sequential name came back.

« Last Edit: December 18, 2020, 11:11:26 AM by chysn »
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #194 on: December 18, 2020, 11:56:24 AM »
Classy.  ;)

I've always wondered where the "Circuits" went when the Sequential name came back.

I think the Drumtraks from 1984 was the last product that had "Sequential Circuits" printed on it.

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #195 on: December 18, 2020, 07:08:18 PM »
I think the Drumtraks from 1984 was the last product that had "Sequential Circuits" printed on it.

"Circuits" in a trade name absolutely screams 1980s, in much the same way that "Solutions" in a trade name screams 2000s.

The Sequential Circuits domain name goes to Wine Country, which is fair, I guess.
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #196 on: December 19, 2020, 02:10:29 AM »
"Circuits" in a trade name absolutely screams 1980s, in much the same way that "Solutions" in a trade name screams 2000s.

Indeed.  ;D

I think Dave once mentioned that they went with "Sequential" only because the shortened name became the default during the 1980s and because he simply prefers the shorter version.

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #197 on: December 20, 2020, 09:21:22 AM »
I'm off work for the rest of the year. My main project during this time* is working on my Pro 3 wave table software.

I'm finishing up the processing library, which is in C, and that's mostly done. It's generating system exclusive files, and just needs more testing and refinements. The longer stage will be development of a web-based interface.

The library can read and convert most types of WAV files. So if you provide WAV files of different sizes, or 32-bit WAVs, or ones in stereo, the library won't care, it'll convert them to the proper format.

But the major feature is that you can generate a wave table with any number of reference waves between 1 and 16. You can place these in any reference waveform positions you want, and then the library will fill in the gaps with linear interpolation. For example, the attached wave table was generated using three waveforms generated by Audacity, saw, square, and sine. I placed these in reference waveforms 1, 9, and 16, respectively, and the library filled in the rest:



(The top part is the individual reference wave set, and the bottom is partial unpacked sysex with the downsampled waveforms)

The attached sysex file works nicely (wave table #33), and you can hear the morphing from one waveform to the next.

Probably later this week I'll release the code to GitHub for anybody to use, and I'll start the web interface.

* You know, other than enjoying time with my family and doing peace on earth and goodwill toward humankind
« Last Edit: December 20, 2020, 09:41:20 AM by chysn »
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #198 on: September 29, 2021, 05:29:11 PM »
When I bought my Pro 3, I figured that it would be a year before I made any kind of new synth move. It takes me that long to understand an instrument. I'm a bit behind the curve on the Pro 3, partially because 2021 was busier than 2020, and partially because the Pro 3 is a lot denser than anything I've had before.

But still, I'm considering what comes next. Possibilities include:

  • Back To Eurorack: Building up an 84HP 3U system primarily of Make Noise modules. Downside here is that the well-known worldwide supply chain problems have ravaged the eurorack vertical and it'll be hard to get what I want at any price.
  • Prophet Rev2 Desktop: I'm warming up to this idea. Every time I hear a Rev 2, I'm really impressed. And polyphony might be the way to go. On the other hand, the Pro 3 makes kind of a short controller. But on the other other hand, whatever.
  • Take 5: But as small as it is, I simply might not have the space to devote to it. I don't really want a second keyboard.
  • Pro 3 SE: Yeah, there's a chance that I'll trade up to an SE. If I actually go this way, I'd get a Make Noise 0 Coast, if I can find one. But it turns out that I do move my Pro 3 around, so the standard Pro 3 was probably the right choice in the first place.
  • Prophet 6: Definitely a dark horse candidate, and only comes into play as a Pro 3 replacement due to the aforementioned space constraints.

Really, it probably comes down to Rev 2 vs. eurorack. But am I missing anything obvious?
Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his

chysn

  • *****
  • 1812
Re: Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...
« Reply #199 on: October 06, 2021, 04:00:15 AM »
My company gave me a nice Amazon gift card for my 15th work anniversary. I used this to buy a Modal Skulpt SE desktop synthesizer.

It wasn't really an impulse purchase, as there are several things that the Skulpt does for me. I can use it as an input device for Ableton. It has DIN MIDI jacks, which are important for a MIDI interface peripheral I'm developing for a 40-year-old 8-bit computer. It can be battery-powered or USB-powered, so I can bring it with me on trips. It's a polyphonic VA and has a great sound and an interesting, flexible architecture.

Prophet 5 Rev 4 #2711

MPC One+ ∙ MuseScore 4

www.wav2pro3.comwww.soundcloud.com/beige-mazewww.github.com/chysnwww.beigemaze.com

he/him/his