Razmo's Gear Rant Thread...

[Razmo]

Looks like a good sample player, nice and utilitarian with a good selection of effects.  You are lucky to find one for sale as I can't seem to locate where the maker is selling them, if he is at all.

Actually i decided to cancel the buy anyway... there are a few things it cannot do that I'd like... if you want to get one, then enter the creators Facebook page for the device... I know that you have to wait quite some time if you want one pre build, so expect some waiting time ... but yes... it is a cool sample player, it just has no way of using a round-robin triggering, or the ability to start a sample at a random place in the sample which is something I'd need for what I want to do with samples... but as a sample player it's quite good... instant access to 128*128 samples in 1GB of flash is quite good.

I've decided to drop samples for the time being, and simply get a Prophet 12 desktop next month instead... I want one while they are still around... samples will have to wait until something with my requirements pop up on the market, or the secrecy about the Prophet X sample import tool is revealed.

[megamarkd]

Hmm, round-robin sample playback is a nice idea.  I purchased a triggered channel switcher end of last year to achieve a similar effect.
As to actually acquiring a unit myself, I'm rather skint right now, I was more looking to find a price out of curiosity than in a bid to buy.

[Razmo]

Hmm, round-robin sample playback is a nice idea.  I purchased a triggered channel switcher end of last year to achieve a similar effect.
As to actually acquiring a unit myself, I'm rather skint right now, I was more looking to find a price out of curiosity than in a bid to buy.

I saw it somewhere on the net selling for about 280 EUROs I think it was... it's not a cheap unit, but small-bussiness devices rarely are... but it is also a reason as to why I hesitated... I really would have liked either a PX or Quantum, but there are issues with both that keep me from getting one... with Quantum it's the SysEx specs, with PX it's the unknown about the sample import utility... so as I wrote earlier; I'll just forget about sample synths for now and move on with other synthesis types instead

[megamarkd]

Hmm, round-robin sample playback is a nice idea.  I purchased a triggered channel switcher end of last year to achieve a similar effect.
As to actually acquiring a unit myself, I'm rather skint right now, I was more looking to find a price out of curiosity than in a bid to buy.

I saw it somewhere on the net selling for about 280 EUROs I think it was... it's not a cheap unit, but small-bussiness devices rarely are... but it is also a reason as to why I hesitated... I really would have liked either a PX or Quantum, but there are issues with both that keep me from getting one... with Quantum it's the SysEx specs, with PX it's the unknown about the sample import utility... so as I wrote earlier; I'll just forget about sample synths for now and move on with other synthesis types instead

Although it is monophonic, I've gained a lot of joy out of my Bastl Microgranny 2.0. Simple sample playback as well as granular sample playback. Runs samples from an microSD card and the load very quickly which makes changing banks very usable while performing. Six samples per bank but again due to quick loading of samples, I can change the samples assigned while playing fairly seemlessly. It has simple CC control for it's eight parameters. Responds to progchange and RTM's.  No pitchbend but there is a sample frequency parameter for the good old pitchbending via sample speed, so pitchbend can be done using that parameter.  Not too sure about the sysex specs though.
They go for around the $250aud so are rather cheap.

[Razmo]

There are many cool sample players out there these days in many different price ranges... I've looked at the Granny as well at some point.

But I have to realize that it's sample synthesis i want to play around with, not just sample playback, and I'd really like a very deep engine along with analog filters for this... There really is nothing on the market like that, other than Prophet X and Quantum... but the Sample Import utility is crippled, and nobody want to talk about it's state or if we'll ever see a full featured version... this prevents me from getting one at the moment.

Quantum is a better bet as things are right now, but I'd have to make sure that the onscreen editing on this is user friendly to work with because I'll never be able to create a SysEx editor for it I think.

So I guess I'll have to wait a bit with all this sample-stuff, and see what happens... I also have a feeling that samples + analog filters will have a comeback in the coming years... many small projects in this field is beginning to pop up... replicas of the SP1200 sampler and Behringer that now has "samplers" written into their menusystem points in that direction.

I'm sort of hoping for a polyphonic sample-synth in a pricerange about half of that of the PX or Quantum... these two are priced too high in my opinion... maybe not Quantum as it's very very deep and complex, but the PX is simply priced way higher than what it (in my opinion) is worth... they made a REV2 even below half the price, with 16 filters... i cannot see why it should be that much more expensive to throw in two digital and two sample oscillators... the P12 desktop is much much cheaper, has four digital oscillators and 12 filters... for about a third of the price of a PX... I'm still convinced that a great part of it's price is due to those darn 8DIO samples nobody will use in 5 years anyway...

[Razmo]

I changed the looks of my SoundDiver editor for the REV2 lately... it's been set up a bit more streamlined, but still with all on one screen, including BOTH layers... I cannot state enough how much this speed up programming programs that use both layers compared to the REV2's user interface... huge difference for me.

I'm aware that the poly sequencer is not shown... this has to do with the fact that it is a feature i use separately from designing sounds... i use the poly sequencer as a scratch-pad sequencer for tracks i want to be tight, and i record them depending on what score I'm working on, so there really is no need to store a sequence with a preset in my case, and thus no need for it in my editor... that saves some valuable screen space... also, the sequencer on REV2 is broken... last four bytes of the 6th layers velocity is never included in the SysEx dump, which further makes it not worth including really.

I'm going to revise my old editor for the Prophet 12 in the following days as well, though this will be a little harder because of all the parameters i have to squeeze in... especially with two layers.

[Razmo]

I made some changes to my older editor for the Prophet 12 as I'm going to buy one soon... not an easy task getting all of those parameters on to the same screen, but I succeeded... a little compact, but still effective enough for me

This means that all my editors are now ready... REv2, P12 and PEAK.

I've decided to let the TEMPEST go... I'm not good at programming music anymore, it bores me... i like to perform instead, and TEMPEST is simply way too much sequencing for my liking... I thought long and hard about using it as a synth instead, but after having played around with it I came to the conclusion that the sample oscillators are simply too low quality... that compared to the fact that many of the most usable single cycle waveforms are screwed by artifacts I simply gave up on it... a bit of a shame really because it has that strong almost Evolver'esque sound to it... Some day when I get the chance I may get a Poly Evolver Rack again instead... but they're rare these days, so maybe it won't happen.

I'm still keeping an eye on the Prophet X of course... also the Quantum... I'm probably going to get one of them at some point, but I'm still very torn on which it should be... With other people beginning to experiment on creating sample import software for the Prophet X, things are looking a little bit brighter for the Prophet X... it may be more simple than the Quantum, but on the other hand the Quantum may also be just too much crammed into a single synth... the polyphony and tru stereo configuration plus the SysEx specs of the Prophet X is still a VERY HEAVY thing on my scale... man I wish that the PX would be made in a version without the 8DIO samples... REALLY!!! ... I'd also like to see a desktop version of it, with scaled down UI like the P12 desktop... lower pricing... but I guess I'm dreaming...

[Shaw]

Razmo, your editors are all "PC only", right?  Meaning they couldn't be used on a Mac?

[Razmo]

Razmo, your editors are all "PC only", right?  Meaning they couldn't be used on a Mac?

I actually do not know... I have never had a MAC, but I know that SoundDiver was also made for the MAC... if the adaptions are the same it should work I guess.

[Shaw]

Razmo, your editors are all "PC only", right?  Meaning they couldn't be used on a Mac?

I actually do not know... I have never had a MAC, but I know that SoundDiver was also made for the MAC... if the adaptions are the same it should work I guess.

Yeah, but AFAIK SoundDiver hasn't been supported since the Emagic days... I'm surprised you still have it working!

[Razmo]

If anyone want to try one of my adaptions for SoundDiver on MAC, just write me... you can have them free of charge to see if they will work... and if you use SoundDiver on PC, just write me as well... I know they work on the PC since that's what I'm using.

I have editors for quite a few... mostly for desktop versions but I think it'll work for most keyboard versions too if they have the same SysEx specs.. I've got for:

Waldorf Pulse 2
DSI Tetra
Moog Slim Phatty
Waldorf Pulse
SC Prophet REV2
DSI Poly Evolver Rack
Novation PEAK
MOOG Sub37
Roland MKS-50
MOOG Minitaur
Jomox MBrane 11
Jomox MBase 11
Oberheim Matrix 1000
Vermona M.A.R.S.
KORG EX-8000
DSI Evolver Desktop
Ensoniq ESQ-1m
DSI TEMPEST (Sound edit only)
DSI Prophet 12 desktop
DSI Prophet 08 desktop
Behringer DeepMind12 (all except FX section)
Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard

I know I've made for others, but some of them got lost at some point... Mopho was one of them unfortunately.

[Razmo]

Razmo, your editors are all "PC only", right?  Meaning they couldn't be used on a Mac?

I actually do not know... I have never had a MAC, but I know that SoundDiver was also made for the MAC... if the adaptions are the same it should work I guess.

Yeah, but AFAIK SoundDiver hasn't been supported since the Emagic days... I'm surprised you still have it working!

It works rather well actually... a few quirks, but they are mostly present when actually creating an adaption... otherwise the only thing you need to do on the PC version is set it up correctly, .. .it must be run in administrator mode, and set to compatibility mode for Windows XP ... other than that it actually works well... there may be a few of the specially coded adaptions by Emagic that don't work correctly anymore, but I create my own editors and the "New Adaption" that can be selected works fine... still a few bugs, but nothing serious I'd say... I've been using it forever really... still am, and nothing has been made that can be compared really... not anything I've found that is...

[Razmo]

http://razmo.ziphoid.com/WhistleFlow.mp3

New sound I made recently...

Made with Roland - V-Synth GT

[Soundquest]

Cool

[Razmo]

http://razmo.ziphoid.com/PEAK_BASS.mp3

A short demo of a bass patch I've been experimenting with on the Novation PEAK.

Must say that I'm rather impressed with the sound of the PEAK... this thing can sound so analog it's hard to believe it has digital oscillators... compared to the P12 it certainly kicks it's butt when it comes to bass tones... I won't even miss a MOOG when having this synth.

The ausio quality of this FPGA synthesis has to be the future of digital synths running in the megahertz range... it certainly blurrs the line between digital and analog that's for sure.

P12 certainly has a few advantages compared to the PEAK, but honestly, for me it's only the dual timbrality... if PEAK had this and added a PAN destination to it's mod matrix, I don't even think I'd feel a need to get a P12 at any point... I have the Curtis filters in my REV2, I do not need more synths with that filter really.

Besides... I've sold my REV2 keyboard... or rather, I swapped it for a Roland V-Synth GT which was a synth i really needed because of it's VariPhrase synthesis... i made a direct swap for it with the REV2 which was an ok deal... In two days I'll be buying a REV2 16-voice module though... i never decided to rid myself of the REV2, especially not now that I've spend so much time on my soundbank... I'm also still planning a second bank (with drones), so I had to get this synth again.

The stuff i feel that REV2 does better than the PEAK is actually Pads, Strings and other stuff... I've been unable to replicate some of the better pads and strings from my bank on the PEAK so far, so REV2 certainly has a place in my heart regarding these sounds it does so well.

I'm also planning on doing a new revision of my current soundbank (that will be free for all who bought it already)... there are some of the presets i do not like and feel do not really belong in the bank (basses especially, I'll save those for a dedicated bass/lead bank sometime later on, more suited towards Berlin School type sounds).

I actually do not know if I'll ever get a P12... I'm really torn on that matter... both because I want synths now that have built in FX including reverb... P12 does not have that, and there is still something about the sound quality i do not like, especially when using audio rate modulation... i don't think that Sequential will ever overcome this though, unless they make an FPGA digital front end synth... so I think I'll most likely be waiting to see what they come up with next.

My soundcard allow me to connect 9 stereo synths in total, and that is most likely what I'll end up with (modules only)... but I'll be choosing them VERY VERY carefully without hurry... currently there is nothing in the horizon except the REV2 module, but I'll be having this within next week... so only the gods know what'll be next.

I'm currently having an eye on the coming UDO synth hoping it will have both presets and SysEx for creating an editor... in that case, and if it delivers something unique, this might be on the list.

I might actually get a ONE, QUANTUM or even a PROPHET X as well at some point (now that others are creating software for the PX it has gained my attention again)... but it will probably never happen, both because I feel those are too expensive, but also because I will ONLY accept modules from now on... my V-Synth GT function as my main controller, and will be my only keyboard.

I guess that's all for this "update" of what's going on in my head at the moment.... please spare me for more comments on the subject of my always changing goals... I'm fully aware of this 

[Razmo]

REV2 came back home again... in "toothless" state 

[Shaw]

REV2 came back home again... in "toothless" state 

Nice and compact... I'm digging it!
And I like the compliment of synthesis engines -- new school analogue, newer school digital, and one of the most unique synths Roland ever produced!
That's a great set-up.

[Razmo]

REV2 came back home again... in "toothless" state 

Nice and compact... I'm digging it!
And I like the compliment of synthesis engines -- new school analogue, newer school digital, and one of the most unique synths Roland ever produced!
That's a great set-up.

Thanks  ... I definitely like the combo as it stands now as it gives me a little of most synthesis types, but my setup actually allow for up to 9 synths (input limit on my soundcard) so I'll probably expand the setup in the future as interesting new stuff pops up. I intend on getting two more stands like the one I'm using with the PEAK and REV2, to be located to the right of the GT, so 4 more desktop modules will eventually find their way to my studio.

I have no other modules at the current time that I'm certain I'll be getting... I'm really split on the choice of getting a P12 module or not, but as I wrote earlier, I'll probably just wait and see what the next new thing will be...

Anyway, it's time to get back to designing sounds now... so no new gear for a while here

[proteus-ix]

Just wait to see what Sequential has up their sleeve next. You have a REV2, but bought a DM12 for some reason. You have a peak, but you're thinking about the P12 for some reason. If what Sequential does next blows the Peak out of the water (which I assume it will if it goes in that direction), then your purchase will be warranted. Buying a VCO or hardware sampler next if you have an itchy trigger finger sounds like a more practical option considering your setup.

Ofc this is simply my recommendation ... No one ever listens to me. 

But I actually am thinking in the direction of a Prophet X anyway... i did say earlier that i would not get one

Which we all know means you're 100% going to get one within 8-10 months.

[Razmo]

Just wait to see what Sequential has up their sleeve next. You have a REV2, but bought a DM12 for some reason. You have a peak, but you're thinking about the P12 for some reason. If what Sequential does next blows the Peak out of the water (which I assume it will if it goes in that direction), then your purchase will be warranted. Buying a VCO or hardware sampler next if you have an itchy trigger finger sounds like a more practical option considering your setup.

Ofc this is simply my recommendation ... No one ever listens to me. 

But I actually am thinking in the direction of a Prophet X anyway... i did say earlier that i would not get one

Which we all know means you're 100% going to get one within 8-10 months.

I can understand why some would believe this to be true  ... but no... too many bad experiences with samples and DSI/Sequential for that to ever happen... I'd pick the QUANTUM over the X in a heartbeat... but as things are right now, I'm fully covered with samples using my V-Synth GT... in fact, the only reason I would ever get another sampler would be because of analog filters/VCA's...