Poly Evolver Music

[dslsynth]

Very interesting project, Soundquest! What software did you use to create the waveshapes from the recordings you made? Making new waveshapes is on my list of things to do but haven't really started on YIN yet.

[Soundquest]

That's a fascinating collection of sounds, Soundquest.  You've lived up to your name!  I've always loved the general bell category of tones, and these are like exotic bells.  Very pretty, and certainly musically useful.

I have to make a suggestion for naming the patches: "PEK Pots."  Too cute?

Thanks Sacred Synthesis.  In keeping the PEK relevant compared to Sequential's latest offerings, I was looking to come up with something 8Dio wouldn't have in their samples       And "PEK pots" works!

Very interesting project, Soundquest! What software did you use to create the waveshapes from the recordings you made? Making new waveshapes is on my list of things to do but haven't really started on YIN yet.

dslsynth,  check out Chsyn's post in the PEK rack section of this forum. Initially I got it from the old forum.  So I think that link to the wav software may be old now from what I recall.  I have it saved on my computer.  If you cannot find it I could probably zip you the file

https://forum.sequential.com/index.php/topic,39.0.html

[Soundquest]

Well, I really do like the idea of being able to import my own waveshapes, awkward as the process is to do that with PEK, it still is my only synth capable of that.   This goes back to a concept I posted a few months ago... "teapot waveshapes".
The main sound throughout is from those wave shapes. Weird voices are PEK.    I'm using the Polyend sequencer, and the dreamy pads is P12. Percussion Vermona MKII.

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/musix-box-carousel-master

[Sacred Synthesis]

Very pretty, Soundquest.  I especially liked the very soft sequence in the background.  Some of those sounds made me think someone was talking behind me.

[Soundquest]

Thanks Sacred Synthesis.   For a hardware sequencer, the Polyend "Seq" as they call it,  can adjust volume/velocity pretty easily.

[Soundquest]

PEK using combo mode.  PO8 does the weird female voice.  Korg EMX drums

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/evolve-me

[Sacred Synthesis]

Soundquest, you have a way of squeezing the funniest sounds out of a synthesizer.  I thought there was some sort of gnome behind my chair saying, "Uh-huh, uh-huh."  Nice work, as always.

[Soundquest]

Oooh, good name for that patch "gnome"  Thanks Sacred Synthesis.

[Sacred Synthesis]

Improvisation #93:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg3Pm4YjsE4

[Soundquest]

Sacred Synthesis,

Re: Improv 93.   Almost haunting like.  Somehow the New England style picture fits right in.  Is that an old church or school house?   

At 10:14 I noticed the metallic/HP filter sound come in.  I think this was really quite effective- keeping it going to the end.  I assume you have that going up down slowly using an LFO?     Also, the very end had quite a surprizing sound that I hadn't heard you use before. Nice.

[Sacred Synthesis]

Thanks, Soundquest.  I guess we have the PEK section of the forum all to ourselves.  Oh well. 

The photograph is of the Alcott barn in Concord, Massachusetts.  It is classic NE architecture.  I've added another photo of it below, as well as the Alcott house.  My wife and I make literary pilgrimages of sorts each summer, and this was from last year's trip.

The patch is the same throughout the improvisation, except for the opening of the filter.  I use a slight slow LFO modulating of the filter to give a heaving/breathing quality.  Periodically, and especially at the end, I open the filter using the modulation wheel.  The complexity of the digital wave shape is what makes the patch, even though there's also soft PWM to warm up the sound a bit.  And you're right, I don't often allow this sort of caustic sound to come to the fore.  It was so discordant and the bass so throaty that I was concerned the chord progressions wouldn't come through; it was close.

In spite of the many new and impressive instruments now available, the Poly Evolver Keyboard is still alive and well!

[Soundquest]

The forum seems to have been generally quiet lately, except for maybe the Prophet X threads, which I don't really visit. maybe it's just the springtime effect.   I really enjoy the new equipment and off-topic sections, though quite honestly, as much as I like looking at the newest offerings,  there is not another synth exciting me at the moment, not that I can afford one at the moment anyway. 

So, looking inward, I know I've had some mighty large distractions this year from some other equipment.   That Polyend, sequencer and the Linn 128- which I just got, and love.   But for me, those are tools, not instruments.   Through all this the PEK is still getting a good percentage of my  time - and with good reason.   As I've learned, it just sounds so unique and ages like a fine bourbon. 

It might take a few more years, but I'm thinking as PEK becomes more of a retro classic, there might be a resurgence of it's sounds posted out there.

Re: pic,  I was in Concord once- pretty town.

[Soundquest]

I always liked the African High Life music style.  My attempt at it using PEK.  This is all PEK except for the percussion, which is actual percussion.

Used the Linn controller for the guitar part.  The kalimba-like sound throughout- I made that using a waveform from an actual kalimba.

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/new-kalimba

[Soundquest]

This is all PEK except for the acoustic drum.   I "sampled" the waveform for the pan flute and imported that to the osc 3 and 4.  Then used the Linn midi controller to control it since bending and tremelo is very easily controlled with it.  The harp sequence is driven by Polyend sequencer.  The bugs, birds and wind was the fun part.

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/meadow-in-the-andes

[Soundquest]

This is all PEK.  I used a midi track for the guitar parts from Yngwie Malmsteen's Icarus Dream Suite.  The pads and voices are all added in separately.  Interestingly perhaps, at 4:00- the solo sound is made from a sampled waveform from a wine glass (that sound you get when rubbing your finger over the rim of a wine glass) which I imported into PEK digital oscillators. Like any midi track, format can be a bit mechanical I suppose, but it was fun playing around with it.

https://soundcloud.com/wavescape-1/icarus-dream-suite

[Soundquest]

Learned of Ennio Morricone's death today.  This man was a great composer.   I always liked his style, and especially one of his more recognizable pieces from the Good Bad and the Ugly soundtrack.  I did a copy of it in 2015.    It's all PEK, except for the snare drum and cymbal.  Check out the PEK blare trumpets ~ 2:40. 

from my original post....
This is one that I recently completed- and a little out of genera for me- as I don't normally use midi files for my structure.  This one is all PEK.  The midi file was used in the PEK combo mode to produce the windy/mechanical sound, then I went back and added the color of trumpets/percussion/voices/etc.  I obtained permission- as you'll recognize the obvious copy.  PS>  the whinny voices I did using the mod wheel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsZ37CZ9kys

[LoboLives]

Learned of Ennio Morricone's death today.  This man was a great composer.   I always liked his style, and especially one of his more recognizable pieces from the Good Bad and the Ugly soundtrack.  I did a copy of it in 2015.    It's all PEK, except for the snare drum and cymbal.  Check out the PEK blare trumpets ~ 2:40. 

from my original post....
This is one that I recently completed- and a little out of genera for me- as I don't normally use midi files for my structure.  This one is all PEK.  The midi file was used in the PEK combo mode to produce the windy/mechanical sound, then I went back and added the color of trumpets/percussion/voices/etc.  I obtained permission- as you'll recognize the obvious copy.  PS>  the whinny voices I did using the mod wheel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsZ37CZ9kys

Great job. Morricone was actually one of the first composers of his caliber to use electronic elements in his scores. He was really into experimentation. His score for The Humanoid is a synth score of his I highly recommend.

[Soundquest]

Thanks Lobo lives.   I did not know that about Morricone.  I'll check it out.