MATRIXSYNTH: Synth Demos by Lost Clouds

If ou are viewing this post from the front page you will see a more link directly below. Click it before you start to get to the list of videos plus descriptions for each. You can use the controls at the bottom of the player to skip around. You can find Lost Clouds music at https://lostcl0uds.bandcamp.com

1. Sequential Prophet Rev 2 - Why I Use Effects!

I've been in a big pad mood for a while now and wanted to make a quick video on how effects can really change/add to a patch, so here's it is! There will be more varied content soon I promise!

2. Sequential/DSI Prophet Rev2 - 20 Ambient/Cinematic Patches!

https://gum.co/rev2

20 high quality, unique patches for the Sequential/DSI Prophet Rev2 with an ambient & cinematic or 'soundtracky' feel. Mostly pads with a couple of plucky sounds/sequences added in.

Included with the purchase is a PDF describing the synthesis ideas behind each patch, a few tips and tricks you can use to make the patches your own as well as the effects used on each patch in the video. SHOW LESS

3. Sequential Prophet Rev2 & Novation Peak - Ambient Track

Another short ambient track with the Sequential Rev2 and Novation Peak. For this one the Peak is just acting as a constant pad in the background, and then there's three layers of the Rev2 over the top. The first (main video) is a stacked pad sound with a whole lot of resonance and some pitch modulation, the second (top left) is just a saw wave with some pitch modulation and the third (bottom left) has both oscillators on triangle waves with some shape and pitch modulation too. All layers are running through Valhalla Shimmer. SHOW LESS

4. Sequential Pro 3 - First Patches & Short Review! I picked up the Pro 3 a week ago – here’s some of the patches I’ve made with it so far, trying to show off a range of different sounds. Short review below…

THE GOOD

The Pro 3 is all around fantastic – it’s built like a tank, the layout is nice, everything you usually need is immediately accessible, and there’s lots of cool little features that are really easy to dial in like per-oscillator glide. The menu diving is easy and generally fairly limited and the sequencer is ridiculously easy to work with and absolutely packed with cool features.

As with the Rev2, assigning modulation destinations/sources is a breeze. The arpeggiator is basic but I’m not too bothered by that. The keyboard is phenomenal. The slider is really fun to play with, the inclusion of three filters is great (particularly the state variable filter is a blast) and the drive is subtle but can add a nice touch to your patch. Paraphonic mode is a lot of fun, though difficult sometimes (see below). The distortion circuit is decent but easy to overdrive, and the tuned feedback is a neat feature that I’m still learning how to use. As Sonic Lab said in their review the ‘Grunge’ feature seems legitimately useless.

The effects are much better than those on the Rev2. The reverb is definitely a step up from the Rev2 but it still feels pretty mediocre compared to other, cheaper synths like the Peak, Deepmind and even the Typhon. I imagine I’ll find myself going back to the Ventris and Valhalla a lot of the time when recording the Pro 3, which I don’t when using some other synths.

THE LESS GOOD BUT NOT NECESSARILY BAD

The ladder filter distorts VERY easily – depending on your oscillator tunings/modulation/effects, you sometimes have to lower the mixer levels on each oscillator to 20-30 (out of 127), which can make normalising volume between patches finicky. The knobs are actually too heavy for my taste – it makes tweaking in the moment really difficult, and more annoyingly when you go to turn the knobs on any other synth, it makes you tweak them far too quickly. Moving from the Pro 3 to the Rev2 is particularly bad – the Rev2 knobs are so much lighter that moving from the Pro 3 actually makes the Rev2 knobs feel a little cheap, which I’d never thought before…

Also, for some inexplicable reason, Sequential have swapped the Program and Bank knobs on the Pro 3 vs the Rev2. Why Sequential?? WHY????

Paraphonic mode is very fun to play with but it currently just cycles through the oscillators – if you want oscillator 1 to be tuned -2 octaves for your bass note, you have to press the bass/root note of your chord until you reach oscillator 1 and then press your other two keys. God forbid you accidentally press a key by accident, which will throw your oscillators out of wack and force you to ‘reset’ the cycle to what you need. Something like the way the Sub37 duo mode works, where you assign an oscillator to the highest/lowest key, would be very much appreciated and I hope it is something they can add in an OS patch. However this does have some great side effects – running a sequence with a number of steps that isn’t a multiple of 3 will cycle through the oscillators on each step and create a nice, extended sequence with varying note pitches. You can make it even more varied with the other 13 (!!!) sequencer tracks!

PATCHES
Here’s a summary of the patches. All effects are from the Pro 3.

1 – A sequenced patch. Oscillators 1 and 3 are tuned to constant notes (1 = bass, 3 = lead sort of note) and Sequencer track 4 is modulating the pitch of Osc 3 on a couple of steps. There’s a bit of Osc-3-only glide, which you can hopefully hear as well. The slider is routed to cutoff (default) which is fun to play with, and there’s a little bit of distortion and filter drive added. The pitch of Osc 1 is changed by hand with the pitch knob to create a mini bassline kinda thing

2 – A paraphonic patch. A whole lot of distortion and filter drive. One of the Aux envelopes is being used to create that classic pitch sliding effect at the start of each chord. Before recording this one I had to keep pressing the root note of the chord to get the oscillators into the right cycle like I described above, which was a pain.

3 – The start of the patch is just a single oscillator triangle wave with some delay and reverb. BUT the slider is routed to Oscillators 2 and 3 – which are tuned to constant notes for a nice bassy compliment to Osc 1. The slider also increases LFO1 amount, which is a reverse saw wave on the Oscillator Fine Pitch, which has an interesting effect vs the traditional triangle wave vibrato.

4 – Another paraphonic patch. This one uses all three LFOs to create a rhythmic pulsing of the cutoff. The slider is routed to each LFO amount so that at the midpoint there’s no modulation and towards the top of the slider the LFOs actually reverse, which is a cool effect I forgot to show…

5 – Just a sequence, not a whole lot going on but it sounds pretty nice! 5. Dreadbox Typhon - One Synth Ambient/Cinematic Track

A track made with just the Typhon! There are three different layers:

Layer 1: The main sequence. This uses the Typhon's built in sequencer, ping-pong delay (which is beautiful imo) and distortion. The track is running through two layers of Valhalla Shimmer - the first to add some normal reverb (as you can't have reverb and delay on the Typhon at the same time) and the second a much quieter, 100% mix reverb tuned to -7 semitones for a liiitttle bit of a fuller pad-like sound in the background.

Layer 2: A full, fat bass sounds that uses the Typhon's built-in chorus for maximum chunk. Also running through it's own Valhalla Shimmer track because it gave nicer results than the built-in reverbs. This track is played live with an off-screen keyboard so the timing gets a little funky towards the end - counting 9/8 for more than 30 seconds gets tiring!

Layer 3: Double saw wave, an octave apart, with the Typhon's built-in 'Cloud' granular reverb. No Shimmer on this one! Also played with the off-screen keyboard.

Layers 2 and 3 showed one of the bigger issues with the Typhon - no MIDI over USB so far, though it is planned! Other than that, still having a great time with the Typhon.

6. Moog Subsequent 37 + LABS Soft Piano

Here's something a little different - layering a nice Sub37 bass patch with the free LABS Soft Piano plugin creates a pretty cool sound I think!

7. Dreadbox Typhon Ambient/Cinematic Sounds

After a few months I finally managed to get my hands on a Dreadbox Typhon and it sounds goooooood! Here's one of the first things I've made with it.

The piece has 3 tracks: the main sequence is coming from the Typhon, with the 'Probability' on the sequencer set to around 60% to mix things up a bit. The Typhon is running through Valhalla Shimmer and Soundtoys Echoboy, which frees up the FX3 slot on the Typhon for a subtle ping-pong delay.

The second/lead track is also from the Typhon, using a double saw wave and a bit of pitch modulation. It's also running through Valhalla Shimmer.

The last track is from the Sub37 and is just a straightforward bass sound to round things out a bit!

Hope you enjoy :)

8. Sequential Prophet Rev2 - Blade Runner Style Pads

I've been in a bit of a creative rut since making the Sub37 patch pack but I figured it's best to just keep posting! Here's something I came up with last night on the Rev2. Hope you enjoy!

9. Moog Subsequent 37 - 15 Ambient/Cinematic Patches!

https://gum.co/QsNL

15 high quality, handmade & unique patches for the Moog Subsequent 37 with an ambient & 'cinematic' or soundtrack-style feel. Will also work with the original Sub37.

10. DSI Prophet Rev2: Lofi Sorta Vibes

Vibing out on the Rev2, with some solid bass provided by the Sub37!

11. Moog Subsequent 37 - Duo Mode Ambience (with Ventris Dual Reverb)

I think I might be addicted to the duo mode on the Sub37, it's just too much fun...

12. Novation Peak - 5 Pad Patches

The Peak doesn't get nearly as much attention from me as I think it deserves so I wanted to make a video showcasing 5 of my favourite pad patches that I've made with it so far!

13. Moog Subsequent 37 + Ventris Dual Reverb = Ambient Gateway

Nice quick video showcasing the held reverb feature of the Ventris Reverb combined with a warm, beefy patch on the Sub37!

14. Moog Subsequent 37 - Techno Jam

Here is a short techno (maybe? I'm bad at genres!) jam on the Sub37, with the drums added in live through FL Studio. The main sequence and lead part are both running through Ventris Dual Reverb and Soundtoys Echoboy.

15. DSI/Sequential Prophet Rev 2 - Split Mode Patch

A quick Split mode patch on the Rev2! I've neglected the bitimbrality of the Rev2 up till now because working with half the voices has always been a bit of a pain, but it does seem pretty cool. This patch was fairly quick to make so I'm excited to see what else it can do.

16. Moog Subsequent 37 - In The Dark (ft Ventris Dual Reverb)

The other night after a few beers I wacked on my Sub37 and my camera (which, as it turns out, is very bad at filming in low light) and just messed around for ~7 minutes. There's nothing particularly exciting about the patch (though the filter LFO brought in around 3 minutes sounds pretty cool imo) but this thing just sounds so good, especially with the Ventris reverb added. Things go a bit off the rails at the end and I think I used a little too much pitch LFO, but hope you enjoy anyway!

17. DSI Prophet Rev2 - Ambient Piece No. 1000

Back with yet another ambient piece on the Rev2! This one has 3 parts using 3 very different patches. The first is a mono patch with a velocity sensitive filter envelope, the second uses the mod wheel to change the filter cutoff and resonance, and the third is just a simple pad patch where I'm varying the filter cutoff manually. Hope you enjoy!

18. Novation Peak - Ambient Arpeggiator Patch from Scratch

A video showing the steps to making a nice ambient (maybe?) arpeggiator patch on the Novation Peak!

19. Just Relax Vol. 2: Another DSI Prophet Rev2 Ambient Piece (ft. Moog Subsequent 37)

Another nice patch on the Rev2, this time through the Ventris Dual Reverb. The Sub37 part is going through Valhalla Shimmer. Very similar vibe to the first "Just Relax" video!

20. Novation Peak - Building Up a Song

I made this song the other night in a couple of hours and had an absolute blast. The Peak is a wonderful synth!

21. Moog Subsequent 37: Duo Mode Fun (with Ventris Dual Reverb)

Fiddling around a bit with duo-mode on the Sub37. Delay is Soundtoys Echoboy and reverb is Ventris Dual Reverb.

22. Just Relax: DSI Prophet Rev2 Ambient Piece (ft. Moog Subsequent 37)

One of my favourite pad patches I've made on the Rev2, running through Valhalla Shimmer. The Sub37 part is also running through Valhalla Shimmer.

23. Cinematic Synths: Moog Subsequent 37 (ft Ventris Dual Reverb)

Running a sequence through the Sub37 and twisting some knobs, them jamming over the top of it with a single oscillator and some smooooth glide. The sequence is running through a Ventris Dual Reverb pedal using a combination of the Hall and Offspring algorithms. The Offspring in particular is so unique and hard to describe but adds a whole new layer to the sound.

24. Cranking Knobs on the Moog Subsequent 37 for 6 Minutes (ft Ventris Dual Reverb)

I put a sequence into an initialised Sub37 patch and hit record! This thing sounds amazing when you add some filter drive and use short, snappy envelopes. The delay and reverb are Soundtoys Echoboy and Ventris Dual Reverb.

25. Moog Subsequent 37 and DSI Prophet Rev 2 - Another Ambient Jam

Another ambient jam on the Sub37 and Rev2!

26. Elektron Digitone - Dance/Techno Track

Away from my main setup at the moment so I'm taking the time to dig deeper into the Digitone! Here is a short dance/techno (maybe?) track that I made with it. Hope you enjoy!

27. Elektron Digitone - Making a track from scratch

Got the Digitone just over a week ago and I'm loving it! Here's a video of me making a track from scratch. There's not a whole lot FM synthesis in this (still getting to grips with that!) but I use a few other cool features (sound per step, funky arpeggiator length/patterns etc.).

28. DSI Prophet Rev2 and Ventris Dual Reverb - Bringing life to a basic patch

Very simple video, just showing how the Ventris Dual Reverb pedal can be used to bring life to a basic keys patch on the DSI Rev2.

29. Moog Subsequent 37 - Patch from Scratch (with Ventris Dual Reverb)

You can skip to the start of the song making at 01:11.

Making a (fairly basic) patch on the Sub 37 then turning it into a song. The only thing really going on in the patch is linking the filter envelope to the shape of oscillator 1.

The Sub 37 also plays a simple bass patch. The bass video is slightly out of time even though it looked okay when I was editing it!

The Rev2 plays some pads.

30. Moog Subsequent 37 - Ambient Jam (ft. Prophet Rev 2)

A short jam on the Moog Subsequent 37, with the DSI Prophet Rev 2 playing the pad in the background. Both running through Valhalla Shimmer and Soundtoys Echoboy.

31. DSI Prophet Rev2 + Ventris Dual Reverb