Antonus 2600 DIY - Test Drive

video upload by Tumeni Knobs

"This is my Antonus 2600 - I just completed building it from the synthCube.com full DIY kit. It is a huge project! Working on it in my free time, it took six months for me to complete. But I'm sure a full-time builder could do it in a couple of weeks. I actually love that it took me this long. :-)

Anyway, since I first powered it up I have been testing, calibrating and starting to understand how it works, and yes, it deserves it's reputation as an awesome sounding and very flexible synthesizer.

This video is just me noodling on it using the Arturia KeyStep Pro with a sound/patch I really like. This is actually just one of its three oscillators, but I have the saw and square waves patched in. The other two oscillators are in LFO mode. The oscillator is using the ADSR envelope and the filter is using the AR envelope plus an LFO to modulate it - makes some interesting accents.

Effects are courtesy of the Fractal Audio VP4, which is an incredible pedal.

I thought adding some drums would give this more of a musical context, so I force-fit some patterns from EZ Drummer.

The opening groove is definitely reminiscent of Bluetech's Laika, from the Spacehop Chronicles album. It's intentional. :-) I really like his stuff! Go buy some at Bandcamp.

This signal path for this recording goes like this: 2600 into VP4 into iRig into iPhone. I then applied a little EQ in Studio One, just to trim out the extreme highs and lows - I did not use any compression on this.

Can't wait to make some "proper" music with this amazing synth.

Cheers!"

Weston Precision Audio - Pro2021 & Fractal Audio VP4

video uploads by Tumeni Knobs

"I recently finished building the Weston Precision Audio Pro2021 from the Synthcube.com kit. It was an amazing experience to build an entire synth from a giant box of parts, and I had a ton of fun. This synth is a clone of the venerable Sequential Pro One from the early 80s and it sounds incredible. It may seem limited but it offers tons of sound design capabilities, and it's certainly a lot of fun to play. Like with most synths, once you add reverb and delay you can't really go wrong.

This is just an informal, not very well prepared noodle on it. The Pro2021 has midi and CV control options on the back panel, and here I'm using my modular rack to drive the clock which drives the arpeggiator rate. The audio outs are going into the modular's mixer, and effects are from the Strymon Starlab and Veno-Echo. This particular patch is highlighting the oscillator sync feature, which I love the sound of. The internal LFO is modulating the pitch of Osc 1 and Osc 2 is set to triangle wave. Sounds big and fat and crisp and clean all at the same time. Cheers!"

Fractal Audio VP4... with a Synthesizer. Is it any good?

video upload by Tumeni Knobs

"Oddly, when researching the VP4, I couldn't find any demos of it being used with a synth, so I bought it anyway to see if it would be a good match. And yes, most emphatically yes, it is! It was immediately apparent they would go well together - and having only played around with the VP4 for a couple of hours, I thought this video might help others decide if it could work for them.

Obviously, the VP4 does so much more than Drive, Chorus, Delay and Reverb, but those are bread-n-butter effects, so I stuck with those for this quick sound demo. I've since messed around with other effects in the VP4, and found all kinds of great sounds.

The synth is a Weston Precision Audio Pro2021 - a clone of the legendary Sequential Pro One. I built this from a DIY kit I bought from SynthCube.com. It's a simple mono-synth, with no built in effects, and it really does sound excellent - and even more so with a little effects (or a lot of effects). It's filter is super resonant and easily gets squelchy, but that enables some of the greatest sounds when you play with the cutoff knob. ;-)

The recording is direct mono out from the synth into the VP4, stereo out from the VP4 to the iRig Pro Duo that's connected to my old iPhone 12. I opened the audio file in Presonus StudioOne to see if it needed some EQ or compression or normalizing, but I decided to leave it completely raw. I made no changes to the audio whatsoever.

So, I am completely sold on the VP4. I have a load of other effects pedals, including the Eventide H90, and this thing is amazing. The quality of the effects and the build are absolutely top notch, and the user interface is so easy to use right out of the box. It's way way way easier to mess with than the H90...

Cheers!"