MATRIXSYNTH

Protolody - Song-a-day 2024 - SmplTrek Liven MEGA ELZ_1 play Volca Keys NTS1

video upload by ChrisLody

"Full Disclosure: I occasionally take on freelance work at Sonicware on an hourly rate producing synth & sample sound design, beta testing, checking English text, video manuals etc. This video wasn't paid for directly but as a result of my work with Sonicware it is marked as Paid Promotion

So just recently I've been a down about my musical output to be honest, mostly the quality of my jams that I've been putting up on YouTube. This came to a head last weekend when I got talking to someone about my 2014 album, listened to some of it and had the realisation that the contents of that album is better than my work now. I imagined I'd grown as an artist but that was not the case. The main culprit was that I was actually making decent arrangement back then, taking my time to build something over at least a few day. Here's the album in question: https://chrislody.bandcamp.com/album/...

Due to my recent workload I've been favouring making jams, recording them and uploading them immediately. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that can be learned from this approach, but carry on too long and it's like eating a bag a crisps everyday for your main meal, not satisfying.

A lot of the album above was created on the Nintendo DS and PSP using Nitrotracker, Korg Ds10 and Beaterator. These are nice little closed systems and have the benefit of running on something you can sit with on the sofa and really dig in to get the most from the software and finesse your work. I don't really want to return to using those though as I've just about rinsed them and they're not easy to integrate with other gear as they have no midi capability.

So my thoughts turned to something I kind of made as a joke video but actually turned out to be really useful, the Synth Tray. My original one of these was made from a bit of scrap ply so it wasn't very big and I want to cram on my gear so now I've made a new one, 'Synth Tray 2 - Dawless Evolved'"

Tortured DB-01 filter harmonics soothed with a Big Sky (no talk, possibly no music)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"I like melody. Looking back at when I played synth-punk live back in the day, the music then probably had too much melody. Well, I'm making up for it here. It's just playing with sweet-spot harmonics made bearable by the newly-bought Big Sky. Too nuanced? Too nerdy? Not even music? Maybe, but look at them harmonic peaks :D

In my recent post asking whether I should send back this glowing blue reverb cliche a sizable group voted for "Make some videos and we'll let you know". It's got to be some praise for the Big Sky that these droning harmonics suddenly became sweet to my ears. In fact I didn't intend to make a video about this at all. I was just booting up the new Big Sky to make sure it worked (after my sad experience of a DOA Line6 DL4), got to preset number 2, tweaked it, twiddled the DB-01's filter knob, and here we are.

So there's some hesitation in posting this since it seems incredibly obscure. Five minutes of resonant squeals? Yet I found it strangely hypnotic and satisfying. The only other filter I've come across which was even close to the Polivoks in twiddle-fun was the classic Moog ladder on my now long-departed Sub-37. It is also fun to discover separate tones with tiny filter movements. OTOH maybe it's just the Big Sky doing all the work?

Perhaps it's best to look on this as you would a dreamy session on a Lyra-8: It's not so much music as a brainwave meditation session. And that's not bad at all for a little mono bassline synth.

As usual there is absolutely no processing other than what you see: A DB-01 and the Big Sky (plus the old sci-fi samples).

Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: / richarddehove
Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free
My website: https://richarddehove.com/"

NLC MUN Vocoder

video upload by Steve Castellano

"Richard Feynman out of a Morphagene into the MUN with Plaits (Knit) in chord mode as a carrier source. Reverb and delay by Monsoon. Chord changes are controlled by Pressure Points/Brains, with one channel taking care of pitch and another adjusting chord forms."

via Nonlinearcircuits

"This module is a 22HP 10 channel vocoder based on the Syntovox 222. I own a 222 and have always been impressed with the sound and elegant design, so it was an easy choice of where to start.

The initial design for this module was 42HP with all the fruit – variable envelope lengths, envelope outputs and inputs, filter outputs and inputs, pause stuffing, external noise input, separate carriers for odd/even channels, etc. and it sucked; way too finicky to use.

So I stripped it back to a more minimal version and am much happier with it.

For the Voice section, there is a TRS/mono 6.35mm input for mics, a stereo/mono 3.5mm input for line level sources and a synth level input.

The Carrier section has a synth level input only.

There is no voice/unvoiced switching. Noise from a transistor based source is mixed with the Carrier signal on channels 9 & 10. Pots can control the noise level and the colour (pink/white).

There are jacks for each frequency channel and the envelopes generated. You can also patch in signals to stimulate the carrier signal on the corresponding channel."

Neutral Labs Elmyra 2 - Drone Synthesizer // Demo, Tutorial and Opinions

video upload by Dexba

"SUBTITLES AVAILABLE (in many languages!) I've had the lucky chance to be able to check out the Elmyra 2, by Neutral Labs. It has a very interesting approach to performance and sound building: it looks easy, but it can get way deeper than you think. After playing with it for a long while, I decided to offer you a tour of its functions, plus my (unrequested) opinions, all in this desktop configuration. Since the video was getting pretty long already, even by just covering the basic functions, I decided to keep the eurorack approach for a later time, also because that would have prompted me to give even more (unrequested) opinions, and the possible combinations of modules would have been endless (except for the mandatory huge reverb!). In this video, I used the very good reverb on the Dirtywave M8 Tracker, which was very handy because of its 3.5mm jack and the capability of isolating just the active channel on the cable. I hope you'll find the video useful, in its "overview" part, and I hope the "opinion" part could spark some constructive debate."

0:00 Jam Excerpt
0:29 Intro
1:10 What is an Elmyra?
4:07 Voice Controls
6:20 Delay
7:12 Advanced Settings Intro
7:57 AS - Onboard Reverb
8:56 AS - Mix Saturation
11:13 AS - Miscellaneous
12:21 AS - Filter Type
14:41 AS - Octave Switch
15:28 AS - Miscellaneous
16:04 MODP - Red
16:51 MODP - Green
17:59 MODP - Mint
18:56 MODP - Purple
19:23 MODP - Blue
20:05 MODP - Cyan
21:58 MODP - Yellow
23:16 MODP - White
24:23 MODP - Pink
25:25 MODP - Lime
26:03 Utilities
28:15 OUCH
30:15 Existential Crisis
31:55 Personal Considerations
38:37 Full Jam

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