CV Toolkit 3 – Overview Video

video upload by Spektro Audio

"The new CV Toolkit 3 is now available and it includes a new design, many new features such as Snapshots and Quick Route, new options for generating MIDI Notes and CC messages, major performance improvements, and more!

CV Toolkit is a standalone software available for MacOS and Windows that uses virtual modules to generate different kinds of control voltage (CV) signals to control, modulate, and sequence analog / modular synthesizers. These virtual modules can be also internally routed to each other via the Routing Matrix and the internal CV and Gate buses to create more advanced sequences.

For more information about CV Toolkit 3, check out our latest blog post at: http://spektroaudio.com/blog/2022/11/..."

MINIFreak Sonic Lab Review

video upload by sonicstate

"So here it is, the next in the Freak Range. The MINIFreak has two of those DSP algorithmic oscillators (with around 20 algorithms) and a total of 6 voices. However, it also operates in a kind of hybrid paraphonic mode, giving you 12 voices. You also get a new digital effects section with three slots, a unique Oscillator 2 set of algorithms which allows you to process Oscillator 1 with AM/FM mod, various digital filters and a Decimator/bit reducer - Oscillator 1 source includes an Audio Input mode as well. A second LFO which also has a user mod wave slot as well as a bunch of preset shapes, twin Macro sliders/Pitch/mod wheel/seq or arp gate and spice sliders make it a fairly expressive machine - that and the three octave after-touch enabled key mini keyboard

Exclusive extra content on Patreon https://patreon.com/sonicstate"

RS041 Novation Mininova: Big Bang Theory

video upload by rejected synths

"Have you ever wondered why music is ‚played‘? Is it because it‘s meant to be fun for those playing and listening? So why are there so many people out there who are as seriuos about their music as the Lego movie dad is about his Legos?

‚Make it fun‘ does seem to be the wrong mantra for this demographic, because if you show them a Novation Mininova, they will be quick to point out how it looks and feels like a cheap toy, how those keys are just to tiny to be of any use and, of course, it‘s synth engine does just not sound ‚right‘.

Well, brace yourselves Lego dads, because here is someone who actually really likes ‚playing‘ with their toys (me!) and who is automatically drawn to machines that look like they are ‚fun‘.

What did I find?

Well, a lot of great sound!

Don‘t think so?

Then go check for yourself and hit that play button!"

Track-list:

0:00 Intro
0:17 Introduction
1:35 Just a clone?
2:44 A very short VA history
3:00 Synth engine specs
3:22 Software Editors
3:41 Controls and Connectivity
5:36 Let‘s play!
6:19 Animate
7:11 Arp
8:25 Arp plus Filter
9:08 Latch it!
9:48 Two Finger Magic Trick
10:50 One finger only!
12:00 Rage Wheel
13:05 Vocoder
13:43 Some nice patches
15:14 Conclusion
16:06 Outro

RS041.1 Novation Mininova 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Novation Mininova for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

0:00 Overview
0:11 Animate
0:53 Arp
2:03 Arp plus Filter
2:44 Latch it!
3:24 Two Finger Magic Trick
4:25 One finger only!
5:33 Rage Wheel
6:34 Vocoder
7:01 Some nice patches
8:28 Outro"

RS040 Novation Drum Station: T-RD 809?

video upload by rejected synths

"When Behringer finally managed to deliver the RD9 to stores, everyone seemed to be very much hyped about it and why wouldn‘t you be? It’s a bit like a budget car brand releasing everyone’s favorite vintage sports car at the price of, well … a budget car … only that the car looks, feels and performs pretty much like the real deal, if not better. So it’s pretty clear everyone is hyped a.f.

But what if I told you it has been done before? Sure, the Novations Drum Station isn’t ‘the real deal’ in terms of some of the functionality, like the sequencer, but it more than makes up for that shortcoming by squeezing both incredibly realistic (for the time) 808 AND 909 emulations into a very compact and very (midi) controllable 19’’ rack unit.

And while RD8 and RD9 are much cheaper than those old school legends, if you just want the sound and control-ability, why not save another 300 bucks (and a lot of shelf space)."

0:00 Intro
1:06 Introduction
2:49 Controls and Connectivity
3:51 808 Sounds
4:13 808 Demo Pattern
4:31 909 Sounds
4:46 909 Demo Pattern
5:12 Midi CC Goodness
5:36 Live Tweaking Demo
6:16 Demo Track
7:36 Conclusion
8:10 Outro

RS040.1 Novation Drum Station 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Novation Drum Station for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

Tracklist:

0:00 Overview
0:08 808 Drum Sounds
0:26 808 Demo Pattern
0:44 909 Drum Sounds
0:58 909 Demo Pattern
1:24 Live Tweaking Demo
2:01 Demo Track (ft. Novation Bass Station)
3:05 Outro

RS042 M-Audio Venom: The Bad Guy

video upload by rejected synths

"It one of storytelling's oldest tricks, the bad guy that turn out to be the good guy. From Dickens’ Ebeneezer Scrooge to Jane Austen‘s Mr Darcy, from J.K Rowling‘s Snape to (who ever came up with him!?) Jonny Lawrence from Corbra Kai, the tough guys aren‘t as tough in the end and often the bad reputation they carry isn‘t really their own fault.

So, will a synth that is both notorious for being little more than a dub step noise machine and a cheaply built and quickly abandoned piece of glossy white plastic actually turn out to be the hero of the story?

It very much depends on who tells the story here, as M-Audio‘s Venom clearly has it‘s strengths if you can overlook the questionable design decisions made during it‘s inception. Like the hard to read grey on grey lettering or the fact that M-Audio thinks it totally ok for a stand alone hardware synth to heavily rely on a software editor that requires a PCor Mac to be able to utilize most of its extensive set synth engine features. Even the Virtual Analog Synthesizer claim that is prominently featured on the synth itself, it a bit of a hoax, as the Venom basically is just a souped up Rompler running on Amtel‘s Dream series ICs that were also found in PC sound cards and Karaoke Machines in the late 90s and early 2000s.

If you ignore these shortcomings and manage to get the editor running, you might be surprised of what the Venom can actually do. Apart from all the obvious dirty and distorted stuff, a lot can be achieved with the synth engine. Also as it was designed as an all in one solution for music beginners, you can even use it to record and process other instruments and even your own voice (vocoder anyone?).

Last but not least, the Venom might be pretty much the only synth whose price tag doesn‘t seem to have skyrocketed during the pandemic, here in Europe, you can still regularity find one for around 100€!

Curious? Then go ahead and press play!"

0:00 Intro
0:46 Introduction
1:29 The ugly parts
2:10 The bad parts
3:12 The good parts
4:35 Controls and connectivity
6:07 'Sick and Nasty' Patches
8:40 'Mad FX' Patches
9:29 'Whirling Pad' Patches
13:19 'Clean Keys' Patches
14:54 'Stained Keys' Patches
18:12 'Amazing Arp' Patches
20:46 'Traditional' Patch
21:13 Some Drumkits
22:39 Multi Mode Demo
25:31 Conclusion
26:10 Outro

RS042.1 M-Audio Venom: 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the M-Audio Venom for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

RS053 Death Star xp2: Red Sound Dark Star

video upload by rejected synths

"Sometimes one seemingly smart idea is enough to kill a whole company: The DeLorean DC-12 looked great on paper (and in Back to Future) but buried DeLorean as a company, Jiucero soon went out of juice, when people realized that DRM juice was actually as bad an idea on paper as it was in reality and the Red Sound Dark Star, well it was probably a tad bit too ambitious for the company that created it.

Sure, Virtual Analog was the next big thing, when the Dark Star was being incepted. and sure, the Virus was another VA synth by a small company that still managed to very well. So at the time, creating their own take on a VA synth most certainly sounded like a sound idea for Red Sound and, again, on paper, it sounded like a great product: Eight voices, five part multitimbrality, very solid built quality, stereo audio ins, built in expandability and, at just below 500€, a price much lower than what others were asking for.

So how could it fail this hard even after the price was lowered to well below 200€? Was it really as bad and laggy as people seemed to agree it was? Or did it just fall victim to a bad reputation? After all, the internet was another ‘product’ on the rise at that time and with it, of course, came people hating on the poor Dark Star in forums all over the net.

Sure, the Dark Star can suck, it can be slow and laggy, but as I think I’ve showed time and again on this channel, ‘bad’ synths can also often rise above their reputation when you use them just right. And of course, thanks to it’s reputation as the ‘worst VA’ it’s still one of those rare cases where you can still find an old synth at very reasonable prices.

Curious? Well then go board the ship, we’re about to take off…"

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
0:21 Introduction
1:36 Sound Engine
3:34 Demo Song Snippet
4:23 Controls and Connectors
5:58 P35 Fat Saw Bass
6:43 P07 Plank Spank
7:44 P09 Jupitous
8:34 P41 Flower
9:30 P15 Brightly
10:32 Demo Song 1: House Org
11:30 Demo Song 2: Trance Layer
12:47 Conclusion
14:35 Outro

RS053.1 Red Sound Dark Star 'No Talking Edition'


"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Red Sound Dark Star for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

Tracklist:

0:00 Tracklist
0:08 Factory Demo Snippet
0:42 P52 Fat Saw Bass
1:27 P07 Plank Spanker
2:28 P09 Jupitous
3:18 P41 Flower
4:14 P15 Brightly
5:06 Multi Demo 1: House Org
6:03 Multi Demo 2: Trance Layer
7:22 Outro

RS053.2 Red Sound Dark Star Factory Demo Songs


"Time for some bonus content again, I've created some visuals for the Factory Demo Song(s) of the Dark Star.

These can be accessed by holding Audition and pressing Modulation

Enjoy!"

RS050 Waldorf Rack Attack: Analog Virtual

video upload by rejected synths

"Being way ahead of your time more often than not isn‘t actually that great. Sure, sometimes innovation pays off big time, but for some reason, pushing boundaries and conventions often won’t instantly get you the acclaim you actually deserve.

This happened more than once in general history (and in synth history too) and it is certainly true for the VST plugin turned Rack unit featured in this video. These days, it’s fairly common for us to see manufacturers squeezing what are essentially plugins into tiny shiny boxes (Roland Boutique anyone?) and while you could get the same sound for less (or free?) in your DAW, physical buttons an knobs always have a tendency to spark creativity and fun in a way that is seldom achieved sitting in front of a big screen, squeezing virtual buttons and knobs with your mouse cursor.

While The Waldorf Rack Attack certainly isn’t as portable and/or affordable as your average Volca, for me it’s an absurdly fun machine. When I took up collecting the actual hardware synths I could not afford as a teen I was absolutely baffled when I learned that Waldorf had also released a hardware version of the Attack, one of my all time favorite VST plugins, in 2002. I instantly wanted it but it took me several years to find one at an even remotely affordable price.

On the very few occasions I managed to find a unit at a reasonable, I was always too late and someone snagged it away from me before I could make an offer. This way I learned that I don’t seem to be the only one to appreciate this freaky machine. But with some patience (actually a few years of patience) I finally manged to find and buy one myself. To my surprise it turned out that the Rack Attack was even more awesome than I had expected, because Waldorf was kind enough to add some extra magic to the rack version of the Attack, it isn’t just an incredibly wild sounding percussion and drum synth but can also be used to create all kinds of synth sounds and even comes with a built in sequencer. It turned out that, with some planning ahead, you could create full tracks on a single Rack Attack and the pattern sequencer can be a great tool in any dawless setup.

Only very few people seem to know about this absolute gem of an machine, not much at all can be fond on YouTube itself, well until now that is ;)"

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
0:43 A pretty long Introduction
4:38 The Attack Sound Engine
6:09 Rack Attack Demo Song
7:36 Controls and Connectivity
8:58 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
11:03 Plugin Mode Sound Demos
12:53 Pattern Sequencer
15:38 Plugin Mode Demo Song
18:48 Conclusion
19:27 Outro

RS050.1 Waldorf Rack Attack 'No Talking' Edition

"This is a shorter 'No Talking' edit of my video about the Behringer Neutron for those who prefer 'pure' demos without comments."

0:00 Factory Demo Song 3
1:30 Preset Drumkit Demo Patterns
3:35 Poly Mode Sound Demos
5:14 Pattern Sequencer Demo
7:35 Poly Mode Demo Song

RS050.2 Waldorf Rack Attack: Factory Demo Songs


"Aa a little bonus goodie and to celebrate the fact that I replaced my ancient 2012 graphics card with a slightly less 2017 one, I did practice some more blender fu and created some visuals for the other two demo songs I haven't featured in my original Waldorf Attack video."

Doepfer Musikelektronik MS 404: Modular at Heart

video upload by rejected synths

"Ah, the 90s! Those were easier days. No Covid, no masks, and sadly also...no 303s!

While this is an issue that has prevailed ever since, back in the 90s, when Techno ruled supreme, this lack of 303s also gave rise to a whole cottage industry of 303 cloners, companies small and tiny, set up to give ravers what they wanted: one of those shiny acid boxes or, a bit later, when techno production became more professionalized, handy 19 inch rack clones that integrated well into a studio setup, complete with midi and controls over parameters.

Dieter Doepfer, possibly best known for fathering the Eurorack standard, also tried his hand in the cloning business, or at least it seemed, because apart from the obvious naming reference, the MS 404 actually has very little to do with a faithful 303 emulation. Doepfer instead went ahead and created a far more capable machine, that can do about 101 things a 303 can‘t, but, ironically, also can‘t really do 303.

In this video, I will show you some of these things, also including this one thing it obviously can‘t.

So lean back and enjoy some fine German engineering!

Tracklist:

0:00 Intro
1:05 Introduction
3:39 Controls and Connectivity
6:50 Demo I: Not quite 303
8:45 Demo II: Noisy
10:35 Demo III: Does it PWM?
12:36 Demo IV: Dual LFO Mayhem
14:49 Demo V: Filter Input
16:32 Demo Jam
20:21 Concusion
20:59 Outro"

RS046.1 Doepfer Musikelektronik MS 404 'No Talking Edition'


RS047 Tech Support: Doepfer MS-404 - Some Simple Mods

video upload by

"As a kid, growing up on shows like A-Team and Mc Gyver, I used to think that, with some knowledge, you could just hack things together, like they did on these shows, building useful gear from junk that happened to be around. This fascination never quite left me and led to me unscrewing broken electronics to have a peek inside, imagining I would be able to build something cool.

But, growing up in the 80s meant there still wasn’t any YouTube or even basic internet around just yet, so the only resources where I could have learned some basic electronics stuff were wildly confusing and much too complicated for me back then, so I resorted to Legos.

Much later, I learned how to (barely) handle a soldering iron and toyed around with some simple electronics projects, collecting some knowledge here and there. So when I finally ended up with the service manual of the MS 404 I knew the time had come to try some synth modding.

The Service Manual didn’t only provide me with schematics but even included some suggestions on how to mod the 404. Even better, during it’s very design, the synth had already been created with expandability/moddability in mind. And because it ain’t no tiny electronics Volca, even my limited soldering skills are suffice to realize some of these modifications.

The first, and probably easiest thing I did, was to tap into multiple jumpers layed out around the board, this way, it’s super easy to add switches for LFO waveform selection and filter envelope behavior.

The second mod is a little more demanding, it’s something I came about when trying to build a tiny crossfade mixer. Utilizing a pot, it’s actually possible, to mix the signals of the saw and square wave VCO outputs, so I did that as well as adding a second pot in order to be able to mix in some noise into the VCO signal, sh101 style.

I’ve tested my ideas thoroughly before going as far as drilling holes into the faceplate, and from what I’ve learned about electronics so far, which isn’t too much to be honest, they should be safe modifications when applied correctly. Still, I just want to make it a 100% sure that I will not take any responsibility when you damage your 404 while applying any of these mods."

Akai AX60 with Tauntek Upgrade

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Akai AX60 Analog Synthesizer with Tauntek firmware upgrade and recapped power supply. Excellent condition and works perfectly.

tauntek.com/AX60.htm

Tauntek firmware upgrade adds the following features:

1) MIDI Sysex patch save and restore - saves or restores all patches in one operation (tape save/load works as before)

2) MIDI cc parameter changes are now supported

3) Non-volatile storage of MIDI channel setting and current patch

4) Slider code modified as described above to avoid jumpiness

5) Adjustable Unison de-tune feature. (Not active in split mode) (can be disabled)

6) Random arpeggiator mode instead of "play all notes" mode (can be disabled)

7) Arpeggiator up/down mode which doesn't repeat the top and bottom keys (can be disabled)

8) Slow LFO mode which halves the frequency over the entire range of the LFO (can be disabled)

9) VCF resonance slider taper mod to move oscillation point up (overall range is not changed) (can be disabled)

10) ADSR slider tapers mod to increase effect in the lower part (overall range is not changed) (can be disabled)

11) MIDI clocking of arpeggiator with choice of 48,24,12, or 6 PPQ (can be disabled for internal or 1/4" jack clocking)

12) Sustain mode can be activated using Arp Hold switch

13) MIDI Note velocity added to VCA EG Depth setting mode (but new setting also affects notes played on AX60, can be disabled)"

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Oberheim OB-Mx - Four Voice

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"90's Oberheim OBMX with 2 voice cards (four voice in total). Very good condition. These are very rare and even more rare with 2 voice cards."