Small synths

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that about the Bass Station. When it came out the sales pitch was a copy of the 303, nothing else. It was an OK (ish) imitation but too obviously fake for the reasonably trained ear. Covenant had one back then and they cost almost as much as the real thing. Seeing that it has more uses than faking the 303 and the price having dropped quite bit I might buy one.

I see distortion as an extension to almost every machine. A bit like a gun to a soldier. In my experience it doesn't muddy the sound, merely enhances it. Try one distortion pedal with a Moog or something. Heaven! Try two... even fucking better. Three is maybe a bit silly but there's no harm in cranking the gain. Add delay and a pitch. Be REALLY gay and send a clean signal from a phones out to the next channel. Chief, the depth will make your balls tingle. Well, it does mine anyway. Not lecturing, suggesting.

PK, what machine is that and how much is it?

[P-K]

PK, what machine is that and how much is it?

Anyware Tinysizer.....German company making own creations (filters) and Oberheim SEM-based design...low profile, low prouction quantities. it's 1299 euro's i'm afraid. http://www.anyware-instruments.de/index.html

but for the amount of modules that's not bad. no patchkabels but wires, but you can rout everything to 5 1/4jack in&out.....10 jack connections to the outside world....each 'module' has 2 outs, so you can route white noise to 2 different functions etc. a lot of money (maybe) but a lot of options.

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

The Tinysizer is well out of my league. I'm getting more and more interested in the Bass Station though. Any significant differences between the keyboard and rack versions? Benefits, disadvantages?

[T × R × P]

Cheap build, how exactly? I'm going to keep it in mind; read reviews after it gets into some hands. Looks like something I could use. WOuld love to have the same thing but without the keys...

The case felt slightly plastic, but like I said it's substantially better than I had imagined considering the price. With a decent hard case I think it would stand being on the road. The pots and levers felt nice though!

[Ashley Choke]

The Tinysizer is well out of my league. I'm getting more and more interested in the Bass Station though. Any significant differences between the keyboard and rack versions? Benefits, disadvantages?

Never tried the Rack version, which has CV-controls, a big plus IMO. Don't know how it self-oscillates IE. how useful it would be for PE rumblings walls. But with a analog step sequencer I'm sure it would be quite nice for more musical aspects. There's actually a rack version called Super Bass Station, with a built distortion and some other extra features. Most "normal" synth enthusiasts seems to slack that one off as unnecessary but might be even better for noisy stuff. Super version dosen't have CV, only Midi for some odd reason.

Biggest disadvantage of Bass Station keyboard version is for sure the flimsy knobs. They really dosen't feel too sturdy. Guess it's possible to change them and reinforce the pots quite easy thou

[GEWALTMONOPOL]

Many thanks for the info chief. There's a good chance I'll invest if I don't lose too much money on next months releases. If I don't like it then I can always flog it again.

analog sequencer

The most reasonably priced option.

[Ashley Choke]

I can really get into one or two bare synths doing their thing in a subtle way

[STREETMEAT]

Thinking about saving up for a minibrute but was also woundering how do flower electronics synths hold up for p.e.?

[Jordan]

I can really get into one or two bare synths doing their thing in a subtle way

A nice warm pre-amp or two can make analog synths sound great. I agree that using a shit ton of distortion can make synths sound less analog, but that can sound really good as well.

[Cementimental]

It's pure Nathan Barley to use live, but iphone/ipad has a bunch of good synth apps if you aren't scared of softsynths, and (in the case of iphone) you couldn't really get any more portable.

I bought the relatively expensive Korg iMS-20 app on my borrowed from work ipad, it seems really promising tho I'll feel pretty foolish using it live. (but also won't care) (also probably won't dare bring borrowed ipad to a gig anyway) It has good reviews re:authenticity of sound tho i have no basis for comparison, pretty sure it's more than adequate for my purposes anyway. With the presets and sequencer stuff it's all a bit geared up to dance music but the actual synth operates the same as the real thing.

I do use Jasuto on the iphone quite a bit, it's really ideal for 'experimental'/noise purposes; modular synth approach without modeling any specific hardware, kind of inspired by Reactable with nodes that auto or manually connect and can be moved around to change parameters. You can use really long high fi samples/loops, it's possible to make all sorts of sounds ranging from really digital/glitch to analog-sounding, there are various different distortion modules and also analog-simulation distortion on the output instead of digital clipping... Also there are interesting possibilities you wouldn't get with a normal keys and knobs-based synth eg using the mix (or a line in with adaptor) for feedback, using motion of the iphone to control the sounds, record automation of moving the nodes, etc.

Got a bunch of other synth apps but most are for my liking too geared up to keyboard-based playing, or are kind of one-trick ponies especially some of the more 'experimental' ones. Jasuto is the one I've found most genuinely usable.

[Cementimental]

All the circuit bent stuff sounds crap too like angry chickens...

Angry chickens is what I aspire to! :D

But yeah overpriced ebay circuitbent stuff is nonsense and usually really limited sounds, anyway circuitbending should be DIY or what's the point? Seems absurd to spend the price of some real music gear on a £1 boot sale keyboard someone's soldered £5 of maplin components to and painted fluorescent green or whatever.

[xdementia]

DSI Evolver



Access Virus TI Snow



I have larger versions of both of these and they are very unique sounding synths. DSI is analog/digital hybrid and Virus is pure digital virtual analog synth, but one of the best sounding digital synths IMO.

[Human Larvae]

any thoughts on the Waldorf Blofeld?

[Levas]

check http://www.google.com today

[Ashley Choke]

Heh, was just gonna post the same, but carrying a time machine around to gigs being able to return to 23th of May would seem like a hassle