I'm not opposed to whatever someone else wants to set up, I just mentioned Discord because it seemed like a low-effort solution. The upside to a corporation running it is that DDOS prevention and such are someone else's problem.
Shadowbait
joined 1 year ago
Just a thought - we could start a Discord server. It's not really the same kind of medium, but could still have channels for different topics (music production, synthesizers, etc.) and much easier to maintain I think.
It was nice while it lasted, thanks for all the effort you put in!
So, where are you going next? There are at least a few sizeable synth forums out there, and it might be nice if most of us migrated to the same place. I've been back on Reddit a bit, but not sure I want to continue that.
Deepmind was the first synth I returned to the store for a refund - did not care for that workflow at all. At the time it was a compelling feature set for the price, but there are so many more options now.
I hear a lot of good things about Pigments, but it's a tough sell when Vital does most of the same things for free.
Arturia is doing a sale on their software synths. I'm resisting the temptation to add to my collection, but I figure someone here might be interested.
Sounds annoying indeed. I don't have any firsthand experience with pedals, but I see Strymon Bigsky recommended a lot.
Edit: Oops, forgot you said you already picked something.
Just in case you aren't already aware, installing the drivers for your audio interface and making sure you're using ASIO can make a huge difference for latency. With everything set up right, it's low enough that I don't notice any difference between listening to synths directly via their headphone jack vs through my DAW.
If you're planning on running it through a PC, you can get reverb plugins for cheaper than hardware. Valhalla Supermassive is free, for example. Personally, I use Raum a lot - I got it during a promotion where it was also free, but it's normally $50 and sometimes goes on sale.
I've been hit hard by the GAS. I have too many synths already, and I'm always tempted to buy more. It's an obsession - every single night I'm looking at synths on my iPad in bed. I spend way more time staring at synths I want than actually playing the synths I own.
Yeah, it's not good.
Part of the problem is every time I realize I've gone overboard, thinking about scaling back and selling synths gets me back into over-analytical comparison shopping mode. I'm trying to figure out what's the best possible combination of just a few synths to keep, and then I think "hey, this new thing could replace 3 of my other synths." Except in practice, usually the new thing isn't as great as I thought, and it becomes more difficult to decide what to keep and what to sell. I don't want to make that mistake again.
Maybe I'll sell some things later, but for now the important thing is I have everything I need to make the music I want to make. That's what I should be spending my time and energy on instead of making databases to compare and rank synthesizers. (Yes, I've actually done that.)
I know what you mean about that intense youtuber vibe. I think it's something that developed gradually over time and you might enjoy his older videos more. I've actually mostly stopped watching his new stuff.
I have a bit of a hardware synth addiction and spend way too much time talking about them... but we're trying to get a new community started so I felt the urge to jump in and talk about them some more.
The two Nords are my favorites. The Wave 2 is great for beautiful layered soundscapes, while the Lead 4 can quickly go into unusual and striking FM sounds. I love both for how easy it is to dial in performance controls affecting as many parameters as you want in different amounts.
In the middle between them, I'm experimenting with Nina. It has so much potential and so many clever ideas, but first impressions were not good with buggy firmware. I had to put it aside to actually get work done, but I'm about to give it another chance. I'll probably be posting more about it later.
I only keep 3 synths fully connected and ready to use at a time, mostly because I don't want to buy an audio interface with more inputs right now, but it also reduces option paralysis a bit. Everything to the right is basically on standby to be swapped out with the 3 on the left from time to time.
The Prophet 12 probably gets the most use out of everything on the right. It's quirky and a little hard to find interesting sweet spots, but the few good sounds I've made on it (and even a few factory presets) keep me coming back. It's probably the most unique-sounding synth I own.
The Peak is my go-to for anything I can't do on the Nords, if I'm not specifically looking for the unusual character of the Prophet 12. It's deep/flexible enough for most things I'd want to do, without being too menu divey. I really want to upgrade to a Summit some day.
The Modwave is the deepest synth I own, but I kind of hate the interface. Some basic things like unison are buried several pages deep in menu, and it's the only synth here I don't feel like I fully understand yet. I'll have to find time to reread the manual again soon.
The SH-4D is the newest addition, and I've got mixed feelings about it. Multi-purpose buttons make it really easy to accidentally lose work, the mod matrix is missing a lot of destinations I hoped for, and "D-Motion" is probably the most pointless feature I've ever seen on a synth. Who in the world actually wants to pick up a synth and tilt it in the air while cables are hanging off it during a performance? However, it's pretty easy to dial in some really solid bass and pad sounds, and the drum kits are pretty good too.
I saved the Korg Prologue for last because I'm probably going to sell it. It's a pleasure to use and sounds great, but it's pretty limited without 3rd party oscillators and I haven't had a lot of luck with those so far. I also don't like waiting for warm up and tuning when every other synth I own is ready to go in seconds.
Aaand I probably spent way too long rambling about all those, but I hope it was interesting to someone.
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I created a server. I haven't done much setup yet, but if anyone wants to join: https://discord.gg/CsGN9zzC