BongStuff

Cheers for the info Dave - so I guess it begs the question - what`s a good S/Card for running a synth engine? Is it the case that certain cards might be better tailored ( ie. cheaper!!! ) for synth-engine work as opposed to digital recording? If I was to run a PC based machine for CuBase SL, and another for just soft synths, what would be the best soundcards in terms of bang for the buck? BS

Just checked out the mp3s...and W O W! Deep and creepy!!!!!!!! Do you need a lot of horsepower to run it?! I`m re-replanning my studio right now, and I`ve earmarked a P4 1.5GHz, 512Mb Ram as the "synth engine". Gonna try and run Reason2 from there too. Soundcard is a pretty pitiful, but quiet, TB Santa Cruz... BS

Wow John - you really worked your ass off for that one! To be honest, I rarely try and program any "real" instruments from scratch. What I *do* do ( be do be do be dooo ) is try and avoid anything vaguely "real" sounding in my recordings! Call me wierd, or weird, but I never want e.g. Strings to sound actually like violins/violas/cellos/basses all playing together. I want the harmonic content to be in the same vein - rich, chorussed, thick, deep, warm - but I always try and make a sound my own. e.g. for strings normally I`ll build it from scratch based on a simple sustained note, shape the "ADSR" to suit my track. Then layer it. Detune, then layer it again. And again until it`s rich enough. I suppose it`s really apeing the idea of a synthesizer being a tool to emulate real instruments - but I think most people who are really into synths like synths that sound like synths - not real instruments!! Funny old bunch, eh? : Oh, I did once manage to make my CZ3000 say "seeeeezeeeee" in a kind of robot voice. Does that count? BS ps. lights still on in Montreal!! pps. sorry about the `sign - it`s a damn French keyboard ( sorry Dider!! )

Steve - just to add to Dave`s spot-on description - sampling in a way has become a dying art in the way that synthesis has. Not many people actually sample any more - there are just so many vast libraries of off-the-shelf sounds which you can load into your sampler and play back, that attaching a mike ( or DAT out ) to the "IN" socket of your sampler is now as uncommon as tweaking a set of synthesis parameters to come up with your *own* patch. I must say I do miss the creative days of sampling, tape splicing and "found sound". Meat Beat Manifesto`s 1998 Actual Sounds And Voices was one of the last good sample-based albums I heard. Cheers, BS ( from Montreal, Canada - praying the power doesn`t cut here too! )

Hey - now let's capitalise on this! Who's for a Rolf Harris vs. Jean Michel Jarre remix track? It's a winner "Deux petite garcons avaisent deux petit joue" REVOLUTION! BS

So, is it good? Does it feel like a real synth? Is it as good as the [glow=green,2,300]C z e c h D r i n k ? ?[/glow] (burp) BS

or is that "Michel" whatever...

"integrated or dominant way" Like it! Yeah, PG would be on my list too. Funny - I think he's a better synthesist than Tony Banks. Hey this must be some sort of record - a synth BB and we don't have any Jean Michelle Jarre mentioned yet! Overhyped?! (oops!) BS

Richard Barbieri What a guy! Some of the most beautiful resonant pad sounds I've ever heard on Japan's Ghosts. Was it digital? Was it analogue? Was it additive? Subtractive? Granular?! Solo material and work with Steve Jansen almost all excellent. Favourite is Other Worlds in a Small Room BS

TKV - those cheesy early-90's dance aces? why, it was ME wasn't it? S P A C I O U S! rave off, BS

I'll take that as a statement.

Ryuichi Sakamoto yeah what a guy! Would defintely fall into my category of SYNTH GOD. Brilliant sounds without too much widdly-widdly showing off. I don't have him in my list because I don't really know much of his material, short of Forbidden Colours and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence ( basically, the same track, right? ) - oh and didn't he do a track with Thomas Dolby once - "Fieldwork"? Got any recommendations for his best material? BS ps. I do have a Yellow Magic Orchestra album on tape somewhere...with a space invaders track on it!

or Chick Corea

[glow=red,2,300]Well D A N G ![/glow]there must be SOMEBODY who has a list - even if it does have Chick Korea in it...

Subject says it all! It's [glow=red,2,300]SYNTH[/glow] players and not keyboard players - I think they're a very different breed. My criteria here would be players who get the most out of the synth itself - who really use the synth as an instrument over and above being just another keyboard. So I guess I DON'T mean virtuoso performers who can do very fast solos! : Apologies to any Rick Wakeman or Chick Corea fans out there. I'd like to nominate, in reverse order 7.Thomas Dolby 6 Nick Rhodes 5. Alan Wilder ( kicks Trent Reznor's ass ) 4. Anyone out of Kraftwerk 3. Vangelis 2. Stevie Wonder 1. GILLIAN GILBERT http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/docume.../neworder.shtml Or if you have a different criteria, let's hear it! BS

Ah the S900. How I miss mine! :'( Now THAT was a sampler that stamped it's own identity on anything you cared to ask it to record. Mega-fidelity Peter Gabriel world-music rhythms became crunchy and funky! Bass guitars CUT right through a mix. Not in a bad way, but in a very cool 12-bits-are-all-I-need way. Resampling to 12 bits in Wavelab or CoolEdit or SoundForge just doesn't sound the same! Alas, not sure if the polyphony would really cut it for a gee-tarist looking for a songwriting tool. Presets seem to satisfy most guitarists anyway So, any advance on an O5r/W? BS

A guitarist friend of mine is looking for a MIDI module that will give him some decent drum sounds and some basic pads and basses. I've said something like a Korg 05R/W would do the trick - 150 quid on eBay/Loot. Any others in the same league? Cheers, BS

"It's not my fault, it's General Protection's" Wonder if he's related to General MIDI? BS

Prophet 2000. ARP Odyssey. Man - would I love to have been able to write about them! Just never been able to play much with boxes like that. Classix as they are. I think the most esoteric synth I ever got hold of was an original PPG Wave 2.3 before a mate of mine sold it. I totally BECAME Thomas Dolby for that brief period The bassline to "Windpower" anyone? But hey, the VL-tone. How could I have forgotten? Still got mine ( somewhere, with my SK1 ). Isn't it just a star on "Get Carter" and "Darkness" from the DARE album?! Or even better LOVE AND DANCING?! I see a lot of MIDI retrofits going around for it and the SK1. V.tempting... BS

What a question! Well, here are some I'd consider important, and why... I don't know if I've really answered the question, "best synth". You'd probably be talking one of the latest Roland XV50 boxes or a Korg Triton or something. But the above boxes are what I'd class as my favourites. BongStuff