help out a noob: how many synths do you have and why?

[arcadesonfire]

 

This is of course very interesting if you listen to music through an oscilloscope but i highly doubt that the fabled VCO slack/randomness is responsible for the qualities of analogue sound alone. Bad/lacking filter modelling and different circuits/signal paths in the hardware are probably much more of an issue than the oscillators randomness. My DW8000 sounds very alive to me, despite the fact that it does have completely digital oscillators.

 

 

Do the VA manufacturers use random number generators to invoke randomness in their waveforms? Seems to me that getting unpredictable waveforms should be pretty easy even when digital.

 

on the other hand, i only know how to get random numbers on my calculator, i know nothing about computer science or writing the software behind a synth.

[grumphh]

Do the VA manufacturers use random number generators to invoke randomness in their waveforms? Seems to me that getting unpredictable waveforms should be pretty easy even when digital. on the other hand, i only know how to get random numbers on my calculator, i know nothing about computer science or writing the software behind a synth.

 

Getting unpredictable and exciting waveforms on digital is indeed easy (just get an FM synth ) - but that was not what the comment was about.

 

Some people believe that the minute variations in the waveforms generated by an analogue oscillator are responsible for a part of the sound quality of (real) analogue synths.

[kpatz]

Some people believe that the minute variations in the waveforms generated by an analogue oscillator are responsible for a part of the sound quality of (real) analogue synths.

That's part of it. But in my experience there is another area where digital hasn't quite reached the "sweetness" of analog: the filters. In all the digital synths I've played with, the filters may come close to sounding analog, but they never quite sound the same. Especially resonant sweeps. This is a lot of the reason why even DCO-based analog synths still sound more analog than a digital synth.

[grumphh]

That's part of it. But in my experience there is another area where digital hasn't quite reached the "sweetness" of analog: the filters. In all the digital synths I've played with, the filters may come close to sounding analog, but they never quite sound the same. Especially resonant sweeps. This is a lot of the reason why even DCO-based analog synths still sound more analog than a digital synth.

I wrote that in the post adressing Birdies claim

[cybermooks]

I have well over 50 synths obtained for purposes I've long since forgotten. Once you get over 10, maybe even 5, your work can wind up being synth-driven. The average listenere could care less how the sound originated; it is part of a larger piece of music.

What a newbie should do is focus on the music. Get one general purpose synth and play around with it. It is probably more versatile than you imagine. Then if you're missing something, -a sound you can't reproduce, go shopping and try out other synths.