Members Tusks Posted February 19, 2006 Members Share Posted February 19, 2006 Help me build a simple but flexible synth interface with no more than 18 knobs. Primary purpose would be lead, bass, drone and occasional sound effect/percussion duties. In that order. What would the essentials be? Here's what I have so far ... 1- Filter cutoff (LPF)2- Resonance3- Noise volume4- Oscillator coarse pitch5- Oscillator waveform ( the usual suspects)6- Detune (knob for converging/diverging 2-3 oscillators)7- Lfo rate (triangle?)8- Lfo destination (filter, osc, amp)9-12 Filter ADSR13-16 Amp ADSR17- Chorus Depth (post filter)18- Waveshape/distortion depth (pre filter) So what would you change? Would you want a multi-mode filter? Or the ability to change filter envelope depth? Or oscillator sync or FM? How about a ring modulator? Or a choice of LFO waveforms? What would you give up? Would you simplify the envelopes to free up knobs? Maybe just have one envelope with selectable routings (e.g. filter, pitch+amp, amp, filter+amp)? Or pots to attenuate the level of the envelope into those destinations? I realize I could get a Drehbank, but I really want a simple interface. Thanks for any advice you offer ... Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mildbill Posted February 19, 2006 Members Share Posted February 19, 2006 working on that nord mod? no buttons? i like osc. sync, so i'd have to have acces to that - i could give up immediate access to chorus for that. if you're gonna use FM, you probably want some kind of access to that. kind of hard to give up independent envelopes, but that'd free up 4 knobs for you, and you could just assign different 'amounts' to stuff. it's all personal preference, you gotta go with what feels right to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dafduc Posted February 19, 2006 Members Share Posted February 19, 2006 Multiple lfo's. The more the better, within reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayvon Posted February 20, 2006 Members Share Posted February 20, 2006 Wuddup Jerry, had loads of synth tips from you through this site and musicplayer so nice one for that. How about trying to go about things in a different way to the usual osc/eg/filter/amp way and have just general knobs that might adjust a number of different parameters simultaneously. I reckon it would be cool to have something like knobs just marked 'colour' 'hollow' 'thick' 'bite' 'fast' or 'slow' etc etc Have it basically so you have your favourite type of patches that you use repeatedly are underneath these knobs and have it so you can kind of morph between them. Ok so it would probably cut down the range of sounds attainable but it would be cool to design something akin to the interface on that Steinberg vst Plex. I've never actually used that synth but I like the idea behind it though. It might not appeal to deep synthesists but then again when you need to quickly dial up sounds, an interface like that would be invaluable. or ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ManiacManos Posted February 20, 2006 Members Share Posted February 20, 2006 I dunno... is it possible to assign the same controller to various parameters? An X/Y controller, or a joystick would be better... right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tusks Posted February 20, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2006 Yes, I'm doing it on the Nord. After doing a lot of patching where the controls are simply tuning little details or providing expressions (sweeps, gurgles, etc.) I have a desire to build something small and versatile. So I thought of a small monosynth. One of the weaknesses of the modular is that patches take a few seconds to load. I felt that a nicely designed patch could play a many different roles with a few knob tweaks. The Nord has four morphs so I could do a few of the things you mention, Maniac and Kayvon. Oh, and Kayvon thanks for your comment. But I would probably want some engine-level controls in addition to the high-level multi-controls. Daf, what would you want the LFO's to modulate? I can add dozens of LFO's as long as I'm willing to give up real time control of them. MildBill, I hear you on the osc sync. I will give up the chorus control as you suggest. Also the waveshaping. Marino suggested having independent pitch control of osc 2. I think that could make both sync and FM meaningful. I could do that in lieu of knob #6, because at low settings, it could be a detune knob. What do you think of this idea for reducing the envelope knobbage ... ? Have a dedicated AMP envelope, and a routable second envelope for filter/osc 2 pitch. It could just be an A/D. So it would take three knobs instead of four. But I could dedicate the freed knob to an oscillator crossfade so that sync and fm effects can be isolated. If I made these changes the synth would look like this: 1- Filter cutoff (LPF)2- Resonance3- Noise crossfade (crossfades the oscillators out as it fades in)4- Osc 1/2 crossfade5- Osc 1 waveform6- Osc 2 waveform7- Osc 2 pitch8- Lfo rate and depth (combined)9- Lfo destination (filter, osc, amp)10-11 Special AD12- Special AD destination (filter, osc 2 pitch, or both)13- Special AD depth (adjusts both depths concurrently)14- Normal/Sync/FM toggle15-18 Amp ADSR What do you think? You've been very helpful. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mildbill Posted February 20, 2006 Members Share Posted February 20, 2006 it's always good to have a general 'template' to work with that includes your 'most often used' functions. but i don't think you'll always be able to use just one. maybe a usable idea would be to have several templates available to suit various purposes? what you have looks pretty good so far tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.