I created a server. I haven't done much setup yet, but if anyone wants to join: https://discord.gg/CsGN9zzC

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.

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 like the idea. I probably won't have time for it every week, but sometimes.

It seems like a common problem that it's easy to come up with short ideas/loops but hard to develop them into full-length songs. Suddenly I'm wondering how much the step limits of most sequencers are contributing to that. For instance, every time I sketch out an idea on my SH-4D I'm limited to 64 steps... a short loop that I can't extend unless I recreate it in a DAW and continue from there.

Even with the MPC Live 2, which can create full length songs, the workflow seems designed for working on one loop at a time in isolation. Now that I think about it, that's why I don't get along with clip-based workflows in DAWs either. If I'm dealing in isolated units like that it seems harder to naturally transition and from one part to the next and arrange a coherent song.

I'm curious if anyone has noticed these things making it harder to get past that one first loop. Or maybe I'm just imagining problems that don't exist.

1. I started improv singing when I was a small child, did school chorus for a several years, then got sick of blending into the group. I wanted to make my own music with the focus on my voice, so I started experimenting with recording and layering things. That was about 20 years ago. I haven't been at all consistent about it - sometimes I'd go for months without working on music at all. Then there was one year I made a finished song every month and some of it was the best I ever made.

2. Genres: I listen to lots of genres, but most often some form of electronic - downtempo, synthpop, modern EDM, etc. I tend to favor music with atmospheric layers and a hint of mystery, but different moods call for different kinds of music. What I make is hard to classify, but definitely still some form of electronic.

3. Artists: Pair of Arrows, Rufus du Sol, Metric, Robyn, Zhu... if I try to describe why I love them I'll be typing way too long so I'll just leave this one for now.

4. I learned a lot of synth basics from Sonic State's reviews - often with detailed demonstrations feature by feature, sometimes with tips on how/why you might use that feature. Some channels for more general music composition and production stuff: James Nathan Jones, Venus Theory, Benn Jordan, Andrew Huang

I've got them too, and they're definitely not up to the quality of other studio headphones I've used. Still, I'd use them a lot more if they weren't just a little bit annoying to turn on and off. Having to hold the power button for different amounts of time for the headband vs the transmitter always throws me off.

I think it would've made more sense to start with something all-digital. Instead they decided to invent their own analog oscillator design on top of everything else novel they were trying to do. Maybe it does have something unique and special to offer, but I haven't found it yet.

It doesn't have to have some profound message to be "you." Your taste in what sounds good or not, and the choices you make are still a reflection of your unique personality. It's also completely normal for it to take time to figure yourself out and decide what it is you want to say to the world. Or, if you just want to have fun and leave it at that, that's perfectly valid too.

why people even do music these days

For me, I guess it's about self expression. I can't convey the deepest parts of who I am in words alone - I need music for that. I want to be seen and appreciated for what makes me unique, and not just be another arbitrary person surviving in society. I may never have much of an audience, but it's better to feel understood by a few people than none at all.

I want to love Nina (the synth with motorized knobs.) On paper, it's amazing - a 12 voice analog polysynth, plus a wavetable oscillator and digital effects when I want them. The motorized knobs really are a game-changer for modulation and multiple timbres.

But every SINGLE time I sit down to actually spend time with this synth, something goes wrong and I spend my time writing up a bug report instead of making music. The worst part is I don't even know if I'll like the synth when all the bugs are fixed. Even when I make simple, basic analog sounds I don't really care for the tone. FM using the digital oscillator as a mod source seems broken, but I'm not sure if it's a bug or just the best they can do with the hardware design they shipped. I know the hardware signal path is why they're stuck with effects being applied to the final mix instead of per-timbre.

They've done some brilliant things with this synth and I want it to succeed, but at the same time I feel like buying one was probably a mistake. Now I'm just hoping they follow through on the promise of open-sourcing it so I can try tinkering with it myself and see what improvements I can make.

Honestly, every time I sit down with it I run into something that seems broken. The developers take feedback well and have been fixing a lot of things quickly, but I'm tired of writing bug reports when I just want to make music.

The potential for greatness is there, but I think it needs some updates still.

I'm glad someone (@ChappIO@waveform.social ?) found a way to automate this. I forgot last week and probably would have forgotten again.

Thanks for the suggestion - I just got it, and it's so much easier than using a cloth or swiffer duster. I hadn't thought of looking for anti-static before either. That's exactly why I wanted to ask for advice instead of just buying a random brush and hoping for the best.

First off, instead of one loop I try to have two main loops/themes/ideas that I alternate between, often called A and B sections. Think of it like the verse and chorus in a pop or rock song - usually different melodies and chord progressions, but they need to feel like one follows logically from the other. I'll also usually have a "bridge" section - something different that only happens once.

Each time I repeat the A or B section, I try to change it up a bit. One strategy I'm trying lately is to use different synth sounds for each repetition, and then make subtle changes to better fit the new sound. I.e. I might change from short staccato notes to more sustained notes, but following the same general up and down path.

Adding or changing harmonies is another good strategy. For a dramatic shift, change the key from minor to major, or maybe just transpose everything up by a fifth. There are more advanced techniques for reharmonizing that I don't understand well enough to describe.

I'd start by reading the manual and experimenting with things as you go. When you read about the oscillator parameters, try them out and listen to what happens. If you stumble upon something interesting, save it, and then experiment with other changes. See if it sounds better with chorus, reverb, maybe some additional modulation, etc.

I learned mostly from experimentation and youtube videos. A lot of synth reviews include tips for interesting things you can do on that synth, and Ricky Tinez in particular has a lot of videos about the Peak.

I'm in a similar boat as a solo indie dev making my own soundtrack along with everything else. I've made one game soundtrack before, but that's not enough to really feel like I know what I'm doing.

I frequently make tables and checklists to keep track of progress on things, i.e. different stages of completion like:

• Sketch (a rough theme and maybe some accompanying parts)
• Mockup (arranging A/B sections and so forth but they're just copy/pasted with no variation)
• Draft (got the general idea of the variations and full arrangement, but not polished)
• Beta (mostly final probably, but need to check it on different speakers and probably tweak the mix/master)
• Release candidate (I think I'm done)

In the later stages I'll take notes as I listen through looking for the things that stand out most I want to change, then go back and work on those things one by one. I might also have a checklist of things I want to be sure to pay attention to on every track, i.e. making sure there's enough variation in percussion parts across the track, because I have a bad habit of making simple drum loops and forgetting to spice it up if I don't have that reminder.

Looping isn't necessarily the only answer. I really liked Dune 2's approach - basically shuffling through a pool of chill music when nothing much is happening, and then interrupting with one of a few "attack" tracks when combat starts. I think it kinda depends on how long levels/missions are - one looped track will eventually get old no matter how careful you are to avoid distracting/annoying parts.

Maybe I should call this a "Weekly" discussion instead of a specific day of the week. It always felt odd to me to post in the "Friday hangout" after Friday, but I know some people did.

I decided to keep the SH-4D, mostly for drum/percussion sounds.

I've ripped out all the percussion tracks from most of my music of the past few years after hearing that Splice allegedly doesn't vet their samples properly, and confirming that their terms of service include a "use at your own risk" clause to avoid any responsibility on their end.

I do have other trustworthy sources of samples, but redoing so much is a daunting task and I wanted something portable and fun to help me get through it. The SH-4D's interface isn't my favorite, but it's got a good amount of hands-on tweakability and I honestly can't find a better drum machine for the price, even if that's not its primary purpose. I'm sure I'll make use of the synth parts too eventually.

Failed to hurt Reddit's bottom line in a meaningful way? Yes. But we haven't necessarily failed to create a good alternative for those of us who would rather not use Reddit anymore. It does seem like this place has become less active, which is a bit concerning, but I'm not giving up on it yet.

Yeah, the UI definitely has some odd and frustrating design choices. The main thing tempting me to keep it is the portability, but I can't really do more than sketch out short ideas on the go. I've got a bajillion of those lying around already and really need to focus more on finishing stuff.

If you don't care about it being wireless, the older wired-only version is $100 cheaper FYI. I don't see it on their site anymore, but you can get it on Amazon or B&H.

I'd probably be jumping on the Push 3 if it had an arrangement view. I never got into the clip-based workflow, and can't imagine ever making the switch without it changing the type of music I compose.

I'm curious about your thoughts on the SH-4D. Guitar Center talked me into buying one because they didn't have it on display and "you can just try it at home and return it if you don't like it", but with the end of the return window coming up I'm struggling to make a decision.

I've gotten some really satisfying sounds out of it, but it's disappointing that some of the oscillator models don't let you modulate most of the parameters, and the list of samples in the PCM model is surprisingly short. Those aren't necessarily dealbreakers, but I guess I'm still trying to figure out if it's really adding enough that isn't covered by my other synths.

I'm pretty mad at Polyend for preloading samples that are licensed only for non-commercial use with attribution. I'm used to assuming whatever comes with the gear is safe to use in my music, but they don't even tell you who to attribute the samples to so I don't know how it would even be possible to comply with the license terms. I asked their support about it years ago and never even got a response.

Edit: I suppose I should actually comment on the device itself - it's great for coming up with rhythmic ideas and such but a really clunky workflow for sound design and mixing.

Everything I've posted online is super old at this point and my recent stuff is all WIP, but this is a good nudge to wrap up and post some stuff soon.

The game is Galactic Chef, a sci-fi cooking competition show game. The main hook is an open-ended voxel cooking simulation, so you can get creative in inventing your own dishes to meet each challenge. It's been a fun exercise coming up with different sound palettes for the different alien worlds you compete on.

As I understand it, you can just sign up here and ignore the rest of the fediverse. If you want to use one account to access other instances and get an experience like full Reddit maybe it's more complicated, but if you're just here for synthesizer stuff it's super simple.

I'm intrigued by the Aodyo physical modeling stuff but it looks... complicated. How easy is it to explore and experiment to find interesting sounds without having to think like an engineer?

What barrier to entry? I followed the link from Reddit, filled in a very simple sign up form, and here I am.

Yep!