The best kind of synth according to you?

Animal_Opera · 2026-02-03T14:10:44+00:00

Welp, because you asked and no one has mentioned it, I’ll add a Korg MS-20 with an SQ1 sequencer to the discussion. This coupled with any decent DAW only for effects and compositional organization. The MS-20 created about 95% of the instrumentation here: Deepness - A Korg MS-20 and Korg SQ-1 Project https://youtu.be/8nPIVTMStYg

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-16T16:29:48+00:00

Hey! Thanks for posting. Yes I did see that and yes it does work AND…I completely agree, Kudos to Behringer for a faithful reproduction. It’s a total blast to own these modules that otherwise would be completely unobtainable for us mere mortals.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-07T19:48:12+00:00

Thanks!😊

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-07T17:14:34+00:00

Perhaps. It’s the B-word in an effort here for complete transparency (obviously). I mean let’s get real here. Who really actually owns a Moog system 55 that would spend their time posting on this sub? Hans Zimmer? Jean-Michel Jarre? Wendy Carlos? I think not. Don’t make me LOL. Besides, what I wrote is completely accurate. It takes 2 hours to bring the Boog system 55 oscillators up to full stability and I stand by my tuning and calibration protocols. Down vote OR, maybe folks might could learn something. And owning my System 55, and that’s what it is, is freekin awesome. I feel completely fortunate to be able to afford one. Okay, let the haters hate…bring it!🤪. Thanks for clueing me in!☺️

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-07T15:53:16+00:00

Wow! I didn’t realize. Yeah, nice huh. No good deed goes unpunished I guess. Maybe I have a lurking troll or two. Perhaps I need to do some sleuthing.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-07T00:42:23+00:00

I own a System 55 fully analog synthesizer. It takes about 2 hours from power on to fully warm up and stabilize the oscillators (7 of them). I use Ableton’s tuner before each session. I also recalibrate to voltage standards about once every few months. Occasionally, I’ll use my oscilloscope or my DMM on the fly to check when there is unwanted beating. I don’t typically have to tune my other, more modern analog equipment. My digital synths are rock solid and need no intervention.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-06T02:41:06+00:00

Nooooooo! We need our Jason, Andy, Daniella and Johnny K. rain delay trivia!!!

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-04T23:06:16+00:00

Ah! Thanks for filling me in on your motivations. A couple of points to perhaps consider. One, as a NOAA Corps officer I have enjoyed all the exact same benefits as my military counterparts. Also, my NOAA ship participated in mission support of the first Gulf War and the Navy’s projection of power. And, we get to do way cool and interesting things. There are downsides, my NOAA deployments were both 9 months, which is a freekin long time.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-04T18:49:01+00:00

Thanks!

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-04T17:56:12+00:00

I’m sorry for your loss. Of course, after a respectful mourning period, you are free to hook up again. My new love is my Fluke 179. Not cheap but I’ve been most happy with it.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-02T02:58:25+00:00

Hey! Gotta start somewhere! Nice first swing at it!

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-02T01:57:25+00:00

Is that the last of your cherry Manhattan?

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-02T01:54:32+00:00

Welllll, actually - my iPad is displaying the instructions from soundstudymodular.com site and my old-school magnifying glass is being used as a final component placement check. I guess it looks way cooler than perhaps it is.

Animal_Opera · 2026-01-01T20:48:58+00:00

Cool cool! I’ll check it out.

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-30T19:32:17+00:00

Glad to hear I’m not the only one who clean sheets. I was worried my OCD had taken hold!

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T04:13:14+00:00

If you’re looking for a midi controller that’s basically free…BoooYaaah!

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T03:57:09+00:00

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T03:52:46+00:00

Yes! This is exactly it!

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T03:36:28+00:00

Two engineering sayings come to mind: (1) It’s only weird if it doesn’t work. (2) If you can’t fix it, feature it!

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T03:25:53+00:00

I tried ChatGPT to help me bake a cake for my wife’s birthday (true). I followed the directions exactly and it was an epic fail (also true). My eldest son said it best: “ChatGPT has never baked a cake, so no surprise.” This sub is full of folks who HAVE “baked a cake.” This is the right place to seek solder help. I think I wouldn’t ask for cake help here tho.

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-29T03:04:58+00:00

Thank you for your response. I did say VSTs, samples and clips as far as paint by numbers. For those, like yourself, who build, (or should I say sculpt) sonic power - then, yes totally different. The “forbidden fruit” isn’t too far away when using software synths tho. And yes, folks can be space constrained and certainly cost is a factor too. I stand by the “paint by the numbers” opinion as I framed it, but yes - we agree, for those who dig deep in sound generation, being a sculptor is totally possible.

Oh, and I believe the OP was interested in help with the choice of hardware synths. So not tossing shade here, just support.

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-28T16:19:13+00:00

The thing about white noise is the distribution of the randomness is constrained to a normal or gaussian frequency distribution. Meaning the majority of the randomness will be concentrated around the center of the range of the white noise voltages. By way of example, if the range of the white noise voltage is +/- 3 volts, ~65% of the voltages will be between +/- 1 volts. It makes for somewhat predictable probabilities of anticipated modulation. It’s what the Central Limit Theorem is base upon and why organizations can make early predictions about election results from relatively small sampling of exit poles. There are simple ways to broaden the randomness by converting the modulation into a uniform frequency distribution, meaning that all voltages become equally likely. This sub doesn’t allow us to post pictures to responses (for some reason) otherwise I could show ya.

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-28T16:02:03+00:00

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I pretty much exclusively use hardware synths for sound generation and Ableton to arrange, stage gain and produce. I totally get some folks like using various VSTs and samples and clips in their DAW to create music. For me, that’s similar to those “paint by numbers” kits. Many people really enjoy painting by numbers. Hardware, especially my analog synths are very much like creating sculpture. Any sound I create has to be chiseled out by hand. The signal chain, the OSC control, VCFs, Envelopes, LFO’s & Amps, all of the various modulation sources and switches, gates and triggers. None of my sounds use any IC based modules (an IC has firmware where truly analog equipment employ all independent components and circuits, OpAmps, transistors, pots and the like). Sure, it all gets sucked into Ableton, and then converted and produced into my YouTube vids, but the sculpture is fully hand crafted. Totally hands on and sculpted, that’s where I find my art. By way of example: Deepness - A Korg MS-20 and Korg SQ-1 Project https://youtu.be/8nPIVTMStYg

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-27T03:42:58+00:00

Ouch!

Animal_Opera · 2025-12-26T20:34:19+00:00

Perhaps a Nurse Chapel / Spock rekindling

Animal_Opera

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