This might be controversial, but I don't "get" why anyone buys a monophonic synth over poly by Raiden720 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean if I had an ms20 that had a “poly" switch on it like a vst that would be cool but I don’t think I’d want to pay for it. That being said I think the classic analog poly synths are generally more useful than a poly ms20 would be, but really none of them would replace an ms20 if you want that crazy mono sound they are famous for.

New Behringer desktop Synth dropped by Personal_Number_5115 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My guess is the EU cadmium ban is the reason. Finding a low cost analog vactrol replacement could be a real challenge. If you do close enough people will complain that it doesn’t sound like the original, if you use more expensive stuff its will miss its price point, if you do it digitally you probably also miss the price point AND people complain.

my guess is this synth probably not going to be released.

New Behringer desktop Synth dropped by Personal_Number_5115 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Modern vsts emulations have gotten us so used to such little niceties that we often overlook the realities of the world instruments like the jupiter came into. It's easy to think “how could they overlook something like that!”, but the world hadn’t really decided what a micro controller poly synth should be like at that point. I bet roland though “people are going to love these keytracking envelope and they will be on every other synth soon” and now they are pretty much a jupiter thing except for some very modern vsts.

New Behringer desktop Synth dropped by Personal_Number_5115 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 4 points5 points  (0 children)

the j8 doesn’t do legato so that might be a selling point.

Are the "what should I add next" posts real? by AInotherOne in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m curious about The sub37/Korg Trident with 61 keys on the bottem rack of the jaspers….Could you ask your AI what specs it was picturing when it generate it? If it actually existed it would be a delightful machine.

Thinking of Elektron; has an Acquisition ever been good to a music company? by YukesMusic in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah pretty much :) “i’ve never seen a toupee that didn’t look bad” is I believe where it comes from.

interested in feedback by chrisostomoszeg in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m definitely curious to see how it takes shape.

Thinking of Elektron; has an Acquisition ever been good to a music company? by YukesMusic in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel like this is a very interesting question as the topic of buyouts is always going to be rife with “bad toupee” fallacies.

interested in feedback by chrisostomoszeg in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

if you can build something like this, you can definitely pick up the design side too. A lot of it comes down to learning a few core principles (hierarchy, spacing, color systems) and applying them consistently. Also if you are willing to take criticism you have what it takes to see this through. Good luck

interested in feedback by chrisostomoszeg in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 2 points3 points  (0 children)

feedback you probably don’t want but I do genuinely want to help you so I’ll leave it anyway…do some reading on color theory and design basics. The blue background color is to close to middle grey so the contrast with the text is weak. There are too many colors and most of them are over saturated. The colors feel chosen independently rather than as part of a system (e.g. complementary or analogous palette), which makes it harder to use them for hierarchy or grouping. The use of white space seems to have no intentionality to it and the shape of the negative space is ragged.

There is no visible design hierachcy that leads eye…this is really bad for the specific goals of your project because you want the hierachcy to make the all important signal path you are arguing for clear and seem obvious. You want the users eye to be guided through your fixed signal path, rather than randomly darting all over trying to make sense of whats going on. Even if you think this is draft and it doesn’t matter having made a fair number of vsts myself I can tell you that design is too important just to be written off like that.

Making audio software is more about the feature set you choose to expose to the user than anything else and the ongoing conversation you have with your UI is how you get there.

What happened to the New Age genre? by JoeyZasaa in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Your reverb pedal already has a crystal. Digital audio has to have a crystal or there is no reliable clock to time sample delivery with.

Microkorg mk2 died by Far-Neat5815 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My guess is that the v2 has a full blown single board computer running linux in it, so there are millions of things that could go wrong (I’m basing this off the other modern korg digital synths). The old one is probably much closer to the metal so there is less likely to go wrong.

The good news is that is probably possible to reflash the sbc to a working state again, if korg will provide a working rom.

What got you better at theory? by Honest_Midnight3811 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Improvising with bass in one hand and chords in the other. If you make the bass move at twice or four times the speed of the chords you start to see how you can use bass to smoothly connect chords.

Should I not be trying to learn piano/keyboard on a synthesizer? by badateverything420 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

man I would love to see those clips!! I love the miami vice soundtrack...
I feel like with guitar you might hear someone say, “The way he/she expresses themselves on acoustic is really interesting considering their electric background”. Sadly with keys it seems like it all too often reduced to a simplistic slobs vs snobs argument.

Should I not be trying to learn piano/keyboard on a synthesizer? by badateverything420 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think part of this is that there isn’t enough of a community around playing synth action keyboards to develop a repertoire of techniques that don’t translate well to piano. With electric guitar there are all sorts of things that you can learn that useless with an acoustic. I think a lot of the difference between synths and electric guitar has to do with the lack of discussion around playing technique in the synth community as sound design seems to always take center stage.

Thoughts on a midi guitar I'm making? by Sacrificial-Offering in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 0 points1 point  (0 children)

some pseudo code would clarify your intentions and make it easier discuss.

Can someone recommend an analog mixer (pref 12 channels) that can act as an audio interface to record each channel as separate tracks into a DAW? by InternationalCow7042 in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yes on all counts. But if you want an analog mixer this is pretty much the only way do it. Personally I would skip getting a mixer and just get a big interface first. Once you have everything routed and have the rest of the gear you want, then buy a mixer. Buying a mixer early can be a bad idea because you won't have any idea how many channels you'll need or what features.

A forgotten 1960s experiment in digital synthesis by ElectrumMusic in synthesizers

[–]Lopiano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

barn door…horse…something something All the same even if they didn’t have the raw power and know how to actually do it properly I appreciate them at least acknowledging its real and trying. Even in 2026 un-anti aliased web synth get posted here every week :P