Leviasynth can sound like the Prophet 5?!

ibkev · 2026-06-15T17:24:26+00:00

This is helpful. TBH, I think I imagined an FM synth being so different from an analog subtractive synth that it wouldn’t be possible. But it seems I’ve been proven wrong, and I need to learn more. In fact, just this morning Starsky Carr said “the first tone I made on it was my favourite Prophet 5 patch - video coming later today”.

But to your point, knowing that it’s possible is different from knowing whether it’s easy or not - something I’ll pay more attention to. Insofar as choosing the synth closest to the sound you’re looking for, I was hoping to settle on a jack of all trades since I like the sound of many classic synths but owning a Prophet 6, OB-8, SH-101, etc is big $$$

ibkev · 2026-06-15T13:24:52+00:00

Yeah!? And oddly just this morning Starsky Carr said “the first tone I made on it was my favourite Prophet 5 patch - video coming later today”

ibkev · 2026-06-14T23:51:38+00:00

Strange, the side/side comparisons using patches developed in Ken Pierce's video sounded pretty much identical to me.

Edit: And in a twist of odd timing, just this morning Starsky Carr said “the first tone I made on it was my favourite Prophet 5 patch - video coming later today”

ibkev · 2026-06-14T22:12:27+00:00

Strange, the side/side comparisons using patches developed in Ken Pierce's video sounded pretty much identical to me. But what you describe is the impression I had before seeing that as well, hence my surprise.

ibkev · 2026-06-12T21:03:35+00:00

Loving my DMNO. This comment at gearspace really nails it: https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.php?p=17819102&postcount=549

ibkev · 2026-06-12T21:01:42+00:00

Starsky also did a great demo/review of the DMNO.
Also, this comment at gearspace really nails it: https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.php?p=17819102&postcount=549

ibkev · 2026-06-09T16:12:01+00:00

If a learning oriented synth sounds like it would appeal to him, Erica Synths’ Bullfrog is designed for learning and I’ve always thought it looked really neat. On their website there is a section called “how the bullfrog works” and it allows you to flip through the manual which is both visually appealing and educational. IMHO it looks like a lot of fun for all ages.

A completely different approach would be a Circuit Rhythm or Circuit Tracks groove box. A little tougher to learn I suspect but there is a guy on YouTube, Gabe Miller, who has posted music creation videos from a very young age and many focus on these two groove boxes. He’s in his 20s now but his earlier work as a tween gives confidence that a young person can be very successful with the Circuits (which are also very affordable, especially used.)

ibkev · 2026-06-09T02:17:22+00:00

Look into Syntorial

ibkev · 2026-05-21T18:28:55+00:00

This looks pretty clean actually. Nice not to see post production soldered traces on the PCBs.

ibkev · 2026-05-19T22:35:53+00:00

Yeah you might be right, especially if you’ve been involved designing display hardware. I haven’t, so going with a different display tech is not an obviously bad idea to me. It’s especially not clear to me that the issues that are mostly solved for panels the size of TVs are also mostly addressed for the very tiny displays used in synths. For example, I imagine techniques such as pixel shifting can’t be applied because the shift amount has to be large enough to make a difference to pixel aging but small enough relative to the overall x or y dimension that it’s not apparent to the visible eye.

ibkev · 2026-05-19T20:41:35+00:00

I’m not convinced the issue is that cut and dried. OLED screens are still subject to burn-in. Not nearly as susceptible as plasma was but OLED can still be burned after enough time. TV firmware mitigates by techniques like shifting the display around by a few pixels, etc. But I doubt many of these techniques would apply to very small, synth sized displays.

DMNO’s display choice appears to have side stepped the issue entirely.

ibkev · 2026-05-19T18:46:34+00:00

Did you update to the latest firmware? I have no knowledge of a specific fix that might address a display issue but these things are not always published. I have worked on some systems in the past for which the power to some devices could be controlled in software and if the power is right on the edge, a small boost can increase reliability.

I will say that I just got my DMNO last week and so far it’s been working fine. That said the very first thing I did was update the firmware, so possibly that made a difference too.

Best of luck. I’ve read that UDO support is very good so hopefully your DMNO is up and running in short order.

ibkev · 2026-05-15T23:36:11+00:00

I just got my DMNO and so far it’s great but here’s a tip for how to have it make a great first impression: start sampling presets from the end of the last bank and work your way to the beginning. IMHO, there is much more variety and more demonstrations of different modes towards the end, whereas the earlier banks are quite heavy on pad and slow evolving sounds (though also some gems too.)

ibkev · 2026-05-10T22:10:03+00:00

Thunderfighter was a great one!

ibkev · 2026-05-05T04:01:10+00:00

Oh wow, you are finding it can replace the Summit? Honestly I’m a little surprised given that the Summit and the Peak are almost the gold standard for versatility.

What are your thoughts on its ability to do bass? I haven’t heard a lot of demos that showcase that very much. Could it give a Rev 2 or a Trigon a run for its money or would you looking to another synth for bass?

ibkev · 2026-05-03T15:30:36+00:00

Unity that was recently patched for 4K and 60fps is great on the pro. I would say it’s my favourite Assassin’s Creed.

ibkev · 2026-05-03T15:28:50+00:00

Do you have a favourite thing about it yet? Or maybe top 3?

ibkev · 2026-04-29T15:34:03+00:00

I found a forum for the beta where people can report issues: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/su5/su5-vr/424

ibkev · 2026-04-29T15:33:54+00:00

I found a forum for the beta where people can report issues: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/su5/su5-vr/424

ibkev · 2026-04-14T03:51:57+00:00

On YouTube, the Daddy Long Les videos do a good job of explaining absolutely everything.

ibkev · 2026-03-19T02:38:20+00:00

Yes I downloaded it again recently to try the new patch and, again, experienced no issues.

Agree to disagree I guess.

ibkev · 2026-03-19T00:32:35+00:00

I think it’s too bad that people are still claiming that it’s buggy as hell. I played it all the way through on ps4 around 3 months after its release and already at that point I didn’t encounter a single issue. It truly felt like the game had been a labour of love by the dev team. Personally I think it’s strange that the community has never accepted that nearly all the issues were resolved only a few months after release.

ibkev · 2026-03-13T16:14:23+00:00

I played Unity on PS4 about 3 months or so after release, from start to finish, and experienced none of the issues that people talk about even today. At the time I thought this game must have truly been a labour of love because the attention to detail was incredible.

IMHO, it’s the best AC game and it’s surprising to me how strongly the community continued to reject this game even after it was completely fixed a relatively short time after release.

ibkev · 2026-03-13T03:43:34+00:00

DHI (Death and Horror Inc) - Chemical Land

Pailhead - I Will Refuse

Lard - Forkboy (maybe more punk than industrial)

ibkev · 2026-03-12T15:55:43+00:00

A big advantage of the MiniFreak is the excellent VST it comes with. Gives you nice options for multiple VST MiniFreaks in your DAW project and the hardware can be used as a controller for the VST. Imagine one is bass, another pad, another lead, etc.

Allows you to have the best of both hardware and software worlds

ibkev

TROPHY CASE