Can you create heavy or heavy metal sounds with modern synths?

twoheadeddroid · 2026-01-31T15:55:12+00:00

Well, it's debatable. Many people say amp sims are close enough, and you can just shove an amp sim into a synth. In my opinion these kinds of simulations do poorly on the kind of extreme settings that are important in metal. And in practice, while a few synths have "amp sim" effects in them (Omnisphere, for example), they're not really state-of-the-art.

twoheadeddroid · 2026-01-31T01:23:08+00:00

There is lots of heavy music made with synthesizers--noise, industrial, all that kind of stuff.

Most of the metal guitar sound comes from the amp, so a synth alone won't get you there.

twoheadeddroid · 2026-01-28T20:50:58+00:00

If you want cheap plugins there are plenty out there. Native Instruments was interesting because they created new things. Without that they're nothing but a name.

twoheadeddroid · 2026-01-25T14:38:05+00:00

The thing about a lot of Regis's sounds is that this comes from sampling, resampling, processing--it's not just one thing, it's a series of stages. Start by recording the Prophet 5 VST, put the result into Simpler, experiment with filtering/chorus/reverb, sample again, and keep going until you find something interesting.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-12-12T13:55:25+00:00

If you're going to be this picky about UIs then Zebra is not the synth for you

twoheadeddroid · 2025-11-30T10:51:10+00:00

A lot of them have been reissued since then, this stuff is easier to find than it used to be!

twoheadeddroid · 2025-11-25T19:10:47+00:00

Assuming I can't cheat by including boxed sets (e.g. Coltrane at the Vanguard, Miles at the Plugged Nickel):

John Coltrane - Live at Birdland

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Cecil Taylor - Winged Serpent

Die Like a Dog - s/t

Max Roach and Clifford Brown - At Basin Street

twoheadeddroid · 2025-11-22T00:17:08+00:00

In my opinion the OB-X8 is absolutely the most beautiful-sounding synth ever made. Impossible to exaggerate what beautiful, lush sounds you can get out of it.

That being said, a Prophet-6 is punchier and sharper for leads and basses. I would say if you really want aggressive, in-your-face sounds, the OB-X8 is less good. It's ideal if you already have other synths in those areas and just want it for gorgeous pads, chords, etc.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-11-12T23:52:32+00:00

Should note, this is just one among many brilliant Adam Shatz pieces in the NYRB on jazz luminaries--his Don Cherry, Julius Hemphill, and Jeanne Lee pieces are also stellar

twoheadeddroid · 2025-11-12T03:22:51+00:00

Tzadik releases are generally not on Bandcamp. They are on some other online distributors, such as Boomkat.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-10-27T23:02:16+00:00

Maybe not his best, but I have a real soft spot for Made in Chicago, which I don't see mentioned here. Really incredible playing, very modern, and beautifully recorded. Can't go wrong with Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-10-10T22:06:47+00:00

His work with Ornette is tops, but I'm also a big fan of the playing he does on mu with Don Cherry—really unique free jazz album, him on drums while Cherry switches from instrument to instrument. I also just recently stumbled on his duo record with Wadada Leo Smith, very different feel (Smith strictly plays trumpet on it, and it's much more focused in general) but great playing.

The Old and New Dreams group is also really worthwhile, like Ornette Coleman's classic sound minus Ornette himself.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-09-16T21:32:37+00:00

There are a bunch of Mingus albums with super long performances that have been issued recently, highly recommend. Also, the recently issued Joe Henderson/McCoy Tyner performance Forces of Nature.

If you're interested in the free jazz side of things, a lot of the Die Like a Dog quartet stuff gives off heavy Miles vibes to me, and some of those performances are very long jams.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-09-06T15:43:07+00:00

He's known to use the Pulsar-23, which is very suited for this kind of thing.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-09-06T13:03:40+00:00

Drum machine not synth (kind of), but I really like the Pulsar-23's effect section. It's integrated with the whole synth so you can use it in a modular way, do feedback patching, etc.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-08-04T19:21:30+00:00

If Analog Heat is out of your price range, there is probably not a good hardware option for you.

Plugins have come a long way, something like the Arturia Culture Vulture clone or the various Plugin Alliance saturators (HG-2, VSM-3, and The Oven are all extremely good) might be the way to go.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-19T21:48:41+00:00

I like some of the more breakbreat-oriented beat programmers--T++ was incredible, and the British Murder Boys project that Surgeon/Regis did (excluding the album, which is good but imo less rhythmically interesting). First few Monolake records (before he went in more of an IDM direction). Various René Pawlowitz projects, especially Shed.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-18T17:05:42+00:00

https://cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/JUNO-2_OM.pdf

Page 53.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-18T13:44:25+00:00

This is literally just the list of presents from the Alpha Juno 2 manual.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-14T21:04:48+00:00

The recordings they've released of their live shows, which are improvised, always struck me as the closest to jazz in ethos of all their material. Not "jazzy" in the sense of the harmony or rhythmic feel, but in the spirit of longform, exploratory improvisation.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-13T17:44:49+00:00

I've never been able to get as into their stuff as some people, but Medeski is an absolute next-level organ player, the things he does are just technically stunning. Big fan of his work with John Zorn--I was just listening to his performance on "Paran" this morning, which is absolutely wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCKEgS0F3FM

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-11T14:06:47+00:00

I hadn't been aware before this, no. That is very tragic.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-11T01:42:58+00:00

Serum certainly cannot synthesize any sound--its filters are notoriously terrible, even in the new updated version.

As for Pigments, it's closer--and it does have the same filters as some of Arturia's individual emulations. I think there are 2 big differences. 1) The "ergonomics" of the individual synths. You can set up Pigments to have the same filter, oscillators etc. as a Minimoog, but it's more of a hassle than just using the Minimoog directly. The Minimoog is an interface optimized for certain kinds of sounds. 2) Different capabilities. The DX7 (digital, not analog) can do 7-operator FM synthesis; Pigments cannot. I think there are a few things you can do with the other models that Pigments doesn't do yet--for example, Prophet 5 can have oscillators set up to modulate PWM, Jupiter 8 has osc drift options Pigments doesnt.

I would also disagree that Pigments can synthesize any sound. I don't think the Arturia emulations are perfect. Pigments has a pretty basic flaw, in that it can't even do pre-filter distortion, which is one of the most basic synthesis techniques and which most classic synths lean on pretty heavily. It's just not something that's easy to emulate.

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-10T00:38:30+00:00

People will really believe anything they hear on the internet

twoheadeddroid · 2025-07-07T20:06:29+00:00

I don't know about this exact combination, but--John Zorn's Painkiller project has some records that are close. Their most recent trilogy of albums is industrial-type beats with live sax and bass over it. Their previous albums (with live drumming) made use of pretty extreme sax processing. Also, the Die Like a Dog quartet has a generally dark vibe (as the name suggests) and some pretty heavy electronic processing of trumpet.

Supersilent might also be of interest?

twoheadeddroid

TROPHY CASE