dmnddgs saying hello

[dmnddgs]

Hi guys, I have stalked the forum a few times in the past year. Came to the realization recently that I want to get back into playing the music I loved from the 70's.

I owned a Roland System 100 (modules 101 & 102), although I always coveted a mini-moog and polymoog keyboard. Got rid of most of my gear in the mid 80's when my obsession with computers took over (of course big regrets now - lol).

What I am interested in is equipment that I can use today that will allow me to replicate as close as possible the polymoog Vox Humana and strings presets, as well as the awesomeness that is the mini-moog.

I've been to a couple of pro shops here in my home town and got two conflicting pieces of advice. One shop said get a hardware based synth (like an arturia) and load in samples from the net. The other shop said do it in software.

I am interested in what you guys think. I'm not that interested in studio work - this is more for a a performance project I am planning. So reliability is going to be important.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

dd

[MrArkadin]

Nov 25, 2011 7:11:20 GMT dmnddgs said:

I've been to a couple of pro shops here in my home town and got two conflicting pieces of advice. One shop said get a hardware based synth (like an arturia) and load in samples from the net. The other shop said do it in software.

Hi dmnddgs, catchy name you have there. Well the irony is that actually both suggestions are software - the Arturia is software with a huge dongle: the keyboard. If i was going to go down that route I would use a laptop and my own choice of software and keyboard controller.

Personally I don't rate Arturia stuff at all. In native land I prefer GForce, although over all these I prefer my Sonic Core XITE-1 DSP system which sounds better than any of that lot, but it costs.

What sort of budget do you have? If I was thinking mainly in terms of live I would definitely get some hardware - but not something like that Arturia thing - but also I am not a fan of laptops on stage. Not very exciting to me.

What type of music are you intending doing? For a more 'modern' sound I would consider something like a Virus or Nord - neither of which I have experience with. They're what are commonly know as VAs (Virtual Analogues), i.e. they are DSP chips coded to sound like a subtractive analogue synth. They usually come with effects and arpeggiators etc. so are quite flexible and can represent an all-in-one solution sound-wise.

For real anaolgue you might consider a newer Moog, Dave Smith Instruments or even Tom Oberheim's new offerings. They offer the reliabilty of a new instrument but with real analogue sound.

There's no reason to avoid old synths except for the reliability issue: you need to research which models are fairly sturdy: my Roland SH-09 for instance is built like a brick shithouse and is totally stable. Depending on model, most of these real analogues (old and new) will need external effects as they normally come as 'raw' instruments.

So basically I haven't helped at all and probably confused the issue more than necessary.

[dmnddgs]

lol - thanks for the reply anyway MrArkadin

All info helps at this point.

What I have decided to do in the short term, is use Kontakt 5 (was on sale) and a midi-keyboard hooked up to my PC at home. This way I can try out the Hollow Sun Polymoog samples for relatively low cost but also get a ton of other sounds in the Kontakt library that I can play with.

As to using this setup live, I kind of agree with you on the laptop thing. But if it get's me close to what I am looking for I am willing to give it a try.

All the best.

dd

[MrArkadin]

If you have Kontakt you might want to try this:

www.synthmagic.co.uk/phobos.htm

Where was Kontakt on sale btw? I need it myself but it's always so expensive.

[dmnddgs]

Funny you mentioned synthmagic, MrArkadin. I checked them out last night - they have a few products I like the sound of.

Kontakt 5 was on sale over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend direct from Native Instruments. It was a world-wide sale (lucky me :-) ) and shipping was included for USD$199.

While I am waiting for it to be delivered, I downloaded the Kontakt 5 player and purchased the Hollow Sun library with the Polymoog samples. Sounds pretty good to me, but I will know better once I get a proper midi keyboard and send the output to something a bit beefier than my desktop PC speakers - lol.