All Things Midi Including Controllers

This is my next buy. Atm. the only Behringer synth I am also looking for is Neutron, but I have to build some kind of box for all these behringer synths, because I have no more space for another desktop synth.

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Looks great! But man, FM. Good luck :slight_smile:

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Korg and few reviewers claim that their “Altered FM” synthesis is quite a huge step forward in the sense of usability. I love the sound and … it simply cannot be that hard, if the synthesis style survived to this day.

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Yeah - my experience looking at it was mostly with poking around with things like DX7’s and saying “nope nope nope” :slight_smile:

It has to be better now. And there are some kind of distinctive sounds for sure.

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My FM experience is mainly tied to this free emulation of DX7. And it’s actually usable with this kind of UI. But DX7 with its one data entry fader and little screen is exactly “nope nope nope” :smiley:

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Yeah Dexed’s UI really gets across the complication in a nice visual way.

Really nice cold, bell/metal kinds of sounds you can get with that kind of synthesis though.

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Oh oh!
Is this Pam’s next keyboard? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Actually I’ve got an offer in on this one…
961764db-4905-413a-9b73-b7d89f7a6cc2-organstop

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@PamPurrs - stopped at guitar center today for kicks on way home from work. They had your new keyboard. Dang those are some super heavy keys. Heavier then my Yamaha and they are heavy. Wowsa.

@howard saw the Keylab mkii 88 with the weighted keys as well but no 61/49 to play with. They make nice stuff for sure.

I think I’m gonna look for a simple midi controller that’s reco’ed by some Hammond nerds in their forum and fiddle with it and the Yamaha. Cheapest option and uses what I have.

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Welcome to another rabbit hole @John_E :crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face:

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@John_E if you’ve ever played an acoustic piano, that’s what they feel like, and that’s exactly what I wanted. Organs typically have much softer keys, and synth players also like softer keys. My interest lies more in piano playing than synth.

Indeed, Arturia does make some nice stuff, and they’re a great company. If I was of a mind to spend a grand on a keyboard I would have bought that MKII 88 in a heartbeat.

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I just finished installing and activating all the free software that came with my M-Audio Hammer88, and WOW…

  • DB-33 by AIR Music Tech
  • Mini Grand by AIR Music Tech
  • Velvet by AIR Music Tech
  • Eighty Eight Ensemble by SONiVOX
    They each contain dozens of pianos, organs, and synths of all kinds. I’m having so much fun with them LOL.

Between those and the Analog Lab V from Arturia, I don’t think I’ll ever need to buy a plugin! :rofl:

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I have, and my Yamaha has weighted keys too, which to me feel closer to a real piano. These just felt extra heavy, but maybe I am weak from working from home for a year and a half.

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Right :joy: :joy: :joy:

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FM sounds evoke “ringing of the universe”, in my mind anyways.

One of projects I work on and off is this “ode to universe”. I love Gustav Holst “Planets” suite and I always wanted to combine it with Daft Punk’s “Contact” (https://youtu.be/JI5noh4OyXc) and Thomas Bergersen’s “Creation of Earth” (https://youtu.be/aIDrEvJ8zq8).

Starting with orchestral piece, transition to prog. rock gallop and then, finally, there’s the universe in all it’s beauty encapsulated in rigid, sterile sound of electronica. And you, me anyways, simply cannot recreate the “emotion” of … neutron stars colliding, the space sounds … without FM sounds and the harshness and “ringiness” of that kind of synthesis.

Here’s a little bit what I mean:

Unfortunately I will have to wait for some time, while I am healing from my injury, to record the aforementioned prog. rock part, but I definitely can work on the electronic, space movement with my Opsix.

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Yep very distinctive tones.

Have you checked out Phase Plant yet? While not a pure FM synth - it contains lots of generators - you can use any of them to modulate more or less any other source too, effectively giving you FM synthesis, just not in quite the traditional way, and a lot more flexible and, frankly, easy.

Plus since you can use any generator as a source, you could do, for example, FM modulating with a wavetable or sample :slight_smile:

I love Phase Plant.

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I’ve tried it when I’ve got some free snapins with a different plugin purchase. I really don’t like the graphics of the whole snapin complex. (Something is really off for me personally in the way how thick the lines are and contrast/brightness design.)

As modular I am using Vintage Modular by Cherry audio. (You can use it as audio source, or you can also use it to model your own effects.) And I know, I could do the sounds with a software, but I really want hardware synth.

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Well my efforts for a hostile takeover of space in the kids’ playroom was met last night with a firm ‘get your keyboard out of here’, lost 3-1.

So it is now crammed into my music room in the only real spot it can exist. It’s ugly, but its there.

So what else was I to do but connect the MIDI into Abelton, sigh…it works.
And now I am even closer to the Hammond B3 dream.
@PamPurrs @howard I blame you both for getting my foot stuck in the MIDI rabbit hole.
and brush up on my piano skills (which will only be played standing up at this point.

@howard any experience with the IKMultimedia (official Hammond) vs. the Autria one?

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My pleasure :japanese_ogre:

Never tried the IK plugins but assume they would be good, they have a good reputation and everyone loves Amplitube.