Dave Smith TETRA 4 voice - analog poly synth !!

Android · Post by **Android** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:27 pm

I love my Mono Evolver Keyboard

the keys and aftertouch are excellent

this Tetra is definitely going to be my next purchase

unless I can find a Poly-Evolver Rack first

(anyone want to sell me theirs for $800usd ?)

minormal · Post by **minormal** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:28 pm

For me hardware means lots of knobs and sliders and the soft editors like the one with the mopho simply do not cut it!

Daemonix · Post by **Daemonix** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:20 pm

I've been thinking of getting a hardware synth because I think it will help me develop my synthesis skills which are really newbee...

I searched around and all full synths (even the virual analog) are very expensive. Only the roland SH201 is under 500 pounds. (which most of you say its shitty in terms of sound.)

I want one for minimal and mnml techno basslines and some chords and pads.

I wound love to have something with all the controls but I think the pest choice is tetra and a semi-weighted midi. (main interest are the bass/sub-bass sounds)

Nord and Access virus look very expensive.. and I dont know make names when it comes to hardware synths.

Help is appreciated!

Tasos

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:45 pm

if you're wanting hardware to develop synthesis skills I think something with more knobs is advisable.

tetra looks great for lots fo reasons, but yeah, if you want to dig deeper with synthesis lots of layered menus and fiddly knobs might not be the best thing for it.

I think you'd be best spending your money on a high quality soft synth for poly stuff and get a decent analogue mono synth for hands on stuff and great sound.

but that's just my opinion.

Daemonix · Post by **Daemonix** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:28 pm

in terms of the graphic interface the one I find easy to use is Sylenth1 but I dont know how bad sounding it is

I have seen also Massive but I dont know that the hell is happening in there. (I havent play with it)
If I could find some tutorial on a good synth it would be great. (Any help on that?)

thanks
tasos

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:55 pm

you can find the simple science behind synthesis in a few places. I think it's important to have a grounding in some of that.

I have learnt stuff about synthesis from reverse engineering presets. like 'ooh, I really like this sound... so how des it work.. ok saw wave.. fiter envelope... ok now what happens if I tweak this'.

also from trying to work out how things in tracks I like were made. usually it's difficult and I don't get the results I wante, but I almost always learn something in the process.

but these techniques can be a bit dangerous, as it's good to be able to just be with a synth and make sound without thinking about borrwing someone elses technique, or using something that someone else has already made. i think analogue with knobs is good for this as normally those machines are very inviting to play with. all the knobs are there, and the sound is really interesting and it kind of beckons you to tweak it further.

Daemonix · Post by **Daemonix** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:07 am

thnx a lot.

I too believe that a HW with knods is the best choice but a bit expensive.

I think I know some things about synthesis as I have read some chapters or online.

the difficulty that I explain above was more for the software (Massive VS Sylenth1).

But its a really good comment to see how other sound are made. thnx

oblioblioblio wrote:you can find the simple science behind synthesis in a few places. I think it's important to have a grounding in some of that.

I have learnt stuff about synthesis from reverse engineering presets. like 'ooh, I really like this sound... so how des it work.. ok saw wave.. fiter envelope... ok now what happens if I tweak this'.

also from trying to work out how things in tracks I like were made. usually it's difficult and I don't get the results I wante, but I almost always learn something in the process.

but these techniques can be a bit dangerous, as it's good to be able to just be with a synth and make sound without thinking about borrwing someone elses technique, or using something that someone else has already made. i think analogue with knobs is good for this as normally those machines are very inviting to play with. all the knobs are there, and the sound is really interesting and it kind of beckons you to tweak it further.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:49 am

Massive is supposed to be nice (but I haven't used it myself). You could definitely get some nice results from it.

I tried Sylenth1 but didn't really care for the sound or the general vibe of the thing, but that's just me. It has a lot of fans in other forums and definitely you could do a range of good sounds with it.

I think most soft synths can be a bit weird to navigate around. It's an odd balance to get them right, as you can put so many features into them, but screens are only so big, and it's not really easy to lay them out in a natural way like with hardware.

For me, I've found a couple that I really like and am sticking with them until I really understand how to use them.