Looking for input to create a vintage synth expansion

ccmacdon · Post by **ccmacdon** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:51 am

From my perspective I wouldn't organize it by synth, I would consider organizing it differently.. by song/year of release. There are already a bunch of VST's that recreate specific synths (like samplemoog, etc). Instead, go back to the beginning of synthesis in rock n roll, and take the Top 100 songs with signature synth sounds, starting with ELP Lucky Man in 1970, and create a library of the signature synths sounds from the top 100 songs of each year. Organize the sounds by decade, and sell it that way. From my perspective the only times that I have actually purchased or downloaded a program/patch was to recreate a signature sound from some classic rock tune that my band is playing.. and I do this because it's easier than trying to program it myself.

There are numerous sources for the Top 100 songs from each year, and a quick listen will tell you which songs contain any signature synth sounds (probably a small percentage), and you take it from there. Determining the sounds to create shouldn't be hard if you take this organized approach (you can probably do it in a day). Programming/sampling is a different story.

I would definately pay $$ for a decade of signature synth sounds that I could load into a Kronos program bank!

johnnydr · Post by **johnnydr** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:56 pm

I would definately pay $$ for a decade of signature synth sounds that I could load into a Kronos program bank!

Same here

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:56 pm

Thanks guys! I don't mean to make it sound like we're in it for the money. It's not like I'm expecting to get rich from it and my passion is still playing, not sampling. But I think it could be a really cool library if we do it well and if we can earn some of our time back it would be a nice bonus.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:38 pm

SanderXpander wrote:Thanks guys! I don't mean to make it sound like we're in it for the money. It's not like I'm expecting to get rich from it and my passion is still playing, not sampling. But I think it could be a really cool library if we do it well and if we can earn some of our time back it would be a nice bonus.

no problem. No one gets rich doing all that kind of work. You should get some comp for the effort.

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:30 pm

I know there is another synth collection being sold here. I don't know how much programming went into it or if is merely samples loaded.

It would be great to see some raw samples properly programmed on the Kronos. Additionally in certain cases such as what was previously mentioned you could offer a "pure" sampled alternative.

zzz · Post by **zzz** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 1:28 am

It would be great even to simply get a bunch of the different raw waveforms to play with, modern, different filter types or not. For example, I know somewhere there is a collection of the 81(?) waveforms on the Ensoniq sq80, and they have the benefit of taking up practically no space at all.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:37 pm

With our initial sampling session we took samples of about a second long. Our loops were mostly set automatically but obviously all checked manually, and are definitely more than one or two basic waveform cycles. It helps with making them sound less sterile than the stock ROM waves. So I wouldn't say that ours take up "almost no space at all". We did five note for note multisamples of the OBX so far and it used 48MB of disk space or so, 23MB RAM with streaming enabled.

navydave · Post by **navydave** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:57 pm

I would definitely buy it. I'm more partial to the classic early 80's type patches. Yaz, Human League, Devo, OMD, Duran Duran, Madonna, Gary Numan, Taco, Blanc Mange, Heaven 17, etc.

vinylwizard · Post by **vinylwizard** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 7:21 pm

personally I think you absolutely have to sample with different filter settings - filters are an integral part of a synths sound.

Agree that obviously raw waves should be provided also but other patches can be well mapped to things like velocity, mod wheel or even vector to capture filters from the actual synths.

You can't sample a moog and not sample the filter!

Edit: Consider a program such as extreme sample converter to automate the velocity to filter process. That's what I did when I sampled my Cwejman S1...

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 7:44 pm

I'd actually like to see settings on the AL1 that put me in the direction of an old EMS synth.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 8:05 pm

vinylwizard wrote:personally I think you absolutely have to sample with different filter settings - filters are an integral part of a synths sound.

Agree that obviously raw waves should be provided also but other patches can be well mapped to things like velocity, mod wheel or even vector to capture filters from the actual synths.

You can't sample a moog and not sample the filter!

Edit: Consider a program such as extreme sample converter to automate the velocity to filter process. That's what I did when I sampled my Cwejman S1...

We've been considering doing samples with the filter sweeps, but how would you map the filter to the mod wheel? And velocity mapping? None of those Moogs except the modern ones (Voyager, LP etc) even have velocity. Or midi, for that matter, so ESC is out too. If only it were so simple!

vinylwizard · Post by **vinylwizard** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:06 am

ah true that. Yes ESC and sampling using velocity to filter etc are of limited use with old synths which will require a much more manual approach and be more time consuming. But if you are buying a sample pack that is what you are paying for.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:16 am

I don't mind it being time consuming, I just don't get what the velocity to filter approach would do for the authenticity of the sound if the original synth doesn't even have it?

zzz · Post by **zzz** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:16 pm

Perhaps a filter sweep looped, so it could be used as part of a wavetable type voice (I'm thinking of something like the timbres available in Animoog here)? That. too, would cut down on many megabytes being used; always a bonus.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:37 am

I'm kind of the attitude that just because the old synth didn't have it, it doesnt mean that it shouldn't hace had it.
Just because that technology didn't exist then doesn't mean that we shouldn't exploit it now!