Expensive Synth Pedals??

[cosmicevan]

What do you you fine people (who obviously know more about midi than I do) suggest for a controller? I’d like to access like…. 8? 12? presets easily? But not spend like $300 to do so?

My favorite and what I'm currently using is the morningstar stuff (I'm using a MC8, ML5, and a 3 button external switch). So easy to program and use and supports so many things including expression and TRS midi output and the footprint is small.

For a budget controller, I used a Behringer FCB1010 for a while to control 2 different loopers. I liked it because it had 2 expression controllers available at all times plus 10 buttons and 10 banks. Little tricky/annoying to program but once you get the hang of it, not bad.

[manymanyhaha]

Just got the SY-200 and didn't do the research ahead of time. A little surprised that there isn't more editing capabilities beyond the SY-1 and the only things it adds are more variations, presets and midi. Though the additional variations and sounds are great, love em for the most part.

I'm curious if anyone out there has a SY-300 and has compared its sequencer to the Tararira?

[John]

Korg G5 is supposed to be nipplicious

https://reverb.com/p/korg-g5-bass-synth

[Hobbes96]

Alright yall, I just picked up a SY-1000 with a stupid lowball. I'll update this thread once I've gotten to know it a bit better but so far it seems to really have it all

[manymanyhaha]

First, after playing with it for awhile, I don't think the PandaMIDI Deep Impact is for me. It sounds amazing but I'm not a monophonic player and having a really difficult time with it and finally came to the conclusion that it's just not going to work: I require polyphonic tracking.

So. Picked up a mint sy-300 for a really good price and just spent an hour with it.

Often these days, I get a pedal and am surprised at how small it is. Adventure Audio Mother Tongue looks huge in the photos but it is actually quite small. EHX Oceans 12, the same.

This thing is way bigger than I was expecting, almost as big as the 14" monitor on my board. I looked up the measurements ahead of time but looking at 10" on a tape measure and the reality of it, wow, not the same thing.

It was fun playing with it for an hour. Having messed with various Boss stuff in the past (RC-50, RC-300, MD-200, SY-200, DL-500 etc), it was pretty intuitive to navigate the menus and start coming up with sounds. There are three oscillators that can be mixed in any desired way and each can be routed to three effects in configurable ways. Lots and lots of sounds to be had. But for a mono input pedal this size, fuck. If it had stereo inputs, I could maybe justify it.

Also surprised at the lack of really nice and simple ADSR control. There is some control over the envelope but surprised at how little. I guess the OP-1 spoiled me, I expect everything to have that kind of easy ADSR control now and surprised that after a decade of the OP-1, Boss can't co-opt that simple and beautifully functional ADSR interface. Anyway.

It got me thinking though, because I now have the ability insert VST effects into the signal chain, if there are any good guitar synth vsts out there. Pretty quickly I found this: https://www.jamorigin.com/products/

According to everything I've read so far, it is supposed to be really good at converting your guitar playing to midi so that one can play VSTi's, without hex pickups and all that jazz. Anyone messed with this? Because it is a rabbit hole I'm thinking about.

[backwardsvoyager]

I've messed around with the Jam Origin plugin a bit.
You have to fiddle around with the guitar setup and alter your playing a lot to optimize the tracking, and it can be hard to get tidy polyphonic output.

It's pretty decent for what it is, though, and probably tracks better than most pickup-less synth pedals.

Having said that, you'd be much better off with a hex pickup if you want low latency and the ability to track complex polyphonic stuff.

[manymanyhaha]

I've never really even thought about midi hex pickups, from afar it always looked like the musician equivalent of trying to read brainwaves with strange tinfoil hats. Did I really just research midi hex pickups for the last hour? I did and am now a little curious.

The one that looks the least intrusive is the Fishman Tripleplay but it appears to get mixed reviews.

I don't know, I'm kind of excited about the prospect of making my own samples like I used to a long time ago and getting back into making weirdo found sound pseudo-ambient whateverness again, but with my guitar into my setup now. I think I will download the Jam Origin trial and try to get of sense of what you are saying about the tracking. It may not need to be that complex, just better than the crackup the PandaMidi and M3 do any time a second note is layered.

[manymanyhaha]

Alright, I bought Jam Origin. This is fun. The SY-300 can go find some other pedalboard to bully pedals off of. This might be the end of the Enzo, SY-200, Mel9 too.

I haven't paid attention at all to VSTi/virtual synths. I definitely need a Sample Player for my own samples and what else? I pretty much only have the Puremagnetik stuff and Softube Parallels. And I have Reaktor 6 but I'm not a fan of its workflow. I know we are supposed to be talking about pedals............ sorry, so un-ILF of me

[backwardsvoyager]

That's a whole 'nother rabbit hole, there.

Arturia V Collection is great if you want super easy to use hardware emulations. Pigments makes some lovely sounds, too.

Synthmaster is a great entry point because it often goes on sale for next to nothing and the presets cover just about every style imaginable.

Kontakt is a lot of fun, too.

[manymanyhaha]

Indeed it is. Thanks for those tips, having quite a bit of fun with Pigments.

Also, Newfangled Generate

I bought TAL Sampler because it wasn't very expensive and people seem to like it a lot however it if I start to find it too limiting, I'm going to look at Kontakt. From what I've read, your imagination is the limit as far as working with your own samples. It's been a long time since I messed with sampling, had so much fun with it in the 90's but I think I get bored with the tediousness and limits of the Peavey SP I was using. I'm not even sure if that thing had filtering, it might have just been playing with pitch and VCA. Maybe something else that I can't remember. Can't believe how far things have come, this is not tedious at all, this is fun!

And doing it all with guitar, which is what I love to play. Amazing

[manymanyhaha]

I've messed around with the Jam Origin plugin a bit.
You have to fiddle around with the guitar setup and alter your playing a lot to optimize the tracking, and it can be hard to get tidy polyphonic output

Having said that, you'd be much better off with a hex pickup if you want low latency and the ability to track complex polyphonic stuff.

I got a Fishman TriplePlay last year to mess around with, and it's definitely on a whole different level as far as tracking goes, and super easy to use with any synth VST.
Obviously a pain to rig up for live use, but with one of those and a laptop + interface + midi controller there's nothing you can't do.

Starting to understand what you mean about Jam Origin. It tracks fine but then will drop a note or two and repeat. Also, there is a latency to it that I am little confused by because in my DAW (Gig Performer), if a plugin has latency, it is added to the entire chain, even in Bypass. But when I bypass Jam Origin, the latency goes away. Curious of two things:

a) If you or anyone else experienced this latency with this program?

b) Fishman TriplePlay - Is that the Wireless version for PC/Mac or the IOS? From what you say there, latency and tracking are much better, correct?

[backwardsvoyager]

Aside from the tracking delay I don't think it gave me any noticeable latency, but I use Reaper and rarely stack more than a couple of plugins, so not sure there.

I have the wireless TriplePlay. Allegedly the cheaper wired one works on PC and tracks exactly the same, though.

The latency is barely audible and tracking is better than any plugins or pedals I've tried. I can't vouch for it 100% though because I may have just lucked out with it working well on my particular guitar.

[manymanyhaha]

Aside from the tracking delay I don't think it gave me any noticeable latency, but I use Reaper and rarely stack more than a couple of plugins, so not sure there.

I have the wireless TriplePlay. Allegedly the cheaper wired one works on PC and tracks exactly the same, though.

The latency is barely audible and tracking is better than any plugins or pedals I've tried. I can't vouch for it 100% though because I may have just lucked out with it working well on my particular guitar.

You know, "tracking delay" might be what I mean instead of latency. Because as I said, latency in Gig Performer, and really all DAWs that have built-in latency compensation, is compensated for if the plugin is bypassed or not. This would explain why I experience "latency" when not bypassed but none when bypassed.

I would definitely want the wireless, think I will try it and see.

[manymanyhaha]

Alright, got a TriplePlay and it is indeed all manner of Hell. Yes. Love. It. No latency, or tracking delay, this IS guitar synth. All that other stuff, whatevs. Selling all my synth pedals.

Had some problem getting it setup, didn't want to pair but then magically after many tries, it just started working

Should have listened to you from the beginning. Wait, wait, wait, are you my dad?

[backwardsvoyager]

Glad it worked out

I also found the initial setup a bit fiddly, but it hasn't dropped out or needed to be reset or anything since, works perfectly every time.