Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "Richard BT" <richardscott@b...>
wrote:
> a bit OT and just out of interest Afro, but why isn't the G2 engine
working 
> out for ya? Sound? complexity? interface?
> 
> Richard

Oh, it's alright, but it's just too clean, thin and sterile. If I
wanted super clean "professional" sounds, then I would be very happy.
But I'm more into the big dirty sounds the Evolver does effortlessly.
I've tried programming similar sounds for the G2, but it's just so
much effort to dirty it up, to make it do subtle weird things to the
sound. And it's not much fun to play around with. Even with a
Behringer BCR controller it's still like playing a soft synth, but
with 0 latency. I really like to see what I'm doing, and the Evolver's
nice because it's all right there in front of you. I'm sure I'd
probably like the G2 alot more if I had the keyboard version with the
excellent interface, but that's 2 grand more and I can't afford it...

But yeah, every now and then I get a nice sound out of it, or a track
might require a nice clean pad or some controlled sub bass or
something and it's really good at those sorts of "typical" sounds.
It's good as an effect processor too. But it's very uninspiring
despite being a modular synth. It's got absolutely 0 character. You
can program that character into it, but it's still got that G2
undertone. I've played a Lead 2, and also stuffed around with a Nord
Micro, and this is like the boring, super clean cut, 9-5 office job,
needs to get out more older brother.

There are probably a handful of patches I've made, and a few from the
mailing list/forum that I really like, and then a ton of patches that
are frustrated attempts at getting it to sound the way I want it to.
And then I go to the Evolver and spend 5 minutes programming it and
get a really crazy sound that I've never heard before.

What attracted me was the whole powerful modular thing - like Reaktor
but more intuitive and a piece of hardware as opposed to software that
may crash at any moment. What I wasn't counting on was the complete
lack of any character and warmth.

If that's what you're after Richard, then this is the ultimate. It can
do anything, and everything it does is clean and polished - no matter
how much you distort and bit crush it, it still sounds "clean"... well
not quite, but you get the idea ;). It would be good if you have to
compose some tracks for a TV show or a movie or something and they
just want something that works and sounds nice. For more experimental
electronic music, I hate to say it, but this will probably disappoint you.

Sorry for the rant, I hope I didn't offend anyone. I'm not trying to
offend people who are looking for that kind of sound (and if you are,
why do you own an Evolver? ;)) but just that it doesn't work for me.

Richard - if you're really keen on trying out the G2, get the software
demo from www.clavia.se . The engine is basically that x 4 and
polyphonic. It sounds very similar to the real engine too, although it
runs at 44.1k/16-bit instead of the engine's 96k/24-bit.

Afro88