Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

well, the K5 sound can be fatten up in multi mode, but that eats a lot of polyphony... anyway the "pureness" of the additive sound (only harmonic partials, no noise generator) is prone to sound very digital and kind of sterile anyway... of course I love it for what it is! :)
I mean it's horses for courses, and I like my setup because of its versatility... subtractive, additive, wavetable... just add imagination and the will to create new strange sounds!

I hate the fact that the day that I'll be able to program additive synthesis, I'll be a dinosaur for real... brilliant concept, but a pain to program... the easiest way is to analyze some samples and attempt resynthesis... additive can turn yourself into a sort of mega-synth-nerd and eat up a lot of playing time... but an inspiring new sound can lead to a brilliant song!

F.

p.s.
I'm glad you're doing better!

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, "Rish" <rish@...> wrote:
>
> Well....now that I can stand up again, I am doing Lead vocals in my current Electro Rock Dance band and a friend is using my SD1 32 synth rig. Ya you have some old synths, I had the K5 for a while but man is that a soft sounding synth! no attack or punch at all. I really like the TG500 racks!
> 
> R
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: somethingkillingyou 
>   To: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 8:01 PM
>   Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] Re: Ensoniq Sequencers, Pt.2
> 
> 
>     
>   my first synth was an Oberheim OB12... I paid full price for it (new!) in 2005... it's the only synth I bought new... and it wasn't even a fancy synth at that time! (I guess it will never be... but I truly love it)... then others followed, the main rules being: cheap, strange, different, unhyped. 
> 
>   I think I can say I love synths that most of the people hate (or at least does not love THAT much...)
> 
>   the prove? here's my gear list...
> 
>   Ensoniq SD1/32
>   Kawai K1m
>   Kawai K3
>   Kawai K4r
>   Kawai K5
>   Oberheim DPX-1
>   Oberheim OB-12
>   Quasimidi Raven Max
>   Quasimidi Sirius
>   Siel Mono
> 
>   cheap Behringer mixer (don't remember which model)
>   Focusrite Saffire Pro40 audio interface
> 
>   PC running XP
>   Cubase SX
> 
>   ...add mics, guitars, bass, amps and fx of course...
> 
>   I still have my drumset but I don't play drums in my current OMB project! rather funny, since I started as a drummer something like 17 years ago! I was young... now I'm 30... fuck, time is a bitch!
> 
>   Fabio
> 
>   --- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Rish <rish@> wrote:
>   >
>   > Remember this industry is driven on making you believe that you "can't do it" if you don't have the newest synth, sampler, guitar, effects, mics and more. 
>   > 
>   > I think It's ok to be a gear whore as long as you set limits and keep your head.
>   > 
>   > What I have connected to my SD1:
>   > 
>   > 2 Motu MTP ll midi networks.
>   > Korg M3R
>   > 2 Yamaha TG500
>   > Proteus FX
>   > Roland D550
>   > Roland JV1080
>   > 2 Akai S1000 samplers
>   > Boss Dr 770 drum machine
>   > 
>   > R
>   > 
>   > 
>   > 
>   > Sent from my iPod
>   > 
>   > On Mar 22, 2011, at 3:18 PM, "somethingkillingyou" <somethingkillingyou@> wrote:
>   > 
>   > > oh yeah, you got to be creative with your gear! "in love and war there ain't no rules"... let's put music in too!
>   > > 
>   > > I still think some aspects of this sequencer are (a bit) counter-intuitive, anyway I don't think there are really "better" sequencers out there... 
>   > > 
>   > > I hate software sequencers with a passion, and I limit the use of the pc to recording, mixing and... web surfing... 
>   > > web surfing is surely bad when you spend too much time lusting for extra gear (the notorius Gear Acquisition Syndrome...)... 
>   > > 
>   > > ...but it's good instead when you can talk with smart persons that can help you concentrate yourself on what you can do with YOUR gear and stop lusting for something that 99% of the time you don't even need!
>   > > 
>   > > Fabio
>   > > 
>   > > --- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Rish <rish@> wrote:
>   > > >
>   > > > That's great news, I have been using my SD for many years with outboard gear. I never seq the drums on the SD as it easts lots of notes, instead I just slave a real drum machine and create the seq/songs drum parts on the drum machine.
>   > > > 
>   > > > R 
>   > > > 
>   > > > Sent from my iPod
>   > > > 
>   > > > On Mar 22, 2011, at 10:58 AM, "somethingkillingyou" <somethingkillingyou@> wrote:
>   > > > 
>   > > > > hi folks, 
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > last year I started a topic about Ensoniq's sequencers...
>   > > > > my point, at that time, was that the sequencers I was using were more than enough, and had more facilities, so my SD1's sequencer was pretty useless and so on...
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > a year passed by... a few days ago, I took the bull by its horns and 'forced' myself to use SD1's internal sequencer... 
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > I remembered that last year, I started by reading the manual, and I quickly got tired about it all...
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > this time, no manual reading! I just sit and managed to record some drums and bass patterns (I mean 'backing' tracks for a rock song, not drum & bass uh)... in a few minutes I was sequencing my first "song" on the SD1! I recorded in realtime, sometimes I used record overdub ("add") for the drum parts; also, I used quantization a lot because I was not used to record drums in realtime, after years of drumgrid sequencers use...
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > and I have to say, it's not that bad instead! it's whole logic is a bit different than what I was used to, but all in all it's not THAT hard to use... 
>   > > > > now I have to go give a good read to the fucking manual to better master the various functions, but I must recognize that it is worth the effort after all... 
>   > > > > I know there is a step sequencer in there too, and I can always use external arpeggiators and record their midi output in a SD1 track...
>   > > > > that way, the sequencer is going to be a real weapon! 
>   > > > > the trick is: don't limit the sequencer to it's own features, but use your other gear in tandem with it!
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > also, now I can finally use odd time measures (5/4, 7/8 and so on) and have different tempos for each part of the song... 
>   > > > > yes! the sequencer I used up to now (quasimidi raven and sirius) only let you choose tempo for the whole song, and the time measure is fixed in 4/4... once, to sequence a song that had a tempo change between the verse and the chorus, I had to use triplets a/o strange bar lenght... I don't even remember how I did it! that was insane... 
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > so, welcome SD1 sequencer!
>   > > > > 
>   > > > > Fabio
>   > > > > 
>   > > > >
>   > > >
>   > > 
>   > >
>   >
>