Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

Why fatten it at all?
Just save it for the softy parts.

I mean, the ONE lesson, perhaps the most valuable lesson that I learned
long, long, ago applied to synths and computers in exactly the same way.
That is:  There's No Such Thing As One Unit That Does It All.

The biggest problem people have with their computers is trying to do
EVERYTHING on them.  Computers are CHEAP.  Buy an old one to write your
great novel on.  $10.  Never crash.  It has nothing to do.  The Mac I do
music on could be purchased today for some similar price.  Maybe $50.  It
never crashes.  It does NOTHING except music.

And synths are the same way.  What's that K5 worth?  $100?  tops?  I have a
Kawai K1r and I use it when I need *that sound* -- otherwise it sits.  For
$50, I could buy another if I wanted one.  So letting it sit costs me
nothing.  Fatten it up?  I'd never do that.  I have other synths for "fat".
Saves me time and hassle trying to get 'fat' from a synth that could never
do it in the first place.  Some synths just ain't got 'fat'... other synths
ain't got 'light'.   Easy.

For many years, they tried to sell us synths that would sound like something
else.  Synths that would sound like everything else.  After a while, I
finally caught on that not only were they *lying* and would say anything to
make a sale -- marketing hype -- but I was far ahead to not stay up late
nights trying to teach a pig to sing.  I just let the synth do its own
thing.

Y'know, my first synth was a brand new Arp Odyssey in 1976.  $1400 for a
monophonic non-progammable synth.  $1400 of THOSE dollars, when gas was 76
cents/gallon and we were shocked it jumped that high.  As far as I'm
concerned, there has never been a better time to make electronic music than
right now.  The very best synths EVER are also the cheapest synths to be
had.  For that same $1400 today, I could have a rack-full of stuff with
*100* voices, easy.  

And don't get me started on my $8,500 Prophet-10 I bought new....  Yup.  One
synth.  10 voices.  But it had two manuals!  ;-)

L.

   

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> somethingkillingyou
> Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 8:59 PM
> To: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] Re: Ensoniq Sequencers, Pt.2
> 
> 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.