Having spent much of the past thirty years beating the hell out of guitars and basses, I am fairly new to programming synthesizers. I did briefly own a cheap, monophonic synth back in the late 80s, but in those pre-Internet days, I really had no idea what I was doing: the only thing I got out of it was something that sounded like a Lancaster bomber. Today, the availability of online resources makes the programming process considerably less intimidating.
Despite having a long love for synthesizer-based music (I had Tangerine Dream’s Stratosfear in 1978 – I was 16), I only seriously began creating electronic music a little over a year ago. Blame age, disillusionment, or Cipralex, but I no longer have the anger to play punk. Anyway, I started with a midi keyboard and free VSTs (things that didn’t exist in 1978) and began experimenting and reading everything I could get my eyes on. OK, so it doesn’t take long to grasp the concept of ADSR, but if you show this abbreviation to most people, they will stare blankly at you and quite possibly tell you to go away.
The first VST I felt comfortable to program my own patches on was Polyvoks Station.
As you can see, it has a straight-forward GUI, which helps as it does not have a manual. Don’t understand why this VST doesn’t get more love and attention, but then again I also have a long-time fascination with the Soviets.
Enter the Xio. So now, I have real knobs. And menus. Menus are new. Unlike VSTs, you have to look for things. Not good for a visual learner. Plus, the number of parameters that can be tweaked has risen. A lot. Mathematically, there has to be limited number of permutations, but more than most of us will get to in a lifetime. And, naturally, some of them will suck. The trick, of course, is to find the ones that don’t.
I started creating simple patches (one unison saw is about as simple as you can get), but soon wanted to get deeper into the Xio. So, like many before me, I turned to the Minimoog for inspiration. More specifically, the Minimoog Patch Book and Arturia’s Minimoog V. Sure, there is probably something odd about using a 2-D virtual synth to help comprehend a 3-D real synth, but I need graphics. On the other hand, I now know that the secrets to getting Minimoog sounds out of a Xio include:
1. Generous amounts of portamento
2. Tweaking the Mod Env Depth to get the squelch
3. Serious Unison detuning
Try this Portishead patch on your Xio. Go nuts with the pitch/mod joystick.
I leave you today with a song recorded pre-Xio, give you an idea where my head's at.
TJ
1 comment:
Cool, and yes I remember Tangerine Dream in your smoke-filled room!
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