Of Modeler Amps and Very Good Soft Synths and Mixes - A Manifesto

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Part II of above post...

The "mushing out" problem, the problem of three dimensionality and movement, the problem of aural feel, and the problem of papery sound, are the areas I think guitar amp emulations have difficulty. It finally occurred to me that instead of trying to emulate something with software, or a blend of software and hardware as with things like the Kemper or Axe FX, things that still have the imperfections I've outlined (to my ear/brain), the best thing to do is use real amplifiers. I do think, however, that the Kemper technology works better than the algorithm based technology of most modelers.

And other than the fact that real amplifiers are loud, why wouldn't you use a real amplifier if you have good sounding ones at hand, and what you want is the exact sound of a real amplifier (I realize of course that you might not have the amp you want for a given thing, or you might prefer modeled sounds, but that's another story and isn't the question I'm asking).

Real amplifiers are the best way to emulate real amplifiers, right? There aren't any questions or issues, they're real. Just as real vocalists are the best way to emulate vocalists (and yes, of course I have software that does vocals, but not very well).

Drums? Well, drums are easier to emulate, though the emulations are far from perfect. But at least the sounds are shorter, and they go past the ear pretty quickly. So they mix a little better unless you're picky, which I am, but budgets often don't let me use real drums. I live with that, and it vexes the crap out of me. I like booking studios and hiring drummers.

Unfortunately, as wonderful and powerful as soft synths are -- and I love what you can do with them -- I also don't like what you can't do with them very easily. At least to my taste. And that is mix them with live instruments. This is not a matter of digital v analog synths -- DX7s mixed perfectly with real instruments back in the day. My D-50 cut just fine. I deployed 3 Kurzweil K2000s, digital synth/samplers that were not a problem to mix. And nearly every film score in the 80s and 90s had some Fairlight blended in with the orchestra. My Microwave XT was something I used on every project, and all were digital running out of hardware systems.

So my plan is to use the best sounding soft synths, that are closest to the sound of hardware (and there are quite a few that are really good at it) and run those through hardware to make them sit better in the mix.

So why'd I order a hardware synth? Because it sounds great and will save me some steps in my workflow. And it'll just be more fun to use.

I hope this explains where I am with this. I am not against digital. I'm not a "has to be on tape" guy. I don't use tape any more, and haven't since the 90s. I am not using a traditional console, though I will invest in another summing mixer when I add more channels of D/A conversion, not because it sounds "better" but because it adds something to the sound that I want to hear.

Digital isn't worse than analog, it's just different from analog. Ultimately, however, anything digital has to turn into analog at some point in order to hear it. I think it's how that's accomplished that makes or breaks a mix.

 

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I don't know what time I logged on tonight, but certainly after 3 AM. I was in the studio working with the new Prophet 12 that I picked up late in the afternoon. It really sounds great. I'm not even 1/4 of the way through the onboard sounds, because I keep stopping to tweak and mess with the controls to see what the synth can do.

Of course, working with an external synth in Logic is both easy and frustrating at the same time. Logic is a dream for soft synths, but not very powerful for hardware synths unless you want to go into the Environment, create a multi instrument, and type in patch lists and control routings. However, I found an editor librarian that's a plugin that allows control of the patches, lets you save lots of additional banks, and of course control the synth's features. I'm more into using the knobs, but it's nice not to have to type in all the patch lists and even better to be able to save patches to a librarian like in the old days.

The Prophet 12 sounds different from plugin synths - it's hard to describe in words, but a lot easier to hear. It's almost as though the sound stage widens and opens up going from the plugins to a Prophet track. I have no idea why this is. Even the best sounding plugins I have, from companies like Waldorf and XILs, that sound very good indeed sound narrower between the speakers than the hardware P12. It's weird, but when I say, "huge" I mean it. Also the fundamentals on the bottom frequencies seem richer.

Sonically, it reminds me a little of the Sequential Prophet VS, that I had in my studio back in the day, that was Sequential's first digital synth, but it's also very different, and a bit different from a pure analog synth, too.

Of course the real test will be how it blends in a mix with real bass/guitar/drums, and that hasn't happened yet. So I will report back and provide clips as I work through the potential of this thing.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

That's dope that you're diggin' the sound, and it looks a like a killer performance synth. You running it through the Reds?

I want to "Hulk Smash" LogicX when dealing with more than two CC's (not including pitch and mod). I hope the editor makes it smoother for you.

 

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That's dope that you're diggin' the sound, and it looks a like a killer performance synth. You running it through the Reds?

I want to "Hulk Smash" LogicX when dealing with more than two CC's (not including pitch and mod). I hope the editor makes it smoother for you.

I've run it with and without the Reds and even the Avalon, that do give it a tiny bit different character. Sounds really nice both ways!

I think it'd be great in a performance setting - the keyboard responds really well, and there are the wheels and the ribbon controllers. The thing has a sound quality that's really...beautiful, honestly. I think a Moog Sub 37 or a Prophet 6 would be the perfect complement to it. On the one hand you'd have the P12 that can create very complex and beautiful sounds, with Curtis filters, and on the other, an instrument that does different good things with different kinds of filters. All good!

My only criticisms so far are that the keys themselves feel a little fragile for a player with a heavy hand (I play very lightly), and when local control is off (for use with a sequencer) there's a bug that the patch select buttons don't do anything even though the other controls work! This would drive me batty, however, looking at the company forum, DSI is aware of this bug, and working on a fix for a new instrument software update that should be out shortly. Meantime I can easily select patches from the plugin editor/librarian or simply create an environment object and import patch lists, or turn local control on while selecting patches, in which case the patch select buttons work as expected.

Some of the factory presets are really awesome, some, well...sound like old school factory presets. But the instrument has far more potential than the presets imply. The instrument is pretty deep; not as goofy-techy deep as my old K2000s were with their V.A.S.T. technology, but at least as deeps as the Waldorf stuff, if not deeper, so it;'s going to take some time to grok the whole package. The manual is brief and well written, which is a relief. I hate reading manuals. In the manual Dave Smith says to just start turning knobs and see what happens, since turning knobs can't break anything.

At 28 pounds, it's not too heavy to take to an outside studio, but the casing is sturdy steel all the way around, with solid walnut end pieces and trim under the keyboard front. Feels very substantial.

That's pretty much it, really, except that I forgot to include a pic, and that's something I'm going to remedy right now and insert into this post!

Edit: Here's a pic showing the Prophet. The computer screen shows the plugin librarian.

 

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Here's an interesting coincidence.

Today I had lunch with my studio owning/ad music buddy Gary, who I hadn't seen since January. We've been good friends for many years, and we've done a lot of recording in each others' studios because we collaborated often on projects, etc. Gary was in the business about ten years before I was, and as a result had collected an amazing array of synths and outboard gear, that he kept. Back when I got rid of mine and went all "in the box," Gary simply put his old stuff away in a storage room.

So after lunch we went back to his studio, and I was floored to see that he had reinstalled all of his best analog and digital hardware synths; out for use and ready to go were a Prophet VS keyboard and rack, a Prophet T-8, a PPG Wave 2.3, a Waldorf Wave, two Microwave racks, an ARP 2600, and even the rarest of the rare, an Axcel Resynthesizer. I was in heaven!

I said, "This is awesome! I thought you were all in the box now." And he said, "One day I pulled one of these out and it sounded so great..."

Like me, his plan is to use the hardware in combination with the best of the software. Small world! I must not be alone.

I don't know if any of this matters at all to anyone here. But I'm posting it anyway.

And I left my phone in the car and forgot to take pics. I know a few here would love to see that stuff.