7 ms·

Or go modular. Just be prepared to remortgage your house a year later. Seriously addictive [1] https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 (my se

by louthy 7y ago

Or go modular. Just be prepared to remortgage your house a year later. Seriously addictive [1] https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 (my setup)

Aromasin 7y ago
Or go a step further and build them yourself. You get to keep the house, but you won't be able to make much use of it because every available space is taken up with a random assortment of wires, op-amps, resistors and capacitors. DIY synth making will take up every bit of spare time you think you have left, and then some. Your hands will become a puzzle of soldering iron scars, and you'll slowly lose your hearing from accidental speaker pops. You have been warned.
- louthy 7y ago
  > Or go a step further and build them yourself. Absolutely! There's a group on FB called 'Eurorack DIY' if anyone's interested in this. Thonk [1] is also the store for you. Lots of DIY kits (before you inevitably embark on the path of building your own modules from scratch!) [1] https://www.thonk.co.uk/ https://www.thonk.co.uk/
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    There's a guy on YouTube that got me into it which I highly recommend, called 'LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER'. He made a synth organ out of old Furbies toys. From that point I was sold. Also, as much as I love the Thonk products, don't get put off by the price tags of some of their kits if you're intimidated! Some of my favourite synths have been made from penny parts I got from Alibaba, that totalled about £15 to make. They have a habit of sometimes spontaneously exploding, but that's all part of the fun.
    - louthy 7y ago
      > They have a habit of sometimes spontaneously exploding, but that's all part of the fun. So you lose your house anyway ;)
      - Aromasin 7y ago
        Depends how big you make your capacitors :D
- runarberg 7y ago
  You can get a set of lego-like toy synth for like 160 bucks. I got one of those and I do recommend it for learning and fun, even as an adult. https://littlebits.com/products/synth-kit https://littlebits.com/products/synth-kit
- rhizome 7y ago
  Spending all of your free time soldering is not the same as making music.
  - timc3 7y ago
    Which is why i have been purchasing my modular instead of building it.. so far. Secondhand market is great for Eurorack
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    Implying I care about making music? It's a different hobby all together. They merge to some extent, but I enjoy designing synths much more than I do making music on them. I enjoy the act of building. A person interested in writing software doesn't have to care about using the software. A person interested in fixing and building kit cars doesn't have to care about driving them. A person working out can be doing it because they enjoy it, not because they care about any end goal. A person baking bread doesn't always have to eat it. A person painting a picture doesn't have to adorn it on the wall when they're done. There's a lot more to hobbies then just what you get at the finish line. The process is often much more fun than the result at the end of it, or what you can do with that end product.
- diydsp 7y ago
  Holy cow that's me! I at least try to save some sanity by doing it with DSP, but constructing instruments from the circuit boards and controls still needs oodles of soldering. I spent this morning redoing the wiring on two stomp stiches- I had wired them rotated at a 90 degree angle!() () at least I didn't have to resolder the center terminal...
betageek 7y ago
Or go virtual modular https://vcvrack.com/Rack.html https://vcvrack.com/Rack.html and keep your house
Shinchy 7y ago
Love it! That's a great setup, bet it sounds amazing through those SSL racks too.
- louthy 7y ago
  Sure does! And then the middle rack is my master buss chain: Chandler Curve Bender EQ [1] (the best EQ I've ever heard), Chandler Zener Limiter [2], and then the SSL Fusion [3] - which is a new box from SSL which does lots of lovely things. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUv9GtMlUwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUv9GtMlUwA [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6agTPMwbL8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6agTPMwbL8A [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G0-Qvkr1UU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G0-Qvkr1UU
smcameron 7y ago
Behringer neutron is an affordable gateway drug.
- louthy 7y ago
  For me it was the Make Noise 0-Coast [1], which has many of the West Coast sensibilities. The Neutron (which you'll see I've reskinned in my setup) is a great synth, but is still more of a 'standard' subtractive (East Coast) synth. Although it does have some interesting wave shapes and can produce lots of filthy tones. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FW8QYt6bio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FW8QYt6bio
munificent 7y ago
Non-snarky question: how much music do you finish? Every time I think about getting more into synths, I worry that I'll just end up endlessly noodling and never actually complete any songs. Years ago, I bought a copy of Reason and had tons of fun playing with it, but eventually I realized that after every session, I was rarely any closer to having a completed work I could share with others.
- core-questions 7y ago
  I became productive with Reason probably around 5 years after I started noodling. Learning the sequencer inside and out was critical, and somehow the less obvious part of the system, as it breaks the physical metaphor - everything else is boxes connecting to other boxes, but the sequencer has no physical representation, no back-side where note lanes connect gate/CV to the synth, just magical software connections. 5 years after that I was releasing stuff that maybe, someone might want to listen to. Could have been a lot quicker with some training as opposed to just continually messing around with it. I think in another few years I will have something that actually sounds good, sonically. Mastering is the hardest part so far.
- mackrevinack 7y ago
  i was only thinking about this a few days ago. ive been using reason on and off since version 4 and i have never finished a song! it was the same when i played guitar. i was never really interested in making music for other people and i got a lot more enjoyment out of just noodling around
  - munificent 7y ago
    > it was the same when i played guitar. I really noticed the difference when I started a band and played bass. With each of us having a single dedicated instrument and feedback from each other, it was a lot easier to make progress and get things done.
- scarecrowbob 7y ago
  Among a lot of other kinds of music, I like ambient electronic music. I go through periods where I just get an okay sound going, and then play with it for 5-10 minutes, and record the stereo bus. So after a period of this, I usually get 10-12 recordings. I mean, it's not great. It's not the same as learning a bluegrass tune on banjo and polishing it till I can play it super fast, but I like the results enough to share them with people. So, in this context all the noodling _is_ the completed work. Here's the result of the last period: https://westtexasjohn.com/category/synth-diary/ https://westtexasjohn.com/category/synth-diary/
tibbon 7y ago
Heh; the rather nice gear in the racks below isn't helping costs either :) Nice setup!
- louthy 7y ago
  Indeed! The rest of the studio (unseen) doesn't help either! Still, it makes me happy, can't put a price on that ... well, it seems you can, but I'm sure you get my point ;)
IAmGraydon 7y ago
Pretty! I think the Behringer Neutron is a good, inexpensive place to start.

by louthy 7y ago

Or go modular. Just be prepared to remortgage your house a year later. Seriously addictive [1] https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 https://imgur.com/a/chegsO5 (my setup)

Aromasin 7y ago

Or go a step further and build them yourself. You get to keep the house, but you won't be able to make much use of it because every available space is taken up with a random assortment of wires, op-amps, resistors and capacitors. DIY synth making will take up every bit of spare time you think you have left, and then some. Your hands will become a puzzle of soldering iron scars, and you'll slowly lose your hearing from accidental speaker pops. You have been warned.

louthy 7y ago
> Or go a step further and build them yourself. Absolutely! There's a group on FB called 'Eurorack DIY' if anyone's interested in this. Thonk [1] is also the store for you. Lots of DIY kits (before you inevitably embark on the path of building your own modules from scratch!) [1] https://www.thonk.co.uk/ https://www.thonk.co.uk/
- Aromasin 7y ago
  There's a guy on YouTube that got me into it which I highly recommend, called 'LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER'. He made a synth organ out of old Furbies toys. From that point I was sold. Also, as much as I love the Thonk products, don't get put off by the price tags of some of their kits if you're intimidated! Some of my favourite synths have been made from penny parts I got from Alibaba, that totalled about £15 to make. They have a habit of sometimes spontaneously exploding, but that's all part of the fun.
  - louthy 7y ago
    > They have a habit of sometimes spontaneously exploding, but that's all part of the fun. So you lose your house anyway ;)
    - Aromasin 7y ago
      Depends how big you make your capacitors :D
runarberg 7y ago
You can get a set of lego-like toy synth for like 160 bucks. I got one of those and I do recommend it for learning and fun, even as an adult. https://littlebits.com/products/synth-kit https://littlebits.com/products/synth-kit
rhizome 7y ago
Spending all of your free time soldering is not the same as making music.
- timc3 7y ago
  Which is why i have been purchasing my modular instead of building it.. so far. Secondhand market is great for Eurorack
- Aromasin 7y ago
  Implying I care about making music? It's a different hobby all together. They merge to some extent, but I enjoy designing synths much more than I do making music on them. I enjoy the act of building. A person interested in writing software doesn't have to care about using the software. A person interested in fixing and building kit cars doesn't have to care about driving them. A person working out can be doing it because they enjoy it, not because they care about any end goal. A person baking bread doesn't always have to eat it. A person painting a picture doesn't have to adorn it on the wall when they're done. There's a lot more to hobbies then just what you get at the finish line. The process is often much more fun than the result at the end of it, or what you can do with that end product.
diydsp 7y ago
Holy cow that's me! I at least try to save some sanity by doing it with DSP, but constructing instruments from the circuit boards and controls still needs oodles of soldering. I spent this morning redoing the wiring on two stomp stiches- I had wired them rotated at a 90 degree angle!() () at least I didn't have to resolder the center terminal...

betageek 7y ago

Or go virtual modular https://vcvrack.com/Rack.html https://vcvrack.com/Rack.html and keep your house

Shinchy 7y ago

Love it! That's a great setup, bet it sounds amazing through those SSL racks too.

louthy 7y ago
Sure does! And then the middle rack is my master buss chain: Chandler Curve Bender EQ [1] (the best EQ I've ever heard), Chandler Zener Limiter [2], and then the SSL Fusion [3] - which is a new box from SSL which does lots of lovely things. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUv9GtMlUwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUv9GtMlUwA [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6agTPMwbL8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6agTPMwbL8A [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G0-Qvkr1UU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G0-Qvkr1UU

smcameron 7y ago

Behringer neutron is an affordable gateway drug.

louthy 7y ago
For me it was the Make Noise 0-Coast [1], which has many of the West Coast sensibilities. The Neutron (which you'll see I've reskinned in my setup) is a great synth, but is still more of a 'standard' subtractive (East Coast) synth. Although it does have some interesting wave shapes and can produce lots of filthy tones. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FW8QYt6bio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FW8QYt6bio

munificent 7y ago

Non-snarky question: how much music do you finish? Every time I think about getting more into synths, I worry that I'll just end up endlessly noodling and never actually complete any songs. Years ago, I bought a copy of Reason and had tons of fun playing with it, but eventually I realized that after every session, I was rarely any closer to having a completed work I could share with others.

core-questions 7y ago
I became productive with Reason probably around 5 years after I started noodling. Learning the sequencer inside and out was critical, and somehow the less obvious part of the system, as it breaks the physical metaphor - everything else is boxes connecting to other boxes, but the sequencer has no physical representation, no back-side where note lanes connect gate/CV to the synth, just magical software connections. 5 years after that I was releasing stuff that maybe, someone might want to listen to. Could have been a lot quicker with some training as opposed to just continually messing around with it. I think in another few years I will have something that actually sounds good, sonically. Mastering is the hardest part so far.
mackrevinack 7y ago
i was only thinking about this a few days ago. ive been using reason on and off since version 4 and i have never finished a song! it was the same when i played guitar. i was never really interested in making music for other people and i got a lot more enjoyment out of just noodling around
- munificent 7y ago
  > it was the same when i played guitar. I really noticed the difference when I started a band and played bass. With each of us having a single dedicated instrument and feedback from each other, it was a lot easier to make progress and get things done.
scarecrowbob 7y ago
Among a lot of other kinds of music, I like ambient electronic music. I go through periods where I just get an okay sound going, and then play with it for 5-10 minutes, and record the stereo bus. So after a period of this, I usually get 10-12 recordings. I mean, it's not great. It's not the same as learning a bluegrass tune on banjo and polishing it till I can play it super fast, but I like the results enough to share them with people. So, in this context all the noodling _is_ the completed work. Here's the result of the last period: https://westtexasjohn.com/category/synth-diary/ https://westtexasjohn.com/category/synth-diary/

tibbon 7y ago

Heh; the rather nice gear in the racks below isn't helping costs either :) Nice setup!

louthy 7y ago
Indeed! The rest of the studio (unseen) doesn't help either! Still, it makes me happy, can't put a price on that ... well, it seems you can, but I'm sure you get my point ;)

IAmGraydon 7y ago

Pretty! I think the Behringer Neutron is a good, inexpensive place to start.