What 'hidden gems' have you found on your synths?

[knolan]

Do you use any of your synths in ways you believe are unique and that haven't been mentioned/flagged elsewhere - hidden gems you believe you've uncovered.

I believe I have some. Here are two examples:

1. Juno 106 - it's stable DCO combined with VFC self-resonance produces beautiful bell / Fender-Rhodes pianos sounds that I've never heard elsewhere. You have to transpose the instrument up an octave and play around with the filter self resonance careful keyboard tracking and no envelope to filter, and can only use them over a few octaves, but they are jaw-droppingly chime-rich, especially with some onboard chorus 1. In similar vein, this combination, but with slow attack on the envelope, a smidgen of reverse envelope applied to filter cutoff and application of white noise, all fed into an external reverb, gives an absolutely massive choral type sound that goes far beyond typical Juno sounds and what you might imagine it can deliver. Overall, the combination of the Juno's DCO stability and the warmth of its VCF and chorus (combined with appropriate extenal DDL and/or reverb) offers a huge palette of sounds I haven't heard elsewhere.

2. The JD800 preset C27, with vocal sample removed (leaving three detuned saw-tooth waves) but played from another synth with un-sprung modulation wheel like an SY99, and with some modulation transmitted into the JD800 patch, causes permanent mild vibrato on the patch and produces the richest pad sound I have ever witnessed. I have never, ever heard a richer pad sound and every time I hear a JD800 being used for pads, I always know that the user could fatten it up with this technique, but they never do. IMO, a hidden gem of the JD800 (well now no longer hidden!). So the JD800 - played from another synth with modulation wheel, is IMO the best combination for pads there is.


Care to share some of your hidden gems?

Kevin.

[tekkentool]

Diamonds, rubies. The usual.

Also the Microkorg Flanger. When ramped up to the maximum with a loud source the speed of the flanger starts to follow your volume envelope and creates a horribly evil sound. I'll sample it sometime if anyone is interested.

[rhino]

Alesis Quadreasynth, Pluspiano, QS original series:
Modulate the phaser depth from a performance control like aftertouch. The Quadraverb-like effects unit does NOT like to be modulated in real time and causers momentary crashing, grinding distortion until the efx 'catches up'.

[Automatic Gainsay]

Not a synth, but a sampler.

There is a Modulation setting in the Ensoniq EPS-16+ which allows you to scrub through a sample (basically, the modweel designates the sample start point) backwards and forwards with the modwheel. It results in some of the coolest sounds and effects, depending on how you played while you used it (and what sample you were using it with). I probably overused it.

[sam]

I picked up a broken crumar roadracer. Nothing special you would think but it has a copy of a smallstone phaser inside.

Lovely...

[Alex E]

Dead beetles. :/

[Dano]

There's a good trick in the following article for creating a PWM-like sound on a Korg M1 and it should work on most ROM based synths - I've used the trick on my Proteus 2000 series synths.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar03/a ... rets47.asp

[elmosexwhistle]

When i had just an AN1x, I really delved into what it could do, a couple of things were:

1. Sequencing a bassline, using a sound that had a medium filter decay, then, applying a modulator (modwheel, etc) to the noise amount parameter, and using the other track on it's sequencer to open and close the modwheel, so, for example, you could bring in a "snare" on every beat of the bar. By using this creatively, i managed to have Bass and percussion in the left hand (it's a bi-timbral synth) and then it left the right hand free to create a lead sound/poly sound/pad etc.

2. I made a bang-on mellotron flute. ("WTF?" i said at the time!)

Proof: http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007/08 ... istle.html

they're all just one patch at a time demos

i found my AN1x the other day so i'll dump the patches for those who didn't get them the first time round.x

[TheKeytarist]

Xio synth: Useing the X-Gator to create rythmic effects; using filter overdrive to create a continuously variable saw-square wave; as on Juno 106, crank up the resonance to create organ/bell sounds.

[Mr Knesh]

I was pleasantly surprised to find some presets on my JP8080 that were made by Bryan Erickson of Velvet Acid Christ.

The previous owner had loaded a custom user bank and the few HEX patches, as Bryan usually calls them, were hanging out at the very end of the bank.

[balma]

There's a good trick in the following article for creating a PWM-like sound on a Korg M1 and it should work on most ROM based synths - I've used the trick on my Proteus 2000 series synths.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar03/a ... rets47.asp

Are you talking about any special patch cord programming sentence on the modulation matrix section of the EMU?

LFO routed to the 4GAINX and then 4GAINX routed to the SLOOP (sampleloop) destination?


there are several hidden tricks on that modulation matrix, I found most of them just by mistake, there's an AWESOME feedback saturation effect when routing the MIDIvolume to some of the destinations, and then controlling it with a MIDI knob.


Try these ones on several combinations

LFO2 to QUANTIZATION
PINK NOISE to LAG 0iN
QUANTIZATION to Lag 0in
Lag 0in to Quantization
QUANTIZATION to Sample retrigger

LFO1 to LFO2 RATE

Now modulate the LFO1's rate with a knob, and the amount of pink noise and Quantizations with other knob. Very weird results

[vinyl_junkie]

Not a synth, but a sampler.

There is a Modulation setting in the Ensoniq EPS-16+ which allows you to scrub through a sample (basically, the modweel designates the sample start point) backwards and forwards with the modwheel. It results in some of the coolest sounds and effects, depending on how you played while you used it (and what sample you were using it with). I probably overused it.

I wish more samplers had this feature...for that reason alone I might just get one, they are cheap and I needed another sampler/controler keyboard...this one seems to hit the spot, thanks

[colmon]

it's called loop-position modulation and it's pretty much responsible for 90s glitch. autechre, fennesz, jan jelinek and countless mego/mille plateaux artists used it extensively. the ensoniq samplers were way ahead of their time

this feature is also what enables transwaves, kinda ensoniq's version of wavetable synthesis

[vinyl_junkie]

it's called loop-position modulation and it's pretty much responsible for 90s glitch. autechre, fennesz, jan jelinek and countless mego/mille plateaux artists used it extensively. the ensoniq samplers were way ahead of their time

this feature is also what enables transwaves, kinda ensoniq's version of wavetable synthesis

Thanks, I'll look for that bit in the manual when I get one.
I've just been briefly reading about the Transwave thing and looks VERY interesting for a sampler, again something I wish my Akai did beeing quite a fan of the Waldorf/PPG stuff.
I've used Akai samplers for years which are pretty much bread and butter over anything EMU or Ensoniq did, this is stuff you dream about hahah
Shame the filter is not resonant though

[madtheory]

it's called loop-position modulation

Kontakt can do this.