Drive By Snark, Round 2...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
So the big news of this morning is the trio of Korg Volca “analog loop synths” (their words, not mine) that further extrapolate the idea of the original Monotron in to its obvious conclusion. I’ll be honest and say that, like the MS-20 Mini, these do absolutely nothing for me. Korg will, of course, sell a shit-ton, and lots of people will have lots of fun with them, and some good music will be made. Hell, I’ll probably buy them all myself, of course, as my moods are changeable, but for right now, my verdict is “toys.” Fun for a minute, but ultimately useless.
Yesterday, Nord announced the Nord Drum 2, which gives everyone the stuff they left out of the original one. (Stereo outs, and 6 voices.) I can only assume the Nord Drum 3 will have individual outs. But that said, this will make the first version one of the best buys out there when the big retailers dump their stock; of that I have no doubt. In a studio context, the mono output is fine, and honestly, stereo kick drums for dance music = ur doin it rong, anyhow. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a deal on the first version.
This caught my eye this morning. Softube has taken time out of their busy day making studio plugs for NI to create a channel strip plug-in that is ostensibly an SSL 4000G clone (albeit unlicensed, so they say “famous British console” a lot) with a dedicated hardware controller. This kind of goes at the desktop console problem from the other direction, letting the DAW do what the DAW does, and having an ecumenical channel plug with its own controller. The controller doesn’t have any transport, nor channel arming controls of any sort, so for the Full Analog Console Experience, you’d still need a little DAW controller of some sort. Don’t think this will do well, as it assumes you’re only going to use one EQ or comp ever. Might be handy in certain scenarios, but it sort of defeats the purpose of having a DAW in the first place, which is the lack of limitations on EQ and comp choice. Interesting idea, though.
And that brings us to the Bass Station II. I may have my timeline mixed up, as I used to do a lot of drugs, but I’m pretty sure the original Bass Station was the signal that the Long, Dark Nightmare of the late 80s and early 90s was over, and we could once again have knobs and analog stuff. In short, it was the first synth of the Analog Revival, best I can recollect. So the Bass Station II, aside from its appearance 20-odd years late, is a logical release.
Of course, the ~$500 price point for two-osc analogs with tiny keyboards is pretty full. I was joking with someone the other day that I wanted to have a huge synth rig just made up of tiny analogs. That dream is now within reach.
10 comments
O wait, is that a diode bridge Sallen-Key filter?
The Volca synths look pretty cool. In all fairness, if I am going to be hard on Moog for the Sub Phatty name, I need to also question what "Volca" is about.
I want to see how sturdy the Volca synths are. My Monotribe has held up well, but my Monotrons are breaking down.
I'm curious to see the inevitable mods for the Volcas; getting cv/gate outs from the sequencers would make these incredibly useful for us modular owners
My JameGumb formatting was lost in the above post. Dang.
"I need to also question what "Volca" is about"
At a guess, Volca is short for Voltage Controlled Analog. Which is the kind of questionable nomenclature you get when you allow engineers to make these decisions.
I'm pretty sure I'll be getting at least one though at $150. Small, limited, and silly I guess makes them toys, but they don't seem anywhere near as ridiculous as the Kaossilator does to me.
You don't need to do that formatting here, Sean. You're amongst friends. We all just assume it.
I'm wondering how many people have actually used a 700S. It's like "OH SHIT IT HAS A 700S FILTER!!!" but the 700S had the Traveller, so it really only has half. And the only thing that makes the Traveller any fun is the two sliders over and under for Manual Bandpass Hijinks. The LPF alone is kind of shit. The demo video is most likely quite indicative of how these things sound.
-CR
700S LPF: good kind of shit, or just shitty kind of shit?
I think that my favorite filters are those that don't behave well from an engineering perspective. I know that I like the sound of internal distortion, but I probably also like whatever sort of weird control voltage leakage is going on in these cheap Korg filters.
As far as the Traveler stuff, I've never played a 700s, so I don't really know what I am missing. I can hear what you are talking about on "Warm Leatherette," but I figure I'll be able to get similar sounds from the MS20 Mini when it ships.
I think that the true value of the Voica syths will not be that Chris Randall finds them useful.
The true value be what happens in the hands of kids who don't have 30 years experience with synths. They'll grab them because they're cheap and do stuff with them that would never occur to grizzled veterans.
I see these guys in basement shows and at random experimental events. Sometimes it takes complete ignorance of technology to really do something original with it.
Consider e.g. the Alesis Ion. Kind of a shit piece of gear to anyone who is a serious synth head, but I've seen them many times on stage with bands who make good use of them. They got them because they were cheap, threw away the manual and figured out their own cockamamie way to make the thing fit into their music.
It's more akin to the MS-10 filter, honestly. There's a slider for LP, and right below it a slider for HP. To the right, there's a switch for emphasis, which they call "Bright" in this context (off, med, high), and then there's two switches to turn on LFO to either LP or HP. The 700S has it, obviously, and the 770. Some others have permutations of it (the 800, notably, which doesn't have the mod dests; only the sliders and the emphasis switches.) There's also a little Traveller sidecar that is hard to find, but somewhat satisfying.
Essentially, if you've heard Warm Leatherette and TVOD, you've heard 100% of what that filter can do. These synths only have the LPF side; most of the sounds in those two songs use the HPF as well.
But that brings up an interesting point, which I've often alluded to (or said outright) here: an awesome song is not a function of the filter. It's a function of the hook, lyrics, vibe, etc. I can write music. Which means I can write music with these stupid little boxes, or a Korg 700S, or using the internal sequencer and sounds of an M1. If these inspire someone to make something as awesome as Warm Leatherette, then by all means.
-CR
Heh. Chaircrusher nailed it, exact, while I was typing above.
-CR
I'm interested to see exactly how limited the Volcas are, and if they are good limits or bad limits. I tend to be more creative with simpler synths. I recorded a lot more music with my SH-101 and Moog Rogue than I ever did back when I owned a Prophet 5 and other, fancier synths. On the other hand, the limitations of the Monotrons make it pretty much impossible for me to play anything besides drones on those synths.
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