I just relistened to the aif quality audio of the boomstar demo and its really not that nice to my ears...but Im still hopeful...
I do think maybe synth designers should perhaps get musicians to showcase their synths...
This Mike Hulme demo has had over 43,000 views...and the comments are extremely positive - probably people bought units off the back of this - and it definitely shows analogue solutions gear to be surprisingly good...The MFB guys could also take note...
Def agree mate. What really makes that demo is not the kit but the guy using it, he's an outstanding Producer/sound designer and that makes so much difference.
So many demos out there of amazing synths ruined by lack of skills
I hope Im wrong also. But the new SEM didnt provide me with much solace either...I dont really recommend it so the 4 voice version times that by 4.
I found a thread on muff's, where this dude couldn't wait for the SOFV and he simply got 3 individual new pro sems (eventually he added a forth) and made some demos. It gives a nice impression of what the NEW sem would sound like, polyphonically. He also made some demos of just one, and with two sems.
So many demos out there of amazing synths ruined by lack of skills
Ben
agreed...lest we forget - its the actual music that brings out the best of these instruments...
Quote:
Originally Posted by zahush76
I found a thread on muff's, where this dude couldn't wait for the SOFV and he simply got 3 individual new pro sems (eventually he added a forth) and made some demos.[/url]
well I take my hat off to him in terms of commitment...but personally I hear all the stuff which put me off my new SEM which was the harsh high end, clean filter and slightly over-stable Osc...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric J
Still, I have heard plenty of people say the original sounds better (go figure).
yeah Ive heard several knowledgable sources say the same...
I found a thread on muff's, where this dude couldn't wait for the SOFV and he simply got 3 individual new pro sems (eventually he added a forth) and made some demos.
This would have been me at the beginning of the year. I had ordered a SEM and a Kenton Pro 2000 MKII (Since it does Poly). I then placed an order for another 3 SEMs to make my own 4 voice. After playing this for a few days I realized how miserably bad the Kenton was for this due to it's inability to transmit any continuous midi CCs without embarrassingly bad zipper noise.
My original plan was to have 4 gate/CV outputs on the Kenton for the 4 sems and the 5th CV output on the Kenton sent to a mult so I could use the mod wheel to send Filter cutoff, etc to all four SEMs at once. The Kenton crashed and burned. Badly. I lost all enthusiasm for my little project. I immediately cancelled the other 3 SEMs I had on order. Especially after Kenton told me that they had no plans to fix this or upgrade the Pro 2000 to send and receive 14 bit midi values.
People have suggested Expert Sleepers, but the point of using the Kenton was so I'd have a setup I wouldn't need a computer for.
I don't get it - Moog uses 14 bit values for Midi so their continuous is nice and clean. Kenton, who makes dedicated Midi to CV converters can't seem to figure out how to do this.
Anyway - it's nice to see someone else who did this. I wasn't that excited about the spaghetti of patch cords anyway I would have been dealing with!
Regards,
Frank
__________________
My equipment: A Commodore 64, 2 1541 Disk Drives, Dr T's Music Studio and a Casiotone CT-460.
Never listen to opinions regarding gear. For every 50 nobodies on Gearslutz that say a piece of gear doesn't sound good enough to cut it, I know at least one somebody who is cutting it in NYC with that piece of gear.
yeah i thought so too, but its actually a part 2 of the previous demo. so previously unposted. there are some cleaner tones after a few minutes.. tho it's the same dreadful, unmusical, uninspired sequence they use . don't understand how can someone make a demo so wrong..
that being said, i am a little bit dissapointed. i presume they are using attack for zero for both envelopes thru out the demo. if that is the case, tht sucks as i constantly hear this bwhaaak on the attack portion as if the attack isnt zero. somethings not right with that.. it just isnt razer sharp cutting envelope with perfect expo decay slope i expected... - in case anyones wondering how that would sound, check the last Micromac demo posted on its dedicated thread.. or any SH101 demo on YT.. and listen how the filter env cuts and snaps.
second, the overall sound... dunno it just sounds small somehow.. well, i ll wait to hear more before any attempt at forming opinion about this synth... maybe until someone who actually understands music and can play to save his life buys this, and makes a decent demo..
__________________ music for film, tvseries & theatre live psyhedelic ambient
If anyone from SE reads this, send me a unit. I'll do a demo for you (only if I can keep it obviously)
Seriously, these demos are totally uninspiring and have a shrill sound to them which is making me less excited about these machines. It's not even a nice sequence, it's annoying!
It could sound completely different in the right hands. To me these demos lack clarity and depth. Where's the sparkling highs you expect to hear coming from an analogue machine? It sounds muffled. I really hope that's not a reflection of the 'real world' sound of these units...
They really should be using less x-mod/modulation/feedback distortion and more pure, raw analogue tonality, done in a musical way!
Studio Electronics Boomstar 4075 - ARP Filter Sneak n' Peak (Take 2)
.....
This is raw BoomStar recorded though a Focusrite Scarlett interface (nothing special), into Reason with a Macbook Pro. We did this in about 20 minutes, one take. I played a small Akai controller with a built in arpeggiator with my left hand and turned knobs with my right. It's "kinda cool.
It was originally about 11 minutes long; Marc did a small amount of normalizing and edited it down to 8 minutes 30 some seconds.
Put some decent headphones on and listen to huge low booms end and searingly crisp filter sweeps. I tried to take it though a full compliment of waveforms, xmod, rmod, oscillator sync, feedback looping, resonance squeals and overdrive. There is quite a bit more to come when the LFO gets in on the action.
..
p.s. Expect to see these in the shops in about 30 days... we're in love with this little beast.
Previous MSR comments:
"Four Boomstar hardware circuits: crossmod, ringmod, feedback, AND distortion are at play here at one time or? another. The idea was to stretch out... and let things get greasy and messy."
"The? "feedback" feature (a la the Minimoog) is employed throughout this track so that distortion is an effect. If you are attempting to listen to this through your laptop speakers they will be overwhelmed quickly."
.... so I guess the feedback is to blame for the schrill sound?... looking forward to the next demos
.... so I guess the feedback is to blame for the schrill sound?... looking forward to the next demos
"This is raw BoomStar recorded though a Focusrite Scarlett interface (nothing special)"
That's a silly argument Scarlett is more than enough to give a decent picture of an analog synth's sonic signature. Do they really think that their average customer has a much better interface?
Agreed, the analogues I have here sound great running thru the crappiest of interfaces, they even sound good sampled on a toy Yamaha VSS-30 (well almost lol)
Dunno, sounds like the cross mod never completely shuts off or something -- an ARP clone should sound big and wooly, able to call in alien entities from alternate realities
What's odd is that the guys at SE are decent musicians; either that or they know some good ones but I think they themselves are. Their other demos on their website are quite good, if sometimes quirky, and do a good job showing off the range of sounds their synths can produce. So the Boomstar demo is a bit puzzling- seems hurried. Just have to wait for more I guess. Hopefully there are some nice clean, sharp tones in these synths. Lots of synth demos are irritating; some are inspiring- that's what's needed.
.... so I guess the feedback is to blame for the schrill sound?... looking forward to the next demos
that makes no sense - if you heard feedback on minimoog, sh2, sem, oddysey.... the list goes on... it doesnt sound this small. no way. my comment was taking the sound within context of this demo i.e. obvious use of feedback, xmod and filter fm..and distortion circuit...and comparing this to how it sounds on nice machines
bottom line, when a sound is small ,,, its small... when a sound is big ... its big... no parameter tweaking, or even a prosumer interface (even lamer excuse) can somehow completely obscure this. guess if one has absolutely no experience with analogs, and low expectations, then all is well in kingdom of Denmark..
Quote:
Originally Posted by UH417
Sounds pretty good, considering this is a straight line-in recording into a Focusrite throwout product.
i suppose one has to have Apogee or Prism in order to use this synth properly? <sarcasm off>
i have recordings of analogs many yrs ago thru a crappy Gina Echo with dynamic of 67dB, and RF interference from my Pentium2 p.o.s., with Berhinger mixer/preamps... that sounds better than this. when recording synths, after performance itself, the source is most important , only then comes preamplification and converters. not the other way arround.
that makes no sense - if you heard feedback on minimoog, sh2, sem, oddysey.... the list goes on... it doesnt sound this small. no way.
my comment was taking the sound within context of this demo i.e. obvious use of feedback, xmod and filter fm..and distortion circuit...and comparing this to how it sounds on nice machines
bottom line, when a sound is small ,,, its small... when a sound is big ... its big... no parameter tweaking, or even a prosumer interface (even lamer excuse) can somehow completely obscure this.
guess if one has absolutely no experience with analogs, and low expectations, then all is well in kingdom of Denmark..
Who has no experience with analogs?... No need to arrogantly attack people you don't know anything about.
This was a demo of a prototype... There are infiite reasons that it sounds the way it does... I have an se1x... and have split the output ad fed it back into the filter input.. while not sounding small it definitely sounded on the schrill side like this.
Regarding the thin sound... who knows, where you there when they recorded it... no, so don't assume things about it if you're ignorant... why not keep an open mind, and wait for the next demo.
I don't get why they are releasing a SEM clone. You can get the real deal for not too much more.
I don't think it's a clone. It has a ton more features and even more waves available for the OSCs. The names of the Boomstars reflect which type of filter they have. The SEM Boomstar has a similar filter to the Oberheim SEM.
Yeah I don't think it's claiming to be an Oberheim-like at all, it's just borrowing the phrase synthesizer expander module, in that it has all the audio & cv I/O. So it's simply the Boomstar synthesizer expander module. I'm still waiting for more demos to get a better idea of the sound. sorry if this sounds stupid & obvious
SEM version Boomstar looks great. glad they implemented mixing of LP and HP that can achieve notch filtering as on original SEM.
strictly from spec POV, sure its much more than a TO SEM, however they will definitely sound diiferent..due to osc and vca, but also filter; if sound of "SEM" setting in ATCX Quad Filter is any clue, Boomstars will be a softer, less edgy version of the one in TO SEM, but you will have a choice to add gritt to it via dist or fdbk or fm..
New Reply 
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
. don't understand how can someone make a demo so wrong..
