Solaris VS Jupiter 8 & OB8
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:56 pm
Today I was at my studio without inspiration...
I spent my time to make some direct sound comparisons between my Solaris and some of my polyphonic analogue synths.
I began with the Jupiter 8.
My preset 11 is a simple & warm sound that I love.
The first thing to do is to place all the faders / cursors / selectors from the Jupiter in the position corresponding to its recorded preset.
After that, programming the Solaris to reproduce all this set up.
The process is quite long & difficult, especially to reproduce the good values for the filter & vca envelopes.
The most difficult part was to reproduce the small drift of the osc, filters and eg's, typical from the different voices of an analogue synth.
I was happy to find a nice way to slightly and randomly change the pitch of each new note on the Solaris :
I used an LFO, in S/H mode with a frequency (rate) = 0 but retrigered (at each note).
Very very small amount to modulate the pitch of the oscillators.
For the moment, it's not possible to choose an lfo as a source of modulation for the attacks, decay or release time of the envelopes.
John, it would be really nice !
I used an other modulation source (velocity) to slightly randomize the envelopes.
At the end of the process, I used the 3 band eq of the solaris to add some low end, and some mid around 3khz to match the color of the JP8.
I spent more than one hour per sound, but the result is nearly incredible. Difficult to make a difference between the 2 synths...
I did the same with another brass Jupiter 8 sound (using the second HPF filter) and then with one sound of my Oberheim OB8.
I suspect that the exercise would be perhaps more difficult with a Memorymoog or a CS60.
These two ones have stronger analogue drifts which give them their strong personality.
I'd like to test, but as I say, it's a long process...
I recorded these examples and uploaded them to soundcloud.
At the end of the Jupiter 8 example, I played on the Solaris the same note with release several time. One simple SAW osc without any filter or treatment.
First without the S/H modulation on the pitch and then with the modulation.
Without, it phases in a metallic way, with the modulation, it phases but much in a more nice and music way.
Here are the links. Wave files.
For each small phrase played, it's first the Solaris then the JP8 or OB8.
http://soundcloud.com/alexg2/solaris-vs-jupiter-8
http://soundcloud.com/alexg2/solaris-vs-oberheim-ob8
With this test, I don't want to prove that the Solaris is able to replace the old analogue synths of my studio.
But well, I'm very impressed.
If I should keep only one of my synth, it would be this one…
It gives me this analogue touch plus all its digital possibilities.
I spent my time to make some direct sound comparisons between my Solaris and some of my polyphonic analogue synths.
I began with the Jupiter 8.
My preset 11 is a simple & warm sound that I love.
The first thing to do is to place all the faders / cursors / selectors from the Jupiter in the position corresponding to its recorded preset.
After that, programming the Solaris to reproduce all this set up.
The process is quite long & difficult, especially to reproduce the good values for the filter & vca envelopes.
The most difficult part was to reproduce the small drift of the osc, filters and eg's, typical from the different voices of an analogue synth.
I was happy to find a nice way to slightly and randomly change the pitch of each new note on the Solaris :
I used an LFO, in S/H mode with a frequency (rate) = 0 but retrigered (at each note).
Very very small amount to modulate the pitch of the oscillators.
For the moment, it's not possible to choose an lfo as a source of modulation for the attacks, decay or release time of the envelopes.
John, it would be really nice !
I used an other modulation source (velocity) to slightly randomize the envelopes.
At the end of the process, I used the 3 band eq of the solaris to add some low end, and some mid around 3khz to match the color of the JP8.
I spent more than one hour per sound, but the result is nearly incredible. Difficult to make a difference between the 2 synths...
I did the same with another brass Jupiter 8 sound (using the second HPF filter) and then with one sound of my Oberheim OB8.
I suspect that the exercise would be perhaps more difficult with a Memorymoog or a CS60.
These two ones have stronger analogue drifts which give them their strong personality.
I'd like to test, but as I say, it's a long process...
I recorded these examples and uploaded them to soundcloud.
At the end of the Jupiter 8 example, I played on the Solaris the same note with release several time. One simple SAW osc without any filter or treatment.
First without the S/H modulation on the pitch and then with the modulation.
Without, it phases in a metallic way, with the modulation, it phases but much in a more nice and music way.
Here are the links. Wave files.
For each small phrase played, it's first the Solaris then the JP8 or OB8.
http://soundcloud.com/alexg2/solaris-vs-jupiter-8
http://soundcloud.com/alexg2/solaris-vs-oberheim-ob8
With this test, I don't want to prove that the Solaris is able to replace the old analogue synths of my studio.
But well, I'm very impressed.
If I should keep only one of my synth, it would be this one…
It gives me this analogue touch plus all its digital possibilities.