Odd thing about the Sys 8, I bought it originally for the Jup 8 and then never end up using that. I end up using the JX3P and the regular 8 engine the most which surprises me. Still though the two best synths I've found that play well with others are the Nord Lead 2/2x and the Kurzweil K series. By themselves they never impressed me fully but good lord in a mix they just work with almost anything. I've owned about 60 different synths over the years so I say that with some level of awareness of what you're talking about. Some things sound great by themselves but don't play well with others, whereas other synths don't stand out from the crowd significantly but then seem to work no matter what. It's really something else. Anyway thank you for your Edge vid, it inspired me to pick one up.
Same here, also for the Jup 8, But the Sys8 & JX3P are my favorites, too. With 60 synths under your belt that must give you quite the insight. I think that it's the same as with acoustic guitars. The ones that sound really nice and rich while playing are often most difficult to fit in a mix. But you get that thin, weaker sounding one and it suddenly fits right in. Those Kurzweil synths do something similar to my ear. Mind you, I only ever heard them through youtube. But they have a 'thinness' to them that I think makes them an easy fit in a mix. Happy to inspire you to pick up an Edge. It might be my favorite synth. It's not always useful what comes out of it. But it always makes me smile when I'm playing with it. What synth(s) did that for you? Not necessarily the best / most useful. But from the ones you own(ed), which made you the happiest just playing with it?
@@electronictiger Gosh my favorite synths to just play with are the usual suspects, the Mini D, Prophet 5/10 are just two of the most wonderful sounding things. I'm trying to save up for a Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave. I've not played it in person but I have a feeling that it's going to fit in that category for me. The Prophet 6 gets less love than the P5 but it has to be my favorite synth. I use it in almost everything. It's tighter and more precise than the 5/10 and just works for most everything I do. (House/Dance/Techno etc) I have the behringer Kobol, Pro 1 and Pro 800 which are really fun and useful I think, which it seems you have. Two other synths that kind of blow my mind that are really inexpensive are the MiniFreak and the JV1080/2080 series. I could see both working for you easily. I got the 1080 to house some cards I had since the JD900 only takes one SR-JV card at a time. I was simply gobsmacked at how good it sounds. The JD series 800/990 are harder to fit in a mix, they're really full and eat up the space in several frequency ranges, so they need a lot of EQ. But man that JV1080 is another one of those that just works and sounds great. It's no wonder it often ends up on the top 20 synths of all time list. Check out Don Solaris' "Roland JV-1080 XP-50 Don Solaris Soundset" on utube to see what I mean. And that soundset is just the basic JV1080 engine sans cards.
@@Iofflight78 Many thanks Lofflight! Nothing wrong with the usual suspects. They are truly wonderful sounding synths, yes. That Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave looks like a beast! Hope you'll get your hands on one. And indeed, I have both the Kobol and Pro-1. I love them to bits. I find they have a wide range. From nice and polite. To rough & dirty. Oh that Don Solaris JV-1080 video is so cool!!! So much so that I'm picking up a 2nd hand unit later today for cheap. For the longest time, when I was a kid, I erroneously thought the sound of those romplers was 'the true sound of synthesizers". Romplers, to this day, sound futuristic to me. I'm really looking for a more a hands-on experience when it comes to hardware. Which the JV-1080 isn't, but that sound. I just couldn't resist. Many thanks!
@@electronictiger Awesome! I think you are going to really like it. Please let me know what you think of it. The JV2080 is a bit easier to tweak because of the larger screen but the JV1080 is still pretty easy to tweak imo for having a small screen. In some instances the JV1080 sounds better to my ears but not by a whole lot. I don't do it that often but I did go ahead and purchase that particular sound set from Don for the JV1080 - they're permanently loaded into my unit and work off of them often. There are also some other very cool things in there. There are something like 500 sounds (which for the time was a ton) a lot of bells, glass pads, cinematic stuff, etc. I do have the SRJV-04 analog card, the keys of the 60-70s, orchestral sounds, and house cards. It takes up to 4 of those. DO get the cards repaired if you buy them, they've been known to have an overheating capacitor. Don has a video on that fix. You can do it yourself but I had someone with better soldering skills do mine. Also Roland still has supporting docs up for the JV1080.
@@Iofflight78 I am toying with it right now. And it sounds amazing! I found the scans of the printed manual on the Roland site, which is awesome. It appears to have two expansions cards installed. I haven't opened it up yet, so I don't know which ones. But one sounds orchestral. The other techno/dancy. I'm resisting the urge to immediate use one of the free sysex editors. I want to use the hardware for a bit first. To get in the spirit of things. Do you per chance know if you can midi map things like the cutoff frequencies / resonances per tone? Or globally? Cause that'd be sweet!
I found the brighter Neutron sound fine to my ears, it sat nicely in the mix IMO, but I understand feeling more critical of your own stuff. The System 8 sounded a little lost in the mix, even though you drove it through the mixer it felt like a boxer who had turned up to the wrong weight class lol. Can you add more voices with unison or something? Anyway, technical comments aside, great jam. Did you do much in post with Reaper?
Thank you my friend. That is an excellent analogy for the System-8. It does feel it's outclassed when playing with other synths. In Reaper I did obvious house keeping in terms of High Pass filters, some panning and a little bit of volume automation. On the more creative side, I set up was the Side-Chain action from the kick. And messed around with the gates, to get things tighter sounding. Also layered in a voice sample very quietly that's being triggered by the 'noise burst'-snare and a tom sound from the Rytm. And I muted the high hats at one point when the other high hat comes in. I intended to set that up in a pattern on the machine, but I forgot. So not really nothing, but not really anything major either. The raw jam is pretty close to the finished project.
hey I love listening to your jam while reading your diary along
Many thanks Penglyu! Happy to hear you're enjoying it. More jams and diary entries coming soon!
Odd thing about the Sys 8, I bought it originally for the Jup 8 and then never end up using that. I end up using the JX3P and the regular 8 engine the most which surprises me. Still though the two best synths I've found that play well with others are the Nord Lead 2/2x and the Kurzweil K series. By themselves they never impressed me fully but good lord in a mix they just work with almost anything. I've owned about 60 different synths over the years so I say that with some level of awareness of what you're talking about. Some things sound great by themselves but don't play well with others, whereas other synths don't stand out from the crowd significantly but then seem to work no matter what. It's really something else.
Anyway thank you for your Edge vid, it inspired me to pick one up.
Same here, also for the Jup 8, But the Sys8 & JX3P are my favorites, too.
With 60 synths under your belt that must give you quite the insight. I think that it's the same as with acoustic guitars. The ones that sound really nice and rich while playing are often most difficult to fit in a mix. But you get that thin, weaker sounding one and it suddenly fits right in.
Those Kurzweil synths do something similar to my ear. Mind you, I only ever heard them through youtube. But they have a 'thinness' to them that I think makes them an easy fit in a mix.
Happy to inspire you to pick up an Edge. It might be my favorite synth. It's not always useful what comes out of it. But it always makes me smile when I'm playing with it.
What synth(s) did that for you? Not necessarily the best / most useful. But from the ones you own(ed), which made you the happiest just playing with it?
@@electronictiger Gosh my favorite synths to just play with are the usual suspects, the Mini D, Prophet 5/10 are just two of the most wonderful sounding things. I'm trying to save up for a Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave. I've not played it in person but I have a feeling that it's going to fit in that category for me.
The Prophet 6 gets less love than the P5 but it has to be my favorite synth. I use it in almost everything. It's tighter and more precise than the 5/10 and just works for most everything I do. (House/Dance/Techno etc)
I have the behringer Kobol, Pro 1 and Pro 800 which are really fun and useful I think, which it seems you have. Two other synths that kind of blow my mind that are really inexpensive are the MiniFreak and the JV1080/2080 series. I could see both working for you easily.
I got the 1080 to house some cards I had since the JD900 only takes one SR-JV card at a time. I was simply gobsmacked at how good it sounds. The JD series 800/990 are harder to fit in a mix, they're really full and eat up the space in several frequency ranges, so they need a lot of EQ. But man that JV1080 is another one of those that just works and sounds great. It's no wonder it often ends up on the top 20 synths of all time list.
Check out Don Solaris' "Roland JV-1080 XP-50 Don Solaris Soundset" on utube to see what I mean. And that soundset is just the basic JV1080 engine sans cards.
@@Iofflight78 Many thanks Lofflight! Nothing wrong with the usual suspects. They are truly wonderful sounding synths, yes.
That Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave looks like a beast! Hope you'll get your hands on one.
And indeed, I have both the Kobol and Pro-1. I love them to bits. I find they have a wide range. From nice and polite. To rough & dirty.
Oh that Don Solaris JV-1080 video is so cool!!! So much so that I'm picking up a 2nd hand unit later today for cheap.
For the longest time, when I was a kid, I erroneously thought the sound of those romplers was 'the true sound of synthesizers". Romplers, to this day, sound futuristic to me.
I'm really looking for a more a hands-on experience when it comes to hardware. Which the JV-1080 isn't, but that sound. I just couldn't resist.
Many thanks!
@@electronictiger Awesome! I think you are going to really like it. Please let me know what you think of it.
The JV2080 is a bit easier to tweak because of the larger screen but the JV1080 is still pretty easy to tweak imo for having a small screen. In some instances the JV1080 sounds better to my ears but not by a whole lot.
I don't do it that often but I did go ahead and purchase that particular sound set from Don for the JV1080 - they're permanently loaded into my unit and work off of them often.
There are also some other very cool things in there. There are something like 500 sounds (which for the time was a ton) a lot of bells, glass pads, cinematic stuff, etc. I do have the SRJV-04 analog card, the keys of the 60-70s, orchestral sounds, and house cards. It takes up to 4 of those. DO get the cards repaired if you buy them, they've been known to have an overheating capacitor. Don has a video on that fix. You can do it yourself but I had someone with better soldering skills do mine.
Also Roland still has supporting docs up for the JV1080.
@@Iofflight78 I am toying with it right now. And it sounds amazing! I found the scans of the printed manual on the Roland site, which is awesome.
It appears to have two expansions cards installed. I haven't opened it up yet, so I don't know which ones. But one sounds orchestral. The other techno/dancy.
I'm resisting the urge to immediate use one of the free sysex editors. I want to use the hardware for a bit first. To get in the spirit of things.
Do you per chance know if you can midi map things like the cutoff frequencies / resonances per tone? Or globally? Cause that'd be sweet!
I found the brighter Neutron sound fine to my ears, it sat nicely in the mix IMO, but I understand feeling more critical of your own stuff. The System 8 sounded a little lost in the mix, even though you drove it through the mixer it felt like a boxer who had turned up to the wrong weight class lol. Can you add more voices with unison or something?
Anyway, technical comments aside, great jam. Did you do much in post with Reaper?
Thank you my friend. That is an excellent analogy for the System-8. It does feel it's outclassed when playing with other synths.
In Reaper I did obvious house keeping in terms of High Pass filters, some panning and a little bit of volume automation.
On the more creative side, I set up was the Side-Chain action from the kick. And messed around with the gates, to get things tighter sounding. Also layered in a voice sample very quietly that's being triggered by the 'noise burst'-snare and a tom sound from the Rytm.
And I muted the high hats at one point when the other high hat comes in. I intended to set that up in a pattern on the machine, but I forgot.
So not really nothing, but not really anything major either. The raw jam is pretty close to the finished project.