Ancestors

Written by lhp on 2024-10-14 at 15:21

Does anyone have recommendations for a reasonably priced synth with 64 step sequencer and clock sync?

Or alternatively a decent midi synth to use with an external sequencer (I am thinking of getting the arturia keystep since I like the UX/UI of the drumbrute and suspect the keystep will be similar)?

I am new to synths and the range of possible choices I could find is somehow both over- and underwhelming.

(I am not (yet) willing to get into modular/eurorack stuff)

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from lhp@mastodon.social

Written by Isaac Freund on 2024-10-14 at 16:19

@lhp I mean, you could try out a wide variety of free software synths using the arturia keystep as a controller to perhaps get a better idea of how to get to the place you want sonically.

That's more or less the synth setup I have currently though I just have a random cheap MIDI keyboard I bought second-hand.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ifreund@hachyderm.io

Written by lhp on 2024-10-14 at 16:49

@ifreund actually a good idea. In the long-run I want dedicated hardware, because I am a bit annoyed by how much of my free time is spend in front of a screen.

Do you have any recommendations for FOSS synths?

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from lhp@mastodon.social

Written by Isaac Freund on 2024-10-14 at 17:06

@lhp The FOSS synth I've played around with the most is https://tytel.org/helm/. I don't claim to be an expert there though, that's just the first one I tried that I enjoyed using :)

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ifreund@hachyderm.io

Written by lhp on 2024-10-17 at 22:51

@ifreund the main complaint I have about helm is that it uses the ALSA MIDI system instead of the jack one. That makes advanced routing basically impossible. It can only receive input either from specific device(s) or the shared MIDI sync. And it responds to all channels.

If it was using the JACK system, I could f.e. split a physical device between two helm instances via a MIDI filter/router (qmidiroute works really well with pipewire routing via helvum).

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from lhp@mastodon.social

Written by Isaac Freund on 2024-10-17 at 22:52

@lhp are you running helm standalone? I've only ever used it as an lv2 plugin in a DAW where I'm pretty sure that's not an issue.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ifreund@hachyderm.io

Written by lhp on 2024-10-17 at 22:57

@ifreund yeah I am using it standalone. I kinda wanted to avoid having to run a DAW, hence me getting a sequencer over just a keyboard.

So does the DAW replace the JACK/pipewire routing or does create sinks for the synth?

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from lhp@mastodon.social

Written by Isaac Freund on 2024-10-17 at 22:59

@lhp If you don't want a DAW, you probably want something like Carla to handle routing: https://kx.studio/Applications:Carla

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ifreund@hachyderm.io

Toot

Written by lhp on 2024-10-18 at 12:16

@ifreund yeah that seems to be exactly what I need, it's apparently "just" a proxy between various audio things and jack with an included patch-bay.

Thanks again!

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from lhp@mastodon.social

Descendants

Written by Isaac Freund on 2024-10-18 at 13:34

@lhp No problem, enjoy!

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ifreund@hachyderm.io