I recorded this video 2 months ago, but for future reference:
I used the rk002 smart midi cable to turn the AR in to a 3 voice poly. The only pain is the tuning if youre going too far up the octaves, and the fact that you have to keep copying the sound to the other 2 pads after making changes, although some difference between the 3 voices adds to the character
To add to this, after making some really nice acid sounding basslines with the Rytm, I decided to sell my TB-03 and MS-50G. I’ve found the 303 and clones too thin in comparison and need to be put through a pedal to thicken them up, vs the Rytm’s acid being heavy straight out of the box (the built-in overdrive helps).
Read about single cycle waves here: AR- Working with single cycle samples, this should give you a good idea of how to handle the sample section (it’s basically a very short looping sample that acts as a sampled oscillator, there are many free banks around the web you can find, and you can basically make your own from whatever samples you fancy experimenting with)
Then you will simply mix this 3rd sound source with the two oscillators from DVCO. Hope this gives you a starter to play with
There’s also @Ess’s Software & Hardcore apps for synthesising single cycle wave forms. They both have dedicated output configurations for a few different samplers.
Setup on macOS is a bit fiddly, but all the notes are in the package / in the thread. I’ve personally not got Hardcore working, but others have. The waves I got from Softcore are great. Nice, scrunchy harmonics.
I love the sound quality of dual vco on my AR for synths (bass, lead, pads, chords). Simple but so good (don’t know how to describe it, juicy? Analog? electric?). The added distortion after the mixer is also great.
The problem is I don’t enjoy using AR’s interface, clearly designed for drums - even with a midi keyboard, it’s just not so fun to use.
The only other analog synth I have is the A4 - which is very cool but it’s a different thing (maybe because of its digitally controlled oscillators)… DVCO sounds great without the need for complexity. Just simple waveforms and filter and it’s great and musical in a less too-perfect way (please don’t tell me it’s because it’s out of tune sometimes I make sure I tune them with a static LFO and it sounds great)
Does any of you feel the same?
Do you know of another synth that has a nice interface and sounds Gigantic like these VCOs?
(From sound demos online minilogue XD looks like it could fill that place, the interface seems great, but demos can sound misleading IMO)
A distortion unit after A4 could add new ‘harmonics’ (unsure about the term here). Maybe I should try the Heat? (It seems a bit of an expensive experiment for me)
Have a look at the Pro 3. For an apples-to-apples comparison to the A4, it’s essentially one voice of the A4 but only has four patterns of 64 steps that can be p-locked per sound, but sadly, changing sounds is not instant.
But boy does it sound like the sound you’re looking for, plus more!
I used a faderfox ec4 to control all the params on vco, a little bit of work to set up but the web interface is easy enough, makes it a lot easier to drive once its done.
The dreadbox synths always seemed good for a raw characterful sound. The minilogues seem like a good choice too, everyone seemed to like them.
I definitely feel the same way about the dual VCO. It’s pretty raw and wild sounding. I feel like there’s a lot going on in that first mysterious parameter that is hard to replicate- (some fm but something else too) definitely a totally different sound to the other monosynths I’ve had (sh101 and odyssey). Could you (I mean we) perhaps sequence it with the a4 somehow? (And sequence the A4 as a drum machine with retrigs from the rytm?)
I recently bought a XD to pair it with my ARmk2.
I really like it but I have to admit that the ARs DVCO is in another league soundwise. Nonetheless it‘s a great couple as they have a very different character and therfore the seem to naturally seperate from each other in a mix.