… and as they say in the video, do it with just two 8Ms !
The 8M is so tiny (4:15 in the video) – i guess portable is a better way to say it. I am not as well versed as someone who plays the 37 keys, but looking closely i get some sense of how they’ve abbreviated the controls to fit everything in the 8M. And again repeating what i said earlier, so nice they kept the joystick with it.
At 10:23 it turns into the equivalent of a guitar solo wan£&er … best to skip.
Will be interesting to see how much menu diving is added to the module , esp. on the buttons which already had multiple uses … and how the 16steps work now there are only 8.
It sounds nice though…
I got the impression from the video that they don’t have a working live version of the module to show yet – which is perfectly understandable, the module will require far more software work to produce. (I didn’t watch the video frame by frame, so hopefully i didn’t miss anything – the Andertons guy i find annoying.) And i bet the firmware between the two keyboard units are close to identical.
I think they’ll be able to pull off the UI on the module without much annoyance at all to the user.
Got to hand it to the small team at Modal on this, they sure are a creative lot.
+1 … very annoying , almost on par with a few other presenters/influencers … I’m actively blocking most of them now but they sneak through occasionally .
Perhaps I need to filter keywords on my router to block more of them…
They make a lot of good decisions on UI ussually…
Yes thank you, I’ll try that. I haven’t seen anybody complaining about that on the different forums so it might just be my setup. As usual i’ve been unable to reproduce the problem since I mentioned it …
sounds great!
Cosmic rays was the explanation for these when i worked in product assurance. (A joke)
The power company has good and bad days perhaps. Or perhaps your neighbor is using his arc-welder again. (The arc-welder causing this sort of thing is a FOR REAL!)
Glad it’s working better!
Full support for the decision to make the desktop version rack-mountable and include rack ears. I love my 37 keys, but honestly would be tempted to get another desktop just for live shows.
Quick video on Argon8 tips, and shameless plug for music I’ve worked on:
Tks for the tip on holding the assign buttons. I always forgot that I was in assign mode and made many mistakes because of that. That’s solved.
Added a patch design challenge video:
Have to say, the output on mine is remarkably low compared to my other synths
Don’t know if this is relevant, here’s the portion of the manual describing the connections, are you using in stereo or with the right jack or left jack only?
Left and right
Word and it looks like it’s TS/TRS agnostic, but have you tried the opposite type from what you’re using to eliminate a variable? I read through the rest of the manual and couldn’t find anything about a global setting for audio output level, wish I could have come up with a magic fix for you!!
Yeah, I read too - nothing jumping out. I’m using TS on this one, guess I should try TRS. It’s recordable, just tonnes lower than you’d expect
Emailed Modal and they said:
“Argon8’s output is relatively low in comparison to other synths and this is known and intended. We worked hard to achieve maximum volume without compromising on clarity and this is where we settled.
We would recommend using TS cables for audio connections on Argon8.”
Where my other synths sit at say, 9 o’clock on the gain dials, I have to crank the Argon8 to 3 o’clock for parity. It’s a whisperer, for sure.
I’ve been a bit frustrated by this too. It’s also really inconsistent across patches, and the filter and effects seem to make it far worse.
I recently picked up the Hydrasynth and am now really on the fence about whether to keep both or return the Argon8. I do love the sound of it, but there’s a lot of crossover. Not a huge fan of 80% of the patches on the Hydra, but I’ve found you can really get Argon8 like sounds out of it with a bit of work, and the interface makes it really fun to put that work in.
Tempted to hold out until the next Argon8 OS upgrade and see how it fares then, but if it’s not out within 3 weeks, I’ll be out of time.
I think it’s a great synth, and certainly occupies its own space in my collection… but yes, I’m sure there is room for improvement in future firmware.
Still on the fence about the Argon8 and wondering whether to take the plunge. For the existing users, would you say it’s capable of generating a full spectrum of sounds including FX/percussion or is primarily pads and synths?
