Sequential Take 5 five voice poly

The P5 just has such a nice tone to it.

I’ve read about every bit of the Take 5 thread on GS, and am more and more interested in it. This track sounds fantastic to me.

This too:

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So…incoming. I happened upon a really good deal on a very lightly used floor model with a full warranty. It should be here in a couple of days.

Question before it arrives. Are any of you using the software patch editor? Which one are you using, stand-alone or plug? I’m not sure of the difference.

https://www.soundtower.com/take5/index.html

There are a couple of sound packs I’m thinking about purchasing, so I’m guessing an editor would make it easier to move stuff around and also dissect patches to learn how they are done.

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awesome, glad you got one. let us know how it goes. ii do find it hard to dissect patches on the t5, but once you start experimenting, you start to learn how to push it to its limits. if you know the p12 at all, that workflow helps a lot too

lazer mammoth isnt a patch editor but its an incredible patch library. i use it for backing up and loading all of my patches. you can audition anything in on your synth very quickly and easily before saving, upload and download from their cloud storage for free, and import/export sysex for individual patches or banks all the browser.

I love it

it’s under “Sequential Take-5” on that main page^

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nice! i hope it works well for you. an editor would be really nice. i’ve been reluctant to pay for the sound tower one or whatever it is, but it would probably make sound design spelunking way easier. i did pick up nick semrad’s sound set but probably won’t buy any more. enjoy messing around with the mod matrix. it’s just an enjoyable little synth.

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Thanks, man. I‘m hoping this Grandmother/Take 5 combo will be as awesome as I’m imagining.

I’m really enjoying studying synthesis at the moment (something I never imagined I would say), and I’m thinking that the sound editor and a couple of interesting sound packs might be worth it to me as an educational tool, as I’ve never really worked on patches for a poly before (I briefly owned a Juno 106 many years ago, but passed it on to a friend when I moved to a smaller place).

Now I’m hoping to stop looking at gear for a while. Lol.

Honestly, I want to make 2023 a year I devote to going deeper into music composition and learning more about harmony. I did a little of that at the start of 2022, but got sidetracked. I think I’m ready to pick that back up. I’ve been studying an instrument at a Yamaha music school for maybe a year and a half now, and that has really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

Anyway, yeah, this synth is gonna be fun, no doubt.

BTW, here’s one of my favorite YouTube comments I recently came across that was about the Behringer Model D and Pro-1, but is really about Moog/Sequential. Somebody asked which was better to get the Moog or Sequential and this is how the person described the differences:

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The T5 has arrived. First impressions are really positive.

I love the size and keyboard. Perfect for my space. Basically as big as I could realistically go, and it will be good to have a keyboard that big for hooking up to other stuff. Does split work when using it as a midi controller? I hope so because that is a killer feature.

Very little overlap with my Moog Grandmother, which is perfect. They will compliment each other very well I think.

While some might think it’s blasphemy, I generally prefer the sound in mono and often even without effects. I love the raw tone. Basically I was looking for sort of a late 70s, early 80s synth vibe, and I often find the wide stereo field and reverb is a bit too modern for my tastes. I need to sit down and mess with the reverb though because in some patches I think it sounds pretty good, so maybe I can dial in something that works for me.

I bought the Soundtower patch editor and it works great by the way (except for the weird scaling of the interface). I got a couple of soundpacks and it was a breeze to load them and it’s going to be really helpful for managing sounds and dissecting patches I think. I haven’t tried the randomize patch and other features but I think that has the potential to be really good as well.

I really hope they release the new T5 firmware soon, as I really want those extra patch banks. I also wish you could overwrite the factory sounds as as there is a lot in there that I just have zero use for.

I watched the move Beyond the Black Rainbow last night, so I was in the perfect state of mind to mess with the T5 today. I think the T5 will be great for that kind of vibe, particularly alongside my Moog. I bet they will layer really well.

(Killer soundtrack if people haven’t heard it).

(PS: the mod matrix is AMAZING. I was scared it would be some impenetrable thing like my old desktop Evolver, but it’s dead simple to use and crazy powerful. Rethinking my first impressions on stereo and effects after messing more with the mod matrix as you can do some really interesting stuff :thinking:).

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which keybed do you prefer between the grandmother and the take 5?

I am also curious about this as well (I really like the keys on the grandmother). I currently have a grandmother and a korg minilogue, but have been eyeing a Take 5 to upgrade my poly.

Would also love to hear any other comments between the interplay between take 5 and G-ma.

@captain8 @Traindepot

Both have Fatar keybeds and both keybeds feel great. I’ve spent most of my time playing mini keys, so it feels really luxurious using these keybeds.

There is a little bit more resistance on the Grandmother keybed, so it feels a tad more satisfying to press a key, but slightly less resistance is probably better suited for chords on a polysynth. Of course you get more keys on the Take 5, and it has that great key split function.

Size wise they are not very different.

For raw sound, the Grandmother has the edge, as it’s just so full and rich. In reading up on poly and mono synths, I kept coming across things about how gain staging is totally different so mono synths have the edge over polys, even when polys are stacking in Unison mode.

The T5 on the other hand can make so many different sounds that the Grandmother can’t touch.

I see them as really two different beasts. The Grandmother has that really raw 1970s modular/Minimoog vibe. The T5 covers the late 70s, early 80s polysynth (retro futuristic) vibe, but goes into uncharted waters with the crazy modulation capabilities.

There are a lot of T5 fans over on Gear Space, including Prophet owners. People seem to think it is versatile enough to cover some of the old Roland polysynth sounds as well as the old Sequential stuff, and many people are of the opinion that it will be a classic in its own right because of the core sound and modulation capabilities, making it not just a budget Prophet, but a thing all of its own. Anyway, it’s more than enough for my needs and I’m going to have a blast programming and playing it.

I imagine the Grandmother and T5 will sit in a mix well, and each have their unique strengths. I feel very lucky to have this combo.

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All these sequential synth’s are history in the making… and I don’t just mean because of the name… they are really a league above the competition… the take five is every bit as good as any of them… that’s my opinion anyway.

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My OB6 coughed and disagrees :wink:. That synth with one raw oscillator is amazing.

Curious about the Take 5, seems a great synth!

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awesome combo.
I‘m thinking about replacing the digitone with the grandmother to have the same combo. One mono, one poly keyboard.
Would be more than enough for my needs

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Perhaps I’ve judged the effects too harshly. For fans of ambient, Kpatz over at GearSpace has gotten some pretty great sounds out of the onboard Reverb and Tape 1.

(Reverb predelay modulated with an LFO apparently for movement. Very cool that effects can be modulated.)

https://gearspace.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=1045729&d=1670191801

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First track with my Take 5 and Grandmother. I’ve been on a Panos Cosmatos kick and this is sort of inspired by his stuff. The Take 5 cuts through a mix like a hot knife through butter. Love it.

@Unifono The combo in action.

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Great stuff :+1:

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I’m a Cosmatos fan and I just watched The Viewing a couple of days ago, so I was primed for the vibe here. Sounds good!

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Thanks! Same here. I watched it for the first time on Friday and absolutely loved it. I just love what he’s doing bringing back the 1970s and early 1980s vibe. So inspiring. Looking forward to digging more into those sounds on the T5.

Did anyone update and test to see if this is stable or fixes the usb cable connection bug?

I haven’t tried it. I asked about the USB issue some people described here over on Gear Space and nobody responded, which makes me think it might not be wide spread. I’ve used USB with the Soundtower editor and it has worked like a charm so far, knock wood. They even have a version of the plug-in that works inside your DAW, where you can automate every parameter in the T5 real time inside your tracks, so makes me think maybe the USB issue isn’t affecting lots of people. Again, knock wood.

I hope the official version of that firmaware gets released soon. I’d love more preset slots, and the looping envelopes would be cool.

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I’ve never had this issue. I’ve owned 3 different take-5’s since release and have it connected to my laptop via usb at least 85-95% of the time

(Post-update, as well)

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