More on the Wave Morphing in this video, very nice!
Edit : my favorite video on the Gemini so far.
3 Likes
Oh wow, that guy does look quite a bit like me. I am jealous heās playing the Gemini before me.
1 Like
Donāt be, at first, I thought he was playing the Gemini but heās only playing the Super 6. 
3 Likes
This thing sounds like actual magic. Itās gone straight up to the top of my dream gear list ahead of anything else, by quite some margin. Perfect instant sci-fi soundtrack machine.
5 Likes
I want to know about the Saving process. When you Save a Preset, does it save both Sounds in one Slot or do you have to save both Sounds individually? Looking forward for the manual.
1 Like
If they do a version in black, I might bite. They really should have put a screen on it though. Even if it was just a small one to show presets. They could have done it just like the JP8.
2 Likes
Another demo, this time showcasing itās grungier and more aggressive side -
2 Likes
Some of the demos for this have absolutely blown me away. I already liked the sound of the Super 6, but for some reason it never just stunned me. I donāt know if itās just the disparity in demos. I have a couple of friends that have the S6, so I know what it sounds like in person. (which is to say really nice) but something about the Gemini just grabbed my ears. I need to read up on it a bit, and see whatās different about it (other than the obvious). Maybe the S6 can do exactly what Iāve heard that I like so much, but if so, I havenāt quite heard it yet. 
It seems to have a very smooth, squishy, Rolandy sound to it, that I didnāt quite get from the S6. Or maybe a better way to put it would be like the difference between a J-106 and J-8 or something. Havenāt pinpointed what exactly it is yet, but it was apparent pretty quickly. Now I need to get over to my friendās house, and see if it can be replicated on the S6 as that would save a TON of money if I went crazy some day and bought one or the otherā¦
This thing might be worth eventually misappropriating some funds for. Though not any time soon unfotunately. Maybe in the winter if Iām lucky. Synth funds will be low for the next 3-6 months.
2 Likes
One of the thing you have with the Gemini is the ability to scan the Wave/Wavetable. This will probably be my next Synth if my local store can get it.
In one of the videos linked earlier, George says the tone is a slightly brighter and more āforwardā than the S6. Itās too subtle a difference for me to hear in the videos, but I like both. So cinematic and āevolvingā. My current synths sound much more static and unaffected in comparison: more direct, less dramatic. I wouldnāt want to only have a UDO (due to the music I like to make), but I hope to own one some day.
I forget if it was the Cuckoo video or the Sonicstate one or something else, but I remember hearing George Hearn talk about how the Gemini has a warmer and more up front saturated sound, and the Super 6 is brighter and more neutral or something. Iāll have to rewatch to see if I can find it. Thereās plenty of synth nerd talk in the Cuckoo vid about various specific design choices in terms of how smooth and nice it sounds.
3 Likes
Those are basically the qualities that I was thinking that I was hearing, but didnāt know if it was just me, or if they were really fundamentally different beyond the physical aspect and voice count, etc.
1 Like
I found the section where heās talking about the various differences between the Gemini and Super 6 -
Gemini is ālouder, bit more forward, and a bit more saturated.ā And is not quite as ābreathy and glassy and nice in the high endā as the Super 6.
6 Likes
Yep! Thatās a nice synth!
2 Likes
I liked this bit of what George said to Cuckoo in response to the praise about how it sounds so smooth and pleasing relative to a lot of other modern synths which can tend to sound very aggressive, and I think it sheds some light on his design philosophy and why the Gemini sounds the way it does. Roughly transcribed -
Thereās no magic, I just think less is more. So that when you make an instrument like this there should be as few possible stages before the output, you should never use any components that are higher precision than they need to be.
So actually the sloppiness and poor performance of things carefully harnessed is an important part of the sound, and I think the thing is with the modern design kind of tools that we have, weāre like āoh yeah Iāll have this on there and then weāll have that and then that oneās got this low noise and this performanceā; no, go for the noisiest possible worst op-amp that you can have upstream, because if the VCA gates it for example youāre gating the noise.
And actually the noiseā¦ weāre humans, we donāt like regular patterns, so we like a bit of corruption and a bit of behaviour like that. And hopefully thatās it and you know, keep your gains in check, keep your signal levels alright, have distortion if you want but you know make it something that you can dial in rather than something thatās inherent, because as soon as you have too much third harmonic and odd harmonic distortion you canāt have nice glassy trebley sounds because the upper frequencies tend to beat down at the lower range in an in-harmonic fashion, and it just sounds ughā¦
Really interesting stuff I think, the fact heās apparently chosen parts that might be considered lo-fi as a creative decision because the sum of those parts ultimately makes something that sounds more pleasing to our ears. And the idea that having such technically perfect modern components readily available these days can actually be something of a detriment to instrument design.
I think itās something anyone who appreciates lo-fi gear can understand and get behind. Like I chose the Mk.I MEGAfm which has arguably technically āworseā sound quality than the Mk.II because the specific attributes and noise of those chips just has a really special and almost organic feel to it, and the way each operator can be pushed into distortion if you push the total levels up is reminiscent of what heās saying here too.
The Gemini seems like a proper future classic to me, I canāt see it not being used in some really big film/TV/game soundtracksā¦
7 Likes
I definitely agree with him to some extent. There are places in synth circuits where I actually feel higher end or higher precision parts are very helpful, and there are others where they are not. It depends pretty heavily on the function of the circuit itself, but there are things that add pleasant and semi-unique grime to the sound of the synth. (One of the classic examples being the Moog Modular mixer circuits.) Filters are another where one can get quite creative and tailor the sound in this way.
I like to go high end in my amplifier and mixing circuits, and in my VCO cores, but there are other circuits like LPGs for example that sound great using simpler and occasionally cheaper components.
I aggree completely that the sound coming out is a sum of all of this, and each section adds its own layer of āfilmā to the resulting mix. This can be colored with various types and grades of components.
A lot of high end synths still just use bog-standard TL0xx op amps, and people love the sound of these synths.
I like to pick and choose based on the precise function block, however, in a commercial setting where you need to reduce BOM price and breadth of component choices, this isnāt economical in the slightest.
Edit: Whatever heās chosen for this synth is definitely working. It sounds incredible.
Itās funny, I didnāt actually realize that George was UDO. Iāve spoken with him a long time ago when he was making little synth function block modules (which were really cool). Very cool that heās behind these synths.
2 Likes
Yeah I wish he had a bit more of that mentality on making the digital side a bit more shitty in various ways but I suppose that is what things the like M and the bitmask are for.
Thanks for the extended quote, GurtTractor !
Maybe itās just me being an EE, but i wouldnāt say ālo-fiā. Your design is still for a high quality signal, but you donāt over-spec, or cherry pick parts at manufacture. That gives it just enough of an edge to help the sound stand out but not be too perfect. Of course this all depends how good your initial design was. Itās an enormous help to George to have already done the Super 6, and get to do the design one more time.
ADDED : The other thing is by using regular grade parts, rather than high tolerance or mil-spec, is you save a lot in manufacturing cost !
2 Likes
Agree with this.
I wouldnāt go too far into choosing low spec parts, but not overdoing it can be beneficial, and overdoing it isnāt always an improvement.
I use extremely overkill parts in my sine shapers, and it results in nice sine waves as one example. Iām sure there are somewhat diminished returns, but I canāt argue with the resulting waveform output.
There are cases where going with discrete components could do the trick as well. A friend showed me some schematics from an SSL consoleās channel strips, and there are some interesting mixtures of discrete transistor stages going into subsequent op amp circuits if memory serves. Itās been a while, but that sticks out in my memory.
There are definitely instances where a bit of noise, or a bit of distortion, or slower slew rate, etc. might impact your sound in a pleasing way. There are other instances though where thatās exactly what you donāt want.
As to the component BOM, you can save a ton just by using the same part across your whole circuit, rather than hand picking ones for this or that task. I was consulting on a retail synth module, and the first thing that the guy requested, is that I ditch all of my hand picked ICs, and try to stick to all one SKU where possible. I do custom work normally, so I use precisely what I want to, so this actually became so stressful trying to reduce, and squeeze out parts that I had chosen just to save a bit on the production. I can see why he wanted to do that. It made sense from a production stand-point, but itās not how I work. I was putting more effort into reducing my ciruits than actually designing what I wanted it to do, so I kind of gave up on it after a while.
Iām not one that goes mil-spec, but if thereās a place in one of my circuits that would benefit from high slew rate, low drift, low distortion op amp that costs 5-10x what a TL071 does, Iām going with the higher end part. If the application doesnāt benefit from that, then I wonāt use the higher spec part.
4 Likes
Another great sound demo, this time really showcasing that glossy high end -
