New semi-modular synthesizer

Nelson Baboon · Post by **Nelson Baboon** » Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:50 pm

i'll comment again on the sound.

I think it's fantastic. again, first impressions, which can always be biased in various ways....i recommend this so highly to more experimental, noise based musicians. that's not really saying that it can't be used in other ways. I'm basing this recommendation on how the sound just seems to jump out, especially when used with other sounds. There is just something substantial there.....

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:33 am

Nelson Baboon wrote:Can the various functions be modulated by midi controllers?

Yes, they are. We discuss this by mail, but i just add it here for future reference in the forum.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 8:35 am

For Parisian people, i'll be there:
https://www.synthevent.co/initiation-au ... -modulaire
Sunday afternoon.
I hope to see some of you there for a live demo!

JP555 · Post by **JP555** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 9:26 am

Thank you for the honest review Nelson! I appreciate you specifying how it might not be best suited for those looking for more basic melody making, but great for experimenting

Nelson Baboon · Post by **Nelson Baboon** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:56 am

JP555 wrote:Thank you for the honest review Nelson! I appreciate you specifying how it might not be best suited for those looking for more basic melody making, but great for experimenting

i just want to emphasize that I generally don't even try to make melodies when I get a synth...so, it is actually rather likely that this can be used on the cusp of melody/chaos very well. I was talking with a friend and mentioned that this might actually work splendidly for gnarly bass lines, etc. and even prettier type passages - I just don't make these kinds of sounds (do I even know how to make them?). But I mean, you pick up a Virus, and you can tell right out of the box that it is primarily a melody/pad instrument, and that you have to work to really deviate from that. This moved me immediately in a different direction.

It will be interesting to hear what other people come up with on this, and maybe they will release some tracks. At some point (maybe this weekend) I'll put up some tracks with just this, and probably some fx afterwards.

Nelson Baboon · Post by **Nelson Baboon** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:59 am

ocs wrote:
Nelson Baboon wrote:Can the various functions be modulated by midi controllers?
Yes, they are. We discuss this by mail, but i just add it here for future reference in the forum.

hah - yes. You politely pointed out to me that the specs for this were right there in the manual.

One note on the midi control that you mentioned to me via email, but I'll repeat here. The controller value ADDS to the value that is set on the machine. I think that usually (?) with synths with cc control, the value is an absolute one....so here, if you have the value set to a high one, you'll get little or no reaction from the synth. I think that's why I've had partial success with midi controllers thus far, but I will try again later armed with this knowledge.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:39 am

Nelson Baboon wrote:One note on the midi control that you mentioned to me via email, but I'll repeat here. The controller value ADDS to the value that is set on the machine. I think that usually (?) with synths with cc control, the value is an absolute one....so here, if you have the value set to a high one, you'll get little or no reaction from the synth. I think that's why I've had partial success with midi controllers thus far, but I will try again later armed with this knowledge.

Yes, I choose this because you can create a loop of CC value send in MIDI and still play with the faders...
Sending an absolute value in MIDI result in disconnecting complettly the fader.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:51 am

Nelson Baboon wrote:The sound is strong and industrial. I think that someone who bought this to make melodic music, and/or pretty sounds, would get frustrated.

OK, i'm not objective here.
It's clear that this synth was design for experimental music, so fader react very quickly, but i think it's not very hard to have nice and clean melodic sound.

To be faire, the only problem a keyboard player will face is the lack of a "fine tune" fader.

Nelson Baboon · Post by **Nelson Baboon** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 6:13 pm

another thing that fooled me (another rtfm, I guess) is that I wasn't able to get midi controllers working before I discovered in the manual that for the controllers that map to all of the functions, it's hard wired to channel 2.

Nelson Baboon · Post by **Nelson Baboon** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 12:05 pm

just posting some notes here for the next person who is trying to figure out this instrument. again - it's all very logical. I have no problems with the interface, which to my mind is very cleverly designed.

While I tend to make rather noisy patches/music, I usually like to start out with a basic patch and then mess with it. I couldn't figure out why reloading the 'factory' patches was now giving me a very noisy sounding patch, no matter which preset I loaded.

I realized that, because of the facts that the knob positions are active when you reload a patch, it might sound very different from when it was saved. In this case, turning the modulation knobs all totally counterclockwise gave me the basic 'init' patch that I remember.

really basic stuff, but baboons are sometimes kind of slow.

Kernelkunt · Post by **Kernelkunt** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:03 pm

Im impressed by the sound demos. Can the line out drive a pair of headphones?

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:04 am

Kernelkunt wrote:Im impressed by the sound demos. Can the line out drive a pair of headphones?

Yes. It's not as loud as a headphone out, but it works.

UndercoverBrother · Post by **UndercoverBrother** » Tue Feb 28, 2017 4:17 am

Got this little guy (actually 1/3 bigger than I thought) yesterday so no in depth review but after a couple hours of noodling, I can add some praise as well. It's very versatile and takes you to many differents places without losing character, filters sound great and the waveforms give lots of possibilities.
The OCS-2 Sounds brilliant whether you want noisy or melodic material.

But my favourite part is the interface actually, it's clever and makes it easy to dial in sound design ideas; you don't need the manual much once you read it carefully. Front panel is well labeled, that's all you need ! And internal modulation is pretty deep.

It's going to be a central piece in my setup I believe

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:44 pm

Sounds really cool,i like it.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:18 am

hello,

If you are near Paris this Saturday, you can came to "la machine du moulin rouge" : there will be lot's of nice stuff!

I'll be there to present the OCS-2 synth. I'll also have a prototype of the next synth i'll make.

Corbeau · Post by **Corbeau** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:56 am

I'll definitely try to stop by and check it out, ocs! This synth looks and sounds awesome. Love the form factor too.

Any hints you can share about the new prototype?

Unborn Gore · Post by **Unborn Gore** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:29 pm

Corbeau wrote:Any hints you can share about the new prototype?

Yes, I think I may be much more interested in the new one also.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 9:10 am

Corbeau wrote:Any hints you can share about the new prototype?

I'll have one Saturday, so you will be able to test it.

For now, I have 2 design working :
the MMO-4 (4oscilators and 1 LFO), and the MMO-3 (3 oscillators and 3 LFO).
I think the MMO-4 is the ultimate drone machine, but the MMO-3 is almost as good for drones, but have a wider sound range.
here is a picture of the front face of the MMO-3:

All informations and documentation about the MMO-4 is on the nozoïd website.
The MMO-3 is almost similar, but differences are :
- only 3 oscillators
- modulation between oscillators can be : AM, FM, PM or WS (an custom wave-shaping technique)
- 3 complex LFO : 1 with parametric WF and the 2 other offer 5 originals algorithm providing very complex WF.

I'll make more documentation soon about this LFOs.

Please tell me what you think

Unborn Gore · Post by **Unborn Gore** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:35 pm

Damn. Very intrigued with the proposed capabilities of the MMO-3. Drone+wave-shaping from digital oscillators is going to compliment a lot of rigs.

Thanks for the update, ocs. These machines look so fun!

neuroportal · Post by **neuroportal** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:36 pm

The more I hear this the more I am itching to buy one.

Anyone got any more demos?

What is the build quality like?

Kernelkunt · Post by **Kernelkunt** » Sat Mar 11, 2017 6:37 pm

ocs wrote:
Kernelkunt wrote:Im impressed by the sound demos. Can the line out drive a pair of headphones?
Yes. It's not as loud as a headphone out, but it works.

Cool. Do you get a high quality sound output when using headphones (i.e. full bass response, clear high end etc.)?

neuroportal · Post by **neuroportal** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:00 pm

I ordered one.

It sounds exciting.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:55 am

neuroportal wrote:The more I hear this the more I am itching to buy one.

Anyone got any more demos?

What is the build quality like?

I did not made lot's of video, but there is lot's of sound demo on the website.

About the buid quality : they are all handmade - with love - in Paris!

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:57 am

Kernelkunt wrote:Cool. Do you get a high quality sound output when using headphones (i.e. full bass response, clear high end etc.)?

I did not like working with headphone, but I have a DT 990 pro : the impedance is high, so everything is perfect.

ocs · Post by **ocs** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:00 am

neuroportal wrote:I ordered one.

It sounds exciting.

I post it this morning. You should have it in 3 to 5 days.

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

New semi-modular synthesizer

space in faders