Digidesign Turbosynth

steampoweredsequencer · Post by **steampoweredsequencer** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:28 pm

This is not a necropost. I actually found turbosynth and got it working with sheepshaver under osx 10.6.7 and OS 9.0.

Does anyone have a manual for this thing?
Any cool tricks?
Any stupid tricks?
Any duck sounds?

edit: LOOK WHAT THE FUCK I JUST FOUND!!!!
http://theviirus.files.wordpress.com/20 ... manual.pdf

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:45 pm

Still one of the best digital non-linear waveshapers I've ever used. I love Turbosynth so hard.

I've always used it more for audio mangling than any form of actual synth building.

So there's my tip: run shit through the waveshaper.

YouTube · Post by **Kent** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:08 am

Any audio examples of Turbo-synth (especially the aforementioned wave-shaper) in action?

Color me curious.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:02 pm

I recently dusted off an old tune and re-worked it with my current studio and bandmate. The only sounds that we re-used were the ones I made by running an old Univox drum machine through Turbosynth. I still have an old OS 9 G3 iMac just for Turbosynth and Infinity.

One of my favorite Turbosynth techniques is to sequence a bunch of waveforms, plumb them through some waveshaping and then wrap a multisegment envelope around the output. The result is then loaded into a sampler (usually an old Mirage) and looped. I still have a few Turbosynth things on Mirage disks. Maybe I'll post a couple of examples.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 1:53 pm

Here are four examples of Turbosynth doing its thang:

http://www.theelectronicgarden.com/Scot/TurboMirage.mp3

It was a long time (decades!) ago, but I remember a bit about how I made them.

The first is the Univox being ever-so-slightly treated (from the song I just re-did).

The second sound is the same Univox sample being heavily violated by Turbosynth's waveshaper and maybe something else (ditto).

The third bit is all made in Turbosynth with some wavesequencing and multistage envelope modulation.

Finally, there is a bit of dialogue (saying "Attack/Decay") that has been thoroughly wrecked by TurboSynth.

YouTube · Post by **Kent** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:21 pm

Wow! Very nice sounding. Thanks for posting the samples. I'm quite impressed with the old gal.

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:34 pm

Scot Solida wrote:Here are four examples of Turbosynth doing its thang:

Oh hell yeah. I still love the character of Turbosynth so much.

fishphacurr · Post by **fishphacurr** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:23 pm

Doesn't it require Digidesign hardware? Or was it only some features required Digi gear? Man, that was on my first Mac, with 8 megs of ram. Fun times!

thetwlo · Post by **thetwlo** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:30 pm

fishphacurr wrote:Doesn't it require Digidesign hardware? Or was it only some features required Digi gear? Man, that was on my first Mac, with 8 megs of ram. Fun times!

some versions did-not all, just found the old floppies for mine. It's sad that there were never any major significant updates for this and most other software I bought, kinda turned me off from buying software... modules are better, mostly...

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 7:09 pm

Forgot I had a copy of this program hence got it running on my brand new Macbook Pro Retina via Sheep Shaver.

I guess there is no manual online in existence? Found loads of threads around the web requesting manual but no one seems to have found success.

ignatius · Post by **ignatius** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 7:35 pm

Kultschar wrote:Forgot I had a copy of this program hence got it running on my brand new Macbook Pro Retina via Sheep Shaver.

is that a minor mission to get working? or is it pretty straight forward?

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 7:51 pm

Very easy!!!

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:30 pm

Kultschar wrote:Very easy!!!

Thanks for the tip. I just got this set up - very easy. Nice to have Turbosynth, Th0nk, and some others back again.

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:50 am

Now up and running and playing.

Tempted to try and recreate some vintage NIN Guitar sounds for nostalgia

KB: Did you mike the guitar cabinets, or go direct?

TR: I never mike cabinets. I've tried it, but I just don't like the sound that much--versus just going direct or through amp simulators. Broken, for example, had a lot of that super-thick chunk sound. Almost every guitar sound on that record was me playing through an old Zoom pedal, direct, and then going into Turbosynth. Then I used a couple of key ingredients to make it sound unlike any real sound in the world, and layered about four of them together. By then, it wasn't a guitar anymore. It's an awesome sound.

KB: What are those 'key ingredients' you mentioned in Turbosynth you mentioned a minute ago?

TR: Usually I call up the Waveshaper and click through a few of them, or "convert sample to oscillator" sometimes. A real low pitch can get you some insane sounds. I also use the modulator: Taking the sound as one input, getting the oscillator module, taking something with a real low frequency that has a bell tone or some odd harmonics, and modulating those two can actually produce some awesome death vocal or guitar sounds.

Also, for guitar, almost everything was put through a Zoom 9030. I don't like the distortion stuff in there---it's too traditional sounding ---but I really like the amp simulator. So I take the direct out of that through the amp simulator in the Zoom, and you can get a pretty good, almost Pantera-ish power metal sound. I use that as a basis to start with, and since everything's recorded into the computer, it's easy to take it into Turbosynth and fuck around with it. Sometimes in real-time, too.

ignatius · Post by **ignatius** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:22 am

guess i need to dig out my OSX CD-roms from somewhere...

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:27 am

Im guessing to import audio it has to be AIFF format?

Ive tried a small AIFF format file and it imported the sample ok however a bigger sample (11MB) I had no luck

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:01 pm

Quick 2 sec clip to get buzzy NIN type distortion with the Waveshaper, must admit dont know what im doing lol. Now need to figure out some mangling to screw it up more

http://soundcloud.com/kultschar/wish-nin-piss-about

Tifaret · Post by **Tifaret** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:15 pm

Dang I've been wishing I could get my hands on turbosynth forever. I assumed it'd be a hopeless cause getting it to run on OSX. Is there anywhere online to still get it?

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:16 pm

Tifaret wrote:Dang I've been wishing I could get my hands on turbosynth forever. I assumed it'd be a hopeless cause getting it to run on OSX. Is there anywhere online to still get it?

Yeah just google turbosynth download and you will soon see it!

parasitk · Post by **parasitk** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:23 pm

Kultschar wrote:Im guessing to import audio it has to be AIFF format?

Ive tried a small AIFF format file and it imported the sample ok however a bigger sample (11MB) I had no luck

I think it has to be 44.1 and 16 bit, at least the version I'm running. I don't know if there are any file size restrictions. I tend to feed it shorter loops...

Tifaret · Post by **Tifaret** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:57 pm

Kultschar wrote:
Tifaret wrote:Dang I've been wishing I could get my hands on turbosynth forever. I assumed it'd be a hopeless cause getting it to run on OSX. Is there anywhere online to still get it?
Yeah just google turbosynth download and you will soon see it!

sorted, thanks!

Kultschar · Post by **Kultschar** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:58 pm

Well im getting the hang of it, now have some brutal chainsaw type distortion on my guitar sample, only thing I have not got a clue how to use is the oscillator patch - anybody any tips??

jonne74 · Post by **jonne74** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:55 am

I remember it was used on Aeon Flux, the animated series. Keyboard had an interview with the sound guy.

steampoweredsequencer · Post by **steampoweredsequencer** » Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:23 pm

Kultschar wrote:Forgot I had a copy of this program hence got it running on my brand new Macbook Pro Retina via Sheep Shaver.

I guess there is no manual online in existence? Found loads of threads around the web requesting manual but no one seems to have found success.

LOOK WHAT THE FUCK I JUST FOUND!!!!
http://theviirus.files.wordpress.com/20 ... manual.pdf

vav · Post by **vav** » Sun Sep 01, 2013 12:51 pm

Isnt this what Trent Reznor used on The Downward Spiral?

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

Digidesign Turbosynth

Digidesign Turbosynth