N*D: Where the heck do I put this?

[Bob Womack]

* is some sort of instrument that doesn't fit any of the AGF's categories.

So, I got some candy via Fed Ex today:


Obviously a box arrived.

Had to smudge out the product description for the game that is to follow.

So, here is a clue as to what came from Sweetwater:


It has eighty more controls on the front panel... plus thirty-seven other buttons.
Care to guess?

Bob

Analog synthesizer? Box seems too small though.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Analog synthesizer?

Yup. Got a guess which one?



Bob

Thinking something Mini Moog'ish.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Thinking something Mini Moog'ish.

Wow that was quick! It is a Behringer Poly D, a four-oscillator paraphonic version of the Mini allowing everything the MiniMoog can do plus four-voice chords.



Bob

Well I do have a soft spot for analog synths so... Listened to a lot of old school prog.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Well I do have a soft spot for analog synths so... Listened to a lot of old school prog.

I do too. I studied electronic music and synthesis from 1979-1981, right on the dividing line in pop and rock between analog and FM synthesis. The university I attended had a pile of analog synths: an Arp 2600, Electronic Music Laboratories 101, 400 sequencer, and Poly Box, and an Electronic Music Studios Synthi-AKS. We also had Synclavier II serial #000001. The EML 101 was like a duophonic MiniMoog on steroids with onboard sample/hold, ring modulator, and four oscillators.

Since the Moog patents had expired, Behringer first created a miniature eurorack version of the Mini Model D without a keyboard. They followed up with this version.

Bob

Cool!!!!!!

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Wow that was quick! It is a Behringer Poly D, a four-oscillator paraphonic version of the Mini allowing everything the MiniMoog can do plus four-voice chords.

Have fun with that! Shades of my old Sequential Circuits Prophet V....

[Bob Womack]

By the way, Behringer's next product is a $600 Prophet 600 clone module with extra features.

Bob

[Mr. Jelly]

That looks like fun. How are you going to use this, if I may ask?

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

That looks like fun. How are you going to use this, if I may ask?

This is one of those "maid of all sessions" instruments. I produce both music and sound design for film and video. In music, you can play drones, leads, chords, bass lines, pads, and patterns for songs with this synth. In sound design sessions, the possibilities are practically endless. For instance, if I build the sound of an explosion and the client wants more bottom end, I can crank a couple of oscillators down to 32' range and slightly out of tune, add a little white noise, adjust the filter to give it impact, and voile'. I've been using a little Korg MiniKorg 700 from the seventies that I took in trade a while back for some of these chores but this synth is far more flexible and can be driven by my guitar synth rig.

Bob

[Brent Hahn]

Congrats!

Making a short story long, I recently triaged a giant pile of gear that had been donated to a local community college's audio program. Most of the Behringer stuff was DOA. And when I opened the units up, NONE of them had any internal fuses or similar protection.

While most of the units appeared to have expired due to surges, a couple had their power transformers rip loose and bounce around inside, wreaking major havoc.

Point being, put anything Behringer on a serious surge protector. And handle it like it's nitroglycerin.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

That looks like fun. How are you going to use this, if I may ask?

One thing I'm planning to play with is the application that Larry Knechtel used his MiniMoog for on his guitar parts for the band Bread's hit "If," creating a watery, wobbly guitar part that those who were listening to radio in those days will never forget.



Larry ran his guitar signal into the external input of his MiniMoog and then through the voltage controlled filter and voltage controlled amplifier. He drove them with a sawtooth waveform from the low frequency oscillator and the envelope generators, added a little shimmery reverb, and the rest is history.

Bob

[Mr. Jelly]

It sounds like you are on top of this. It's beyond me but I'm still interested. I've yet to wrap my head around using white noise or any other type of noise in recordings. But I can hear when it works and just go with it.