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Post by eccentricorbit on Feb 22, 2009 16:21:24 GMT
Hello all,
I just joined the forum today. I have had a Fusion for about a year and a half and just recently purchased a second one. I play in a band called Eccentric Orbit (www.eoband.com). The music is all instrumental in the prog rock vein. Some say it's a cross between King Crimson, ELP and a 50's Sci-Fi movie soundtrack that doesn't take itself too seriously!
I'm a sax player with some keyboard training (when I was a kid), so in this band I'm playing a Yamaha WX5 midi wind controller and some keys as well. My rig includes a Nord Electro (great for organs, clavs, eps, etc.), a Korg MS2000R analog modeling synth, an EMU Vintage Key unit and my Fusions.
I play the WX5 through the MS2000r to get monophonic sounds ala the 70's style Moogs, etc., and I play polyphonic sounds on the keyboards using the Nord for organs, clavs and eps and the Fusion for polyphonic synth sounds. The EMU is for some fill-in sounds. It's good for sound effects and a few other things, but it's getting a little long in the tooth so I'm trying to phase it out.
Lately the MS2000r has been frustrating (spoiled by the Fusion, truth be told) and that's what prompted me to get the second Fusion. I'd like to start running the WX5 through the Fusion and phase out the MS2000r. The fusion is easier and more fun to program. For example, the realtime controllers on the WX5 are limited to lip pressure, breath pressure, and one mod wheel. The Fusion lets me assign these to different mod effects and also lets me add an expression pedal to the mix that can be assigned to "whatever" as well. Very nice!
I have some basic understanding of analog synthesis and sample-based synthesis. I am 100% confused by FM synthesis and don't really use that or the Wind or Drum synth aspects of the Fusion. If I could get really good at programming analog synth sounds on my Fusion I'd be a happy girl!
The band is working on its second album and it's soon going to be time for me to put my parts down so I'm now working on replacing my "working" sounds that I use in rehearsal with the ones that will go on the album. My limited synth programming experience doesn't result in much success in a reasonable time frame very often. I can spend hours tweaking a sound and not be very happy with it after all that.
I'm thinking that having a broad base of close-to-the-mark sounds would make programming a lot faster and more successful for me. I have all the Hollow Sun sounds, but am looking for more.
So here's my questions: so I am considering buying the kpr MyMoog and/or Vintage Key banks.
- What are your overall impressions of these sounds?
- The VK set has a 'tron Choir which is something I'm after but is not in the mp3 provided by kpr. Is this the male choir? How do you like it?
Thanks very much. I look forward to learning from you guys and helping others as well as much as I can.
- Madeleine
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Post by Hollow Sun on Feb 22, 2009 18:11:03 GMT
Welcome to the forum Madeleine! Your setup sound intriguing - wind controller eh? - The VK set has a 'tron Choir which is something I'm after Fusion has a Tron choir in there already if you have downloaded all the HS sounds... Hollow Sun 02 ... A-1 'Tape Choir' Mixed 8-voice male/female choir... THE classic Tron choir. Cheers, Steve |
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Post by Shreddie on Feb 23, 2009 0:21:03 GMT
I am 100% confused by FM synthesis Haha! I'm not surprised! I've been doing things with FM since I was 11 and it still flummoxes me from time to time! For a basic but informative guide to FM though, check out the "FM Synthesis Part 1" video on this page. There is also an nice little introduction to analogue synthesis that was part of the Fusion tutorial pack, you can find it at the Alesis Fusion downloads page. If you want something more in depth, you could work your way through this... www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm (start with part one at the bottom of the page) It was a massive series and not all of it relates to the Fusion but if you want to learn synthesis in depth, it's a very good place to start. Good luck! |
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Post by eccentricorbit on Feb 23, 2009 1:29:30 GMT
Your setup sound intriguing - wind controller eh?  Somebody's gotta do it! Fusion has a Tron choir in there already if you have downloaded all the HS sounds... Hollow Sun 02 ... A-1 'Tape Choir' Mixed 8-voice male/female choir... THE classic Tron choir. Hmmm - I bought my Fusion from Sweetwater and they said it came preloaded with "all" the HS sounds, but I don't have HS 02. I do have a Tape Choir sound in the HS set at sound C-5 (this set starts with A-1 Fusion String Ensemble). Is this the same sound? I will check out the HS sounds to see what I'm missing! (The board came with Hollow Sun, HS 06-10 and HS Freepacks 01-04, 07, 08, 10-15, and 17). Thanks, Madeleine |
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Post by eccentricorbit on Feb 23, 2009 1:35:26 GMT
Thanks, Shreddie. I have book marked both pages and will check it out. I have worked through "Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming" by Jim Aikin which helps with the basics and comes with a CD so you can hear what you're reading about. (ISBN 0-87930-773-0 for anyone interested). The book is good but I definitely need more.
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Post by Shreddie on Feb 23, 2009 5:26:02 GMT
Your setup sound intriguing - wind controller eh? Somebody's gotta do it! I keep toying with the idea of getting an EWI4000s one day. The HS 1-5 are available from Alesis on the Fusion downloads page. As for the freepacks, some weren't numbered, instead they are named, check them out at the Hollowsun site to see what you do (or don't) have. Cool, you have a taste for synthesis then! You masochist! Seriously though, it's not a subject which comes quickly to anyone. There's a hell of alot to it. I cut my teeth on FM and sampling when I was a kid/teenager and I'm still learning new tricks now that I'm 30! Analogue style synthesis never used to make much sense to me... Until I got the Fusion! Since then I've bought an Andromeda so I'm practicing alot on that at the moment. The trick is to make the sounds respond well to your performance. Once you have a few sounds that seem to do this well, you can start using them as templates for other sounds. By doing this it saves alot of time setting up all the controller, envelope, LFO and filter assignments again, just change the oscillators, tweak the envelopes etc and in no time (and with a little luck!), you'll have a workable new sound. Of course, it goes without saying that it's worth looking at presets you like and how they work to figure things out, just methodically reverse engineer them, I still do that alot. You can of course use those as starting points/templates for new sounds too. |
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Post by Failed Muso on Feb 23, 2009 11:25:47 GMT
I keep toying with the idea of getting an EWI4000s one day. I keep trying to blag an EWI USB but Steve refuses to accept my offer of sexual favours in return!  ;D |
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Post by Hollow Sun on Feb 23, 2009 14:17:49 GMT
Hmmm - I bought my Fusion from Sweetwater and they said it came preloaded with "all" the HS sounds, but I don't have HS 02. I do have a Tape Choir sound in the HS set at sound C-5 (this set starts with A-1 Fusion String Ensemble). Is this the same sound? Ah! Right. Ok.... Alesis used to release the sounds as individual banks - 01, 02, 03, etc.. Then it was decided to wrap 01-05 in one big bank to ship with later production models. Seems that Sweetwater did something similar - released it with the big HS 1-5 bank and also the later ones 06-10 (am I making sense?!). Put it this way, if you have a program in amongst your collection called 'Tape Choir', you have the famous Tron choir sound. Here are all the Tron sounds Fusion has ... * Tron mixed choir * Tron violins * Tron flutes * Tron 'Watcher' * Tron boys choir * Tron mixed strings * Tron brass From 'official' HS 01-10. And... * Tron 16 violins From Freepack #17 Steve |
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Post by jpvideo on Feb 23, 2009 14:18:14 GMT
AHA! Keeping the classic progressive sound alive and true to form. Very Nice.  |
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Post by Hollow Sun on Feb 23, 2009 14:31:11 GMT
Thanks, Shreddie. I have book marked both pages and will check it out. I have worked through "Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming" by Jim Aikin which helps with the basics and comes with a CD so you can hear what you're reading about. (ISBN 0-87930-773-0 for anyone interested). The book is good but I definitely need more. Check out Alesis' own analogue synthesis tutorial. It's a bit 'theoretical' but explains the basics of analogue synths. Steve |
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Post by eccentricorbit on Feb 26, 2009 1:14:50 GMT
I do have the HS Tron Choir. I will have to go back to it again and work with it a little now that I now more about sample-based synthesis in the Fusion.
Thanks for all the greetings and encouragement. Next step is dig in and try to do more!
- Madeleine
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Post by suilebhain on Mar 3, 2009 18:27:19 GMT
Greetings, Madeleine! I've toyed with the idea of getting a wind controller in the past and putting those sax lessons to work. If you are looking for more Mellotron, check out the thread fusioneer.proboards102.com/index.cgi?board=usersounds&action=display&thread=1245There is a link to Mellotron samples. They take a little work because you have to convert them from .wav files, then assemble the multisample in the Fusion, but it is well worth it, especially the MK II Violins. A couple of the samples warble a bit, but that is probably because the tape was in bad shape. It is like going to a garage sale and finding your neighbor is selling this weird old organ her son left behind in the 70's before he joined the Peace Corps. best thing about it is what might be the worst thing - the samples are only 8 seconds, and they die off in the most ungraceful manner. In other words, you have to play it like a Mellotron! |
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Post by eccentricorbit on Mar 21, 2009 18:47:29 GMT
Thanks for the tron tips. I will have to learn more about the sampler in the Fusion. I managed to get the MK II Strings into the Fusion using a soundfont converter. Worked great! So I'm good there. Flutes I'm not too picky about and don't use them much. I've tried to do some sample work in the fusion for the tron Choir but can't seem to get that perfect loop point so there's always a click at the loop point. There's one in our sound font too which is why I haven't converted that one. I will give your idea a shot.
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Post by eccentricorbit on Mar 21, 2009 18:49:50 GMT
Hmmm - I bought my Fusion from Sweetwater and they said it came preloaded with "all" the HS sounds, but I don't have HS 02. I do have a Tape Choir sound in the HS set at sound C-5 (this set starts with A-1 Fusion String Ensemble). Is this the same sound? Ah! Right. Ok.... Alesis used to release the sounds as individual banks - 01, 02, 03, etc.. Then it was decided to wrap 01-05 in one big bank to ship with later production models. Seems that Sweetwater did something similar - released it with the big HS 1-5 bank and also the later ones 06-10 (am I making sense?!). Put it this way, if you have a program in amongst your collection called 'Tape Choir', you have the famous Tron choir sound. Here are all the Tron sounds Fusion has ... * Tron mixed choir * Tron violins * Tron flutes * Tron 'Watcher' * Tron boys choir * Tron mixed strings * Tron brass From 'official' HS 01-10. And... * Tron 16 violins From Freepack #17 Steve Hi Steve, Maybe it's not the classic sound I'm looking for. I'd love to send you a CDR of our album and let you hear the tron choir the band is shooting for. Perhaps you'll be able to help me get that with te HS sound. Is there a good way to get you a track or two to hear? - Maddie |
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Post by suilebhain on May 6, 2009 13:52:54 GMT
Yeah, post it here so we ALL can hear.  |
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Somebody's gotta do it!
