ghostly's combinators & refills - 005 Micron
Gradient Noise at ICMC 2026
4 months ago
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
A Micron, in Reason?
Don't get too excited... I have tried to recreate the architecture of a Micron Set-up as a Combinator in Reason. If you understand what any of that means then the following link may be of some interest to you. For everyone else... as you were!
ghostly's combinators & refills - 005 Micron
ghostly's combinators & refills - 005 Micron
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
AMPAD Sysex File Archive
I didn't realise that all the links to the sysex files were broken, you can download them all from here:
Sysex ArchiveTuesday, 20 March 2012
A Phoenix from the flames? Sort of...
It has been two years since I concluded my Micron - Patch a Day project. I love the Micron, and no doubt will go back to it at some stage (or maybe even an Ion, one day...) but back in March 2010 I sold my much loved silver and red box and bought a Novation A Station. A great synth for tweaking but sadly I don't have the room to keep a rack of gear anymore and so, after only a few short months, it too moved on to pastures new.
Although I have a number of soft synths which I love messing about with (especially Reason), I very rarely sit down and get stuck into some patch creation; I dunno, just too may distractions I guess (and as my soft studio is laptop based it isn't always set up). Bottom line is I missed a hardware synth, there is something very seductive about sitting down and using a user interface designed solely for the purpose of making noises. And sometimes (occasionally!) very nice noises too.
And so I bought one. A new synth.
So what have I chosen? What have I plumped for over and above another Micron? I can almost hear the yells of Judas but yes, I got a MicroKorg (!). I have a few reasons for choosing the Korg over another Micron, or something like a Novation K Station (the only other serious option I considered in my budget), as follows:
So there you go. I appreciate a lot of you won't be able to follow my sounds on the new blog since the hardware is so different but I hope a few of you will read what I am getting up to, and possibly even try things out on the more powerful Micron as we go along. Feel free to even post your results here, the more the merrier!
Although I have a number of soft synths which I love messing about with (especially Reason), I very rarely sit down and get stuck into some patch creation; I dunno, just too may distractions I guess (and as my soft studio is laptop based it isn't always set up). Bottom line is I missed a hardware synth, there is something very seductive about sitting down and using a user interface designed solely for the purpose of making noises. And sometimes (occasionally!) very nice noises too.
And so I bought one. A new synth.
So what have I chosen? What have I plumped for over and above another Micron? I can almost hear the yells of Judas but yes, I got a MicroKorg (!). I have a few reasons for choosing the Korg over another Micron, or something like a Novation K Station (the only other serious option I considered in my budget), as follows:
- It runs on batteries (so can grab it while I have a spare half hour sat about on the sofa)
- Although not as easy as synths with a non matrix UI, editing is a bit easier than the Micron (especially away from a computer)
- The simpler architecture means that copying / sharing patch settings can be done via a few lines of text rather than .sysex files (for posting on blogs for example)
- The simpler architecture also means that creating patches is not as daunting
So there you go. I appreciate a lot of you won't be able to follow my sounds on the new blog since the hardware is so different but I hope a few of you will read what I am getting up to, and possibly even try things out on the more powerful Micron as we go along. Feel free to even post your results here, the more the merrier!
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
No more Alesis Micron - Patch a Day
This is going to be the last Alesis Micron - Patch a Day post and I'll tell you why...
I created this blog to learn about synthesis and learn how the Micron operates. It's a great synth which has its admirers, particularly regarding the power hidden within its funky silver and red (or blue) shell. But it is also not without its detractors who mainly complain that it is a pain to program. And, having spent the last couple of months trying to generate original patches from scratch I have to agree.
Now there are editors for the Micron, and I personally use Micron AU and find it very useful when I have my synth connected to my computer. But I work in a very limited space and so use a laptop, which I don't always have set up. Sometimes I want to be able to power up and start playing music, or designing sounds straightaway. The Micron is great for playing, there is a great library of user patches, and the mod sliders and 3 rotary knobs are probably just enough to make creative performing a pleasure. But for designing sounds, without the software editor the Micron does not do it for me.
So I intend buying a synth that is easier to program with lots of knobs and sliders to work a sound. I may keep my Micron as I still really like to play on it. Creating a patch a day on it though has proven to be a chore.
Cheerio and thanks for taking the time to read this.
** UPDATE - AS OF FEBRUARY 2015 THIS BLOG IS BACK UP AND RUNNING AGAIN :) **
I created this blog to learn about synthesis and learn how the Micron operates. It's a great synth which has its admirers, particularly regarding the power hidden within its funky silver and red (or blue) shell. But it is also not without its detractors who mainly complain that it is a pain to program. And, having spent the last couple of months trying to generate original patches from scratch I have to agree.
Now there are editors for the Micron, and I personally use Micron AU and find it very useful when I have my synth connected to my computer. But I work in a very limited space and so use a laptop, which I don't always have set up. Sometimes I want to be able to power up and start playing music, or designing sounds straightaway. The Micron is great for playing, there is a great library of user patches, and the mod sliders and 3 rotary knobs are probably just enough to make creative performing a pleasure. But for designing sounds, without the software editor the Micron does not do it for me.
So I intend buying a synth that is easier to program with lots of knobs and sliders to work a sound. I may keep my Micron as I still really like to play on it. Creating a patch a day on it though has proven to be a chore.
Cheerio and thanks for taking the time to read this.
** UPDATE - AS OF FEBRUARY 2015 THIS BLOG IS BACK UP AND RUNNING AGAIN :) **
Monday, 15 March 2010
Update to Patch 016
Apologies for not posting the FM guitar patch as promised, I have been trying to sort out why the FM8 xylobell patch sounds nothing like the Micron xylobell patch - they are both digital synths with fairly simple parameters and yet the outputs are not even close to being similar. Below is an mp3 file which shows what I mean:
Sound 1 - FM8 (50% FM)
Sound 2 - Micron with FM amt = 11.2% (linear FM)
Sound 3 - Micron with FM amt = 50% (linear FM)
Sound 4 - Micron with FM amt = 50% (exp FM)
Sound 2 - Micron with FM amt = 11.2% (linear FM)
Sound 3 - Micron with FM amt = 50% (linear FM)
Sound 4 - Micron with FM amt = 50% (exp FM)
Sound 2 is as high an FM amount as I dare go before the tones become harsh. Note how nice the FM8 patch sounds! Before I proceed with the rest of my FM8 patches I feel I need to resolve this issue first. I might try and compare the sounds without any envelopes at all as maybe subtle differences in the envelope has a big impact. Perhaps one of you can help with this?
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Patch 016 - XyloBell FM8
I have been getting into the theory of frequency modulation (FM) having caught a couple of really good videos online after the topic was raised on the Micron yahoo group recently (a great resource; if anyone does not know about it, they can find the group here). I got Native Instruments' FM8 synth quite some time ago and spurred on by my recent curiosity I loaded up an instance of it in Logic. Before now I have only ever been a preset surfer with FM8 but with my recently acquired knowledge I was keen to try and figure out what this beast is all about.
So far on Alesis Micron - Patch a Day I have followed "instructions" from various sources on how to achieve a particular sound rather than copy patches to the letter. Given all the differences in filter types, approximations of envelope times etc together with the sometimes major difference in synth architecture, copying patches from other synths is generally not a simple process. Given that a number of FM8's patches are simply based on envelope modulated sine waves modulating each other I was keen to investigate if it was possible to replicate some of the FM8 patches exactly on the Micron and if not I was interested to hear how different these synths would sound. The only complication was translating the tunings from FM8 (ratios) to the Micron (octaves, semitones and cents) for which I had to get my calculator out!
So this is the first patch in a series trying to replicate these FM8 patches. FM8 does have some incredibly complex algorithms so where necessary I have simplified the FM8 patches to 3 oscillator versions that can be reproduced on the Micron. Often, like in the following example FM8 uses a duo of 3 operator patches panned hard left and right which the Micron cannot replicate. In this instance I have gone for a mono patch with no panning. The only parameter that I had to use some judgement for was what FM amount to use - in FM8 the level of the modulator represents the FM amount and the difference between a 50% modulator level in FM8 and a 50% FM amount on the Micron was quite startling. I ended up using very little FM amount at all, just enough to give a nice metallic ringing noise.
XyloBell FM8
It's a nice patch. But..... not as nice as FM8 which has a very delicate sound.
Tomorrow I'll attempt to recreate an FM8 guitar.
So far on Alesis Micron - Patch a Day I have followed "instructions" from various sources on how to achieve a particular sound rather than copy patches to the letter. Given all the differences in filter types, approximations of envelope times etc together with the sometimes major difference in synth architecture, copying patches from other synths is generally not a simple process. Given that a number of FM8's patches are simply based on envelope modulated sine waves modulating each other I was keen to investigate if it was possible to replicate some of the FM8 patches exactly on the Micron and if not I was interested to hear how different these synths would sound. The only complication was translating the tunings from FM8 (ratios) to the Micron (octaves, semitones and cents) for which I had to get my calculator out!
So this is the first patch in a series trying to replicate these FM8 patches. FM8 does have some incredibly complex algorithms so where necessary I have simplified the FM8 patches to 3 oscillator versions that can be reproduced on the Micron. Often, like in the following example FM8 uses a duo of 3 operator patches panned hard left and right which the Micron cannot replicate. In this instance I have gone for a mono patch with no panning. The only parameter that I had to use some judgement for was what FM amount to use - in FM8 the level of the modulator represents the FM amount and the difference between a 50% modulator level in FM8 and a 50% FM amount on the Micron was quite startling. I ended up using very little FM amount at all, just enough to give a nice metallic ringing noise.
XyloBell FM8
It's a nice patch. But..... not as nice as FM8 which has a very delicate sound.
Tomorrow I'll attempt to recreate an FM8 guitar.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Patch 015 - Breath
The one issue I have with the Micron not having an "initialise patch" feature (see Patch 013 for more details) is that I always forget to "store as copy" and end up writing over it! So when I fired up my Micron this evening to work on a new patch I did not have a blank canvas to start from and as my laptop is not rigged up to it full time I couldn't upload my Init patch without a fair degree of effort. No problem of course, as I have another 13 patches to use as my starting point. So I picked my "basic organ" patch at random and set about tweaking.
From the outset I wanted to create a pad sound with a bit of movement. To achieve this movement I added two items to the modulation matrix, LFO1 modulating resonance of a high pass filter and envelope 3 modulating the LFO rate. I changed osc 3 to a triangle wave and tweaked the waveshapes on all three oscillators so they had a little harmonic content for the filter to work with.With the LFO rate changing the resonsance over time and by setting long release times on the amp envelope the sounds of single notes interacted nicely and I thought the patch had a nice breathing quality, hence the name.
Breath
From the outset I wanted to create a pad sound with a bit of movement. To achieve this movement I added two items to the modulation matrix, LFO1 modulating resonance of a high pass filter and envelope 3 modulating the LFO rate. I changed osc 3 to a triangle wave and tweaked the waveshapes on all three oscillators so they had a little harmonic content for the filter to work with.With the LFO rate changing the resonsance over time and by setting long release times on the amp envelope the sounds of single notes interacted nicely and I thought the patch had a nice breathing quality, hence the name.
Breath
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