The sound of analog "warmth", the human nature

mosc

On another list, I saw a posting which complained that the Nord Modular synthesizer lacked the warmth of a conventional analog synthesizer. I thought some of you might find my reply of interest.

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**Don Buchla, the 200 series, and friends**

I used to work for Don Buchla, back in the 1970s. One day a pretty famous composer from Europe associated with a pretty famous conservatory came by Don's studio in Berkeley to see his new 200 series modular synthesizers. He was very impressed with Buchla's new creations, but said he wouldn't use Buchla stuff because it lacked the certain "warmth" that Moogs had. Don listened seriously. After the guy left for the day, Don took out a mixer module (the big one that most people used to send signals to the monitors and recording devices) and while muttering under his breath soldered an extra compensation capacitor (I think it was 100pf) across the op amp. The next day the composer came back (in those days you visited the synth maker for a few days before you bought a big modular system - they were very expensive after all) and he was amazed. The new custom modifications Buchla made for him were fantastic! Now the Buchla had the Moog sound!

What did he do? The larger compensation capacitor rolls off the highs. Don could have turned down the treble control on the amp, but the composer would not have fallen for it. This composer was certainly not a fool for he carefully checked the tone controls on the playback amplifier before he declared the modification to be "right on" (to use a phrase from those days). I learned a two things that day. One was what increasing the value of compensation capacitors on op amps rolls of the highs making Buchlas sound different from Moogs, and the other was that connoisseurs don't always know what they are talking about.

Another story about warmth.

Robert Carver made some of the best sounding audio equipment in the world; he still may, I don't know. His stuff was solid-state though. Some of you young folks won't believe it, but for years the brilliant people with the golden ears said that solid-state stuff didn't have the "warmth" of the tubes (valves - a better word). They said that even though it measured great in lab, the Carver gear didn't sound as good as a great tube amplifier. Then, Robert Carver introduced with great fanfare and marketing savey a new amplifier with a "warmth" circuit to emulate the sonic characteristics of tubes. You could actually activate the circuit with a switch on the front panel so you could hear the effect. The audiophiles were thrilled with the result. This was the first solid state audio equipment to get their seal of approval, so to speak. (Of course, he raised the price to coincide with their discriminating tastes. Indeed, they would never have considered his circuit if it wasn't expensive.)

What did his new circuit do? It added second order harmonic distortion to the sound, something tube amplifier designers had been plagued with for years and could never get rid of because of the physical characteristics of vacuum tubes. (My guess is he mis-biased the input stage, but I don't know for sure). He added distortion to make his nearly perfect amplifier sound just as bad as people were used to, and he laughed all the way to the bank.

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Now IMHO, if you want that "analog" sound and you are using 99% of the DSP, then the problem isn't the NM, its the patch. Simplify. Use only a minimum number of modules. Imagine you were using a real analog synth. You wouldn't have lots of modules, only a few even if you had a big modular Moog. Three oscillators are plenty if you tune them carefully. One filter is very effective. Start off with simple patches until you master them. Don't modulate the filter resonance; that is not a classical analog synthesis feature. You'll find the sound can be very warm and beautiful. If that doesn't work, then get on EBay and buy an old tube preamp and run your synth through that, solder a big capacitor of the NM's output op amp, or turn down the treble and turn up the volume. Wink

My opinion: the people at Clavia are smart. They are great engineers and designers. They know what they are doing. The Nord sounds good!

They should just make the sequencers run backwards!!!!!

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2003 3:29 am Post subject:

Well put, Howard. I agree.

BTW: It amazes how much people think they really know about vintage synths based on simply listening to vinyl records/ CDs. A lot is done in the mix and in fact.. what passes in a mix as great old vintage analog warmth might be pretty different if you mute the other tracks and keep just the untreated synth voices. Our ears are affected by "sympathetic sweet spots" in a mix and often add what we think we hear. Some old effects like leslie were not all used to at full rev. Many used the Leslie and other gear in very subtle ways adding ..something.. which many today is just " the way vintage analog synths" sound. Personally I got used to the playability of what is now old synths.. shit.. still feels like yesterday.. anyway.. suddenly the playability went away. I just lost interest in all that new gear. A lot of modern designs are getting better in the GUI department and the actual sound of a lot of the new stuff is quite good. In most ways far better than much of the old. The Clavia instruments are excellent.

Modulars: Analog modular synth design has evolved. There are a lot of excellent modules around which are very good. DSP/ software digital modulars are good too. And sound quality is not an issue really. Digital instruments like the Nord modulars are excellent. Sound is of course slightly different but that is not a bug, it is a feature.

egw · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 6:24 am Post subject:

I agree. With modern synths, you can get pretty much any sound you want, especially in the context of a mix / recording.

Sure, when you listen to the sound of a raw synth, they sound different from each other. But a sound is not good or bad until you place it in the context of some music. Then it's more a matter of how it fits.

Lots of synths have presets that sound really cool, but just don't blend well with other instruments. Often it is the simpler sounds that work the best.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 6:46 am Post subject:

In order to give modern analog synth modules some well earned credit:

There are a lot of insanely silly and crazy modules out there which can provide a lot of extremely interesting modulation events which can be patched to hell and back.. Some of the sounds possibly are completely something else and not easily recreated by modern mainstream digital synths. -Yet. But when it comes to instrument design.. it is mainly about implementing interesting ideas. I am pretty sure Clavia will introduce something like a Nord Modular Monster soon.. Smile

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 7:03 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 7:09 am Post subject:

Wow... yeah.. I have seen it. This is like old Modular.. i can use an old mac or PC running the patch software... huh? like on the micro modular?

yeah.. and the Kurzweil is kool too.. yeah.. .-)

Cool

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 7:24 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 8:49 am Post subject:

That PCX2 is that a digital piano ? I was thinking of the 2500/2600 series.

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:01 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:08 am Post subject:

The ftp downloads are stalling. I wil try these later. How much does it cost?

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:11 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:16 am Post subject:

And the sounds are actually useful? Hmm. I saw they had this orchestral ROM for it ... you have the basic package? Sample playback/synthesis.?
No traditional synth interface? anyway.. if the piano is good ....hmm..
I know the bigger models have digital output. That is possible an option for this one too?

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:24 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 9:27 am Post subject:

Wow.. 2000 USD for the 88 key? Not bad. Sounds like a good deal.

egw · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:25 pm Post subject:

I'm using a Kurz pc88 which is essentially the same keyboard (older model).
It has very nice piano and some other sounds. Unlike the newer one, you can't edit the sounds. Also no digital outs. But you can find them for under $1000. Nice midi controller too, 4 zones with programmable buttons and sliders.

BTW Clavia did issue a Mac editor for the NM, just not one that runs on OS X.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:38 pm Post subject:

AHA! Interesting info.

I have seen that old app for OS 9 for the Nord Micromodular. Basically the same app? I have a lot of older macs which runs the app for the micropmodular very well.

egw · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:12 pm Post subject:

The NM editor is exactly the same, whether it's for the full Nord Modular or Micro Modular, whether it's on Mac or PC.
However, the new NM G2 will have a new editor software (with lots of new functions). Not compatible with the old one. However it should be possible to translate patches from the old NM to run on the G2.
The new editor will not run on Mac.