KVR OSC Personal Top Three

One Synth Challenge 156 @ KVR. Sequenced using 12x instances of Synister.

DLA (Osc156 - Synister)

KVR OSC-157 - FB-7999

DAW: Reaper
11 instances of the Full Bucket FB-7999 synth.
All patches made from scratch.
Effects:
Dead Duck Filter
Dead Duck Delay
Ambient Reverb
ReaXComp
ReaEQ
Vladislav Goncharov Limiter No6
Voxengo SPAN

Silverpants: A Behemothaur Approaches (OSC#157)

This is my track for OSC#159, made in Cakewalk by Bandlab using 20 instances of Surge XT (10/10 of my/factory presets) and the next effects: OTT, Verberate Basic 2, Flux Mini, SeeSaw, M/Ster Balance, Wider, Oril River, Satellite. And GMonoBass and Broadcast on the Master.

This synthesis of synthwave and musical arthouse was written as a long hypnotic jam, I played these variations over and over again and didn't notice how it got so long. But now, as they say, "You can't throw no one word out of the song!", so I'm ready for any comments on this and other reasons, anything that will help make the next track even better!)

IV - The Way I Imagine

My entry for the #160 VKR OSC
16 instances of the FM synth ADLPlug, which emulates the chip in an early 90s Sound Blaster Pro sound card. All patches made from scratch.

The Electroids of Neptune are a race of giant invertebrates that dwell in the seabed of their home planet. When they are not in their deep ocean habitats, you can find them building intricate cities of stone and coral out of their own excrement.

They're considered a peaceful species, but the Prime Minister of Terra has decided to make them an example to the other governments of the Outer Planets. He is sending a fleet into their territory, to destroy their cities and wipe them out as a threat to other governments. 

The Electroids are fighting back!  Although the First Fleet to respond has just been wiped out.

"Captain, we're getting too close for these ships to fight at this distance! Our only hope is to retreat and regroup!" a Lieutenant shouts.

The squadron of warships retreats at maximum warp, back into Neptune's orbit and the Second Fleet disappears into the planet's clouds.

"This is it! The end's come! May the Electroids bless us all!" an old, grizzled veteran shouts.

Silverpants: The Electroids Of Neptune Turn And Fight

for osc 160: adlplug/opnplug. a jaunty tune based on messiaen's third mode of limited transposition. 

18x adlplug

bitwig 4.3
delay-2, filter, eq-5, dynamics, delay+

a1stereocontrol
bitglitter
blindfold eq
bx_cleansweep v2
chowtapemodel
deelay
dragonfly plate reverb
hornetangle
ozone imager 2
tal reverb 4
tdr kotelnikov
verbity

Mysterious Love Microbe

My entry for KVR One Synth Challenge #166.  This month it's Wave Manuel, a quirky but very flexible synth. Really surprised at the tones that came out of it.
Recorded in Reaper with 16 instances of Wave Manuell, and some free and native FX. All sounds produced with Wave Manuel.

OSC166 - Wave Manuel

One Drop Manuel

13 instances of voltage modular in bitwig 4.4.8.

If The Northern Lights Could Sing

12 instances of octasine in bitwig 4.4.10.

Post-Apocalyptic Utopia Now!

IV - Chaika

My entry for the KVR forum's One Synth Challenge #171

This time all the sounds are made using Apricot by nakst. BTW it's a CLAP plugin! And to be able to use it I had to try Bitwig Studio for the first time. If you are nerdy enough, here's the technical details about this track:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8684125#p8684125

As always, finished OSC pieces are free for download.

Crackers And Apricot Jam

OSC 64

DAW: REAPER

20 Instances of Swierk

2 * BootEQMK2
3 * ReaEQ for surgical work!
4 * Classic Limiter
3 * Classic Compressor
3 * Twin Delay
5 * EpicVerb


Bass solos inspired by John Entwistle and THAT solo in My Generation!

Enjoy!




DoctorBob - Bluesy - (SWIERK OSC 64)

An entry for the KVR One Synth Challenge #177 - Synful Orchestra & VSCO Percussion.

As the sun sets on the horizon, casting long shadows across the alien landscape, a lone figure sits cross-legged, silhouetted against the fiery sky. In his hands he holds his trusty bass guitar, its strings gleaming in the fading light.

Lieutenant Spaceman D. Bassman had been stranded on this planet for 7 months, his crashed spaceship was damaged beyond repair, but he hadn't given up hope of being rescued. Every day he would refill his oxygen tank and walk into the poppy fields at sunset to jam on some dubby grooves, his music echoing across the vast expanse.

As he plays, he feels a sense of peace wash over him. The sounds emanating from his instruments are an ethereal mix of orchestral timbres and heavy dub, infused not only with the smells, sights and sounds of the alien planet and his hopes for the future, but also mixed with the melancholy of longing for his home-world. Music is his last connection to humanity, his way of staying sane in the face of loneliness.

One day, as Bassman was jamming on a particularly bad-assed groove, he heard a faint sound inside his helmet. His heart beat faster with excitement; At last, the Corp had located his damaged ship and had come to rescue him! Then, almost imperceptibly at first, he started to make out a strange melody, not entirely inharmonic to his tasty bass licks.

Bassman was stung violently on the forehead. He flinched and almost dropped his guitar. "Feck!", he howled. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a bee crawling on the inside of his visor, it's wings implausibly buzzing in a near perfect B Major. Desperate not to be stung again, he flailed his head around inside the helmet, attempting to squash the musical intruder against the side. After many attempts and with great effort, he struck one blow, then another, and with each strike the bee's buzzing became more and more erratic and atonal. Sensing victory, and with a final yank of his head, Bassman dealt a fatal blow, and the bee was silenced. 

As the sun continued it's slow descent below the horizon, Bassman composed himself, picked up his bass and continued jamming. Tomorrow he would seek out more of these alien musical bees, not only in the hope that one day they could forgive him for killing one of their own kind, but also that they might continue the collaboration between their two species on some more of those sweet-assed tunes.

Fin.

Reaper 7
Synful Orchestra (8)
VSCO Percussion (7)

A special guest appearance from an alien bee. RIP.

TrackFx : BC Chorus, CHOWTapeModel, db_Glitch1, IVGI2, MComb, MFlanger, MFreqShifter, MPhaser, Pro-C2 (7), Pro-Q3 (13), Ripple Phaser (Geraint Luff), Tape MELLO-FI, TEOTE, Kotelnikov GE.

MasterFx : Satin, TEOTE, Pro-Q3, Pro-L2, Loudness Meter (Cockos)

SendFx : Pro-R2, ValhallaDelay, ValhallaVintageVerb (2), Echobode, Ripple Phaser

OSC177 - Synful Orchestra

Dub Synfony

One Synth Challenge 179 @ KVR. Sequenced using 35x instances of Universal Audio PolyMAX Synth.

BIZ (Osc179 - UAD PolyMAX)

An entry for the KVR One Synth Challenge #181 - Surge XT.

The anachronistic tales of a washed up barfly continue...

The air was thick with a haze of smoke, amber fluid and regret. A neon sign flickered through the grimy window, casting the room in a sickly green glow. In a darkened corner booth slumped Spaceman D. Bassman, one time Space Corp Trooper extraordinaire, now Terra's most despondent drunk.

Bassman's once celebrated career had been a shooting star, blazing bright before burning out in a fiery re-entry. The mission to the Sinfony system, meant to be his crowning achievement, had ended in catastrophe. No longer heralded as a hero but as a liability, Bassman had been humiliatingly dismissed from the Corp, deemed unfit to serve by the medical board who cited bee-related psychological trauma and chronic dub abuse.

The dive bar he found himself in offered little solace. Under a single incandescent bulb in the corner of the room, a raggedy-assed band were grinding out a strained one drop pastiche that only served to drive him deeper into despair. He had played bass himself a long time ago. His fretboard heroics used to attract admiring glances but now all he could muster were pitying stares and whispered condemnations. His attention drifted back to his drink, the dubby skanks replaced by the deafening roar of his own failures.

One night, a young woman slid into the seat on the other side of the booth. Her eyes, the colour of honey on a stormy day, held a curious glint. Seemingly unfazed by his haggard appearance and the strong smell of urine, she spoke passionately of her dreams of travelling to the stars, her voice a sweetly buzzing melody that cut through the fog clouding his mind.

That night, for the first time in a long time, Bassman didn't drown his sorrows in silence. He spoke of the cosmos, of the dance of celestial bodies, of weird musical bees, his voice regaining a spark it had lost for so long. The woman listened, enthralled, her eyes reflecting the distant stars he could no longer reach.

As the night wore on, a camaraderie blossomed between the washed-up space trooper and the aspiring star traveller. In the flickering neon glow, an unlikely friendship was forged, a melody of hope born from the depths of despair. Perhaps, he thought, even a broken star could find solace in the rhythm of a new dream.

Fin?

Reaper 7
Surge XT (14)

Track FX: CHOW Tape Model (3), JSFX MIDI Note Filter (6), ReaComp (10), ReaEQ (11), ReaLimit, TAL Reverb 4, TDR Molotok, TDR Nova, Venn Free Clip 2

Send FX: Sixth Sample Deelay, TAL Reverb 4, Surge XT (audio in), ReaEQ, ReaComp

Stereo BUS: CHOW Tape Model, Blue Cat Gain, TDR Nova, VladG Limiter #6, ReaLimit, Cockos Loudness Meter

OSC181 - Surge XT

Barfly Skank

One Synth Challenge 181 @ KVR. Sequenced using 30x instances of SurgeXT.

KIN (Osc181 - SurgeXT)

This is a generative electronic piece composed for the OSC 79 using Lokomotiv VSTi as the only sound source plus DAW and 3rd party (free) plugins only.

This is an experimental piece using generative music software. As the saying goes "All the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order". Due to the probabilistic nature of the process, some dischords are inevitable. I have used rhythmic, ambient, patterns, chordal harmony, and followers in the processes. 

No editing of the generated MIDI files has been done, just some mixing and volume automation plus the usual EQ, verb and pan.

I hope you enjoy this little departure into an area close to my heart in the music creation arena.

dB


DAW: Reaper 5

Track Details
8 * Lokomotiv
8 * ReaEQ
3 * Twin Delay
3 * TAL Reverb II
2 * LFX 1310 (Autopan)

Master Track
BootEQMKII
TDS Ferric
Limiter No. 6

DR: 7

Enjoy





DoctorBob - LokoGenerator - (OSC 79 Lokomotiv )

Osc 117 Rev00

This track made for the One Synth Challenge #121. All sounds made by the FREE synth Synth1. [Note commercial synths are allowed this round]. Only DAW and free 3rd party plugins used.

DAW: Reaper

Track details
32 * Synth1
30 * ReaEQ
3 * Bass Professor Mark II
2 * Limiter No. 6
9 * JS MIDI Note Filter
3 * Oril River
1 * TAL Reverb 4
3 * TDR Kotelnikov

Master
TDR VOS SlickEQ
Ferric TDS
Voxengo MSED
Loudmax 
Limiter No. 6

Metering
SPAN
Youlean Loudness Meter 2

Enjoy

DoctorBob - LindyHoppers - (OSC #121 Anysynth - Synth1)

My entry for the KVR forum's One Synth Challenge #141. 

Something dark, fast and percussion driven. As you can tell, I'm really proud of that backward kick drum in the accented parts :D

This time all the sounds are made using Monique by Monoplugs. BTW it's a free vst now! I really liked one of the factory patches. After I was playing with it for a while I decided to focus mainly on creating my own percussion set and then building composition around that.  If you are nerdy enough, here's the technical details about this track:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7951292#p7951292

As always, finished OSC pieces are free for download.

Rolling And Growling

This track made using all hardware for the KVR One Synth Challenge #143

My sound source is my Yamaha DX-11. The hardware effects were from the Zoom Studio 1201, Boss Digital Reverb, Behringer Virtualizer Pro and the FX section of my Yamaha AW16G Hard disk recorder.

Each track was recorded separately, and then each track was recorded again with any effects required at 100% wet (so the dry and wet tracks can be mixed as required). Once all this had been done, each track was then played back through my Behringer MX2642 analogue mixer and EQ applied using the low, swept mid and high EQ section. The EQ was done for ALL tracks, including the tracks with effects and percussion elements (38 tracks in total).

All 38 tracks were then mixed with no mastering effects, only using SPAN and Youlean Loudness Meter 2 (free) to check the overall levels and frequency content.

Mixed in Reaper 6.

Final tracks used for mixing after EQ.

1. Bass 1 - programmed to have a small pluck, dry.
2. Bass 2 - programmed to have a full body sound, dry.
3. Keyboard 1 - a basic FM piano, dry.
4. Keyboard 2 - track 3 + reverb.
5. Keyboard 3 - track 3 with a delay
6. Guitar - a raw acoustic sound, dry
7. Guitar - track 6 + reverb
8. Pad 1 - one of the classic DX sounds, dry
9. Pad 1 - track 8 + reverb
10. Strings 1 - classic DX strings,dry
11. Strings 2 - track 10 + reverb
12. Flute solo 1 - pure DX sinewave sounds, LFO vibrato and level scaling (reduce harmonic content for higher notes),dry
13. Flute solo 2 - track 12 + reverb
14. Flute solo 3 - sound of flute 1 but with modulation of operator parameters via mod wheel, dry
15. Guitar solo 1 - classic DX "flamenco" guitar sound,dry
16. Guitar solo 2 - track 15 + reverb
17 - 38. Percussion elements. Bass drum, hats, bongos, toms, rides, triangles etc! Some elements layered with 2 or 3 DX sounds. All dry.

Stats:
LUFS: -14.9
DR: 10

No volume automation was done either, all relative volumes are done by the playing and the key velocity of the DX-11. This means that if you got enough DX-11's on stage into a mixer plus FX units, this track could be played exactly as you hear it, LIVE!

Please enjoy the lovely sounds of this early 80's synth.

KVR OSC Personal Top Three

Empty Castle