Hi all
So, I have spent quite a few hours playing with each of the Analog sound engines, trying to get familiar with what is possibly Sparks biggest strength over the competition (sound synthesis). Initially, I loved Spark’s “dumb down” approach to the analog/modelled sounds – all my favourite synths have very simple interfaces. However, I now wonder:
Question: How many different sound engines are behind the scenes of each of non-samples instruments?
If there are only, say, one engine for the analog sounds and, one engine for the modelled sounds, I think the implemented “simplified” interface has resulting in a much more complicated user experience. Rather than having one sound engine to learn, with 20 or so parameters, we now have 30 engines to learn, each with 6 parameters (as shown below).
What do others think? Would it have been simpler to have one bigger sound engine, maybe with presets for the current 30 analog/modelled instruments??
I don’t expect this can be changed as it would clearly brake the whole Spark model – Im just curious..
Here are the 30 current models, including their parameters, notes I use for trying to find an engine to use, plus my personal 1-3 rating:
Rating : 1 = Very Good, 2 = Good, 3 = Not great
Name : Alien Circuit
Rating :
Params : Pitch, Zap Rate, Release, Attack Sweep, Attack, Transform
Notes : Whistle sound that cant get rid of but, can get good rhythmic sounds with the Zap part
Name : VintageBox
Rating :
Params : OscPitch, Decay, ClickDecay, K Damp, K Freq, K Noise
Notes : Very analogue/quirky. K Freq turned to min gives nice clicking affect.
Name : Acid BD
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Pitch Eq, Bend, K Damp, K Freq
Notes : Very usable/standard kick. Nice click
Name : DR-909 DB1
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Click, Bend, Bend Rate, Tone
Notes : Standard deep kick
Name : DR-909 DB2
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Bend, Bend Decay, Click, Brightness
Notes : Standard deep kick
Name : Dub Trip
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Pitch EQ, Pitch Decay, Ring Depth, Ring Freq
Notes : Standard deep kick but with ring modulation
Name : Sci-mons BD.
Rating : 2
Params : Pitch, Decay, Pitch Bend, Click Level, Click, Noise Cutoff
Notes : Deep with noise. Dynamic.
Name : DR-606 BD1
Rating :
Params : Pitch, Attack, Decay, Pitch Attack, Punch, Noise
Notes : Nice 606. No surprises.
Name : DR-606 BD2
Rating :
Params : Pitch, Attack, Decay, Pitch Attack, Click, Noise
Notes : Nice 606 but with a "wow" sounding element
Name : KPR++ BD1
Rating :
Params : Tune, Knock, Decay, Click, Click Cutoff, Click Reso
Notes : Standard KPR but with a nice click/knock element
Name : KPR++ BD2
Rating :
Params : Tune, Body Decay, Noise Decay, Noise Level, Noise Cutoff, Noise Scoop
Notes : Standard KPR but with a nice Noise element
Name : Dirty 909 BD1
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Bend, Bend Decay, Saturation, Brightness
Notes : Very nice kick with lots of pitched elements. Quirky
Name : Dirty 909 BD2
Rating :
Params : Tune, Decay, Click, Bend, Bend Rate, Tone
Notes : 909 with dynamic click element
Name : PhatWerk BD1
Rating : 1
Params : Pitch, Wave Mixer, Decay , Filter, Bend, Noise
Notes : VERY dynamic and fun. Try 0/100/100/100/0/0
Name : PhatWerk BD2
Rating :
Params : Pitch, Click Tone, Decay , LPF Cutoff, Bend, Noise
Notes : As per BD1 but with Noise rather than tone.
Name : MicroMatix
Rating :
Params : Pitch, Ring Mod, Decay, Body Tone, Beater Tone, LPF Reso
Notes : Dynamic kick with tone element
Name : SynDrummer
Rating : 2
Params : Pitch, Decay, Wave Mix, LPF Cutoff, Click, Detune
Notes : Dynamic with synth sound. LPF Cutoff to zero.
Name : Ace Clone FR-2L
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch, Decay, Noise Mix, Noise Color, Click Mix, Attack
Notes : Standard with noise.
Name : DRM-55
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch, Click, Decay, Noise, Noise Color, Noise Res
Notes : Standard with noise.
Name : Kaziotone SK1 BD
Rating : 2
Params : Pitch , Shift, Decay, Lo Cutoff, LPF Reso, LPF Env
Notes : Casio kick with extra tone that could be used to good effect
Name : Kaziotone SK1 BD2
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch , Attack, Decay, Noise, LPF Cutoff, LPF Env
Notes : Casio kick. As BD but with noise
Name : Maestro King BD
Rating : 1
Params : Pitch , Attack, Decay, Noise Attack, Click Decay, Click Bright
Notes : Standard but nice, with noise.
Name : DR-808 BD
Rating : 1
Params : Tone, Decay, Zap, Pitch Decay, Pitch Bend, Zap Rate
Notes : 808 with Zap which makes it much more useful.
Name : CL 78 BD1
Rating : 2
Params : Tone , Decay, Click Cutoff, Click Reso, Click Level, Attack Time
Notes : All sub kick. Limited but if you need sub!
Name : CL 78 BD2
Rating : 3
Params : Tone , Decay, Noise, Hiss Level, Click , Attack
Notes : As BS1 but less sub plus hiss/noise. More limited.
Name : Micro Pops
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch, Click, Decay , Noise , Brightness, Distortion
Notes : Limited with Distortion
Name : YMR-10
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch, Decay, Click, Attack, Color, BPF Reso
Notes : Pretty standard with resonating BPF.
Name : Electricity
Rating : 3
Params : Tune, Timbre 1, Timbre 2, Attack, Decay, Attack Delay
Notes : Not great.
Name : Mad Scientist
Rating : 1
Params : Pitch, Timbre 1, Timbre 2, Metalize, Scratch, Decay
Notes : Super quirky.
Name : Mad Scientist
Rating : 3
Params : Pitch, Timbre 1, Timbre 2, Attack, Decay, Freq Shift
Notes : Not so great.
