I’m feeling my age this morning as I write this and so I decided to find some patches for old synths, both hardware and software!
I am, myself, a vintage model and so are most of my hardware keyboards! There are some pieces in my collection that aren’t much younger than I am. So it is lovely to see people out there creating new patches for old synths. Here’s a few I have found this week to rejuvenate some old classics.
Serum Models by Francis Preve
Serum has been around for a whole decade! It has become a staple sonic tool in many people’s arsenal and rightly so. Serum uses wavetables and samples at its core but Francis Preve has decided to eschew those methods and demonstrate what a capable synth Serum truly is.
Serum Models uses Serum’s extensive resonating capabilities to create replications of waveguides used in physical modelling. The benefit of doing this in reason is that it circumvents the often complicated nature of programming such synths.
What Frances has achieved here is super clever and delivers a wide range of sounds. These include guitars, drums, bass, strings, wind, reed, horn, choir and more. He also includes a set of Ableton Live 11 projects used to make the demos!
Serum Models is available to buy now from the Xfer Webstore for just $29 USD.
Kurzweil Sounds from Enjoy The Sirens
Kurzweil is a name that goes way back and is a sign of quality and amazing performance. Its founder, Ray Kurzweil, is widely regarded as a visionary and genius. Whilst I have never owned a Kurzweil synth, I know many people who do and they swear by them.
Kurzweil owners and users are a devout bunch and often claim that their keyboards are some of the most powerful and versatile synths out there. Judging by what I hear, it’s hard to disagree. That said, the VAST system is notoriously complex and deep. But Kurzweil prevails to this day and the latest K2700 is soon to be joined by new trimmed down versions of that workstation.
Enjoy the Sirens is the trading name of ‘Malc’, a U.K. based Kurzweil devotee and creator of some amazing sounds. The demos on his site are incredible and what is even more astounding, use nothing but built-in waveforms! No external samples were harmed in the making of these banks.
What ETS seem to specialise in are recreations of classic, popular sounds, from the inevitable Vangelis stuff to Pink Floyd, Queen, Foreigner, Numan, Killing Joke and more! Unfortunately, there are no YouTube demos, but there are plenty of demos on Malc’s site. Prices are available on application and start from a couple of pounds for single patches to £33.50 for larger packs. Malc also creates custom sounds on request.
Deep DX – AI Soundbanks for the Yamaha DX7
A.I. There’s no getting away from the term these days. Mostly, it is used to describe machine learning and prompt-based solutions. But It is here to stay, so I guess we ought to learn how to exploit it. And this is just what ‘The Introvert’ (for they have no known name!) has done with my beloved DX7!
Their ‘Deep DX’ project has been designed and trained to program sounds for the Yamaha DX7. We all know, or at least have heard, how DX programming is hard for some. It’s something of a dark art, but once you’ve mastered it, the world is your oyster.
Now, I’m not going to even remotely suggest that I know the first thing about how A.I. works but ‘The Introvert’ tells us that they have used not one but two neural networks. One learns how to create a valid DX7 patch, the learns how to discern reasonable, i.e. playable, sounds. There’s some really interesting back story to the process on the website.
Intelligently Artificial
The end result, so far, is a set of patches for the DX7 and compatible hardware and software versions. There are four collections currently available with varying numbers of banks of 32 patches. Many of them are highly useable sounds and can be used right out of the box, so to speak, or to inspire your tweaking.
Again, like the Kurzweil patches above, there are no YouTube demos for me to share, but it is dead easy to download these patches and try them out using the free DEXED plugin, or your own DX7-compatible hardware. Personally, if you don’t have access to a real DX1/5/7/TX7/TX816, I highly recommend Plogue’s Chipsynth OPS7 as the most accurate DX7 emulation out there.
These patches should also be importable into the Montage M/MODX+ synths from Yamaha using their converter.
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Image Sources:
- Xfer Records Serum: Cymatics.fm
- Kurzweil K2700: Kurzweil
- Yamaha DX7: Yamaha
- Arturia DX7 V: Plugin Boutique
- Arturia V Collection 6 DX7: Arturia
- pb: Plugin Boutique
