this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Synthesizers
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I got a MicroFreak in June, it's my first hardware synth. It's been sitting on my desk and I've been noodling on it daily since I got it. This week I saw this video showing how you can utilize the sequencer in very fun ways, so that's what I've been playing with all week. The same guy has a tutorial on how to do some of the more advanced techniques.
Edit: Oh, this is where I posted that video this week, guess I'm repeating myself :)
Man! that little thing sounds huge
It's great on it's own but there's reverb on there too. I'm definitely buying a pedal to go with it. Anyone have any suggestions? Hopefully that's the end of my hardware acquisition, don't want it to turn into a syndrome :) I already bought some studio monitors and a m-audio interface for my PC to go with it.
If you're planning on running it through a PC, you can get reverb plugins for cheaper than hardware. Valhalla Supermassive is free, for example. Personally, I use Raum a lot - I got it during a promotion where it was also free, but it's normally $50 and sometimes goes on sale.
I've got some nice plugins but, in this case, I'm looking for hardware. I got the m-audio interface to be able to record it properly but more for the "Direct" out setting that passes right through to the monitors, so there's no latency. The latency through the PC isn't awful, I just don't want any of that while I'm experimenting, it's a big reason why I got a hardware synth in the first place :) I went with the MS-70CDR, seems to be highly recommended. That's the last thing I'm getting, I swear.
A drum machine would be nice though...
Just in case you aren't already aware, installing the drivers for your audio interface and making sure you're using ASIO can make a huge difference for latency. With everything set up right, it's low enough that I don't notice any difference between listening to synths directly via their headphone jack vs through my DAW.
I tried ASIO and had some really annoying problems. I don't remember all of them but, for one, I really don't like "exclusive" mode, I multitask way too much. I don't think that was a requirement of ASIO but seemed to be highly recommended to get the benefits. Maybe I'll take another look at it now that I understand better how this stuff works.
Also, it turned out the M-Auido drivers caused even more annoying problems. I'd get random audio cut outs, anything that was already making a sound would just stop. The fix was to just play a sound from a new source and everything would turn back on. The biggest issue was Rocket League, I had to play a random sound every single time I started the game but there was still a good chance it would randomly cut out mid-game and the framerate would drop drastically until I played another sound. I ended up finding the fix for all those problems on a Rocket League post which was to just install the generic Windows drivers. I haven't had any issues since.
It took some work but I got the latency with WASAPI down to 10ms, nothing I can really notice. It's more about the dependency on a DAW that I'd like to avoid when working with hardware.
Sounds annoying indeed. I don't have any firsthand experience with pedals, but I see Strymon Bigsky recommended a lot.
Edit: Oops, forgot you said you already picked something.
No problem, suggestions are still welcome :) Maybe I need 2 reverb pedals... 👀