jaijam
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how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
i want to use 2 different sounds in say dimension pro at the same time. is this possible?
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Stone House Studios
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/25 22:36:09
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jaijam
i want to use 2 different sounds in say dimension pro at the same time. is this possible?
Well - - - pretty vague question. You can create many Dimensions in Dim Pro - or you can create a midi track - clone it, and send it to different instances of Dim Pro or any other synth.) What are you trying to do? Brian
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Gary McCoy
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/25 22:47:59
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For most soft syths, yes. Dim Pro, certainly.
Are the two sounds going to be playing the same thing? or two different things? (e.g. a sax sound and a trumpet sound playing the same part; or one sound playing a bass part and the other sound playing a piano part.)
It doesn't matter, cuz most synths can do either. You just go about setting it up a little differently.
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bitflipper
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/25 23:12:42
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A synthesizer that can play two or more sounds independently of one another is said to be multi-timbral. The TTS-1 is multi-timbral, and can play up to 16 separate parts simultaneously.
Dimension Pro is not multi-timbral in normal operation, but can be made to be - sort of.
A Dim Pro program is made up of between 1 and 4 voices (called "elements"). Each of them can be driven by a separate MIDI channel (always channels 1 through 4 corresponding to voices 1 through 4). Click on the Options button (second from the left at the top of the screen) and check the first box. This tells Dim Pro to drive each voice from a separate channel.
While technically this qualifies as a "multi-timbral" mode, you cannot load separate Dim Pro programs into each voice. You can only split up an existing program into its constituent parts and drive them separately. Consequently, Dim Pro isn't a convenient choice for multi-timbral operation and is rarely used that way.
Fortunately, Dim Pro is pretty light on the CPU so you can simply load multiple instances of the synth if you want to use it for many parts. It can get pretty clumsy juggling a whole bunch of them, though. I once did an orchestral piece using only Dim Pro (16 instances of it!) and swore I'd never do that again.
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rbowser
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/25 23:34:23
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bitflipper
A synthesizer that can play two or more sounds independently of one another is said to be multi-timbral. The TTS-1 is multi-timbral, and can play up to 16 separate parts simultaneously.
Dimension Pro is not multi-timbral in normal operation, but can be made to be - sort of.
A Dim Pro program is made up of between 1 and 4 voices (called "elements"). Each of them can be driven by a separate MIDI channel (always channels 1 through 4 corresponding to voices 1 through 4). Click on the Options button (second from the left at the top of the screen) and check the first box. This tells Dim Pro to drive each voice from a separate channel.
While technically this qualifies as a "multi-timbral" mode, you cannot load separate Dim Pro programs into each voice. You can only split up an existing program into its constituent parts and drive them separately. Consequently, Dim Pro isn't a convenient choice for multi-timbral operation and is rarely used that way.
Fortunately, Dim Pro is pretty light on the CPU so you can simply load multiple instances of the synth if you want to use it for many parts. It can get pretty clumsy juggling a whole bunch of them, though. I once did an orchestral piece using only Dim Pro (16 instances of it!) and swore I'd never do that again.
Perfectly explained, David - Dim Pro is a bit of an odd duck in the way you can split its elements to different MIDI channels, but it's still not a bonafide multi-timbral synth. For synths to have 16 available MIDI channels along with different instruments for each channel became so common-place years ago, I remember it taking me aback when some synths/samplers started going back to being just single-voiced, like Dim Pro basically is. It seemed like such a step backwards since that was the "primitive" state of the earliest synths 20+ years ago. People who didn't live through the evolution of MIDI can have a hard time grasping what the whole picture is, so it's good when they ask questions. Randy B.
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slartabartfast
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 15:16:41
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For synths to have 16 available MIDI channels along with different instruments for each channel became so common-place years ago, I remember it taking me aback when some synths/samplers started going back to being just single-voiced, like Dim Pro basically is. It seemed like such a step backwards since that was the "primitive" state of the earliest synths 20+ years ago. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jun94/multitimbrality.html The polyphonic + multitimbral design probably hit its peak utility before the advent of the softsynth. The ability to control a lot of different sounds from a single live keyboard or plug a band into a MIDI nest routed through a sound module is not so important in a sequencer based world. The trade off of having a much more flexible sound design wins if you have the ability to layer multiple tracks recorded at separate times. With modern powerful computers, and the ability to run multiple instances of monotimbral softsynths on multiple sequencer tracks simultaneously, there really is no trade off. It is better to have a box full of well built tools at your disposal than a swiss army knife.
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rbowser
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 15:23:31
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Thanks for the post, Slartabartfast - I just prefer me synths multi-timbral.  Randy B.
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I/O
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 17:26:35
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If you don't want to have multiple instances of Dim Pro, isn't it possible to do your first take with the sound you want, bounce it to an audio track, then change the sound in Dim Pro and record your next take. Rinse and repeat. It's a little clumsy, and you have to make sure you're really happy with each take before moving on, but if you're using it for simple things like strings fills etc, this would avoid bogging your system down with a bunch of instances. Just a thought.
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dmbaer
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 18:55:16
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slartabartfast
The polyphonic + multitimbral design probably hit its peak utility before the advent of the softsynth. The ability to control a lot of different sounds from a single live keyboard or plug a band into a MIDI nest routed through a sound module is not so important in a sequencer based world.
I agree with the basic premise that the peak has past us, but I think it's for different reasons. Its' straightforward economics. Back in the day (early 90s for me), we used to typically pay $1000 or more for a rack mounted sound box (synth or whatever). If they weren't multitimbral and you wanted more than one sound, you'd have to cough up *another* $1000 or more for each additional sound. If with sequencer based home music production, we didn't have DAWs that could record audio tracks, so all sound needed to be made at once. Thus, multitimbral capability was hugely valuable. Things are obviously very different these days. One purchase gets you as many synth instances as your computer has the cycles and memory to run. While still a useful feature in some contexts, lack of multitimbrality is no longer a showstopper in most situations.
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A1MixMan
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 19:08:14
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jaijam
i want to use 2 different sounds in say dimension pro at the same time. is this possible?
Do you mean to 'layer' them? As in play a 'piano' sound with a 'violin' sound at the same time from one keyboard so you hear them both together? Set up two audio tracks and two midi tracks. Load each sound (synth) into different audio tracks, piano into one and violin into the other. Assign the input of both midi tracks to the same keyboard. Assign the output of the piano midi track to the piano audio track and the violin midi track to the violin audio track. And then be sure to have the input echo button on for all four tracks. Now your midi from the keyboard with play both synths at the same time, each playing it's own sound, but at the same time. You can do this with as many sounds as your cpu can handle. If you record this you will have two midi tracks of data, so if you need to edit them both, just edit one, and paste it into the other track if you need to keep them the same. Kore 2 from Native Instruments does this very easily with only one audio and midi track. Very cool program. It's built to layer sounds like this, from the same synth or from any synth you own.
post edited by A1MixMan - 2011/04/26 19:12:48
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jaijam
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 21:40:12
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i was thinking about bouncing them to audio tracks. i just wasn't sure if I had to
thanks
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rbowser
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Re:how to use different sounds in a synth at the same time?
2011/04/26 23:28:04
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jaijam
i was thinking about bouncing them to audio tracks. i just wasn't sure if I had to
thanks
So I guess the wrap up on this question is that you can have as many instances of the same synth and/or instances of other synths in the same project as your computer can handle. I'll add that many find there to be a benefit to bouncing all those synth tracks to audio before doing your final mix, muting and archiving the synth tracks, and turning the synths off. Randy B.
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