New Product from Dave Smith

[Voltor07]

An autotune like what? I'm not up on my autotune features, so would it autotune to the nearest note, semi note?

Ideally, it would autotune like the Little Phatty. I'm not too sure how it works, but the LP lets you choose how it autotunes. Default is 60, whatever that means, but you can choose the parameters to what you want it to tune to. In the latest OS, anyway.

(I've heard some people say that the LP autotunes out of tune, but according to my Korg chromatic tuner, mine's fine. Anyone running the latest OS can experiment with more expensive tuners and start a thread in the LP forum describing their findings.)

As oscillators are added, such a feature gets more and more difficult to implement, because variables are increased. Perhaps one autotune circuit for every two or three oscillators would be needed, so that drift is minimized. This could require a fine tune knob for every voice, thus adding cost, but may be required to get the job done.

[Bryan T]

I've heard some people say that the LP autotunes out of tune, but according to my Korg chromatic tuner, mine's fine.

I think the issue is that the LP can autotune out of tune. I made the mistake of assuming that if autotune was on, then it would tune to A440. It doesn't necessarily do that, as you can adjust the autotune parameters.

[Nick Montoya]

I think the issue is that the LP can autotune out of tune. I made the mistake of assuming that if autotune was on, then it would tune to A440. It doesn't necessarily do that, as you can adjust the autotune parameters.

Thats right.. i remember Cyril showing me this right when it was brand new.. He was very excited as it was his doing/idea. I am sure it explains it the revised LP manual. But you have to first lock in A440 on the keyboard, and then run the autotune sequence.

[/quote]

[Sir Nose]

For $899 MSRP i would rather buy this from Tom Oberheim:


Tom Oberheim Synthesizer Expander Module with MIDI to CV Panel

Tom Oberheim is proud to reissue the classic SEM monophonic analog synthesizer expander module. The return of huge, juicy analog synth tone at an affordable price!

This new SEM version is even better, and cheaper: http://www.audiomidi.com/Synthesizer-Ex ... 12455.aspx WANTWANTWANT

Ok, so add costs for CV in's and outs. Would that be worth a grand? Multiplied by 8 would be 8 grand. I personally would buy eight of these awesome modules, even 12 or 16, hook them all together and add a keyboard, and be quite content to have such a rig act as a polysynth. The only thing stopping me is cost, and the fact I'd need to build a suitable enclosure, as well as add a decent keyboard.

12 or 16 SEMs would be hell to not just tune but if you want each voice to have the same patch it would take way to long to dial in all the parameters. The fact that each voice would be a little bit different from each other, I think would add to chracter on most sounds, but could be disasterous on others.

Back on topic of the Thread: Did anyone one here get their hands on a Tetra yet?

[Sir Nose]

Ideally, it would autotune like the Little Phatty. I'm not too sure how it works, but the LP lets you choose how it autotunes. Default is 60, whatever that means, but you can choose the parameters to what you want it to tune to. In the latest OS, anyway.

60 is the MIDI note number for middle C to which the LP tunes with the defult settings.

Use 69 to tune to A440

[Subtronik]

Finally some videos of the Tetra up:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DaveSmithInstruments

[Voltor07]

Ideally, it would autotune like the Little Phatty. I'm not too sure how it works, but the LP lets you choose how it autotunes. Default is 60, whatever that means, but you can choose the parameters to what you want it to tune to. In the latest OS, anyway.

60 is the MIDI note number for middle C to which the LP tunes with the defult settings.

Use 69 to tune to A440

Great! Thanks for the info! I will check it out later.

[Voltor07]

Finally some videos of the Tetra up:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DaveSmithInstruments

Cool! That thing is really nifty.

[Subtronik]

I agree, makes me want one.

It makes me wonder though, if DSI can cram four analog voices into a box that small, can't Moog do four times that with a box the size of a Voyager?

[Voltor07]

I agree, makes me want one.

It makes me wonder though, if DSI can cram four analog voices into a box that small, can't Moog do four times that with a box the size of a Voyager?

Probably not. DSI probably uses one chip for each voice, and that's how they get it into such a tiny enclosure. Each chip can contain two DCO's, a filter, VCA, and pair of envelope generators. I'm just guessing, though. There may be two or three chips being used for each voice. At the very least, a Moog equivalent would require four sets of LP boards. 16 voices would require, with two boards per LP, a total of 32 boards! The left board measures 14"x5" and the right board measures 10"x5". Depending on how the boards would be arranged, a 16 voice Moog could be absolutely massive in size. Actually, to allow for temperature compensation, the box would be roughly the size of a 15" speaker enclosure.

[Bryan T]

60 is the MIDI note number for middle C to which the LP tunes with the defult settings.

Use 69 to tune to A440

That's right, but a little misleading. As I understand it, the LP defaults to checking to see if middle C is in tune with its reference pitch. You can have it check other pitches, too, by pressing the appropriate key when in Autotune mode, such as A440.

Where it was confusing (to me at least) is that you can have it Autotune to different tunings of middle C. You can tweak the value knob when tuning to middle C and end up with a synth that is sharp or flat relative to standard tuning. That's my experience, at least.

Bryan

[Sir Nose]

I agree, makes me want one.

It makes me wonder though, if DSI can cram four analog voices into a box that small, can't Moog do four times that with a box the size of a Voyager?

Probably not. DSI probably uses one chip for each voice, and that's how they get it into such a tiny enclosure. Each chip can contain two DCO's, a filter, VCA, and pair of envelope generators. I'm just guessing, though. There may be two or three chips being used for each voice. At the very least, a Moog equivalent would require four sets of LP boards. 16 voices would require, with two boards per LP, a total of 32 boards! The left board measures 14"x5" and the right board measures 10"x5". Depending on how the boards would be arranged, a 16 voice Moog could be absolutely massive in size. Actually, to allow for temperature compensation, the box would be roughly the size of a 15" speaker enclosure.

Also, from what I understand when using all circuits instead of chips the amount of wiring does not grow in a linear manner as more voices are added. 4 times the voices does not contain 4 times the guts. The hard part comes in when you want to trigger less voices than what is available. I think I read the amount of wiring grows by a power [not sure what the exponent is or if it is exponential]. So if you want a 4 voice using all circuitry, the guts needed is 10 to 20 times that of a mono. It would also be difficult to have the flexible key priority the LP now has, I think it would have to be fixed.

[anoteoftruth]

"Electronic musicians" who are in reality collectors are a major problem in the field of electronic music. There is something to be said for having one synthesizer that you love and play all the time.

I completely agree. I got a LP and Nord lead 1 and Microkorg. I've accumulated these over the course of about 5 years. I've been tempted to get into the collectors fever, but.. In reality, 1 of these synths has so many uses, so many possibilities and so many applications, especially when you play with them mixed with effects, editing etc.. get something u really like, and bunker down and learn it THROUGH and THROUGH. Don't guy buying a new synth when you have'nt already mastered the one you got...

[Carey M]

It makes me wonder though, if DSI can cram four analog voices into a box that small, can't Moog do four times that with a box the size of a Voyager?

Just for kicks, here's a photo of the Tetra voice circuits:
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2009/08 ... tetra.html

That is crammed, indeed! Here's a photo of the Mopho insides:
http://fr.audiofanzine.com/rack-analogi ... PHO/tests/

PA397 is the synth-on-chip IC. Curiously Mopho's three PA381 VCAs are missing from the Tetra.

Now if someone would post pictures of their Phatty's voice board...

- CM

[Bryan B]

It looks like the Tetra has 2 boards, one on top the other. Maybe the VCA's are hiding underneath the top board?