Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

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xombiexplox
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Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by xombiexplox » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:10 pm

Hello all!

So today I finally received my orange Little Phatty from Sweetwater! SOOOO COOOL, and pretty heavy too! It was troublesome carrying it up to the third floor of my apartment complex!

I've been messing around with it for a few hours, and I noticed that when I applied the same factory preset from the Slim Phatty (04 GRINDMYBASS) onto my Little Phatty, it didn't sound as FULL and it didn't encompass me in bass. It actually sounded frail and weak in comparison...

...has anyone else come across a situation like this? It could be just me not knowing enough about synthesizers but it seems like my Slim is a lot more PHAT than my LP :[
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xombiexplox
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by xombiexplox » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:16 pm

Erp, okay I'm an idiot. This thing is so awesome. It's giving me about the same about of bass but it's just not throwing in as harsh of a sound. It sounds a little less grind-y than the SP, but it still has enough bass. I don't really know how to describe it, but it still wont give me the same sound.

Hmmm....time for a few more hours of tinkering
:3
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muksys
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by muksys » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:26 pm

welcome to the wonderful, unpredictable world of analog :mrgreen:

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Assar
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Assar » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:23 pm

One reason CAN be that they are slightly different tuned (calibrated), so that the OSC1/2 detune in a preset in one Phatty differs from the detune in another. Have you tried to adjust the OSC 2 Freq to see if you can fix it?

That is just one example of why a preset can sound slightly different between Phattys.
Those who tweak shall find!
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Voltor07
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Voltor07 » Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:42 pm

muksys wrote:welcome to the wonderful, unpredictable world of analog :mrgreen:
My thoughts exactly. :)
Minitaur, CP-251, EHX #1 Echo, EHX Space Drums/Crash Pads, QSC GX-3, Pyramid stereo power amp, Miracle Pianos, Walking Stick ribbon controller, Synthutron.com, 1983 Hammond organ, dot com modular.

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Synthtron
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Synthtron » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:09 pm

I'd be curious to see how your SP would sound next to another SP running the same patch. I may get an SP in the future to experiment with polyphony on my Little Phatty.
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xombiexplox
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by xombiexplox » Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:04 pm

Synthtron wrote:I'd be curious to see how your SP would sound next to another SP running the same patch. I may get an SP in the future to experiment with polyphony on my Little Phatty.
I plan on getting another SP after I pick up a Minitaur
:3
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Augment
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Augment » Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:44 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you manually "copy" the settings from the Slim onto your LP? Or did they both have the same preset already programmed?

If you did it by hand, there are a few things that might be keeping them from sounding the same that aren't always obvious. One would be that the SP's patch might be using a different filter pole setting. Check under the Master / Advanced settings on the Slim and see if the Filter Pole is set to anything less than 4. That makes the biggest difference, as a 3, 2, or 1 pole filter has a much less steep cutoff than the default 4 pole setting.

Another thing would be to check the Mod Source settings; the SP might have a second destination selected that's giving it some character.

While the two instruments might still have a VERY slight difference due to the nature of analog, there really shouldn't be anything making them sound different. Often the answer lies under the hood in the menus; something I learned years ago when I was in the same situation of trying to create a patch and wondering why mine was so 'dull' sounding.

Let me know if any of this was helpful; the LP Stage was my first synth as well, and all the discoveries are still fresh in my mind. Like you, it also made me a bit insane, irrational (I had a Voyager within 3 months), and hermit like which I still haven't recovered from nearly 4 years later!

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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Voltor07 » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:18 pm

These are good points. Of course, saving the preset from the SP on the computer and transferring them to the LP should be a snap. :)
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Amos » Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:22 pm

component tolerance means every part is only within some small % of "the same" value, comparing one unit to another.
If you want the two to sound identical, you'll need to dial in one unit by ear to match the other. try small changes to cutoff frequency, osc2 freq, wave shape... the more familiar you are with the sound engine the easier it will be to diagnose what exactly sounds different and what to adjust...

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David Smyth
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by David Smyth » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:37 pm

Voltor07 wrote:These are good points. Of course, saving the preset from the SP on the computer and transferring them to the LP should be a snap. :)
You can actually send presets from one unit to other units with midi cables without the need for a computer! :mrgreen:
Minimoog Voyager XL, Little Phatty Stage II + CV Output Mod, 2x Slim Phatty, Minitaur, MP-201, EP-2, 2x CP-251, MF-102, MF-104M, MF-107

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Voltor07
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Voltor07 » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:49 pm

David Smyth wrote:
Voltor07 wrote:These are good points. Of course, saving the preset from the SP on the computer and transferring them to the LP should be a snap. :)
You can actually send presets from one unit to other units with midi cables without the need for a computer! :mrgreen:
:shock: Woah. That's heavy. :shock:
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by joe_moog » Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:35 am

xombiexplox wrote:So today I finally received my orange Little Phatty from Sweetwater! SOOOO COOOL, and pretty heavy too! It was troublesome carrying it up to the third floor of my apartment complex!
Cool - have any pics of it? I got the Nova*Musik edition and it's reddish-orange:

Image

Is yours different?
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by xombiexplox » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:51 pm

joe_moog wrote:
Cool - have any pics of it? I got the Nova*Musik edition and it's reddish-orange:

Is yours different?
YES!

QUITE different!

Image

I am in LOVE with the color orange.
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Re: Little Phatty vs. Slim Phatty

Post by Voltor07 » Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:02 pm

Minitaur, CP-251, EHX #1 Echo, EHX Space Drums/Crash Pads, QSC GX-3, Pyramid stereo power amp, Miracle Pianos, Walking Stick ribbon controller, Synthutron.com, 1983 Hammond organ, dot com modular.

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