My "Poly Phatty" VA Synth

doctorno · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject: My "Poly Phatty" VA Synth

Edit: Please see "Poly Phatty and Mono-Poly Phatty reviewed" for improved versions of these patches.

The original idea for the following two patches was to emulate the Moog Little Phatty on the G2 to get a polyphonic version of the LP, that could be controlled directly from the LP´s interface. I have posted previous results earlier on.

Putting all the features of the LP into just one patch for the G2 turned out to be not practical, because such a patch consumes too many voices. So I decided to create several VA synth patches. You find the first two of these patches attached here.

One ("Mono-Poly Phatty") is switchtable between Mono and Poly mode, it uses a standard OSC module and a waveshaper OSC module ... this combination turned out to be practical to create certain VA sounds.

The second patch ("Poly Phatty") uses crossfades of sawtooth and rectangular waves to get that specific sound "between" a sawtooth and a rectangular wave that you can get with a Moog synthesizer.

For both patches I included a simple imitation of an analogue synth´s pitch drift, that can be switched off and on for both the OSCs individually. Both patches have a very simple Mod Matrix, the Mod Amount is controlled by the Pitch Wheel - like it is on the Moog LP.

I hope you enjoy using these patches and I am interested in feedback, of course, because I am just a beginner with the G2.

TB2006 · Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject: Re: My "Poly Phatty" VA Synth

[quote="doctorno"]....

Putting all the features of the LP into just one patch for the G2 turned out to be not practical, because such a patch consumes too many voices.
....

The second patch ("Poly Phatty") uses crossfades of sawtooth and rectangular waves to get that specific sound "between" a sawtooth and a rectangular wave that you can get with a Moog synthesizer.
quote]

Thanks for the nice patches, and indeed, that mix between saw and rectangular makes a specific sound.
Running out of voices made me returning my G2 to get immediately a G2X btw... (which seem to have the same keys as a moog voyager btw, the G2 keys are tmo a bit too plastic and unstable)
Now, my burning question: as you HAVE the LP, how do you feel the results compare? (especially the mix saw/rect patch). Is it worth getting a moog, or do you really feel that the G2 comes extremely close?

Tim

doctorno · Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:06 am Post subject:

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Is the Moog LP worth the investment? That´s really hard to say. It depends. What type of music do you intend to produce or play? What is your musical style? Which other synths do you have?

The Moog LP is a very limited synthesizer. It is monophonic, has only 2 OSCs, one filter, a very simple Mod matrix a.s.o. The main difference to any VA including the NM G2 is that it always sounds very, very good, no matter how you tweak the parameters. And the LP always sounds a little more lively, a little warmer than any VA synth including the NM G2.

With the NM G2 you can get closer to the sound of a specific LP patch than with any other VA synth (hardware or software), but programming this patch is not as intuitive and easy with the NM G2 as it is with the Moog LP.

Aside from a few software synths, the Moog LP and the NM G2 Engine are the only synths I own (the synthesizer is not my main instrument) - for me it is a very good combination. Of course, I would prefer to have a NM G2 keyboard together with the Moog LP, but my budget does not allow this at the moment. So the combination of the Moog LP with the G2 engine gives me a luxurious "controller keyboard" with its own monophonic analogue sound engine (the Moog) and a very versatile digital synthesizer, that can do anything else I want (the G2 engine). For me the decision was, whether to buy an NM G2 keyboard and nothing else or the LP and the G2 engine. If you already own the G2x, there might be other, more affordable solutions to get an authentic analogue sound than buying a Moog LP.

Do not get me wrong: the Moog LP is a wonderful instrument. It sounds great, it looks great, it´s the easiest synth to program and/ or tweak that I know - but there is not much you can do with a Moog LP that you could not do with the NM G2 as well - the "only" difference is ... it is much easier to do it with the Moog LP and it sounds a little better still.