A Mixtape

I hardly post music here, so I'm just gonna give you guys a quick mix of some songs I've been digging recently.

Tonic/Helix EP - *TEASER* by Russ Chimes
Waiting Game (EP Version) by Shes the Queen
Lightwaves - Everybody Rock by lightwavesmusic
The Way It Is by Red Amber Green

enjoy!

I love my Moog Little Phatty!

Just got this off of eBay for a great deal (just under a grand, like new, perfect cosmetic condition, original box and manual).  I love it!  The filter is thick and full of character, the waves are bright, and the secret weapon, the "OVERLOAD" knob should essentially be labeled "magic" because it sounds so cool.  This synth is a BEAST.  No wonder so many live shows use it.  Off the top of my head, I know that Starsmith uses one in his studio, and The Knocks use one in their live setup.  I'm fairly sure Ben Folds keeps one around.  This is the modern pinnacle of (affordable) analog monosynth.

Getting back on the horse... featuring the Little Phatty

Little Phatty Demo by The Synth Symp
Hey everyone,

Apologies for really dropping the ball in the past week.  I had a kidney stone (again) and haven't really been quite in the mood to blog, but I'm trying to end that tonight, and start getting back to my daily and bi-daily posts.  As always, if you want to see anything on the site, let me know via one of the many forms of communication I have.

I bought a Little Phatty Stage II off of eBay on Friday night, it shipped out Saturday, and it arrived Tuesday, and I gotta say, I've been having a blast.  I made a quick demo of the Phatty (plus some Logic Reverb and Vintage warmer compression).  You can hear how sweet it sounds, and how cool the arpeggiator (I latched it) sounds.  Such phat sounds indeed.  Truly a remarkable instrument, and among the holy grail of modern analog beasts.  I'm so happy to have it.  I hope you enjoy, and I can assure you I'll make more posts on it in the future.  And please request something!  Anything!

New Facebook Page

Hey guys,
I'll drop another, longer music related post sometime today (hopefully), but in the mean time, I've just started a facebook page for this site!  Check it out, like it, all that good stuff.
Happy synthing!

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo

DSI Tetra Sequence Demo by The Synth Symp

Here's a little demo using my Tetra I got for Christmas.  The Tetra is a great little piece of synth with an unfortunate interface and app holding it back.  It's basically a 4-voice Prophet, but with even more features like sub-oscillators.  The app that Soundtower makes (I won't even link it, it's that bad) doesn't play nice with DAWs, however, so any programming you'd like to do while recording this synth requires you to use the onboard controls, which is a fair amount of menu-diving, unfortunately.  The app on its own works brilliantly for me but I've heard a ton of complaints from others, however, which is why I've joined the CTRLR crew (I've made a post about it earlier.  MIDI controllers for every synth!).  Let's hope Dave Smith and his crew cook up a Tetra keyboard sometime soon, otherwise I'll end up buying a Mopho keyboard to help this thing out (the Mopho keyboard's knobs map directly to the Tetra and they can be polychained).  Enjoy!  I think this turned out way better than I expected it would.  The Tetra packs some great sounds.

And of course, if you want to see anything on this blog, shoot me an email (thesynthesizersympathizer@gmail.com) or find me on twitter (@thesynthsymp) and follow/ @ reply me.  I'd love to hear what you guys want to see!  And if you want me to keep making content, click an ad or throw in a buck in the ole donate on the top left.


Also, don't forget to check out the new Facebook Page!

Edwin van Cleef: Lisztomania (feat. Jane Hanley)

Edwin van Cleef - Lisztomania (feat. Jane Elizabeth Hanley) by Edwin van Cleef

I was shown this track a couple of days ago.  Whether you're a Phoenix fan or not, this is a beautiful rendition of this song.  Check out the great work on the synths.  One of the best covers you'll hear this year.

Exploring Presets: Drums

Drum Sounds Demo by The Synth Symp

You've probably heard this before, but drums are tricky.  They're tough to figure out how to record, and tough to mix, and tough to have sound right.  I'm going to give a little insight into getting you off the ground, however, and that is to USE YOUR PRESETS.