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iSEM Voice Programmer question
So if I understand it correctly it's an additional 7 voices (total 8) but it's sequential not unison. There's the possibility of a parameter change per key press. Kinda like a sequencer but for modulation and synth setting changes. Have I got this right?
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exactly.I love the VP.I`m just missing a restart option but i always use it at least for subtile stuff:just a tad different tune/pan/cutoff for each voice and it really start to shine like the"real deal".I guess iSem is my favorite iOS synth.
Basically except that it doesn't add voices. It's still a single voice (the SEM is 2 osc/voice).
So not unlike a LFO modulation but rather in steps. I guess the voice thing threw me.
I always found that misleading, as well. It's a really cool feature though. My personal interaction with iSEM always tends to produce more melodic pad patches that aren't as focused on modulation. But the voice programmer is a really easy way to get crazy and random results out of those patches.
I treated myself to Nave and iSem the other night. Decided to check out iSem first, thinking I'd leave the big guy for dessert, so to speak. Have found it difficult to put iSem down. I am loving the sounds but particularly enjoy the interface, voice programmer and mod matrix included.
Yeah, it's simple compared to Tera or Magellan but it makes some really nice sounds. A solid purchase. On a completely side note I thought of comparing iOS synths by creating exact same parameters across a number of different synths to see if there is any uniqueness. At any rate the gonna dig in to the Voice Programmer and see what it can do.
I suggest watching this before messing with Nave:
Still my favorite synth tutorial ever
Thanks, will do.
Yup. Lot to learn there. For the user and for other devs as regards their own products....
Have you tried changing the direction to Reassign or FWD Retrig?
It’s different because an LFO’s speed is set (and/or modulated) where as the voice programmer doesn’t even have a speed—it’s entirely based on key presses (aka voices). Searched out an explanation I had written previously on the forum because the 'voices' terminology is a little confusing for sure:
If you only want two variations, you can adjust the length in the programmer to two (any two steps/voices) and iSem will not force you to two notes (ala actual SEM-2), just two variations. It can be fun to go crazy in there and then find something useful by only turning 2-3 voices on.
An easy way to see what’s going on with the VP:
Unlike an LFO, the sonic changes will be different every time you play through something (unless your melody is 8 notes I guess). Play a three note chord over and over and you'll notice that each time you play it the notes land in a different place in the stereo field. If you play a three note chord from a sequencer, it'll be 8 presses until the notes are in the same place as the first (because, math) but if you play it manually, it'll likely be slightly more random.
Like @Crabman, I use it on most patches. Usually just for a little detuning or slightly different filter settings. A nice effect for pads is to point LFO1 at something and then change the speed and depth of LFO1 per voice, setting the direction to random. Sadly, can't control LFO2's rate but you can control the depth.
Beyond targeting LFO2 rate, I wish everything in the PERF page's targets where available in the VP, especially effects. Many of the items in the PERF page list (like effects) are not really 'voice' items so I understand them not being there but still, want. Other than that, my wishes are: separate voice on/off toggles per addressable row for more poly-rythmic/eno-never-repeating-tape-loop magic and importing of VP setups as I find I recreate the same setups often. Maybe I should just be less boring. Also, wish there was a 'stack' direction for when the synth is in unison so you can pan (and what not) voices around.
Other than iSem sounding absurdly good, the VP is by far its best feature. Arturia/Rolf should really hype it up more.
Edit: Here's a great SEM overview/(ok, porn) video. The bit about the voice triggering/allocation starts at around 6:50.
@syrupcore Wow, this was news for me and I thank you for the in-depth feature. Terrific.
@syrupcore I may have misunderstood you, but you can turn steps off on the VP, the top 1-8 steps that are lit up at the top, those can be turned on and off. Unfortunately that turns off all the parameter options for that step.
@JohnnyGoodyear Thank you and my pleasure. My favorite feature of my favorite iOS synth. Easy to yack about.
@CalCutta, thanks. I mean I want to have different toggles per row. So you could have, for example, 4 steps active for filter cut-off and 5 steps active for resonance. It would then take 20 notes for them to fall back in sync. You could even 'generate' music by having one row pointing at VCO1 Course with 7 active steps and another pointing at VCO2 Course with 6 steps. Gah, if we could have separate direction for each... Think I just need another iSEM—much in the Oberheim tradition.
@syrupcore
Hey thanks for the explain. Yeah I kinda got an idea of what it was doing but wasn't sure. It's different. Not a step sequencer per se, not 8 OSC, something different. Since it's digital it goes poly anyways. At any rate one of the best iOS synths for sure (though I just got a 50% off offer on the desktop V collection lol).
It is kind of a step sequencer—it's just that each step is triggered by a note-on message instead of being triggered by a clock.
Another way to look at it if you're from the Elektron world is:
Its worth it if you are into classic synth sounds.
Imo iSem is the closest thing to the old analog dinosaurs on iOS we have because it's not only about emulating the pure sound.The old (Poly)synths "lives" because each note sounds slightly different (mainly tuning and envelopes)and the programmer is PERFECT to emulate this behavior.It's really THAT good sounding if you use it with care.But of course,it's easy to wild with it as well
I actually bought iSEM because of the voice programmer. Was a little disappointed however when I used it. I thought I would be able to play a big 8 note chord, each voice with different settings. Seems like if I play that big chord I only get 1 change every consecutive time I play it. Ahhh well. The idea was to make things more 'lush' rather than more 'modulated'.
Kinda like this:
I think for "lush" you want a different synth. Maybe sunrizer or sampletank with the sonik addon?
Magellan reminds me of the MicroKorg where you can double up with two separate synth sounds. So that can get big and lush. Nave and I think a few others have like 6 to 9 OSC. Usually a unison mode creates a lush sound though depends on what you mean by lush.
Nave has 2 Wavetables and 1 OSC. Zeta+ has 6 OSC.
I personally would consider iSEM one of the most "lush" in terms of sound quality.
Thanks guys. Already have most of the big ones. As Calcutta pointed out however, iSEM just sounds fantastic in all of it's tones. I will admit that getting any variety of pads out of it can be a bit of a challenge, but it is doable. I use a long release and route that through my Roland RE-101 to make up for the lack of sustain. The other week I bought Photophore for some ambient music ala Steve Roach, and though it sounds good from my iPad speakers, it still lacks a tremendous depth of sound quality that iSEM has. I use the iPad as a module in a hardware setup, and iSEM can work it's way in (with a little help) any day. Photophore, well, that might require much more help.
i think iSem can also sound quite "lush" if you mix the LP and HP Filter and put some chorus on it...maybe not the internal one,that's one of the very few weaker points but it's funny how chrazy you can go with it nonetheless.Anyway,It's possible of course that we just have a different definition of"lush"
Hehe heh, this thread will get derailed into what is "lush." 2 osc + sub osc + some detuning + reverb and/or delay and/or chorus (note iSem with built in chorus and delay FX may not be enough in which you might want to running it dry and adding external FX) I think can get you lush sounds. One of the presets: Kevin Schroeder -> Pad -> KS_Stargate_PAD sounds really nice, add some reverb and you got some lushness. However a synth with a unison feature will definitely give you some lush sounds. A lot of those lush synth sounds you hear in a lot of today's dance music comes from soft synths like Massive and I think Tera or Magellan can pretty much do most of what Massive can do.
But I think with iSem and synths like iVCS3 you get "richness." A certain quality of sound/tone. Which has a lot to do with the filters and how the analog is model'd, the algorithms and such. Here too is where a soft synth benefits from the ability to generate sound at higher sample rate and bit depth (as far as I know iVCS3 goes the highest at 48K 3bit), it makes the sound less...Contained. That's the thing with analog, you get the sense that it's a bit wild, because you are dealing with raw electricity as oppose to an emulation of such. But we have some pretty good analog modelling these days. Like Monark (which runs at 88.2K sample rate) definitely has some cajones. I hear Arturia's Modular V is a fantastic emulation of the real thing. My MicroKorg XL can get some pretty impressive sounds out of it, which is why I think it has sold so well despite having a toy like physicality to it. 76 Synth sounds rich. iVCS3 can get pretty gnarley.
"Richness" is a great word for iSEM's sonic. I definitely get my definition of 'lush' out of it as well.
My old Korg 05r/w module was always praised for sounding lush. However, go into editing and de-stack the sounds and turn off the effects and suddenly they sound RAF.
I think this is what I mean. I've used plenty of synths that sounded similarly meh but lushed right up via effects.
iSEM has a luscious tone without any effects trickery; the basic sound of the synth is richer than most other soft synths to my ears.
agreed
ISem is pretty lush sounding, along with Photophore and Animoog, they have richest analog-est sounds to my ears
Seems the only thing missing is unison mode which if you watched the video above you see the hardware had...And oh my, THAT'S LUSH!
Seems enough people have put in a request for it already, don't know why it's not there.