Bazille 1.0

[2ZrgE]

I'm hoping for properly useful information like that, but for Bazille. In other words, I don't want to know how to make patch X, I want to understand the underlying principles, how and why things work.

I don't expect that stuff for free either. I'd pay for education, especially from such knowledgable people. Kudos to u-he for making those freely available.

Groove3 has a very nice introduction to Bazille, helped me a lot to understand even the basic concept of phase distortion.

[ghettosynth]

If you love synthesis and exploring the world of modular sound, then Bazille is exciting. If you are looking for a bunch of standard trance leads, then look elsewhere.

Yeah, in fact, I would say something even a bit stronger than that. Bazille is about digital oscillators, FM, PD, and being modular, but it doesn't even excel at some of the things that those technologies are known for. It's very difficult, for example, to get a great electric piano sound out of Bazille. I don't like Howard's, I've made a half a dozen or so of my own using different ideas and I don't like any of those either. Bazille trying to do an FM piano reminds me of typical analog synth organ/piano sounds, there just isn't enough detail there because, really, you need more "hardware", so to speak. So, if you want standard classic FM sounds, then really FM8 does a better job in many cases.

Bazille is a monster that does some things extremely well and those things relate to it being modular and well designed.

As for the presets, I have not tried many of the 1700 myself... I'm too busy making my own. But I do know that with my own presets, they shine when I am playing them. They are alive and need to be explored. With the non-linear responses in the modulation, all sorts of cool stuff happens.

Yep, Bazille and Push open is a recipe for not getting any work done.

[ezelkow1]

+1
heh, because of bazille last night I really started digging to try to find some m4l devices to remap the pitch strip to modwheel for my push

[BMoore]

As for the presets, I have not tried many of the 1700 myself... I'm too busy making my own. But I do know that with my own presets, they shine when I am playing them. They are alive and need to be explored. With the non-linear responses in the modulation, all sorts of cool stuff happens.

Care to share a few soundbits of your own presets?

[basslinemaster]

Hmmm, why would you expect any preset of Bazille to sound like anything you get from Sylenth1?

We have made very precise guidelines for the preset designers. Those guidelines can be paraphrased as "presets must sound nothing like those found in Sylenth1", i.e. we wanted something different. We specifically did not want anyone to even think about comparing Bazille to Sylenth1. It's kind of disturbing that now someone tries to, given how different those concepts are, and given how different the presets are.

That said, I don't have anything against Sylenth1 and the presets it ships with. It's just not what Bazille is designed to rival (and vice-versa)

I wasn't specifically compared it to Sylenth1, more trying to say that most of the presets I listened to were 'unmusical' to me - i.e. I couldn't use them in a song without making it sound pretty bad. What exactly is Bazille supposed to sound like then, I don't understand. I saw the introduction price and was thinking about buying it - before I tried the demo. Now I don't understand why you would make so many presets that are, well, dislikeable, for want of a better term. What sort of music genre are they aimed at?

[basslinemaster]

Don't like the presets -> simple solution -> roll your own

Hardly a simple solution. Some of us just want to make music. This is a very 'KVRian' attitude - that you magically have enough time to make presets, while trying to write a song...

[Numanoid]

Don't like the presets -> simple solution -> roll your own

Hardly a simple solution. Some of us just want to make music. This is a very 'KVRian' attitude - that you magically have enough time to make presets, while trying to write a song...

Then you try out the demo before you buy the plug, if the patches are not of your liking you move on.

A decent rompler to look at would be Nexus I guess.

[elassi]

...more trying to say that most of the presets I listened to were 'unmusical' to me - i.e. I couldn't use them in a song without making it sound pretty bad.

Leave your box, basslinemaster. You're almost 50 years behind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach

[ghettosynth]

Don't like the presets -> simple solution -> roll your own

Hardly a simple solution. Some of us just want to make music. This is a very 'KVRian' attitude - that you magically have enough time to make presets, while trying to write a song...

I find that it takes far less time to make a preset, or adapt a "kind of close" preset than it does to find just the thing that I think that I need.

[Nielzie]

What exactly is Bazille supposed to sound like then, I don't understand. I saw the introduction price and was thinking about buying it - before I tried the demo. Now I don't understand why you would make so many presets that are, well, dislikeable, for want of a better term. What sort of music genre are they aimed at?

Both organic and metallic, and sometimes mysterious out of this world kind of sounds

[audiosabre]

Bazille is definitely different. At first I could not do anything with it. I thought... what the hell is a lag generator and a quantizer and rectifier?? And so many inputs and outputs to wire together was daunting. I was also disappointed that the envelopes were seemingly so basic and that there were just 2 LFO's...

Now I smile at some of my initial reactions. I am so used to modulation in Bazille, that now I miss lag generators, quantizers, rectifiers etc when I use 'regular' synths.

Some synths have higher level modulation modules like multi-segment envelopes. Bazille is more a set of simple modules that can be wired in complex ways and which take some time to wrap the head around but which also lead to different results... including stuff that evolves in ways that cannot be done with a standard MSEG.

My point being, I think it is well worth it to put the time into learning Bazille. I'd guess there will eventually be some tutorials from Howard like the Zebra ones and in the meanwhile, there are now the 1700 presets to dissect and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Glad to see I'm not alone in this.

I like the idea of chaos out of order, unexpected modulations, that sort of thing. This modular approach is radical to me, yet I hear the way others talk about it with much excitement, and it intrigues me.

Going through the factory patches displays much talent on behalf of the sound designers. I wouldn't even know where to start with some of these patches; it's insane. Some of them have so many wires connected, I don't know what the hell is happening, even though I can see which modules are connected.

Anyway, back to RTFM .

Thanks.

Groove3 has a very nice introduction to Bazille, helped me a lot to understand even the basic concept of phase distortion.

Damn it, my yearly subscription ended a few months ago, and I've been too broke to renew. I'll bear it in mind though. Thanks.

[ezelkow1]

Going through the factory patches displays much talent on behalf of the sound designers. I wouldn't even know where to start with some of these patches; it's insane. Some of them have so many wires connected, I don't know what the hell is happening, even though I can see which modules are connected.

This always gets me too, same thing with large ace patches. Load one up and see all the wires and just wonder how in the hell they even came up with that. Like was it just messing around and they stumbled on it? Was all of that actually deliberate?

[pdxindy]

If you love synthesis and exploring the world of modular sound, then Bazille is exciting. If you are looking for a bunch of standard trance leads, then look elsewhere.

Yeah, in fact, I would say something even a bit stronger than that. Bazille is about digital oscillators, FM, PD, and being modular, but it doesn't even excel at some of the things that those technologies are known for. It's very difficult, for example, to get a great electric piano sound out of Bazille.

I am sure Bazille can do a great electric piano sound...

[xh3rv]

Don't like the presets -> simple solution -> roll your own

Hardly a simple solution. Some of us just want to make music. This is a very 'KVRian' attitude - that you magically have enough time to make presets, while trying to write a song...

The most fun I've had with Bazille is when rigging up the preset turns into the song

[BBFG#]

If you love synthesis and exploring the world of modular sound, then Bazille is exciting. If you are looking for a bunch of standard trance leads, then look elsewhere.

Yeah, in fact, I would say something even a bit stronger than that. Bazille is about digital oscillators, FM, PD, and being modular, but it doesn't even excel at some of the things that those technologies are known for. It's very difficult, for example, to get a great electric piano sound out of Bazille.

I am sure Bazille can do a great electric piano sound...

Electric pianos are one of the last things I want out of it.