KVR Audio

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:17 pm

Hi!

Are there any other west coast VST synths like Madrona Labs Aalto?

Sounds of

Buchla,
Serge,
Wiard,
low pass gates,
wave folders,
complex oscillators
and random source.

Also I'm curious why isn't many low pass gates in plugin format either in effects or synths?

I don't want to dive into NI Reaktor or MAX4Live, any ready made VST is what I'm looking for.

thanks!

fluffy_little_something · Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:12 pm

What does West Coast refer to?

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:30 pm

These:
hw Buchla modular,
hw Serge modular,
hw Wiard modular,
low pass gates,
wave folders,
complex oscillators
and random source.

anomandaris1 · Post by **anomandaris1** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:30 pm

Vaz modular has such patches, check also u-he Bazille and also the free WNM-1 synth

fluffy_little_something · Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:32 pm

I mean, were those machines built in California? Or are you talking about some supposedly West Coast sound?

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:35 pm

I like uhe Bazille and uhe ACE very cool. Thinking about buying those as well. I guess maybe I can fake complex VCO with a bit of FM.

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:37 pm

fluffy_little_something wrote:I mean, were those machines built in California? Or are you talking about some supposedly West Coast sound?

Buchla and Serge are traditionally west coast sound / philosophy and location-wise as well.

fluffy_little_something · Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:39 pm

Mutools' Mux is modular with cables and everything, if that is what you mean.

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:42 pm

Thanks! Almost forgot that little synth from earlier.

adam_firegate · Post by **adam_firegate** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:44 pm

I think Aalto is still the closest which I'm searching for that sound, but thanks for the tips! Also Bazille with FM and PD and fractal is very cool!

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:28 pm

I think there are a lot of soft-synths which can approach the concepts of "west coast" style synthesis as well as traditional subtractive synthesis. Really "west coast" just refers to a focus on FM, wave shaping (or adding complexity to basic wave shapes), sequencing and event driven composition and to a certain extent un-predictability. I think the fact that you are using a fixed number of modules which are to some extent patch-programmable (modules don't have explicit functions or defined applications) is just as important to this approach.

While in the hardware modular world, you need to choose modules based on what you want to do with them/how you approach synthesis, I don't think the same is exactly true for the software word. With plug-ins you can approach a standard subtractive synth with "west coast" ideas. For example, I've used Arturia's Arp 2600V in a very similar way as I would use a Buchla-ish synth, cross modulating oscillators and using modulation sources to not only affect the sound but also the built in sequencer. Synths like Zebra, Xils 4, SynthMaster, Bazille, Ace, Aalto and even Massive to a certain extent are very capable in this regard because you have modular routing flexibility but you are limited to a fixed number of modules, so you are forced to be creative withing those limits.

I don't think things like low-pass gates and wavefolders are as important to the "west coast" sound/synths as your approach to using them. In fact low-pass gates are usually based on a standard sallen-key filter topology but they use vactrols as part of the control element, so they respond more slowly to modulation than other filters. You can think of this like using an opto-isolator in a compressor. Low-pass gates are useful in a hardware modular because you can get a nice envelope-like response by sending a trigger directly to the LPG's control input, without actually needing to use an envelope. You can find more information about Low Pass Gates here: http://www.cgs.synth.net/modules/lpg.html

When I first started using LPGs, I thought it would be cool if every synth had them. But as I listened more closely, I realized that the sound of the LPG isn't that special, the character is really all in how it responds to control signals. By running control signals through the lag generators in Bazille, I can get a similar response.

Ichad.c · Post by **Ichad.c** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:36 pm

Xenobioz has always made more West-Coast types synths, IMHO. West-Coat is more about the oscillators and routing, the filters are usually the least important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... xUpG9tuCoQ

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:50 pm

didn't know hungary had a lot of coasts.....

is there anything we can do to make this sort of thing more real and a factor everyone else has to deal with in their lives as well?

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:50 pm

at least south africa has coasts.

fluffy_little_something · Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:21 pm

To me West Coast synths are those by Oberheim and SC

West coast VST synths