I have watched thousands of gear videos over the past 10-15 years, and this is one of the best I've ever seen in terms of the preparation and execution. Props! The sound pack is also phenomenal.
Wow, you have put so much effort & time & skill into making these sounds, learning the songs, recording the tracks, filming, editing and you’ve come up with a great tutorial in music, fm synthesis, 80’s sounds & more. Thankyou!
At this moment I am completely flummoxed about the TH-cam algorithm. How has this video existed for an entire year without appearing in my feed?! I watch (and search for)countless Digitone and Rtym MKII videos. Maybe I can find comfort in the fact that it’s a sign that AI bots aren’t able to replace us. They can’t even deliver decent search results?! Outstanding Guac Dude! I subscribed without looking at any of your other videos.
Not to forget that Digitone can be played also without FM. It can be configured to play as 2 oscillators per voice analog synth. I think there was already some some sounds in this clip very analogish in nature although I can't be sure how patches were created. However very good demo of versatility of the DN.
Yes and no ... ANY Yamaha FM style synth can also be played without FM, if you only use carriers and no modulators. But on most of them, you will only get sine waves then. Some more modern FM synths offer additional basic waveforms. Digitone offers an additional waveshaping feature; but it has its limits. To my ears, you cannot get very close to an analog osc square or saw sound with this waveshaping. The classic FM trick of generating saw by same octave modulator with feedback, and square with one octave higher modulator with feedback, works much better for me on the Digitone. And you can do this same trick on the DX7, and even better, since stacking 3 operators can also get you a useable saw wave, and the DX7 can give you a stack of 3 operators PLUS a stack of 1 operator + 1 modulator w/ feedback. So, on the oscillator side, a DX7 can get closer to a 2 VCO per voice analog synth. However, the Digitone clearly wins in the filter department. Digitone has a decent virtual analog filter. And running two parallel carrier/modulator pairs (one with Feedback, the other with some waveshaping) into that filter can give you quite good virtual analog sounds. I created the “Money for Nothing” lead and the “Africa” synth brass sound in this vid that way.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion Interesting insights. I haven't got that much into FM. Usually finding new sounds is kind of trial and error. For me that is OK as many times I'm not trying to reproduce any specific sound just to find something interesting. I had to take my DN out to try and you are right that it is not that similar with true analog saw if you just run modulators parallel and dial waveshape to look like a saw and keep all ratios as 1. It seems to lack higher harmonics and also it has still little bit of that "bellish" FM timbre. That FM trick with feedback seems to do a better job. Setting waveshape to 0 (sinewave) and then fiddling with feedback and operator level can get closer to a true analog saw. With quick googling Africa's brass stabs were originally created with CS80 (analog) and that calimba with GS-1 (FM synth). Money for nothing intro's synth pad with DX1 but not quite sure about those stabs along the song. Anyways you did great job creating those analog style synths with DN and they worked great in musical context although they might lack character in closer inspection if compared to true analog synth. Usually they are few who actually listen actual sound of synths that closely that they are bothered with such small details.
have to admit I cannot actually play this Chick Corea tune at that speed ... recorded it at half the tempo into a Cubase MIDI track, then played back at double speed, recording the audio from Digitone at that speed. Combined this with the vid played back at double speed. Same with the Kenny Kirkland solo at the end (there, this “cheating” is also revealed in the captions :-)
Wow, this blew me away. I feel like I’m totally underusing my Elektron gear! Great job! I loved every minute of it! So nice to hear real music with these machines. I can’t take anymore glitch/techno
Wow, you really nailed those sounds! Mostly on the Digitone I end up with wonderfully inspiring sounds, but I find it kinda hard to really replicate specific sounds for some reason. I'll load some of your sounds to the DT to see how you made them, thanks a million!
Amazing video! And thanks for the music history lesson. I'm listening to Mild und Leise now, and it is incredible. I never knew that was a sample in Idioteque!
apparently Jonny Greenwood himself had forgotten it was a sample first ... according to de.wikibrief.org/wiki/Idioteque, he recorded 50 minutes of improvisation on a modular system including some samples, and gave the recording to Thom Yorke. Yorke found the piece that then became “Idiotheque” and loved it; and Jonny first thought he had also created the synth part on his modular. Later he realised it was one of the samples he had taken from the 1975 compilation “First Recordings - Electronic Music Winners”, which he had found in a 2nd hand vinyl store
@@damienwebb3689 My re-made version of those few bars from “Mild und Leise” is included in the Digitone project file that can be downloaded from the link in the video description text. The additional RYTM stuff I added for the Radiohead remake is not in the download, since my focus was on Digitone/FM here. It’s some analog drums and the sample from Arthur Kreiger’s “Short Piece”, which you can easily sample from here: th-cam.com/video/ybBkrZZBdx4/w-d-xo.html
Recreating the mild und leise synth sound is highly appreciated. It's not super complex sounds, but they are very refined sounds (which is a territory I usually end up blasting past and let everything modulate everything until crazy) Thank you so much :)
great work, these sounds are killer - and whether or not they’re perfect matches is besides the point, they’re great and i’ll get a lot of use out of them, thanks for doing this!
I pulled the trigger to son when I made my original comment “Nice Sounds” lol That was an understatement! One of the most impressive I’ve videos I’ve seen on TH-cam. Well done’ I will watch this one many times. Oh I love your channel name…Fun indeed.
thx 🙂 it was actually just playing around with the Digitone, running DEXED on my computer with actual DX7 sounds, checking how those were made, trying to recreate them on Digitone ... just experimenting and using my ears 😊
I've personally tried to recreate the Mild und Leise sequence so I'm pretty much astonished by how perfectly you've done it. I believe you're the first person on the internet to fully close the case. Are there tools that helped you reverse engineer the sample into the distinct FM synth voices? Or is it all down to knowledge and a spectrogram? Thank you! 🙇
Hi Riley, thanks! No tools involved, not even a spectrogram, only my ears and about 45 years of making music 🙂 But yep, the DEXED software really helped me to learn FM, as shown in the vid ... being mainly a guitar player, I’ve occasionaly been programming synths since like 1988, but never really delved into FM synthesis until recently when I got the Digitone
Man, what an elaborate video / demo! I recently bought Digitone and I am currently in a learning phase, you made me excited about the purchase once again. You made it sound perfect.
Fantastic work. I yet have to find a way to reproduce dx7 sounds with the digitone. I love my Digitone, but I always felt like I couldn't make it sound like an op6 or a dx7. But apparently I was wrong. Thank you
actually, you are completely right. You can get close, but no matter how hard I tried, I never got Digitone to sound exactly like any of the DX7 presets (emulated on DEXED; I guess it would be even harder with an actual hardware DX7). But I kinda got close at least to some :-)
how the hell did you recreate that drum sequence from dire straits on the rytm? did you play it in live and record unquantized or program that sequence? this video is the most impressive sound design, performance, patching work ive ever seen.
thx ☺ I don't remember exactly, but I listened to the original track, checked my (rather small) drum sample library for which toms and snare come closest, then recreated the drumfills ... I guess partly recorded live, partly programmed. My timing is really shitty, so I guess I quantised all live-played drumpads at least at some percentage 😄
Amazing video! Especially loved the Mild und Leise part! Where can I find that in the project file? The one included doesn't have those sounds. Thanks!
the sounds may not be there as separate sound patches, but the whole thing is in the included project file, pattern A07; you can save them from there 🙂
I know, and the price is really nice. However, if I wanted to go fully DX7 sound, I would get a 2nd hand TX7 module, which does cost about twice as much as the Volca, but gives you full 16 voice polyphony (rather than 6), and has the actual DX7 sound (D/A converters and all); it can be edited with DEXED. However, my priority when gettin the Digitone was never on replicating DX7 sounds (this was just something that I did to learn how to program FM synthesis); it was rather on having an Elektron box that can handle polyphonic sequencing better than my RYTM Mk II, plus that gives me FM as an additional sonic palette.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion haha I totally understand. I was just hoping you’d make a killer sound pack for the A4 that I could use 😜 keep up the great work!
That Dire Straits improvisation killed it 😮
It is an absolute tragedy that I can only give this video one thumbs up! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
thanks! Feel free to check my other recent vids instead 😇
I have watched thousands of gear videos over the past 10-15 years, and this is one of the best I've ever seen in terms of the preparation and execution. Props! The sound pack is also phenomenal.
Hi Mike, thanks, glad you liked it 🥳
Wow, you have put so much effort & time & skill into making these sounds, learning the songs, recording the tracks, filming, editing and you’ve come up with a great tutorial in music, fm synthesis, 80’s sounds & more. Thankyou!
glad you appreciate it! Was lots of fun, too :-)
This is so true! I‘ve really learned a lot and had great fun as well!
Harmonica one cracked me up
Great video. I clicked on it to get a demo of a synth and got an entire history lesson.
At this moment I am completely flummoxed about the TH-cam algorithm. How has this video existed for an entire year without appearing in my feed?! I watch (and search for)countless Digitone and Rtym MKII videos. Maybe I can find comfort in the fact that it’s a sign that AI bots aren’t able to replace us. They can’t even deliver decent search results?!
Outstanding Guac Dude! I subscribed without looking at any of your other videos.
thx ... feel free to look at the other videos, too, though 😁
the lansky mild un leise sounds are mind blowing. this whole video fascinates me endlessly
thanks ... it was a joy to make it, too ☺
Money for nothing was so spot on, just the snare did not really match, but everything else was heaven to me!! Excellent!!!
Bro is cold blooded with the keys and the bass.
I'm like No.900 and you're the man
thx 🥂
Bravo, sir! I never realised that Radiohead track sampled something FM from the 70s. Mad...
Not to forget that Digitone can be played also without FM. It can be configured to play as 2 oscillators per voice analog synth. I think there was already some some sounds in this clip very analogish in nature although I can't be sure how patches were created. However very good demo of versatility of the DN.
Yes and no ... ANY Yamaha FM style synth can also be played without FM, if you only use carriers and no modulators. But on most of them, you will only get sine waves then. Some more modern FM synths offer additional basic waveforms. Digitone offers an additional waveshaping feature; but it has its limits. To my ears, you cannot get very close to an analog osc square or saw sound with this waveshaping. The classic FM trick of generating saw by same octave modulator with feedback, and square with one octave higher modulator with feedback, works much better for me on the Digitone. And you can do this same trick on the DX7, and even better, since stacking 3 operators can also get you a useable saw wave, and the DX7 can give you a stack of 3 operators PLUS a stack of 1 operator + 1 modulator w/ feedback. So, on the oscillator side, a DX7 can get closer to a 2 VCO per voice analog synth.
However, the Digitone clearly wins in the filter department. Digitone has a decent virtual analog filter. And running two parallel carrier/modulator pairs (one with Feedback, the other with some waveshaping) into that filter can give you quite good virtual analog sounds. I created the “Money for Nothing” lead and the “Africa” synth brass sound in this vid that way.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion Interesting insights. I haven't got that much into FM. Usually finding new sounds is kind of trial and error. For me that is OK as many times I'm not trying to reproduce any specific sound just to find something interesting. I had to take my DN out to try and you are right that it is not that similar with true analog saw if you just run modulators parallel and dial waveshape to look like a saw and keep all ratios as 1. It seems to lack higher harmonics and also it has still little bit of that "bellish" FM timbre. That FM trick with feedback seems to do a better job. Setting waveshape to 0 (sinewave) and then fiddling with feedback and operator level can get closer to a true analog saw.
With quick googling Africa's brass stabs were originally created with CS80 (analog) and that calimba with GS-1 (FM synth). Money for nothing intro's synth pad with DX1 but not quite sure about those stabs along the song. Anyways you did great job creating those analog style synths with DN and they worked great in musical context although they might lack character in closer inspection if compared to true analog synth. Usually they are few who actually listen actual sound of synths that closely that they are bothered with such small details.
You already listed those synths in the video. I should have watched it again before answering..
This was a masterpiece
thx 🎉
8:58 god DAMN bro
have to admit I cannot actually play this Chick Corea tune at that speed ... recorded it at half the tempo into a Cubase MIDI track, then played back at double speed, recording the audio from Digitone at that speed. Combined this with the vid played back at double speed. Same with the Kenny Kirkland solo at the end (there, this “cheating” is also revealed in the captions :-)
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion hey man it still sounds and looks badass.
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion that's so funny how you did that (I still think you're a great keyboard player though)
nice work. impressed. I have one - after three years, I still feel like a neophyte. It's an curiously amazing machine.
Wow! Outstanding programming skills, both for tones and sequences!
Wow, this blew me away. I feel like I’m totally underusing my Elektron gear! Great job! I loved every minute of it! So nice to hear real music with these machines. I can’t take anymore glitch/techno
What a great video. Thank you.
Your CS80 brass sound is my favourite. It's almost more analog than most analog synths available today.
Hearing some of these in such high quality is kinda wild
Wow, you really nailed those sounds! Mostly on the Digitone I end up with wonderfully inspiring sounds, but I find it kinda hard to really replicate specific sounds for some reason. I'll load some of your sounds to the DT to see how you made them, thanks a million!
Just. Wow.
That Money For Nothing Intro was superb !
supe renaît idea, labour of love, really enjoyed the super nerd detail.
This is absolutely amazing. Great work my friend!
I absolutely love Kenny Kirkland's piano playing and Sting's solo albums of the 80s and 90s.
Thank you so much for this.
EPIC just loved this…thanks so much. I just got my first Digitone……after watching you I am excited and a bit daunted...
thx ... don't be daunted, most good things in music come from open-minded experimenting 😊
This is the most impressive and underrated video using Electron devices on You Tube. Bravo!
Had me feelin' like Top Gun there for a second...
02:55 - Idioteque (Radiohead) SO GOOOOD
Wow nice free content!) Thank you so much) Cause it just sounds perfect!))
Unbelievable !!! 🙏❤️🙏
this blew me away....omg thxx
Amazing video! And thanks for the music history lesson. I'm listening to Mild und Leise now, and it is incredible. I never knew that was a sample in Idioteque!
apparently Jonny Greenwood himself had forgotten it was a sample first ... according to de.wikibrief.org/wiki/Idioteque, he recorded 50 minutes of improvisation on a modular system including some samples, and gave the recording to Thom Yorke. Yorke found the piece that then became “Idiotheque” and loved it; and Jonny first thought he had also created the synth part on his modular. Later he realised it was one of the samples he had taken from the 1975 compilation “First Recordings - Electronic Music Winners”, which he had found in a 2nd hand vinyl store
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion is this preset available to download?
@@damienwebb3689 My re-made version of those few bars from “Mild und Leise” is included in the Digitone project file that can be downloaded from the link in the video description text. The additional RYTM stuff I added for the Radiohead remake is not in the download, since my focus was on Digitone/FM here. It’s some analog drums and the sample from Arthur Kreiger’s “Short Piece”, which you can easily sample from here: th-cam.com/video/ybBkrZZBdx4/w-d-xo.html
Really cool stuff. Thanks for doing this!
It must have been a lot of work to create this very impressive result. Thanks!
Shoutout for doing I got 5 on it as number 2
Thanks for this! Really fun to watch and great sounds 😊
production so on point and mix all sounds great.
Recreating the mild und leise synth sound is highly appreciated. It's not super complex sounds, but they are very refined sounds (which is a territory I usually end up blasting past and let everything modulate everything until crazy)
Thank you so much :)
this is so cool
I love YT for this. Just wow.
Brilliant show! Digitone is something I've strongly considered, thanks for the demo!
Amazing! Great work on the patches and the video. And great guitar playing. :-)
thanks! I’m actually more a guitarist than a keyboard/synth player :-)
Awesome job! Very influent video, thank you!
Incredible
Fantastic work, music history lesson and demonstration - thank you!!
great work, these sounds are killer - and whether or not they’re perfect matches is besides the point, they’re great and i’ll get a lot of use out of them, thanks for doing this!
glad you like them, have fun with those sounds :-)
OH MAN GOOSEBUMPS ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE VIDEO NOW THATS FANTASTIC WORK THANK YOU
This was really enjoyable.
😎
Man, that's awesome! Great work!
Stunning video ! 👏👏 such an education as well as incredible sound design and playing on DN. Bravo ! 👏🙏
thx 😊
This is awesome! I'm getting my Digitone in the mail tomorrow. Excited to try this out. Thanks for making these and publishing them for free
Thank you very much for the Pack. Very interesting Video.
Wow im super impressed THIS IS PURE GOOOOLD!!!!! excelent work cant thank you enough for sharing it
thank you
What a fantastic video!
this rules! more of these style videos please
Brutal!
very very pleasantly surprised by this
Very nice video? I learnd a lot! :) and dude you're a very good pianist as well like kenny! Thx for this video!
So fooking brilliant, I'm astonished, amazed and more than a bit jealous! Well done!
Thank youuuuu!!!!!🙏🏻
Amazing!
Thanks for this amazing video. Good job
I own both machine and didn't know was possible to reach a sound so closer
Excellent video and pack - thank you!
thx :-)
Incredible work 👏
You’re a legend for creating and sharing these. Thank you. Happy holidays!
thx, happy holidays to you, too 😊
Awesome, you started of with Queen!
This video was hella tite ❤
Thanks for soundpack
wow
I pulled the trigger to son when I made my original comment “Nice Sounds” lol
That was an understatement! One of the most impressive I’ve videos I’ve seen on TH-cam.
Well done’ I will watch this one many times. Oh I love your channel name…Fun indeed.
thx :-)
great stuff, thanks!!
Thank you very much, cool Man :)
classic hits and sounds, you destroyed it!
Wow the demos sound so good and have a video that matches.
Thank you for sharing us your work (including the patches).
impressive sounds & performance!
Dude, you‘re the Wizard!
Amazing. Downloaded your pack. How did you get so familiar with fm synthesis and able to recreate all these sounds?
thx 🙂 it was actually just playing around with the Digitone, running DEXED on my computer with actual DX7 sounds, checking how those were made, trying to recreate them on Digitone ... just experimenting and using my ears 😊
I've personally tried to recreate the Mild und Leise sequence so I'm pretty much astonished by how perfectly you've done it. I believe you're the first person on the internet to fully close the case. Are there tools that helped you reverse engineer the sample into the distinct FM synth voices? Or is it all down to knowledge and a spectrogram? Thank you! 🙇
Hi Riley, thanks! No tools involved, not even a spectrogram, only my ears and about 45 years of making music 🙂 But yep, the DEXED software really helped me to learn FM, as shown in the vid ... being mainly a guitar player, I’ve occasionaly been programming synths since like 1988, but never really delved into FM synthesis until recently when I got the Digitone
Loving this pack
Dude! That was honestly the most incredible analysis and replication. Thank you so much for that and I’ll be sure to check your other content out!
cool, glad you liked it!
Man, what an elaborate video / demo! I recently bought Digitone and I am currently in a learning phase, you made me excited about the purchase once again. You made it sound perfect.
This is a really excellent video.
Fantastic work. I yet have to find a way to reproduce dx7 sounds with the digitone. I love my Digitone, but I always felt like I couldn't make it sound like an op6 or a dx7. But apparently I was wrong. Thank you
actually, you are completely right. You can get close, but no matter how hard I tried, I never got Digitone to sound exactly like any of the DX7 presets (emulated on DEXED; I guess it would be even harder with an actual hardware DX7). But I kinda got close at least to some :-)
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion I think that's the beauty of digitone :) it's unique! No need for exact copies anyway!
@@BrockDavisson Agreed!
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion I heard the original DX7 was a pain to program yes!
Outstanding !!
😮 Well that was totally impressive. Really enjoyable and can't wait to try out the presets. Thank you for the effort to put into the video!
my pleasure :-)
Fantastic job, instant subscribe.
Oh holy moly. This is excellent.
Incredible stuff my friend :)
Excellent, thanks for sharing this.
Thank you very much for these excellent sounds.
how the hell did you recreate that drum sequence from dire straits on the rytm? did you play it in live and record unquantized or program that sequence? this video is the most impressive sound design, performance, patching work ive ever seen.
thx ☺
I don't remember exactly, but I listened to the original track, checked my (rather small) drum sample library for which toms and snare come closest, then recreated the drumfills ... I guess partly recorded live, partly programmed. My timing is really shitty, so I guess I quantised all live-played drumpads at least at some percentage 😄
Amazing video! Especially loved the Mild und Leise part! Where can I find that in the project file? The one included doesn't have those sounds. Thanks!
the sounds may not be there as separate sound patches, but the whole thing is in the included project file, pattern A07; you can save them from there 🙂
thanks for this great Patches and Video !!
Awesome work and instasub for the generous samples
Consider getting a Volca FM2. It can load and play all the old DX7 patches
I know, and the price is really nice. However, if I wanted to go fully DX7 sound, I would get a 2nd hand TX7 module, which does cost about twice as much as the Volca, but gives you full 16 voice polyphony (rather than 6), and has the actual DX7 sound (D/A converters and all); it can be edited with DEXED.
However, my priority when gettin the Digitone was never on replicating DX7 sounds (this was just something that I did to learn how to program FM synthesis); it was rather on having an Elektron box that can handle polyphonic sequencing better than my RYTM Mk II, plus that gives me FM as an additional sonic palette.
I would love to see what you make with the Analog Four! Deff downloading these patches, and buying that sample pack for my rytm
A4 is definitely interesting, but got too many synths already 😄🙈
@@TheGuacamoleXplosion haha I totally understand. I was just hoping you’d make a killer sound pack for the A4 that I could use 😜 keep up the great work!
@@kylew706 thx :-)