Musical Experiments with the Zynthian
Logging My Journey It was more than a decade ago that I sold my MPC2500 to focus on other things and since then, although being a huge appreciator of music, I didn't get any closer to making an actual song than occasionally blowing raspberries into a didgeridoo. What's worse is that in the time since I sold my MPC, I had a hard drive fall off a shelf and break into a million pieces. This was my…
More Zynthian Workflow Updates Coming from and MPC background means that I'm used to working with samples, but part of the reason I wanted the Zynthian was to have the ability to play with synthesizers off the computer. Given the limitations of my current setup, I'm working towards a kind of hybrid workflow that involves the computer for precision work like cutting up samples, but otherwise leaves…
Zynthian Workflow It's been a productive couple of weeks getting to know the Zynthian. Thanks largely to some incredible work from @riban on ZynSeq, I'm actually further ahead than I thought I would be. The ZynSeq updates aside, a friend has loaned me an Akai MPD32, which at first I thought might be superfluous given I already had an MPK Mini MK2. How wrong I was. There's so many benefits to the…
The Monocled Frown If you've spent any time on the Zynthian forum , you will have come across the monocled frown . The peeps over there have devised a use for this emoji I've not seen anywhere else. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and after encountering it for the first time, my too-brief-a-read of the associated wiki article had me thinking that recordings were only required when asking for help…
Zynthian Tips and Tricks It's been less than a week since I received the hardware for my Zynthian, and I've spent every spare minute playing and exploring, troubleshooting, writing bug reports and articles , and generally learning as much as I can. The following are some tips and tricks I've discovered along the way. Although they relate specifically to the Zynthian, there's some generic advice…
Creating SoundFonts in Polyphone Coming from MPC land, one of the limitations I found with the Zynthian was there being no obvious way to capture a sample, and easily pitch it out across a keyboard or set of pads. Although it requires an extra step on the computer, I found a solution in Polyphone , an opensource soundfont editor that allows you to create SF2 files that can be used as sample banks…
Zynthian's Sequencer - ZynSeq A large part of the appeal of the Zynthian is being able to work off my main computer, and more-or-less standalone. For me, this is only possible because of the Zynthian's built in sequencer, ZynSeq. There's a comprehensive user guide to ZynSeq, but if you're new to Zynthian like I am, you may find yourself confused as to why, if the sequencer works at all, the user…
Zynthian v4.1 Kit - First Impressions I'm fairly new to Zynthian, having played with a custom build (3B+ with a $10 soundcard) before deciding to dive in and buy the official V4.1 kit. The Zynthian team were amazing, responding to my pesky emails, and going above and beyond to make sure that my kit arrived in one piece. (Where I live, even with couriers, it's a miracle when any parcel arrives when…