Hi Guys,

I’m a relative noob with synth programming so thank you in advance for your patience. I have two questions:


1) What is the best synth, in terms of ease, to achieve the following result?

2) So I want to start with a chord containing three notes, and then I want those three notes to transition to another chord and then maybe another chord.

The only way I can think of is manually modulating each note separately. But then how would I select the target pitch of the modulation without guessing? And does the modulation wheel not have a limit in terms of how far the frequency can be modulated to? The ideal synth would have a visual representation of each note (kind of like Redmatica Autosampler had) and then I could select a target destination for each note.

But yeah, I’m looking for an elegant solution to this. Ideally I would like to be able to control the speed of this transition too - maybe some sort of curve so that it speeds up towards the end.

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

 

Individual notes with mono legato + portamento?

 

Hardware or software?

 

The main difficulty seems the different quantity of modulation/effect (portamento-like) applied to each note.
But I guess several synths can do this. I don't know about synths but I'm sure someone here can help you more.

 

Omnisphere would be a good start.
You could also use midi tools to create the evolving midi sequence.

 

What you are looking for is MPE (Midi Polyphonic Expression) so for that you can use every Synth that supports it.
But you will need a DAW where you can control it. Bitwig for example does exactly that.

 

That was the first I thought.
But since we're talking about synths I guess there're a few that can do that. I'm not into synths but just looking at their included sequencers/arpeggiators it's impressive.

In fact some sample-based VSTis can do things that would need MPE. Ample Sound strummer for instance.

 

If you're looking for a soft synth, Rob Papen Blue has polyphonic portamento.

 

i can think of two quick, easy ways to do that.

you could use an oscillator for each note and modulate the pitch for each oscillator using mod wheel/macro/whatever. macros would be better then you could have complete individual control using 3 macros.
the problem with this is you are then stuck with possibly one, maybe two oscilllators per note, depending on the synth, which could dull your sound down a lot.

another option is to just load 3 instances of the same plugin and run them parallel, each one handling only one note.

the best synth for both of those options is the one you know well.
although option 1 you would gain a lot from choosing a synth with at least 6 oscillators. if you have one that you know use that, otherwise we can help you find one based on your needs.

 

Remember not to ask me for advice when you find a difficult problem