Here it is!

[MBTC]

Something new and creepy found its way into my studio. It's an amazingly inspirational piece of pure analog goodness.

First person to guess what it is among the intentionally dark musty picture gets a personal phone call from me where I spend two or three hours describing how I got it before I actually describe what it is. Just messin'.

Try and guess.. I promise it's worth discussing and yes the pic is genuine. Most exciting piece of gear I've owned in decades.

http://imgur.com/vn4Ziq

[oscillator]

I surely don't know, but i already love all those knobs
It seems the synth of my dreams...

[Timo]

Analogue Solutions Leipzig S if I'm not mistaken.

Two osc analogue synth with step seq.

MP3s...!

[Timo]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may1...-lepizig-s.htm

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Timo

Analogue Solutions Leipzig S if I'm not mistaken.

Two osc analogue synth with step seq.

MP3s...!

Yes, sir! A voltage controlled sequencer, with all the quirks and unpredictability that go with it

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by oscillator

I surely don't know, but i already love all those knobs
It seems the synth of my dreams...

I love the thing. I bought it used off a friend who also loved the sound but found it underused in his setup (which is way more elaborate than mine).

I can see why, like most hardware (or perhaps more so) it can be somewhat hard to integrate into your workflow if your goal is churning out complete tracks, but it adds something that I guess only pure analog can.

What I like best about it is more or less an inspirational factor, as they say. That kind of sound that makes you want to stop whatever you're doing and sit down and make music with it.

Not too many mono synths really grab me, but this one does.

[namnibor]

How is the build quality on it? What is it about this mono that really captured you, especially since not too many mono's, as you stated, do much for you? Lastly, how would you describe the filter's characteristics; easily overdriven, and do you lose much volume in high resonance?
Cool new acquisition there!

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by namnibor

How is the build quality on it? What is it about this mono that really captured you, especially since not too many mono's, as you stated, do much for you? Lastly, how would you describe the filter's characteristics; easily overdriven, and do you lose much volume in high resonance?
Cool new acquisition there!

(1) Build quality - I definitely would not throw it off a building to test the build I would call build quality good, not great; it's not a tank. For the cost of these new I'd rather see slightly beefier build quality, but it is no worse than average for the gear of the current manufacturing era. There's no keyboard of course so what matters most is that the knobs work properly and feel good to use, and of course they do. Not sure it would hold up to decades of touring, but perfectly acceptable for the studio.

(2) Why this mono? I think it's because it can be as retro sounding as you want but also seems to ooze "new" sounds. By that I mean not just new in the chronological sense (modern sounds or old, your choice), but new in the sense of sounds that don't sound like anyone else's music. The sequencer adds a lot -- it's a little hard to describe how much it adds in words, because most folks already have a sequencer or DAW that they would use to pattern notes, but this sequencer adds much more to that, and becomes part of the sound sculpting process almost every time (for me).

This all gets very subjective, but when I hear a track with a great bass or similar mono synth line, usually what makes it great and really characterizes the track is the movement in the sound rather than just the sound itself. The sequencer on this synth provides so many options for insane analog movement and real-time control of that movement (remember, a knob for each sequence step!), that you feel like you've got a massive palette of sound possibilities. Aside from really warm basses or mono leads with lots of analog movement, you can also do some really neat analog-percussion and texture type sounds (I think that's what a lot of folks buy this synth for).

If I look at something like DSI Tetra/Waldorf Pulse2 for example, even if all things were equal there's not enough knobs on the front to achieve the same results. Those synths might be capable of sounds I would fall for too if I played around with them long enough, but the knobs on the Leipzig just result in a certain workflow that I wouldn't get with them, especially considering the sequencing knobs. They do make a keyboard version of this synth but it doesn't have the sequencer which would defeat the purpose for me.

3) Filter characteristics - I would describe them as FAST, as we expect of analog..hehe. But yes you will lose volume of the sound as you bring resonance in if that bothers you. For me it's part of the quirks and imperfections I just have to accept from real analog. The thing has a personality and mind of it's own, so making music with it is kind of a challenge to coexist with it, accepting the times when it doesn't do exactly what you'd have it do but at the same time appreciating the beautiful noises it makes even though you didn't specifically command it to do so

I wouldn't describe the filter sound as easily overdriven. The lack of multiple filter options might be limiting for some. I might reach for the ultranova over this synth if going for a more overdriven sound, although you might find that you could achieve some of the sound characteristics you're after in some other way with this. With soft synths or VA sometimes we have massive filter possibilities available to us, HP/BP multiple LP options etc. This is one of those synths that you could quickly cite things you wish it had, then the number of knobs (or cables!) required to achieve that dawns on you and suddenly you're content

As the review Timo posted points out, the resonance knob doesn't do much for about the first 75% of the knob turn, then kicks in with a vengeance. Knobs are of course very sensitive, such that very slight turns affect the sound in large ways, which means forget about writing down your patch settings, as keeping track of knob position is mostly pointless, you'd have to try to recreate sounds by ear and of course recalling them completely is next to impossible (there's no memory or way to store patches, so be prepared to bounce often). Yes this part really affects how you make music, so I can't imagine using this for a live instrument in a typical scenario, only in the rare cases you wanted very unexpected results on stage.

Hope that helps, let me know of any other questions.

[Timo]

Originally Posted by MBTC

(2) Why this mono? I think it's because it can be as retro sounding as you want but also seems to ooze "new" sounds. By that I mean not just new in the chronological sense (modern sounds or old, your choice), but new in the sense of sounds that don't sound like anyone else's music. The sequencer adds a lot -- it's a little hard to describe how much it adds in words, because most folks already have a sequencer or DAW that they would use to pattern notes, but this sequencer adds much more to that, and becomes part of the sound sculpting process almost every time (for me).

This all gets very subjective, but when I hear a track with a great bass or similar mono synth line, usually what makes it great and really characterizes the track is the movement in the sound rather than just the sound itself. The sequencer on this synth provides so many options for insane analog movement and real-time control of that movement (remember, a knob for each sequence step!), that you feel like you've got a massive palette of sound possibilities. Aside from really warm basses or mono leads with lots of analog movement, you can also do some really neat analog-percussion and texture type sounds (I think that's what a lot of folks buy this synth for).

If I look at something like DSI Tetra/Waldorf Pulse2 for example, even if all things were equal there's not enough knobs on the front to achieve the same results. Those synths might be capable of sounds I would fall for too if I played around with them long enough, but the knobs on the Leipzig just result in a certain workflow that I wouldn't get with them, especially considering the sequencing knobs. They do make a keyboard version of this synth but it doesn't have the sequencer which would defeat the purpose for me.

Hope that helps, let me know of any other questions.

Nice review, sounds intriguing. We need some sound bites. Any quick noodlings you'd perhaps care to share?

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Timo

Nice review, sounds intriguing. We need some sound bites. Any quick noodlings you'd perhaps care to share?

I'm copying these in from another thread, as a quick interim solution, I will try to put up some sound samples of my own a little later on when I'm more familiar or can find some examples that these don't already cover. These I think actually give a good representation of how it sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdj4A818XU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmAXc3dylVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogr_ip466E4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoSy0J1K03g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJKEq0yw3_Y
(This one is new, I did not add it before.. percussion.


The Leipzig is kind of a weird beast and I have not yet mastered it to the extent that I think I could produce clips that would really showcase it properly. For an example of what I mean, just tuning the thing to your other instruments takes more time than we are used to just setting a global freq, and synching the sequencer to MIDI tempo and is easiest done (at least in my current range of knowledge) by pasting the "timing" into the DAW as notes, and setting the sequencer trigger to MIDI keyboard. Kind of cumbersome as you can imagine It's one of those synths you can find yourself spend a lot more time doing some basic things.