Gotharman's zaTurn Demo - A Polyphonic Modular Synthesizer  

You‘re very welcome! Thanks for making these cool instruments! The zaTurn is so much fun and I look forward to take it on my business trips now, play with it more and film additional videos.

Thank you! Those are two great ideas! I wanted to do a filter ping demo next, because that‘s very easy with a modular synth, especially with analog filters, so the zaTurn can do this nicely as well. I could incorporate non-standard patching in this video too (e.g. feed an LFO into the VCF input to ping it). I‘ll write down the sequencer triggering as well. You are absolutely correct, that this can get super crazy :D Thanks again for watching my videos and adding your comments! :)

Hey 😊 I must admit I'm a bit out of the loop, because I haven't had time for music at all recently. But I love the updates that the Zaturn got, especially with the new UI that displays the parameters vertically, just like the knobs are arranged on the device. I think it's still a great (the best?) modular synth in a box that's also more portable, with its size between the TinyLD and LD3. The big display with multi-touch is also nice to have. I don't know ... I still love Gotharman 🤷‍♂️

In that case I’d choose the Little deFormer 3, because it is THE Gotharman groovebox. 16 parts/tracks, non-modular but still very deep sound design, analog filters, sampling, MIDI, CV, etc.

Hi :) Regarding the LEDs it's true that those should be cheap, however I would guess that the blue ones might actually have to be hand soldered into the buttons or something like that, making it so expensive. So there might not be blue buttons being manufactured, only red ones and Gotharman then modifies them by hand as a customization service. I don't see a reason to make all LEDs blue as a user, but it might help if the steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 are blue, if you want to visually subdivide the step sequencer into 4-step segments. My LD3 is all red and I don't mind at all. Blue LEDs on the four step button is a little more useful on the SpazeDrum, which not only has 16 sequencer step buttons, but also 4 voices, which can be selected via those buttons. Anyway, I would recommend the LD3 as a first Gotharman synth though. Do let me know if you want to know more about the customization options and I'd be happy to guide you through them. Questions to ask yourselves are really just the following two: 1. Do I need CV/Gate inputs/outputs? 2. Are 93 minutes of samples enough in the device, or do I want 193 minutes? You definitely want the analog board upgrade at some point and one or two analog filter boards to put onto it. Those can be installed by yourself easily, so their purchase may be postponed though.

@@tuesdaynightmachines Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. That would definitely make more sense, re: the LEDs. Sounds like the default configuration would be more than sufficient for my needs, with plenty of sample space. Also great to hear the analog + filter boards are user upgradable. Won't have to save quite as much $$ before pulling the trigger. I've no plans to go down the Eurorack rabbit hole, so I'll probably pass on the CV, though I absolutely love grooveboxes with powerful internal modulation and routing. Something the LD3 seems to have in spades! .. Hope to soon add it to my growing collection. So far I've mostly been an Elektron fanboy, with OT, A4, MD Mk2, and most recently, Cycles ..And Deluge as my only non-Elektron box.

Yeah, the default config offers plenty! :) Do write Gotharman also though and ask about the "analog option" in regards to user installation and warranty. I've worked on several Gotharman machines' insides and the analog board seems easy to install yourself. The filter boards (which go on the analog board) are definitely user replaceable. If you're into Elektron stuff, then the LD3 should be fun. I need to get an OT again in the future to pair those two up. I think that could be a match made in heaven.

Hey, thanks for the comment! Yes, the knob layout surprised me as well at first. I asked Gotharman about it of course and he told me that he wanted to make the zaTurn as compact as possible. After using the device for half a day then, I got used to the layout and now don’t think about it really any more. So it seems to work and I really like that the size of the zaTurn goes more towards the TinyLD and not the bigger Urano.

@@tuesdaynightmachines Mhm! Yes I'd imagine you'd get used to it. It's the same with the knobs on the MPC One vs some of the screen layouts; it takes some time for your brain to adapt. Looking forward to hear more from it! Really sounds good and looks extremely deep for such a small device.

Update for future readers: since these comments, Gotharman seems to have released an alternative screen alignment that better matches the knobs (for the polytouch version)

Good that you’re seeing a therapist in that case, because you’re really missing out on cool synths due to your condition 😅

@@tuesdaynightmachines it's so ugly tho! My mind boggles why. Look at where those screws are. The huge bezel around the screen. Why those 3 knobs above the screen where they are? For left hand? Right? The buttons have that gap under the screen. Why number buttons 1 to 8? And give them letter groups? Numbers could be useful if the keyboard let you type in from 0 to 9 maybe but it stops at 8. it sounds nice but seriously the industrial design here should be taught as a case study in design school 🤦‍♂️🤪

Haha, interesting. These things don’t matter at all to me, since the device works really well like that in my experience and it’s just a super fun instrument. Also, it seems like “fixing” these things would make the device larger and/or more expensive. But sure, we all have our own opinions and triggers :) Regarding the buttons 1-8: Those buttons let you select the 8 parts and sequencers (numbered 1-8 of course) and they also let you add gates to steps 1-8 in the sequencers (which are traditionally multiples of 8 steps long - 8, 16, 32, 64). So 0-9 doesn’t make any sense, especially because you also have a touch-screen keyboard to type in characters and numbers easily.

@@supercompooper Hi Anthony. I appreciate these instruments, and I think their designs are functional and clear. You say "my mind boggles why" and I just wanted to give you some possible answers, from my point of view as someone who owns two Gotharman instruments. You may still find these instruments mind-bogglingly ugly after I'm done, and that's your right. ; ) AFAIK, Gotharman is a one man operation. One person writes all the code (in machine language! so almost zero latency!), designs the software, designs the circuits, designs the hardware, and builds the machines. All the instruments work in a consistent way: multi-function knobs that are explained onscreen, multi-function buttons for each of the 8 parts, and so on. The hardware is very sturdy and long lasting. Filter boards are (mostly) interchangeable between the machines. The simple and consistent design vocabulary of the hardware means that the designer can relatively easily create a wide variety of different instruments without having to re-invent the wheel each time. The designer can focus on the things that are most important to him: new and more powerful instruments, software, circuits, filters, effects, and hardware updates. That's probably what his buyers care most about. That's what I care about, anyway. Also, it's a niche product for a pretty specialized market. Production runs are small. A consistent but flexible hardware concept makes that easier to sustain. I don't know if this helps explain some of the choices that I see being prioritized in Gotharman instruments, and certainly if the designer or other users want to chime in, or correct me, that would be great. I consider the designs successful, for the reasons I've mentioned. I started with a modest Tiny Little Deformer (a hugely powerful instrument in a very small silver box with just four knobs) and then years later I bought a flagship Urano. I've never once thought about where the screws are, or how wide the bezel is. Anyway, if these instruments don't line up with your priorities, that's fine, and I hope you find something that does. I do see plenty of instruments in the experimental-synthesizer-design-niche-market space that drive me nuts to look at, and that I would never want to use. [g] May each one find what they seek!