This was an excellent overview. Thank you for going into so much detail, as opposed to "hey check out this filter sweep" One little bit of trivia I think is worth mentioning -- The WASP design is super fun because it's based on abusing digital components for use with analog circuitry, which gives it the fun side effect that the digital components occasionally just blow up. This has happened to me once with the Doepfer . The good news is that they are cheap and super easy to replace, but it's a good argument for using something like the Vult Freak that can model it, as opposed to the original design (and this is likely why we haven't seen it too many other places)
Great video! Makes you appreciate some "folk knowledge" differences, like how juicy and phat the Moog is, and how "crazy" and unstable the MS-20 filter is!
In a wonderful example of the peculiar efficacy of math in describing reality, the "order" of a filter in its circuit corresponds to the number of "poles" in its mathematical representation. Electrical engineering will describe a circuit's behavior using a "transfer function," filters tend to be well described using fractions. As you may recall from algebra, if the denominator of a fraction goes to zero, the quotient goes to infinity. As you may not recall from complex analysis, just about any fraction will go to zero and infinity somewhere in the complex plane even if it wouldn't on the real line. And the peculiar correspondence is that the number of filter stages in the circuit corresponds to the number of poles associated with the transfer function for that filter.
Thank you so much for this video! I've been wanting something like this for a long time and you nailed it. I'll be coming back to this the next time I want to get a filter module. Great work!
nice to see this overview........all in one place....................I'm sure it's especially interesting to those people who didn't grow up having to program everything from scratch....love that last comment, but what initially drew you to Electronic music - that really resonates with me (having been involved in electronic music production (professionally) since the late 70's.....
was super confused why you had a keyboard with only two rows of keys, it wasn't until like 14 mins in that i realized it's a pull out keyboard tray that's not all the way out 🤣
Tough challenge you have gotten yourself into, by giving each filtertype the same amount of time. I would never ever be able to be satisfied with any recording attempt of this.
The greatest secret in filters was revealed to me years ago in the synth secrets series in Sound in Sound. Filters not only change a waveform by attenuation, but distort it by individually phase-shifting the harmonics within it.
Extra Synth Nerd Facts : The SEM filter was an augmented version of the Dennis Collens designed ARP 1047 Filter from the 2500 . The Oberheim Matrix 12 / Xpander Filter has to be the most over engineered CEM CEM3372 design in synth history squeezing 15 modes out of that little chip . Arturia put this in Pigments too , as well as the obvious two other plugins bearing the name . Chris Huggett an unsung hero in synthdom ( EDP/Oxford/Novation ) Used two Waps Filters added a drive circuit and multimode options that utilized them in parallel while the low pass used them in serial for the OSCar Filter . The Summit has an updated version of this as it's essentially an modern version of the Polyphonic OSCar he never got to bring to market before closing Shop and going to work for AKAI writing the operating systems for the S1000 and it's subsequent line before going to Novation . He designed the analog side of the OG bass station , was head designer for the Super Nova and consulted or designed or worked with other designers on every Novation synth up until his passing in 2020 . The Mutable Instruments Shruthi 1 and XT were DIY Kits that filter boards for many synths including the excellent Polivoks , but also The 4 pole mission which was the aforementioned Xpander Filter . Émilie Gillet MI's sole designer another under appreciated synth hero made all Mutable Instruments' code and hardware open source which besides euro rack clones of MI's modules some of her code can be found in : The Arturia Micro& MiniFreak both use the Plaits OSC code Surge XT's : Twist OSC ( Macro OSC ) Nimbus ( Clouds ) VCV Rack's Audible instruments emulations and lots of 3rd party Rack plugins as well as a few other apps that I have slipped my mind and a couple other products I suspect , but havn't been able to verify as of yet .
Would be cool to do this again but automate all the knob twiddling too so that we get a more or less true A/B test. The Polivoks sounded great but I imagine a lot of that comes from your extensive experience with that sound. Would be interesting to hear it in situations where it is less masterfully guided among other things.
I really enjoy videos like this where a fellow nerd is just nerding out because I learn so much. Out of this video I got: 1. A history lesson of the different synths (something I've really been looking for since I have the emulations but not the actual hardware) 2. A better understanding of the different filters and inadvertently knowledge on how to get some cool EDM sounds 3. An understanding of Jeremy's love and understanding of hardware Thanks a lot for this great video!
various dynamic motions across harmonic content really bring out personality/feel/character of a filter. some filters' filtered signals come alive with a touch of reverb/delay as that phasing falls over on copies of itself. fin love sound synthesis.. nice to have a tube where others do too
wow this really makes me appreciate my subharmonicons filter a lot more. I used to think that the cut in bass kinda killed it for me but idk if id like it as much without the ladder filter
Best filter in eurorack is fizzle guts by alm it is a sweet spot sound filter. U wont modulate it without aliasing. Amazing sound best and rarest in the bizz
I love it when someone makes a vid explaining the very basics. We so often get totally caught up in what the latest gear is and forget to learn about the basics behind the sound. Bravo!
Comparing the filters side by side was an excellent way of demonstrating the differences of each filter. I replayed the demo again with headphones on and could really notice the difference.
Just discovered this video and this was so ideal for me right now as someone newer into the world synths. I understood the purpose behind high pass and low pass from using parametric EQs but with each software synth I experimented with I would get wildly different results from just the 12db and 24db low pass filters alone even with similar settings wondering why. This perfectly explains it from the ground up including it's history and how no two are the same despite the similar labels. I'm about to re-watch and re-listen so thank you! 😇
On the topic of the Z-Plane, I really really wish Rossum would either make or license them for use in a digital synth / plugin. The Euro module is great, but ultimately monophonic. I feel like the Z-planes really get interesting when you have them in a poly synth.
@@OscillatorSink I'll have to take a look, but I struggle to use independent filter plugins because ultimately they're a bus filter as opposed to a voice filter.
As mentioned, the first commercial Z-plane filter was the E-mu Morpheus. Assuming E-mu was able to patent the concept the patent would have expired years ago so it wouldn't be necessary to license anything from Rossum Electro-Music for anyone to implement the algorithm in software. BTW, I acquired the Rossum Eurorack version for my rig. I had previously owned the Morpheus for many years.
Great video mate. Fantastic overview. My favourites were the Steiner Parker (surprised me), the Polivoks (also surprised me), all the Korg MS20 filters including Sallen Key (would be cool to have that in a modern poly), and the SEM. But I think the Steiner Parker can sort of impersonate the SEM.
While sleeping ”I Need U” played on my headphones and I had a dream Jeremy and I jammed out while I told him how much I love the song. He also had a lot of animals in his house like bull frogs, alligator, tarantulas, etc.
Very informative presentation, and a nice exploration of a component that makes up what’s so fundamental to musicians: tone. I was surprised at how I immediately knew my favorite within a second of the demo- the ladder, which makes sense, since I am building a Moog-based system. It’s so full sounding, and can go from clean to nasty. I’d love to see future videos with more historical background as well on the why and how of these innovations. It’s good stuff to know.
perfect timing, alot my fun time lately on synths, I just spend cracking up resonances and doing filter sweeps and listening to all the little harmonies that go in and out of the filters on microfreak on syntakt. this clears up alot of stuff i didnt know about. Thank you!
The parts where you are talking are so much louder than the parts where you are playing the synth sounds. I am having to constantly readjust the volume.
Great video👍🏼. Am I correct in thinking a ladder filter is tuneable? Ie when it’s self oscillating, the peak will tune to the key pressed (when it tracks the keybed) ? Is that common/uncommon among other filter types?
Definitely not an expert here - but I am a Windsynth/EWI player, and I know that the Steiner in Steiner-Parker is a reference to Nyle Steiner, the inventor of the EWI, EVI, and…that filter! I *believe* the story goes that Nyle was using existing filters for his Windsynths and they weren’t really doing the trick, so he created his own. I think he later joined with Parker to make the Synthacon, and they ended up using Nyle’s filter design. (This is off the top of my head and likely to not be *exactly* right, but the gist should be pretty close. Check out Nyle and EWI/EVI! I firmly believe breath control is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of synth playing!)
The differences are obvious when they're filtering at different dB/octave, but if you played them at equivalent slopes I just don't think I could tell them apart.
Filters are the essence of synthesis ! Thank you very much to help us to dig deeper into it :) You rock the pedagogy as no one else ! Cheers from the city of Arturia :)
