![]() And all of it can be accessed through the modulation matrix if you want to mangle things with the Maths. Yes, some of the functionality is ITB – but the interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate. It saves presets and imports DX7 presets (very roughly). It has up to 14 voice polyphony and MIDI, USB MIDI and CV ins that can be accessed simultaneously. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s <$400 in Eurorack with a dedicated skiff powered over USB. Akemie’s does do polyphony-it uses a Yamaha 4OP chip-but only within its chord function. While it’s challenging in a modular context for any VCO, a single voice seems to be an unnecessary and arbitrary limitation. In addition, polyphony in FM can be a beautiful thing. For one, I kind of liked the idea of having the option of starting from some kind of preset – a simple bass sound for instance I could mangle and mutate. I also wanted to see if there was anything that could maybe double as a full-fledged FM polysynth. But if you want to approach anything like 6 OP, you’re back to it being pricey, and the whole thing taking up a fair amount of rack space as well as needing some kind of module for routing. There are a number of smaller 2 OP options available in Eurorack that are quite slick looking – Modcan FMVDO, FM Ogre, FM Aid. While the Humble Audio Quad Operator and Akemie’s Castle look to be great units, they’re both quite expensive (~$500) and have a pretty enormous HP footprint. I’d been looking for Eurorack FM for awhile – and the trade-offs made things pretty tricky. They’re an absolutely amazing pairing.Ī few other things that I’d add about why I chose the Preen: Or, I can use the programmable mode to play four drum sounds simultaneously. It’s a total gamechanger – for example, I use it to play chords on one voice and can run a separate voice directly into the CV inputs. I would also add that the new filters are better than you suggest and more useful – beyond subtractive stuff, they can actually help adding punch to lower (or higher) frequencies on drum sounds.įWIW, I have an ES General CV that I’ve been hooking up to the Preen by connecting them over the ES MIDI breakout. The flexibility there is outstanding and far outstrips anything you can do on the DX7. It was really after watching your Randomizer video that I realized that the whole ballgame on the Preen is the modulation matrix. get a lot of the sounds in the ballpark or even dead accurate but of the lack of feedback and less clicky envelopes make it challenging. Your videos are great, the Randomizer one in particular really helped me realize what a killer feature it is.Īs for the DX7 patch import functionality, I spent the first week or so trying to get DX7 sounds right and was mostly frustrated. Great post – I just bought a Eurorack version and have been really loving this. Here is a video I did of dx7 patch import btw : sounds like it runs fine but he does not offer it by default as technically the cpu should not be run at those speeds. The developer also has another firmware that overclocks the cpu and gives better audio quality. Really just there if you want to use it as an 6 osc subtractive synth (which you can do with the last algorithm). The built-in filters are not the best but also not a big feature or need in fm. Preen has an alternative firmware with a bunch of additional filter types. I have no true understanding of what is going on. probably a feature as I suppose mass-manufactured synths keep the volume low at all times to avoid polyphonic play causing clipping. To maximize the da headroom the software seems raises the volume on lower polyphony patches. Patch volume - the volume will change depending upon the number of voices. In some ways this is the same as older yamaha's but not quite the same. Noise issues - patches can have residual noise due to the processor. Not a big deal but something that surprised me. part 1 gets 4 voices, part 2 gets 3, etc.). Lack of dynamic voice allocation You have to tell it which parts gets how many voices (ie. Issues you may be surprised by on the preen (none are complaints btw): I do sometimes feel like the fm on the digitone is a bit limited. Both are great synths (though the reface has hardly any patch storage). I spend a good deal of time with a yamaha reface and digitone next to each other and the reface is very much brighter. I hate to use these words as sometime random internet comments get stuck in people's heads however this is what comes to mind. The digitone has a "darker" sound to it (very slightly!). Tons of patch storage (as does the digitone thankfully), dx7 import (they won't sound anything like the dx7 patches but still thousands of sounds to go through). I have recently started to spend a lot of time with the preenfm2 and it is wonderful. I'm very into 4op fm and have many different yamaha 4op's, a dx7, random yamaha 6op's and a digitone and the preenfm2.
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