Looking for resources about VAST synthesis

[Ben Asaro]

Now that I've had the K2000R for a few months, I finally have a bit of time to start delving into VAST synthesis.

Does anyone here know of any resources I could find? Books, videos, or even private tuition are all on the table, as I really want to start digging under the hood of this wonderfully complex machine!

Thanks in advance!

[MOF]

Did you get the manual with it, it’s a big beast and full of information?
If not there’s a pdf here http://www.synthmanuals.com/manuals/kur ... manual.pdf

[Ben Asaro]

I do, indeed, have the massive, spiral-bound manual! But I do NOT have the PDF, so thanks much for that!

[YashN]

Hi Ben,

First, congrats on both the acquisition and the willingness. There's a whole universe to explore with V.A.S.T. synthesis.

Looks like I hadn't even created an SOS Forum login yet, although it has been one of my favourite synth magazines ever, so just did to write this. Was looking at some new synthesis techniques and transposing them mentally to my K2500XS + KDFX when this topic caught the side of my eye.

On YT, look for some of the official videos. User videos are also sporadically interesting. Some videos for later synths with more features can also be interesting just to understand how flexible these synths are (e.g. poserp who is a power user, The Puppeteer/Godlike Productions).

There are web pages that are useful too: look for content from Darwin Grosse, Brian Cowell, Daniel Fisher (tips on Sweetwater's pages), me, etc...

Otherwise, I know these synths quite well (actually, I know some things that most people don't even begin to suspect for more than two decades on some versions of the K25xx, K26xx synths as well), so let me know what your goals are and what you're looking for in more details or generally, if you have a question, just ask.

Enjoy the ride!

[YashN]

The manuals are some of the best ever written for any synthesizer. They are super useful and informative.

Sometimes you also need to think deeper about what they're telling you, and definitely, experimentation is key, as they will also tell you in some sections in the manual.

[zenguitar]

Welcome to the SOS forums YashN.

At some point in the next few months I will also be dipping my toe into VAST. So I look forward to learning from your experience.

Andy

[The Elf]

For 'VAST', read 'synthesis'. There's nothing in there that's startlingly new - there's just a lot of it, and a lot of flexibility. The true beauty of it is setting values in Hz and dB, rather than the mind-numbing 1-100 of lesser synths!

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks for the replies!

Welcome, YashN! Thanks for the tips!

@zenguitar, looks like it’s a race to the bottom lol

[Dave B]

There are quite a few of us round these parts who have Kurzweils so if you get stuck then shout.

There used to be a forum called Mastering Vast. I think it still exists but I never dipped my toe in. It still shows up in google.

There is also Ksetlist which is a successor to another forum which died off. It's a more general Kurz owners forum and has a great patch archive where people share patches for old songs (some are good, some are ... enthusiastic).

There are youtube vids to watch for various things. One of the regulars on Ksetlist is PoserP who does good tutorials for stuff. I'm not sure if he covers the very basic bits, but he does go over some great things tucked away.

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks, Dave, I shall check all those out!

[YashN]

Welcome to the SOS forums YashN.

At some point in the next few months I will also be dipping my toe into VAST. So I look forward to learning from your experience.

Andy

Thanks Andy.

I have an inkling you will love this platform!

Meant to write back earlier, but been very, very sick so have to choose my online time wisely. Getting better though.

Yash

[zenguitar]

Sorry to hear you've been unwell. Take good care of yourself and get well again soon.

Andy

[N i g e l]

+1 get well soon

There are quite a few of us round these parts who have Kurzweils so if you get stuck then shout.

There used to be a forum called Mastering Vast. I think it still exists but I never dipped my toe in. It still shows up in google....... youtube vids to watch for various things.

+1 for the Kurzweil community but you need to register

https://kurzweil.com/community/

+1 for Youtube tutorials. Those & the online info were invaluable.

I have a later series model than the K2000 but looks about the same size display, A PC editor might come in handy if one is available.

[MOF]

Emagic Sound Diver is an editor for lots of midi synthesizers, you might be able to get hold of it plus an XS key (dongle).

[Martin Walker]

Meant to write back earlier, but been very, very sick so have to choose my online time wisely. Getting better though.

Hi Yash, and welcome to the SOS Forums from me as well

Sorry to hear that you've been sick, but glad that you're getting better.

If you're the YashN I think you are, I've also been recently devouring your 2015 experiments discussed in the AudiophileStyle forum, on how mains quality affects audio performance. It's a mine of useful information, as I've recently upgraded my own mains distribution!

Martin

[Ben Asaro]

Hard to believe it’s been 5 months since I posted about this! I finally got round to watching the original K2000 tutorial on YouTube over the weekend (procrastinating on my SubH composition lol), and even scored a copy of the Best of Analog 3.5” floppy on eBay last night after learning about Andrew Schlesinger and his Solina string patch.

I got as far as formatting a blank floppy and walking through banks, programs, and basic editing.

The K2000 is on my list of deep dives now (after chiptune and the MOPHO) but in the interim I do have a question:

Is it possible to move a range of programs without having to export/import them from a floppy disk? e.g., This unit has orchestral sounds spread all over the place and want them organized into the 500-599 area. Or is it easier to create a Bank with my top 10 orchestral sounds?

On the JV1080 it’s super easy to move a program from one area to another but I didn’t see anything like that on the K2000, though I know it’s got to exist!

[Ben Asaro]

Found a way to save/move programs, though it's probably not the most efficient.

Looking forward to the K2000 deep dive, there's SO MUCH stuff here!!

[Enjoy Malc]

One of the OS upgrades brings file utilities, where you can move, copy, etc on quite an advanced level, e.g. you can select objects by type and dependency, so ‘move all the keymap level objects from the 200s’, or ‘shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level’. er, etc.

There are various computer programs that manage k-series objects to some extent - the Mastering Vast forum has some info (and as mentioned before has a ton of other resources and discussion).

Mastering Vast also has a working version of Visual FUN, an app which runs in your web browser and lets you build FUNs and see the result in graphical form. Thats something I wish I’d had when I first started.

When you first play with the esoteric DSPs such as Shaper and Wrap, start by feeding them only sine and partial keymaps, and turn the DSP values right down. Put the data slider as a mod source and you will soon get a sense of how powerful these things are. 

The true beauty of it is setting values in Hz and dB, rather than the mind-numbing 1-100 of lesser synths!

And there’s no going back! I just bought my first non-kurzweil synth since (well, a very long time, ahem), and I cannot see how the world can function without Hz and dB! (And filters marked also in note pitch!). (And envelopes marked in time!). (And, and!).

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks for the detailed reply!

I definitely need to know how to shut down all the garbage washers on the detention level!

I will definitely be checking out that forum.

[Ben Asaro]

Semi-related question: does anyone know of a 4U rack that’s portable and deep enough to hold the K2000R? I’m having a devil of a time finding one!

[YashN]

Thanks for the thoughts, Andy, Nigel and Martin.

It's been brutal, I survived, and slowly getting back into exploring and expanding the capabilities of my setup for inspiration and composition.

Yes, my name hasn't changed across forums, so there does seem a bit of an audio-focused path over all these years in the online presence although I am active in several fields, some of which I don't really want to write about on forums so that I can focus on research.

The audiophiles forums can be tough ones to delve in: there are people who can be quite annoying. I was as surprised with some findings in this area (audiophile playback). In most of our instruments, the same issues arise. Pretty amazing when you think of it and hence there are several areas where we can envision improvements: PSUs, analogue sections, etc... especially in those older, vintage pieces of equipment.

It is interesting to deal with potential improvements on the production side as well, e.g. Mixer improvements, rackmount effect improvements, so that's what I am doing but for now, I am single-handedly focused on solely the jamming/composition side. The gear I am playing with: Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Korg DW-8000, Roland JX-3P (heavily modified), JX-8P, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular box with a few DIY modules, Soundcraft Delta 200, Lexicon LXP-15. I also have a Korg Polysix but it's down right now. There's a little thread with these explorations on Gearspace in the Geekspace section and JX-3P & Akai Tom Cat-focused ones on Modwiggler.

Coming back to the subject at hand, Ben, you will really like either a Gotek floppy emulator or even better, a SCSI2SD card to make using the Kurzweil a breeze. I still have to install a SCSI2SD on my K2500, but somewhere in slight recovery, we managed to snag an old battered K2000 v1.0 (a rarity) from the US and I repaired it. In this one I installed a Gotek floppy emulator and added a SDCard-to-USB dongle to use SDCards with it. The subsequent ability to populate and access 100 virtual floppies rather than juggling actual disks is worth the 20-30 odd pounds.

The SCSI2SD is way, way better, especially if you're going to use Samples a lot with the Kurzweil (highly recommended).

How are your V.A.S.T. explorations going?

What I really want now is getting a good easy way to use the KDFX effects as AUX Sends on the Soundcraft Delta 200.

[YashN]

By the way, the real strength of this platform for me isn't that parameters are in Hz or cents or what not, although I do like this.

The real strength and beauty of this platform is this:

V.A.S.T. allows you to build whole synthesis architectures within it and use these individually or simultaneously. That's including existing synth architectures, or creating whole new ones. Replace 'synth architectures' with simply 'synths' and the meaning of the sentence remains more or less the same. Or use 'synthesis methods' and you get more or less the same aspect that makes this a thing of beauty.

Subtractive, Additive, West Coast, FM, etc... all able to be commissioned simultaneously under a single key press if you want that.