Miniverse Module bundle and Poly

[Steve W]

But TXjeff is new to VM so this task might seem trickier than it does to old hands.

Perhaps someone would be good enough to work through the poly presets in question converting them so that they work straight out of the box and posting the .voltagepreset files here so that TXjeff can download them?

I took a quick look. I estimated about 25 presets used the module in question. Taking the single out and running one or two lines into whatever comes next looks like child's play. I tested one factory preset. The sound wasn't as thick as with the spreader. Personally, if it were me, I'd run it through another thickening module. I would also swap out the basic reverb. The presets are really just idea starters and I am not sure it would be a service to just bypass the spreader.

Can someone suggest some free thickening agent modules? If I am going to take the time to swap out the spreaders, I'd prefer to swap in some free modules that do something to make them more interesting.

[TXjeff]

I do have the capability of using the cables and re-routing and trying different modules. Although I haven't played with VM all that much with many other plugins at my disposal that use presets or manual adjustment and Save as User Presets. And I agree, eliminating the Stereo Spreader is not as good.

It's more about either adding the Spreader as part of the Bundle or for a small fee. Think of all the modules that are offerred as part of the MV Bundle and ONE that they decide to leave out that you can't buy separately. Certainly don't advertise the bundle as Mono and Poly and then suddenly you realize, there's something wrong with the Poly. Dudes......

Another thing the modular Miniverse isn't exactly like the MiniVerse instrument. The instrument is identical to a MiniMoog and has no Poly. Which is more loyal to the original MM design.

[TXjeff]

Also, as far as Reverb and delay are concerned, and my use of VM in Studio One at times, I can add reverb and delay with various plugins in the routing. So those are not critical effects.

[TXjeff]

I hooked up the free Playerton 116a Poly Amp instead of the Stereo Spread on my test computer and it works. Doesn't sound that much different comparing the one module use to the other. Maybe that's the solution.

[ColinP]

Good points from Steve. I hadn't realised that the number of presets using the spreader module was that high so it'd be quite a chore and it sounds like TXjeff is happy enough to workaround anyway, so my suggestion was a bit lame.

The Miniverse instrument does support polyphony by the way and even MPE. It just ignores stereo operation like the original.

Playertron's free module seems to only pan odd and even numbered poly signals to two different positions so won't sound as "stereo" as the spreader.

I've come round to agreeing with TXXjeff that the stereo spreader should be included in the bundle or be available as a modestly priced add-on. Or perhaps a more elegant solution would be to add the stereo spread algorithm to the Poly Miniverse VCA module (adding an extra output socket and possibly a width knob) but that would be more work.

But the Poly Stereo Spreader algorithm just randomly pans voices to positions based on the number of voices setting and the voice stealing history so the whole setup seems pretty crude anyway. It's not easy bolting on stereo to a vintage mono design.

[Steve W]

Yesterday I tried a few free modules and didn't find them to be enhancements. I generally consider the factory patches as examples of kinds of things that can be done as opposed to using them as is. If I do tweak a factory preset, I often bypass (or remove) the FX in favor of ones I prefer. That can be done using DAW-based FX by taking the mono audio out and sending it to the host.

Good points about the Instrument version v. the module collection. Moreover I had in mind the desire not to do patching.

[Steve W]

Creative Pseudo-Widening with a couple of free modules:

[TXjeff]

I like that last one Steve. That's creative. I'll give that a whirl later on.

[Steve W]

If you don't mind creative patching, you might be interested in a number of free third-party modules and bundles. I don't want to single any out because to me there are a number of excellent free bundles which can be used for audio processing (among other things). At least one of the bundles even has patches specifically for VM Nucleus!

[TXjeff]

That's good to know about third party bundles.

To be fair I installed VM more than a year ago and it was one of the first freebie things I fooled around with and was intrigued with the patch cable idea. But when I got more into the DAW, instrument plugins became more handy for me to do things quickly. Shoot there are so many choices in a DAW between effects and instruments etc, that time becomes more valuable. And considering I have about 40 keyboard plugins available (5 of them being MiniMoog clones and some with Poly) as well as a Midi keyboard and a hardware synth and electric piano, well, we shall see how primary VM stays in my focus.

I always get attracted to MiniMoog clones since I always loved the beauty of the filtering, especially in the original matched transistor days. I like to see how close a software based one can get to the expensive hardware ones. The VM version is more of a "sort of" mini moog, and gets some pretty close sounds to one but there are some adjustments missing in the supplied modules that don't quite get it there. But I bet the instrument version, being more one to one, gets closer. Although I already have the Arturia version that is pretty accurate. Even Eight Voice, with some tweaking, can get some pretty nice MM sounds, although it's designed to lean toward the ARP world.