The Weekly Smile for the 16th of November, 2020 #weeklysmile

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Hi! I hope you all had a good week. I had a good week. Yes, there were ups and downs, but mostly good, at least on a personal level.

One of the things I smiled about this week was a new synthesizer. I’ll mention the name, even though I know it is meaningless for 99.99% of you: A Sequential Prophet Rev 2. It is an analog polysynth. Got it?

No matter, it is great sounding instrument and I had a lot of fun playing it and creating new sounds. At one point I took out my phone and did a quick recording. The sound was in stereo, with the different parts swirling around (not capture with my phone!) and there was a deep, rich bass (also not captured with my phone) and it was so much fun to just play. Oh well, so my cheap phone couldn’t quite capture it, but I hope you smile hearing this attempt:

(Click here if you don’t see the video below)

That was my smile for the week, playing with a new synthesizer.

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

37 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile for the 16th of November, 2020 #weeklysmile”

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  7. dprastka

    I love your new synthesizer!! I love the description and have an idea how it works and agree as I bet it sounds way better in person. I can imagine the reverberations and other deep tones that can resonate when using this kind of equipment. I am no expert but how fun for you!! I would be smiling too! It is fun to hear, so LOVE the video! Here is my smile post this week, a little late but really wanted to share! :D
    https://myhorsestories.blog/2020/11/19/my-weekly-smile-nov-19-2020/

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks! Many hours of joy, indeed :) I have been saving for an analog poly for years, so happy that I finally have something. Have you seen anything about the release of P5 rev4 (assuming P53 is virtual P5 rev3)? Watching the videos helped me go this way, even though they are very different beasts.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Robbie. When I was younger, I used to think it was “cheating”, but it is all part of the skills of a modern (i.e., post 1975!) keyboard player. And, actually, I wish I had spent more time when I was younger developing that side. A lot of people with a very low skill level on the piano can actually do a pretty good job with electronics…

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It is hard to explain ;) Most of the time I make/use sounds that are like what you think on a piano – you press a key and it plays a single note. If I want to play a lot of notes, I have to press the keys many times… But part of programming can be to have it play multiple notes per key press (there are other things, like sequencers and arppegiators, that, uhm, how many weeks do you have to describe ? ;) ), and, in this case, the notes bounce back and forth in stereo as they play. So I just play chords and the sound that is programmed does the rest (part of the movement is that thing I called an “arpeggiator” earlier). A lot of pop music, particularly songs from the ’80s or with an 80s vibe, has something like this going on in the background, providing the main groove. As I said, I like playing manually and do my finger exercises on a real piano, but sometimes doing stuff like this is a lot of fun.

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