Can anyone recommend some patches that clone interesting desktop synths (full synths, not rack modules), e.g. Make Noise, Soma etc.
Thanks
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I don’t know if this is interesting enough, but here would be my “Doepfer Dark Energy”:
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Thanks everyone I was thinking more esoteric sound art type stuff rather than classic synth… like these:
Well then, I may have just what you are looking for!
It is a blast to play with, and from what I can tell based on videos, it sounds a lot like a true analog Benjolin.
It is meticulously patched based on the After Later Audio manual for the Eurorack module, combined with Rob Hordijk’s original Benjolin specification. I also add a few enhancements - mostly an expanded patch bay. But at its core it is a self contained experimental sound machine in a virtual box. Just hook up one of the filter outputs in the upper right patch bay section to an Audio module and start having fun twisting knobs in the upper left UI section. Or use two different filter outputs for some stereo action - I like to use band pass and low pass. Then do some self patching in the patch bay and see where it takes you. There is a universe of possibilities.
I have a newer version to post with a much improved UI using the Mind Meld Patch Master, but I am waiting for the immanent release of my Venom plugin - I use its window comparator to add a new feature - expanded patch bay with CV control of resonance, but the max resonance always remains clamped just below self oscillation, as is the intent of Rob Hordijk’s original design.
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Additive synthesis is still a pretty obscure, interesting but a very hard to control thing. I still have my 1987 Kawai K5 Additive Synthesizer, which taught me a lot about sound.
Generally speaking you directly set/modulate a harmonic spectrum. For the K5 consisting of 2 x 63 sines. Either as 2 x 64 harmonics in parallel or as 126 harmonics in series.
The K5 each harmonic can be modulated by 1 of 4 envelopes. The ‘filter’ is simply drawing an attenuation curve over the spectrum. At its most extreme it can be a 1 harmonic ‘wide’ bandpass filter. Another static ‘filter’ curve can be used as a sort of static formant filter.
The K5 was very much limited by a lack of computing power in those days (some 35 years ago). but still managed to produce 16 voice polyphony (though in glorious lo-fi quality due to a lack of sampelrate and bitdepth).
Still producing great sounds though (for those days). Here’s the factory demo.
Some (or maybe loads) of FX will sure improve the (MONO) sound.
It would be quite a complex thing to recreate in VCV Rack. Though instead of actually running 2 x 64 or 1 x 126 sine oscillators, you could go for the more achievable options with less harmonics.
You could try docB Pad2 which has modulation inputs for the level of 48 harmonics. It’s pretty CPU friendly too.
I did create some additive patches using Pad2. There levels can be controlled/modulated via 3 x 16 poly inputs. It tend to use 3 x VCV Merge for taht and manually patch cables from envelopes/mod sources into the MERGE channel correponding with 1 of the 48 harmonics and going towards docB’s 3 polyphonic level inputs. Setting up a matrix mixer seems overly complex overkill.
For those who are interested in this obscure synthesis technique, the K5 synthesizer, its architecture and concepts, here’s the scanned manual…
So, Additive Synthesis. It can a gruesome task to program/patch…but pretty unique in its possibilities due to the control over individual harmonics.
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Thanks everyone, these are great suggestions 
Maybe some additional info that might be usefull to (re)create “Interesting Synths”.
As an analyst I tend to try to generalize to the max…and identify usefull concepts and relations…that can then be (re)used and (re)combined to achieve some similar or other goal. Also to simply to get insight into inner workings of a system and what “knobs” to “fiddle” to get a (more) “desired” outcome.
Anyway…
For me it’s less about the interesting synths, and more about what exactly make them interesting and how to maximize potential from the whole system or parts of it.
So…
If you understand how stuff works…you can use that to achieve your own specific goals. In Modular Synthesis, processes are already mostly nicely broken up into “components” for you to “interconnect” to create more complex systems, like an “Interesting Synthesizer”. The art is in how to combine/use these components to achieve some desired goal.
Here’s a link to a short but informative page by fellow Dutchman, musician and researcher Roland Kuit.
It descibes in short some synthesis techniques, with examples/pictures. Not eurorack, but mostly translatable to VCV Rack (or any modular/synthesizer environment).
If anyone is looking for looking a much broader introduction into world of modular and synthesis…
Check out the owners manual for ye olde Nord Modular (one of the first virtual modulars). Again, not eurorack/VCV but largely translatable to any modular / synthesizer.
http://www.synthmanuals.com/manuals/nord/modular/owners_manual/modularownersmanual.pdf
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