We are sending out units for review this month. Honestly, We've had none to spare up until now. Never makes any sense giving early units for review. We like to see feedback from actual users to make sure we've worked all the kinks out.

Greg

We're working on NYC proper. Three Wave in NJ has a couple on hand.

Greg
SE

The silver knobs in the mockups were virtual. The real thing was too small, not quite wide or high enough for my taste. Looked like a cheap radio knob. It's always tough finding good knobs. The Moog style and similar model silver with line were too low profile. Because of the close proximity of the toggle switches, I wanted something that would elevate your fingers to clear the switch. I like the soft touch of the knobs we use and their width and height is perfect. I see that some are put off by them. In a perfect world, we would have a custom made design. No budget for that with all the money we put into the pcbs and parts. The shafts are 6mm round, no knurl. The range switched are 1/4".

The glide thing is turning out to be not quite so easy and might not happen. We chose to use a hardware glide that is not seen by the processor. No way to get to it. We though we might be able to use the bend cv, but that is not so simple. Sorry to let you down on that feature.


Greg
SE

I have quietly read this thread for half a year with major G.A.S. pains. Can Boomstar owners gush/brag and continue to add audio clips daily HEH?! When It goes quiet I start to feel more sensible with my savings..

thanks for the info on knobs dimensions.

and, well its not the end of the world for glide, since if get it i'll probably drive it from my expert sleepers/silent way system via CV/GATE. cause timing is perfect compared to MIDI, especially noticeable for sequences and patterns.

and then its fairly easy to introduce 303 type glide steps within DAW. think there's even a plug exactly for that purpose, and translates perfectly to the ES CV output. going all the way, i could even send an attenuated gate signal to the VCA AM input, to get the ACCENT on some steps as well.

cool, think i figured it out

had another chance to play with a Boomstar, this time it was a 4075.



nothing fancy, but i think you can hear the filter character pretty well.

I've seen 1 video on YouTube that makes me interested in these units. Most of the videos are people making annoying noises that are anything but musical. I'm sure these units have potential, but come on people.

Well then, please show us all how it's done.

You haven't been searching much, there's plently of good demos on soundcloud and other places.
Here's my own of the 4075

( Thanks clusterchord for your nice comments, prompted me to dig this up ).

Hot dog thanks! WANT. WILL HAVE!

Wow, so lovely and bubbly! Way to bring the funk (@)||(@)

That's pretty impressive. I was basing my comment off of what I saw on YouTube.

Ever think the square wave on your boomstar sounds too "nice," whatever you do to the pulsewidth? Ever think, "I'm trying to make cybernetic dream-sequence music, not emulate a bloody accordion!" Try running the sub oscillator on it's own, in the higher octaves. Almost sounds digital, guess that's the raw divide-down waveform?

Just a little tip I found last night

EDIT: not to say it tends to sound like an accordion. That's just what I often end up doing when messing around with square waves.

Creammmyyy!!

i'm still a bit confusing which boomstar to pick as the only one, could you please help me with advice?

i'm into intelligent experimental minimal techno and my goal is to get really low sine/triangle bass with ultra-sharp punchy transients, which is really hard to get from modern, cheap analogs. i'm not interested in heavily distorted, acid or hi-mids bass.

also i'm planning to use it for analog sfxs, but bass, as i described, is its primary target.

at this time i'm thinking about SEM version, due to its multi-mode filter and i like demos with its sharpness
but maybe i should go for moog or even 3003 filters?

and another question: i still dont get it: can i modulate osc pitch by one of envelopes or only by LFO?

are the boomstars shipping with V2 yet?

You can modulate the pitch of VCO2 by either envelope 1 or 2, use the switch and knob in the top right hand corner.

Greg,

Will Rev2 be just a firmware upgrade? Or are there actual tweaks to the hardware itself?

Just wondering if I buy a Boomstar now, will I be able to upgrade to Rev2.

No changes to the hardware, just a firmware update.

Greg

Thanks Greg, I just realized this was asked/answered earlier in the thread.

FWIW I wandered into Big City Music (Studio City) yesterday and walked out with a 4075. Couldn't be happier with the sound!

Only problem is that now I have G.A.S. for the 303 and 5089...I can kind of understand how Gabalonso ended up with all 4 LOL. But I think the 4075 will keep me plenty busy for a while...

I'd love to see these completed as well ...

Every time I fire up the 4075 I usually come up with a killer sound ... But I've never been able to duplicate one ... Well, I haven't really been trying that hard ... The lack of memory is kind of the charm ... Suits the way I make music anyway as I'll use different bass sounds, leads, etc. throughout the entire track ... If anything, 4075 is pushing me into this workflow even more ...

I wonder also if a newer version of the manual will include a printed signal flow diagram (although truth be told I actually dig the scribbled-on-notebook paper diagram--kinda makes you feel like you've got a copy of the very first SE brainstorm/chicken scratchings for the B*--but it is a bit tough to read in spots). The manual's really well done though, just went through it line by line and I think I have a good sense of the routing and modulations.

FWIW the only thing I couldn't figure out is the function of the MOD DEPTH knob in the VCO2 section. The manual seems to say the knob acts as a modulation control (sent to either ENV1 or ENV2, depending on where you set the switch), but when I try to use it, it seems to just act to modulate the pitch, and seems to act the same regardless of whether ENV1 or 2 is selected.

My first day with this thing has been an absolute blast though. Shocked at how huge-sounding it can get. Love the immediacy of it too (I have other analogs, but none with true one knob-per-function layouts).

I thought I'd miss the lack of patch storage, but the tradeoff seems well worth it (I'm forced into constant knob-turning, which I guess is the point with a beast like this I imagine I'll eventually either have a thick folder of filled-out patch sheets, or a bunch of jpeg pics of the sounds I'm stumbling into.

StudioXchange has £50 off the moog one and the roland one, ending on the 23rd! Studio Electronics Synthesisers | Studioxchange

I guess this means the ARP one and the SEM one are selling a little better perhaps? I know went for the arp one because it's a little more exotic than the others. It does sound like a poor man's 2600 a lot of the time. Put a spring reverb IR on it and you can pretend it's the early 1970s quite easily. Makes me wish I could play keys so I could smash out some rhodes solos over the top of it.

For those of you interested in the SEM, one just popped up on Ebay. Not a huge deal ($799 + $25 shipping from Canada), but for those looking for the SEM flavor it will save you a few bucks.

Boomstar SEM | eBay

you're welcome

So, I've kind of lusted after one of these for a while now, but having an ATC-x QFS, I don't want to overlap on the filter type. Any chance of S.E. doing a Yamaha CS80 filter model? You know you want to.

your wish has come true! see here (wouldn't let me embed the image ):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=663102973754081

CS80 in gold, and korg 700 in red. and i thought i could resist getting one. absolutely brilliant.

Played with them today, the cs80 sounded really nice.

Oh man, as if it wasn't hard enough to make a choice already!

Besides the korg 700 filter - all the other filters were available for the Omega/CODE (the moog filter, SEM, arp, 303 and CS-80).
What i'm wondering is whether they'll make an Omega compatible version of the korg 700 filters. That woul'd indeed be great news!