Anyone use NSeq with Akemie's Castle?

[Friend of Dogs]

Im in a debate with myself right now whether to make a small compact system based around Nseq and ER-301 in 6u 70HP or bloat it out to 90hp with an Akemie's castle. 


I wanted to ask if anyone has any experience with these two together. I imagine with the CV16 you could do all kinds of stuff with it, but is it worth sacrificing compactness making a 15 inch case to 19 inch.

thanks for looking,

[XORadmin]

You might want to check first how much the 4 operator FM in the NerdSEQ can create similar sounds.
But yeah, the AK is for sure cool on it‘s own, too!

[Friend of Dogs]

You might want to check first how much the 4 operator FM in the NerdSEQ can create similar sounds.
But yeah, the AK is for sure cool on it‘s own, too!

Ahh true, Im about to get my Nseq this Friday, I will try it out.

[Liquidcolor]

I would recommend the Humble Quad Operator over Akemies. There will be less overlap with the NerdSeq internal FM synth. Both Akemies and the Nerd have that cool band limited, lower fidelity thing going on. The Quad is a lot cleaner with more upper harmonics and offers a better contrast to the Nerd. Just my 2 cents.

[Paranormal Patroler]

I actually opted for the far more grungy sounding MegaFM which doesn't take any HP, and would respond to MIDI via the NerdSeq expander.

[mvdirty]

Akemie’s Castle owner here, and bought it primarily because I love all the inconsistencies and inaccuracies of the chip it uses but also because of the mix of physical and CV control that the Quad Operator, for example, lacks (as much (Removed after being fairly prompted to revisit my recollection of its gain CV behaviour.) as the Quad Operator is definitely cool with that full matrix!) I do love the idea of picking up a MegaFM at some point, though, but for now I generally avoid MIDI in my modular setup because reasons.

Back to Akemie’s! I have it paired up with a Quadigy as its source of level envelopes, but could certainly use NerdSEQ envelopes (and may at some point.) CV 16 outputs take care of waveform, ratio, etc. It’s a nice little grouping of modules.

[depaffect]

The Quad Operator seems a lot more flexible than the Akemie's Castle. So unless you want that nasty OPL3 sound, that would surely be a better option. And it doesn't seem to lack any CV control.

I do love my Akemie's Castle though! It's super fun and has a lot of character. And the knobs are nice to mess with - I don't like those little knobs that the Quad Operator has. Looks cramped.

As cool as the Nerdseq's FM engine is - I think without hands on parameter control, it can't really compete.

PS - As MegaFM was mentioned - I have this also and it sounds a LOT different to Akemie's Castle! As quirky as Akemie's Castle is, MegaFM is at least 10x more quirky. Which can be pleasing, or infuriating

[mvdirty]

For sure! All of these options are great, and I love that we have so many to choose from (or to choose all of them ).

Akemie’s, for me, is as much about that classic sound taking me back to those years (much like my Oscillographic Block, for example) as it is about having the degree of hands-on control that it provides. I do wish, though, that it had (optional) hard sync (or other form of triggered oscillator reset,) another ratio or two above the ones it has, and wish that I could commit even more physical ADSRs to it. But I’m very happy with it nonetheless.

(Quad Operator’s CV controls are pretty limited by comparison, FWIW, but it still seems to be a very nice module.) Removed after being fairly prompted to revisit my recollection of its gain CV behaviour.

[depaffect]

Out of curiosity, what does the Quad Operator lack in CV control? I guess it doesn’t have the attenuverters which come to think of it are pretty important on Akemie’s Castle.

[mvdirty]

I have to apologize. Around the time it was launched, I recall its gain CV being described (unlikely by them, rather more likely in media coverage or discussion) as having a different behaviour than the manual says when I checked it just now. There appears to be no gap in that area (though there are still some other differences, of course.) Thanks for prompting me to take a fresh look (and for refuelling my GAS .) I’ll go back and edit my posts. Done, and without any ninja.