Kodamo Essence : First Impressions
Jazz Paladin | Posted on Fri 10 Dec 2021, 07:15 PM So I just got my new Essence from the Black Friday sale a few days ago, and have been messing around.First of all, I am shocked how easy the unit is to use. But I am not just talking about getting good sounds from presets, but delving deep into making my own FM sounds is crazy good and easy. I can see why COSMA is taking so long to release his preset library, I could easily get stuck doing that for days, in fact it’s all I’ve done for the past two , and I may just continue doing so for quite a while for fun so I can get a load of sounds that I personally tailored to my liking. Who knows, maybe I’ll make my own library, too 😉 When listening to demos of Essence songs prior to buying, my gut told me there would only be one “weakness “ to the unit, and for me this turned out to be the FX section. And it is not because the effects are bad, but I find it to be a bit limiting using performance mode and just having two effects that can be used— it would be nice to be able to add a few individual effects per voice/patch instead of having everything bussed to the same fx sends , but I am not sure how taxing this would be on the units resources. So when I finally go to mixing my songs I will probably go a bit crazier in my DAW just so I can apply my favorite effects in various ways across different tracks, but I envision things taking things up quite a bit after that. Will keep you posted! Overall, I am very pleased. |
KODAMO | Posted on Fri 10 Dec 2021, 10:54 PM Thank you for your feedback. Yes there are only two FXs running at the same time, they're either shared in Performance mode, or stored in each sound in Patch (monotimbral) mode.In Performance mode, to save on FX you can use some tricks: - Duplicated layers with different tuning and panning will create a nice chorus/phaser effect - Delayed layers using the Voice Sequencer or stair-shaped envelopes on carriers will simulate a simple delay - Using the pan envelope on each voice can sound a bit like a rotary speaker There may by other tricks but in overall, don't be afraid to use all the layering capabilities to create the desired sound, the EssenceFM is built for that! Have fun with your new synth. |
| Jazz Paladin | Posted on Sat 11 Dec 2021, 01:00 AM Aye, thanks! Already doing tons of layering! I’ve got a nice ghost bass and ghost organ among other things that I’ve created and really like |
Reply
