Parsec is now on sale, is it worth the buy?

[16BitBear]

I did the trial for all of a few hours and it became an instant buy for me. At this price, it really is a great bargain.

[Theo.M]

In case you didn't know, Parsec is now on sale for $59. At this price is it "worth" it? What exactly can Parsec do that things like Vecto, Quad, and others not do? Is the vocoder any good on Parsec? Or is Parsec only a glorified noise/fx machine?

https://shop.propellerheads.se/product/parsec/

that's a bargain price for a wonderful synth.. it's light on cpu, has a distinct sound compared to the factory stuff, and can also be used as an alternative vocoder. No brainer, really at that price.

[Tumble]

I'm quite happy with it. One of the things I like about it is the sound-engine and generator parameters that make for interesting modulation.

Aside from the piano, this was made using a single combinator with 3 Parsecs inside it:

[riemac]

*Places tin foil hat on head*
Kinda strange timing to this sale. Why is only Parsec discounted? I dont know. Maybe jet fuel can melt steel beams.
*Takes off tin foil hat*

Parsec is cool. Because it gets a little harsh quite easily, I enjoy running it through Thor's filters.

Yes, very strange time for a sale for parsec right after a big sale and the release of reason 9. Maybe there is some reason behind it?

[XysteR]

I am definitely seeing that there is a lot of positive opinions of this synth, and so far it seems like everyone is in agreement that it is more of a top/high freq synth that can be fairly harsh.

But oddly, nobody has talked about it being a solid vocoder or not. Has anyone ever messed with its vocoder function? What do you think? What is it comparable to? Is there a software/hardware equivalent that you would compare it to?

I've not even used the vocoder in Parsec. It's definitely worth buying though. I was messing with it earlier with the dual arp in R9 and you can get some beautiful little sparkly arps

[K.Markov]

Yes, very strange time for a sale for parsec right after a big sale and the release of reason 9. Maybe there is some reason behind it?

ehm... juno comes to jupiter at 4th of july...parsec...you know

[fieldframe]

I played around with the vocoder a bit today, and came away impressed. I always had trouble getting good results with the BV512, but I quickly got something usable with Parsec, just from a saw>square. I ended up with a sort of vaguely Vocaloid-esque result, sort of like the voice in Sad Machine by Porter Robinson. It was fun to play with!

[moneykube]

paid more... still worth the price

[Juan Rosa]

Already Mine

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I played around with the vocoder a bit today, and came away impressed. I always had trouble getting good results with the BV512, but I quickly got something usable with Parsec, just from a saw>square. I ended up with a sort of vaguely Vocaloid-esque result, sort of like the voice in Sad Machine by Porter Robinson. It was fun to play with!

Can you upload a quick audio example of what you were able to get out of the vocoder? Pretty pretty please?

Or if someone else has used it's vocoder function, could you please upload a track showing what it is capable of?

[fieldframe]

I played around with the vocoder a bit today, and came away impressed. I always had trouble getting good results with the BV512, but I quickly got something usable with Parsec, just from a saw>square. I ended up with a sort of vaguely Vocaloid-esque result, sort of like the voice in Sad Machine by Porter Robinson. It was fun to play with!

Can you upload a quick audio example of what you were able to get out of the vocoder? Pretty pretty please?

Or if someone else has used it's vocoder function, could you please upload a track showing what it is capable of?

Done! Soundcloud link

[dvdrtldg]

Love Parsec for basses. Big warm and chocolately

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I played around with the vocoder a bit today, and came away impressed. I always had trouble getting good results with the BV512, but I quickly got something usable with Parsec, just from a saw>square. I ended up with a sort of vaguely Vocaloid-esque result, sort of like the voice in Sad Machine by Porter Robinson. It was fun to play with!

Can you upload a quick audio example of what you were able to get out of the vocoder? Pretty pretty please?

Or if someone else has used it's vocoder function, could you please upload a track showing what it is capable of?

Done! Soundcloud link

This is an absolutely awesome track! I am now following your Soundcloud, haha! I look forward to the finished track, thanks for posting this! How many of the other sounds in that song are Parsec?

[VHS]

I only use parsec for vocoding tbh. As a synth its not too great, but I would buy it again just as a vocoder. Used it a bunch for random bass destruction in the drops (i cant remember everything I used it on) in the song in my signature.

in summary, buy it

[fieldframe]

I played around with the vocoder a bit today, and came away impressed. I always had trouble getting good results with the BV512, but I quickly got something usable with Parsec, just from a saw>square. I ended up with a sort of vaguely Vocaloid-esque result, sort of like the voice in Sad Machine by Porter Robinson. It was fun to play with!

Can you upload a quick audio example of what you were able to get out of the vocoder? Pretty pretty please?

Or if someone else has used it's vocoder function, could you please upload a track showing what it is capable of?

Done! Soundcloud link

This is an absolutely awesome track! I am now following your Soundcloud, haha! I look forward to the finished track, thanks for posting this! How many of the other sounds in that song are Parsec?

Thanks! Everything else in that track is from before I started trying Parsec, so it's just the vocoder.

However, I just posted the full version of the track I started this weekend that has only Parsecs (even the percussion, although there are no vocals in this one):

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Alrighty, so I bought Parsec, but I have not been able to figure out how to use it like a vocoder :'( I have read the manual and it really didn't help to much... How do I set up Parsec to be used as a vocoder?

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I guess to clarify, I have my routing from my vocal channel going from "Direct Out" to the audio input of Parsec. My problem is making it sound "good" though. It sounds very... craptastic.

[joeyluck]

I guess to clarify, I have my routing from my vocal channel going from "Direct Out" to the audio input of Parsec. My problem is making it sound "good" though. It sounds very... craptastic.

Did you select 'Audio In' under one of the sound engines?

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I guess to clarify, I have my routing from my vocal channel going from "Direct Out" to the audio input of Parsec. My problem is making it sound "good" though. It sounds very... craptastic.

Did you select 'Audio In' under one of the sound engines?

That I did. I mean I hear the audio come through, it just doesn't sound super awesome, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips to make it sound solid

[WillyOD]

Damn, I just demo'ed this and missed the sale, might have picked it up otherwise. Maybe next time, and I still got trial time left I guess.

So far, to my surprise, my fav patches are "Piano" and "Dreamy Keys".

[jfrichards]

Alrighty, so I bought Parsec, but I have not been able to figure out how to use it like a vocoder ...

Me neither. I started a thread in Tutorials and Techniques asking for help.

[lowpryo]

I guess to clarify, I have my routing from my vocal channel going from "Direct Out" to the audio input of Parsec. My problem is making it sound "good" though. It sounds very... craptastic.

Did you select 'Audio In' under one of the sound engines?

That I did. I mean I hear the audio come through, it just doesn't sound super awesome, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips to make it sound solid

I don't use the Parsec vocoder, but for vocoding in general, I find that it works best when the carrier is as harmonically dense as possible. I like to use saws, especially stacked saws, and I like to add a bit of white noise (but I don't think that's possible on one oscillator in Parsec). if you aren't using saws, just make sure there's lots of harmonics in the signal.

likewise, make sure the quality of your input mic is good too. if it's a cheap mic that sounds a little flat or muddy, or hurts intelligibility in any way, the vocoder effect will only make it worse.

[challism]

For Vocoder tips watch this video, it's in Spanish, but you can figure out what they are doing by looking at the device.

[yeahright31]

K1TTENM1TTEN

How you finding Parsec are you using it much? I'm a huge fan of it.