Introducing the Atari Punk Keyboard
Well who hasn´t dreamt endless nights wishing for Santa to put one of these goodies in your xmas stocking. Some fine tuning though and I believe we have a killer mass market product, LOL
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIDqMIzRdk]
Twice a man – new album on its way
The old dolphines and whales sampling pioneers are due with a new album early next year. Their old album has always been a good source of inspiration. Their new album Clouds will be released on Jan 25th so make sure to check it out.
Clouds:
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01: Opening 02: Novemberness 03: Solitude 04: Mars Is Still Around 05: Microhive 06: Skylark 07: Letters 08: Clouds 09: Conquerer 10: When September Shined 11: Shoe |
This is the first release from Twice a Man since Johnny Friberg joined founders Dan Söderqvist and Karl Gasleben as a permanent member. He hasn’t joined the band on stage yet though, but is responsible for a lot of the quite advanced rhythm programming. Shall be quite interesting to see what he can add.
Below one of my old favorites:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_BAbWNUAGk]
C=iao
Atari VST – YM2149
Although a bit old but still holds true to the original:
VST plug-in for authentic Atari ST chipsounds
Emulates the built in YM2149 sound chip with a decent plugin user-interface on your PC
Fantastic song made by this old VST
Spacesynth
Excellent resource for Spacesynth
Spacesynth, synthdance, spacedance, spacedisco or whatever you want to call it is instrumental upbeat synth music that focuses on melodies instead of rhythm. Driving basslines, catchy synth riffs, sci-fi influences and futuristic track titles and album covers have always been a major part of spacesynth.
Spacesynth originated in the mid 80’s. At that time synthesizers and electronic sounds had become an essential part of popular music and were widely used by such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Art of Noise. Synthpop hits like Magnetic Fields 2, Pulstar and Magic Fly are well known tracks even today.
Protonic Storm is a synthdance project by Krzysztof Radomski. The creator of Protonic Storm lives in Kowary, Poland. He’s the first synthdance artist from Poland who has released music abroad! Krzysztof has been making music since 1997, mainly synthdance, but sometimes also psychedelic trance and ambient. At first he put some of his tracks to traxinspace.com, then to sites like Spacesynth.de (formerly known as Laserdance.de) and finally MP3.com.
Resources
Epsilon Pages, www.epsilonpages.net
Ableton Live 7
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5F4XPGsvm8]
Live 7—What’s New
Ableton Live 7 renews the core of Live, with enhancements to the audio engine including 64-bit mix summing, new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, better MIDI timing and hardware integration. We have also included the most-requested features, such as time signature changes, video export, multiple automation lanes and much more. Version 7 marks the arrival of the new “Drum Rack” which streamlines beat production via an easy drag-and-drop interface and offers native sliced audio and REX file support, bringing endless creative possibilities to beat lovers.
New Ableton Instruments
The new add-on instruments are the result of Ableton’s collaboration with leading industry partners. The palette covers physically modeled electric pianos, analog synthesizers and string instruments as well as multi-mic/multi-layer sampled acoustic drums, drum machines, orchestral strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion. The instruments integrate tightly with Live, both in terms of workflow and resource management.
Tension is a physical modeling string synthesizer that allows you to create incredibly accurate reproductions of real instruments or design otherworldly hybrids.
Electric offers the sounds of classic electric pianos through physical modeling synthesis, allowing you to dive inside and play with the guts of the instrument.
Analog emulates the unique circuitry and irresistible tweakability of vintage analog synthesizers. Able to produce everything from silky pad sweeps to earth-shaking bass.
Session Drums is a meticulously multisampled library of acoustic drums that reproduces the nuances of a recording session and puts you in the engineer’s seat.
Drum Machines offers a choice selection of classic drum machines, meticulously sampled to faithfully reproduce the original sounds.
Essential Instrument Collection 2—a choice selection of acoustic and electric pianos, guitars, bass, drums, orchestral instruments and more. Version 2 adds acoustic and electronic drums as well as presets optimized for better sound quality and faster loading.
Orchestral Strings-a comprehensive selection of naturally rich and dynamic stringed instruments. Features solo and ensemble violin, viola, cello and double bass, all recorded in their natural positions within the orchestra, complete with a number of articulations.
Orchestral Brass is a thorough set of vivid and colorful brass instruments. Features solo and ensemble French horn, trombone, trumpet and tuba, with a unique set of articulations in multiple section sizes.
Orchestral Woodwinds delivers a variety of clear and vibrant wind instruments. Features solo and ensemble flute, clarinet, bassoon, oboe and English horn with a broad selection of articulations.
Orchestral Percussion captures the true essence of symphonic percussion instruments in pristine quality. Features vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, crotales, glockenspiel, tubular bells, cymbals and timpani with a variety of articulations.
Fat little synth – Sequential Pro One
The Sequential Pro One is a wicked little monosynth! It comes from the same period and genre as the Roland SH-101 and Moog Prodigy. The Pro One was basically Sequential's attempt at taking their legendary Prophet 5 poly-synth and packing it into a compact, inexpensive, monophonic analog synth! It has two VCOs, a great 4-pole lowpass filter, two ADSR envelopes (one for filter), and a compact three-octave keyboard. With a Pro-One, you can easily create punchy analog bass-lines and leads or quirky analog synth effects. The Pro One is an extremely flexible synth with lots of modulation possibilities (ie: the filter, VCO B and LFO can modulate VCO A or B frequencies or pulse widths, or the VCF). There's also an onboard sequencer, something common on many Sequential synths but not often found on other monosynths of the time. It is very basic, however, storing only two patterns and up to 40 notes max. Also, only pitch info is recorded (and in step time only); you can not assign a note duration to any notes. So it's basically a short melodic sketch-pad...but useful. Also onboard is an arpeggiator which has UP and UP/DOWN patterns.
The Pro One is relatively simple and intuitive to use, fun, educational and responsible for some of the coolest and hardest basslines in electronic music today! It is used by Hardfloor, Uberzone, the Prodigy, Cirrus, Fluke, Depeche Mode, Download, Banco De Gaia, Vince Clarke, New Order, Freddy Fresh, Mouse on Mars, Prince, Soft Cell, and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
But since you can’t always find one (about 10,000 were produced), or one that works properly… Wine Country Sequential has come up with a solution! WCS has been servicing old Sequential gear for years, as well as selling repair parts, etc. They have developed the Pro One Software Synthesizer Plug-In, an awesome replica of the original Pro One, both in look and sound! It has some added features and is an incredible way to easily add the sound of the Pro One to your music!
DATAMASKIN
