The Snob
Sir Elliot has announced the release of Studio Q (The Snob Equalizer), a free equalizer effect plug-in for Windows.
It is designed to offer very rich tone, which is common with hardware devices. As with all hardware devices the frequency response are not always flat and, Studio Q is no exception to the rule.
The Frequency Bands are as follows: 40 cps, 60 cps, 80 cps, 120 cps, 160 cps, 240 cps, 1000 kcps, 2450 kcps, 9000 kcps and, 13500 kcps.
Studio Q is available to download as a freeware VST effect plug-in for Windows PC.
More information: Sir Elliot / Studio Q
Jomox’ new drum synth
The Jomox MBrane – an “analog acoustic” drum synth, is now available for 279 EUR.
Specs below; see the Jomox site for more details.
Specifications:
- Instrument – Percussion Synthesizer
- Membrane Oscillators – 2 T-OSC, each of tune and dampening adjustable, both couplings in either direction adjustable
- Presets – 110 (10 User RAM, 100 FLASH)
- Sound Engine – Fully analog with storeable parameters
- Envelopes – 2 analog envelopes for membranes and noise that are controlled by one parameter (decay)
- Noise – White Noise, Metal Noise with 65535 different noise pattern combinations
- Gate – Trigger gate time 0.5ms-10ms, up to 4-times multi trigger possible
- LFO – 8 wave forms: Saw +/-, Sine +/-, Tri +/-, Rect +/-, modulates the pitch of one or both the T-OSC, starts always syncronous to the note trigger and is pitch envelope at the same time
- Display – LED 7 segment 3 digits
- Midi – Midi In, Midi Out
- User Interface – 1 data wheel, 1 potentiometer, 5 buttons, 16 LEDs for parameters and functions
- Outputs – 1 mono out 1/4? RCA jack
- Output Level – About 0dBu
- Input – External analog trigger input, sensivity adjustable
- Power Supply – External wall wart adapter 9V DC
- Weight – Ca. 0.5 kg, 1.1 lbs.
- Size – 145×155×35mm
STRANGE Organic Drum Sounds! Synth Notes and Sci-Fi Noises… this new device makes them all. What’s unique is this is a MIDI, CV or sound trigger controllable ANALOG ACOUSTIC DRUM SYNTH! Yes, it’s unique circuitry can imitate the sound of congas, bongos, cowbells, etc. ( as well as various synth madness )
New KONTAKT Polyphonic wretch machine
Total Musik has introduced Polyphonic Wretch Machine – a new sample library for Kontakt based on the Metasonix S-1000 Wretch Machine vacuum tube synthesizer.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
This is the culmination of years of planning and recording – Totalmusik’s first library focusing on the sounds of the Metasonix S-1000 Wretch Machine, the pinnacle of decades of advancement in Vacuum and gas-tube synthesizer design.
S1000_2The Metasonix S-1000 Wretch Machine is the only commercially available synthesizer to use gas-tube oscillators as the fundamental sound source. This technology predates most of the recognized synthesis advancements of the 20th century, and was abandoned in favor of integrated circuits. The waveforms generated by these gas-filled wonders of yesterday are a beauty unto themselves – wildly variable, inherently unique, and filled with atmosphere.
At the helm of this recording is Michael Weeks, who has been involved with the S-1000 Wretch Machine since its inception. Brought to life at Metasonix with help from Michael’s constant prodding to create an integrated rack mount synthesizer, and named after his band The Wretch, Michael has clocked more hours behind the wheel of the Wretch Machine than anyone outside of Eric Barbour.
The goal of this library is simple: provide the most comprehensive and raw presentation of the heart of the Wretch Machine to sound designers via painstakingly recorded samples of its oscillators. Utilizing a scripted interface in Kontakt 4, we provide basic building blocks for sound designers to truly integrate these incredible waveforms into their studio environment.
See the Total Musik site for audio samples and pricing info.
Whitney Houston meets Numbers
This is the most delightful guilty pleasure, Kraftwerk’s anally precise early german electorinca matched perfectly with some Whitney! It shoudn’t work, but it does!
New Reaktor video blog
Tim Exile, talented musician, Reaktor guru, and mad genius of interactive live performance, has started a video blog.
This is my first video blogwaffle. I’m new to this so trying things out. I’m going to do more and pick up a few tricks along the way. This one was more on a whim as I was fed up of staring at my computer all day long (hence the waffle) but future ones will be a bit more planned. If you have any questions for the next one please post them in the comments. Stylistic critique and requests welcome
He talks live, music making, and his current plans, including a tasty-sounding open studio series in London. And through the whole thing, he has a Lite-Brite-style visualization he programmed in Reaktor, good or bad I don´t know….
The iPhone becomes your stomp box
IK Multimedia has announced the AmpliTube iRig. With AmpliTube for iPhone, you’ll have an entire guitar/bass rig at your fingertips, comprised of 3 recombinable simultaneous stompbox effects, an amp-head plus cabinet and a microphone.
With AmpliTube for iPhone fully loaded, you will be able to choose between 5 amps (clean, crunch, lead, metal, bass) with full controls, 11 stompbox effects (delay, fuzz, distortion, overdrive, wah, envelope filter, chorus, flanger, phaser, octave, noise filter), 5 cabinets and 2 microphones (dynamic and condenser).
Plus, AmpliTube for iPhone features a chromatic digital tuner and a metronome. You can also import and play with songs or backing tracks with real time effects, and create, save and recall up to 36 presets on the fly!
MSpot – a new competitor to Spotify, maybe
A new threat to Spotify?
MSpot – the service allows people to upload their music — be it purchased, ripped or downloaded for free — and access it from any Mac, Windows or Google Android device. MSpot’s model avoids the stumbling blocks of licensing deals which have repeatedly delayed the release of a U.S. version of Spotify
Today, how people sync music is they’re manually connecting that USB cable, they have to transfer all their files, and any time your library changes, you’ve got to sync up,” Tsui told Wired.com. “With the music now in the cloud, we believe you don’t have to do that anymore. Any changes happen in the background, and you see that on your mobile device.
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- MSpot’s Google Android app can play music while you’re doing other stuff, and can pause/resume for calls.
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- The web and mobile apps display lyrics and other information for songs in your library that MSpot recognizes.
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- On the desktop, MSpot resembles iTunes, Spotify and other music playback software.
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- MSpot on Google Android
Introducing the Archangel – analog step sequencer
![[Archangel Image]](http://www.det3.net/images/a12/aa-prodimg1-450.jpg)
Archangel at its core is a 4-row 16-step analog sequencer with integrated 16-pad touchplate controller. The layout of the sequencer allows for instant access to every function available. Archangel can be its own timing master as well as slave to MIDI, DIN sync or an external clock pulse. The sequence length can be set from 1 to 16 stages, and step size can be adjusted from 1/32nd note to two bars. To speed composition and improvisation Archangel has an integrated multi-scale quantizer.
Control
The sequencer has five direction modes and three integrated sequential switches. There are two 2:1 switches on the top and bottom pair of rows as well as a single 4:1 switch for all 4 rows. Altering the step size and number of steps per row does not take effect until the start of the next pattern. The Archangel sequencer can free-run or operate in one-shot mode, which will stop when the pattern reaches the last step. The pattern can be restarted with the start/stop button, the external stage 1 gate, or via the touchplate keyboard.
As well as operating as a standard sequencer, Archangel can be played with the touchplate keyboard. Each sequencer stage will be activated when the corresponding key is touched. Each touchplate key is both pressure and position sensitive, giving 2D control of any parameter in your synthesizer system. Finally, there is an external CV addressing input that allows Archangel to be used as either a CV-controlled sequencer or a low-frequency step-based waveshaper.
The next-gen virtual choir
This impressive demo showcases extended sustain types for female and male vocals, solo vocals, consonants and FX for the virtual choir library, Requiem, by Tonehammer. REQUIEM is the next-generation virtual choir developed for professional composers. The library is exclusively on pre-order until 20th of May upon its release date.
Tonehammer is owned by academy award winning composer, Troels Folmann and TEC award winning sound designer, Mike Peaslee.
Nice glitch Ableton Live tutorial
Ableton Live guru Tom Cosm explains his approach to creating “a glitching effect that compliments whatever you want to glitch. I have named this effect Clitch”.
This is the latest in a series of very nicely done videos by Cosm – see his site for more info and his YouTube channel for earlier videos.
In this tutorial video I explain a unique way of glitch up your audio, be it synths, drums or vocals.
The technique works like this
- Add an audio effect rack after what you want to glitch, and give it 128 chains
- Give each chain a unique effect (beat repeat, filter etc)
- Midi asign a range of 128 keys (C-2:G8) to the Chain Selection Ruler
- Create a new “trigger” midi track
- Send the MIDI of that trigger track out to the IAC driver
- Either duplicate the MIDI clip for your synthline, or extract a groove from a sample and drag it from the groove pool onto the new trigger clip
- Add MIDI effects to the trigger track so that the new notes in the MIDI clip do new and intersting things.
This is probably the most advanced tutorial I have made, so I encourage you to watch the video as I feel I do a much better job explaining it than I do writing it down!
DATAMASKIN
