Jasuto for the iPhone and Android
Some of the new features:
- nearly alias-free analog oscillators
- pulse width control on the square oscillator
- all the filters have been re-written and have been fattened up quite a bit
- several wave-shapers
- ADSR envelope editor
- note on/off for sustained notes
- multi-page/octave sequencer
- you can now draw notes/modulation in the sequencer
- recording into the sequencer via the midi keys
- sample recording/re-sampling
- full featured sampler
- and manymore…
Jasuto is still under pretty heavy development, so it will be improving/changing quite often. Feedback will certainly have an influence over the development direction.
Jasuto is the first truly modular synthesizer for the iPhone and is basically the 2nd coming of my previous modular synth experiment known asMode
There are several main design goals that I wanted to achieve with this.
The first goal was to make synth building fun and easy all while adding some unpredictability to the process. I’ve come up with some amazing sounds almost by accident in a lot cases that I would have never even thought of doing in a conventional synth.
The 2nd was to blur the line between patch and synth, so creating a synth should be no different (or any more difficult) than creating a patch.
The 3rd was to unify control and audio rate signals allowing everything to be a modulation or be modulated.
And finally I wanted to make sure that it was simple and efficient to add motion to a sound. So every node on the screen can record its own motion. E.g. if you wanted to create a simple LFO for a chorus effect just attach a constant to the delays time port, click the record button and wiggle away. After you are done recording hit stop and it will auto-magically blend the loop points for you. All motion including the step sequencer are syncable via triggers, more on this in the “Basics” section.
Panzertank, bitte
Panzertank PM4 is a virtual phase modulation synth very much like the famous FM synthesizers. It has four sinus operators (oscillators) with individual APDSR envelopes, detune and velocity sensitivity.
Nice video with Kurokawa
Kurokawa composes time based sculpture with digital generated materials and field recorded sources, and the minimal and the complexities coexist there. Kurokawa accepts sound and imagery as a unit not as separately, and constructs very exquisite and precise computer based works with the audiovisual language. That shortens mutual distance, the reciprocity and the synchronization of sound and visual composition. He also performed live-visual for musicians such as HUMAN AUDIO SPONGE(ex.YMO: Sketch Show + Ryuichi Sakamoto). In recent years, Kurokawa is invited to numerous noted international festivals and museums in Europe, US and Asia including TATE MODERN[UK], ARS ELECTRONICA[AT], transmediale[DE], Shanghai eARTS[CN], MUTEK[CA], and SONAR[ES] for concert and exhibition, and he continues to be an active presence on the international stage.
More info: http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/”
Android music apps gears up
This video captures a demo of a step sequencer application, Monotroid, running on an Android mobile phone-controlled Korg Monotron:
- Android is connected with Arduino by Bluetooth.
- The Arduino is connected with Monotron.
Adding the iPhone app to the Monotroni creates a surprisingly potent combination.
Awesome heartbeat orchestra
Seldom I have heard something this cool, a must see
Experimental Electronic Music: The Heart Chamber Orchestra is an audiovisual performance where musicians control a computer composition and visualization environment with there heartbeats.
The musical score is generated in real time by the heartbeats of the musicians. They read and play this score from a computer screen placed in front of them.
It’s an interesting approach to generative classical music – and actually yields some musically interesting results.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
How The Heartbeat Orchestra Works
The musicians are equipped with ECG (electrocardiogram) sensors. A computer monitors and analyzes the state of these 12 hearts in real time. The acquired information is used to compose a musical score with the aid of computer software. It is a living score dependent on the state of the hearts.
While the musicians are playing, their heartbeats influence and change the composition and vice versa. The musicians and the electronic composition are linked via the hearts in a circular motion, a feedback structure. The emerging music evolves entirely during the performance.
The resulting music is the expression of this process and of “an organism forming itself from the circular interplay of the individual musicians and the machine”.
Future tech music
This is a pretty nice piece of recap on the progression of next gen musical instruments.
The intersection of music and technology is a wild, fascinating frontier. Ever since the first computer-synthesized sounds were created, people have struggled and succeeded — to varying degrees — to reshape how we think about musical instruments.
Today, thanks to innovators such as Ray Kurzweil and Robert Moog, we have a wider range of digital music machines than the inventors of keyboard instruments could have ever dreamed.
But innovation didn’t stop there. Drum machines, music-making software and even mobile phones now compose melodies, thanks in a large part to the men in this video. One of the creations included in these demos is the LinnStrument
Check out this showcase of futuristic instruments and the philosophies of those who make them, and let us know what you think about the future of musical instruments in the comments.
New album from Devo
The comeback album from cult band Devo can be expected in one month. The title is “Something for Everybody” and the UK release date is June 14 followed by the North American release on June 15. This is the first album release from Devo in 20 years.
– 30 years ago, people said that we were cynical, that we had a bad attitude, says Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. But now, when you ask people if de-evolution is real, they understand that there was something to what we were saying. It’s not the kind of thing you want to see proven right, but it does make it easier to talk about.
Devo 2010 has the classic line-up: Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald and Bob Casale – joined by drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails).
– The world is in sync with Devo, says Gerald Casale. We’re not the guys who freak people out and scare them – we’re like the house band on the Titanic, entertaining everybody as we go down.
Drexciya classic on mp3 release
Here’s a neo-electro classic finally available on mp3. Considered one of Drexciya’s best works, full of cryptically emotive synthwork set out with an explorative imagination to rival anything in the history of plugged-in music. Try listening to Devil ray Cove and not stomp your feet!
Read full review of Neptunes Lair – DREXCIYA on Boomkat.com ©
Gary Numan talks about John Foxx
Gary Numan discusses John Foxx’s music, in particular the impact that early Ultravox! had on his own work. The interview was filmed at Benge’s studio in Shoreditch where Foxx is currently recording a new album. Gary is really one cool guy!
Turn your iPhone into a hardware MIDI control surface
Line 6 has introduced a new $5.99 app, MIDI Surface (App Store link), that lets you turn your iPhone, or iPod touch into a hardware MIDI control surface.
MIDI Surface works with the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer, a MIDI adapter that connects to the iPhone or iPod touch.
This is pretty interesting – but adapt this for the iPad and get third-party app support and MIDI Mobilizer could become a new platform for musicians.
Details below.
Control Surfaces:
Keyboard
- Channel
- Velocity
Sliders
- Channel
- Controller (Mod Wheel, Channel Volume, Expression, etc.)
- Low Value
- High Value
Drum Pads
- Channel
- Category (Note On, Controller, Program Change)
- Note
- Note Off (Immediate, Touch Up)
- Velocity
X-Y Control
- Supports up to 4 touches
- Channel
- Controller
- Left Value
- Right Value
Each interface can be configured with detail and you can save Presets for quick recall.
DATAMASKIN
