High-level exploration of XILS-lab PolyKB
In this video, Torley checks out XILS-lab PolyKB, a recreation of “a very rare, very powerful polyphonic synthesizer released in the 80’s by a French company.”
This isn’t one of Torley’s Project Presets videos, but is instead a high-level exploration of XILS-lab PolyKB.
Pterosaur is a free 16-oscillator monosynth for Windows.
Free Music Software: Pterosaur is a free 16-oscillator monosynth for Windows.
The basic waveform of each oscillator is a sawtooth wave – but the “mod” control morphs it into a sort of saw-pulse hybrid.
It’s available as a free download via VSTPlanet.
Polymoog VST
If the last post made you want to play a Polymoog but you don’t have one lying around there’s only one software option available AFAIK: the Reaktor ensemble Polymojo.
This imitation is mainly a Polymoog Synthesizer BUT the blue buttons are from the cut down/preset version Polymoog Keyboard. It does not include the MODE-filters. Hence there is no fader for that in the Master/mix section.
The Polymoog is a bit difficult to understand as there are 3 different filter sections and also a signal direct from the oscillator without filter. One of the limitations of the Polymoog was the lack of polyphonic dynamic filters. The MODE filter is polyphonic but it’s not possible to control it by an envelope. There’s a 4 pole LP filter – but it’s monophonic. And there bank of 3 resonant filters but these are also monophonic. The keyboard can be split in two different ways to create more sounds variation over the range of the keyboard but it’s also makes it a bit difficult to program. Each voice has 2 oscillator BUT they only have one waveform each – saw and pulse respectively. Not very flexible and quite limiting when sculpting sound.
One quite unique feature of it’s time however contributed to the lush sound called Vox Humana which could be said to be Gary Numan’s signature sound. The 2 oscillators per voice have each a separate LFO for frequency modulation which opens for wide and lush sounds. Also the Pulse Width has it’s own LFO.
If you are a Reaktor user this is not to be missed: check it out
Friday electro music update feat. Gary Numan and Portishead
Some nice friday music news:
Gary Numan is set to perform his 1979 album “The Pleasure Principle” (Numan’s first album under his own name) in full on his upcoming North American tour. Kicking off in Orlando, Florida on October 17, Numan will perform the album in its entirety, plus songs from his upcoming new album “Splinter”. It will be Numan’s first North American tour since 2006.
Portishead have announced that they are about to begin work on a new album which will be the follow-up to 2008’s “Third”. The news was confirmed by the group’s Geoff Barrow on BBC 6 Music adding that the band would start writing for the LP this summer.
The secrets of the PolyMoog
Still just a promo but pretty amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rtVFpA-AAk
Fantastic to see Chick Corea from his glory days when he made his Best album the Romantic Warrior with Return to Forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlN04_Q14zo
The new XMP plays over 90 formats – Amiga, Atari, Acorn, Apple IIgs and PC
The Extended Module Player, or xmp, is a portable command-line module player for Unix and Unix-like systems such as Linux, BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and MacOS X, and also QNX, BeOS, Windows, OS/2 and AmigaOS. Xmp plays over 90 mainstream and obscure module formats from Amiga, Atari, Acorn, Apple IIgs and PC. There are experimental plugins for Audacious, Beep Media Player, XMMS and Winamp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXRAXZ6LcU8&feature=player_embedded
Check out the sound webinar with Charles Deenen
Some days ago Charles Deenen gave a webinar talking abou the use Waves plugins for sound design, and also answering some questions from the attendees. The webinar is available for viewing online now!
After clicking on a video link you will be prompted to sign into the webinar system. Please use the following information to view any of our previous webinar videos:
Username – webinar
Password – wavesPlease note: Due to limitations of Adobe’s webinar software, skipping through the webinar may cause the video to go out of sync. Therefore, we recommend watching the videos from the beginning, without fast forwarding.
Charles Deenen – Sound Design Webinar
Depeche Mode’s Violator tour on excellent soundboard recordings
Two excellent soundboard recordings made during the 1990 ‘World Violation Tour’ by the English electronic group Depeche Mode in support of the act’s seventh studio album, “Violator”, have made their way to the grand public after being available before in a rather small circle.
The shows that are on the street now were recorded in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1990 and thus most probably originate from tapes that were recorded by the band to see “how the show was sounding generally, or how well or badly it was being mixed out front”.
The 1990 ‘World Violation Tour’ has been on of the most sought after live recordings especially because the band and its label, Mute Records, never released a single live recording from it. We asked Wilder why no release from this tour ever saw the light of day: “Remember we had not long released ‘101’ so no-one in the band camp would have been keen on doing another live album at that time. They are much more commonplace these days with the obligatory ‘live’ DVD post every tour etc. In those days, people didn’t do them so nearly so readily.”
The following songs were included in an acoustic set performed by Martin Gore during the said tour:
- “I Want You Now”
- “Here Is the House”
- “Little 15”
- “World Full of Nothing”
- “Blue Dress”
- “Sweetest Perfection”
Rama Douglas on sitar and Justin DeHart on tabla
A short preview for the soon to be released Optigan Sitar & Tabla disc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8d2ft-z44
This is some footage from the recording session featuring Rama Douglas on sitar and Justin DeHart on tabla. The keyboard will feature a variety of different sitar riffs (and possibly some harmonium notes on part of the keyboard), the chord buttons will have 15 different tabla loops, and the SFX tabs will have tamboura drones and other effects. More details coming soon at optigan.com!
More about Rama: http://www.cordhead.com/bio_cd.htm
More about Justin: http://www.justindehart.com
Yamaha DTX – still sound pretty electronic to me
Yamaha seems proud of their new drums and their natural sound, but to me the kits still sound pretty electronic to me, I guess it is easier to demo special effects, because special effects kits translate much better on electronic drums, probably because in most cases they aren’t meant to sound natural. Perhaps they should put more effort into making the acoustic samples sound more like real instruments, these kits sound as they did many years ago.
DATAMASKIN
