Design your own MIDI set up
MIDI Touch (App Store link) is a new app for the iPad that lets you design your own ultimate MIDI controller, by placing knobs, sliders and other controls onto the screen wherever you want.
According to the developers, MIDI Touch lets you send MIDI over Wi-Fi with latency as low as 2-5ms and and via compatible MIDI hardware devices with near-zero latency, using the Camera Connection Kit.
Features:
- Design & save your own MIDI controllers by dragging and dropping sliders, buttons and more where you want them to create personalised control surfaces
- Native MIDI Device support – connect compatible devices via the Camera Connection Kit and your iPad becomes a proper MIDI control surface with almost zero latency
- Excellent performance – measured latency over WiFi to a Mac: 2-5ms, over Camera Connection Kit: 1-2ms
- Send messages over Wi-Fi with easy setup (Windows: requires the free software driver rtpMIDI (http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/rtpMIDI_configuration.html), alternatively use DSMI Server for Mac, Windows or Linux, also free)
- Several different control types – Add sliders, knobs, buttons (momentary or latched), drum-pads, X-Y controllers, transport controls and preset-jump buttons
- Easily change the settings of each control – CC number, note number, minimum & maximum range, size & label
- Standard & neon control themes to skin controls
- Multi touch – control multiple knobs/sliders etc at once
- In-app brightness control allows dimming of the screen to very low levels for performance
- Full screen mode to reduce distractions
- Controls snap to each other to help create aligned layouts
Vince Clarke on his synths – part 3
Featuring the ARP2600
The Analogue Monologues is a new series of mini video documentaries. In each webisode Vince talks about one his analogue synths and explains where the on/off switch is. This series proves, once and for all, that he really doesn’t know much about anything (a must see!).
Sign-up to the Vince Clarke mailing list if you want to receive news of the next Analogue Monologues webisode…
Cyndustries sawtooth animator
Our friend 7thDanSound has yet again released a couple of nice demos, enjoy
“This is a demo of how the Sawtooth Animator sounds when fed somewhat unusual inputs. It works surprisingly well with triangle and sine wave forms but I also try noise, dual oscillators, drums and chords from an Elektron MonoMachine”
“This video is a showcase of the Cyndustries Sawtooth Animator module using the LFO outputs. It has six of them and they are derived from what ever you put into the module. The speed of the LFOs vary with the input and if there is no input at all the LFOs stop so they can sort of be used as a crude sample and hold”
“This video shows how the Synthesizers.com Q106 oscillators behaves when synced to another oscillator. I have the oscillator aid module too and use its soft sync input to show how that works. I finish off by showing how voltage controlled sync works.”
UltraNova is here
Novation is now shipping the UltraNova, a ‘Nova’ series analogue-modelling synthesizer with a powerful effects processor.
It is a single-part synth taking the legendary Supernova II synth engine as a starting point and packing it with the latest technology. It now has brand new features including wavetable synthesis, even more powerful filters, a software editor and a revolutionary new touch-sense performance mode.
The ‘Nova’ family was born in 1998 with the Supernova, which was the first of a series of powerful synthesisers. These quickly became industry standard ‘big-synths’ which are still used by countless artists and sound designers.
UltraNova is the latest addition to the family bringing the range right up to date with a host of new features and a more affordable price tag.
UltraNova features
- Brand new Nova-series synth engine based on Supernova II:
- Single part with up to 18 voices, 14 filter types, 36 wavetables, 5 effect slots.
- Patch Browse enables you to browse 300 sounds by type & genre.
- Touch-sense controls enable totally new sound-shaping & performance:
- Trigger envelopes/LFOs/filters/FX by just touching the encoders.
- Large rotary control instantly allows you fine control of any parameter.
- Totally gig-able with 37 full sized keys, a vocoder, and loads of controls:
- Voice optimized 12 band vocoder with gooseneck mic.
- High quality key bed with aftertouch for expressive playing styles.
- Software plug-in editor and Patch Librarian for full visual editing:
- Plug-in editor allows you to view and edit in with software.
- Software Patch Librarian a organise, store and share unlimited patches.
- Built-in 2 in 4 out USB audio interface and it can be bus powered:
- UltraNova can be used to stream audio to and from a host computer.
- Stereo main (analogue & SPDIF) and aux outputs, and MIDI in/out/thru ports.
The Novation UltraNova is now shipping for £499.99 GPB / $699.99 USD. A specially designed UltraNova case is also now available.
More information: Novation / UltraNova
Compression Tips for the Best Mixes
New tutorial from the Prop guys on compression
For many people, compressors are the biggest obstacle between them and a professional mix. But if you know how to use them, compressors are your best tool to achieve that professional mix. Most early interactions with compressors involve cranking them up until they sound horrible and then removing them – wondering why anyone would even want to use them in the first place. This week I’ll explain what a compressor’s actually doing and how to make it work the way you want.
Moby talks on Drum machines
Low.budget movie showing off Moby’s huge collection of drum machines and what talks on what they really are
a tiny movie about old drum machines, with some new music i made playing in the background.
ok, thanks.
-moby
Check out the Seven Mantas
Added Snyderphonics Manta support to SevenUpLive 2.0.x beta this weekend. The beauty here is that you get velocity sensitivity on the plates and SevenUp can use that in its pattern recorders. The Manta supports polyphonic-aftertouch as well which I plan to add to SevenUp later.
This jam was just a fast improv to show off. Everything in the track was sequenced and performed live with the Manta and SevenUpLive. Tracked to 2-track, no edits besides start and end fades.
Awesome synth video with Nerd Revolt
Really cool ambient synth blip video coming your way from Nerd Revolt
Download track here: http://soundcloud.com/nerd-revolt/wor…
Original version of “Working Title” can be found on our “Haze of introspection…and sh*t.” EP.
Available on Innerflight Music.
Space exploration music app
Demo of an interactive RjDj scene for iPhone and iPod Touch. Go to http://www.reactifymusic.com/n8/space for more info and the download link.
O-Bow 1 – the first optical bow prototype
Demonstration of O-Bow 1, the first optical bow prototype. Uses a single sample for synthesis. Bow speed controls gain, bow angle controls vibrato.
The O-Bow is a bow controller consisting of an optical flow sensor mounted to measure the bow speed and horizontal angle with high resolution. The bow can be anything with a grained surface, such as a wooden stick.
Development of the O-Bow was prompted by the lack of robust, and inexpensive bow controllers. Synthesized string instruments frequently appear in recordings, yet the quality of articulation is very limited for such expressive instruments. Bowing is a fairly easy skill to aquire, whereas fingering and vibrato are very difficult. Combining the keyboard with bow allows a musician previously unskilled with string instruments to quickly produce much better articulation than using a keyboard alone.Controlling vibrato with bow angle or key pressure avoids the need to control vibrato directly.
From a less utilitarian viewpoint, bowing is a very natural and expressive mode of control. It deserves to be integrated better into the modern world of electronic sound, including that which is more removed from authentic strings.
So far the O-Bow has been used with a simple one-sample synthesiser as shown in the following video. More sophistocated synthesis is being developed, including physical modelling. A related patent application has been filed.
DATAMASKIN
