KORG MONOPOLY – dANCe NaTiON
http://youtu.be/qRLmZTFXThg
100 brand new presets programmed by music producer, remixer and sound designer Rob Lee
Rob Lee is a music producer, remixer and professional sound designer and also co-owner of Section9 Records. Rob started out in music back in ‘87 as DJ and played clubs across Europe from his hometown of Newcastle (UK) to Mallorca and the Costa Blanca in Spain. As a sound designer Rob’s sounds can be found in hard- and software synthesizers developed by companies such as Waldorf Music, PreSonus Software, Rob Papen, Lennar Digital, FabFilter, MOTU, Synapse Audio and U-he.Top trance sounds, killer house chords and shuddering basses are trademark sounds for Rob and the are much sought after by top producers from all over the world.2011 will see Rob Lee teaming up with well known DJ / Producer Dom Kane to bring some brand new tracks to the label. Rob and Dom met through their love for sound design and similar taste in electronic dance music. And with Dom’s records featured in Pete Tong’s record bag, we’re proud to have him as a friend.Later this year Rob Lee will pick up some remixes for our signed artists as well as a colloboration with one of Europe’s top female vocalists.
DSI Tempest – “Synth mode” test
Making a drum machine into a synth:
No flashy performances or crazy beat-mangling going on here. Just testing the Tempest as a 6-voice analog / digital polysynth.
Moog and the fundamentals of synthesizer programming
Moog Music has released the first in Dr. Joseph Akins’ five part series on the fundamentals of synthesizer programming, with an emphasis on analog subtractive synthesis.
Dr. Akins is an associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University. In this five part series Dr. Akins uses a Voyager to teach the process through which a synthesizer’s sound is generated and the techniques needed to program your own sounds and sonic experiments.
In part one of this five part series, Dr. Akins gives a brief history of synthesizers, goes over basic synthesizer theory, and overviews basic signal flow.
NAMM Most Recommended: Nord Drum Virtual Analogue Drum Synthesiser
Here’s a guest post from one of our followers – S. Williams, enjoy
Looking back at NAMM 2012, there is much controversy in picking ‘the best in show’ but in terms of initiative and surprise we can all agree that the Nord Drum synthesiser is right up there. Nord cleverly created hype by releasing a few teaser pics a few days before NAMM but they may as well been pictures of a guitar as no one could of predicted what they had in store for us. It is not a drum machine in the traditional sense and is in-fact a virtual analogue drum synthesiser triggered by external devices. Nord promised that the virtual drum is “ guaranteed to change your perception of what’s possible with synthetic, sample-free percussion”. And that’s exactly what they have done, by creating a device that is totally brilliant and unique.
At the Nord stand at NAMM I was very much hoping to have a go on the drum but unfortunately I wasn’t allowed. However I did get the best seat in the house and get a great view of a tutorial like the one below, but it’s just not the same.
All it has done is make me desperate to play one and count down the days until its release date. Unfortunately I can’t give you more information on a playing experience but I can forward what I know and my opinions.
The Nord drum creates its sound through complex analogue waveforms and noise generators similar to that of a vintage Synth. It features lightening-fast triggering, and four trigger inputs allow MIDI equipped devices to connect. With this variety of connections we assume Nord intend to integrate the drum into an existing set-up or to be used as an electronic percussion module. With Nord making all the right noises describing the drum as ‘retro-futuristic’, it certainly ticks both boxes and is undoubtedly a great product. I can’t really see it introduced in live sets just yet, but would certainly be useful in studio set-ups and home usage. It is due to be available very soon, so sign up to this newsletter for more information and to be kept posted.
When it is released I will certainly buy and review it again in more detail and give it a thorough test drive. So stay tuned to this blog and we’ll see just what the Nord Drum is capable of.
HandySynth – sample based emulation
“Icebreaker Audio have recently released HandySynth – a sample based emulation of a custom circuit-bent Yamaha HandySound.
Key Features include:
All original instrument sounds chromatically sampled at 24-bit 48kHz
8 circuit-bent sound variations
Convolution based emulation of the original speaker at various microphone positions
Authentic emulation of the HandySound volume envelopes and tuning via custom scripts
Additional Effects: Distortion, Filter and Spring Reverb
Download also includes a copy of C-Bent Kit for Battery
Available now from the Icebreaker Audio website for £5 (€6/$8 approx.)”
AIR – Sonic Armada (A Trip To The Moon)
From AIR’s forthcoming soundtrack to the recently restored and colourised Georges Méliès’ 1901 classic film ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’.
AIR comments on the approach on the making of this album:
Jean-Benoît Dunckel: “We were watching the film constantly and searching for something that can fit. It was a constant battle to try and get things down as fast as we can and synchronize the music. Once we had the main scenes then we could start then to make them thicker, more interesting and add melodies and other musicians.”
NG: “Many times, because I do the bass guitar I try to say to my self how can I do something differently? For instance on Talkie Walkie I decided not to do the bass. For this project we decided to use the Timpani’s a lot for the bass. It’s very cool because you have a pedal for tuning so you can play any note you want. But then it’s hard to mix it because it takes up so much space.
“When we saw the film for the first time in colour we really got all of these images of Sergeant Pepper in our mind. It was as if adding the colour had taken the movie from Paris 1902 to London 1967. We weren’t directly trying to sound like Sergeant Pepper, it was just as soon as we saw the colour on the movie, we knew it had to have that element. We explored this with the styles of the drums particularly.”
New album out on February 6th:
‘Le voyage dans la lune’ (A Trip To The Moon) is a classic black & white and color (hand painted) silent film by revered French director Georges Méliès. Released in 1902, this legendary 16-minute film is widely considered one of the most important works in film history, and the very first to use science fiction as its theme, incorporating special effects that were very state-of-the-art at the turn of the 19th century. It was loosely based on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and H. G. Wells ‘The First Men In The Moon’.
The color version, considered as lost during several decades, is then found in 1993 in Spain, however in desperate condition. As of 1999, highly delicate work began to rescue and digitize the elements. In 2010, a complete restoration could be launched, in order to enable the audience to rediscover this major cinema work.
Eager to put a contemporary spin on this classic silent film and enable access to new audience, the two foundations acting in cinema preservation, Fondation Groupama Gan and Fondation Technicolor, decided to approach AIR’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack, an enormous honour for French musicians, considering the film’s place in the canon of French cinema. With the aim of premiering at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, AIR set themselves a tight deadline, locking their studio doors and working around the clock to serve these classic images with brave new sounds. Complete with a new soundtrack by AIR, the film debuted at Cannes on May 11, 2011, to immediate and unanimous acclaim.
Spurred on by their work on this short movie, AIR decided to develop the project into a full album inspired by the film. Expanding the original musical themes beyond cinematic instrumentals, the album also features the vocal talents and lyrics of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House). of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House). The band’s lunar fascinations have been evident since the beginning of their career with the release of the seminal 1998 classic “Moon Safari”. Now in 2012 Nicolas and JB have returned to explore the further regions of their very unique musical ‘space’. Nicolas explains: “‘A Trip to the Moon’ is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound ‘handmade,’ knocked together’, a bit like Méliès’ special effects. Everything is played live … like Méliès’ film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art.”
The 3 producers of the restored version have agreed to let Virgin release a special Limited Edition version of AIR album ‘Le voyage dans la lune’. This will consist of the album + a bonus DVD or Digital Download of the restored colorized film with AIR’s original film score, strictly limited to 70,000 global copies.
Video of the micromac (prototype) in action
This is another video of the micromac (prototype) in action with the even more compact 21HP 3U X-Series Photon synthesizer module (prototype). Both the micromac and Photon are complete analogue synths! I’m using my all analogue CV and Gate keyboard to drive the micromac and a Korg Prophecy/Kenton Pro Solo to drive the Photon. The Photon is the arpeggiated synth going on here. Again it’s fun to do this stuff, and my playing is not the best- but this video does give you a good idea of the power and the sound of these seriously small in size synths doing their job! www.macbethstudiosystems.com
Yamaha PSS-9 – Free Samples
Yamaha PSS-9 – http://www.vstplanet.com/News/2012/Yamaha_PSS-9_Drum_Kit
Developer:hardballsrecords.com
Background information:
The keyboard has an audio out socket built in so no mods were needed to play it through effects boxes. With a keyboard like this, it’s all about what you can do with the sounds once they are outside of the keyboard. As an experiment, I’ve multitracked an entire composition with this and it actually sounded reasonable. It has PCM drum samples which are pretty good with the right effects applied, and the string sounds can take on quite an analogue nature if external chorus and delay are used.
The most realistic sounds are probably the brass and woodwind sounds – which is what FM synthesis was known for. I personally see each of the programs on the keyboard as a different starting waveform to be altered by external effects.
For such a small keyboard, having eight notes of polyphony across a 32 note keyboard seems a lot. The split voices are good for jamming. This is a great little keyboard for self indulgent jamming wherever the mood might take. It can be run off 6 AA batteries and has it’s own built in speaker which isn’t that loud, but loud enough
Comments About the Sounds:
Basic 2-op FM sounds, about 40 basic ‘single’ sounds then doubled ‘ensable sounds’ to create chorus plus preset split voices. Ensamble and Split voices are based on preset combinations of the first 40 single sounds
Introducing the Chomp: the bite-sized, affordable MIDI box for creative music projects
Max Justicz has announced a new DIY MIDI controller ‘brain’, the CHOMP, that looks awesome.
Basically, the CHOMP (Configurable Hardware Open-source MIDI Platform) is a cheap board you plug switches and pots into to create custom MIDI controllers.
Features:
- Completely open-source.
- Affordable ($50).
- Compatible with ANY MIDI configuration.
- 48 Inputs/Outputs!
- Made and assembled in the USA.
- Programmable
- Tiny, only 100mm x 60mm x 25mm
Here’s what Max Justicz has to say about the CHOMP:
It has come to my attention that the world needs an inexpensive (but extraordinarily solid) MIDI controller. That’s where the Chomp comes in. With zero technical skills, you can hook up dozens of buttons, knobs, switches, and sensors to control endless parameters of digital software.
The Chomp is the first open-source MIDI controller that’s been designed right. Other MIDI controllers on the market are proprietary, difficult to use, non configurable, and most of all: expensive. The only other commercial option available ships exclusively from Europe and costs the US equivalent of $240.
But because it’s Arduino powered and completely user programmable, the Chomp is more than an awesome MIDI controller. With new code, Chomp can do just about anything: play Bach on a digital keyboard, or help you along in a live musical performance.
Dubstep Samples For NanoStudio Demo
The following video demonstrates the free set of Dubstep drum samples I’ve created. They are formatted for use in NanoStudio TRG-16. You can also hear a sneak preview at my new Eden Dubstep patches.
You may download this kit for free by simply “liking” ipadloops on Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/pages/iPadLoopscom/246604772025757?sk=app_17621738575…
Click like and it will reveal the hidden download code. All samples are original and royalty free. Good for producing Dubstep on an iPad iPhone or iPod Touch. HAVE FUN!
DATAMASKIN
