Introducing KORG volca beats / bass / keys
An overview of the three Korg volca beats, analogue rhythm machine.
Presented by its hardware designer and chief engineer, Tatsuya Takahashi, it shows off some of the real-time edits and automation functionality that will transform your dance track.
An overview of the three Korg volca bass, three VCO analogue bass synthesizer.
An overview of the Korg volca keys, three note analogue synthesizer.
more details:
English : http://www.korg.com/volcaseries
iTRIGGER – new MIDI controller app for iPad
iTRIGGER is a midi controller app for iPad. It allows you to control Ableton Live and other DJ software using your iPad over a wireless or usb connection. It allows you to launch clips and scenes and control many other features of Ableton.
POJ Studios enter the app world with iTRIGGER, a grid-based MIDI controller for iPad. It is designed specifically for use with Ableton Live but also works with other music software. iTRIGGER allows bi-directional communication to mix music, launch clips, change parameters like levels and panning, and provides feedback to the user through the multi-coloured grid display.
When the user first connects iTRIGGER to their computer either by WIFI or a compatible iPad midi accessory iTRIGGER becomes a standard x-y midi controller allowing the user to assign the buttons as they wish. Once iTRIGGER is correctly synced with Ableton Live all of the buttons are automatically assigned and lit up by the software in 4 separate modes, selectable within the app:
- ‘CLIPS’ mode: The 8×8 grid is assigned to an 8×8 area of clips from Live’s ‘Session View’ with the buttons lighting up to signify whether a clip is loaded, playing or empty. The user can navigate their way around Live’s ‘Session View’ using the directional buttons in the top corner of iTRIGGER and press the corresponding button to play clips or scenes using the scene play buttons at the end of each row.
- MISC’ mode: A miscellaneous set of controls including track levels, panning, effect levels, enable/disable track, cue track and track record.
- ‘D.RACK’ mode: For playing instruments using the 4×4 drum rack layout.
- ‘X-Y’ mode: For custom assignment using an X-Y layout.
iTRIGGER supports AirPlay to stream video performances live to compatible devices via WiFi. The app’s background and button colours can be changed and the button images can be completely hidden against a black background for light shows.
iTRIGGER will be available in all regions from JUNE 22, 2013 exclusively on the iPad App Store. iTRIGGER will have a special week long launch price of $2.99 USD (priced accordingly in other regions) returning to the standard price of $7.99 USD on June 29.
Ambience for Pedal Steel Guitar and eBow
Proof of concept: three track recording played live utilizing prepared pedal steel guitar, eBow; Gestrument on iPad; Alchemy Pro on iPhone.
ArcWave Reaktor Ensemble
ArcWave is a granular re-synthesiser for Native Instruments Reaktor that uses samples in place of oscillators allowing very diverse waveform generation from virtually any conceivable sound source.
The Demo Track “UnderWater ArcLight” was improvised live using ArcWave, no other synths, effects or sounds have been used.
The track was recorded in Logic on a MacBook Pro and uses only 9 patches.
Each part was independently bounced down before playing the next, leaving 9 recorded audio tracks at the mixing stage, two of the tracks had a small amount of EQ cut at about 500 Hz to remove some of the energy, plus a bit of automation was then used to control the track levels.
The finished mix was then bounced through a 5 band compressor in Logic to produce the 24bit master, no post processing has been added.
Shruthi and Moog Slim Phatty Free Ableton Live Packs
AfroDJMac has made some Ableton Live instruments by running samples of a Shruthi through a Moog Slim Phatty. They are available for free on his site!
Shruthi Buzzer: http://bit.ly/freesynth82
Shruthi Hover: coming soon
Shruthi Bass: coming soon
Visit his site for more stuff like this, including Live Instrument downloads, tutorials and music! http://www.afrodjmac.com
MASCHINE, Aerobic, and the Astounding Groove
Native Instruments REAKTOR’s Aerobic just begs to be used inside MASCHINE. There are any number of ways to use Aerobic inside Maschine, but let’s look at two specifically: 1) as a drum synth whose individual hits can be triggered by MASCHINE’s Pads, and 2) as a DJ-style loop-mixing setup.
Video: Thor Polysonic Synthesizer – Available for iPad
After yesterdays announcement on Thor coming to iPad we are complementing that article with a video:
More info about Thor can be found here:
http://www.propellerheads.se/products…
Key Features:
– 1000+ expertly crafted synth patches, or create your own
– Multiple Filter and Oscillator Types
– Audiobus Support
– MIDI In allows for control from other apps or hardware controllers
– Collapse the keyboard to a scale and key of your choice, just like Figure
– Move patches back and forth between Thor on iPad and Thor in Reason
– Expressive touch interface with aftertouch and strumming
Thor is a comprehensive synth app for the iPad. Designed for mobile music making, it features a responsive interface optimized for hands on control, an innovative keyboard and the same massive synthesis engine as its desktop cousin. It’s the same semi-modular synth with the same set of selectable oscillator and filter types and the same advanced routing of audio and modulation.
Aside from a regular piano style keyboard, Thor features a keyboard that can be locked to specific keys and scales, making it impossible to hit a wrong note. This is particularly useful on a mobile device when playing directly on the screen. More than just helping the player to stay in key, this musically aware keyboard is a source of endless inspiration and experimentation.
Sonos Playground Deconstructed – Museum of the Moving Image
Sonos Playground Deconstructed is a site-specific installation in the Nam June Paik / HBO Production Lab at the Museum of the Moving Image. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Spectacle: The Music Video, April 3–June 16, 2013
Visitors are able to select any song from an iPad and watch a visualization of the music projected onto the surrounding walls. Through motion-capture technology, visitors can interact with and manipulate the animation through movement.
The installation aims to bring minimalist art to life as an immersive music video environment. Inspired by the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt and the room-flooding sound of the Sonos Playbar, Sonos Playground was originally installed in a 250 sq. ft shed at the Sonos Studio at the 2013 SXSW festival. At Museum of the Moving Image, Sonos Playground Deconstructed has re-imagined the experience using five detached walls suspended above a reflective floor. Each of the walls has been painted with 27 1-inch wide white lines and 26 2-inch wide black lines. By mapping the white lines set between black lines we were able to create a more immersive and surreal environment.
Installation by Aramique, Red Paper Heart, Fake Love
Fabrication by 11th St Workshop.
Music by Gary Gunn.
Director of photography Sesse Lind.
Editor Nathan Punwar
The Reason Thor Polyphonic synth now on iPad
Propellerhead Software has launched Thor for iPad, a synthesizer app based on the flagship synthesizer in Reason. Here’s all the detail:
Thor for iPad puts the mighty Thor synthesizer at your fingertips. Reason’s legendary flagship synth delivers a thunderous sound, god-like sound sculpting capabilities and an innovative, lighting-fast keyboard designed for iPad. Thor is a synthesis playground, a flexible sonic workhorse, but above all, an expressive musical instrument for the iPad.
Thor highlights
- Play Reason’s Thor Polysonic Synthesizer on the iPad.
- Load any of the 1000+ expertly crafted synth patches, or create your own from scratch.
- Create your sounds using a palette of multiple oscillator and filter types.
- Play Thor using an expressive touch interface keyboard with aftertouch and strumming.
- Collapse the keyboard to a key and scale of your choice, just like in Figure.
- Move your favourite patches from the iPad to your computer and use them with Thor in Reason
Thor sounds like no synthesizer you’ve ever heard before – and every single one of them. Where other synths use one specific form of synthesis and one single filter, the Thor polysonic synthesizer features six different oscillator types and four unique filters. What does this give you? Simply the most powerful synth ever created; an unstoppable monster of a sound generator that utilizes synthesizer technology from the last 40 years.
On the iPad, Thor comes with a specially designed interface that’s optimized for touch control and the iPad screen. Cleverly designed panels expand and fold at the touch of a button to hide or reveal oscillators, filters, envelopes and more.
The app is divided into three main screens: Keyboard, Knobs and Routing.
Keyboard mode features:
- Piano keyboard with transpose and range control
- Modulation and pitch bend controls
- Assist function lets you select key and scale to highlight chord notes or to collapse the keyboard to only show the chord notes of the selected scale.
- Strum function lets you play arpeggios by holding a chord while strumming across the strum control.
- Two assignable knobs and buttons acts like performance controls
- Settings for polyphony and portamento
Knobs mode features:
- Access to all of Thor’s synthesis features
- Three oscillator slots for Thor’s six oscillator types: Analog, Wavetable, FM Pair, PhaseMod, Multi Osc and Noise
- Three filter slots for for Thor’s four filter types: Low Pass Ladder, State Variable, Comb and Formant
- Three envelopes
- Dual LFOs
- Delay and Chorus
- The Knobs screen is divided into panels that expand and collapse at the touch of a button
- Miniature keyboard to audition your sounds as you are working on them
Routing features
- Comprehensive but easy to use routing matrix lets you create complex modulation and signal flow setups
- Step sequencer with 16-steps and six channels: Note, Velocity, Gate length, Step duration, Curve 1, Curve 2
General App features:
- Patch compatible with Thor in Reason on your computer
- Move patches to and from your iPad using iTunes or Dropbox
- Sound bank with more than 1000 Thor patches from leading artists & sound designers (Kill the Noise, Richard Devine, Chris Petti and many more)
- Gorgeous retina display interface
- MIDI in – play Thor from an external MIDI source or from another app on the same iPad
- Audiobus compatible – stream audio from Thor to another audio app on the same iPad
- Audio in background option lets Thor keep playing in the background when working with other apps.
Note: We recommend using Thor for iPad with iPad 2 or later.
Thor is priced at $14.99.
MonstrumRocket – new controllable editor for the Waldor Rocket synthesizer.
Monstrum Media has released MonstrumRocket – a software editor that gives you access to every controllable parameter on the Waldor Rocket synthesizer.
In addition to all the parameters you have access to on the actual Rocket, this editor also gives you a hold button, Vibrato Modulator, Local on/off, reset all, all notes off, MIDI panic as well as an x/y surface to modulate two parameters at once.
An added feature to this editor gives you the ability to store and load programs to and from your computer’s hard drive.
Note: Waldorf omitted any ability to control the “filter type” or “Boost” mode through MIDI. Waldorf’s very own ipad application for the rocket also has no way of controlling these two parameters simply because as it is now with the rocket’s OS there is no CC or SysEx assigned to those parameters.
MonstrumRocket is available now for US $9.99.
DATAMASKIN
