Raspberry Pi: Brian Eno’s Fat Lady – cheap computation model
Here’s an updated version of Eno’s favourite chubby girl, but rendered with a slimline synthesis model. All in an attempt to get this runnable on a single Raspberry Pi. This uses the non-oversampled synth, so everything is computed at 44.1kHz. It’s using the newer variant of the BPCVO model, in particular the revised bandlimiting code to attack aliasing hard at source, and I’ve redone all the synth presets to remove the filter on everything pitched to eliminate that particular computation burden. There are tricks you can play to bring back a ‘filtery’ sound in the absence of a filter – for example, morphing from sin to saw or sin to square sounds like a filter opening up as harmonics get introduced, and that trick has been exploited to turn the pair of “Brass” into pure 1980s digital filter-free synthesis. But despite the trick (early ramp via EG to morph from sin to saw, giving a harmonic enrichening over the first 100ms or so of the sound) you simply can’t replace a filter with tricks, so the sounds do suffer as a result. But hey, no free lunches here, the goal was to make it burn less CPU and still get a decent sound, so I’m thankful it sounds as good as it does. The “Fat Lady” bass has also gone filterless – with a reduction in its Phase Distortion and a more sin-like wave shape to de-fizz in the absence of actual filtering. Ditto the Warm Jets ‘guitar’, which actually prefers being filterless as it likes to sizzle, ditto Phil’s Wiggly Manzanera which still needs work. The percussive elements remain filtered because they just have to be, they totally rely on the spectral shaping and in most cases the self-oscillating resonance of the filter to generate anything at all apart from ugly noise.
And the result is, after most of the the filter removal and all the new performance tuning, this version runs in exactly 24% of an iPad 2. Only 24% – it may actually run on a Pi in this form. Think about that for just a second – there is a damn good chance that £20 of woefully underpowered educational computer will be able to synthesize this piece in real time, without resorting to a Pocket Orchestra. Bear in mind, ‘this’ is now 14 notes of polyphony, many stereo delays (seven? eight??), a global reverb and 10 separate synths. And I repeat, no samples – every single waveform is computed, constructed by segments of quadratics and cubics, and the waves are being wiggled by the mod matrix, by the 4 LFOs and 4 EGs. My God it’s full of code.
Audio was captured from the iPad and not processed in any way, these are exactly the bytes that I computed. Cool, eh? Plus, big bonus, you get the Eerie Noise – which is actually a combination of a dedicated ‘Eerie Noise’ synth and the pair of brasses, turned way down and pitch bent to buggery. Yay!
Next step – get this codebase rebuilt on a Pi and actually run it.
The Expressive Tron – free sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt
Tronsonic has released The Expressive Tron, a free sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt (5.2.1+).
The Expressive Tron features 4 tape banks from an original (un-serviced) Mellotron M400: Flute, Strings, Cello and Male Choir:
- These are not pristine Mellotron samples – re-recorded to worn tape for characterful sound design.
- Utilises Tronsonic’s ‘microtape plus’ format, which features tape echo style sequencer and fx section.
- 5 patches per bank; 5 multi patches.
Visit tronsonic.com for your free download – no need to register.
Electronic Wednesday: Tape 2 feat. Vitalic, Stoll, Starlight, Rother..
Electronic Wednesday – Tape 1 feat. Green Velvet, Plastikman, Beyer, Slater…
Aphex Twin on the tube with Caustic Window
Back in 1994, there were plans for releasing an LP of music from Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, under his “Caustic Window” moniker on his own label, Rephlex Records.
This album, though recorded, never saw the light of day. Only 4 people at the time were known to have a vinyl test pressing of the album – Richard James, Chris Jeffs (aka Cylob), Grant Wilson-Claridge (co-founder of Rephlex Records) and Mike Paradinas (aka µ-Ziq). Each person was sworn to never make copies of the music, and for 20 years, the LP little more than a rumor.
Now one of the few copies of the Caustic Window LP was listed on eBay, purchased as a Kickstarter project (with the blessing of James & Replex Records) and ripped for project supporters.
Tracks:
- A1 – Flutey 8:25
- A2 – Stomper 101mod Detunekik 7:29
- B1 – Mumbly 5:37
- B2 – Popeye 1:21
- B3 – Fingertrips 4:19
- B4 – Revpok 3:44
- B5 – Afx Tribal Kik 1:11
- C1 – Airflow 5:09
- C2 – Squidge In The Fridge 4:13
- C3 – Fingry 4:55
- C4 – Jazzphase 4:27
- G1 – 101 Rainbows (Ambient Mix) 8:53
- G2 – Phlaps 3:52
- G3 – Cunt 4:20
- G4/5 – Phone Pranks 2:21
TV Synth Demo!
Youtube alias ‘burnkit2600’ showing off his creation, the light sensitive TV Synth (aka Synthesizia 1) in its natural habitat and raw unprocessed glory.
“Just a couple of play styles I’ve developed on top of a rugged TR-606 DFM groove”
SH101 in action
Vintage synthesizer demo track featuring the classic Roland SH-101
all sounds: Roland SH-101 Analog Synthesizer (1983)
drums: Roland TR-707
recording: multitrack without Midi
Artificial Intelligence – Sound Library for Alchemy
Camel Audio has announced Artificial Intelligence, the 30th Sound Library for their sample manipulation synthesizer, Alchemy. They tell us that Artificial Intelligence draws inspiration from the futuristic, glitch-driven side of electronic music and is packed full of twisted, abstract soundscapes, intricately detailed sound effects, stuttering digital rhythms and warped synths and basses. They say that, with eight carefully designed remix variations for every preset, it’s easy to tweak the sounds to fit your music, and with a full set of tags, finding the right sound is just a click away.
The desktop version of Artificial Intelligence contains 150 presets and works with both Alchemy and Alchemy Player. Artificial Intelligence for Alchemy Mobile contains 50 presets.
Pricing and Availability:
The desktop version of Artificial Intelligence is available now from the Camel Audio shop for 59 USD / 49 EUR / 39 GBP. It’s also included in Alchemy Complete which comprises Alchemy and 30 Sound Libraries at a discount of over 50%.
Artificial Intelligence for Alchemy Mobile is available as an in-app purchase for 3.99 GBP / 4,49 EUR / 4.99 USD.
Me Blip You Blip
The Meeblip Anode might be one of the smallest and less interesting synths to look at – but it actually sounds pretty cool. I made this track just to show what it’s capable of. It’s not supposed to be a “hit” or anything. Just a showcase.
Bitsonic Cannabis Vocoder
Bitsonic has released Cannabis Vocoder, a free VST plug-in for Windows that can completely change the sound of your vocal track.
The mono version is a VST effect plug-in. Using the effect on the vocal track the software automatically tracks the tune of the vocal track, and calculates the pitch of the changed sound as well.
The poly version is a VST instrument plug-in, where you can load the vocal track into the software and using the MIDI channel you can create a polyphonic vocoder.
DATAMASKIN
