Nintendo KORG – now in Europe :-)
Finally
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorBOzwR3Tc]
KORG, maker of some of the world’s finest musical instruments, takes their legendary MS-10 synthesizer, adds tons of modern features, and combines it with the accessibility of the Nintendo DS Touch Screen. No effort was spared in creating the awesomely portable and powerful, yet incredibly easy to use, music creation software for your Nintendo DS.
KORG DS-10 Synthesizer offers two dual oscillator synth parts and four synth/drum parts to accommodate your hit. Sculpt your own sounds with expansive on-screen controls, or start from a preset template and get straight to writing. Create synth and drum lines using KORG DS-10 Synthesizer’s on-screen touch keyboard and drum pads, or engage the elegant 16-step sequencer. Employ KORG’s KAOSS technology to add astonishing custom modulations to your tracks in real-time. Tighten the mix with KORG DS-10 Synthesizer‘s full featured mixer, then polish that next big groove with multiple effects. Chain patterns to create complete songs and save it all right on the spot.
The Stylophone in action
The Stylophone appears on a few commercial recordings, most notably David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Slip Away” and the commercial rave single “Stylophonia” by Two Little Boys in 1991. Kraftwerk used the Stylophone on the track “Pocket Calculator” from their album Computer World.
[youtube=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR34vQDSoNA]
The Dubreq Stylophone is a miniature stylus operated synthesizer invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis. It consists of a metal keyboard played by touching it with a stylus – each note being connected to a cheap voltage-controlled oscillator via a different-value resistor – thus closing a circuit. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as children’s toys. Rolf Harris appeared for several years as the Stylophone’s advertising spokesman in the United Kingdom.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZt64_XOflk]
Read more here about the Stylophone >>
Mopho – with some weird new stuff
Synth mofo (in the best possible way) meets Mopho synth
This latest synth, the monphonic MoPho is based on the voice architecture of the Prophet 8 and the parameter access of the Evolver series and turns it yellow. The user interface has been paired down to give access to the most commonly accessed parameters, Pitch, Cutoff, Resonance, Attack and Decay/Release, with a further four assignable controls – which can be programmed from the front panel – you can fully program the synth from there, or via the Mac/PC basic editing software. There’s also the intriguing looking button labeled ‘Push It!”
Mopho is a compact and affordable—but powerful—monophonic analog synthesizer. The voice architecture is identical to a single voice of the Prophet ’08, but with a couple of unique twists to distinguish it from its award-winning sibling. We have added two sub-octave generators—one per oscillator—for additional girth and crushing basses. It also has an audio input that lets you process external audio and mix Mopho’s own audio output back in pre-filter for feedback effects that can range from subtle distortion to extreme skronk. The Push It button is a manual trigger that lets you play a specific note or latch notes and sequences on. It can also step through a sequence to play short melodic lines without a keyboard. Of course, Mopho can also be used with a MIDI controller or external sequencer.
Listen to it:
A Multi-Touch Interface for Ableton Live, with the New Lemur Firmware
If you haven´t seen this great article already!
If you could control your music with all of your digits, and get interactive feedback on a display, what would your setup look like? Expert Lemur user and software engineer Bryant Place has one such answer. It shows off just how much the Lemur’s software has evolved over a series of revisions, and reveals a bit of what can go into performing with Ableton Live.
Side note: for a look at live touch interfaces with Native Instruments’ Reaktor, see our story for our NI minisite. To really understand how touch is impacting live playing, I think it’s helpful to see what’s going on with different software platforms.
Multi-touch, Lemur, and Going Live
Part of the appeal of Ableton Live is that it behaves as a hybrid between arrangement software and musical instrument. Early versions even carried the tagline “Sequencing Instrument,” but that sums up the problem: instruments generally aren’t sequencers, and visa versa. To “play” your sequencer live is challenging enough, but added to that is the fundamental mouse-pointer interface that’s been in the marketplace for over twenty years. To really control live, you need more direct access.
The Lemur multi-touch hardware promised just such control when unveiled. In an early review, I saw this as promising but cautioned that the custom software the Lemur runs was overly rigid. Since then, firmware updates have gradually added more custom features.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I got to watch as Bryant showed off a set of templates he’s been developing that exploit these features for deeper, more interactive control of Ableton Live. Bryant’s session was brief enough that you could blink and miss it, but an awed crowd of assembled Live gurus revealed that he’d showed something really special. It’s a dream multi-touch setup. He’s using the new v2 firmware for Lemur, which we see in a screenshot from Jazz Mutant has also been used in their own template for Live. Not all the features come from v2 firmware, but those tabs make a big difference, and I can imagine continuing to go hog-wild with envelopes and such.
The basic idea: set up effects for live performance and make them readily accessible from the futuristic-looking, multi-touch, colored Lemur control surface. With a few compact screens, and interface elements that respond dynamically to what’s happening in software, it’s possible to use touch gestures to control elaborate effects arrangements in ways that would be very different than the results you could get from conventional knobs and faders.
Robert Marlow is back with new material
Robert Marlow returns helped by Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke seems to be as productive as ever, we just received the news that a new album by his childhood friend Robert Marlow, “Inside/Outside” will be released in October.
Clarke once again helps him arrange and produce the album, which is the first album since “The Peter Pan Effect” that got quite some attention back in 1999 when Swedish label Energy made it available.
Marlow did a number of shows in Sweden during that time, including a small tour with Canadian band Rational Youth.
For those of you not familiar with Marlow’s past, please enjoy this old time classic of his:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxGCHdZQN0U]
Depeche Mode: Tour of the Universe
Tour Of The Universe
The dates for the European leg of Depeche Mode’s upcoming tour, “Tour of The Universe 2009,” are now available! Tune in now to the LiveNation web site to view the Depeche Mode press conference, broadcasting LIVE from Berlin! We are announcing some exciting news for the upcoming year. If you miss it, don’t worry. The LiveNation link above will also be hosting replays of the press conference starting within one hour of the original web broadcast! We will also have a “highlights” video clip on the site within a few days.
All dates and cities are here >>
Arturia goes hardware
“We are extremely proud to be shipping Origin”, says Frédéric Brun, President of Arturia. “The project has taken much longer than we initially thought and, since we had announced the product early, Origin has been eagerly awaited by the market. In the end, taking more time has proven necessary to foster quality and details.”
 "Origin")
Loaded with modules extracted from the best synthesizers of all time, Origin lets you combine these modules and take advantage of the additional possibilities put onboard. The result: a new type of sound accessible through an extremely intuitive interface.
Listen to it:
Origin Audios
| Dub
by Arturia (JM & Vinx) |
This dub track has been entirely made with Origin, except the bass drum and the hi hat. Delay, chorus, phasing and short reverb effects all come from Origin. |
| Play it loud, I’m Origin and I’m proud
by Thomas Koot |
Progressive song entirely made with Origin, including drums. No external effects, compression or EQ-ing. Sidechaining effects made with sequencer driven envelopes. |
| Electro demo
by JMB Arturia |
A demo track based on the Multi “Dark Side 80s”. it originally uses 4 program playing in layering mode: 1 leads sound, a warm and fat bass sequence, an electro drum sequence, a complex dual percussive sequences program and a rich pad! The mix of this track has been done in real time using the Program’s volume MIDI CC controllers and the mod wheel opening the cutoff frequency of the pad sound’s filter. |
| Lake and Forest
by TJam |
A nice Jazz ambient soundscape using the “Jazz Guitar”, a “12 strings” Guitar, a warm and deep strings pad and a light lead sound. |
| Wes Montgomery Four on six
by JMB Arturia |
A jazz trio standard played by Origin. The jazz guitar and the double bass parts have been played with a Guitar MIDI controller to keep the guitar and bass intact feeling. The drum parts have been played with Drum Session thanks to a MIDI drum. |
New updates on Image Line's synths
Image Line just announced a series of minor updates to their core line of virtual synthesizers. To expand your sound palet Image Line offer a complete range of synths and effects like Sytrus, Morphine, Toxic Biohazard, Edison, Poizone, DirectWave, DrumSynth Live, SimSynth Live, DX-10, WASP
– fixed crashes/freezes when closing plugin in OSX
– fixed threading in Windows version
– fixed compatibility with the Toxic Biohazard installer in OSX
– better tablet pc / stylus support
– fixed polyphony issues in FL version
– several small changes
– fixed threading issues
– made it more stable
– better tablet pc / stylus support
– fixed polyphony issues in FL version
– fixed crash when changing presets on PPC macs
– several small changes and fixes
Toxic Biohazard 1.0.2 released
– fixed crashes when closing plugins in OSX
– threading-related fixes
– fixes on PPC macs
– fixed some crashes related to downloader in OSX
– several small changes and fixes
Marc Almond – with new material in the pipe
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkgmFSX2nk]
September saw the release of a six-track Marc Almond EP, Brel Extras, which includes three new studio recordings, plus two remastered live recordings of “The Devil (Okay)” and “If You Go Away.” The limited edition disc also includes the 1984 fan club flexi version of “My Death.”
In October, fans can expect a DVD/CD package, Marc Almond in Bluegate Fields — Live at Wilton’s Music Hall. The DVD features a show recorded earlier this year along with bonus songs. The audio-only CD will include guest appearances by Little Annie and Baby Dee.
Almond has also confirmed new live dates for the UK, Serbia, Lithuania and Russia. Please follow the links for more information.
New version of Reaper available
REAPER Latest Version
before spending big bucks on a software package (or worse, pirating it), try Reaper – it’s fully operational straight away and you’re free to demo it for as long as you want, has features enough to rival a lot of commercial packages and only costs $40 if you decide to support it at some point by registering it.
| REAPER v2.51 – September 26, 2008 Download: 3.4 MB installer
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DATAMASKIN
