H.G. Fortune releases Plutonia – best of all its free
H.G. Fortune has released Plutonia, a free VST instrument for Windows PC.
As I made wavesets as sf2 files available I did a small free VSTi synth so one might get an impression of the contents of the wavesets.
Plutonia features
- 2 oscillators with 256 sf2 based PCM waveforms each.
- Selection of built-in waveform from H.G. Fortune wavesets: AlioModularity, HGF Best of # 1 & # 2, Athmonia-a (complex waveforms generated from images), Seamless Textures (complex waveforms generated from images), HGF Retro Set.
- 24dB Lowpass filter with resonance per synth voice.
- Condensed Spook B fx.
- BassEnhancer to enhance low frequencies (works indenpendently from Color signal).
- BPM-synced delay.
- 2 ADSR envelope generators (one for Filter, one for VCA) for modulation.
- 4 LFO’s (including SLFO) and one Sample & Hold.
Plutonia is available as a freeware VST instrument plug-in for Windows PC.
Sneak peak of the Mojo
Controllerist Moldover has posted a sneak peek of his first commercial controller, the Mojo.
Features (as listed on Moldover’s site):
- Works with all MIDI compatible music software
- lIncludes new Moldover template for Ableton Live
- 10 ultra-responsive touch strips
- 24 competition-grade arcade buttons
- Rubberized knobs, rugged faders and burly toggle switches
- Assembled in San Francisco CA by Andy from Pance Party
- Sexy mahogany body by Livid Instruments
- Scratch-resistant anodized aluminum faceplate
- Environmentally sealed twist-lock USB cable included
- USB bus powered electronics by Hale Micro
- Class-compliant USB device (no driver to install)
- Free copy of Moldover’s self-titled album included
- Dimensions: 11.5″ x 18″ x 4″, 7.5lbs
A limited edition of 20 Mojos will ship in March and will cost $1799.
Cryo to release new album
Video of the KORG Kaossilator PRO
Korg announced the KAOSSILATOR PRO at the NAMM. It is a supercharged version of the palm-sized KAOSSILATOR, reborn as a powerful track-making tool and loaded with live performance power. Richard Formidoni of Korg USA demonstrates the new Kaossilator Pro Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer/Loop Recorder at the past Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA.
Main features
- KAOSS X-Y touchpad offers intuitive, realtime control
- 200 sounds covering modern synth sounds such as lead and bass, and diverse acoustic sounds from piano to trumpet and beyond
- PCM samples provide dramatic drum kits and ready to rock percussion patterns
- Vocoder programs deliver scintillating vocal effects
- Access up to eight of your favorite sounds instantly using the assignable Program Memory buttons
- Loop Recording can layer both internal Program sounds and external audio overdubs
- Four Loop Record Banks each allow up to four measures of loop recording, with easy muting that allows expressive realtime layering and DJ-Style re-mixing – ideal for live performance.
- Gate Arpeggiator repeatedly triggers sounds in sync with the tempo. The slider controls either the gate time or gate speed.
- Choose a key and select one of 31 musical scales to easily create musical phrases. Limit the X-Y pad’s note range for even more control
- Loop data, user settings and Program Memories can be stored on SD card
- Dedicated software lets you manage loop data, MIDI assignments, and user settings from your computer
- Performs double-duty as a MIDI controller for external equipment or software applications
Moog Taurus bass synth
Moog shows off their new Taurus bass sythesizer at NAMM 2010.
The Girl and the Robot
The Girl and the Robot, a new electro-pop duo featuring Deadbeat of Second Unit and Plastique of Welle:Erdball, will release their debut EP, Whole/Flowers, February 5 on the Trisol label. The EP features bonus remixes from Die Perlen and Javelynn Fate, the current project of former Ashbury Heights vocalist Yasmine Uhlin. To hear previews from Whole/Flowers, visit The Girl and the Robot’s MySpace page.
Nice picture by the way, need say no more, can´t wait to see them (her) live 
Interesting post on the sequencer battle
Found an interesting post/article called the Sequencer wars, where the author had used Google trends over the past years to analyze which sequencers are gaining or loosing in market share. The result is shown in the graph below.
And the result shows that Ableton continues to grow as the most popular system going forward.
Losers:
Cubase started from a high in early 2004 and has seemingly experienced a steady decline ever since apart from a few short-lived spikes; most notably in late 2004 when the news graph shows that Steinberg announced an update to Cubase SX 3.0.1
(I initially thought this result was quite odd so I performed other searches based around the [Cubase ] search-word to see if there was a correlation… and there is! The search trends for Cubase SX and VST pretty much match the same downward trend as above.)
Cakewalk shows an even more dramatic fall. It starts from a higher spike than Cubase at the start of 2004, but ends lower than it did in the last quarter of 2006!
(Still a bit sceptical, I ran another for Cakewalk SONAR Although there’s been a more volatile ride, ithe graph shows a similar start and end-point as above.)
Winners:
Ableton on average, has experienced a steady rise in search volume all through the timeline, reflecting its new-kid-on-the-block rise into the mind-share of electronic musicians.
Flatlining:
Pro Tools does end at a slightly lower point than when the resultset began, but the trend-line itself is pretty much even when you look at the spikes it has seen. However, 2006 shows a fairly strong downward trend that is seemingly breaking-away from the rest of the line!
Read the full article here and some of the “conclusions” >>
Thanks to The Whippingpost for sharing
Who needs a HW MIDI?
Simple but neat when you are on the road and works well with most software synths I have tried it on. Of course as with all virtual MIDIs you will miss out on the fact that it is not pressure sensitive, but often you can come quite far anyhow.
So, sometime it’s nice to not have to plug in a keyboard to play around with a softsynth, especially when you’re writing one. So here’s a little app you can use instead. It shows a little keyboard on screen, and you can use the computer keyboard to play MIDI notes. ‘z’ through ‘,’ is the octave starting a middle C (note 60). The keys on the row above are flats, and the octave below is on the row starting with ‘q’ (and the digit row is that octave’s flats).
* MidiKeys is now a universal binary.
* Minimum system is now 10.5.
* Changed ownership to Immo Software.
* New configurable hot key to toggle global hot keys.
* Support for automatic software updates using the Sparkle framework.
* New option to show the key caps on the on-screen keyboard.
* The MIDI channel field has been changed to a pop-up menu.
* The disclosure button to show the destination and listen menus is now a normal button instead of being a repurposed toolbar toggle button.
* Pressed key highlights are drawn with a slight gradient.
* New Global Hot Keys menu item.
* New preferences to control the visibility of overlay notifications.
* It is now possible to have no modifier key for global hot keys, so you only have to press the key corresponding to the note.
* Key maps were extended to use more keys on the keyboard.
* Non-English localisations have been disabled for this release due to the number of UI changes.
* Added a preference to make the keyboard window transparent to mouse clicks when MidiKeys is in the background.
* Made the keyboard window minimizable.
* Reorganized the preferences window with several tabs.
* Added preferences to control software updates.
Well this is more like it – more from NAMM
Mungo Enterprises announced their new toy today.
- 8 notes of polyphony
- Standalone hardware
- 4 Oscillators per note
- 4 Filters per note
- Hardwood enclosure and lid
- Anything-to-anything patching
- Programmable normalling
- Real 3.5mm patch cables
- Unlimited routes
- Stored in memory
Bass, continuously variable portamento time + stereo filters one with overdriven feedback.
Pad, stereo sawtooth symmetry modulation + detuning by scaling
Cheese, 6 operator DX-7 type “FM” synthesis
So what has happened at NAMM this year…
…so far not much that makes (at least) me impressed, here are a few samples collected. But I encourage you to respond if I have missed out on anything of importance.
Arturia introduced a series of three hybrid synthesizers
Roland announces the VP-7 Vocal Processor
The Human Voice section provides rich and expressive choral backing by just playing the keyboard — no singing required.
Roland introduces the VR-700
Features:
- Roland’s acclaimed Virtual Tone Wheel and COSM technology provide authentic organ sound
- Dedicated harmonic bars, rotary-speaker simulation, and amp models, including Active Amp Enhancer
- 76-key waterfall keyboards offers smooth glissandos, fast action, and provides enough keys for splits
- Dual-manual simulation with Split function plus pedalboard capability (optional Roland PK-25A, PK-7A)
- Essential ensemble sounds (with tone remain function) onboard, including 88-key multi-sampled pianos, EP, strings, brass, synth pads, and more
- Full polyphony in the organ section, 128-voice polyphony for the ensemble section
- WAV/AIFF/MP3/SMF playback function for backing tracks
- Built-in rhythm patterns for practice and play-along performance
- Store user and system settings onboard and to USB memory sticks
- Versatile I/O, including professional XLR outputs
At Winter NAMM 2010, Peavey Electronics and Muse Research and Development have introduced the new, portable, flexible MuseBox Musical Instrument and Effects Box. The MuseBox uses virtual instruments and effects technology in a brand-new way, so players of all types can easily take cutting-edge software-based synths, sounds and effects to rehearsals, gigs, to the practice room, or to the studio
DATAMASKIN
