More free synths and effects at Stereoklang, including DroneMaker
Sonic Entropy has introduced Zombie Killah 2, a free synthesizer instrument plug-in for Windows that they describe as “THE ultimate badass synth”.
“Most recommended for use for lead parts, especially in Drum’n’Bass, Breakbeat, Dubstep, Jungle music.”
Zombie Killah 2 Features:
- 2 detuned oscillators.
- 1 sub bass oscillator
- Easy and quick modulators:
- One-Knob Adjustable Frequency Modulation.
- One-Knob Amplitude Modulation.
- Double-Knob Pulse Width Modulation.
- Vibrato and Tremolo.
- 3-way filtering.
- Host-synced BPM LFO Speeds.
- All parameters automatable, but an assignable MIDI CC for LFO Speed is available if needed.
- Chorus effect for stereo widening.
- 10 Factory Presets to get you started.
Zombie Killah 2 is a free VSTi plugin for Windows. Mac users will have to find their own “ultimate badass synth.”
SoundMagic Spectral is a free suite of 23 Audio Unit plug-ins that implement real-time spectral processing of sound.
Included in SoundMagic Spectral are the following effects:
Spectral Averaging, Spectral Bin Shift, Spectral Blurring, Spectral DroneMaker, Spectral Emergence, Spectral Filterbank, Spectral Freezing, Spectral Gate and Hold, Spectral Gliding Filters, Spectral Granulation, Spectral Harmonizer, Spectral Partial Glide, Spectral Pitch Shift, Spectral Pulsing, Spectral Shimmer, Spectral Shuffle, Spectral Stretch, Spectral Tracing, Chorus, Comb Filter Bank, Grain Streamer, Idee Fixer, Mr Filterbank
Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4 and a G4, G5 processor or Intel Mac.
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The Knife's opera on Darwin soon as an album release
Swedish electro-pop duo The Knife have announced plans to release a studio version of the opera Tomorrow, in a Year, in collaboration with bands Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, on March 1. Tomorrow, In A Year, commissioned by performance group Hotel Pro Forma, is based on the work of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
“At first it was very difficult, as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one,” says Olof Dreijer of The Knife. “But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera.”
The Knife had originally composed the music on their own for the opera itself, but decided to pull in Mt. Sims and Planningtorock to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. The opera has performances slated until February 1 in Stockholm, Sweden. Subscribers to The Knife’s mailing list will receive a free download of the track “Colouring of Pigeons” from the upcoming album.
Joe Barresi’s Evil Drums SDX® Expansion Pack for Superior Drummer® 2.0
Joe Barresi’s Evil Drums SDX® Expansion Pack for Superior Drummer® 2.0
Platinum Samples is proud to announce the release of Joe Barresi’s Evil Drums SDXTM Expansion Pack for Toontrack Music’s Superior Drummer® 2.0 software – after all, it only seems fitting to release Evil Drums for the flagship product from the company that gave us Drumkit From Hell. Joe Barresi is one of the busiest producer/engineers working today with an impressive list of credits including albums by Tool, Wolfmother, Queens Of The Stone Age, Weezer, Clutch, Pennywise, Turbonegro, Bad Religion, and many more.
Featuring 6 full drum kits, 6 kick drums and 6 snares the Evil Drums Expansion Pack is unlike any other expansion pack available. Recorded to analog tape at two legendary rock studios using compression and EQ, Joe Barresi has captured a diverse ensemble of drum sounds with unprecedented detail and full bleed to create a unique and exquisitely evil expansion pack. Evil Drums also includes MIDI grooves performed by Pat Wilson (Weezer, The Special Goodness).
Platinum Samples is the first third party company to release Expansion Packs for Toontrack Music’s best selling Superior Drummer® 2.0 software. The expansion pack requires that Superior Drummer® 2.0 be installed and is both Mac OS X and Windows compatible. Superior Drummer® 2.0 supports Digidesign’s RTAS format, as well as VSTi and Audio Units technologies.
Please visit the www.platinumsamples.com web site for additional information.
Audio issues at Victoria's secret
This article dives into the issues when cameras and audio equipment needs to play well together, Not just beautiful ladies I guess 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8P8XpMoQaE
With hostess Heidi Klum leading a glittering parade of supermodels down the runway inside New York’s Lexington Avenue Armory, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show certainly revealed a sumptuous feast for the eyes. The mid-November videotaping for CBS was also a party for the ears, with a pulsating soundtrack mixed by renowned DJ Jeremy Healy and live performances by the Black Eyed Peas all potently reproduced by a camera-friendly phalanx of 128 Meyer Sound loudspeakers.
For sound designer Erich Bechtel of ADI:Audible Difference Inc., now in his tenth year working the annual spectacle, the assignment was clear-cut. “The production company wanted the system to steer clear of all camera sightlines and yet still sound good and loud,” says Bechtel.
It was a task more easily stated than accomplished. To stay out of camera shots, minimum array trim height was set at 47 feet. Subwoofers could not be hung due to weight restrictions, and the deep-thrust V-shaped stage split the audience into opposing sections. Finally, the armory’s vast size (about 180 by 190 feet) with high ceilings generated distressingly long reverberation times.
New VST iMoog for free
Sound Blocker has introduced iMoog, a free software synthesizer for Kontakt 4 based on sounds of the Moog Minimoog Voyager.
Mike at Sound Blocker notes:
I sampled some Moog Voyager sounds and made a free Kontakt instrument. All samples are made with analog outboard gear like API A2D, 5500, 2500, SMC 2b or Hammer EQ.
For now you can download two demo packs: “Big Boy” and “I saw U”.
More sound packs will come soon – Hope you like it. Have fun …
Cheers Ola
The 20 best electronic albums in the past decade
Hi all
Time to sum up the past ten years and list the 20 best / most important electronic, electro, EBM and synth albums that has been released. This is of course a tricky quest and will most likely create some debate. Numerous of good albums has been released and I have certainly not listened to all of them, but still someone needs to make a statement :-). The albums are listed in order of importance, but may not be absolute, in the sense that – if they are rated as number 6, they could easily be argued to have place number 7 instead etc, but still…
Number 1:
Kraftwerk – Tour de france soundtrack
Number 2:
The Knife – Silent Shout
Number 3:
Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
Number 4:
Covenant – Skyshaper
Number 5:
Colder – Again
Number 7:
Daft Punk – Discovery
Number 8:
Felix! – Kittenz and thee glitz
Number 9:
Welle: Erdball – Die wunderwelt der technik
Number 10:
Suicide – American supreme
Number 11:
DAF – Fünfzehn neue D.A.F-Lieder
Number 12:
VNV Nation – Futureperfect
Number 13:
Röyksopp – Melody A.M.
Number 14:
Rammstein – Mutter
Number 15:
Vive la fete – Republique populaire
Number 16:
And One – Agressor
Number 17:
Jeans Team – Musik von oben
Number 18:
Recloose – Cardiology
Number 19:
Melotron – Sternenstaub
Number 20/21:
Télépopmusik – Genetic world
System – Self organizing
New releases from Welle:Erdball, Covenant, Skinny Puppy, Die Krupps
Coming up on SPV (these release dates are not final):
- WELLE:ERDBALL – Operation Zeitsturm DVD+CD out feb./march: Announced for ages – the movie by/featuring Welle:Erdball plus exclusive CD!
- COVENANT – Modern Ruin CD/2CD out feb./march: 4 years after “Skyshaper” and 3 years after their last official release “In Transit”, Covenant return with an all new full-length album. There will also be a limited 2CD edition.
- DIE KRUPPS – New album CD/CDL out march/april: Legendary German electro-pioneers DIE KRUPPS announce an all new album for spring 2010. Available in two different editions.
- SKINNY PUPPY – New album CD/CDL out march/april: Skinny Puppy return with their follow-up to “Mythmaker” towards march/april next year. Also their album should be available in two different editions.
- FUNKER VOGT – New album CD/CDL out march/april: also Funker Vogt announce a new album, following their “Warzone” Live-double CD and double-DVD.
And there is some good news coming in from SPV. With Sony Music Entertainment Germany backing up the Hanover-based independent music company SPV, Sony Music had already started distributing a large part of SPV’s repertoire on the latter’s behalf starting October 1, 2009. They now also announced approximate release dates for several of their more famous electro signings. More details of these releases after the jump!
The extensive partnership with Sony will have a duration of several years and includes an option for Sony Music to buy SPV in the end. The partnership was the only way of maintaining the company’s business operations up until the present day. SPV has been in business for 25 years. Up until its insolvency, it had over 80 employees and generated sales of more than €80 million ($113.7 million) a year.
In May 2009 the German label SPV had sent out a message to its business partners saying that they had to initiate insolvency proceedings.
ElectriXmas 2009 – Review of the acts
Hi all
Time for a short review of the five different acts at the 2009 ElectriXmas event. VNV was the main act for this years event and they fulfilled their promises and the crowd was cheerful as ever :-). Sorry about the sound quality, filmed with my cell phone
Spark!
Rating: 3+
Impressive performance from a small newcomer duo
Sadman
Rating: 1
Lousy singer and boring Depeche wanna be songs
Aestethic Perfection
Rating: 4+
Great act, best of the show this year
Rotersand
Rating: 3
OK, but boring
VNV Nation
Rating: 3
Good show, but not up to par with what one is used to, perhaps it mattered that they were a bit drunk…
Teaser for NAMM 2010 – Moog
2010 NAMM Show: This is a Berlin School teaser from Moon Modular for their booth at the upcoming Winter NAMM Show.
And happy new year btw
New Reason Refill from Peff
Peff has released Monologue Refill, a free monophonic analogue synthesizer library for the Reason 4.0 NN-XT sampler.
The sets include the standard sawtooth, square, triangle waves. Also included are a fixed rate pulse width modulation set, and hard sync sawtooth set. Other sources include, detuned pulses, frequency modulated oscillators, tuned oscillator layers, white noise, and sine wave samples from a self-oscillating resonant filter.
Each category of oscillator waveform is multisampled and looped (some more carefully than others). The NN-XT patches are expanded in dozens of combinator patches (Record and/or Reason 4.0 only) which cover classic bass tones, mono leads, sound effects, arpeggiated and sequenced patches, and a set of analog drum sounds. Also, a pseudo voice set was created using a hard sync sawtooth modulating the filter frequency. This was particularly challenging as each sample zone required careful tweaking.
Monologue Refill is available as a free download (Record & Reason 4.0 required to fully use all combinator patches).
More information: Monologue Refill
DATAMASKIN
