Moog: Archetype Of A Synthesizer – The Haxan Cloak // NIN
Recently, Moog had the honor of sitting down with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, the genre-defining music innovator, master synthesist and Academy Award winning composer. In the interview, Reznor recounts his intimate relationship with the Minimoog Voyager, which he feels “is the archetype of what a synthesizer is and should be.” Through personal stories, Reznor reveals his decades long history with the instrument and how it has shaped the way he views and creates music.
The video is set to an original score by British electronic music producer, The Haxan Cloak, co-producer of Bjork’s Vulnicura.. Befitting the occasion, the artist used a Minimoog Voyager and a prototype Mother-32, Moog’s newest synthesizer, to create the score.
“I made the track in a unique way that I never have before.
I have had modular synths for a long time, and consistently produced music with them, but purposefully never had a ‘keyboard-based’ setup because of not wanting to treat them in such a ‘traditional’ manner (purely for reasons of self-limitation).
Having the Voyager allowed me to utilize a more responsive approach of seeing the picture and essentially ‘playing’ along to it. I then took those results and used them to modulate other parameters and processed them further. The Mother 32 was used extensively as a sound source alongside also.
The Voyager is a synth I have always been fascinated by, but unfortunately never had the opportunity to own. I knew people that had them, but my first physical encounter was actually on the recent Bjork tour. I used it for a lot for recreating basslines from her back catalogue, which it did effortlessly.
It’s such an incredibly versatile synth and has already become a uniquely indispensable backbone of my studio.” – The Haxan Cloak
Polivoks Synthesizer sequenced MIDI via Dotcom modules
Background video description:
I still intend to do a full Polivoks demo but I was having fun with this sequence so I had to share. I love the vibrato-like modulation I used on oscillator one. This Polivoks has a MIDI IN / THRU mod, and I’m using the Synthesizers.com quantizer bank aid Q172’s MIDI out to transmit CV for pitch via the Q119 sequencer.
Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May all in the same place – is there a threshold for number of legends in a single building?
Kevin Saunderson, right, performs with the German electronic music group Kraftwerk during an after-hours event at MOCAD on Monday, October 5, 2015.
New acoustic album from Björk
Björk has announced the release of an acoustic take on album Vulnicura.
With the album released earlier this year, Björk now looks set to follow it up with vulnicura strings, an album that will see her re-interpret the original album only with strings, viola organista and her voice. The original version of the album saw Björk work with producer Arca on some of the tracks’ string arrangements. vulnicura strings is out on CD and digital download on November 6 and vinyl on December 4
Roland JP-08 vs Roland Jupiter-8
The legendary JUPITER-8 synth is back as a very cute module , the JP-08. However lets listen to the iconic original Jupiter-8 in a very rare presentation , in the way we all synth nerds want a Youtube demo video. NO FX , NO EQ and NO COMPRESSION just the synths outputs straight in to high quality AD converters ! Here we go !
Esspresso – new CPU heavy professional de-esser
This audio effect is an advanced de-esser with an intuitive user interface. The uniqueness of Esspresso is that the detection frequency range isn’t coupled with the suppressors frequency range. That means you can listen to a specific frequency and compress another one, which is often what you’ll want from a professional de-esser. With a fast and accurate frequency response view, you will easily get full control over annoying S-sounds that ruin the mix.
Noteworthy features:
- Audiobus 2 compatible (works in iOS9)
- Inter app audio compatible (IAA)
- Detector sensitivity gain
- Visual reduction RMS
- Visual detector RMS
- Suppressor can work as allpass, bandpass and highpass
- Load / Save presets
- Documentation
Note! Esspresso consumes quite a bit of CPU power and iPad 4 or later is recommended.
Listen now to the new David Bowie track Blackstar (Excerpt)
David Bowie has created a new track that was commissioned especially for The Last Panthers. Have a listen.
Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim and John Hurt are coming to Sky Atlantic in brand new European crime thriller The Last Panthers.
Find out more: http://sky.com/tv/show/the-last-panthers
Watch more on YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/SkyAtlantic
Like us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/SkyAtlantic
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skyatlantic
The show’s director Johan Renck, said: “I showed Mr. Bowie the two first episodes in the rough state they were at the time, and he liked what he saw very much. We discussed the various aspects of the show; naturally the plot line, but also the underlying currents of guilt and personality flaws. We talked about the dark heart of Europe. We talked about the biblical aspects of human nature. He asked if there was anything else to see, so I showed him the first concept board i had just made for the title sequence – images from the show laced with chimaeras and demons from the worlds of Bosch and Grunewald. That’s when he said go – it all fits. Then he played me his new song ‘BLACKSTAR’.”
ModSynth – The fourth modular synthesizer for Android
ModSynth allows the creation of many different kinds of music synthesizers. Connect any number of oscillators, filters, delays and other synthesizer modules in a graphical flow editor. Then, adjust the settings of each module while playing the instrument to get a desired sound. Save as many instruments or variants of an instrument as you’d like. Eight built-in instruments are provided to help you get started.
The free version is ad supported and contains the following modules:
– Keyboard to receive the notes as they are played (via the onscreen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard)
– Pad to control two dimensions of sound, such as pitch and volume, for theremin-like control
– Oscillator to generate different “raw” tones
– Filter to shape the overtones of the sound
– Envelope for describe how a value (such as overtones or volume) change over time
– Mixer to mix two sounds together
– Amp for change the amplitude of the sound
– Delay for delays and echo effects,
– Output to hear (and see!) the sound
In-app purchase the full version (for $4.99 US) to remove ads, unlock advanced capabilities, and access additional synthesizer modules:
– MultiOsc for smooth chorus sounds,
– Operator for building FM synthesis,
– PCM for sampled sounds,
– Sequencer for adding loops,
– Reverb for simulating room acoustics.
ModSynth has USB MIDI support for external MIDI keyboards. It has low latency on devices supporting Android low latency (such as Nexus). All oscillators are anti-aliased, providing low distortion at higher frequencies.
A guide to using ModSynth can be found at http://gallantrealm.weebly.com/modsynth.html.
If you don’t see a capability you’d like, comment! There’s a good chance it can be added!
Going pro: The New Microsoft Surface Book
Introducing the new Microsoft Surface Book. The ultimate laptop. Learn more at surface.com
The Surface Book – designed as “the ultimate laptop” features the latest Core-i Intel Skylake generation processor, 276PPI, 12 hours battery life, discrete (not motherboard mounted) NVIDIA graphics up to 16GB RAM and a 1TB super fast PCIe SSD.
It has a machined magnesium body, and an extremely cool-looking robocop style hinge thing (dynamic fulcrum), with detachable screen. Starting price is $1499 though, so they seem to be going for the Macbook Pro market (MS say it will be twice as fast as the MBPro in fact), with i5 and i7 versions.
Available October 26th.
With the Windows 10 audio and MIDI focus, perhaps this will be a viable audio device.
Surdos & Snares – authentic sounding and controllable drum sample library for Kontakt.
Aria Sounds has released Surdos & Snares, an authentic sounding, flexible and controllable drum sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
ARIA Sounds are proud to present “Surdos & Snares”, a percussion ensemble consisting of three snares and three surdo drums, all placed in the displayed formation, and reproduced faithfully, so you can play these drums, and they will sound in these positions.
We have absolutely pushed the variation and authenticity to the limit with this library. There are 127 dynamic layers per hit/technique/key in these drums, which provides even more benefits than the obvious lack of repetition, or the dreaded “machine-gun effect”.
Surdos & Snares features
- 127 velocity layers for ultimate realism.
- Ensemble of 6 individually playable drums.
- Faithful 3D sound/reproduction of ech drum’s position in the hall.
- Variety of techniques per drum, including soft mallets, sticks, rims, hands, different brushes.
- Close and main mic positions.
- Over 6GB of samples.
Surdos & Snares for Kontakt 4 and 5 (full version) is available at a 50% discount for a limited time (regular £39.99 GBP).
DATAMASKIN
