Roger Linn Jams on Dave Smith Tempest
The Tempest from Dave Smith in full action at NAMM last week
Free virtual drum instrument plugin for Windows
Marvin Pavilion has released version 0.1 of Tromine GT, a free virtual drum instrument plugin for Windows.
Tromine GT is a Roland TR-808 style drum synthesizer.
All instruments are made with analog synthesis.
Tromine GT features
- 16 sounds:
- Bass drum: Tune, Sweep, Tone, Decay, Pan, Level.
- Snare drum: Tune, Tone, Decay, Snare, Pan, Level.
- Low tom / Low conga, Mid tom / Mid conga, High tom / High conga: Tune, Tone, Noise, Decay, Pan, Level.
- Closed hihat, Open hihat: Tune, Decay, Pan, Level.
- Crash cymbal, Hand clap: Tune, Tone, Decay, Pan, Level.
- Rimshot: Tune, Pan, Level.
- Claves, Maracas, Cowbell: Tune, Decay, Pan, Level.
- 9 outputs.
- MIDI CC support.
- Automation support.
Tromine GT is available as a free download for Windows PC (VST).
More information: Marvin Pavilion
TheDrumSource – virtual drum machine instrument
Ola Wistedt and Mats Lindfors have released version 1.0 (release candidate 1) of TheDrumSource, a sample based drum machine instrument for Windows.
It has a sequencer and a built in sample browser. It looks and “feels” like a classic (x0x) hardware drum machine.
TheDrumSource is designed with the purpose to be very simple and easy to work with even if you are used to work with hardware drum machines or not. The built in sample browser in TheDrumsource makes it very easy to navigate through your samples. The sequencer can be running when looking for new samples. You will hear the sample the moment you selects it. There is also a quick button to select the previous and next sample in the same directory as the current selected sample. TheDrumsource has a very short time to get started on making your beats.
TheDrumSource features
- Built in sample browser suited for a easy workflow when working with samples. And almost all of TheDrumSource’s functions is still available while browsing.
- Built in sequencer that has 24 sequences for your patterns. The patterns are of the 16-step bar type
- Support for many sample formats (including 24 bit samples): WAV, AIFF, AIFC, AU, SND, RAW, PAF, IFF, SVX, SF, VOC, W64, MAT4, MAT5, PVF, XI, HTK, CAF, SD2, FLAC, OGG.
- A GUI that can be resized to suit you screen.
- A quick button to change the next and previous sample in current directory of the selected sample.
- A stereo output channel for each drum. And a mode to mix down all channels temporary into one stereo channel for quick tests to get you up and running a little bit faster on some hosts.
- The SYNC mode. The sequencer is synced by the host (DAW) and you control which of the 24 track to be played with MIDI (octave 2 and 3).
- The MIDI mode. The samples can be played through midi keyboard (octave 1) with the sequencer turned off.
- The RUN mode. Lets you play around with the TheDrumsource sequencer when your host (DAW) is not running.
- Clean interface so you don’t get distracted in your creative work. TheDrumsource uses context menus to make this possible.
TheDrumSource is available to download as a free VST instrument plug-in for Windows.
More information: TheDrumSource
Tempest – an all new analog drum machine
Dave Smith Instruments Tempest. An all new analog drum machine. Awesome. If you listen carefully the demo goes from all the way from 606 to 909ish with some nice Simmons tom emulation and synth stabs. There are a lot of specs but does it matter? A lot of buttons and analog stuff. $2000. link
Summary of Features
•Each of the 6 analog voices has 2 analog oscillators plus 2 digital oscillators (with a large bank of included samples), Dave’s classic analog low-pass filter with audio-rate modulation, an additional high-pass filter, analog VCA with feedback, 5 envelopes, 2 LFOs, an extraordinary variety of analog modulation routings, and stunning sonic quality, warmth and punch. Although optimized for drum sounds, it excels at tuned sounds as well, and even doubles as a 6-voice analog synth. In addition to the 6 direct voice outputs, there are stereo mix outputs and phones outputs, plus 2 inputs for foot switches or expression pedals, MIDI in/out and USB.
•The performance-oriented operating system, 90 panel controls, and bright 256 x 64 OLED display work together to provide a tightly integrated, non-stop workflow: record a drumbeat in real-time, switch to another drumbeat and use the lit pads to record it using step programming, switch to another drumbeat and record tuned keyboard parts, use the 2 touch controllers to to record real-time note or beat-wide parameter animations, use the generous sound controls to edit any of the drum sounds, tweak the analog effects or drum mix, arrange beats in real time and record the live arrangement into a song, enter/exit Song mode and much more, all without ever stopping play.
•16 pressure- and velocity-sensitive lit pads are arranged in a 2×8 configuration, providing intuitive access to all your fingers and providing the ideal compromise between the popular 4×4 pad arrangement (popular for real time programming ) and 1×16 arrangement (popular for step programming) because Tempest does both. The pads can be used to play 32 drum sounds (2 banks), mute/unmute the 32 sounds on playback, play and arrange 16 beats in real time, play one sound at 16 tunings (in a variety of scales) or 16 velocities, or as 16 time steps for step programming. The ROLL button permits creating drum rolls or repeated groove patterns by varying pad pressure as the beat records, and doubles as a momemtary “stutter” effect when the pads are assigned to play beats. Use the Sustain button on tuned parts like a keyboard’s Sustain pedal, or to choke drum sounds or drumbeats when the pad is released.
•Two pressure- and position-sensitive Note FX slide controllers permit real-time recording of note or beat-wide sound parameter changes into the drumbeat as you play. For example, record simultaneous filter frequency, tuning, envelope decay and pan changes for each note, or control similar parameters affecting the entire beat.
•A variety of unique effects are provided while maintaining a pure analog signal path: 1) Stereo analog compressor and distortion circuits affect the stereo output mix, 2) beat-synced delay is achieved by generating additional delayed note events within the sequencer, and 3) a beat-synced “stutter” effect is created entirely within the sequencer by looping short portions of the drumbeat on demand.
•The degree of swing timing can be adjusted in real time during playback. Roger used his entire bag of tricks to make the swing sound very human and natural.
•Compact and portable: 15.4″ L x 9″ W x 2.5″ H
Price and specifications subject to change.
Information about Tempest is also available on rogerlinndesign.com.
Arturia annonces new drum machine @ NAMM – SPARK
ARTURIA announces the upcoming release of a highly creative drum machine: SPARK. It is a complete drum solution made of a software application and a dedicated hardware controller. Combining the power of analog synthesis, physical modelling and samples, through the intuitive workflow of a hardware drum machine, Spark is a highly creative beat production center. Spark will save you time when looking for the right drum kit, will get you hooked by its amazing simplicity and will surprise you by its sonic possibilities.
“For many years, Arturia has been mainly dedicated to creating synthesizers,” says Frédéric Brun, President of Arturia. “Three years ago, looking at the solutions available for drums, we thought we could bring to this area a little bit of our expertise in virtual analog synthesis and physical modelling. Since we also wanted to include samples, we turned to reference companies such as Sonic Reality, Ultimate Sound Bank, Ueberschall and Modern Beats. The project has now come to an end and I believe Spark is a creative, simple and fun instrument to use. It offers recreations of many classic drum machines, an expected delivery from Arturia, as well as innovative drum sets and high quality sampled-based acoustic kits. We added many real time effects and a great controller to offer hands-on workflow. To me, Spark is a great alternative to all the MPC-style, Gigs-of-samples-based, complex solutions available today.”
Main Features
· 480 Instruments / 30 Kits :
o Vintage drum machines : Analog recreations in the spirit of the TR-808, TR-909, Simmons SDS-V, and Eprom based LinnDrum, Drumtraks, DMX, and more*.
o Electronic kits covering the most popular modern music styles : Dub, House, Techno, Hip Hop, RnB… as well as experimental fields thanks to the physical modelling engine.
o Acoustic drum kits subtly mixing physical modelling and samples for high audio realism.
· Pristine quality sound engines including : TAE® Analog synthesis, Multi layered sampling delivered by reference third-party companies, Physical modelling
· FX Pad with Repeat, Tape, Reverse, Strobe, Pan, Mix, 3 mode Filter and Roller
· Advanced Loop mode with divide and move functions
· Real-time automation on all parameters
· 16 track mixer with 9 high quality effects : compressor, reverb, bit crusher, multiband EQ, chorus, delay, distortion, phaser, plate reverb
· Song Mode with up to 64 patterns by song
· Shuffle and Shift modes to humanize grooves
· 16 key – 64 step sequencer
· 8 velocity sensitive pads
· Touch sensitive FX Pad
· 30 knobs for in-depth and immediate sound control
· Aluminum enclosure
· Works as a universal MIDI controller towards any third-party software
Via GJ
TR-808 home project
During computer class some of the grade 3s decided to teach themselves how to program a 30-year-old Roland TR-808 drum machine.
bleep!BOX drum and synth now also as VST & AU plug in
bleep!BOX, the drum and synth hit from the iPhone and iPad has arrived on the desktop as a Mac and PC compatible VST & AU Plugin. In addition to being able to load all your patterns from the iPhone version, bleep!BOX is a powerful drum synthesizer in it’s own right.
It features 10 synthesis parts which can play the role of percussion or instruments and has 50+ parameters enabling you to recreate all kinds of classic drum sounds. Specialized parts for replicating vintage snare and hi-hat sounds are also included.
bleep!BOX is even more capable as a Plugin, since almost all parameters can be automated by your host. You can choose to use bleep!BOX’s pattern playback or sequence notes using your host’s piano roll allowing bleep!BOX to act as a tone generator or a full groove box.
Features List
* – VST & AU Compatible plugin, which means it runs on the majority of hosts.
* – 10 Synth / Drum parts (aka voices)
* – Emulations of ‘classic’ x0x drum sounds (snares, hihats, claps, bassdrums, toms, cymbals)
* – Ringmod, FM, Phase Modulation, Sync
* – Very low CPU usage
* – 50+ Parameters
* – Global delay FX
* – Soft / Hard distortion FX
* – 8 Waveforms – Saw, Square, Sine, Triangle, etc
* – Save patches and presets
* – Live performance modes – Loop / Stutter, Mute
To hear samples, download a demo, and where. How to buy the new VST version go to http://www.bleepboxapp.com/b…
Pro-quality model based drum synthesis plugin for Mac OS X
DrumSpillage is a pro-quality model based drum synthesis plugin for Mac OS X. DrumSpillage employs a diverse palette of technologies including elements of physical and analog modeling, additive, subtractive and FM synthesis techniques. It features:
- 13 custom drum synthesis algorithms
- High resolution 64-bit DSP engine
- Pad based real-time control surface
- Extensive synthesis editing features
- Full MIDI key map/pad layering
- Future-proof model based design
- Clean and intuitive user interface
- Runs as a native 64-bit Plugin
Now version 1.2 has been released and there’s even a chance of getting a great deal until January 15th 2011.
New features in 1.2:
- FM Percussion model
- FM Matrix model
- Export pads/kits as WAV/AIFF files
- Randomization tools
- DSP freeze function conserves CPU
- Workflow enhancements
- Code optimisations
Even better there’s a 25% discount on all DrumSpillage orders until 15th January 2011.
Regular price: £75 / €89 / $119Promotion prices: £55 / €69 / $89.
More information and a free demo here
µTonic 3.0 is here after 5 years
Sonic Charge has released µTonic 3.0, an updated version of its virtual drum machine instrument for Windows and Mac.
It’s the first major update to µTonic in five years. µTonic users will find more than 20 new features, though, and an updated user interface. It’s free for registered users, too!
Details below.
Here’s what’s new in µTonic:
- A morph slider allows you to interpolate all eight drum patches simultaneously between two end-points. You can edit the drum patches with the morph slider at any position and it will adjust the interpolation end-points accordingly. Morph is an automatable and MIDI controllable parameter, so it can be used both as a performance parameter as well as an editing feature.
- Matrix editor window for viewing and editing the pattern steps of all eight drum channels simultaneously. (Bonus feature: you can drag channel labels to reorder the drum channels of the preset.)
- MIDI Program Change message support for instantaneously switching between up to 16 different presets (loaded into memory). (It is also possible to switch programs with MIDI notes.)
- Drag and drop patterns as MIDI files directly into your sequencer (supported by all major hosts).
- “Edit All Channels” button enables adjusting parameters for all drum channels simultaneously. E.g. turn up the distortion on all channels. µTonic will write parameter automation for all affected channels, so the effect can be automated.
- A new “choke group” feature lets you assign two or more channels that should play mutually exclusively and cut each other off. Useful for closed and open hi-hats for example.
- A preset name display sits in the top of the window, with previous and next preset buttons and a popup list when you click the display.
- Support for MIDI Pitch Wheel for real-time pitch transposition with a range of up to 2 octaves.
- A new “Stop Voices with MIDI Note Off” option makes it possible to sustain the sound while you hold down MIDI keys (if you use µTonic as a synth). It is also useful for changing the length of drum sounds with note lengths in your sequencer.
- Alternative “pattern launch modes”: “Switch Next” (the behavior in earlier versions of µTonic), “Switch Directly”, “Retrigger” and “Retrigger Gated”.
- Undo / redo.
- Shift-click menu buttons to quickly repeat last selected menu item.
- New 3D-rendered skin. Sharper, brighter, sexier with 32-bit graphics. (Yes, µTonic version 2.0 was using 20th century 16-bit RGB graphics still).
- Lots more, details here.
µTonic for PC and Mac (VST/AU) is available for US $99. Registered customers can update for free.
Fully interactive human drum machine on Youtube
Pretty cool I must say and I can’t say that I have seen this before somewhere else
Just tap any of the 1 to 0 keys on your computer to make the video jump to an index in the clip where he makes a sound
DATAMASKIN
