Science off the Sphere: Space Soundwaves II- Electric Didgeridoo
In his off-duty time, NASA Astronaut Don Pettit likes to explore scientific curiosities of his own design. Sometimes that means cutting his shirt up and playing the space station vacuum cleaner like a didgeridoo. Answer the challenge question at www.physicscentral.com/sots for a chance to have your name read from space!
iVardensphere’s Interesting View On Music Gear
Background information:
Join me while I go over some of the instruments iVardensphere uses in the studio. Of course just having Scott talk to the camera would be boring and we certainly don’t want that so we asked some friends to help complete the vision.
Featured instruments in this video are:
Sherman 2 Filterbank
Schippmann Ebbe und Flut Filter
XOXIO
APC-40
Moog Little Phatty
Elektron Machinedrum
Elektron Octatrack
Serge Modular
Djembe Hand Drum
Many thanks to the folks that helped me out with this:
Ryan Stock and Amber Lynn
Gott Havok & Kyle
Rhonda & Lawrence
Curt & Geoff
Powerman
Kefkism Design
Synth Magic Polychrome basic demo of some of the sounds
Instrument based on the Farfisa Polychrome-Lots of extra features added such as LFO’s on all sections, full effects section,autopanners, velocity to vibrato,filter, tremolo etc.
Available at www.synthmagic.co.uk
Instrument based on the rare Farfisa Polychrome analogue synthesiser for Native Instruments kontakt 4.2.4 or higher(including Kontakt 5). Custom designed GUI to allow for easy tweeking of sounds. Over 200 presets included and thanks to the custom designed user interface it is childs play to design your own sounds. Many existing users say our instruments sound and feel like your playing with real hardware. Easily create the fantastic sounds of this beautiful classic synthesiser. Lots of extra features added such as extra LFO’s,independent autopanners for each synth section,lots of effects and a master effects plus lots of expression controls for aftertouch,modwheel etc.
Orphion MIDI Tutorial
This tutorial shows how to use Orphion with Sunrizer, Animoog and Ableton Live via MIDI-over-WIFI.
Orphion is a musical instrument with a unique sound between string instrument and percussion. Everyone can play expressive, wonderful sounds and easy or virtuosic melodies on it just by moving fingers on virtual pads.
- Different articulations from soft to plucked to hardly slapped
- Natural interaction
- Extend your ways of expression as a percussionist, guitarist, pianist or other musician
- 12 transposable pad-layouts with different tonalities from easy to complex
- 8 individual voices for 8 fingers
(4 on iPad 1)
Get Orphion here:
orphion.de
Become a Fan on Facebook:
facebook.com/Orphion
or follow on Twitter:
twitter.com/#!/OrphionApp
JONO – new software musical instrument inspired by modular synthesizers
LOM has released JONO, a software musical instrument inspired by modular synthesizers.
By providing mixture of classical and experimental elements it can serve as an interesting addition to your setup or as a standalone tool.
JONO features
- Two oscillators, modulated by the layered LFO and the sequencer.
- Each oscillator has a couple of ranges and waveshapes, and LFO modulation, which allows you to mix three different LFOs into patterns and rhythms in a very simple yet powerful interface enhanced by the oscilloscope.
- State-variable filter, modulated by another layered LFO, offering three standard filter functions – lowpass, highpass and bandpass.
- Stereo echo and a recorder – for recording short bits of your work right away, without connecting additional software.
- Sequencer provides control over the amount of steps, variable loop length and the speed for each sequence (two sequencers for two oscillators).
- Includes a set of presets, but also allows you to save your own.
- ‘RANDOMIZE’ button, which randomizes the whole setup.
- MIDI support, both for classic pitch control from a MIDI keyboard as well as for control of the main parameters with knobs or sliders.
JONO is available to purchase as a standalone application for Windows and Mac (includes full source code in MaxMSP language), priced at 15 EUR.
Eowave Persephone markII with the “Métallique” prototype
Eowave Metallic Resonator prototype inspired by the Martenot Métallique
HyperSpace 3D Synth for iPhone
Synthesize music with sculpted waves; grok mesmerizing visuals.The Strange Agency has introduced a new software synth for iOS, HyperSpace.
HyperSpace, a ‘waveform-sculpting 3-D oscilloscope synth’ is the latest edition of TSA’s Space series. HyperSpace uses a unique algorithm to generate images from sound. It works similarly to a harmonograph, but uses its 3 voice oscillators instead of pendulums to create images. Each oscillator is mapped to a dimension in 3-D space. Playing a single note creates a wave, like on an ordinary oscilloscope. Playing two notes at once creates a plane as with the harmonograph, and playing a three note chord creates a volume. There are two oscillators to crossfade between. These can be set to standard shapes as with older synths, but HyperSpace also lets you sculpt the waves with touch. Changing the wave shapes of course alters the sound, but it also alters the generated imagery.
More at:
http://thestrangeagency.com/products/hyperspace/
Orphion – Pad layouts tutorial
How to setup pad layouts for a performance
Orphion is a musical instrument with a unique sound between string instrument and percussion. Everyone can play expressive, wonderful sounds and easy or virtuosic melodies on it just by moving fingers on virtual pads.
Get Orphion here:
orphion.de
Become a Fan on Facebook:
facebook.com/Orphion
or follow on Twitter:
twitter.com/#!/OrphionApp
Robotspeak: An electronic musician’s toy store
An interview with Steve Taormina of San Francisco’s Robotspeak, a store specializing in unique instruments for electronic musicians.
MakeNoise Phonogene Sound Experiments
Plain vanilla experiments with Make Noise Phonogene; the soundfile comes from OP-1 Teenage Engineering; the modulating triangle wave comes from a LiveWire oscillator.
The Phonogene is a digital re-visioning and elaboration of the tape recorder as musical instrument (Firmware Engineered by Flemming Christensen, Gotharman). It takes it’s name from a little known, one of a kind instrument used by composer Pierre Schaeffer. While it is not an emulation, it does share the primitive, tactile nature of it’s namesake, and expands upon the original concepts. It is informed by the worlds of Musique Concrète (where speed and direction variation were combined with creative tape splicing to pioneer new sounds) and Microsound (where computers allow for sound to be divided into pieces smaller then 1/10 of a second, and manipulated like sub-atomic particles). Having voltage control over every parameter, it is most successful as a digital audio buffer for the modular synthesist.
The Phonogene is comprised of a pair of tool-sets which work well together. Tape Music Tools allow for sounds to be recorded on the fly, layered using the internal Sound On Sound function, manually cut into pieces using the SPLICE function, and re-organized with the ORGANIZE control. Once it is Spliced up, it is possible to create nearly infinite variations of the original loop by modulating the ORGANIZE parameter, and VARI-SPEED allows for the speed and direction of playback to be controlled continuously with one control signal. GENE-SIZE, GENE-SHIFT and SLIDE make up the Microsound Tools. GENE-SIZE divides the audio buffer into progressively smaller pieces called Genes (aka particles, grains, granules). A clock signal applied to GENE-SHIFT will step through those pieces in chronological order, while a control signal (such as the Wogglebug Smooth CV) applied to SLIDE, moves through those pieces in a nonlinear fashion. Using SLIDE, random access of the audio buffer is possible. Obviously, functions such as VARI-SPEED and ORGANIZE are useful for Microsound as well, which is why these functions were grouped into one module. The end result is a sampler/ looper/ audio buffer that is able to exist within a modular synthesizer system, and offer a vast amount of real-time sound manipulation in a fast and tactile way.
There is often the expectation that “bad sounds” such as clicks, pops, distortions, wrong notes, phase in-accuracies and otherwise, should be impossible with modern musical instruments. Many designers are making instruments which are fool-proof, and which guarantee some specific musical result, thus making it easy to create the same music, over and over again. The Phonogene does NOT use this approach. In fact, we have made it very possible to make the “bad sounds” and “mistakes” that have led to some of the greatest moments in musical history (and of course, some of the worst!). With the Phonogene, it is possible to Splice sounds in such a way that you will hear sharp contrasts, clicks and pops. This is the physics of sound! It is possible to slow down a recording to point of complete decimation, so that all that remains is trail of digital artifacts. Such are the limitations of digital sound (at the moment). It is possible to render the source material completely unintelligible, to cut busted loops, to distort digitally, to obscure, to regenerate to the point of almost no signal integrity. This is the nature of the Phonogene. If you seek the perfect looping tool, in the most contemporary sense of the word, then please look elsewhere. If you desire to explore the realm of modular, digital sample manipulation and microsound, welcome!
This module is 20HP and consumes 70mA worth of current.
DATAMASKIN
