Producing Glow Sticks
You can’t be a ravetard without a Glow Stick. Here’s how they are made. This video also points out that these things are chemicals so when you’re on five hits of ecstacy and your stick breaks do not drink the liquid! Who knew yellow would be so much brighter?
“10mL Diethyl Phthalate (solvent), 3mg of fluorescent dye, 50mg TCPO, 100mg sodium acetate, 3mL 30% hydrogen peroxide” – NurdRage
A demo of the KYMA software by Symbolic sound in NYC 2009.
The Mono/Fury is a VST™2.4 software synthesizer for free
Perhaps yet just another software synth but judging from the description below it sounds pretty interesting. Full Bucket has released the Mono/Fury, a free software synthesizer plug-in for Windows.
The Mono/Fury is a VST™2.4 software synthesizer plug-in for Microsoft Windows® emulating the classic KORG Mono/Poly® analog synthesizer of the early 1980′s. It is written in native C++ code for high performance even on “lighter” systems.
Full Bucket Mono/Fury
Mono/Fury features
- Close emulation of behavior and all controls.
- Monophonic/quadrophonic keyboard action.
- Four band-limited oscillators.
- Four-pole lowpass filter with self-oscillation.
- “Effects” section including Cross modulation and hard sync.
- Arpeggiator with sync-to-host option.
- Additional tweak section.
Full Bucket Mono/Fury is available to download as a freeware VST plug-in for Windows PC.
More information: Full Bucket
iShred LIVE is a free mobile app with amp modeling and stomp box effects for guitar, bass and other instruments
iShred LIVE is a free mobile app with amp modeling and stomp box effects for guitar, bass and other instruments. Based on the virtual guitar app from Frontier Design Group, iShred LIVE gives musicians of all skill levels the ability to play a real instrument through their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The app opens to reveal a sight familiar to most musicians: an amp and pedalboard with life-like effects pedals. The built-in amp simulator features clean and overdrive settings for added tonal color. Each pedal features fully adjustable controls for accurate reproductions of classic guitar tones. Just tap the controls and iShred LIVE zooms in on the effect for easy manipulation. The first three effects are included for free with download of iShred LIVE are HK-2000 Digital Delay (with tap tempo), Q-36 Space Modulator/Flanger and Buzz Kill (noise gate).
Players looking for added tonal flexibility can download these additional effects through in-app purchase: Hot Fuzz (super fuzz pedal), Sybil (dual chorus), Trembler (variable waveform tremolo), Adrenaline (adjustable treble booster) and Kömpressör (compressor pedal).
Favorite sounds can be saved in one of 48 user-programmable presets, organized as eight color-coded banks for easy organization. A chromatic tuner allows quick and accurate tuning; the adjustable metronome includes tap tempo and selectable accent sounds. The app also features a looping audio player.
Find out more about iShred LIVE.
new collection of free instruments for Kontakt
If you were Steve Bates, you’d create a new collection of free instruments for Kontakt, the Sample78 collection. You can preview one of the instruments, Solid Bass, below.
Solid Bass by sample78
Other free instruments include:
- Grain Pad – a fuzzy granular type instrument;
- Robot Pad – Fuzzy bitcrushed wavetable goodness with a space invader;
- Gongs – a gong instrument. based on some samples from KVR’s Genetic Junk; and
- Rainbow Pad, a lush pad based on samples from the Ensoniq VFX-SD and DSI TETR4.
Pricing and Availability
Sample78 instruments are available as free downloads for Kontakt, but donations are welcomed via the site.
Link:
First glimpse of a new instrument – the AirPiano
Jo Hamilton, an acclaimed up-and-coming artist from the UK, is really integrating the new AirPiano into her performance. Nor is she waiting for production: she’s got the only prototype outside of Berlin.
Who’s Jo Hamilton? From her press release:
Stemming from a nomadic family with roots in both Kenya and Jamaica, Jo Hamilton was brought up in a house two miles from the nearest neighbour in the wilds of northern Scotland. Her parents moved constantly in her youth, which saw her spending periods in Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Jo’s debut album Gown was produced by Jon Cotton (producer of Scott Matthew’s Ivor Novello Award-winning debut album) in her current hometown of Birmingham, and has received a sweeping range of
accolades including 3 awards at London’s recent Recharged Radio awards and a tip from US tastemaker/DJ Nic Harcourt as one of his picks for 2010.
If you’d like to know more about her music or you have questions about playing the instrument, I’ll follow up.
http://airpiano.de/
Jo pioneers new instrument – video out now! [johamilton.com]
Rama Douglas on sitar and Justin DeHart on tabla
A short preview for the soon to be released Optigan Sitar & Tabla disc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8d2ft-z44
This is some footage from the recording session featuring Rama Douglas on sitar and Justin DeHart on tabla. The keyboard will feature a variety of different sitar riffs (and possibly some harmonium notes on part of the keyboard), the chord buttons will have 15 different tabla loops, and the SFX tabs will have tamboura drones and other effects. More details coming soon at optigan.com!
More about Rama: http://www.cordhead.com/bio_cd.htm
More about Justin: http://www.justindehart.com
Yamaha DTX – still sound pretty electronic to me
Yamaha seems proud of their new drums and their natural sound, but to me the kits still sound pretty electronic to me, I guess it is easier to demo special effects, because special effects kits translate much better on electronic drums, probably because in most cases they aren’t meant to sound natural. Perhaps they should put more effort into making the acoustic samples sound more like real instruments, these kits sound as they did many years ago.
Dutch electro synth heat
Very impressive :-), here´s what he has to say about it:
Its quite warm in the Netherlands these last few days and the attic, were my equipment is, is even more warmer. But I managed to video this improvisation. Row 1 of the Doepfer MAQ16/3 has an 8-step sequence for the self-built Modular. Row 2 is used to gate the Ian Fritz All-In EG which envelope is connected to the Resonant LoPass Gate clone. The Formant noise is fed to the input of the LPG clone. Row 3 of the MAQ16/3 is shifting the Synthesizers.com Q960 sequencer which has sequences on row 1 and 3 which are alternated by the Q962 sequencer switch. Row 2 of the Q960 is connected to the Q150 Transistor Ladder Filter to modulate the frequency level. In the second part of the video the Waldorf Q Keyboard joins with chords and the Clavia Nord Lead 1 and the Roland XP-80 performs some improvised solo’s. The original video is somewhat more than 12 minutes so I skipped the first 2 minutes because I did not want to cut off the end. You can view the original video on my website soon.
My daughter Tessa is on a school trip to Paris for a few days and this evening she phoned from the top of the Eiffel Tower, which explains the title.
Sneak peek at the Hexaphone
This is a preview video of Hexaphone – an improvisation instrument for iPhone.
DATAMASKIN
