The Clavia Nord Modular G2 in action
The Clavia is definitely a good synth. No doubt, computers have become a natural part of today’s music production. The process of editing sounds and sequences is so much easier from a computer screen. Still keyboard players have the need for portable instruments. Nord Modular G2 offers you the best of both worlds and provides an effective solution for the working musician. While remaining true to the traditional modular synthesis concept it manages to go where no modular synthesizer has ever gone before.
Download the free Richard Devine Modular G2 soundbank.
THE BEST OF TWO WORLDSThe G2 concept is based on a stand alone hardware keyboard with a freely configurable sound synthesis architecture and a software user interface (Editor) made for Mac OSX and PC. The sound engine in the G2 synthesizer runs on a group of digital signal processors (DSP’s), together with high resolution AD and DA converters. A G2 sound is named a Patch and is made with virtual modules and cables. Simply ‘drag & drop’ modules and cables directly on the computer screen to create your own G2 sounds. A Patch can be modeled after an existing synth or it can be the synthesizer of your dreams.THE MODULAR CONCEPTIt doesn’t matter whether you’re an 80’s retro fanatic or a producer of the most recent club music. With the G2 you can develop sounds similar to those created by old analog patch synthesizers or simulate acoustic instruments. You can also push yourself into a world of sounds that no single instrument has ever delivered before. While sample players remain cold as ice, the G2 modular architecture offers warmth and presence to your sound. Moreover, the average G2 patch uses about 3(!) kilobytes of memory, which makes sharing over the Internet a piece of cake. To get the feel of how it works, consider the way a guitarist connects his boxes and pedals. You build the sound piece by piece on the computer screen in a simple and intuitive way following your desired signal flow. Many of the G2 modules were also found in traditional analog synthesizers. Among the selection are well-known building blocks such as oscillators, filters, sequencers and envelope generators as well as more complex modules like vocoders, pitch tracker and the mystic Bode shifter. You can also build your own unique FX processors and run both internal and external signals through them. Future upgrades will be available for free from www.clavia.se. Combine all this editing power with a logical, user-friendly knob panel and you have the most flexible synthesizer ever seen – the Nord Modular G2!
In this video:
Music made with Future Retro Revolution (the basic drum) & Clavia Nord Modular G2. My video ressources are available for commercial use via www.earthviews.de
The Fireflies of Saturn featuring a Yusynth Voltage Controlled Quadrature LFO
The quadrature LFO is a special module that was not found on many modular synthesizers back in 1970s. Mostly, only companies like Polyfusion, Buchla or Serge would propose such a weird LFO.
Basically, it is a sinewave LFO with four outputs which are running at the same rate but are phase shifted by increment of 90°. That is, the first output has a shift of 0°, the second 90°, the third 180° and the fourth 270°. What is it useful for ? Mostly it is for modulating simultaneously up to four sources at the same rate but out of phase. This makes it possible to achieve so called “Barber pole” effects or “Shepard tones”. For example, imagine that you connect each output of the Quad-LFO to the V/oct input of four different VCOs, then you’ll hear continuous though steady (paradoxical, ain’t it !) rising and falling intermangled pitches (see ,).
It can be used also to drive four VC-panners to create rotating sound effects that fill the stereo space. The core of the circuit is based on the quadrature oscillator circuit of Ian Fritz’s ChaQuO chaos oscillator . I modified it in order to have voltage control of the frequency and also I added buffers with output LED indicators and a toggle switch that makes it possible to exchange the phase of the 90° and 270° signals in order to change the direction of the phase rotation. This simple trick is very handy when performing “barber pole” modulations. Each LED show the positive part of the corresponding signal, they are organized on a circle to visualize the phase differences between the signals.
In this video:
Music from my modular synthesizer.
Featuring the Yusynth Voltage Controlled Quadrature LFO module. The colored lights are on the module and the phosphor green “fireflies” are from my BK Precision 2120 oscilloscope. I tapped into the 90 deg and 180 deg outputs and switched them with a Q149 Signal Selector module then sent them on to the scope channel 1. Channel 2 picked up the 270 degree output. I then fiddled with ground, DC and AC readings as well as the divisions voltage readings on the scope.
Video edited and enhanced with Final Cut. Audio of three tracks mixed and mastered in Cubase 4.
Powerful semi-modular synthesizer for NI Reaktor
Ebola is a powerful semi-modular virtual analog synthesizer with a flexible architecture, that enables you to create a wide variety of sounds with the distinct Ebola flavor! From heavily distorted leads to Hollywood style strings, sweet keys to strange and beautiful gargling sounds – Ebola can do it all! Just listen to the sound demos…
And beware, cause the Ebola is out there!
Main Features:
– A library of 200 high quality sounds, divided into 7 sound banks
– Two multimode oscillators with Ring modulation, Sync, and Frequency modulation.
– Classic mode that enables you to shape your oscillator waveform by morphing between many different waveforms
– Ultrasaw mode that uses up to 9 detuned saw-tooth waves, for the creation of extremely thick leads and pads
– Wavetable synthesis mode helps you achieving evolving and interesting pad sounds, organs and keyboards
– Sub-oscillator with ultrasaw mode
– Noise generator with color shaping option
– Two multimode resonant filters that can be connected in parallel or serial
– Three envelopes that can modulate almost any parameter of the synthesizer
– Advanced distortion section for wave-shaping: Analog saturation, Hard Clipping, Bit Crusher and more.
– Two advanced LFO’s
– Extended effects section that contains 9 high quality effects: Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Phaser, distortion, EQ, ring modulation and others
– Modulation matrix with countless modulation paths
– Envelope follower that enables you to use external audio to manipulate almost any parameter of the synthesizer
In this video:
A video demonstration of the Ebola synth. Musicrow Ebola is a powerful semi-modular synthesizer for NI Reaktor.
DATAMASKIN
