Vince Clarke Music has relaesed the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 Eurorack module
Vince Clarke Music has relaesed the IMAGINATOR VCX-378, the second product release in an ongoing series of creative and utilitarian modules for the ever-present Eurorack small-format modular system, designed and built to exacting standards in close collaboration with British ‘boutique’ analogue synthesiser and accessory designer/manufacturer Analogue Solutions.
Musical imagination is a wonderful thing. Synthesisers and associated modern-day music technology can help make that happen in wonderful ways. With an amazing number of hit singles and chart-topping albums to his Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriting name and an accompanying hard-earned and hard-working synthesiser collection to die for, synth-pop pioneer Vince Clarke clearly has it all in spades. So just imagine if you could call upon an amazingly musically inspirational device for assistance when seeking that defining elusive musical hook… well, you need not imagine anymore as the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 does just that, fresh from the imaginative musical mind of Vince Clarke! After all, sometimes serious songwriting synth-pop pioneers still need a helping hand (or Eurorack module): “I wanted a practical writing tool that would generate musical patterns based on user-controllable variables.”
Vince Clarke got what he wished for… the ingenious IMAGINATOR VCX-378 produces one-bar musical phrases based on either user-control of the Clarke company’s clever bespoke musical algorithm or a quasi-random solution. So anyone seeking to trigger their own musical imagination (and MIDI synthesisers) should simply add an IMAGINATOR VCX-378 to their Eurorack small-format modular system setup. The result? Almost unlimited combinations and permutations that will both inspire and amaze as it helps when searching for that defining elusive musical hook.
Housed in a 36 HP-width Eurorack module, the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 has a front facia-located one-octave ‘keyboard’ — with each ‘note’ having a push button and associated LED — alongside two Quantize sections, Octavize and Transpose sections, a Velocity treatment, plus internal (Sequencer) and external (Midi/Clock) clocking, as well as a full MIDI interface.
In most cases, users will want to sync to their sequencing software by sending the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 a MIDI note clock. This can be downloaded from the Clarke company website. The IMAGINATOR VCX-378 then references these notes and uses this information to clock the musical patterns it produces. With everything correctly connected, users can use soft synths or send those musically imaginative patterns out to an external synthesiser — something close to Vince Clarke’s musical heart.
Helpfully, Vince Clarke himself has taken time out from an always musically successful schedule to prepare some seriously userfriendly tutorials to transport the new IMAGINATOR VCX-378 user from novice to expert in no time. “For full operation of the unit, I suggest you make yourself a nice cup of tea and watch the user video,” he says, before later concluding: “Thanks for watching… and now I must get back to my day job.”
Jesting aside, while the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 makes for a musically imaginative holiday season gift for the seasoned synth lover in someone’s life, note that it will produce inspiring musical phrases well beyond the 12 days of Christmas! Let’s hand off here to ‘tutor’ Vince Clarke to blow our musical minds with some insightful IMAGINATOR VCX-378 note-related number crunching: “With one note there are 16 possible positions within one bar for the note to go. With two notes there are 120 possible positions. With three notes there are 560. This increases and then decreases exponentially. So, if we do the math, we can say that using one to 16 notes there are a possible 65,535 combinations. Remember: we are only talking about one note. Once you start adding pitch to
this equation then the numbers really go through the roof. No wonder there seems to be an unlimited number of one-bar patterns.” Perhaps the IMAGINATOR VCX-378 is not just for Christmas, after all?
The IMAGINATOR VCX-378 is available from Analogue Solutions for £349 GBP ex tax and delivery.
Vince Clarke releases Eurorack modules in collaboration with Analogue Solutions
During this exciting age of boutique designed synthesisers, Vince Clarke will be releasing a series of creative and utilitarian modules under the name of Clarke, in association with veteran designers Analogue Solutions.
This self contained Eurorack expandable Midi to CV converter/calibration system offers an uncomplicated solution to the problems of tuning and scaling both vintage synthesisers and modern VCO Eurorack modules. With 16 bit voltage resolution and a tune time of 10 seconds. The unit can compensate for VCO alignment issues and environmental factors that cause tuning drift with the push of a button. Its Digital Automatic Audio Gain Control Circuitry (DAGCC) enables the unit to be connected to most synthesiser outputs, and has been tested on a large array of makes and models. While obviously not being capable of fixing the problems of faulty circuitry it will however save time and money on re–calibration, and ensure the technical side of synth ownership doesn’t impinge on the creative process.
Vince Clarke remixes himself: ERASURE – Stop!
’Stop! (Vince Clarke Sync 82 Mix)’ is taken from the forthcoming compilation ‘Always – The Very Best Of Erasure’ which will be released in October to celebrate Erasure’s 30th anniversary.
Featuring music from all stages of the band’s career – including ‘A Little Respect’, ‘Blue Savannah’, ‘Drama!’, ‘Always’, ‘Breathe’ ‘Love To Hate You’ and ‘Elevation’ – the compilation will be released on October 30th.
‘Always – The Very Best Of Erasure’ will be available in a 1-CD Digipak edition as well as in an expanded 3-CD deluxe hardback book format including remixes from Moby, William Orbit, BT and The Grid (Richard Norris with Dave Ball of Soft Cell) alongside 4 brand new mixes.
2015 sees the band marking their 30th anniversary and Mute are celebrating that with a series of special releases this month kicking off with ’Sometimes (2015)’ on October 2013, which sees the duo updating their classic single, followed by Always – The Very Best Of Erasure which will be released a week later on October 30. These special releases will continue into 2016 and until the anniversary of their debut album, Wonderland.
The compilation will be released on CD, download and in a deluxe CD boxset, containing a number of their classic singles. There will be two further discs of remixes, packaged in a hardback book with a booklet and a selection of archive photographs. These remixes include classics from Moby and William Orbit, as well as newer edits by Grumbling Fur, Vince Clarke and more. Keep your eyes peeled on these pages also very soon for a Strange World Of… feature on Erasure.
PRE-ORDER ‘ALWAYS – THE VERY BEST OF ERASURE’
3-CD EDITION:
Lexer Music – http://po.st/Erasure3CDDirect
Amazon – http://po.st/Erasure20153CD
iTunes – http://po.st/ErasureAlways3CD
1-CD EDITION:
Lexer Music – http://po.st/ErasureCDDigiDirect
Amazon – http://po.st/Erasure20151CD
iTunes – http://po.st/ErasureAlways1CD
Jean-Michel Jarre & Vince Clarke – Automatic (TrackStory)
Jean-Michel Jarre has released a sneak preview of his collaboration with Vince Clarke, Automatic.
The teaser is the latest preview for Jarre’s ‘E-Project’ (working title), a new album conceived to encompass the last few decades of electronic music, with the participation of several generations of artists.
The album features 16 different collaborators, including the so far revealed M83,Tangerine Dream, Gesaffelstein, 3D from Massive Attack and Vince Clarke.
Vince Clarke introduces Modular Circuits (Eurorack)
This self contained Eurorack expandable Midi to CV converter/calibration system offers an uncomplicated solution to the problems of tuning and scaling both vintage synthesisers and modern VCO Eurorack modules. With 16 bit voltage resolution and a tune time of 10 seconds. The unit can compensate for VCO alignment issues and environmental factors that cause tuning drift with the push of a button. Its Digital Automatic Audio Gain Control Circuitry (DAGCC) enables the unit to be connected to most synthesiser outputs, and has been tested on a large array of makes and models. While obviously not being capable of fixing the problems of faulty circuitry it will however save time and money on re–calibration, and ensure the technical side of synth ownership doesn’t impinge on the creative process.
MORE DETAILS:
vinceclarkemusic.com/circuits/
Polly gets remix treatment from Vince Clarke
The new single by Polly Scattergood, “Subsequently Lost”, has received the remix treatment from Vince Clarke. To be released on March 11th, 2014 the single is taken off Scattergood’s latest album “Arrows” which is out now. Other remixes have been executed by Chad Valley, Can Love Be Synth, LissVik and our buddies from Parralox.
Below you can already listen to the Dan LissVik remix.
Vince Clarke remix of Blancmange’s “Living on the ceiling”
Living on the Ceiling is a song by British synthpop band Blancmange. It was released as the band’s 3rd single in 1982, taken from their debut album Happy Families. It became the band’s first (and biggest) UK Top 40 hit, peaking at #7 on the UK Singles Chart and being certified Silver by the BPI for sales in excess of 200,000 copies. The single also reached #5 on the Australian Singles Chart. Blancmange performed the song on Top of the Pops, but for broadcast on the show as well as on BBC radio, the track was edited to replace the lyric “Up the bloody tree” with “Up the cuckoo tree”.
VCMG – Zaat Music Video by Mantle Sound Core
Song title: “Zaat” from 2012 Album “Ssss” (Mute Records)
Song by VCMG (Vince Clarke & Martin Gore)
Video filmed, directed, edited and produced by Mantle Sound Core (Mark Shvartsman)
Assistant director, production, camera, script and lead actor by Mic Pistol (Michael Pistorio)
Assistant director, production, editing, wardrobe, cosmetics and script by Anastasia Gera
Script and supporting actor by Mark Shvartsman.
Official website:
http://www.mantlesoundcore.com
Vince Clarke demonstrates Synth Gurning
Synth legend Vince Clarke is conducting a pretty unique “synth” competition, namely the first International Synth Gurning Competition. Synth Gurning is defined as the art of producing synth sounds or effects using just the voice whilst pulling a funny face.
The concept for this contest is simple: video yourself making your own synth sound or effect with just your voice. Clarke is also looking for ‘interesting facial expression’ (gurning), to enhance the performance. Upload the video to YouTube and tweet him (@thecabinstudio) the link before midnight (UK) on August 16th 2013.
Just in case you don’t know what this means, you can view a video of Vince Clarke below showing you how to do it.
Clarke will be giving away his own personally autographed, limited-edition, Mute Synth to the best performer, and will sign certificates of distinction for the runners up.
Erasure’s Vince Clarke demonstrates the art of ‘Synth Gurning’ as part of his introduction to The First International Synth Gurning Competition which is currently running on his website here…
http://www.vinceclarkemusic.com/inter…
Synth music: Vince Clarke appears on new Robert Marlow album
There are no less than 2 new Robert Marlow CDs in the pipeline holding new tracks. The first one is called “The Future” and is a 7-track mini album holding an exclusive Vince Clarke remix of “No Heart” next to 6 new tracks. The release will be followed a few months later by the remix album “The Future – Remixes” holding remixes by such artists like Diskodiktator, Framework, Cobalt 60/K-Bereit, Eddie Bengtsson (Page /SMPJ), Per Aksel Lundgreen (ex-Apoptygma Berzerk), Kellertechnik, KATelectric and many more.
The first CD will be released on August 8 and is now in pre-order via POPoNAUT. An exclusive show-case concert will be taking place in Cologne at the Blue Shell Club on September 28.
DATAMASKIN
