Sample developers Goldbaby have made available a free set of 38 synth FX sounds created using the Realistic MG-1 (a synth made by Moog that was sold at Radio Shack back in the 80's) being processed through an array of Audio Damage's critically acclaimed plug-ins.
I've always wanted a Pro One, but had been putting it off until I saw this baby. Yes, it's green. I've nicknamed it 'The Hulk', although my friend Steve suggested 'The Booger' might be a more appropriate moniker. Either way, my cat seems mystified by it...
Posted mainly to prove to all my friends who made fun of me that I was pronouncing the band's name correctly all along. Very good interview, though.
Organisation was the name of Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider's pre-Kraftwerk project from the late 70's. The project only ever released one album before breaking up, after which Ralf and Florian founded Kling Klang Studios and began writing music as Kraftwerk.
Ever since I spotted it in a Devo video, I wondered what this thing was. Basically, it allowed you to build chords from monophonic synthesizers. This excerpt from Vintage Synth Explorer describes how it works:
"Poly-Box is a pitch following variable chord generator controlled by your synthesizer and Poly-Box's own keyboard with built-in memory. Poly-Box takes a single pitch from your synthesizer and creates two banks of pitch sources. Each pitch bank contains 13 simultaneously available pitch sources at precise semitone intervals - covering an entire chromatic octave. The pitch banks may be in the same or different octaves, and can cover the range from one above to three octaves below the synthesizer oscillator."
Critically acclaimed company Voxengo have released an update to their Overtone GEQ equalizer. As opposed to EQs that are as sonically transparent as possible, Overtone GEQ is designed to harmonically color whatever it is applied to. The plug-in is available for both Windows and Mac in AU and VST formats.
As reported by Matrixsynth.
I love it when musicians perform a traditionally electronic type of music with traditional instruments. (And if you haven't seen KJ Sawka's incredible live drum n' bass drumming, check it out here!) Here is a drummer and a bassist with a boatload of effects doing some dubstep and drum n'bass style stuff live. I wish I knew what his effects rig was!
If you paid attention to club music in the 1990's at all, you undoubtedly remember KLF who had a huge hit called "What Time is Love?" What you may not know is that the band wrote a book about how to have a number one hit called "The Manual". No longer in print, the book promises that if you follow the instructions outlined in the book exactly, you too can have a number one hit.
One of the things that should be in every electronic musician's plug-in folder is a spectrum analyzer. As the name suggests, this tool measures the relative strength of different frequencies in a signal, allowing you to see the dominant frequencies, potential trouble spots, etc. Where it comes in most handy, however, is when you have multiple instruments in the same general frequency range that are clashing with one another. Using a spectrum analyzer, you can see the common frequencies between the tracks as well as the results of EQ cuts you make as you try to make them fit in the mix together. The problem is, most analyzers will only show you one signal at a time, meaning a lot of going back and forth between tracks while you are mixing. Vertex DSP's MultiInspector removes that limitation by letting you view the plots of multiple tracks at the same time in a single window. Although it has been around for at least a year, MultiInspector doesn't seem to be very well known among the musicians I know. There are two versions of the plug in: the free MultiInspector Free, which is limited to 44.1k files and only lets you plot 4 tracks at a time maximum, and the commercial MultiInspector ($115) which significantly expands the features. Both plug-ins are available for Mac in AU and VST formats, and for Windows in VST format.
The Screamers were an LA punk band (originally from Seattle) active in the late 1970's. What made them different was that they used electric pianos and synthesizers instead of guitars and bass. They never released an album, but were influential to the likes of Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys and Darby Crash of the Germs. Several video clips of the band do exist, however... here's one of them.
I had long wanted to integrate drum pads of some sort into my studio, but for the longest time, I just couldn't find anything that suited my needs. A full drumset type kit was too big for my studio, and the more compact new Roland 'octapad' type sets all included onboard sounds I didn't want, and were a bit more than I was wanting to spend. I was extremely happy, then, when Alesis announced the release of the ControlPad: an 8 pad MIDI controller with no built-in sounds, and a very reasonable price (around $200 most places). So, after doing a ton of touring into the beginning of this year, I picked one up. Now that I've had some time to use it on a practical level, I thought I'd share my thoughts. 
A testament to what a ridiculously talented person can do with Native Instruments Reaktor in a live context.
This is Boing Boing TV's coverage of ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's new sound installation 'Playing the Building'. Byrne has rigged up an old pump organ to 'play' various parts of an old, abandoned ferry terminal. I can only imagine how awesome this sounds in person!
(Via the wonderful Synthtopia Blog...)By now you probably have heard that Moog Music, known mainly for their legendary synthesizers, has decided to enter the guitar market. The Moog Guitar has e-bow sustain mechanisms built into each individual string for amazing sustain effects that were previously impossible. Oh yeah, and it costs almost $7,000 so you can believe that the guys featured in this video are among the 5 people in the world who can afford it...
If you're somewhat familiar with the use of compressors in audio production, you've probably heard of Parallel Compression (also sometimes referred to as New York Style Compression). This technique involves taking, for example, a drum sound, duplicating it on another track, applying extremely heavy compression to this additional track, and then mixing the compressed track back in beneath the original, uneffected track. Done correctly, this technique adds punch and weight to the drums, but without totally destroying the transients.
If you've never heard of Bruce Haack before, you're not alone. Prior to seeing this movie, I hadn't heard of him either. Whether you are familiar with him or not, however, Haack was a very unique character and an important pioneer in electronic music. Haack spent most of his career (from the early 60's) making children's music, largely using self-built synthesizers. He also made albums aimed more at the grown-up market, such as 1970's "Electric Lucifer", an album that occasionally bears a resemblance to the stuff Kraftwerk would eventually become famous for. "Haack: The King of Techno" is a very interesting look at Haack's life and legacy that demonstrates how sometimes true pioneers get obscured by the cobwebs of history.
Whether or not you buy into all the hype regarding the Internet and its potential to revolutionize the music industry, there is no doubt that digital sales are a growing market. Indeed, many see digital sales as the proverbial 'wave of the future' and predict the eventual end of CD as the format of choice for music delivery. Until a few years ago, however, getting your music on services like iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. was damn near impossible unless you had the benefit of being signed to a decent sized label. Tunecore is a company that aims to change that, however. I will preface this by saying that I do not work for Tunecore, nor was this write-up solicited by Tunecore in any way. I am simply a musician running a small label who has used their services and found them extremely useful. Basically, the way it works is that you start an account, upload your artwork and songs, select which of the many services you wish to sell your music on, and then pay a one time fee per release, in addition to a yearly maintenance fee. Obviously the cost depends on the number of services you select, but for an average album, we're talking about $25. In 4-6 weeks, your songs will be propagated to the various services you selected and you're in business! The best part about this company is that they take none of your royalty income from the various services. The yearly fee is it. 100% of the royalties go to you. This provides a great way for musicians to get their music out there without the need for a label or the significant upfront costs of pressing a CD. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the great customer support. Despite evidence that the company is growing quickly, any time I have emailed them with a problem, I've received a response extremely quickly... often the same day I emailed them. It's true that digital distribution is not going to save the struggling music industry by itself, but it has, to an extent, democratized things and made it possible for even hobbiest musicians to get their music into the hands (and ears) of consumers in a way that hasn't been possible before.
One of the things I love about computer-based recording and sequencing is that for any one thing you want to do, there are probably 5 different ways of achieving it. This allows you to work in a way that suits you best, thus streamlining your workflow.
Posts
All Comments
