Via beardyman on YouTube:
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Faking Sidechain Pumping on Synths
If you listen to any club-oriented music these days, you're probably intimately familiar with the sound of sidechain pumping by now. The trendy technique consists of strapping a compressor with extreme settings over and instrument and using the compressor's sidechain input to use the kick drum track to trigger the compressor instead of the track being processed. The result is a rhythmic sucking/pumping (get your mind out of the gutter) in time with the music. It adds a certain extra level of energy and indeed sometimes artists sidechain every instrument except for the kick and vocals. It can also be useful in keeping your kick drum and your bassline from overlapping too much frequency wise, thus giving you a cleaner low end. If you're not that well versed in using a compressor, however, it may be frustrating trying to get the effect working properly. So today, I'm going to show you how to simulate the effect from within your synth itself. I'll be using Spectrasonic's Trilian, but just about any well-appointed soft synth should be able to pull the effect off without too much effort.
1. Fire up your DAW and insert an instance of Trilian or whatever synth you choose.
2. It defaults to a simple "init" patch, a simple, non-descript sawtooth wave with an organ-style amplitude envelope. From the EDIT page, go ahead and turn the MIX slider for LAYER A down to about 1/4 of the way (say, -14.3 dB or so). We don't want the level all the way down because sidechaining doesn't totally silence the sound it's squashing, it just lowers it significantly.
3. Trilian and Omnisphere's default patch already uses LFO 1 for vibrato, so let's select LFO 2 to keep things simple. Here's where we're going to set it up to create the pumping effect. Set the waveshape of LFO 2 to the ascending sawtooth wave. This will give us that "rising and dropping off suddenly" effect produced by a signal sidechained with a kick.
4. Set LFO 2's mode (right below the waveshape) to LEGATO, so the pumping continues no matter what you play.
5. Click the SYNC button so it lights up. Since this is a rhythmic effect, it's important that the LFO is in sync with your host's tempo.
6. Now we need to set the LFO to the proper speed. With SYNC activated, LFO 2's RATE will let you select specific note values. Set it to 1/4 for quarter note.
7. Finally, we have to do the actual assignment of the LFO 2 to modulate our AMP level. So in the modulation section, select LFO 2 as your modulation source and AMP -> AMPLITUDE as your destination. Push both sliders all the way up.
If you sustain a note now, you should hear the trademark pumping sidechaining is known for. For an even more current sound, try sending your sound through an amp or bitcrusher effect.
Check Out Some Cool Electronic Music for Free
As some of you may know, one of the many hats I wear these days is as the owner of a small electronic music label called 23db Records. We're not like most labels in a lot of ways. We don't stick to a specific "sound", and we're not looking to become the next big thing. We just put out stuff we like and think other people might dig, too.
We also don't keep a regular release schedule, and just put out stuff as it comes. As such, it's been a little over a year since our last release. We're gearing up to put out a release or two around the end of the year if all goes well, and to prepare for that, I've done something I'd been meaning to do for awhile - I've set up pages for each of my bands on BandCamp. I'm not going to go too in-depth into the things this service offers, as they do a good job of explaining it themselves, but suffice it to say, it provides a number of handy tools for bands and labels to expose their music to people, and hopefully sell and album or two.
As part of an experiment, I thought I'd make my label's catalog available on BandCamp at a "name your own price" price-point (with a minimum of .50 a track or $5 an album). So check these bands out and see what you think. If you like what you hear, you can use BandCamp's sharing options to share streaming tracks with friends, and, better still, you can pick up a track or two and support the bands further. You'll notice I added links to each album on the side-bar too, so you can check this stuff out any time you like.
Nerve Filter - Linear
Nerve Filter is a project of mine that explores a more experimental angle than my main project, Assemblage 23. It's kind of a mish-mash of styles with influences from IDM, electro, drum n' bass, ambient, and what have you. Very heavy use of Native Instruments Reaktor on this one.
Lost Signal - Eviserate
Lost Signal is a project from a friend of mine from Philadelphia named Charles Rehill. His style is sort of a mix of melancholy trance and synth-pop with a dance feel. Charles has an enviable collection of old analog synths which he utilized on this album, but in a very contemporary way.
SD6 - Between Noise & Transmission
SD6 is the project of my friend Brandon Jerwa, who many may know as a comic book writer of some notoriety. Their style is difficult to nail down, but throughout you can hear influences ranging from Depeche Mode to Underworld. I also happened to produce and mix this album.
Lost Signal - Catharsis: Redux
Catharsis, was Lost Signal's debut album, which I produced back in 2001. It was the first thing I ever produced for another band and that lack of experience, combined with a horrifically-botched mastering job (not by me), meant that the album as released was never really heard as it was meant to be. So, many years later, I had Charles send me the Logic files again and gave everything a fresh mix from the ground up, thus the "Redux" part of the title. Heavy use of Korg Z1 and MS-2000 on this, along with Yamaha TZ81z, a Kawai K1, Access Virus B, Emu-E6400, Sequential Pro One and more.
Assemblage 23 - Early, Rare, and Unreleased (1988-1998)
Although I released my first album on a proper label in 1999, I had been making music more or less as a hobbiest under that name since I was 16 years old. When A23 made some waves in the industrial scene, many fans asked if this older material would ever see the light of day. This is the first collection of that material. Not my best work by a long shot, but I think it does a pretty good job of showing my roots. Everything you hear is done on an Ensoniq SQ-80 and EPS-16+.
Burikusu!!! - 2080
I think this is one of the most unique albums I've had the pleasure of releasing. Burikusu!!! is a Swedish duo comprised of programmer Claes Johansen (who programmed the Surge softsynth as well as coding DSP for Ableton before starting his own venture Bitwig), and vocalist Timmy Nillson. The album is an unlikely mix of heavily edited and manipulated rapped and sung vocals over a bed of melodic IDM. Definitely be sure to check out the track "Mikeeboi", which twists a rant from boxer Mike Tyson into a rap. A really technically impressive album that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Assemblage 23 - Early, Rare & Unreleased Volume 2
The first collection of early A23 rarities was really well-received by fans, so this is the follow-up consisting of more tracks from the same period. Also includes my deconstruction of the Pyschedelic Furs classic "Love My Way".
T.H.D. - Subconscious Drip
T.H.D. is a name that may be familiar to industrial old schoolers. Although they started out with an album they themselves will admit was basically a Front Line Assembly rip-off, after that, the band evolved into something far more interesting, introducing elements of techno, trip-hop, IDM, and other styles. The song themes and lyrics explored dystopian, sci-fi themes over beds after bed of vintage synths and samplers. (Seriously, these guys had one of the most mental synth and drum machine collections I've ever seen...). Subconscious Drip is an EP that heralded their return. While it bears the unmistakable earmarks of the old school (Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, and Lassigue Bendthaus are noticeable influences here), the new material shows a newfound maturity and depth that the earlier tracks only hinted at. This EP is available to download absolutely free (although donations are accepted as well in the form of a name your own price price point with no minimum).
T.H.D. - The Evolution of Our Decay
The full-length album that compliments Subconscious Drip. More future-retro beats dripping with more vintage synths, samplers, and drum machines than most of us will ever see in a lifetime.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Togu Audio Line Releases Noisemaker
Wow, I just posted the video this morning, and now it's out. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet since I'm still using my Monotron to communicate with dolphins, but here's what TAL has to say about their newest synth, Noize Maker:
"• 3 Oscillators
• Osc 1, +- 24 semitones, fine tune, phase control (saw, pulse, noise).
• Osc 2, +- 24 semitones, fine tune, phase control (saw, rectangle, triangle, sine).
• Sub Osc (rectangle).
• Osc 1 PM for pulse waveform.
• Osc 2 FM controled by Osc 1.
• Osc 1 & Osc 2 sync to sub osc (saw, pulse, rectangle, triangle(bipolar sync)).
• Adjustable master tune and transpose.
• Up to 6 voices.
• Portamento in mono and poly mode (off, auto, on).
• Ringmod modulates Osc 1 with Osc 2
• Self resonating 4x oversampled filters (24 dB LP, 18 dB LP, 12 dB LP, 6 dB LP, 12 dB HP, 12 dB BP, Notch)
• Filter ADSR (negative and positive)
• Volume ADSR
• Routable ADSR, modulates Filter, Osc 1, Osc 2, PW, FM (negative and positive)
• 2 LFO's with different running modes: free, sync to host, triggered by note.
Modulates filter, osc 1, osc 2, fm, pw, lfo rate, panorama and volume.
Sine, triangle, saw square, s&h, noise.
Positive and negative modulation.
Phase control.
• Adjustable Velocity dependent control over volume filtercontour and cutoff.
• Adjustable Pitch Wheel control over Cutoff and Pitch.
• One pole HP filter.
• Detune, detunes notes randomly.
• Juno chorus with different modes.
• A built in reverb.
• Bitcrusher, affects osc 1 and osc 2. Its a pre the filter stage effect.
• Midi learn for all knobs.
• Panic button.
• Easy to use, no hidden panels.
• 128 great presets (80 Presets by Frank "Xenox" Neumann / Particular - Sound).
• It's free and open source under the GPL license."
Look What Just Showed Up on My Doorstep!
Just got my Korg Monotron! MAN, is it small... look for a full review later this week. In the meantime, I'm going to go annoy my cat with it...
Sneak Peek at the Next TAL Synth: Noize Maker
FN-Tal-Noiz3m4k3r D3mosong from Frank Neumann on Vimeo.
Here's an odd little demo of the next product from free synth/effects maestros Togu Audio Line. Very analog sounding. Has sort of a 70's Roland vibe to my ears.
Toddler Loves Him Some Drum n' Bass
It's a widely acknowledged scientific fact that Mondays suck. So here's a little something to hopefully take at least a little of the sting out. Make sure to watch until the beat drops.
Via Orbojunglist on YouTube.
Rare Roland MKS-100 on Ebay
Never heard of this one before, but it's apparently a rackmount version of Roland's old S-10 sampler.
Info at the listing...
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