My band will be performing live tonight in London, England at 02 Islington Academy. Come out and see us![picture via Kelso Photography]
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Tonight: Assemblage 23 Live in London
My band will be performing live tonight in London, England at 02 Islington Academy. Come out and see us!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Free Sample Friday: Tape Overdrive
Another guest set from Psyche Poppet while I'm on tour in Europe. Here's what he has to say:
"This sample set was routed the same as before, but this time I really cranked up the output to tape. These have a serious, almost tube like distortion, bite, and edge. Fewer sounds this time, but longer. I feel they should be perfect for morphing with other samples using a program like Alchemy. They are also loud so use caution. I also included patch notes for one of the sounds for those interested. "
GO GET THEM!
Tonight: Assemblage 23 Live in Stockholm
If you happen to be in Stockholm, Sweden, come out and see my band perform at Clustret tonight![picture via Paige Cavallio]
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Notes from the OMD Shows....
As some of you know, my band just had the honor of supporting O.M.D. at a couple of Spanish gigs. We had an absolute blast and the guys could not possibly have been nicer and more down to earth. If you have the opportunity to catch them, just go. They almost have more energy than they did back in the 80's and seeing them all with huge smiles on their face while they played makes it clear that they're having a great time. It's easy to get jaded in the music business, especially for veterans such as themselves, so those times where you can see a band is still having a gas doing what they're doing seem all the more special.
New Mooger Fooger Pedal on the Way: The Cluster Flux
Love the name! Here's what the press materials have to say:"Introducing the MF-108M Cluster Flux.
The latest addition to our Moogerfooger family of effects
What is it?? It's an analog BBD based chorus flanger w/ Tap Tempo modulation for guitar players, and extensive MIDI control for keyboardists, recording, etc. This new Moogerfooger takes the Chorus/Flanger to a completely new level, significantly expands the musician's sonic palette; and is CV as well as MIDI controllable.
This will be a limited availability product. The MF-108M Cluster Flux uses BBD (Bucket Brigade Device) chips that were specifically designed for the short delay times associated with chorus / flanger type effects. But like all BBD devices (e.g. the MF-104 Analog Delay) the availability of this chip is very limited. We are constantly looking for more supply but as with the MF-104, the supply will be limited by chip availability.
We expect to begin shipping in late summer. Image is attached. We will be running an inside back-page ad in Guitar Player in the month of August. A PDF of the ad copy is attached.
Features:
· The Cluster Flux provides warm, great sounding analog chorus / flanger / vibrato effects. In addition, it has a much wider (and wilder) range of modulated delay line effects than traditional chorus / flangers due to the extended range of front panel controls, the multi-waveform LFO, and the extensive CV and MIDI control.
· The LFO has six waveforms. Use sine or triangle for classic chorus flanger effects. Check out the Sample and Hold, Square, Sawtooth, and Ramp for radical new sounds. There are no analog chorus / flangers that have a sample and hold capability
· In Flange mode, you adjust the delay time from approx. .6 to 10 milliseconds. In Chorus mode, from approx. 5 to 50 milliseconds.
· The Feedback control is continuously bi-polar for both non-inverted and inverted feedback for flanging with even or odd harmonics.
· The MF-108M has both input drive and output level control so you can use it from instrument to line level.
· Parameters are MIDI controllable and the MF-108M will ship with an application editor for managing the array of possibilities. Just one example of the many applications: Control the delay time with MIDI notes for "tuned" flanger comb-filter effects.
· There's a Feedback Insert jack on the back for external processing of just the wet signal just after the BBD's.
· The design includes high voltage MN3007 BBD's for their superior headroom and excellent signal to noise ratio.
Our formal introduction will be on June 17th Our press release will come at that time. Feel free to contact your good customers for pre-orders. Date for your website is June 17th."
The latest addition to our Moogerfooger family of effects
What is it?? It's an analog BBD based chorus flanger w/ Tap Tempo modulation for guitar players, and extensive MIDI control for keyboardists, recording, etc. This new Moogerfooger takes the Chorus/Flanger to a completely new level, significantly expands the musician's sonic palette; and is CV as well as MIDI controllable.
This will be a limited availability product. The MF-108M Cluster Flux uses BBD (Bucket Brigade Device) chips that were specifically designed for the short delay times associated with chorus / flanger type effects. But like all BBD devices (e.g. the MF-104 Analog Delay) the availability of this chip is very limited. We are constantly looking for more supply but as with the MF-104, the supply will be limited by chip availability.
We expect to begin shipping in late summer. Image is attached. We will be running an inside back-page ad in Guitar Player in the month of August. A PDF of the ad copy is attached.
Features:
· The Cluster Flux provides warm, great sounding analog chorus / flanger / vibrato effects. In addition, it has a much wider (and wilder) range of modulated delay line effects than traditional chorus / flangers due to the extended range of front panel controls, the multi-waveform LFO, and the extensive CV and MIDI control.
· The LFO has six waveforms. Use sine or triangle for classic chorus flanger effects. Check out the Sample and Hold, Square, Sawtooth, and Ramp for radical new sounds. There are no analog chorus / flangers that have a sample and hold capability
· In Flange mode, you adjust the delay time from approx. .6 to 10 milliseconds. In Chorus mode, from approx. 5 to 50 milliseconds.
· The Feedback control is continuously bi-polar for both non-inverted and inverted feedback for flanging with even or odd harmonics.
· The MF-108M has both input drive and output level control so you can use it from instrument to line level.
· Parameters are MIDI controllable and the MF-108M will ship with an application editor for managing the array of possibilities. Just one example of the many applications: Control the delay time with MIDI notes for "tuned" flanger comb-filter effects.
· There's a Feedback Insert jack on the back for external processing of just the wet signal just after the BBD's.
· The design includes high voltage MN3007 BBD's for their superior headroom and excellent signal to noise ratio.
Our formal introduction will be on June 17th Our press release will come at that time. Feel free to contact your good customers for pre-orders. Date for your website is June 17th."
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Togu Audio Lines Releases Version 3.10 of NoiseMaker
Togu Audio Line has released version 3.10 of their free cross-platform NoiseMaker synth. The changes are:
• 3 new filter types (24db State Variable Filter in LP, BP, and HP flavors)
• Fixed an issue causing clicks during release in some instances.
Self-Sidechained Reverb for Fun and Profit
If you’ve made any sort of dance music in recent years, chances are very good that you’ve experimented with sidechain compression. For the uninitiated, this is a process by which you compress a signal very hard, but use a second signal (usually a 4 on the floor kick drum) to control when the compression kicks in. The result is a rhythmic “pumping” that can add a lot of excitement and energy to your track. Today, I want to discuss a slightly less conventional type of sidechain compression many of you may have heard in the music of artists like Benny Bennasi. In this case, we’ll be using the compressed signal as its own sidechain to create a pumping reverb. I’ll be creating this in Logic, but you should be able to adapt this technique to any decently-featured DAW.
1. Create an audio instrument track and call up your softsynth of choice. This technique is most commonly used on lead sounds, so go ahead and find a nice buzzy lead.
2. Record a short riff using this lead and quantize it.
3. On the mixer page, turn the knob of Bus 1 all the way up to 100%. Then, on Bus 1’s channel itself, change the OUTPUT assignment to “NO OUTPUT”. What we’re doing here is to send the original lead sound to a place where it can be selected as the sidechain source. So we don’t want to actually need to hear it on this bus, we’re just using it as a control signal.
4. Now, turn the knob up on Bus 2 to about 20-30% and on the Bus channel itself, insert an instance of your favorite reverb plug-in, followed by Logic’s compressor effect. The order of the effects is crucial here, as we want to pump the reverb signal itself.
5. On your reverb effect, call up a preset that’s of about medium length and is very bright and reflective.
6. Now for your compression settings. At the very top right of Logic’s compressor you’ll see a drop down menu marked “Side Chain”. This is where you select your side chain source. You should see Bus 1 as one of the available sources. Select it. Set the compressor’s RATIO to somewhere around 5:1, set your attack to around 10-15 ms and your release to around 50 ms. We want to compress this really hard, so set your COMPRESSOR THRESHOLD to a relatively low value giving you at least -20db of reduction.
If you’ve done everything correctly, when you play your lead, you should hear the lead coming through relatively dry until you release the key, at which point you’ll hear the compressor kick in and the level of the reverb suck “upwards”. Experiment with different lengths of reverb until you find something that is musically pleasing for the tempo of your track. If something this extreme sounding is not your cup of tea, keep in mind that with more subtle compressor settings, you can use this same technique to keep a reverbed lead line from sounding too muddy or indistinct.
Tonight: Assemblage 23 Live in Barcelona
Provided they don't kick us off the bill for being annoying fanboys, tonight will be the second night my band will be supporting O.M.D. - this time in Barcelona, Spain at Apolo 2.[picture via Paige Cavallio]
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