Following their hugely successful MBase 11, Jomox is set to release another earth shattering dedicated drum unit - The M.Brane 11. This time they're tackling the ever elusive membrane drums - Snares, Toms, Bongos, and the like. The unit can even offer up respectable Kicks and Hats, as the unit has a dedicated noise oscillator. Along with 2 of what Jomox calls T-Osc, or membrane oscillators, 2 analog envelopes, and an LFO with 8 waveshapes the unit is a percussionists dream. The unit has MIDI controls and has room for 110 patches.
A T-Bridge oscillator is actually something like a band pass filter which is working close to the resonant frequency. Because it becomes an actual sine oscillator at perfect tune-up, you call the deviation of ideal resonance dampen. In this case, the oscillator decays in form of an attenuated vibration if it's exited - similar to a single membrane that is hit.
You can read more about the M.Brane 11 and listen to a few audio demos on the M.Brane 11 page. This unit looks to be a perfect compliment to the MBase or a great intro to Jomox drum synths. I know I'll be there on day one to grab my hands on this little beauty.
If you've ever dreamed about building your own x0xb0x 303-clone but wanted a little more modularity, or more synth features, than Doepfer has the kit for you.
Doepfer,the minds behind the huge A-100 modular system, will be unveiling a new DIY analog synth kit at this year's NAMM conference. The kit ships with only a PCB board, so the user will have to supply a case and power supply as well as knobs, switches, and sockets. You can even combine two or more units to get extra VCOs, LFOs, VCFs, VCAs, etc.
VCO: sawtooth and rectangle output (with variable pulse width), several frequency CV inputs, several PW/PWM CV inputs, linear FM input, hard sync input VCF: multimode filter, lowp, highp and bandpass output (optional low-notch-highpass with external potentiometer), 12dB/oct, several frequency CV inputs, several audio inputs, manual resonance control, resonance up to self oscillation VCA: exponential control scale, several CV inputs , several audio inputs , audio output ADSR: connections for attack, decay, sustain and release controls, connections for range switch (3 ranges), connections for LED display, ADSR output LFO: triangle and rectangle outputs, connections for frequency control (optional different controls for up/down time), connection for range switch (3 ranges), connections for LED display Slew Limiter: connections for slew control, input, output Inverter: input, output
The kit will begin shipping spring 2010 at a super low cost of 100 euros or about $140. You can read more about the kit in the PDF file on Doepfer's page.
I know I'll be all over this kit as soon as it's available stateside. I've been on the x0xb0x waiting list for a little over a year, so have yet to build my own synth. Yet I feel the desire to build my own musical instrument a huge driving force behind learning to solder building electronics. That, and I've wished the x0x had more expandability.
So not much happening in the last, well damn, 4 days. Seems I'm failing on all fronts, once again. I just can't seem to do anything consistently, or with any purpose. I haven't really worked on any tracks this week, but I might be able to get one done.
I played Half-Life this week. I've been wanting to get into Half-Life 2 again, but decided to play through the first again. It's not really as great as I remember it being. Sure it was a genre defining game back in 98, and a fine GOTY, but it doesn't hold up as well as I remember it. In my opinion, Deus Ex, while not quite the same, has aged a little better. Not so much in graphics or gameplay, but in terms of storytelling.
I have fond memories of a semblance of a story from Black Mesa, but replaying it seems to crush those memories. There's no backstory, you get no depth, no character development. Whereas JC Denton goes through a immense transformation and comes out a changed man by the end of the game. Half-Life 2 has a much more fleshed out story. There's life in that game. There's just not as much in the original. You seem to make your own story in Half-Life, which isn't a bad thing by any means.
But now I'm playing through Opposing Force, and then Blue Shift. Gearbox seemed to give you a little more atmosphere - or maybe just giving the world more flesh. After all, in the intro you get to relive a few moments from HL1, and get to see a few memorable, key events through the other end of the spectrum. I especially enjoy playing a GOOD marine. Some guy was testing a scientist for information and wouldn't let him leave without it, so I killed him and let the scientist go. Well, he kinda sat there saying he was wounded, but in my head I let him escape.
And school is getting on my nerves. Scheduling is turning out to be a total pain in the ass. But I'll get into that tomorrow, hopefully with good news.
Today started with me trying to organize my sample folder. I didn't get very far, but I put a few key sample packs into my main folder, and will be using them exclusively in my future projects. I decided to keep a Korg EMX drum sample pack that someone uploaded to IDMf a little while ago, as well as a pack of Quasimidi RaveOlution 309 drums and the pristine Deadmau5 Xfer sample pack. Those three give me a nice breadth of drums to work with and layer.
After that I loaded up my Live template and started jamming on Synth1. Then I started to look at a panel I never really dug into before - the effects panel. I never touched it as its parameters were never listed in the manual, so I was confused as to how it worked. Low and behold, a simple google search yielded the answers. Here's a write up of the parameters and what they do. Good stuff.
So I started to make some patches. I ended up with a few usable bits. Most of my time was spend noodling about with FM. I even managed to get a couple Crystal Method-esque sounds from Divided By Night. Which is a banging album by the way.
Oh yeah, Doepfer has some exciting news at NAMM this year. The two products I'm the most excited about are the DIY analog synth kit and the Dark Time sequencer. You can see more in this PDF file, on the main site. The concept of a DIY analog synth kit for under $150 is exciting. Granted, that's only for the PCB, but it's still a monster price for the following specs:
VCO: sawtooth and rectangle output (with variable pulse width), several frequency CV inputs, several PW/PWM CV inputs, linear FM input, hard sync input VCF: multimode filter, lowp, highp and bandpass output (optional low-notch-highpass with external potentiometer), 12dB/oct, several frequency CV inputs, several audio inputs, manual resonance control, resonance up to self oscillation VCA: exponential control scale, several CV inputs , several audio inputs , audio output ADSR: connections for attack, decay, sustain and release controls, connections for range switch (3 ranges), connections for LED display, ADSR output LFO: triangle and rectangle outputs, connections for frequency control (optional different controls for up/down time), connection for range switch (3 ranges), connections for LED display Slew Limiter: connections for slew control, input, output Inverter: input, output
I've been tossing the idea of building a x0xb0x around for awhile, and have been on the waiting list for over a year. I never got around to trying and sourcing my own parts as I'd rather just buy a full fledged analog synth in the interim. I'd rather have modularity in my DIY kit, and boy does Doepfer know how to deliver on that front.
I failed at my resolution of a song a week last week. But I WILL have a complete song by the end of this week and every week forward. School's coming up the week after next, but I'm dedicated now. The slack is off.
Browsing Matrixsynth today I stumbled upon a new controller that'll be appearing at NAMM this week. It's the 'You Rock Guitar'. It sounds pretty cheesy, but it's a pretty massive controller for the price ($180). I've been wanting to try out a Parker MIDI Fly, or better yet, a Moog Guitar. But both of them are waaay out of my price range - so I figured I'd never get my hands on a MIDI guitar. The You Rock might not be as functional as a Parker, but it's pretty much what I need.
The cool thing is that it interfaces with video games as well. So you can rip it out for Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Play strings instead of buttons, et cetra. I dig it's MIDI implementation though.
But even BETTER news was stumbling upon a program that adapts USB-equipped Guitar Hero X-plorer controllers to control MIDI. It's the Zeal Axis program, developed by a Mr. Robert Jarvis.
The buttons of the controller send note information while the D-pad changes key and chord progression. It also sends MIDI CC# for tilt and rotate, allowing expressive control. Using Windows 7 and Live I wasn't able to get the tilt/rotate to work, or, come to think of it, the whammy bar, but it'll be a great piece of live equipment once I do. Keep in mind you'll also need a software MIDI router, like LoopBe (freeware).
I'll have to play around more with the Axis and my X-plorer, but I'm already getting a lot of new ideas.
I've been thinking about what I really need, as opposed to just want, for my studio. I've decided a pad controller would be leagues better for programming drums and have decided on a Korg PadKontrol. I might switch over to an Akai MPD, but I really dig the X/Y pad the Korg offers, along with the footpedal input (for the kicks, ya know!). I also clearly need an audio interface, which I'm still up in the air with. I want to try and keep it under $300, hopefully less if I can get away with it - we'll see. Other than those I want to get a few effects units. I'd love a Sherman Filterbank if I can afford one, along with a Roland RE-201 tape delay. Add a nice distortion unit (or will the Filterbank suffice?) and I should be set. I might think about adding a KP3 to the mix, but only if I ever advance to the stage where I'm doing live shows. I'd rather save up for a nice analog synth first though - still haven't decided what yet. Everything I think about is just expensive (Andromeda, et al).
Oh, and it was suppose to snow a bunch today, or so Kristina told me this morning. Now the weather report says we'll get 1-3 inches tonight. And here I was expecting around of foot of snow. :(
I played a bunch of TF2 today. I snagged another Natascha and reached Demoman's Milestone 1 which scored me a Chargin' Targe. It's a pretty decent sidearm, although I haven't managed to score a kill with it yet. I've gotten leagues better with the Grenade Launcher and learned to detonate sticky bombs in the air. Even though I had over 20 hours as Demo I never really learned those two skills. So far I have 7 achievements on both Demo and Soldier. I'm hoping to reach 10 on both tomorrow.
Pretty boring blog posts, but at least I'm still posting once a day. Pushing onwards with my New Year's Resolution!
Are hard to sell! I'm sitting on so many of them it's not funny. Sure, you buy them for $80-100 a pop each semester, but the bookstore neglects to tell you that you're buying an older version that won't be used by ANYONE come next semester. Not even online bookstores will buy the things back.
So I tried to sell some on Amazon. Most have 100+ used copies waiting to sell all around $2 or less, not even worth it. I have 2, out of 9 that are worth anything - one at $80 and the other at a whopping $100, which surprised me. Hopefully I can get them on Amazon and make a few bucks.
Which brings me to the process of selling things on Amazon. Most people, aside from my household, have phones. Amazon requires you to answer a call from them (why, I don't know) to validate your selling account. Now I have to wait around till someone I know comes over with a phone and hopefully I'll remember to validate my Amazon account. All to sell 2 textbooks...
At least it's money. I still have a couple computers I'm sitting on that need sold, a pair of routers, and a couple old, possibly broken game systems that are collecting dust and taking up space I don't have. Craigslist ahoy!
Why can't making money be as easy as it is in video games? I wouldn't mind going into some sewers and collecting rat hides for some gold. In fact I think I'd be pretty good at it with all the practice I've had. Someone needs to make a gameshow for people like me. I just want a way to make money that doesn't require me to sell my soul to some soulsucking company. I swear I'll find one someday. Until then I'll remain broke as fuck - it's the only way to live.
New year, new blog - kind of. Well, at least I have a resolution this year: complete 1 song a week for the next year. So 52 songs by the year's end, hopefully more. Kind of channeling Deadmau5's Project 56. I'm going to try and blog once a day also, even if it's about nothing.
Today I started on a little Dubstep-type of thing for my weekly project. It's moving away from dubstep into some other plane, but we'll see what happens with it. Regardless, it's a song for the week and a stepping stone to better things.
I'll hopefully be sticking with, and learning, Ableton Live throughout these projects. I'm sick of FL Studio limiting me and not knowing any other programs. I'm also using Guru for this project, along with Arturia's Minimoog V and, of course, Synth1. I'll also have used TAL-Dub II far too much for this project, as it's got the dub vibe I'm going after. Maybe one of these days I can get my hands on a Roland RE-201 Space Echo. That would be mighty fine.
Trine, a magical new gaming experience, is coming our way courtesy of Finnish developers Frozenbyte, makers of the acclaimed Shadowgrounds. In Trine, players take control of a band of adventures and guide them on a journey of soul-shaping proportions. In this co-op enabled experience you'll take control of Pontius the Knight, Zoya the Thief, and Amadeus the Wizard.
Watch the Trine trailer.
Each character has a distinct set of moves that enable them to solve puzzles and traverse the 2D landscape. Pontius is the master of combat, taking on the undead with a fury. Zoya is light and nimble while using a grapping hook to avoid spike filled chasms. Amadeus is able to conjour boxes and move platforms about with his levitation magic.
Trine has a marvelous sense of style and utilizes NVIDIA's PhysX technology for breathtaking detail. The world comes alive as you bound from platform to platform, break passages with battering rams, and take the high road using rotating floors.
I've finished up a track I've been working on titled BeeLine (previously Ente Ente). It will be released on NeoGAF's upcoming GAME 5 summer album. I'll post an update as soon as the album is released.
As always comments and critiques are very much appreciated!
MacAvity I. Dig. This. My fiancee can't get over this song either :) It MUST have been MacAvity. There's no one like MacAvity ;p The vocals just fit, the little blippy synth makes me blush, just great all around. Perfect opener for the EP.
Frank's Pretty Colours This girl is smooth. It's a warm summer day, going for a drive down by the beach. A sense a slight retro 60's vibe. Then those funky, funky keys drop in like molasses. Real syrupy, they staple that tempo down, cement the beat.
Dewdrop What a fitting name. I want to say the intro reminds me of being in a cave, watching stalagtites drip onto the floor. This is a groovy little funker. That little blippy synth line just makes it (again). This one rolls off your tongue at the end.
Söppelfunk It is funky - takes me back to the mid-90's. Smooth and buttery, great vibe.
Woodnote's got himself an amazing piece of work here. I can see myself putting this on constant rotation in my playlist, in fact I already have. Swaying my head side to side.
There's no point in having a blog if I never use it. Why discover new tricks and techniques and not discuss them - even if I'm the only one to read this? Repitition fosters learning, plus I can look up information I may lose in a torrent of bookmarks. My lastest sources for music techniques have been Nhomas' Guide To Mixing, RavenSpiral's Guide To Music Theory, and Sound On Sound's Synth Secrets. I've been pouring over all three of them and devouring the content inside.
Nhomas is a member of IDM forums and released a guide to mixing a few months ago. There's a wealth of knowledge in there. A lot of it I'll read but won't necessarily understand what to do with it until I see it in action at a later date.
Today I stumbled upon this post talking about Rob Babicz's (aka Rob Acid) mastering process [video link] and some of his techniques. Apart from using one hell of a spring reverb he uses chains of compressors to develop his sound. One technique he talked about was something I had read earlier in the mixing guide but didn't grasp, parallel compression.
Parallel compression [video link] is pretty much just what it sounds like. You have a dry signal going to your master bus, but also to a send with a compressor on it. This compressor can be anything from a short attack/decay with massive gain and threashold for drums (so called 'New York Compression'), to a long attack, short decay and wicked compression for a pumping/throbbing sound. I tried both of these, putting my drum send to the NY Compression send and my bass to the 'throbbing' send. The bass really stood out in the mix and the drums had a nice decay once sent through the compressor. The beauty is being able to mix in the results to your taste. Most of the applications I found in parallel compression call for a low mix of compression with a high mix of dry signal, and it's a solid technique - one I think everyone should at least experiment with.
Sound on Sound's Synth Secrets is just that - a guide to getting the most out of synthesis. I'm only on part 10 (out of, what, 40?) and I've only touched the basics. I already knew a great deal about synthesis, but these are great articles with amazing information. It's very easy to read and I've already picked up a bunch of tips I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.
As for RavelSpiral's Guide To Music Theory, well, I have none of that. It's 93 pages of scales, chords, modes, etc. Most of the things you'd expect to find in a guide like this. The great thing? It's easy to read, free, and focused on electronic music. You'll learn that the blues scale is great for jazz bass (a given for the name, but something I never even knew about) and with the wholetone scale you can easily write fantastic acid lines. Not to mention it's full of wit and humor directed at the electronic scene (Drum & Bass jokes abound!).
So that's what I've been up to. I also have a new track I'm working on that I'm going to enter into GAME 5. The last few tracks have fallen short, but this one is turning into something special. I know I've said that before, but I really, truly dig this track. Once this track is completed I think my music will take me someplace more serene. I've been hit hard with inspiration via Boards Of Canada, and I can't wait to tackle a nice warm, silky, crackly, BoC-type track soon. I already have a vocal snippet I plan to eradicate for this project.
Irresolution (Solution) Guitars bouncing back and forth backed by a dirty industrial complex. A very relaxing piece. Silky smooth reverberations that pulse and evolve yet stop just sort of a fantastic breakdown.
Bird Rib Lots of crackling, bleeps and blops fly around the sound-field. Beautiful acoustic guitars combine with broken fax machines and stutter to a close.
If I Had A Hi-Fi More upbeat from the start. Stuttering beats and rhythms breath life into the track. The guitar scratches away from the silence in the middle of the song adding a subtle layer that isn't noticeable at first but adds a warmth to the soul of the song.
Mr. Owl A piece most ethereal - speaking of wise old age and patience. Everything is smooth and soft yet glitchy and noisy. A very soothing piece, reminiscent of Boards of Canada. Fine craftsmanship polished into an imperfect perfection. My favorite piece in the EP.
Overall this EP is simply put, brilliant - excellent. It has a cohesiveness that is hard to find and brings the whole album together into a netting of warmth. I can't help but compare it to BoC - dirty, warm, soft, silky, bubbly, and glitchy.
I've been working (mostly) on the song that I started on the 19th. I've gotten a nice progression so far. Along with what I had, I've switched up the bassline with a few breaks, and added a couple extra instruments.
I've changed a few things since this upload. Mainly lowering the cutoff on the bassline (it was a little too rezzy) and upped the last synth line an octave.
Along with this song I came up with two other loops. One's an arpeggiated Cynthia VST line with some drums and the other is a house-y riff with some simple drums. I'm keeping those on the backburner until I finish this song - just adding to them when I get an idea in my head.
I also got some graph paper out today to map out song structures. I was stumpted as to how to advance on my tunes - they tend to end up too repetitve. So I went after 'Got Glint?' by The Chemical Brothers. I love how their songs are simple in structure, yet have so much going on. They're masters at tossing about little effects and sounds. I'm going after that in my current work - hopefully I can come somewhat close.
After being lax on music for the last month I'm back in the groove. I went to revisit WiP 7 (out of 8) but ended up, as usual, starting a whole new track. It's really smooth and groovy - tastes like wine.
I was reading up on techniques, namely Breakbeats via Wikipedia. I knew the fundamentals thanks to The Chems, so I took a hand at creating a polyrhythm with a dash of syncopation for good measure. I came out with a funky little drum line. I planted a bassline on top of that and added some wispy pads on top. The result is a groovy little funker that I really dig. I only have 4 bars so far, but it's coming along nicely.
I also stumbled upon GOLD tonight. A persona by the name Kutiman takes youtube music clips and edits them together into entirely new songs. His project is called ThruYou and it's simply amazing. Not only is the music astounding, but the video editing is fascinating as well. At least listen to 'This is what I became' and 'Babylon Band', his style ranges from Jazz, to Hip-Hop, to Drum-and-Bass. It's just amazing the talent this man posseess. Great stuff, and very inspiring.
A couple days ago I scored a new set of headphones. Granted, they're $20 Sony MDR-V150's, but I was using a shotty $5 pair of Coby headphones with ripped wires that emitted a constant buzz. Once I get the funds I'll be upgrading to a pair of AKG K240's, along with a new soundcard (did I mention my current one crackles constantly and has the latency of a dying elephant?).
Today I uploaded a set of works in progress to Soundcloud (embedded below) to try and get a feel of where I should be heading. GAME 5.0 is coming up (releasing in June) and Project 168 kicks off on Monday, April 13. I would like to have 2 songs for GAME 5, and another 3-4 songs, comprising an EP, for P-168. I've been slacking on music lately, so I'm going to have to kick it into high gear to churn out 6 unique songs in April.
Give these WiPs a listen and let me know which you'd like to hear turned into a choon. I'm thinking of making an Acid-House track along with a complimentary ambient/chill tune for my set of GAME 5 songs. The theme is Summer, so it shouldn't be too hard to get into the vibe.
GAME 3.1 will be released shortly, from what I understand. We're currently working on the theme for GAME 5, which will probably end up being a summer party themed album. We're looking at a June release date.
Not really though. I haven't been making much music lately, took a little hiatus. Although I did manage a work around on that MIDI CC issue in FL Studio. Seems FL Studio has a bunch of MIDI channels that it doesn't respond to. I re-mapped my nanoKontrol around most of them. Some of them still pop up from time to time but it's not a huge deal anymore.
As such I want to work on a couple songs. I just remembered the IDMF compilation, I really have to bust my ass to get in on that. And it seems GAME 4.0 is finished, it just needs to be packaged and uploaded. Hopefully the people working on it can finish it by the end of the week. Regardless I'll post links up here when it's finished.
So today in FL Studio I revisited an older project I was working on. It's a tight little acid line written on the TS 404. I wonder, is that v2 of the original stand-alone TS404 application? I wonder if Fruity bought them out? Anyways, I added a patch I had made in Synth1 called Ressosaurous. It's pretty acidic and thought it would mend well with my track.
So I go to set the arpeg gate to knob 9, scene 2 on my nanoKontrol (those black units look mighty fine) but I turn the knob a little too fast. Now, these knobs aren't the best in the world and are a tad flimsy. So when I do that FL totally bugs out and stops responding to that knob. At first I thought I broke the pot, but that knob worked fine on all other scenes. So I hop over to Ableton and that knob works fine on ALL scenes.
So here I'm stumped. I go into the Kontrol Editor and change the CC# on that knob/scene from 66 to 67 and viola! FL now recognizes that knob. So I turn on my Alesis QS6.1 and set slider D to CC 66 and guess what? Nothin' doin'. FL totally freaked out and now won't accept any form of CC 66. Not even after a reboot. I really don't want to reinstall FL yet again damnit.
So my music was cut short because I didn't feel like messing around with one less knob. It just totally ruined my workflow for the day. Hopefully I can find a solution, if not, here I come reinstall...
Today wasn't very productive. I caught a piano riff during work and quickly recorded it. It was just a simple major chord that I played along to Boards of Canada's 'The Beach at Redpoint'. I had some trouble nailing down the tempo so I aborted to a later time. Then I messed about with some stock Impulse banks and came up with a couple groovy little drum lines.
Over at IDMF someone asked how to get the Vangelis arpeggiation in the intro to Blade Runner. I poked around youtube for a bit and found a nice demo on how to get the strings for the intro, but nothing on the arpeggiation. Then I found a video of some guy going to town on the outro theme with his Korg Radias, Trinity and Moog Little Phatty. So I grabbed the chords from the video and recorded the outro into FL Studio using my newly created VangelisRunner patch. I might elaborate on it later and try and pull off the entire outro. Once I figure out the intro arp I'll record that as well. This time I'm doing the entire song though, none of that half-assed 'oh I got the chords down time to quit' shit I did with Underworld yesterday.
