Additive Preview

Here are some examples of very pure waveforms created using additive synthesis.

I've have sampled the waveforms very close within harmonics so they can complement each other when combined into a patch with alternate sample switch. Additive synthesis is a waveform galore when it comes to organ and bell sounds and there are tons of combinations within the harmonics.

I've done additive before but this time i'm using multiple samples pr. waveform. Waveforms are sampled at CO thru C7 with 1 octave apart. Its a bit overkill but i'd rather have the samples in placed all over the keyboard just in case. The bell samples would be doing aliasing after C4 if i didnt make some extreme high tone samples.

Here is a snippet of some additive waveforms used in raw form:

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSWS_Additive_01.mp3

I might go back and resynthesis some of the older additive waveforms i've created for XSynth Library and make them multisamples to cover the entire keyboard range.

/Michael

Brass Preview

Here is 2 Brass patches build on the same principles as the Panorama Bass Preview. First example is typical brassy while the second is more bass powered brass and pretty big in sound. The bass brass was made by copying the the initial brass sample zone and add 1 octave plus adjusting the filters a bit.

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSWS_Brass_01.mp3

/Michael

Panorama Bass Preview

I've talked about the broad stereo effect on patches before and normally you wouldnt do stuff like this on Bass patches but what if you liked to see how it could be with a broad stereo bass. Well the Bass patches i'm working on now give you the option to choose between plain mono and broad stereo effect. The following Bass patch demo has a Panorama Knob which can be used to spread out the signal:

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSWS_Panorama_Bass_01.mp3

So as you can hear my (must_put_stereo_on_everything) sickness is at its prime ;)

/Michael

XSynth FX Free Refill

Whooops i did it again. Another free refill is on the horizon. It comes with 3000 Sampled waveforms from Access Virus and Korg OASYS. Nahhh theres too many of these kinda libraries.

How bout we took a DEEP dive into the Reason Subtractor and explored the machine as a pure FX synth. Well, thats what i did in this refill. Instead of having to manage hundreds of Subtractor with each its own sound i decided to sample the sounds and organize them into categories.

My first idea behind this project was to create a device which could generate the typical ambience you hear in SCI-FI movies/games but as i explored deeper i found that it could also produce a large vareity of other types of FX.

The material is based on looped and one-shot samples. Each sound is put into a category so you can find the type of sound your looking for fast. Each category has a NN19 and a Combinator patch.

The XSynth FX refill is 59 MB and that would prolly kill my bandwith so i have asked Ola (Propellerheads) if they would like to host it.

My hope with this refill is that people take some time of from making music and explore/play this refill like a toy. Have the Matrix devices come up with random patterns and see what pops up. If you learn to master it i'm sure you could produce background ambience and FX for many types of genres. The 3 included RNS song files shows how you COULD use this refill.

Here is some MP3 snippet:

The FX Generator

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSFX_FX_Generator_Demo.mp3

The Machine Creator

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSFX_Machine_Creator_Demo.mp3

The Gate Emulator

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/Night_Dweller.mp3

Anyways... Have fun :o)

XSynth FX Quick Guide:

XSynth FX Refill is build around 3 Combinator Patches which are explained below:

1. The FX Generator

The idea behind this Combi is to come up with random FX patterns using the Matrix. The mixer is your control-board for when to mute/unmute a category. Each Category is controlled by a Matrix device which plays a random made pattern. By randomizing, mute/unmute 1 or more categories you achive a rhytmic pattern. Load up the FX Generator Demo RNS song file from the XSynth FX Refill and watch how i mute/unmute randomized categories so they fit for the small demo song.

2. The Machine Creator

The idea behind this Combi is to make a device which can come up with engine/machine/ambience FX types of sounds. The mixer is your hub for mixing and blending these sounds into what your looking for. Again its about categories controlled by Matrix. In the Machine Creator Demo RNS song file you will see that i programmed Matrix for each category with different step lenght, this is to simulate engines running with their own individual cycle.

Try shift pattern up on each category and see what pops up.

3. The Gate Emulator

Load up the Gate emulator demo and watch how noise can put some life into your beats.

This Combi is your tool to put in some stereo gated drums effect on dull mono beats. What makes this tool unique is that it blends perfect with most drums and beats. Want a small room like gated ambience then just have the release turned down. Want long gated 80's drum effect, well just turn the release up. Amazing what noise can be used for, aint it :o)

/Michael Kastrup April 2007

Breathy Pad Preview

Here is 1 NN-XT patch which consist of 4 elements (Sampled Waveforms). Each element covering its own place of the frequency and thus giving a great vareity in sound when using the filter and resonance knob.

The sound is PPG/D50 like and i added some delay to the patch. Besides that there is used no chorus, unison or anything. The whole point is to skip that step with these samples and have them fixed and ready for use.

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSWS_BreathyPad_01.mp3

Music for series

I played around with a little theme which is supposed to act like a theme for a serie where the begining of the serie shows a slow flyby over NY at night. The closest i can get to place it with something is Miami Vice/ Nighthawk like.

In this piece of music i'm using a new contraption called the 80' gate drums faker. It can make very convincing gate drums effect on anything. Its one of those thing where people think.. wth, why didnt i think of that. The funny thing is, i dont use any kind of reverb or delay but something else which i'm keeping for myself for now ;)

Is it doable within the XSynth Library ? , yup.

Ohh well the track... here it is.

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/Night_Dweller.mp3

Organ Pads Preview

As promised here is a small mp3 demo of some of the sounds i'm working on.

For these organ pads i used 2 small homemade VST plugins:

1. A harmonic generator (Kinda like a drawbar organ)
2. A chorus based on old Roland synths type of chorus.

This chorus can make a fart from hell sound like a gentle burp in heaven. ;)

The purpose with these pads are very smooth harmonic rich stereo chorus effect.

The first sampels you hear is ambient like and the rest more typical organ like.

http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XSWS_SoftOrganPads_01.mp3

Next preview will prolly be some breathy stereo pads.

/Michael

Lets try something new and different

Well we used to have me posting about the progress over at xsynth.com and i kinda miss this thing. Now that i think of it it was more like a Blog on what was going on in the studio. So why not make a Blog then and see where it takes us.

Its been awhile since i made some noise.

I've been trying out tons of ways to improve the XSynth Library.

My main beef with sampling is how to obtain a crystal clear stereo sound without phasing. The kind of phasing im talking about is the one occuring when you take two mono signals and pan them extreme left and right and do the detune trick. This is ok when making pads that are supposed to be a bit blurry but what if you want a crystal clear bass to have the broad stereo effect and still be punchy.

Phasing have a negative effect on basses since it will make the deep end fade in and out and thats bad if you want the bass to work with a kick to produce a nice punch.

There are 3 types of bass that can go with phasing:

Freetless Bass (Jazz)
Sequencing Bass (Synth Pop)
PWM Bass (DnB)

All other kinds of bass should be mono and put in center to give the constant punch.

Anyway, its phasing i dont want but i like the movement between left and right. So i have come up with a way to produce a chorus like effect which adds life to samples but keep them clear and gives a nice random stereo placement. Now if i did the same thing to all the samples i would end up with one hell of a blurry soup. So i tend to think in 3 dimensions. The narrow approach, the wide approach and the center approach.

I'm gonna post some examples during the easter holidays.

Until then

/Michael