I had lots of plans for 2011 but fate wanted it otherwise, in short 2011 started with complete meltdown in my life.
In January my Mother was diagnosed with brain tumor and over 3 months i saw how the tumor ate my mothers sanity away day by day. She died on March 25, 2011 and i have a very hard time coping with this. She was the most decent person i've ever known. Imagine a person who cant lie, never do anything selfish, always willing to give a helping hand, live a life without any debt, never loose selfcontrol, always caring, well it may sound crazy to have all these virtues but my Mother was such a person. Her only concern was for our little family and whats left of it.
I am soooo pi.... that she didnt get to live the life as older people usually do, something came along and snuffed away her retirement with equals. That woman raised me and my sister single handed, worked very hard and never left us kids with a feeling of something was missing. Of all people she didnt deserve this. I will never forgive whom ever is in charge of it all, never!
Shortly before she went sick other disasters decided to knock on my door, my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) caved in and could not be fixed without loss of all data. Yes, i DO have backups but putting together a DAW over 3 years accumulate something like 300+ plugins and 100+ audio apps which need to be re-installed, this WILL take some time, usually it takes me around 6 months to get around to all plugins. In January i thought i might aswell take the leap and go for Win 7 64bit on a new DAW since i have to start from scratch again. Its April and that friggin new DAW still wont work, it has all kinds of errors popping up all the time, so now i've given up and returned to the old DAW which is empty and trying to figure out what the hell i'm supposed to do.
I'll resurface at some point but right now its pretty hopeless and i feel like smashing things.
So, plans for 2011 are to survive and keep breathing.
/Michael
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Yamaha Motif XF Review
This is a very subjective review of Yamaha Motif XF from a sound designer/synthesist view.
Normally all my work is done using s DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) meaning a PC and some various software with endless possibilities. So how exciting is a hardware workstation for a person like me, in this case Motif XF, well let me put it this way, i feel like i've been pushed back 20 years in time. They call it a Music Production Synthesizer but the is not a shred of synthesis in this thing. Motif XF is a huge sample player, thats it. It has a very limited synth section, in short it has 1 VCF 1 VCA and 1 LFO which equals to a tad better than a Sound Font player.
When used as a preset player for live situations, then it shines with its 4 assignable effects and many on the fly knobs to use in VOICE mode.
When used as a sequencer it is crippled by the fact that you can only use insert effects on 8 out of 16 channels. I bet if you planned to sequence a song using 16 very nice sounding VOICE presets then you will be dissapointed to know that only 8 of these preset will include the insert fx like they are supposed to and the rest must live without the insertion effects. This is very annoying. So i tend to call the seuqence an 8 channel sequencer.
A look into the stock samples in the synth section reveals lack of many things, first of all in total there are ONLY 3 modulated stereo waveforms for use in broad pads, the mono noise sample is so short that you can hear the loop unless you plan to use it for a closed hihat. The synthetic bell waveforms are very thin and many waveforms are pretty useless as building blocks, however the P5 waveforms are clearly ment for serious sound design, each of these waveforms are phase locked and precise over the entire keyboard range. These are the waveforms you should use to create other waveforms, eg mix the 0 Degree Saw with a 180 Degree Saw and you get a pulse waveform. Thats how most samples should work in the synth section, but only a few do it. There is a complete lack of smart additive waveforms, harmonics you use to create physical model instruments. Sure you could use a sine wave to build up the harmonics but then it would eat away polyphony which we always try to preserve.
The handling of actual NEW waveforms are a nightmare from a sound designers view, you cant save individual waveforms but have to save the whole lot, which also means whenever you need to load a waveform then you have to import all again. In this case the machine adds the loaded waveforms to the existing waveforms so you end up with tons of duplicates in Flash Memory.
Anyways, you will need some kind of software to handle this proper.
The Arpeggio functions, yeah its super great when working in VOICE mode but when working in SONG and PATTERN mode the ARP settings will reset, so you have to find the original arp setting by browsing 7000 arps on each arp'ed preset. Dohhh
As you can guess, I am not super thrilled about Motif XF but I am a stubborn type of guy with a mission, the mission is simple, to improve Motif XF. I will start by making some of the sound designer samples which are missing and to make a point i will make these samples take ONLY 1 MB of the 128 MB free assignable ram in Motif XF.
177 KB is reserved for a useful 2 second NOISE sample. This gives me 823 KB to play with.
Wish me good luck ;)
/Michael
Normally all my work is done using s DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) meaning a PC and some various software with endless possibilities. So how exciting is a hardware workstation for a person like me, in this case Motif XF, well let me put it this way, i feel like i've been pushed back 20 years in time. They call it a Music Production Synthesizer but the is not a shred of synthesis in this thing. Motif XF is a huge sample player, thats it. It has a very limited synth section, in short it has 1 VCF 1 VCA and 1 LFO which equals to a tad better than a Sound Font player.
When used as a preset player for live situations, then it shines with its 4 assignable effects and many on the fly knobs to use in VOICE mode.
When used as a sequencer it is crippled by the fact that you can only use insert effects on 8 out of 16 channels. I bet if you planned to sequence a song using 16 very nice sounding VOICE presets then you will be dissapointed to know that only 8 of these preset will include the insert fx like they are supposed to and the rest must live without the insertion effects. This is very annoying. So i tend to call the seuqence an 8 channel sequencer.
A look into the stock samples in the synth section reveals lack of many things, first of all in total there are ONLY 3 modulated stereo waveforms for use in broad pads, the mono noise sample is so short that you can hear the loop unless you plan to use it for a closed hihat. The synthetic bell waveforms are very thin and many waveforms are pretty useless as building blocks, however the P5 waveforms are clearly ment for serious sound design, each of these waveforms are phase locked and precise over the entire keyboard range. These are the waveforms you should use to create other waveforms, eg mix the 0 Degree Saw with a 180 Degree Saw and you get a pulse waveform. Thats how most samples should work in the synth section, but only a few do it. There is a complete lack of smart additive waveforms, harmonics you use to create physical model instruments. Sure you could use a sine wave to build up the harmonics but then it would eat away polyphony which we always try to preserve.
The handling of actual NEW waveforms are a nightmare from a sound designers view, you cant save individual waveforms but have to save the whole lot, which also means whenever you need to load a waveform then you have to import all again. In this case the machine adds the loaded waveforms to the existing waveforms so you end up with tons of duplicates in Flash Memory.
Anyways, you will need some kind of software to handle this proper.
The Arpeggio functions, yeah its super great when working in VOICE mode but when working in SONG and PATTERN mode the ARP settings will reset, so you have to find the original arp setting by browsing 7000 arps on each arp'ed preset. Dohhh
As you can guess, I am not super thrilled about Motif XF but I am a stubborn type of guy with a mission, the mission is simple, to improve Motif XF. I will start by making some of the sound designer samples which are missing and to make a point i will make these samples take ONLY 1 MB of the 128 MB free assignable ram in Motif XF.
177 KB is reserved for a useful 2 second NOISE sample. This gives me 823 KB to play with.
Wish me good luck ;)
/Michael
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Slow Tunes album out on Magnatune
Slow Tunes is my first album in many years.
Its about minimalistic synthesis which is supposed to put you into an relaxing state. First i used it for my self to fall asleep at night, the tones and harmonics distracted me so i would loose interest in deeper thoughts. It worked for me so it might work for others aswell and thats the sole reason behind Slow Tunes.
Each track repeats certain tones in an random order so you never know what to expect coming next and thats what distracts you. In my bedroom i have a small speaker set with a subwoofer, i never listen to it at high volume but at very low volume, just enough so i can hear all harmonics, and low enough so i can shut it out.
The album can also be used for quiet passages in movies or other visual stuff which needs a calm background.
Been wondering what behavior it would have on babies, but it might be an idea to try out if one should need a helping hand keeping babies calm. Just remember, small speakers can only reproduce the high harmonics and hearing the high harmonics only will be annoying, it needs to be a speaker set which covers the low-middle and highs evenly.
My speaker system in the bedroom is very like this type of speaker set:
Visit Magnatune http://www.magnatune.com/ and look me up if your interested in how Slow Tunes affects you :)
/Michael
Saturday, July 3, 2010
XSynth and Youtube
There is nothing much going on with this blog lately and thats because i'm posting most material on the youtube channel. So head over to my youtube channel to catch up ;)
http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelkastrup
Btw. www.synthtronic.com got snatched so i'm no longer using that url.
/Michael
http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelkastrup
Btw. www.synthtronic.com got snatched so i'm no longer using that url.
/Michael
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tips for creating a playable synth patch part 2
Last time we talked about using Keyfollow for various synthesis function, this time we will look at using Velocity.
Velocity - Volume
Try hit a tone on any physical instrument with various strength and it will make a tone no matter how soft you hit it. This is the reason why i only have Velocity control Volume to a certain degree. Typical it will control 30-60% of the Volume but never 100%.
Velocity - Filter
Imagine the tone from a piano, when played soft its a kinda round smooth sound it produce. Play it hard and more brightness is added to the sound. The tricky part is to make that transition using Velocity, add too much Velocity to the filter and it will sound like the strings are about to break, add too little and it will sound muddy. Usually i find my self using a Velocity - Filter setting of max 25%.
Velocity - VCA-Decay
Imagine you hit a piano key soft and notice how long a decay it got, then hit i hard and notice the longer sustained note. To emulate this kind of behaviour we use Velocity - VCA-Decay. The correct setting for this depends on the instrument familie, drums need only a subtle change, pianos a bit more and guitars can go from a very short muted pluck sound to a very long sustained note. Velocity - VCA-Decay is often used along with a seperate Velocity - VCF-Decay to give the same feel to the filters, meaning the filter will open up as you play harder.
Velocity - Waveform
A classic Velocity - Waveform setting is when using Velocity to control the Pulse Width on a Square waveform. When emulating a jazz guitar sound i will often use Velocity to control the Pulse Width from a 40% position to a 30% position. This gives the waveform a little life on its own when playing at various strenght. Doing the same with Sync can also add a spark of life to the tone of a sound.
If you are working with Additive or Wavetable you can have the Velocity control the waveform in a more drastic way. Imagine a wavetable of nine pipes on a organ, have Velocity control the transition between those nine pipes going from 1 pipe to two pipes to three pipes etc. This will give you a very dynamic organ patch suited for soft to hard playing style.
This was some of the most obvious uses of Velocity within a synth.
/Michael
Velocity - Volume
Try hit a tone on any physical instrument with various strength and it will make a tone no matter how soft you hit it. This is the reason why i only have Velocity control Volume to a certain degree. Typical it will control 30-60% of the Volume but never 100%.
Velocity - Filter
Imagine the tone from a piano, when played soft its a kinda round smooth sound it produce. Play it hard and more brightness is added to the sound. The tricky part is to make that transition using Velocity, add too much Velocity to the filter and it will sound like the strings are about to break, add too little and it will sound muddy. Usually i find my self using a Velocity - Filter setting of max 25%.
Velocity - VCA-Decay
Imagine you hit a piano key soft and notice how long a decay it got, then hit i hard and notice the longer sustained note. To emulate this kind of behaviour we use Velocity - VCA-Decay. The correct setting for this depends on the instrument familie, drums need only a subtle change, pianos a bit more and guitars can go from a very short muted pluck sound to a very long sustained note. Velocity - VCA-Decay is often used along with a seperate Velocity - VCF-Decay to give the same feel to the filters, meaning the filter will open up as you play harder.
Velocity - Waveform
A classic Velocity - Waveform setting is when using Velocity to control the Pulse Width on a Square waveform. When emulating a jazz guitar sound i will often use Velocity to control the Pulse Width from a 40% position to a 30% position. This gives the waveform a little life on its own when playing at various strenght. Doing the same with Sync can also add a spark of life to the tone of a sound.
If you are working with Additive or Wavetable you can have the Velocity control the waveform in a more drastic way. Imagine a wavetable of nine pipes on a organ, have Velocity control the transition between those nine pipes going from 1 pipe to two pipes to three pipes etc. This will give you a very dynamic organ patch suited for soft to hard playing style.
This was some of the most obvious uses of Velocity within a synth.
/Michael
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tips for creating a playable synth patch part 1
Whats the big difference between playing a sample and a synthesized sound ?
Its the expression of the sound.
A sample is static whereas a synththesized sound can be much more.
To help us making a playable sound we have the following:
1. Velocity (Mapped to Volume,Filter and Waveform)
2. Aftertouch (Mapped to Vibrato)
3. Modwheel (Mapped to anything interesting)
4. Keyfollow (Volume compensation, Filter balance, Modulation (LFO) and Envelope spread)
5. (LFO) Modulation of the waveform (PWM, Wavetable, FM, Additive etc..)
Keyfollow example:
Pulse Width Modulation
A PWM waveform modulated by LFO will usually sound nice at the key we used to set the speed of LFO but if we play a much higher key it wont have the same modulation effect and if we play a very low key the effect will be way to much. This is where keyfollow comes in. We have to control the amount of LFO signal sent to the waveform by using keyfollow. In this case the keyfollow must be set to a positive amount around 50%+.
This should produce an overall nice modulation to the entire keyboard range.
Volume Balance
Next thing to consider using keyfollow is for Volume. High notes will alway be percieved at a higher volume than lower notes since high pitch sound travel faster thru air than lower pitch sounds. In this cast we have to use keyfollow with a negative setting thus making the lower notes play louder than the high notes. This is done by having keyfollow control the Volume with a 50%- setting.
This should produce an overall Volume balance to the entire keyboard range.
Filter Balance
Next thing to do with Keyfollow is balance filter offset for the entire keyboard range. Do we want it to play with a more open filter when playing high notes or do we wish to have the same strength of filter apply to the entire keyboard range. Remember IF you choose to have more open filter with high notes then the percieved Volume will be higher on high notes aswell so you need to adjust the Keyfollow->Volume balance.
Waveform Balance
The finishing touch using keyfollow goes to the Pulse Width waveform offset. When playing very high notes we all have a hard time hearing if its a Saw, Square or Sine waveform we hear. This is much more obvious when we play low key notes. To compensate for this loss of definition we have to strengthen the high keys towards a more Square'ish sound. In this case we use keyfollow to alter Pulse Width a small bit making high notes play with a wider Pulse Width and low notes play with a more narrow Pulse Width. Usually you would have to make the low notes be the offset and then have keyfollow increase the width as you play higher notes.
This concludes the typical use of Keyfollow.
/Michael
Its the expression of the sound.
A sample is static whereas a synththesized sound can be much more.
To help us making a playable sound we have the following:
1. Velocity (Mapped to Volume,Filter and Waveform)
2. Aftertouch (Mapped to Vibrato)
3. Modwheel (Mapped to anything interesting)
4. Keyfollow (Volume compensation, Filter balance, Modulation (LFO) and Envelope spread)
5. (LFO) Modulation of the waveform (PWM, Wavetable, FM, Additive etc..)
Keyfollow example:
Pulse Width Modulation
A PWM waveform modulated by LFO will usually sound nice at the key we used to set the speed of LFO but if we play a much higher key it wont have the same modulation effect and if we play a very low key the effect will be way to much. This is where keyfollow comes in. We have to control the amount of LFO signal sent to the waveform by using keyfollow. In this case the keyfollow must be set to a positive amount around 50%+.
This should produce an overall nice modulation to the entire keyboard range.
Volume Balance
Next thing to consider using keyfollow is for Volume. High notes will alway be percieved at a higher volume than lower notes since high pitch sound travel faster thru air than lower pitch sounds. In this cast we have to use keyfollow with a negative setting thus making the lower notes play louder than the high notes. This is done by having keyfollow control the Volume with a 50%- setting.
This should produce an overall Volume balance to the entire keyboard range.
Filter Balance
Next thing to do with Keyfollow is balance filter offset for the entire keyboard range. Do we want it to play with a more open filter when playing high notes or do we wish to have the same strength of filter apply to the entire keyboard range. Remember IF you choose to have more open filter with high notes then the percieved Volume will be higher on high notes aswell so you need to adjust the Keyfollow->Volume balance.
Waveform Balance
The finishing touch using keyfollow goes to the Pulse Width waveform offset. When playing very high notes we all have a hard time hearing if its a Saw, Square or Sine waveform we hear. This is much more obvious when we play low key notes. To compensate for this loss of definition we have to strengthen the high keys towards a more Square'ish sound. In this case we use keyfollow to alter Pulse Width a small bit making high notes play with a wider Pulse Width and low notes play with a more narrow Pulse Width. Usually you would have to make the low notes be the offset and then have keyfollow increase the width as you play higher notes.
This concludes the typical use of Keyfollow.
/Michael
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
XSynth Beatbox
Been awhile since my last post but i've been pretty busy. One of my lastest projects is a synthesized beatbox designed from scratch with each sound. The end result is a mix between the beatbox you would find in old organs and a TR 808, so the sound nature is more leaned towards a soft beatbox for old school synth arrangements and 80's pop arrangements.
Here is a snippet with some patterns:
http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XS_Beatbox_B.mp3
Here is an example of the beatbox used in an arrangement i made in Reason:
http://www.xsynth.com/demos/SugarPop.mp3
Besides that i'm more or less working towards creating a sampled synth setup for use with Reason.
/Michael
Here is a snippet with some patterns:
http://www.xsynth.com/demos/XS_Beatbox_B.mp3
Here is an example of the beatbox used in an arrangement i made in Reason:
http://www.xsynth.com/demos/SugarPop.mp3
Besides that i'm more or less working towards creating a sampled synth setup for use with Reason.
/Michael
Friday, December 5, 2008
AFTERskool for Zebra2 VST released
Zebra AFTERskool Soundset is complete. At first this was ment to be a release with focus on drums but the workflow with tons of Zebra's used for drums is not that smart after all so drums will be released as a sampled kit later on. However the Zebra AFTERskool Soundset includes 3 drum preset, the White Kit, The Tomblas and the Native War Drums.The Zebra AFTERskool Soundset is mixed bag of 128 Presets which is fully capable of producing music on its own.
PDF file can be found here:
http://www.zebrasynth.com/downloads/ZebraAFTERskoolSoundset.pdf
Here is the official AFTERskool demo (No External FX used):
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_AFTERskool_DEMO.mp3
AFTERskool is available here:
http://www.zebrasynth.com/index.php?item=afterskool
/Michael
Friday, October 24, 2008
ST Chorus released
Guess no one saw this coming being me releasing a chorus but this chorus is from a SE project i stopped working on 2 years ago. The chorus was finished back then but i didn't bother to finish a gui since i only planed on using it myself. Eventually i figured someone was bound to put a chorus on the market that i liked but that did happen in this 2 year time so i decided to wrap this one up and make it available for all.
My reference for this chorus was my work with various Roland chorus over time like Re-301, Jazz Chorus Amp, Dimension D, Juno 60, Boss Pedal etc... I was raised listening to those chorus so that type of chorus is stuck in my head.
Here is a demo where i use the ST Chorus on the following instruments:
Lounge Lizzard Piano, Zebra 2 DX E Piano, ARP Omni, NI Pro 53 Brass, Zebra 2 PWM Pad, RealGuitar Steel Picked, ABL 2 Bassline and Zeta+ Trance Pattern
A limited demo is available here, give it a spin:
You can pick it up for €19 over at
/Michael
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Zebra 2 After Skool Soundset
Here is a little update on the next soundset for Zebra 2 VST from me. First of all i changed the working title to "Zebra After Skool Soundset", this makes more sense to me since "Zebra Oldskool Soundset" was the name of the previous soundset.
Zebra 2 After Skool Soundset will be a mixed bag of 128 presets.
Here are some demos of the work so far:
(Some Ethnic + Slooow Emo Pads)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_03.mp3
(Let's make some Noise, Despite what you might think, this IS Zebra.) http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_02.mp3
(Rhythmbox + Various)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_01.mp3
(Various Presets)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Aug08.mp3
/Michael
Zebra 2 After Skool Soundset will be a mixed bag of 128 presets.
Here are some demos of the work so far:
(Some Ethnic + Slooow Emo Pads)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_03.mp3
(Let's make some Noise, Despite what you might think, this IS Zebra.) http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_02.mp3
(Rhythmbox + Various)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_01.mp3
(Various Presets)
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Aug08.mp3
/Michael
Monday, August 11, 2008
Zebra 2 Soundset 4 Progress
A little update on Soundset 4 progress: I've used an insane amount of time on making a rhythmbox kit to my taste. I wanted the set to sound like all coming from the same rhythmbox. Why go thru so much bother for something which is around free all over the net as samples. Well the word samples is the reason. Ever tried EQ'ing a sampled TR 808 or the likes BD just to find that the sample isnt clean. The typical situation is you put more top on a drum and then reveals some unwanted high freq noise/tones. So this in basics is the reason why i sat down and created a rhythmebox from scratch, now i'm 100 % sure no artifacts will appear no matter how hard i boost any frequency because the drum sounds are super clear and pure.
Ok besides the rhythmebox the work has been around a bleeding trumpet. This has taken forever and the outcome is more like a trombone heh heh but i'll settle for a trombone for now ;) Now when making an emulation like a trombone you cant possibly cover all aspect of the sound but what you can do is create something which is GOOD enough for most performances.
Here is a demo snippet of some new sounds, no EQ only limiter and a stereo enhancing thingy on the mix:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_01.mp3
First of all its a journey with the rhythmbox thru various arrangements.
First we hear a nice square/piano like pad then its the phaser string, the Ride Cymbal and Thee Trombone after that a spacey dark pad with some echo key hits and last its some reggeaton with a synth preset sounding like a sample from an old Mirage Sampler with lots of grittyness and the 8 bit flavour all over it.
Ohh and dont mind my lousy Trombone solo play
I'm going to give the rhythmbox hihat a closer look later on and will create a few other sounding cymbals, ohh and a NEW clap.
Btw, now that i think of it the box sounds somewhat like the mix done for Rock Your Baby by George McCray, in my head that is. I dont dare listen that title now, what if i'm all wrong heh heh.
Thats about it
/Michael
Ok besides the rhythmebox the work has been around a bleeding trumpet. This has taken forever and the outcome is more like a trombone heh heh but i'll settle for a trombone for now ;) Now when making an emulation like a trombone you cant possibly cover all aspect of the sound but what you can do is create something which is GOOD enough for most performances.
Here is a demo snippet of some new sounds, no EQ only limiter and a stereo enhancing thingy on the mix:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Soundset4_01.mp3
First of all its a journey with the rhythmbox thru various arrangements.
First we hear a nice square/piano like pad then its the phaser string, the Ride Cymbal and Thee Trombone after that a spacey dark pad with some echo key hits and last its some reggeaton with a synth preset sounding like a sample from an old Mirage Sampler with lots of grittyness and the 8 bit flavour all over it.
Ohh and dont mind my lousy Trombone solo play
I'm going to give the rhythmbox hihat a closer look later on and will create a few other sounding cymbals, ohh and a NEW clap.
Btw, now that i think of it the box sounds somewhat like the mix done for Rock Your Baby by George McCray, in my head that is. I dont dare listen that title now, what if i'm all wrong heh heh.
Thats about it
/Michael
Saturday, August 9, 2008
A day with Purity Software Sound Module
Purity is among the (oldies) and is a General Midi software sound module like Roland counterparts such as SC 55 but with its own approach and unique features. With the initial release of Purity it was an expensive investment but now you can pick it up for $99 USD which is cheap compared to what you get. Sure there is noew things on the market which do GM sounds with better quality but if you take another approach and consider Purity as a device for getting ideas down quick then you cant go wrong. My interest is in the build in sequencer which can be used to create ideas for sequences and arpeggios. The fun part is when you combine several phrases, multis, loops etc... into a 1 finger preset sounding like a full orchestra or any kind of arrangement. When doing this you will instantly do a timewarp back to the late 80's synth pop.
I had a little trouble with the install because Cubase forced Purity to look for the sound library in c:\Program Files\LUXONIX\Purity\ but it was installed elsewhere on a extern harddrive but i just copied the files from the extern into the C:\Program Files\......
Now when fooling around with this kind of PCM sound generator you need to think creative. Dont like the drum sounds ? well try turn up or down in pitch and see what comes out.
To get the most from Purity i think you would need to setup your own drumkits using the PCM sounds included. Drums are always a matter of taste.
Anyways, i played around with Purity for several hours to get the grand picture and ended up with a little fun preset. Everything in the following demo is controlled by key note, how long i hold the key and how hard i hit the key. I added some comp and reverb on the total mix.
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_Purity_Fun_01.mp3
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_Purity_Fun_02.mp3
You can find more information about Purity at http://www.luxonix.com/
Thats about it for today...
/Michael
I had a little trouble with the install because Cubase forced Purity to look for the sound library in c:\Program Files\LUXONIX\Purity\ but it was installed elsewhere on a extern harddrive but i just copied the files from the extern into the C:\Program Files\......
Now when fooling around with this kind of PCM sound generator you need to think creative. Dont like the drum sounds ? well try turn up or down in pitch and see what comes out.
To get the most from Purity i think you would need to setup your own drumkits using the PCM sounds included. Drums are always a matter of taste.
Anyways, i played around with Purity for several hours to get the grand picture and ended up with a little fun preset. Everything in the following demo is controlled by key note, how long i hold the key and how hard i hit the key. I added some comp and reverb on the total mix.
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_Purity_Fun_01.mp3
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_Purity_Fun_02.mp3
You can find more information about Purity at http://www.luxonix.com/
Thats about it for today...
/Michael
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
A day with CS-80 V
One of the most famous synth of all time has to be the Yamaha CS-80. Funny how things turn up, CS-80 sold around 2000 whereas Minimoog sold 15.000 (i think). Anyway, CS-80 was popular but with a price tag beyond any avarage musicians budget. So i settled for visiting my friend at the Yamaha store quite often just to put my hands on this huge monster. Sooo, we now have 2008 and i've had Arturia's CS-80 V lying around my harddisk for 2 years without some serious use. I find the CS-80 V somewhat hard to work with because some parameters dont behave like i thought they would, mainly the modulation section. Setting a nice smooth velocity transition was so hard i gave up several times.
K, so i played around with the ARP feature which is very cool and simple. Then i moved onto making a split preset with bass in the left and arps in the right. Now since this machinery can be programed to act like 8 mono synths in one preset i decided to make the ultimative CS-80 V single preset. ;)
The preset has 4 oscillators runing the ARP from C#3 and up, each of these oscillators are programed with a different sounds like pure square, brass, etc... This leaves us with 4 osc's left for bass and a 3 osc lead-brass. The bass covers from C3 and lower and the lead-brass covers the whole range but without being assigned to the ARP feature.
It looks a bit like this:
<---1 osc--------bass-><---4 osc----arp------------------->
<---3 osc-------------------lead-brass--------------------->
This gives us a max use of the 8 osc's and can sound like this when played live using this single preset:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_CS80_ARPSplit2.mp3
or
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_CS80_ARPSplit.mp3
For a non-live performance i would probably turn the preset into 2 presets having the lead-brass stacked with the bass and arp on another instance to avoid tones getting clipped.
Thats about it :)
/Michael
K, so i played around with the ARP feature which is very cool and simple. Then i moved onto making a split preset with bass in the left and arps in the right. Now since this machinery can be programed to act like 8 mono synths in one preset i decided to make the ultimative CS-80 V single preset. ;)
The preset has 4 oscillators runing the ARP from C#3 and up, each of these oscillators are programed with a different sounds like pure square, brass, etc... This leaves us with 4 osc's left for bass and a 3 osc lead-brass. The bass covers from C3 and lower and the lead-brass covers the whole range but without being assigned to the ARP feature.
It looks a bit like this:
<---1 osc--------bass-><---4 osc----arp------------------->
<---3 osc-------------------lead-brass--------------------->
This gives us a max use of the 8 osc's and can sound like this when played live using this single preset:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_CS80_ARPSplit2.mp3
or
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK_CS80_ARPSplit.mp3
For a non-live performance i would probably turn the preset into 2 presets having the lead-brass stacked with the bass and arp on another instance to avoid tones getting clipped.
Thats about it :)
/Michael
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Zebra 2 Summer Presets
Been awhile, summer, being lazy all and that, and for some reason unknown i started to look at some of the presets ideas that has popped with the new Zebra 2 beta. Its not much because official i'm on vacation but it might be fun to listen too:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Aug08.mp3
/Michael
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_MK_Aug08.mp3
/Michael
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Zebra 2 and Smooth Jazz
I'm working on various setups for certain styles. A few weeks ago it was about about Smooth Jazz. My first attemt at this setup consisted of acoustic/real instruments all over but i had a hard time blending Zebra into the arrangements, something just didnt sound right so i started over by keeping the drums and then have Zebra do the all instruments.
The drums are a mix of several libraries, my aim was to have a very dry and tight kit. So here we are, sampled real drums and Z2 having a smooth time:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_SmoothJazzKit_01.mp3
/Michael
The drums are a mix of several libraries, my aim was to have a very dry and tight kit. So here we are, sampled real drums and Z2 having a smooth time:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_SmoothJazzKit_01.mp3
/Michael
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Zebra Oldskool Released (Vol 1+2+3)
Zebra Oldskool Soundset is available now. This is the third Volume added and its the last in this series. In short its my work on Zebra 2 VST for 1 year. Volume 1 was released June 2007, Volume 2 was released September 2007 and now (May 2008) we have the last Volume 3 added.
Zebra Oldskool Soundset comes with 512 patches or presets if you prefer and is a walk down olds school lane in terms of various synthesis methods used the last 20 years. You will find that Subtractive, Additive, Waveshaping, Wavetable and much more was used in creating this soundset so it could be a good place to start exploring synthesis secrets.
Zebra has its own page on my synthesis site http://www.synthtronic.com/zebra.html where i usually update with new clips of music made using Zebra on a regular basis.
Zebra Oldskool Soundset is available from http://www.zebrasynth.com/
/Michael
Friday, April 25, 2008
Competition fun with Zebra VST
I've started a competition over at KVR forums. In short you can win a copy of the upcoming Zebra soundset by creating something with a demo bank. Competition ends by May 11 2008
Visit KVR for the competition rules and files:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=214084
/Michael
Visit KVR for the competition rules and files:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=214084
/Michael
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Zebra 2 Oldskool Vol 3 Jazz Preview
This little preview is Jazz inspired, the main focus is a brass section and some jazz guitar like patches. Its a medley of some of the arrangements i played with while making the patches. All is Zebra 2 playing except for first clip which is also using True Pianos and Stylus RMX.
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_Jazz.mp3
Thats about it for now.
/Michael
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_Jazz.mp3
Thats about it for now.
/Michael
Saturday, March 22, 2008
A tiny Easter Egg for your Zebra 2 VST
Hmmm what to say, its easter and i got a little egg for your Zebra 2 VST.
Its a split patch with 1(2) finger chords from C1-C3 and a lead from C#3-C6
This is what it sound like:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_EasterPatch.mp3
and the patch can be downloaded here:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK3_Magic_Jazz_Split.zip
Unzip and put in your Zebra 2 VST preset folder.
Happy Easter :)
/Michael
Its a split patch with 1(2) finger chords from C1-C3 and a lead from C#3-C6
This is what it sound like:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_EasterPatch.mp3
and the patch can be downloaded here:
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/MK3_Magic_Jazz_Split.zip
Unzip and put in your Zebra 2 VST preset folder.
Happy Easter :)
/Michael
Friday, March 21, 2008
Zebra 2 Oldskool Vol 3 SFX Preview
Time for another Zebra 2 Oldskool Volume 3 demo. This time its based around SFX but you will also hear sounds used in the other previews. The track is build up around a slow 4 on 4 basic groove arrangement using Stylus RMX. Besides that i've made use of heavy limiter and a 3db EQ boost to high mids.
Most SFX generators i created use random generation with in a certain limit. So in this case identical tracks never happens unless i choose to sample the SFX and use it that way.
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_SFX.mp3
/Michael
Most SFX generators i created use random generation with in a certain limit. So in this case identical tracks never happens unless i choose to sample the SFX and use it that way.
http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_Oldskool_Vol3_SFX.mp3
/Michael
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