Minggu, 07 November 2010

Laptop Hell v. 01.1 for Reaktor

Here's a great new ensemble for Reaktor, the Laptop Hell!

Industrial ensemble for Reaktor

As the graphics let figure out it develops some lovely noisy timbres, not too harsh but more towards the metallic.

The graphics are hard to see - but you really don't need to worry about such trivial matters. Just click on buttons, move knobs and sliders, and have fun!


While the GUI is quite straightforward inside the hood there is a cool mess just waiting to be further tweaked by users.

Reaktor Ensemble

If you're into Industrial Music and still don't have NI Reaktor get it because you can't miss this instrument!

MORE INFO
DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 22 Oktober 2010

Barber Pole Flanger VST

Here's another child of the "simple GUI but great sound" family of plug-ins:

Barber Pole Flanger VST plug-in
The sweep of the flanged sound seems to move in only one direction (“up” or “down”) infinitely, instead of sweeping back-and-forth.

It features a simple implementation of the Barber Pole Flanging but it's best feature is when used with all the knobs set to maximum levels. With such a configuration it acts as a "re-synthesizer" giving a typical metallic Vocoder timbre to any sound filtered.

  • 4 different algorithms.

  • Up to 8 stages for smooth and blurry flanging.

  • Independent control of depth and modulation speed.

  • Manual included.

  • Open Source.

Highly recommended!

DOWNLOAD AND MORE INFO

Minggu, 10 Oktober 2010

Metallic noises with AKAI S900

Hot nights have become cold and now are slowly fading to freezing. I'm not used to the new season yet so it's too early to compose music. Sampling safaris are the right activity. Like an ant at the beginning of the autumn I am storing new samples to be used during the winter...

Today I spent a nice evening in front of my AKAI S900, a sampler widely known and appreciated for its metallic timbre, dumping via MIDI a few metallic sounds.


AKAI S900 Metallic sounds

Playing them back at different pitches with weird looping points creates some new raw materials.

A good denoising stage was required to remove the sampler background noise and to obtain some usable audio textures that I am going to share.

DOWNLOAD

Senin, 04 Oktober 2010

Thrummaschine distortion VST

Finally a good distortion plug-in, capable of band separated modulations:

Thrummaschine VST plug-in

The signal is splitted in 3 adjustable bands and can be distorted quite strongly. Indeed, every band filter can be modulated with an LFO. Band can be panned freely so to transform any MONO sound in STEREO.

- 3 user-defined bands for bass, mid and high freqencies, with overlap if required
- 3 filters with tempo-sync LFO, for each freq band
- overdrive, distortion and bitcrush effects
- send level for each band to each effect
- pan and volume for each band


I got some very nice results by layering two or more instances of the plug-in in the same channel, that way the amount of controls and automation is widened.

More informations and DOWNLOAD

Senin, 09 Agustus 2010

Building an Analog drum module

I just received everything I need to build my own Analog Drum Module:

Drum Synce Clone Parts

Someone managed to convince me that by doing this I will be a even cooler musician, so here I am...digging on resistors, diodes, wires and meaningless boards!

Drum Synce Clone Beard

The module is a DS7 Drum Synce (DC860)and the smaller one is a simple Gate To Trigger Converter.

The DS7 Drum Synce (DC860) is a little analog percussion synthesizer from the 80's made by CORON. This drumsynth was dedicaced to drummers : the DS7 was fixed on the border of a drum to be played/triggered by hitting the drum.


wiring

The DS7 contain a VCO +VCA chain. The VCO is modulated by a cheesy LFO and a simple decay envelope trigged by the piezzo cell pulse. The cell work as a pressure/hit sensor. It can be replaced by a jack to be used with any kind of trigg pulses or even gates. In this case the "decay" pot become a "Release" pot ... The VCA is directly controled by the envelope. The LFO can drive the VCO from slow modulation to hi-speed to produce FM like sounds.


I needed some new analog raw meat for the distortion chain... let's see how long it takes to build it :)

Minggu, 08 Agustus 2010

FerricTDS - Tape Dynamics Simulator VST

I had this FerricTDS VST .DLL sleeping in my plugins folder for a few months now. I did think it was good for whole mixes and never thought it could have any employment in industrial music.

Ferric TDS VST
Inspired by the smooth dynamic shaping capabilities of some high-end reel-to-reel tape recorders, this plug-in simulates three of the most distinctive and much appreciated sonic effects generated by these devices:

DYNAMICS
- gently shaping the overall dynamic response
SATURATION
- adding extra harmonic-related content
LIMITING
- controlling peak performance


But a few days ago I accidently watched a presentation video on YouTube and realized it was sounding incredibly good on snare drums:



So I spent the last weekend testing it on them and I was right: the correct sampled snare (mostly from '80 drum machines) processed with the right reverb and fed into this plug-in will produce the classic industrial snare, also the loudest ones from modern EBM.

I am going to test the plug-in on whole mix anyway, as it is said to work very well on enhancing loudness.


DOWNLOAD

Sabtu, 31 Juli 2010

Radio Effect VSTi

More VSTi noisy craziness from the Japanese website. I'm not stunned about that knowing how a strong noise culture Japan has, since it gave birth to a band like The GeroGeriGeGeGe...

Japanese VST radio FX

This plug-in emulates the tuning of a radio set. You can load samples that will be your "stations" and tune the radio to them with the usual knob. Sounds simple, but the implementation in industrial music are wide.



DOWNLOAD DEAD LINK
DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 23 Juli 2010

Nipponic Noise Generator VSTi

I am being totally wasted by this VSTi plug-in:

 japan noise generator

It comes from this Japanese website with no information except for a Youtube video:



Anyway any information wouldn't be very useful...as the rest of the website is written in the language of rising sun!

Good enough the author added some very detailed information on the GUI itself in the amount of... none! All we know is that there are five stages of... something with cutoffs and volumes. Four additional unnamed slider have shown to be an ADSR envelope and a "FILE" button will ask us for a .WAV to load. Our choice here is not very important as it will serve only as seed for some noise generation.

As long as a note is played the instrument sounds continuously, generating powerful metallic drones.


There are more VSTs there which look interesting. Will be posting about them also!

DOWNLOAD DEAD LINK
DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 16 Juli 2010

Some Kickdrum samples with PAiA modules

The blog has been dormant for a while due to personal music production priorities. However I am collecting stuff from people sending me suggestions so I plan to post a little more from now on.

My friend Furio loves analog modular systems. He builds his own modules from kits often modding them to suit his needs. We've been talking about the employ of such machinery into modern industrial music and the end was that he should have done a few samples for the blog, so here we are with some Modular Kickdrums.

This is how the chain has been set up:

PAiA Module
PAiA 9720 Dual VCO / MODULATION

Dark Side SSM2044 VCF VCO Luna Modular Synthesizer System ModuleDark Side SSM2044 VCF/VCO

Doepfer A-132-3 Dual linear/exponential VCAA-132-3 Dual linear/exponential VCA

The results are some clean and punchy kicks, ready to be slaughtered with the most inhuman distortion techniques!

Il modulatore è praticamente un inviluppo AR con attenuatore, settabile via switch in modalità LFO che modula in continuo un VCO. L'Attacco corto, da l'effetto dell'impatto e il Relese più lungo, la sensazione di coda della vibrazione di membrana e corpo della cassa.

L'onda modulata è filtrata in un VCF SSM2044 per aggiungere carattere, dinamica e risonanza. Dal VCF ho passato il suono in un VCA in tecnologia CEM usato per aggiungere ulteriore carattere e regolare la preamplificazione, prima di entrare nei Pre e Convertitori ADC AKM standard/onboard della scheda audio (ultra low jitter) RME HDSP2496.

I suoni son stati prima Campionati in un unico file e poi frammentati i campionamenti in questi file distribuiti, su SO GNU/Linux e Editor Audio FOSS, via server audio JACK@ALSA che permette controllare e sapere di non aver avuto perdite di dati nel flusso audio.


The sounds have been sampled in pristine quality with a high resolution audio server and here they are provided in both 32/96 and 24/44.1 formats.

DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 21 Mei 2010

Beat Burner VST

More interesting chopping solution are coming out finally, this one from Lee Stacey is the most interesting after Dblue Glitch came out six years ago.

Beat Burner VST

It acts as a sample based synth but centrifuges the waveforms as if in a blender. Something that IDM and Industrial freaks out there will love.

BeatBurner VSTi is a synthesizer plugin which generates its output by processing wav files. These files can be anything from percussive loops to vocals. This output is produced by passing the sound through a number of modules including a synthesis module, a number of variable filters, a waveshaper and some effects.

All of the processing is synchorinzed to the wav file which is looped. This can in turn be synchronized to the host.


The degree of sound degradation is sometimes embarrassing and what is outputted is often quite uncontrollable, so it is advisable to use it by bouncing out audio and cutting only the most interesting bits.

Signal Path

Any kind of sound can be loaded but I found it more effective with metallic ones as they make it act like a "metallic synth"...

DOWNLOAD

Kamis, 20 Mei 2010

Weird Noise Machine VST Plugin WNM-1

I am recently spending many nights and afternoons exploring WNM-1 plugin:

Weird Noise Machine VST Plugin

Six osc's on each module, first five are modulators and can be routed to other osc's. * Sine, Saw, Ramp, Triangle, Pulse, w-noise and p-noise waveforms to choose from.


The best feature, beyond being totally insane in the concept, is the fact that every OCS has a different stereo output. So it's possible to further process the separated material with any other effects chain.

Every Oscillator can be set to "Track" the pitch of your music keyboard, this allow you to either make every note to have the same timbre but diff pitch or just add more weirdness.


The resulting sound is a bit thin, reminds me NI Reaktor's output, but the differences in sound nuance and its modulation capabilities are amazing enough to make it a good ally to generate some Industrial landscapes.

INFO + DOWNLOAD

Kamis, 06 Mei 2010

HASK Sampled feedbacks

My friend Hask Haskore is into Techno and Schranz since ages. His small studio is crammed with cool analog stuff and one day I asked him to make a few industrial samples for my blog.

Hask setup

There are many industrial things that can be done with his hardware:
Jomox X-Base 09
Akai XE8
Yamaha TX81-Z
Spectral Audio Neptune
Elka EM-44
Aria AR-525
Zoom 9150
Zoom 2100
Alesis 3630 Compressor
Boss OD-2r Turbo Overdrive
Boss Flanger BF-3

...so more posts are planned...

But what best to begin with than a bounce of crazy feedbacks?

All the samples came with a exaustive explaination on how they were obtained:

Feedbacks 1,2,3,4: Alesis 3630 Dual Channel Compressor/Limiter with gate with manipulation of Threshold and Ratio and filtered on the Neptune Spectral Audio Analog Synthesizer.

Feedback 5: Boss Turbo Overdrive OD-2r thorough Neptune and reverberated with Aria AR-525 Stereo Spring Reverb Unit.

Feedbacks 6,7,10: Zoom 9150 Valve DSP thorough Neptune plus additional feedback from Boss Turbo Overdrive OD-2r and reverberated with Aria AR-525 Stereo Spring Reverb Unit

Feedback 8,9: Same as 6-7-10 with no reverb but compression.

Something worth mentioning here is that since all sweeps are live performed he ran our of...hands... and had to borrow one from his father to tweak three knobs simultaneously. I like when doing music becomes a family affair :)

DOWNLOAD

Minggu, 25 April 2010

TLR D15 Analog Drum Machine VST

When doing music not tonally one focuses more and more on drums and percussions. Kickdrums, when it comes to me, but generally speaking not only them. This is why I always try to test the wider range of drum machines possible.

This VST plug-in from TLR, the same authors of Blister, sounds weird enough to satisfy the said need of Industrial stomps and hits.

TLR D15 Analog Drum Machine VST

Fully customizable, analog modeling drum machine (no samples!). Each sound is tunable, opening the doors for drastically different drum kit presets. The amplifier stage contains a tube simulator with pre and post gain as well as a clean output.


DOWNLOAD

Rabu, 21 April 2010

HESED Industrial sample-kit

Claudio Hesed is a true analog freak, maybe even more than me! He's into tekno and electro since ages and composes his music using the Atari ST. An Italian citizen but moved to Germany years ago: a choice I should have done too...



Live pa and Producer of Electro,Experimental,Hip-hop,Tekno,Hardcore and much more.
Start to make and study music with 8 years old playing guitar in 1997 first contact with electronic music (ambient,electro), in 1998 start djing and producing with hardware. 2000 start to collect all atari machine possible ;-).
2004 start to work for Magix (music&video software) and learnt about mastering. Also making Sound Design for video, spot, theather and more.
Founder of Analog Tecne Model records label.


He makes some weird and unusual sample kits for Prokits.co.uk mainly from circuitsbend machine.

I asked him to send me some Industrial sounds and what I finally got is a beautiful set of DRM syncussion (HDB/Vermona) sampled through Metasonix R53 Vacuum-Tube Waveshaper which he agreed to publish on my blog!

DRM Filtered Kit

70 Samples recorded from analog devices.

45 Drum - 12 Snares - 8 Claps - 4 Hihat - 1 Special

The samples are coming out of a DRM syncussion (HDB/Vermona)
and filtered with Metasonix R53 Vacuum-Tube Waveshaper modul.


So download the kit and say THANX to Claudio!

DOWNLOAD

More sample kits from HESED

Selasa, 13 April 2010

KORG MS-20 VS BLACK AUDIO DESTRUCTOR Samples

"Me next! Me next!!"... this is what the KORG MS-20 seemed to shout after seeing me sampling the JoMoX thorough the Black Audio Destructor! The big old toy is on the list of the borrowed things, so anytime I can get a phone call that will take it away from me. Since I know that I will be committing suicide when this happens, I decided to exploit it a bit more.

KORG MS-20 vs Black Audio Destructor

So I spent a nice evening filtering the KORG MS-20 thorough the BAD, trying some unusual (actually ranging from weird to completely insane) patches including the outputs of the White and Pink noises.

In this collection of industrial sounds all samples are in MONO but I advise to couple similar sounds together into a STEREO file for some nice spatial effects.


DOWNLOAD

Senin, 12 April 2010

BLISTER Distortion VST

I stumbled upon this VST plug-in from TLR while doing a techno track a few days ago. Itself it's a nice piece of software but the characteristic that has cached my attention is its SERIABILITY.

Blister VST distortion

Usually distortion plug-ins, after putting two or three of the same in the same track, sound nothing more that a big squared waveform. This plug-in starts to make interesting sounds after three or more instances are loaded in the same track. This is probably because of the oscillator there's inside:

Something important to mention here is the utilization of a Synthedit module called NewWave (by Ralph Gonzalez). Basically it detects an input frequency and then uses that information to spit out a synthy waveform based upon it. This technology works
much better when used along with a very simple input signal.


I arrived at five instances on a single track and actually getting some fun artifacts.

DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 02 April 2010

MP3 encoding artefacts as a creative effect

Lossy encoding creates unwanted and weird effects. The MP3 codec tries to recreate the full frequency spectrum regardless of the encoding frequency, so at very low values it develops weird artifacts that I always found interesting in a creative way.

I've been looking for a VST plugin that encodes and decodes audio in MP3 format but it seems like it doesn't exists. Also normal codecs like LAME or Fraunhofer don't create enough artifacts to satisty my needs except the one that comes with Macromedia/Adobe Flash.



Also older version work as far as they can import WAVS.

Here is how it can be done:
Load up the .WAV into the library and put it into timeline. Edit the properties and start playing a little. Basically very low frequency work well for this. It is possible to load single tracks or entire mixes, but more variegated material will create more fractalization after the encoding.

Export the .SWF and use something to convert it back to .WAV. This appears to work well but there are surely alternatives to test out also on other platforms.

Put the result together with the original track on your preferred audio sequencer and start mixing them. You really don't need to be an EQ wizard to be able to enhance the artifacts frequencies.

This is the .SWF version of my latest song (just as an example). The resulting file is less that 300kb, so it is clear that the codec is "inventing" back most of the audio!

Minggu, 21 Maret 2010

The AKAIZER Project

Akaizer v1.7
+--------------------------------------------------+
| _____ __ __ |
| / _ \ | | _______ |__|_______ ___________ |
| / /_\ \| |/ /\__ \ | \___ // __ \_ __ \ |
| / | \ < / __ \| |/ /\ ___/| | \/ |
| \____|__ /__|_ \(____ /__/_____ \\___ >__| |
| \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------+
Copyright (c) 2005-2010 Ben Burchett

I discovered this little piece of software thanks to the author, Ben Burchett, who posted about it on a comment on my other blog about AKAI S900

Akaizer

Its aim is quite simple: emulate the time stretch function of old AKAI samplers.

Akaizer is a freeware audio processing tool which can 'time stretch' any 8/16/24/32-bit WAV sound file in the style of the 'cyclic mode' time stretch, which featured on old Akai sound samplers, like the S950 / S1000 / S2000 / S3000 series.
This is ideal for computer-based dance music producers who want that classic metallic-sounding time stretch effect, as used in many old school Jungle / Drum and Bass / Speed Garage tunes from the 1990's, without the need for an actual Akai sampler.


Since it claims to make " that classic metallic-sounding time stretch effect " I immediately tested it by slaughtering some samples out of my JoMoX X-Base 09 kit.
The results are convincing: percussive material gains lot of craziness and I haven't tried with voices yet! Anyone serious in Industrial sound research should give it a try.

Find it for Windows and other platforms here: http://akaizer.blogspot.com/

DOWNLOAD MY SAMPLES

Sabtu, 13 Maret 2010

JoMoX percussions through Black Audio Destructor samples

The Black Audio Destructor (BAD!) does exactly what its name suggests: destroys audio! Anything fed is reduced to shreds.


The mode switch selects between Crunch mode, Saturated mode and Tone mode. In every mode the audio is distorted and ground up at a frequency selected by the frequency knob, Selecting Crunch mode with the switch in the upwards position gives a spluttering crunchy distorted sound that can sound like anything from an old fuzz pedal with a nearly dead battery, to a mixing desk with every light running in the red. In Saturated mode with the switch in the central position you get a much more intense effect, where the input signal and the effect signal start to blend into one mighty noise. In this mode you can get brutally saturated and distorted synth like tones running at the frequency of the input signal. The final mode is the Tone mode with the switch in the downward position. In this mode the box starts playing a constant tone at certain settings, with the input signal interacting with the tone in bizarre ways. With an input signal as a sweeping synth waveform we have managed to get pseudo ring modulator tones in this mode.


To test its full potential I needed something with a fierce output, something analog that can withstand this degree of audio degradation. A JoMoX X-Base 09 would be perfect!

jomox x-base 09 and black audio destructor

So I borrowed the one from my friend Hask and started to experiment with snares, kickdrums and different layerings of them together, to see where how far the boundaries of harshness were.



The result is a unique and huge collection of Industrial hits, suitable for Powernoise, Techno, and maybe some hard EBM.

DOWNLOAD

Jumat, 05 Maret 2010

Ferox tape saturation modeller VST plugin

I mentally divide distortion effects into two breeds: simple audio "inflaters" and "spicers". "Spicers" are the ones that can add "spice", usually with a knob that sums some kind of harsh noise.

This VST plug-in from the same author of Timemachine is definitely of the second, more rare, breed. It doesn't produce raw sounds only by exploding the existing waveforms but can add something of its own with the usual "noise" knob.

Ferox tape emulator

I found it effective on both long synths and short percussive material.

Ferox is a free tape saturation modeller VST plugin. It has separate controls for saturation and hysteresis effects. Feedback with variable tape speed is provided to simulate vintage tape echos.


Nice to see that it also does its original job flawlessly: an analog tape emulator.

DOWNLOAD

Senin, 22 Februari 2010

Vanguard VST Industrial Presets

Many readers of this blog showed interest on the post about Vanguard VST. In particular they're asking me where to find some Industrial presets.

Vanguard Industrial Presets

As far as I know there are any of them around the Internet, commercial or free, except a few one on my harddisk!

In short, here's my collection of Industrial presets for Vanguard Volume One!

DOWNLOAD

Some noises from TASSMAN Modular system

The TASSMAN modular system it's been around since a long time now. I made these samples back in 2001/2 when I got my first PC after being loyal to the Amiga for ages.

Tassman Modular

During past years I always thought it was the best VST modular synth around and now, in 2010, I'm a bit surprised to see it's still unknown to the most, while other software like NI Reaktor or MAX/MSP are definitely much more popular..

DOWNLOAD

Minggu, 14 Februari 2010

Vermona DRM-1 MKII through AKAI S900 samples

All my musician friends, sooner or later, end up by borrowing me some gear. I still don't have understood why this happen but for sure it makes me happy! This time I had a Vermona for about one week from my friend Fede of System Reboot.

Vermona drum machine

As usual my explorations were in the industrial direction. I found the Vermona very interesting for heavy percussions, besides kickdrums, so I decided to sample it through my beloved AKAI S900 to further enhance this attitude.

The brand Vermona also produces other cool stuff, like analog filters and even springs reverb! I'd like that some friend of mine get some of them so that, sooner or later, they end up by borrowing them to me :)

And again, the very best selection from my sampling safaris is shared:

DOWNLOAD

Senin, 08 Februari 2010

My BLACK AUDIO DESTRUCTOR is on its way!

This nice piece of hardware from Circuitsbenders should be at my door in a day or two! I expect to spend all my weekend using it to process harsh percussions out of a JoMoX X-Base09!

Black Audio Destructor
Essentially this small black box eats audio alive, then chews it up and spits it out in what can only be described as a deeply offensive manner. Basically its a wrong'un! The box can create a wide range of bitcrushing style, gating, distortion and synthlike frequency effects with an intensity that can be anything from a gentle thin crunch to a terrifying wall of unstoppable noise.


"...a terrifying wall of unstoppable noise." ...YESS!!

Kamis, 04 Februari 2010

Sampled feedbacks and larsens pt.1

Feedback is a creative key widely used in industrial music. I always find exciting to real-time feedback signals from and to various analog devices!

Sampled feedback and larsen

Its beauty remains intact also in the digital domain where further processing is possible. My friend Giulius spoke me about his hobby of sampling larsens and timestretching them until a total disturbing resonance is achieved. In a few days a DVD with four gigabytes of sampled stuff was spinning in my drive.

It's taking a while to select the worst out of it but I really think it's worth doing because the resulting material is really nice and will be useful.

Here is part 1 (11mb):

DOWNLOAD

TriDirt filter VST

The TriDirt is sold as a filter. It is actually a filter, but its true strength is in the gain sections. What I'm saying is that it's a very powerful distortion plug-in, and we love distortion, don't we?



My friend Dredd revealed me the secret of this plug-in when we made together an industrial-hardtechno tune that is due to be released soon.

It's really sad that the developer's site, Noizeware, is unreachable since a lot of time, this will probably mean the TriDirt is not getting anymore development. What a pity!

More info about the TriDirt can be found on it's KVR audio page while a download is available here.

Sabtu, 23 Januari 2010

Real-time Graphical Synthesis

RGS (Real-time Graphical Synthesis) is a sonic spectrum editor that runs on Classic Amiga computers.

RGS Synth Amiga

I's very old (1991), but the concept behind it has never been developed much further during the past twenty years so I consider it still interesting.

It allows you to paint a sonogram using specialized 'brushes' and then synthesize the corresponding audio waveform. [...] The main added features in RGS are that there are now 256 levels of amplitude to choose from and the ability to synthesize while you are drawing in nearly real time.


When I was composing and experimenting merely with an Amiga this program was a big discover for industrial sounds as it produces strange noises and drones. Spectral analysis is a powerful method for discovering underlying structures in sounds and being able to draw your own is truly stimulating. However, even writing your own name or randomly draw harmonics can result in very interesting sounds.



RGS can be run on a real or emulated Amiga and can be found here and documentation here.

As usual, I made a collection of .WAVs samples of me exploring the program:
DOWNLOAD

Minggu, 10 Januari 2010

My Thoughts about pedal FXs

Since a very long time I own the pictured pedals and now plan to get a few more to eventually circuit-bend them.

BOSS Pedals

Back in the nineties, during my livesets, I used them to pimp a bit the audio output of my Amiga computer and they worked great, apart from a unbelievable background noise!

I see now a lot of interest about these old-school distortion pedals, BOSS or any other brand. This is maybe for these very strong points:


  • They are cheap and sometimes even free, as lot of people get rid of them easily

  • They are modular

  • They can be Circuit-bent

  • They are analog

  • There are many of them, of many brands and many different effects

  • They sound harsh, very good for industrial music


Plus there are many already circuit-bent units for sell on the net or E-bay.

So my opinion is that this machines will have a new life since they can be described as the analog plug-ins for the future!

Microtonic kickdrum sampled through BOSS pedal

Ok, I admit that after writing the post about pedal FXs I got a bit over-excited! So I decided to put my ones at work...



In 1998 I bought this BOSS PQ-4 Parametric Equalizer from a small shop in Denmark Street, in London. It was already quite rare and definitely expensive.

BOSS Parametric Equalizer pedal

Back in the days of liveset I used it to process my Roland TR-909.

Today that the mighty drum machine is gone in favor of an analog console I mainly use Microtonic VST to make my kickdrums, so it came quite obvious to me that I had to make a sample kit of those two together!

Sonic Charge µTonic VST Plug-in

I've tweaked the stuff @ 100 BPM for 5 minutes, so the kit is quite huge, actually 500 .WAV files.

DOWNLOAD

Sabtu, 09 Januari 2010

Making sampled noises using strange files

This is a simple technique I've been using several times when I began to make music. I first discovered it when using the Octamed Sound Studio tracker for the Commodore Amiga and later used it on modern DAWS. Actually with Wavelab it is possible to recreate it and experiment with it.

During the years I heard many other artist employing it in their music so I realized its creative potential were being a bit abused. Anyway here is how to proceed:

Choose one file from your HD bearing in mind that the size in bytes will be the final size of the sample. Better go for something between 100Kb for percussive material to 600Kb for longer synths.

Let's say we've chosen a file called aaclient.dll from the System32/ directory.

Let's rename it to aaclient.raw so we can drag it into Wavelab.

We'll be prompted to insert some sample details as RAW format don't have any. Set as follows:



Of course experiments are possible, like with less bits or changing big endian settings etc.

A sample like this should appear:



The crazy noise is served!

It will be wise to eliminate the DC Offset as it can be very shifted sometimes.

Another process could be to load big files and the chop out the most interesting parts. It is important to load variegated samples with different data inside (for example any .ZIP file will result as a continuos noise...not very useful!)

Further manipulation like time stretching or pitch bending will make the sample sounds better.

Here are a few .WAV samples I made as example.

Minggu, 03 Januari 2010

KORG MS-20 Industrial Sounds

I'm borrowing a KORG MS-20 from my friends Armageddon Project. They're focusing more and more on just digital music so they felt like I would really employ it more than them so since two years the unit is in my studio.

KORG MS-20 Samples

This machine really needs no introduction as it is one of the most wanted analog vintage synthesizers of all times!

Even if I own a full MIDI2CV interface from Kenton the main use in my studio is as a filter, wired to a send of the mixer.

Another good use for it is for sound research and sampling safaris: here is a collection of Industrial Sounds in .WAV format done with it and with further analog processing.

DOWNLOAD