The RedFaux Transmission

Alan Wilder Re-mixes Depeche Mode

Alan Wilder did a re-mix for Depeche Mode's "In Chains" for the Remixes 2: 81-11  album that will be out June 6th.  I've been a Depeche Mode fan for a long time and grow weary of all the re-mixes but when I heard about the Alan Wilder re-mix I was intrigued.  Like alot of people I don't think DM has been the same since Alan left.  The epic drama of the old DM music dissappeared with Alan and has been missed sorely, in my opinion.  Listen to this remix and you will hear that sound again! Maybe DM can work something out and have Alan produce their next album.  Pleeeeeeeze!

P.S. sorry for the long silence... been busy with the new Fluorescent Echo album! 
I will be posting once a week until we release and then perhaps I can post more often. :)

- Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

The Dirty Disco Breaks Up: The Adamski Kid Rises From the Ashes

More than once I have posted about the Dirty Disco. This band who has created some great music that I will be diggin' for quite some time to come.  Sadly this group broke up at the beginning of the month, but when one door closes another one opens.  The lead singer from the now-defunct band, Adam boy started his own project called "The Adamski Kid" and he only has one track up ready to listen to but it is killer! Not only is it just as strong as the Dirty Disco tracks but it has a raw psycho-creative edge to it that the latter only touched on.  

If you liked the Dirty Disco at all I would suggest you check this new stuff out by The Adamski Kid.  Mark my words this guy is someone to keep your eye (and ear) on.

Like him on FACEBOOK (you know you want to) HERE and check out this bitchen track on SoundCloud.

 However be warned that the lyrics are provocative if that kind of thing bothers you, or your at work or under the age of 18.  'Nuff said. 

The Adamski Kid - ROXXXY by The Adamski Kid

 - Until Next Time...

Over N Out

RED

BIPP - French Synthwave circa 1979 - 85

For those of you that appreciate retro synthpop you will love this.  A friend of mine introduced me to this CD which for the time it was release was pretty forward thinking.  Lots of great synth arpeggios and fun French pop hooks. I find it fascinating to hear ideas in these songs that you hear further developed in later synth pop music & industrial.  For those not so into retro synth music and spastic French singing, you might find this a bit cringe worthy. 

BIPP: French Synth Wave 1979-1985 is available on Everloving records and can be found on Amazon as a CD or download purchase.  

Here! Have a taste. 

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- Until Next time... Over N Out

RED

Happy Psychedelic Holidays to You!

I was feeling a bit avante garde today and whipped up a Christmas video for you all.   The video was shot around Austin and edited in Vegas Video.  The music was done in Ableton LIVE...if anyone is wondering.

Have a GREAT HOLIDAY!! I'll catch ya all on the flip side. 

-Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

New Music Monday: LowHero.DLL

I discovered some new music last week that I really fell in love with so I thought I would share it with the masses. The group is called LowHero.DLL, which is an electro-alt-pop solo effort by Jonathan Chalker, who is currently residing in Florida. LowHero.DLL has three offerings right now:  a single released this September named "Black...Bored", an EP from 2009 entitled "Sub-Intellect" and one full length album released in 2008 called "FM_Era". The two early albums are definite synth-pop with an unique edge.  If I had to draw comparisons for his first two albums I would say "Fischerspooner" and "Ladytron", but even that is limiting. Its a little difficult to put comparisons to Jonathan's work because it is pretty original.  Not only is his use of electronic texture interesting in a pop context, but his lyrics are clever, a bit humorous and offer more than just the typical relationship focused fare that alot of current synth pop seems to suffer from.  

Jonathan's newest offering is bit of a departure from the synth-pop goodness of the first two releases, but is probably my favorite of his work to date. "Black...Bored" as described by Jonathan is "inspired by such acts as PIL, Sonic Youth, Killing Joke, and Big Black". The magical thing about this is that, yes you can hear the influences but, it doesn't rob the electronic nature of Jonathan's music and what you get is a refreshing blend of alt-pop that sticks in your ear and make you want to listen over and over.  Jonathan was kind enough to point me to a couple of SoundCloud tracks for me to post for you all.  If you like what you hear, mosy on over to LowHero.DLL's band camp page, where all of his material is available to listen to and download for very reasonable prices.  There are also CDs for sale. 

Enjoy!

Insect Joy by LowHero.DLL
Container by LowHero.DLL

-Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

New Dirty Disco Video: "Storyteller"

The Dirty Disco has been my new favorite band for a couple of months now.  I like the fact that they can write catchy songs that don't make me feel like I just bathed in a pool of cotton candy afterwards.  They are in the process of releasing a new single for their song "Storyteller" and they have posted their new video for the song. The video has a Logan's Run meets Clockwork Orange meets F242 Headhunter vibe (without the giant egg) that I really like... so I'm sharing.  Here you go :) 

ps.  if you really like them you can check them out on their facebook page HERE

-Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

Tron Legacy Soundtrack: KCRW Interview

KCRW posted this a few days ago and its making its way around the web, but I thought it was worth posting here.  Its an interview with the Tron director Joseph Krosinsky about using Daft Punk for the Tron soundtrack. Even though I'm dubious about the new Tron movie, I am a geek-culture sheep and will undoubtedly go see it.  I'm also interested in the soundtrack because I know Daft Punk and unfamilar things scare me ;-) Just kidding. The bits I've heard sound promising... so without any further babbling... Parts 1 through 5. 

Until Next Time... Over N Out

- RED

The Top 20 Greatest Synths

This was originally posted on Sonic State awhile ago, but a friend of mine sent me the link last week and I thought the series was really fun to watch.  So I'm sharing it with you guys :) Enjoy

Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

Moby's Tiny Movie About Old Drum Machines

I saw this today and thought it was interesting and kind of fun to watch. Let Moby wisk you into the world of old drum machines. :)

- Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

Cool Music Monday: Penguin Prison & Kids on Bridges

Today's cool music are two electronic pop groups: Penguin Prison & Kids on Bridges. 

At first listen both are sacharin laced synth-pop, but if you look listen a little deeper you will hear some quirkiness that makes both groups a interesting and worth checking out. 

 Penguin Prison, originally from Manhattan NY, in the studio is: Chris Glover however live he has a band with him which consists of electric guitar, synth, bass and drums.  

The music has a distinct smooth 80's retro feel to it, reminding me of groups like the Pet Shop Boys and ABC.  There is something kind of classy and quirky about the synth and soul inspired vocal arrangements.  Penguin Prison is generous and has numerous free MP3s available to their fans which you can get from here.  You can also get his music on limited edition 7' singles from here, if you are into that sort of thang. 

Penguin Prison - Something I'm Not - Official Music Video from penguin prison on Vimeo.

The second group I'm going to talk about today is Kids on Bridges.   Kids on Bridges hail from Northwest England and offer up sweet synthpop with a bad attitude.  You can get a dose of this with their single "Y don't U", which you can get free from their website. A few other songs are available on their SoundCloud site as well. I'll tease you with a track to get you started ;-)

Fast as you can (END OF WORLd) by kidsonbridges

I like both of these groups.  I would buy full length albums from these groups.  I would possibly buy cool t-shirts and other merch from these groups, but the frustrating thing is it isn't available.  People talk about how record lables don't have the power they used to anymore and that the power is on the internet with the indie bands... maybe thats true but that won't reach its true potential until artists get their merch out and available to folks.  

- Until next time... Over N Out

RED

Cool Gary Numan Cover: Music For Chameleons

Timothy Eilers seems to be obsessed with creating Gary Numan covers.  So far he's covered: I Dream of Wires, She's Got Claws, Cars, Warriors, Berserker, M.E., White Boys & Heroes, Complex, Crimes of Passion, We Have a Technical, Tracks and My Breathing.  But that's ok, because he does a fantastic job and in some cases I like his versions better than the original.  His newest offering is Music for Chameleons.  If you like old Gary Numan tunes then I highly suggest you check this out :) Enjoy!

Until next time... Over N Out

-RED

Recoil Brings New Material to Upcoming European Dates

Alan Wilder reported in his last tour video blog that he and his crew will be heading back to Europe to do a series of dates with some new music and visual content.  Here is his freshly released teaser video for those shows.  Enjoy!

Gary Numan Live Performance at KCRW

So its been awhile since I've posted and I apologize for that.  I was busy finishing up audio for the Sims 3 game for console and writing new music for Fluorescent Echo.

While supporting his tour in the US, Gary Numan played live at KCRW in California on November 3rd.  Sadly I was unable to catch his tour since he didn't get to Texas at all, but it was great to be able to see and hear him play live on the KCRW video.  So for those of you that also missed his shows I have embedded a video of his radio performance here :)

I've heard from multiple people the show in Denver was fantastic.  If anyone has pictures I would love to see them :)

- Over N Out

RED

New Analogue Monologue by Vince Clarke

Vince Clarke posted another of this Analogue Monologues on his website today.  This second video shows us his Roland System 100m modular synth along with a short demonstration.  You can check the video out HERE. 

Until Next time... Over N Out

RED

 

Interesting Electro-pop Video

Today I leave you with a video from a synthpop duo in Austin TX called Os Ovni.

Enjoy

Os Ovni - The Water from seth nemec on Vimeo.

-until next time... Over N Out

RED

Two Synthesizer Performances For You

I stumbled upon two synth performance videos I thought I would share.  The first one is an ode to the moon by Mark Ettlich of RetroSound, which showcases the Yamaha DX II, Korg EX-8000 and the Oberhem OB-X.  The second is an electronic version of the Star Spangled Banner played on a ribbon controlled experimental analog synth by Eric Archer. 

-Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

New Music Monday: "I Hear Your Signals" by Mark Mosher

I'm starting a new feature on mondays on my blog here, where I will spotlight a new electronic musician/band and some of their music.  There is alot of exciting new music out there that isn't immediately easy to find, so I thought I might do my part in bringing some of that to the surface.  If you have are and electronic musician/group and would like to send me your stuff for consideration you can email me the link to your Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Website or MySpace page at redfaux01 AT gmail dot com.  Your stuff should be available for sale or download. 

So to kick things off I'd like to introduce:

"I Hear Your Signals" by Mark Mosher

Released July 13th, 2010

Mark Mosher is an electronic musician from Lousiville, Colorado who specializes in his own brand of techno-ish, industrial & experimentally tinged instrumentals.  "I Hear Your Signals" follows up Mark's pervious release "Reboot" which came out last year.  Unlike the last album, this new album was composed around using the following devices live: Percussa Audio Cubes, Theremin and the Tenori-ON.  However, like the previous album, this album when listened to in its intended sequence is supposed to tell a story.  I appreciate that Mark doesn't tell you what that story is.  He prefers to let his music do the talking while he offers austere clues such as the titles of the tracks and leaves the rest up to the listener. 

Get a free preview of Mark's album, click the player to listen!

This album is 8 tracks, not much longer than the 7-song release of Re-boot.  I appreciate the shorter album format because it seems now adays I don't have enough time to fully digest a typical 12 song album before moving on to the next, and the price point for these shorter albums is usually quite a bit lower.  Mark's intuition is spot on because 7 to 8 songs on a release is just about right.

Lets take a brief look at these 8 tracks.

1. Arrival - Space spreads out before you. The downtempo beat ushers you along into a  techno-ish and wistful feel. The Theremin makes a tasteful appearance about 2 minutes into the song. 

2. First Orbit - This track is more up beat, showing more EBM and techno stylings with some Kraftwerk flavorings. This track sets up a sci-fi backdrop for the rest of the album's story to take place.

3. Control Zone - This track is more down tempo like "Arrival" however, more experimental. The lead synth sings with technical difficulties reserved only for technology long forgotton. Velvety guitar-like strums modulate pitches as if posessed by some dark industrial motivation.

4. I Can See them - The track which begins with disembodied voices whispering "I can see them" "They're all around us... Don't trust anyone"  hails images of zombies or aliens in a clausterphobic aural backdrop.  Percussion pings around the stereo field. Spectral type delays shift and scurry about your ears. The track ends with an anxious bassline urging you to get the f* out of there... where ever you are... The track ends with a reprieve of the voices echoing a sort of "I told you so..."

5. When Connected - There is a synergy about this track that that sets up a false sense of security. Machines musically whirr and breathe behind minimalistic bass lines and percussion.

6. Celebration and Voices - This track is all machines and metal chimes... the fusilage of the space ship sings like a mechanical choir. 

7. Dark Signals - This track shows EBM roots in an almost militant fashion announcing the state of things... cold and calculated.

8. Resolute - This feels like the credits track to Mark's story.  The song carries a certain sense of resolution about it. Rythmic gated synths and a driving tempo are accompianied by a an intriguing vacuum cleaner like chorus.

This is a great electronic release that doesn't take itself too seriously or try to marry itself to a particular genre.  Mark does a great job of somehow sounding fresh and new in a style of music that has been over run with derivitive content.  I highly suggest you check this out...

I hear Your Signals is available through multiple outlets.  Check out Mark Mosher Music for more information.  Also, check out Mark's blog "Modulate This" for some fun facts about the new album: HERE.

-Enjoy

RED

 

Vince Clarke: Now & Then

Starting yesterday, July 7th, Vince Clark & Andy Bell headed into Vince's studio in Maine to start recording the new album for Erasure.  If you go to the Vince Clarke Music website you can see Vince's studio cam and get updated shots of Andy and Vince in the studio working away.   Which I think is kind of a cool promotional idea actually. Go to the studio webcam and see for your self.

 

Vince has been a busy guy because on July 5th he announced that he and Alison Moyet will be answering fan questions about the upcoming Yazoo album that will be released on September 28th in the US.  If you want to ask them a question you can do so HERE.

And lastly for all you synth pop fans, here is an audio snippet I found on YouTube yesterday of an old cassette given away free with an electronic music magazine in the UK in the mid 80s of Vince Clark & Eric Radcliffe in the studio.  Enjoy.  

- Until Next time... Over N Out

RED

Ballad for Robert Moog

I happened upon this song & video that Paolo Di Nicolantonio from Synthmania.com posted yesterday. I thought this piece was beautiful and showcases a clean aural asthetic that is gone from most newer electronic music.  The video also teases us with a bit of synth porn ;-) ... so I thought I would share it!

Until next time... Over N Out

RED

Portable Vocal Recording with Fluorescent Echo

 Last week I headed over to Colorado to record some demo vocals for the new album my band, Fluorescent Echo, is working on.  We are in the process of writing and learning the songs currently and recording them as rough demos.  After we have the song demos done I will do the synth and arrangement work and we'll get back together to record the final takes. 

This was an interesting exercise for me as I hadn't ever taken a portable laptop recording kit out with the intention of recording vocals. I have taken DAT rigs and a plethora of mics out for sound effect recording, but never vocals in this type of context. In my suitcase I packed a little Lexicon Omega audio interface box, my BeyerDynamic studio headphones and some cables, which fit nicely in my carry on suitcase. I brought my laptop as well as my Akai LPK25 and Korg NanoKontrol which all fit in the laptop bag. I used Sony Vegas & Ableton Live in this session. My singer provided the microphone which was an MXL V69M Vacuum Tube Condenser mic.   

 We set up to record in a spare bedroom.  I set up the "control booth" in the walkin closet and we set up his microphone in the bedroom.   The bedroom was pretty empty except for a big bed which did alot to help absorb reflections in the room, which was good because we also had a window in the room without any drapes. Next time we might want to set up some sort of diffuser, but for these demo takes the room worked out ok. 

The Lexicon Omega did pretty well except I really was wishing it had onboard audition reverb and compression.  When we record the final vocals we will have to a better solution for this. The session went well and overall I was amazed at the clarity of the MXL tube mic we used.  It sounded amazingly good for being a $400 microphone. 

Stay tuned for announcements in the future about the Fluorescent Echo website and new release.  In the meantime I'll be periodically posting about our happenings in the studio on this blog. 

Over N Out... 

- RED
 

 
 

Absurd Music of the Day: I am a Computer

Its been awhile since I've posted any absurd music of the day, but I found the perfect clip today.  Elvi Pes performs "I AM A COMPUTER" on Austraila's Got Talent.  Hilarious... bizarre... I love it... give me more!

Til next time... Over N Out

-RED

3 Cool Music Things I Want to Share

Its been a little while since I've posted and I wanted to apologize for that.  Life has a way of getting ridiculously busy at times ;-) At any rate there are a few things I wanted to post about. 

 First off, electronic musician and fellow blogger Mark Mosher has recently re-done his music website and added some new music for folks who sign up on his mailing list. He also has revamped his online store and has t-shirts for sale. I suggest you check out his album "Reboot".  Its good stuff. You can find his site HERE. 

 Secondly, Groove 3 & Findremix has teamed up with Ohm Force, Camel Audio, Prime Loops and Systems Recordings to host a remix contest.  Remix Timothy Allen's track "Bugger it" by May 31, 2010 and compete to win a variety of software, samples and a spot on Timothy's new release.  For more information go HERE. 

  Last but not least, the Austin Songwriters Group is holding their spring songwriting contest.  Compete in a variety of categories including: Americana - Folk - Bluegrass / Country /  Rock- Alternative /  Pop / Jazz - Classical - Instrumental / Blues / Christian - Gospel / Singer-Songwriter ( the songwriter is singing the song) / Bare bones (one voice one instrument only ..no harmony, harp, anything...) / Lyrics Only / General / Reggae - Hip Hop - Rap / 

The grand prize includes a SXSW showcase slot at Threadgills and free entry to the 2011 songwriting symposium.  Entries are due June 15th, 2010.  More information can be found HERE.  

Until next time... which I promise will be sooner than later...

Over N Out

-RED 

A Little Bit of Devo Action For You ALL

Devo has been doing some interesting stuff lately, ok I guess you might say their whole career has been pretty interesting.  But after a break, they are back on the scene with new music and new Devo shenanigans.  If you haven't been to their website lately I recommend checking it out and partaking in their song study.  They have a collection of 16 new songs and they want their fans to help them pick 12 for their new album.  A young european marketing type babysits you Devo style, while you get a sneak preview of the new material and choose your 12 favorite.  Very fun and clever.  Their new EP based on results of what I'm guessing are the 2 most popular songs so far from their song study, is available on iTunes now for purchase.  Not too mention they also have theirnew BLUE dome hats available for sale on their site. To add to my excitement, I just saw this short documentary like video which talks about some of their gear and just had to post it.  Enjoy!

Until next time... Over N Out

Recoil's First US date is Austin, TX

 Recoil, which consists of ex-Depeche Mode keyboardist, Alan Wilder is currently doing his first tour since he started doing Recoil in 1996. The tour is supporting his new album "Selected", which will be released in May. He has already performed quite a few dates in Europe and he has announced his first date in the US, which happens to be in Austin, Texas at the Elysium on May 15th.  Supporting Alan Wilder on stage will be blues-man Joe Richardson who was featured on Recoil's album Sub-Human released in 2007. Also supporting the show is Allesandro Cortini who used to play keyboards with Nine Inch Nails and now has a solo project called Blindoldfreak. 

You can pre-order tickets for the Recoil show in Austin at Secret-October. 

For more info please go to Recoil's site.  

Live Experimental Electronic Music: Loud Objects & Bodytronix

Last Saturday, March 20th, after the Austin Handmade Music workshop I was lucky enough to catch performances of two cool experimental electronic groups at the Salvage Vanguard Theater: Loud Objects & Bodytronix.

Loud Objects is a duo from New York who in real time create 1-bit noise circuits on a glass plate on top of an overhead projector.  It starts out silent, obviously, and then as the circuit gets built and they play around with connections you can hear the noise change.  Its loud and noisey and I wouldn't call it musical, but it was definitely interesting to watch and hear.  It was probably one of the most unique art sound performances I've seen. Below is a picture of Loud Objects creating the circuit, you can see the two guys below huddled over the overhead projector.

Here's a another picture of the progression of the circuit during the performance.

You can see more pictures of the circuit on my Flickr page if you're interested.

The second group I got to see was Bodytronix which is an Austin duo made up of Eric Archer and Erich Ragsdale who do live electronic jams with a couple tables overflowing with odd handmade electronic instruments and retro gear. The philosophy behind Bodytronix, jamming with homemade gear & retro gear, isn't new but what is so appealing about this group is the musicality of their jams.  They are able to take this mish-mash of oddball gear and make music that is refreshing but has a musical sensibility about it. They walk the line between experimental and popular music with a mad scientist edge about them. The prize piece of gear at the show was Eric Archer's new vocal synthesizer which he had singing in english throughout the performance.  The heart of Bodytronix is the spontenaity of their live performance, but their recordings stand up as well, so I suggest checking them out on MySpace if you get a chance.  Below is a pic I took of the group jammin' out.

Until next time... Over N Out

RED

Data Pop 3.0 Festival - Austin TX March 17, 2010

 Last wednesday I went to the Data Pop 3.0 festival at the Highball bar in Austin, TX.  The Data Pop festival is a re-occuring event in Austin that features the best and most popular chiptune bands. Chiptunes for those of you that are unfamiliar with it, is music created by using the audio chip from old video game consoles, most notably the Nintendo Gameboy. This particular event was timed with the SXSW music conference happening here in Austin last week and went on for 2 nights.  Due to my inability to be spontaneous we only made it to the second night of the festival, but we had a great time.

First I just want to take a minute and gush over what a great venue the Highball is.  The Highball is on South Lamar in the same shopping center as the Alamo Drafthouse (incidently the Drafthouse was also hosting free showings of the chiptune documentary: "Reformat the Planet" in conjunction with the show).  Its a funky bar that features old 1950's style bowling lanes, skeeball, karaoke rooms, a dance floor complete with disco ball and light show and a fantastic menu and bar.  The place has alot of class and a great vibe for hanging out and having fun in.

Ok that aside, the show was alot of fun.  We got their early so we could eat and make sure we got a table before the place got jam packed.  We listened to Talk to Animals while we ate.  The music and beats were well programmed and interesting, but I think what I liked best was watching how nerdy the whole crew looked bobbing around on stage.  Occasionally an extremely bookish looking girl would take to yelling in the microphone.  I'm sure this is what Atari Teenage Riot sounded like in middle school.  Good stuff.

Next we heard Starscream, which rocked the house with a real drummer accompanying their Gameboys. I liked the contrast of the live drums with the electronic music.  I thought it worked pretty well and it was fun to watch.  After Starscream, Henry Homesweet hit the stage with his mix of video game music and techno driven beats.  Henry danced about the stage frenetically and did a great job of getting the crowd hyped up for the next band 8BK:ok. 

8BK:ok seemed to be the crowd favorite.  This band does showtunes and disco covers to very frantically paced video game musical backgrounds.  Its a great cheesy concept... sort of an Atari karaoke or Bette Midler vs. Pacman if you will.  I love it, but I thought alot was lost in the actual performance of this concept.  My main complaint were the singers.  They were miserably out of tune to the point where sometimes the only way you could recognize a song was because of the lyrics.   I'm not going to be too harsh on them, because I do know how a bad monitor mix can play havoc on vocal performance.  I suppose I should actually find it refreshing after all of the overuse of autotune in popular music.  To their credit most of the crowd didn't care at all and were having a great time.  I don't know how many people that night came up to me to tell me how much they loved this band.  So uh... don't listen to me.  I'm just the crotchety sound person in the back row ;-)

At this point it was midnight and a wednesday so we took off towards home.  The next day I had heard that Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours and Anamanaguchi put on shows I shouldn't have missed.  So I guess next time I'll stay longer :)

Last but not least, the bands were accompanied by some great 8 bit visuals put togethor by Paris and output.  You can see them in the video I posted below.

Here is a video I put togethor of footage from the night and a little bit of the audio as well.  There was so much talking and background noise, that I only used a little bit of the show audio in the video at the beginning and end.  The main chunk of it is a piece by Henry Homesweet I really like called: Pocket Monster.  Enjoy!

- Until next time... Over N' Out

RED

New Recoil Album & Tour

Things seem to be going well for Alan Wilder lately.  In February he joined his former bandmates of Depeche Mode on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London playing piano while Martin Gore sang "Sometimes".  Fans were shocked and moved to see him playing with the group again... all this buzz should be good for his new Recoil album and tour.

Alan's solo endeaver Recoil is releasing a new album called "Selected" and for the first time since he created Recoil in 1986 Alan is supporting his album with a tour. 

Here's him below describing the tour and the upcoming album, "Selected" which will be released April 19th, 2010 :

Here's Alan's update from Barcelona, Spain where his first show of the tour was on March 12th.

And today, Alan released a video teaser for his new Recoil Album "Selected".

Alan mentioned there would be some tour dates in the states. I'm hoping he gets to Texas. You can keep an eye on tour dates by checking the Recoil "Selected" site HERE.

Until next time... Over N Out

- RED

Gearing Up For Austin Handmade Workshop #5

Its about that time again for another Austin Handmade Synth workshop at the Salvage Vanguard theater! The workshop will take place February 28th. This month we are making a stepped tone sequencer called "Pico Paso" and a delay module called the "Space Baby" designed by Nathan Wooster of Wooster Audio.  You can sign up HERE

Here's a preview of the Space Baby

I'll have more pics and sounds after the workshop! Stay tuned :)

- Until Next Time... Over N Out

RED

My Top 10 Favorite FREE VST Effects Plugins

Hello and Happy New Year to you all! To start out 2010 right I thought I'd post my lists of my all time favorite FREE VST plugins.  This post will focus on FREE VST effects.  There are alot of FREE VSTs available out there of varying quality.  Downloading them all and trying them out can be like rummaging through a thrift store looking for treasure.  It takes time and patience. However you can find some diamonds out there if you look.  I have a pretty good arsenal of commercial plugins which are almost always good, but here are a list of FREE VSTs that I find myself using often because they are just as good or incredibly unique. If you can look past the sometimes homely interfaces of some of these homebrew plugins you will find you are in posession of a some very creative and good sounding audio tools. (Click on the title of the VSTs to go to the download sites :)

1. CamelCrusher by Camel Audio

I was apprehensive when I downloaded this.  How interesting can a distortion plug in be? (proof I'm not a guitar player ;-) Dime a dozen I thought.  Well I should have known better. Camel Audio makes some great sounding plugins and this is no exception.  This plug in is a distortion box with a compressor and a filter. I use this one alot.  Nice warm big distortion and you can assign the filter to a midi controller and effect real time...worth downloading :)

2. Glitch by Dblue

 

Glitch is a sort of an effects sequencer which allows you to specify a sequence or randomly trigger one or all of the following effects: Tape Stop, Modulation, Retrigger, Shuffle, Reverse, Crush, Gate, Delay and Stretch.  This plugin is most popularly used on drum loops, but the creative possibilities with this are endless.  This makes creating glitchy effects much easier and more creative than it used to be.  I use this plug in alot when I'm making drum or rythmic loops. 

3. DFX Transverb by Destroy FX

This one has been around awhile, but I have yet to find another plugin that can mess up drumloops as nicely as this one can.  I recommend using the random setting on this one. :) In fact, check out all the DFX plugins if you haven't already. They are all interesting.

4. Spinner LE by EmptySquare

I downloaded this one from KVR awhile ago, and it finds its way onto my tracks in LIVE alot.  I like the way it spins the audio around in the stereo mix.  I've never had a Leslie cabinet so I can't tell you how realistic it is, but I like the way this plug in sounds and its tweakability. 

5. Hybrid Reverb 2 by Christian Borss

If you want killer reverb, the reality is you're going to have to go with a commercial package.  I like Altiverb...but its a matter of preference.  However, if you can't afford a fancy expensive reverb, this one is pretty good for adding subtle room ambience to voice and music.  This is a convolution reverb that operates using room impulses like alot of the expensive commercial reverbs.  It also allows you alot of room for tweaking.  It wont give you that fancy orchestral hall sound, but it will give you good quality small room and studio reverbs for free :) This was the 2nd place winner in the 2009 KVR plugin contest. Be sure to download the extra room impulse pack from here.

6. Classic Phaser by Kjaerhus Audio

I like this phaser because it has a quirky sound to it that cuts through mixes.  I like to use it on bass and drums.  This is part of a larger collection of free plugins offered by Kjaerhus Audio which I have tried out and would have to say are all pretty good...this one is my favorite though.

7. Charsiesis by FuzzPils

This odd plugin is a wierd chorus/delay summing thing-y that really can produce some nice harmonics and fatness to a sound.  I like to add this to boring pads to liven them up a bit. 

8. Bionic Delay by Daniel Bosshard

 

Any time I want to add immediate interest to a static sounding drum loop or synth part I always find myself reaching for this delay plug in. Use this in addition with an auto-panner to get some nice results.

9. Ferox by Jereon Breebaart

This is part of a pack of free plugins from Jeroen Breebaart.  This particular plug in is a magnetic tape simulator. I use this one alot to warm things up and add a little flavor during mixdown.  Ferric is good too (the KVR 2009 winner) but I find that Ferox has more personality with its ability to manipulate tapespeed, noise and feedback.

10. Originally my choice for this spot was SandH by XOXOS. However his site went down the second week of January and is not back up, so I sadly can't recommend it anymore :(

 
This is another glitch-y sounding plugin that can add an element of randomness to your loops or whatever sounds you put it on.  It creates a sample and hold type effect by grabbing a wave cycle of your audio and holding on to it for a moment before playing back.
In fact, while you're at the XOXOS site downloading SandH take a look at his other vsts.  He has probably the most unique and creative set of free plugins available for PC.

---------------------------

So there ya have it... my all time list of free vst plugins.  I've used all of these fairly often in Ableton Live with Windows XP and have had good results and no crashing.  So if you're apprehensive to download just any free vst... these have my approval atleast (for whatever that's worth;-) Enjoy... 

Until next time... Over N Out

- Red

Absurd Music for the Holiday

watch this... The elves command it!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

-Over N Out

Red

Austin Handmade Workshop #3 - Andromeda Space Rockers mk-4

On Sunday, December 20th, I went to the third Austin Handmade Workshop at the Salvage Vanguard Theater put on by the Church of the Friendly Ghost.  We were originally scheduled to build a Nebulophone Synth designed by John Michael of Bleep Labs at this workshop.  Due to the release of his new Thingamagoop 2 for Christmas, the Nebulophone project was postponed until January. Instead, we made a drum machine... a different version of the one we made previously in the first workshop.

Andromeda Space Rocker mk-4 is the official title of this new Eric Archer creation. This drum machine produces an analog bass kick with adjustable tuning & decay as well as a primitive loop sequencer. As with all of the Andromeda Space Rocker line it syncs up with the other models via infrared. The drum box also has a filter that is controlled by a photo cell.  This is why you see footage in the videos of people waving flash lights at these things. ;-) The drum machine also has the option to be triggered externally instead of using the onboard sequencer.  This can be done via a jumper on the circuit board.

One thing I also want to mention is that if you want to run your drum machine off of a midi clock, as I do, there is a MIDI-IR synch box available from www.woosteraudio.com.  You can buy a completed box or if you like to solder you can buy the kit as well. 

Aside from getting to make these cool kits in the presence of their creators: Eric Archer, Dann Green (4MS Pedals) and John Michael (Bleep Labs) the workshops are an excellent opportunity to meet other amazingly creative electronic musicians and artists.  At this workshop Chris Palmer who was nice enough to show off his Monome controller in an Etch-A-Sketch case… yes it is as cool as it looks.  I also got to see Shawn of Lustigovi  perform some very interesting music with some bizarre homemade gadgets made with wood, bells, springs, rubberbands and contact microphones.   So once again the Austin Handmade Music workshop delivers the goods: awesome new electronic instruments and insteresting people. 

Until next time... over N out
- Red

Austin Handmade Workshop #2 - Gearing up for #3!

On November 15th, was the second Austin Handmade Music workshop at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, which I attended and had a great time at. Sadly I must admit I was pretty busy in November so I didn't do a post on it.  We made these incredibly cool autonomous bassline generators that were made to synch up with the drum machines we made in October.  The bassline generator was designed by 4MS Pedals.  You can buy the kits online so chek it yo.

  

Next is workshop #3 which I will be attending on Sunday and I promise I'll be more forth coming on the post for that one :) However in anticipation for workshop number #3 here is a short video that I made from footage I took of the last workshop.

If you're in the Austin area and interested in attending future workshops the info is: HERE

Enjoy... until next time...

Over-N-Out

- Red

New Addition to Links & Resources Page - GetLoFi.com

Today I found a good addition to my Links and Resources page. It is the GetLoFi blog, which has loads and loads of information on circuit bending projects.  I found them when I was searching for ways to modify an old Talkboy Deluxe I found at a thrift shop. I didn't find anything relevant to that but the blog is a good find none the less.  Check it out :)

Soundtrack to Firestorm Video Game

One of the projects I was working on while I took a bit of time off last year was audio for an indie game called "Firestorm" developed by Midnight Oil Studios.  I wrote music and created sound effects for this.  A friend of mine helped out by supplying the guitar in the track. The game has been submitted for the Independant Game Festival this year.  I really hope we get chosen as finalists so we can show the game at the Game Developer's Conference in San Fran in 2010.  The guys did an excellent job building the game... Keep your fingers crossed :)

Below is a video of the gameplay for level 1.  Due to compression beyond my control the audio breaks up a bit in this video.  If you want to hear it in a more pristine form I've included a link to the track as well in the soundcloud player :)

The Initiation by redfaux
- Until next time... OverNOut Red

Synth Brittania Documentary

Alot of you probably are aware of the synth pop documentary that the BBC did a month or so ago.  Us folks in the US weren't able to see it. Its been posted on YouTube... I'm putting links up here...not sure how long it will last.. I have posted all of the segments here in order, so you can watch them one by one without having to search for the next one :)

It's really well done... all the favorites are there: Gary Numan, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, New Order, Human League, Throbbing Gristle, Caberet Voltaire...

ENJOY :) I know I will! - Over N Out

Review of the Free Waspy LE VST plugin

WASPY LE VST Review

 

Hello.  Today’s post is a review of the free Waspy LE VSTi released by Sound-Record.com.  I downloaded this synth last week and spent the weekend playing with it. Here’s the low-down.

What is it?

The Waspy LE most likely got its name for sounding similar to the old wasp synth, perhaps even the wave forms were sampled from it.  It’s hard to know because the description of the synth on the website is meager.  It states there are 60 presets, modern high quality sound and an easy arpeggio model.

The Waspy LE has 2 oscillators (triangle, sawtooth, sine, square & noise waves available) that both run through the same amp envelope.  They can be detuned and you can choose between mono and poly mode.  There is one filter. You can set the filter type, which is a great feature.  You aren’t stuck with just a low and hi-pass. There is also bandpass, notch, peak, as well as a 303 lowpass and 303 highpass.  The filter sounds pretty good and the differences between the types are noticeable and done well.  The Waspy also has a delay effect which sounds really good.  I think the developer’s thought the same thing because almost every preset is drowning in it ;-)  The presets are good as well…nice and fat and bright sounding. 

What makes it unique?

Where the Waspy really shines is with the programmable arpeggiator/sequencer.  The synthesizer has a 32 step piano roll style sequencer that allows you to create your own patterns.

 
 
 Additionally, you can control the number of steps in the pattern, tempo (half-speed, normal, double-speed) as well as toggle it on and off.

Samples

Here are few samples of original patches and arpeggio sequences I put together while noodling around with this synth.

Slinky01_Dminor147bpm

Melodica01_Cminor120bpm

Wannabe303_120bpm

Conclusion

In conclusion I would say that this is a fun, great sounding synthesizer.  It isn’t incredibly unique sounding but the arpeggiator makes up for that fact and allows you to create some fun and interesting sounding things.  This is worth downloading and using.  If you do, let me know what you think.

OVERVIEW

VST Name:Waspy LE

Developer: Sound-Record

Overall Rating:

Pros:

• Crisp graphics and readable fonts
• Easy to use arpeggio sequencer
• 7 filter types to choose from
• Fat & bright sounding
• Great sounding delay effect
• It's FREE

Cons:

• No Modulators

Until Next time,

- Over N Out.

Part 2 of 2: Review of Austin DIY Synthesizer Workshop  Advanced Course

The second workshop started around 7:30 PM.  After a brief break we all sat back at our work tables and the parts and documentation were passed out for the second project, the one we all were waiting for the “Andromeda Space Rocker” drum machines.

Don’t let the size of these little guys fool you, they are seriously cool.  There are 2 photo-cells up at the top that effect tone.  Shine a light at different intervals on these while the machine is running and you get a cool filter like effect.  The thumb dial down at the bottom left effects tempo.   The dip switches to the left control the rhythm and are a simple pattern generator.  There is an LED, in the case of mine, RED, (you know… for REDFAUX…jeez) that is hooked to the tempo.  It also highly increases the sex appeal of these little beasts… I mean who doesn’t like colored blinky lights? On the bottom side there is a infrared led that allows you to synch up with up to 4 of these guys to create a full drum pattern.  There are 4 basic flavors of the machine:

-   Hi

-   Mid-hi

-   Low-mid

-   Low

So if you have one of each going you can get a pretty full sounding pattern going.  The version I made on Sunday was the Low-mid.

The switch up above the thumb dial allows you to set your machine to synch and follow any others it is chained with.   The button gives you a drum fill.

There is also an empty circuit matrix, called the “personality center” that allows you to add mods to the machine.  Eric promised he would post some projects for this in the future.

Putting this together was more involved than the beginners project, but still fairly easy.  You just have to make sure you are connecting the right parts to the board basically and that your solder joints don’t touch each other. 

This is another project I want to make more of.  Guys please make these kits available for sale.  I will buy them… pretty please J

Here is a picture of my Andromeda Space Rocker along with some samples…

Andromeda Space Rocker Loop

Lastly I want to say that this workshop was fantastic guys! Thanks again.  This has taken away my apprehension in getting into building synth kits. The guys were helpful and friendly.  I am looking forward to enhancing my new music with these great little instruments.  I will definitely attend future workshops.

- Over N Out til' next time

Part 1 of 2: Review Austin DIY Workshop --> Beginner Course

On Sunday, October 18^th I was lucky enough to attend the DIY Synthesizer workshop in Austin at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre presented by the Church of the Friendly Ghost, Eric Archer, Bleep Labs & 4MS Pedals.  They gave two workshops: a beginner’s workshop where attendees built a simple push button drum machine which Eric had named “Mini Space Rockers”, and the advanced workshop where attendees built one of Eric Archer’s “Andromeda Space Rocket” drum machines.  I sat in on both.

I got there a little early so I could check the place out and offer any help setting up if needed.  I met Eric and the rest of the guys and helped them set up.  When we were ready they put a graphic of the circuit board on the overhead handed us all the parts we needed and we were off like soldering monkeys.  The kits we did in this first class came together in about an hour.  Everyone had different combination of capacitors so all of the little machines sounded different.  After all the soldering was done the room was alive with bleeps, bloops and the occasional screaming “Space Hawk”.   Eric also showed us how we can change the sound of our Rocker by putting different capacitors on the board.  You should check out Eric’s site he has some samples of the Mini Space Rockers and a short video showing one in action. 

www.ericarcher.net/devices/mini-space-rockers

Here is a picture of the one I made.

The sound it makes is called “Spin Back” and here’s some samples.  The sounds start to morph as I start pressing on the electronics, which probably isn't what you're supposed to do with them but it sounds cool.

Spinback01

I really want to make a few more of these little guys.  I like the way they sound and look.  I’m hoping he’ll have kits or at least printed circuit boards available for sale soon on his site.  If you want to hear what the different types sound like, Eric has posted a bunch of samples on his site.

www.ericarcher.net

Next up I’ll have a review of the advanced workshop and show you the awesome drum machine I made along with some samples. J

p.s. Special thanks to the Church of the Friendly Ghost, Bleep Labs, Eric Archer & 4MS pedals who made this possible.  This workshop was really fun guys! 

They will be doing another workshop in November, December & January.  See http://handmademusic.noisepages.com/2009/10/introducing-handmade-music-austin/  for more information.

- Over N Out

Review of the Free Mothman 1966 VST plugin

Once again its time to review another free VST available to the masses. This time I'm reviewing Mothman 1966 announced on October 21, 2009.  You know the drill.  I'll review the synth and then give you a few samples of patches I made.  The recordings are completely dry, just the synth no magic.  As always you can download the samples but you should just get the synth and play with it yourself as it is free :) Download it HERE

MOTHMAN 1966

The Mothman 1966 is based on subtractive synthesis. You have a choice of 3 wave forms for your oscillators: a diamond wave, described by the developer as being created by using FM synthesis to create a waveform that resembles a diamond, a wind wave and an 8 bit wave.  You can't choose the octave of the wave form or detune them. There are two oscillators and each has its own filter and LFO and VCA. The VCA is controlled by knobs and not sliders which makes it difficult to guage what your settings are on the ADSR.  The VCF has the label of "pitch" where I would expect "frequency" or "cut" which I know is accepted in some circles but always confuses me.

I think perhaps the most interesting part of this synth are the LFOs which you can choose to modulate the VCF or the VCA or turn it off.  There are quite a few waves to choose from for the LFO including white & pink noise which is where the most interesting sounds came from in my opinion.

I made this sound by modulating one of the oscillators with pink noise which gave it an interesting static-y AM radio style sound.

Meloncholy_radio

I was trying to go for a wind/brass sound here, which I was able to achieve but then I decided it to make it more interesting by modulating the filters.

SpaceChurch02

In Conclusion

I wanted to like Mothman 1966.  I spent multiple days trying to coax some great sounds out of it and they just fell into the mediocre realm everytime, which could be a commentary on my tweaking skills but I digress.  I'm not saying its bad, because it's not terrible. It's just not great. It works, it seems stable and the sounds are analogish and fat enough. The presets are pretty good.  They are indicative of what the synth can do but they just don't really stand out.  Part of this has to do with the limited choice of waveforms I think. It doesn't go head to head with some of the other free vst offerings out there very well, but it is interesting enough to keep in my aresenal. I noticed that Mothman has some other synths available for download on his site and I'd love to see what those can do. His 2000 and 1000 vsts look interesting.  Overall its worth checking out, but probably won't fall in your top 10 list.

OVERVIEW

VST Name: Mothman 1966

Developer: Mothman Synthesis

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Pros:

• It's FREE!
• Warm sounding
• Nice grittiness can be acheived by modulating the oscillators with pink noise
• Simple architechture
• Stable
• Fairly low cpu usage (2% to 10%)

Cons:

• Limited wave forms
• Confusing terminology on some of the knobs
• Text difficult to read
• No octave switch or detuning available on the oscillators

 
 See ya next time :)

- Over N Out

Part 4 of 4: Opulent Free VST Reviews "Dirty Girl"

This is part four of a four part series reviewing the three FREE vst synthesizer plugins from Opulent Audio.  Previously I reviewed Opulent Audio's bLOFIsh and Tenacity VST synths. In this post we review Dirty Girl.

Out of the three synthesizers, this one is the most stripped down of the bunch.  However it is still very similar in style to the other three in the following aspects:

-   It ain’t pretty ;) The GUI leaves a lot to be desired

-   It features the same gritty chiptune style sound

-   There is an modulation matrix that allows you to assign different modulators to various targets

One new thing you can control in Dirty Girl is the Contour.  This is a wave form you can draw yourself and have it modulate various targets.  It sounds particularly good modulating the filter cut.

I enjoyed playing with this, but it seemed like everything started to sound like the other two VSTs. 

At any rate, here are some samples of what you can do with Dirty Girl.  Again, these are downloadable but you should just download the synths for free and play with them yourself!

120bpm_Gm_Stanley

DevoKnobs

Pros:

-   It is stable.  It didn’t freeze or crash once

-   It’s FREE J

-   Is very easy to coax new sounds out of

Cons:

-   It doesn’t sound dramatically different from bLOFIsh or Tenacity

- The UI isn't very slick looking

So now its your turn. Download these three VSTs HERE and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear some new noise coming from these things. 

11 Things I want in a Stage MIDI Controller

So there has been so many advances in how we play electronic music in the last 20 years its incredible.  It stuns me though, that there has yet to be a live controller that has captured the community's heart yet.  Sure we've had a handful of controllers like the Keytar, and some breath controllers but nothing that you would feel awesomely cool playing while prancing about on stage.  The Eigenharp seems to have all the features but it looks like a mutant bassoon. Probably the closest cool looking controller I've seen is this mashup between a Monome and a guitar. (check it out in my MIDI controller photo gallery)  However, it still has strings and is a functional guitar which isn't really something I'm interested in. 

Now there are several of great sedentary controllers that sit on your keyboard stand or desk. But, why should the lead singer and guitarists have all the fun? Us keyboardist wanna jump about like morons too!

;-)

Top 11 Things I Want in a Stage Controller

1. I want it to look bad ass.  (Yes I know this seems superficial, but if you are going to prance about on stage with something strapped to your chest it better look fricken cool.   That's what I say.)

2. I want to be able to play melodies & beats on it.

3. It should cost less than $1000.00 (I know this is probably the kicker as well, but almost more important than #1)

4. I want to be able to change patches.

5. I want to be able to trigger clips from Ableton live with it. (not always, but this would be helpful at times. )

6. I want to be able to tweak the sounds live (volume, env cutoff, etc._

7. I want said tweakables to be programmable

8. I want it to have a nice weight and balance to it, like a guitar.

9. I want it to be wireless

10. I want to be able to control sounds on my laptop or any other synth module

11.  And did I mention it needs to look bad ass?

So did I miss anything? Is there something you would want to see in a stage controller?

- Over N Out

p.s. Check my MIDI controller photo gallery to see the different live controllers I mention in this post.

Part 3 of 4: Opulent Free VST Reviews "Tenacity"

So I know it is a few days later than I promised, but here is my review of the free VST synthesizer Tenacity.

This synth takes up where bLO-FIsh left off. It's gritty and chiptune sounding but in a more refined manner than bLO-FIsh. It has the same type of features for the most part, but more of them.

• - two gate sequencers instead of one
• - two phrase arpeggiators
• - 3 LFO generators

Unlike bLO-FIsh you can route the arpeggiators through the individual oscillators which creates some cool effects. Here are a couple of .mp3s you can listen to that highlight two patches I made using Tenacity.

120bpm_fuzzytalk01

120_Gm_SilkBurlap

Bottom line, I liked this synthesizer alot actually. I was able to get some nice things out of it and it sets up nicely for real time tweaking. I'll probably use it in the near future in some of my new work.

Pros:

- Fairly light on the CPU

- 3 LFO generators

- 2 Filters

- Stereo Delay

- Oscillator Hard Sync

- Its Free!

Cons:

- It is a little unpredictable.  It went silent in LIVE a couple of times and had to be reset. 

Next up, Part 4: Opulent Free VST Review of "Dirty Girl"

- Over N Out

DIY Synth Workshop: It's a GO!

So... never underestimate the power of people you know... I happened to mention my disappointment in not being able to get into the DIY synth workshop that was happening this weekend to a friend of mine who's also a sound designer and he just happened to know the folks running the workshop really well.  Next thing I know, I've been "squeezed" in.

AWESOME! I'm totally psyched :)

I'll have updates after the sunday workshop obviously!

- Over and out.

Update on the DIY Analog Synth Workshop in Austin

I will have the 3rd post in the Opulent Audio free VST series tomorrow :) Meanwhile...

So I was told by Ghost of the Friendly Church that the beginner DIY analog synth workshop is full up, but they suggested I show up early anyways because they will let people in if there are no shows.  I plan on showing up.

It looks like the whole thing is going to be pretty cool even if I can't get into the workshop. They will be having a live analog jam after the workshops which will be pretty fun to see. 

Anyways, here's a glimpse at the cool little drum machines they are going to make at the advanced workshop this weekend.  Rawk!

four tiny drum machines from ALH84001 on Vimeo.

more later...

- over and out.

Part 2 of 4: Opulent Free VST Reviews "bLO-FIsh"

Welcome to part 2 of this 4 part post.  I am reviewing the three free vst synthesizers that Opulent Audio made available last week.  Each review will include a couple of samples of some of the original patches I create with the synths. All of the samples posted will be straight from the synth there won't be any other vst or external processing on it. The point of this exercise is to see what the synth can do by themselves :) The samples are downloadable from the player, however since the synth is free I'm not sure why you wouldn't just download the synth yourself and make your own cool stuff :)

So without any more blabbering...

bLO-FIsh

Edgy and grity sounding, the bLO-FIsh has a bit of a retro arcade sound but that's its charm. Alot of the presets are screechy and not entirely easy to warm up to, but this synthesizer has alot of potential if you just sit down and create some of your own patches.

I think the coolest part of the synth is that you can set up a matrix of modulators that effect different things like panning, filters, reverb, oscilator volume, etc. This is can make some really interesting sounding effects. You can also set your oscilators to 8bit mode which gives the synth its signature Lo-Fi feel.

I made a few patches of my own with this just to see what it had in it...

• The first patch I did was a combo of a Square, Triangle & Pulse wave in the oscillators.
• I also modulated Filter 1 panning, Filter 1 & 2 Envelope cut & Distortion gain with 3 different LFOs.
• Obviously you can hook up a variety of parameters in Ableton live and go wacko with the thing realtime as well.

Here's a short snippet of this patch I called CrunchyJoe.

120 KeyofD CrunchyJoe by redfaux

Here's another short snippet of a patch I made that I called NaggingSally.

• I use the arpeggiator here with 2 square wave forms, a ramp wave form and 2 LFOs modulating pan & envelope cut on the filters.

100 KeyofC NaggingSally by redfaux 　

So in Conclusion: 　

This synth probably wouldn't be my leading lady in any production work, but its definitely interesting enough to pull out once in awhile for bit parts that need a nice gritty synth :)

 ... and for free hey that's pretty damn good.

Tomorrow I'll have a report on the second in this series of three VSTs "Tenacity".

--------------------------------------------------

Pros:

- Its Free

- 3 Oscillators & two filters

- Multiple assignable LFOS

- Arpegiator, Reverb, Distortion & Gate

- It didn't crash on me once!

Cons:

- It is a bit of CPU hog. Any of the effects like gating, distortion can easily bump it up to unmanageable levels

- Over N Out :)

p.s. Props to Soundcloud for having such a great audio widget!

Review of Blo-Fish, Tenacity & Dirty Girl: 3 FREE VST synths (part 1 of 4)

I saw a post on Synthtopia on wednesday announcing that Opulent Audio released their three VST synthesizers free to the public: Tenacity, Dirty Girl, bLO-Fish.  I'm always on the look out for new free VST plugins so I decided to download these three and give them a spin.

I don't want to waste any space going over the specs for these synths since KVR does this well enough :)

What I want to do is talk about how they sound and how they are to work with.  So I'm going to do a three part post where I review each synth and post some samples of original patches I'm going to make with each one and post them.

I'll start with bLO-fish first in the next post :)

See ya then.

- Over and out

Making DIY Analog Aynths

So I discovered that here in Austin TX of all places is a group that is dedicated to creating DIY analog instruments.  How exciting is that! I stumbled upon them in a fit of web surfing persistence when I saw a news blurb on Synthtopia about the 5th Austin Annual Analog Synthesizer party.  Sadly, I missed the party I didn't even know about it! But I did find out that they offer workshops in Austin to teach people how to make their own synths!  Sign me up.  I inquired about registering... I'll let you know if I get in!

The Free Hobnox Audio Tool

So today a friend sent me the link to the Hobnox Audio tool.  Which I must say is one of the coolest FREE online Flash based audio toys I've ever seen.  Imagine at your disposal on the web a 303, 909, Kaos pad and a plethora of stomp boxes all for free.  Add the ability to record your creations realtime and you have something that is starting to be more of a actual tool than a toy. 

Go to the Hobnox Audio tool.  They have 3 presets/demos for people who don't want to start from scratch: Tone Matrix, Electro, DrumNBass, Blank.

I prefer the blank preset myself that way I can start from a clean slate. When you get into the tool you will see that you have a bunch of effects boxes, some mixing tools, two drum machines, a bass machine and a tone matrix to work with. You create your own set up by dragging the pieces you want on stage and hooking them up to the mixer and meters.  You then can go about creating as many patterns as you want on the machines.  After you have some content you can then hit the record button in the upper left hand corner to record a live performance of you tweaking knobs and changing patterns on the instruments.  Hobnox lets you record a 5 minute song and upload it to your account on their website which is free to join.  You can then download it to share it with others not on the site.

I loved playing with this.  It reminded me of back in the olden days when I had 3 hardware drum machines and 6 synths at home... all the patching and tweaking.  Cool stuff. 

After messing with the tool for a few hours I was able to create a few humble pieces which I''ve posted here thanks to Soundcloud here for your listening pleasure. 

Evolvend by redfaux
BellHop by redfaux

Here is a screen shot of one of my session for the track I named "Evolvend". You can click on it to get a larger image.

 

I'm sure if you sat down for a little longer and planned out your piece you could get some really amazing things out of this. However, that being said the tool is a bit awkward to use.

Here is a list features that would take this tool to the next step. 

• The ability to save your song so you can work on it for more than one sitting.
• The ability to mark each channel on the mixers so you can remember what instruments you have routed.
• A mixer with sliders. It's kind of difficult to effect volume realtime with knobs.
• A mixer with mute buttons so you can mute tracks while you are recording
• The ability to copy a pattern to an adjacent pattern so you can add to it
• The ability to download your file from your session without having to save it to your account and then download it.

So try it out! If you make something cool I'd love to hear it! Point me to a link.

- Over and out.