Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Hans Zimmer Uses the Zebra 2 Software Synth on "The Dark Knight"

Hans Zimmer, composer the latest Batman film The Dark Knight, used Uhe's Zebra 2 software synthesizer extensively on the soundtrack.

In Uhe's latest newsletter, Zimmer says he uses  "...mainly Zebra and no other plugin synth... I don’t believe that there is another software synth out there at the moment that has such a core sonic integrity as Zebra."

Read more on Page 3 of U-he's newsletter.

Links:

• http://www.u-he.com/
• >http://www.u-he.com/zebra/

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com

FAW Circle Synthesizer Tip: 1.0.2 Update and How To Reduce CPU Load

Future Audio Workshop has released the 1.0.2 update to their fantastic Circle Software Synthesizer. You can download it here. According to FAW:

In this update we have included a CPU economy mode in the setting pane. This allows Circle to use less CPU for a minimal reduction in audio quality.

Behind the scenes, there have been some updates to the OSC messaging and a bug related to the mouth filter clicking during modulation has also be fixed.

The CPU economy mode is off by default. To enable it, click the "Settings" tab at the bottom, then click the "CPU econ. mode" switch to set it ton "on" as shown in the image above. Note, don't set the mode till after you've selected the patch you want to use as changing to another patch seems to turn the setting off.

Another way to reduce CPU load is to freeze tracks in your DAW host software so that the clip in question is rendered to the hard disc prior to playback. Note not all DAW's support this but off the top of my head Ableton Live, Sonar, Cubase, and Logic do.

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com

Yazoo (Yaz) Goes On Tour in US for Some Unfinished Business

I've always been a huge fan of Vince Clarke's synth and compositional work with Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure. I was Googling around and discoverd that Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US) are touring.

Note that this is not some sort of "Nostalgia" tour. Many of these songs were never played out live. This is more like unfinished business for Vince Clarke & Alison Moyet. As you can see from the live performance video above, they have a contemporary light show and Vince Clarke is laptop based and running Logic and various soft-synths.

Native Instruments recently posted an interview with Vince Clarke on their site here. In the interview he talks more about his stage setup.

For even more on the tour and some cool behind the scenes videos on why Yahoo decided to tour checkout the official Yazoo site  http://www.yazooinfo.com/.

If you are looking for Yazoo mp3s, checkout the Amazon widget to the above.

In closing,  I'll leave you with video from Yazoo's huge hit from the"Only You".

 

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com