I’ve really been enjoying the new and refreshed Max for Live devices in Live 9. Buffer Shuffler 2.0 is really great. Here is a fun tip.
1) Create a variety of patterns
2) To cycle through the patterns, drop in the LFO M4L device. Click the map button and then click on one of the pattern numbers. Now the LFO will modulate the pattern being applied.
You can use the LFO “Offset” parameter to pick the lowest pattern that will be selected. The “Depth” parameter will determine the range allowing you to restrict the highest pattern selected. Experiment with LFO shapes and speeds.
Mark Mosher Boulder, CO If you want to learn how to support my art and music tech research visit - www.MarkMosherMusic.com
I’ll be flying up from Boulder to Seattle next weekend for the Pacific Northwest Synthfest on March 16th. I’m playing my Dark SciFi Controllerism set with original songs from my albums along with some unreleased material. I’ll be debuting my new 2013 show with interactive visuals with live camera input (teaser photos here) and will perform a 45 minute set with Q&A at 11am. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with fellow synth enthusiasts in Seattle – woot!
The event is FREE and you can find more details on their Facebook page. Here is a summary of the event.
The Petting Zoo: Show off your gear. See other people show off their gear. Touch it. Pet it. Love it.
The Performance / Telepresentation Room for performances and presentations that run throughout the day.
The Trade Show Room where manufacturers will be able to give demos on their gear. This is similar to The Petting Zoo but will likely be a quieter setting where you can go one on one with individual manufacturers.
Jam Session Room. This room will be one big day-long jam session that you can join and leave as you please. Everyone welcome!
What sets this Alien Vanguard soundset apart are the waves by HG Fortune, extending the sonic range of the Waldorf Blofeld into far outer space. This soundset features mostly patches for Ambient, Soundscapes and Atmospherics, but also some other classic stuff, for example, some bass and sequencer sounds for e.g. early TD type and related music.
Alien Vanguard (incl. waveset) by HG Fortune & Dimitri Schkoda (aka Inner Dreamer) includes two patchbanks with 128 patches each:
- AlienVanguard HGF-Bank-*.mid by HG Fortune
- AlienVanguard ID-Bank-*.mid by Dimitri Schkoda
The soundset comes with 86 well chosen wave programs in 5 genres:
Cpl - complex i.e. mostly layered sounds
Scp - soundscapes partly generated from images and as such showing some vivid sonic motion by itself
Syn - synthesizer sounds
Cho - synthetic choir sounds
FX - effect sounds (spacey as well as natural like birds and water)
On request the waveset has been set to 86 wave programs in order to maintain space for the factory
set which does fit well along.
HG Fortune has been into synthesizers since 1975 and is well known for his very special VSTi plugin creations since 2003. Dimitri Schkoda aka Inner Dreamer is the most prolific patch designer and composer of demotracks for HGFortune VSTi plugins since late 2004.
I attended the Ableton Live 9, Max for Live and Push Premiere Event the University of Denver on Wednesday February 27th.
Ableton Certified Trainer and electronic artist Orville Kline joins Darwin Grosse from Cycling 74 for a unique performance and presentation covering the new features of Ableton Live 9, the potential of Max for Live and exploring creative approaches for composition and performance using Ableton's new hardware instrument Push.
I was working with Adrian Belew on some musical ideas, which led to some discussion on performing, which led to some beard-scratching, which (many steps later) led to the decision to re-think the idea of what Nine Inch Nails could be, and the idea of playing a show. Calls were made to some friends, lots of new ideas were discussed, and a show was booked - which led to another, which somehow led to a lot of shows.
The band is reinventing itself from scratch and will be comprised of Eric Avery, Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis, Ilan Rubin, and me. The first shows will begin this summer, followed by a full-on arena tour of the US this fall, and lots of other dates worldwide to follow through 2014.
Lots of details and dates to come. See you soon.
TR
I missed the last tour through Denver so I’m looking forward to seeing how things shape up.
Waldorf has announced a new desktop synth – the Rocket. I’m happy to see that Waldorf is sticking with their tongue-in-cheek marketing.
No one expected this Rocket launch, which is in clear violation of several UN resolutions and basic laws of physics. Unlike conventional missiles, this one comes in a square shape and will be sold world-wide in complete ignorance of German governments exports restrictions.
It's incredible sound is a powerful weapon of mass destruction, and never before has this been achieved with such an enormous fun factor. It features an analog multimode VCF with lowpass, bandpass, and highpass, resonance up to self oscillation and beyond, a powerful monophonic oscillator section with Ultra High Density Sawtooth and unison for chord play.
Furthermore equipped with a powerful Arpeggiator and a destructive Booster circuit, this Rocket is technologically way ahead of all current defense systems.
Rocket is an ideal fun sound design machine, which in combination with its extremely attractive price, will appeal to any sound designer and musician interested in quality sounds. It works as a stand-alone instrument or in any imaginable music production environment. But its most important feature is of course its sound: a real Waldorf synthesizer, powerful, direct and with a lot of love for the details.
And of course, this Rocket is 100% Made in Germany - With Love!
Analog multimode-filter (VCF) with Low Pass / Band Pass / High Pass
VCF-input
Highly flexible oscillator-section with pulse width modulation and hard sync
Up to 8 oscillators in unison for chords or Ultra High Density Sawtooth
Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) for modulation
Envelopes for VCA, VCF and Sync
Booster circuit to generate aggressive sounds
Arpeggiator with different rhythmic patterns
Glide
USB powered
MIDI in and out
Extensive control panel with high-end pots and switches
Control via MIDI and USB
MIDI clock sync
Line output
Loud headphone output
Launch key for easy pre listening
RTFM
While the synth isn’t available yet, the manual is. You can download the PDF here.
Below are a few items I found of interest in the manual.
The Rocket Development Team Hardware: Oliver Rockstedt, Frank Schneider Software: Oliver Rockstedt, Stefan Stenzel, Wolfram Franke Design: Axel Hartmann Manual/ Layout: Holger Steinbrink
MIDI Implementation
Controllerism ready! This also means you can automate these parameters in your DAW.
Back Panel
As you can see on the back panel there is a handy switch to switch MIDI channels. The Audio Line in allows you to process incoming audio with the analog filters.
Runs on Bus Power… Firmware Updateable
The manual indicates USB is for MIDI communications and the unit will run off of bus power. USB is also for firmware updates.
No Presets – But There are Dumps
Going the same direction as Arturia MiniBrute, no presets here.
Presets are absent by design. Because of the very clear parameters we can assure you that you will be able to set an universe of sounds within seconds.
P. 24 of the manual does indicate you can dump sounds via USB. So potentially, you could save as a project within your DAW, but no companion software is mentioned – but still a great feature for sound designers.
8 Oscillators Mainly for Unison – But There Is a Special Case…
Special case: If Sawtooth is selected and the poly saw mode is active with a maximum value of the Wave parameter: With maximum setting of the Tune parameter you will get an unisono mode where all 8 oscillators will play the incoming MIDI notes. This is no real polyphony but will allow playing chords.
Analog or Digital?
The manual specifically mentions analog fitlers and filter calibration. The manual talks about waveforms and such, but doesn’t come out and say analog in the oscillator section – so my guess is modeled analog waveforms. Of course the Blofeld does a great job at this so I’m assuming this will be as good as Blofeld or better.
Yay Aftertouch!
One of my beefs with the Moog Slim Phatty (and this also seems missing from Sub Phatty) is aftertouch is not implemented. For me this is a show stopper as I use aftertouch all the time. I’m happy to report that p. 36 of the manual says:
The majority of contemporary MIDI keyboards are capable of generating aftertouch messages. On this type of keyboard, when you press harder on a key you are already holding down, a MIDI Aftertouch message is generated. This feature is used to control the Cutoff frequency of the Rocket.
While limited to filter this is still welcomed – and quite handy if you have a Blofeld, UltraNova, RemoteSL… or any other keyboard with aftertouch.
Launch Button
A short tip on the Launch button sends out MIDI note C3 (MIDI note number 60). You can even use this button, if no MIDI master keyboard is connected. w The Launch button memorizes the last note received via MIDI and will use it for further triggering until a new MIDI note arrives. Incoming MIDI data is indicated by blinking of the Launch LED.
Press and hold the launch button to initiate a patch dump.
