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

I'm Declaring Absynth 5 the Winner of the Modulate This Holiday Sound Pack Poll

I’m making great headway on the sound pack work. I’m almost done with the Live pack version and need to get going on the second format. Since Absynth 5 has been in the lead from the start and hasn’t lost this position throughout I’m declaring it the winner! Thanks to all those who participated.

I think the results are a testament to the quality, and depth of Absynth and the fact that after all these years it’s stayed fresh and relevant. Kudos to Brian Clevinger and NI.

The other good news about Abysnth winning is I believe Kore 2 users will be able to load the sounds. I don’t own Kore 2, perhaps I can get someone to help me test – use my contact form if you want to volunteer.

So thanks for voting and if you voted for Alchemy or Blofeld and don’t own Ableton Live, you might want to pick up Absynth for $99 bucks – sale ends today. (Note: I’m not affiliated with NI and don’t benefit from you buying Absynth – just a heads up). I am quite familiar with programming for the runner up synths so perhaps in 2011 I’ll do some sound design work for those formats.

I’ve setup a new landing page for the Free Holiday Gift Pack. Head over there and subscribe to the comment feed for notifications.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com

Thanks for Participating in "What Virtual Synths Do You Own?" Readers Poll

First off thanks to all who have taken the time to take the readers poll on what virtual synths you own. I’ll leave the poll up for a while to keep collecting data. I also appreciate all the comments and links to synths not in the list.

A couple of early observations after look at the results so far.

Sound Design:
When I think about producing presets it’s clear that offering presets in native formats for the more popular VSTs and Live Pack versions for these and less popular synths makes the most sense.

I’m psyched that so many of you who own Live also have Sampler and Operator. I wasn’t sure the ratio would be so high.

Kore2 is not as popular as might have thought. I only have the free player myself and since I own Live and Absynth 4 I don’t end up using it that much. I think Kore 2 has potential, and I may do something with it, but for now Live Packs and native presets seem the way to go.

I was happy to see Absynth 4 fair so well – I personally love it. Sylenth1 and Predator are neck and neck. Camel Audio’s Alchemy is only 15% but it’s new and relatively expensive.  I personally think this synth will grow in popularity. I would have predicted Morphine being this low. Being additive it’s rather specialized. I’ll most likely use it to generate waveforms that I’ll then take into Live Packs. Circle is no surprise either. While it’s interface is really innovative I think it’s pricey and a lot of people have subtractive covered.

Video Tutorials:
I’ve been doing some research on video tutorials and there are a lot of fine tutorials out there on Ableton Live (I’ll post a list in the near future). At this point I’m thinking I’ll do some general videos on “sound design” on the more popular synths in the poll plus Alchemy (as it kicks ass) and perhaps some free synths. I have a few ideas on how to structure tutorials in a way that will help you build up knowledge that is transportable between synths and will experiment with some ideas around this.

Thanks again!

Mark Mosher
www.markmoshermusic.com
www.modulatethis.com
www.twitter.com/markmosher

Reader Poll: Which Virtual Instruments Do You Own?

In the coming months I’m planning on releasing FREE video tutorials on sound design with virtual instruments as well as FREE presets for virtual instruments. To help me pick which instruments to focus on please take a minute out of your day to take a poll.

• Click here to take the poll or use the poll widget in the right-hand side of this blog.
• Click here to see poll results.
• If there is a synth not in the list that you'd like me to consider, us the comment link in the footer of this post.

Thanks,

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com
www.twitter.com/markmosher