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

Video Tutorial: How To Use Ableton Live Racks To Create Multi-Sampled Instruments

Watch Video: How To Use Ableton Live Racks to Create Multi-Sampled Instruments

I’ve seen questions recently in Modulate This comments, and on the Ableton Live forum regarding the creation of multi-sampled instruments in Ableton Live. This video tutorial is  step-by-step how-to video that walks you through the creation of a velocity switched multi-sampled instrument using Ableton Live, Ableton Simpler, Instrument Racks, and Drum Racks.

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

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Sylenth1 2.2 Review - Midi Learn, Midi Program Change, Velocity Sensitive Keyboard and more…

I tried Sylenth1 when it first came out and didn’t buy it. I thought the oscillators and filters sounded great and loved the straight-forward interface but felt it was lacking some features I’ve come to expect in modern virtual instruments.

Sylenth1 came to my attention again because of the group buy in December. I’m happy to report that Lennar Digital has done a great job adding features and improving the synthesis capability since launch – so much so that yes - I bought another VA Subtractive synth :^).

Key 2.2 features that I really appreciate are Midi Learn (persistent from project to project), copy/paste for envelope and filters, Midi Program Change support (I can walk through programs using my Novation Remote SL).

Another 2.2 feature I use a lot more than I thought I would is the velocity sensitive GUI keyboard. It’s such a simple idea but makes it much easier to preview and tweak presets that use velocity as a modulator when using a laptop. Simply use your mouse to click towards the top of the key emulates a key press with little velocity. The further down you click on the key, the more velocity is sent to the Sylenth1.
 

As I work with Sylenth1, I’ve also noticed how incredibly warm and dynamic the oscillators and filters are. It’s much more like working with a hardware synth. I think it compliments Predator nicely.

The master effects tab interface in the center screen makes tweaking effects and programming arpeggiator a snap. The arpeggiator can also be used as a modulate source. This makes it possible to use the arppegiator as a gate and more.

2.2 ships with over 1,300 presets which cover a wide range of musical styles and are a great starting point for tweaking.

Lastly, I want to mention that Slyenth1 is incredibly CPU friendly.

In my opinion Sylenth1 is well worth €139 and I encourage you to give Sylenth1 a try even if you have other subtractive synths. I’ve really fallen in love with it.

Links

• Home page and nice history of Sylenth1 improvements
• Download demo version
• Specs

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

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

Meet the New Ableton Operator - Watch These Videos

What’s new in Ableton Operator 8? Watch this video.

Here is a second video with Dennis DeSantis demoing Operator 8 at the 2009 Winger NAMM. Watch Video on YouTube.

Ableton has announced that when Live 8 ships there will be an also provide an update Ableton Operator. Ableton is calling it a “major overall”.

So what’s new?

• User Waveforms: Draw your own waveforms by adjusting the amplitudes of each oscillator's harmonics. You can also edit the built-in waveforms. So, it’s like a mini-additive synth.
• Feedback is now available for all oscillators that are not being modulated by another oscillator. This should provide for some pretty interesting possibilities.
• New filter types: New ladder modes and SVF filters bring the total number of Operator's filter types to fourteen.
• There is also a frequency response curve view in the filter display and an integrated waveshaper in the filter, featuring an adjustable drive amount and four curve shapes.
• The filter, LFO and pitch envelopes now feature adjustable slopes, like those found in Sampler.
• There's a new MIDI modulation section in the global display, with multiple destination and amount settings for five MIDI control sources. We've also added new modulation options for the LFO and pitch envelope.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Operator and it has fantastic third party support. I hoping companies like Covert Operators and Pure Magetik are already working on killer presets.

Ableton has posted a great video on their web site which summarizes what’s new.

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

Modulate This! Interview With Smule's Dr. Ge Wang (Maker of iPhone Ocarina)

Want to know what one of the leading iPhone developers has on his mind?

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Ge Wang, CTO and Co-founder of Smule.com. Smule are the makers of extremely popular and innovative iPhone applications such as Sonic Lighter and Ocarina. Dr. Wang is also an assistant professor at Stanford University, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University and a BS in Computer Science from Duke University. Ge is the creator and chief architect of the ChucK audio programming language, and the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk).

I asked a wide variety of questions in this interview - so - whether you are a musician, a developer, an iPhone user, or an entrepreneur, I hope you find this interview interesting and enlightening.

I've provided this audio interview in YouTube (for computer or iPhone users), and in MP3 formats*.

Part 1 - Dr. Wang discusses the iPhone as an application platform, how constraint leads to innovation, and his vision for using technology to bring people together. Watch on YouTube or Download MP3.

Part 2 - Dr. Wang discusses how people are using Ocarina and how Ocarina has brought music to the disabled. He also discusses the future of the Ocarina and Smule, and what it's like to be "Smulian". Watch on YouTube or Download MP3.

 

Links:

• Smule.com
• Orcarina Site|Buy Ocarina on iTunes
• Smule's "This Contest Blows" Contest!!
• TheGoodBlogs Midi file to Smule Ocarina Score Converter
• More Smule and Ocarina Videos on YouTube
  
• Stanford Laptop Orchestra
• Dr. Wang's Page @ Stanford

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

---- Production Notes ---
Audio was taken from a phone conversation between myself and Dr. Wang. I originally intended to publish as transcribed text but felt of the tone of conversation would be lost so I instead published an audio version. I decided to present both sides of our conversation at phone quality to preserve the feel of the conversation. Note that for a short time in the beginning of Part 1, Dr. Wang was on a mobile phone with some signal drop out and the quality improves as the conversation continues. In addition to MP3 format, I've provided a YouTube format so you can easily listen to this from an iPhone or web browser.

Modulate This! - Best Products of 2008 for Electronic Musicians

Hope you all are having a restful holiday season. I continuously strive for the leanest rig that will give me the best results. In this post I’ll offer a list products that make up the core of my rig. Consider this my “If I was stranded on a desert island” list for 2008.  Note that some products in my list were not new in 2008, but I’m still using them tons so they’ve made the list. If you want to see all the elements of my rig, check out this photo album on MySpace.

Best DAW – Ableton Live 7, $499
For me, Live has been become more than a DAW. It’s at the core of everything I do and after years of use feels more like a musical instrument to me than some piece of software. See all my posts on Live here. Official Live site is here.

Best Hybrid Synthesizer - Camel Audio Alchemy , $249
Camel Audio just released a new synth called Alchemy. They've been working on it for 4 years. It's an additive, spectral, granular, virtual analog synth. The interface is really well done with a clever scheme for routing modulation. I think it’s one of the finest virtual instruments I’ve ever used. I’ll be writing more posts about this synth in the future. For now you can learn more about it here.

Runner up for me in this category is Native Instruments Absynth 4. It’s not new this year but is also a great synth. I also want to mention Spectosonics Omnisphere. I don’t own it and I haven’t tried it (no demo available), but from what I’ve read and seen in demo videos it’s a monster synth. I went with Alchemy because it has a much smaller footprint and has more features for those like me who want to manipulate our own samples.

Best Virtual Analog Synthesizer - Rob Papen’s Predator, $179
Predator is a virtual analog synthesizer for Windows or Mac that runs as a plug-in (VST, Audio Unit, RTAS).  It ships with a huge library of presets, and built-in tools for patch browsing and search.  It also has some innovative features such as preset morphing, intelligent preset variation, and chord memory. Even though Predator didn’t release this year, Rob Papen keeps the synth fresh with free updates. More posts here …

Best Controller Keyboard - Novation Remote SL, Starting at $299

I still love the way this controller and Automap 2 software helps make using software more like using a physical instrument. Check out official site here. I still get a lot of traffic on my posts on the M-Audio Axiom series controllers so it’s clearly a popular choice if you can’t afford the Remote SL.

Best Controllers for Those on the Go -Korg Nano Series, $49-59

This year Korg released USB powered slim-line controllers nanoKey, nanoKontrol, and nanoPad. I have Key and Kontrol and can say they are fantastic if you want more control while making music from your laptop. More here http://korgnano.com/.

Best Bang for the Buck USB Audio Interface - Novation Nio, $249
Microphone/instrument or line-level sources, low latency effects (Direct Mix Monitoring, 'Overloud' Guitar amp and distortion pedal effects, effects from the Supernova II and signal processing from Focusrite), two headphone outputs, four RCA outputs. All this for $249! See official site.

Best iPhone Music App – iDrum, Ocarina
Hmmm. This is a tough one as there is so much innovation going on in this space. My two favorites are iDrum and Ocarina.

iDrum has a great interface for making beats on the go and synchronizes with iDurm for the PC and Mac. Read more about it here.

Ocarina turns your iPhone into a true musical instrument. It uses every feature of the iPhone and has some fantastic social connection features. Checkout the official site here.

Best Field Recorder – Zoom H2, $179
I just got one of these back in November. It’s really fantastic. It weighs 4 ounces and has 4 mic capsules onboard for 360° recording in a W-X/Y configuration. You can also use it as a USB mic. I blogged about it here.

Buy Online
Most of these items can be purchased online. Support Modulate This! buy using these links: Musicians Friend, Guitar Center, Zzounds.

Share Your List
I’m sure many of you out there have a your own list so feel free to share your list using the comments link at the bottom of this post.

See You in 2009!
Have a safe new years eve and I’ll see you in 2009.

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

Image-Line Holiday Sale - Maximus and Morphine Only $99 a Piece + Free Copy of Gross Beat

   

There are a lot of sales going on right now so make sure you stop by your favorite companies site to see what deals they might have.

Image line has put both Morphine (virtual synthesizer that does additive synthesis and re-synthesis) and Maximus (Mastering Maximizer) on sale. Here is the deal:

• Every order of $99 and more comes with a free copy of Gross Beat (value $99).
• Maximus is available for $99 instead of $189 (AND includes a free copy of Gross Beat)
• Morphine is available for $99 instead of $159 (AND includes a free copy of Gross Beat)

I've been waiting for Morphine to go on sale. I've spent a lot of time with the demo and think it has a great interface for additive synthesis. I especially love the re-synthesis capabilities and plan on using it to create some custom sounds for future projects. Needless to say I just hit the buy button. So it's now official, I own all of Maxx Claster's synthesizers (Poizone, Toxic Biohazard, and Morphine).

Links:

• Visit Image-Line Sale page
• Modulate This post on Morphine
• Image-Line Video Tutorials Page (Morphine and Maximus are both represented).

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

Modulate This Review of Rob Papen Predator Virtual Synthesizer

 

Introduction
I just spent a few weeks immersing myself in Rob Pappen's Predator Virtual Synthesizer.  I've reemerged and decided to share my thoughts on this synth with a review.

Overview
Predator is a virtual analog synthesizer for Windows or Mac that runs as a plugin (VST, Audio Unit, RTAS).  It ships with a huge library of presets, and built-in tools for patch browsing and search.  It also has some innovative features such as preset morphing, intelligent preset variation, and chord memory.

Sonic Range
Even though Predator is primarily a subtractive synth, it can produce a much wider range of sounds than your average analog synthesizer. This is made possible with a powerful yet straight-forward  three oscillator architecture. For each oscillator you can select from one of 128 wave  forms. In addition to analog waveforms, Rob Papen has included, additive, spectral, pink & white noise as well. Each oscillator also has Pulse Width Modulation and oscillators 2 & 3 have modes for Ring  Modulation and FM Synthesis. In plain English, you don't need to understand complex harmonic structures to produce complex sounds quickly.

FX
Predator allows for 3 effects per preset. The list includes Mono Delay, Stereo Delay,  Comb, Reverb, Chorus, Chorus/Delay, Flanger, Phaser, Wah/Delay, Distortion, Low  Fi, Amp Simulator with 5 models, Waveshaper, Stereo Widener, Autopan, Gator,  Vocoder, FX multi-filter, 5 Band Equalizer, Compressor, Ensemble, Cabinet Simulator,  Multi- distortion and AutoWah. Two FX modulation sources are available for connecting midi or synth controls to FX parameters. 

The "Gator" effect is a trance gate. "Vocoder" is a 32 band vocoder that can use either samples or sound (input) that is fed into Predator as a modulator. So, creating cool vocoded effects is a snap.

I should also mention that there is a stand-alone version of the effects processor called PredatorFX which allows you to use these effects on any audio channel in your DAW.

Arpeggiator

Predator has a 16 step pattern based arpeggiator with some excellent features that might make you use this arpeggiator more than the one in your DAW.  Some stand out features include the ability to enter note values for a step by using your midi keyboard. You can also set note velocity, swing and slide amount controls.  One really cool feature is the ability to use an  arppegiator step as a free modulation source. You can even control  arpeggiator latch using a midi sustain pedal. Lastly, you can copy, paste, clear, move, reverse, randomize and turn off / on controls, for both selected steps or all steps.

Right Click and  MIDI Learn
The interface supports right-click for access to additional parameters. For example, you can reset a knob to its default state or execute MIDI learn to map knobs and sliders on your controller to a Predator parameter.

One Page Interface
What’s amazing about Predator is that almost all the parameters fit on its clean one page interface.  A few parameters require you toggle to a different panel (see this article). The layout is logical and simple and if you’re familiar with subtractive synthesis you’ll be creating new custom presets in no time.

Conclusion
There is something for everyone inside of Predator. Musicians and Producers will love the large library of sounds, the bank manager,  and how easy it is to "tweak" using the single page interface. Sound designers will love the flexible Free Modulation scheme with 8 modulation routings for connecting 40 modulation sources and 65 modulation destinations.

At $149 EU/ $179 US you'll be hard pressed to find a virtual synthesizer with more bang for the buck. For many I think this will become their "goto" synth.

Learn More
I’ve covered the core elements of Predator in this review but there are many, many more features I’ve left for you to discover. Checkout the links below for more.

• Download Free Trial of Rob Papens Predator
• Buy Rob Papen Predator
• Learn about the free 1.5.1 Update
• Learn More
• MP3 Demo Songs
• More Modulate This articles on Predator

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com

Where Is the Arpeggiator in Rob Papen's Predator?

I'm really into synthesizers with one page interfaces these days. I've been working a lot with Rob Papen's Predator which has a fantastic UI. Almost all control "sections" are displayed on one page. I say almost as they couldn't quite cram all the control elements in.

To accommodate more controls without cluttering up the interface, there are toggle buttons on the interface. Use the graphic above as a guide to access additional sections, see the back of the synth, and access the help file.

ARPEGGIATOR SECTION

ADVANCED SECTION

More on Predator in future posts...

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com