"Grain Scanner lets you design experimental noises, glitchy effects, alien textures and massive clouds of ambience. Its advanced sound engine turns any sample into a blank slate for otherworldly synth parts.
A 10-voice polyphonic granular synth and re-synthesizer, Grain Scanner chops samples into small slices, then re-arranges and plays them back in a multitude of ways. The result is sound that lives somewhere between the organic and the synthetic.
Grain Scanner is set up for intuitively creating evolving textures that change in complex and unpredictable ways. Its advanced granular engine can play up to 1000 microscopic slices of a sample simultaneously. A dedicated modulation page features four LFOs. Modulate each of the 10 voices individually or modulate the global parameters with up to four modulation sources at once. And its step sequencer and separate effects panel let you mold your sound even further.
The Pack comes with more than 100 presets to play with, and a database of dozens of source sounds ready to be bent, twisted and transformed. You can also import your own samples to create a completely personal sound. What’s more, Grain Scanner was made with Push and other keyboard controllers in mind, so you can easily start making melodies and harmonies with sounds you designed yourself.
Key Features:
10-voice polyphony with an advanced granular engine
Advanced 4x modulation system and step-sequencer
Dedicated effects page
Perfect for Push and other keyboard controllers
Key Follow adds depth and expression to your performances
118 presets"
"I may have found the most amazing synth out there. The Chroma Polaris. It's not perfect - but I'm blown away. You can set the release to infinity and just drone out with this. Sync and Ring mod, dual VCOs, It's just a beautiful synth.
"Running my Tempest through a Geiger Counter for some nasty Industrial noise drums. This is what the Tempest sounds like when it's being destroyed by the WMD Geiger Counter. The WMD Geiger Counter is like a wave folding type distortion."
"On October 2nd, 2019, I was invited to the College of Southern Nevada to give a talk on the history of electronic synthesizers, at CSN's 2nd Annual Audio Industry Event. There are lots of important inventors and instruments that I couldn't fit into my talk, but I tried to hit the major highlights of the strange and winding path that synthesizers have taken, from the earliest days of analog modular synthesizers, to the complex days of sophisticated digital instruments, and then, oddly, the winding road back to analog modular synthesizers, which are more popular today than they've ever been before."
"The Robots" Cover.
All sounds synthesized, sampled and sequenced by me (no samples from the original song were used, even in the backtrack ).
Gear used:
Emu Emax.
Yamaha DX27S
Kurzweil PC1x (Controller)
Access Virus TI (Vocoder)
Roland MRS-2 Promars
Backtrack recorded on Pro Tools, including Roland Promars for the bass sequence (using filter's resonance modulation), Yamaha DX27S (the sine intro with some delay added), Virus for some extra modulations, and more.
Composed by: Karl Bartos / Ralf Hütter / Florian Schneider.
Performed here by DX5 Jose Maria Bara.
"The Beatsqueezer - small sample player device which produce Hi-Fi sound in 44100 Hz 24 bit stereo, with up to 16 mono (can be applied panorama) or stereo voices polyphony in 44100 Hz 16 bit. It is designed to bring on stage Mellotron-style synthesizer with unique sampled instruments, one shot / looped samples sets, drums, backing tracks, sound effects etc.
It has 4GB internal flash memory for keeping samples Banks aka Patches (up to 13 hours 20 minutes of mono or 6 hours 40 minutes stereo samples; after loading to the device’s internal memory all Banks are immediately available, no SD card present is required), 4 knobs for fx filters (each filters parameters can be accessible with MIDI CC), 1 rotary encoder with button for menu navigation, 128x160 color TFT display, 3.5 jack MIDI IN, 6.3 jack stereo audio output, micro SD card slot and full size USB B connector for device powering (can be used any 500 mA power source: mobile phone charger, 5V adapter with USB socket, power bank, etc.), and for communication with PC, MAC, mobile phones and tablets (with usb host feature) thru USB-MIDI protocol.
With "Banks Editor" software, user has possibility to create his own samples Banks (paches):
Up to 3 samples ("Default", "Piano" and "Forte") for each of 128 notes with unlimited sample length.
Sample Loop Point, for infinitive playback.
Cut Group, for playing only one sample at one time from specific group (for example: open and close hat, solo instrument), "self" group to stop playing only same sample, if corresponding note pressed twice and "none" group for multiple sample playback.
Dynamic or Fixed velocity for each sample.
"One Shot" behaviour.
If "One Shot" and Loop Point are defined, sample goes to "Loop trigger" mode, when 1-st press will play sample and 2-nd will stop it.
Stereo panorama for each note (mono samples only).
Also implemented simple MIDI files track Player. Can be played one MIDI Track from song (MIDI file) at one time. Tracks can be switched (next Track will be played after end of previous) and looped in real time. MIDI Player can be triggered and synced with master sequencer, by MIDI Clock and MIDI messages:
Start (Play MIDI Track)
Stop (Stop MIDI Track)
Song Select (Change MIDI Track)
With "Split Mode" feature, possible to split keyboard in up to 4 ranges (groups), and load individual Bank for every group.
Beatsqueezer has a number of master filters and special effects that are available simultaneously:
Low Pass Resonant filter
Ring Modulation
Flanger
Stereo Rotary Vibrato
Limiter
Bitcrusher
Granular Glitch
Delay with Low Pass and High Pass filters
ADSR envelope for Amplitude
ADSR envelope for Low Pass filter
Velocity dependent Attack and Timeshift
Via MIDI messages are supported:
Pitch Bend Wheel +2/-2 semitones
Modulation Wheel
Expression Pedal
Sustain Pedal
Sostenuto Pedal
Volume
Channel Pressure (Aftertouch)
Program Change (Bank selection)
Program Change LSB (Split Group selection)
For onboard knobs implemented the "Smart Knobs" behaviour - the filter value will react to the knob position only if the actual knob position and the filter value match.
There is a possibility to upgrade firmware from SD card thru built in bootloader."
A 10-voice polyphonic granular synth and re-synthesizer, Grain Scanner chops samples into small slices, then re-arranges and plays them back in a multitude of ways. The result is sound that lives somewhere between the organic and the synthetic.
