Arturia Announces V Collection 5 Including New NED Synclavier Port, Hammond B3 and More

Published on May 19, 2016 ARTURIA - Update: new video uploaded May 30, 2016

Update: Clarification: the NED Synclavier is not an emulation but a port of the original software:

"this is not an emulation - it is the real thing, the real mccoy. Cameron Jones himself ported the original Synclavier code to run on PC/MAC/VST etc.

- you have the choice of playing each patch either in the original 8-bit depth, or change it to 4-bit (!), 10-bit, 12-bit, 14-bit, 16-bit, 18-bit, 20-bit, 22-bit or 24-bit depth.

- resynthesis: not implemented in the current release but there may be plans to put it in a future release. However some of the original factory patches included (83 total) are resynthesis-based

- the partials/timbre frame functionality was vastly expanded"

Video description:

"The new V Collection 5 is a giant leap forward in our quest to create the greatest legendary keyboards collection ever, including 5 new softwares instruments: Piano V, Synclavier V, B-3 V, Stage-73 V, Farfisa V.

Special thanks to:
Altius Prod
Stéphane Schott (http://www.lyynkstudio.com/)
Studio Question de Son (http://www.questiondeson.com/)
Underground Records (http://www.undergroundrecords.fr/)
Garbage & Greg Kaplan (https://www.garbage.com/)"

Arturia announces the Synclavier V

Published on May 19, 2016 ARTURIA

Update: It's not clear if the Synclavier V supports sampling resynthesis (see above), although it does take the FM and additive synthesis with partials to a new level. For reference, you can find the history of features for the original Synclavier on Wikipedia here.

"Arturia announces the Synclavier V, the first recreation of the legendary digital synthesizer made in collaboration with Cameron Jones, the inventor of the original instrument.

The Synclavier V faithfully recreates the elite digital synthesizer/workstation that started it all, powering some of the biggest hits and film soundtracks of the early ‘80s with its unique rich, edgy sounds.

While the Synclavier V expertly brings this historic instrument to life, we’ve improved it dramatically by taking advantage of today’s processing power. We’ve also infused into it everything we’ve learned over 16 years of developing award-winning software synthesizers. The result is a thoroughly modern, cutting-edge instrument that stands alone among hardware and software synths alike.

Update: some details on the synth engine:

Timbres consist of up to 12 Partial Timbres
Much of the magic of the original Synclavier owed to the ability to build Timbres (presets) by creating and layering four completely different sounds or Partial Timbres to realize massive, complex sounds. With the Synclavier V, we’ve taken the number of Partial Timbres to 12, dramatically expanding the creative possibilities. Since each Partial Timbre is a complete sound, that means that you can stack many different sonic elements into electrifying Timbres resounding with rich complex textures brimming with subtleties.

Partial Timbres are each compete synth engines
Each of the 12 Partial Timbres has two digital oscillators that combine the principles of both additive and frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. Rather than using filters to subtract harmonics from simple oscillators, additive synthesis builds up complex sounds by selectively adding harmonics in this case. The Synclavier V goes way beyond that, combining these oscillators in an FM architecture where the carrier (main) oscillator is modulated by the second harmonic oscillator. The fusion of additive and FM technologies make for a stunningly diverse and unique universe of cinematic pads, epic leads, evolving bass lines and more.

Time Slices animate long passages
Time Slices allow you to specify up to 50 snapshots of the 12 Partial Timbres of additive and FM synthesis goodness, and animate through them over time. For each Time Slice, you can set the volume, pitch, FM modulation amount, and delay. The ability to set parameter crossfades of up to 30 seconds between Time Slices—over a total time of 5 minutes—makes it possible to create long evolving ambient pads and cinematic cues of incredible complexity.

Improvements make a great instrument even greater
We’ve made a lot more improvements beyond boosting the sound engine from four Partial Timbres to 12. Where the original modulation oscillator was only a sine wave, now you can also choose sawtooth, square, or triangle—or graphically build your own waves comprised of 24 phase-controllable harmonics. These enhancements allow you to create outrageous textures never possible before. Each Time Slice can now even have a separate FM modulator waveform. Variable bit depth between 4- and 24-bits, on-board effects, and a MIDI Learn feature are just some of the many examples of the new options available to you in Synclavier V.

With the Synclavier V, digital synthesis meets total creative and performance expression.
Sure, all synths have LFOs, but the vibrato section of the Synclavier V is exhaustive, giving you control over LFO attack, phase, quantizing, bias and more. Things get even more interesting when you apply the LFO to the FM harmonic oscillator that, in turn, modulates the carrier. Let that sink in for a minute!

Want to take your listeners on an animated journey? Add extra energy to your pads and soundscapes with the stereo modulation section. It actually takes the form of separate linkable tremolos for each channel, making for unique spatial animation effects that will have everybody’s heads spinning.

Imagine performing with expressive nuances never possible before. Press harder on the keyboard to change the amount of FM modulation. Ride the expression pedal to affect the frame speed of your Time Slices. Grab the mod wheel to rock the FM modulation ratio. These are just some examples of what’s possible when you use the modulation matrix to easily map any of your favorite MIDI controllers to dozens of sound engine parameters—discretely for each Partial Timbre."

You'll find Arturia's page on the Synclavier V here, and Synclavier Digital's website here.

Update: the official press release for the entire V Collection 5 [Note: The Analog Lab press release below was the first to go up. Apologies for the all the updates, but this is how it comes in, and posts here on MATRIXSYNTH are about capturing that]:

"Arturia advances industry-standard V Collection of virtual classic keyboards

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: music software and hardware developer Arturia is proud to announce availability of V Collection 5 — the latest incarnation of its impressive industry-standard collection of authentic-sounding virtual instruments, expanded and updated to include five all-new additions alongside new versions of ‘old favourites’ (plus Analog Lab 2) — as of May 19…

With no fewer than 17 virtual instruments that recreate hard-to-source synthesizers and classic keyboards, V Collection 5 represents really remarkable value on many musical levels. At an attractive monetary level, it’s a no-brainer! Bringing something special to the 21st Century performance and production table, five all-new authentic-sounding additions lead this latest V Collection charge.

B-3 V beautifully recreates the distinctive tones of the B-3 tonewheel organ, one of the most iconic and influential instruments of all time. It truly transcends time and place by bringing this still-sought-after sound to the computer-based music-making masses. Meanwhile, Farfisa V virtually puts players in the driving seat of the sound that drove the hits of several decades as a superb software simulation of the famous Farfisa Compact Deluxe organ. Pushing the physical boundaries of an acoustic piano, Piano V meticulously models the sound and behaviour of one of the most important instruments history has yet thrown up — albeit not as one but rather nine virtual instruments rolled into one! An authentic-sounding software simulation of the Seventies-vintage Stage and Sixties-vintage Suitcase 73-key electric pianos, Stage-73 V is the sound of the Sixties, the sound of the Seventies… the sound of today, the sound of tomorrow! Thanks to Arturia’s close collaboration with original Synclavier® software developer Cameron Jones, Synclavier V takes everything the trailblazing Synclavier® could do as the most powerful additive and FM synthesizer ever created and makes it more powerful!

Put it like this: thinking about all those thousands of new sounds and styles in V Collection 5 that are available at the touch of a (virtual) button beggars belief, but Arturia’s aim is true… to create the tools that lend a helping hand to today’s musicians, taking inspiration from the past to (re)invent the music of tomorrow. The 12 remaining virtual instruments in V Collection 5 — ARP 2600 V, CS-80V, JUP-8V, Matrix-12 V, Mini V, Modular V, Prophet V, and SEM V analogue synthesizers; Prophet VS digital synthesizer; Wurli V electric piano; VOX Continental V electronic organ; and Solina V string machine — do just that, too. All are updated with resizable (Retina/4K-compatible) GUIs that truly have to be seen to be believed! But digging deeper, Native Instruments’ new NKS® (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD) — allowing advanced integration with third-party software instruments — naturally features across the board. As does AU, AAX, VST2, and VST3 compatibility, standalone operation, plus MIDI Learn (to easily map all parameters to a MIDI CC).

Continuing Arturia’s quest for absolute authenticity through TAE® (True Analog Emulation), physical modelling, and additional technologies, anyone prepared to dig deep into V Collection 5’s treasure trove of hard-to-source synth and classic keyboard recreations will be musically rewarded in kind. Conversely, Analog Lab 2 is a powerful yet painless way of accessing a broad selection of sounds from across V Collection 5 within a single application. As it supports Arturia’s many MIDI controller devices natively, it adapts to reflect their physical controls when they are connected… connect with V Collection 5, then, and accept Arturia’s helping hand to today’s musicians, taking inspiration from the past to (re)invent the music of tomorrow!"

The Analog Lab press release:

"Arturia advances Analog Lab composite virtual instrument to include V Collection 5 sound selection

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: music software and hardware developer Arturia is proud to announce availability of Analog Lab 2 — an all-new incarnation of its composite virtual instrument that gathers together a broad selection of sought-after sounds from its V Collection 5 software bundle — as of May 19...

Analog Lab 2 is a powerful yet painless way of accessing a sought-after selection of sounds from all 17 of Arturia’s authentic-sounding virtual instruments as a single application. Included are sounds from eight emulated analogue synthesizers (ARP 2600 V, CS-80V, JUP-8V, Matrix-12 V, Mini V, Modular V, Prophet V, and SEM V), two digital synthesizers (Prophet VS and Synclavier V), two electric pianos (Stage-73 V and Wurli V), an acoustic piano (Piano V), and three electronic organs (B-3 V, Farfisa V, and VOX Continental V). Those virtual instruments recreate hard-to-source hardware synthesizers and classic keyboards of the past and conveniently transport them to the present-day desktop.

Analog Lab 2 invites instant exploration as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or as a standalone version. Its redesigned, resizable (Retina/4K-compatible) GUI (Graphical User Interface) is as easy on the eye as it is to use. Studio View shows the original historic hardware, helpfully bringing up the best presets from each instrument in question. But there’s a whole lot more to Analog Lab 2 than good looks alone.

Accessing those sought-after sounds at the speed of sound is simple, thanks to a new preset browser. Browse presets by TYPES, BANKS, sonic CHARACTERISTICS, and INSTRUMENTS (crossing categories). Create PLAYLISTS. Or simply Search for presets by NAME. Needless to say, with 4,500-plus presets to choose from there’s always a sound to suit every mood, every ambiance, and every music style — sounds that transcend time and fashion.

For those wishing to dig deeper then the dual-instrument MULTI feature with independent MIDI settings panel for each instrument will make their musical day. Drag and drop splits and layers of those presets to take ownership of the sound. Sounds and Multis can be organised in the PLAYLISTS area for instant recall via program change messages, making Analog Lab 2 a best friend in the studio and a pillar of live performance.

Put simply, Analog Lab 2 is so much more than just a sound library. It’s a substantial sound design tool and an amazing live performance instrument integral to immeasurably improving everyday workflow. When connected to one of Arturia’s many MIDI (Musical Digital Instrument Interface) controller devices, Analog Lab 2 will automatically adapt to reflect their physical controls. Generic MIDI controllers of course can also be used with MIDI learn to easily map all parameters to a MIDI CC (Control Change).

Changing the sound of Analog Lab 2 is even easier thanks to two EFFECTS slots with pre/post fader switch per instrument. Included Bitcrusher, Chorus, Delay, Destroy, Dub Delay, Eq4, Flanger, Overdrive, Phaser, Pitchshift, Reverb, Roundpanner, and Vocal Filter effects ensure that Analog Lab 2 always sounds the way you want it to.

Take your sound and workflow to another level with Analog Lab 2, an easily-accessible environment at an easy-to- swallow price point. What’s not to like?"

Arturia B-3 V Tutorial

Published on May 19, 2016

"The B-3 V delivers the most authentic tonewheel organ and rotary speaker experience you’ll find anywhere, plus customizations that open up new creative opportunities."

"Arturia pulls out all the software stops to realistically recreate tonewheel organ combo classic

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: music software and hardware developer Arturia is proud to announce availability of B-3 V — an authentic-sounding software simulation of the classic B-3 tonewheel organ and Leslie rotary speaker combo — as of May 19...

B-3 V realistically recreates the special sound of the B-3 tonewheel organ. One of the most iconic and influential instruments of all time. One which has graced many of the greatest recordings of all time. Today Arturia brings this to its award-winning Analog Classics family of virtual instruments that recreate hard-to-source synthesizers and classic keyboards.

Keyboard players have made their mark in all forms of popular music with the B-3, back from its inception in the Fifties way past its discontinuation through to today. Procol Harum’s hit ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ proved particularly memorable with a melancholic countermelody displaying an altogether softer side to the B-3. But raucousness remains the order of the day for the blues, jazz, and gospel genres with which it first found favour. After all, it had historically been aimed at churches as a more compact and affordable alternative to conventional pipe organs.

One saying springs to mind: Pulling out all the stops — to hold back nothing — is an allusion to organ stops being pulled out to turn on each set of sounds in a pipe organ. The B-3 effectively ‘emulates’ this with its drawbars. Doing this and a whole lot more is what B-3 V does best, thanks to Arturia pulling out all the software stops to make it happen!

Thirties-developed tonewheel technology originally made that special sound happen. An electronic current is created when rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup and amplifying that signal. The B-3 has 91 of those tonewheels with each key connected to a fixed set of tonewheel outputs. Drawbar settings control how these are mixed together. The tube preamplifier subsequently shapes the sound a little further — filtering and distortion take hold here — while factoring the position of the expression pedal. This not only acts as a volume control but also affects the frequency response of the preamp which is connected to a speaker.

Speaking of which, B-3 V faithfully simulates the favoured Leslie tone cabinet, containing a power amplifier that drives a rotating horn and a stationary woofer firing into a rotating drum reflector. Spellbinding spatial and frequency-shifting effects above and beyond the sound-shaping effects of commonplace loudspeakers are all perfectly possible!

B-3 V brings this classic combo — complete with the inherent imperfections that made that tonewheel technology sound so unique — to the present-day desktop as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or as a standalone version. Visually, things couldn’t get clearer, thanks to the resizable (Retina/4K-compatible) GUI (Graphical User Interface) that’s as easy on the eye as it is to use.

Under the hood, things couldn’t be better with MIDI control of many parameters and insert slots for ANLALOG DELAY, CHORUS, FLANGER, OVERDRIVE, and PHASE effects, as well as ADVANCED SETTINGS for upper and lower manuals and rotary speaker behaviour. B-3 V boasts a built-in step sequencer, allowing anyone to easily set an amount of modulation for each step of the sequence! Naturally, Native Instruments’ new NKS® (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD) allows advanced integration with B-3 V.

All of the benefits of the original iconic instrument are available to modern music-makers with B-3V, but without the heavyweight hassles. Where anyone chooses to take it musically is anyone’s guess, but bet your bottom dollar that special sound will be being heard for many more years to come... courtesy of B-3 V!"

Arturia Stage-73 V Tutorial

Published on May 19, 2016

"The Stage-73 gives you actual authentic modeling of both Stage and Suitcase versions of the most popular electric piano on the planet —completed with unparalleled control of virtual mechanics, a complement of effects pedals, and built-in classic amps."

https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/analoglab/overview

Update: And the official press release for the new Farfisa-V:

"Arturia augments Analog Classics collection with faithful Farfisa Compact series software simulation

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: music software and hardware developer Arturia is proud to announce availability of Farfisa V — faithfully modelling the famous Farfisa Compact Deluxe electronic organ with additional features from its Duo Compact series sibling — as of May 19...

Arturia’s award-winning Analog Classics family of virtual instruments recreate hard-to-source synthesizers and classic keyboards. As a worthy addition, Farfisa V virtually puts players of today in the musical driving seat with a still-sought-after sound that drove the hits of several decades: Farfisa’s famous Compact Deluxe electronic organ, one of a series of iconic instruments manufactured in Italy between 1964-1968. A staple of Sixties-produced popular music, they made their musical mark with a wider-ranging sound than that of their main VOX Continental competitor. With more bass waveforms and an expanded percussion and vibrato section sales soared.

Speaking sonically, Farfisa Compacts are almost more top octave synth-like than organ-like, thanks to a rudimentary envelope that allows for attack and decay control that went way beyond the typical organ sound of its day. Little wonder, then, that they proved popular with musicians throughout the Sixties (‘Sam The Sham’ and The Pharaohs, Percy Sledge), Seventies (Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk), Eighties (B-52s, Blondie), and beyond. But unlike heavyweight Hammond tonewheel organs, transportation to performances was trouble-free. For the fortuitous Farfisa form factor included integrated legs that could be folded up and stored within the body of the instrument itself, surely sealing many purchasing deals!

Today, though, finding and maintaining an original Farfisa has become both difficult and costly. Farfisa V solves such problems by bringing all the benefits without any of the hassles to the present-day desktop! Developed using an original hardware organ for reference, it meticulously models the original circuits and sounds of the famous Farfisa Compact Deluxe. Features from its Duo Compact series sibling are also included alongside an authentic combo amp simulation. Standalone instrument operation on Mac OS X and Windows is a given for performance purposes. Plug-in support for all major formats inside any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) with easy MIDI-learn functionality provides hands-on control of many of its parameters and automation support for considerable creative control. Naturally, Native Instruments’ new NKS® (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD) — allowing advanced integration with third-party software instruments — is there for the taking.

As always, recreating an instrument in software provided an opportunity to add a number of more advanced features fit for the 21st Century. Cue the special USER WAVE position, allowing anyone to create an additive waveform. Why not use the ToneDraw feature to create a new waveshape based on the graphical look of the sliders? Having modelled the original built-in spring reverb, Arturia added other reverb IRs (Impulse Responses). Reorder the additional ANALOG DELAY, CHORUS, FLANGER, OVERDRIVE, and PHASER effects. Easily-accessible individual voice tuning, PARA (paraphonic) and POLY (polyphonic) modes, ATTACK and RELEASE envelopes for upper and lower keyboards, BASS WAVE (waveform selector), TONE control for bass section, TREMOLO SYNC, and REPEAT SYNC round out this all-new Analog Classic. Hearing is believing. So is seeing, thanks to the resizable (Retina/4K-compatible) GUI (Graphical User Interface) that’s as easy on the eye as it is to use.

Ultimately, then, whether you’re set on recreating a distinctive and powerful organ sound of the past or forging ahead with a new organ sound of the future, Farfisa V does it all. But best of all... legs no longer play a part in sealing this must-have musical deal!

Richard Lainhart - Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival Lecture & Performance

Slideshow of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF), Friday, May 6, 2:PM PST, 2011 (mentioned in this post). Below is a video of the Buchla and Haken Continuum portion of the lecture followed by a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Oraison written for the ondes Martenot at the 48:00 mark (see this post for the original version and this post for another performance by Richard). You will notice Richard makes references to earlier parts of the lecture. These included his training on the CEMS modular synthesizer system and the ondes Martenot (don't miss this post and this post on the CEMS). See the labels at the bottom of this post for more info on each. I will upload those videos at a later date. They were background to Richard's experience with early modular synthesizers and controllers that eventually lead him to the Buchla and Haken Continuum. It was a great lecture and I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to bookmark this one. I also want to thank Richard Lainhart for doing lectures like these. They are a rare treat.


YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on May 19, 2011

The following is a full transcript. BTW, if anyone is interested in transcription services, let me know.

"RICHARD LAINHART: BUCHLA AND HAKEN CONTINUUM LECTURE

Speaker: Richard Lainhart
Lecture Date: May 6, 2011
Lecture Time: 2:00 p.m. PST
Location: Western Washington University
Event: Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival 2011 (BEAF)
Length: Digital AVI recording; 57 minutes 32 seconds

[Beginning of recorded material]

Richard Lainhart: Okay. What I want to do now is actually talk a little bit about the system itself here and about the design of the system and explain what's actually happening here and why it's designed this way, and again, my focus on, on expression. So this is, as I mentioned, this is the Buchla 200E. This is a current electronic music instrument that is still being made now by Buchla. Don Buchla again was a contemporary, or is a contemporary of Bob Moog, and he took a very different path than Moog did. And one of the reasons I think that Moog's instruments became so popular, of course the Mini Moog was like the first real break-out electronic music synthesizer, was that Moog's instruments had keyboards on them. They had black and white keyboards. And you could use them to play, you could use them to play rock and roll with them basically because you could plug them into a really loud amplifier and it could be louder than a guitar. And it could be a bass, you know, it could be louder than a bass and all that sort of stuff. And of course a lot of, you know, a lot of wonderful music was made with that instrument.

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The Shape Of Things That Hum

Uploaded on Feb 1, 2011 The Soundtrack of Zapresic

"Mini Moog 00:12
Vocoder 09:45
DX7 20:19
Fairlight 30:27
Simmons 40:12
TB-303 50:27

TB-808 1.01.01
Akai Sampler 1.11.20

The Shape of Things That Hum
is a synthesizer documentary series that first aired by Channel 4 in the UK during 2001.

The series focused on electronic instruments that helped shaped modern music, with every episode focusing on a specific instrument. The episodes were broadcast between 01.30am and 01.41am, and featured musicians talking about classic vintage synthesizers, including the DX7 that defined the sound of the 1980s.


Production company Allied Forces
Producer Jacques Peretti
First broadcast 2001
Original channel Channel 4 (UK)
Genre documentary
No. of episodes 8
Length 11 minutes (episode)

Episodes:

Mini Moog (15-01-2001) - Cult electronic instruments that helped to shape modern music.

Vocoder (22-01-2001) - Developed as a scrambling device in World War II, includes interviews with Orbital and Rick Wakeman.

DX7 (29-01-2001) - Synthesizer that defined the sound of the 1980s. Interviews with Vince Clarke and Nick Rhodes.

Fairlight (05-02-2001) - Computer based snthesizer offering sampling, digital recording, sequencing and editing. Includes Nick Rhodes.

Simmons (12-02-2001) - Includes producer Arthur Baker talking about making "Planet Rock".

Roland TB-303 (19-02-2001) - House innovators Coldcut and Orbital discuss the Roland 303 synthesizer.

Roland TB-808 (26-02-2001) - Includes producer Arthur Baker, plus Ray Keith talks about the importance of the bass.

Akai Sampler (05-03-2001) - Instrument that helped fuel the rave scene and the white label explosion"

Old post before Google video was laid to rest:

The Shape Of Things That Hum - Minimoog


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Roland TR-808


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Roland TB-303


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Simmons Drums


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Vocoder


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Fairlight


The Shape Of Things That Hum - Yamaha DX7


The Shape Of Things That Hum - AKAI Sampler


I actually put the AKAI Sampler vid up here.

"Poetry at the core of arts" with a Dedication to Pierre Henry by Marc-Henri Arfeux & the Access Virus

Many of you will be familiar with the Access Virus compositions by Marc-Henri from previous RADIOKLOW posts. Marc-Henri bridges the gap between electronic music and other forms of art. His most recent work is a poem in tribute to Pierre Henry accompanied by the Access Virus. The tribute is hosted on La poésie au cœur des arts : le Blogart which translates to "Poetry at the core of arts". Click through and click on the Access Virus image to get to the piece.

via Marc-Henri:

"This site called 'Poetry at the core of arts' is the net the extension of a book of the same title, an anthology of poetry published by the french publisher : Editions Bruno Doucey. The book contains a poem I wrote about electronic music. The site was conceived to developp an exploration for some of the poets and artists of the book. I am one of them for, poetry , music and painting.

You will find the poem I wrote for the book, three pieces of music composed in january 2014, four poems by other authors of the anthology, three improvisations performed in early february 2014, a former composition called De Haute Vallée you have seen in the form a video in late 2012, an interview in french and some photographs taken at my flat when I was interviewed."

The following is Marc-Henri's poem translated into English:

"Orpheus veil"

Fly down into Orpheus ear,
Where roll clockworks
Of the forbidden stars
And voices shreds seeking vision.

Listen at the well of walls
Echoes of illuminated faces
In their bronze palaces.

Pavings, folds of roses,
The naked heels
Playing the freshness game
With embers
And the childhood kisses.

Travelling back to horizon,
In the limestone of nights,
Is now the prophecy of the spices,
With its tissue gifted with red
And the sobbings of an initiation.

Marc-Henri Arfeux - 2013

----------

Update: the following an English translation of the interview with Marc-Henri Arfeux on "Poetry at the core of arts". It is a fascinating read and reminds me of why I initially got into synths. My first synth was a brand new Oberheim Matrix-6 back in 1986. When I first started exploring the Matrix-6 I had no idea what the parameters did, so I just dived in. For me it was an exploration of sound for the sake of sound and a fascination in creating musical instruments never heard before. The focus was on that exploration rather than the attempt to mimic real world instruments. Much of this spirit is covered in the world of musique concrete and is captured in the interview below. Do not miss the part on the short wave radio. Truly fascinating and an inspiration for sonic exploration.

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An Interview with ERRORINSTRUMENTS' Paul Tas & New Product Announcements

The following is a fascinating look at the man behind ERRORINSTRUMENTS, Paul Tas. Note the questions are not mine, but were sent in with the full interview by inmar lsbtv grtz sleep good.

So how did all start? What was your life before "error instruments"?

- my life before error instruments can be described as a life of an artist in making sculptures and paintings. I was making sculptures from robots, called "the beeb" collection. It is a wooden robot with the concept that in the 50's, we have thought that robots will replace our jobs. However, with the influence of the media, and the medicines we take against emotions, figuratively we can say that we are the robot, and we get programmed by commercials and news. This robot has been a big succes due to the fact that it has been bought by numerous art collectors from different countries such as Japan and the United States. Furthermore, the collections had been sold also at auctions houses Christie's. Later on, I have started to work more in fashion and art and making moveable sculptures with electronics, I made also a traditional Dutch blue sculptures, big horse heads with the intention of giving a controversial thoughts and ideas. Moreover, sculptures about religion, which was a mix between Jesus and the corporate companies in the world with the meaning behind it, that they use the same propaganda to control people's mindset. I was also threatened by religious groups from Germany and Belgium during the time of exposition, not only me, but also the other people in the gallery. This situation has got to a point where i had to go to the court, but in the end I was free to go. Later i have done a project for Damian Hurst and made some installations together with BitMove for the "Love of God" exposition in the "RijksMuseum Amsterdam". As a result, more and more technical and electrical equipments got involved.

When did you have the idea for error instruments and what did the first steps look like?

- First of all, it is important that you know that as a child, i was not able to read, thus it was difficult to go to a normal school, and i have attended a special school, which allowed me to use my creativity, furthermore my writing was always full of mistakes and because in the 80's we used "Commodore 64", and every time i was writing something, a text appeared " Syntax ERROR". Therefore, the kids at my school, gave a nickname to me , called "Error". As a result, i got a fascination about the things that go wrong with machines, such as glitches or accidentally algoritmes and of course the sound of noises. By exploring the art of circuit bending and hardware hacking, i have found out that many people miss this, because the commercial products were created as a mainstream products, with a result for mainstream music. Thus, with the money that i have earned from art, I have started the shop, "ERROR INSTRUMENTS".

Do you have artistic projects beside error instruments?

- Yes, I perform under the name "ERROR EMPIRE", on several festivals. I have also some conceptional sound projects, called "Pink data". The idea of "Pink Data" is that is not controlled by humans, thus all the music is created by accidental algoritmes. I also make sculptures, with acoustic and electronic purposes. Furthermore, I am busy working on the modelar synthesizer and exploring control voltage. design eurorack modules for and special audience

What is the error philosophy?

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NAMM 2019: Arturia MicroFreak & Mutable Instruments Plaits

Published on Jan 24, 2019 sonicstate

Update2:

via Émilie aka pichenettes (Owner, software/hardware engineer, order fulfilment, customer service and janitor Mutable Instruments) on the Mutable Instruments forum:

"Hello peeps!

There is a lot of noise on the internet regarding the Arturia Microfreak.

Let me clarify a couple of things.

First of all, Plaits’ code is open-source, which means that anybody is free to use it, as long as they credit me somewhere (it can be in a product description page, or a footnote in a downloadable manual, or an “about” dialog). This is why you can find Mutable Instruments’ DSP code in the Korg Prologue, the Axoloti, the Organelle, VCV Rack, and plenty of other bits of software or hardware. This is not stealing. Plaits’ code is a summary of everything I’ve learnt about making rich and balanced sound sources controlled by a few parameters, it’s for everyone to enjoy.

Now, regarding the Microfreak.

Arturia had been in the process of developing a hybrid synth for a while, and contacted me about using of Plaits’ code inside. I had no objection to that.

In May, they invited me to their headquarters for a product development meeting where they showed me mockups of the Microfreak. It was fairly clear at this point that it was their product. The feature set, UX, sound engine were all already decided. The product obviously followed Arturia’s graphic language and branding. My expected contribution to the project was none: Arturia’s engineers would do their own thing with my code, the tone character and sound design was their responsibility. It was pointless for me to suggest features and ideas, or spill the beans about ideas I wanted to keep for upcoming Mutable Instruments products, and this awkward event felt more like a focus group.

Arturia offered to mention something like “Oscillator code from Mutable Instruments” in the product description, which is my preferred form of citation. No monetary compensation has ever been discussed – which is fair, because I provided exactly 0 hour of work and 0 original line of code. No contract has been drafted or signed.

Arturia contacted me back last week with a photo of the finished product. I never had the opportunity to playtest it. I have not been asked to approve or veto any promotional material.

As you can see, my involvement was fairly limited.

I don’t feel wronged. It’s their product.

However, I feel uneasy when people got excited, seeing it described as a collaboration between Mutable Instruments and Arturia, because none of the technical and design choices involved in this product originate from me. I have been quite disconcerted by the private messages congratulating me for this release and achievement. I know some people have been waiting for a Mutable Instruments keyboard synth, or at least non-modular product, for a while. Well, this is not it. That’s what I wanted to say to the world. I don’t want people to associate any negative experience they could have with this product with Mutable Instruments. I don’t want people to think that I endorsed or at least authorized some aesthetic decisions regarding this product or the communication surrounding it.

With its focus on local production, open-source, deliberate lack of marketing and advertising, Mutable Instruments is an unusual company. It’s stimulating and fun, but somewhat dangerous too. Turning Arturia into an enemy – those talks of boycotts and those tweets demanding justice – is only adding fuel to the fire and increasing the risks of getting me attacked in ways I don’t expect and I am not protected against.

If you care about me, move on! I need a lot of strength and energy at the moment, and it should all be focused on finishing new products.

So please let Arturia enjoy their release party, it’s hard work to ship a product. Buy their product if you think you’ll have fun and make good music with it, don’t buy otherwise. Buy Mutable Instruments products (or the Softube clones) if you want to fund me, or build your own and give the money to charities.

Love,
Émilie"

Update1: some info on the relationship with Mutable Instruments via reddit (text below):

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New Mutable Instruments Beads Texture Synthesiser Eurorack Module

Playlist:

1. Mutable Instruments Beads - exploration and tutorial by Tom Leclerc
2. Mutable Instruments Beads (no input) by Robin Rimbaud-Scanner

First play with the Mutable Instruments Beads texture synthesiser. And here's a wonderful surprise - if you leave both audio inputs unpatched, then after 10 seconds it begins to granulise a collection of stored raw waveforms taken from Mutable Instruments Plaits wavetable module. So here's a piece using Beads as the lead voice on this cinematic piece, with no other inputs. I added other instruments afterwards for rhythm and bass, and the singular pulse that holds throughout is from the Make Noise Mysteron. This is just an idea to show Beads in a very musical context

3. Heidi Concrète (featuring Mutable Instruments Beads) by Robin Rimbaud-Scanner

An experimental piece using Mutable Instruments Beads, the texture synthesiser, processing an audio file. No addition effects or processing were used. This is simply a live exploration of a single audio file with Beads. The original voice introduces and closes the piece so you can compare the two sonic worlds before and after Beads. The voice is taken from a scanned phone call in the early 1990s that features on my Delivery (1997) album.

4. A Little Beat with Mutable Instruments Beads (Wavetable Mode) by midcentury modular

This is Beads running in the internal wavetable mode (and a kick drum from plaits). I've got a gate going into freeze that acts as a mute when the kick comes in (sort-of side-chain like), and I'm also manually pressing it to mute and sustain the random sequence.

The pitches are not from an external cv source but generated internally with the peaky random distribution into the time knob. The pitch changes with this parameter seem to be somewhat harmonically related (though I'm not sure what specific scale) to the root set by the pitch parameter.

5. Overdriven Ambient Looping with Mutable Instruments Beads by midcentury modular

This video is some improvised choir sounds (from the Ableton Operator synth, played with a midi keyboard) ran into Mutable Instruments Beads in the delay/looper mode (with "sunny tape quality") Throughout, I add to the buffer by tapping out of freeze mode and back in. When the feedback is up, things stick around, so you can progressively add more and build up the buffer. I'm also experimenting with overdriving the input (by turning up the audio level going into beads from ableton with the top left 1U knob)

6. Mutable Instruments Beads (Scorched Cassette Mode) and Ciat-Lonbarde Plumbutter Deerhorn by midcentury modular

This patch is my attempt at using Beads to add some Cocoquantus-like magic to the Deerhorn. I think the downsampling, lower-bitrate and whatever other DSP tricks are happening in the Scorched Cassette mode are crerating a somewhat similar vibe to the 8-bit dolby loopers in the Coco, and I think this adds some really nice fizzy textures to the warm, raw-oscillator tone of the Deerhorn). Beads is also pitching down the two tones from Deerhorn to add a bit more melodic content.

There is some very subtle modulation coming from the orange out on Deerhorn, but it's not really doing a ton and could probably be left out and you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference. There is some audio-rate modulation coming out of one of the white deerhorn outputs into the density input, which is modulating some of the AM stuff going on when density is high towards the end of the track.

No idea why the snapping gesture with the density knob caused the "knock on wood" sound, but I think it was a pretty cool accident!

7. Noisy Experimenting with Mutable Instrument Beads, Blades Ripples and Plaits

This patch (at least as much as I remember it...been a while since I made this) is Beads and Blades in a sort-of feedback loop. Blades is over-driven and self-oscillating, and the outs are sent to control seed and freeze on Beads (which is using the internal wavetable generator as audio input). After trying out various ones, I found these two control inputs on Beads the most interesting with audio rate signals. The outs of Beads are going into the audio inputs of blades. Both modules outs are multed out and into veils which is acting as a stereo mixer. Ripples (which is getting some noise into its cutoff modulation input from Plaits) is providing some audio rate modulation to some of the Veils channels.

"Beads is a reinvention of Mutable Instruments’ Clouds.

The concept is the same, live granular processing of an incoming audio signal, and the labels on the panel remain familiar.

The similarities stop here. The hardware and software have been redesigned from the ground up, with several goals in mind: a crisper and broader sound palette, more control, better playability, and direct access to exciting new features.

DOTTING THE I’S AND CROSSING THE T’S

Beads’ vastly improved specifications allow a higher audio quality, a longer buffer, the use of better interpolation and anti-aliasing algorithms, and key DSP blocks to run at a faster rate. Granular processing can now go to new territories, such as formants, wavetables, hard-sync-like sounds, or crispy noise.

The range of parameters, their response to the turn of a knob or a CV modulation have all been refined, for new possibilities such as reverse playback or percussive envelopes.

CONTROL, CHAOS AND CHARACTER

Control. To trigger or schedule grains, Beads provides new features to divide or randomize an external clock or trigger stream, spray bursts of grains in response to a gate, or get the grain rate to track a V/O CV or the frequency of an external oscillator.

Chaos. Each key parameter of a grain comes with its own attenurandomizer, which allows direct CV control, CV control of the randomization (spread) of this parameter, or internal randomization using some of Marbles’ algorithms.

Character. Beads provides four audio quality settings, which go well beyond buffer sample rate and bit-depth: they affect the clock of the converters, the amplitude limiting and saturation of the signal path, the tone of the reverb, and additional media-emulation effects. From a pristine digital device to a dirty cassette, through a mode reproducing some of Clouds’ characteristics.

MODES?

Beads can operate as a delay without the need to switch to a different mode: just ask it to play a never-ending grain. Its DENSITY, TIME and SEED controls are repurposed to allow various features such as tap-tempo, beat slicing, time-stretching, or comb-filtering at rates tracking V/O.

Without any audio input, Beads will granularize 8 internal banks of wavetables.

All parameters have a dedicated knob."

Mutable Instruments to Ramp Down DIY

via Mutable Instruments

"Please take the time to read this...

After careful considerations, I have decided to progressively ramp down the production of most of Mutable Instruments’ DIY line.

=== The reasons ===
* Some of these products are getting old and/or are not as successful as I thought they would be, and it doesn’t make much sense to keep them in inventory when only a couple units are sold in a month - while their price has been decided at a time they were produced in batches of 100s.
* There’s little overlap in the way Mutable Instruments’ as a maker of modules, and Mutable Instruments’ as a maker of DIY kits operate; to the point that it really feels like I’m running two companies; dealing with two groups of suppliers, two ways of managing accounting or keeping track of stock etc. Some decisions related to growth (small things like formalizing procedures through software, or big things like relocating or hiring…) can’t really be done in a way that would serve both missions. I have reached a size at which a choice must be made, and the ratio of things I like to do / annoyances is higher when it comes to the kit business.
* I no longer agree with some of the design decisions (be they aesthetic or technical) defining these products. It just feels wrong to me to sell products I would not personally buy.
* I’d like to explore a few (non-music and/or non-electronics and/or non-DIY) projects and I badly need to make room in my life for that.

=== The consequences ===
I do not plan to produce new batches of the following products:
* MIDIpal. There are currently 55 units left in stock. I’m keeping a small stash to serve warranty requests. As time passes, I’ll get rid of them (without warranty).
* Shruthi XT kits. There are currently about 50 kits left in stock.
* Anushri (as a kit and as a PCB set). There are currently about 100 kits left in stock. I only have 40 Euro panel sets, so I might do a small run of them to prevent the last kits from being sold naked.
* Shruthi filter boards. I have in stock (or on order for the Polivoks and Yellow magic) about 50 pairs of filter boards. The digital filter board is already out of production.
* Ambika (as a kit and as bare PCBs). I currently have 50 kits being sorted, which will be available as a bundle with Adrian’s case in november or early december. I still have a big stash of PCBs – so this one will take more time to disappear.

I do plan to produce new batches of the following products:
* Shruthi kit. There’s really nothing quite like this little beast. I might narrow it down to one or two flavors (like vanilla = kit+plexi case and vanilla-caramel-choco-chips-cookie-dough = 4PM kit + metal case).
The fate of the following products is unknown:
* CVpal.
* Module tester.

=== And after that? ===
Some of you might want to organize small community-runs of PCBs to keep one of these products alive – just as it has been done for the Sidekick. I’m fine with that, but obviously I won’t provide any support.

Keeping the DIY line alive through a commercial initiative is something that requires more thought. If this happens, and I am currently exploring several paths for this to happen, this has to be done in a way that does not involve the Mutable Instruments name, or only as a sort of quote or tribute."

Richard Lainhart: CEMS, Theremin, and Ondes Martenot Lecture, BEAF 2011

YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on Jun 1, 2011

First three parts of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival on Friday, May 6, 2011, 2PM PST. These cover the CEMS (Coordinated Electronic Music Studio - see the CEMS label below for more), theremin, and ondes Martenot. The audio on these are a little on the low side so remember to turn your speakers back down after listening. You can find a full transcript for each part below in case you can't quite make things out. You can catch Richard Lainhart's lecture on the Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum, followed by a performance, in this previous post.

Transcripts for the above three videos:

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VELOCITY SYNTH MEET Coming to Seattle October 5th

Details here: https://www.velocityseattle.com

Exhibitors

4ms 4mscompany.com

4ms Company offers alternatives to traditional instruments with our poly-rhythmic clock modules that create evolving complex mathematical beat patterns, a resonator that can cast pop music into micro-tonal keys, a multi-channel wavetable oscillator, a routing matrix that's played like an instrument, and many more innovative devices. Rather than replicate concepts from the past, we strive to turn unique ideas into playable musical tools that expand the possibilities of music. We also offer Do-It-Yourself kits, and many of our designs are open-source.

Acid Rain Technology acidraintechnology.com

Acid Rain Technology is a manufacturer of music hardware out of Seattle, WA. We believe hardware instruments enable a unique connection between human and machine, and seek to improve this interaction through interface design for maximum playability.

After Later Audio afterlateraudio.com

After Later Audio is a boutique audio company located in Seattle, Washington. We make high quality Eurorack modules at accessible prices and we pride ourselves on responsive customer service. You can find our products for sale on our website, at various synth shops (Patchwerks, London Modular, Chuck Levin’s, and Modular 8), and on all of the major ecommerce sites.

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Spitfire Audio Mercury — Unearthly Sounds from Hollywood's Secret Weapon

video upload by Spitfire Audio

Spitfire Audio collaboratively creates MERCURY library like no other by harnessing hotshot Hollywood instrument designer Chas Smith’s unearthly sounds for all


“Chas’ instruments have been a crucial part of all of my film scores, and although I’m a little sad that I will no longer have him all to myself, I am thrilled that he has finally succumbed to years of urging on my part and has at long last collaborated with Spitfire Audio.”

- GRAMMY® Award-nominated composer, keyboardist, record producer, and remixer Charlie Clouser (Saw, Wayward Pines, Nine Inch Nails), 2022


LONDON, UK: created in close collaboration with hotshot Hollywood instrument-builder Chas Smith, famed for transforming disused metal into Hollywood’s most menacing, most mysterious instruments for forty years (yet still sought after by blockbuster film composers needing to score the awe-inspiring, the mystical, the mechanical, and the alien), sound- specialising British music technology company Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of MERCURY — harnessing his unearthly sounds for all by sampling 14 of the hotshot Hollywood instrument-builder’s most celebrated acoustic instruments, then fusing, warping, and reinventing them in Solar, Spitfire Audio’s new eDNA-powered synthesiser, to deliver 600+ organic and synthesised textures, tones, and pads perfect for tweaking, twisting, and recombining to unleash the sinister, unshackle the industrial, and unveil the impossible worlds orbiting just beyond reach — as of August 25…

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Interview with Mutable Instrument's Olivier Gillet

The following interview is by Juan Vílchez Gómez for Hispasonic. Juan sent it my way via The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. You can find a Spanish version on Hispasonic here. The following interview is posted here in English with permission from Juan. MATRIXSYNTH gets a mention! Thank you to Juan and Hispasonic!

"Hispasonic: This time we are talking with Olivier Gillet, the man behind Mutable Instruments and creator of the famous synth Shruthi-1. He reveals exciting information about his next projects and throws light upon synth design.

JuanVilchez is the interviewer.

Hispasonic: Well... Taking into account that the key questions about the Shruthi-1 have been already answered in the forums, or in the comprehensive documentation of your webpage, I propose that you could speak us about the future of Mutable Instruments... as it seems that some exciting new machines are in the making right now.

Mutable: The exciting new projects:

Next project (september/october): the MIDIpal, a small, inexpensive, MIDI processing
unit, running algorithmic transformation on the MIDI notes (arpeggiation, harmonization, delays) along with more traditional filter/splitter/monitoring things. Something you'll want to stick between anything with a keyboard and anything with an audio out in your studio :) This is the first project that will be industrially manufactured - though the first batch will be available as a SMT kit.

A revision of the Shruthi-1 hardware for the next batches of kits - in particular I've spent quite some time cutting the part count on the filter board.

A new Shruthi-1 filter board (MS-20 clone).

A variant of the Shruthi-1 digital board that will replace all the digital oscillators by 12-
bits sample playback from a SD card (and will probably do sampling too). This will add a new dimension to the "Shruthi-system" = 3 "controller boards" (Shruthi, Sidekick, Sampler) x 7 "filter boards".

Something that will replace, in the long run, the Shruthi-1 - and in which I'm trying to address most of the shortcomings and design decisions of the Shruthi-1. This is a more ambitious, risky, project as I'm trying to squeeze in a lot of very new features, and design it in such a way that some parts of the project can be interchanged, with both a SMT version for industrial manufacturing and still a through- hole variant for DIYers. While avoiding reinventing too much and keeping it close to the Shruthi sound. Ready in 6 months? 1 year? I don't know.

Least sexy but most important thing: establishing an actual company -- at the moment what I do is registered as a "side-business" and while it is very simple paperwork-wise, it adds many constraints to what I can and cannot do, and exposes me to many risks in case of bankruptcy.

Hispasonic: I think that it could be interesting not only promoting Mutable Instruments but you as well, as I find that you're a really talented guy and that you've the most valuable opinions and tastes. Just saying... I perceive that you're a shy person (am I wrong?), but maybe it could be interesting to know more about "the creator".

Olivier: I wouldn't see the point of promoting myself - I don't sell myself, I sell synths, and they can "speak" or rather "sound" for themselves!
Many interesting synthesizer businesses are small, quite often run by one single person, who has to wear both an engineering and marketing hat. Personally, I try to keep my engineering hat as much as possible because this is what I am good at, and because I quite like the values that goes with engineering. Chips datasheets don't cheat, at least not on the first page... I see too much people overhyping stuff in my daily job to want to do anything like that when I am working on my synth projects.

Hispasonic: In Hispasonic we are really proud of our community of synth enthusiasts. Here is a little "window" that is going to be seen by a lot of people. Taking a look into your resumé, we know that we can confidently trust you in regard to software and electronic musical instruments. So... what do you want to say to them?

Olivier: If there had something I had to say to the synth public is that they should try to keep a critical eye and ear when looking at synths - there are so many misconceptions (that I used to have too, until recently!) about synths. Things like:
- "UIs with LCD displays / pages [as opposed to 'one knob per function'] suck" Most people having used the Shruthi-1 agree that the interface is very easy to understand. The ESQ-1 looks horrible with only one data entry slider but it's surprisingly very fast to program. While some knob-laden VAs are horrible to use because everything not directly in the front panel might be hidden behind half a dozen of keypresses.
- "8-bits => chiptune sounds!"
Just because something uses 8-bit resolution somewhere in the signal chain doesn't make it sound like a Nintendo. It's not all black and white: The Fairlight had 8-bit converters ; the Dark Energy uses a sound chip that found its way in some 80s arcade machines. And plenty of other weird combinations inbetween.
- "Vintage synths got their good sound from the vintage VCF chips"
I was fooled by this too, and this is why I invested time in getting some of those chips and building filters with them. My conclusion is that those chips were very convenient because they concentrated many useful functions in a small area (and thus made reliable, smaller polysynths possible), but there's nothing magical in them - gain cells and linear/exponential voltage->current converters in one small package. I won't bother with those things from the past in new designs, because the magic is outside of the chip.
- "Stuff designed by amateurs will always be one step behind commercial products"
I hang around a few DIY online communities (for example the SDIY mailing list) and I am amazed by the expertise and knowledge of the people here. And then it struck me that to the most talented electrical engineers it would be a weird career move to actually work full-time on synths, because there are many other fun things to do with their skills. Somehow I think the most difficult thing for a trained EE to go into making synths would not be the challenge of the work, but the challenge of only applying a very small fraction of their knowledge of the field.

Hispasonic: There is a growing community of people that decide to take direct control and create their own synths from the electronic parts (DIY). Any advice for them?

Olivier: A last thing, and this takes the form of a question: "what makes a good synth/DIY project?". To me, three things:

Understanding the difference between a "project" and a "product"
It took 2 to 3 months to design something like the Shruthi from A to Z.
At this stage you'll have something awesome that you can put in a box, use yourself, post a video to Matrixsynth and be very proud of. But then it will take maybe 5 or 6 months to turn it into a "product", to sort unsexy things like documentation, sound banks, testing on a variety of setups, parts sourcing and validation, more field testing, feature requests from beta testers, etc.
I had changing opinions about whether oscillators, filters, modulations, etc. were the most important element to define the "sound of the synth". In the end, my view on that is that what makes a synth good is the presence, or not, of a "vision" or "plot" about how it should sound like, and then the effort made to ensure that every module contributes to this vision and goes in the right direction.
This is why I believe "design by committees" efforts like the Tyrell from Amazona are a bad idea - "just making the majority happy" is not the sort of vision to build something upon. At least not in arts.
When the designer of a synth has never taken the time to actually listen to its creation, it shows!

Hispasonic: Thank you very much Olivier for some of your time - we know that you are really busy these days - and for really getting involved in the topics treated. We do know that you are not very enthusiastic about being interviewed or talking about your products, as you completely trust on their sound as their best marketing campaign. We can’t wait to hear and play with your last creations. They will give us plenty to talk about, for sure."

Useful links:
Mutable Instruments
Shruthi-1 on Youtube
Shruthi-1 audio demos on Soundcloud
Contact the interviewer:
me@juanvilchez.com http://www.juanvilchez.com

Peter Kirn's Real World Digital Audio

I finally got around to spending some quality time with Peter Kirn’s Real World Digital Audio, and I must say it's solid. You might recognize his name; Peter runs the Create Digital Music blog. This is a great book for both people new to the subjects covered, and those experienced. Flip through the book, pick a chapter that interests you and dig in, or read it from front to back. As an aside, I find that I spend most of my time behind a monitor. Being able to take some time off and kick back with a paperback filled with all of this information was refreshing. Note this is a long post; I wanted to touch on each chapter so you'd have a good idea on what's covered. Don't miss the QA at the end for why Peter wrote this book and what he hopes people to get out of it.

So, what is the book about and what can you expect from it? Simply put it's a book about audio production and how to set up a home studio in the most practical sense. What's cool about it and what makes it stand out from other tutorials is that it goes into some depth on how things work - the theory behind how and why you apply certain techniques. BTW, it's filled with tips, links to other resources, tutorials and more. It's written and designed to help de-mystify technique and process. The book actually starts with an excellent chapter on sound theory. It is well written, easy to follow, rich in content, and it provides links to more extensive documentation if you want it.

References to more in-depth information are actually one of two recurring themes in the book that I really appreciated. The other is solid examples and walk-throughs that you can do yourself. Peter solidly lays the foundation for each topic and then provides tutorials and links to more when appropriate. Note that the book is standard college book size and roughly 615 pages long. I found that the level of depth for each topic was nearly perfect in most cases. BTW, the book would make an excellent college course and is meant to be a self study and handbook. It has solid and practical content that you can actually use and build a foundation on. If I had a friend who wanted to get into music production, I'd buy her this book, and I'm sure that after reading it she'd probably be teaching me a few things. : )

So, will a lot of the material be redundant to what you already know? Maybe. Everyone has their own level of experience in audio. You will probably find that you have some chapters covered and others not. Some of this will be familiar to you, but think of it as a good way to reinforce your ego. ; ) To be honest I actually did find little nuggets of information that I did not know in areas I considered myself to be well versed, and sometimes these little nuggets are worth more than a whole chapter. I also found that some of the topics that I didn't expect to be interested in at all were completely fascinating to me (Mics for example in Chapter 6 Recording Instruments and Sound).

The following are the chapters in the book.

Chapter 1: Understanding Digital Sound
This was my kind of chapter. Simply put it covers how sound works. The physical waves and characteristics of sound, how we perceive it and how it is handled in digital form. If you want to know more about bit rates, phase cancellation, signal-to-noise, partials, etc, this chapter covers it.

Chapter 2: Choosing Your Tools
This chapter focuses on the basics behind setting up your hardware and software focused on audio workstation recording (instruments and effects are covered in later chapters). Things like inputs and outputs, choosing the right computer, and music and sound production tools are covered.

Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Equipment
This chapter focuses on how to set up your physical studio such as considering ergonomics, sound isolation, speaker placement, connector types, voltage levels, noise and hum, etc.. Some really good bits in this chapter.

Chapter 4: Preparing Your Computer for Audio
This chapter focuses on setting up your virtual studio. It includes tips on installing and setting up audio hardware and software, optimizing your system and getting the latest driver updates.

Chapter 5: Quick Songs with Patterns and Loops
This is a fun interactive chapter where Peter walks you through setting up loops with either GarageBand on Mac or Kinetic on PC (demo versions of both are included in the CD that comes with the book).

Chapter 6: Recording Instruments and Sound
This chapter is broken up between the characteristics of different mics, placement and positioning of mics for different recording techniques, and digital recording in general including setting levels, monitoring and different recording methods. Again, this chapter surprised me in that I thought I would have little interest in mics in general. It was a fascinating read for me being new to the subject

Chapter 7: Processing and Effects
This chapter covers everything you want to know about effects. What's awesome about Peter's book is that he goes into how and why things work. The chapter covers the Basics of Signal Processors, Equalization, Dynamics Processors (compressor, limiter, expander, etc..), Time-Related Effects (delay/echo, reverb), and Specialized Processors (distortion, modulation, pitch correction, etc).

Chapter 8 MIDI: Notes, Rhythms, and Physical Control
This chapter is cool. It covers the basics like connecting your MIDI devices and it covers things like recording and editing your MIDI performances, but it also includes things like the Anatomy of a MIDI Message. Again this is not a technical book on audio so you won't get a in depth MIDI manual here, but what you do get is good solid overview of how MIDI works beyond just hooking up a controller and banding on some notes.

Chapter 9: Synthesis and Software Instruments
Ok, I admit this along with Chapter 4 are my areas of expertise, so... It was awesome! I approve. : ) The chapter starts with an overview of synthesis including different types of synthesis and.... It encourages you to make your synth you! It encourages the reader to program their own sounds. The chapter covers sampling, the building blocks of synthesis including oscillators, envelopes, filters, modulation, etc. Way to go Peter! I love that anyone that might go through this book not being familiar with synthesis, will now have a tutorial like this. Too cool. NOTE: this along with much of the rest of the book could easily have just been a quick "10 step" guide to hooking up your studio. What's awesome about this book is that it presents how to do things with why behind it. It appreciates the theory and reasoning that goes into setting up a good studio.

Chapter 10: Put It Together: Arrange, Mix, and Master
This chapter covers Arranging, Mixing, Mastering and Sharing your work. This chapter is the meat and potatoes section of laying and mixing tracks. Things like arrangement view and timeline, slices and beats, spatialization, dithering and export quality are just a few of the things covered in this chapter.

Chapter 11: Producing Printed Scores
This chapter focuses on notation software. This is the meat and potatoes chapter on writing and editing notation.

Chapter 12: Music and Sound for Video
This chapter covers synchronization (matching sound and image), timing and notation, performing with live musicians, postproduction and more.

Chapter 13: Playing Live
This chapter covers how to play soft synths live, using audio inputs and effects with real time control, live sampling, djing with a computer, and more.

So do I recommend this book at the asking price? Yep. It's worth it. I would take a look at the chapters above and ask yourself if one, could you use it, and two are there topics you would enjoy reading on a lazy afternoon? If the answer is yes to either of these, get it.

This is a great book Peter, congratulations on this acheivement!

1) Why did you write the book?

"I really felt that a general reference on making music with computers,
written in a way that beginners could approach but that was also
thorough and up-to-date, was missing. What the average musician does
with computers has expanded so much. It's not just recording, it's not
just mixing. It's also playing soft synths and designing sounds and
composing and arranging and scoring and so on. I wanted to see a
big-picture book that put practical information on all these topics in
one place, without being overwhelming.

It happened that I talked to Chris Breen at Macworld about this, and
learned Peachpit was looking for just such a book. I didn't originally
intend for me to be the author, to be truthful, but that's how things
often happen.

After you finish a book you hopefully have more perspective on the
process than while you're in the middle of it, or at least that was
the case for me. For me this was a way of condensing a lot of
knowledge out there into a central location, not only my own knowledge
but what I've learned from all sorts of great teachers. I've been
reading a lot of other books lately -- non-music books, as I've been
programming visual work in 3D environments -- and it's great to have
that experience with other people's writing. Even as a web-based
writer, I'm totally dependent on paper, and on the unique ways you can
express information in book form."

2) What do you hope people will gain from the book?

"I really wanted to convey the fundamentals of music production
techniques, beyond the specifics of certain applications. You'll see
plenty of illustrations, but for me what lets you sit down and make
music is feeling comfortable with the language and the interfaces you
see. I certainly love getting a new synth and playing with mysterious
knobs and such, but you also want to be able accomplish what you're
trying to do, to focus on sound and what you imagine, and to deal with
all the technical issues that could otherwise slow you down.

And it's certainly not an endpoint -- hopefully a book gets you
started on topics, and makes you want to read and learn more. I think
I'll have to start a running web bibliography for RWDA, because people
are already asking "where do I go next?" which is fantastic."

3) How do you recommend people read the book?

"This is entirely dependent on where you are, because we worked really
hard on making it compatible with a broad audience.

It should be completely possible to start on page 1 and read to the
end. We talked a lot about how to go from one element to another, to
make it readable. I also tried to design the hands-on examples so that
you could work through chapters -- particularly after the first third
of the book, once you get into more practical stuff -- and try things
out. There's the demo software on the DVD for that purpose, some of
which, happily, you can use indefinitely. (Even the Ableton Live demo
is pretty functional without purchasing it.) That's important, because
if you haven't yet chosen your software tools, you can try this stuff
out and get a taste, and make a more informed decision about which way
you want to go. But if you do have software tools of choice, I tried
to be careful about covering ideas that apply from one program to
another. I often wrote chapters with Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic, Digital
Performer, SONAR, and Live all running, looking from one to another.

So, that's the linear approach. But it's also designed as a reference
book. For people who are more experienced, I expect they're more
likely to use it that way, either to brush up on a topic by picking up
a chapter or just to refer to it occasionally. Something very fun has
happened for me, which is I can now pick it up as a reference."

An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

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Elhardt on Synthesis

Elhardt. Some of you may recognize the name. For those of you that do, it might conjure up a number of reactions, some good some bad. : ) He has been the source of a number of controversies and one grand spectacle in the synth world - the Bahn Sage. The Bahn Sage was probably the biggest synth spoof ever. I remember spending weeks with others trying to find more on this mystery synth. A photo showed up on the net and it quickly spread, followed by more, and finally a brochure that had people whipping out their Photoshop skills to analyze in detail. In the end it was a fake; a brilliant hoax.

Now Elhardt has be showcasing his amazing programming skills by conjuring up some of the most realistic acoustic examples of real life instruments with an Alesis ION, Andromeda A6, and MOTM modular. Is it real or is it another hoax like the Sage? Who knows. I'm inclined to believe these samples are real given the attention to detail with the Bahn Sage, and replications of real world instruments by synthesists such as Wendy Carlos in the past, but you never know, do you. His samples are pretty awe inspiring (check out the links to some of my previous posts below for some examples, specifically the realistic drum set).

Another controversial perspective on synthesis from Elhardt? Knobs are not performance controllers. They are used to edit and create sounds. That's it. If you want to control sounds while playing, use the dedicated performance controllers on the synth like the mod wheels and keyboard. : ) I like to play outside of the box myself. Regardless I am impressed by Elhardt, and I do appreciate his dedication to synthesis.

Recently Elhardt sent an email to AH on his perspective on synthesis. I asked him if it would be ok for me to post it and he said yes. Enjoy. Or not. : )

Elhardt on Synthesis:

"Following are all the reasons I like to do realistic emulations of reality.

1) There is nothing interesting about playing samples. Everbody is doing that. Buy a $200 Casio and it does it. The skill of synthesis is completely missing. An artist paints a landscape, he doesn't just snap a photo of it. Sample libraries make everybody sound the same. If everybody synthesized their own acoustic sounds, everybody would have a different style.

2) Sample libraries are so insanely huge and can't even be fully used in real-time. I'd have to spend weeks sifting through 35 Gig of string samples and articulations and go through days of intense sequencer/midi programming to get them to play in a realistic manner. I'd have to use them from a computer with bug-ridden software. Major sample libraries are never complete, and constant updates suck money from you for the rest of your life. It's all going in the wrong direction.

3) I want instruments that play like physically modeled instruments. I just call up one patch and play it expressively in real-time. Simple. I also want to do instruments I can't buy samples of, or create brandnew instruments never heard before.

4) BTW, I have a lot of sample libraries, and some of the instruments suck, sometimes it's just a few notes that suck, sometimes the attacks are too slow and they can't be played fast, there are mistakes made (like clicking noises in garritans trombones, or a mono sample within stereo samples and so on), there's the repetative nature of hearing the sample recording played everytime the note is played, and so on.

5) Synthesis died in the 80's, before anybody ever pushed it to its limits. That is unsatisfying to me. When I first heard Tomita, I thought he was synthesizing virtually everything. Through the years, I found out he was using real instruments, mellotrons, and other acoustic methods in places. I want to do what he didn't. When I do a CD, I want to say I created all those sounds. As synthesists, aren't we supposed to show those snobby acoustic musicians we don't need them or their sounds?

6) Acoustic sounds are complex and hard to synthesize. It demonstrates extreme skill, knowledge of sound, and totoal control over a synthesizer to accomplish the advanced and difficult programming to acheive some of those sounds. It requires coming up with new techniques and tricks which are challenging and have never been done before. We've been hearing awful string patches, corny brass patches, cheesy drum patches for decades now. I want to push subtractive synthesis to its limits to see what it can really do, even if it were for no other reason than to say, "see", it really can be done.

7) Doing spacey synth pads and sequenced bass lines and that stuff is all nice and good, and I create many patches like those myself. But those things are relatively easy to accomplish. They don't force you into extreme patches of a 100 modules or into using a 42 band filter bank and spending weeks to acheive something nobody else can seem to do. You can't do this stuff on a Minimoog or OB-8. So as Matthew pointed out, it's mostly unexplored terrain. And doing something for the first time is more motivating to me than doing things already done.

BTW, my latest Nord violin I believe sounds better than the Synful one over certain ranges of notes. After I make two more passes through the 42 band filter bank refining it, I think I may have a better sounding violin over the entire range. Though it still won't play as smoothy. I'm also back to working on my additive string synth for the winter. The one I started working on before Synful hit the market and took some of the wind out of my sail."

Some previous posts on Elhardt:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/08/bahn-sage.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/12/alesis-ion-ralistic-drum-kit.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-ion-demos-by-kenneth-elhardt.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-and-motm-demos-by.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-samples-by-kenneth.html

Dave Smith Awarded Grammy for Technical Achievement Press Release

And the official press release (video link below):

"Dave Smith Awarded Grammy for Technical Achievement

Instrument Designer Recognized for Role in Creation of MIDI

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—February 11, 2013—Musical instrument designer Dave Smith was honored with a Grammy® award this past Saturday for his work developing the Musical Instrument Digital Interface or MIDI, as it is more commonly known. The ceremony, held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, also celebrated the work of Glenn Gould, Carole King, and the Temptations, among others. Smith shares the award with Ikutaro Kakehashi, founder of Roland Corporation, the Japanese musical instrument manufacturer.

In 1982, Smith and Kakehashi formed a technical alliance to develop a means by which musical instruments and then-new personal computers could communicate with each other. They developed an inexpensive hardware interface and a simple protocol so that the technology could easily be integrated into new products. MIDI made its public debut at a trade show in January 1983 when instruments from Sequential Circuits--Smith’s company at the time--and Roland were connected for the first time and used to control each other.

MIDI was adopted by all major manufacturers of electronic instruments and proved especially valuable to performing musicians. It also kickstarted the home studio revolution by enabling musicians and composers to make multitrack recordings at home at a time when multitrack audio recorders were too costly for most artists.

One of the more remarkable things about MIDI is that the interface and protocol are virtually unchanged thirty years later and that--with its widespread inclusion in musical instruments, computers, and cell phones--it is more commonly used today than ever before. 'I can connect one of my latest instruments with a Commodore 64 or one of the instruments from the ‘80s with an iPad and it just works,' said Smith. 'How many other computer protocols can you say that about?'

Smith has been designing instruments for thirty-five years and they have been played by a diverse range of musicians, from Pink Floyd to Herbie Hancock, from Alicia Keys to Philip Glass, and from Oscar Peterson to Trent Reznor. Smith continues to design synthesizers and drum machines for his current company, Dave Smith Instruments. Founded in 2002, the company is headquartered in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. The instruments are also manufactured in San Francisco and sold worldwide.

Video of the award presentation is available at tinyurl.com/aqfcwfd.

About Dave Smith InstrumentsLaunched in 2002, Dave Smith Instruments is helmed by legendary musical instrument designer and Grammy® award winner Dave Smith. Dave’s many accomplishments include the creation of the Prophet-5—the world’s first fully programmable polyphonic synthesizer—and his legacy as the primary driving force behind MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).

Dave Smith Instruments’ products are used by an ever-increasing roster of well-known musicians and are available from music retailers worldwide. Instruments include the versatile analog/digital hybrid Evolver synthesizers, the Prophet ‘08 and Prophet 12, and the Tempest analog drum machine. Dave Smith Instruments is based in San Francisco, where the instruments are also manufactured. For more information, visit www.davesmithinstruments.com."

Congrats Dave!

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Dave Smith and Ikutaro Kakehashi To Receive Technical GRAMMY Today
Dave Smith & Ikutaro Kakehashi to Receive 2013 Technical GRAMMY for MIDI