Airbase - Behind My Back Ableton Tutorial

Another amazing tutorial released by Jezper Söderlund, mostly known as the DJ and trance music producer Airbase. Tutorial is called "Behind my back!" - you can see there a whole arrangement of Airbase's latest track - "Back". Channel by channel, you can see every single effect - all this in High Quality. If you use Ableton - it's a must video.

I've decided to show my productional flaws by letting you in on the whole arrangement and the parts of my new single Airbase - Back.

More info: www.airbasemusic.com
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Nice tutorials / articles

Here are some articles, tutorials I find useful :) :
- Save your laptop (djtechtools.com) - many things can go wrong with your laptop when DJing and if you're doing this long enough then almost all of them will happen :)

- How to make a massive lead synth sound (musicradar.com) - step by step tutorial about programming your own massive, screaming sound in Lennar Digital Sylenth1 (but any decent analogue synth plug-in will do).

- How to make a Beyoncé Single Ladies-style beat (musicradar.com) - creating Beyonce's - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) beat.

- How to make a Prodigy Breathe-style bassline (musicradar.com) - another step-by-step synth programming tutorial. This time it's Future Audio Workshop Circle virtual instrument and the goal is to create Prodigy - Breath bassline.


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Some explanation

About three months ago I started Vst Cafe. Since that moment, time has been running very fast hehe. The site has grown up a little bit and last few days really changed a lot :) I would like to state that despite my new, plugin development hmm tasks :), Vst Cafe profile remains the same - praising good, selected and free (and very cheap) vst plugins and of course nice articles, presets, tutorials. One exception is Elektrostudio plugins - I will public it here but I won't praise stuff I'm related with. It's up to you ;)

Ahh, also I would like to assure you that still I'm looking for some articles, tutorials, videos etc. Maybe last few days wasn't the best one for these materials and unfortunately current week won't be the best too but I from next week it'll start over again - more articles, more videos, presets :)

Also, don't forget that you can send me some infos (via email - greeg@inbox.com, or even comments) about some good, in your opinion, articles, tutorials, plugins. It can be even a single link. I can't promise that I'll public everything because that's the point of this blog - finding good stuff but I'm sure that some of you have great music production resources :)
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Orgue de Salon NI Kontakt / SF2 Samples

Another soundbank from Soni Musicae - a small house organ with 250 pipes, 5 real stops on two manuals (plus a coupled keyboard), built in 1988. The keyboard of a pipe organ is not touch sensitive (dynamic), and sounds at the same level however you press the keys, but it is not known how to obtain this with the soundfont format... To avoid dynamic differencies and respect the original instrument, you can adjust velocity in your sequencer in a way that the volume is constantly the highest... In Kontakt format, all works fine.

At first, we did not want to distribute it, because this is not an extraordinary organ, and it was impossible to avoid a big noise of organ-blower during the recording : as it is a house organ, it stood in a flat, and the microphones could not stand far from it. But, finally, after some numerical treatments, we think that the result is not so bad, and we give it to you as close as possible to the real thing, without changing many of its defaults...

Soundbank is available both in NI Kontakt 2 format and SF2 (SoundFont) format. The sf2 version is compressed with sfark. You can freely download it from http://www.melodymachine.com



Download: Soni Musicae - Orgue de Salon
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Elektrostudio Analog Pack Announcement

I'm proud to announce that I'm the new owner of Elektrostudio Analog Pack which includes 10 Virtual Synthesizers: Micromoon, Davosynth, esLine String Machine, Moon Sono SX, Ocet Rhytm Synth, ODsay, Or2V, Rhytmus Machine, Sixth Month June, Tapeotronic. You can find more info about the Pack here.

The version available few days ago is a test version that leaked somehow. Well, it would be released as freeware anyway but the previous owner and an author of these synths - Robert, wanted to do some further testing etc. Currently there's no download version available.

What does it mean "test version" ? Well, it's simply - use at your own risk. There's one pretty critical bug which produces random "loudness noise" on some certain configuration. My current goal is to track this bug and fix it. I don't know yet if it's host related or audio interface or overall combination of Processor, Operating System, Audio Interface etc. There are reports that the bug occurs on Cubase 4.5.1 and Tracktion2 hosts. On the other hand: Ableton 7, Albeton 8, Cubase 5.0.1, Reaper, Cantabile Lite, FL Studio 8 seem to work fine.

So - if you have this leaked version (it's perfectly legal to use it), and you're running it for the first time on your computer then make sure to set your speakers level to low. Then just do typical development process in your host. Add some tracks, plugins here and there, add Elektrostudio plugin you want to check and have fun. If it'll work for about, let's say 30 minutes, without producing some loudness noise bug then you can assume it's working on your configuration.

I would also like to thank Robert for giving me this opportunity. It's not a secret that he doesnt have enough time for further development of his plugins, for support. As a result he was forced to find some new guy that will handle this all stuff :) I am this "new guy" and I'm very excited about these plugins. All credit goes to Robert - I just need to do some bugfixes (at least the most critical ones) and then the download link will be available again (probably with some extras :) ).
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The Blanchet 1720 NI Kontakt / SF2 Samples

It's time for a new SF2 / Kontakt 2 samples straight from my favourite, I guess, site - Soni Musicae.
This time, it's Harpsichord copied after a 18th century french instrument by Blanchet. It has one manual, two 8' stops, plus a lute stop. Soundbank is available both in NI Kontakt 2 format and SF2 (SoundFont) format.
As previously, The sf2 version is compressed with sfark. You can freely download it from here or http://www.melodymachine.com



Download: Soni Musicae - The Blanchet 1720
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Synthesizer Boot Camp - Envelopes Video

It's time for third, and actually the last one (currently available) video from Synthesizer Boot Camp series. The title "Envelopes: Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release" says it all - it's all about envelopes. As always, professional job by Simon Cann from www.noisesculpture.com


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Diatonic accordion Kontakt2 / SF2 Samples

Another great (multi)samples from French website - Soni Musicae. This time it's sound bank of a small diatonic accordion, with 21 keys on two rows at the right hand, and 8 basses at the left, and a second stop that sounds lower. A diatonic accordion does not produce the same notes when you push or pull the bellows, and this makes this instrument not so easy to play... More, it has not all the semi-tones of its 3 octaves (from D2 to E5). With this sound bank, you can forget those drawbacks, because Soni Musicae has "interpolated" the missing notes, and all the notes are played in a same manner on a keyboard...

This soundbank is available both in Native Instruments Kontakt 2 format and SF2 (SoundFont) format. As previously, The sf2 version is compressed with sfark. You can freely download it from here or http://www.melodymachine.com



Download: Soni Musicae - Diatonic accordion
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Future Music - In the studio with Hybrid

Time for another Future Music "In the studio with..." videos via video.google.com :) This time we'll check Hybrid. If you really like the whole concept of "In the studio" series, you can subscribe Future Music Magazine and watch videos (every issue has one new video) in High Quality.

In the studio with Hybrid (41 minutes)


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Harpsichord Soundfont / Kontakt2 samples

French website - Soni Musicae is great source of quality but free soundFont files. You may freely use them, even in your commercial recordings, but you're not allowed to modify them (private only) or distribute. First one - "The Small Italian" is a Harpsichord sound copied after an anonymous 17th century italian instrument. It has one manual, two 8' stops, plus a lute stop. It is suitable to play Renaissance and 17th century music.

This soundbank is available in Native Instruments Kontakt 2 format, in its full version, and in SF2 (SoundFont) format, but without release samples.

Ahh, almost forgot. SoundFont file is compressed with lossless audio compression format optimized for SoundFonts called sfArk. You can freely download it from here or http://www.melodymachine.com. The compression is really impressive. For example The Small Italian soundfont compressed (sfark) has 73 mb size while uncompressed (SF2 file) has 235 mb. This only proves that Soni Musicae soundfonts are very nice :)

How to use soundfont files ? You can find this info in previous "SF2" tagged posts.



Download: Soni Musicae - The Small Italian
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Synthesizer Boot Camp - using filters video

Using Filters to Shape Your Sound is a second video from Synthesizer Boot Camp video series created by Simon Cann. This time it's all about filters.



More info: www.noisesculpture.com
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Synthesizer Boot Camp - Modulation Video

Synthesizer Boot Camp is a series of videos, created by Simon Cann from noisesculpture.com, which looks at specific synthesizer techniques that can be applied in creating sounds. The series is focused more on how to use your tools and less on how to create specific sounds. Each video looks at specific areas of synthesizer functionality - the first one called: "Modulation - Putting the Pieces Together" is all about ... modulation :)

Really great, professional work.


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Elektrostudio Analog Pack VSTi

This is truly amazing. A virtually unknown developer(s) from Poland (aye :D), called Elektrostudio has released stunning, ten (!) VSTi Analog Synths Pack. Every synth sounds great - clean, bright, fat, whatever you want :)







The pack contains:
- Micromoon - beautiful, wicked analog beast with one of the fattest sound you've ever heard :) Based on Micromoog
- Davosynth - recreation of Davoli Synth
- esLine String Machine - great, easy to use, String machine. Based on ARP Solina.
- Moon Sono SX - Moog Sonix Six
- Ocet Rhytm Synth
- ODsay - ARP Odissey
- Or2V - Oberheim 2 voice
- Rhytmus Machine
- Sixth Month June :) - Roland Juno 6
- Tapeotronic - Mellotron

These plugins not only sound great but also look nice :) Click the thumbnail for bigger image. The download file is exe file but don't worry, it's free from any viruses etc. (multiple antivir software check). Well, I'm just stunned. At least few of these plugins instantly landed on top of my favourite, free (yes, the pack is freely distributed) synths list.

Freeware doesn't mean crap in this case. This pack was supposed to be commercial, it was developed for over four (!) years but due to many reasons (let's say that in Poland it's not an easiest task to start your own business), it's released as freeware. So grab this pack because it simply contains one of the best freeware instruments that can match commercial ones.

Update: Analog Pack VSTi can produce some big loudness noise for some specific configurations. So, If you use any plugin from this pack for the first time, make sure to set your speakers volume to low, and test plugins for few minutes. Currently it seems to be a problem with Tracktion2 (one person reported bug) host and Cubase 4.5.1 (2 persons reported bug) but it's not 100% proven that this loudness bug is related with host. Other hosts such as Cubase 5.0, Ableton 7-8, FL Studio 8, Reaper seem to work fine with Elektrostudio Analog Pack.

Download: Update2: due to some bugs (although, I didn't experience any), I contacted with an author and we decided to temporary remove the link. Sorry folks but this one loudness bug seemed pretty critical.

More info: http://elektrostudio.ovh.org/
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Intimate Guitar Dreadnought for one day - 10 $

Lyrical Distortion has released Intimate Guitar Dreadnought, a dreadnought acoustic guitar, recorded dry via AKG condenser mic, Great River ME-1NV, Apogee Rosetta and programmed in Kontakt 2.2 to be easily played from any MIDI controller or sequencer.

The library contains over 1300 24bit/44.1 kHz samples with total size 1 gb. It features four variations including: Finger Pick, Fingernail Down Pick, Hammer on, Pull off, Slide up, Slide down, Finger noise release, Assorted fx

Only today (15 May) it costs just 10 $. After May 15, 2009 it will no longer be available individually.



More info: www.lyricaldistortion.com

ps. During last few days, VstCafe had constant problem with hosting - as a result some downloads didn't work properly. I hope that it's all behind us :)
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Subtractive Synthesis Video

Simon Cann from www.noisesculpture.com, an author of great "How to make a noise" ebook, has created new video about subtractive synthesis - "Get a Grip on Synthesis". It's actually an introduction to subtractive synthesis for people who may have no musical knowledge and may know nothing about synthesizers, but who want an introduction to the subject. Really great, professional work.



More info: ww.noisesculpture.com
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Greeg TAL Elek7ro Progressive Soundset

Great, freeware synth - TAL Elek7ro inspired my to create another soundbank. This time it's 38 patches - 24 progressive leads and 13 bass sounds. Greeg Tal Elek7ro Progressive Soundset is suited mostly for all kind of club music which means - progressive house, trance, elektro etc. I was focused mainly on creating some raw, powerful sounds because that's the nature of Elek7ro synth :) If you like my free presets and want to encourage me to do more - give me some feedback. Any kind of feedback is appreciated. If you have some requests about future sound banks - post comments :)

As usually, here's the mp3 preview. I used ping-pong delay to make smoother transitions between presets and that's it. No Compression, No EQing, just pure TAL Elek7ro sound. Don't forget that I'm rather poor musician - I'm sure you can get better results with these presets :)



Download: Greeg TAL Elek7ro Progressive Soundset

ps. There's small, orange button named "Donate" ;) - by using it, you'll help me to keep this website alive.
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Future Music - In the studio with Stonebridge

It's time for another Future Music "In the studio with..." videos via video.google.com :) This time we'll learn some tricks from Stonebridge.

How to start a Remix (10 minutes)




How to get your groove right (20 minutes)



Editing loops (11 minutes)



Bass EQ and Compression (12 minutes)



Vocal tricks (36 minutes)



The quality is not the best so it's a nice idea to just subscribe Future Music Mag. Each issue has one, new "In the studio with..." video available (mp4 high quality).

More info: www.futuremusic.co.uk

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Cosmo D's Soundbank 2.0 - free Samples

Cosmo D has finally released his new Soundbank to the world. Cosmo D's Cello Soundbank Vol. 2 for Kontakt provides a musical solo cello library for composers, producers and beat-makers. The various sonic nuances of solo cello are explored to their fullest in Vol. 2, providing 5 gigabytes worth of long tones, pizzicatos, experimental sounds and loops for anyone actively interested in bringing a singular and unique cello sound into their production arsenal, for a reasonable price.

No other library on the market has explored the solo instrument with this much depth and breadth. It's been made and programmed entirely by Cosmo D, an artist currently active in the New York music scene who continuously unifies his skills on the cello with his electronic music experience.

As a celebratory gift, Cosmo D offers a small chunk of his library free for download. This file contains Kontakt 3 patches and 100 Cello loops. Overall the file size is 330 MB (unzipped). The first Kontakt patch is for straight long-tone cello with release samples and multiple velocity layers. The other is for standard pizzicato.



More info: soundbank.cosmod.net

Download: Free Partial Cosmo D Soundbank
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Free Sample Pack - Casio SA-10

Bedroom producers has released free sample pack which contains drum samples, loops and soundFont file with 12 instruments from Casio SA-10 synth. These samples are cheap, dirty, and noisy, and they are meant to be so :) You may use them just for fun if you want, but some of them can be very useful in music production, especially in the situations where you might find yourself in need of some lo-fi pianos and such. Instead of adding bitcrushing effects to some high quality samples, you might want to use some of these ready and authentically lo-fi samples.



Download: Casio SA-10 free Sample Pack
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Making Calvin Harris - I'm Not Alone in Ableton 7

New great tutorial created by Timofey has just arrived :) This time it's making Calvin Harris - I'm not Alone tune, with Ableton Live 7. As always, you can download the whole Ableton Live 7 Project from Timofey.be website, so you can see how everything was created.



Download: Timofey.be - download section
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LDi Lead for one day - just 10 $

LDi Lead sample library is derived from Lyrical Distortion's current flagship library - Lyrical Direct. LDi Lead, a 1994 PRS Custom22 electric guitar, was recorded direct via Countryman Type 85 Active Direct Box, Great River ME-1NV, Apogee Rosetta and programmed in Kontakt 2.2.4 to be easily played through an amp or amp simulator.



Only today (8 May) it costs just 10 $. After May 8, 2009 it will no longer be available individually!

The library contains 24bit/44.1 samples 1.14gb - over 2200 samples features four variations including:
- Picked dn/up (4 each)
- Palm Picked dn/up (4 each)
- Hammer Ons
- Pull Offs
- Palm Hammer Ons
- Palm Pull Offs
- Vibrato
- Heavy Vibrato
- Pinch Harmonic
- Pinch Harmonic Vibrato
- Palm Staccatos
- Assorted FX
- Finger Noise Release



More info: www.lyricaldistortion.com
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Remixing a Tune - Ableton Project

There are still people who put quality stuff for free :) For example Tom Cosm. His latest project is remixed tune called Pitch Black - Sonic Colonic (Tom Cosm Remix).

There's one special thing about this remix. Tom has recorded the entire production process from start to finish, and will release 6 hours of video footage to show people exactly how he did everything. The first two hours are available now to everyone, and the rest is ready to download for Pro Members ($10 a month for everything Tom has ever done in High Quality). But that's not all. Tom will be releasing one hour video per week to the public until it's finished.

It's still not over ;) You can download the entire Ableton project file, so you can have a look at how everything was made. All samples are included, only native Ableton instruments and effects were used, so all you need is just Ableton (or Ableton Demo). The project has about half gig !!!

It's really gorgeous stuff. While you can get this all for free, it's worth to buy Pro Member account.

Pitch Black - Sonic Colonic (Tom Cosm Remix) sample mp3



Download: Pitch Black - Sonic Colonic (Tom Cosm Remix) - Ableton Project

Download: Tom Cosm Pitch Black Remix Production Video Part 1

Download: Tom Cosm Pitch Black Remix Production Video Part 2

More info: www.cosm.co.nz
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Ableton Live 8 Tutorials

Jezper Söderlund, mostly known as the DJ and trance music producer Airbase has released two new tutorials. Both use latest version of Ableton - Ableton Live 8.

009: Warping tracks and vocals in Live 8

The new version of Live 8 offers a new method of warping that confuses some. So let's take a look at it. And while we're at it, let's warp some vocals!

010: Global Groove Control in Live 8

Where did the global shuffle/swing setting go in Live 8? I wondered that myself in the beginning. With the new Groove Pool, the whole groove thing has changed. Here's how you get your global groove under control.

Don't forget to check www.airbasemusic.com
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Andreas Ersson LazySnake Electric Piano VSTi

Some of you may recognize Andreas Ersson thanks to his very good PolyIblit subtractive synth. But there's also another very good plug-in called LazySnake. It's a Virtual Electric Piano plug-in with up to 16 voices polyphony. It sounds smooth, electric and it seems perfect for electronic, ambient chords, textures. It offers Tremolo (mono, stereo), Wah Wah (with cutoff & resonance) effects - both can be synced with host. The GUI is very clean and simple. LazySnake is extremely CPU friendly and very stable. For extra effects, add some guitar amplifier plugin.



Download: Andreas Ersson LazySnake Electric Piano
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AuraPlug Freetortion Series

Auraplug Freetortion series contains four different VST effects. Red Skull Distortion - an aggressive high-gain distortion pedal simulator with unbelievably chunky metal tones for playing Nu Metal, Grind Core, Hard Core, Trash Metal or any genre that requires crushing sound. The tone section gives you complete control over Bass, Midrange, and Treble to get the ultimate chunk for your virtual rig.
Fuzz-Stone Distortion - a '60's styled guitar fuzz tone pedal which simulates the Legendary Stones' Satisfaction guitar tone.
Fuzz-Stone[Ge] Distortion a Fuzz style Germanium transistor distortion simulator.
Last but not least - Whamdrive Distortion/Pitch Shifter can shift the pitch of an incoming audio signal. It allows you to pitch an incoming audio stream in realtime with an external MIDI foot controller or with the GUI controls. Whamdrive features 14 different pitch modes. The harmony note and the input signal are mixed together as if two guitars were playing simultaneously in the first nine modes. Whamdrive works like a classic pitch shifter in the last five modes. The effect also includes a distortion unit with cabinet simulation. It has a special equalization method (uses only one knob) which gives you wider, stronger EQ control.

Whamdrive preview



Fuzz-Stone[Ge] preview



Download: www.auraplug.com
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Future Music - In the Studio with D Ramirez

Once again, another video from video.google.com - Future Music "In the studio with... D Ramirez".






Setting Up and Choosing Sounds



Adding Extra Drums


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Synth1 GoldBank

There are still some undiscovered Synth1 soundbanks available :) bWWd0's GoldBank contains 128 presets covering very wide range of sounds - some pretty famous actually. There are pads, basses, leads, just everything you need. Just listen to the demo.





Download: Synth1 GoldBank by bWWd0
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Ntonyx 32mb GM Soundfont

SoundFont 32Mb GM Stereo Set, freely distributed by NTONYX SoundFonts is a result of the research of Ntonyx experts and sound-engineers, aimed to achieve pro quality sound when playing back a standard GM file. Using this Set will save your time - you won't have to search separate high-quality voices any more - all of them are assembled in just one set. Whether you produce Pop, Rock, Dance or Techno, New Age, Funk, Jazz or Classical music, you can now easily find realistic and deep sounding instruments for your compositions.

Well, it sounds very nice and clean - definitely one of must have soundfont files.

How to load SF2 files ? You need a sampler that supports SF2 files - for example free Vember Audio Shortcircuit 1 can handle SF2 files pretty nice.

Or better, you can also download Soundfont player VST plugins such as:
- SFZ Sample Player - great but has problems with multicore processors.
- Bismark BS-0
- FrettedSynth SafFron

Don't forget that there are VST Instruments with oscillators capable of loading Soundfont (SF2) files too ! (for example DiscoDSP Discovery and as far as I remember most stuff from H.G. Fortune)



More info: www.ntonyx.com
Download: Ntonyx 32mb GM Soundfont
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Synth1 Club Nation Sound Bank

It's time for another Synth1 sound bank. This time, it's brand new Synth1 Club Nation Sound Bank created by Uberbeats. It contains 128 high quality presets.

High quality presets right here, everything from industrial to hip hop, drum n bass, trance, and generally all sorts of Club Musc. No crappy little beeps and boops here, only professional quality presets, Free from me, Have fun with it

Download: Synth1 Club Nation Sound Bank
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Smart Electronix Augur

Vector Synthesis is a type of audio synthesis introduced by Sequential Circuits in the Prophet VS synthesizer during 1986. The concept was subsequently used by Yamaha in the SY22/TG33 and similar instruments and by Korg in the Wavestation. Vector Synthesis allows users to dynamically four distinct waveforms with a joystick and as a result it can break free of the relatively static waveforms of both analogue and sample based instruments. By crossfading between different waves over time, we can achieve tones that range from slowly shifting atmospheres to harsh, industrial tones.

Smart Electronix Augur is free, Prophet VS Synth recreation. It has everything you need to explore vector synthesis (well, shame that there's no manual included).



Download: Smart Elecronix Augur
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Ddmf Stereooerets

The Ddmf StereooeretS audio effect is a two-band stereo width processor which allows you to shape the stereo image of instrument or whole mix in a very flexible way. Stereooerets splits the audio signal into high and low frequency part and let's you adjust width, gain and pan of both bands independently. Plugin should be used on stereo track only, as it will have no effect on mono track.

Stereooerets is available both for Windows and Mac platform. Like all Ddmf effects, it is very CPU efficent and can be bought at any price you like! Ahh, almost forgot - it's worth noting that you can scale the size of the plugin. Thanks to such feature, Stereooerets looks good both on low and high screen resolutions.

Update: DDMF plugins are no longer priced using "Pay as much as you want" model. Instead - Stereoorets now costs 15 $

More info: http://ddmf.eu
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Sound Design with Tone2 Gladiator : HCM Synthesis Explained

Mark Mosher, an electronic musician, explains step by step, via his Modulate This! blog, a Harmonic Content Morphing (HCM) Synthesis used in great, commercial synth - Tone2 Gladiator2. Very good video.

I started using Tone 2 Gladiator 1 a year ago and recently upgraded to Gladiator 2. Gladiator 1 & 2 are based on a new type of synthesis called Harmonic Content Morphing (HCM). HCM offers a clever way to generate wavetables with a massive variety of harmonic content that can be modified over time. Tone2’s approach with HCM is quite unique so I put together this video which offers a step-by-step explanation of what HCM synthesis is and how to use it. These techniques apply to both Gladiator 1 & 2.

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I bought Minimoog ;)

Need a pillow ? :) Pul(sew)idth shop on etsy.com (buying and selling handmade stuff) has gorgeous collection of ... pillows based on real synths such as Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, Roland SH-101, Roland Juno-106, Casio VL-1 and Farfisa SuperBravo. Each pillow costs 75 $ + shipping (15 $ International).
Hehe, I love that Minimoog one...

Thank you for looking at my little felt instruments.

I have put much time and love into these little things and tried to make them as close i could to the real versions. I hope you like them as much as i do.

If there is a special keyboard or guitar, pedal or amp (etc) that you would like to have a little felt version of, please email me with your request with some pictures and i can do my very best to make it tiny, cute, and felty.

More info: Pulsewidth.etsy.com
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Novation V-Station Synth

Novation V-Station is a VST Instrument with the same real 3-oscillator flexibility as the award winning, hardware K-Station, with awesome liquid analog filters, 8-voice polyphony, FM Synthesis, FX and the kind of phatt sounds similar to all Novation synths. Amazingly, after 6 years it's still the truth :) Getting the best from the new V-Station is easy. All the primary sound-shaping controls are there on the main screen - clear, concise and refreshingly simple. Recall a named factory preset, tweak it to get 'your sound' and instantly save it in any of the 400 program locations. Need more? Just click and you'll find additional functions and controls on the other three screens.

Novation V-Station is written very well, code is highly optimized . With current computers, you can run a lot of instances and you won't kill your CPU. Also, all users of Novation Automap controllers should be very happy. V-Station fits there very well, mainly because of the natural values that each knob has. For example that values for Oscillator waves are: Sine, Square, Saw, Triangle... not like in most plugins just 1, 2, 3, 4 (or even 1.345, 2.534, 3.654 - some SynthEdit made plugins). Well, if you don't use Novation Controllers it won't matter, but if do (for example I use Remote Zero SL with nice leds), you'll really benefit from such natural values.

Novation states that you can load sysex preset files from Novation K-Station and A-Station but to be honest there are some problems. For example, Oscillators are always set to sine wave. Another thing is just 8-voice polyphone. While it's enough for Leads, Basses, FXs, Arps, it can be not enough for Pads. But still you can ie. sample your pad and then you'll have more polyphony. Don't forget that this synth was released at the beginning of 2003. Six years ago, 8-voice polyphony was enough.

I know that there are many dealers selling V-Station. But the problem is that in some countries prices hasn't changed for years (and remember that at the beginning, the V-Station price was set to 150 pounds !). But thanks to ebay, you can find some better deals :). For example, I bought V-Station (for a friend) from Inta Audio (registered UK company) just for 25 pounds (+ shipping). With RoyalMail, it took about hmm 5 days to deliver it to Poland. But remember, it's an Ebay - use your brain to calculate risk :)

It's worth noting that after six years there are tons of presets - free (the second example) and commercials too (first example created by vengeance-sound quite a loong time ago ;) - it's 128 kBit mp3 quality so not the best one).

Some would laugh :) but Novation V-Station reminds me ... LennarDigital Sylenth (or vice versa :) ). Why ? There's the same simplicity, GUI is not overcrowded. Some would even call those synths simple, especially compared to for example U-he Zebra2. But there's one thing - amazing sound quality. Yes, still after 6 years, V-Station has an amazing sound quality. When I bought Novation Remote Zero SL controller (5 months ago) and mapped all V-Station knobs I had a feeling like I use a hardware synth.

More info: www.novationmusic.com

PRICE: 25 pounds + shipping (via Ebay or via www.dv247.com)
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Synth1 Presets MegaPack Vol.3

Synth 1 MegaPack Vol.3 contains 6 soundbanks, which means about 572 presets. You'll find there wide range of sounds - leads, basses, pads and more.
As earlier, there are some pretty old presets as well as newer. All credit goes to the authors - readme files are included in zip file.

Synth1 soudbanks are easily managable (each preset is one *.sy1 file) so my advice is to check every preset and then create your own, custom bank with selected, best (best = nice sound, fit you style, music genre etc.) presets. I know, it's boring job but at the end it's better to have ie. 300 presets you like than navigate through 10-20 soundbanks.

Download: Synth1 Presets MegaPack Vol.3
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