SonicCouture Omnichord for the Japanese Tsunami Appeal

SonicCouture has released NI Kontakt (not Player version) / EXS compatible library called "Omnichord".

An Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument, introduced in 1981 and manufactured by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate, and buttons for major, minor, and diminished chords. The most basic method of playing the instrument is to press the chord buttons and swipe the touch plate with a finger or guitar pick in imitation of strumming a stringed instrument. (SonicCouture)

SonicCouture Omnichord costs 5 EUR (US dollars / UK Pounds), it's available until 31st April 2011, and 100% of all payments will be donated to the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami appeal.

Audio demo: (credit goes to official website)


More info: SonicCouture Omnichord
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Popular Leads Soundbank for Toxic Biohazard released

It took me a while (half year ? :) ) but finally my another soundbank is ready :).
Popular Leads Soundbank (created for Image-Line Toxic Biohazard virtual instrument) contains 97 lead / synth presets suited for Pop / Dance, Trance, Progressive House, Indie Dance and overall all kind of electronic dance music.

Just like the previous soundset (dedicated to Novation V-Station synth), the pricing model is: donate as much as you want BUT the minimum is set to 12 $.

Please allow up to 24 hours for your Popular Leads Soundbank to be sent. Keep in mind that I'm sending this soundbank to the email address linked to your Paypal account. Also note that the file may get caught in any spam filter you (or your mail provider) may be using, so if you havent received your soundbank after 24 hours, please check your spam folder and / or contact me and I'll resend it.

Audio demos (Soundcloud compresses mp3 widgets so for full quality demos check designasound.com)







First two audio demos use one instance of Toxic Biohazard - no additional effects used (only one preset uses Ableton Compressor). 100 % Popular Leads Soundbank.
The last one uses external effects (Ableton Live Compressor, EQ, Reverb, Delay, Saturator, some Limiter) and 4-5 Toxic layers to create synth line inspired by Pryda - Niton.

More info: Popular Leads for Toxic Biohazard
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The Death of the Music Industry

Is it the death of Music Industry ? Business Insider presented few charts showing the condition of Music Industry. Interesting article :)

More info: Business Insider - The real death of the Music Industry 2011
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Starting from scratch tutorial

Airbase (swedish trance producer) presets how to start project (some Tech Trance tune) from scratch using Ableton Live.

As a little treat, I here offer a 40 min video, showing how I would go about when I start working on a new track myself. My tempo, no voice overs, just producing. Enjoy! (Airbase)

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The Art of Songwriting

Over one hour video about ... the art of songwriting :) Zane Lowe and Mark Ronson break the art of songwriting down to the basics at BBC Introducing's Musicians' Masterclass. With exclusive insights from Gary Barlow.

via Synthtopia.com



More videos from BBC Introducing Musicians Masterclass are available on YouTube Channel
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64 u-he ACE presets from CFA Sound

Somehow I didn't notice this nice freebie. CFA Sound offers free 64 presets ready to download for great u-he Ace synth. Genres covered are: minimal, electro & tech-house. Don't forget to check other, commercial presets too :)



Download: cfa-sound.com
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50 Free sounds for Poly KB II synth

Julian Ray has released a free soundset for Xils-Lab PolyKB II synth. Soundbank, called Cobalt Ultramarine, contains 50 patches - strings, brasses, pads, soundscapes, fx, organs, keys, leads, basses, synth. Great freebie (check audio previews below).




Download: JulianRay.com
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Yamaha DX / TX series sounds for NI FM8

I'm not an expert when it comes to Native Instruments FM8 synth presets. Potentially, there are tons of DX / TX presets, which you can import into FM8, bundled into huge "35673567 Patches" zipped files but the truth is that most are just copies of another copies of another ;)

But there is one (at least I know one :P) resource which seems pretty valuable. It's koltsov.biz and it offers some custom DX7 / TX soundbanks as well as patches (both factory and custom made) for another hardware synths (ie. Kawai K4, Korg 61 Poly, Oberheim Matrix, Novation Nova, Korg DS-8).

Feel free to test the presets.

More Info: Philipp Koltsov's Website - Patches
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Miroslav Philharmonik Classik Edition No-Brainer Deal

Good deals are always worth mentioning. Miroslav Philarmonik Classik Edition is an orchestral instrument offered on AudioMidi Store just for 15 $. I may be wrong but as far as I know, there is no better orchestral instrument for such price. Well, there's one free orchestral library - Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra but I didn't have enough time to review :)

Miroslav Philarmonik CE contains 250 orchestral sounds which translates into 1.5 GB of samples. Also the sounds can be opened in Sample Tank 2 Sampler / Rompler. Ahh, and welcome back ;). Real life owned me a little bit but luckily everything is going back to normal so Vst Cafe is going back to normal too.

More info: Miroslav Philharmonik Classik Edition
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