Musicannews just posted this video of Rob Papen describing his new synth Blade. The synth uses a a “harmolator” to control timber and movement in a sound. Each note is displayed as a dot on an X/Y windows. You can modulate movement with a controller and sync movement to your DAW. Blade also has a sequencer and other standard parameters like LFOs.

According to an email I got from Rob harmolator gives you "direct access with the 9 dails (to change the harmonic content) ... And of course this XY pad can dynamically change the harmolator using the 9 modulation targets."

So, the harmolaator section that lets you dial up harmonic waveforms on a single oscillator then “ripple” through them and change the balance of odd and even harmonics. There is a spread function for thickening up sounds and a sub-oscillator. There is an easy page as well.

The synth should release in late February or early March as they are finishing up the bank manager. Blade will have an intro price of $119 for the first month then will be  $139.

I’m personally excited about this synth as it looks like a great instrument for performance with the opportunity to add motion and visualize the motion.

Links

• http://www.robpapen.com/

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Via Chris Blais (@nordmach) and Gear Junkies post I discovered Waldorf’s announcement on their Pulse 2 Analog Synthesizer!

Pulse 2 is a completely analog synth with three oscillators in a metal case similar to that of the blofeld desktop.

Overview

Here is some info from Waldorf’s Product page:

Sometimes they do come back, and this time, it's with even more brute-strength power onboard. You are looking at a completely analog synthesizer that accurately delivers what synthesizer enthusiasts around the world truly crave. Pulse 2 is the reincarnation of it's legendary ancestor, the Waldorf Pulse, that dominated the electronic music of the 90s.

Three analog oscillators in combination with a true analog cascading filter is what Pulse and Pulse 2 have in common. But we didn't stop there. The filter circuits now also offer Highpass and Bandpass modes. We added analog Filter FM and Ring Modulation along with paraphonic modes that allow up to eight voice chords.

Like the Blofeld Synthesizer, the Pulse 2 is housed in a sturdy metal desktop case. Besides its large LCD display, 8 stainless steel knobs are available to surf through its clearly arrayed parameter matrix, set master volume and edit display accessible parameters.

Specifications

• 3 analog oscillators + 1 noise generator
• Pulse width modulation
• Hard sync
• Filter FM from Oscillator 3
• Ring Modulation from Oscillator 3
• XOR Osc Mode
• 8/4 Voice Paraphonic modes
• Cascade Filter
• 24dB/12db Lowpass, 12db Highpass/Bandpass filter modes
• Powerful Arpeggiator
• 8-slot Modulation Matrix
• USB
• MIDI
• External analog signal input
• Stereo line out
• Headphone out
• Backwards compatible with classic Pulse
• 128x64 character backlit LCD
• 8 stainless steel knobs
• 500 Sound Programs
• Electron-absorbing black case

All specifications subject to change without notice

I’m looking forward to seeing some videos coming from NAMM.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

For this Music Monday, I present to you the absolutely mind blowing cool new video and single from Darren Kramer (aka DJ DKO) called “Heavy Metal Paperclip" – on – wait for it – Electric Trombone!  Darren is a friend and one of the growing number of musicians in the Denver area who are working hard to use Ableton to both record and perform expressive music live! 

Checkout this video! Simply fantastic playing and use of Ableton Live.

Heavy Metal Paperclip from DKO Productions on Vimeo.

Here is what Darren says about this video and song:

Electric Trombone DJ, Darren Kramer (aka DJ DKO), performing "Heavy Metal Paperclip" the first single from the upcoming CD "Beyond The Boneyard".

This new solo project “Beyond The Boneyard” is a cutting-edge live performance innovation that pushes the boundaries of the typical trombone stereotype as well as that of the traditional DJ. Kramer (aka DJ DKO) performs an inspiring live DJ remix of originals and covers via Ableton Live looping with electric trombone, virtual synths, vocoder, and the Jazz Mutant Lemur! Furthermore, this unique project is enhanced with spectacular visuals created in realtime by utilizing the latest VJ software to combine Kramer’s world-class photography and original video with live camera feeds for a truly stunning interactive audio/visual experience. Due to its technological sophistication, “Beyond The Boneyard” is also being taught by Kramer as a popular media arts presentation and workshop in schools throughout the country.

In a related note, I wanted to mention that Darren is also a co-founder of The Gig Easy company which provides iPad solutions for musicians (and used by the likes of Ric Ocasek, Jordan Rudess, Steve Martin and more).

As always, I encourage you fan up with Darren and consider a buy to support his art.

Links:

• Darren’s Electric Trombone Artist Site
• Buy “Heavy Metal Papercllp” on iTunes
• The Gig Easy

--------------------------------

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Waldorf has just released Electric Body Machinery  - a new Blofeld soundset by Soundset Ari Ahrendt.

This punchy soundset that covers everything for electronic music of the darker kind. Highly energetic sounds for areas such as EBM, Synth Pop, Dark Electro, Future Pop, Electro Wave and Minimal Electro Pop. All sounds on highest level of musical playability, usability and inspiration. Suitable for records, studio and especially for clubs and live performance! 128 Sounds for technically wide EBM basses, melodically sawing chaos leads, boombastic drums, shiny pads and strings, as well as inspring polysynth sounds enable you to make the dance-mob shake and stomp .

Use modulation wheel at own risk!

Here is a demosong called “Dark Lights”. According to the soundcloud notes, all sounds are created with Waldorf Blofeld including all drums, effects, spheres and modulations.

Dark Lights - Waldorf Blofeld EBM Demo by ARIMUSIK

Sounds pretty damn awesome! The soundset is available via Waldorf’s online store for 30.00 €. Click here to learn more and buy.

I’ve also added this soundset to my Blofeld 411 Mindmap.

Links

• Electric Body Machinery Soundset for Blofeld
• Official Waldorf Site
• Ari Ahrendt http://www.arimusik.de | http://facebook.com/ari.ahrendt

----------

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

I announced my first collaboration and Ableton Live pack with AfroDJmac back on December 18th. I’m happy to announce a follow-up Live Pack - ZEBRA ATTACK II.

It utilizes the same waveforms as the first Live Pack, but with a completely different different instrument rack. Here is his overview video.

For more info and to download visit: http://afrodjmac.com/2011/12/28/ableton-rack-40-zebra-attack-ii-mark-mosher-afrodjmac/

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

U-HE has released DIVA - http://www.u-he.com/cms/113-diva. The have also extended the discount to Jan. 15th. I just bought it and it sounds fantastic!!!

The oscillators, filters and envelopes closely model components found in some of the great monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers of yesteryear. Modules can be mixed and matched so you can build hybrids, but what sets DIVA apart is the sheer authenticity of the analogue sound. This comes at the cost of quite a high CPU-hit, but we think it was worth it: Diva is the first native software synth that applies methods from industrial circuit simulators (e.g. PSpice) in realtime. The behaviour of zero-delay-feedback filters when pushed to the limit clearly demonstrates the advantages of this groundbreaking approach.
 
Diva works without restriction until December 31st 2011. From then on you will notice a mild crackle, the demo restriction that will remind you to visit our shop.

Normal price: 179$ (+19% VAT in EU)
Introductory price: 119$ (+19% VAT in EU) extended till January 15th, 2012

About Zero Delay Feedback Filters

I found the following info in the quickstart. 

Most filters in old analogue synthesizers have one or more feedback paths. The input signal passes through a series of controlled resistors and condensers, and the output is fed back into the input (or to another point within the signal path). The classic Moog ladder filter has four simple lowpass filter stages and a resonance control that determines how much of the signal is fed back into the input. This feedback loop doesn’t introduce any delay, feedback is practically immediate...

 Digital models try to reproduce this by calculating the result of applying four simple lowpass filters to an input sample. Feedback means repeating the calculation using the results of the previous one.

 While real circuitry can process a signal within a few nanoseconds, digital models calculate per sample, adding in the region of a million times as much latency to each iteration. The cumulative effect of feedback latency in digital emulations is very noticeable. Oversampling and higher sample rates help reduce the latency, but conventional digital filters always “smear” at higher resonance levels.

 Ways to address the latency problem have been available for many years, but implementations either don’t model the inherent complex distortion inherent in real circuitry, or they aren’t suitable for realtime processing. Common to all methods is that they predict output values and use that prediction for the current calculation

 Of course we can’t see into the future, but our routines are fast enough to deliver at least a few voices in realtime. We calculate the filter with a few test samples and look at the deviation between the prediction and the result. We use that deviation to calculate a better prediction – the goal is to close the gap as quickly as possible!

We have applied a classic “trial and error” principle with a (we like to think) rather intelligent method of learning from our “mistakes”. As a rule, the filters in Diva have to be calculated 3 to 4 times in succession - but it can take up to 20 cycles e.g. at high resonance or if the inputincludes white/pink noise.

Mindmap of DIVA Anatomy

I created a mindmap showing the anatomy of the oscillators, filters and envelopes in relationship to the model template. View the map full screen by clicking here or use the viewer below.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

This week, my Music Monday pick is the new album … At The End Of It All by friend and fellow Denver-based artist Chase Dobson (aka c.db.sn).

I got to know Chase through the Ableton Colorado User Group and have enjoyed watching his career take off on the Ableton front. In 2011, he was the Playback System Technician for Mike Posner’s tour and is the Ableton Programmer for Dia Frampton‘s (2nd place finisher on the TV Show “The Voice”) upcoming tour in support for Blake Shelton.

… At The End Of It All is Chase’s second full-length original album and is loaded with beat-driven instrumental electronic songs. Behind the big glitchy up front drums are great sounds, sub-woofer stressing basses, and textures that will transport you to a dystopian setting. The production quality is fantastic.

My personal favorite track “As If December Never Happened”  which starts off with an ambient piano intro. The song really takes off when glitched-out beats kick in. Act 3 of this song transitions to a pulsing ethereal movement. In this section - at 3:13 - there is a looped element with radical loop length changes taking it from glitch to tonal. Awesome!

The attention to detail within the slices, the way Chase works the space around the slices, and the careful balancing of each piece with dark tonal pads are what makes this album stand out for me.  Listen, to the track “Airport [Never_Land]” with headphones on and and you’ll hear what I mean as the sliced elements morph in tonal character throughout the piece.

I’ll leave it to you to discover more sonic surprises and subtle melodic motifs for yourself.  You can listen to a preview and buy the album up on Bandcamp. Pass it on…

Links:

• Buy “… At The End Of It All” on Bandcamp
• Visit Chase’s Offical Page on Tympanik Audio
• c.db.sn on Soundcloud
• c.db.sn on Facebook
• c.db.sn on Tumblr

-------------------------------------

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

I'm excited to announce I just finished a collaboration with NY artist AfroDJMac who's been "crushing it" by releasing an Ableton Live Pack every week for 37 weeks! It's week 38 and we collaborated on "AfroDJMac and Mark Mosher Zebra Attack [Ableton Live Rack #38]."  What a great honor to be part of his series.  

I used U-HE Zebra 2 to make original harmonic content from INIT. I ended up with a patch that generated 1 bar FM wave sequence. Each wave was created in real-time by modulating FM with a stepped LFO with each step at a 16^thnote at 120bpm to accommodate slicing into a rack. I resampled, and then handed off the samples to AfroDJMac. He racked them up in Ableton Live's Sampler and created an entirely new performance instrument based on the harmonic content including the ability to select a wave or sweep through the wavetable with an LFO!

AfroDJMac did a very detailed post on the rack including some production notes and screen shots of my work. I’ll included the video below but direct you to his post for the details and the download links. Enjoy and let me know what you think of the rack :^) For more of my sound design work visit patchlab.modulatethis.com. For more on AfroDJMac, see links at the bottom of this post.

Watch embedded video

AfroDJMac Links:

• Official Site
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Soundcloud
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Bandcamp 

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

I just finished listening to this awesome interview with Gary Numan on NPR. Lots of back-story and industry insight. You also get to hear his refreshingly optimistic views on being an artist in the internet age. They also discuss Gary’s new album Dead Son Rising which I did a Music Monday post on in September.

Visit the NPR page to listen to the interview.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Your FREE holiday gift is now ready for download!

OUTPOST: AIRLOCK is a soundset made up of patches for U-HE's free freeware synthesizer Zebralette. The patches will also load into Zebra 2. This themed soundset picks up where “Sounds from a Distant Outpost” soundset left off (which has been downloaded over 2500 times to date) and again takes place at the fictional dark and distant “outpost”. This outpost exists in the same “signals universe” as my two albums REBOOT and I HEAR YOUR SIGNALS. The 12 patches in this soundset will help you experience the journey through the airlock which connects the outer ring of the outpost to the first inner chamber. You might hear creatures along the way so stay alert.

Learn More & Download

To learn more, read about project goals, production notes, performance notes,  and download the soundset - visit the Outpost: Airlock web page.

Happy Holidays

Enjoy and have a safe, happy, and musical holiday season! Drop me a note if you end up using these patches for a project. Pass it on.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Novation just posted a 1.1b1 public beta for the UltraNova hardware synthesizer. While only a point release - there are a lot of great new features and some fixes. Links to the update are at the bottom of the post.

Note, according to a Novation rep on the forum “The update is not immediately reversible, however if you were experiencing any problems we would be able to help you out!” I just upgraded and for me it’s been a very solid and the features do improve the user experience quite a bit. I had one case where a patch I created on the last OS had started experiencing minor clicking artifacts. I set my sample rate to 48 and the problem went away (even if I go back to 44.1).

There are some notable features such as the added display to show the big knob Control Lock assignment.

“An asterisk is now displayed next to the patch number to show that the patch has unsaved changes. …When editing it is fairly easy to lose your edits by navigating away from the patch. Now, if you do navigate away by mistake, you can press the Compare button to revert your edits”.

“A compressor with fixed settings has been added before the input to the modulator for the vocoder: this improves the overall sound.” All the vocoder patches sound way better!

This beta also shows that Novation hasn’t forgotten about us UltraNova users and continues to support this great synth. I personally hope this also signals an even bigger update with enhancements note in this update – like Tap Tempo and Tweak encoder “toggle”. 

What’s New

Below is a list of what’s new copied from their public beta forum. Lots of great features above-and-beyond the few I mentioned.

Firmware Updated to version 1.1.03

• Added display to show the big knob Control Lock assignment.
• When editing it is fairly easy to lose your edits by navigating away from the patch. Now, if you do navigate away by mistake, you can press the Compare button to revert your edits
• Pressing any of the synth menu buttons a second time will return to the main patch menu.
• An asterisk is now displayed next to the patch number to show that the patch has unsaved changes.
• Arpeggiator now outputs notes via MIDI and USB. This is a setting within the global menu.
• Delay, EQ and distortion are now full stereo effects. Many more of the factory Vocoder patches will now maintain stereo width.
• A compressor with fixed settings has been added before the input to the modulator for the vocoder: this improves the overall sound.
• Fixed Octave button LEDs becoming out of sync with Octave setting.
• Fixed bug preventing envelope decaying to zero in some cases
• Fixed long release times did not allow the envelope re-trigger to work correctly.
• Fixed issue when very long envelope release was combined with touch trigger envelope: touch now gates properly. 
• Fixed an issue with the release of a touch envelope during the release stage of a voice that prevented the proper operation of touch trigger.
• Fixed an issue with chord function when triggering notes if a patch was set to poly2 voice mode.
• Improved anti-aliasing filter on sine wave: as a result all patches that used this, in particular bass patches, sounds cleaner.
• Improved smoothness when modulating filter to avoid unwanted artefacts.
• Improved interpolation between legato mono voices with different velocities.
• Improved Mono Auto-glide legato portamento consistency
• Improved oscillator level modulation from LFO sources.
• Improved LCD layout for audio menu to make headphone level control more obvious.

Plugin Editor Updates

• Added Touch on and off as an on-screen automatable parameters.
• Added Ultranova Editor as an AU insert FX. Logic users are recommended to use this.
• Added further selection options in the Mod table.
• Editor now installs RTAS to 32 bit directory when running Windows 7 64
• Fixed value mismatch when syncing certain parameters.
• Fixed Editor not updating synth parameters when instantiated while in Automap mode.
• Fixed not being able to automate using hardware in Ableton Live.
• Improved CPU usage when changing patches.
• Improved mouse sensitive on stepping parameters.

Known issues

• Metering will not display when using the AU FX editor when mod wheel, aftertouch, expression, velocity, and keyboard is in the Mod table.
• 32 bit plug-ins crashes 32 bit bridge when running under 64 bit. Users are advised to use 64 bit version of the plug-ins.
• Mac VST version of the editor in Ableton Live only: Touch parameters not configurable as automatable parameter if the hardware is connected. Users are advised to configure the parameter first without the hardware connected or use the AU version of the plug-in instead.
  Librarian:
• Grabbed patches folder now cannot be dragged to from other banks/folders.
• Fixed not being able to drag hardware banks to the 'My Patches' folder
• Improved time when creating a new user banks on a Mac
• Fixed Librarian 'busy' status when double clicking patch when there is no hardware connected.
• Fixed not being about to drag and drop in OSX Lion
• Fixed parameters with patch A07
• Fixed glitch on patch C031
  Known issues:
• Copy and paste a bank from hardware to a computer folder will be blank in some situations.
• Patch cannot be drag from bank to bank at the same position
• Graphic icon for folder and bank may not appear if Librarian is in icon view.
  Driver
• Updated Novation USB driver to version 2.3 for Mac and Windows.

Links

• Visit this page http://beta.novationmusic.com scroll down till you come the Ultranova 1.1b1 section. Then go to the bottom of the section for links to the release notes and the kit.
• Novation UltraNova Support Forum
• Official UltraNova page http://novationmusic.com/products/hardware_synths/ultranova/
• http://ultranova.modulatethis.com/
• UltraNova category on ModulateThis http://www.modulatethis.com/synth-ultranova/ 

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Unfelds is a series of downloadable field recordings that are free donationware made available under Creative Commons licence. Denver-based sound designer and fellow Ableton Colorado member James Tobin’s work is featured in u. nfields12 “cruzin'. James also contributed a Sounds from a Distant Outpost composition “Subdude's First Excursion To The Outpost” last year. James describes this set of fields recordings:

“these sounds were recorded on a cruise trip from seattle to alaska. when i first learned that my wife and i would be taking this trip i was immediately excited by the opportunity to record such a foreign and strange environment. you see, here in denver we don't have many ships. a few boats, yes, but certainly no ships. the ms oosterdam did not disappoint. she had all kinds of great sounds around. i did run into one little unforeseen difficulty -- traveling with 3,000 people can make it a little hard to capture good, clean recordings, especially when they all want to talk about "that fuzzy thing" with me. nonetheless, i was able to find some time away from the crowds and enjoy the sounds of a ship on my own. i certainly had a fantastic time recording these sounds, and i hope they inspire you to create some fantastic new instruments. happy noise-making!

i used a zoom q3hd stereo recorder to record these sounds at 24 bit/48khz. the sounds that appear here are recorded and unprocessed, aside from dithering down to 16bit/44.1khz and adding metadata.

james tobin”

Visit the unfeld page to download a 99MB zip file with sounds and some great photos by James. There are some cool recordings in the library with my favorite being “unfields12_14_-_whipping_wind”. To support Jame’s work you can also make a donation while there.

Links:

• http://www.jamestobin.info
• Unfelds

---------------------

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

I was recently interviewed by Berkeley, CA Sound Designer Nathan Lively on his podcast Sound Design Live which has over 10,000 followers! This was a nice turn as I’m normally the one doing the interviewing :^).

You can read the original post “Turning Technology Into Performance” here, listen to the full 26 minute interview using the player below, or download the MP3 here.

In the interview I offer a lot of behind-the-scenes notes on: how I got started with electronic music, Modulate This! Blog, sound design work on Patchlab, working with tangible interfaces such as AudioCubes, social media for artists, and a discussion of my open knowledge 9 Box method which is being used as the basis for a K-6 electronic music lab in a Denver Metro school.

Turning Technology Into Performance by Sound Design Live

Thanks to Nathan for taking to time to interview me and making me LOL multiple times during the interview. It was a blast! If you want to learn more about Nathan visit http://www.nathanlively.com.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Elektron is offer 15% off of Elektron Holiday Sale – 15% Off Octatrack, Machinedrum, and Monomachine Till December 23rd. More here http://www.elektron.se/online-shop.

-------

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Holiday specials are starting to appear on manufacturer sites.  When I see offers for some of my  favorite products I’ll pass them along.

Ableton is offering 25% all products till Jan 15th 2012. This offer is for all products including Suite 8 or Partner Instruments and Max for Live and also includes upgrades

More here http://www.ableton.com/holiday-special.

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com