Drum kits made from vintage analog synthesizers are a good thing. Here’s one set up for you in an Ableton Live pack created with a Korg MS-10. It’s $10 AUS via Paypal. Audio samples and more info: click here
“All the samples have been programmed on the MS-20 from the ground up and treated with the utmost care to provide you with pristine and unique sounds you wont find anywhere else.This is our most comprehensive pack to date as it includes 6 unique LIVE sets, 6 Drum Racks, 77 samples, 58 midi clips as well as unique FX such as our Geiger and 3F-Sat.The samples and FX have been grouped within the racks and have useful macro controls assigned to them to broaden the pallet of sounds you can produce.” – voltagedisciple.com
For more info: voltagedisciple.com
photo credit: aliasfreq
via sonicstate
This entry was written by , posted on October 20, 2010 at 5:12 am, filed under Ableton Live, drum machine, sounds and tagged Ableton Live, drum machine, Korg, Korg MS-20, Voltage Diciple. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Puremagnetik creates and sells mini monthly sample packs for Ableton, Kontakt & Logic. I recently met Micah Frank at IMSTA FESTA and thought I would follow up with this interview.
I really like your subscription model. Tell Wire to the Ear readers how it works.
Puremagnetik produces a new “Micropak” each month. A Micropak is a small (usually under 600MB) sound set that is very focused on a particular instrument. You can subscribe for $5.75 per month and download the Current Micropak. We keep each Micropak current for 2 months, so there are two Current Micropaks available at all times. You can also buy a full year subscription or buy the entire catalog. Additionally, users can purchase back catalog Micropaks individually – similar to back issues of a magazine.
Tell us about your recording chain. Are there any microphones or outboard processors your in love with?
I mostly program Puremagnetik’s electronic content. I prefer to keep my signal chain as transparent as possible. Good A/D matters most to me. I rarely use compression during tracking but sometimes I like to use my API Lunchbox’s 512C’s as a DI. Our other sound developer Brian produces all of the acoustic stuff in some great studios. He uses all of the Pultecs, Chandlers and Neumanns.
Digital Blasphemy by micahfrank
How do you go about finding the instruments to record? I can’t imagine you own all the toys ToyBox Micropaks!
Sometimes we go shopping (Toys r Us). We also have a great network of studios and synth geeks all up and down the east coast. If I can find a good deal on eBay, I’ll jump on it – Synthi owners speak up! A lot of the stuff I’m working on now is more conceptual so it requires less defined devices.
What percent of your customers would you say subscribe vs just buy a pack they like?
It’s a 50/50 split. Some people like the subscription model. Just as many people are happy grabbing them once they become back catalogued.
What is your most popular Micropak and what are your top 3 personal favorites?
The most popular Micropak is an oldie but goodie – Eight Bit. It is a pack of sounds from a Commodore 64 SID chip.
The Micropaks I like the most are the ones I enjoyed working on the most. I love the ability in Live to reverse engineer the concepts behind some great synths. If you look at Puremagnetik’s Vector, Waveframe and P-50 Linear you will see that I have broken the synths down into their core components and reconstructed them in Live Racks. In Waveframe for instance, I took all of the Fizmo’s wavetable content and reconstructed the whole synth in Live using Ableton Sampler’s modulation functions.
Brian also did the same kind of reverse engineering in this month’s Omnichord inspired pack. In my opinion, this is where Puremagnetik really shines – when we break away from the same old multisampling conventions.
I know you make music yourself. Tell Wire to the Ear readers some of the bands you work or have worked with and some places online they can hear your music.
The only band I have worked with in the past few years is a local artist named Atarah Valentine. I got in touch with him through Ableton and Damian Taylor (Bjork). The highlight of my work with him was this past June when we opened for La Roux at Terminal 5. He’s a very talented singer so I look forward to working with him a lot more in the future.
My big project for the past year is Tectonic. It is a realtime sonification of earthquake data as interpreted by Max and then synthesized by a Kyma/Pacarana system. http://micahfrank.com/tagged/tectonic. For the past few years I haven’t really enjoyed making horizontal music. By that, I mean music that is pre-composed in a given timeframe by a horizontally oriented DAW. I am finding it much more gratifying to create a system like Tectonic or just grab my DrumKat and improvise under my alias Kamoni (kamoni.net) You can see and hear all of the other stuff I’m up to at micahfrank.com or soundcloud.com/micahfrank.
What music are you listening to lately?
Tim Hecker, Robert Normandeau, Ben Frost, Alva Noto, Zoot Woman
Here’s a public offer. If you want to make a Micropak out of my Electrocomp-101 (number 521 out of 2000) feel free but you have to come to my place. I’m not lugging that thing to Brooklyn!
Thanks Oliver! That would be totally awesome. You have just been inducted into PECSGN (Puremagnetik East Coast Synth Geek Network).
photo credit: Rachel Papo
This entry was written by , posted on September 29, 2010 at 4:07 am, filed under interviews, sounds and tagged 8bit, Brooklyn, Micah Frank, Micropak, Puremagnetik, sample library, samples, sound. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Lawrie Cape from England sent me an email this morning with details of a new project he/she has been working on called Cellular AutoMidi. It’s a generative audio app running inside Adobe Air. It has internal sounds but also uses the Flash Midi Server system so you can control VSTs with it. If you don’t have your copy of Audio Damage’s Automaton at work this could get your Cellular Automata algorithm fix in!
Cellular AutoMidi from Lawrie Cape on Vimeo.
“I’ve just finished work on a generative audio app called Cellular Automidi. Cellular AutoMidi is a generative music app, making “music” based on a modified Cellular Automata algorithm. It can make music itself, or you can use it as a midi controller with other software/equipment. Each cell can be alive or dead. Once in a generation, each cell looks at it’s surrounding cells, and dies if it is lonely or overcrowded. If a dead cell has an optimum amount of neighbors, it will come to life! Each generation, all the cells which have come to life will sound a note. The notes are assigned based on the cell’s y position, and are all in the pentatonic scale.” – Lawrie Cape
Free download: lawriecape.co.uk/theblog/index.php/archives/735
This entry was written by , posted on July 27, 2010 at 6:26 am, filed under sounds, synthesizer and tagged Adobe Air, Cellular Automata, Cellular AutoMidi, generative, Lawrie Cape. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Wave Alchemy has released a free sample pack of the vintage analog Roland TR-606 drum machine. Four free kits are included titled: Driven Kit, Dry Kit, Stereo FX Kit and Warm Kit. To grab the samples: click here
“606 Drums by Wave Alchemy serves up 290 drum samples from Roland’s sought-after TR-606 drum machine. The samples included have been lovingly recorded through an API pre-amp with many sounds boasting multiple round robin variations, accent and velocity layers! 606 Drums contains four pre-mapped drum kit patches for use with Kontakt 2, 3, & 4 and Battery 3. Each kit makes extensive use of multiple velocity layers, round robin sample playback and choke groups to create truly expressive sample instruments.” – Wave Alchemy
Disclaimer: Wave Alchemy is an advertiser on Wire to the Ear.
photo credit: BatterseaTrump
via Synthtopia
This entry was written by , posted on July 8, 2010 at 4:29 am, filed under drum machine, sounds and tagged drum machine, free, roland, TR-606, Wave Alchemy. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Goldbaby has recorded some more drum machines to tape. The new Vol.3 sample pack is $29. He has some good free packs on his site too. Having a few Ableton Impulse patches created out of these nicely recorded machines is handy.
“Drum Machines used: RZ-1, TR-55, XD-5, MFB-522, DDM-110, DDM-220, DPM-48, RX-21L, R-100, ED-10, PB-300 and the DSM-1. The Tape machines used: Otari MX5050 1/4″, Rolla 77 valve mono 1/4 inch, and the Hitachi Cassette deck. Plus the UBK Fatso was also used!” – goldbaby.co.nz
For audio samples and more info: goldbaby.co.nz
This entry was written by , posted on June 24, 2010 at 4:19 am, filed under drum machine, sounds and tagged drum machines, Goldbaby. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Here’s a link to some audio samples from The European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider and computer room. Listen and download the samples: click here
“Above all, we want everyone to be able to share in the wonder and excitement of the greatest experiment ever built. We feel passionately that everyone is capable of appreciating what is happening at CERN and that it is the responsibility of those of us already `in the know’ to find new and better ways of sharing the awe-inspiring magnificence of it all. The LHC belongs to us all; you paid for it to be built and you will enjoy the technological advances it brings.” – lhcsound.com
For more info: lhcsound.com
photo credit: AndiH
via Matrixsynth
This entry was written by , posted on June 23, 2010 at 4:57 am, filed under sounds and tagged CERN, Hadron Collider, samples, sounds. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
For those who like there music making with a heavy click swing, deep bass and the flavor of Berlin.
“The Live Sets were made exclusively for Ableton by ten artists from the Minus roster. Each Set comes with a companion Lesson that reveals insights into the artist’s musical vision and offers valuable production tips. Includes material from: Click Box, Hobo, Heartthrob & Troy Pierce, Magda, Marc Houle, Fabrizio Maurizi, Barem, Ambivalent, JPLS and Gaiser. This Live Pack requires Live 8.1.3 or higher. To install the Pack, download it, unzip it and double-click the .alp file. You’ll then be asked where to save the contents of the Pack.”
Download the Live Pack: click here
This entry was written by , posted on June 22, 2010 at 4:09 am, filed under Ableton Live, sounds and tagged Ambivalent, Barem, Click Box, Fabrizio Maurizi, free, Heartthrob & Troy Pierce, Hobo, John Gaiser, JPLS, Live Pack Ableton, Magda, Marc Houle, Minus. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Free Glitches Vol.01 Demo by Bronto Scorpio
Here’s a free sample pack of glitches from Dennis Harms at Bronto Scorpio Music. To download: click here
“Don’t expect pseudo analog stuff here! You get 120 weird, digital noises with this pack! These sounds are perfect for Autechre, Richard Devine, Aphex Twin like tracks, but can also add some special elements to other tracks. I designed these sounds over the last few months and thought it would be cool to share them with you. The pack contains 120 24Bit/44Khz wave files and a simple Kontakt (3.5 or higher) instrument where the samples are mapped across the keyboard. Mod- and pitchwheel do some crazy things in this instrument too!” – brontoscorpiomusic
For more info: brontoscorpiomusic.blogspot.com
photo credit: mikrosopht [deleted]
This entry was written by , posted on June 3, 2010 at 2:52 am, filed under sounds and tagged Aphex Twin, Autechre, glitch, Richard Devine, samples. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Totalmusik is a NY sales rep for Metasonix and Eowave gear. They seems to also record the equipment and make sample libraries with the blessings of the manufacturers. They have released a Kontakt Polyphonic Wretch Machine sample pack. The samples were recorded to tape and they also included some Impulse Responses. The pack is 2GB and will run you $65. It’s on sale now for $50.
“For this library, no attention to detail was spared in capturing the true essence of this instrument. The Wretch Machine features a dual gas-tube oscillator configuration – each oscillator is switchable between three waveforms: Saw, Squarer and Subosc (squarer with suboctave). Realizing that everything sounds better through tape, and our personal philosophy that “Old is Good, Old and Broken is BetterTM” – we enlisted the assistance of our TEAC Reel to Reel to handle our tape transfer needs.” – totalmusik.com
For more info: totalmusik.com
This entry was written by , posted on May 17, 2010 at 5:17 am, filed under sounds and tagged EOWave, Impulse Response, Kontakt, Metasonix, Totalmusik, Wretch Machine. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m lucky to have my own driveway in NYC. I’m also lucky to have a beautiful apple tree that blooms to park underneath. The only problem is hundreds of birds love this tree too. Therefore going to the car wash has become a routine trip. I’m amazed that for $10 you can get a full car wash that includes a full cleaning of the interior too.
My mother is a avid gardener. There were four large planters outside my building that were just dirt and weeds to I asked her to help me choose some plants to fix the situation. You can see the full set of photos of my “garden”: click here
Van Houten Farms by thingstocome
You can hear more of my field recordings here: soundcloud.com/thingstocome/sets/field-recordings
This entry was written by , posted on May 4, 2010 at 4:08 am, filed under sounds and tagged car wash, Creative Commons, field recording, gardening, samples, van houten farm. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Recent Comments