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DAVE SMITH TEMPEST ANALOGUE DRUM MACHINE

INTRODUCING AN ANALOGUE DRUM MACHINE FROM DAVE SMITH AND ROGER LINN

I must say I do have a soft spot for a drum machine but I have never found one that will do all that I want from it. There seems to be less around today and those that are have been with us a few years now. I think some of the larger companies are concerned that they do not sell that well due to the fact that so many people fall into either end of the spectrum with software at one end and the more professional recording of Studio Live drums at the other. Using a hardware drum machine therefore falls somewhere between these two. So the hardware drum machine needs to have something special about it. The famous Dave Smith and Roger Linn have set out to achieve this by building the Tempest which creates its sound from six analog synthesized voices to create and manipulate all of your own beats and grooves in real-time.
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New Synth App for the iPad desined by Waldorf and Rolf Wöhrmann

This has made my day – Waldorf who have made some great hardware synths like the Blofeld and the new Pulse 2 as well as Software Synths like the Largo and Lector have now joined up with Rolf Wöhrmann to make a fantastic App for Apple’s iPad, iPad 2 and now iPad3 that should be available to you this Summer.

The iPad is an ideal  platform for wavetable synthesis and will more than likely take it up a notch  to a new level. This will  make it possible to go deep into wavetables and show the sound in 3-D and offer completely new ways for sound creation and manipulation.

This new approach to wavetable synthesis allows for the transposition of the spectrum and the balance of periodic and sound spectra entirely independent from a wave’s position extending the wavetable technology  we have now by two new dimensions. It also allows for formant shifts as well as numerous other unheard sounds and as well as this the number and length of waves in a wavetable will no longer be restricted – Wow

Musicians are MIDI mad and this application will cater for many MIDI interfaces from IK Multimedia, iConnectMIDI, MIDI Mobilizer II by Line6, Alesis ioDock or the Camera Connection Kit by Apple and the SynthStation by Akai. App collaboration standards like Sonoma‘s Audio Copy/Paste, Intua‘s Audio Pasteboard and Virtual Core MIDI will also be supported like the upcoming AudioBus standard and KORG’s WIST synchronization technology.

I am really looking forward to trying this out as I am the Pulse 2 – keep an eye on http://www.waldorfmusic.de/for further information.

Steinberg Cubase 6.5

Things do not stand still and that is true of DAWS. We now have a new release of the famous Cubase. No it is not Cubase 7 (yet), but 6.5. It comes with two new Synths – Retrologue which gives you that old school analog synth sound with 300 presets and Padshop which has two independent layers that are based on an individual oscillator source and generate up to eight different grain streams armed with over 400 presets. This YouTube clip should show you what they are about:-

Musikmesse International Press Award 2012

Here is a great collection of Music Magazines all together. Well this lot do have something in common ……………………..

……………………. they have all voted for the best musical instruments and audio equipment of 2011/2012 in more than 40 categories of the Musikmesse International Press Award (MIPA). The awards have been awarded to some great products, here are just a few :-

Best Workstation – Korg Kronos
Best Synth – Roland Jupiter 80
Best Electronic Drums – Roland TD-30
Best Stage Piano – Clavia Nord Piano 2
Best Controller keyboard – Akai MAX49
Best Software Instrument – Native Instruments Komplete 8
Best Organ / Portable keyboard – Hammond SK-Series
Best Live Perfomance Tool – Native Instruments Maschine
Best Studio Microphone – Microtech Gefell M930TS
Best Studio Monitor – Focal SM9
Best Recording Software – Avid Protools 10

For the full list please go here:- http://www1.mipa-award.de/

NUKLEAR Plugin Synthesizer

Nuklear, from hamburg-audio, is a new distinctive sounding VST/AU Pulsar synth plug-in. It doesn’t use
waveforms such as sine, saw or square waves played at different pitches, it uses individual pulses of shapes that vary and repeated at slower or faster rates.

Nuklear’s pulsar synthesis alternates the panning of pulses to create a super-wide sound; and omitting certain pulses, which gives some really great sub-harmonics.

There are four oscillators and each of these has a Pulsar knob. If you set them to zero, it makes the pulses stretch so that the results are just like normal synth oscillators. Take a look at http://www.hamburg-audio.com/

For all of your Sample needs go to:-

Tom Oberheim Two Voice Pro Synthesizer

Yes it looks like something from the 70s but infact it is new for 2012 from the legendary Synth pioneer Tom Oberheim. He has just announced the Oberheim Two Voice Pro Synthesizer, which is a 2012 recreation of the 1975 classic synthesizer.

It features a Mini-Sequencer which has been enhanced, two sequences can be played simultaneously, sequences can be chained into songs, and each step in a song can be programmed for sequence number, transpose amount and number of repeats, the Sequencer syncs to Midi Clock, keyboard outputs velocity and pressure and each module (both SEMs, Mini-Sequencer, Keyboard Control) has mini-jack patch points. You can get more info from Tom at http://www.tomoberheim.com/

Audacity Audio Editor Version 2 – Free

Well here is something that you just got to read. If you are like me and have been using an excellent free piece of software called Audacity, then you will be thrilled to find out that it has just been upgraded to Version 2. Did I also mention that it is free? Those guys on the  Audacity Team deserve a very big “Thank You”

You will probably know that you can do many things with Audacity such as :-  Record live audio ,  Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs ,  Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together,  Change the speed or pitch of a recording and much more.

Some of the major changes in 2.0.0 over 1.2.6 are:

Go on download Version 2 now – you know you want to:-
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Musikmesse Roland Jupiter 80 Version 2 and Jupiter 50 and iPad

Here is a great You Tube clip that achieves quite a bit. For a start it provides you with seeing the Jupiter 80 side by side with the new Jupiter 50. It explains what all the fuss is about with Version 2 which is a lovely free update for Jupiter 80 owners and it also highlight the editing capability of an iPad App for use with these monster synths. I must say that I got a feeling of how big the sound can be with these synths. I am looking forward to try out the Jupiter 50 and to see if it meets my live – playing requirements. The keyboard player from France in this clip is excellent, see what you think but I certainly enjoyed this one:-

Musikmesse 2012 New Roland TD15-KV V-Drum Kit

This really shows how good this new electronic V-Drum kit sounds, anounced this week at Musikmesse 2012 Frankfurt Germany. Craig Blundell shows off his rock drumming skills to bring you the new SuperNATURAL sounds and Behaviour Modelling. Today, the middle range of the V-Drums family inherits this acclaimed technology with the debut of the TD-15KV V-Tour kits. Have a look at the You Tube Clip:-

You have new sensing technology with “Behaviour Modelling” gives you a great natural drumming experience. You have 100 kits to choose from with 50 preset and 50 user kits. You also have some awesome recorded backing songs to play-along and practice with.

Musikmesse 2012 Roland Wireless Connect

Everything is moving fast with portable devices like Apple’s iPad,iPad 2 and now iPad 3 thinking about the Music Industry and how useful they can be. Musicians love control, controllers and definately sound and light and these devices are now overflowing with Apps and new ideas flooding in on a weekly basis. Each main company of musical instruments like Korg and Yamamaha are joining in to make the musical experience better, more intersting and fun. Roland have now started to look at this by preparing their new products to be able to interact with the iPads and iPhones.

At this year’s big Music event in Frankfurt, Germany – Musikmesse, Roland have anounced the Wireless Connect. This basically works by plugging their USB stick into one of their new electronic instruments. You can then  jam along using your iPad or iPhone as a wireless aid. Have a look at this You Tube clip to give you some idea. I personally think this is just the start of much better things to come:-

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