Psycho Friday X3 with DRON-E

Sinapsya going granule with Antonio Blanca's Dron-e Reaktor ensemble:

Posted with Blogsy

Robots Don't Sleep - Little White Lies

Robots Don't Sleep the newly christened name for Robot Koch's project with John LaMonica (who sang on the last Robot Koch album The Other Side) have a new EP out on Four Music/Sony Music Germany! First track is Little White Lies (NSFW video below), pick up the record at the usual outlets:

 

Posted with Blogsy

Isan - Descette

New Isan EP, Descette, available now on Secret Furry Hole:

"We have a very special release out next week.

Lovingly assembled by Secret Furry Hole, the Italian kings of exquisite tiny releases and with a press release by Simon Scott that deserves a release all of its own, Descette is a collection of tracks based around and inspired by tape loops - featuring the sounds of cassettes we thought we left behind many years ago.

Seven tracks on a one-sided 12" single, screen-printed covers on recycled paper, 200 copies, one beautiful video collaboration by Christopher Cichoki."

 

Isan - "Candidate" from Cristopher Sea on Vimeo.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Flying Lotus behind the scenes film for Dazed

Richard Metzger interviews Flying Lotus for Dazed:

 

And speaking of Flying Lotus, check out the latest video from Until the Quiet Comes:

 

Still haven't gotten your Fly Lo fill for November, check out Mr. Ellison's new persona side project Captain Murphy.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Getting Started with Antonio Blanca's DRON-E for REAKTOR

Brent Kallmer from Bluewater VST helps you get started with Dron-e:

Posted with Blogsy

Heavy Artillery for Twisted Tools S-Layer

I'm giving thanks this weekend for a brand spanking new video from Brent Kallmer and Bluewater VST! This time on using third party sample maps and snapshot banks for Twisted Tools S- Layer Reaktor ensemble:

 

Posted with Blogsy

How to add groove with ReGroove - Reason Tips

The Props just posted a great new video on using ReGroove in Reason:

"Want your tracks to really groove? Tired of using the same shuffle setting for everything? ReGroove is there for you and product specialist Mattias will help you understand how to do it! Learn how to change the global shuffle, assign a groove to a track, create your own groove templates and some other tips and tricks in this Reason Tips video."

 

Posted with Blogsy

Elektron Analog Four — Four Voice Synthesizer

The more sounds I hear from the coming Elektron Analog Four, the more I think I'll need one:

 

Posted with Blogsy

Kick Toolkit Review!

 

The kick is the backbone of dance music. Defining both style and genre by it's sound and rhythm, from the straight click of minimal tech to the bouncy thud of hip hop. So needless to say a great kick is vital to any production. Personally, I've been collecting old analog drum and rhythm machines for a number of years and one I've always had my eye on is the Jomox M-Base. The latest incarnation, the M-Base 11, is capable of classic 808/909 kicks and much much more, with a frequency range down to 10hz! Of course the real issue with using this drum synth is the need of a sequencer, and if your like me and prefer making beats in Reason, that's an issue (midi out in Reason 7?). But that's where the new Kick Toolkit ReFill from Robb at Reason Patch a Day comes in! Featuring over 300 samples recorded directly from the M-Base 11, 38 specially designed drum kick effects Combinators, 11 mini-combis with dedicated front panel controls and a boat load of tuned kick synths - all for $5!

After picking up the Kick Toolkit ReFill and spending an afternoon lost in rhythm nirvana I had to ask Robb a few questions about this refill:

You've been working on Reason Patch a Day for over 4 years! First off what made you decide to do a commercial refill now and why the Jomox MBase 11 Analog Bass Drum Module as your sound source?

"It was really a case of the device leading the project. I had been wanting a MBase 11 from the minute I had read about it, and when I finally got my hands on one, I was blown away by the sounds I was able to get out of it. Since I'm constantly "feeding the blog," it made sense to put together some kick samples for Reason Patch A Day, but the more time I spent using the Mbase, the more I thought the samples could stand on their own.

My original plan was just to package them up as a sample library, but given my love for Reason, I decided that I could add some personalized effects and make it a refill. I'm sure I cost myself some potential customers by focusing just on Reason, but I wanted to support the community that has supported my blog for so long."

The Kick Toolkit comes with over 300 samples that cover a lot of sonic terrain - from classic analog sounding kicks to the short click kicks that I love. I've been playing around with the raw samples loaded into Kong for the last few days and was quite pleasantly surprised out how well the kicks fit with Kong's built in snare and hat modules - when creating these kicks did you visualize how they would sound with Reason's built in devices?

"Not really. My goal was just to concentrate on the kicks themselves. The kick drum is the foundation of a lot of electronic music, so I figured that if people had a solid foundation to start with, they'd find ways to add to it with other sounds and drums.

I was a little worried, at first, about having a set of kicks that didn't have kits built around them, but when I did some experiments on my own, I quickly realized what you had discovered. It's surprisingly simple to just add a good snare or hi-hat to the kicks in the refill, and it all just works."

The samples themselves are recorded at 24 bit resolution and sound fantastic! On the Reason Patch a Day site you mention using no outside processing, out of curiosity what's your studio set-up?

"It's pretty minimal. When I first started using Reason, I got my hands on a first generation M-Audio Oxygen and a Quattro, but found that I did most of my work on a laptop, away from home and any dedicated hardware. I've slowly swung back around to having a dedicated studio space, but I still do the majority of my work in Reason with a mouse, as opposed to a keyboard.

I have a pile of old drum machines, some keyboards, a couple of microphones, a Mobile-Pre, and a collection of various sound toys laying around (stuff like the Casio VL-Tone, Stylophone, an original Beep-It, a Bliptronic, a Korg Monotron and the Monotribe, etc.), but usually once I've sampled what I like, those boxes don't get used much.

The device I probably use the most is my Microtrack II. It's a small digital recorder that can accept a signal from a mic or a couple of formats of line-in and I use it for a lot of my sampling, given that I can literally take it anywhere. It sounds great for the price and hasn't failed me yet. I did most of the recordings directly from the Mbase into the Microtrack II and I think the results were great.

I suppose what I really should do is clean up my studio and get everything wired up. Maybe that'll be a good New Year's Eve project. "

 

 

Kick Toolkit Specs:

Kick Drum WAVs: Over 300 unique kick drum samples created using the Jomox Mbase 11 Analog Bass Drum Module, a single voice analog synthesizer fine-tuned for producing a variety of bass drum sounds. Each kick was created specifically for this refill and was sampled at 24-bit resolution, with no outside processing, for the cleanest possible signal and sound.

Effects: The Kick Toolkit Refill contains 38 effect patches, using Reason's Scream, RV7000, Pulverizer, and other effect units.

Mini-Combis: One or two device Combinators designed specifically for the purpose of manipulating and sculpting kick drum patches and samples. Each Mini-Combi has been programmed with front panel control ranges designed for its limited task to make final tweaks fast and easy. A number of Mini-Combis have also been included to provide presets for devices that do not normally allow for loading and saving patches (ex. BV512 Vocoder). 11 mini-Combis are included, along with 43 additional presets, providing help with compression, equalization, and other general purposes.

At $5 USD picking up the Kick Toolkit ReFill is a no brainer. Seriously this refill will give you enough low end sample fodder for months to come, not to mention the great Combinators and effects devices. Check out some of the beats I came up with while playing around with Kick Toolkit along with sounds from the Reason Factory Soundbank and Nucleus Soundlab's BFD Core ReFill:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Rob Papen Distort RE!

 

Out today - RP Distort! First off this is one awesome effects device, with cabinet simulation, 4 band EQ, an awesome filter section, compressor, stereo widener and finally a gate. But the real magic begins when using the modulation section complete with 4 multi-wave LFOs with "Shape" and "Hum" controls and 4 mod bus slots where the user can choose both the source and destination. I for one can't wait to run the new Radical Keys RE thru this device. RP Distort is available for the introductory price of $25 USD thru December! Check out some audio:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Elektron Analog 4!

Elektron have a brand new analog synth available for pre order, complete with the sequencing and parameter lock functions that made the Machinedrum world famous! The Elektron Analog Four starts shipping on December 3rd, sells for $1149, and sounds awesome:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

RP-Distort RE tutorial

Coming soon to the Reason Rack:

Posted with Blogsy

Weedy of 40 Winks "Retrospect Suite" Album Artwork

Project: Mooncircle in the last few years has become one of my favorite labels. From Long Arm to Robot Koch, PM is always in heavy rotation on my 1200s. And the new Retrospect Suite from Weedy of 40 Winks looks like another stellar release:

"In a repeatedly rephrased metaphor of vinyl archaeologists digging for samples and re-constructing music from tiny pieces and fractions of long lost sounds, Weedy of 40 Winks is actually a rare example of this image being executed to perfection. His puzzling way of piecing together intricate beats, rich in details, breaks and variations, is rather analogous to surrealist art than to most of his fellow contemporary beat-smiths. On top he adds his own instrumentation to perfect these compositions, being like a conservator creating mosaics of rhythms, grooves and harmonies, giving the listeners imagination ample space to wander about."

 

Retrospect Suite is coming out on December 14th! In the meantime take a listen to the track "The Blue":

 

Posted with Blogsy

Radical Keys Rack Extension

When Propellerhead introduced the Radical Piano RE I was hoping it would do electric piano sounds In addition to acoustics, which of course it doesn't... But the brand new Radical Keys RE has those classic key sounds I was longing for in spades! Check it:

 

Posted with Blogsy

How to Use the REAKTOR Sample Map Generator

Brent Kallmer runs thru how to use Martin's Sample Map Generator for Reaktor in the latest Bluewater VST video:

Posted with Blogsy

Presentation of the Volt SH-1 Rack Extension

Another interesting new Rack Extension in the Prop Shop from Zvork Audio! Check it:

Posted with Blogsy

RE-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier for Reason 6.5

Wow! This new Rack Extension from Cakewalk / Roland looks amazing:

Posted with Blogsy

Lusine - Another Tomorrow

Lusine's "Another Tomorrow" is the first single from the upcoming Ghostly International album The Waiting Room, available Februaury 18th, 2013:

"The Waiting Room is Jeff McIlwain's third full-length release for Ghostly International under the moniker Lusine, and his first album since 2009's A Certain Distance. As with all McIlwain's work as Lusine, this is a record that's characterized by both diversity and coherency. Its tracks traverse a variety of sonic landscapes, from the widescreen atmospherics of appropriately-titled opening track "Panoramic" through the digital soul arrangement of Electronic's "Get the Message" and the club-friendly bounce of "First Call" to the slow-building Detroit-inflected closer "February".

But for all The Waiting Room's eclecticism, it's also notable that it plays out as a coherent whole, with McIlwain's deft production creating the sense of a single, logical journey — an album, rather than a simple collection of tracks... a record that's both rewarding of a serious headphone session and also warm and melodic enough to make listening as engaging in an emotional sense as it is in an intellectual one."

 

Posted with Blogsy

Selected sounds from Dron-e.

pNORTNAOMI with sounds from Dron-e:

"Dron-e is a Reaktor instrument created by Antonio Blanca and is available to download from his website. These sounds are from the included pnortnaomi preset list."

Posted with Blogsy

10th Anniversary Minimoog Voyager

Happy 10th Anniversary Voyager!

Posted with Blogsy

EditEd4TV ReCover - Send Me an Angel

Ed Bauman has out done himself this time on Real Life's classic 80's hit "Send Me an Angel". The sounds from this track are available in Ed's 88mph Vol.2 ReFill. Dig it:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Reaktor DRON-E Tips 1 - External Modulators

Antonio Blanca shows how to connect "external modulators" in his fantastic Reaktor ensemble Dron-e:

 

Posted with Blogsy

Livid CNTRL:R and DSI Tempest - The Meeting

Peter Nyboer (Livid) vs. Carson Day (DSI):

Posted with Blogsy

Giles Reaves: Space Music Improv on the Synapse Antidote Synthesizer

Giles Reaves, aka Selig on the PUF, digs into the new Synapse Antidote RE available in the Prop Shop:

Posted with Blogsy