Results for Akai

Loopmasters has released Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3, a collection of twisted beats and deformed audio sickness guaranteed to deliver a fresh bout of insanity to any production.

Back once again from the electronic surgery of the Circuitbenders labs, the products of an unholy alliance between soldering iron and sampler return to unleash another unhealthy dose of audio terrorism upon your unsuspecting senses!

From a cut-price drum toy to the mighty Roland SH101, nothing is safe from circuitbenders.co.uk attentions, with every machine being treated with an equally relaxed concern for its basic rights to bring you this unique set of sounds.

Stepping outside of normal methods of synthesis and audio production to unlock the true potential of an otherwise ordinary bit of hardware is the circuitbenders technique, All the machines used on this release have been rewired and abused to operate far beyond their normal design limits, enabling them to produce all those sounds that the original designers either fought to avoid or just never dreamed possible.

Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3 features

• Over 650Mb of content, comprising of over 758 samples, 283 Loops and 475 Single Sounds.
• 209 Drum Loops, 74 Sound Loops, and 22 Sounds and FX from a simply huge collection of circuit bent toys, drum machines and instruments of all types:
  • Includes old school drum machines given a new lease of life in the form of the rare Akai XR10, the Yamaha RX7, Korg DDD1, Casio RZ1 sampling drum machine, Boss DR550 and the legendary Roland TR707, along with a host of esoteric electronic devices and toys supplying extra beats.
  • Modified keys and synths include the analogue Roland SH101, the MFOS weird sound generator, Yamaha PSS270, Casio SA5, Rocktek Delay pedal and the favourite of every lofi musician and circuit bender, the Casio SK1 sampler.
  • Rewired kids toys including Early Leaner shapes toy, Letterland toy, Bongon electronic bongos, VTech Talking Alfie teddy bear, Little Tykes guitar, Mix Me DJ toy and the classic Texas Instruments Speak & Read and Speak & Write toys amongst many others.
• 22 ready to play patches for all the most popular software samplers including Reason’s NNXT, Halion, Kontakt, EXS and SFZ.
• Acidised Wav, Rex2 and Apple Loop formats are all available.

Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3 is available to purchase for £19.95 GBP.

More information: Loopmasters / Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Handmade synth senses wireless activity

From Make:

Yoshi Akai's Wireless Catcher analog synth derives control input from nearby wireless signals picked up by an onboard antennae. As if that weren't interesting enough, the copper control panel sports some elegant decorative flourishes typical of his impressive body of work.

# nofi – Elsewhere (album preview)

A full preview of the new Nofi album, 'Elsewhere,' to be released on March 4, 2010. This is a return to a more abstract, ambient, chilled-out, laid-back, space lounge sound, featuring six extended pieces:

The music on 'Elsewhere' was created using Ableton Suite 8 with Max for Live, Nodal generative music software, Native Instruments' Reaktor modular sound studio and Massive virtual synth, on an Apple MacBook Pro with Novation ReMOTE ZeRO and Monome greyscale 64 controllers, and a Presonus Firebox audio interface.

Note: This exclusive preview will be available for steaming on SoundCloud only until the album is released.

# The Superplexus

This is the three-dimensional spherical labyrinth that challenges the limits of your manual dexterity and spatial understanding as you maneuver a 5/8" wooden marble through its entire course.

The Superplexus is a complex network of chicanes, multi-planar hairpin turns, spirals, and staircases–even a vortex. Hand made from 3- and 6-ply Finnish birch that form the track, over 400 hours are involved in its construction. The labyrinth is set inside a 36" diameter acrylic sphere affixed to a Jatoba base using a stainless steel gimbaled mount that allows you to tilt the sphere in any direction to guide the marble.

This lovely puzzle can be yours for a mere $30,000 USD.

Akai Professional has announced the MPD26, a USB/MIDI pad controller with genuine MPC pads.

The heart of the MPD26 is its bank of 16 velocity and pressure-sensitive MPC pads, an Akai Professional exclusive. Producers can access four different sounds from each MPC pad for a total of 64 at a time. The MPD26 also features the MPC series’ assignable Q-Link controllers, enabling musicians to control a wide range of parameters in their software in real time. The MPD26’s six assignable Q-Link faders and six assignable Q-Link 360° knobs enable producers to spend less time with the mouse and more time making music. The MPD26 also has a dedicated set of transport controls for instant access to the most commonly used DAW or sequencing-software controls.

MPD26 features

• Access 64 samples on 16 pressure and velocity-sensitive MPC pads with four banks each.
• MPC technologies include Note Repeat, Swing, 16 Level, Full Level, and Tap Tempo.
• Control virtually any 12 software parameters on assignable Q-Link knobs and faders.
• Dedicated transport controls transmit MMC and MIDI to DAW and sequencing applications.
• MIDI output over USB and traditional DIN MIDI I/O for controlling software and hardware.
• Backlit, easy-to-read screen.
• USB bus powered, class compliant: plug and play with one USB cable.
• Comes with Ableton Live Lite and Editor Librarian software.

The MPD26 will be available from pro audio and musical instrument retailers in January 2010. It has a U.S. Retail Price of $299 USD and an estimated street price of $199 USD.

More information: Akai Professional / MPD26

Akai Professional has announced the iPK25 keyboard controller and the SynthStation Studio music production app, both for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The iPK25 and SynthStation Studio transform a musician’s iPhone or iPod Touch into a portable music production studio for mobile music creation. While the SynthStation Studio app is powerful enough for professional musicians, virtually anyone can use it to easily create music. The app gives musicians three synthesizers for creating and modifying sonic textures used for melodies, chords and bass lines. Built around Akai Professional’s history in synthesis and drawing on the company’s newest MINIAK synth, the SynthStation Studio app sounds great and offers wide-ranging sonic flexibility with its virtual analog synthesis.

SynthStation Studio users can create and save sequences and complete songs. The app contains three different three-oscillator synths, and drum kits, which musicians can sequence and mix right in the SynthStation Studio. For creating melodic and accompaniment parts, the SynthStation Studio contains an arpeggiator with preset patterns, built-in effects and filters and an XY control interface for expressive control of key parameters.

The SynthStation Studio features an on-screen keyboard for use on the go. It is also designed for use with its companion keyboard, the iPK25.

This 25-key MIDI keyboard features a built-in dock for the iPhone or iPod Touch. It gives users two octaves of velocity-sensitive, synth-action keys, pitch and modulation wheels, and physical buttons for the most commonly used controls including octave up and down and sound-bank selections.

iPK25 features

• 25-key MIDI keyboard controller for iPhone and iPod touch.
• Velocity-sensitive, synth-action keys for expressive performance.
• Pitch and modulation wheels, octave +/-, and sound-bank buttons.
• Stereo RCA line outputs and headphone jack.
• USB/MIDI for virtually any MIDI music software or MIDI hardware devices.
• Seamlessly compatible with Akai SynthStation Studio app.

The iPK25 will be available from pro audio and musical instrument retailers in March 2010. It has a U.S. Retail Price of $199 USD and an estimated street price of $149 USD. The SynthStation Studio app will be available from the iTunes App Store in January 2010.

More information: Akai Professional / iPK25

Akai Professional has announced the APC20, a compact professional Ableton controller.

The APC20 retains many of the APC40’s most popular features and capabilities, while shrinking the physical footprint and adding interesting new capabilities. The smaller size enables musicians to perform in less space and makes setting up multiple controllers and devices easier. Power users can use the APC20 in conjunction with an APC40 to expand their track and clip controls.

Like the APC40, the APC20 centers on its five-by-eight Clip Launch grid. This bank of multicolor triggers not only start and stop clips playing in Live, they also show cells’ status in the software – whether a clip is loaded or not, whether it is playing or not, record-armed status and more. Clip Stop triggers, transport controls and faders round out the control surface. Users can switch the APC20’s faders between volume control, pan, sends and three different user-mapped modes. A new Note Mode enables musicians to use the Clip Launch buttons to control virtual instruments and Ableton Live’s Drum Rack.

Because Akai Professional and Ableton designed the APC20 for use with Ableton Live software, the system is truly plug and play, although advanced Live users will appreciate that the APC20 enables them to remap every one of its controls to suit their own style.

APC20 features

• Designed in partnership with Ableton, mapped for Live, and fully customizable.
• Clip Launch matrix with multicolor lighting displays current clip status.
• No mapping required; every button and fader is pre-mapped.
• Bidirectional hardware/software communication for visual feedback on APC20.
• Solid, professional feel with rugged, metal chassis and premium controls.
• Comes with Ableton Live Akai Professional APC Edition software.
• Works with standalone editions of Ableton Live.
• USB plug-and-play connection for Mac and PC.

The APC20 will be available at a MSRP of $299 USD (estimated street $199 USD).

More information: Akai Professional / APC20

Hollow Sun has released the Bass Station Freepack, a free sample pack featuring the sounds of the Novation Bass Station.

Hollow Sun Bass Station Freepack (Kontakt)

From the Hollow Sun website:

What’s on offer here are 30 excellent synth bass sounds that cover a wide range of genres, uses and applications and which Dan has looped and programmed to perfection. Nothing fancy – just 30 solid synth bass sounds that sit nicely in a track.

But they cover the full keyboard range from C1-C7 and are therefore equally as useful as fruity analogue polysynth sounds and lead lines and the raw samples are open to much abuse by the more adventurous amongst you.

And in keeping with the Hollow Sun ethos, all the sounds have been carefully optimised by Dan to have minimum impact on RAM and disk storage and CPU strain making them fast and efficient.

For Kontakt users, there’s a bonus in that there are 90 programs and the programs have themed skins and some custom controls for quick tweaking.

The Bass Station Freepack is available as a free download in Alesis Fusion, Akai S5/6000, Z4/8, MPC4000, MPC5000V2 and Kontakt 3 formats.

More information: Hollow Sun / Freepacks