Plogue has released version 1.5 of Chipsounds, a virtual synthesizer which authentically emulates vintage 8bit-era sound chips.
The most advanced 8-bit sound chip emulator is doing even more to save endangered sound chip species!
In addition to having a totally new Interface and improved sound authenticity, Plogue is saving 3 new sound chips from extinction and adds many additional features.
Changes in Chipsounds v1.5
Totally different skin (fits on all monitors and ebooks).
Current mixer strip is always available.
You can now enter some values using keyboard.
New Amplitude LFO added.
Two asignable drawable user LFOS.
New: uPD1771C (as used in the Super Cassette Vision).
New: uPD65010G (as used in the PV-1000).
New: M5232 (as used in the Poly-800).
DMG-01′s wave channel now has extra phase modulation (Pmode) and vertical offset (VPOS) settings.
Added new MIDI Delay Module.
Added Swing to Arpeggiator.
Chipsounds is available to purchase an instrument plug-in for PC and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) for $95 USD.
Avid has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Euphonix, a leader in large-format digital audio consoles, media controllers and peripherals.
With the acquisition, Avid will deliver a broad range of audio and video control surfaces and consoles designed to meet the needs of customers ranging from the independent professional to the high-end broadcaster. Avid plans to continue to support and sell both Euphonix control surfaces and Avid’s existing ICON solution, enabling customers to leverage existing investments in industry-leading hardware.
“This acquisition greatly expands our portfolio to offer customers a complementary set of workflow solutions–from independent producers creating music in their home studios to broadcasters preparing segments for national broadcast,” said Gary Greenfield, chairman and CEO, Avid. “We remain committed to driving interoperability and modularity across a vast ecosystem of Avid and third-party creative hardware and software solutions. And, as audio and video workflows continue to converge, we are now well positioned to deliver control surfaces that work across both audio and video applications, making the content creation process more cost-effective and efficient for our customers.”
Avid plans to further develop an open standard protocol that greatly expands the ecosystem of compatibility between the Euphonix control surfaces and a wide range of Avid and third-party audio and video applications, including Media Composer and Pro Tools. For existing Euphonix customers, Avid will continue to support EuCon– the Euphonix high-speed Ethernet protocol that enables its control surfaces to interface with third-party software.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of April.
Plogue has released version 1.0.0.3 of Chipsounds, a virtual chipsound synthesizer plug-in which turns your host into a classic video game console, vintage 8bit home computer and even an 80’s arcade.
Plogue chipsounds authentically emulates more than eight vintage 8bit-era sound chips (on top of their variants), down to their smallest idiosyncrasies.
Changes in Chipsounds v1.0.0.3
New presets (around 300 total).
VST/AU parameters (only on first slots).
MIDI Out in VSTi mode (AU later).
Small skin installed but turned off by default (need to choose GUI_small in AriaSetup.xml).
Transpose setting for each slot.
MOS TED chip added (not worth a huge mention).
Various bug fixes.
Chipsounds is available to purchase for PC and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS), priced at 65 EUR excl. VAT. A demo version of Chipsounds is now also available to download (Silence after a 15 minute session; No Save).
AudioCubes designer Bert Schiettecatte will be hosting a series of one day workshops at his private workspace, for a select number of artists, starting November 10th 2009.
Workshop description: Starting with some theory, you will discover the history of AudioCubes, tangible interfaces, and their applications. The practical part of the workshop will let you master the technical aspects of using AudioCubes in sound, music and visual creation, and let you work on your own project using AudioCubes.
Topics covered:
history of audiocubes
overview of tangible interfaces
why were audiocubes created / fundamental ideas
how audiocubes work
the audiocubes hardware
audiocubes software for live performance, sound design and music production
how to use audiocubes to control MIDI software and hardware
Google plans to launch a music service, Wired.com has confirmed with sources familiar with the situation. Next to nothing is known about the service at this point, rumored to be called “Google Music,” “Google Audio,” or “One Box,” although we have confirmed that it will be announced next Wednesday, and that it will link out to two music services: Lala and iLike.
Tom Shear @ Waveformless shares his thoughts in his Chipsounds review
What excites me most about Chipsounds is the possibilities for the future. I’d love to see a couple options that weren’t present in the original machine introduced here. A filter section would definitely expand the possibilities (a handful of chips have filters available as their chip-specific settings), a more useful and flexible Portamento function would be great, and, as mentioned before, a wider array of effects would be a nice addition. That said, imposing the limitations of the original chips is not a bad thing in my opinion. It encourages the same kind of creative thinking and workarounds the original programmers used to use back in the day to get sounds you wouldn’t expect to be possible with such limited means. Plogue has approached this softsynth with a palpable sense of reverence and their affection for these outdated sound makers shines through in abundance. An exceptionally fun and unique instrument! [8/10]
The 2009 Roland Keyz ’n Beats Summit will be taking place in Hollywood, CA at the famous Musicians Institute on Saturday, October 24, 2009.
Space is limited, so pre-register now! Plus, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a new JUNO-Di Synthesizer or SP-404SX Linear Wave Sampler. (Note: You must be present to win your prize.)
This demonstration uses my crude DIY flux capacitor for the Livewire AFG, basically 5 switches and 10 jacks corresponding to the flux cap pins. Two pin pairs are attenuated by two VCA's controlled by the makenoise/wiard wogglebug, crosspatched with the malekko/wiard noisering, which drives the melodic noodling, via a A-189-1 used as a bitcrusher, to perform cheap quantizing.
The sine output is sent to an input of a makenoise QMMG, driven by the A-143-1 envelope. About halfways through, a feedback path from the animated pulses, animated by A-143-1 LFOs, into the A-106-6 xpander filter (wogglebug controlled) goes into one of the pins on the flux cap expander, resulting in strange noises and unpredictable overtones.
This is a simple sequencer machine which uses Capacitative Sensing Code for input to the Arduino. It is is a combination drumpad and sequencer. It has just two modes, record, and playback, and needs very few components; an Arduino (of course), and just 3 resistors and a piezo speaker. If you're feeling decadent, you can add an LED (with a resistor) for more "ooomph".
For those starting out in electronics as a hobby there are some tools that are required for the job. To begin with, a soldering iron, some screw drivers, perhaps tweezers and of course a multi-meter are probably what you would consider essential.
After a while though, you are going to be looking for more. Amongst the other goodies out there to help you on your way are oscilloscopes. In the past, advice on forums has always tended more towards purchasing a second hand scope. These tend to be had for around £100 on places like E-bay and most certainly will be a few years old if available at this sort of price. Well that is changing and I was excited yesterday to get my hands on a “Scope” that may just re-write the forum advice. Meet the Nano DSO from Seed Studio…
Eric posts some samples of his mini space rockers analog percussion synthesizer.
Here are over 80 different electro drum / noise samples from the mini space rockers circuit… but you should really build it because its analog and it sounds a little different every time. and its cheap, so no excuses. I am offering these samples under a Creative Commons Attribution license. That means you are free to use them for whatever, but please credit me where appropriate.
Chiron Bramberger turns his synth for the Commodore PET open source.
Petsynth features a two-octave keyboard layout, selectable note length, many selectable octaves, selectable pulse-width, vibrato, distortion, and noise or “drum mode” depending on how you use it.
All this without adding or hacking the Commodore PET in any way. Plus, it’s compiling from C, so it’s FAST – with very low latency.
The drum sounds are also crazy weird. You can also set the vibrato so high it sounds more like a laser gun or alien telephone.
Kseniya Simonova is an Ukrainian artist who won Ukraine's Got Talent 2009. She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.
Testing m4l interfacing capabilities with arduino through max's [serial] object. A simple 4-sensor controller for an FM synth. Analog and digital information is mapped onto midi control messages that can be routed inside live for events or modulation.
Plogue has released Chipsounds, a virtual chipsounds synthesizer plug-in for Windows and Mac.
This new product allow any musician to faithfully reproduce the sound and style of vintage video game music and sound effects in a convenient plugin format, usable inside any sequencer or DAW, or as a standalone virtual instrument.
Powered by Plogue/Garritan’s ARIA virtual instrument engine, chipsounds reproduces the idiosyncrasies of the most sought-after classic sound chips, including their most well-known variations, as sonically accurate as possible without adding any non-authentic aliasing or DSP artifacts. Whether musicians are already versed into chiptune/chip music or just interested in those sounds, this is one unique instrument for them.
Research and analysis for this project has been made in house on Plogue’s large collection of cartridges, modified consoles and classic computers and also on the chips themselves using custom made circuit boards and low level 8 bit software code.
Chipsounds simulates the following chips
TIAused in the 2600 & 7800
Accurate Multipulse/Polynomial bit pattern waveforms for those unique combat, engine drones and powerful mix piercing “fake-saw” sound.
2A03and its portable variant, used in the Big N consoles
Accurate pulse width settings (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4).
Drawable 4bit/32 step bandlimited Waveform.
Huge number custom and classic waveforms to choose from, including the unique triangle sound of the Big “N”.
Short (93/127bit) and Long (32767bit) noise patterns accurately modeled.
AY-3-8910and its numerous clones 8912/8913/8914/2149F, used in Intv, ZX, ST, Arcades
Emulation of Sync Buzzer Envelope Looping tricks.
Accurate logarithmic 4Bit DAC.
POKEYused in 400/800 series computer and Arcades
Fat and accurate Multipulse/Polynomial bit pattern waveforms with clock desynchronization.
SN76489ANand its SN76496 SN94624N predecessor, used in the ColecoVision, SMS, BBC, TI99, PCjr, Tandy and Arcades
Basic and RAW, the purest chip there is.
Different NOISE patterns for all variants, all emulated.
UVIused in the Arcadia 2001
A rarity that can prove effective in the grinding department with its logical anding of pulse and noise patterns (As used in the Arcadia 2001 and MPT-03).
P824Xused in the Odyssey 2
Obscure chip that oddly only plays the scale of E5 (slightly detuned).
And the subtle psychoacoustic sound of screaming at the start of its noise pattern.
SIDincluding 6580 and 8580, used in the C64
The most important sound chip of the 80’s gaming era.
Variable Pulsewidth, SAW, Triangle, 8bit noise and even combined waveforms.
Most waveforms are actually SAMPLES of the real thing for 100% accuracy, especially for the combined waveforms.
VIC-Iused in the VIC20
This chip is very underhestimated gem with tolally unique sounding waveforms.
Newly discovered “Robotic” waveforms are emulated.
Rough, nasty noise pattern too.
Chipsounds is available for PC and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) for the introductory price of $75 USD until November 1, 2009.
ElectroKraft has released Super Synth Drums, a genuine Nintendo NES cartridge that transforms your original NES, or clone system (Yobo, Generation Nex) into an 8 bit percussion instrument.
Just plug the cartridge into your Nintendo NES system (or clone), and connect to an amplifier or TV for audio.
Super Synth Drums features
Plug & play 8 piece Nintendo NES drum kit.
Controller #1: Each button produces a different 8 bit percussion sound.
Controller #2: Adds several varieties (rate/speeds) of pulsing/looping effect to any of the 8 percussion sounds produced by Controller #1.
You can use the original NES controllers, new 3rd party controllers, or ElectroKraft’s custom controller, the “Sonic DrumAxe” to play true 8 bit percussion from your Nintendo NES system.
The Super Synth Drums cartridge costs $49 plus shipping, and 15% of the sale of each cart is donated to Action Against Hunger.
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