Results for controller

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Phillips SAA-1099 Sample Pack (Copyright-free and License-free)

A new pack of samples by Sebastian Tomczak:

I have made a copyright-free and license-free sample pack of the Phillips SAA-1099 sound generator chip. It is a very straightforward sample pack, consisting of 96 pitched samples and 16 noise samples, across a range of frequencies. These samples have been recorded from hardware. The audio output stage of the sound chip has not been filtered.

Sebastian has also announced a music contest:

It's time to get your chipmusic on! This is your chance to win a SEGA Master System MIDI Interface. Be the coolest musician in your town with this brand new tool that lets you control the sound chip in your SEGA Master System with MIDI data.

More information: SEGA Music Competition: Win A SEGA Master System MIDI Interface!

# Jim Reekes, The Man Behind Mac Sound

From Create Digital Music:

The legend of the early sounds of the Mac remains, apparently, an alluring one. Here, Jim Reekes talks to a Dutch documentary crew (though in English) about his thought process in designing sounds for the Mac, including the famous Mac startup sound.

# New Block Construction

Livid Instruments improves its Block:

Improving on a design and sharing the results with our users is always at the top of our list at Livid. The Block controller has been a great success and we have just made some minor design changes to make it even better. Originally milled from a solid block of wood, the square body with thin bottom has had its challenges, mostly warping and cupping. We have experienced a bit higher reject rate for bodies at the shop before they were built then we would like. Thus, the up and coming stash of rejected bodies in the Livid Graveyard that were never meant to be!

# Waveformless: 5 Ways of Emulating Vintage Samplers

Tom Shear on how to emulate vintage samplers:

When sampling technology finally became accessible to mere mortals and not just uber-rich Fairlight and Synclavier enthusiasts, the race was on to increase fidelity and leave behind the limitations of those first 8-bit samplers. Bit depth and sampling rates increased and memory capacity expanded until the average sampled sound was indistinguishable from the same sound recorded on a CD.

But sure enough, after many years of enjoying the pristine sound quality of the new sampling technology, musicians began to explore and exploit the limitations of the old school samplers. Suddenly the grain of low bit-rate samples and the metallic grit of aliasing is very much in style. So how can you emulate the sonic artifacts of some of the long forgotten vintage samplers? I'm glad you asked…

# Intello – Better Demo of first version (YouTube)

This is the plugin I am currently working on. It's called "Intello". Basically it's a glitch producing plugin and in this first short demo I'm showing you one of the 5 planned glitching modes. The plugin will be controllable by an iPhone application from a listening audience. So the listeners can interact with a performer.

More information: www.zettt.de

eaReckon has released BloXpander, a music application originally designed to meet the requirements of musicians and engineers in “live” situations.

BloXpander combines the power of a computer and the efficiency of a dedicated device.

Its interface has been designed to match this basic specification. It is visually attractive and clear, the construction of projects and the access to prepared instruments and effects is very fast. The plugins manipulation is direct (especially when BloXpander is coupled to an external MIDI controller).

BloXpander features

• ASIO Host for VST plugins (Windows only)
  • 24 channels
  • 4 Auxiliary bus + 1 Master bus
  • 6 inserts per channels (theoretical 174 Instrumetns / FX slots)
• Advanced support for external MIDI controllers (lets you control the mixer and plugins)
  • Control up to 8 plugins (8 parameters each) with just 8 potentiometers + 8 buttons
  • Displays the controlled targets names on screen
  • Lightning fast configuration procedure
  • Mackie Control protocol supported
• Advanced routing
  • Global management of MIDI and Audio streams (MIDI VST Fx supported)
  • Assign the same MIDI input port to several channels (MIDI Split)
  • Assign the same Audio inputs to several channels (Audio Split)
  • Assign any available audio and/or MIDI output or the Master bus to any channel
  • Pre/Post fader selector (aux sends)
  • Specific routing solutions for “multi out” and “sidechain capable” plugins
  • Audio inputs monitoring
  • Outputs Solo and Mute functions
  • Inserts Bypass function
• Full screen friendly and fast interface
  • Designed as the panel of a hardware unit
  • Touchscreen friendly (for critical functionalities)
  • No main menu and no massive amount of overlapping windows
  • Auto-created visual representation of your plugins (GUI screenshots)
  • “Drag ‘n Drop” your plugins and their states from insert to insert (copy / move)
  • Supports multi-screens
  • Netbook friendly
• “Libraries” system
  • Store and callback a plugin and its state from one double-click on a large zone
  • Custom management of your favorite plugins and presets
• “Sets” and ”scenes”
  • Store and callback the complete state of BloXpander (“Scene”) from one double-click
  • Organize your scenes as “sets” (easy and fast access to what you need during a show)
• Categorized Plugins library (“The Case”)
• Optimized and secured operations
  • Analyze your plugins compatibility from a stand-alone tool (limits the eventuality of the main application malfunctioning)
  • Fast launching
• And more…
  • Tempo adjustment (« Tap tempo » feature)
  • MIDI panic
  • Plugins transparency
  • “Shell” plugins compliance

BloXpander is available to purchase for Windows PC, priced at 69 EUR.

More information: eaReckon / BloXpander

Expert Sleepers has released version 1.5.2 of Silent Way, a suite of plug-ins designed for use with analogue synthesisers, and especially as part of a modular analogue synthesiser system.

A new plug-in has been added to the suite: Silent Way AC Encoder.

Silent Way AC Encoder removes the need for a DC coupled audio interface (common to Silent Way and all other software that generates CVs) and lets you use Silent Way with almost any audio interface. The two requirements are

• your interface must have balanced outputs (almost all do).
• you need to make some special cables.

The cables are a very simple job, well within the scope of anyone with basic soldering skills.

Silent Way is available to purchase for PC and Mac (VST/AU) for $49 USD, plus VAT if applicable.

More information: Expert Sleepers / Silent Way

Total Kontrol has released Mssiah Drummer Controller, a software to control the Mssiah Drummer, part of the suite of music applications of the MSSIAH MIDI cartridge for Commodore 64.

Mssiah Drummer Controller lets you control every parameter found on Mssiah Drummer on one single screen.

No more frustrating sub menus, full control over 2 SID chips (if installed) filters and voice mapping. Drummer operates as a standalone editor or as a VSTi plugin (Windows).

Mssiah Drummer Controller is available to purchase for £10 GBP.

More information: Total Kontrol / Mssiah Drummer Controller

Midikatapult has released version 1.12 of Katapult, a very flexible mapping application for the Novation Launchpad.

It allows you to map customisable multipage-layouts to the Launchpad and send the MIDI output to any application or device. It also supports bi-directional communication, meaning that your software can update the controls on the Launchpad surface.

Changes in Katapult v1.12

• Added new control: CC output
• Added new control: Raw note
• Added new control: Drumrack
• Added new control: Keyboard shortcut
• Added ability to customise send channels
• Added ability to reload layouts on the fly
• Documentation updated

Katapult is available to purchase for Windows and Mac, priced at $23.95 USD.

More information: Katapult

Symbolic Sound Corporation has expanded the list of real-time controllers and software that can communicate with its Kyma sound design environment by adding support for Open Sound Control (OSC) to its Paca(rana) sound engine.

By connecting a Paca or Pacarana to the Ethernet, sound designers, musicians, and researchers using Kyma on Windows or Macintosh computers can establish bi-directional communication with OSC-enabled devices and software on the network to control parameters of Kyma sound synthesis and processing algorithms. Open Sound Control (http://opensoundcontrol.org/introduction-osc) is an open communications protocol that delivers higher speeds, greater resolution, and more flexibility than is afforded by the standard MIDI protocol. (For a partial list of software and hardware currently supporting the OSC protocol, please see http://opensoundcontrol.org/implementations).

Doug Kraul, CEO of Harmony Systems, Inc. is enthusiastic about Kyma’s new OSC technology. “OSC is a brilliant addition to the already stellar Kyma sound design workstation”, said Kraul. “It immediately enables exciting new ways to use Kyma on stage or in the studio. But the true impact of this forward looking technology is the new, innovative controllers and applications that OSC makes possible for the Kyma platform”.

Symbolic Sound Paca(rana) with ethernet port on the back panel

Bidirectional MIDI streams over OSC is available for those who don’t have any OSC-enabled devices or software yet.

Symbolic Sound has announce that several third-party development partners are concurrently announcing new software that supports bi-directional communication with Kyma over OSC:

• OSCulator: Known as the Rosetta Stone of music controllers, Camille Troillard’s Mac OS X application OSCulator (http://osculator.net) is already familiar to Kyma users who utilize it for sending individual MIDI controls, OSC, and HID control data over FireWire to Kyma. Now, in OSCulator 2.9.2, you can also send OSC messages directly to the Paca(rana) over the network. OSCulator 2.9.2 also implements Symbolic Sound’s Bi-Directional-MIDI-streams-over-OSC protocol, enabling you to send streams of MIDI events from your software directly to Kyma without need for a MIDI interface on your computer and without having to map each controller individually in OSCulator.
• vM2 and PacaMidi: Harmony Systems, Inc. is offering two new Mac OS X applications in its Delora product line, vM2 and PacaMidi, that incorporate Kyma’s new “MIDI-over-OSC” technology to further enhance and facilitate real-time interaction with Kyma. vM2, a “virtual MotorMix”, enables JazzMutant Lemur owners to enjoy automatic, fully integrated tactile control over Kyma’s Virtual Control Surface. Recently updated to include several exciting new features, vM2 2.0 employs “MIDI-over-OSC” to eliminate the complication of physical MIDI cables and interfaces. PacaMidi, Harmony’s newest product, uses “MIDI-over-OSC” to create a “virtual MIDI interface and patchbay” that adds three merged MIDI inputs and one MIDI output to a Paca(rana). This expands Kyma’s connectivity options, while saving you the expense and complexity of using physical MIDI interfaces, hardware mergers, and numerous cables. For more information see http://www.delora.com.
• Max & M4L: If you are one of the many artists using Kyma in conjunction with Ableton’s Live and/or Cycling74’s Max, you’ll be happy to hear that Andrew Capon has written a Max external for bidirectional MIDI communication over OSC that works with both Max and Max For Live. For more details, please see: http://www.symbolicsound.com/Learn/AndyCaponMaxExternalOSC

OSC-enabled Kyma X.74 is a free software update for registered Kyma X owners. OSC communication requires the Paca or Pacarana sound engine.

Kyma X.74 also comes with additional features, including an 11-times speedup in the Virtual Control Surface, support for the MOTU UltraLite Hybrid mk3, TC Electronic Impact Twin, and Prism Audio Orpheus converters, track-pad compatible menus, refinements to the Tau resynthesis, and more.

More information: Symbolic Sound