Results for Mark Mosher

Mark Mosher has announced the launch of the Modulate This! Patch Lab micro site, offering free patches created from scratch.

I’ve had a passion for programming synths and working with samplers for over 20 years. I’m constantly experimenting and creating new patches with a large variety of electronic music instruments. I’m also creating original harmonic content via field recordings and re-synthesis.

While many of these patches are used in my original music and sound compositions, I have a lot of patches that have yet to be used. This led me to thinking of ways I might share my past and future patches and samples so you could use them in your work. I also hope that these listening to these sounds, reading my notes, and spending time to reverse engineer these patches will help inspire you to go deeper with synthesis and sound design so you can add unique sounds and timbres to your music and sound compositions.

The Patch Lab patches will be available under a non-exclusive royalty-free license.

More information: Modulate This! Patch Lab

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Tyrell N6 Alpha

u-he Tyrell N6 alpha

Urs Heckmann of u-he has released an alpha version of Tyrell N6, a free synthesizer plug-in created as part of the TYRELL project (check CDM for more info).

The Tyrell N6 alpha for PC and Mac (VST/AU) is available to download for registered Amazona users (registration is free, click here).

# Sharing Patches and A/B Audio Comparison Between Green Oaks Crystal Desktop Synthesizer on Windows and Crystal XT for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch

Mark Mosher takes Green Oak’s Crystal for a spin on both the desktop and iOS, and shows how to share patches between both synths in a useful “Patch Sharing Step-by-Step”.

These instructions are in an edit of the original instructions at the bottom of this page. Green Oak’s instructions are accurate but assume you know your way around iTunes and Crystal so there are some gotchas. I’ve added some more detailed notes and steps (in red) to help fill in the gaps. Even if you only want to transfer patches from desktop to mobile, I recommend you go through steps 1-3 anyway so you’ll have a bank with the proper name an in the proper format.

Mark Mosher of Modulate This! has released Sounds From a Distant Outpost, a free Ableton Live Pack.

Sounds From a Distant Outpost is more than a sample sound library. Over 30 hours in the making, it is a set of 12 deep and expressive instrument racks that will transport you to a dark and distant outpost. From here you will be able to explore the sounds, machines, and creatures of this world. These instruments will help spark your imagination and I hope inspire you to create your own soundtrack for this world. Of course, the instruments will also help add an interesting “edge” to any sound or music project.

The source audio is made up of some of my field recordings as well as original synthesized and re-synthesis harmonic content. The concept for the instruments was based on a back-story I created as the project progressed. Fueled by the story and setting, I translated these these source samples into Ableton Live racks and meticulously programmed them to create playable dynamic instruments which are placed under your command via macro parameters, velocity, after touch, and modulation wheel mappings. I’ve also provided the original source samples for the project so those who don’t have Ableton Live will be able to use these samples as oscillator sources in synths like Absynth, Alchemy, ElectraX and Blofeld.

Sounds From a Distant Outpost is available as a free download for Ableton Live 8 and Suite 8 (Intro not supported), and a pack of samples for use in your sampler of choice is available as well.

More information: Sounds From a Distant Outpost

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Spoon Organ

Spoon Organ is an instrument that I created to show at the Make Tokyo Meeting 06 this past weekend. The user can play musical tunes simply by touching a row of spoons sitting on a table, with a fork added in for good measure. A microcontroller is used to detect changes in capacitance caused by a finger pressing against the metal, which are then sent to a computer using the MIDI protocol.

# Interview: Music Production Guru and Violinist Laura Escude

Peter Kirn interviews Laura Escudé.

She’s a composer, a sound designer, a performer, and a violinist; she’s recognized as an expert in Ableton Live and has worked with artists ranging from Cirque du Soleil to Kanye West. But now we really get to hear Laura Escudé’s musical vision as a complete picture in her debut album this year, Pororoca. That seemed the perfect time to talk to Laura about her work, particularly as it lies at the intersection of vectors in sound, visuals, and technology that matter so much to so many of us. Laura shares where she sees the music scene going, her own evolution in finding her sound and performance style, and what still lies ahead, and proves – as expected – a fantastic resource for thinking about issues artistic and technological.

Looks like some of Laura’s favorite software instruments are the same as mine, including Rob Papen synths (especially BLUE), Native Instruments Massive and Reaktor, and u-he’s wireless virtual modular Zebra synth.

# Jethroe Dub DJ FX

Jethroe has posted a free Ableton FX rack which will help you get some of those dirty dub sounds.

He also posted a couple of other interesting Ableton related things recently. Wondering how to warp multitrack audio files in Ableton Live? Check here. Also, a variphrasing in Ableton Live step-by-step here.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# The Bit Blob 2 and Bit Blob Jr.

Bleep Labs is back with some more Bit Blob noise makers.

The Bit Blob 2 and Bit Blob Junior are now available to order ($225 and $55-$80 USD respectively), ships by December 6^th.

# Handmade Music NYC 11/14

Handmade Music is part party, part science fair. Come meet people who make things that make music.

This month:

• A duo of classical guitarists who play video games with their instruments
• A project that sequences beats as you play a game of checkers
• Chip music on Game Boy
• Surf rock meets speed metal on glockenspiel, Casio, drums, bass

…plus

The official launch party for the MeeBlip, new, affordable open source synth hardware for everyone.

More info at the Handmade Music blog.

# Korg iMS-20 Review

Synthtopia rounds up some first impressions, like this one from ipaddj:

Anyone who has used the Korg Legacy plug-in will know what they are in for and the fact that you can grab patch cables and route them using the touchscreen is almost mind-melting. Like a childhood fantasy come true.

The huge sound of the MS-20 is totally there and I couldn’t stop making Daft Punk patches for the first few hours using the beast.

# Free Sample Friday: Virus Drums

Tom at Waveformless celebrates his birthday (happy birthday, Tom!) with another free sample pack:

Today is my birthday, and in the spirit of "it's better to give than to receive", here are some free synthesized drum sounds from the Access Virus. I made these quite some time ago, so they were recorded at 16-bit through an E-mu E6400. As a result, some of them have a little noise in them, but around these parts, we like to call that "character". The source of the sounds is a mix of factory patches and third party patches.

# U-HE ACE TIP: Pulse Width Modulation Basics

Mark at Modulate This! explains how to the OSC modulate pulse width on u-he's splendid ACE synth.

After watching my YouTube video “u-he ACE Tutorial: Patch Cables 101”, I had a viewer ask “How can i modulate the pulse width of? the osciliator?”, so I thought I’d do a quick answer here in text form. Click the image above to see a larger version of the synth. Annotation numbers in diagram match steps below.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Skale Tracker

Tracker goes online with a Flash based web version.

Skale Tracker is a music tracker developed by Ruben Ramos Salvador (baktery) in the year 1998. The first version was released for Windows, later a Linux version was presented and now a web version is here.

Skale Tracker web version

Brings me right back to my FastTracker 2/GUS days. I feel like pulling up some of my old .xm files and doing some remixes.

via CDM

# Making music on a microscopic scale – University of Twente

Strings a fraction of the thickness of a human hair, with microscopic weights to pluck them: researchers and students from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente have succeeded in constructing the first musical instrument with dimensions measured in mere micrometres – a 'micronium' – that produces audible tones. A composition specially written for the instrument will be performed in Enschede on Sunday 26 September.

via Matrixsynth

# Fallon and Timberlake give rap history lesson