The EM Poll

Web Clips for October 2005

Sep 14, 2005 4:48 PM

           

FROM THE EM ARCHIVES
DIY: BUILD THE EM THERAMIN
February 1996
By Robert Moog
EM Editor in Chief, Steve Oppenheimer, worked with Bob Moog to develop this article; it took almost a year, but when it was done, they had a classic story. Read it here.
1.1MB screen optimized pdf
11MB print optimized pdf

DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH
TOBYBEAR MONSTERBAG (Win)
Web Clip 1:
A 16-bar guitar loop is repeated three times: first unprocessed, then as RedRack morphs in, and finally with full RedRack processing.

DIGITECH
GNX4 (Mac)
Web Clip 1:
The harmony effect on the lead guitar was done using the GNX4's IPS effect, set to harmonize in major thirds in the key of this example (A). The lead, rhythm, and bass guitars were all recorded through the GNX4 and its USB output.

Web Clip 2:
The GNX4's built-in dbx mic preamp was used to record this acoustic guitar track. The mic was a Rode NT1-A pointed at the 12th fret of a Taylor 310 guitar.

Web Clip 3:
This clip was recorded and mixed entirely on the GNX4 using its onboard recorder, internal drum sounds, and guitar and bass effects.

Web Clip 4:
The guitars and bass for this track were recorded through the GNX4 into Cakewalk's Pro Tracks Plus 2.2, using the GNX4's footswitches to control the transport. The MIDI drum tracks were then added (using the GNX4 as a drum-sound module) and the project was mixed in the computer. The acoustic rhythm and resonator-guitar parts were recorded through a Rode NT1-A into the GNX4's mic preamp.

LINPLUG VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS
CronoX 3 (Mac/Win)
Web Clip 1:
This five-track clip was created using only CronoX 3 factory presets. CronoX 3's arpeggiator, chord generator, Gator effect, and morphing free filter are used extensively.

METASONIX
TX-2 Butt Probe (Mac/Win)
Web Clip 1: Still to come

Web Clip 2:
Solo drum-set samples- unprocessed and processed-sent through the TX-2. Notice how the distortion grabs onto the ringing hi-hat sounds. This was recorded using the TX-2 stereo option, and you can hear a small amount of distortion in the left channel in the unprocessed track. The samples are from the Big Fish Audio library Tower of Funk featuring Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi.

ROLAND
V-Synth XT
Web Clip 1:
Vocal Designer goes far beyond vocoding. Using your own voice to control physically modeled vocals is something someone should have thought of years ago.

Web Clip 2:
Like a lot of recent synths, the V-Synth XT is full of one-finger grooves that could serve as foundations for complete songs.

Web Clip 3:
The XT makes good use of its Multi Step Modulator to create pitch variations in vocal phrasing.

SOUND DESIGN WORKSHOP
New Life for Resonant Filter Sweeps
Web Clip 1:
This is a mono recording of a synthesizer bass patch utilizing a typical resonant filter sweep.

Web Clip 2:
In this clip, two filter-swept bass sounds are panned to opposite sides of the stereo field and their filter cutoff frequencies are slightly different.

Web Clip 3:
Here the filter cutoff frequencies are identical, but the decay times for the envelopes sweeping the cutoffs are slightly different.

Web Clip 4:
In this clip, a sampler is used to play back the same recorded resonant filter sweep on each side of the stereo field. The samples are slightly detuned to enhance the stereo effect and prevent phase cancellation.

Web Clip 5:
Here the previous track is bounced to mono to illustrate the undesirable flanging that will occur in with too small a detuning.

SQUARE ONE
Making Waves
Web Clip 1:
This example demonstrates six of the basic analog-type waveforms and synth-programming techniques discussed in this month's Square One. The same riff is heard six times, played by (respectively) a sine wave, a square wave, a thin pulse wave, a sawtooth wave, a sawtooth with a pitch envelope on the attack portion of each note, and a pulse wave whose pulse width is being modulated by an LFO. The instrument used was Applied-Acoustic Systems Ultra Analog VST.

U&I SOFTWARE
MetaSynth 4 (Mac)
Web Clip 1:
A four-bar piano loop is heard in its original form, then processed by the Shuffler, Inertia, and Ring Modulator effects.

Web Clip 2:
Eight segments document the successive application of the Image Synth's graphic effects to granny's portrait. The effects (in order of application) are: fit to scale, pulse, pitch shift, motion blur, horizontal displace, vertical displace, and rotate.

Web Clip 3:
Alterations are made to a dance-style organ and percussion loop while it is being recorded to disk using the Image Synth's Preview to Disk feature.

Web Clip 4:
A simple piano and ride cymbal groove (heard first) has its pitch, tempo, and timbre altered and extra piano chords added, all using Image Synth manipulations.

Web Clip 5:
An orchestral clip is first heard unprocessed, then processed with various Image Filter presets to illustrate panning, phasing, pulsing, and vocoder effects.

Web Clip 6:
A choir singing a major triad (heard first) has been analyzed and resynthesized in the Spectrum Synth to produce an arpeggiated triad (heard second). A MultiSampler preset was then automatically generated and used in the Sequencer room (heard third) and an instant spectrum was used to create a custom tuning for the Image Synth (heard last).

Web Clip 7:
The MultiSampler's sample-start step sequencer is used to add variety to this vocal sequence. MetaSynth's Preview to Disk function was used, and the sample-start sequence was randomized at each cycle repeat.