Retro Musical Droid Arrives… from the Future

If HAL 9000 mated with R2-D2 and their electronic offspring was tutored by Kraftwerk it would probably end up something like the Bliptronic 5000 LED Synthesizer.

At once a minimalist musical plaything and a hardcore old-skool synthesizer, the Bliptronic defies categorization as it belts out 8-Bit style style tunes from its grid of glowing buttons.

You’ll notice sound similar to a retro Casiotone with an interface not unlike a simplified Yamaha TENORI-ON… if that makes any sense. Either way, once you start touching the keys of the Bliptronic you’ll be hooked by it’s simple pattern-based approach to music.

Product Features

• Unusual retro synthesizer is played with a grid of glowing buttons
• Create looping patterns and change them dynamically while playing
• Chain multiple units together and create more complex melodies
• One octave range. 8 notes can be played simultaneously
• 8 different old-skool synth sounding instruments to choose from
• Sounds created using FM waveform synthesis
• Set the BPM (beats per minute) from 60 to 180 in 20 BPM increments
• Built in speaker with headphone jack and line-out jack
• Front panel is constructed from brushed aluminum
• Includes, manual and 2 link cables for connecting additional Bliptronic units
• Requires 4 x AA batteries (not included)

Only for pros – MixMeister tutorial

MixMeister Fusion Live software gives you a radically different approach to DJing, so you can focus on rocking the party – not the nuts and bolts of DJ technique. You don’t need to concern yourself with counting and matching beats, setting cue points, or syncing keys. MixMeister does all the technical work for you, freeing you to be in total creative control to interact with your music – and your audience!

MixMeister Control is the only controller designed and optimized to work like a true hardware extension of the MixMeister interface. If you already use MixMeister, you will be performing in seconds. MixMeister Control even comes with a full version of MixMeister Fusion software – the perfect way to get started.

Individual hands-on controls are included for looping by track, EQ, FX and more with complete control for up to four tracks at once. A massive amount of control is available from its 40 knobs, 53 buttons and a Jog Wheel for fast location management. Finally, automation effects, VST plug-ins and other functions can be manipulated with minimal computer interaction.

Included MixMeister Fusion software frees the DJ from monotonous tasks like beat matching, setting cue points, and counting beats in their head. It gives them the power to unleash their creativity and shape music with live looping and remixing, VST effects, harmonic mixing and more. DJs can manipulate tempo, volume, and EQ in real time, on-the-fly. Fusion even records all DJ actions (not just the resulting audio), so users can go back, listen to their mix, and make precise adjustments with studio-style editing capabilities.

Whether you use MixMeister to perform live or to mix in the studio, MixMeister Control is a “must-have” addition for MixMeister.

Technical specifications

* Hardware control surface for MixMeister software

* USB 1.1 interface – No driver required

* Includes MixMeister Fusion software

* Compatible with other MIDI applications

* Works with Windows or Mac OS X

* 94 hardware controllers for ultimately expressive software control

 

ElectriXmas looks promising for 2009 – VNV Nation

Finally the “real” bands are starting to appear for this year’s event

Good going, can we hope for Covenant, Welle, AndOne or Mellotron to top it off?

Cheers Ola

Music service Spotify finally on Symbian/Nokia

Now all music lovers with Nokia phones can finally have what the iPhone users has been treated with for the past 6 months or so.

Music news: Neotek from DK

Neotek release album and DVD

Long-running Danish EBM group Neotek will release a new album, Sex, Murder, and Rock ‘n’ Roll, November 27 on Black Rain Records. The first pressing of the new album will come packaged with a DVD featuring live material, music videos and slide shows from such Neotek side projects as Good Courage and PTZ. Although Neotek have been active since 1993, the new album is only their second full-length release, although all three members have been active with numerous side projects.

Filmed in 1994 – but not edited until 2004 by André Stæhr. Classic EBM track from the first incarnation of Neotek. Original version on the album Brain Over Muscle deluxe edition. More info on www.neotek.dk

Easy to use modular synthesis – BLOK

 

Introducing BLOK

[BLOK] has been designed as an easy to use modular synthesis environment. The makers say that the available processing blocks are simple and concise and there are no restrictions on how you hook things up.

[BLOK] was designed as a platform for teaching audio synthesis to students, so even beginners can get started building their own synthesizers and effects right away.

Features

• Classic synthesizer modules such as Oscillators, Filters, Envelopes and Effects
• Easy to use interface. Blok was originally created as an educational program to teach audiodesign principles. This means that each module is simple to understand.
• Connect everything. There are no limits on connecting blocks together.. if a block generates a signal, connect it up!
• Versatile DSP engine. Additive, Subtractive and FM synthesis are all possible. Let Blok be your synthesis swiss army-knife.
• Full undo/redo. Dont like what you have done? Go back to a time when you did!
• Low in cpu. Blok was made to run well even on low-end computers. On today’s machines, it tears up the track! This will let you make more complicated setups and get more bang for your synthesis buck.

Pricing and Availability:

Free download at the moment but only the buzz version is officially supported at this point. Standalone and VST versions can be downloaded for free at present but are still under construction.

More information:

• blokmodular.com/

Mot-Box

Kinetic Labs has introduced Mot-Box – a sound generator built for musicians and sound designers.

According to developers, “It’s capable to produce sounds from drones to helter-skelter noises.”

Here you can listen some Mot-Box samples. All recordings are dry, no effects and no editing.

Check the myspace page for videos.

Related Posts

New fat refill from Soundcells

“Analog Signature” Version 2:

“Analog Signature V2” carries the wits and powers of three vintage beasts into this new era. Moog Source, Korg MS20 and the Waldorf Microwave have been accurately sampled (every single note three times) in such a way that their charming inaccuracies are still there in this perfect Reason environment in which we took our chance to add polyphony and velocity. You’ll get 460 combinator patches containing beautiful analog sounds from the past as well as some mouth watering rex loops covering the old analog drum boxes. You decide how retro or contemporary the sounds of this refill will sound in your music. It all matches almost perfectly with almost everything. Version 2 adds new samples from the Waldorf Microwave 1, 40 new combinator patches, great new backdrops and some minor tweaks.

“Analog Signature” Contents:

- Classic synths: Moog Source, Korg MS20 and the Waldorf Microwave 1.

- 460 combinator patches to keep you busy for quite some time – 40 new ones since version 2.

- Lots of analog drumbox rexfiles and loads of NNXT patches.

- Extra high realism due to alternate sample switching, mostly three samples per note!

- 10 songfiles showing you lots of tricks and ideas.

A web address to link to for more info and “Analog Signature” only MP3s:

http://www.soundcells.de

 

 

 

 

New free frequency shifter

sg-freakshift

Background info:

This is a not-quite-technically-correct stereo frequency shifter (with seperate controls for the left & right channels) based on techniques seen on this web page: http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmodularbook/nm_spectrum_shift.html

The reason for this not being technically correct is that doing this the right way would require a lot more CPU. This implementation only achieves true frequency shifting in a certain range of frequencies, while frequencies outside of this range get an effect closer to ring modulation, which is still interesting.

There is also a simple distortion effect and LFOs for modulation.

Download here >>

FREE for 72 hours: TC Electronic M30 reverb plug-in

Fancy a free, high-quality reverb plug-in? Then act fast because effects giants TC Electronic are giving away a reverb plug-in for PC and Mac – but only for 72 hours. In fact, the clock started ticking on Monday 16th November, so by our calculations, that gives you until the end of tomorrow, Wednesday 18th, to grab the plug-in. After that, TC will be selling it for $79.

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on it, click here to get to the download page. To simply read more about M30, head here.

Thanks to CDM for sharing this