One of the most powerful aspects of modular synthesis is the fact that almost everything can be modulated, making possible highly advanced sounds that change over time and can seem almost alive. Meet the LFO.
Simple Synthesis: Part 4, LFOs
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Getting Analog in Live: Using the External Devices
Live is a great tool for making music on the computer and, as we saw in a previous article, you can leverage its MIDI capabilities to talk to external MIDI gear. There are a lot of great sound making tools that don’t live inside of our DAWs and Live makes it easy to incorporate these… Read more »
Interview with Tracy Silverman
Tracy Silverman is an musician, composer, producer and champion of the electric violin. His unique instrument and innovative technique have led to collaborations with composers the likes of John Adams and Terry Riley, and performances ranging from the gala opening of the Walt Disney Music Hall to premieres at Carnegie Hall. We caught up with Tracy to talk… Read more »
Simple Synthesis: Part 3, Filters
There are many ways to operate a modular synthesizer but one of the important methods of sound synthesis is called subtractive synthesis. To accomplish that you’re going need a filter.
Interview with Juan Alderete de la Peña (Racer X, Mars Volta, Deltron 3030)
Juan Alderete de la Peña is an electric bassist with three decades of experience playing in the bands Racer X, Mars Volta, Deltron 3030, B’z, Big Sir and Vato Negro. We caught up with Juan to talk about touring essentials, saying yes to the right gig and the story behind his signature stickers.
Interfacing with MIDI Hardware Using M4L: The Meeblip Anode
With the advent of small, portable, MIDI enabled analog synthesizers, computer musicians now have the option of controlling a lot more than VSTs. If you have a USB MIDI interface (or other means of getting MIDI from your computer to 5 Pin MIDI connections), you can leverage the sequencing power of Live to control all… Read more »
Simple Synthesis: Part 2, Envelope Generators
At it’s best, electronic music can stimulate, energize, or hypnotize the conscious state of the the listener. To do that you’re going to need a few additional tools, or modules, to help shape your sound source into something that is more interesting and expressive.
Interview with Alex Young (@alexyoungbased, OWSLA)
Talking production, inspiration and the based life with DC producer Alex Young.
Controlling the Controllers: Communicating With and Controlling Live Scripts, Part 3
In the previous two articles, Part One, and Part Two, we learned how to interact with Control Surfaces using the Live API, and programmatically move through the API to find what we are looking for. In this final part in this series I will walk you through the basics of writing MIDI Remote Scripts for… Read more »
Simple Synthesis, Part 1
You may have seen them on stage or on the internet, modular synthesizers look like a missing panel from a WWII era submarine and are operated by manipulating a grid of knobs through a web of patch cables. They are creators and manipulators of sound that are arranged as a set of modules where each… Read more »
QuNexus CV For Dummies
One of the things that makes the QuNexus so special is that it can act as a portable CV keyboard. But what does that mean?
Controlling the Controllers: Communicating With and Controlling Live Scripts, Part 2
In the previous installment we discussed locating and gathering information about loaded Control Surface scripts using M4l and the Live API. In this installment we will look at applying our session control to any Control Surface that has a SessionComponent. This will involve some iterations and checks, things which aren’t the cleanest in Max, but they… Read more »
KMI Project: Rytm Control QuNeo Preset
Introducing the Rytm Control QuNeo Preset. You can now tweak FX tracks, trigger the sounds in your kit, and play chromatically on your Electron Analog Rytm Drum Computer with the Rytm Control QuNeo Preset.