One of the hobbies I've been involved in for the past decade is to help people with vintage synthesizers keep their instruments up and running. I sell a number of inexpensive Vintage Synth Rescue Kits that help people to reload the factory sounds after their battery has died and they've replaced their battery. Also included are additional sounds for those devices, wherever possible. I don't earn much money from this endeavor, but it's helped me to meet musicians all over to globe, and to keep these instruments out of landfills where the toxic electronic parts would seem poisons into the ground water. If you're interested in resuscitating an older synth from the 1980's-1990's, I support over 100 different models with CD's, cassettes, and downloads sold through my ebay store:
www.vintage-synths.com
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
a new song I'm working on
I have so much gear that I don't really need anything new to be inspired. That's a horrible crutch to lean on. However I've been having a bear of a time with ProTools 9 so I replaced my Fast Track Pro with a Saffire Pro 24. It didn't fix the digital noise issue so I went back to GarageBand. Here's the piano recording from last night and some bass I added tonight. Sadly, I didn't record the MIDI on the piano, just the audio so I can't recreate it easily. I'll probably re-record it in Logic or ProTools when I'm inspired. But for now it's just one minute or so of mellow.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: Cloudland
http://soundcloud.com/badsamaritan/cloudland
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: Cloudland
http://soundcloud.com/badsamaritan/cloudland
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Objects of Desire: the Ursa Major Space Station
Perhaps the coolest piece of vintage gear I've ever used is the Ursa Major Space Station. It's a delay unit with 4 taps, and they're assigned to 4 knobs. Simply touching the knob triggers it. It's a rare and expensive piece of hardware that hasn't been made since the 1980's. I'm not sure I'd use much if I had it, but it's wicked cool. For a while there was a virtual version that worked with HD ProTools systems, but it doesn't work on OSX / Native.
Here's one for auction for ~$400 but I've seen them for $1000+
Ursa Major Space Station auction
Here's one for auction for ~$400 but I've seen them for $1000+
Ursa Major Space Station auction
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Virtual Instruments I'd Like to See from Roland
Korg has done an admirable job of bringing some of their classic synthesizers into the digital age such as the MS-20, the M1, and the Polysix. Arturia has done an incredible job of making virtual versions of keyboards from Moog, Roland, Yamaha, Sequential Circuits, and Arp. GeForce has brought back classics like string synths and the Mellotron. Even Yamaha have allowed Native Instruments to improve upon their DX7 with FM7 (which has now been dropped for the more modern-sounding FM8) So why is Roland so afraid to jump into the fray with their own virtual instruments?
I've owned a VariOS and still own a V-Synth. The VariOS had a virtual TB303 and Juno6 that worked pretty well, but I was never a fan of that piece of hardware. They were pushing the envelope on what one could do with technology, but their pitch modification routines were not that dissimilar from what one could do with Acid or Live, so I never relied on it. But the Virtual D-50 is certainly something worth playing, even 25 years after its release.
When the Roland D-50 came out, they started a revolution with what is now sometimes disparagingly referred to as ROMplers, but which they titled Linear Algorithmic Synthesis, or LA for short. Basically they took tiny samples of the attack of a few waveforms, and coupled it with synthesis to finish out the sound, adding reverb and chorus effects to polish the tones and hide imperfections or loop points. Compared to subtractive analog synthesis and the immensely-popular FM synthesis, Roland's LA synthesis allowed much more realistic sounding piano, organ and strings -- although by today's standard it was still pretty crummy. But in 1987, the D-50 was the hottest synth on the planet. OK, it was pushed out of the top spot by Korg's M1, which allowed users to use additional samples on ROM card, but that was just a simple upgrade to which Roland never responded.
Roland, I'm asking you now to develop 4 virtual synths for DAWs:
1) I'd love to see a JV/XP/XV series that operated like SampleTank but allowed folks to load their own patches. Given that Roland made nearly a dozen models that shared essentially the same patch architecture and samples in ROM, there's probably thousands of unheard sounds that were made by JV/XP/XV owners.
2) Why not produce a virtual JP-series that includes a vocoder? Roland has had a lot of success making dance-flavored-synths and if they put their head to it, I'm sure they could invent something amazing. They've produced so many DJ sampler products the past decade that it's quite a shame I have to give them any suggestions in the first place.
3) My most fervent wish is to see Roland develop a D2 groovebox for the iPad; there's no reason for Korg to have all the attention on the iPad, and the D2 was so cool having the touchpad in the center of the unit where you could speed up, slow down, or even reverse the midi sounds. Of course for a year 2011 version, you should be able to load your own samples.
4) The D-50 should also be brought out as a virtual instrument, of course. There's no reason why they couldn't do such a thing because Roland already made the VC-1 which means porting it to Windows or OSX wouldn't be reinventing the wheel. People still enjoy the D-50's haunting tones, and likely will for another 20 years. It would just be a lot easier to do if Roland sold it to us as software, not as hardware which might fail over time.
I've owned a VariOS and still own a V-Synth. The VariOS had a virtual TB303 and Juno6 that worked pretty well, but I was never a fan of that piece of hardware. They were pushing the envelope on what one could do with technology, but their pitch modification routines were not that dissimilar from what one could do with Acid or Live, so I never relied on it. But the Virtual D-50 is certainly something worth playing, even 25 years after its release.
When the Roland D-50 came out, they started a revolution with what is now sometimes disparagingly referred to as ROMplers, but which they titled Linear Algorithmic Synthesis, or LA for short. Basically they took tiny samples of the attack of a few waveforms, and coupled it with synthesis to finish out the sound, adding reverb and chorus effects to polish the tones and hide imperfections or loop points. Compared to subtractive analog synthesis and the immensely-popular FM synthesis, Roland's LA synthesis allowed much more realistic sounding piano, organ and strings -- although by today's standard it was still pretty crummy. But in 1987, the D-50 was the hottest synth on the planet. OK, it was pushed out of the top spot by Korg's M1, which allowed users to use additional samples on ROM card, but that was just a simple upgrade to which Roland never responded.
Roland, I'm asking you now to develop 4 virtual synths for DAWs:
1) I'd love to see a JV/XP/XV series that operated like SampleTank but allowed folks to load their own patches. Given that Roland made nearly a dozen models that shared essentially the same patch architecture and samples in ROM, there's probably thousands of unheard sounds that were made by JV/XP/XV owners.
2) Why not produce a virtual JP-series that includes a vocoder? Roland has had a lot of success making dance-flavored-synths and if they put their head to it, I'm sure they could invent something amazing. They've produced so many DJ sampler products the past decade that it's quite a shame I have to give them any suggestions in the first place.
3) My most fervent wish is to see Roland develop a D2 groovebox for the iPad; there's no reason for Korg to have all the attention on the iPad, and the D2 was so cool having the touchpad in the center of the unit where you could speed up, slow down, or even reverse the midi sounds. Of course for a year 2011 version, you should be able to load your own samples.
4) The D-50 should also be brought out as a virtual instrument, of course. There's no reason why they couldn't do such a thing because Roland already made the VC-1 which means porting it to Windows or OSX wouldn't be reinventing the wheel. People still enjoy the D-50's haunting tones, and likely will for another 20 years. It would just be a lot easier to do if Roland sold it to us as software, not as hardware which might fail over time.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
When will the new iPhone come out?
I have no idea when the new iPhone will come out. But companies usually get into production cycles, where one can expect an updated version of a product after a given time. And nobody likes to buy new gadgets or software only to find out a week later that a newer version was released. To help guide my future purchases, I've put together a table of products and when various versions were released. While there are too many other uncounted factors which could speed up or slow down a release schedule, this should give you a mildly accurate gauge of when to expect new versions of these programs and devices. There are exceptions, of course, so don't get mad at me if something comes out earlier or later than the suggested difference between when the previous version was considered "NEW". I'm simply reporting history.
| Item | Release Date | Days | |||
| Apple iPad | 04/01/10 | Today | 3/17/2011 | ||
| Apple iPad 2 | 03/01/11 | 334 | Days Since Last Version Released | 16 | |
| Next Version Due | 318 | ||||
| Apple iPhone | 01/09/07 | ||||
| Apple iPhone 3G | 08/11/08 | 580 | |||
| Apple iPhone 3GS | 06/08/09 | 301 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Apple iPhone 4 | 06/24/10 | 381 | Days Since Last Version Released | 266 | |
| Next Version Due | 115 | ||||
| MacBook Air | 01/01/08 | ||||
| MacBook Air 2 | 11/01/10 | 1035 | |||
| Mac Mini 2.0 | 08/01/07 | ||||
| Mac Mini 2.26 | 10/01/09 | 792 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Mac Mini 2.4 | 06/01/10 | 243 | Days Since Last Version Released | 289 | |
| Next Version Due | (46) | ||||
| Mac Pro 4 core woodcrest | 08/07/06 | ||||
| Mac Pro 8 core woodcrest | 04/04/07 | 240 | |||
| Mac Pro 8 core woodcrest | 01/08/08 | 279 | |||
| Mac Pro 4 core nehalem | 03/03/09 | 420 | |||
| Mac Pro 8 core nehalem | 03/03/09 | 420 | |||
| Mac Pro 4 core nehalem | 07/27/10 | 511 | |||
| Mac Pro 6 core westmere | 07/27/10 | 511 | |||
| Mac Pro 8 core westmere | 07/27/10 | 511 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Mac Pro 12 core westmere | 07/27/10 | 511 | Days Since Last Version Released | 233 | |
| Next Version Due | 278 | ||||
| Apple OSX 10.2 Jaguar | 08/23/02 | ||||
| Apple OSX 10.3 Panther | 10/24/03 | 427 | |||
| Apple OSX 10.4 Tiger | 04/29/05 | 553 | |||
| Apple OSX 10.5 Leopard | 10/26/07 | 910 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Apple OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard | 06/08/09 | 591 | Days Since Last Version Released | 647 | |
| Next Version Due | (56) | ||||
| Apple Logic Pro 7 | 01/01/04 | ||||
| Apple Logic Studio 1 | 09/12/07 | 1350 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Apple Logic Studio 2 | 07/23/09 | 680 | Days Since Last Version Released | 602 | |
| Next Version Due | 78 | ||||
| Digidesign ProTools 7 M-Powered | 10/07/05 | ||||
| Digidesign ProTools 8 M-Powered | 11/01/08 | 1121 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Avid ProTools 9 | 12/01/10 | 760 | Days Since Last Version Released | 106 | |
| Next Version Due | 654 | ||||
| Steinberg Cubase SX 3 | 09/03/04 | ||||
| Steinberg Cubase 4 | 01/09/06 | 493 | |||
| Steinberg Cubase 5 | 01/16/09 | 1103 | |||
| Cubase 5.5 | 03/24/10 | 432 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Cubase 6 | 01/13/11 | 295 | Days Since Last Version Released | 63 | |
| Next Version Due | 232 | ||||
| Ableton Live 6 | 06/17/06 | ||||
| Ableton Live 7 | 10/04/07 | 474 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Ableton Live 8 | 01/17/09 | 471 | Days Since Last Version Released | 789 | |
| Next Version Due | (318) | ||||
| Propellerheads Reason 3 | 11/29/04 | ||||
| Propellerheads Reason 4 | 06/19/07 | 932 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Propellerheads Reason 5 | 05/25/10 | 1071 | Days Since Last Version Released | 296 | |
| Next Version Due | 775 | ||||
| Native Instruments Komplete 2 | 12/02/04 | ||||
| Native Instruments Komplete 3 | 10/07/05 | 309 | |||
| Native Instruments Komplete 4 | 09/23/06 | 351 | |||
| Native Instruments Komplete 5 | 09/01/07 | 343 | |||
| Native Instruments Komplete 6 | 09/02/09 | 732 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Native Instruments Komplete 7 | 07/29/10 | 330 | Days Since Last Version Released | 231 | |
| Next Version Due | 99 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 95 | 08/01/95 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 98 | 06/01/98 | 1035 | |||
| Microsoft Windows 2000 | 02/01/00 | 610 | |||
| Microsoft Windows XP | 08/01/01 | 547 | |||
| Microsoft Windows Vista | 10/09/06 | 1895 | Today | 3/17/2011 | |
| Microsoft Windows 7 | 07/01/09 | 996 | Days Since Last Version Released | 624 | |
| Next Version Due | 372 |
Evolution of the MOTU 828
Since 2001 I've owned 3 Mboxes (USB), an Mbox 2 (USB), 2 FireWire 1814s, and a Fast Track Pro (USB) device. I've found Digidesign & M-Audio device drivers to be late in following Apple's infrequent and seemingly random release of OSX patches. Sometimes I've had to wait over a year to get drivers. And with all the troubleshooting I'm doing on my FTP and 1814, I'm ready to throw in the towel with Avid (Digidesign & M-Audio's parent company). Now that ProTools 9 native supports using interfaces from 3rd parties, I'm considering replacing my current devices with one of the MOTU 828 devices, since MOTU seems to have their act together when it comes to supporting Windows and OSX with modern drivers. My biggest concern going forward is that Apple is moving away from Firewire and won't support USB 3, and few vendors will be designing products around Thunderbolt because of the tiny market size.
The original 828 was introduced in 2001 to great fanfare, wildly hailed as the first 8 channel in/out firewire audio interface which could record on all 8 channels simultaneously in 24-bit, at 44.1kHz or 48kHz. The mkII (version 2) was released in 2004 adding more ports, monitoring from the front panel, and increasing the sonic capabilities to 96kHz (which would limit your simultaneous ADAT channels to 4). The mkIII version was released in 2008 under several different formats, including Firewire, USB 2.0, and Hybrid (both interfaces). In addition to adding a ton of new features and 64-bit driver support, the latest models support recording up to 192kHz, which is a vast difference over the original. Obviously, recording at 192kHz has its downside: files are much larger (8x per channel, or 16x per stereo) but can also help to hold down the noise floor before resampling down to 16-bit audio for CD's or 128k/variable bit rate for MP3's.
Monday, March 14, 2011
SOS - My favorite magazine
Sound on Sound just celebrated their 25th anniversary. It's published in the UK, but they make an American version. It's not cheap, but I learn something every issue. And if you purchase a subscription, you get an account with access to all their archives online. This is an important resource if you're interested in vintage gear, as they do the best in-depth reviews of equipment, software, and recording techniques. As you might expect, they have tutorials dedicated to getting more from your software in every issue. Also every month they go to some English guy's home studio and fix it up so he can do a better job recording and mixing. Sound on Sound magazine is perhaps the most useful offline resource for learning to become a better producer.
http://www.soundonsound.com/
http://www.soundonsound.com/
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