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Randomwaves Drumboy and Synthgirl, fresh open-source feel drum machine & wavetable synthesis

by Admin | Sep 21, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

Randomwaves Drumboy and Synthgirl are fresh artistic open-source touch-based drum machine and synth equipment, then on Kickstarter.

Synthesizers and electronic instruments, in general, are particularly popular in hardware because you can tweak them with tactile control ( knobs, faders… ).

A new Turkish development staff demonstrates how hardware can be designed different. With the new Drumboy and Synthgirl, they left out knobs/faders and made all touch-sensitive.

Randomwaves Drumboy Synthgirl

Both Drumboy and Synthgirl are brand-new, compact equipment with a lot in common. It starts with the technology strategy. They are powered by a recently developed stereo structures using the 550 MHz Cortex M7 computer, delivering picturesque 24-bit voice.

A 5-inch color LCD is also housed in each unit, which are interconnected by reactive feel controllers scattered throughout the interface. It also has an SD card input for managing data ( samples, wavetables, etc. ). Additionally, it offers a Bluetooth port and hardware tune in and out to ensure smooth inclusion with other devices.

More significantly, Drumboy and Synthgirl will work on an open-source script developed on the commonly used STM32 system. This is a remarkable action, and I welcome it very much. Now, this dive deeper into the differences between these new groovebox-oriented equipment.

Randomwaves Drumboy

A.wav test lasting up to eight seconds is each stored in a convenient drum machine called Drumboy. You can modify your audio with several parameters, including playback speed, change, and normalize.

The traditional method of producing complex rhythms using 1/64 encoding across eight bars and eight measures or with contemporary helpers like difficult fill generators is no longer possible.

Finally, Randomwaves Drumboy features a descriptive EQ with one lower shelf, one higher shelf, and four maximum filters. You can change the Q element, obtain, and frequency for accurate good shapers. Besides this, it comes with a fully adjustable dual filter with four modes ( lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and band stop ) and two effect channels.

The first offers eight algorithms with several controls: pause, song, flanger, blunderbuss, blower, expansion, drive, distortion, and bit crusher. Behind, you can find an independent echo with power over the space size, decay, pre-delay, occupy, dry/wet, and more.

Of program, you can also keep your looks and styles. It has a lender and file system for this, which makes it possible to keep track of and understand your design at any time.

Randomwaves Synthgirl

The Randomwaves Drumboy’s spouse is the Synthgirl. Although it is a solo compact Synthesizer, it has many of the same functions.

A wavetable website with two resonators that can buy custom storm files (up to 256 steps ) from Serum and various soft synths serves as the foundation of Synthgirl. You can change the amount, rhythm, period, start, and end points of wavetables, as well as the ability to turn in both X and Y axes.

Like the Randomwaves Drumboy, Synthgirl also comes with the same multimode dual filter ( lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and band stop ) that is fully adjustable with various parameters.

The built-in statistical Iq and the 2-channel multi-FX computer are the same and had eight techniques. The separate echo engine also has this effect. Further, you can find four shaping multi-wave LFOs with 25 prebuilt types and adjustable parameters ( target, rate, and depth ).

Randomwaves does not specify what kind of packets it uses. I hope there are some built-in. Further, it hosts a fully tweakable advanced key /arpeggiator ( rate, pattern, chord, order, octave… ) and a customizable metronome.

If that’s not enough, it also has a sequencer with adjustable parameters such as bar, measure, (up to 8 ), and quantization (up to 1/64 ), providing fine-tuned control over your composition. It shares the same file structure as the Drumboy to manage and keep your looks.

Second Idea

At first glance, it is an interesting venture. I give a great hands up to the open-source plan. However, I would find the touch-only interface and the little font on the interface to be far too small. On the ipads, I prefer to reach. However, I’m really interested to see how the neighborhood feels about the project and how it develops.

We can anticipate more developments with regard to the Synthgirl and Randomwaves Drumboy capabilities because it will be open source.

You can support the development of the Randomwaves Drumboy and Synthgirl then on Kickstarter, starting at$ 149 for the Drumboy or Synthgirl. In February 2025, shipment will begin.

More details these: Randomwaves / Kickstarter

Hardware Synthesizer News

Hardware Groovebox News

Radial Nuance Select — A Mix Real-World Review

by Admin | Sep 14, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

Rob Tavaglione, the workshop owner, tests the new Radial Nuance Select and discovers that it has excellent sound quality.

MIX VERDICT: RADIAL NUANCE SELECT

THE TAKEAWAY:” I can guarantee you’ll appreciate the good quality at whatever level you dial-up on that great and beautifully tactile stepped attenuator”.COMPANY: Radial Engineering • www. radialeng.com
PRICE: $840 MSRP; $699 retail
PROS:
• Strongly built
• Flawless activity
• Immaculate audio quality
CONS:
• Simply two input,
• No talkback actually

The new Nuance Select monitor controller is a tank, and good old Radial ( and veteran designer Hutch Hutchinson ) can help streamline workflow ( both as “per the usual” for Radial ). Nevertheless, with this system, the company incorporates a new idea, the Clarity Circuit, to accomplish amazing sonics.

Nuance Select is a desktop screen controller providing clear type switching, screen selection, volume control and headphone facilities. On a 14-inch TRS, two pairs of balanced monitor outputs ( and a single bass out ) are provided, while two sets of balanced sets of observe outputs are also provided.

Two discrete headphone amps are provided ( on front-panel ¼-inch jacks ) with muting, independent input sourcing and level. On an unbalanced stereo TRS, an Auxiliary output that allows either input to conveniently feed an external device ( likely a headphone amp or foldback monitors ), as well as a quick workflow, such as a mono, mute, and dim switch.

Radial Nuance Select

This is all controlled with a proper 21-position stepped attenuator (volume control ) that provides accurate left-to-right balance within 0.1 dB at any volume, via resistors and DC servos, not capacitors ( caps do n’t always age well, drift in value over time and can introduce noise ).

The Clarity Circuit is Class-A and exceptionally clean, with little tangible THD of -0.00001 %, interference of -125 database, A-weighted signal-to-noise of 127 database, and speed response from 7 Decibels to 20 hertz.

This is all contained in a steel enclosure, with a polished aluminum 10 x 5-inch faceplate, backlit silent switches, and chrome control knobs (especially attractive is the huge, 2-inch attenuator ), powered by an external supply connected with a locking 4-pin XLR at the end of a sturdy 12-foot cable. Owing for getting the facts straight, Radial!

After weeks of daily work, my assistant and I were able to quickly come to terms with the Nuance Select’s exceptional cleanliness and absence of distortion, something we’ve probably never heard of before. The change is more confirming than stunning, more transparent than special, more revealing than introductory. There is no warmth generated by the unit, there is no added cohesion or gelling, dynamics are untouched, there is no emphasis of frequency, there is no ( de ) emphasis of placement, panning or soundstage. There is just stark reality, linearity and assurance.

Hungarian Audio MiCreator Studio – A Mix Real-World Review

Only a few of my clients noticed the NS change, but only my assistant noticed it because the differences are significant to my ears but appear to be refined to laypeople. However, I quickly developed a reliance on such top-notch audio value, and I was disappointed that I was unable to use Nuance Select in my studio!

I track bands and use analog summing ( no console ). My installation requires a feature-rich joystick with several sources, multiple-input-blending for my headphone/cue mixes, and a talkback device, also. For what it’s worth, I would prefer XLR connections and multi-color (ed ) switches for even more ease of use.

However, for those of you with great, standard, present, all-digital procedures, the Nuance Select comes highly recommended. A three-year insurance backs up common Radial stability, a retail value of$ 699 makes for just a moderate expenditure, and I can promise you’ll love the sound quality at whatever stage you dial-up on that big and beautifully clicky stepped attenuator.

With the release of the 4-channel circular mixer euphonia, AlphaTheta ventures into the circular world.

by Admin | Sep 7, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

AlphaTheta Corporation announced the launch of the bank’s first-ever circular blender: the euphonia. The 4-channel blender is also the first piece of hardware from the business to bear the AlphaTheta company logo, which takes the place of the Pioneer DJ branding. euphonia is a blend digital/analog mixing with circular faders that features a custom-designed 3Band Master Isolator, built-in Send FX, and more.

Let’s take a look.

Major features

The euphonia weighs in at just under 21 lbs – notably lighter compared to Pioneer’s other mixers like the A9 ( almost 29 lbs ) and V10 ( 37 lbs ). A wide range of circular features and effects are available in the new mixing, including:

The digital signal processor ( DSP) employs HQ 32-bit A/D and D/A converters in addition to 96 kHz/64-bit floating point mixing operations. The sound finally travels through a converter circuit created in collaboration with Rupert Neve Designs, a business renowned for its digital audio circuitry.
The three handles on the top remaining of the blender are located on the 3Band Master Isolator. The handles are set to be located in the center, and they can become turned left or right until they reach a minimum or maximum. This is somewhat an interesting selection on AlphaTheta’s element because the knobs are set at 12: 00, which is standard with their other mixers. It seems odd that they would stick to that style of construction, especially since so many rotaries have a full-range Extraversion that start all the way to the left ( a theme that also emerged with the V10’s filter knob ). I would’ve expected the company’s primary circular blender to get built more in-line with rotaries on the market now. You can also utilize three boost levels: + 12dB for dynamic performances, + 6dB for sound quality adjustments, and 0dB for reverb effects that wo n’t affect the volume at all.

The 3B Master Isolator

5 built-in Send FX and a High-Pass Filter– including Delay, Tape Echo, Echo Verb, Reverb, and Shimmer. Additionally, DJs can connect additional effect units and change each route to their liking, using the Send/Return knobs. Additionally, any Send FX may be pushed into the Master Isolator speed songs.
Inputs – 4x digital ins ( coaxial ), 4x line ins (RCA ), 4x phono ins (RCA ), and a Mic in (XLR & 1/4 ″ TRS jack )
Outputs – 1 each of the Master, Booth, and Recording outputs, as well as two headphone jacks ( a 1/4 ″ and a 3.5mm )

Built-in USB Type-C voice program for PC/Mac
2-Band Booth EQ
Lock energy cord
Rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro agreeable with both

A$ 3, 799 Pricetag

Although the$ 3, 799 price tag for the euphonia comes with a sticker surprise, especially given the state of the economy, the ongoing discussion about how the music industry is struggling in a number of sites, and the truth that this is the first full rotary mixing produced by the once-lovely-known as Pirates DJ, AlphaTheta product. When compared to other well-known rotary mixer manufacturers like Star, who unveiled their$ 599.99 R4 mixing at NAMM earlier this year, which plainly was priced with a more affordable perspective in mind, the price trend is interesting.

When you’re considering dropping$ 3.8k on a blender from the company – one more costly than Pioneer DJ’s DJM-V10, which costs$ 3, 499 – we’re curious to see how much of an allure this will have to rotary-loving Dj and equipment fans. It’s a prime mixing at a price that is unquestionably high.

AlphaTheta’s euphonia is expected to be accessible in-store later this month for$ 3, 799. What do you think of the mixing? Do you get it? What do you like best about it, and what could be improved or changed? In the feedback section below, let us know.

Behringer UB-Xa 2.0, fresh device adds innovative features and enhancements

by Admin | Aug 31, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

SYNTH ANATOMY uses affiliation & partner programs ( big red buttons ) to finance a part of the activity. If you use these, you support the site. Cheers!

Behringer has released the UB-Xa 2.0 firmware update for its analog polysynth ( OB-Xa clone/replica ) with new features and improvements.

The UB-Xa is Behringer’s primary vintage polysynth duplicate release in a long list of but to appear instruments. It is more accurately a clone/replica of the Oberheim OB-Xa from 1980.

Nevertheless, it is more than just a 1-to-1 clone/replica. It keeps the design going, for instance, with a harmonic aftertouch keybed and double voices. Since the summer, the version is also available in the space-saving UB-Xa D pc type. Customers of the UB-Xa may rejoice, there is a huge 2.0 firmware update.

Behringer UB-Xa 2.0

The fresh UB-Xa 2.0 firmware upgrade introduces several new features, and changes. Patch spending is a new feature of the device version 2.0.

You can now keep and remember areas with more efficiency by including the atrophy information, screen, VCO, VCF, and LFO settings. The ability to protect the astrophy information was a significant have demand from the synth community.

According to Behringer, they likewise processing of the screen frequency, giving you more accuracy in enhancing. Therefore, you can explore new packet modification modes, including knock, retrigger, repeat, loop, and legato.

An expanded modification structure joins these new box options. It now includes new places and resources, giving you more methods to modify your parameters.

Behringer also enhanced the UB-Xa Synthesizer’s multi function and aftertouch to produce a richer, more emotive playing experience. Same for the SysEX and oscillator options. They are now more smoother, says the designers.

Additionally, there are performance enhancements, including improved international transpose and improved life performance options that make it simpler to bring your audio to the stage.

Additionally, it also comes with glitch changes:

First Idea

A good release for the UB-Xa instruments. I’m pleased to see that Behringer frequently updates its synths ‘ features and performance.

The fresh UB-Xa 2.0 device will be available after today. UB-Xa is over then for 1098€ and the UB-Xa D pc for 849€.

More data here: Behringer

Accessible at my companions

Thomann

Sweetwater

Hardware Synthesizer News

Editor’s Note: The Digital Information Myth

by Admin | Aug 24, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

It seems contradictory, but it’s true: Despite high-capacity, low-cost data backup, we are losing fragments of our past every day.

PHOTO: Chris Pelonis

( Please take note that this article first appeared in the Mix magazine in August. )

Maybe back in the mid-2000s, my brother-in-law Rick turned me on to a book called How the Irish Saved Western Civilization, by the best-selling writer Thomas Cahill. It’s a fun read as far as famous, traditional nonfiction goes, and though its claims may be overstated at times ( certainly there were others working on the same thing ) and its views may skew in favor of St. Patrick, St. Augustine and another, its basic idea is good. And that premise is this:

When the Roman Empire was falling, ushering in the Dark Ages, education, and most certainly the recording and preservation of knowledge, fell out of fashion for the next 600 years or so. In light of this, the new monastic orders of Ireland, which were based on a foundation of education and the promotion of knowledge, began using their contacts on the continent to smuggle every piece of text they could find to Ireland. There, over the next half a millennium, from the Isle of Man in the east to the shores of Galway in the west, monks and scribes began copying those books and scrolls—over and over and over. That’s how the Irish saved Western civilization

A couple of things have recently appeared on my desk that have given me an entirely new perspective about those monks. Maybe, I thought, they loved their work, excited to be a part of the world’s first large-scale information backup. As long as it was properly preserved and then transferred with care to whatever distribution and storage systems might emerge in the future, it may be that they realized that the simple physical storage medium of ink on paper was forward-compatible with the Rosetta Stone and early pictograms and backward-compatible with the end of the human race.

READ MORE: Editor’s Note—Making the Connection.

The news story from late in June that Paramount had quietly shut down the MTVnews.com website, only to have it become a major story, was the first thing that made me reevaluate the monks. Where did the 30 years of unique music news, journalism, photography and videos go? Was it gone forever? We’re still in the throes of the fallout, and the site’s writers and personalities became outrageous and went public. Future-focused pundits made comments, and other music websites chimed in. In 2019, MySpace was back in the news with something similar, admitting that it had irreversibly lost 12 years worth of music and photos, affecting 14.2 million users and 53 million tracks. Just gone.

The media and entertainment industries, admittedly on a smaller scale, experience similar circumstances every day. After the new corporate owner assumes charge of storage, a small-town newspaper shutters its digital archive to reduce costs and is unable to locate its physical assets. You’re unlikely to find anything today unless you save a physical copy of that particular issue, which might have been an early-nineties regional punk music zine.

The third in a series of recent pieces on Iron Mountain’s technological efforts surrounding the storage, preservation, and archiving of music and media assets was reading this month’s feature by senior writer Steve Harvey,” It’s Time Talk About Hard Drives,” which made me rethink the monks. It was a bit shocking, but not too surprising, to learn that during a recent inventory survey of media assets, they found that 20 percent of hard disk drives were unreadable. It’s not Iron Mountain’s fault, the drives were brought in that way and there’s only so much they can do if a disk does n’t spin or a root system file is corrupted. If a song from the mid-to-late ‘ 90s was recorded, mixed, mastered and distributed all-digital, never touching a physical medium, there’s no guarantee that it will play back in 2024, or that the assets will ever be recovered.

Robert Koszela, director of North American Studio Operations at Iron Mountain, has seen it all in nearly 30 years as a media archivist, from issues with tape through today’s most up-to-date preservation and restoration technologies. He’s not up late at night worrying about doomsday scenarios, and he does n’t believe the sky is falling—so when he issues an industry-wide call for awareness and action regarding digital storage and playback, it’s best to pay attention

I’m not a chicken little either, and I’m not in favor of returning to paper storage and lab-reported photos. I believe that with a little digital and physical sleuthing, many assets can be recovered.

However, it’s also true that the majority of people today mistakenly believe that their information is digital and accessible forever when they click Save or Send. That’s simply not true. The term” the digital dark age” was first used in the mid-’90s to explain the contradictory idea that we are actually losing significant amounts of historical data every day as storage grows in capacity and prices year after year. That makes no sense, yet it’s true.

All you can really do is pay attention to your assets and make sure to future-proof them for all future formats is at the end of the day. Then backup, backup, backup. If that proves too time-consuming, you might try asking a monk for help. They have a solid track record.

In this recent update, Traktor Pro 4 allows you to extract lines that are stem-separated from your collection.

by Admin | Aug 17, 2024 | Film Music, Music Technology

Native Instruments is releasing Traktor Pro 4 now. It’s been a long time ( 6 years, in 2018 ) since Traktor Pro 3 came out. The criminal element of today’s Traktor Pro 4 launch date dates back to 2014, the year the Kontrol S8 and Stem Decks initially appeared in the DJ program. Native Instruments has introduced plant parting research in this updated version of the program, breaking down your lines into individual components and making them accessible, effectible, and mixable.

Some people saw this as a vision when Traktor released the Pro 2 with Stem Decks in 2015, and in many ways, this is it. Advances in modern music control algorithms have made on-the-fly plant separation a fact rather than having to purchase Stems files made by the producers and labels.

Traktor Pro 4 is available today, right now. We’re able to sell it digitally, so if you want to support DJTT, you can upgrade it here or purchase it here.

Traktor Pro 3 upgrade costs$ 74.50, or you can purchase a license for just$ 149. It’s not a cheap investment, but we are happy to see that the new killer features are n’t locked behind a subscription model. They’ve also added previous subscription-only features – Pattern Player and Ozone Maximizer – into the base software – so if you’ve missed out on those features in the past, they could be right for as a one-time upgrade.

Is this distinct from stem separation in other DJ softwares?

Yes, in terms of the technology behind it, this is different – but the result is very similar. The Stem separation engine from Native Instruments sounds pretty good, so I asked them to explain more about the technology behind it. I was concerned that it might have incorporated some of the internal software tools from their merger with iZotope in 2021. Sure enough – here’s what they said:

Traktor Pro 4 features stem separation powered by AI, and iZotope’s powerful RX technology. We ca n’t provide too many technical details, but we do have the same upgraded machine learning as the new RX 11, which is based on the most cutting-edge neural network, plus our own pre and post-processing to increase the separation quality. We’ve chosen settings that work well across all genres and have chosen to prioritize quality over speed for Traktor. To maintain consistency and simplicity across the entire collection, we are not currently exposing these settings.

The Stem separation from NI sounds similar to Virtual DJ’s Stems 2.0 and Serato DJ’s Stems 2.0. When I tested all three side-by-side, I was pretty shocked that they were so similar, despite clearly all being based on different tech. ( Worth noting I did n’t have a ready-to-test version of Algoriddim djay as they’ve also put a lot of work into their algorithm, – but I plan to later today ). Most stem separation has actually reached the point where it’s acceptable for most DJs to use it in the mix, but it’s not perfect on its own.

Stems analysis takes a while, in my initial tests, averaging 30 to 40 seconds of processing per minute of song separated. I asked NI to provide a little more information to see if this would lead to further optimization, and they responded:

The current implementation is CPU-based, and optimized for CPU-processing ( as opposed to GPU). We could add more parameters in a future update to give users more control over the speed and quality tradeoff, but we’re eager to hear more feedback about the feature since it comes with Traktor Pro 4.0.

How flexibly can the stems be mixed?

Here’s the thing: Native Instruments invested years in creating a complete ecosystem to support Stems mixing. We’ve all heard of DJs who manually re-run their collections in the software before using Traktor 4. The implementation has n’t changed here – DJs see the main waveform on the bottom of the deck, and it’s made up of the individual 4 parts that Traktor splits them into ( Drums, Bass, Other, and Vocals ).

From my perspective, Traktor Pro 4 has the most flexible Stems mixing controls on the market – with per-Stem volume, filter, and FX send, all of which are MIDI mappable. Again, it’s not a big surprise here because it they’ve had this workflow for a long time, with only the built-in analysis and separation being new.

You can access the files as multi-track MP4s in Traktor’s data folder in your OS if you wanted to get experimental, but there is no simple way to do this.

Restoring obsolete hardware that was previously used to make stems ( S8, D2, S5 ).

The new release adds a brand-new feature to a number of different hardware pieces that have been discontinued by NI, which is incredibly intriguing. The Kontrol S8, Kontrol D2, and Kontrol S5 all show individual Stems Decks waveforms. I asked NI to tell me if they planned to return any, and they responded:” Yes.

Any piece of hardware that has dedicated stem controls for our stems can be controlled with ours. Let’s see how our user base reacts to the new features and take it from there, although there are no plans to revive the D2 and S8 right now.

I’ve kept a casual but keen eye on Kontrol D2 prices over the years since they were discontinued—and the used market has been very expensive for out-of-production hardware. My best guess is that this will only increase prices even further—they’ve hovered at around$ 499-$ 699 (original release price was$ 499 in 2015 ).

Similarly, I asked about” club-standard” gear compatability – as Stems have somewhat struggled to get into big DJ booths without a good way to quickly control them. Will HID integration with other gear, such as mixers and CDJs, gain some Stems features if the D2s do n’t return anytime soon?

Update the mappings in the future is likely to result in this. But to bring the 4 waveforms onto industry standard displays, we will be depending on the support of the device’s manufacturers.

The other big feature: flexible beatgrids (! )

Traktor Pro 4 now includes flexible beatgrids. This request on the Native Instruments docket must be the longest in existence; I can recall reading it as one of the main things DJs wanted to see in a upcoming Traktor version.

Well, at long last, it’s real. Grid Markers now have their own associated tempo, and Traktor Pro 4’s flexible beatgrids precisely follow each tempo change throughout a song. You can manually add your own tempo zones and change the tempo of each, and yes, live-played tracks can be gridded as well by adding a marker every 16 beats; this process feels a lot like turning the knob on a track in Ableton Live.

Traktor Pro 4’s future

I also inquired about the Traktor team, any updates that might be related to Maschine/Stems, and the potential future Traktor roadmaps ( given that there was a fairly open roadmap revealed with Stems and flexible beatgrids ). Their response was promising, if currently vague:

Over the past year, the team has grown, and the Traktor ecosystem has a long way to go. We made the decision to not include our Traktor roadmap with this release. In the interim, we’ll be carefully analyzing feedback and setting development priorities accordingly.

Alright – now back to the lab for a bit more testing. Again, if you want to upgrade to our store to support DJTT, you might as well upgrade to the new version of Traktor Pro 4.

Stay tuned for a new mapping for the Stem Decks for the Midi Fighter Twister and Traktor Pro 4!

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