Synthesizers

This excellent and informative video from Make Magazine and sponsored by Jameco Electronics shows you how you can use fiber optics to transmit an audio signal as an alternative to the traditional way. Not all electronic signals are communicated via electricity. By transmitting information in the form of light, we can avoid many limitations inherent to traditional wiring. And on top of all those benefits – fiber optics are just straight-up cool!

DM1 is an advanced vintage Drum Machine. It turns your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine. Easy and fast to use, loaded with 24 superb electronic drum kits and beautiful hyper-realistic graphics, DM1 has been designed for a lot of instant fun.

CFA has released a couple more soundsets and a free one as well for Adam Szabo`s JP6K synthesizer called The Experience, Patchworx 05 for the Lennar Digital Sylenth1 synthesizer, and SilverBox for U-He ACE modular synth. The JP6K The Experience soundset is loaded with grinding basses, super-fat lead sounds, followed by delightful pads and plucks up to juicy synth sounds. The Patchworx 05 features yet more is a collection of Bass, Leads, Pads and Synth sounds which also include synth samples as well. Both sets feature 64 high end sounds. The Free Silverbox download for u-He ACE features 32 CableBass, CableDrum soundsets and the SilverACE skin. CableBass and cabledrum are a small soundsets with evolving subs, percussive basses or raw, and wild drifting electro basses. CableDrum is mainly aligned on minimal and tech-house. It contains knocking drums & percussion, raw basses, a few exoctic groove-sequences and silky but also scruffy synthsounds. Find out more at http://www.cfa-sound.com/ind...

For this weeks Ableton Live Rack #15 installment, AfroDJMac brings us some sampled feedback his Fender Mustang and Fender Jag-Stang guitars his Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amplifier. He says that if you were there during the sampling session listening to all that noise you''d be surprised at how the final product turned out. More like a vintage electric piano, rich and warm in flavor. He had hoped for something as ruthless as the source material, but turns out this instrument has warmth and character.

From now until the end of July 15th, 2011, we are offering all KARMA software, DVDs and sound sets at a savings of 25% off! That's a whopping big financial bailout for you hard-working citizens of the world! Save up to $99 on various packages.

Sounds Devine have released a new sound set for XIL Lab's SynthiX which can emulate the Elka Synthex along with SynthiX's 's other features. The offers bank 96 patches which makes use of SynthiX's dual layer architecture. the user is allowed to play chords with your left hand and melodies with your right , bass grooves and arpeggios or even drum machines and leads . This bank is a mix of the old and the new , with plenty of big 80's pads / arpeggios and synths , combined with some more experimental sounds and soundscapes.

This should be a great enhancement since the original was an awesome instrument unto itself. My only wish was that I never got to experience the real thing in it's time. Certainly there was a small window of opportunity to buy an original hardware OSCar. ImpOSCar2 is the successor to our multi-award winning impOSCar software synthesizer. If you're not familiar with the impOSCar then you're in for a real treat. However, if you fell in love with it first time around, be prepared to fall in love all over again.

MODULAR: a new documentary about the history, decline and rebirth of an iconic instrument that changed music forever: the modular synthesizer. They have released the first video trailer for the film. Already we can see there are some heavy hitters involved inlcuding: Bruce Duncan, Joel Chadabe, Richard Lainhart, Patrick Blackburn, Jeff Blenkinsopp, Morton Subotnick and others. MODULAR is in production all Summer, they hope to have it released early this Fall. Follow updates on the film's facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/page...

This video uploaded by Dikker last week explains in detail how to use the Moog Filtatron app for iOS as a synthesizer to get the warm and rich Moog analog sound out of Filtatron and into you favourite music making app on the iPhone. The latest update to the Filtatron features a pitch lock in the VCO pad section which allows the user on a very limited basis to play chromatically with the built in oscillator.

Bitley Sounds and Refills has released Fairlight XXL refill for Reason and Reason Record. The huge refill instruments reportedly offers 3,000 individual patches. Everything from their earlier CMI II+ & the bonus refill and lots of news. The following videos does more at explaining the finer detailes as well as how XXL sounds. The cost is 100€ worldwide. More info available at http://bitley.laconicsounds....

News from Multiples: For those of you who follow our twitter feed you will no doubt have heard that T2D has been working very hard making a brand new synth with Native Instruments Reaktor technology. It is currently at version 1 stage of development and is a 3 oscillator synth routed through a Modulation Matrix where any of 3 seperate filters can be chosen for each of the oscillators to go through.

My patience for an update to this potentially potent app was pretty thin until I awoke this morning to learn that Akai Professional has released an update to their iOS app Synthstation. While not exactly the layout we saw aboard the Synthstation49 keyboard at NAMM 2011, the new update V2.0 is based upon user feedback. When the Synthstation49 hardware finally is released, the pair are definitely going to be taking the iPad and synth app tools to a new level users and skeptics have been hoping for. SynthStation v2.0 contains the most requested enhancements and capabilities from SynthStation enthusiasts everywhere and is now an even more powerful app for creating music on the go.

Organic Compounds is a raw, multi-format acoustic drum package which will be available in multiple popular formats. We have paid close attention to each samples’ start and end points, making sure each hit starts and ends on zero-crossing to avoid all pops and clicks. The original, non-normalized samples are included in this package, and yes, there is a cowbell.

Ribbon is a lofi synth as well as a USB and CV Gate controller. The tactile pad controls a FM effect. An amazing new instrument. Eowave Ribbon is not just a ribbon controller!

Heading into new territory AfroDJMac's week #14 of his Ableton Live Rack releases is focuses on tension and release. He makes the point that as in life so is in music the concepot of tension and release. So much of our enjoyment in life relies on tension and release, and music is no different. This week AfroDJMac has created a bunch of white noise risers and fallers, sampled some choice sounds from old video games, and created synths that climb and fall many octaves over time.

Puremagnetik has announced the release of their new Micropak Grainscape. A collection of haunting, granular synthesized, cinematic textures and ambiences for scoring or sound design applications. Bending metal, shimmering glass, dark twisted ambiences, nightmare choirs and more. Grainscapes is perfect for setting a suspenseful film scene or designing walls of layered tension. Grainscapes includes over 20 multisampled programs tailored for instant tweaking and sonic manipulation.

The Robots are back and this time they are not taking prisoners! When Alien Drum Robots Attack is a drum and effects tool box for electronic music. Designed for folks who work with Hip Hop, Drum & Bass, Dub Step, Techno, House, Dub, Break Beat... any genre that needs solid punchy drums with lots of character and plenty of variety.

From the creators of the award-winning iOS app MorphWiz comes SampleWiz. SampleWiz is a Universal iOS application. It runs iOS 4.0 and higher on the 3rd- and 4th-generation iPod touch, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPad 2. Capture your sonic universe! Listen… Record… Create…

Ambient Injection: Evolving Energy from Bluezone Corporation gives you among the darkest and unheard sounds in Sci-Fi film scoring. This exceptional sample pack contains intenses soundscapes, unreal atmospheres, deep drones, processed Sci–Fi sound effects, finely crafted transitions, falls, impacts and more. This ultimate sample pack is suited for Ambient, Dubstep, Drum & Bass, Breaks and film’s background music.

iSyn Poly is an electronic music studio for use with Apple iPad. iSyn Poly places an unbelievable number of features including three studio-quality, fully programmable virtual analog synthesizers and a drum machine packed in just three different screens on your iPad.