Create Digital Music » DSP

OSC Files: Play That Funky Music, Hexagons

Peter Kirn — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:35:30 +0000

You can’t quite dance to it, but bar|none has a beautifully-shot video of a strange, invented instrument constructed with some of the technologies we saw last week. As noted then, new support for OSC in the powerful Kyma sound system means the ability to control imagined instruments in more sophisticated, higher-resolution ways. Just days later, bar|none responded to my post with one of his first experiments. It’s just the beginning of his work, so judge it accordingly – think of the first emanations of a newly-created musical instrument – but it’s a reminder that far-out ideas are possible when you combine custom soundmakers with expressive control.

The controller is Jeff Snyder’s Manta, a touch-sensitive controller with velocity sensitivity and a 6×8 array of hexagons. Jeff showed off his instrument at Handmade Music Monday night here in New York; I hope to follow up with a closer look at the Manta soon. Notably, the Manta is not an OSC device; it’s an HID USB device, just as a typical mouse or keyboard is. HID, the standard drivers for which are included in every desktop OS, also supports high-resolution data, so it’s a second alternative to MIDI for input.

My first Kyma X patch for the Pacarana. Kyma is unreal and let’s you do almost anything in Sound Design. I took a concept of a didgeridoo patch on my modular and built it back in Kyma but with even more expression. This is still a work in progress.

The touchplate is a Snyderphonics MANTA. I spent some time coding some algorithms in MAX to enhance the performance control of the patch using velocity, aftertouch and polyphonic aftertouch + controls using OSC to Kyma.

The Manta is a fantastically wonderful controller. It shows it’s [sic] flexibility and feel here.

The patch is microtonal meaning pitches are in divisions of the western concept of half and whole tones.

Since that video, he’s been trying more sonic ideas:

Been messing with this sound and here’s a version where the didgeri is resonating as if it were a metalic vibrating tube as well. This is just trying to see the kind of sounds I can get out of the patch.

soundcloud.com/barnone/karplusdigeri

This makes me wish I could afford this setup, but if, like me, you’re on a tighter budget, the ideas here could easily be applied to other rigs. Keep the experiments coming!

Updated: bar|none aka Chris Lloyd shares his camera of choice: it’s a Canon 7D with a 50mm 1.4 lens for the “Bokeh blur effect,” a tip from stretta.

Interview: Sound Legend Paul Frindle, and a Story Behind the Digital Audio Revolution

primusluta — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:32:26 +0000

Photo (CC-BY) Liz Bustamante.

Ed.: Make no mistake about it: digital sound tech, from mixing to processing, has evolved to a fidelity on par with its analog predecessors and opening possibilities well beyond what they offered. But the making of that evolution wasn’t easy, and it was more than a technical challenge. You can thank the creative spirit of people like Paul Frindle. As contributor Primus Luta explains to CDM, his work is about more than just engineering or tools – it’s driven by creative, musical energy. -PK

Author’s note: I wanted to bring this piece to the CDM audience because, whether we know it or not, if we Create Digital Music, we are indebted to people like Paul Frindle. While this piece is on the technical side, one of the things that I hope readers will pull away is his creative spirit. May Paul inspire you to bring that same energy to the work that you produce in the digital realm. You can read the full interview, with war stories from Virgin Records, Trident Studios, SSL and more at AvantUrb.

In the world of audio, Paul Frindle is a legend. During his tenure at Solid State Logic, he was responsible for the channel electronics of the SSL G Series Console. He was also a part of the team that broke the “damnable black art” of digital conversion. He went on to cofound the (pre-dot=com) startup Oxford Digital Ltd. Their first contract was with Sony (who would eventually take over the company), developing the application design of Sony’s flagship digital mixing console. The result of this work was the OXF-R3, to this day regarded as the pinnacle of digital mixing consoles, not only in music, but also in film. Like everything Paul has worked on, as much of a landmark as the OXF-R3 was, it proved to be but merely a stepping stone. Where it was leading, however, could have been much different.

Sony’s legendary OXF-R3 console.

“I think there was a fantastic opportunity to revive the large studio concept, by integrating non-linear storage and editing into the OXF-R3,” Paul says. “It was already a massively-powerful workstation, wide open [enough] to accept it. This would have been amazingly powerful and creative, and would have knocked underpowered workstations off the map for many years to come, restoring a much-needed differential to the elite studios against the upcoming project studios.”

The OXF-R3 has only continued to blur that line in favor of the project studios. Strapped for the kind of clients who could appreciate — let alone could afford — high-end studios, the great studios of their time have faded away one by one. If those studios could have stayed on the leading edge of digital tech, would it have been enough to halt those closures? We may never know. Fortunately for all studio buffs, high-end and project alike, there was another avenue of exploration left for Paul that would give his work the broadest audience to date.

“The design of the OXF-R3 was amazingly ahead of time. It was a great big, highly flexible processor with a whole load of software running on it, which was restricted and presented on a panel just for conformity and convenience. It was already ‘software in a box’. It could even be controlled remotely. All of the design systems and debugging tools I was using on it consisted of on-screen GUIs.” This was a dramatic, yet understated shift from the way technical engineers had previously worked. It was a physical product, but the brains of it was moving into the virtual space.

“I was warning that the OXF-R3 product concept was obsolete even before we finished it. The large digital tape recorder was nothing more than a very costly and highly delicate ‘bit bucket’ organised like an analogue machine. With the meteoric rise in performance of digital technology, it was fairly easy to envisage a time when a unit bought for £1000 would be capable of doing a large chuck of what a mixer needed. In the near future, we would be able to make art without all this paraphernalia, at a miniscule fraction of the cost. I was far more excited about this than doggedly hanging onto established formats and design constraints.”

Paul’s work for Sony Oxford was a new high water mark for digital audio processing in software.

Not one to let this excitement lay dormant, Paul and a few others started their own pursuit. “The plug-ins project was initially hatched from humble beginnings, almost by us working in our spare time and at nights. My colleague actually did the first proof of concept EQ plug-in over the Christmas break and it all grew from that.

“What people needed most were high-quality, refined and indispensable applications; the EQ and Dynamics were adapted to provide that. Making them identical to the OXF-R3 applications was a link to our existing reputation. Of course running these in 48bits for TDM or double float in RTAS actually provided better performance than was available in the OXF-R3 32-bit, fixed-point environment. And it has to be said that we ironed out a few bugs along the way too, so these were actually better than the applications in the large format console.”

For users, this resulted in what are still being called the best equalizer and dynamics processing plug-ins on the market. For Sony, however, the greatest deliverable was the system they built to create both the OXF-R3 and the plugins. “It was a complete hierarchical graphic design system running on a specially-designed processor, which allowed real-time interaction and analysis of the action for almost every instruction in your processing design!” If this description sounds familiar, it is because what Paul is describing is a modular environment for signal processing, much like tools like Max/MSP, AudioMulch and Plogue Bidule.

“Not only did it allow engineers without formal programming skills to build highly complex applications, it also very crucially allowed us to experiment freely and actually listen to what was happening in real time! It was this system that enabled me to delve so deeply into what we could hear and why, exploit that knowledge and realise the applications for the OXF-R3 console and subsequently the Sony Oxford plug-ins. Quite simply, I was able to ‘play around’ with all sorts of wacky processing models to get the behaviour that matched the all-important sounds in my head.”

This freedom of experimentation allowed Paul to move from traditional audio utilities like EQ’s and dynamics processors into more creative arenas. “The Transmod was something that I have always wanted since the mid-1970s, and over the decades had tried on several occasions to make out of analogue technology. But it was doomed to failure because of the relatively poor accuracy and stability of [analogue] components. During a lunchtime, I knocked up a digital version of my old idea as proof of concept, and it just worked!

“The Inflator came about because I received a late night call from a friend who had been doing high-profile sessions in L.A. with Eric Clapton and BB King. He had slogged away for months doing recordings and mixes, but had been beaten into production by another engineer who managed to make it louder. He wanted to know if there was anything he could possibly do to make it louder without wrecking the sound completely. I was reminded that I had to make my first transistor power amp design in 1970 twice as powerful as the previous tube amp design to get the same volume and impact. All I had to do was to apply all this old knowledge into a digital process and the same effect would be available. I used a combination of math packages and the OX-R3 design system to experiment and extract the salient details of what made the tube amp louder. This was definitely a walk on the wild side, since for the first time in this employment I was making something whose sole purpose was to generate a heap of distortion!”

After leaving Sony Oxford, Paul set out on his own again to further explore the creative possibilities opening up through digital audio. The result is his latest venture Pro Audio DSP. “This initiative was conceived as a way of getting this stuff done without too much interference from marketing executives and sales infrastructures.”

The first product is the Dynamic Spectrum Mapper plugin. “It was yet another object I had always wanted to have, but the idea was given greater urgency from listening to what people were trying to achieve in their productions using greater amounts of compression, the kinds of character they were trying to produce, and the difficulties they were battling with along the way. This, and a deep personal dislike for the artefacts produced in conventional multi-band designs, gave impetus for the design of the DSM. Digital processing seemed to provide the possibility of actually making it at last.

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper introduction from Paul Frindle on Vimeo.

“I am particularly pleased with the DSM because it’s exactly the sort of thing I want to bring to the marketplace – serious processes that have groundbreaking practical purpose and facility. They are, at the same time, artistically capable and great fun! Such things excite me because they bring genuinely new capabilities and artistic power to the production process.”

If there is a theme to be found throughout Paul’s career it is a continuous effort to push forward this idea of the technology as art.: “I don’t want to waste the rich experience of the past in some manic push for ‘newness,’” says Paul. “Neither do I want to simply try and blindly copy what was there, in the hope that it does the same ‘kind of thing’. I want to understand it and use that understanding to produce new stuff, which is truly creative and actually advances our art. We should be carrying the past forward with us in a continuous process of advancement, not writing it off to history, or reverting to it in a religious search for past success.”

Speaking with Paul, his mind is so focused on the present or even the future, it’s easy to forget his historical relevance. Working dilligently to realize the ’sounds in his head’ and put them out into the world, he is not only an inspiration for the work he produces, but for the creative ethic it exemplifies.

Cyber Monday, Ongoing: Delicious Synths, Effects for $5-20 from audioMIDI

Peter Kirn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:14:25 +0000

The EMS VCS3 has inspired a virtual synth. You can try to get someone to give you a hardware EMS for $20 – or you can take advantage of this deal. Photo: Rosa Menkman.

Online retailer audioMIDI has begun a new sale I really love called the “No Brainer” series. They offer some carefully-selected instruments and effects for prices like $5, $15, or $20. These aren’t clearance bin deals, either; they’re some of the best plug-ins on the market, in either full versions or slightly stripped-down (but fully-functional) editions. audioMIDI has exclusively released details of the deals they’ll offer Monday to CDM, and among them is the wonderful XILS 3 – a virtual instrument with the matrix editing of the classic EMS synthesizers.

Expiring

First, you have until midnight 11/30 to grab AAS’ fantastic modeled virtual analog, Ultra Analog, for $15 (instead of around $200). Ableton has their own version of this instrument called Analog, but if you’re using other hosts (or you don’t have Live Suite and want to save some cash), this is a great option.

AAS Ultra Analog VA-1 for $15

Ongoing

The Overloud Breverb is a multi-function reverb plug, normally going for $369. The audioMIDI edition comes with room and plate reverbs – nicely matching the free TC Electronic hall reverb we got last week – for five bucks.

Breverb audioMIDI Edition

Rhetorical question: could a great Breverb inspire a profound Bromance?

Monday

It’s actually the upcoming deals that go live Monday that have me especially enthusiastic.

Blue Analog Trackbox from NOMAD Factory is a tube-emulating multi-effects unit with loads of timbral options and modules for gate/expander, compressor, and EQ. After a quick play-round, it seems to sound great. It’s normally US$189, but from Monday, it’ll be $15 through AudioMIDI. Expires December 6.

Trackbox offer link (will go live Monday, won’t work any earlier)

XILS 3 is a virtual modular with matrix editing. The creators don’t mention it by name, but the hardware in question is the legendary VCS 3 – a brilliant analog synth from EMS. The EMS synths are overshadowed somewhat here in the States by the likes of Moog; if you don’t know the VCS 3, go look it up.

Matrices were a great idea back in the day on hardware, and they remain a great idea now. Lovers of the EMS or synth sounds in general won’t want to miss this, especially with sequencer and synth modules and the ability to use the XILS 3 as an audio processor on live input. You’ll get a slightly stripped-down version, but at a steep discount – US$20. Expires end of December.

XILS 3 offer link (will go live Monday, won’t work any earlier)

I’m playing around with all of these, so if I have tips to share, I will. Let us know if you bite on any of these offers.

Through Wednesday, Get TC Electronic M30 Reverb Plug for Free

Peter Kirn — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:48:17 +0000

Sometimes, all you need is one really good reverb with editable parameters. TC Electronic has done some really lovely reverb work, and they’re currently giving away one of their plug-ins, for three days only. Registration is required, if you’re opposed to such things, but beyond that, there are no strings attached. (Yes, there’s a mailing list, too, so you have to unsubscribe if you don’t want it. Why not put an opt-out on the registration page, TC?)

The plug-in is free through Wednesday, and then costs US$79 after that.

What you get from the M30:

VST, AU compatibility on Windows and Mac
Hall algorithm (no Room or Plate, though – for that, you need the M40 which ships with TC’s audio interfaces)
Editable parameters for pre-delay, decay, “hi color,” and the requisite wet/dry mix

It’s nothing revolutionary, but I’m always game for a nice Hall algorithm. Interestingly, TC has worked out a way to port their native DSP code from hardware to computer-native code using something they call AlgoFlex. (Out of context, that sounds like some modern-looking lamp at Design Within Reach, or maybe that’s just me.)

M30 Studio Reverb

Free Reverb Deal

In-the-Box Mixing, Analog Console Style, on an Open Source DAW

Peter Kirn — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:42:48 +0000

Marrying open source and commercial development, or trying to bridge analog consoles and computers – either task on its own might seem improbable. But yesterday, a newly-announced tool promised to bring together all those dimensions.

Ardour is the free and open source Digital Audio Workstation software for Linux and Mac. It’s widely underrated and has some terrific architecture underneath, with tools that are maturing at a healthy pace. Harrison is not an open-source developer – they’re a commercial manufacturer of analog and digital consoles and do proprietary DSP development. Conventional wisdom says the two shouldn’t be able to work together, but they did. The result is something called Mixbus. It’s got Harrison’s technology for mixing, atop Ardour (on Mac OS X, for now) for recording, editing, and arranging.

The Harrison half of the solution uses Harrison’s own DSP algorithms for sound, which they claim match the EQ, filtering, compression, tape saturation, and summing on their large-format mixers. But aside from sound, this is also about design: the layout only ever has one knob per function and metering is done in a conventional way. The result is not just a set of plug-ins, but a real virtual console inside your Mac. Interestingly, too, while you can use your Mac Audio Unit plug-ins with the solution, Harrison chose the open LADSPA format to implement their channel strip.

I imagined that the pricing would be something like a thousand dollars, given the pro target market, but the whole thing costs just US$79.99 as its introductory price. If it sounds anywhere near as good as the makers promise, it’s probably the best deal in mixing and channel processing anywhere. Here’s the product page:

Mixbus [Harrison Consoles]

Of course, the advantages of free software are more than price; it’s the ability to keep the source available, to be able to customize it, and to be able to run it on a variety of hardware and software platforms. So how does free software coexist here, with Ardour under a GPL license? Creator Paul Davis says that the free code for Ardour remains available in Ardour’s Subversion repository; only the Mixbus components remain closed. As for Linux support and not just Mac OS, which would in turn support more hardware, Paul says they’re looking into the feasibility of binary Linux distributions of Ardour and Mixbus.

For any commercial developers who think that you can’t work with open source projects – or, for that matter, if anyone thinks open source projects can’t benefit from collaboration with commercial developers – I think you’re wrong. And licenses aside, this looks like a nice solution for music making.

Free Linux Studio: How to Use LinuxDSP Effects with Ardour

Peter Kirn — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:31:44 +0000

Alongside our Renoise + Indamixx netbook-optimized production competition, I’m kicking off this week a series of CDM and guest tutorials on working with Linux audio tools, Renoise, and more. First up, here’s a basic look at how to route the free-as-in-beer linuxDSP effects toolkit into the powerful, modern, open-source DAW Ardour. Correction: I implied that linuxDSP had an open source license, which is not correct. It should be considered “freeware” but not free software. Ardour, of course, is fully open source, and this is as much a tutorial on how to use JACK to route effects as it is linuxDSP per se.

http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/
linuxDSP comes with a nice set of basic effects, including a 15-band graphic EQ, stereo reverb, valve-emulating overdrive and compressor, and parametric channel EQ, plus a much nicer graphical patchbay interface for using JACK to route audio between applications. (That last one probably deserves its own look.) linuxDSP is also bundled with upcoming builds of the Indamixx products, and it’s freely available, so if you’ve got Linux and Ardour, you can follow this tutorial — and if you’re interested in using Linux at all, you’ll want to give linuxDSP a look. Note: The Indamixx version of LinuxDSP is optimized for Atom-based Netbooks and is an Indamixx exclusive.

For those of you used to running VST and AU plug-ins, you may find linuxDSP a bit confusing at first. Instead of opening them as you would a plug-in, you launch them as an application. Thanks to the power of JACK, though, you can freely route audio between software without a lot of the limitations normally associated with plug-in architectures. Of course, when you’re in the habit of doing things one way, that can feel a little strange. So I’m pleased to welcome Mike from the linuxDSP project, who shares with us his own tutorial for getting started with Ardour and linuxDSP.

Also, trust me – this may seem like a lot of steps in the case of a simple insert, but that’s partly because we’ve broken it down to make sure you’re clear on the process. Actually doing this can be pretty fast. And keep in mind that this works for any routing with any JACK-aware application – so you could side-chain a drum track into a surround-sound SuperCollider granular effect you’ve built, for instance. It’s easily worth a little extra effort to get around the comparative rigidity of conventional plug-ins, even before considering these are all free tools.

You can also save a session with routings you want so that Ardour acts like a virtual studio, in which your favorite effects and routings are ready to run. (In fact, because of the modular nature of a JACK Linux setup, you can think of Ardour more like a traditional mixer and patch bay than just a monolithic DAW – keeping in mind that Renoise, the tracker in our competition, now has full JACK support.)

linuxDSP with a Simple Ardour Project

Mike from linuxDSP

1. Open Ardour and linuxDSP. Start up Ardour, and create or open an existing project. In this example, a simple project consisting of one stereo track will be used, as shown below:

In order to connect a linuxDSP plug-in as an insert on the track, we need to launch the plug-in and connect it via the Ardour mixer. Make sure the plug-in is running; you can do this by launching it, just like any other application. In this example, the CHEQ2 is used, since the track is stereo. Ed.: That is to say, there’s both a stereo and mono version of the EQ, so grab the stereo one!

2. Route an insert in the mixer. Next, select Ardour’s mixer window. Here, the stereo track the plug-in is to be inserted into is selected. Now make a new insert point. To do this, right click in the black area above the fader:

From the drop-down menu that appears, select New Insert. The Mixer window will now show the new insert point in the black area above the fader.

3. Select your insert. Double-click on “(insert 1)” in the Mixer window. This will open the insert dialogue.

4. Connect the linuxDSP effect to the Ardour insert point. The insert dialog allows you to connect the insert point to any external JACK application. In this case, the CHEQ2
is going to be used, so the CHEQ2 tab is selected. You will see that the CHEQ2 has two
inputs, "inL" and "inR," and two outputs, "outL" and "outR." In this example, we are going to route
the signal from the channel insert send to the inL and inR connections on the CHEQ2, and then
route the signal coming back out of the CHEQ2 "outL" and "outR" to the insert return.

Click on "inL" in the "Available connections" window. "inL" will now appear in the "out 1" box to the left. Click on "inR" in the "Available connections" window. "inR" will now appear in the "out 2" box to
the left Next do the same for "outL" and "outR" in the "Available Connections" window on the right.

The insert dialogue should now look like this:

5. Activate the setup. Finally, return to Ardour’s mixer window and ‘activate’ the insert by right clicking on it and selecting "Activate" from the drop-down menu.

6. Save and re-use! Once this is set up, if you save the session, Ardour will take care of the routing for you next time the session is loaded. All you have to do is make sure the CHEQ2 has been launched before you start Ardour and load the session.

If you play the track in Ardour, adjusting the controls on the CHEQ2 will affect the sound.

Got more requests for tutorials? Let us know. Next on my slate is using the awesome powers of the JP1 patchbay. It’s a graphical patchbay for JACK, but made a whole lot prettier. If you’re using it already and have some tips, let me know and I’ll incorporate them into the story.

mda Plug-in Collection for Mac, Windows Now Open Source

Peter Kirn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:09:35 +0000

Yeah, I know, not the same VST. But I know a lot of you feel the VST spirit, so it works. (Just look at your rants on the Propellerhead Record post.) Photo (CC) Phil Baum.

The mda-vst collection of effects has been a long-time favorite for me. It’s a set of no-nonsense, unique, simple effects, just useful stuff that doesn’t have any unnecessary bells and whistles. Oh, yeah – and it’s free, making an easy way to fill out your effect arsenal. But until recently, the collection was proprietary freeware. Now, it’s GPL-licensed open source for Mac and Windows.

Included: multi-band distortion, drum replacement, amp and speaker simulators, de-essing, degrading, delay, detune, dither, dub delay, compressor/limiter/gate, envelope following stereo imaging and simulation, a Leslie simulator, multi-band compression, an overdrive, a really insane pitch changer, a 3D panner, a sub-bass synth, a couple of vocoders with different numbers of bands, test tone creator, flanger, pitch tracker, and more.

I imagine the access to code for these things could help people launch their own effects projects. And as Windows VSTs, it can run easily in Linux hosts that support that format, too.

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mda-vst/

Thanks to Marc Resibois for the tip. And you budding C coders out there, if you dig into the code, let us know.

Be a Music Geek Ninja with Electronic Music Programming in Pd: New Book

Peter Kirn — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:33:53 +0000

Okay, it looks a little scary, but just think of that as an added way of convincing your friends you’re a total badass.

You may have heard about Pure Data (Pd), the open-source cousin to Max/MSP and a powerful tool for visual programming or “patching” music and multimedia. Pd has even appeared in the iPhone app RjDj and creating generative music for EA’s hit game Spore. But actually learning how to use the thing? Or learning some of the more advanced possible techniques in sound synthesis and processing? That’s another matter.

Johannes Kreidler writes to let us know about his new book for people wanting to learn Pd. It starts at the beginning and teaches you not only the ins and outs of the Pd environment, but all of the advanced music processing techniques, as well. (Given the similarity of Pd and Max/MSP, that should make this just about as useful for Max devotees, too.)

The book is available for reading free online, or in paperback format from Wolke Publishing House. It’s available in both English and German. Johannes writes:

This tutorial is designed for self-study, principally for composers. It begins with explanations of basic programming and acoustic principles then gradually builds up to the most advanced electronic music processing techniques. The book’s teaching approach is focused primarily on hearing, which we consider a faster and more enjoyable way to absorb new concepts than through abstract formulas.

The patches described are available for download.

He notes that because Pd is free and open source rather than commercial software, there isn’t a company behind it that can focus on documentation for new users. That’s been a common complaint about Pd, and this book does a lot to fill it — as well as a lot to fill the need for better documentation of sound techniques, as well, for users of any environment. Some of the juicy topics covered:

Additive, subtractive synthesis

Sampling

Waveshaping, modulation synthesis

Granular synthesis (something I try to eat a bowl of every day, seriously)

Fourier analysis

Sequencers

Connecting to hardware, network transmission and OSC

Basics of visuals

It’s a really elegantly-organized set of topics, and absolutely of interest to users of Max/MSP and other environments, as well. With this and a new SuperCollider book coming out this spring, we’re really getting some wonderful resources for learning greater ninja skills. Stay tuned, as I hope to create a forum for folks working on learning this stuff.

Resources

Book site, including downloadable patches and online reading:

http://www.pd-tutorial.com

Direct link to downloading all the patches as one zip (thanks, mic, in comments!):

http://www.kreidler-net.de/pd/patches/patches.zip

More info, including the paperback version:

http://www.wolke-verlag.de/musik_u_t/loadbang.html

http://www.buecher-zur-musik.de/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.buecher-zur-musik.de/53108697370a2cb3f/5310869bc400a7a02.html

Author’s site:
www.kreidler-net.de

The authorship of the book was aided by a grant by the Music University of Freiburg / Germany.

Previous appearances by the author:

A song made from 70,2000 samples

The stock market declines, as a song

More Pd Books

bang | pure data Free, online

Creator Miller Puckette’s own The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music, free online in various formats and also in print

Arturia Origin, Guest Review: From Soft Synth to Hard Synth, at a Price

Dave Dri — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:20:34 +0000

Ever wished you could pack the sonic goodness and programming power of a soft synth into a hardware box? Dreamed of software that lived in a road case and had the stability and power-on capability of your outboard gear? You’re certainly not alone. That meant many of us were intrigued when soft synth emulator house Arturia showed off the Origin, a DSP-based hardware box that put their emulations in a box that wasn’t a PC.

There’s plenty to recommend this device, with an onboard step sequencer and terrific sounds. And then you hit the US$2500 street price – hardly recession-friendly, especially with Arturia’s much-cheaper and very-capable software synths.

Dave Dri knows touring with gear, as the founder of Seque and a live electronic festival vet. We got his impressions from across the Pacific in Australia. He’s upfront with everything he loves and everything that annoys. To bring a different perspective to Planet CDM here, I’m pleased to welcome Dave as a guest.

An Origin Of Sorts

Founded in France in 1999, Arturia has gained a solid reputation for the quality of its emulations of classic analogue synthesizers. If the soft synth emulations of the classic Moog Minimoog and Yamaha CS-80 have made Arturia a name in the industry, the news of its development of a hardware DSP system made for enjoyable speculation and furious Google searches for videos, news and reviews. While units in Australia are somewhat scarce at present, an Origin was supplied for review by Musiclab in Brisbane, Australia. Where the initial review was for music press print media, there is so much more to this module that we can take a deeper look and share with the CDM community some of the issues and notable features of the Arturia Origin.

Man, Meet Machine

The initial impression of the unit is typical of any large synth module with a host of knobs and blinking lights. The Origin can be rack-mounted or run as a table-top unit, with supplied wooden ends screwing in for the all-important retro aesthetic. There have been comments about the time it takes the unit to boot up, which takes a while. Once you have booted, though, it’s a treat to use, and the LCD screen is both large and bright. As ever, first impressions gained by scrolling through the individual and multi presets give a feel for the possibilities and examples of programming inside the box. A range of usable bass and synth sounds nestle amongst the abstract sweeps and blips, showing plenty of sonic diversity. The Origin is, after all, billed as being “the most powerful synthesiser on the market”.

Origin is essentially a modular environment for programming custom synth modules with a collection of oscillators and filters. It draws upon Arturia’s stable of analog gear models, adding new, original content from the Arturia team. With those synth sounds now in a physical case, boasting external signal inputs and a three-layered step sequencer, the Origin is impressive on paper. Its sound is equally impressive, but one would expect no less from Arturia based on the quality of their software. The presets might attract the same “heard it all before” criticisms from anyone who has been around analog synths for a while, but that can be perhaps considered a complement to the analog modeling. One needs only to play up and down the range of notes of a Minimoog patch to realise that the coherency of the lower and higher notes is superior to lesser Virtual Analogue products. This is especially pronounced in the lower note ranges, though the manual goes into details about avoiding upper frequency aliasing and a “no names” criticism of some other “leading softsynth”. If you’re a soft synth developer, it might be you! Uh oh!

Get With The Program

The first issue that one is likely to run into is delving into the much-talked-about modular programming environment. Whereas the similarly modular Nord G2 includes robust programming environments in computer software for their hardware synth, Arturia have chosen to limit the Origin’s programming to be an entirely inside-the-box affair. Indeed, the USB port and supplied software are merely for archiving and transferring patches. Quite why this process takes such an excruciatingly long time is a mystery, but the lack of any ability to edit file names of archived patches is simply lazy programming. At the time of writing, Arturia haven’t replied to confirm if there is an editor on the way, but one would consider it likely that such a revision will be released with an OS update shortly.

Not that programming on the Origin is anything near impossible. Merely annoying. There are two modes to view the programming process, which amounts to dropping modules into slots and opening each module to connect to another. Frustratingly, there appears to be no way to intelligently “insert” modules into the signal path. This, in addition to no method of “swapping” modules in and out, slows down the rate of programming and limits the kind of creative and random experiments that make actual modular synthesis interesting. Similarly, deleting a module inline will break the signal path, and require re-patching. Despite these quirks, the process is relatively fun and the availability of up to 9 oscillator instances and 4 filter instances will surely yield some interesting results.

Ed.: This is one I’m definitely interested in following – I’d be willing to make some sacrifices for in-box programming, which is an impressive feature, especially with this modular structure. But these do sound like significant obstacles. Other folks want to chime in? -PK

These modules are sourced from the modeling of the Moog Minimoog, Yamaha CS-80, ARP 2600 and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, as well as additional Arturia originals. Each has its distinctive quirks and allows for some interesting combinations, with features like self-oscillation on the Moog and the smooth response of the Jupiter filters. The manual becomes useful here, with examples and reference points for understanding the characteristics of each.

Better Living Through Synthesis

Beyond creating your own patches, the unit comes packed full of preset programs. Each program contains one synth structure as well as up to three effects settings and one sequence. Up to four Programs can be combined as a Multi, allowing for multi-timbral sound module use with MIDI note, channel and split functionality. The synth structure can be either a user-built modular environment or a template synth. At time of writing, the Origin is shipped with only the Minimoog supplied, with no clear date from Arturia when they will supply the rest. This does seem a curious omission given not only the cost of the unit, but the idea that all these units are already modeled in other Arturia software, requiring only a programmer to port the modules to the Origin. Add another thing to wait for in “the future”.

Room For Improvement

There are quickly a list of issues and concerns a programmer will have with the unit. Where the Arturia software emulation of the Minimoog shows numeric values for tuning settings, the Origin does not. Indeed, all parameters are merely displayed as a graphic representation of a knob, leaving only a visual cue as to the settings. This becomes an issue when tuning the semitones of a number of oscillators for instance, which coupled with the lack of editing software or a touch screen, makes programming the same patches on the Origin a slower affair then Arturia’s own Minimoog V.

Other issues include the use of only a single instance of the Delay, Chorus, and Reverb effects, out of a maximum of three effects able to be run at any one time. The limited palette of effects including Distortion and a Phaser are similar to those found on a Novation X-Station at five times less the expense, and pale in comparison. The Delay and Reverb lack depth of character, and one might find themselves checking that the Distortion is, in fact, actually turned on. The restriction to singular use of the more CPU intensive Delay and Reverb is an indication of conserving processing power for the actual synth patches, but these issues quickly creep into the potential capacity of a Multi patch. In an era where the cheapest entry level laptop has processing power to spare, it is relatively disappointing that a module advertised as “the most powerful synthesizer on the market” would have any processing restrictions whatsoever. If you intended to run the world’s most ultimate 9-Oscillator Trance super saw Multi with full effects and blazing filters, think again. Outside of CPU and “I can’t believe it doesn’t have a touch screen” interface issues however, much of what currently detracts from the overall desirability of the Origin could well be fixed with a timely OS update.

Things Are Looking Up

Those niggles out of the way, it’s time to reaffirm that the unit does in fact sound fantastic. As said before, so it should. It’s Arturia doing what Arturia do. Coupled with the rather interesting, if quirky, step sequencer, the unit has the potential to become a boutique brain for a relatively well-funded live act. Where programming may feel like a festival of clicks, the Origin is perfectly suited for performance and allows for an incredibly well-planned customization and mapping of knobs to this end. External inputs offer the chance to create inspired filter programs and the unit hasn’t neglected a healthy array of midi ports. The unit is heavy at around the 8kg mark, but the build is impressively solid and all the knobs have the same smooth feel that makes units like the Waldorf Blofeld such a joy to tweak, grab and perform on.

It is, however, the quality of the sound that will emerge as a common point of conversation regarding the Origin. It is very expensive and will perhaps emerge as a limited and desirable boutique unit for some. For others, the comparison to the Arturia software will be a pressing factor, with all the synths on the Origin available as part of Arturia’s acclaimed “V Collection” at a price over four times cheaper than the Origin. Of course, these are not available in modular form, which invariably brings up again the question why the Origin is shipped without a software editor. Sure, the Origin sounds amazing, but the question is whether it sounds that much more amazing than the same software, and whether the potential for programming is currently worth the restricted workflow of doing it all inside the box.

To Origin, Or Not To Origin

Some of the best music technology in history has been quirky and difficult, and there is little argument against calling the Arturia Origin exactly that. For all its difficulty, however, it sounds incredible. For all the niggling feature complaints, it suggests a well-timed OS update in response. For its price though, there are no easy answers. Comparing the recommended retail prices in Australia at present, the Arturia Origin costs only a few hundred less than one would spend purchasing both a Moog Little Phatty Stage II and a Dave Smith Prophet 08. Both being genuine analogue synths in their own right. Whether the market is ready to pay this price until Arturia address the features left wanting is entirely up to the producers and acts with the money and passion for incredibly sounding and very specific modular emulations. For everyone else, the software awaits.

For another – similarly skeptical – take on the Arturia, here’s Music Thing from last year:

Review: Arturia Origin. It’s bit, it’s expensive, it’s sexy. Why don’t I want one?

Universal Audio UAD-2 SOLO Will Add DSP Power to Your Laptop for $499

Peter Kirn — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:36:19 +0000

I’ve been waiting for the near-ubiquitous ExpressCard slot on laptops to see some audio goodness, so one of the more welcome announcements of NAMM is that there’s now finally an ExpressCard-enabled version of the Universal Audio platform. The UAD is a DSP platform for computers, with an emphasis on high-quality, boutique mastering and effects plug-ins, including some recent, familiar emulations of classic Roland and Moog gear. UA’s stuff really does sound great, and host support has been improving (look for the key words “latency compensation” in your host of choice). So it’s about time that laptop users get in on some of the fun the desktop users have had.

The surprise is, the UAD-2 SOLO doesn’t cost that much – $500 includes the card plus the “1176SE Compressor/Limiter, Pultec EQP-1A Equalizer, RealVerb Pro Room Modeler, and CS-1 Channel Strip.” That’s a premium over native plug-ins, but then you have access to other UA plugs later on. In other news, Antares and Manley Labs signed onto UA’s platform, so more stuff is coming.

And by the way, while the forums rip into the choice of DAW, this stuff will work everywhere – even, via RTAS, Pro Tools.

Universal’s stuff isn’t for everyone, but I’m pleased that laptop users are getting something more out of a slot on their machine. (You’ll find ExpressCard on most PCs and the MacBook Pro, as well.) I hope this is the first of more hardware to come.

http://www.uaudio.com/

Mastering – spoiled for choice? This means in mastering choices, you’ve got the UAD, IK’s T-RackS 3 announced at the end of last year, and iZotope’s Ozone 4 announced at NAMM. I’ll be talking to some folks in New York who know something about mastering (i.e., are not me). (One of them is a big Cubase fan, so I expect he’ll also be all over Cubase 5 – and he makes records that make real money, whereas I make records that go nicely with experimental modern dance.)

Each of these products goes a different direction, but the honest truth is almost any DAW will start you out with a pretty great selection of effects tools, and for a small chunk of change, you can add on with something like the UAD, T-RackS, and iZotope. None of this changes your actual skill level or the quality of your ears, but it does help keep your wallet from being the major barrier.