MOTU’s MachFive sampler, while perhaps not getting the kind of attention rivals from NI and Steinberg have, has had in its history some compelling features. Those features were in a multi-window interface, though, that not all of us loved – while I can’t find the review, I know when I covered it for Keyboard, I praised powerful editing features like the slicer but lamented the UI.

MachFive’s new UI looks radically different. The tabbed layout and modules and preset browsing all recall NI’s products, but there are new twists, too, like slick, readable waveform views, gorgeous EQ visualizations borrowed from MOTU’s DP DAW, and plenty of shiny. The results look far more usable, which means easier access to new sonic capabilities. And that’s good news, because it’s those features where things get interesting. Just a few highlights:

• Granular stretching and re-pitch sounds, licensed from IRCAM. I’m fairly certain this is the first time I’ve seen the Paris research center as a specific bullet point in product promo, but there are samples that sound terrific.
• New scripting which MOTU touts for modeling things like strumming and fingering on guitars – and lots of other things, too. New sound content will take advantage of the scripting features. And, oh, yeah, if you’re thinking that scripting is available elsewhere, CDM’s nerdier readers will like this: the scripting engine is now in Lua.
• Hybrid synth engine covering wavetable, subtractive, and FM synthesis. Earlier today, readers were talking about disappointment that Omnisphere, the massive sample-based synth, lacked samples. Well, here you go – here’s one strong sample/synth hybrid contender. (Omnisphere’s another animal, but that doesn’t make this any less interesting.)
• Modular effects architecture, convolution reverb mean greater ability to apply effects, from buses to individual oscillators and keygroups.
• Oberheim-style Xpander filter.
• Tons of ready-to-use MIDI scripting.
• Powerful arpeggiator and micro-tuner.

You also get 45 GB of sound content (wowsa), full-screen mode, an updated slicer/looper, and expansion of MachFive’s already-extensive support for third party samples, even including obscure old formats.

I’m intrigued: the intelligent new layer rule interface, the overhauled UI and sound engine, and then extensive micro-tuning and Lua scripting start to make me interested, even with intense competition in this arena. For experimental sound design, there’s some real potential here. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, pictures:

More:
http://www.motu.com/products/software/machfive/

http://www.motu.com/products/software/machfive/technology.html

For all the hype around mobile music creation, here’s a story with an ending in the opposite direction. Independent developer Olivier Gillet is the reason a lot of people see handheld gadgets as potential music making devices; he’s the creator of the brilliant Bhajis Loops for Palm. But, as if to prove that hardware can be a digital platform, too, his latest creation, while it will fit in your palm, isn’t for a device like the overcrowded iPhone.

And as we take up the issue of platforms for sonic tech, Olivier’s timing is perfect. Amidst gloom and doom predictions of the sunset of tinkering, the tinkerers soldier on.

http://mutable-instruments.net/shruti1

“I did not continue writing mobile music software as I didn’t like the direction the iPhone (and to some extent Android) took, but I have recently started experimenting with minimal/DIY-friendly hardware,” says Gillet. “A couple of units of my first mono synth will be available as a kit in a few days ( http://mutable-instruments.net/shruti1/ ) and you might want to check it out – not that I’m looking for free press, almost all units of the first batch are already reserved It has some common points with Bhajis Loops – taking a limited hardware platform (in this case, the ATMega328p chip, also used in the [open source DIY hardware platform] Arduino boards) and squeezing the most out of it – with a no-nonsense interface. I’ll probably release a couple of other products (artisanal, small volumes, or kits) with similar design approaches (synths, FX, modules for modular synths).”

I’m personally tinkering with one of those somewhat absurdly powerful-and-cheap ARM cores this week, but talk about bucking trends. Consider the Shruti-1:

• 16 Mhz, 2kb memory baby! As the self-effacing product description notes, “8You’re more likely to find this 8-bit wonder in vending machines than in synths… Yet, the Shruti-1’s firmware squeezes the most out of this tight processor to render classic waveforms, but also FM or weird digital sounds – all of them in their full 8-bit quirkiness.”
• Vintage analog filtering. This isn’t just about harsh digital sound, though. The filter is decidedly retro – the CEM3379 VCF/VCA, similar to what you’d find in a Prophet VS, Ensoniq ESQ-1 or Waldorf Microwave. That warms up the resulting sound.
• Make it yourself, open source: You can get on the list for a kit, but the full instructions and bill of materials are also on the site; check the maker/hacker section. And without getting into a tricky discussion of intellectual property and open source hardware, let’s put it this way – with Creative Commons specs and GPL3 firmware, I think the Shruti-1 is “good enough for jazz,” whatever your local lawyer may think.
• Small, light, portable, 9V-battery powered, and as mobile as the Palm app.
• MIDI support, so this is playable from a keyboard (strap one to an AX-09, perhaps) and sequence-able.

It’s also notable that you don’t have to be a fan of chip music to love this design: it’s an electronic instrument suitable to a wide range of tastes, including chip lovers but other folks, as well. It’s not a perfect design for everything: I’d like to see a fully-integrated board, its future is somewhat limited by availability of that filter, and I’d prefer more physical controls to the few controls and reliance on the LCD. But it’s cheap, sounds fantastic, and looks like great fun.

Put this alongside creations like the wonderful Ruin & Wesen devices, and we have a small, growing galaxy of open, open-ended, hackable music hardware that stands with or without a computer. That’s a subject for another article – nominees welcome.

Kits are priced 115€ + shipping – with the convenience of not having to worry about sourcing parts yourself.

More on the parts, and what the inclusion of the vintage filter means, from Olivier:

The project is 100% open (and well-documented), so there’s already enough information on the site to allow someone to source the parts, get the PCBs manufactured, build and flash the firmware, and assemble it.

I’ve decided to behave “responsibly” with the CEM3379s (http://mutable-instruments.net/node/91 ). While It could be possible for me to buy the last stocks from all the distributors that stock them, and to squeeze some other batches of kits, I am not doing it to leave room for the Ensoniq/Sequential repair/servicing market.
However, one of my contacts in the “vintage chips” world is confident that there are still pretty decent stocks of those waiting to be unearthed, so whenever new stocks are found, I could do more runs of the original design – though at the moment, I’m investing all my energy building a more modern analog section, even if it’ll mean
deviating a bit from the original Shruti-1 sound.

Speaking of that sound, here’s what the thing sounds like:
Sweet Shruti-1 dreams by mutable.instruments

FM Glass jam by mutable.instruments

Shruti-blipfest by mutable.instruments

(Lots, lots) more:
http://soundcloud.com/mutable-instruments/tracks

It’s terrific work. I could see a lot more like this. I’ll be curious what people do with them. Keep us posted – particularly if you get creative with the case, with musical uses, or other mods.

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the LinnDrum II since it was called the BoomChik. We called the non-functional prototype one of the best products of this January’s NAMM – reasoning being that, based on what we heard from showgoers, a silent LinnDrum still beat more evolutionary blandness from the rest of the industry. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of us were getting a wee bit impatient waiting for some kind of news. Now that news appears to be here — a rough estimate on availability and pre-order details. (Updated: Specs had been posted previously, as Cory observes in comments, but let’s savor them one more time.)

Availability: Late 2008 (“our best estimate,” so that’s not set in stone)

Cost: US$1400 for the all-digital LinnDrum II, or $1800 for the LinnDrum II Analog with the addition of four analog voices as seen in the Prophet ‘08 and Evolver, plus 32 dedicated encoders

Pre-order list: No commitment, no money down; just email support@rogerlinndesign.com and you’re in. Will there be a baby shower at some point?

Dave and Roger have also posted updated specs on the two units. Highlights include:

• A real-time optimized operating system – do lots of stuff without stopping play
• Modulated filters and resonators
• Real-time and step recording – think MPC and 808, respectively – with visual animation on the pads
• Record to Compact Flash
• Lots of controls, including buttons and assignable sliders, and foot switch and expression jacks for pedals, in addition to the pads (in fact, it looks like there’s less mucking around inside menus than on competing boxes from Akai and Roland, one thing that kept me off those units)
• Eight outputs – so you could do some interesting effects routing, or do some crazy surround sound drumming. (In fact, I could see using multichannel outs to a computer and doing effects in the computer…) Four more outputs for the analog voices on the Analog model.
• MIDI and USB, with USB storage operations

I imagined the Analog model would pretty much steal the show, but the Digital model is cute and compact and still pretty unique, so I think we’ll see interest in both.

June 20 LinnDrum II Update [Specs and an explanation of the status of the design]

Via The Chip Collection, who caught me napping out in Chicago

Yep. I still want one. And I don’t very often want hardware.

Here’s the analog model, with a close up on its additional control section. Things are laid out in a really friendly way across the whole design. Promising stuff.

Why should you get excited about Nexsyn, the hybrid soft synth/sample player available starting today from KeyToSound that was developed by Max Groenlund, creator of the Studio 9000 for Koblo?

While I could ramble on about Nexsyn’s true stereo signal path, its 4 Gig Big Fish Audio sample library, its ability to load a 400MB piano in 15 seconds, blah, blah, blah, the most innovative and exciting thing about Nexsyn has nothing to do with any of that. It’s got to do with NetNotes.

NetNotes is a proprietary browser that lets you audition Nexsyn presets from other users. You can play presets via keyboard and even use them in your sequencer. You just can’t save them until you “buy” them. Hold on, relax! You don’t buy other people’s presets with real money, you buy them with NetNotes.

You get 1000 NetNotes with your software purchase, which you can use to buy Nexsyn presets. So how much do presets cost? Well, it depends, because the creator sets the price. That means you too can upload your own original presets and set your price. You can even create public and private folders for your preset offerings.

This system is bound to exhibit some very interesting free market dynamics, theoretically with simpler presets from novices going for cheap and presets used on Trent Reznor’s latest album fetching top NetNotes. An incentive is created for users to make quality patches available to the community in addition to downloading them.

What happens if you spend more on presets than you sell and you run out of NetNotes? You can buy another 1000 more from KeyToSound for $20. (This time it’s real dollars.)

Conversely, if you’ve accumulated 10,000 NetNotes you’ll be able to redeem these for yet-to-be-determined goodies such as professional sample libraries or $100 off a new product release.

All in all, NetNotes is an intriguing fusion of social networking and commerce aspiring to offer good sounds and good fun for all. Other companies are sure to take note.

$299 street price. Mac OS X or Windows XP.

More at www.keytosound.com

Josh Jancourtz is live on the floor of the NAMM show in Anaheim. We’ll be catching up with his dispatches through the week. And we’ll be sure to revisit KeyToSound’s new instrument once we get our hands on it.

Personally, I rely almost entirely on friends (both web- and meatspace-based) for my musical enlightenment. Occasionally I’ll do the rounds of MP3 blogs, generally stopping at Aurgasm, 3hive, Stereogum and more recently The Hype Machine, but more often I let those more musically inquisitive than I do the filtering and feed me the best bits. Most of the artists I’ve “discovered myself” recently were through music video blogs such as No Fat Clips and Ticklebooth.

For music purchases I’m tending to use label sites much more than services such as iTunes Music Store. Having a seperate account for each niche-label isn’t the most friendly setup, but I feel like more of my money is making it to the artist, and the label sites and releases are definitely more fun and personable.

I enjoyed the leadup to Hybrid’s most recent release “I Choose Noise“. First came the single “Just For Today”, released for free download on the Hybrid Sound System site. Then came the “I Choose Noise EP“, containing 2 extra tracks as an MP3 single for £2, which was followed, finally, by the full album release for £8 as MP3 download or £8.50 for a “cd exclusive” including live DVD. All of the downloads are DRM free, format-shiftable, share-with-your-friends-able, 320KBit MP3 files. Lovely.

To get an idea of what other CDM readers and contributors are listening to, check out the CDM group on Last.fm (and join up if you haven’t done so already). There’s also the Today I have been mostly listening to… thread, which could do with some reanimating. That’s only a tiny cross-section of the CDM readership though, so I’d really love to hear from those who are making and releasing music. Sources of free legal tracks we can copy and share with friends are great too, of course.