Hot dog purveyor Gray’s Papaya in New York is beloved for its “Recession Special”: two dogs and a drink. Their champagne is made from coconuts. And you don’t just scarf these down in bear markets; you enjoy them any time.

Dave Smith’s monophonic Mopho synth is perhaps the greatest recession special in the history of synthesis. It’s got the soul of a single voice from the Prophet ‘08 analog synth, but with sub-octave generators, distortion that they claim ranges to “extreme skronk,” and the ability to process audio input. Interestingly, that means its “skronkiness” and input processing address some of the complaints I’ve heard from people who didn’t immediately take to the new Prophet. The whole, 7.5×5″ package, with the 100% analog signal path mono synth, the Curtis analog low-pass filter, and a Mac/Windows editor, costs just US$400 street.

And then there’s that mysterious “Push It” button.

If you want some hands-on experience, our friend Chris Randall of Analog Industries (and Audio Damage) just got his:
Honky Mopho

I’m about the last person to mention the Mopho (I was out of town when it launched), so I went to the good peoples of Dave Smith to get a little more information. DSI’s Andrew McGowan responds.

And yes, we get to hear something about the ever-mysterious upcoming Dave Smith – Roger Linn LinnDrum II, which this is not.

Peter: Why a “Push It” button? Is it assignable when you’re designing your own patches?

Andrew: The Push It button is a manual trigger. It can act just like a key (push it plays, release it stops) or it can latch on with one push and off with another. Because Mopho has a gated sequencer, that means the Push It button can also play or latch a sequence. There is also a trigger mode where pressing the Push It button (or a key) can step through a sequence, so it’s actually possible to play a simple melodic line without a keyboard. And that’s all configurable per program.

Peter: The signal path is basically the same as one voice on the Prophet 08, correct? Aside from the sub-octave generators, are there any other differences — subtle or otherwise — or is it best to think of this as a single voice from the Prophet in a box?

Andrew: The voice architecture is the same. The additions are the sub-octave generators and the feedback loop. The feedback loop is made possible by the Audio In, which is not present on the Prophet. Both of those things can give it a pretty distinctly different character from the Prophet.

Peter: Is 14-bit control possible in the MIDI implementation?

Andrew: It responds to double-byte NRPNs, as some of the parameters (filter cutoff, for example) have a range of more than 128 values.

Peter: The audio input/filter capability — in which you can take any external audio input and run it through the Mopho — is unique to the Mopho? It’s not on the Prophet ‘08?

Andrew: The Evolvers have audio inputs, but not the Prophet. It’s a little trickier on a polyphonic instrument. (The Poly Evolver skirts the issue somewhat because it’s essentially 4 Evolvers in a box.)

Peter: I see it’s made some trips out to some celebrity synth users. Anything to share from their experiences?

Andrew: From Felix Martin of Hot Chip: “We’re very proud to be the first official owners of the Mopho! It certainly is a powerful little box with a incredibly immediate, rich sound. The first time I got it hooked up and run through a big PA, I cranked up the Sub Oscillators and they sound absolutely amazing – gives Joe’s Voyager a run for its money! I have already programmed some sounds and sequences which I will be running for the first time tonight in Dallas, will send over a photo of it in my little machine world once it is fully integrated. I hope it’s a success and that it finally convinces people to stop paying hundreds of $s for bashed up tb303s.

“I really do like this little machine, it’s a great thing to have on the tour bus and on stage as well.”

Andrew Everding from the band Thursday also wrote to say he had already used it on their new album. As far as I know, he’s the first one into a studio with a Mopho.

Peter: Will we see any of the spirit of the Mopho in the upcoming LinnDrum II? Now that the Mopho is out the door, does that mean DSI’s attention turns to the LinnDrum while the rest of us (ahem) sit in eager anticipation?

Andrew: Well, the attention never really turns away from the LinnDrum II. Dave worked on both the Prophet ‘08 Module and Mopho during those times when Roger was working on aspects that required less of Dave’s time. I’ve known Dave for nearly 30 years, and he’s not really one to remain idle for long. He’s always working on something. The LinnDrum II will have the analog voices and processing and will use the Curtis chips that we use in our other products. I’m not really at liberty to say much more than that right now. It’s gone through some pretty major changes and I think it’ll definitely be worth the wait. I’d like to get my hands on one, too!

(More videos)

US distributor Keyfax NewMedia reports that it has Yamaha’s Tenori-On in stock and shipping out now. (Pre-orders began at the beginning of May, but this is apparently the first the US unit has made it to our shows — unless you happened to win one from createdigitalmusic.com, that is, in April, in which case you know who you are.)

Every time I mention Tenori-On, despite the awe and lust it inspires in some musicians, someone raises the point of its somewhat retro-styled, simple sound bank. Fair enough: the minimal sounds are fantastic in the hands of creator Toshio Iwai and were specifically programmed and voiced to match his aesthetic. Other people, perhaps, not so much. So it’s interesting that reader Steven aka Nomad Cinema sends along this video (seen at top) of the Tenori-On paired with the absurdly deep luxury modular synth Kyma, along with a couple of beloved new analog synths. He writes:

In order to tap the real power of Yamaha’s new Tenori-on, it helps to pair it with external equipment capable of producing more satisfying sounds than the somewhat lackluster soundset included with the Tenori-on itself. In this video, no internal Tenori-on sounds were used whatsoever. Tenori-on is functioning purely as a sequencer with external equipment, including advanced sound-shaping from Kyma and analog synthesis from Alesis Andromeda and Dave Smith’s Prophet ‘08. Sequencer data coming from Tenori-on is processed in Ableton Live (utilizing midi scale and chord filters, as well as injecting some generative randomness) before reaching Kyma, Andromeda, and Prophet ‘08.

That to me remains the Tenori-On’s unique strength: to me it’s really an alternative step sequencer, exploded into an array of flashing lights and animated with game-like motion. This is to me also another way in which it isn’t a Monome, which feels more like an intelligent, programmable set of pads an an extension of your software, in comparison to the Tenori-On which seems to be re-imagining a giant pixel as a controller. I will be getting around to showing off some hands-on applications very soon, at long last.

There are few names who have had so profound an impact on music technology as Dave Smith. Three decades after the introduction of the Prophet-5, and nearly 25 years after the first MIDI product shipped, his new creations remain some of the most sought-after musical instruments available. The new Prophet ‘08 is capable of producing just as much excitement as some of those earlier landmarks. That’s why we’re pleased to offer this entirely non-exclusive interview with –

Yes, that’s right. I said “non exclusive.” The word “exclusive” gets thrown around a lot, usually meaning something that really isn’t terribly exclusive at all. But in this case, we’re pleased to collaborate with our friends at the leading Spanish-language music technology site, Hispasonic.com. I worked with Xabi to brainstorm some ideas to talk about, and Xabi conducted the interview. For those of you for whom Spanish is your native language, definitely don’t miss the version on Hispasonic:

Dave Smith, el profeta de los sintes

Here in English, Dave talks about the genesis of the new Prophet-8, and reflects on synthesizers and musical instruments in general. I’m not sure I’m going to agree that only hardware synths are “real instruments” and software synths are best for beginners, until they get “serious.” (I would absolutely agree that’s the case with emulation, and that software synths should go their own way, both of which seem to be his main points. Hopefully we’ll get to do an in-person interview soon.) But I will agree that Dave truly creates real instruments, and his unique angle on design should be a challenge to hardware and software developers alike. And not even the most die-hard software lover could argue with the musical prowess of the Prophets — and their creator.

Hispasonic: 30 years after the almighty Prophet-5, here is the all-new Prophet-08. As a synth pioneer, please tell us about your feelings around the development of synth history over these past 30 years. How have synthesizers have changed our world?

DS: They have certainly changed all types of music significantly. Likely the most important change was putting more sound power into an individual’s control; home studios with synths can produce a very wide range of music, often from a single person.

Has the “roof” of synth technology been reached? Is there room to innovate further? Or are we doing circles around old concepts? Do you think that everything has been invented in the synthesizer world?

DS: Certainly the innovation steps are smaller every year. With emulative synthesis, the limit is usually in the controller; in other words, to really control a great synthesized violin sound, you need a controller with something to control a bowing movement, and something like a string. It gets to the point where you may as well play a real violin! Then again, basic subtractive synthesis has so far passed the test of time for over 40 years, so old concepts still sound good and work well.

Think about all the major innovations in the synthesizer history. Which is the one that makes you think “I would have loved to invent that one!”

DS: Hard to say; I tend to concentrate on my own ideas, and I am not very good at keeping track of the other instruments on the market.

You say: “Prophet ‘08 is the product of evolution, not nostalgia”. What are the technological highlights in this new synth? Which are the aspects of the Prophet 08 that you like the most? How does it improve over the classic Sequential Circuits synths?

DS: I started the design with Curtis synthesis ICs [integrated circuits] to capture the classic sounds. But the control aspects go way beyond the original. For example, the Prophet-5 had one LFO; the Prophet 08 has 32!

Did you find any obstacles during the Prophet 08 design and manufacturing process? Any anecdotes to tell about this?

DS: Originally I was not thinking of making a “Prophet”; it was just going to be a fairly-priced, 8-voice analog synth. Once I started playing it, as the design came together, the sounds were more powerful that the original prophets, but still retained the classic sound. So it was only then that I decided to call it a Prophet.

You have had big success as a hardware synth developer, but also in the world of software synths, with Seer Systems’ Reality, the first fully professional software synthesizer. What’s your opinion of the present software synths? How have they evolved since Reality? How do you imagine the future of software synths?

DS: Software synths are nice because they are cheap, and usually sound good. I think it’s silly to just keep copying vintage analog synths, though. They should be concentrating on new synthesis and instruments, rather than trying to copy the real thing.

Are software and hardware synths opposites? Will software synths “kill the hardware synth star”? Do we have to choose between analog hardware synths, virtual analog hardware synths and software synths, or do they have their own place in a studio/performance?

DS: Again, it’s often simply a price issue. I think it’s great that many new and younger musicians can start with free or cheap soft synths and learn the basics. Then, once they get more serious about synthesis, they can then go out and get a real instrument. Even though I have been using computers since the 60s, I still do not like working with a PC or a Mac to play an instrument. Meanwhile, I hear from more and more players who are tired of soft synths and computers, and want a real instrument. Then they hear an Evolver or Prophet-08 and immediately understand the difference.

Which is your favorite synth -not designed by you-, hardware and software?

DS: No opinions here, sorry to say.

Have you any plans about integrating your hardware synths with DAWs, like Virus TI? What do you think about that integration concept?

DS: Not at the moment; as a designer, I love to work with my own hardware. I hate working with PCs and Macs and their operating systems. It’s no fun! You spend all your time dealing with changing systems, crashes, incompatibilities, and not on the instrument itself.

Have you any plans of releasing new software synths?

DS: I should never say never, but it’s very very unlikely!

And finally, please drink some wine and relax before answering this one: could you advance any data about the new Boomchik drum box? ;-)

DS: No specifics; hope to have a prototype at NAMM in January, and ship in the Spring.

CDM: Dave, you were of course instrumental in making MIDI happen. But the core implementation of MIDI on musical instruments (leaving aside the various extensions to MIDI) remains largely unchanged. Is there any hope for us to see the kind of improvement we saw with the original unveiling of MIDI any time in the near future? Are there changes you would like to see?

DS: It would be very difficult to update MIDI; when we did it originally, there were only five companies involved, and most of the work was done by two (Sequential and Roland). Now, MIDI is used everywhere, not just for synthesizers. There are so many companies (synths, keyboards, PCs, cell phones, lighting, portable keyboards, effects, recorders, etc) with MIDI installed, that it would be nearly impossible. What would it be? Would it include audio? If so, what speed, how many tracks, etc? Then, what about video? As you can see, it could very well get out of hand.

Ed. note: one possibility of what it could be, answering some of these questions, is in the evolving interactive music spec iXMF, in turn extending XMF, a format bringing together sampled audio instruments with MIDI note data. We’ll be looking at iXMF later, but I’ll hasten to add it’s really a means of describing music, not necessarily control data — like MIDI as sent from a keyboard. So, as Dave says, there’s really a lot that’s unanswered and tricky to change. I bring this up as I expect we’ll be examining some of these issues over the coming months. -PK

CDM: What’s your own music-making process like at this point? What do you use, and how?

DS: I rarely use my old instruments; I much prefer a Poly Evolver or P08. Exception might be the VS; nothing sounds like a VS, though it is somewhat limited in sound possibilities. But, after working on synths all day, I prefer to pick up a guitar; it’s a nice change of pace, and it helps remind me of the personality of real instruments, how they dont need to change and get updated every year, and how good analog instruments sound.

As we discovered when the elevator broke at the 6th-Floor Handmade Music party last month (ahem), actual analog gear is heavy, to say nothing of expense. There’s nothing quite like the real thing, in terms of sound, behavior, and tactile feedback. But the “next best thing” has some definite advantages. And competition for virtual alternatives is heating up. IK Multimedia and Arturia pack an unprecedented number of analog models into a single package for a pretty low price; Arturia now even throws in a keyboard to seal the deal.

Arturia’s Virtual Experience vs. IK’s Moogs: Fight!

The approach of each product is different. IK uses their sample engine, Arturia uses their “TAE” engine from their other virtual vintage products. IK has some additional multi-effects and sound-warping power; Arturia has arguably more hands-on control. IK is entirely focused on Moog and even endorsed by Moog Music; Arturia has a cross-section of classics. And, oh yeah, Arturia is also throwing in an actual hardware keyboard (pictured a little later on).

Hmm… if only we could read the spec sheets for these tools simultaneously. Wait — we can! Go, go, gadget HTML table!

That’s just an overview, naturally. See also:

IK Multimedia SampleMoog Product Page
Arturia Factory Experience Product Page

What About Arturia’s New Keyboard?

Glad you asked. Arturia has sent us some shots of their new hardware. The keyboard is built by CME, the Chinese keyboard maker that impresses Thomas Dolby and inspires bizarre advertising music video involving paint. (Classic quotes: “I do not mind other’s eyesight / I am self-determined so be crazy with be / Do not say that I am aggressive / I am self-determined and that’s what I am!” Top that, Roland.)

Anyway, the CME keyboard naturally works out-of-the-box with the software parameters in the Analog Factory software, with 1 clickable encoder, 10 encoders, 4 sliders, 11 switches, 1 modulation wheel, and 1 pitch bend wheel. Now, I hear what you’re saying — couldn’t you do that with any keyboard? Yes. Yes, you could. Then again, hard to argue with it when it seems to be a free pack-in, and CME’s stuff is usually quite good. Could make a great gift to a synth lover for the holidays, I suspect.

Here are some shots of the hardware — just mock-ups; the real ‘board was at AES but I didn’t get a chance to snap any shots, so just enjoy this lovely virtual world.

To make matters worse, there’s a dark cloud looming on the horizon: Many electronic designs from the 1970s and 1980s don’t age well. If you’re not careful, your beloved vintage instrument can be seriously damaged by leakage from the battery that preserves its patch memory, or fall victim to chip or component failure. Here’s a quick look at some of the most common problems that can befall older instruments.

Backup batteries: Flash memory didn’t exist 25 years ago. Most instruments included a tiny battery whose sole purpose was to keep your precious patches alive when you turned off the power switch. They typically lasted a year or two before needing replacement. I suspect that many old synths (and drum machines) have been left unused for years and the batteries are long dead. The danger is that the battery will start to leak corrosive chemical goo onto the surrounding circuit board. This has the potential to kill an instrument without any warning. If you have an instrument from the early 1980s that hasn’t been used for a while, it’s worth getting the battery checked or replaced as soon as possible – just in case.

LCD backlights: Many older LCD backlights were only designed to give a few thousand hours of use. These EL (electro-luminescent) backlights also fade over time. Luckily, a dead backlight won’t cause any lasting damage and drop-in replacement parts are often relatively easy to find for many “off the shelf” 16×2 or 20×2 character displays.

Old capacitors: Most older synthesizers contain dozens or even hundreds of discrete capacitors. They do boring but vital things like power smoothing and decoupling. But capacitors don’t age gracefully. As an example, some electrolytic capacitors are made with oil-impregnated paper. As the device ages, the insulating plates dry out and its performance can change drastically. This has serious ramifications in power supplies, where the caps may no longer do an adequate job of smoothing the input voltage. It can also impact the musicality of discrete analog filters and the stability of analog oscillators. The solution is fairly simple but labor intensive: Get them replaced, especially if you have a valuable analog instrument from the early to mid 1970s.

Logic ICs: Many old CMOS chips had a life expectancy of less than two decades. This means that many of the logic ICs used in designs from the early days of digital control (the late 1970s through the mid-1980s) are on their last legs. The logic errors caused by marginal chips can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to diagnose. The good news is that common devices, like 4000-series logic chips, can often be replaced with modern equivalents, although this can be costly: there are dozens of 4000-series devices in a single Prophet-5 or Korg Polysix.

Custom ICs: I’ve saved the scariest problem for last. Many designs used custom or semi-custom ICs. These include single-chip filters, oscillators, envelope generators and so on. These custom manufactured devices have no modern equivalent; if they fail, you’ll need to replace them with an unused vintage chip. Replacement ICs are becoming incredibly hard to find – companies like Wine Country Productions, who specialize in the repair of Sequential Circuits instruments, have run out of vital components for some instruments, such as the Curtis CEM3389 VCF/VCA used in the Prophet VS. If an irreplaceable chip fails, your only option is to cannibalize another dead instrument.

I haven’t even touched on other common problems such as a lack of 5-1/4 and 8-inch floppy disks for instruments like the Fairlight CMI, E-mu Emulator or PPG Waveterm. Keyboards and sliders also see a lot of hard use – many instruments were abused early in their life, and sticky and corrosive drink spills can cause untold damage if not properly cleaned.

Hopefully, my brief overview has given you something to think about. If you own a vintage instrument, please have it maintained by a qualified technician on a regular basis. It might seem like an extravagant waste of money, but the alternative could be eternal silence.

Some Synth Repair Shops

Who says progress is bad? Synth designer Dave Smith’s Prophet ‘08 synth is a new instrument inspired by his legendary Prophet series, but there are a number of clues that indicate it’s not 1978. First, driven by Internet buzz, word-of-mouth preorders are already taking off. (DSI hasn’t yet added the Prophet ‘08 to their price list because they’re scrambling to fill the early orders.) That means, ironically, the Web generation is better able to support “boutique” synths now than even synth customers of a few years ago. Second, I expect a lot of these Prophet ’08s will happily become outboard analog gear complimenting computers. (It’s a good thing Dave Smith was a driving force behind MIDI.) Lastly, the Prophet ‘08 has some great features we take for granted now that were harder to come by in 1978.

The Prophet ‘08 is analog to the core: it boasts a 100%-analog signal path and a “sonic character” not surprisingly modeled on the classic Prophets. What’s new:

• Velocity and aftertouch: If this spoils the “vintage” experience for you, go see a doctor.)
• Mo Modulation: “Extensive modulation routing capabilities”, making the Prophet ‘08 essentially a semi-modular synth; it’ll be interesting to see what this lets programmers cook up.
• Splits and layers:Four-on-four splits and layers with separate stereo outputs for each layer.
  
• Arpeggiator and sequencer: Arpeggiator, gated 16 x 4 step sequencer, and LFOs. Everything is syncable, as well — thank you, MIDI.

There’s onboard MIDI (even with “Poly Chain”), and CV input, as well. On the analog side, you get 2 oscillators and 1 lovely filter per voice:

• 2 digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCOs) per voice with selectable sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle mix, and pulse waves (with pulse-width modulation), and hard sync.
• White noise generator

I have heard some complaints about the new models: some would prefer the pitch and mod wheels next to the keyboard rather than above, though the payoff is a full five-octave keyboard in a compact space.

I have to say, I’m a sucker for the Dave Smith philosophy of “un-nostalgic” analog. But, really, who would expect anything else: Dave Smith’s earlier instruments all progressed with technology, and he continues to do so. There’s a clear resonance with the modern Moog synths, like Minimoog Voyager and Little Phatty, down to special editions with colored wheels. (Dave Smith has the much cooler red glowing wheels, which is great if you’re tired of blue.) But the Dave Smith Instruments are also unique takes on how to reinterpret analog.

Detailed specs and descriptions are on the mercifully redesigned Dave Smith site:
Dave Smith Prophet ‘08 Page

And via news you’ll find more on the limited edition, videos of Dave, and other news, as well as further reassurances that the BoomChik drum machine really is progressing:
Dave Smith Instruments News

So, who’s getting one? And anyone have smart money

Dave Smith Instruments, the boutique synth shop responsible for the beloved real analog-meets-digital Evolver line, have been hard at work on new things. In February, we got to see details of their upcoming BoomChik drum machine. The BoomChik is a long way off, though. Now, they have something else that is apparently imminent, kept in absolute secrecy during development, with a moniker as legendary as “Moog Micromoog” — a new Prophet. (Hang on, I think I can write the cheeky Keyboard Magazine headlines now… “Second Coming”?)

It seems that DSI is very close to beginning production of an 8-voice Prophet, all analog. Matrixsynth absolutely gets the scoop on this one. Specs and links:

• Prophet ‘08. Eight voices, all analog. Shipping next week. Wait — next week, you say?
• Sequencer, arpeggiator, and “one or two more fun little functions”
• “It does use the same CEM chips as the Evo stuff, but they sound different because Dave tweaked them differently, and the system isn’t the same without the digital stuff in the signal path.”
  
• $2199 MSRP, $1999 MAP.
• Teaser video [AVI] by Stefan Trippler

Finally, an audio sample, with Spectrasonics Stylus for drums:
http://www.trippler.net/files/p8/p8k.mp3

And an all-Prophet sample:
http://www.trippler.net/files/p8/p8i.mp3

Tom at Music thing has some reflections on the value of Prophets, with obligatory YouTube link.

What about that drum machine?

Now is as good a time as any to check in on Dave Smith’s other current creation, the BoomChik, a collaboration between synth pioneer Dave Smith himself and Roger Linn, creator of the MPC (among various other great things). DSI let out a little update in June:

Dave and Roger are hard at work on BoomChik and it has—ahem—evolved considerably since making its limited and thoroughly virtual appearance at NAMM and online. There are still some major design decisions to be made and it won’t see the light of day until sometime next year, but we think it will be worth the wait. I’ve been privileged to see some of what they’re working on and, for whatever it’s worth, I’m excited by the possibilities.

Fair enough! 2008 … I’m sure I’ll be flush with cash by then and buying all new gear for my studio. So this works out perfectly! (Phew!)

And while we’re at it, there’s really no reason to look only at the new stuff. The best bargain buy remains Dave Smith’s US$1329, 3-octave, 1-voice Evolver keyboard, with both analog and digital oscillators, plenty of filters, four LFOs, a flexible sequencer, audio inputs, and analog delay. Its streamlined design and low price (for an analog synth, anyway) could make it an ideal companion to a computer. It’s funny, the name Moog tends to get all the attention, but I think the great thing is that there’s a whole little corner of the market for modern takes on analog synths.

Thanks to all three major synth-loving sites for this: Vintagesynth.org, Music thing, and Matrixsynth, all must-reads for synth fans.

Arturia has long been known for its realistic emulations of classic analog synthesizers. So is Analog Factory, which repackages its existing emulations in a stripped-down virtual instrument a good deal for digital musicians, or just old wine in a new bottle?

The package contains 2000 presets, taken from Arturia’s ARP 2600V, CS80V, MiniMoog V Moog Modular V, and Prophet V emulations, all of which use Arturia’s acclaimed TAE (True Analog Emulation) technology to accurately reproduce the sound (if not the interface) of the original hardware. The bundle gives you a simplified bundle of the favorite sounds of all the larger, more editable libraries, in an approach along the same lines as Native Instruments’ Xpress Keyboards. Analog Factory rationalizes the sometimes complex interfaces found in the full packages with a simple display that puts everything upfront on a single screen. There’s a 2-1/2 octave virtual keyboard with pitch and mod wheels, master volume control, eight snapshot buttons for saving favorite patches, and a series of controls for controlling the basic parameters found in all analog synths (more on these later).

Browsing Sounds

Central to the Analog Factory experience is its preset browser, which is reminiscent of the one first seen in Apple’s GarageBand and Sony’s ACID and now found in a variety of virtual instruments including NI’s KORE. The sounds in Analog Factory have all been tagged with specific attributes ahead of time so that you can zero in on the exact sound you want. The tags include instrument, type (bass, brass, sfx, fm, guitar, lead, organ, pad, percussive, piano, sequence, or strings), and characteristics (acid, aggressive, ambient, bizarre, bright, digital, ensemble, funky, hard, long, noise, quiet, short, simple, soft, or soundtrack). As you click on the tags, the list narrows, presenting only those sounds that meet your criteria.

Analog Factory, like KORE, focuses on the sounds themselves as opposed to the instruments that created those sounds, an approach that is sure to streamline music creation. Most listeners aren’t going to say, “Wow, what a killer MiniMoog bass!”; they’re just going to get off on a catchy bassline. Analog Factory doesn’t use the KOREsound format employed by Native Instruments. That’s bad news for NI; as one of the major developers of virtual instrument plug-ins, Arturia’s acceptance of the format would have been a strong show of support for the fledgling format. Instead, the categorization was done by Arturia’s resident Sound Designer Jean-Michael Blanchet. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with his tags; Analog Factory, unlike KORE, doesn’t allow you to define your own attributes. Arturia says that using the KORE format would have required that the user have all of the individual emulations installed, which would have worked against its intention to provide a low-cost all-in-one program. Development cycles may have also played a role, as KORE wasn’t announced until NAMM in January.

Control and Expression

Just because Analog Factory is largely designed for someone who just wants to get up and running quickly with some great sounds doesn’t mean you can’t add expressiveness to your performance. Arturia has provided a set of knobs and sliders, which can be mapped to those in your controller along with pitch and mod wheels. Again, like KORE, Analog Factory brings the most common parameters to the fore. By default, the knobs are assigned to level, cutoff filter, resonance, LFO rate, and LFO amount. There are also two knobs assigned to the built-in FX (chorus and delay) and a single set of envelope sliders in a standard ADSR configuration. I’ve always preferred sliders for this because they provide a visual representation of the envelope, unlike the knobs used on say, the MiniMoog. By breaking from a strict representation of the original synths, Arturia has greatly increased the usefulness of these sounds, particularly in the context of live performance.

So, while you can’t get under the hood and create sounds from scratch, you can at least modify the existing sounds somewhat to suit your needs. Your tweaked presets can be saved in the user library for later recall and assigned to the snapshot buttons for quick changes when performing.

Conclusions

Analog Factory is a fantastic bargain for the computer musician who doesn’t require all the bells and whistles of the full emulations and may even inspire a new way of working for the gear obsessed among us (raise your hands). DJs and live performers will find Analog Factory’s low overhead, streamlined operation, and performance-oriented features to be a fine companion for their laptop. Analog compulsives will be better served by the individual emulations with their sometimes-idiosyncratic interfaces. For everyone else, Analog Factory cuts the crap and delivers what truly made these instruments great, the killer sounds.

Analog Factory Product Page [Arturia]

Compatibility: Analog Factory runs on Mac OS X and Windows XP as either a standalone instrument or as a VST, AU, or RTAS plug-in. Intel Mac owners take note: the software is already available as a Universal Binary, in advance of the more full-featured instruments in Arturia’s line-up.