The days (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) have grown shorter, so it’s time to put in some extra hours working on music production. Native Instruments have released a big selection of synthesis sounds, sampled instruments, and multiple effects in a free, Kore Player-based instrument, in case you haven’t already heard the news via NI’s site. While they’re presets, there are enough macro controls and variations that, combined with your own effects, you can certainly make these your own. And if nothing else, you can drown out the sound of overplayed holiday picks – just make yourself a soundscape, put it on your iPod or phone, plug in those earbuds, and have a Very Spaced-Out Holiday instead.

Holiday Selection 2009

Incidentally, Kore Player works just fine for me on Linux using WINE, as do NI’s own audio interfaces, so you can even spread the goodness to the penguin-themed operating system.

Want to make a splash among the aficionados of digital sound? Releasing a software instrument emulating a broad collection of vintage digital synthesis chips from game and computer systems seems to do the trick. See my look at that software, and just as importantly, the chips that inspired it.

Within days of the release of Plogue’s Chipsounds, we have a couple of fair reviews of the new tool. Already got Chipsounds? Plogue’s David Viens has released screencasts showing you how to use it. Curious about other ways to explore vintage 8-bit sound? We’ve got that, too, in samples, hardware, and even SuperCollider code.

Reviews are in

Torley has an extensive video review – amazing stuff for something just days old – shown above. Gisle Martens Meyers has a review, too, on the blog Ugress. One complaint is that the plug-in is multi-timbral, rather than requiring different instances. In turn, automation is in the form of MIDI Control Changes, not parameters, since parameter automation really doesn’t deal with multi-timbral plug-ins. But all in all, you can get a lot from both reviews, plus a look at how the software works. There’s also a sense of where the software could go in future updates.

Plogue Chipsounds makes chiptune & video game sounds easy [Torley Lives]
Chipsounds Plugin Chip Sounds [Ugress]

The discussion of Chipsounds has also brought other efforts to resurrect vintage, 8-bit sounds.

Get Your Chip Fix

This is by no means comprehensive, but here are a few of the best goodies readers have pointed out in the last few days:

Free Samples: Little Scale, aka Sebastian Tomczak, has been busy. He’s added sample packs of his own, including a Friday release of the Commodore 64 SID. Add that to Sega Master System, Mega Drive, speech chip, and Atari POKEY and TIA. These are just samples, so rather than being a turn-key solution as Chipsounds is, they’re more of a construction set – though that could make them useful in other scenarios.

C64 SID Sample Pack [little-scale]

Go Hardware! And, in turn, if hardware fires you up more than software or samples, Sebastian has done some lovely work connecting the actual chips to MIDI interfaces.

And here’s the documentation on how to do it with the free and open hardware Arduino platform

Other hardware solutions:
A DIY TI SN76477N-based Voice Module, comprehensively documented (a heck of a lot fancier than the Arduino stuff I wanted to play around with)

SuperCollider Code: For SuperCollider fans, Fredrik Olofsson (aka RedFrik) has built emulations of vintage chips in the object-oriented sound coding language. That’s a doubly delicious thing: aside from allowing you to make 8-bit sounds in the free tool, looking at his emulations is a great way to discover more of what you can do with SuperCollider. You can continue in code the kind of elegant, minimal synthesis design work the early creators of the original chips did in hardware. (Thanks, Howard S and Morgan Packard for the tip!)

SC Code [and a lot of other great SC code there, too... bookmarked, downloaded.]

Video walkthroughs

I know quite a few readers did pick up Chipsounds, so you’ll be pleased to know – in case you missed this – that there are some video demos that walk you through how the tool works. This also gives a better idea of how the software itself functions, since I got distracted waxing rhapsodic about the chips!

As my piano teacher used to say to me, “that should keep you off the streets.”

Enjoy.

Here’s a different take on soundware business models: offer your stuff for free, then depend on donations. That’s the tack at Togeo Studios, who have an impressive collection of packs. Wave Attack I, for instance, includes single-cycle waveforms with arpeggiated sequences and leads. Their work is available on BitTorrent, too, which could help defray bandwidth costs. (Well, single-cycle waveforms don’t take up much, but perhaps larger packs might.)

I have to admit, I’m skeptical of the donationware model. The issue is, it seems like a lot of folks just aren’t going to donate – not necessarily for any sinister reasons, but simply because they don’t “get around to it.” Heck, just selling soundware is hard enough. And the brilliant, open source Ardour DAW has struggled to cobble together even a few licenses’ worth of income monthly, despite very reasonable subscription fees and powerful features.

I’m skeptical, but I’m also intrigued. Donationware or freemium models once powered the PC shareware industry and launched the now-massive game company Epic Games (of Unreal fame). Challenging as it might be, these models could open new tools to musicians and would be particularly powerful with open source. It’s something that could help us start new projects here on CDM, while paying our rent / electric bills. So what do you think of Togeo’s work? And that specific example aside, would you be willing to “donate” to software, soundware, and learning materials the way that you do American public radio and TV?

Togeo Studios
Wave Attack 1 Live Pack – mininova [Torrent page]

I love the idea of artists translating their work into interactive packs of sonic exploration – like releasing an album for fellow electronic musicians. If you’re enjoying our exclusive 808 “less cowbell” Live Pack for Ableton Live and want more sound goodness for free, good news. Puremagnetik has released a set of entirely free “artist packs” with drum kits, clips, and (from Neon Stereo) effect racks. Note that even if you don’t have Live or just want to use a different app, the audio contents of these packs will work anywhere.

In this lineup: Gregory Shiff, our friend Elijah B Torn, Paul Rose, Kalahari Surfers, Brian Best, Kamoni (Micah Frank), and Neon Stereo. You do need to sign up for a Puremagnetik account, but there’s no financial obligation.

For more tips and mad scientist antics from Elijah, see our previous story:
Elijah B Torn on Odd Sound Techniques, Ableton Live

And I got to drop by the DUMBO, Brooklyn studio of Puremagnetik’s own Micah Frank, as pictured here. It’s quite small and packed with fantastic gear in regular rotation. The good folks of TRASH_AUDIO had a nice interview spotlight on Micah late last year:
Workspace and Environment: Kamoni
You can also check out Kamoni’s new rig on his site.

All of this is well and good, but being, erm, me, I’d love to see more oddball stuff, too. How about a Pd Pack or Csound Kit – anyone?

Monolake as I’ve said before once released an album with a Max/MSP patch. In a way, this sort of release of sonic content could be a way of releasing music in a different way, one that assumes active participation by your listener. There was a time when people regularly passed around Max patches and sort of influenced each others’ music virally. I think there’s plenty more to explore in this category – and I’d happily buy sonic content alongside music releases, too, from folks I love.

Puremagnetik Artist Page

Drum machine lovers, you now have the beat gear equivalent of Matt Harding and Where the Hell is Matt?. Kamoni, aka sonic creator, composer, and experimenter Micah Frank, takes his favorite devices out on the road, piecing them together into an epic YouTubular jam.

Doepfer and Korg, Elektron and Akai, plus a lot of other devices make their way around New York and Brooklyn and other parts of the world. Ableton I think figured into editing the video clips in time — thank you, Live, for video. I could point out individual devices, but then I’d ruin your fun, wouldn’t I?

Of course, this could be both emulated and expanded. We could perform a single rhythm, played by MPC and Machinedrum owners around the planet. (You could even get that laptop running on battery.)

I can see it now. Internets, go!

And yes, this does demonstrate where puremagnetik gets all those beats for their line of sampled things. Micah gets his hands on a lot of gear.

Updated: Replaced with a Vimeo link. Google seems to be having a bad week. We like Vimeo better for videos, anyway.

You’ve heard the chip hype. But there’s something behind it: vintage digital chips can make wonderful sounds. And I’m thrilled that someone has painstakingly reproduced those sounds in an upcoming package.

Emulating analog circuitry, from amps to classic synths, has been long understood. But we’ve finally reached an age when people begin to appreciate the odd idiosyncrasies of digital technology, too. There hasn’t ever been a comprehensive attempt to emulate each detail of a range of 80s sound chips before – until now. Plogue (makers of the highly underrated Plogue Bidule patching environment) and David Viens have tackled just that as a labor of love, and you’ll be able to use the resulting “chipsounds” library later this spring.

Plogue’s chipsounds recreates the blippy personality of the Commodore 64, the Nintendo NES, the Game Boy, the Atari, the Vic20 – and circuit-bent and abused variations, too. It’s got a powerful artist endorsement from 8 Bit Weapon and Computer Her (pictured here). There are arpeggiators, noise patterns, distortion emulation, custom software, all built on the ARIA synth/sampling engine.

The basic specs:

• 7 chips: TIA, 2A03 PAPU, VIC-I, SN76589AN, AY-3-8910, POKEY, and SID. Haven’t heard of all of those? No worries. But you’ve probably heard the chips. The horribly-named SN76589AN was used in my very first computer, the IBM PCjr, my first game console, the Colecovision (boy did I pick them), and in the TI. The 2A03 is from the original NES. The TIA was in the Atari.
• Tricks, built in: One-shot arpeggiators, rapid waveform changes, envelope resync tricks are all built in – stuff that’s hard to pull off, as the creators note.
• Emulations of psuedo noise patterns, distortion
• Switch on each chip’s limited resolution and pitch values – or switch them off, and create sounds the PCjr couldn’t
• Presets from 8 bit Weapon and ComputeHer

When analog synth emulation came out, we all got something more convenient, but it didn’t necessarily do wonders for the music. Here, I think the situation is very different. Many of the original chip instruments have woefully primitive possibilities for actual composition. (The Game Boy’s wonderful LSDJ and Nanoloop are a notable exception.) Compare that to the software emulations of, say, a Moog modular, which lost a lot of what was great about the original – the interface. You can’t necessarily say that about the AY-3-8910, unless you’re the Ludwig van Beethoven of Assembler. (If you are – we love you.)

And the chip scene has also matured to the point that it’s ready to break out a bit. Getting these emulations on computers can help warp them into music and sound ideas they haven’t discovered before. I believe these sounds are really something special, not just a novelty.

I personally can’t wait to use this.

We have extensive details from a Plogue flyer – you can get it here on CDM, or if you’re on the floor of NAMM, you might get it from the Plogue guys themselves.

Flyer – Front

Flyer – Back

And if you want to hear these sounds making fantastic music, go give the artists a listen:

8 Bit Weapon

Computeher

ARIA is an important announcement; I’ll be catching up on news from Gary Garritan soon.

We’ll have sound samples of this too, as well.

MOTU’s new drum machine is a new software sampler/synth workstation for drums, clearly influenced by beat production workstations like the legendary Akai MPC and EMU SP1200. With all today’s hardware/software talk, I initially thought this was hardware, too, but it’s not – meaning it’s got an uphill battle against integrated features in hosts like Live and new tools that integrate more closely with hardware, not to mention existing entries like FXpansion’s GURU. But don’t write it off just yet: an internal synth, a unique sampling plug-in, import workflows, and retro groove emulations could keep this in the game.

Oh, yeah – and, typical of MOTU, there’s always one feature that can make you forget every other complaint. For me, that’s the “Line templates” in the step sequencer that let you add your own Euclidian polyrhythms. Nice.

MOTU’s ad copy waxes poetic about the deeper meaning of all of this, as though pondering aloud:

“Sound libraries these days are awash with loops. And what is a loop, exactly? Someone else’s beat. Isn’t it time to take back creative ownership over your grooves?”

Yes, indeed, what is a loop? If you’re curious, you could check out the, um, loop content that ships with BPM in its 15 GB sound library.

The slightly self-contradictory philosophizing ad copy aside, though, I’m all about the creative possibilities of drum workstations, and there’s no question BPM has some potential. Look for a smackdown with NI’s own entry, which we get to talk about later today. Here’s a basic look at the BPM, which I’ll update once I can talk about Maschine oh, any software drum machine that might theoretically come out in the next two hours:

• A sampler – a real sampler, with import, slicing, and even live recording. There’s a convenient plug-in that you can use as an insert in any host to tap into recording sources – very nice – and you can sample directly into a pad
• A drum synthesizer (now this part I find especially cool) – looks basic but very accessible and friendly to the task at hand
• 15 GB sound library, including (fair enough) not just loops but patterns, slices, and instrument sounds
• Sample import capability with compatibility with MOTU’s libraries and UVI engine as well as REX, Apple Loops, etc., with drag-and-drop import (inherited from MOTU’s MachFive sampler)
• Record your own samples
• Step sequencer, graph editor, piano roll sequencer
• Grooves, including classic MPC, LinnDrum grooves, and edit and save your own. There’s even an SP1200 emulation.
• Live scene performance and playback, which you can also export to software for later use

Killer feature for geeks: A Euclidian line template. They didn’t have to, but they did. You get the rhythmic benefits. Awesome.

Today there’s new hardware from NI and Akai, but this is software-only: good, old-fashioned MIDI learn is how you get to control any of this live. It’s a mouse-based workflow, which to me undercuts some of the “program beats as fast as your mind can "hear" them” talk in the marketingspeak. The appeal of MPCs and the like is that hardware control, which is all about speed. In fact, when I first saw the image, I thought they actually were unveiling hardware, and wondered why there was a disc drive on the thing, but they’re not.

And there’s another problem: you’d need an extremely short memory not to recognize this has been done before. fxpansion’s GURU does this, and in a much cleaner interface that clearly integrates sampling and sequencing (which is what I suspect a lot of people would want). It doesn’t have synth capability, but it has the same basic pattern sequencing, direct sampling and real-time recording, slicing, and graphical automation options. (Heck, some of the views even look the same, although there are some established ways of doing some of these things.)

That said, MOTU has a very powerful sampling engine underneath, the import workflows are pretty powerful, I love the synth capabilities in particular (and MOTU has made some great soft synths), and I think the plug-in that you just use to sample is very clever. And if the groove options are better than other offerings out there, of course, it’ll win some converts. Vintage groove emulation + line templates on the step sequencer = happy rhythm geeks.

So BPM remains a contender for a software workflow. Now, can it stand up to integrated features in a host (Live), conventional hardware (MPC, etc.), or software-integrated hardware (Maschine)? This is going to be an interesting season for fans of this kind of tech.

Updated: As you’ll read in comments, it seems that bpm can’t slice audio itself – audio has to be sliced elsewhere. That’s an important part of the workflow for at least some of the potential users of this tool, and something some rival software (and even similar hardware) does. It’s odd, because MOTU’s own MachFive sampler has an extensive beat sampling tool; apparently the choice was to leave it out here, at least in this version.

Okay, so you’ve seen the painful demo video for Microsoft Research’s Songsmith software – it was intended to me tongue-in-cheek, I think, but the self-parody didn’t quite work. But the idea of auto-accompaniment software that interprets your recorded singing remains impressive. And I’ve gotten some tips that it is possible to make Songsmith sound good. Naturally, the biggest variable will be the quality of your own singing. But to make the software side of the equation more interesting, it is possible to extend the tool.

Garritan, maker of the samples in the tool, has two add-ons. There’s an orchestral pack with the usuals, and Garritan’s sampled orchestras do sound very, very good. Better yet, there are some analog synths to add, including some bass, J-60, Jupiter, and other action. These don’t come with styles, but they do give you some new sounds. Whether you use them for more evil and cheese is up to you. US$9.99 each.

Band-in-a-Box maker PG Music also has Style PAKs that are compatible with Songsmith, too. The key with these is adjusting variables in the accompaniment, and tweaking chord progressions.

I can’t say I’m entirely sold yet because I’ve never been a fan of auto-accompaniment – though, okay, I did pass some enjoyable hours messing around with electronic organ and Casio keyboard presets as a youngster, so I take that back.

Here’s my challenge to you, if you are a Windows user and give Songsmith a try. Go. Make something really great. Maybe it takes this in a new direction — sample Hatebeak’s heavy metal parrot screeches. Maybe you just happen to be a brilliant singer. Report back. The world’s ears thank you in advance.

Image: roadsidepictures.

Breaking News: If you were David Lee Roth, and you decided to use Songsmith, you would sound something like this. (Thanks, Neal Johnson! Actually, what’s a word that means not so much “thanks” but “please, never, ever send anything like this again, for the love of all that is good?”)

Warning: The following link may cause permanent hearing loss, after you gouge out your ears.

Runnin’ With The Songsmith [Metafilter Music]

Here’s the story: because Native Instruments uses the free Kore Player for its soundpacks, you can make use of the included sounds without owning Kore, on Mac or Windows. Soundpack Compilation Volume 1 is packed with nearly 100 MB of 100 Kore Sounds and 800 variations thereof, curated from the various soundpacks they’ve released this year. That includes synths designed in Reaktor, FM8, Absynth, and Massive, percussion, effects, and more. Aside from the variations, you get quite a bit of timbral control over the sounds with pre-assigned parameters, even without owning the software with which these were developed. (In other words, no need to use the presets as-is in recognizable form!) If you own any of the products, you can edit the sounds.

KORE Soundpacks: Free Compilation Vol. 1 [Native Instruments]

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Volume 1 suggests more may be coming.

Since it works with everything, I figured it was worth putting here instead of our kore.noisepages.com minisite. Let us know what you think of the pack, and if anyone else has freely-available sounds for the holidays.

And in other news, I suggest being as arcane as you possibly can on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook. For instance, “Peter is … jumping with joy because he’s found exactly the right granular size parameter for his new SuperCollider effect.”

People will think you’re about to cause the end of the universe, along with that Large Hadron Collider. Actually, excuse me while I Tweet that.

Hate soundware and generic downloaded samples? You’ll love this. The “Slice of Winter” sound pack created by Covert Operators for CDM doesn’t have a single sound in it – not one; you bring your own. Instead, install this pack and you get a whole mess of slicing presents for use with Ableton Live’s Slice to New MIDI Track feature. Grab an audio clip (or record your own), hit Slice to New MIDI Track, apply a preset, and you get a new Drum Rack instance with slices mapped to pads, effects, and live controls. (You can see what I mean as Bjorn plays around with the feature in the video.)

Naturally, this works nicely for drum loops, but if you apply to vocals or weird found sounds or other material, you can get all kinds of results. You’ll need Live 7 as it’s a new feature, but you can use the free trial to try it out; the trial is still unlimited time-wise and now even saves for the first 14 days.

It’s not so much that this is something other tools can’t do – even some hardware drum machines have a similar feature. But in the context of Live, slicing takes on a different quality. It integrates with all the clips you have sitting around your session, can map to those warp markers, and gives you virtual drum machines with live controller mappings and the ability to insert effects (including third-party plug-ins) on each pad.

We feature this technique in the CDM Winter Guide for two reasons. One, it’s a perfect antidote to sets that get boring because you have clips looping endlessly. Two, you can get a lot of mileage from this feature musically, so it’s something to live with for a while (which was the idea of the guide). In the guide, we have a detailed tutorial for using the feature, how to make your own presets (which isn’t clear in the manual), and some creative ideas. Francis Preve joins in with some tips; he used this feature heavily on his single “Caboose.” Previously:

Free Tutorials, Techno iPhone Ringtone from Francis Preve, Celebrating Single “Caboose”

Get the Guide + the Pack

So, be sure to not only grab the sound pack but download the free PDF, or get the bound treeware version to keep on your desk:

Print Edition + Free PDF Download @ Lulu.com

And for the free Live Pack download from Covert Operators:

http://covops.org/cdm

More Brain Dumps on Live

Covert Operators also makes other lovely stuff for Live and live performance, including software (like a utility for making better use of the BCR2000 controller), Live packs (free and fee), and an in-depth video subscription series with power tools for Live use.

If you want still more Live knowledge, Grooveboxmusic has a limited-time deal on three hours of free tutorials, on special through the end of the month:

Grooveboxmusic.com: Free video tutorials [Ableton.com, via the ever-vigilant Synthtopia.com]

Now pray for a snow day to actually get some Live time for music making! (I know I’m hoping for one. Or an Elton John Day.)