In today’s over-saturated virtual instrument market there are plenty of powerful samplers out there vying for the attention (and green) of your average music software consumer. This is much more apparent on the PC end of things where there are dozens upon dozens of alternatives both in plug-in (Kontakt, HALion, DirectWave, etc) and standalone (Gigasampler, Reason’s NN-XT, etc.) forms. It’s tough for a small company to really stand out amongst such strong competition. One such company that has been trying to make a name for itself is Vember Audio, makers of the powerful Surge synthesizer and Shortcircuit sampler. Their design philosophy bucks the current market trends in virtual instruments by delivering quality products designed around the needs of sound designers rather than preset users in much the same way as Native Instruments circa 2001. Their interfaces are logical, but stripped of much of the flash that the big names have (no 3D rendered hardware-style “pots” here). Instead of focusing on huge libraries of sounds, they deliver great platforms for users to create their own sounds from scratch.

Now their sleeper hit sampler Shortcircuit is being released for FREE!

Details after the jump.

basic64 is a free (donations accepted) VST plug-in for Windows. You can see the full specs on the developer site, but let’s skip straight to what sets this one apart:

• Oscillator sync
• Ring modulation
• Pitch envelopes
• Tempo-synced arpeggiator
• MIDI learn on everything

Pretty powerful for free. It’s not a full SID emulation, but then, I think an “inspired” version is better anyway. Now, enough blogging, I’m off to go play with this thing. And yes, lots of weird and wonderful plug-ins is one excellent reason to use Windows, even if just a justification for throwing XP Home on Boot Camp on a MacBook.

basic64 on de La Mancha
and lots of other free/donationware plugs from them

Via the good peoples of Sonic State

There’s a horrible misconception that music technology is the domain of white guys who speak either English or German. (Erm, yes, I don’t do much to counter that — shout out, my nerdy, pale guy friends.)

But think again. One of the best music production sites on the Web in any language is the Spanish-language Hispasonic (and we have a strong readership in Spanish-speaking countries even here on CDM). Clearly, music technology and the Web itself are growing in popularity all over the planet, as diverse communities grow and start talking about this stuff in their native tongues. Hispasonic was already one of the most mature, and they’ve just gotten a terrific redesign (Hispasonic 2.0). In fact, it’s not the absence of these communities — it’s the fact that the rest of us don’t pay enough attention.

Hispasonic is happy to let you share in their success. To celebrate the 2.0 design, they’re giving away a special version of the lovely Nebula Reverb (VST - Windows), complete with eleven presets designed by Jorge Ruiz (a total of 450 MB of presets, downloadable separately).

Nebula HS (Hispasonic Edition) Reverb, Tutorials, Presets

Updated: Just to demonstrate how multinational this effort is, noou notes in comments:

Hey! You forgot to mention that Acusticaudio (the creators of the Nebula plugin) are from Italy! BTW once you learn Spanish the road to Italian is much easier…

Italy is another country that has produced many developers, designers, artists, and musicians who are expressive with technology. (Take that sentence, apply it to multiple centuries, and it’s an understatement for many nations of the world. Except the US; we haven’t been around very long.)

So go have a look. Brush up your Spanish, and check out the tutorial on the plug-in. (The download page is helpfully translated to English.) Subscribe to the RSS feed, and see if some of that high school Spanish starts flooding back. (It’s like riding a bicycle, really.) Just be sure to enjoy it fast, before Elton John demolishes the Internet.

By now you’ve all probably seen that excellent video of Kid Beyond illustrating his usage of Ableton Live. Pretty cool, right? If one had such a system, you could loop yourself playing guitar, beatboxing, etc., all perfectly in sync with programmed drum/MIDI tracks and other performers.

Here’s how to set up your own system in a similar hands-free operation style, for about US$10, without having to solder anything. It’ll take you about an hour once you gather the parts required, or less. No joke.

You will need:

• A QWERTY keyboard, preferably with a USB connector. Otherwise, you’ll have to buy an adapter to fit your laptop, which costs extra. You can get one for $7.50 at AllElectronics.com, but you can find them even cheaper at your local thrift store’s “technology pile.” I got mine for $2.
• A flathead screwdriver.
• Ableton Live. Ed.: Live is a perfect choice here, but you may find this useful with other music apps, as well — or even in a VJ set. -PK
• A free keyboard-mapping utility called Autohotkey (if you’re running Windows). If you’re running Mac, the program to use is calledIKey.

  That’s it. Here’s how to make it go:

  
  

  Above: Steps 1-2. Simple enough.
  

Straight Out of No Cash Part 3

Updates in bold:

Plenty of folks have asked me for advice about their DAW setups over the years. Mostly it has been about the issue of what sequencer software they should buy, or if they should go with a Mac or a Win PC environment (you can guess which direction I try to steer them towards). Occasionally, someone with little or no cash asks me about sites where he/she can download “free” software. Naturally, they almost always mean cracked/illegally copied software… However, since I know more than a few independent software developers, I’m not a huge fan of folks downloading, and then making money with software that small developers depend on to survive. So instead of steering them towards illegal copies of commercial software, I guide them towards totally legitimate freeware that’s often just as good as software that costs 100s of dollars.

That’s why I created Straight Out of No Cash, to give every Windows PC user a chance to make music using legal freeware.

In this installment, I’m helping those of you that already have a VST host sequencer, whether its a free tracker or Sonar 6, to all of the instruments, effects, and other gadgets your virtual studio would ever need. Once again, 100% free and legal.

I’ll start by covering each major instrument category, giving a proper description of each recommended plug-in. [Ed.: Note that for now these are all Windows-compatible; some are also Mac-compatible and I'll update the list within the next 24 hours or so with that information. Some are also direct download links, as far warning; I've indicated this where appropriate. -PK]

Virtual Analog (VA)

Asynth & Taurus: Two of the finest analog emulations ever. The fact that they are both freeware is just icing on the cake.

Synth1: A classic freeware that still holds its own today. If you’re looking for fat analog sounds, go elsewhere. Synth1 is 100% digital in the best (worst) possible sense. It can cut through even the muddiest of mixes like a hot knife through butter. Best used in situations where you want a sound to shine right through with clarity and precision.

Abakos: A great sounding poly VA with a twist. Using some programming voodoo Abakos is able to play back as many voices as needed using only a flat amount of CPU. In other words, your computer is taxed the same regardless if you’re playing only one note, or 12. Great for those of us with older (or notebook) DAWs.

Welcome back to another installment of “Straight Out of No Cash”. Despite repeated delays, death threats, acts of God, ElectroPlankton, and a laptop catching on fire, I’m finally back to give more bargain basement tips, tricks, and goodies for the Windows-centric set.

It used to be the case only 5 years ago that one had to spend money, sometimes several hundred for even the most basic DAW software. In recent years however, there has been such a large explosion in the amount of Windows freeware that it’s now gotten to the point where it’s possible to get a pretty good plug-in host sequencer without spending a single red cent. In this week’s article, I will examine four kick-ass free sequencer/plug-in hosts for Windows. Two free trackers, and then two free-while-in-beta sequencers.

Ed: Adrian Anders has long been a behind-the-scenes contributor here on CDM, hunting down the best and strangest free and cheap Windows software and tools. Here, Adrian makes a passionate plea for going to the PC side and building a truly affordable computer studio. To get us started, he also has some suggested tweaks for squeezing the most performance out of your budget PC, most of which I’ll certainly endorse (even if I can’t bear to take my computers off the network). I expect some of this should stir up some debate, so feel free to discuss in comments. And yes, if the photo made you wonder, Adrian’s Korg MicroKontrol is evil. -PK

Howdy, folks! I was prompted by Peter to come out from under my bridge — ha! troll joke … funny! — to talk about PC music making. Now, I’m not some music production mogul that can afford the $$$ to purchase, nor do I have enough industry connections to get for free, all the latest toys. But, assuming that I have enough time, I still want to make great computer-based music. I believe that many of my fellow aspiring producers are in a similar position as mine and want to make a big sound with a small monetary investment. That’s why I created SONC: it’s a help guide for those producers who want to make pro-sounding music without resorting to a diet consisting entirely of ramen. Think of it as Low End Theory with more beeps.