Andrew Benson

Last week, I was invited by to participate in a panel discussion at Live Design International (LDI) in Las Vegas, the leading conference and trade show for lighting and live design professionals. The panel was called “Design On A Dime”, and despite the name, tended to mainly focus around how people create one-off and custom show designs. Those of you mostly focussed on music might not realize how many theater and stage professionals are sticking Max in the middle of their complex show designs. Joining me on the panel were other artists and lighting designers working with Isadora, Millumin, and Lightjams, as well as a number of other solutions.

A big topic of conversation - and something I realized I wanted to learn more about - was LED pixel mapping. With individually addressable LED strips and tapes now widely available and relatively affordable, lots of people are looking into custom installations and set pieces that include LED lighting effects. Enttec’s E.L.M. software includes supports for Syphon, which means you could develop video effects in Jitter that get passed along to the LEDs without having to do the DMX programming yourself. Some very exciting possibilities there that I’ll be excited to test out in my studio.

Besides that, where LDI really delivers is a show floor full of fog machines, laser projectors, movable head lighting fixtures, projection mapping, and every configuration of LED lights you can imagine. It definitely made me want to dust off Andrew Pask’s DMX articles and dive into some lighting experiments.

A visit to Live Design International, 2016

LDI 2016 1

LDI 2016 2

LDI 2016 3

on-the-road-live-design-international

On the Road: Live Design International

Darwin Grosse

Thank you for checking out something that's a little different for us: Tom Hall, Gregory Taylor and Darwin Grosse just finished up going through the NAMM convention, and are pretty exhausted. Gregory had to fly to Europe, but Darwin and Tom sat back for a coffee and a chat about the show. Let’s listen in: 

Darwin:
Tom, thanks for setting up all those meetings. Let’s do a pass through the things we did and saw. On Friday, we started off with a drop in on the MOD Devices team, which is that new programmable pedal which I thought was pretty cool. You got a chance to see their system ahead of time, right?

Tom:
Yeah, I've had hands on the MOD Devices pedal since the Loop event in Berlin last year. Immediately out of the box, the UI was pretty impressive. It's the kind of UI you'd expect from a much, much bigger company. The patchability was immediately pretty smooth.

Darwin:
That was really surprising to me. I had heard of them, but I hadn't seen the work before. I'm hoping that we're going to get to spend a little more time on the stuff they're doing, especially since they particularly talk about using Max as one of the development tools. That's pretty awesome.

From there, we went and saw ROLI, but you had actually been over at the ROLI booth the day before, before I got there, right?

Tom:
That's right. Let's kick it back to Thursday. I dropped down there before the whole Cycling '74 NAMM crew came to town, hoping to see a performance by Telefon Tel Aviv and Deru in a duo using the Seaboard Rise. Josh (Eustis, Telefon Tel Aviv) was using the new Blocks from ROLI in combination with topologies that we only released the day before. Talk about living on the bleeding edge, that guy doesn't mind it.

The performance was pretty amazing. I've known Josh’s work for quite a long time, decades in fact, but Deru is pretty new to me, although I've really been enjoying his album “1979” that he released in 2015. Those two combined are just a serious powerhouse duo. Their half-hour performance was pretty captivating. ROLI had a pretty big booth with a lot of stations for people playing the Blocks. But these guys managed to silence the room, which is no mean feat at NAMM.

Darwin:
The other thing that I noticed in their booth was that they actually had a station that was featuring that little drum synth that you'd put together that runs on the Blocks.

Tom:
They were pretty keen on that especially because it shows the new functionality in Max for Live. Now that you can access and use your Blocks directly in a Max for Live device ... It was showing it off quite nicely.

Darwin:
That's pretty interesting. After that, we went to hopefully see the Akai standalone drum machine, and I couldn't believe they wouldn't let us into the room. What kind of joke is that? I didn’t understand. 

We went from that non-welcome down to the Elektron booth and saw their new drum machine, the Digitakt - which is like their version of the MPC. Unlike Akai, they were happy to tell us everything about it (even though the machine stayed under glass). It looked awesome.

Tom:
That was really cool to catch up with Daniel Troberg and get the run-through by the CEO himself. Having eight MIDI tracks and eight audio tracks, oh man, and overbridge support. It looked like about the same size as an Analog Heat, and it had a really sharp display. The whole thing looked awesome, I think they said something like $650 is the price they're shooting for, which also blew me away.

Darwin:
We spent a lot of time there because it was worth it. There was a lot of information to gather. After that, we went and talked to Korg about some of their projects and got to see that new Vox guitar (I didn't even know they were planning a digital guitar). Then I ended up getting pulled into a meeting, while you and Gregory went and hung out at Keith McMillen's booth, right?

Tom:
That's right. We caught up with Evan from KMI. We know that those guys are big advocates for, and users of, Max in their RD. Also, in their post-release scenarios, they use Max a lot and are very supportive. They have a couple of new products. One was the K-Board Pro 4, which I actually saw last year as a prototype. Now it's actually been fully funded via a Kickstarter. 

It's another take on this area of multi-expressional MIDI. Out of all of them, it's probably the most traditional in terms of its shape and key action. It's still uses the KMI smart fabrics, but it’s a little easier to find the keys in the dark perhaps. We'll have to give it a test run soon.

They also have a little drum pad (the BopPad) that you can use with drumsticks or with your hands. It's split into four sections, and it's round. I was pretty taken aback by it. I'm not a drummer, but I can drum out a little beat on the desk with my fingers, and the BopPad actually lends itself to that quite well.

Darwin:
I interviewed Keith a couple of weeks ago for an AMT/Synthtopia podcast. He was talking specifically about that device and how fun it was for him when he got drummers in as testers. All of a sudden they could use techniques that they used to be able to use on acoustic percussion, but they had to put away because electronic percussion couldn't really support it. He seemed really excited about the amount of expressiveness that it was capable of.

After that, you and Gregory also went by Yamaha, got a chat about their project pile too. They're coming out with some pretty interesting stuff lately it seems.

Tom:
We caught up with Hiroaki from the research and development London office of Yamaha. He was pretty excited about Max and excited about the use of it in their R&D.

Darwin:
While you were doing that, I was actually at Ableton's educational forum, where it was crazy. They spent a couple of hours doing educational material, mainly talking about different kinds of tools that you can use for teaching stuff. Practically 100% of it was Max for Live related.

It was nice to see how much Max for Live has gotten enmeshed with how they perceive the bleeding age of work in the Ableton world. That was very interesting. 

After that,  it was onto bowling - the Ableton party was actually a bowling party. I know for a fact that nobody in the Cycling team actually bowled, although poor Lilli was so sad because her Michigan roots really drew her toward the bowling alley. Maybe people were scared of the shoes?

Tom:
I don't know about the shoes. I do know that we have a deep root of hyper-competitiveness at Cycling '74. I think it was probably a wise move for us not to unleash that on the Abletons. I don’t think Andrew Pask wanted to rack up a damage bill for throwing balls all the way down the lane.

Darwin:
All of that made for a very full Friday. Saturday was equally full. I know we started off the day doing a fly-by at Arturia, seeing some of their recent stuff. That company is blowing up.

We then went into that weird arena and saw all the oddball DJ stuff. Although, what was especially weird for me is that somehow Buchla ended up in there, which was weird.

Tom:
That was very strange. It goes smoke machines, smoke machines, indoor firework machines, Buchla, DJ mixer, fog machine. I was like, "Well, I guess we're thinking a little differently about the Buchla system.”

Darwin:
Indeed. After that, we went and saw Tom over at Eventide. They were showing a couple of nice things, but the one that caught both your and my eye was their new little Eurorack Module.

Tom:
Yeah, Eventide - to be honest,  I didn't see that coming. Those guys... their pedals seem to be in most people's hardware signal chains one way or another, but I still didn't think they'd bust out a module. We got a chance to handle the prototype. What I really like about it is that per parameter has a modulation input so you can really throw a lot of different CV at it and get some pretty wild things happening I'm sure.

Darwin:
Then after that, we took Os of Expert Sleepers out to lunch. That was interesting, if nothing else, to hear him talk about what his work day is like. He gets so much stuff done. It's amazing.

Tom:
Father of three kids, two of them as twins.

Darwin:
Yikes. After that, we did a bunch of running around and ended up in Novation, which was a really fun visit because we ended up talking to some people that didn't necessarily know a lot about Max, but were interested in talking to us. I feel like they're one of the companies that's really doing the hackable hardware.

It was fun introducing them to what we do and talking about what happens when you get Max programmers attacking things like the Launchpad, Launch Control or the Circuit.

Tom:
Novation has been on our radar for a long time. I think everyone at Cycling '74 has a couple of Novation controllers kicking around in their studio. It's what happens. Now that they've been open sourcing the backend of a lot of these products, it makes it a lot easier for a Max user to go in and start pushing the gear to its limit.

Darwin:
It was great to talk to them and introduce them to what we're doing and especially what our users tend to do once they get unrestricted access to a controller. Having them explain their history of open sourcing - or at least opening up their hardware to access from the outside world - as a company culture, I think all of us from Cycling '74 could really understand that mentality.

Then after that was the goofiest thing that's ever happened in a meeting, which is that we met with Russell from iZotope. He’s a cool cat and was just really excited to talk about all of the technology that they're pulling together. 

iZotope - I've always respected their work anyway. It was great to talk to him, but we ended up going outside just to get out of the noise and mustiness of the place. Inexplicably, there was a bunch of empty chairs (there's almost never a place to sit outside); we pull up chairs and we start talking and then all of a sudden, what shows up, but a bunch of people and a ton of drums!

Tom:
We're sitting there talking on about using Max and machine learning within Neutron (iZotope's new product). I look over and along comes this guy and throws a hand drum in each of our laps. I'm like, "Okay, where is this going?" We keep talking away and next thing we're totally in the middle of a drum circle!

I think that's one of those meetings that you'll never forget for the rest of your life. "Yeah, well, it started talking about machine learning, and it ended up with us all being in a drum circle."

Darwin:
"We ended up in polyrhythms." That was a great wrap up for Saturday.

Tom:
Darwin, what took your eye? What really excited you at NAMM this year? We certainly saw a lot of stuff...

Darwin:
Yeah, we did. Arturia just continues to knock it out of the park. This new gear that Keith McMillen is doing is pretty cool. Obviously, the ROLI stuff was pretty impressive, but the thing that really was fun for me happened on Sunday. We went in for just a little bit in the morning. We didn't actually even have meetings or anything. We just were going to do a drive-by on the modular guys and other friends’ booths. This guy Clifton, who works for Haken, grabs me in the hallway as I'm walking past. He's like, "Darwin, Darwin. I just heard your interview with Lippold. I need to have you play the Continuum!"

He literally roped me into playing it. I'd done so in the past and thought, "Oh, this is really neat." But this time, I actually got to spend more time on it. That was an incredible experience. What an amazing piece of gear. It's so sensitive while still being very controllable. I wanted to give him five minutes, and I think I ended up spending half an hour playing with it. I couldn't take my hands off it.

Tom:
That thing is pretty amazing. I certainly feel like I could play that thing all day without getting finger cramps and still be in control of what I'm playing. I'm amazed that he was able to spot you among the thousands of people at NAMM. He must have had a beacon out.

Darwin:
He must have. Good point. What did you see that caught your eye?

Tom:
I was pretty excited about NAMM, but you do get to see the YouTube videos beforehand. I've got to say the Digitakt is pretty interesting, and that price point is going to make it incredibly competitive. I finally got a noise-free moment free to have a play on that new Dave Smith REV2. There's something pretty nice about having 16 voices of pure analog signal to layer on top of one another.

The price point of that is pretty aggressive too, I thought. At $1999, that's going to throw the doors open. I think if you were looking at Behringer's thing (the Deepmind 12), then you'd have to still seriously consider just bumping up the credit card a little more.

In terms of Eurorack, I've got to say I was really mainly surprised in fact to see that whole area double in size from last year. It's pretty obvious that whole section of the music industry is still really rapidly expanding. It was cool to see the guys at Qu-Bit step up with a much bigger booth. They're really considering the layout of their modules, making them performance-oriented with their jack placement. That was really cool.

Darwin:
Great point. Then the other thing we did is ... 

I think that people who might have never visited NAMM might not understand is how far it is from LA proper. On Sunday night, we actually went to a gig in downtown LA. You mentioned both Josh from Telefon Tel Aviv and Deru performed at the ROLI booth. They were also part of a performance that we went to see downtown. Friday, we stayed in Anaheim, but Saturday night we ended up driving to Pasadena to go out for dinner with a bunch of our colleagues. Then we drove back. Then Sunday, we drove to downtown. Then we drove some more.

Tom:
We covered a couple of hundred miles and just made it a little extra with the raining cats and dogs at the same time.

I was a little unsure if we were going to make that gig on Sunday night, but it was one of those electronic shows that just happens once a year or once in a blue moon especially because some of those guys were in town for NAMM. We had Hypoxia, who is actually the guy  Drumcell doing an ambient act. Then we had Richard Devine, Surachai, Deru...

Darwin:
Richard did one of the best shows I've seen him do in ages. That was a great one.

Tom:
Yeah, the last time I saw Richard, he certainly stayed a lot more in that syncopated modular drum beat area. This time it was incredible, he broke down into some really nice ambient chord passages before ramping it. He ramped it up to 11 at the end there.

Darwin:
He did, but I also liked that he also did some really old school techno, which was fun to see him go back to those roots a little bit too.

Tom:
He's got the chops. It's just incredible that guy can cover so many genres in one set, and do it seamlessly too. It's not forced or anything. He just looks so relaxed up there. It's like, "Ah, I'm down at the coffee shop having a coffee," kind of relaxed. He's pretty cool.

Darwin:
Then Surachai did a thing. He had the full big screen version of that incredible video piece with the flowing cloak thing. He could have played “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, and the whole set would have come off because that is such a beautiful piece of video.

Tom:
He's playing around with a camera that shoots 1,500 frames in three seconds. You can just slow that right down and you still just have incredible flow and detail. He weaved that into his set really nicely. Then following him was Deru. It was really cool because it felt like they'd really thought about the way they'd lined up the artists. He took it just to this other realm.

Darwin:
It's funny because you said that you'd just recently been introduced to him. I'd never heard any of his work before. To me, that was one of the highlights of the night. It was beautiful. I didn't know what to expect, but it blew me away. It was so cinematic.

Then we end up with your friend and a guy who is rapidly becoming my friend, Josh Eustis doing one of his Second Woman sets, which really surprised me. I didn't know what to expect. I had listened to a few Second Woman recordings, but the way that he weaved that together live was really surprising and really intense.

Tom:
Even though I've known Josh for a bit and known his work for a bit, Second Woman is still really new to me. That's my first time seeing him do that live. I didn't know what to expect, and it blew me away. Going in and out of those syncopated systems, it's like he's shifting time both metaphorically and literally.

Darwin:
To see him pulling that all off just with Live and a Push that was something else. It wasn't just launching clips. He was sweating the Live play on that. At one point, it croaked on him, and he's like, "Bah, Max!" That was funny. I thought, "Well, I don't mind a shout-out, but that wasn't the one I was looking for."

Tom:
Yeah. I saw him open up for a gig recently as Telefon Tel Aviv. Just after Christmas, I saw him do a Telefon Tel Aviv set for his other group The Black Queen. He also had some kind of crash or something.

I've seen people have similar situations and they have complete meltdowns on stage. Basically, that's it. They're a jittery mess after that, but he seems to be pretty nonchalant about that.

Darwin:
It's just interesting to see a guy who is willing to walk the tightrope in a pretty high-profile situation like that.

Tom:
I think, for him, it's a matter of just that's what makes it interesting is that risk and that living on the edge of a live performance.

Darwin:
Right. We were exhausted, so we didn't get a chance to see Alessandro Cortini, although that would have been interesting to see as well. In the end, if you think about it, it was a great ending to a NAMM week. It's so easy to get really wrapped up in gear demos, watching all the gear videos and getting all revved up about the gear releases. But having the week end with that gig was a great reminder that the gear is nothing until you put it in the hands of an artist. To me, that really was the perfect end of the sentence when it came to dealing with NAMM.

Darwin:
I don't know about you, but I need a nice post-NAMM rest now. I'm hoping that I don't get the NAMMthrax. Thanks for hanging out at the show. Thanks for opening up the doors, getting things all scheduled nicely. It was a great time.

Gregory couldn't join us for our chat given his time zone, but he helpfully provided his own impressions after the fact to round things out:

Gregory:
Unlike Tom and Darwin, I’d been away from the NAMM show for a couple of years, so I tended to notice what had changed or moved as much as what was new - the ukelele market seems to have leveled out after its dominance of Hall E several years back, analog synth stuff has really blown up, and software has – with the exception of some large DAW players – found other ways than NAMM to make itself visible.

That said, there’s no substitute for something like NAMM in terms of not only finding out what’s new, but seeing it, trying it and having a chance to talk with the people who made it (with the occasional lapse into fanboy).

As one of those Max guys who connects to an analog rig, I wanted to follow up on Darwin’s review of the Expert Sleepers ES-8 by having a look at it myself. In addition to getting a look at how the new device interfaces with their ES-5 to add gate and control voltage expanders, that other serendipitous trade show thing happened: the browsing effect, where you see something next to the thing you were looking for that’s as interesting as what you were looking for – in this case the Disting Mk 4, whose added UI removes my only reason for not having one.

Tom Hall communes with the ES-8 and her little friends

I’m saving my worst attacks of “I want this NOW” was the Morphagene - Tom Erbe’s newly redesigned follow-on to the Makenoise Phonogene module, which improves on the original by adding stereo inputs and outputs and an SD card, which dramatically increases the sample size you can work with. Impossible to listen to listen to Walker Farrell run me through its paces and not imagine my MSP LFO controllers in that mix.

The other thing that really caught my attention was Applied Audio Systems’ Objeq Delay plug-in. It combines some of the features of their Chromophone physical modeling synth with a really smart set of delay features – think of it as the rough equivalent of the evolutional path from Mutable Instruments’ Elements physical module module to their Rings resonator module with some cool well-integrated delay stuff, as a way to imagine it. Beautifully done, and a great UI.

As far as interfaces go, the KMI BopPad really is one of those things that either makes you want to be a drummer (or think back to those Javanese drumming lessons you had a few years back, in my case). 

In terms of the drumbox, I was really drawn to the Arturia Drumbrute – especially when Tom ran me through their the thing's polyrhythmic abilities (which are going to show up on a future Beatstep Pro update, by the way).

But putting my personal desires and covetousness aside for the minute, I'd have to agree with Darwin and Tom that the really great part of the visit was talking with people who use our software as part of their workflow in some really amazing ways.


Deru using Roli Seaboard RISe
Telefon Tel Aviv - Using Max + Roli BLOCKS

Deru + Telefon Tel Aviv - Mini Performance Roli NAMM Booth

Richard Divine - BLK Noise Los Angeles 01.22.17

Surachais - BLK Noise Los Angeles 01.22.17

Second Woman - BLK Noise Los Angeles 01.22.17

Watch what Will Calhoun came up with on his recent visit to KMI. He also had some nice things to say about BopPad. For more info visit our Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kmi/boppad-smart-fabric-drum-pad-from-keith-mcmillen

BopPad Performances: Will Calhoun

on-the-road-namm-2017

On The Road: NAMM 2017

Lilli Wessling Hart

One of my favorite places at NAMM is the arena. In the arena, you will find all kinds of lasers, smoke machines, light-up microphone stands, and other visual products to make a musician's stage act more fun and maybe memorable. This year, I was drawn to a booth where you could walk over a sheet of thousands of tiny LEDs. It felt like walking on hard bubble wrap, making the walk through fire well worth it.


walking-through-fire-at-namm

Walking through fire at NAMM

Gregory Taylor

Although I'd heard about it, last year was the first time I ventured to KnobCon - a nicely sized meetup held in the Chicago area for synth enthusiasts. My initial visit was sufficiently interesting and instructive that I vowed to make the trip again.

And so I did - the news that this year's guest of honor was John Chowning sealed the deal. How could I pass up the chance to greet and learn from someone who's had such an influence on my musical life? If my experience from last year was anything to go by, I'd also have the chance to actually speak with Dr. Chowning - the scale and basic lack of pretension about the gathering really enables that kind of contact. I even got out my 1988 copy of John Chowning's work on Wergo (one of the very first computer music compact discs I ever acquired) and threw it in my bag, hoping to play fanboy and to acquire a signed "Holy Relic...."  

So I bought myself a very reasonable ticket that'd get me into the whole weekend, gassed up the car, and headed to Schaumburg, IL where - behind the giant shopping center, several days of synth wonderfulness awaited. Here's a selection of what I saw (and heard).

Visits to meetups like this are often full of wonderful and singular surprises (more on this in just a minute), but during my visit to KnobCon I also tried to make my way through the exhibitors and to get a sense of not only what was on display, but to think about and to present what I think were some patterns to be found amid the aggregate novelty.  I think that three emergent patterns/groupings appeared during my circuits around the floor this year:

New devices for the post-laptop (post-Eurorack?) world

The semipermeable boundary between software and the hardware

Patterns and emergent fashions are always interesting, but it's possible that you can be so busy looking for flocks that you miss the occasional bit of bright plumage. Before we get to the list above things, I'd like to talk about some singular encounters.

One of the great rewards about pacing the exhibitor area is the chance to come upon something that’s honestly off the map in terms of your own expectations – something you either didn’t expect to find or didn’t know even existed. Those moments of discovery can be bits of humble joy (at last year’s KnobCon, it was my encounter with Real Fake Knobs) or larger projects, such as last year's amazing Handsome Audio Zulu passive analog tape simulator.

This year's hands-down "I didn't see that one coming" would have to be nOmni - Adrian Freed's line of ICs for modular, nano and DIY synthesizer building - a set of CMOS devices that come in a 20-pin TSSOP package and a 2x3mm STQFN package, also. Up until now, the options for DIY and synth designers have basically been limited to analog chip clones from back in the day or embedded microcontrollers. nOMni's line of devices provide an interesting new alternative to that situation (you can find a listing of the devices to be made available this year and next year here).

How do you demonstrate something like this at a place like KnobCon? Easy - you breadboard up a bunch of really nice sounding examples and man your booth with the devices' creator - catnip for the synth designer par excellence. This is a pretty exciting development!

On the "seeing is believing" front, I had a great introduction to the world of Eurorack  video processing last year, courtesy of a workshop/talk by the folks from LZX industries. Their appearance this year included a device that will probably make pretty intuitive sense to Max users: The Memory Palace. It's a digital video transformation and frame buffer memory device whose possibilities for video transformation are amazing. 

Click on the links to check some tutorial videos on basic controls, paint mode, using stills, and analog colorizing. Put them all together and here's a sample of the Memory Palace in action:

One of the most interesting conversations wasn't about things at all - it was the chance to meet and talk with Aaron Guice, whose AFRORACK initiative is focused on diverse community access by means of workshops, seminars, and ambitious programming centered around using modular synths.

It's my kind of STEM education. I particularly loved the idea that he's working with 0-Coast and Moog modulars to help enable the next generation of modular analog flow.

My final "single sighting" falls into the category of those exhibitors I ritually visit out of respect more than expectations of the novel. Every exhibition I go to must always include a visit to the Buchla booth, where I stare in envy at the enormous and tricked-out 200e system being programmed by some lucky Buchla booth person that costs more than my car. After that, I spend a few minutes lovingly caressing one of the Music Easels on display, and look forward to the day when.... Go on - admit it: you do it, too.

But that didn't happen this time. Instead, I met two new Buchla friends. The first surprise was a pre-release version of their new Red Panel series of modules based on Don's designs from the San Francisco Tape Music Center days faithful to the originals,  minus the legendary soluble pharmaceutical front panels.

The other surprise was the appearance of Buchla's new 208C Command Module, which takes the contents of the Music Easel out of the briefcase, adds some nifty new inlet and outlet options, and includes a few cool new sound options.

My Buchla booth visit was a great reminder that you should always revisit your regulars and be on the lookout for new stuff from your old friends, too.

Look, Ma! No Laptops (No Euroracks, Either?)

The first "common theme" for this year's KnobCon probably won't be a particular surprise (although the sheer number of options may be): the fruit of continued interest and product development on synths that let you step away from the laptop (or your Eurorack system, even) and enjoy a world slightly larger than the Stompbox.

In a way, we’ve gone full circle, from dozens of connected stompboxes to laptops that encapsulated all that audio processing, and then back to a world where we’ve migrated again to a rich and flourishing ecosystem of smaller things to use to make noise. 

Let’s also not forget that those smaller things all have knobs to twiddle instead of places to point and click. It's their physicality that makes them immediate and attractive, but also makes them a little touch to shop around for. One particularly useful feature about events such as KnobCon is that you've got the chance to see and interact with a variety of possible futures in those situations where products cluster - you have the chance to spend time with the devices and the people who know them well. As a result, you begin to get a sense about whose specific set of solutions can make the most physical or emotional sense to you.

KnobCon was a veritable hothouse of those smaller futures, no shortage of options on display beyond those examples of keyboard products now available in keyless/rackmount/desktop forms, and the space and time to try them out.

The offerings included recent offerings from more major players

The $99 DIY Kit Korg NTS-1 - a descendent of the Micrologue

It was fun to catch up with a few new KnobCon exhibitors I hadn’t seen in a while. And on the “Small is Beautiful” front, the folks at Erica Synths had something cool: their Picosystem Mk III – a fantastic little semimodular starter system with a card system that stores all of your routings. At 450 Euros (400 as a Eurorack module), it’s a compelling little box.


IK Multimedia has moved far afield from their early software days, and collaborated with the Italian Soundtools people and Andromeda designer Erik Nordlander to bring us the UNO pair - a drum machine and a monosynth with a small footprint, a big sound, and an attractive price tag

There were other players that caught my fancy, too - I was particularly charmed by Zeppelin Design Labs' Macchiato synth and their Altura Mark II Theremin MIDI controller/arpeggiator (which features one of those "Why didn't someone do this a lot earlier?" features: an adjustable range for the theremin's response.

Of course, there are more possible tools out there that aren't drum machines or synths, too. The folks at Conductive Labs were showing two Teensy-based devices that began their lives as Kickstarter projects that appeared in the flesh to enable interesting things:

The first of Conductive Labs' dynamic duo is the NDLR (it's pronounced noodler): A stunning little box you use in conjunction with you other little gear as a polyphonic arpeggiator. This little item really packed quite a "Wow" factor for me - it fills a niche that really didn't exist in small-gear land until it came along. Rather than listening to me rant and provide feature sets, here are two little tutorials that ought to say it all.

And for a partner, Conductive Labs' MRCC brings MIDI and control routing to the post-laptop world. It features one button routing for each input and output, RGB LEDs, and OLED graphical display. The I/O specs are impressive - 11 inputs/21 outputs, (5 PIN DINs, 3.5MM MIDI jacks in both flavors, 4 USB host ports, and a USB client connection with 16 MIDI I/Os). The device also sports clock source/CV clock out, and will reportedly include filtering and MIDI effects (arpeggiator code borrowed from the NDLR, perhaps?) as well. The Kickstarter is overfunded, and they're talking about being 6 months out. It's a beautiful and useful bit of kit for your table full of smaller devices.

If the implied goal of my KnobCon 2019 exploration involves new and interesting ways to perform with a minimum of gear, my far-and-away favorite find was 1010 Music's Black Box. If you're familiar with their other work, it's not hard to imagine how this lovely little device came to be: it combines features from their Bit Box sampling module with their Toolbox sequencer to create a touchscreen-based live performance module with a lot of great features. The Black Box is touchscreen-based: you can record and edit samples and sequences using a piano-roll interface on the fly, grab material from a microSD card, combine and recut loops, add pads, run one-shot files, connect the whole thing via a USB to your favorite modestly-sized keyboard, and save your samples and presets as you go. It's a tightly designed little package with a surprising amount of power that (to me, anyway) seems pretty intuitive in terms of its UI organization. 

As things get small and screen/knob real estate space is a premium, the UI is a make-or-break situation. This one makes it, I think.

Aaron Higgins from 1010 Music didn't just spend his weekend describing and demoing the Black Box - he also teamed up with Chris Meyer from Learning Modular to turn in a lovely on-site ambient set, which you can listen to here:

To the careful observer, it’s getting increasingly difficult to pigeonhole synth folks into discrete categories of the “She does hardware” or “He does software” variety. The truth is that while ideas from the hardware world have found their way into softsynth homages - and vice-versa - for some time, we’re now starting to see movement in both directions across the hard/software boundary by single developers. That new development was in evidence at this edition of KnobCon in one interesting physical instance.

At the end of the at the main entrance Ricky Graham manned the Delta Sound Labs booth. Any visitor to their website can't help but notice the ease with which they straddle the hardware and software worlds - there are links to free Max for Live devices, their amazing Stream VST/Audio Units plug-in,  and  a trio of Eurorack modules: the Mobula ARP-inspired ring modular, the Origami Buchlaesque wave folder, and the Oberheim-inspired Saber SEM filter. Delta Sound Labs have pitched their tent right along the open border.


Directly across the aisle from him, VCV virtual modular synth rack guru Andrew Belt had his virtual Eurorack populated with virtual versions of  hardware we already know and love from the physical world - The 4ms Spectral Multiband Resonator, along with modules from Befaco, Erica Synths, Mutable Instruments, and Alright Devices, among others. And news in the VCV rack world? There are 11 or so Malekko modules on the way to a virtual rack near you soon!

Another version of the porous boundary involves ports of Eurorack hardware to virtual versions. While both VCVrack and Softube feature virtual ports of Eurorack hardware devices that run in their virtual racks, there have also been other approaches: ports based on the open sourcing of the code for Mutable Instruments Eurorack modules, for example - notably, Volker Böhm's MSP external version of their Plaits module or Timo Rozendal's Max for Live device versions of their Braids and Clouds modules. Beyond what was on display and tales of that permeable membrane, there are rumors of more still yet to come in terms of hardware to plug-in technologies from the Eurorack module makers themselves ( There are intriguing whispers of “something in the works” from Noise Engineering, for example) that'll be worth keeping an eye on.....

Interesting rumors aside, the soft-to-hard migrations on display at KnobCon: Starling Via started out releasing VCV modules and then migrated to hardware shortly afterwards, along with Vult. And if you turned left on the main aisle and made your way down to the 1010 Music booth, you'd have seen a hardware version of the MOK Waverazor plug-in, patchcord inputs and all. 

Quite a lot of the buzz at KnobCon 2019 centered on something that was much on view in both the synth and Eurorack worlds, but not exactly new: wavetable synthesis.  And by "not exactly new," I mean that there are a slew of lovers of the technique out there - from the PPG Wavecomputer to the Waldorf Microwave synths, as well as the Creative Labs' AWE-32 soundcard and others.

Similarly, if you’re a Eurorack Morphing Terrarium, E350 Quad Morphing VCO or  Shapeshifter VCO owner, you know the drill – grouped sets of waveforms you can morph among in a way that provides you with options for timbral contral sans East Coast filtering or West Coast wavefolding.

Want to do a little Max/MSP dive into the subject? Well, you can download Rasmus Ekman's squinewave~ external and morph to your heart's content.

Another wavetable rabbit hole would involve spending some quality time with Yofiel's recent release of his Husserl2 standalone synth, which lets you modulate both the oscillators and LFOs from several modulation sources.

So what's up with wavetables at KnobCon? This KnobCon gave us the chance to try out a couple of new(ish) Eurorack modules in the flesh, from the now more widely available 4MS Spherical Wavetable Navigator to Delptronics' snazzy Theremorph, which lets you run down your synthesis via standard MIDI or some unique Theremin-like optical control. It's one thing to read up on modules like these, and quite another thing to be shepherded through their use in non-virtual space by someone really familiar with them - they're deep and beautiful additions to your bag of tricks.

I rounded those offerings off with the chance to check out the most serious buzz on the exhibition floor: two new keyboard (and rackmount) wavetable synths whose pricetags were as attractive as their feature sets. Let's do the "duelling high-buzz wavetable synths" in alphabetical order....

In the boutique world of Eurorack, it's not that much of a surprise to discover a new kid on the block - it's part of the fun. But an entirely new keyboard synth and its rack-mount cousin appearing from a company I'd never heard of? That's news. 

Meet Hydrasynth from Hong Kong-based Ashun Sound Machines (ASM). Each of the Hydrasynth's eight voices feature three wavescanning oscillators with 219 different waveforms per voice (each with four waveshaping "mutators"),  five LFOs as modulation sources which offer 11 linear/exponential smoothable waveshapes, and five linear/exponential ADSRs thrown into the mix.

All those possibilities would be one hot mess were they not tamed by one of the most intuitive user interfaces I've encountered in a very long time. The layout and controls are a joy to work with and explore, and you get to find all kinds of little things to love as you work - in my case, it was the polyphonic aftertouch on the device's pads and endless encoders on all the knobs. The box comes in at a very reasonable $799 MSRP ($1299 for the keyboard version) - major bang for the buck (and fun, too).


For the second bit of ferocious wavetable KnobCon buzz, meet the Argon 8. If you've been forced to dampen your interest in Modal Electronics’ amazing expensive 00 series of wavetable synths, there was some really good news for you: Their new synth packs a solid wallop without emptying your pockets.

The 8-voice Argon 8 includes 24 banks of 5 morphable waveform sets, many of which come from that Modal 002 as well as a whole range of mathematically generated tables. Those wavetable outputs can be sliced, diced, chopped and channeled by 28 wavetable processors including de-rez, wave folders, wave shapers, phase shapers and rectify that can be applied to the wavetables, too.

It all passes through two-pole resonant filter that can be morphed from low pass, through band pass, to high pass, and it’s controllable by way of a well-designed mod matrix. Finally, the built-in sequencer can be quantized or not (hooray!) and includes four recordable / editable parameter animations. Yeah, you read that right. You can your front-panel actions (knob twisting, joystick manipulation) and apply that material to your performance in the same way you’d play back notes – which sat right next to the programmable and “lockable” front panel joystick as my two favorite performance features.

At an MSRP of $699, this 37-note keyboard synth is a great buy, albeit a different instrument from the Hydrasynth. I suspect that spending a little serious time checking out the videos will help you decide which one's right for you.

But KnobCon wasn't all about new products and clusters of ideas in product form - a lot of us wanted to hear John Chowning. And we did.

The Saturday evening festivities involved a buffet/banquet that featured Dr. Chowning's keynote address. The good news is that the KnobCon folks put it up for all of you to see:

On Sunday afternoon, that keynote address was followed by a detailed tutorial on FM synthesis which mixed the history of its development with examples of how FM was "taught" to imitate the timbre of families of acoustic instruments. It was an illuminating combination of history, theory, and sound, and was a fitting end to a great weekend.


Oh, and since I know some of you may be wondering - yes, I did it. John was very gracious and maybe just a little bit amused to encounter a fanboy bearing a 30-year old CD ("You can get this online in digital format, you know...." he said). In situations where you get to meet your heroes and to thank them personally, I am without shame.

For those synth enthusiasts that would have liked to attend Knobcon 2019 but couldn't, here's a quick walkthrough of the exhibit hall.

Under the Big Tree is Nick Peck's YouTube channel, focused on music and sound design equipment and techniques, composition, production and performance of music, modular synthesizers and electronic music in general, and tabletop board games.
 
http://www.underthebigtree.com

Exhibit Hall Walkthrough - Knobcon 2019

Early experiments with the LZX Memory Palace and LED Hoops

Sam's First Trip to Memory Palace

AFRORACK is an audio arts organization with a goal of helping the community develop and thrive through technology resources. https://www.afrorack.org/

KnobCon 2019: AfroRack

Buchla Easel Command Module includes MIDI (USB & DIN) and enclosure. Target price $2,999 USD.

Buchla 208C (MIDI optional). Target price $2,599 USD.

Starts shipping late 2019.

Optional preset management coming at a later date.

Announcing the new Buchla Easel Command & 208C

The Nu:Tekt NTS-1 digital KIT is a unique, flexible, and easy DIY synthesizer that you can easily assemble yourself, without any soldering (tool included!). 

The first of its kind from KORG’s DIY-focused Nu:Tekt brand, NTS-1 packs a powerful synth and multi-effects engine into a compact form factor that you can carry and connect anywhere. Its DIY nature means it’s also very customizable. Explore the possibilities! 

http://www.korg.com/products/dj/nts_1/

Track created by Phasma
http://www.instagram.com/phasmagram/

Like/Follow us:
USA
https://www.facebook.com/korgusa
https://www.twitter.com/korgusa 
http://instagram.com/korgofficial

UK
https://www.facebook.com/korguk
https://twitter.com/korguk

JAPAN
https://www.facebook.com/KORGJP
https://twitter.com/korg_inc/

Nu:Tekt NTS-1 digital kit - Build it, tweak it, connect it

Erica Synths Pico System III is affordable, compact, yet powerful sounding, full analogue modular system.

Patches:
00:02 - Patch 1
01:27 - Patch 2
02:09 - Patch 3
03:22 - Patch 4
04:02 - Patch 5 (Sequenced with Keystep)
04:12 - Patch 6 (Sequenced with OP-Z)
05:51 - Patch 7
06:18 - Patch 8
07:24 - Patch 9
07:55 - Patch 10 (Sequenced with Keystep)
09:11 - Patch 11
10:23 - Patch 12
12:20 - Patch 13

More: https://www.ericasynths.lv/news/pico-system-iii/

Pico System III demo

http://www.unodrum.com  |  http://www.unosynth.com

Check out this performance featuring our new UNO Drum analog/PCM drum machine and UNO Synth true analog synth!  All sounds played from UNO Drum and UNO synth, except the custom pad sound coming from a computer via Ableton Live, which is recording and controlling the session. Additional reverb from an Ibanez SDR-1000 digital reverb.

UNO Drum is the ultimate beat creation station for anyone and everyone to create warm, punchy, high-quality, and inspiring grooves. Made in collaboration with Italian analog specialist Soundmachines, UNO Drum follows the acclaimed UNO Synth, combing massive analog tone with digital flexibility and convenience.

UNO Drum makes it easy to program and perform using the widest sonic palette to add professional drum grooves to your music.  http://www.unodrumcom

UNO Synth is the ultimate portable, monophonic, true analog synthesizer and IK Multimedia’s entry in the hardware synthesizer world.  http://www.unosynth.com

We combined our two decades of experience in software and hardware development with the expertise of Italian boutique synth-maker Soundmachines and IK’s synth guru, Erik Norlander (one of the brains behind acclaimed synths like the Alesis Andromeda). The result is a no-compromise instrument with massive analog sound that’s also easy to use with hands-on programmability and advanced features at an unbeatable price.  https://www.unosynth.com

Get a free Syntronik Bully for signing up for the IK Newsletter: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?id=freesyntronikbully

UNO Drum & UNO Synth performance

In this video, I build a couple of MIDI-related kits sold by Zeppelin Design Labs. The first is a MIDI theremin kit, and the second is a mini MIDI synthesizer. These kits can be used together, or they can be used separately with your own MIDI equipment. Both were relatively easy through-hole construction, about and hour each for basic assembly. In the video I try them out and play around with them both for a bit. For more electronics videos, see http://www.smbaker.com/

Altura Midi Theremin and Macchiato Mini Synth Kit Reviews

::| Please support these guys on Kickstarter to make this project happen, I really want to see this get out into the world! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thendlr/the-ndlr-a-multi-part-polyphonic-arpeggiator |::

This is my first encounter with the Conductive Labs "The NDLR" (pronounced noodler). The guys at Conductive Labs (who had previously seen my demo videos here on Youtube, and had attended a couple of my live performances) asked if I would run one of their prototype NDLRs through it's paces... and of course, how could I resist! This is still a beta unit; some features have not yet been implemented (such as the LFO section) but hopefully these series of quick demos will give you all an idea of what the NDLR can do in a musical context. I only have it for a week before I have to give it back, so I will be doing as much as I can while I have it...

In this Demo #1 I have the NDLR Paired with the Waldorf Blofeld. Since the Blofeld is Multitimbral, it's quite easy to have the NDLR play the various parts on the Blofeld. A perfect example of the ultimate minimal setup for live jams!

In the next, forthcoming Demo #2, I will have the NDLR play a Korg Minilogue (for the PAD) and three Moog Mother-32s. I will also dive deeper into the Menu system.

In Demo #3, it will be the NDLR with the Moog Sub 37, ARP Odyssey, Waldorf Microwave XTk and the Micro Q!

#ConductiveLabs #NDLR #Sequencer
————————————————————————————
Please consider contributing if you enjoy these videos - https://www.paypal.me/genshi

Hear more of my music at - https://soundcloud.com/genshi
And on my record label - http://www.zerogenshi.com/index2.html

Follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/genshi
And on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/genshi/

Conductive Labs NDLR - Demo #1 (in two parts)

::| Please support these guys on Kickstarter to make this project happen, I really want to see this get out into the world! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thendlr/the-ndlr-a-multi-part-polyphonic-arpeggiator |::
Demo #2 of the Conductive Labs "The NDLR" polyphonic arpeggiator. In the first two parts, the NDLR is playing the Korg Minilogue for the PAD sound, and three Moog Mother-32s for the BASS, MOTIF (arpeggiated lead) and DRONE sounds. In part three of this demo, all four synths are Polychained together as one PAD.

#ConductiveLabs #NDLR #Sequencer
————————————————————————————
Please consider contributing if you enjoy these videos - https://www.paypal.me/genshi

Hear more of my music at - https://soundcloud.com/genshi
And on my record label - http://www.zerogenshi.com/index2.html

Follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/genshi
And on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/genshi/

Conductive Labs NDLR - Demo #2 (in three parts)

Conductive Labs demos the MRCC (MIDI Router Control Center) early sneak peek prototype from KnobCon 2019. 

Support our KICKSTARTER campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thendlr/mrcc

Check out our other product The NDLR if you're in to synths! https://igg.me/at/ndlr/x#/

MRCC (MIDI Router Control Center) by Conductive Labs - sneak peak

Here's a full review and workflow tutorial of Blackbox from 1010Music is a standalone hardware sampler, sequencer and looper based on their eurorack modules. 

For more synth tips and tricks as well as what to look for gear, check out my In-Complete Book of Electronic Music Ideas, Tips and Tricks (hint: it's in-complete because it's always being updated…):
 
► Patreon: https://patreon.com/loopop 
 
Gear used in this video (only the amazon links are affiliate links. using them helps the channel):

► Blackbox from 1010Music: Search for new and used on Reverb: https://reverb.grsm.io/Blackbox or check out the specs on 1010Music's site: http://bit.ly/1010music-Blackbox
► KeyStep: https://amzn.to/2R2u54s
n.to/2Bu1BqF
► SWN (and Pod) from 4ms: http://bit.ly/4ms-SWN
► Buzzzy! from Fred's Lab: http://bit.ly/BuzzzyKickStarter
► Maths from Make Noise: https://amzn.to/2EioJuu

Other places I hang out:

►  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loopopmusic
►  Web: https://loopopmusic.com
►  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loopopmusic
►  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/loopopmusic

TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro 
0:35 Hardware overview 
3:10 Pads explained 
5:00 Pad parameters 
6:05 Keyboard control 
6:55 Choke groups 
7:10 Sample type pads 
8:30 Clip pads 
10:50 Slicer pads 
13:10 Sampling 
14:00 Live looping 
14:55 Sampling CV 
16:30 Sequencing 
19:20 Sequence params 
20:15 MIDI sequencing 
21:50 How songs work 
25:15 FX 
25:50 MIX 
26:15 PSET - Presets 
26:40 Tools 
26:50 Modulation 
28:20 Pros and cons 

Want to email me personally?

►  Ziv (at) loopopmusic.com

NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for or dictated in any way by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

1010Music Blackbox: Review and full workflow tutorial

Glen Darcey takes you on a tour of the features of the new Hydrasynth Keyboard and Hydrasynth Desktop synthesizers. 

This talking tour covers the main features and functions of the synthesizers.

Take a tour of the ASM Hydrasynth

After the last couple of weeks being big in terms of digital poly synth action, Modal came down to the studio and gave us a run down of the new Argon8 poly synth. There were still a few questions we were unable to get into that video so Jim caught up with Jackson to check out the instrument and ask those questions!

Access millions of samples with free Loopcloud trial - http://bit.ly/2UqixqY

Frozen Reverbs Racks for Live: http://bit.ly/freezemachines

Subscribe to Sonicstate on YouTube for new content!
http://bit.ly/SonicYTSub

Watch Sonicstate's Exclusive Series:
Sonic LAB: http://bit.ly/SonicLab
Meet The Makers: http://bit.ly/SonicMakers
Sonicstate Performances: http://bit.ly/SonicPerformances
Sonic TALK Podcast: http://bit.ly/SonicTalk
NAMM 2018: http://bit.ly/namm18sonic

Website: http://www.sonicstate.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/sonicstate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wwwsonicstate
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sonicstateuk
Podcast/iTunes: https://goo.gl/4uOFA5

Knobcon 2019: Modal Argon8 Walkthrough

I first met Dr. John Chowning, the discoverer of frequency modulation as a powerful algorithm for synthesis, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford in the early 90's. He was a brilliant, kind gentleman then, and nothing has changed in the subsequent decades. I thought it important to document his address, and subsequent lecture on the history of FM synthesis, for the future. Apologies for the sound quality - there was an enormous air conditioner running full blast behind him. But the substance is what counts, and hearing the words of this giant of the synthesizer realm.

Under the Big Tree is Nick Peck's YouTube channel, focused on music and sound design equipment and techniques, composition, production and performance of music, modular synthesizers and electronic music in general, and tabletop board games.
 
http://www.underthebigtree.com

Dr. John Chowning -Keynote Address | Knobcon 2019

KnobCon_2019c.jpg

Based on my last visit, KnobCon was a great place to check out the Eurorack and synth worlds in one location. This year was no exception. Here’s what I saw and heard…

on-the-road-knobcon-2019

On The Road: KnobCon 2019

I got to spend a day at NAMM, and it was a great chance to spend some time with our friends. Here's a little picture of the folks at the Livid booth, showing great excitement over their new Base product. This is a really nice controller - no moving parts, realtime positional feedback and just the right size for backpacking. They were also spotlighting the Alias 8 controller, which seems purpose-built for making live sing. 

Spending time with Livid also reminded me how much I love the OhmRGB Slim, which seems to be the perfect combination of over-the-top features with grab-it-and-go size. This was a great opportunity to talk smart, have fun and feed the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)!

Search Results