For this event we’ll be celebrating all our fav Mac & PC based soft synths. The event will begin with a few formal presentations to break the ice and then we’ll switch to a petting zoo format where anyone on the call can share their thoughts on their favorite soft synths.
In this event we’ll be taking a closer look at the Synthstrom Deluge. This will be more of an open “breakout” format with open discussion and Q & A. So this is not a course on the Deluge but more of an event where you can see how people are using it.
For those interested in Deluge but don’t have one… I’ll kick things off with a brief overview of what the Deluge can do. As part of this I’ll illustrate how to connect MIDI controllers and also discuss MIDI and CV sequencing implementations.
If you have a Deluge and would like to perform a short 2 minute song followed by a 3 minute song deconstruction, show up at the meeting 30 minutes early at 6:30 to do a brief A / V check.
Even if you are not in the market for a Deluge you might find some of the concepts in the workflow interesting and inspiring. It’s an amazing box.
In this event we’ll be focusing on how to use MIDI mapping to add expressive control to your studio and live rigs.
There are a huge number of MIDI controllers on the market so we’ll get the conversation started three member demos showing off some real-world examples of mapping MIDI CC’s to offer expressive control of hardware, software, or hybrid rigs. This will give you insights into a few specific controllers and also illustrate concepts that can be applied with any controller or MIDI mappable device.
I’ll then MC a group discussion where attendees can ask questions and / or share tips on their controllers and workflow.
This event will be an online interactive roundtable discussion focusing on the Arturia MicroFreak. So if you have a MicroFreak have it handy and of course feel free to talk about tips and ideas for the synth.
If you don’t have a MicroFreak and are curious about how much value is packed in this amazing synth stop on by as I will kick off the night with a brief overview of the MicroFreak and some of the new features introduced in the last few firmware updates including how to use the Vocoder.
No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
MicroFreak In Action
In a related note, I produced 1-minute multimedia performance featuring the MictoFreak. All the synth sounds except the drums and FX are from the MicroFreak. Blog post on all this here.
Max is a power full tool kit for multimedia, but lacks some of the easy to use structures of a DAW. Live is an awesome DAW, that can host and integrate all sorts of cool things built in Max. Lets explore some of the powerful instruments and effects you can build as max for live devices. These devices can be put straight to work in your music productions in Live. They can expand your sonic pallet and even change some of your DAW workflows to make amazing music.
Join this session by member Langdon C. Crawford to see a very quick demonstration making a max for live device from soup to nuts.
Registration Required
To attend you must register first. No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
Langdon C. Crawford is a collaborative and creative technologist from the green mountains of Vermont. He has been developing performance / composition systems with electronics since 1999.
Starting with guitars, effects and sequencers, he moved into computer music, eventually incorporating graphics and sensor controlled interaction. He has a masters of music technology from NYU.
He is currently working conferencing technology to facilitate remote collaboration and occasionally teaches electronic music remotely in CO and NYC.
This event will be an online interactive round table discussion focusing primarily on the the Akai MPC workstations that run the current 2.8 Firmware such as MPC Live, MPC Live II, MPC One, MPC X. We will also discuss topics such as MPC past and present.
Eddie will kick off the night with a 10 minute overview of MPC features. Long-time users Justin and Dino will be on hand as well to share insights.
So whether you own an MPC; are interested perhaps getting into MPC; or you are just curious about the MPC hardware, workflow and history I hope you’ll join us for this breakout session.
Registration Required
To attend you must register first. No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
Tim Thompson will offer a look into the creation of his amazing Space Palette Pro which has been used at festivals like Burning Man as well as installation at museums. Here is Tim’s description for this upcoming talk. Make sure you check out the pics and videos below.
When computer-based graphics became fast, cheap, and ubiquitous in the early 2000’s, it was inevitable that my algorithmic music exploration would expand to include interactive real-time graphics. The first efforts were camera-based (LoopyCam), Kinect-based (Space Palette), and LinnStrument-based (UniLooper).
This talk will describe the implementation and workflow details of my latest – the Space Palette Pro – a four-track gestural looper on which you finger-paint music and graphics simultaneously using four Sensel Morphs. A short performance will be included.
Registration Required
To attend you must register first. No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
Tim Thompson is a software engineer, musician, and interactive installation artist. His wide-ranging artistic work includes a programming language for MIDI, interactive installations at Burning Man and other festivals, musical performances with Playstation dance pads and QWERTY keyboards, and realtime video looping and processing with a handheld security camera. Recently, Tim has focused on the expressive potential of three-dimensional input in visual music instruments, using devices such as the Microsoft Kinect (in the original Space Palette) and the Sensel Morph (in the newer Space Palette Pro). His website is https://timthompson.com
This event will be an online interactive round table discussion about live looping. Come join in the conversation to learn and share tips and workflow on live looping with software, iPad apps, dedicated loopers, pedals, and Eurorack.
I’ll kick off the conversation with laptop looping with Ableton Looper.
I’ll mind map the discussion as we go so we’ll have some takeaway notes on some favorite loopers and techniques.
Registration Required
To attend you must register first. No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
In this event I’ll pass along information to help you customize factory presets to be more expressive and unique for your projects. I’ll also give you a sound design jumpstart so you can get even more out of this amazing synth. I’ll be presenting on Nave on iOS but the information will generally apply to the VST version and has relevance for and Iridium and Quantum users. Some topics I’ll be covering will include:
Anatomy of the synth
Expressive performance with blades and X/Y touch
Deconstruction of a preset
Sound design walk-through
User wavetables
Demo of 4-Track Tape System
Registration Required
To attend you must register first. No Zoom account is required to attend, just the link you’ll receive via email after registration.
Here is a 1 minute video to give you a quick taste of Nave. I’m developing a library of custom presets for use in upcoming episodes of my Sonic Encounters Podcast. This preset is called “MM Critters Who Keep the Clocks”.
X-Touch of blades controls Wave 1 pitch
Y-Touch of blades controls W1 Travel
X-Pad controls W2 Spectrum
Y-Pad controls LFO2 Speed
LFO2 is mapped to Pitch
About Nave
Waldorf Nave is a amazing multi-platform synth with 500 presets. It has 86 built-in wavetables and the ability to create user wavetables from speech synthesis and also from your own .wav files. On the iPad, the blades are incredibly expressive offering multiple dimensions of control.
The $19.99 iPad version is an incredible value when you consider that 69 of the 86 wavetablels contain all the factory wavetables from Microwave, Wave and Blofeld ($519); you can share presets with the computer-based Plugin version ($179) ; and Nave is clearly the core (only slightly less advanced) version of Iridium ($2,499) and Quantum ($4,399) and Wavetable engine.
My Journey with Waldorf and Wavetable Synthesis
I was a HUGE Waldorf Blofeld fan and owned both dekstop and a keyboard. I developed a large number of presets and wrote quite a few blog posts about it throughout the years. I sold both and now use Largo (see my blog post on Largo vs Blofeld).
I first started using Nave in 2013 when it first released. Like many of you who make music on iOS, I’ve perused, used, and tweaked some of the 500 presets to make music.
Gear lust for Iridium inspired me to dig deeper into Nave to learn how to make my own expressive presets and learn what’s possible with Nave. Now I’m using it almost daily. I will probably still end up with an Iridium 😲😅.
In a related note, also work heavily with Ableton Wavetable.
Heads Up – Arturia Pigments 2 1/2 Off Sale
While we’re talking about affordable wavetable synths, I wanted to mention that Arturia is having a 1/2 off sale on all their individual soft synths till April 12th. Pigments 2 is only $99 right now and offers Wavetable synthesis with user wavetables and V2 added sample and gruanular synthesis.
