The Elysia Karacter is a really interesting rack unit and not just because it’s a high quality distortion or saturation. The Karacter gives you a ton of tone shape characteristics and control in one simple 1u rack space. Control Voltage seems to be a buzz these days and for good reason. Control voltages give you extremely fast precise control over parameters and allow for easy interaction not just with modular gear but with various studio pieces. Karacter Gives you CV control which isn’t very common in units of this style. Lets talk more about the sound. There are a few modes of color to grab from this unit, the first of which is saturation. Continue reading
Category Archives: General
ZAOR Studio desk “Yesk” Review
ZAOR Studio Furniture YESK Production desk
review by Flux
The Yesk is the latest production desk from boutique studio desk manufacturer ZAOR. The Yesk is a three tier desk with a slide out keyboard tray perfect for 49-61 keys. the center console features two bays of 4U of rack space at a nice working angle. The construction is of solid wood and feels extremely sturdy. One of my personal concerns about this review was that I know I will be moving in semi near future, will this desk hold up after a tear down and rebuild. I can say that after putting the desk together and seeing the smart anchor system that it uses to assemble the individual pieces (it comes flat packed), I have no doubts it will fair well in the move. Build time was pretty short (under two hours with me basically half paying attention to the build and half paying attention to another project I was working on. I’d bet with some focus I could have pulled it off in about 45 minutes. The instructions are very well layed out and it is really only about 11 parts or so you need to join together. The only gripes I had during the build was that the adapters for the rack screws could have come preinstalled and that the bottom row of them are a very tight fit to the desk. Nothing really upsetting just nitpicking for the sake of this article really. Continue reading
Threeler VCF from Ian Fritz and Synthcube.com
The Threeler VCF created by Ian Fritz is an interesting filter design. Utilizing a 3rd order design with 3 single pole filters in various combinations the Threeler is able to give a large variety of filter types. A mode select switch gives us 4 options of slopes. the first row consisting of Low pass configurations, the second row consisting of band pass , the third is a reversed order bandpass and the bottom row consisting of high pass filters. we are give 3 simultaneous outputs at a time (giving us access to different stages of the filter.) CV is available to control filter cut off, frequency modulation and resonance. The Filter also tracks volt per octave nicely over quite a few octaves which gives us access to a nice sine oscillator.
Available now as a PCB, Panel PCB, full Kit and as a completed module from Synthcube.com or on their Synth release club ( a module renting/leasing program.
Pricing for completed module starts at $285
The SynthSummitShow episode 11 : Electro-Acoustic Research Peter Grenader
Find out more at EAR-Synth.com
MUTEK 2016 Hexinverter.net Mutant BD9 Eurorack Modular Bass Drum
expected out mid summer 2016 with a retail of $249 USD.
Loosely Based on the TR-909 with some hefty modifications such as added sub VCO and CV inputs, this looks to be another winner from Hexinverter.net
The SynthSummitShow episode 10: Glen Darcey of Arturia
This is the full spliced together episode!
The SynthSummitShow is a live web show dedicated to synthesizers and the audio geeks that make it all happen. find out more at Fluxwithit.com
Hosted by Flux of Fluxwithi.com – Flux is a sound designer, Music technologist, consultant, and music producer.
Guest hosts today include : Corry of Bboytechreport.com – Corry is a hip hop producer and music tech blogger
Bryce aka Upright – Bryce is a hip hop producer, modular synth enthusiast and blogger.
Our Guest: Glen Darcey is VP of Product Management at Arturia. his career spans 4 decades in the music industry. Responsible for iconic products like the MPK and APC-40 controllers as well as the MiniBrute, beatstep series and much more.
Barton Writeable quantizer is a unique way to patch melody
Barton Musical Circuits
Writeable Quantizer
The writeable Quantizer(WQ) is an interesting module in that while it can function like a traditional sequencer, it is anything but traditional. What sets the WQ apart is that this quantizer doesn’t come with preset 1/12v divided scales like most quantizers do. Instead the WQ allows users to store voltages into a user defined “scale” and then quantize incoming voltages to those stored voltages. You can use traditional scale values and write those voltages to a traditional scale but what is the fun in that? Continue reading
Arturia Releases V collection 5 with HUGE improvements all around
Arturia V-Collection 5
Arturia has announced the release of its V collection update. This update is a major rewrite of both the GUI and engines of these seminal synths. Featuring all new Minimoog Filter modeling amongst the many improvements this years update is a truly inspiring collection.
Along with updates to the currently available collection of synths for v-collection4 , New synths join the fray! : Synclavier V, the B-3 V, the Stage-73 V, the Farfisa V, and Piano V, a complete suite of acoustic pianos.
The new GUI’s represent a hi-res depiction of each synth and function as the real instruments would. Continue reading