Wsm - July 2006 - Issue 003

Sound Magazine July 2006 #003 www.Wusik.com

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Letter from the Editor W

e’re halfway through the year, and a new magazine is here. This time holds a surprise. Mike has done a great job editing the previous issues, but for financial reasons we had to change our staff.

WilliamK is also back taking care of the magazine, along with the help and contributions of several users. We would like to thank Mike for the efforts towards the magazine so far. He will keep contributing to the magazine as a freelancer, but will no longer be the official Editor.

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his month we host several new startups: ArtVera's New Age Collection 1 and ToTc's Additive Collection 1. Plus the final ElektroWusik III, with tons of new presets. We are also trying to orient the magazine in a new direction. Not only for Wusik users, but for the whole musicians community. We are working on a WusikPlayer that may be included for future issues. And we will also try to add more and more global articles, not just Wusik oriented.

The only thing we will not do is talk about competitors, but that's understandable.

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e no longer support the Multimedia version of the magazine. Instead, we will keep two PDF versions. A High-Resolution Printable version, very large and slow to load on most computers, but also a Low-Resolution OnScreen version, light and fast to load, and easy to read. Both will be based on the same Design. Just that one will be saved at 300 DPI, while the second will be only 96 DPI with compressed images.

"Who is the new Editor?" You may ask.

We present you, MoniKe, WilliamK's wife. She has done several web designs and lately the Wusikstation V1 skin. She will be in charge of all new Wsm issues.

WilliamK and MoniKe

Sound Magazine Editorial: Magazine Layout: MoniKe Editors: WilliamK and MoniKe Paul Walsh SoundSet: Babel Sounds Collection One A musician, writer and cultural anthropologist with eclectic musical tastes ranging from experimental electronic works and ambient drones through to post rock, alt. folk, Indian classical music, and Bollywood hits. paulywalsh@yahoo.com Artvera SoundSet: ArtVera NewAge Collection One Vera Kinter aka Artvera is a graphic artist, sound designer and musician from the Czech Republic.

She has worked with various developers and now brings her talents to Wusikstation. http://www.artvera-music.com Frank Genus (aka 'ToTc') SoundSet: ToTc Additive Collection One Is a preset designer/sample provider - About Frank: Frank Genus is a professional sound designer from New Jersey in the United States. http://www.totcproductions.com Dennis Lenz from http://www.prodyon.de SoundSet: Rough Slices Volume One used on ElektroWusik III A 25 year old plugin-developer, sounddesigner from Berlin, Germany who is also the man behind prodyon.de, where he offers several VST plugins Funky Chicken Dance Interview and Articles Behind the deliberately half-baked name funkychickendance lurks a 'Sixties generation' guitarist who has worked as an editor or writer for most of his life. Often too lazy to create his own presets, he's grateful for the thousands already made by inspired designers. He runs on a Dell 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 270GB hard drive rig, with a shitty soundcard, MIDIsport 2x2 and a Fatar Studio 610 Plus, and has artvera's new gold skin on his Wusikstation GUI. Unfashionably, he thinks ACID 6 Pro and FL Studio 6 Producer Edition are perfectly adequate hosts, most of the time. Based in a converted horse barn in rural Maine - really! - he's working on an album, just like you.

Mike Felker (aka. Karmacomposer) DVD Distribution Professional Composer / Production / Printing http://www.mfelkerco.com Proof-Reading: Funky Chicken Dance and other users.

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In This Issue:

04

Getting Started

Gear/Software Advices For those that just started out.

#003 - July 2006

16

Sound Design Stars Offer

Their Tips Dnekm is a designer who can be counted on to produce some out-of-the-ordinary sounds...

18

The Synth Romance

How we tend to romanticize things on our life?

06

Ask WilliamK

What do you want to know?

20

Interview With WilliamK

I discovered, he has plenty of ideas!

08

Mastering Tips

Simple and effective.

22

Creating Sounds

Recycling Drums (Advanced Level)

10

WilliamK - The History

The completed version. Starting 8 years ago...

14 Creating Sounds V3 Ring Modulation (Basic Level)

24

Wsm #003 Sounds

ElektroWusik Artvera NewAge Collection ToTc Additive Collection Babel Sounds

Wusik Sound Magazine

03

Getting Started Gear/Software Advices

by WilliamK

This is not for the Pro-Users, but more for those that just started out and want cheap solutions on getting the best of ones audio gear.

Let's start with a Sound-Card. Sadly most users still use low-end cards, that have poor performance on several levels. For example, the sbLive/Audigy cards. Even when using the famous KX drivers, (an open-source replacement driver) you still get a bad ASIO driver and low frequency responses, aka low quality signals. A better solution is to get a new card, that is not expensive, but that will actually deliver. The M-Audio Audiophile2496 is an example of such card. It has only 4 analog I/O, consisting of one stereo input and one stereo output. It also comes with digital

and Midi input/ output. The ASIO driver is totally stable, and delivers very low latency. The card, as the name states, works at 24 bits and up to 96kHz. The DAC/ADC (Digital to Analog Converter and vice-versa) of the Sound-Card is also topnotch, reproducing and sampling the sounds with crystal clarity. The Frequency response of the card is also very good, 22Hz ~ 22kHz.

Good Monitors also help. Forget about Multimedia or regular Speakers.

You

need flatresponse monitors.

Otherwise, your song will only sound good on YOUR setup. For me I have chosen the Behringer Truth B2030A. These are neither cheap, nor expensive. If you have a Sub-Woofer, be

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careful with it when mixing/masterizing your songs. Is best that you try some commercial songs, and see with volume is the best. So you don't overload your mix with too much bass. In case you don't understand what flat-response means: its simple, a good set of monitors will reproduce the sound without adding any extra Equalization to the sound. For example, on most speakers, you will get too much bass or too much treble. Monitors won't do that, they will reproduce the sound "flat", as it is, no changes.

f course, you will also need a mixer, even if you don't plan to mix anything. I have chosen again a Behringer product. They are cheap and they work, simple. The Eurorack UB1002 is a good choice, its very cheap, and it has Tape In/Out that you can use to connect your audio-card to. Just be sure to read the manual to avoid getting a nasty Feedback sound if you turn your sound-card audio input In and pass it back to the Output. I made that mistake only once. Also, the good thing about having a mixer, even if you never use the "mixing" part of it, is that you keep all your cables the way they are supposed to be. Otherwise, you will have to order special custom cables, to connect the RCA output of the cards, to the P2 inputs of the Active-Speakers. This will introduce unwanted noises.

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Getting Started A

lso with a mixer you get a nice FaderVolume, right at your finger-tips, Headphones outputs and other options. Also with a SubWoofer, you can plug it on the Control-Room Output, and tweak the Phones volume when you want more or less Bass on your setup. Its really pretty handy, and it will be worth the small investment.

Keep daily/weekly/monthly backups of everything you do, be paranoid, you never know what will happen.

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s for the Midi-Keyboard, you have to decide first on the style of music you want to do, and if you want a portable solution or not. For example, if you just do small riffs and rather like more Knobs than keys, you could get M-audio Oxygen8. Just be aware that the keyboard has very simple cheap-keys. If you want something better, you could try the new M-Audio Keystation 61es that has 61-Key with Semi-Weighted action.

This would be oriented to those doing compositions. It does not have any knobs, only one fader and the regular Pitch Bend & Modulation. There are other solutions, so be sure to check your local store.

lot of people complained when Windows-XP was released. But it's a fact, XP is the most stable Windows ever made. After you install it, just be sure that you install a good Firewall software like Zone-Alarm Free, rated by several magazines as the best solution in its category. Keep daily/weekly/monthly backups of everything you do, be paranoid, you never know what will happen. If you run a studio, be sure to check HD-Mirroring solutions.

As for Anti-Virus, I always tell people to use the AVG Free Anti-Virus solution. If you run a business, you have to purchase a license, but its still the best solution.

It will not hog your computer, neither Zone-Alarm Free. We do not recommend any other software, as they will clutter your computer. Of course, if you don't have internet access on your Music-DAW, no need to worry about those things.

There are several sites that will teach you how to "tune" XP specially for Audio & Music. The most famous site is www.musicxp.net, it has some very good information. One thing I noticed on my own DAW, is that when the power-saving is active, it will mess with my CPU % bar on most hosts. So I just set it to always ON.

A good and simple Backup solution is to

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really hope this information will help or even save your day.

get an external HD, that you turn ON only when doing your copies. There are also Online services for that, but it will require a fast connection, otherwise you will loose too much time uploading your files. DVD backups are also great, be sure to make 2 copies, you never know when you will scratch or bend a disk and lose all the information on it.

Let

us know about your own experiences, we may include them in future issues.

Wusik Sound Magazine

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Ask WilliamK "I get more e-mail from william than anyone that i know. How about a picture so we can put a face with the name?"

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Sure, no problem. Check the picture above.

"Thanks to the Internet and soft-synth revolution, we've seen numerous changes in the way music is produced. With iTunes we've seen a new way to market and distribute music. Looking into your crystal ball, what you do think will be the major changes to the way music is produced and distributed over the next five to 10 years? Are CDs going to die out completely? Will so many people be able to make music on their own that no one will buy other people's music anymore?"

?

Good question, its hard to predict the future.

For me, the Betamax Video-Player would still rule the world. ;-) When it comes to music, people were a bit in panic when the first Tape-Recorder was released. Some said that no one would ever purchase Vinyl-Albums anymore. That didn't happen. Actually, people started to make MixTapes from purchased Albums. Everyone was a DJ. I recall several friends of mine, during the whole 80's Electronic-Music boom, that though they could make music. Of course, today, the internet puts a big dilemma on the whole thing. Today is much easier to rip a CD and distribute on the Internet for thousands of people. I hate those P2P programs, they only advocate Piracy. Or do you think everyone is just using those to swap funny videos?

Not really. But again, after the whole P2P Boom, I think that now people understand that this only prejudices artists, and even users. Not always you get complete good albums. I think that on the start a lot of users just used P2P programs to get things they already owned on Tape or Vinyl, but lost the original records. That's why P2P programs were so popular at the start. Back to the topic. Now we started to see iTunes and other virtual-labels popping up all over the place. Even Wusik has its own "label". The problem is to find something good on the pile of crazy stuff out there. With time, CD will die, we will only get music from sites like iTunes. But, will we see Labels still ruling the music world? Maybe the user-reviews will push people to see things clearly. For example. You go to iTunes, and see something about an artist. You never saw 06

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the guy before. And don't even like his music. But at his page, there it is, an user comment about some other artist, unlabeled. You visit that page, and the music was just what you were looking for.

That's what I hope for the future. I think its already happening, anyway. But there is another factor.

And this I don't think we will ever be able to change.

The "Art" Factor. Some people tend to like only the stuff others tell them its good. They have no taste whatsoever. Have you ever heard about the story about "The King's New Clothes". (or something like that) Its a very old story, my friends are tired of it, as I tend to use it for a lot of things. But its good, just like "The Boy Who Shouted Wolf", but that's another one. It goes kinda like this: The King needed new clothes, so he hired an Artist to make some new ones. The guy came up with nothing on his arms, but pretending to hold something. "This a special set of clothes, only very intelligent people can see how beautiful this is."Of course, everybody, including the King said: "Ohhh, this is very nice, superb." So the King decided to use it. During the Parade, as he was walking naked, people were shouting like crazy. A kid asked his parent:"the King is naked, why is everybody applauding?!" "Shhh, this is a special set of clothes, that only intelligent people can see." And the kid smiled and started to cheer too. There you go, take your own conclusions now.

"Just want to know why you're spending so much time with 'new' projects (with their attendant emails) while those of us who paid in advance for V3 (and all it's promised goodies) have been waiting a long time and are still waiting? I'm all for marketing but I'd rather see you get the products out faster and less 'new ideas' in emails -you're comments, please?"

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Actually, I don't get why people think I'mdelaying V3 on any way, that's just not correct information. We had some draw-backs when we had to relocate the Wusik office. (160 miles away) It took almost 2 months until we had everything back on the tracks. Also, when we announced the starting of V3 coding, and took PreOrders for it, we were very clear: V3 will be done when its done.

Considering how long it took from V1 to V2 update, we are still on the tracks. But back to the previous note, we were also clear that V3 coding would take Months, not Days or Weeks. So we never lied to users on any way. Most companies works on several projects at the same time, of course, they got more staff to handle everything. But again, so far we only got 2 things on our hands: V3 coding / sampling and the Wsm project. If I had coded V3 too fast, we would have another problem, as it would be out too soon compared to V2 release. And people would talk. Also, we already released V3.0.0 that has 80% of the promised features, so we are on a clear path. Hope this clears everything.

on s ' t Wha p

m A r u o y

ColdCut "Sound Mirrors" - Electronic Yes, I was that guy playing "What's that noise" on your local party back on the 80's.

Everybody was like "what the heck is that noise indeed..." while I was the only one actually enjoying the tracks.

A long time went until this new album, and some people may get a bit frustrated by it. But there are some good gems inside.

Listen it over and over, it will grow on you.

I won't try to describe what it sounds like, as you should really listen instead. Its a genre on its own.

Best Tracks: Man In a Garage, True Skool and Everything Is Under Control.

Kasabian "Kasabian" - Electro PopRock I got this thanks to a guy on the local-CDstore. He told me I would like it, and he was right.

I can't listen to it enough, is just too good.

Its a mix of PopRock with Electronic sounds. Some guys even told me it was like Techno meets Rock.

Ok, not like that, but still, is very good. Some local clubs were even playing this and people would just go insane.

Best Tracks: Reason is Treason and LSF.

Automat - "Automat" - 1978 - Electronica To me its the first Electronic album ever.

Tangerine Dream would be first, but still, its how I see things. Its not easy to find, but its totally worth it. Try Googling for the words "Automat Droid" and you will find some more information about it.

Here's a short BIO: "Italian 70's band, Automat were a studio group from Rome, featuring two keyboardists and a third member.

Their 1978 album is a rather unique example of instrumental electronic music from Italy, totally built on synthesized sounds and rhythms, it's in the same rank as contemporary works by Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre, whose Oxygene was recorded in the same period and released just a few months before this, so it can be an interesting surprise for fans of this musical style. Side A is totally taken by the long Automat suite by Claudio Gizzi, while the B side contains three shorter tracks

by Musumarra."

A total of 83 new MultiSampled SoundSets (70 meg) and a total of 165 presets

"... 2 thumbs up. They do exactly what WK says.

They load quickly, add very little stress on the CPU and best of all they sound great.

They sound great by themselves, but I've found that they also work well as a starting point.

I play keyboard bass a lot and I can add any of several nice basses to the left hand.

Or just stack a few of these guys up and make a REALLY nice layer that still has very little stress to the CPU. There are several presets that are the fast/slow attack of the same timbre, those can sound pretty cool when they're stacked..."

by Bamim2 at KVR

www.wusik.com Wusik Sound Magazine

07

Mastering Tips

by WilliamK

This is not the ultimate Mastering solution, but it has worked for me so far.

Its simple and effective. This is the "system" I used to master all my latest Dark Ages songs.

For this example I used:

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Fre(a)koscope by Smartelectronix

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Kjaerhus Audio GOLD Series Compressor

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SONAR 5 Producer Edition

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Kjaerhus Audio MPL-1 PRO High Precision Limiter

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M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Sound-Card

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Behringer Truth B2030A Monitors

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ArtsAcoustic Reverber

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Creative SubWoofer

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Anwida DX Reverber for Gates and Inverse effects.

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AMD XP 3000+ with 512 Meg of RAM

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First DIVIDE: create 4 Buses, most Hosts have this option. The signal flow should end up looking like this. (chart made with SynC)

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Every Instrument output should go to ei ther "Master Instruments" or "Master Drums". Don't send anything directly to Output or the actual Sound-Card Main I/O. On the Master Drums Bus, I added a Double Processing Compressor, GAC-1. I selected the Master Mix preset, turned the second processor OFF (EQ+Compressor) and tweaked the first Equalizer a bit, removing just a bit of the bass, as the drums were too punchy. I changed the second EQ to boost up a bit the mid-range of the drum sounds.

Of course, if you need more Effects Bus Sends, just create as many as you will need. Be sure to output those to the Master Instruments Bus.

On some Drum channels, I used a High-Pass filter to attenuate the bass, (on this song I had more than one drum part playing at the same time: Midi Drums and Loop Drums) to avoid overloading the sounds with too much bottom-frequencies. I used the Fre(a)koscope plugin to check frequencies of different parts.

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Mastering Tips At first, the bass was going all over the place, the song was "muffled" somehow. I also used the same plugin on the Output bus to check frequency response of the entire song. You can keep the plugin inserted on the Output Bus, just disable it when you no longer need it.

Again I had to use some filters on a few channels, to remove too much bass, as it was still overloading, specially the Percussion loops together with the Bass and Pads. After tweaking the filters a bit, I got the right sound. In some cases you may also end up with too much treble, needing to use some low-pass filters to tune those down. For extreme cases, there are special plugins that can take care of unwanted frequencies. But that's a lesson for some other time. Here, I'm keeping things simple.

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For the Effect Reverber Send Bus, I used ArtsAcoustic Reverber, which has an in credible silky sound. On one drumchannel, I used Anwida DX Reverber Inverse Preset to have a better sound. And also the same Anwida DX Reverber to add a GATE effect to the Drum Loops and some other instruments. For those, I used it as an Insert effect.

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Finally, on the Output Bus, that will actu ally pass the sound to the soundcardmain I/O, I inserted the MPL-1 Pro High Precision Mastering Limiter. There are no presets, just load it up. Play the song and tweak a bit with the Input Gain (lower-left) parameter. On some songs I had to add 4db, but on this project I had to take 2db off the input. Using this plugin, the overall volume of the song is controlled. Making the whole song louder, but still crystal clear.

That's it, I hope this small "tutorial" was helpful.

On the Master Instruments Bus, I used again the same GAC-1 Compressor, but this time with the 2 processors ON. Again, I loaded the Master Mix preset, but this time, didn't change a thing. Now, everything but Drums, are passing through this channel. Instruments that were getting away on the mix now sounded closer and crystal clear.

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Don't forget to share your own mastering tips, email us at wsm@wusik.com for more information on how.

Wusik Sound Magazine

09

WilliamK The History

by WilliamK

Since my previous article about the history of Wusik, users asked me to write a more completed text. So here's the second revision, starting 8 years ago.

For

me, the real start on electronic music was with Tracker programs. If you don't know what a Tracker is, just check out Renoise, you will see what that's all about. The first famous Tracker was Fast Tracker II. (FT2) Before that, there was several other ones, but only FT2 was well known.

I started using the PC-Speaker, don't remember the program I was using, way too many years ago for my mind to remember. My friends told me I was crazy as I connected the PC speaker wires to a 12 inch woofer. The sound was great, no Amp required.

Not sure how I did not burn the whole thing, but it worked out for quite a while.

After some time, a friend got me my first Sound-Blaster card. It was a piece of junk, but it worked out. It was supposed to be stereo, but the dummy got me one of the first ones, a Mono card.

Yeah, how great, but still, I started to sample everything I could imagine. Yes, it was still all DOS based. Don't know what DOS is? It was what people used before Windows was invented. "Sure, that command-line thingie that everybody loves to hate."

My friends told me I was crazy, as I connected the PC speaker wires to a 12 inch Woofer.

Moving

on, upgrades from 286 to 386 and finally my first Pentium 100 computer. My first Virtual Synth program was the old Analogic, now named AXS. A Virtual Analog Tracker program. It also had basic sample-playback. It was rock-solid, even used on some Live Presentations some years ago. I had one extra Pentium just to handle it, as it could only work with a Sound-Blaster card. Today they have a Free Windows version. Back in that day, I had to actually mail money to the creators all the way in the Netherlands. Some weeks after, arrived a pair of protected Floppy-Disks.

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I saved for a few months, and got a new computer, plus a new GameTheater64 Sound-Card.

It was a pain to use, but it had good filters and sample-playback. I kept the AXS computer just for the analog sounds. I also started to sequence things using my Ensoniq-TS10 workstation. But since I was messing with things too much, I managed to burn my GT64 card, and got a sbLive as replacement. SoundFonts collecting started.

A little before that, I was testing for the first time, a real-time modular synth. The Generator 1.5 from Native-Instruments. With time, I managed to create a very good FM synth. NI actually emailed me, after posting the synth on the user-library, asking me to make a better synth in return for a copy of Reaktor. So I did it, you can see the synth on the first Premium-Library. The synth is named "In Human Logic". Its silly, but I remember actually hugging the Reaktor box when it first came on the mail.

Those were the good Mp3.com days, for those who remember the old site. I was posting some songs created with AXS, Reaktor and other things under my Nick-Name: WilliamK. To promote the songs, I created some Reaktor synths. You had to listen to my song in order to get a password to open the files. Some complained, but most users went for the idea, and I was able to get TOP10 on some songs for a while. And even made some cash out of this deal, as Mp3.com would pay a small value each time someone listened to a song.

Why William? You may ask. Simple, my name is a bit hard to say, so when I was young, people started to call me William instead. Nothing fancy, just a simple reason. My Mother actually calls me Wilhelm when she is mad at me, its the German version of the name. Although I'm 50% German, (from my Father's part) she is actually in part Italian. You can imagine how our family dinners are like. The "K" stands for the first letter of my last name. So we get WilliamK.

WilliamK - The History

As

people started to like my Reaktor Ensembles, I got an idea, to actually work creating ensembles, to sell over the Internet. I asked NI about it, and they said it was ok, no problems there.

That was the start of daReaktorion. My second site.

The first one was X-Samples some time ago, selling some sample CDs, but nothing fancy, I got around 32 orders from that site.

As daReaktorion started to get famous and people were buying more and more, I created DashSynthesis, and rented my own server to handle the site. Making it look more professional. The Dash name came from a band I had, called daDash. The band was actually me and my wife, with some friends help. Before that I had another band called "The InHumanLogic". Started by another 2 guys, but I was the one doing all songs. Continuing. I was off my regular job for some weeks now, as I saw a real opportunity with Dash. With time, people were calling me the "DashGuy". Some loved me, some hated. Especially the special offers I would make, always with low prices.

I had to start something on my own. The first VSTi was named daAlfa2k.

But the problems started to appear, as Reaktor was being updated, and there were more bugs and incompatabilities. I couldn't stand those things. Not only that, but NI started to accuse me of things I never did. But that's another story, which I don't want to talk about.

I had to start something on my own. I started to code my first VSTi, named daAlfa2k.

Before that, DashSynthesis released another VSTi from a new user that let us down big time, but I won't talk about this here too. I remember that some Pro developers told me that I was never going to make it. To be fair, some other Pro developers were also nice about things. Peter from Linplug was a great friend, and so was Michael from SoundQuest. (creators of MidiQuest and Infinity) Plus some other small developers and users that would make fun of me, but would still help me out somehow. I even worked with Peter (Linplug) on daOrgan, before I was working with Luigi on ComboSister. Of course, at that time, I wasn't really coding, so Peter coded the whole synth, I only guided him on a few aspects, nothing that big to be

At that time, DashSynthesis was formed by several users, not just me anymore. Luigi Felici, aka Liqih, was one of those creators under DashSynthesis. We talked about things, and decided to start a company together named DASHsignature. At the same time, my wife and I moved to Canada, to see if we could settle DASHsignature there. But right after we arrived, all sort of problems started: DashSynthesis was closed, Canadian Dollar versus American Dollar dropped too much, Payments problems, Warezing, And other things. Michael (SoundQuest) even helped me out a few times, but when immigration told us we couldn't stay anymore, not even Michael and our new Canadian friends could help us out. We had to leave, at least legally, we weren't deported or anything close to that.

DASHsignature was already a pretty large company, with several synths. But due to some problems, I was about to leave it, and again, don't want to comment too much about it. Since we were leaving Canada, we though of going to Italy, to meet Luigi. So we did. It was a crazy move, as we had pretty much nothing on our hands. Not sure how European Immigration let us in, but did. Once there, Luigi was a great friend and helped us out on getting legal, so we could stay for more than the 8 days Italian Immigration allows you. I know, some people may say, but can't you stay 3 months in Europe? Yes, you can, but not in Italy. They had to make different laws somehow. Anyway, things turned the other way around, as we couldn't get all papers ready, and missed the dead-line, and they said we had to leave or be arrested. Ohhh, lovely.

I just love Immigration, they are so nice. At that time, Luigi helped us so much on the financial side, that the only way was to actually sell DASHsignature to him. So I left Italy without a thing, not even a job.

We went to Brazil, for several reasons, and we are happy to be here now. Its not easy on some aspects, but its working out. We moved 2 times, but it looks that now we are staying where we are for good. At least we hope so.

Right before leaving Italy, I started to create extra SoundSets for EVE. But it wasn't enough for me. So after EVE Famous Keys Volume IV was out, I started to think, what could I do now?

Should I start something new, look for a job, what?

I talked with Luigi about this, explained to him that I was thinking on starting a new company. He was ok with it, as long as I was careful with a few things.

But I was still confused.

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WilliamK - The History One

night, the name Wusik appeared in a Dream. I wake up and knew I had to create a new company named Wusik. No, I'm not joking, its real.

Only a few days after I realized that Wusik was actually based on the word Music, but with W and K replaced at the start and end: W from my Nick Name - William - and K from my last name. I looked over Google for the word Wusik, and couldn't find much, so it was a good choice.

A lot of people think that the Wusikstation name was based on the Wavestation Synth.

Actually, that's not correct. When I first started to code the new Synth, I was thinking on a WORKstation. Hence the name WUSIKstation. Also, it was not based on the Wavestation, but rather on an Ensoniq Workstation Synth, the TS/ASR series.

For those who actually knew the Synth, to call Wusikstation a Wavestation, wouldn't make much sense, but more to base it on the TS10, which I actually had 2. The TS/ASR series also had Wavesequencing, just like the Wavestation. It didn't have all the Wavestation features and sounds, but it was basically the same idea.

At the start I had nothing, only a dream, an idea. I just left Dash Signature, and had no job. I started talking with a few friends about my idea, and if they would help me out financing the project.

To my surprise, I got tons of requests and a lot of support. I can't thank those users enough. And it didn't stop there. My Wife also told me that she could handle the skin-design and help me organize everything. Other friends also offered help and support on other areas. If was starting to look good.

At

first, several users told me to keep prices high, but I just couldn't do that. It was not on me. It had to be something fair, to pay for my time, but also fair to the users. Some would think I was nuts, but I couldn't care about that. The world is changing, more and more people will realize that software doesn't have to be expensive.

The project was officially announced to the public on 21st of June 2004. The first public BETA was out on 5th August 2004. And it was officially released on 27th August 2004.

Eleven months later we released the official

The name appeared in a Dream But I didn't stop there, it was never close to be a clone/copy of any Synth. I'm a musician before I'm a programmer. So when I started to plan things, I though on how I could improve things. What I missed from all the other Synths I used so far. I no longer had my TS keyboard, as it had too many problems. I used to own a Wavesequencer SR Rack, and couldn't stand how hard it was to program the darn thing, sold it. I also had tons of other stuff that was just too hard to program, and even those would crash from time to time. One day my TS10 just rebooted and I lost an entire song. After all, Workstations are small computers. The new Synth should be something I could use on my own songs, that could create pretty much any sound I would need. Just like a Workstation would. It had to be fast, stable and with a high sound quality. And I would start to use it right away, to find flaws, and see how I could improve it.

It was the start of a new era for me. I was going to build the largest project ever. But I was not afraid, it was just something I had to do.

12

Wusik Sound Magazine

Version 2.0.0, it was 19th of July year of 2005.

Ten months passed, and here we are with the first Version 3.0.0, 16th of June of 2006. It has 80% of all the final V3 features, so we plan that by August/September, we will have a new V3.1.0 with all planed features and more. In case you are wondering, this will be a Free update for all V3 users.

We had our share of problems with piracy and other things, but we survived during this time.

We had our share of mistakes, but always made amends with the public. Explaining everything in detail. MoniKe, my Wife, had to leave the team to do something else. But several new users came up for the rescue, taking care of several things. Now MoniKe is back, taking care of the Magazine. I'm very happy about it, and I'm sure users will also love the new magazine design created by her.

The future of Wusik looks solid, thanks to the community of users that support our work.

I hope that this new revision is more accurate and complete. If you still have questions, check out the "Ask WilliamK" section. Drop me an email, and I will add a reply to the next issue.

What's New

by WilliamK

!!

!

!

Wusikstation V3.0.0 Released

New Upgrade Price: $ 39.95 USD / CAD - 2 Meg download, no new sounds, but includes all new effects and also the next V3.1.0 update Free.

- New Effects, new features and options.

This new upgrade is really worth its prices.

Check the following link for more information. http://wusik.com/

!

!

Wusikstation V2.2.6 Released

- Fixed Zero-Attack Envelope Click Bug. Samples starting at zero-offset were still clicking.

- Added a Smooth code to the Wavesequencer Volume Changes. This makes GATE Sequence effects much better.

- Max number of instances increased from 20 to 200 instances.

- New Filter IDLE code. Now if the filter is still outputing, the voice won't enter IDLE mode.

New Pitch-Bend Smooth Code: avoids the zippering noise when bending via Midi.

Considering each issue is packed with gigs of content, now you can get the Wusik Sound Magazine DVD delivered right to your mailbox every single month so you can spend more time playing and less time downloading!

Sometime in July-August, NSL – creative as hell over the past few months – is promising a monster in every sense of the word. Around 2GB in size, priced somewhere in the $50-100 range, it’s Virus Outbreak Vol.1, a soundset and preset collection of the rather popular (but pricey) Virus synth. [Confession: for quite a while I thought ‘virus’ was an ongoing KVR joke, like ‘fish’! Or, OnePingOnly…] As with past offerings, it’s going to be available in Wusikstation format…A few Virus sounds have already appeared in ElektroWusik, you may have noticed.

New Skin by Artvera:

!

2nd week of July: V2 and V3updates

Plus: special V3 updates.

By Funky Chicken Dance

!

Manystation 2, which has been upgraded with the WS2 engine also saw its official release this month. A group buy at ManyTone makes it quite cheap ($50) through the end of June. I’m a user of both Manystation and the DASHSignaturebased Manyguitar, and find them quite excellent.

A new freebie: in late-June Zvon released a set of 66 Wusik presets for the three volumes of his Marching Band Horn (MBH) collection. Read that carefully: you have to own all three volumes for it to work properly. For those who haven’t sampled Zvon’s wares yet, I can highly recommend MBH. It’s sampled from some generic horn bought in a secondhand shop, and bent and massaged into an amazing number of sounds, from brass ensembles to the just plain weird.

$15

www.mfelkerco.com

I’m not going to get into when and how we’ll hear the long-awaited Ethnotronic from BITR; suffice it to say that it is still in the works, we are assured by salesperson Julia on the company’s forum…

Wusik Sound Magazine

13

Creating Sounds

by WilliamK

"Feel like creating your own presets from scratch?"

Starting with this issue, we will always have something new on this section.

Preset making, going from simple basses to complex pads.

V3 Ring Modulation - Basic Level -

3

Turn ON the "Link Envelopes" options. Copy the Layer, you can use Ctrl+C, but some hosts doesn't' allow that, so just right-click and select Copy Layer. Switch to the second layer "O2" and select Paste Layer or Ctrl+V. Turn On this layer.

4

Change this layer Pan to RIGHT. Set Fixed Pitch to ON. Change the Tune to -12. Click on "FX EDIT" , right above the FX1 knob.

This new effect (only for V3) will multiply the Left Channel with the Right Channel. Producing FM like sounds. This is very fun to play with, and can result on very chaotic sounds.

It may Alias a bit, depending on waveforms chosen, use a low pass filter on the Master section to cut the higher-end a bit.

But that's optional.

14

1

Load the INIT preset, for a clean start.

2

Leave the Pure Sine waveform for now. Set Pan to LEFT and turn FX1 all the way up. (max level)

Wusik Sound Magazine

Creating Sounds

5

Browse the "Others" directory and load the "Ring Modulator" effect. (Pic.1)

6

Set "Dry Out" to Zero. Increase Gain a bit, or until the volume is good enough. (Pic.2)

7

Now you should hear the "Ring Modulation" effect. Try playing keys to see how it sounds.

Go back to layer "O2" and mess with the Tune knob. Turn "Fixed Pitch" On and Off to see how it affects the sound.

8

On a more advanced level, you can also change waveforms. Set Saw to O1 and Pulse to O2 and see how it sounds.

9

You can also use the Mod Matrix to change O2 Tune in real-time.

Pic.1

Pic.2

Advertise in our magazine.

Check our prices and options on the following link:

www.Advertise.Wusik.com Wusik Sound Magazine

15

By Funky Chicken Dance

Dnekm

is a designer who can be counted on to produce some out-of-the-ordinary sounds.

Recently, he’s been collaborating with Dangerous Bear, and his pad sounds included in dBu’s recent SonicScapes collection are a particularly fine set of WS presets.

What attracted him to Wusik? "Basically, it is very intuitive to work with. Even though I am still starting out and constantly learning, once I started fiddling with the controls on Wusik it is like an ever-opening door. And it is constantly being expanded by William. The real beauty of Wusikstation is that it can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. And you can feed into it whatever you have on hand to come up with new sounds (.wav or .WusikSND). Wusik, coupled with Extreme Sample Converter (ESC) – the possibilities are endless..."

The presets included in Sonic Scapes have a real-life story behind them: "Working on this set was something that opened my eyes to a lot of what Wusik has to offer. Once I received the soundset and started working with it something clicked in my head: I wanted to make presets that reflected creativity out of desolation. Basically I took my feelings from being in New Orleans during Katrina and the aftermath, and then Rita and the following seven months until I moved away and tried to make presets that I could make music with.

And the soundsets provided almost seemed too perfect for what I had in mind... For me, it worked wonders as musical therapy. And now I am branching out to work with different VSTs." Dnekm has some conventional advice on how to spark creativity: "Tweak and fiddle.... to get the most out of any virtual instrument - just constantly see what can be done with it beyond selecting a preset. The possibilities of the Mod Matrix and the wav sequencer are immense. I have not yet even begun to fully grasp what can be done."

He observes: "I notice there are many pages of the Mod Matrix available but I seldom see presets that go beyond one page. Yes, I know CPU usage goes up the more complex you make things...but…"

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Wusik Sound Magazine

This is quite true, as a little delving behind the scenes of presets will demonstrate to you.

Users may not be pushing Wusikstation’s sampling capabilities as hard as they could, considering the wavesequencers’ potential to manipulate sounds. "You have to feed your instrument," he says. "Wusik is a sample based instrument. You can feed into it a handful of .wav files and using the wave sequencer come up with a completely unique sound of your own. Do not be afraid to experiment!"

With PatchArena now a less active forum than it was in the past, folks looking to interact with other Wusik users need to hang together. He notes "One thing I would like to see is a larger community of users who make and share presets with each other. And more multi-soundset presets... I hope to have more multi-set presets available soon. "For now, they’ll be v.2: "I have hesitated so far to make any presets available for the public that use V3only features because I want what I do produce and offer to be used by a wide audience. I no longer have V1 installed so I make everything V2 friendly...I have played with the new features but will wait until V3 is final before I make anything that uses them. " A very well-known fellow, famous for his free synths and effects and his budget-priced filter and sound mangler Metallurgy, Ugo has also worked in Wusikstation for various collections. He comments: "the top features for me are the wavesequencers and the many mod matrix options…but especially the wavesequencers.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, i have not been able to work with WS much lately. I most recently contributed 10 presets to NSL's Oberheim Resurrection. before that was 32 for NSL's Soundcell 3, 125 for dBu's ignition, and 43 for dBu's fuel. The majority of my Wusikstation presets tend to be wavesequences, built either for melodic purposes or for evolving atmospheres." He plans to be back, though, and says: "Once I can get a few other projects out of the way, I expect I will be spending more time creating Wusikstation presets again," and reveals "I have even been considering creating a Wusikstation sample library of my own."

Sound Design Stars Offer Their Tips

If doing 200-plus presets isn’t ‘much,’ you could have fooled me. What sort of tips does Ugo have for us slowcoaches? "I think the biggest thing Wusikstation owners can do to enhance their experience is to spend more time experimenting with the sequencers and the mod matrix. In my opinion, it’s these features that turn Wusikstation into more than just another rompler because they can substantially alter the sound and feel of the samples and open up so many evolving and rhythmic sound design possibilities. So really digging in and experimenting with things like wavesequencing, step sequenced modulations, and using layer output as a mod source, can all greatly expand the potential and overall usefulness of the soundsets you already own. " Ugo makes a good point about the need to tinker to understand your instrument: "A lot of people don’t want to spend quite so much time making/editing presets because their time is limited and they'd rather just jump right into song writing.

I am often guilty of this too. However, spending some time making presets can really benefit your song writing. My favorite sounds to write with are simply whichever ones fit my style the best. By editing/making presets, you can increase the number of presets in your collection that will more reliably fit your songs because you tweaked them to suit your style. " "Also, the sound design process does not need to be separate from the song writing process.

If you're not into editing as you write, because it might slow down your creative flow, try starting with sound design and building into a song from there. It could help you go in new directions while at the same time give you some new sounds to work with down the road. I feel this can be especially true with the wavesequencers because in addition to being great for pads and atmospheres, they are also great for creating melodic sequences which can easily lay the groundwork for a song."

Add the most expressive piano to your collection.

HQ Piano Set 1: Essenfelder

As a big-league sound designer, Ugo is quite animated about what v.3 will do for all of us.

And he makes a very good point in passing: "I have purchased the v.3 update and, since I let the installer overwrite my v.2 dll, any new presets from me will be in v.3 format."

120 meg Full Stereo Piano - 47 Stereo Key-Zones (divided into Left and Right files) D

"As

to which new features I expect to be using...I’m sure I will be putting the new effects and new layer insert effect routings to use. I know I’ll use the unison feature occasionally as well. I was looking forward to the new filters and mod matrix options William originally had in the 3.0 specs, but it looks like we’ll have to wait for a future update to get our hands on those."

O

y nl

$

95 9.

U

SD

/

CA

www.wusik.com Or get all our HQ collection with the V3 Platinum Upgrade.

Wusik Sound Magazine

17

TT ii pp ss

&TT rr ii cc kk ss

by WilliamK

Need a special LFO waveform?

Try a sample editing program that will let you draw waveforms, Sound Forge has this feature. Loop the waveform and save as a WAV file under "Wusikstation DATA\SoundSets\LFO Waveforms".

Now open Wusikstation, load the WAV file into a layer, turn the layer On and set volume to zero. (so it doesn't output the sound) And turn On "Fixed Pitch".

Fine+Tune will set the speed. Now you can use it on the ModMatrix. Its under Source/Layers/O1...W2 Out. Another way to set a special LFO is to use the Wavesequencer for that. For some cases it would actually be faster to setup.

Keep in mind that the Wavesequencer will use a bit more CPU usage. Open W1 or W2 layer, turn it On, keep the silence waveform.

Open the wavesequencer. (short-cut is RightClick on W1/W2 on the top) Set one Lane for MOD1, and draw the "waveform" using the sequence steps.

Don't forget to set the Loop Start and End, and also the sequence speed. On the ModMatrix, use the Source/Wave Seqs/W1 Mod 1. (or W2 Mod 1)

Is funny how we tend to romanticize things on our life. The other day I was watching some old Hanna Barbera comics on the TV, and wondered: why the heck I loved those so much when I was a kid? Yes, I did grow up, and now those comics just look weird, silly, slow, whatever. That happens, its life. We grow up, we evolve, we change for the best. That happens on music too.

I just finished ReMasterizing all my Dark Ages songs. I compared with the previous files, and got very surprised, perplexed to be more exact. Why they were so muffled and low on volume before? What I did wrong? Or maybe the new software I used is just way better and really make my silly-songs sound like Hollywood Soundtracks now? All I did was open the songs on SONAR 5, added some Compressors to bring things up, and a master limiter. (Kjaerhus Audio GOLD Series, in case you are wondering) Nothing much. Ahh, yes, I watched all the songs EQ, to avoid overlapping Bass sounds, as the songs were too "bassy" already.

Maybe my new Monitors helped out, and also my new Pro AudioCard, who knows. But the fact remains, we learn new things, we find new tools.

Virtual-Label Selections - William-K.wusik.com - "Dark Ages Series" - Softegg.wusik.com - "Pink Barock" - TConrardy.wusik.com - "LOTR Tribute" - Goseba.wusik.com - "My baby is a robot" - Thoth.wusik.com - "Brian Misses the 80s" - TonalAxisMusic.wusik.com - "AddictTA" - Elv.wusik.com - "Back III"

18

Wusik Sound Magazine

W

hat's up with the whole Analog talk. I see some companies doing Vintage Tube-Based Compressors, so my songs can sound just like the first Pink Floyd Album? (great one btw) No way, I want it to sound like it was done on this Centaury, sorry, but that's me. I move Forward. Yes, I do listen to a lot of 80's songs, and I love 80's movies.

But

still, my life is not all about those things. I have new heroes today, new software and even a better taste for things. I used to make all my songs on the Ensoniq TS10 Workstation. I sold it, after some time, I decided I should have it again, couldn't live without it. After a few weeks, I started to see how old that freaking thing was.

Slow to load samples, crashed very easily, was very limited, full of problems. So I sold it again, and started to use Cakewalk ProAudio and a Sampler Card. It was not HQ, but it was great. Did some good songs with that setup. Check out "Into The Hit" on my site: www.William-K.com - all done with CakeProAudio and a GameTheather card.

The GT had a memory that you could load samples on it, using its own format. It was hell to program that thing, full of bugs too, but the sound was very clean, compared to the old TS10, which lacked the high-end sound. You can compare an old TS10 song called "Killing James" that was made with CakeProAudio, but all synth/sampler sounds are still from the TS10. Only the drums are from CakeProAudio. The NewAge song "Some Droids" was all done with the TS10, nothing else. Now, when I listen to those, and after some of the Dark Ages series, I see why I sold my TS10, and I see why I would never go back. There are days I miss the key-action of the TS10, but again, I bet that my new M-Audio Keystation is not far from that.

We tend to think things were better back-

Keep moving forward, we will help you

them, but its just our brain playing tricks on us.

out, Wusik will do that for you.

Taking to the next level...

Wusik Sound Magazine

19

Interview With WilliamK

By Funky Chicken Dance

In the past two issues of WSM I've interviewed quite a few independent designers about their use of Wusikstation.

But it’s doubtful if anyone is more knowledgable about the potential of WS than its developer, William K. As I discovered, he has plenty of ideas that can help users reap rewards from their WS set-ups.

FCD: Until now, we've not heard from you on sound design issues in this series. There are now thousands of presets for Wusikstation, so how should designers (or users) be making best use of the synth? By using more OSCs, using the wave generators more, trying their own WAVs, or what?

WK: That's a hard question, so I will just tell you how I do my own songs, and how I tweak Wusikstation on my own. Remember that I'm a musician before anything else. Check the current Dark Ages songs [on the Wusik.com site], all done with Wusikstation. No other VSTi was used. Usually I start by selecting patches and trying to find a mood for a song. After that, I tweak the patch when needed. I like to use one single reverb on Sonar, so I usually turn off effects or leave chorus and remove the internal reverb. This way I have more control over the sound. But if you get tired of the presets, there's always the fun of selecting one preset that has some good modulations, and then change only the SoundSets for each layer. That's fun too.

What I also do sometimes is select a Wavesequencer preset, and change only the SoundSets used. This way I get a new patch without much work. Now with V3 Search option, it’s even easier to find the preset or sound you want.

We also have plans to create a new Global library of presets, more organized. Some developers just don't bother about sorting their presets into categories, something which V2/V3 supports already.

FCD: ElektroWusik was originally conceived as a standalone product, then was folded into the WSM series. Where do you see it going from now on? Will there be further release of presets and sounds? Will it ever be offered as a standalone?

20

Wusik Sound Magazine

WK: Yes, it will be offered as a new product, once it’s ready. But we don't know how it will work yet.

It should be out by July, when we will have all 3 volumes done.

FCD: To my mind, ElektroWusik was a great idea: it addressed any doubts about 'you can't dance to it' created by the many pads and soft sounds that sound designers have been making. Are you satisfied, or do you plan to do more in the 'club music' market? A drum machine or sequencer, for example?

WK: Yes, I liked the experience, but I'm mainly a NewAge/Instrumental/SoundTrack guy, so I may focus on that area again. Remember, the idea of Wusikstation was so I had a tool I could actually use when creating my own songs. But that doesn't mean I can't continue developing ElektroWusik further: it will depend on what the market wants.

So far it was not as I expected, people still seem to be more focused on ambient sounds, so we had to change that. Show that Wusikstation is not just your regular ROMpler, it’s more, it can be anything you want.

FCD: We've seen Mallory's presets, and now his Enigma Engine. And dnkem has also started offering free 'cross-collection' presets lately. Are there any plans for anything like this from Wusik.com itself?

WK:

That's the beauty of Wusik, the whole community getting involved, so I can focus more on other things. Like making V3 as big as I can make it! So for now I don't have plans for making more presets. But as I said, I do have plans for organizing all the presets in a better system, by using the current subdirectory ability that V2/V3 both have.

Interview With WilliamK FCD: Wusikstation v.3 is nearly here, in late beta

I also love the Drum Collection One presets.

But some users don't get it...

now. To show off its new features, there ought to be some special presets collection created, don't you think?

WK: Yes, if only time permits. But you are right, we will have to create a new V3 batch of presets.

FCD: On v.3 again: tell us a little bit more about what you're trying to achieve, in terms of capabilities. The FX section in particular. There are some pretty fancy ideas in there.

WK:

I want to make it more customizable, so even when Wusik wants to add something, we can do without having to change the whole structure.

The new FX SDK already allows that, it was very easy to add the new V3 effects. Now I'm working on the Filters SDK that will do the same thing. We need more filters, especially for dance and ambient styles. Also, disc-streaming is a big step ahead, allowing us to use larger libraries.

That's the beauty of Wusik, the whole community getting involved, so I can focus more on other things.

FCD: I have to say, owning Sytrus2, Rhino2, EVE, Octopus, Cronox3, z3ta+ and Cameleon -- all bought on discount, or second hand on KVR Market Place! -- that there aren't many of their sounds that Wusikstation can't make, it seems. Did you think it would grow into such a 'killer app' when you started out?

FCD: I ask everyone this question (but don't get many answers!): What's your own favorite preset?

More than one is allowed, if you wish...

WK:

Ohhhh, good question, now I know why people don't reply. I love the HQ Essenfelder piano from V3 GOLD Package. It’s the best piano for me.

I used it on my new Dark Ages JR song, it’s a relaxing new age set. If you don't sleep while listening to it, you are not really listening.

I also love the Drum Collection One presets.

Some users don't get it, but I did them in a very simple way. Each layer is one sound, mapped to a key on the keyboard. It is not GM mapped, so you have to find out how it it’s set up. But once you get it, you see how easy is to change sounds for each key. Want another snare? Just change the Layer 2 sound, and the snare is always on that layer.

I don't use bass on my songs, only lowfrequency pads and stuff like that. For those, I just browse the huge collection of pad sounds until I find something I like. But I tend to use a lot of OmniViola based pads, I love that analog retro sound. I don't remember more fave presets now, but soon I will start making a list of the best presets and post it in a future issue.

WK:

Not really, all I wanted was something for me, but also something to do with my life. My dream was to make it cheap enough so people wouldn't have to break the bank to purchase. It’s not easy: if I make too cheap, people don't take it seriously, if I make it expensive, people will just purchase something else instead and not bother about it. Now I think we got a good balance. You can get V1 almost free with the Computer Music UK magazine. Or select one of the packages we offer at our site if you have more money to spare. A lot of people don't know this, but I coded the EVE engine, so that was a good start. But what made Wusikstation really special is the whole community behind it. Someone even called it a religion the other day. I wouldn't go that far…

www.prodyon.de Wusik Sound Magazine

21

Creating Sounds

by WilliamK

Recycling Drums - Advanced Level -

"If you got Sound-Forge and some Drum Loops, you are ready to have some fun Recycling those for using it with Wusikstation."

You

may ask "Why?" Simple, you can tweak the drums in real-time, mess with its sounds-order or anything else you invent. All using the Wavesequencers.

to each X and Y sections. For example, X to Mod-Wheel and Y to Pedal-Volume or any other CC Knob you may have on your keyboard/midi-box.

For this small but effective Tutorial, we

This Tutorial examples can be seen on "ElektroWusik III Drum Loops" that comes with this issue.

will also show how to use the X/Y pad on a very intuitive way. You can assign a Midi-CC Open up the Loop. Be sure it looks correct.

Remember, if you plan to work with Stereo samples, you will have to process each Left and Right channels to separated files. Here we are dealing with a Mono Loop.

01

03

Now use the Auto Region option. Set it to "Build regions using the current tempo".

Set:

"Measures" = 0

04

It should look like this now.

"Beats" = 1

Use the Edit Tempo option. Set Tempo to 2x the loop's BPM. On this example, the file is set to 140 BPM, so we set here 140 x 2 = 280 beats per minute. Leave everything else untouched.

02

22

Wusik Sound Magazine

Creating Sounds

05

Use the Extract Regions option to output each region to a single WAV file.

Sometimes you could get a final bad region, like a 9th beat with 1k of size. After exporting the files, delete those bad region files.

Be sure to save the WAV files in a directory Wusikstation will see. It needs to be under "Wusikstation DATA\SoundSets"

08

Open Wusikstation, Wavesequencer Slot.

add

each

file

to

a

You can check ElektroWusik III Drum Loop presets if you need practical examples.

09

Set each Sound to a step on the Wavese quencer.

Set the Wavesequencer speed to 1/8 Here you can also mess a bit with the Drum Loop.

By repeating the sounds over 4 x times the measure size.

Now you should have several small WAV files that you just exported. Each file is a Beat. Depending on the selected loop, you will have 8, 16 or more files.

06

EG: On the picture we have 8 steps. Try setting 32 steps. Repeat each 8 steps over 4 times. But instead of 1 to 8 for each part, try replacing some sounds with some other parts of the loop. Making some break-beats, or just plain variations.

Confused? Try ElektroWusik III Drum Loop presets for some examples.

You can also use the Mod-Matrix for some cool real-time effects / mangling.

Try changing the Wavesequencer PITCH, it will always stay on tempo, producing a really great effect.

10

You have to be sure that all files start and end at Zero-Cross. Otherwise it will produce clicks while playing back as a Wavesequence. You can either load one by one, and do it manually. Or just do a Batch-Process, and run an Envelope with quick Attack and Release.

07

Here on this example, we used the X/Y pad to mess with Pitch and Filter Frequency.

Wusik Sound Magazine

23

ElektroWusik Volume III 116 Drum Loops - 80 Meg - 1,160+ Presets For the 3rd Volume of our Elektro series, we present you a special set of Drum Loops. But those are not just looped WAV files. We Recycled the loops to use with the Wavesequencer. So no matter the tempo you are using, they are always in sync. We also added a pitch and filter modulation to the X/Y pad.

So if you use Midi-Learn on X and Y, you can control Pitch and Filter for all presets. There are several preset-versions, regular drums, fake-stereo drums, env filtered sync drums, ...

There are 2 new directories: "Drums\WSeq Loops\Generic Loops" "Drums\WSeq Loops\Rough Slices Volume One" The second one, Rough Slices, was provided by Denis Lenz from http://www.prodyon.de Who's Dennis Lenz: a 25 year old plugin-developer, sound-designer from Berlin, Germany who is also the man behind prodyon.de, where he offers several VST plugins.

New Presets for ElektroWusik Volumes I and II 54 new presets by http://www.brambos.com Creators of the Tunafish VST Sequencer.

66 new presets by the waveshaped team (kraftF) http://www.waveshaped.com - Plus 7 extra SoundSets. (15 meg) 30 presets by http://softegg.wusik.com

Artvera NewAge Collection Volume 1 57 SoundSets - 120 Meg - 44+ Presets Location: "Wusik Sound Magazine\Artvera NewAge Collection\Volume 01" Vera Kinter aka Artvera is a graphic artist, sound designer and musician from the Czech Republic.

She has worked with various developers and now brings her talents to Wusikstation. Her sonic collection is destined mainly for New Age and Movie music styles, but her presets can be use also for Ambient, experimental music or any other kinds of music. In her collection you will find mainly atmospheric pads, strings, choirs, but also FX effects and vocoder sounds. Carefully chosen preset names let you see what the author had in

mind. This collection forms part of a bigger sonic library, which will be available in future editions of WSM. http://www.artvera-music.com

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Wusik Sound Magazine

Wsm #003 Sounds ToTc Additive Collection Volume 1 by Frank Genus (aka 'ToTc') 17 SoundSets - 320 Meg - 24 Presets Location: "Wusik Sound Magazine\ToTc Additive Collection\Volume 01" This new set by Frank Genus brings 17 new SounSets, but with tons of Multi-Sampled zones.

SoundSet / Number of Samples 4OscTrance Additive Oboe BoringAnaBass Classic DX7 Bass DX7Epiano FATBassOne FATBassTwo FlangedClav FunkyPhaseOrgan GrandHarpsichord IslandSynth MoogieBass PluckedBanjo ToughPeaksBass UnstablePWM VoxConti WhisperingWind

61 49 61 49 73 61 61 73 73 61 73 61 60 61 61 73 61

Who is Frak Genus? He is a preset designer/sample provider - About Frank: Frank Genus is a professional sound designer from New Jersey in the United States. He started offering freelance sound design in 2000, and has worked with the likes of ConcreteFX, Dash Signature, Cutter Music, Progress Audio, Kjaerhus Audio, Linplug, Cakewalk, and a long list of other developers. In October of 2003, Frank collaborated with friends Alex and Jake to form Pro-Sounds, a commercial sound design company.

He has also collaborated with Tim Conrardy and Marc Houpe to form the group T3, which has released 2 banks for the TSW wusikstation soundset, and continues provide a range of free and commercial services via ToTc Productions and ProSounds.

Contact information: ToTc Productions: www.totcproductions.com Pro-Sounds: www.pro-sounds.net

Babel Sounds - Volume 1 by Paul Walsh 13 SoundSets - 66 Meg - 20+ Presets Location: "Wusik Sounds\Volume 01"

Sound

Magazine\Babel

This is a very special set of multi-sampled unusual and eclectic samples. Dirty Drums and Electric Pianos.

SoundSet / Number of Samples DRM_Bit_Kit_Five DRM_Bit_Kit_Four DRM_Bit_Kit_One DRM_Bit_Kit_Six DRM_Bit_Kit_Three DRM_Bit_Kit_Two EP_Digi_Treat_1 EP_Digi_Treat_2 EP_Digi_Treat_3 EP_Digi_Treat_4 EP_Digi_Treat_5 EP_Vinyl_Tone_1

18 18 24 18 24 24 17 17 17 17 21 12

Who is Paul Walsh: A musician, writer and cultural anthropologist with eclectic musical tastes ranging from experimental electronic works and ambient drones through to post rock, alt. folk, Indian classical music, and Bollywood hits. Over 2006/2007 he will be launching Tower of Babel Recordings as a channel for offering unusual and eclectic samples, as well as musical releases and field recordings. Stay tuned.

Recent sound design work includes the DR-660 sampleset for Nusofting's DK+, and presets for a number of other VSTi products including Wusikstation soundsets from Dangerous Bear and Nucleus Sound Labs. Recent writing and editing work for VST and digital audio includes texts for Kjaerhus Audio, DashSignature, Pro-Sounds, otiumFX and White Noise Audio.

Contact: paulywalsh@yahoo.com

Mp3 Songs and Examples For everything http://wsm.wusik.com Wusik Sound Magazine

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