Wsm - September 2006 - Issue 005

Sound Magazine September 2006 #005

www.Wusik.com

s o u n d s

artvera newage collection general midi

extra sounds for the acoustic collection

a the compulsive tire-kicker r t I making your songs c l the making of the solomon set e s

louder

and much more...

Letter

from the

Editor

The Wusik Sound Magazine is Changing, but for the better.

As you will notice, we will now talk about other companies products, not just Wusikstation. You won't see all companies here, only those that we like, trust and care about users. Keeping in mind cheap products, but not in terms of quality.

Our new Sounds Review section will check all those extra Wusikstation sounds out there. The new Wusik Seal of Approval is also been introduced with this new issue.

What that means? It means a product that follows up our own rules of how the product should be. How easy is to install it, how well all the sounds were categorized and the overall price x value of the product. Some people may hate installers, but we think that for the overall user, this is a very important feature. Also, some sets may not need categorization, but still, sounds should be divided in a very intuitive way. If the product fails on any of those features, it won't receive the Wusik Seal of Approval.

Finally, we got more writers for the magazine, and we hope that for the next issue, we get even more people to join us. Making Wsm a larger magazine by the month.

Contact us if you think you could contribute with articles, sounds or anything related with the magazine.

Soon we will introduce the WusikPlayer VSTi, that will come Free with every magazine issue. Making it possible for non-Wusik members to play the magazine sounds and yet further promoting Wusikstation.

As for this months sounds, we present you the first volume of our large General Midi (GM) Set. In total, they will be 3 volumes. One released per month.

We also got more presets for ArtVera NewAge Collection made by Tim Conrardy and Westgate. Notice that it does not include the sounds, only the presets. So you need Issues #003 and #004 in order to play those presets.

Plus, special Drum-Loops specially made by a new group called The Waveshaped Team. They come with both SoundSets and MIDI files to play the loops.

Tonal Axis also contributed with a short collection of Resynthed Sounds. Created with a series of 3rd party VSTs. Those were latter edited and organized by WilliamK.

You will also notice that there are some extra presets by Dan Worrall. (requires the Famous Keys sets) He also contributed with our Acoustic Collection: Bass and Guitar sounds. His Article "The Making of the Solomon Set part 1" introduces a product soon to be released at our site.

We hope you enjoy this new issue. And please, don't forget to email us telling what you liked, disliked, would like to see, etc ...

WilliamK and MoniKe

Sound Magazine Editorial: Magazine Layout: MoniKe Editors: WilliamK and MoniKe Artvera SoundSet: ArtVera NewAge Collection Two 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 Rick Christy (aka grymmjack) Does freelance design via his project DesignerMonkey (www.designermonkey.us), which caters to VST/VSTi plug-in developers. He works for free if the project is free, for trade if it is a small commercial project (to help the small developers), and by professional contract.

Funky Chicken Dance Proof-Reading, Interview and Articles Funkychickendance is British, but lives in Southern Maine. A guitarist of sorts, a sixties type and a writer, he's been trying to make sense of electronic composition and recording over the past year or so.

TONAL AXiS: demo writer/musician "I started writing music again a few years ago after renewing my love for composing. I have also produced several music demos for software developers of VST instruments i.e. Linplug, Rob Papen (RPCX), Wusik, and DashSignature(and many more) to help showcase their software and I am also involved in future projects from other companies." More info at www.tonalaxis.wusik.com or www.myspace.com/tonalaxis IIRs (pronounced "ears") aka Dan Worrall is a musician and audio engineer based in Sheffield UK. When he is not busy mixing live sound for rock bands, playing guitar for Redroom (www.myspace.com/redroomuk) or teaching people to use Tracktion (www.swavideo.com) he likes to spend time in his studio makng instrumental music and drinking good coffee. www.myspace.com/iirs Jeremy Janzen: former blues/rock bass player who fell in love with computer music around 1998 with Cakewalk Pro Audio. Around that time he started sampling his bass guitar and other instruments into soundfonts. After many years of practice creating freely available sounds and patches, in January 2006 Jeremy founded Nucleus SoundLab, a sample development company with a focus on high-quality, low-cost libraries. Current Nucleus SoundLab concentrates on Wusikstation as its target sample format. Visit Jeremy and his company at www.nucleus-soundlab.com DamBros Head for Sun Column William's Uncle, Reporter and Music Editor.

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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Wusik Sound Magazine

In This Issue:

#005 - September 2006

18

04

The Making Of

the Solomon Set

Getting Started

(part 1) Many years ago I used to play guitar in a band called...

Anti-Virus and Firewall We all know how important is... ... how about some tips?

07

23

Metallurgy VST Effect Review

Head For Sun

Was released in December 2005, but its worth another closer inspection now.

A set of heroic acts, that confirm the power of nature.

26

08

Sounds Dynamic Strings

What's New!

- Advanced Level -

Artvera New Skins

10

Mastering Tips Making your Songs Louder

12

The Compulsive

Creating

31

Tire-Kicker Funkychickendance look at some budget-prices synth

16 The Synth Romance A new and better Copy-Protection system?

28

The Voices

Remember "Lego"?

Well, have to read this!

Dennis Lanzat: Prodyon goes philanthropic

32

Wsm #005

Sounds Artvera NewAge Collection Acoustic Collection Extra Sounds General Midi and others.

Wusik Sound Magazine

3

Getting Started We all know how important an Anti-Virus and Firewall program is, especially if your DAW is connected to the Internet.

U

ntil last week, we were using: ZoneAlarm Firewall, AVG Anti-Virus 7 and an Anti-Spyware program.

B

ut what I really wanted was something that would be an All-in-One solution.

A

nd there it was, the ZoneAlarm Security Suite.

Already rated by some computer magazines, the best solution.

W

e got the first copy for less than $ 50 USD, which makes it an incredible bang-for-thebuck.

T

he program uses much less CPU resources compared to using 3 separated programs. Not to mention that the Update runs only once and handles both Spyware and AntiVirus protection.

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Wusik Sound Magazine

by WilliamK

Anti-Virus and Firewall

Y

ou can setup for total Paranoid usage, or regular usage. Depending on how you use your computer. I'm using most options, so I have total control on what's going on with my machine.

Nothing happens before I say its ok, and approve things up.

F

or example, if you run a new Installer. ZA will tell you what the Installer is trying to do, if anything suspicious. Or even if its attempting on to load or remove services, drivers, files, ... It also auto detects programs that knows to be safe, so you don't have to go clicking on "allow" popup boxes like crazy. This also works for programs that uses the Internet Channels.

Getting Started

F

or instance, when we ran Outlook Express, it connected without problems. Just when an email was been sent, it asked if it was ok to do, and had to approve the task.

A

fter a week using it, we don't get many popups now, asking us to approve things. Only if we try to install or remove a new/old program.

A

nother thing that we really liked is that when you receive an attached file, it will scan the file and convert to another formatcalled ZM9. When you try to open it, ZA tells you that the file could be dangerous to your system. You can opt to run the file, save it, inspect with notepad (?) or not run it at all. If you select Run, it will ask you again if you are totally sure about it.

T

his is good, so if you have a bonehead friend that visits you and ask to use the Internet. You are pretty safe that he won't, again, open his email attachments and infect your computer without even knowing so.

O

verall, we really like this new solution by ZoneLabs. And everybody should have good protection on their computers. Even if they don't surf the Internet. You never know who will try to load up a CD or put a MemoryKey full with viruses on your computer, when you are not looking.

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!

$15

www.mfelkerco.com Wusik Sound Magazine

5

?

??

??

Ask WilliamK ? "You often claim to be a musician first and then a programmer. Let's assume I want to develop a product like Wusikstation (don't worry, it will never happen). How much in your opinion should I be skilled as a musician, how much as a sound designer and how much as a programmer?"

I bet a lot of people ask this question when they see a product like Wusikstation. And they are right for doing it. Most companies, Hardware or Software, don't create products for the average Musician. Some products are so hard to use that you need a complete course before you can even play a single note. Of course, I'm exaggerating it a bit, but its most likely that you are not an average user. We all know our way around computers, filters, oscillators and so on. When I started the Wusikstation concept, I asked myself: is this something that anyone can use, or it will require some knowledge? It was hard to find a balance. But since I'm also a big fan of Workstation Keyboards, (hardware) I was able to find a compromises on easy-to-use and power-on-the-go. The second part was the sound designer part. When I started making Reaktor Ensembles, I was at the earlier stages of my life when it comes to Filters and Oscillators. Most people don't know, but I'm not a DSP expert. Actually, when I designed my first VST, daAlfa2k, I knew very little about DSP. Google helped me a lot. I was able to find a lot of information on the internet. Since I learn fast, and I'm a self-tutor person, it was easy to gather the information I needed fast. I was used to program on several languages, but C++ and Assembly was still a "dark" thing for me. So again, I had to learn that one too. Ok, you probably asking now what is the point I'm trying to make here, and my final comments. Here's the deal, you would have to be a musician first, and know only a bit about the rest, but have a very good mind when it comes to learning new things. Start with the basics, and go from there. That's how I did it.

Otherwise, you may find yourself going too much for technical specs, and never finishing a project.

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Wusik Sound Magazine

Wusikstation VSTi

TT ii pp ss

&TT rr ii cc kk ss

Saving CPU usage on large projects.

1

Check each instance and layer number of voices. For example, if you are using one instance for Bass sounds, you don't need 16 voices for that.

Although Wusikstation has a smart-code for computing voices, setting more voices than you need will still use a little extra CPU usage. That's because the code has to check if each voice is "active" or not. Hence the extra CPU usage even if you are not using all 16 voices. For Bass sounds, you can easily set it to 2 or 4 voices. Remember that Wusikstation processes voices in blocks of 4, so don't set to 6 unless you really think you need 6 voices. Set to 4 voices instead.

2

If you are using mostly the same SendEffects on all your instances, is best to turn off Global Effects. In V3 this will also affect Insert Effects. Soon we will update V3 with an option to select which you want to turn off: Global, Inserts or Both. Now you can setup a Send-Bus on your Host, and add the effects you want there. Since V3 you have the option to use our new FX version, so you can still use Wusikstation FXs on your Host Sends.

3

There are Low and High CPU usage Presets. Its all a reflection of the used Layers, Wavesequencers and ModMatrix options. Sometimes, when you want a pure and simple sound, it is better to load up the INIT patch, and load a new SoundSets on its O1 Layer/Oscillator. This way you start your own sound from scratch, giving you a more creative control.

by Williamk

Head For Sun

by DamBros

I

worked for many years for a fertilizer company. During that time I saw many films about seeds, planting, sprouting, development and growth of various cultures, but I never found a sound-track that could properly express the strength and beauty found there. So, I dreamed of a composition that could convey these sensations to viewers.

and have sounds that would try to translate the happiness of the leaves being formed and of the stems elevating themselves up in the air to the point that will allow them to boast the flowers that will be produced. The sounds of the wind and rain on the ground and on the treetops would acoustically complement the martial climate of the moment.

T

O

nce again I envisaged this as a concert piece, maybe called "Head for the Sun".

he last movement would translate an image of extreme beauty, an enormous flowered field. It could be called "Joy of Live" ( Allegro Troppo Vivace) because it would follow the alternately quick and gracious movements of the flowers talking to the wind and rejoicing with life.

T

he first part, which we'd maybe call "The Speed Explosion" (Grave - Maestoso), would have a theme of grave and strong tones trying to show the slow-motion explosion of a seed under the earth and its incredible effort to tear through the soil to reach the sunlight. If you've not seen this kind of footage, try to find some. It's a real saga! A set of heroic acts, that confirm the power of nature.

T

he second movement could be called "Free in the Space" (Allegro marziale),

Wusik Sound Magazine

7

on s ' t Wha p

m A r u o y

The 80's Selection

808 State Style: House Album: 808-88-98 Tracks: Pacific and Cubik

Camouflage Style: ElectroPop Album: Voices & Images Tracks: The Great Commandment

Coldcut Style: ElectroPop Album: Coldcut Track: Stop This Crazy Thing

What's New

by WilliamK

!

Oingo Boingo Style: PopRock Album: Best Of Tracks: Weird Science and Dead Man's Party

Yaz

!

"Wusikstation V3.0.4 Released" The list is too long to be published here. Check out the Wusik Main Page for more information.

!

"New Wusikstation V3 PDF Manual" The whole document was re-edited and re-designed by WilliamK and MoniKe. Including updated texts by Dave C.

"New Wusik Sound Magazine Purchase Options"

!

Now you can get 3 issues for only $ 13.95 USD each.

Visit our site for more information.

Jack the Tab Style: Acid House Album: Jack the Tab Track: Meet Every Situation

!

"Issues #001 & #002 ReDesigned"

!

!

For those who didn't know about it.

MoniKe has released a new version of both Issues #001 and #002. Use your original Download URL to save those new PDF files. They are now offered in both 96 and 300 dpi versions, as the latest issues.

Style: ElectroDance Album: The Best of Yaz Track: Situation

"2nd Week of September"

Yello Style: ElectroPop Album: Flag Tracks: The Race and Oh Yeah

8

Wusik Sound Magazine

Wusikstation V3.0.6 Update New Disk Streaming Code.

Check our Forum for more information.

!

!

NE

SKINS

ArtVera ElektroWusik Skins Updated to the latest V3.0.4 changes.

The Sound Installer will create the following Skins: Skins \ Elektro-Desert V3 Skins \ Elektro-Pink Oasis V3 Skins \ Elektro-Water Twist V3 And also the new FX version Skins: Skins FX \ Elektro-Desert FX V3 Skins FX \ Elektro-Pink Oasis FX V3 Skins FX \ Elektro-Water Twist FX V3 For more information about ArtVera Graphic Designs: www.artvera-music.com

Wusik Sound Magazine

9

by WilliamK

Mastering Tips Making your songs users Most don't know what a Limiter actually does. As the name says, it Limits the Audio by compressing the signal, therefore, making it sound Louder.

T

here are several High-End solutions for this, but this month, we will present a simple and Free solution by Kjaerhus Audio: The Classic Master Limiter.

D

ownload: www.Kjaerhusaudio.com Take any song, open it up on your favorite sample editor.

Here we used SoundForge 8.

10

Wusik Sound Magazine

S

ee how many "spikes" it has? Those are small sound explosions, that keep the song from been loud. And if you normalize, it will always detect those loud-peaks and normalize according to those. If you just boost the volume instead, you get clipping and distortion.

W

hat you really need to do, is Compress the sound a bit, making it sound

louder.

Making your songs

J

ust run the Master Limiter on the whole file. Select the Master CD preset. Don't tweak the threshold too much. If the song is still not loud after using it, you may need to boost the whole song volume before using the limiter. Usually I do this on the Host itself. So I can boost the song volume before sending to the Limiter.

T

here are other Master Limiter solutions, one is the new Kjaerhus Audio MPL1.

The Standard Edition will cost you less than $ 90 USD. But it will perform better thanks to its improved code and extra features.

N

ow you can see that the "spikes" are gone, and that the song is much louder.

On the tests we done, the overall mix and sound was still good.

www. wave shaped. com www.waveshaped.com www.waveshaped.com www.waveshaped.com www.waveshaped.com waveshaped.com waveshaped.com www.waveshaped.com www.waveshaped.com waveshaped.com waveshaped.com

The waveshaped team - Audible sounds Wusik Sound Magazine

11

The

Compulsive Tire-Kicker:

Funkychickendance looks at some budget-priced synths

I

f you’ve been around a while, or have read the story of William K’s synthesizers in WSM#3, you’ll know that he and Luigi Felici (liqih) go back quite a long way. Before Wusikstation, they were business partners, and the EVE sampler/synth sold by DASHSignature still features plenty of William’s programming.

Interestingly, the DashSND and WusikSND formats are close enough to allow interoperability of the two synths. But that’s a subject for another time…

L

iqih’s own preferences in synthesizer development have taken a different, but quite interesting direction. Recently, he transferred the rather simple EVE ONE -- which plays back a simple sample as opposed to the three in EVE 1.8 and Eve TWO – to Manytone Music, where it’ll reappear as ManyONE. Many of you will know that Manytone’s Manystation is a Wusik v.1 or v.2 propelled VSTi. Increasingly, liqih’s efforts have moved in the direction of physical modeling rather than the modulation and reprocessing of sampled sound.

W

hen I say ‘interesting,’ I mean that this work ought to interest Wusikstation people. Why? Because the various liqihfathered products already released complement Wusikstation’s sounds quite well, and provide interesting voices with moderately low CPU demands. They are also very reasonably priced and don’t take up a significant amount of hard disc real estate.

A

bove all, to my ears anyway, they sit nicely in the mix with the wide variety of Wusikstation-family products that are coming to the market almost monthly.

12

Wusik Sound Magazine

L

eader of the pack, in my opinion, is the rather thriftily priced EMM Knagalis, at $65.

‘EMM’ stands for something like ethnic melodic music, which is an appropriate name. A hybrid, it features a small cluster of samples. But the magic comes with how these are then processed and mangled with presets. Basically, Knagalis is a synth that imitates all manner of drone instruments. And that’s when your musical education takes a leap into space, as you find out that the Indian shenahai has a great deal in common with bagpipes, and that the sitar and oud are cousins. And what bagpipes are offered, too: it seems that all countries with marginal agriculture and somewhat warlike populations like the chanterplus-airbag-powered droning musical idea, and Knagalis provides amazing Highland, Irish, Basque and other voices, which you can further bend into shapes you like. Not to mention, you can capture them as WAVs and put them into Wusikstation for yet more musical mayhem.

O

f course, these various basic sounds can be combined, tinkered with and generally messed up to produce a wide variety of hybrid instruments that have never existed, and the presets give you a good idea of some of the possibilities. Add to that the functionality of ethnic scales and microtuning, and you’ve got a handy little weapon on your hands when it comes to weird-sounding accents and voices for compositions.

The Compulsive Tire-Kicker

[I

hate to give away good musical ideas, but let me leak one: try running Knagalis through Camel Audio’s Camelphat distortion unit. It’s insane. Hendrix meets early Floyd in hyperspace.]

A

subtle instrument is Harp Time – again, who knew there were so many harps? Or that they were so complex? This is a neat device for that netherworld between pianos and acoustic guitars.

M

uch gentler, but just as versatile is Peti, which emulates harmoniums and accordion-like instruments ( a peti is the name for harmoniums in Indian music; these 19th century Engish missionary instruments fit in beautifully with both Hindustani and Karnatic Indian styles ). Peti contains all manner of squeezeboxy devices, from the bandoneon to the pipe organ, all created by FM synthesis in a compact, $45 device.

A

beautiful emulation of cheesy (and not so cheesy) transistor organs of the 1960s and onwards is found in Combo Sister. It emulates the Vox Continental, the Farfisa and dozens of other voices, all of which can be crosspollinated. You get to play authentic sounding 60s music, or whatever your imagination can produce by tinkering.

T

here’s also the rather grand Modelonia, which models both plucked and blown instruments, and allows you to invent strange hybrids. Quite a bit pricier – yet still cheap at $79 – this is a rather grand experiment. It doesn’t quite capture saxes or trumpets, or anything in particular in the horn family with great accuracy, any more than it nails named plucked instruments. What it does do is give you an infinite variety of ‘strange things in between,’ and it comes with a large collection of presets to send you on your exploratory way.

Wusik Sound Magazine

13

The Compulsive Tire-Kicker

I

’m 100% loyal to the Wusik family – you guessed that by now! – but early on I immediately recognized the value of some of these extraordinary little synths as a way to stretch my dollars and still find impressive sounds that weren’t tired and hackneyed.

A

nd just lately (August 2006), free or for a shareware price of just $19, there is MarimKa, a synth that emulates everything that goes ‘pock,’ ‘ping’ or ‘bonk.’ Which means you can mess with its simple controls or presets to produce convincing marimbas, gamelan orchestral instruments, rototoms or many other ethnic-sounding percussion instruments.

L

iqih has a history of budget percussion offers: take a look at the understated but great-sounding DK+ drum sampler, which has conventional, ethnic, funk and electronic kits at its disposal, all at budget process.

I

n conjunction with other developers, there’s a neat new electric piano emulation called Grand Electrix. Perfect for 1970s pop, and released earlier this summer.

14

Wusik Sound Magazine

I

mean, face it, how many moog emulations can you need? How many Hammondplus-Leslie or Rhodes variations are there?

People who have Wusikstation and some of the DASHSignature and NUSofting synths don’t ask themselves those questions…they can ask the more interesting question: how weird can I make this? What would a bamboo trumpet sound like? Or, like I said earlier, what if Jimi Hendrix had been a bagpipe player? Try the demos, and you’ll see what I’m getting at…

A

nd then, of course, WAV the sounds and give them a good mangling in v3. Face it, music has gotten a bit dull lately. Here’s a way to shake it up and reward a couple of brilliant developers in the process.

Visit www.viraloutbreak.net For tons of demo mp3s and to Purchase!

Viral Outbreak Volume One Is finally here for Wusikstation. * Over 2gb (Wusik Format) Viral Outbreak Volume Sick of searching for of multisamples comprised of One is the first in a series of sounds and plugins that 130+ soundsets. sample libraries based on the are supposed to sound * virtually all soundsets stereosounds of the Virus TI like a Virus, but don't? sampled for the greatest depth. hardware synthesizer. Using Get the real thing - and * Sampled at 32-bit 96khz the power of extensive 96khz harnass its power in quality! For resource efficiency, then multisampling, manual looping Wusikstation! carefully downsampled to 24-bit and professional preset design 48khz.

Nucleus SoundLab brings the TI sound to your * Nearly 750 Wusikstation v3 presets, sampler! many taking advantage of all the new v3 Viral Outbreak Volume One is available now features! (450 presets for Wusik v1) for Wusikstation v1/v2/v3, SFZ, and Kontakt 1/2. * The best preset designers out there: Viral Outbreak Volume One contains all ToTc, Teksonik, Tim Conrardy, Jeremy Janzen, manner of TI-based sounds. Classic wavetables, rsmus7 and more! raw saw and pulse waveforms (sampled at multiple * An amazing, TI-inspired, Wusikstation v1pulsewidths), unison dance leads, breathtaking v3 skin by Vera Kinter. pads and even punchy synth drumkits. Details: 15

Wusik Sound Magazine

The Synth Romance

by WilliamK

In case you don't know what CR is: you run the software, it gives you a machine ID code.

This code changes every time you change something on your computer.

Now you have to visit the software authors site via a special URL they provided.

Once there, you inform the machine ID code, and they send you a unlike Unlock code, that works only for your machine.

You go back to your software and insert this code, unlocking the program for usage.

I

got a lot of messages about my question.

Some users were very worried about the addition of CR on Wusikstation. At first, I was very surprised by the replies, but after reading it carefully, I got the point.

C

R is the worse CP option ever, you will see why after you read the following.

I

magine this, you are working on a big project for a client. You are using mostly VSTi "A", that uses a CR CP system. You are about to finish 16

Wusik Sound Magazine

The other day, I was wondering about adding a new and better Copy-Protection system for Wusikstation.

So I asked users what they though about "Challenge and Response". (CR) the project when something bad happens on your machine. The Processor over heated and stalled.

You replaced it with a new Backup one, that is not the exact one you had before. You fire up your Host, and VSTi "A" asks you to re-validate the copy. That's how CR works, just in case you are wondering. (read the above explanation) You try to visit the VSTi "A" site but its offline. Or, just in case you are stating: "But the VSTi "A" company has very good servers", your local ISP is offline due to several weather problems, or a truck just ran over some cables and everything is down right now... you get the point. Something bad happens and the software is asking you to re-validate it, but your Internet is just not working. What to do? You have 12 hours to email the final music to your client, or they will charge you a penalty fee. You try to phone the VSTi "A" company, they put you on hold, and tell you that their server is down right now: "please, call again in 18 hours, as our main T1 lines are down due to massive Spam/Viruses problems".

The Synth Romance

I

guess, that after you read the above, you don't like CR CP systems anymore. Just like myself. I think that companies that uses such thing, will see a drop on sales overtime.

A

nd don't get me started on Dongles.

They can also be very problematic. They are better than CR, yes, they are. But still, not a good solution.

Serial Number protection (SN) is still the best thing for users. And we all know, there is no protection that can stop piracy from happening, so companies shouldn't say that in their defenses. They should care about users.

B

ut how can Dongles be bad too? Simple: you can easily replace your machine D and restore a previous Backup. But you can't replace a Dongle that got smashed by a car, truck, or just your family dog that thought it was some snack lying on your desk. You just can't. Unless you have a spare Dongle with a backup of all your licenses, which I don't think would work. Maybe I'm wrong, as I only used one Dongle for one software that got trashed due to its problems. Won't say the name, don't ask.

Still, I don't fancy Dongles that much, actually, if they don't taste like Vanilla, they're no use to me.

T

he next time I buy a software, I will ask what kind of protection it has. Don't want to be left out when I need it most.

Broaden your sonic palette.

Try our soundsets for the Wusikstation.

The Prepared Rhodes, unique electro-acoustic percussive sounds from a real Rhodes Mk 1.

The Marching Band Horn (3 volumes), add a brassy flavor to your songs.

The IYTTIW modified trumpet sample set, 41 waveforms of processed staccato trumpet.

Electronic Drums/Percussions kits, 161 original percussion samples.

From Jazz singer Julie Hamelin Julie Vocal FX vol.1, a collection of one-shot female vocal FX and scats.

Julie Scats Collection, female jazz scat singing one-shot samples.

Visit our Products Page for details, dowloadable demo soundsets and MP3s. http://www.lesproductionszvon.com

Wusik Sound Magazine

17

Making Of the Solomon Set

the

(Part 1) The Solomon Set will be released in Wusik format shortly, at the bargain price of $14.95 Although the samples were only mapped to Wusik format in the last few days, the Solomon Set itself has quite a history...

M

any years ago I used to play guitar in a band called Elfin, along with a drummer called Leon Neal. During that period I also bought my first sampler, a Yamaha A3000. Leon had built up a really good quality kit by this point so it was an obvious source of sampling material for me, and around this time (about 5 years before BFD was released!) I hit upon the idea of sampling every mic of a multi-mic'ed kit separately to create a drum kit patch that could still be mixed and processed freely... I had a go at it, but the results were flawed: in those days I could only record at 16-bit resolution, I had a fairly limited selection of mics with indifferent pre-amps and, as sample editing had to be done on the A3000 itself, maintaining the phase relationship between multiple hits from different mics was rather difficult... not to mention the problems fitting it all into the limited RAM available!

F

ast-forward to 2006: I now have a PC based DAW with sixteen 24-bit analogue inputs, a selection of good quality Mackie Onyx & VLZpro pre-amps, and (thanks largely to ebay) a collection of microphones that barely fits in its flight case! However, Leon now lives in London and has a new career as a press photographer... so when he got in touch a couple of months back and mentioned that he was planning to rescue his kit from storage and take it down to London with him, I realized I had a small window of opportunity: I persuaded him to detour to a local practice room for a short recording session before heading back down south, and the results are the Solomon Set! 18

Wusik Sound Magazine

by Dan Worrall

The Drum Kit. Leon is very proud of his kit, and rightly so! The specs are as follows: Kick - Premier Genista 22" x 16" birch shell with Remo powerstroke 3 batter head and Remo ambassador front head with 8" air hole.

Rack Tom - Premier Genista 10" x 8" birch shell with Evans G1 Genera coated batter head and Remo Ambassador bottom head.

Floor Tom - Premier Genista 12" x 10" birch shell with Evans G1 Genera coated batter head and Remo Ambassador bottom head.

Main Snare - Noble & Cooley 13" x 5" CD Maple snare with Evans G1 Genera coated batter and Remo Ambassador snareside with 20 strand snare.

2nd Snare - Premier Sopranino 10" x 5" FX snare with Remo Evans G1 Genera batter and Remo ambassador snare side with 10 strand snare.

Cymbals - Paiste Signature series cymbals; 10" fast splash, 13" heavy hi-hats, 16", 17" and 18" fast crash, 20" heavy ride.

Solomon Set

The Room.

I

designed specifically for bass drum and marketed as such.

The D112 has a very different character to the D12 however, and has a tendency to produce the "bouncing basketball" effect... some people like this sound, but I am not one of them! By contrast, stuffing a D12 inside a well tuned kick drum gives an instant classic 70's thump, but still makes it easy to dial up more modern sounds with a little EQ.

The DAW. T

or this session I had the mic inside the drum: it was positioned roughly halfway between the middle of the drum and the shell, slightly closer to the resonant head than to the batter head, and angled to point directly at the beater.

booked 4 hours of time at "Bok" studios, a small recording facility plus rehearsal rooms located in an old crumbling industrial site in Sheffield. I had a choice of rooms, so I settled on a small-to-medium sized practice room with windows on both sides and a bright, lively character.

Unfortunately it was also up 4 flights of very narrow and rickety stairs: the bass drum case barely fitted between the handrail and the wall, and by the time we had the whole kit plus all my recording gear in situ we were over an hour into the session already and sweating profusely!

he PC is a 2.93 GHz P4 with 1.5 GB of RAM and a pair of M-Audio Delta 1010 interfaces. I recorded everything at 24 / 44.1 resolution using Tracktion 2.1, and took the same approach to recording the kit that I would for any other session: each mic was recorded to its own track with no processing at all on the way in.

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The Mics.

I

have something of a fetish for microphones: years of mixing live sound has taught me that choosing the right microphones and positioning them carefully will always produce better results than 'fixing' it with EQ afterwards, so I have built up a collection of mics which allows me to cover most bases, and which includes several classic models (even though none of them have "Neumann" written on them!) I used a total of ten microphones on this session: Kick - AKG D12 Yes thats right, D12 not D112! This mic is almost certainly the oldest in my collection: AKG designed it around 1951, and I believe it was one of the earliest mass produced cardioid microphones. Although it was originally marketed as a general purpose vocal and instrument mic (and apparently became commonplace on film sets), it became an industry standard bass drum mic in the 1970's due in part to its ground-breaking "bass resonance chamber" which hypes frequencies around 60Hz in a pleasant way. This use became so widespread that when AKG discontinued the mic in the 80's they replaced it with the D112 which is

S

nare - Beyer M69 plus Shure SM57 Every so often I come across a snare drum that sounds really good with just the top head mic'ed. Its pretty rare though: usually I find that a close mic on the top head sounds 'boxy' with too much ring and not enough snap. Adding another close mic underneath the drum fills in the sharp crack of the snares, and also captures a low bark from the resonant head, and mixing both mics with one flipped out-of-phase usually gets me much closer to the natural sound of the drum. So I always use two mics for snares wherever possible, even for live gigs in small venues.

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Solomon Set

L

eon positions his hi-hats very close to his main snare, and (as they are also rather loud) I often used to get problems with spill when using a '57 on top. So I chose a Beyer M69 for the top head, which is a classic dynamic vocal mic that is also often used for brass instruments, and which has a very tight hypercardioid pick-up pattern (handy for drummers that sing backing vocals!) I have become very fond of this mic for snare drum duties as it gives good isolation when positioned carefully, and sounds brighter and crisper than a '57.

I

do like '57s underneath the snare however. Actually, lots of different mics can work well here: the positioning is the most important factor in my opinion. I aimed the mic at a section of batter head well away from the actual snares in order to maximise the low bark of the sound... the snap of the snares themselves can easily be overwhelming if you aim the mic directly at them.

T

he M101 is unusual in being an omni directional dynamic mic: while the high frequencies roll off earlier than a comparable condenser mic would, they do so in a very smooth and natural way, and adding the M101 sound to the overheads and room mics just seems to bring the hats closer without changing the tone at all. Spill is much less of a problem than you would expect from an omni mic: because it has no proximity effect I can have it almost touching the hi hats, and still get a natural sound with little or no more spill than a cardioid mic at a more usual distance. And of course the spill that is there is much less coloured than it would be from most directional mics, and so causes fewer problems when added to the mix.

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ack Tom - Beyer M201 Another classic dynamic mic, these are industry standards for snare drums and toms, and I'm also very fond of them for guitar cabs. The tight hypercardioid pick-up pattern allows them to effectively exclude snare spill when positioned carefully; in this case I came in from the hi-hats side, pointing at the batter head and towards the ride cymbal.

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loor Tom - Beyer M88 Yet another classic dynamic! The M88 was designed and marketed as a vocal mic (Phil Collins uses them!), but actually its a great all-rounder: kick drum, toms, snares, bass and guitar cabs, brass... even a cello at a pinch! Mine is an ex-BBC model with an old-fashioned Tuchel connector, and it was my favorite kick drum mic until I got my D12. Even now I might pick it over the D12 if I had to record a reggae band, as it gives a deliciously tight and punchy kick sound. For the floor tom I had it pointing straight down at the batter head about 3 inches away.

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i-Hats - Beyer M101 Most engineers will tell you that you need a condenser mic for hi-hats... of course a really good condenser will probably sound great, but its surprising how many not-sogreat condensers will sound brittle and harsh on cymbals, especially open hi-hat washes. As I mentioned above, Leon's hats are rather loud and frankly I could easily have done without a close mic at all! It was nice to have the track though as it gave it a little extra definition when added subtly to the mix... however, in a situation like this the close mic is just re-enforcing the initial transient of the sound, and doesn't actually need a really crisp hi-end: a smooth mid range and fast transient response is more important.

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O

verheads - Beyer M160 / M130 Actually I have pair of Rode NT5s that I specifically bought for drum overheads... nothing wrong with them, but since I got those Beyer ribbon mics they have been 'demoted' to acoustic guitar and piano duties!

Ribbon mics such as these have a very warm and earthy sound compared to the glossy sheen of a condenser, but still produce a crisp and well defined top end that can be brought up with EQ if needed.

I find they capture the complexity of the cymbals just as well as a condenser mic, but with much less tendency to sound harsh or brittle, and they make the toms and snare sound really fat!

Solomon Set

T

hese two mics are a matched stereo pair in the sense that the M160 has a hypercardioid pickup pattern while the M130 is a figure-of-eight, and they are designed to be used together in a Mid / Side configuration. I had both mounted on a stereo mic bar just above the drummers head, with the M160 aimed mid-way between the snare and the rack tom, and the M130 angled with its side null aimed at the snare and its sensitive lobes pointing out to the sides. MS stereo pairs need to be converted to conventional L/R stereo for playback, but the procedure is pretty simple: the left channel is created by adding the side channel to the mid channel, while the right channel is created by subtracting the side channel from the mid channel, or in other words, by inverting the polarity of the side channel before adding it to the mid. The level of the side mic then controls the width of the stereo field. I am fond of mid side stereo pairs for recording drums as this configuration tends to give a very solid centre image, and thats usually where the drums need to sit.

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oom - SE Electronics Z5600A plus Samson CL8 Another mid side pair, this time using my big valve mic as the centre: I positioned it roughly in the middle of the room at about chest height and switched it to the omni pattern which gave me a big, bright, lively sound with loads of early reflections.

I

originally bought the Samson CL8 specifically to use as a side mic in combination with the SE model, and I chose it because it was the cheapest true condenser I could find at the time that had a figure-eight pattern... it works fine for its intended purpose, but actually I have been very pleasantly surprised by its sound and often use it now for workhorse duties when the big valve mic would be over-kill. It was positioned directly underneath the Z5600A (which was slung upsidedown) with its sensitive lobes pointing out towards the windows, and its side null angled directly at the kit.

The Session.

Setting up the kit and all the mics took some time as you can imagine, so by the time we had a sound I was happy with and gain levels set for all the mics we had less than an hour of recording time left. We started off with Leon laying down some beats and generally warming up, while I watched the meters to make sure I had enough headroom. Leon hadn't touched a drum kit for several years, so this involved quite a lot of fumbled filling and swearing!

It was essential that I record some full kit playing as well as the single hits however, as this is what I used when mixing the mics and setting the overall balance.

O

nce I was happy I had enough to work with we started recording the single hits. Leon has done this many times before with me, and he knows the drill: pick a drum and tap it very gently, then hit it slightly harder, then slightly harder still, and repeat until you can't get any louder and your ears are bleeding... then move onto the next drum and start again! Its a testament to Leon's technique that, when looking at the subsequent waveforms in Tracktion, it seemed almost as if the levels had been drawn in with a line tool: each hit was louder than the last by almost exactly the same amount! This made the editing loads easier, and contributed significantly to the playability of the final patch.

Wusik Sound Magazine

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Solomon Set

Obscure but Way Funky: Preparation P

by Funky Chicken Dance

M

ost of you will be familiar with Zvon’s excellent prepared Rhodes samples and presets. What if you could lay your hands on something similar in acoustic piano form?

For $5 (or less) you can. It’s named Preparation P – a spoof on Preparation H, a wellknown hemorrhoid remedy – and is given away by Gersic.com.

O

f course, it is important to allow each hit to decay fully before the next one: a ride cymbal can decay for minutes, and at one point we had to wait for a police siren to fade into the distance before we could continue!

T

here is just one small thing that with hindsight I should maybe have done differently: the little sopranino snare was not close mic'ed as, although I had plenty more mics, I had run out of stands. Actually I had not planned to sample it at all and was going to stick to just the one snare, but Leon played some hits on it anyway, and they sounded good so I ended up including them in the set. Perhaps it would have sounded better if I had moved one of the main snare mics over to sample the sopranino, but we were fairly pressed for time and I didn't. Never mind!

Look out for part two next month, in which I will be describing the mixing and editing stages, and the final mapping of the samples into WusikSND format.

W

hat is a ‘prepared piano’?

Basically, it’s a concept pioneered by John Cage, in which a piano is messed up by such techniques as adding wires, springs, weights, etc. to the strings, or modifying the hammers in some way. You end up with a series of odd sounds instead of what you expect when you start playing.

Prep P includes harplike glissandos on the strings and other oddball outcomes for individual note strikes, all recorded on a baby grand.

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or more information, visit: www.gersic.com/preparationp.html

Metallurgy VST Effect Review

by Jeremy Janzen

M

any of you will recognize Chris Sciurba's (aka Ugo) name from some great freeware synths: String Theory, Motion, Texture and Rez. Chris uses Synthedit's modular environment to create his plugins, but rather uniquely among SE developers he has developed a reputation for innovation, both in the user-interfaces and in the sound-capabilities of his plugins. String Theory is one of the best physically-modelled plugins out there (free or commercial), and Rez has to be one of the most useful free monosynths available – while also sporting a very stylish UI.

M

etallurgy is divided into three main sections: Filth, Metal, and Filter.

The Filth section contains a downsampler and a distortion effect – in addition there is a second separate Filth section for tweaking later in the signal path. Next is the Metal section, which to my understanding is a type of tunable comb filter that is excellent for creating bizarre, metallic overtones.

Finally the Filter section contains a State Variable filter that outputs Lowpass, Bandpass and Highpass signals in parallel.

M

etallurgy is Chris' first commercial vst effect plugin. Metallurgy was released in December 2005, but with such a huge amount of free and commercial material released at that time, its worth another closer inspection now.

Metallurgy is available for PC VST only, and is priced at $20 US.

Metallurgy is a PC VST multi effect.

A Metallurgy is Chris' first commercial vst effect plugin.

ll that sounds impressive, but the real strength of Metallurgy is its capability to modulate all its various features. Metallurgy contains three 16-step sequencers – one for the SV filter, one for amplitude gating (some call this type of gate a trancegate) and one for tuning the Metal effect. In addition, virtually everything is modulatable by its own tempo-synced LFO. And finally there is a cool envelope follower that can modulate the SV filter or the metal effect.

Even subtle modulations are possible.

T

o begin describing what this plugin is capable of, I'll first quote Chris' description from his product page: "Metallurgy is a PC VST multi effect that is capable of providing sounds ranging from some basic, subtle, filter tweaks to twisted, complex, walls of sound that bear virtually no resemblance to the original audio." Indeed - Metallurgy is capable of all this and more. Especially for effecting drum sounds this plugin can do some amazing things.

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n practice, this mix of features and modulation options can create some stupendously dirty, freaky and wacked-out effects. One of the most unique applications for the Metal effect is to feed a drum loop in, and use the step-sequencer to change the Metal pitch to play a melody with the drum loop! Metallurgy is also very useful in creating Wusik Sound Magazine

23

Metallurgy VST moving, rhythmic pads – just use some LFO modulation on the SV filter and combine that with some step-sequenced gate effects and voila! Even subtle modulations are possible – a little bit of LFO-mod downsampler, plus some envelopefollowed Metal effect is killer on a drum or bass track.

M

etallurgy comes packed with over 400 patches to get you started. There is a wide-variety of well-categorized patches depending on the effect you’d like to achieve. For instance, PSQ designates patches that use the step-sequencer to control Metal pitch; and GSQ uses the step-sequencer to control gating.

Over 400 patches.

H

owever, even if you don’t like the included patches much, you will love the randomizing features built into Metallurgy. Chris has added seven ‘?’ buttons which randomize different sections of the effect separately. So you could get some cool filter sequence going, and then just randomize the Metal parameters until you find a nice mix that fits your needs. With this much randomization, expect some instant inspiration!

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Chris brings his particular style to the user interface.

S

o it sounds great. How does it look? Well, as always Chris brings his particular style to the user interface.

Its dark, stylish, dirty, and industrial.

The large, Mad Max-esque knobs especially stand out as an excellent design touch.

Personally I like this style – although the sliders are a little bit too dark for my taste. My only other criticism is the GUI is a little bit busy for its size. So many different features, modulations, sliders etc. packed into this size of GUI can be somewhat confusing. This is another ‘taste’ thing though – many people will love the smaller, pixel-saving size on their monitors.

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ith an effect this feature-packed and complex, a good manual is a must.

Metallurgy doesn’t disappoint. Chris includes an attractively-formatted, easy-to-read PDF manual.

Every function is described thoroughly and the signal path is even diagrammed for reference.

Many programs costing much more than Metallurgy could use such a quality manual.

Metallurgy VST Metallurgy consumes nearly 15% CPU on my mid-range Athlon 64 3000+

T

he list of what could be improved in the sound of Metallurgy is a short one, but still significant.

Metallurgy is a mono effect – if you feed it a stereo signal it comes out mono.

That’s a bit disappointing. But this is somewhat alleviated by the internal stereo delay which can help with pseudo-stereo effects and ping-pong wackiness. I find that if you’d like to preserve some of your stereo source, you can do a passable job by tweaking the ‘Mix’ knob (essentially a Wet/Dry control) and only mixing in a portion of the mono Metallurgy signal. The other option is to use a modular sequencer or environment to split your source signal into two mono sources that run through two different Metallurgy’s!

With this approach you can create some huge stereo sounds with more movement than you’ll likely ever need.

W

ith all these features, you might suspect Metallurgy would be pretty heavy on your CPU. You’d be right, sort of. With all features and modulations enabled, Metallurgy consumes nearly 15% CPU on my mid-range Athlon 64 3000+. But

keep in mind you’ll almost never need all these features running at once. For example, a patch using the Metal, Filth 1, and Gate effects uses only 4% CPU. So Metallurgy is very useable on midrange systems with the proper tweaking.

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verall I like Metallurgy a lot. And the budget price only makes it a sweeter deal. I can’t think of a more versatile and useful vst effect for just $20! I have a feeling that if this type of effect was released by one of the big corporate computer music companies we’d be paying $149 or more for Metallurgy and still appreciating its value.

Overall I like Metallurgy a lot.

I

hope you all enjoyed my first plugin review in WSM! Next month I hope to review Chris’ next plugin: Impact. It’s a drumsynth with some very interesting and unique sound possibilities. Until next time, thanks for reading! www.ugoaudio.com (full disclosure: I contributed presets for and beta-tested Metallurgy)

Advertise on our magazine.

Check our prices and options on the following link:

www.Advertise.Wusik.com Wusik Sound Magazine

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by WilliamK

Dynamic Strings - Advanced Level Since most Piano, Guitar and String sounds are too "static". I decided that it was about time to show how you can make a sound more Dynamic.

The new Random Value options on the ModMatrix really helps such tasks.

1

First load up the INIT patch.

2

For this example, we will work with the "Piano Grand.WusikSND" file found under "Wusikstation\Famous Keys\Volume 4\"

4

"Key RND Poly" to "O1 Fine" Amnt 6 "Key RND Poly" to "O1 Filter Freq" Amnt 20 "Mod Env 1" to "O1 Filter Freq" Amnt 127

5 3

Turn Filter 1 On and set Frequency to 10.

Leave the other options untouched.

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Add to the ModMatrix the following:

. Set the Mod Envelope 1 Values to Full (127) Decay and Zero (0) Sustain. Open the Release a bit, around 40. Set Velocity (Vel) to Full (127).

6

Do the same on the Amp Envelope. But set Decay a bit faster, around 100. Leave Vel at Middle.

But change Key S (Keyboard Track to Envelope Speed) to the lowest value. This will make the Envelope act faster on higher Keys. So you also need to set a good range. For this piano, we set Key High 108 and Key Low 36. This way Key S will work better.

9

What happens now is that when you play a key, it will change the Tune and Filter Frequency, very slightly. Making it a more Dynamic sound.

Also, the Filter will act on lower velocities, making the sound less sharp, as it happens on Piano and String sounds. The LFO to Tune will also make the sound drift a bit, for long release notes. Another job of the filter is to close-down slowly, as the sound plays. So if the sample you loaded is short, it will still sound like the string is fading away, not just in volume, but filtering it down close to a sine waveform.

7

Now change the LFO 1 Speed to HZ (V3 only) and speed around 0.132, and add another ModMatrix option. (For V2, just leave the speed at 16/4) "Mod LFO 1" to "O1 Fine" Amnt 6.

10

Finally, this also works with Guitar or any

String sounds. Test it out with another SoundSet. Here's a hint: "Wusikstation\Famous Keys\Volume Plus 1\6str_guit.WusikSND"

8

You will also need to change the type of Modulation Summing for the LFO entree. (V3 only) Set it to Merge with the others. It will still work as a Multiplication Summing, for V2 users.

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by Williamk

The previous issue I was talking about some visionary ideas of mine. One was for a Midi Controller that would work like a "Lego" set, where you could create your own modular box.

EG: 2 Faders, 2 Knobs, 4 Buttons... etc.

A

few days after the issue was out, a user contacted me to say that something like this was already being developed.

A

company named Mawzer has been working on such thing for quite some time. Of course, people said it was never going to be released and started shouting "Vaporware". But that's just not true.

H

ow do I know? I contacted RaphaĂŤl Mouneyres from Mawzer, who gave me some up-todate information.

T

he company is still working on the project, and already created a Working Prototype that was shown at the latest London Calling Fair.

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awzer plans on releasing it by January 2007, maybe even sooner. And I'm very excited about this. Imagine creating your own boxes, with just the stuff you need?

They are working on 2 boxes version: - MAWZER16 : can hold 16 modules - MAWZER32 : can hold 32 modules Planned modules : - POT : 4 potentiometers - FAD : 1 10cm fader - ENC : 4 encoders without led - BUT : 4 illuminated buttons - XFD : 2 illuminated buttons + 6cm fader

The Voices

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ny module combination and position will work, there are no limitations, may you'll want create a mixtable or fill the box with POT modules which gives you 128 potentiometers for the MAWZER32 version. They'll have a growing list of modules once they release it on the market. The MAWZER Box contains electronics for USB (Win/Mac/Linux class compliant) and MIDI in/out/thru connections. The Graphical LCD is used to configure the modules (CC numbers, midi channels..etc), and can generate midiclock or SMPTE timecode. Prices will be confirmed as soon as possible.

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hey are designing it with Live Electronic shows in mind. It means the main target is electronic musicians using Ableton Live, Reason, FruityLoops, ...

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y own idea was that such product could have a modular design size, not fixed like Mawzer is right now. But still, I'm really happy that they are finishing up such incredible product.

For more information, visit: www.mawzer.com Wusik Sound Magazine

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Wusikstation SoundSet Reviews Product Name: MGP-ChordWaves I

by Nucleus-Soundlab.com

by Williamk

N Presets: 101 N SoundSets: 16 MultiSampled: Yes StereoSamples: Yes Wusik Seal of Approval: N Samples: 238 Total Size: 460 Meg Compressed Download: 230 Meg Compatible with Wusikstation V2 and V3.

This is the first set released for the new library called The Musical Genome Project, by Nucleus-Soundlab.com. As stated by the Authors: "MGP concentrates on inexpensive, sub-$30 libraries focused around specific musical themes.

The goal of MGP is high-quality sounds everyone can afford."

My first impression is that this is indeed HQ, with several multi-samples per sound, and large files. Some presets even use more than 100 meg of memory to load. There's one preset that even took 450 meg of Ram, but that was only one. They will put a comment on presets that uses large amounts of memory soon.

There are Basic Low-CPU usage presets, and also Layered ones. An interesting one is the "Resonant Dub Chord", where you can change the Release time and affect the Reverber Decay as well.

ToTc uses the same sound for its preset called "Ambient Dub-FG" that has a more deep sound to it.

Several preset designers contributed to the project: Lance, Rsmus7, Tasmodia, Teksonik and ToTc. (from ToTcProductions.com) This is very usable for pretty much any music style. As it has Pads, Synth-Sounds and Wavesequenced sets.

Installation: Organization: Value for the Money:

Product Page URL: www.nucleus-soundlab.com

Taking to the next level...

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out of five.

by Funky Chicken Dance

W

ho could resist 4GB of classy samples, plus some excellent percussion synths and effects for $50? Associated with a 'lifetime buy' deal, that' s what you can get from Prodyon.de, whose work we've noted here before, in WSM 2.

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vailable in Wusikstation format where applicable, Dennis Lanz's Berlin-based Prodyon is doing what a few other developers have also done: opening up the whole toy cupboard for a fixed one-time payment, and offering future synths, effects and samples as part of the deal. Or at least, until sanity returns.

W

hat do you get here?

P

rodyon's well-regards Spacehawk samples collection, some 23B in size, which originally sold for over $50. Stephan Muesch (rsmus7) helped put together the 250 soundscapes involved.

P

rodyon's Dance Leads and Dance Basses, a Wusik-compatible package we mentioned in WSM2, and which has been advertised in later issues.

T

he Rough Slices Vols. 1&2 packages of mangled drums and loops.

T

wo rompler-style synths: the Mello-D-K Melodica (for that essential reggae/dub sound) and Flamingo, a compact flamenco guitar VSTi.

T

he Robocoder VSTi, a vocoder with male and female voice samples spelling out plenty of useful (and useless) words.

T

he new Randomax drumcomputer, a pretty exciting idea in its own right.

T T

he NADS drumcomputer.

he Ironizer, a clever MIDI-combfilter VSTi.

www.Prodyon.de Wusik Sound Magazine

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Artvera NewAge Collection 50 Extra Presets by Tim Conrardy and Westgate Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Artvera NewAge Collection\User General Midi (GM) Set by Grymmjack.

Edited and Progammed by WilliamK The 1st Volume out of 3.

40 SoundSets - 236 Meg - 40 Presets Location: Presets\Wusik Magazine\GM

Sound

>> 01 - Piano 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008

Acoustic Grand Bright Acoustic Electric Grand Honky-Tonk Electric Piano 1 Electric Piano 2 Harpsichord Clavinet

>> 02 - Chromatic Percussion 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016

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Celesta Glockenspiel Music Box Vibraphone Marimba Xylophone Tubular-bells Dulcimer

Wusik Sound Magazine

>> 03 - Organ 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024

Drawbar Organ Percussive Organ Rock Organ Church Organ Reed Organ Accordion Harmonica Tango Accordian

>> 04 - Guitar 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032

Nylon String Guitar Steel String Guitar Electric Jazz Guitar Electric Clean Guitar Electric Muted Guitar Overdriven Guitar Distortion Guitar Guitar Harmonics

>> 05 - Bass 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040

Acoustic Bass Electric Bass(finger) Electric Bass(pick) Fretless Bass Slap Bass 1 Slap Bass 2 Synth Bass 1 Synth Bass 2

Also, the directory "_All Presets in GM Style" will have all presets in GM Numeric Style. From 001 to 128. If you load a preset from this directory, WS will respond to GM MIDI Program Changes. Plus, on

the last volume, we will include generic GM Drum-Sets.

Extra Sounds for the Acoustic Collection.

Notice: some of those sounds are the same sounds included on the GM Set, but with better programed Presets. The GM presets are more "generic". The Bass and Guitar presets also includes the programing technics explained on the "Creating Sounds Dynamic Strings" Tutorial.

12+ SoundSets - 68 Meg - 20+ Presets Location: Presets\Wusik Magazine\Acoustic Collection\Bass

Sound

Acoustic Bass Electric Bass(finger) Electric Bass(pick) Fretless Bass Slap Bass Bass Collection Worrall)

(by

Daniel

Acoustic Guitar Harmonics (by Daniel Worrall)

Wsm # 005 Sounds Location: Presets\Wusik Magazine\Acoustic Collection\Brass

Sound

Sampled by Tonal Axis. Edited and Programmed by WilliamK

French Horns 01 French Horns 02

Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0005\Tonal Axis ReSynth

French Horns 03 Muted Trumpet 01 Muted Trumpet 02 Trumpet 01 Trumpet 02 Trumpet 03 Location: Presets\Wusik Magazine\Acoustic Collection\Guitar Digital Guitar.WusikPRST

Sound

Distorted

Electric Clean Guitar.WusikPRST Electric Jazz Guitar.WusikPRST Electric Guitar.WusikPRST

28 Stereo SoundSets - 80 Meg 29 Presets

Processed

Nylon String Guitar.WusikPRST SteelProcessed Guitar.WusikPRST Steel String Guitar.WusikPRST Plus, some extra presets by Daniel Worrall using the Famous Keys Sets and the Acoustic Guitar Harmonics sound.

Location: presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0005\Dan Worrall

Angel Strings 1 Angel Strings 2 Arpme Bass 1 Arpme Bass 2 Arpme Bass 3 Big Lead Mono Big Lead Poly Bright Pad 1 Bright Pad 2 Bright Pad 3 Dub Chord 1 Dub Chord 2 Electro Key 1 Electro Key 2 Explorer 1 Explorer 2 Just Cant Get 1 Just Cant Get 2 Leady 1 Leady 2 Scruffy Bass 1 Scruffy Bass 2 See It Lead Mono See It Lead Poly Stabber 1 Stabber 2 Synth 1 Synth 2 The 80's

Tonal Axis ReSynth Set Analog and Digital Sounds for Electronic Music

Waveshaped Team Loops

www.tonalaxis.wusik.com

These loops were made by the "Waveshaped team" for the

24 Meg

WusikMagazine and are part from our upcoming loop project.

For more products and info take a look at http://www.waveshaped.com.

Your music is about to change.

Below is the tempo info for the sliced loops.

Use them creatively and let us know if like them and use them in your music.

For your convenience, along with the loops you will find midi files named after the loops which represent the original loop and variations as well.

3 additional Wusik presets have been constructed using various from the loops below and additional midi files.

Enjoy. Your waveshaped team LOOP NAME / BPM 64ERS / 116 BROTHAZ / 98 DISSONANT / 121 ENCODER / 110 FURIUS / 125 HIPSTER / 124 JACKHOP / 116 LUIS / 132 MAGAZINE / 130 RUSHED / 152 SILENTCLUBBER / 120 Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0005\Waveshaped Team Loops MIDI Files Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0005\Waveshaped Team Loops\MIDI Files

Wusik Sound Magazine

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