Wsm - January 2007 - Issue 009

Sound Magazine www.Wusik.com

January 2007 #009

Sounds Advanced Arpeggiator Presets Autodafe Acoustic Bass HQ Synthetica Vol. 3 WOSCar Set and EM-1 Set

Articles

and much more...

Letter from the

Editor When we started the magazine, we didn't think it was going to be such a success after 9 months! I know that there were times I complained that we could get more subscribers, but to be honest, we got more than we could imagine.

We still have a long way to go, but for a start, this is just perfect. Thanks to all the contributors that help us every month, we were able to continue with the magazine, even without any paidadvertising so far.

So enjoy another magazine that is, once and again, over 50 pages, and has more than 1 Gig of new Sounds.

PS: We still want more feedback, so please, email us at info@wusik.com with your comments about the magazine.

Sound Magazine Editorial: Magazine Layout: MoniKe Editors: WilliamK and MoniKe

WilliamK: Creating Sounds, Getting Started, The Voices and The Synth Romance, Sounds: HQ Synthetica Vol. 3 and Advanced Arpeggiator Presets www.william-k.com

Dilom - aka DamBros: Musical Voyage Special thanks to Claudia Picchi

Antonio Grazioli - aka Autodafe: Oxford Synthesizer Compani - OSCar and Skylife Samlerobot Sounds: WOSCar Set and Autodafe Acoustic Bass www.autodafe.net

Peter 'Ray' Savage - aka Funkychickendance: The Compulsive Tire-Kicker

Zachariah Weckter: Oops, Sequencing Smarts, and Getting Around the Block, Sounds: EM-1 Set www.strict-9.com

Jeremy Janzen: 10 Indispensible Free Softsynths www.nucleus-soundlab.com

Rozzer - aka Rory Dow Original ATC-1 Samples www.rozzer.net

Torben Hansen - aka Metal ATC-1 Sample Conversion and Preset Design www.vibrants.dk www.myspace.com/metalvibrants

WilliamK and MoniKe

Back Cover by Michael Knubben - aka Mighty Pea www.Pea.Sparrowfall.com

Proof-Reading: Bruce David and Peter 'Ray' Savage - aka Funkychickendance

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In This Issue: #009 - January 2007 Musical Voyage

by DamBros

Getting Around the Block

by Zachariah Weckter

Sequencing Smarts

by Zachariah Weckter Creating Sounds Arpeggiator Patterns

by WilliamK

10 Indispensible Free Softsynths

by Jeremy Janzen

Getting Started Optimizing Windows XP for Audio

by WilliamK

Oxford Synthesizer Company - OSCar

by Autodafe

The Compulsive Tire-Kicker

by Funkychickendance and more...

Skylife Samplerobot

by Autodafe

What's On Your Amp

09

Oops...

15

Ask William

39

What's New

39

The Voices

40

Tips & Tricks

47

The Synth Romance

48

Sound List

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Musical Voyage

by DamBros

R

ight in the center of the United States lies the state of Missouri. Two of its cities have burst out of. The state capital, St. Louis, sprawls across the Mississippi River into the state of Illinois. On the western side of the map, Kansas City straddles the Missouri River (a tributary of the Mississippi River), crosses the nearby Kansas River and has a foothold in the state of Kansas.

W

hile traveling from Saint Louis to Topeka, state capital of Kansas, I was listening to an FM radio station which presented music from various countries. Interesting music which helped me endure the exhaustion of the journey under the strong summer sun. Along the way, they played an awesome song. A very Germanic song, interpreted by a singer who was also German, who sang out of tune right through the melody, most probably “overloaded” with beer.

Throughout the whole song he sang higher than the melody, tried to hit the right pitch and then fell below it. Sometimes he sounded frightened, returning to the song, but totally out of tune and rhythm and tried to get back to normal, which he was able to manage for just a couple of moments.

Then he would go on singing very slowly until he stopped, and then yell very enthusiastically (but always out of tune) while pursuing the rhythm.

I

thought I should pay attention and catch the name of the radio station and its call sign, so I could make contact with them to find out the name of the song and the CD it was on. At the exact moment that they were going to say the name of the radio station, a man with a red flag made me stop my car to tell me to be careful as there were doing some maintenance on the road. To hear what he was saying I had to lower the volume of the radio and I accidentally changed station, and couldn’t find it again. Maybe they had changed the program and the host in the meantime.

A

nyway, this incident remained in my mind. The interpretation of the singer was magnificent and it made me laugh a lot during the whole performance.

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Musical Voyage

confusing, with slips and falls, bumping into one another and a terrible fear of being attacked by the dogs. While the original soundtrack proceeds normally, the desperate escape would be represented by dissonant and hilarious sounds that crumple the solemnity intended by the composer.

A

T

oday while working-out on the treadmill and listening to music, I ended up by chance making an analogy between the German guy singing out of tune and what could be done with certain sheet music, if it was rewritten for electronic performances. One of the songs I have in mind is Light Cavalry Overture by Von Suppe, mentioned in another article. I imagine a trail across a prairie where several horses gallop in the direction of some goal, while one of them is constantly trying to escape from the gallop by halting, trotting, in short, getting away from the normal rhythm of the troop. Sounds of neighs and screams would be frequent during the loud parts of the score.

Estudiantina,Waltz, Op.191 by Emile Waldteufel would be a great choice for reorchestration as electronic music. The name which means ‘group of students’ could well be represented by students leaving school with their bicycles and going along a trail making a big racket.

So as to organize this commotion, let’s think of the trail as the principal melody performed by a group of well-behaved sounds, and the bicycles with the cyclists riding in zigzags, leaving the trail, almost bumping each other and the trees around them, making a counterpoint that is not the harmonic tune that everybody expects. The fun, in this case, comes from the unrestrained happiness and vitality of the group.

I

should explain that I don’t imagine the music being played by simulations of conventional instruments, but instead by exotic and humorous electronic sounds: something like the gestures and walk of Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin for example.

S

imilarly, William Tell Overture by Rossini reminds me of a group of adolescents laying under the shade of trees near the margin of a river, lazily silent, after a bath filled of fun and games, watching the falling leaves, the branches floating down the river and the flight of the birds, when all of a sudden, they are surprised by screams and the barking of dogs coming from the house of the gamekeepers. Their escape isfast and

A

good morning, a good afternoon, a good night to all the readers of The Wusic Sound Magazine!

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by Zachariah Weckter

Wusikstation is a powerful tool for use in music production because of its flexibility and high quality sound engine.

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ne of its greatest characteristics is the ability to route several channels through it while controlling each parameter independently. Using this attribute will cut down on precious processor cycles, because you need only use one instance of Wusik for several channels of sound. In this section we will be using Wusikstation as a fully fledged music production system controlled by different channels of the MIDI protocol.

T

he walkthrough that follows has been done in Cubase SX 3. However, most host sequencers will work in pretty much the same manner, and therefore you can use the same procedures with any of the major host sequencers.

I

t's also worth noting here that we are using version 3.0.6 of Wusikstation and Artvera’s excellent black luster skin.

A

ll the files you need are included with this month’s issue, so fire up your sequencer of choice, load an instance of Wusikstation, and let’s get started...

1

With your host open and an instance of Wusik initiated, let’s open up MIDI file A01.mid from the MIDI folder included with this month's issue. If your sequencer does not automatically calculate the BPM you may want to adjust it to 130.00.

2

As you can see, this lays out three MIDI tracks, labeled channel 1, channel 2 and channel 10. These are the channels we will be using with Wusikstation, so right click on Wusik in a non active area and select the ‘config page’ option.

3

In the configuration settings we see 01 in the multi-timbral section has been modified so it is set to midi channel 1, instead of the default "Omni". Similarly, we see 02 has been set to 2, and W1 to 10.

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4

Now it's back to the host to select these channels to route into Wusik.

Set each MIDI track to the channel’s namesake.

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The MIDI file here is the actual MIDI file from the EM-1 factory preset, but of course you can experiment however you like. Try building your own song out of one preset. There are many MIDI files included this month, as well as presets In the EM-1 folder. All the samples in the soundset are from the EM-1.

A

few of the patches included have signature MIDI signals routed to them, to provide different effects and modulation. Try using different MIDI signals to control different parameters in the Wusikstation.

Almost all of these patches have a very low CPU overhead, leaving enough processing power to add effects and other sounds from different instruments.

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Y

ou can use the multi-out version of Wusik to build on top of each of the outputs to get high quality results, as well as use surround panning to place segments in different positions in the room.

I

n most instances the X-Y pad will pan from sound to sound, and by using an external X-y pad controller, you can solo different sections with one slide of a finger.

U

sing these techniques will more than likely provide you with a greater understanding of what MIDI can do for you, and your music.

Enjoy!

What's on

your Amp It amazes me to think how close we can be to some talented people, and we don't ever realize it. As I was browsing Autodafe's site, I saw the links page.

Inside, I noticed a link to another site: Wavewizards.com

Wavewizards

by WilliamK

The site has the complete album for download in MP3 format. The selection is very good, almost amazing at times. Of course, you will get a Chemical Brothers feeling at some random times. But that's a good thing, in my humble opinion.

I really love this album, and I urge users to check this site and download the songs. Maybe with some pressure, we will find the record-deal those artists deserve.

I really love all tracks, but if I had to pick one, it would be: Funky Beat Don't forget to check out the list of members, to see who is behind the group. You will be surprised to see a Wusik member there. (hint: he writes for the magazine and loves old analog synths) Use the contact option to send your comments, they will love to hear from people how good their work is.

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C r e a t i n g

S o u n d s

Arpeggiator Patterns -Advanced-

by WilliamK

Since Version 3.1.0 we have introduced the new Wavesequencer arpeggiator feature.

One of the modes is Pattern-Based.

Where you can actually set how the sequence will use the pressed keys.

We have included several presets with the magazine.

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Arpeggiator Patterns

The first preset we will talk about is "Bass 01".

Here we are only using (Wavesequencer one)

the

Layer

W1.

Arpeggiator mode is ON, and set to Apt (Arp Pattern-Based) When you hold 4 keys at once, each key gets a number, on upwards order. So if you press C1, G1, C2 and G2. They will get ordered just like that: 1=C1, 2=G1, 3=C2 and 4=G2.

You can see that been used by the "Arp Pattern" sequencer lane.

Play 4 keys now, and see how that sounds.

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Arpeggiator Patterns Moving to a more advanced way of sequencing, we present the second preset: "Bass 02".

This time, programed for 3 keys. If you press more than 3 keys, the remaining keys will be ignored.

Now, we add another lane: Arp Step. This tells the sequencer which steps will actually move to the new Arp Key. Steps that has no Arp Step set to MAX (127) will remain on the current key, and will also not retrig the sound.

In this case, since we are using the Pattern mode, Arp Step works just like the Retrigg option.

Play 3 keys and hold it down, you will see how the sequence plays.

You can also make Lead sounds, by using other sounds and changing the pattern a bit.

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Arpeggiator Patterns

Now that you get the whole idea, let's try something even more advanced. Mix the arpeggiator with other options: Volume and Timing.

With Timing, you can make a step hold longer, compared to the others. You may need to adjust the whole sequence lenght, to stay in a 4/4 measure.

Of course, we want more, so how about opening Bass 03 again, and adding more options? Just go ahead and open the final preset, named "Bass 03 drum".

Here we added three new layers. Layer O1 holds a HiHat sound. Layer O2 holds the Snare sound with a filter applied.

On Layer W2 (Wavesequencer Two) we added a Kick and OpenHat sound.

Using the SoundSet lane, we determinate which step will play the kick and which will play the OpenHats.

Also, with the Pan lane, we set the OpenHat to play a bit to the left.

Now, Mod 1 and Mod 2 are used to Trigger the Closed HiHat and Snare sound. By using the ModMatrix, as showed bellow.

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Arpeggiator Patterns

Mod 1 will Synch O1, making it retriger the HiHat sound. Same for Mod 2.

We added an LFO to Filter to make the Snare sound float a bit.

There you go. Its not so hard afterall.

A bit complicated, but with our presets, you can easily change those down to what you want.

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a

few years ago, a close friend commissioned me to build a PC for music recording. He had a thousand dollars to spend, so we headed down to our local computer supply store. We soon aquired all the usual devices for the job, hard drive, motherboard, processor, graphics card, memory, extra fans, etc. We returned to my house, where I began to put everything together and about 45 minutes later, I had assembled one fantasticly sleek looking piece of machinery. I hooked up the monitor and routed the power supply cable to the wall, and hastily hit the switch. The machine whirred to life, all the fans kicked on and all the specially bought LED lights started going crazy, but unfortunately, the processor would not kick over, the hard drive would not spin, and the anticipated click of of the CRT monitor never came. As I sat for a moment, puzzled about

what could have gone wrong, I began retracing my steps.

The processor was seated properly, the RAM was in its proper arrangement, there were no jumpers on the motherboard, so I decided I must have not configured the hard drive jumpers.

I powered off the machine and pulled the harddrive back out, but the jumpers were correctly positioned on the proper pins. I had noticed when putting the mother board in that it hadn't lined up to the opening on the back of the case as expected, but I chalked it up to a cheap case (we had managed to get everything for less than $1,000 american, mind you).

In my frustration, I deemed the motherboard defective, and disassembled everything very carefully. Snatching the reciept, I headed back to the garbage merchants who had sold me that defective merchandise! An hour later, with brand new motherboard in tow, I went back to the task of rebuilding the

machine again, that weird gap was on the back of the case still and the outcome was no different. Back to the store, but with the whole machine this time, I had the tech test it to see where the flaw was. He fired it up to got the same results as I had, and systematically replaced each piece until it HAD to be the motherboard. The tech grabbed a new board & tested it directly on the counter. WHOOSH! went the processor fan and it seemed we had finally got a motherboard that worked.

The tech proceeded to uninstall the motherboard from the case, and quickly brought to my attention that the risers that set the motherboard off the case had not been installed. Boy was I red-faced!!! The machine works flawlessly to this day, with the risers that keep the motherboard contacts from shorting out firmly in place.

by Zachariah Weckter

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Getting around the block

by Zachariah Weckter

Holidays got you down in the dumps?

Keep scrapping everything you start because you feel you’re just not into it?

Writer’s block can set you back on your goals, and it happens to everybody.

Here are ten simple steps to help you get back into the swing of things...

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They don’t call it the “idiot box” for no reason. Scientific studies have proven people who watch too much television have a tendency to be less creative than people who watch less than an hour a day. TIVO all your favorite shows & try not to watch any television for a few days. Odds are those musical ideas will come flowing back in no time.

Getting around the block

Kill your television.

Get out!

Sitting around the house scowling will get you nowhere fast. Take the dog \for a long walk or go hiking or camping. Exercise is not only good for your body, it releases endorphins into your brain that can also ignite your creativity. Maybe bumping into Bigfoot will give you ideas for a new song...

Listen up.

Try listening to a new style or genre of music. Often times we tend to only listen to our preferred style of music, which can close doors when you’re trying to write something that will inspire you to finish it. Any successful artist will admit to having several influences. Besides, it beats trying to fit that recycled MIDI loop into yet another song.

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Getting around the block

Start from scratch.

Delete your factory presets and build your own. This will not only force you to get creative by dabbling in sound design, it will give you a greater sense of accomplishment knowing that your new track was sculpted entirely by you. If sound design is not your cup of tea, try downloading new patches from developer and third party sites. Tim Conrardy has a lot of top quality presets for a variety of synths available for free download, for example, and there are thousands of resources online to find new sounds. Not to mention the presets included with WSM each month...

Break out those reading glasses.

Try reading your preferred style of writing. Books about adventures you will probably never be able to experience first hand can get your mind wandering in the right direction. If you don’t read much, try picking up a magazine about something that interests you. MusicTech magazine and Computer Music are both packed with handy tricks and tips, which may be just what you need to get the inspiration to get going again.

Set a goal.

Set a specific goal and follow through with it, even if you think the result is rubbish. Setting a specific timeframe in which to write a song will push you to get it done. Once the track is complete, move on and do it again. This forces you to start looking at the whole procedure and by the third or fourth time, you will probably be back on track. We tend to sit in one place for far too long tweaking that bass patch trying to get it perfect while the initial ideas fade away.

Once the composition is done, simply go back and do all the fine tuning at the end. Even if you don’t write a hit, you will at least have something to show for it.

Cover your favorites.

Try and copy one of your favorite songs. Chances are you’ll learn something new that can help you define your sound.

Various techniques are used in all kinds of different music.

Trying to emulate a cover of an already written song could start you down different paths you would have never thought of before.

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Try turning off the sound on your favorite movie & writing a soundtrack for it. Focus on portraying the emotions and feel of the movie with your own music. This can help you to add a greater depth and feel to your tracks and evoke more emotion in the tracks you produce.

Change your surroundings.

With the advent of portable music recording becoming more prevalent and affordable, it is becoming easier for us to get out of the house and get really good recordings in various types of environments. If you have a friend who has similar tastes in music try to get them involved. You can bounce ideas off each other: the results can be remarkable.

Getting around the block

Create your own soundtrack.

Get off the grid.

Unplug your phone, turn off all appliances, and sit in the dark.

Society bombards us with so much we tend to have our senses overloaded. Try to listen to the sound of silence and soak in everything for a while. This practice can help you improve focus and get free from all of the advertisements, bright lights and loud sounds you subconsciously have to deal with on a constant basis. Let your mind drift and relax for a while.

Even if you still can’t finish that killer track, you’ll be glad you did.

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Getting Started

by WilliamK

XP is the most stable version of Windows so far, for audio usage. But if you have just installed it, you may need to make some changes to make it really usable.

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There are several sites where you can get detailed information about this process.

One is MusicXP.net.

Here I list the main things you should make sure you do when optimizing your Windows install.

1

Be sure to turn off Themes: From the start button, select Run. Type 'services.msc' in the box and click ok.

From the new window, search for Themes.

Turn this off. (right click on select OFF) This makes the interface looks just like Windows 95. Boring, yes. But it makes the machine run much more efficiently.

2

Turn off all energy saving options. Notice that this doesn't help on all machines. Some machines add extra CPU usage when some of those features are turned on. Also, don't use any kind of screen-saver.

3

Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.

To change this, open the following: Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services.

4

Don't use any background images on the desktop. They can take a lot of RAM to load.

5

Disable System Restore: To change this, open the following: Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > System Restore Tab. Check the "Turn off System Restore on all Drives"

This ‘restore’ feature is only useful when you’re adding new software that you’re not sure about.

6

Disable Disc Indexing According to the XP help dropdown: Indexing Service is a service that extracts the information from a set of documents and organizes it in a way that makes it quick and easy to access that information through the Windows XP Search function, the Indexing Service query form, or a Web browser. This information can include text from within a document, (its contents), and the characteristics and parameters of the document, (its properties), such as the author's name. Once the index is created, you can search, or query the index for documents that contain key words, phrases, or properties.

Indexing is another ‘feature’ added for everyday users who lose things easily.

It’ll do absolutely nothing for your music, and it’s another background consumer of processing power.

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by Jeremy Janzen

At this time of the year, I feel like reflecting a little bit.

By now, the free tools musicians have at their disposal have never been more impressive. I’ve prepared a short countdown of the most useful free softsynths – at least in my productions.

So, in no particular order: 22 Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007

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www.ugoaudio.com/ Standout Features: 2-osc virtual analog; variable pulsewidth; flexible arpeggiator; 2 graphical envelopes; fat modulatable phaser; multiple lfos.

Verdict: This monosynth screams! When you need to reach for a low-cpu bass or arp, Rez 2.0 always fits the bill. The GUI is also one of the best and most stylish out there. One of the outstanding features is the great phaser – which can be modulated by velocity for some unique, moving tones.

www.users.tkk.fi/~ajhuovil/vst.html Standout Features: 4 wavetable oscs; 16 filter modes; graphical, loopable multipoint envelopes; vector mixing pad; individually pannable voices.

Verdict: Augur is a Prophet VS emulation. While it might not be perfect for the most picky VS enthusiasts, for the rest of us it’s an amazing synth full of characteristic 80s sounds.

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www.odosynths.com Standout Features: 9 dual-sample drumpads; 2 single-sample drumpads; 2 synth drumpads; a wealth of inbuilt drum samples + the ability to load your own; 4 different insert FX per pad.

Verdict: Simply one of the best free drumsamplers out there. The 560 built-in drum samples are highly usable – and even if you don’t like them you can load your own samples in. The GUI is a bit busy, but it gets the job done once you get used to it. Worth a serious look!

www.hgf-synthesizer.de Standout Features: 3 PCM digital oscs with 96 waveforms; dual filters; filter FM; shapeable lfos; Transition system; ’lazy’ randomization controls.

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Verdict: An amazing freebie! The pads you can easily create with this are stunning. You may want to purchase the full version which increases the polyphony from 2 to 8 and the internal waves from 96 to 150. Check out the rest of HG Fortune’s great freebie selection too!

www.karmafx.dk/index.html Standout Features: Modular synth capable of virtually anything!

Verdict: Can’t afford Reaktor? Download KarmaFX. It’s possible to do many of the same things with Karma, and for some applications is much easier to use. Truly a great piece of software, give something back to the developer of this ‘donationware’ if you get the chance!

www.soundfonts.it Standout Features: Excellent Rhodes Mark I emulation

Verdict: This Rhodes emulation sounds like it could cost hundreds of dollars. Nope. It’s free!

Give something back to this developer to get the ‘nag-free’ version.

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www.ugoaudio.com Standout Features: Plucked strings oscillators; dual phrase arpeggiators; mutliple filters; dualdelay; special ‘metal’ effect module.

www.geocities.jp/daichi1969/softsynth Standount Features: 2-osc virtual analog; FM, ringmod and sync; multimode filter; unison; arpeggiator;

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Verdict: Easily one of the most original synths out there – String Theory offers up a variety of abstract, otherwordly string tones. This synth is well laid-out for programming, and comes with a nice selection of useful presets to get you started. The Dual Arpeggiators are just the icing on the cake!

Verdict: Not a secret anymore, Synth1 is an amazing Nord Lead emulation. At its core it’s a simple synth, but it’s capable of so much. Now updated with new FX, a ‘supersaw’-type oscillator, and a phaser – while still maintaining its industry-leading CPU efficiency – there has never been a better time to discover Synth1.

And even if you don’t feel like tweaking it, you’ll find 1000s of excellent patches available!

www.buchty.net/ensoniq Standout Features: 3 digital wavetable oscs; analog-modeled –24db filter; 4 envelopes, 3 lfos

www.refx.net Standout Features: 1-osc virtual analog monosynth; single state-variable filter; filter drive; stereo voice spread; unique aliasing tone

Verdict: Ever heard of the Ensoniq SQ80? It was a staple in 80s synth productions – and now its available in free softsynth form! Perhaps its not 100% accurate, but for most of us its plenty close enough. 1000s of patches are available.

Even though most of the sounds are very retro, if you add some modern FX treatment you can create some modern or future-retro stuff that’s incredible!

Verdict: Sometimes the simplest instruments are the most effective. ReFX Claw proves this.

It’s just a very simple VA monosynth, but its raw aliasing tone gives it a character that is very useful in my own music. The unique stereo spread function doesn’t hurt either. With this mode, each note is panned to opposite sides of the stereo spectrum. The only other synth I’ve seen with this feature is the Waldorf PPG. Best suited to biting leads as opposed to bass, you won’t be disappointed with Claw.

I hope you enjoyed the list! Happy New Year! Cheers.

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Oxford Synthesizer Company

ar OSC

by Autodafe

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ar OSC OSCar is maybe one of the world’s most sought after mono-synths (actually it can be set to “duo-phonic”) manufactured by the “Oxford Synthesiser Company” (hence the name OSC-ar).

As stated at the beginning of its Owner’s manual, the philosophy behind the instrument was “to retain the resoultion and powerful sound” of analogue synths in a 'virtually all digital' environment.

It came out quite late, in 1983 and its late arrival makes it one of the more advanced and complete mono-synths of its age.

A Bit of History The OSC Company was founded by Chris Huggett who also started the EDP Project (WASP, the Gnat...). Maybe it was not the right time (just before the advent of MIDI) or maybe the small size of the OSC Company didn’t allow him to compete with the Japanese giants that were about to storm the market in those years...Sadly, OSC ceased to be quite soon and disappeared from the market. Rumors talk about a “poly” prototype of OSCar that never saw the light. The name of his synths seems to be nothing other than the name of the company followed by an “A”, being their first model to be manufactured. The name was probably going to be “OSC-A” and then the last “R” was appended to the name for obvious reasons.

After the release of OSCar and the short life of OSC, Hugget worked on the Akai S1000 and other S-Serie samplers. He was then reported working for Novation on the Supernovas.

but also some special waveforms, which are digitally stored in memory. In case the preset waveforms are not enough for you there’s also the opportunity to program your own.

The synth is officially “registered” as a mono-synth, though it has duo-phonic capabilities, using just one oscillator per voice. One of the most interesting features of the mighty OSCar is its additive-synthesis function in an era in which this kind of synthesis was barely being implemented. It is called “waveform building”, as suggested in the manual, because you can add/remove harmonic content to the original waveforms set of OSC1 and 2. You can mix amplitudes of different kinds of harmonics of the sounds coming from the 2 DCO's by simply pressing a push-button on the front panel and pressing one key on the keyboard. By the way, this is also a very unusual approach to a user Interface: patches, waveforms and other functions are selected in the same way.

Filters Section Tech Talk Has 2 DCO's. Each of the oscillator has different wafeforms to choose from and you can select the octave of OSC2, relative to OSC1 and detune it. There are the usual standard waveforms,

The filter section comes next and it’s the true analog heart of OSCar. It features lowpass, highpass and bandpass filters and the usual frequency cut-off and resonance knobs. There are, however, quite unique features in the filter section.

Actually, it has two 12 db/oct filters that can be “linked” to create a 24 dB/oct filter. The cut-off Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

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ar OSC

frequencies of the two filters are the same, but can be separated with a “separation knob". At full counterclockwise position, the difference in the cut-off frequencies is zero (so, the filters behave the same and LP and HP become 24 dB/Oct). If turned clockwise then the difference in the cutoff frequencies is about 4 octaves. The filter has its own ADSR envelope and can also be modulated by the LFO. The LFO offers triangle, sawtooth, square, and other wave shapes and can also be used to modulate pretty much anything else (Amp, Pitch, or PW).

Another unusual function on OSCar is the built-in sequencer. It can play a sequence using one of the oscillators while the keyboard can be used to play on top of the sequence. It can store up to 22 independent sequences. OSCar also has quite a powerful arpeggiator with an hold function.

Presets and Memory OSCar can store 24 factory presets and an additional 12 user presets. All of the parameters in the patches are saved and recalled when the same patch is loaded again or the synth 30 Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007

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is powered off and back on. A normal thing for now-of-days instruments, but not so common during pre-MIDI years. Patches can be loaded and saved via a cassette tape interface or, on later models, you can also dump/load them via MIDI.

Interface and Controls

OSCar would surely win the contest for the most unusually looking synth of all times.

Big rubber sides, six other rubber chunks to separate the sections on the synth, again, rubber wheels, and a cheesy plastic panel. Not a goodlooking synth, but it’s odd look is nevertheless very different and alternative to the usual wooden panels/black metal paradigm of analog synths. At least you can clearly recognize it even from far away!

Its rubber “bricks” may not be the most beautiful of all sidepanels, but they surely saved more than one unit after falling down from stands or from damages of live usage! And they are also quite confortable to rest your wrists on while playing or editing patches.

OSCar is certainly a tweaker’s delight synth. It has lots of knobs for the various parameters, push buttons, and pitch bend and mod wheels.

ar OSC

MIDI Heaven Later models of OSCar were equipped with MIDI. MIDI technology appeared in 1984, right after the fisrt OSCar's left the factory, and some of the units were MIDI retrofitted (or properly installed). Some MIDI revisions of OSCar are told to be quite buggy or not completely working/implemented. For what it is worth, on my unit I am able to load patches and to play notes from an external sequencer, and that is a really nice thing to have!

OSCar Clone So far, there has been one very good VSTi software emulation of the original beast, which is G-media ImpOSCar...what to say...of course (I don't understand this phrase). It’s a plugin, of course, so it’s not the same thing as the original synth. But nevertheless it is still one of the top 10 (or 5) rated VST plugins of all times (see KVR ratings for example).

It has all the features of the original. It can load original patches and offers additional benefits like polyphony, a programmable matrix, 9 filter types, lots of patches and aftertouch, and so on. I am not always a fan of VST re-surrected synths, but I think that in this case G-Media and all the involved sound designers (among them also one of the original OSCar programmers) have done a very good job.

A Collector’s Item

OSCar is quite hard to find and, as with almost any old synth, it often needs some work. The estimate of the number of synth's which left the factory is around 2000. Although it’s nearly impossible to get a precise number, this figure qualifies it as “highly collectable”. (I don’t know about others but mine has a “SN0758” written with a pencil on the wooden panel on the bottom...strange enough.)

If you are shopping for OSCar be prepared to shell out quite a big sum. They are usually seen flying well above 1000-1200 euros, even rising to 18002000 for “as-good-as-new” MIDI units. Different prices can of course depend on condition and on MIDI installation.

Conclusion

A super-synth with lots of features and character. Grab one if you find it!

Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

31

The Compulsive Tire - Kicker: In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds

by FunkyChickenDance

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In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds I’m not the multicultural politically correct type, but I find the standard convention about what is (and isn’t) ‘ethnic’ in music circles rather funny. To some Wusikstation owners, dobro or pedal steel guitar would count as an ethnic sound. Certainly if you lived in Tokyo or Bangkok, but even in Vienna. And I even know New Yorkers who feel that way, too.

Nevertheless, it’s a conventional that most ‘Western’ instruments are not ‘ethnic,’ except those used in ‘folk music,’ while all instruments – folk, classical, stringed, blown or percussion – from anywhere else are. I’ll use that convention in this article, even though it is fundamentally half-baked.

It was Louis Armstrong who said:

“All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.”

He’d probably have said something equally pithy about the ‘ethnic’ label.

E

lectronic musicicians, VSTi people, whatever we call ourselves, are forever on a quest for both novelty and authenticity.

Synthesis gives us plenty of the former, and none of the latter. Sampling can give us both, and Wusikstation can allow us to mix them up and produce whatever we please. Grab ethnic sounds, and you’re even further down the road of evolution.

I

f there’s a problem in this simple statement, it’s to be found in the limited supply of budget-priced ethnic sounds. Over the past year or so, I’ve been on the trail of affordable options. It’s not been easy.

T

he high-priced end of ethnic sounds is well taken care of: 35GB of Colossus samples cover a lot of ground (and at $995 list, they should). And the $250 Swarplug package nails down Indian music (Northern and Karnatic) very well, with nearly 50 instruments running through a Linplug GUI. But what options are there for the newcomer, the non-professional and the two-digit spender?

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In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds

T

F

or a while, Wusikstation users were promised a tailored ethnic package called Ethnocentric from BITR, but it has never materialized. So, there are two courses of action open to us. One is to find good quality samples and layer them up and process them in Wusikstation. The other is to find affordable simulations of reasonably high authenticity.

Let’s try the simulations first:

T

o my ears, at least, a range of compact VSTis offered free of charge by Safwan Matni fulfils pretty much any Middle Eastern musical itches I’ve been having. And by that term, I mean music from anywhere between Morocco and Iran.

I’ve been a fan of Algerian rai music for about ten years now, and would particularly recommend the CDs of Khaled as a good introduction by a crossover artist, with strong Western appeal. But there is truly amazing Turkish, Lebanese, Egyptian and Saharan music to be found.

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he key sound in this type of music, to my ears, is the Oud. Instruments vary, but this is essentially a jumbo-sized fretless lute with a lot of resonance, a bass and baritone range, and rather little sustain. Safwan Matni’s version is remarkable, and its tuning can be tinkered with to produce the idiomatic scales used in Arab music, featuring quartertones in places. Similarsounding, but more pianistic, is Kanun.

T

hen there’s a real piano, Prova, which has a grand piano sound. There’s also Le Piano, delivering a straightforward upright instrument kind of sound, both with a tiny footprint. There’s an electronic organ – Organ – that adds quartertone possibilities to your mix. A simpler organ named ELROG is also available.

While ‘Western’ flutes and reeds tend to

be pastoral, those from this region can be as funky as a Hendrix guitar, braying and shrieking.

Think of the Indian shenahai. A classic from this collection is Zourna, which has what one might call a ‘snakecharmer sound.’ A second recorderlike flute with a lot of character is Nay.

In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds I

n rather the same way that Indian music adopted the Western harmonium, Arab music uses a great deal of Accordion. There’s a version of this mainstream instrument in the Safwan Matni collection, which I’ve messed with occasionally. I’m a major fan of the highly flexible Peti, however. But for a freebie, you can’t fault his offering.

Another oddity of this school of music is

the sudden short swoops of orchestral strings that punctuate more elaborate arrangements, rather like those we are used to hearing in Bollywood music. You can concoct your own version if you own some elaborate orchestral package, with a bit of thought. But Safwan Matni has done the work for you with the recently released Kamanjat, which allows you to ornament your music with these distinctive sobs, sighs and punches. For more conventional purposes, there’s a very simple vintage string synth called Strings.

If you’re looking for percussion, there’s

an eight-drum kit spanning about five octaves with a variety of sounds, under the name Takim.

B

rand new is Baglama+, which I understand to be a Turkish guitar-like instrument.

I predict you’ll like it…it sounds like a harpsichord through a fuzzbox, or maybe an over-tensioned twelve string.

So, who is this guy? He tells me that he’s

Syrian, living in the US for 11 years now. Although he was trained as a dentist, he works full-time as a musician. ” I play now middle eastern music, but have been in jazz bands, ensembles, even in a rock band. I am a music lover. I play many instruments, and had extensive education in music and – guess what? – electronics.” He worked for Emagic Inc. in California, but is now in Chicago.

A

nything new coming along? He says: “My main project would be a sampler with easy access quarter-tone control. Now I am doing what I feel may make a nice addition to someone's recording instruments.”

T

he only way you might go about supplementing these truly excellent sounds would be by acquiring a mountain of drum samples, to cover the percussion end of the spectrum a little better. The excellent DVD collection by the late Romanian percussionist Doru Malaia certainly fulfilled this purpose, but has recently become unavailable. A skinny version is sold by Samplefusion for $29 as Superdrums 8000 (690 MB). I’ve mostly run it through the DirectWave sampler, but the idea of using the samples in Wusikstation or VSampler is also very appealing.

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In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds

At

the affordable price range in drum machines, NUSofting’s DK+ has a fairly cheap add-on pack of ethnic drums. NuSofting has two instrument simulations – EMM Knagalis and Marimka – that shouldn’t be missed. Knagalis is based around a small collection of samples, but does astonishing things with them. If you’re looking for totally bizarre bagpipe sounds from every region you can imagine, this is where you go. Equally, it features other drone instruments: sitar, oud, etc. Not to be missed. Marimka is a clever synth that is hard to characterize: I always think of it as the synth that produces every kind of musical ‘bonk’ sound. From gamelan music through marimba, it can produce interesting renditions of real and imaginary instruments.

F arther East I

f your tastes are more traditionally oriental, you can’t do much better than the series of Chinese classical instruments offered by Kong Audio. They’re not cheap at all, but they are of remarkably good quality and flexibility, and based on excellent samples. If you only want one or two voices, these are a good bargain. There are two freebies that are not to be ignored: MiniErhu (a distinctive Chinese bowed instrument, whose tone ranges from violin-like to weird) and MiniDiZi (a nice-sounding flute). More elaborate versions of both exist, too.

O

f the other instruments, the ChineePipa should be very attractive to guitar lovers – it’s a distinctive Chinese lute, found all over popular and classical music. I also love ChineeGuZheng, an aggressive-sounding Chinese zither.

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I

’m going to pass over the high-priced collections of digital samples of ‘ethnic’ instruments – there are many of them – in favor of some lower-priced options. I’ve found that if you want a Turkish saz, you may have to pay up to get it. Same goes for many other rare instruments. For example, I’d love to find some good samples of Okinawan instruments, but I’m not willing to stump up $99 to do so.

In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds I

’m not 100% convinced that a didgeridoo is strictly a musical instrument, but the Australian aboriginal vocalizable drone is pretty popular, and understandably so. An excellent, huge collection of different types has been put together by Ralph Hermann. His site – didgeridoo-samples.de – also has very nice sounding Irish bodhran hand drums, a wellsampled marimba and the versatile Udu clay drum, a West African specialty that is as useful and expressive as the Indian tabla.

F reebies I

f you keep your eyes open, there are plenty of opportunities to grab occasional small packages of ‘ethnic’ material on the web, free. But that’s a hard way to build up a collection, if you’re as impatient as I am…One fine resource I stumbled across a few months back was the Rotterdam-based Marsudi Raras, with a complete collection of Indonesian gamelan instruments.

I

confess that, having backed into electronic music via the long route, I have quite a few Sony (or Sonic Foundry) loop collections that feature WAV one-shots of many ethnic instruments. Someday, I’ll consolidate them all into a single folder. You can often pick up these collections very cheaply on eBay.

I

’ll leave you with the following provocative thought: while it’s tempting to grab ethnic sounds and slip them into conventional pop, or at least Western, music there is also an interesting intellectual challenge in trying to follow where these instruments can lead you. Examples are quarter tone intervals, non-standard tunings and scales, challenging polyrhythmic patterns and other concepts that are away from the mainstream.

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In Search of Budget Ethnic Sounds Market Challenge A

re there market opportunities for sound designers in the ethnic area? Oh, you bet. I’m surprised that more of the Wusik developers aren’t exploring the idea. The possibilities for ambient and rhythmic music are endless.

Links:

A

nd I’ll leave you with a question. Or market opportunity, who knows? Why is it so difficult to find really excellent tambourine samples? I’m not kidding…if you want to produce Sixties music, or old Motown sounds, you end up layering and double tracking and compressing the poor quality ‘jingle bells’ stuff to get a halfway decent sound. My inner Phil Spector cries out for a small bank of monster tambourine presets! No more evolving pads until there’s a good tambourine bank, I say…

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www.smatni.tripod.com/safwanmatnivstplugins/ www.marsudiraras.org/index.html www.didgeridoo-samples.de/html/main.html www.chineekong.com/

?

??

??

Ask WilliamK ?

"On the last issue you mentioned that you love adventure games. You even tried to make one years ago. Care to show some screenshots of it, and also talk a bit more about it?"

The whole game was done with Delphi 1.0, also known as Windows Pascal for some coders. The main problem is that I had to rely on free libraries to code the project. Those were full of bugs. Specially the sound library. I also had one that handled the JPG files, and could do that famous "Myst" fade-in/out effect from one picture to another.

What's New @ Wusik

!!

!

! !

"Wusikstation V3.1.0 Release"

By the second week of January, we will be releasing a major Wusikstation update.

This will be Free to all V3 users.

This update will include several features and important fixes.

new

- New Studio Verb licensed from Anwida. A 64 bits HQ engine. With 3 different versions from us: Lite, Echo and Quad. Those are WusikEFX files that can be loaded and used as internal effects. (just like all other Wusikstation effects) - All the MDA VST effects where converted to WusikEFX files, so you can use those inside Wusikstation as well.

- New Wavesequencer options: Arpeggiator and Gate. Now you can do complex motion sounds with those new features. The Gate option allow to make precise volume-cuts, like the famous Trance-Gate effects. The WSeq Arp let you add advanced Arpeggiator sounds inside each Wavesequencer Lane. (W1/W2)

I create all the graphics with 3D Studio for DOS, I think it was the very first version. It may look crappy now, but more than 10 years ago they were incredible.

The songs I did with an Ensoniq TS-10 keyboard, and several samples by RubberChicken. (now known for the Translator program) You can see more screenshots and even some wav files at: http://wusik.com/images/old-game-96/ Work and UNI took all the time I got to work further and I couldn't invest on better libraries. So I had to drop it. But it impressed several people at that time.

! !

- Several bug fixes and new improvements.

One is the ability to use the Mod-Envelopes to Master-Filters, not possible previously.

"The Ultimate Wusikstation Group-Buy" And the Special Wsm Offer

We extened the GB until January 28th. So far, we already passed 150 users, and are almost on the 200+ mark.

The Wsm Free V4 Update offer was also extended until that date.

For more information, visit: www.wusik.com/w/wsgb.html

!

Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

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s a e d i y r a n Visio K m a i l l i W by M

aybe I'm dreaming, but what if we had one, and only one wire, attached to the wall?

A

s I was looking at my computer wiring, trying to organize that mess, I wondered: what really happened to the wireless computers we were promised years ago?

I

know, we got Wi-Fi Internet and Blue-Tooth, but really, that's about it. My mouse has no wires, but the receptor does, and it needs to be close to the mouse. Humm, that's not really wireless. It’s just adding a small gap from the mouse to the main unit. The wire is still there.

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I

remember when I saw the very first iMacs. It sounded like only one USB cable would go from the computer to the keyboard. And there, a small hub could connect the same to the mouse. That was already insane. No speakers cables, no transformers, no mess. Just one power cable, and one single cable going to the keyboard and ending at the mouse. What happened to that?

The Voices N

ow I have one cable for the keyboard, one for the "wireless" mouse. One for my USB Midi Controller.

One for my Tablet device. One for the speakers. Another for the printer. Yet another cable for my new Nokia Mobile.

Not to count the monitor, external HD and network cables. (yes, no Wi-Fi here)

I

read somewhere that developers are working on wireless chargers for the mobiles. That's just great. Maybe it would be great if they design one that doesn't need to be "glued" to the actual device, so it can actually work. (At least, as far as I could tell from the article I read)

I

wonder how much energy could be pulled out from all the radio and electromagnetic fields around the house. Maybe the solution is there alone?

H

ow about a clean battery system, that would use compressed air to store energy. It may sound strange, but it’s rather simple. Of course, the device would have to be safe, so it doesn't explode. But we are talking about air here, it can't do much damage. It could pop, but as long as the cylinder is not made of something fragmentable, it should still be safe.

W

hen energy is required, the device would start to release the air, and this would pass through several air-dynamos. Those would convert this motion into energy.

N

ASA always has the cool stuff. I hear that they already use a new battery concept but it’s very expensive. It uses very small radioactive elements, that are safely encapsulated, but yet, output enough energy to power small devices. But it’s not rechargeable.

I

f power is the real drawback for a true wireless experience to happen, we may be getting near a solution soon. But again, people are still a bit scared of Wi-Fi being poorly protected. And they should be. I don't want my mouse to get hijacked by my neighbors

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41

Skylife

Samplerobot

How to make a Wusikstation soundset

by Autodafe

As some of you may have noticed, there’s a nice little app that’s been around for quite some time now, called Samplerobot. It claims to be able to do "automatic sampling of real instruments", and to recreate your favorite hardware synth in (software) sampled form.

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I recently had the opportunity to test it and I have really been impressed by Samplerobot’s capabilities and quick results.

This little app is able to do almost everything on its own, from sampling an instrument, playing all the required notes and velocities, recording them and autolooping/crossfading them if necessary.

Follow me in a basic step-to-step tutorial. We will sample a very old analog synthesizer (the yamaha CS-10 that was featured in my last month’s article) and make it available as a Wusik preset in few simple stages.

Skylife Samplerobot First, we have to set-up Samplerobot to work correctly.

You need to set-up MIDI In and MIDI Out correctly. MIDI In should be set to your Master Keyboard Interface and Channel (or, you can play notes with your mouse on the on-screen keyboard).

MIDI Out must be set to your synth MIDI Interface and Channel in order to play it. The program has a nice MIDI In Monitor which allows you to see what’s going on when you hit one key on your Master Keyboard.

If you have done everything correctly you should be able to hit keys on your Master keyboard and hear your synth playing its sounds.

In my case (see Screenshot 1) I have set both MIDI In and Out to my Delta AudioPhile 192.

MIDI in is connected to my Master Keyboard, while MIDI Out is connected to a Kenton Pro-Solo to control the Yamaha CS-10.

The second thing to do is to set "Audio In" and "Audio Out" devices. It’s critical to set Audio In to the Audio Input that will be used for recording the synth’s output. Also, you have to select the "Audio Format" to be recorded. You have the option to choose quality as high as 192Khz, 24 Bit Stereo, if your soundcard supports it. There’s a very handy peak meter to adjust volume of your synth for optimal recording levels.

Audio Out will be used only after the instrument has been sampled, to playback WAV Files.

In this example I have set my AudioPhile 192 to its digital S/PDIF Ins and Outs. They are both connected to my Yamaha 03D mixing desk, so that recording happens in the digital domain, but you can of course use analog connections.

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Skylife Samplerobot Once all is configured correctly you can start your first sampling project.

You can set up how many notes you want to sample, by simply selecting one of the "standard" keyboard lengths (for example 49,61, 76 or 88 keys, or drag the selector to your desired custom length) and how many of these notes you want to be sampled. You can sample all the notes in the range or you can define the "step" increment to be used when sampling. In Screenshot 2 I have chosen to use a "step" of 4, meaning that a new note will be sampled every 4 semitones.

Other important things to set up are the length of the notes to be sampled. You can set "Note Length" (how long Samplerobot will keep playing each note) and "Rel Length" (how long it will record after the note has been released).

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If the sound you are sampling needs to be looped (like a lead sound or a pad) then you can set Samplerobot to "Autoloop", and additionally to Xfade the Loop. If you choose Autolooping, you have some other important options. You can define the "Loop-Search length", which is the maximum length (in percentage, relative to the whole sample) of the loop to be created. I have found it quite practical to set it to 5%. Also, you can define the "Loop in/Loop Search in", which specifies where Samplerobot should search for the best looping option.

Depending on the sound you are sampling, you can set it up like I did in the screenshot below from 40% to 60%. This means that samplerobot will search for loop points starting from 40% of the total length of the sample to 60% max.

Skylife Samplerobot You can of course set other options (like X-fade length and its type), send different kinds and values of MIDI CC, and set up a multisample set (to sample sounds at different velocity for example) but I want to keep it quite simple right now.

Once all has been set you are ready to sample your synth! Just press the "REC" Button, then "Start recording" and the process begins.

Samplerobot will start playing the first note you selected, will hold it for the number of seconds you have set, then release the note. It will then pause (usually for 3 seconds, but you can change it),

proceed to the next note to be sampled, and so on until the last note has been played and sampled.

You can leave your room or studio, have a coffee or smoke a cigarette because Samplerobot is taking care of everything at this stage.

After the samples have been created you are ready to export them. Exporting is maybe the easiest part of the game. Simply click the "Import/Export" menu and then you can select different formats to be exported, among them some of the most popular ones, including WAVs, SoundFont2 and of course, Wusikstation!

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Skylife Samplerobot Let’s select the Wusikstation format. Now we can choose which settings we want to export. As an example, you can change the sampling rate (from 11.025 Khz to 192,000 KHz), the "Bit depth" (8, 16 or 24, but not in the case of Wusikstation which has

its own sound format) and which channel to export.

You can select Mono (a mix of L and R if you made a stereo sample) or just one of the two channel to be then loaded in WusikStation.

This will result in one (or two in the case of stereo) .WusikSND Files. Just launch WusikStation, load the files in the O or W "Oscillators" ‌.and happy preset making! Now you can see how easy it is to sample external hardware synths and export them to Wusik or other formats. Samplerobot is a really revolutionary tool for the sound designers and the software-based sample-makers out there. It will certainly save hours and hours of work needed to sample, loop and convert samples in different formats.

Samplerobot comes in two flavors, a full version and a "Samplerobot Essential" version, with limited functionality (no 24 bit support, no MIDI CC, no MIDI Monitor...) , at a much reduced price.

Check out the demo at www.samplerobot.com. At the time of writing Skylife is offering a Promotional 10% discount on its products.

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Wusikstation V3 TT ii pp ss

&TT rr ii cc kk ss

Now that we got even more features out, you may wonder where can you see those in actual usage, right? Open the presets folder called "Beta V3 Presets", inside you will find several presets showcasing the new features. You can even load some of the new ARP presets and just change the sounds to something else.

"I got tons of SoundFonts (SF2) files that I wished I could use inside Wusikstation. Is there an immediate solution for this?" Yes, Extreme Sample Converter (EXSC or ESC) and aWave will read several formats, including SF2, and output to the WusikSND format. ESC will even output a Preset file along the sound file. (WusikPRST)

by WilliamK

www.extranslator.com/ www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html

"Can I control the Master-Filters with the Mod-Envelopes?" Yes, since V3.1.0 you can. But mind you that the Master-Filters are Mono and Fixed to Parallel-Processing. If you set all layers to One Voice (Mono Mode) it will work better. Otherwise, it will always read the last voice envelope. Also, mind you that it will only work if you have Layer O1 activated. (for internal coding reasons)

Companion PreOrder now and save 50% Three new Tools for Wusikstation V3 - Sample Editor - Sample Converter - Multi Preset VSTi Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

47

The Synth Romance

by WilliamK

48 Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007

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The Synth Romance

I just got myself an old sound-module, and I was thinking: How good it is to be in the new VSTi era.

This unit I’m looking at has a two-line LCD screen, where you edit all the synth parameters. It’s very tedious; I can't believe I programmed synths this way almost a decade ago.

Using a mouse is so much easier. You get more quickly to the areas you want, flip pages back-andforward. All in a heartbeat.

But what about those who still need to use such hardware units? As I need to program this device, I wondered if there was a software program that would perform such a task.

SoundQuest came to mind. Browsing the company site, I see they’ve introduced a new Midi Quest software.

Now we are talkingI Much easier to edit that old thing. Actually, it’s not that old, it’s just that the whole market changed so much after the introduction of VSTs. Midi Quest sure helps a lot, I can see all parameters and options right on the screen.

It’s like 20th Century meets The New Millennium.

Now if I could only get rid of the MIDI cables and audio interface, and replace both with a single USB cable. I guess that's talk for another column...

Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

49

HQ Synthetica Volume 3

EM-1 Set

by WilliamK - www.william-k.com

by Zachariah Weckter

This is the third volume of our special High Quality (HQ) Synth Sounds. (check issue #007 for detailed information) 10 SoundSets - 338 Meg - 35 presets

Check out the "Sequencing Smarts" article for detailed information about this set

Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\HQ Synthetica\Volume 03

Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0009\EM-1

WOscar Set

50 Synth SoundSets + 26 Drum Kits + 144 WAV Drum Sounds - 750 Meg - 52 presets

Advanced Arpeggiator Presets

by Autodafe - www.autodafe.net 14 SoundSets - 34 Meg - 14 Presets

by WilliamK - goes with the Creating Sounds Arp Article

Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0009\WOscar

This set uses the sounds from the WOscar Set

dBu Select

by John @ Dangerous Bear Underground www.dangerousbear.com 55 SoundSets - 370 Meg - 28 Presets Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0009\dBu Select

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Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0009\Advanced Arp

Acoustic Collection

ATC-1 Bass Collection

This collection was started some issues ago, but

99 SoundSets - 45 Meg - 115 Presets

we are slowly adding more sounds to it.

You don't need previous issues to use this sounds.

Acoustic Stereo Piano - 2 SoundSets (L and R) - 64 Meg - 1 Preset (dynamic) Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Acoustic Collection\Piano\Acoustic Piano.WusikPRST

Autodafe Acoustic Bass - 3 SoundSets - 25 Meg - 4 Presets Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Acoustic Collection\Bass\Acoustic Bass 2*.WusikPRST

Those samples were originally created by Rozzer (aka Rory Dow) www.rozzer.net Torben Hansen (aka Metal) got the Author's permission to convert the samples to the WusikSND format.

He also created 105 presets for Wusikstation. www.vibrants.dk www.myspace.com/metalvibrants Location: Presets\Wusik Sound Magazine\Issue 0009\ATC-1 > Note about the Installer, this set is included with "Updates" - so its not listed as "ATC-1" on the main listing.

Just be sure to check Updates or use the Full Install option to have this set installed.

Wusik Sound Magazine January 2007 #009

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