October 2011 by Wusik Dot Com

Special Wusik Edition October 2011

Editorial

Wusik Sound Magazine www.wusiksoundmagazine.com Special Wusik Edition - October 2011 Managing Editor: MoniKe Assistant Editors: Johnathan Pritchett - aka Trusty A. Arsov Production Manager: MoniKe Articles by: A. Arsov www.arsov.net Adrian Frost - aka anzoid www.anzoid.com Ben Paturzo - aka Astrin www.benpaturzo.com Dave - aka dmbaer David Keenum david@wusik.com Jay - aka LeVzi www.soundcloud.com/levzi Jeffrey Powell jsp_wsm@yahoo.com Tomislav Zlatić http://bedroomproducers.wordpress.com bedroomproducers@gmail.com WilliamK

Proof-Reading by: Adrian Frost Ben Paturzo Jeffrey Powell Dave - aka dmbaer Tomislav Zlatić

EVE’s Advertising: Henry Gibson Cover, Backcover and some Pictures from: www.dreamstime.com

Welcome to our first ever Wusik Special. As well as all of the usual stuff that you've come to know and love, we're taking an in-depth look at a number of different Wusik products and projects. Wusik Specials are going to be a somewhat regular event; our goal is to help you get the best from Wusik Station, Wusik EVE, and all the other bits and pieces that go to make up the Wusik Empire. You also get to find out about our resident mad genius (and Emperor?) William K. And lest we forget, check out the first article of this issue and read all about the Heart of Wusik, the delightful and colourful Monike. On a personal note, although I've only been writing regularly for Wusik Sound Magazine since May of this year, I had the honour of being one of Wusik's first writers. Way, way back in May 2006, I got the chance to investigate Wusik Station version 2 and write a "getting to know you" article. For this issue that article has been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world, spruced up, and given a new lease of life. There is also an additional look at the current version of Wusik Station. Wusik Station has certainly matured. I’m not sure if I can say the same thing about me. One of the great things about writing for Wusik Sound Magazine is that we get to look at tons of new and cool music software. In the issue, we take a new look at Artvera's "Drumatoxin" sound library, a first look at Audio Damage's "Phosphor" Vintage Digital Polysynth, and LinPlug's brand new "Relectro" effect. There are also two new kids on the block kHs "ONE" and Dmitry Sches' "Diversion" - that we get to go "ohh" and "ahh" over. We don't limit ourselves solely to plug-in synths and effects. This issue also features a review of Presonus' "Studio One". Ben Paturzo's the one getting his head round all that Studio One has to offer. Is that all? By no means! One of the suggestions that have been made by you, our readers, is more content focused on the overall music scene. So this month Ben has polled all of the WSM "staff" and pulled together a huge article on software piracy. It'll take a while to read, but it's worth the effort. We also have an interview with Rob Mitchell - the first in a new series featuring Wusik Label Artists. It's a great way to find out about new music and see what people are producing using Wusik products. Jeffrey Powell is the brains behind this new series, and it looks like he's got a whole host of other people lined up for future issues. OK, that's probably enough from me. I was asked to write the editor's letter, not an essay! Adrian Frost Enjoy!

Some of the products reviewed in Wusik Sound Magazine are copies provided free of charge for reviewing purposes.

Trusty

A. Arsov

MoniKe

Table of Contents Table of Contents

Special Wusik Edition 04

Getting to know you... From Wusik Station V2 to Wusik Station V6 by Adrian Frost

Secrets of Wusik Station by dmbaer

Meet Wusik Label! by Jeffrey Powell

Meet Wusik Label Artist: Interview with Rob Mitchell by Jeffrey Powell

Beat 707 by Ben Paturzo

The Heart of the Wusik Sound Magazine by Ben Paturzo

Piracy

Creating Sounds: FM Synthesis 62 Part 2 - Basic Synthesis and a bit of practice by Adrian Frost Reviews: 67 I Love You, Arduino by WilliamK

Artvera - Drumatoxin by A. Arsov

Nucleus Sound Lab Roundup by David Keenum Ben Paturzo Jeffrey Powell

Tutorials: Purple Dubstep Bass 34 with Wusik EVE by Tomislav Zlatic

103 by Ben Paturzo and WSM Staff

Focus On: Evil: 22 WilliamK by Evil Ben Real: 26 WilliamK by Ben Paturzo

Dmitry Sches' "Diversion" & KiloHearts' "kHS ONE" by Adrian Frost Hot Stuff: Linplug relectro by Adrian Frost

EVE comes of AGE by LeVzi

Destroy the Melody with Wusik Station by LeVzi

Thank You by the Wusik and Wusik Sound Magazine Team

I Hate You, Arduino by Not William

PreSonus Studio One by Ben Paturzo

Brazil Chillout - Sound Garden by Ben Paturzo

Audio Damage Phosphor by Ben Paturzo

Adventures In Capitalism: 96 Steve Jobs by Ben Paturzo

Mini Review: MeldaProduction 100 Free Audio Effects - Part 3 by Adrian Frost

Getting to know you... From Wusik Station V2 to Wusik Station V6 by Adrian Frost

Back in May 2006 I contributed my first ever article to a music magazine Wusik Sound Magazine, Issue 1. Shortly after submitting that article, a close friend died and any desire I had to produce music fell by the wayside. I deleted all of my music software, including Wusik Station and it was only recently, since joining up again with William and the gang, that I've taken another look at Wusik Station. Anyway, that original article was about version 2 of Wusik Station. For this special issue of WSM that is particularly focused on Wusik products, I suggested that I drag out the old article, spruce it up a bit and add something about where we are now, five years later. I'm therefore going to be looking at the current version of Wusik Station, as of September 2011. So, to begin with, let’s look at Wusik Station V2 from 2006. I'll leave you to imagine your own wavy lines as we move back in time… First of all, a confession: I'm a beginner, a noob, or a newbie. Until now, synths, LFOs and waveforms have been something of mystery to me. I've been a musician for going on 20 years - if playing the trumpet when you were 12 counts. Until June 2005,

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my music was all decidedly analog bass, electric, and acoustic guitars in various bands and situations. The trumpet never did last - I used to go bright red when I played and that is so not cool. In 2005, I got bitten by the bug for computer music. Noteworthy Composer provided my starting point, but MIDI through the Microsoft GS wavetable Software Synthesizer was less than satisfactory. Even the Yamaha S-YXG50 soft synth didn't give me what I was looking for. That's when VSTs became an issue and an interest. Cubasis 5.0 (Cubase's little brother), followed by energyXT, became my playground. So, like all addictions, it started simply enough - a bit of MIDI here, a host there, a VST when no one was looking… the usual path. Now my hard drive is littered with almost finished

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tracks, half-finished tracks and musical sketches. But I'm happy. After a while you tend to seek out others with the same addiction - not for help to kick the habit… more for help in doing things the best way, finding the next hit. KvR is an addict's

paradise and that's where I learned of Wusik Station, amongst others. So where's this all going? WilliamK asked me if I would be interested in contributing to the new Wusik Sound Magazine. Nice opportunity… but I know nothing, or at least not much. So I offered this article: Getting to know you… Wusik Station V2. It's a beginner's look at this VSTi - first impressions and the like. One of the first things that you notice when running a new VST for the first time is how it looks. Not that it's about looks… but it does make a difference. Wusik Station in its grey and red skin is business-like, nothing too flashy but certainly not boring. If and when you get bored with the default skin there are others to choose from - right click just about anywhere in the VST's window or click the "Wusik Station" logo text to get the configuration dialog. Down at the bottom is a "skins" option - go wild. There are some nice additional skins available from the Wusik

website too: They are the heart of Wusik http://www.wusik.com Station. Just below is a red bar, Running the skins .exe (setup) divided into three sections, that file will put things in the right shows the current contents of places. So everything is looking each O (or Osc, or oscillator if nice… how about some sound? you decide to go read the Being new to Wusik Station, manual - helpful but not the first temptation was to essential at this stage). To the simply click around and see left is the name of the what happened. That’s fun but soundset being used. Then ultimately not greatly there is a graphical productive. What you do learn representation of the sound is that you can get a good and finally, on the right, the sound out of Wusik Station name of the preset. Each very quickly just by choosing oscillator is independent and one of the available presets. As can have its own soundset. you swap presets you notice things change - sliders move, One thing I discovered knobs turn - fine. More reasonably early is that clicking importantly, the lights above either the soundset name or the labels O1 through O4, W1 the preset name brings up a and W2 will change. W1 and nice file browser - and the W2 we will keep for another possibilities open up before time - they're souped-up your eyes. Depending on what oscillators that can also act as you have installed in the way normal oscillators. The last of soundsets and presets, they button to take note of is M all become available to you via which stands for Master and the browser. contains controls for all the oscillators and wavesequences. It is also may be useful to note that changing a preset will O1 to O4 represent, simply, a change the soundset being place to put a sound from one used, but you can change the of Wusik Station's soundsets. soundset without changing the

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Getting know

preset. This means that if you find a preset you like you can swap in different sounds into any of the active oscillators for an instant new sound. Having played around with the presets for a while, your attention is drawn to all the other buttons and controls. The geek in me counted 8 sliders, 19 rotary knobs, 37 buttons, and a number of red clickable bits - that's excluding O1 to O4, W1, W2 and M.

the top-right corner. Hovering the mouse over a control will also show its current setting. You can go further by copying O1 to O3 and then raising O3's pitch to create chords from one note. With 6 possible sound slots and the ease with which layers can be copied, it is possible to quickly build up powerful sounds in Wusik Station. All that is without even getting into Filters, LFOs, and EQs. The "Aerate" preset is also a useful starting point for demoing soundsets as you get a good idea of the set's raw sound.

A good place to start editing sounds is to load up "Aerate" from Presets -> Wusik Station -> Famous Keys -> Synth in the presets file browser. This loads the VFX1 soundset into O1 with everything else Setting both FX1 and FX2 from the set to reasonable and useful defaults. "Layers" section to zero flattens out The contents of O1 can be copied into the sound. Wusik Station provides two O2 by right-clicking and selecting effects slots for each oscillator layer. "Copy Layer" then clicking the O2 Clicking "Edit" opens the FX control's button followed by another right-click window within the main VST window. and "Paste Layer." Even without Above the rotary knobs is the effect editing O2 further the "Aerate" sound name. Clicking the name opens the is immediately somewhat chunkier now familiar file browser window from and more forceful. Using Tune from which a variety of effects can be the "Pitch" section, the pitch of O2's selected. Some effects also offer subsound can be raised or lowered. The settings accessible by clicking the text amount (in semi-tones) is shown in to the right of the effect name. 06

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Everything I've written so far has simply come from experimenting with Wusik Station. There is a manual available from the Wusik site, but it is easy to get up and running and making useful and decent sounds quite quickly without it. There is much more to explore and all the buttons and controls hint at enormous sound shaping possibilities. But, for now, I'm kind of happy with "Aerate." Five years laterâ&#x20AC;Ś OK, if you're still with me, it's five years later and Wusik Station has moved on, as have I. I'm no longer a newbie, I thinkâ&#x20AC;Ś I know more or less what I'm doing. I still use EnergyXT and I've taught myself how to use synthesizers properly, but I still learn by trying stuff out, twiddling controls, and seeing what happens. So how does version 6 of Wusik Station look? Well, for the one person reading this who doesn't have Wusik Station, here are a couple of screenshots. The first is Wusik Station in its default guise - bright white,

to w you...

shiny, and lookin' good. The second is the absolutely gorgeous "LimeFlavour Skin" created by Flavours of Lime (http://flavoursoflime.blogspot.com/). This is the skin that I use most of the time, and I doubt I'm alone.

gone and has been replaced by an interface that just feels slicker and is a pleasure to use.

Casio CTK-471 keyboard that my son now uses. Back then, though it was mine and lived in my office and served as my MIDI controller. I offered to The most important thing for any sample my Casio to provide a couple musician, however, is the sound. One of soundsets for Wusik Station. Well, I thing I have noted is, again, Wusik dutifully sampled every key of the five As you can see by comparing the Station sounds more mature. I think octave keyboard for 10, or so, sounds. screenshots, Wusik Station has grown that this is down to the fact that I packaged them up and sent them to up over the last five years but still Wusik Station has, over the years, William. And do you know what? He retains an easy to use interface that received many new soundsets and the never ever used them. And to be gets out of the way and lets you get quality of those soundsets has honest, I don't really blame him. on with things. improved enormously. I do remember being, at times, somewhat OK, let's sum everything up. Since In terms of features, we're talking disappointed with the quality of the taking up computer music production evolution rather than revolution. samples that shipped with version 2. again, I have been using only William, Wusik Station's developer, They seemed rather lackluster and synthesizers - no romplers, samplers, has worked hard on refining and amateurish - sorry! No longer though - or samples have darkened my hardimproving Wusik Station without there is some superb content here. drive. It was a conscious choice. I throwing in a whole bunch of pointless There's a lot of stuff where you just wanted to learn to use a few features. No-one could accuse Wusik play a chord and sit and listen. In instruments well and learn the Station of being bloated. It's difficult particular I have to mention the "HQ" principles behind subtractive synthesis. for me to point out what has actually soundsets, Artvera's NewAge Well, Wusik Station has won me over. changed because I don't have a Collection, and Orchestral Lite. I've been converted; I will use working copy of Wusik Station 2 Inspiration abounds. samples. I'll also be digging into the available, nor would you want me to synth side of Wusik Station and just reel off a bunch of change lists. Just to throw in a little human interest. making use of all of the features that So, we'll have to go on impressions. Back in 2005/2006 William was will enable me to mangle sound. Wusik Station feels more mature. The looking for people to produce Wusik Station has earned its place in slightly clunky feel of version 2 is soundsets for Wusik Station. I have a my sound arsenal. Special Wusik Edition

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Secrets of Wusik

The Challenge

What's in the Envelope?

Some software synths display control setting values in real quantities and units. For example, envelope times are displayed in seconds. Others, like Wusik Station, opt for a general scale such as values 0 to 127 in the case of Wusik Station. This isn't necessarily a detriment. In fact a good case can be made that it's a preferable approach ... don't use the instruments, Luke, and for heaven's sake don't bother The Force, just use your ears!

You don't need a DAW to discover the envelope timing values but it sure helps. Even at that, it's a tedious effort. Let's start with amplitude envelope attack.

Nevertheless, there are times when having hard values in real units can be useful, such as when one is trying to replicate preset sounds found in another synth. The article that I started out to write for this Wusik Station-focused issue was not going to work without a calibration of envelope (ADSR) control times and filter cutoffs. So instead, I decided to write an article about how one goes about discovering these things. The results for Wusik Station are published at the end. 08

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The technique is straightforward enough. Start with an empty preset. Set oscillator one to be a saw wave. Put all the controls at zero. Set the envelope slope type to a straight line. At this point, set the attack value to, say, 70, long enough to actually hear something happen when you play a note. In your DAW, record a single note that starts at exactly one second and lasts for at least 10 measures. The easiest way to do this is to set the tempo to 60, set quantize on with high magnetism (using Sonar-speak, your DAW may name things differently). Record a single rather high note. The reason we want it to be high is that for really short envelope time values, we don't want October 2011

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the event happening faster than individual full wave cycles. The reason we defer the note one beat is that, at least in Sonar, notes starting on the first tick of the first beat of the first measure don't usually play. By starting the note at exactly one second into the piece, when the attack envelope segment completes, we can note the time and just subtract one (second) to get the envelope time. Not exactly rocket science, agreed? If everything has been done properly, freeze the track. Scroll and zoom as necessary to get a clear picture of what's going on. You should see something like that shown in Figure 1. If your DAW has something like Sonar's Aim Assistant, make sure it's on, as it'll make your life much easier. Assuming things are working, you can now proceed with the measurements. Adjust attack to zero, freeze, note reading, unfreeze, advance attack setting by 2, freeze, note reading,

Station by dmbaer

unfreeze, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat... Once you've recorded all 64 readings, after all that excitement, you should reward yourself with a break. You could use increments of one and take twice as many measurements, but I think you'll agree though that 127 readings is probably a bit of overkill. The results of my measurements can be seen in Table 1. We don't need more than 2 significant digits for any reading. You're never going to hear the difference between a 2.23 second attack and a 2.27 second attack. I should probably also note that the lowest readings are probably bogus, zero should probably be zero but it's not, probably due to

latency at some point or another. We need not worry about the lowest settings. You won't be able to tell the difference between an attack setting of zero vs. an attack setting of 8.

Decay and Release

Now, it's time to find the decay settings. Before we start, though, we do need to determine one thing: does the decay setting dictate a time or a By the way, there is a situation in slope? If the latter, the decay will which millisecond differences can be happen just as fast when the sustain noted. This is when identical signals value is 64 (or about half way down) are sent to the left and right outputs or zero. Set attack to zero, set sustain and one side is delayed a few to 64, and set some middle of the milliseconds. In that case road value to decay like 70. Freeze physcoacoustics make you think you and note the time at which the are hearing directionality, but that's a downward trend of the amplitude whole different conversation. Check ceases. Unfreeze, set the sustain out the following for an absolutely value to zero, freeze, and once again fascinating discussion on the subject: note the time. If both times are the same, then the decay value dictates http://www.moultonlabs.com/more/pr time, not slope. Such is the case for inciples_of_multitrack_mixing_the_ph Wusik Station. If it were otherwise, antom_image/P0/ Special Wusik Edition

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Secrets of Wusik

decay time would be a function of both the decay and sustain settings.

Last in this first category, we need to measure release. I did do the test to confirm that the value would be time Once again, we get to go through the and not slope, but it would be mad to utter enjoyment of "set, freeze, record think it would be different in that value, unfreeze". Too much regard than decay. excitement for one day, right? Once again, the very lowest values are Here we need to change things a little. questionable but that probably Take your MIDI one note masterpiece matters little. Table 2 shows the and make the note end on beat three results of the decay measurements. (exactly at two seconds). Set attack to zero and suspend at 127. Not that It's reasonable to expect that sustain it matters when suspend is maxed out, is just a simple ratio, that 64 is about but set decay at zero just to be half. Let's check this just to make sure completely certain it'll play no role. In and, yes, in Wusik Station it is this case, we need to subtract two (however, remember that the scale is seconds from the time at which the dB). I don't think we need a table for signal returns to zero. Otherwise the sustain values. drill is the same as before. Table 3

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shows the results. I shouldn't even need to say it, but I will anyway: the values for the very lowest values are probably a little bogus. Don't Cut Me Off! OK, let's move on to something that you might think would be more elusive: the filter cutoff control mappings. That is, it would be elusive if we didn't have the brilliant (and free!) Voxengo Span VST plug-in at our disposal. Compared to calibrating ADSR settings, this is now actually a piece of cake. We don't need to do the tedious set/freeze/read/unfreeze repetitions.

Station Here's what to do. Keep your saw wave in oscillator one. We want to have lots of overtones (this test wouldn't work at all with a sine wave). Set the ADSR setting of the amplitude envelope to 0, 0, 127, and 0 respectively. Turn on filter one and set its cutoff to some middle of the road value like 70. Crank the resonance up all the way.

Put Span in the signal chain. Now play that makes this all very fast and easy. a handful of low notes, for example C, See Figure 2 for a screen shot of Span looking at a highly resonant filter C#, D, D# and E a couple of octaves setting. below middle C. This will ensure we have lots of sine waves jumping Cutoff value results can be seen in around in the cutoff region. You should see a very pronounced spike at Table 4. The Span graphs get a little muddy on the low end (values near the cutoff. This is the filter resonance going to town at the cutoff frequency. zero), so take the lowest frequency readings with a grain of salt. Measure all the cutoff frequencies in this fashion (I did measurements for So are we done? even numbered values once again). Note that Span has an aim assist tool

Table 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Attack (Control Setting / Seconds)

Table 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Decay (Control Setting / Seconds)

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Secrets of Wusik Station However, here's an alternative solution. Let's just do some spot checks of longer times (one second Well, not quite. Although it's and up) and use our ears. Don't forget, reasonable to assume that filter envelop settings will behave the same we need to hook up the filter envelope to filter 1 cutoff, and we do so in the as amplitude envelope settings, we modulation matrix, setting the really should do a quick validation. strength to the max of 127. I did this But now things get a little more for half a dozen settings for attack, challenging. While there's probably some instrumentation that could make decay and release and found the results to be at least in the ballpark. I this very scientific, I don't own it if think it's safe to say the settings there is. produce the same results for both

Wrapping Up

Table 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Release (Control Setting / Seconds)

Table 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Filter Cutoff (Control Setting / KHz)

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amplitude ADSR and filter ADSR, however unscientific and imprecise this test has been. Sanity checked? Check. So, that's it for our adventurous trip into the exciting world of synth calibration. In a future article we'll actually do something fun with the numbers we came up with in this initial exploration.

Wusik Station

Improving by the minute.

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Meet

If you're a reader of this magazine, then you're almost certainly familiar with Wusik's flagship instrument, Wusik Station. If you're very familiar with Wusik, then you might also know about EVE (the Electronic Vintage Ensemble instrument), Wusik VM (which allows you to load VSTs and organize your presets), and the Beat707 project (the hardware drum machine). However, the Wusik domain extends even beyond these projects into music hosting and sharing with their Wusik Label site. In this article, you'll get an overview of the Wusik Label site and how you can use it to share your music with artists and listeners around the world. It's easy enough for hobbyists to use for fun and versatile enough to provide options for the performing artist. Music Sharing on Wusik Label In a Wusik Label account, an area known as the Control Panel is the main center of activity. Whilst there are a number of options available to users via the Control Panel (including inputting artist information and photos), Wusik Label is primarily about music sharing; so I'm going to examine the options that are available when uploading a song.

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Wusik Label! by Jeffrey Powell

You can check out the accompanying picture to see the top of the "Create Song" page which is used to add a new song to your account. You'll notice a couple of items on it outside of the usual song information that you enter. First of all, you have a space for entering the song's lyrics using a Word Pad type editor. When others play your song, they'll be able to click on a link to access the lyrics. You can also enter special information about the song, which listeners can read by clicking on a link next to your song title. In the lower half of the "Create Song" page (see second picture), you'll notice that there are locations to upload a high fidelity version of the song and a low fidelity version. Most of the time, you want your listeners to hear the best quality version that you have, but some users are on slow connections. The low fidelity version gives them a quicker streaming option. Additionally, Wusik Label allows you to control user access to these versions. You'll find options like "streaming only", "downloading only," "streaming+downloading", and various "streaming only" options where listeners can only play a certain

number of seconds from the song. This is helpful for when you want to give a preview of the song and then direct listeners to where they can buy the full track. Of course, you can also upload an image for the song, and if you're selling your music, you can put in a price for it.

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When users check out your site (available at your unique Wusik Label URL), they can access your music in the ways you've allowed it (streaming and/or downloading). Wusik Label also allows you to arrange your songs into albums, which is a very useful feature. Listeners can choose an album and have access to all of the tracks there. For each song, there's

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Meet Wusik Label!

Why Wusik Label? also a way for listeners to add comments, and the site also keeps up While I could go into detail on a number of to date with detailed charts and other features, perhaps it's best to statistics for all of the songs. The site mention a few of Wusik Label's strong uses a nice pop-up music player that features. First, the site doesn't feature any allows you to move on to different pop-ups or annoying ad banners. At Wusik pages while listening to your tracks. In the player, the uploaded images for Label you'll find just the artists and the music. Secondly, as noted above, if you each song are displayed as you have a problem or wish to have more progress through the playlist. Check space you can simply email William or out the accompanying picture for a contact him through KVR and you can be view of the player. confident that your question or request will be looked into and quickly responded to by At this point, you're probably an actual person. Thirdly, a Wusik Label wondering about the dreaded account comes as part of a Wusik limitations that crop up with all these Membership. As usual, membership has its types of sites. Wusik Label starts you out with a space limit of 100 MB, with privileges. A Wusik membership gets you a Wusik Label account and several other a maximum of 64 MB for any one Wusik goodies as well. See upload. Under Profile:Profile Stats, http://www.wusik.com/ww/products/wusik you'll see that you have an initial membership for a list of all that comes bandwidth of 10 GB. These are with a Wusik membership. Finally, by comparable to some of the stats you being a part of Wusik Label, you get to be see on other sites. There's one key difference with Wusik Label, though as a part of a growing and supportive music community, and that's always a great you can tell from this quote from thing. As a side bonus, we've started a William of Wusik: "We offer some new feature in Wusik Sound Magazine space [in Wusik Label accounts], but users can always ask for more space if called "Meet a Wusik Label Artist." So, being a part of Wusik Label might just get they like the system." Try emailing some of those "other" sites asking for you a multi-page feature in an upcoming issue of Wusik Sound Magazine! more space, and see how far it gets you!

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How Do I Get On Wusik Label? You get a Wusik Label account by signing up for a Wusik membership at: http://www.wusik.com/ww/produ cts/wusikmembership. The cost is $9.95 per month. Of course, if you haven't already done so, be sure to check out the Wusik Label site today at www.wusiklabel.com to hear some great music!

Meet a

Interview

with

Rob Mitchell by Jeffrey Powell

This month begins a new interview series for Wusik Sound Magazine called "Meet a Wusik Label Artist." With these interviews, we'll get a chance to talk with an artist who's active on the Wusik Label site (www.wusiklabel.com). In this issue, we're talking with Rob Mitchell, who has over fifteen tracks at Wusik Label and nearly 3,000 plays.

ended up meeting my future wife in more artists, especially Led Zeppelin. 2007, and found out she was from They were a big influence on my Connecticut. Eventually, one of us had music early on. Then soon after that, I to decide who was going to make the started listening to more big move to the other side of the progressive/complex types of music country so we could be together. as well. Long story short, I have lived in Connecticut since 1998, and we were married in the year 2000 and have two awesome kids. I have been doing tech support for PCs (fixing/rebuilding, etc) and phone support nearly six years now.

WSM: First off, tell us a little bit about yourself like who you are, where you're from, and what you do.

WSM: How did you get interested in making music?

Rob Mitchell: My name is Rob Mitchell, and I use the screen name Examigan on a few different websites. I use that name mainly on KVR and the Wusik Label site. I am originally from Seattle, Washington and I actually lived there most of my life. I

RM: Good question! When I was about five or six years old, I remember my oldest brother playing The Beatles for me, and I liked them a lot. I even ended up getting a Yellow Submarine lunch pail for school! Later in life, I started liking

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WSM: Do you play an instrument? If so, which one? RM: My brother already played the bass and another brother played guitar. They suggested maybe I could start learning the drums and so I got started on that. From the age of 16 and up to around 32 I was playing drums all the time. For around the first eight years of that I would practice for hours and hours. Usually I would study from drumming books about rudiments, odd-time signatures, syncopated beats, etc. It really helped me out for the type of music I was interested in. I also would

Wusik Label Artist

play along to songs of artists I liked, striving to one day be as good as them. I also played in a couple of different bands as well. Around the age of 24 (late 1980's), I started going to school for music engineering and music theory. It was a two year course. They recommended everyone in music theory to take piano classes too, which I did for two semesters. I didn't become a Rick Wakeman (I wish), but I know my way around key signatures, chords, scales, modulating between keys, etc. Another part of the requirements was a Music Appreciation class where each day you would learn a little history about a classical artist and hear a lot of their music. I ended up liking that class more than I thought I would, as I really did "appreciate" that type of music way more than I had in the past. I eventually bought some CDs of different classical composers, such as Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mozart, and Paganini. I still play some keyboards now, but sadly not the "real" drums any more. Maybe I will again someday, when I can afford some good soundproofing and a new drum kit. I do use the years of playing the real drums to my advantage when programming parts for my music. It has really helped a lot.

WSM: What are your favorite artists, bands, and composers? RM: Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Mozart, Beethoven... too many to name here! WSM: What was your first piece of music gear (hardware or software), and when did you get it? RM: The first musical software I used (that could make real music) was Master Tracks Pro for the Atari ST, that's when I was in college studying music engineering. They used it to control anything MIDI-wise in the studio they had. I really liked that program. The first keyboard I bought was a Casio CZ-101 also back in the 80's. I later sold it to get a DX-21, as I couldn't afford a DX-7! WSM: What DAW do you use and what are your favorite synths and effects? RM: For the DAW, I use Sonar Producer 8.5. My PC that it runs on is a dual-core 2.8 Ghz PC with 2 Gigabytes of RAM. It does the job, though sometimes I have to freeze tracks to get through a Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

project. Actually, a lot of the songs I posted on Wusiklabel were done on an even older single-core PC. My favorite synths... that's a tough one! Wusik Station is always in my top/most-used synth list, even though it's actually more of a rompler. Right now, besides Wusik Station, I really like impOSCar, Synthmaster 2.5, and OP-X Pro II. I used to use Sylenth1 a lot, but after a couple of years I decided to let it go. I also have Battery 3 for my drumming/percussion sounds. For the effects side of things, I don't have any extra effects that I bought separately. I sometimes just use good freeware ones, such as the Kjaerhus line, and/or Anwida's free reverb. There are some great ones built-in to Sonar Producer 8.5. The Sonitus multiband compressor gets used a good amount, along with the Sonitus Modulator, Surround, and Perfect Space for reverb. WSM: How would you describe the type of music that you write? RM: Maybe around half of the music I make is electronic-instrumental, but it's not really a certain category like trance, house, or whatever else. I guess it's a bit of Depeche Mode and mixed with a little progressive rock stuff, if that's possible! www.WusikSoundMagazine.com

Interview

with

Rob Mitchell

The other half would be called instrumental progressive-rock, as that's the closest description I can think of. Usually it has a good amount of changes, solid-sounding rock drums, some complexity, and a synth solo at a point or two along the way. WSM: What process do you go through to write a song?

wanted, what would you pick to buy first? RM: Wowâ&#x20AC;Ś$10,000! That would be put to use right away. First off, I need to get some great monitors. My second choice would be a very fast quad-core PC. I would spend a lot on those two, plus get a really nice full sized controller keyboard. With any money left over, I'd get something like an Octapad or whatever the equivalent is these days.

RM: Sometimes I just get an idea for a melody line in my head, and I try to get to Sonar before I forget what it is. Then I just enter in a line or two (that WSM: Which of your tracks on I was thinking of) with the keyboard Wusik Label would you say is your and/or mouse. I always use the staff favorite and why? notation view to enter notes with the mouse, or my Edirol PCR-80 RM: That's tough as I like them all. It keyboard. Sometimes I just put Sonar would have to be "The on to record live from the keyboard to Passage", which I think is a wellexperiment with different ideas. rounded prog-rock type of song. Each part turned out really well, I thought. After I hear it back a few times and It uses a variety of synths and tweak it here and there, I might think sample-based synths: mainly Wusik of one or two more things that might Station, Sylenth1, Sonik Synth 2 and go along with it. Many times, the Battery 3. A couple of newer tracks drums don't appear till a bit later in are demos for other synths like OP-X the process. I never use drum loops, I Pro II. Check out "Vintage" to hear always write out the patterns myself that synth in action. in Sonar. When the song starts to sound a bit more rounded-out, I might WSM: We know we can hear your go back over it do extra touch-ups like music on Wusiklabel. Is there using filtering on certain synths at a anywhere else we can hear some point here or there. of your music? Also, I always save any little ideas I get, as you never know what might be useful at some point in the future. WSM: If someone gave you $10,000 to purchase any sort of musical gear or software that you

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RM: The only other place I have been posting songs besides Wusiklabel is Soundcloud. I have posted a couple of songs on there for the One Synth Challenge contests over on KVR, plus many others. Here's the link: http://soundcloud.com/examigan

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WSM: Anything else you'd like to say to the readers of Wusik Sound Magazine? "Shout outs" are also welcome here. RM: Like I said before: save all your ideas, and also make lots of backups. You never know when they might be useful in the future. I want to first say thanks to WilliamK for all his help and the mighty Wusik Station, Bulent of KV331Audio (SynthMaster 2.5), Peter from SonicProjects (OP-X Pro II), and my wife and kids for all their great support. Also, Insigna (Umit Uy) is a sound designer/producer that is doing awesome things lately. Look for his work on Soundcloud here: http://soundcloud.com/insigna WSM: Rob, thank you for the interview. We'll be looking forward to hearing more of your music in the future. Readers, be sure to check out Rob's music at: http://www.wusiklabel.com/Rob _Mitchell/ If you're interested in being the subject of a WSM interview, then be sure to sign up at www.wusiklabel.com and upload your tracks! You could be featured in our next issue!

Get Your Wusik Membership Today and Download This Magazine in High-Quality PDF Format plus, a Full Copy of Wusikstation and Tons of Sounds

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l i v E n O s u c o F

WilliamK by Evil Ben Wilhelm Gesundheit Kraken's birth was such a momentous event, it qualified as a occurrence. We see in Figure 1 a rarely-seen picture just prior to William's birth (attending physician, Dr. Walter Bishop). Young Willy was something of a feral child, Figure 2, who loved his little furry animals much, he could just their little faces. Down Willy! Drop it!

After extensive therapy, courtesy of Dr. Walter Bishop (Figure 1), William took his place at his father's side. Look at Figure 3, assisting his father in a—uh, hmmm— gardening project, yeah, that's it. What hump?

William, alas, was not meant for, uh— hmmm—gardening, so he tried programming, creating an open source Photoshop clone, which he called . Look at Figure 3. It's a long shot I know.

Figure 1 Figure 2 22

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October 2011

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William tried his hand at creating culinary masterpieces, with his secret ingredient, but he received mixed results, Figure 4. Well, actually, everybody hated it. He was just about to try Vegemite instead as his signature flavor, when a different callingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;uh, well, . Yes, the musical muse played musical tones in his ear, and he joined an all-boy band specializing in fantastic horn arrangements, Figure 5. The band's career careened off a cliff

when they discovered they had built up a tolerance to the effects of eating beans, causing, as what one caustic critic crooned, . Yes. Next up for William was magician, Figure 6. This ended in tragic results when William didn't read the instructions carefully enough. He blamed it on the laser eye surgery he received from Dr. Walter Bishop, Figure 1.

Figure 4

Figure 5

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October 2011

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At this point, quite despondent, William ate himself into a sorry state indeed, Figures 7 and 8. Yes, it took two pictures. If only he had stayed on his modified-Atkins diet of spam and vegemite. Not knowing where to turn, mainly because he couldn't turn, Figure 8, William sought help from the man responsible for bringing him

into world. See what I did there? Pretty clever, huh? Ahhemmump. William went to see, yes, you know it's coming, Dr. Walter Bishop, Figure 1. With Dr. Bishop's help, William just knew a new career would be his for the taking.

So proud was William, Figure 9, to be protecting the public from ne'er-dowells, in his properly pressed pantaloons and starched shirt. He thought about changing his name to Bob, but decided against it as possibly confusing his beloved citizenry, Figure 10. Things were looking up for William, until the local

Figure 7

Figure 9

Figure 8 Figure 10 24

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October 2011

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constabulary decided to do a surprise strip search of each officer, all in the face of all known sexual harassment regulations and laws. It turned out that the police chief, Figure 11 was, in fact, quite insane. In any event, the strip search, Figure 12, revealed a side of William that no one had seen before. Yes, yes, Dr. Walter Bishop, Figure 1. Leave me alone.

Thinking of starting a career as a Las Vegas showgirl, William decided that being allergic to feathers would not serve him well in this profession. A Light from Above, Figure 13, showed him where his True Path lay—in the Musical World we know him from Today. Damn Caps Lock. Why won't you die?! Okay. I'm better. And so we leave WilliamK, glorious and transcendent, in the field he was truly

meant to represent—no, nay I mean, not represent—but to lead: The Honorable and Enlightened Society of Giorgio Moroder Impersonators, Figure 14. Yes, one more shot at it. I've used this so many times, I may have to start paying royalties on this. Hail William!

Figure 13

Figure 11

Figure 14

Figure 12 Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

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Focus On: WilliamK

WilliamK www.wusik.com www.william-k.com by Ben Paturzo Guilherme Kalfelz, better known to us mortals as WilliamK, was born 36 years ago in Novo Hamburgo, a town so-named because it is the site of the first McDonald's franchise. NH, as the locals call it ("Yay, we finally got jobs, hooray for Yanqui Meat Biscuits!"), is a small city in the beautiful state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Here are a few pictures to tide you over until the next joke. I've included a map and even a satellite pic, so don't complain.

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William was, of course, a beautiful baby, shown here with his sisters, Clarissa and Simone (I hope that's him in the center). His parents are Ana Maria and Roque Kalfelz, Brazillian-born, and his grandparents were German from his father's side and Italian from his mother's side. Here is a picture of William and MoniKe and their family. Speaking of the Divine Miss M, William met Simone, or Tata to her family, on May 15th, 1998 in a nightclub. It was love at first sight—if only I had been there 5 minutes earlier, things might have been different. [Cries into rejected bouquet] Okay. Better now. Four and a half years later, after receiving a divine blessing (see picture of re-used image of Monty Python's God), Guilherme and Simone were married. There have been rumors around the old Circle W that these two lovebirds (it is disgusting isn't it, to see two people who love each other this much? sheesh!) are planning a blessed arrival. No, not Wusik Station 7. If this is the only time I'm serious in this article, it is to wish Willy and Mo the best—the world is blessed with each new child born, and I can't think of two better parents-to-be. William learned piano when he was nine and remembers playing with a mini Casio keyboard, probably taking it apart as well, since he loved to discover how things worked. The case of the washing machine though. Learning the guitar going nuclear did put a damper on things, proved elusive however, so he modestly credits the use of computers and sequencers to his ability to compose. His music website is www.william-k.com. His music so enthralled me that all I could think of was, “Does that door lead outside?” All kidding aside, William should spend more time composing—his music's good.

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WilliamK

Like so many of us, William paid his dues working as a computer tech, doing programming here and there, creating websites and such, but he did find time to shake his bootay, circa 1999, when his trio called "The Inhuman Logic" (probably sounded better in Portuguese) played Techno in nightclubs. Check out the pictures from their Porto Alegre shows. William, Mark, and Rodrigo played William's music while Simone and her little sister, Lisiane, cheered on. The night life, with all its human excesses, was really not for William, but he does remember it fondly. Developing presets for NI's Reaktor led to a collaboration with Luigi Felici in 2003, producing the Electronic Vintage Ensemble (EVE) VST. Their company, DashSignature, eventually ended up with Luigi, and EVE went to William. Boy, can you imagine that bar room brawl? Right about 2004, WUSIK was born from a fevered dream William had had. He says he was in—well, the bad place down there—being forced to do Assembly Language programming—yeah, I know,

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October 2011

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that's redundant, because AL programming is hell—and the letters ACC (for Accumulator), GTO (for the car Pontiac used to make), MOV (for Move, or Mooooove, if you're a cow—this was Garry Shandling's joke, see pic), JMP (for—c'mon, do I really have to spell it out?), and all the rest, started swirling around and formed: CVMPK. What a letdown. So he decided to use WUSIK instead. Go figure.

man. William can be nerdy at times—I mean, the guy once tried to turn a pocket protector into a shirt, just kidding, sheesh. But the 7-year old at Christmas you see here became the man on the bridge, with the same smile and, I believe, with the same good will towards others. William is another soul who has the fire inside, to create and to understand, and to make a difference in this world. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to take a business course, for gawdsake. Last shot, William. Cheers!

This is what I know about William. Even with all his faults, he is above all an honorable and decent

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October 2011

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www.beat707.com

by Ben Paturzo

Beat707 is a collaboration between the American company, Rugged Circuits (www.ruggedcircuits.com, Figure 1) and WilliamK of WUSIK (www.wusik.com). This collaboration has produced an Arduino shield that can operate as a hardware drum machine, but can also be used as a general-purpose multi-track sequencer. In case you are not familiar with Arduino, head over to www.arduino.cc (Figure 2) to get a good understanding of this open-source

electronics prototyping platform. The Arduino project has become quite a force in the electronics prototyping field, inspiring many related projects, ideas, groups, and even businesses. The open-source nature of the entire project (hardware and software) and its amazing popularity has made Arduino a movement, rather than just a hobbyist endeavor, to the point where even regular folks are experimenting and learning. Either that, or everyone is turning into nerds, kind of like the coming zombie apocalypse.

Figure 1 Figure 2

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Figure 3

Figure 5 Looking at the Beat707 site (Figure 3) will quickly get you up-to-speed, but here it is in a nutshell: it's hardware, man! Like real, hold in your hands stuff (Figure 4), not some blasted virtual "instrument" that you use with some other blasted "control

surface"—no, the way God (Figure 5, third time I've used this, in this issue) intended. With knobs—well, tweak pots—and actual, physical push-button switches, yesssss! Get down!

Figure 4

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October 2011

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Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Okay, so now we know this dosage is not working for me. What you do is take your Beat707 board (Figure 6), turn it over (Figure 7), line up your Arduino board (Figure 8), connect the two boards (Figure 9), and voilĂ , Figure 10. Now, I'm making it sound a little too simple, perhaps, but it's not that much more involved. You do have to buy an Arduino board, and set it up, so a PDF is provided that explains this process, as shown in Figure 11. You also have to setup the Drum Machine Software, as shown in Figure 12. Again, there is an easy-tofollow PDF provided for that. There's even a PDF for details about the board itself, explaining the electrical connections, what each control is, etc., as shown in Figure 13. Of course there is a clearly written PDF that explains the operation of the Drum Machine/Sequencer so you can get your groove on in oh so many ways. All of this shows you you're covered, man, so stop waiting, Get Down Too Nite. Price: $95 USD for the fully-assembled Drum Machine hardware; Arduino extra, about $23 to $66 USD, depending on model; contentment with having a non-virtual ("real") machine, priceless.

Figure 9 Figure 10

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Figure 11

Specs for the Drum Machine Software: -

14 Drum Tracks + 2 Accent Tracks (a total of 3 MIDI-note velocities can be sent from each step)

2 Step-Sequence Tracks (each step has its own Note selection, Velocity is set by the accent tracks)

Multi Pattern and Song Mode

Number of Patterns and Songs depends on the total amount of system EEPROM -- the

base system provision of 32kbytes of EEPROM has enough for 90 patterns and 99 songs positions. The included Flash Nand memory can hold up to 42 songs. (see more below) -

Each pattern has 32 x 1/32 or 32 x 1/64 steps and 14 tracks + 2 accent tracks (V1.2.0 has 64 steps total per pattern)

Each track has a note-number and MIDIchannel number, so you can also use tracks to output regular notes (one note fixed per track)

Optional MIDI echo (set during compilation and uploading of the Sketch)

File Mode for storing up to 20 songs into the internal Flash. With options to Load, Save, Dump to SySex MIDI and Erase

Special Mirror Pattern Editing - allows you to edit a 64 step pattern in a much easier way.

Figure 12

Figure 13

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October 2011

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tutorial

Purple Dubstep Bass with

Wusik EVE by Tomislav Zlatic

Most people's first association with the word dubstep is the now famous wobble bass sound. But, there's a lot more to dubstep than the wobbly basslines and aggressive robotic sounds that are popular today. The roots of this genre are based around extreme attention to subsonic frequencies, sparse mixes with plenty of breathing space, and finally syncopated half-step drum patterns at a tempo of around 70BPM. There are many different sounding subgenres which originated from dubstep, some of which don't even focus on any of these elements in particular, but still, somehow, keep that old half-step feel and wonkyness of the original dubstep sound. Ever since it first came into focus in early 2000s London, the dubstep influence has been spreading around the globe, mixing with other genres and different cultures. One of the most notable and lively dubstep 34

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scenes in the world today is based in Bristol, UK. An enormous amount of talented dubstep artists come from Bristol, and the city is also well known for its various underground nightclubs and general interest for music and art among the youth. Anyway, this short introduction brings us to the subject of today's tutorial session - we will be recreating the characteristic bass sound of purple dubstep (or simply the purple sound), a dubstep subgenre originating in Bristol and pioneered by artists such as Joker, Gemmy and Ginz, among others. We'll be focusing on the bass sound from a track called Purple City in particular, which is a collaborative effort between Joker and Ginz, and a genre-defining piece of music. The sound we're after can be heard starting at 0:56 of Purple City (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0 bIR_YmiuVw).

October 2011

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Joker is well-known for being a fan of analog synthesizers, notably the SH-101 synth, built by Roland in the early 80s. Here at Wusik.com we have just the right tool for bringing back those old analog sounds - Wusik EVE, also known as Electronic Vintage Ensemble. So, fire up your copy of Wusik EVE, and let's begin! 1) We will begin with a blank preset, which can be loaded up at the bottom of the list on the right side of EVE's interface. This simple preset resets all of the settings and loads a sine wave into the OSC1 slot. 2) Now, the main power of the purple dubstep bass sound comes from two (or more) detuned saw waveforms. As mentioned before, Joker often uses the Roland SH-101 synthesizer in his tracks - we'll try to get close to his setup by loading two Korg MS-20 saw waveforms into OSC2 and OSC3 slots. Note that we will keep the sine wave

tutorial

in the OSC1 slot. We will use it as a sub bass layer in our sound, which will allow us to focus on the mids and highs separately, while keeping a nice and clean low end. 3) Since we now have three oscillators layered on top of each other it's wise to reduce the overall volume to avoid any clipping and give us enough headroom to work with. Lower the main Gain knob to around -10dB and all three oscillators to around -4dB in the mixer section. After we've finished with the sound, you may decide to completely turn off the sub bass layer and use another instance of EVE to layer it underneath the current patch. This would provide even more control over the low end and make mixing a lot easier.

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tutorial

Purple Dubstep Bass

4) We are creating a bass sound, so there's no need to have more than one voice enabled. Lowering the number of voices to one will make EVE react like a monophonic synthesizer, much like the SH-101 we're trying to recreate here. To add a bit of life to the sound, we can also increase the Glide setting a little, although it is not necessary for the patch we're currently working on. You can preview the current sound by loading the appropriate WAV file included in this issue of WSM. Note how there's hardly any movement in the sound at this point, apart from a small amount of phasing between the two saw waveforms. (Preview file: 4.wav) 5) It's time to give the purple bass its character. We'll do that by detuning both saw waves in opposite directions. Don't be afraid to overdo it, -24 on OSC2 and +24 on OSC3 will work just fine. If you take a listen to the WAV, you'll notice how the two oscillators are now adding plenty of movement to the sound, giving it a mean, threatening sort of character. The Sine oscillator shouldn't be detuned, but we will transpose it by one octave, to give our patch more power when playing the lower keys. This will keep our sub bass layer just around the 50Hz area, which is exactly where we need it to be. Finally, we reduce the velocity sensitivity on all three oscillators, since we need a consistent level while experimenting with the sound and coming up with different melodies. (Preview file: 5.wav)

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with

Wusik EVE

tutorial

boost to mids and highs. It's wise to 6) The bass sounds closer to our goal use the original Purple City bass now, but it's still undefined and sound as the reference at this point, muddy. Time to do some cleaning to make sure you're on the right track. up! First we add HP filters to OSC2 and OSC3. Increase the Cutoff setting One last touch is to pan both saw oscillators separately. This will give until there is no clashing between the two saws and the sine wave, and keep the bass sound more room to breathe, and make it sound bigger. (Preview the Resonance moderate - just file: 6.wav) enough to give the filter a bit of character. Next, we use the EQ on 7) We're getting pretty close by now. both saw oscillators to further After another close listen to the attenuate the lows, and give a little

original sound, it's obvious that our current envelope is a bit too tight. Moderately increasing the attack and release to all three oscillators will give a bit of slower character to our bass sound, again increasing its dimension. This will also ensure that our bass patch interferes less with the initial kick drum on each bar, making the mixing process easier. (Preview: 7.wav) 8) Almost there! The original sound is using very little in the way of modulation effects, so we'll try not to overdo it either. Add a touch of EVE's built-in phaser effect, to round up the highs a little and give them some extra movement. We will also add some tape delay EVE's delay module sounds very nice, especially with chorusing turned on. A moderate delay setting will ensure that our bass sound is gelling better with the other elements in a mix, without taking too much space. (Preview: 8.wav) And that's it! You can now choose to use some of your outboard gear or 3rd party VST effects to further process the sound. We've added some tape saturation using FerricTDS by Variety Of Sound and enhanced the mids a little using the freeware SonEQ equalizer. (Preview: 9.wav) Have fun dancing to purple dubstep, make great sounds with Wusik EVE and see you again in another Wusik.com special!

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l a t n e m i r Expe

tutorial

EVE comes of AGE by LeVzi

"What is EVE?" you may ask if you are unfamiliar with it, well, according to the Wusik website: "EVE stands for Electronic Vintage Ensemble, which suggests the design philosophy behind the instrument. EVE was made to recreate in the virtual world of softsynths the exciting and immediate experience of the early age of electronics in pop, rock and jazz music from the 1960's and 1970's." So EVE is more suited to older instruments, but can it be used for something more modern? Well I am going to attempt to make some modern-day patches with EVE. To start, I am going to attempt a passable lead using EVE, bear in mind I am far from an experienced sound designer, but I do enjoy trying out things, and if they actually come out good, that is a bonus. Eve has three wave players so I am going to use the same waveform in each and use fine tuning to detune them enough to make it sound like I've just detuned one of them. For this purpose I am going to use the Minimoog saw, so I load three instances of that into the three wave players then set about detuning the

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Experi menta l

tutorial

second and third ones above and below the first. This gives a perfectly adequate detuned saw wave, which is the basis of a lot of things in the modern music age. To further improve the sound of this basic lead, I add some FM (Frequency Modulation) to all three wave players, with a very small ratio. This brings out some of the lower frequencies and makes the lead sound, for want of a better description, "fatter". I have to say, when referring to a synth as being "Fat" or "Phat", Even though I understand what is meant, I find it a strange way to describe a sound. That isn't a criticism, just an observation, as I use that term a lot myself when talking to other producers! Somehow saying a synth sounds full, broad and heavy seems to pale in comparison when you refer to it as being "fat"! Anyway I digress, back to the experimentation. Another trick I use here to achieve width is to pan wave players B and C hard left and hard right leaving player A central. Now we have more presence in the stereo field. By purely enabling the delay and reducing the feedback, you now have a very usable trance pluck with a sensible amount of delay. What I like Special Wusik Edition

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l a t n e m i r e p Ex

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about EVE in this respect is that the sound is very pronounced, it isn't overly digital and thin, which I can only assume comes from its sound engine being designed for more vintage instruments. What is even stranger, to me at least, is that I didn't use a filter in this patch. Normally I'd use a filter to sculpt my sound but didn't really see any need here. Ok, that's a nice, dare I say, analogue style trance pluck, now for something completely different. 40

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EVE comes of AGE

Due to EVE having such a nice sound in its raw basic form, I am going to try to create something usable as a Bass. I am going to use the MS20 Pulse50 wave form in slot A, and the Pure Sine in slot B, and another MS20 Pulse 50 in slot C. I transpose slot A down to -12 semitones, leave slot B alone and tune slot C down to -12 as well but then further fine tune that up by 0.10. This leads to a slightly detuned Pulse wave and a sub bass (Pure sine). In this raw form it is October 2011

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actually quite a powerful bass line. I could imagine it would have a use in modern music. To test it out further, I quickly set-up a kick drum channel and played 4 midi notes using this patch. I then set-up the side chaining function to get the bass line to duck the kick drum. With the pumping effect of the side chain and the raw feel to the bass line, with the sub, played at 140bpm, you have the basics of track right there with very little work.

Experi menta l

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That's the waveform produced, not even sure how you'd describe that really, but it does sound nice, and it has plenty of presence in the spectrum. Just what you want from a bass.

It could easily be used in a modern piece of dance music.

As I have said before, I am not a sound designer, nor do I claim to be, I am basically setting myself a challenge of adapting EVE to suit a To try and take this further, I am modern music environment using the going to introduce filters to slots A available options. I don't think EVE and C, I am going to use a low pass would do massive hyper saws too well, on A and close it slightly, while but multiple instances of EVE just introducing resonance, while for slot C, might do it fine. This is what I like I am going to use a high pass, and about synths like EVE, they offer so introduce a lot more resonance and much more than what's on the box. I half close the filter. This makes for a have to admit, I am pretty sold on its raspy sound that actually sits very analogue sound, nicely with the one in slot A that has it is very raw to lost some top end due to the low pass. listen to, and has nice options from For a final spatial change, I am going units such as the to increase the pan modulation MS20 that you options on slots A and C, both 'send may already be amount' and 'rate' will be set at familiar with. halfway, then both will be enabled. This was my first With the side chain pumping effect, introduction to and now the fast panning of the pulse EVE and I waves, and the solid pure sine that is jumped in at the central, I am pleased with the result. deep end. Glad I

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did now though, that leaves a question: how many synths do you have that you haven't jumped in at the deep end with and tried to use them for ways not put on their boxes? If you want to know more about this excellent synth, then go to: http://www.wusik.com/ww/products/ wusikeve Well worth checking it out.

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tutorial

Destroy the Melody with Wusik Station by LeVzi

Having some knowledge of synthesis is always going to benefit someone who works purely in a computeroriented production world. People strive to find something new and unique or even something that resembles a sound that is older than them. Personally, I look for the unorthodox and try to expand on it in a way that suits what I am doing. 42

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My first experience of the Wusik system came in the form of Ravernator, the Fire & Ice edition from Ametrine Audio, which utilises the Wusik engine. I am far from a preset monkey, but there are times when it pays to have something at your disposal that might fill the gap to perfection. That is why Ravernator

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suited me, a system designed around the music I love that I could use. I soon discovered that the Wusik Station was more than just a glorified ROMpler; it is in fact a hybrid. There are many articles written about Wusik Station that explain its workings a lot more clearly than I could, but what I am going to do is try to show that this

tutorial

I am looking for heavy use of filters, distortion, and bit reduction. So, firstly, I am going to load up a distortion effect into FX slot 1. I opt for the overdrive distortion first, as I First things first, I need a waveform can make this signal white hot and for Oscillator 1. Looking through the cause plenty of distortion using it that list I settle on SAWBiPW; it sounds way. Straight away, the signal is better than a standard sawtooth and with more harmonics. For the second changed into something slightly oscillator, I am going to go with a harsher, yet not out of control. It has similar style, but this time using a become extremely bottom heavy, by If you are like me, you will have a that I mean the lower frequencies are pulse wave instead of a sawtooth, so now dominating the whole sound, so I PulseBiPW is loaded. Finally, the third series of effects plug-ins that will be oscillator is loaded with an instance of ideal for taking such a lush, clean add a four pole high pass filter and set it at +17 on the WS FX scale. This Saw-PW2, which again has some lush sound and turning it into something takes a fair bit out of the low end, but harmonics. I set each one with a really nasty and grimy and ideal for slightly different ADSR and set-up two harder edged music. However, I am that's what I wanted. It is more of a pole or four pole low pass filters on going to use another instance of lead now but still has presence in the each with different resonances. A Wusik Station in my effects chain since, lower frequencies. Plus, you can quick play on the MIDI keyboard tells as you all should know by now, Wusik always use an envelope to open up me I am in the right ball park with Station is also an effects unit. the low end completely if needed, but for my purposes, I've taken out this. Once you load it into the insert effects, enough. Now I raise the resonance a Now comes the extremely fun part. you have a blank effects canvas to few clicks and that seems to widen work on. So, seeing as I am going to the whole sound a bit, allowing some Just under the mod matrix is the M.UNISON control, so grab that and use the effects to destroy this sound, mid to high end to shine through. system can produce a hardedged sound that might appeal to producers of harder music.

set it to 100% and now you have a powerful, really detuned super saw wave that also has a nice rounded feeling due to the pulse wave. I quickly jump through each oscillator's effects sections and add chorus, reverb and delay. Now I have a perfect trance style wave. Great, mission accomplished. Let's DESTROY IT!!!

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tutorial

That lead is pretty mashed, so I don't think I am going to change much more. However, I am going to give it a bit of life with the use of an LFO and another filter. I set-up Filter 2, and put the filter bank in Parallel. I then change Filter 2 to a band pass that is four pole. This is the one I am going to manipulate with the LFO so I use the Mod Matrix to tell LFO 1 to affect the cutoff of Filter 2. The waveform for the LFO is the handy random waveform. I love having random objects like this, as it can sound so much better than uniform ones. I raise the speed and depth of the LFO and increase the resonance of the filter a tiny amount and now there is an almost robotic feel to the lead. It still has life, though. 44

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I add a compressor as another insert effect (just the native one in the DAW I am using) to control this lead and then add a kick drum. I start to play random riffs and can't help but think it's pretty good for a basic lead that is very rough around the edges. It has taken no more than 15 minutes of experimenting and has been done in-between writing this. The raw sound is bounced down to audio for future experimentation especially with re-sampling and granulising. But that's another story. Let's see how Wusik Station makes a screaming synth sound. Much in the same way, I am going to take a waveform and use unison to fatten it out, but this time I am only going to October 2011

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use one oscillator. For this oscillator, I am going to draw in my own waveform. As you can see in the picture, that's the waveform I am going to use. Don't ask me why, I just started drawing and that sounded great, so that is what I am going to use. Now I take the master unison all the way to 100% and once again a nicely detuned sound is heard. I am going to use the ADSR envelope to modulate the pitch control of the oscillator. A quick fast rise then a gradual drop back to the original pitch is set-up, almost like the traditional hoover style. On the same token, I am going to set-up a low pass filter that slowly closes the longer the note is played, also using an ADSR.

tutorial

Okay, so I have a slightly screaming synth, and I raise its pitch to +24 semitones to bring it into the right area. Then it's time to give it some grit with the effects again. Adding some distortion once again really turns this into a screaming sound. I use the Bit Quantizer set to 2 bits, maximum gain, limit activated, full output, and 100% wet. Now we are in the realms of hardcore screaming synths. I add a small amount of reverb just to make it less prominent and allow it to fill more space, and that will work nicely in hard-style or hardcore track. Okay, we can see that Wusik Station can offer synth effects and leads, but what about the driving force behind any harder edge music: the kick drum? Let's see how Wusik Station makes one of those. Kick drums rely purely on fast pitch shifts for their power. Taking a square

wave and pitch shifting it from high to low will give power and punch. I set the ADSR for the Amp Envelope to 0 for attack, 65 for decay and 0 for both sustain and release. Then I create a fast envelop to drop the pitch down to create the kick. This routing is accomplished by using the modulation matrix. (Mod Env 1 O1 Pitch Amount = -127) That is the basic kick taken care of. It’s nothing special but definitely enough to bounce to audio for further manipulation. I then go into the effects slots again, and add overdrive which really makes a difference. You have a very basic but powerful distorted kick. With further effects chains, and maybe some layering (which is common practice in hard music), you can create very heavy kick drums that will sit nicely in your tracks.

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There is no such thing as a perfect synth in my opinion, they all have different characters and flaws. There is no "one stop shop" for synths, but it doesn't stop the devs from continually striving to improve their work. William at Wusik certainly does that. I did this testing and synth work on the 32bit version of Wusik Station version 6, but version 7 is on the way and in beta testing as I am writing. The reason I mention this is because 64bit support is coming to Wusik Station users, and that will be a big benefit to many, like myself, who use a 64bit DAW exclusively now. Visit http://www.wusik.com/ for more information on Wusik products.

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The

Heart of

Sound by Ben Paturzo A lot of the stuff we pile into WSM is true], sound library rundowns, and a techno-geek hoohaw, which is to say, host of others topics that, well, normal people would find dry as stuff that only music and technology nerds would find interesting. Then you mummy dust. have others who, ahem [looks around with trepidation], offer such bizarre What brings us all back to reality, to and twisted prose, as to defy terra firma of the mind, is our very description and categorization. We own spiritual center, the Heart of WSM, Simone Cristina Kalfelz—better have instrument reviews, tutorials, music and studio projects, interviews known as MoniKe, or Mo. Those times we've been bad—alright, let's just say, with folks we find fascinating [it's

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most of the time [for me]—she becomes King MoniKe, or simply King. Although we are all humble scribes, our egos soar when she transforms our words into the beautiful layouts you see in every issue. I am personally rather jealous of how my words are presented—you imagine I write whilst in straitjacket, yes I know—but I have seen, with Mo's expert ministrations, how her layout

Figure 1

makes more sense [than what I had in mind], and adds immensely to what I have written. Other WSM writers would echo this sentiment. We are all quite fortunate to have her, and so I offer this small tribute to her. But who is Mo? Well, she is the one who keeps WilliamK from going out [in public] with a red shirt and green pants. Except during Christmas. Simone Cristina was born in Novo Hamburgo, a city in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city, New Hamburg, owes its name to the influx of German immigrants starting in the early 19th century. The city today is a mix of German and Portuguese influences, as you can see in Figure 1. Baby Simone, Figure 2, grew into a stunning young lady, who started working in a retail store at the tender age of 16. Her mother, Sirlei, wasn't too happy about thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which, if at 16 she looked like this, Figure 3 (age 15), I totally understand. I would have sent her to live with the Seven Dwarfs.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Needless to say, with such a figure, she was in a few beauty contests and even did some modeling work. Of course, with William entering the scene, nearly 14 years ago, all chances of our seeing The Divine Miss M on the cover of Sports Illustrated went out the window. We're lucky he hasn't made her wear a Burka, Figure 4. Rowr rowr!

Figure 4

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The

Heart

Figure 5

Sound

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

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Figure 9

Mo was a web site developer when they met, and is still active in that field, but it wasn't until William started Wusik Sound Magazine (Figure 5), with an old lithograph machine and street-side tar balls (in other words, poop), that Mo found another calling: Layout Master. Since the fourth edition of WSM, King Mo has been doing the layouts, and even went back and re-did the first three issues, to achieve a consistent look for the magazine. She loves colors, lots of colors. Remember the cover with the girl's long rainbow socks? None of us had anything to do with that! Casa Kalfelz, Figure 6, with its gorgeous views, Figures 7 and 8, and with colors everywhere, Figure 9, is the perfect spot for inspiration and creation. There, with loved ones all around, Figure 10, Simone Cristina, our wonderful Mo, makes our words so much better, so much more colorful, and so much more full of life, Figure 11. Obrigada Tata! Todos n贸s amamos voc锚!

Figure 11

Figure 10

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by Ben Paturzo and WSM Staff

What then to do about Piracy? It's one thing for me to hear a developer say he doesn't want me to promote too much of his software, lest it attract the attention of pirates. It's another thing for me to hear of yet another developer having to leave the business for lack of sales. I know that people will pirate software no matter how inexpensively it is priced.

from making that legal copy. Does this make sense to you?

Governments tried to stop WikiLeaks from having a safe harbor from which to publish by raiding the hosting companies. Even Amazon kicked them out. Tell me if WikiLeaks has gone away. The Pirate Bay is still operating. Piracy is thriving, even with all the government crackdowns on hosting sites. Piracy has become, if you will What then to do about this problem? forgive this analogy, a high art, with We've tried many legal measures, which reinforces the old adage that no the installers for pirated software looking exactly like the manufacturer's problem is great enough that installers—complete with uninstallers! government cannot make worse. One gets the impression that these Why? For one, there is the law of unintended consequences. In America, pirates could actually earn an honest living, if they were so inclined. consumers fought hard for the right, in the time of cassettes, to be able to make a backup copy of their LPs. Fast So if control of the Piracy problem forward to CDs and DVDs and you still cannot be done by government fiat, what then? Surely, some fine mind have the right to make that copy. can devise a working copy-protection However, you cannot, by law, defeat the copy protection that prevents you scheme.

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There have been countless technical countermeasures against pirating. All of them have failed, and, what's more, will continue to fail. Why? The reason is that the types of minds that design the "cracks" are the same types of minds that design the protective measures in the first place. I remember going up to a representative for Macrovision (at some industry convention), holding out my hand with a big smile—he, of course, thought it was a welcoming smile—and thanking him for basically ruining the experience of watching video tapes—the Macrovision "protection" made the video sync signal so unstable, you often had to adjust the television set to be able to watch a movie, which still continued to jump and jitter. The end result was that you had to buy an antiMacrovision box in order to see a stable picture.

With the advent of DVDs, the copy Still, the Internet has allowed Piracy protection was supposed to be to become a global affair, with so unbeatable. Not for very long. Then many sites to choose from (even Blu Ray was going to be impregnable, blogs!), that getting the latest movie, said the studios. Took longer, but music, or software is easily wrong again. This is basically a game accomplished, and with no serious between the pirates and the fill-inlegal repercussions. As those of us in the-blanks trying to stop the pirates. America are recognizing the tenth Why don't I say "good guys" you ask? anniversary of 9/11, it is easy to The reason is that even as a young remember the anger and thirst for man, I was accused of copying revenge felt on that day, and from (stealing) when I returned LPs that that point on. If I were a developer were so misshapen, my tonearm seeing my products being pirated I appeared to be waving at me; there would probably feel the same kind of were so many cracks and pops that it anger and wish for revenge. But I sounded like I was at a Theater snack have seen so many innocent people bar. Filler was also a very popular killed, in the revenge exacted from concept with the record companies, as that day in September, ten years ago, an LP usually contained only one or that I am sickened in my heart. This two good songs and the rest, as they has nothing to do with politics, but say in cruder circles, was crap. with the humanity I am in fact always connected to, even as they may wish As CDs became extremely popular, the me harm. one-to-two good song standard operating procedure had to be retired, So what then to do about Piracy? It as effortless ripping and the coming of may seem hopeless, but it is not. Let Apple's iTunes meant that people me approach this from the concept of could share their music with others, or abundance and the belief in buy a song-at-a-time, hold the crap. scarcity. Anyone who has worked Was that sharing Piracy? I used to a garden, planted fruit trees or share my records with my friends; the like, has witnessed the sometimes they made mix-tapes with overwhelming abundance of those records. Were we then pirates nature. Our lime tree in the back as well? I didn't know that back then I can satisfy a whole convention of wasn't actually collecting music from tostada and taco eaters, several my favorites artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I was merely times a year. The limes go collecting vinyl discs with pretty wanting, sit on the ground. Not covers. I had only bought, in the legal so the peaches. The birds make parlance of so many EULAs of today, sure to pick off the best (waves only the right for me to listen to the fist at sky). In America, farmers music. I couldn't even photocopy (I are paid not to grow crops, and almost used Xerox, which is a many crops are burned. registered trademark) those pretty Unwanted milk is poured down covers. If you can sense my drains. Yes, there are hungry exasperation with the "good guys" people in America, more so I've done my job. throughout the world. The fact remains there is an abundance of food, more than enough to feed Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

the world's population, yet people are starving. The problem is not in the record number of contributions of money and material that are made, nor is it the fact that country x is fighting country y. Dictators can be overthrown, wars can be fought, revolutions can occur, but people may still not have enough to eat. Water is even more of a problem. So much pestilence, disease, and death could be avoided if only fresh water were available to all. Although mostly saltwater ocean, the Earth is still some 70% water. Why is anyone drinking filthy, disease-ridden water? You can go far longer without food than you can without water. Just as with the food supply, the problem is not the amount of water available, but the logistics. How can I make sure that some child in Africa has enough clean water on a daily basis? I can donate money. Chances of helping reach that child are almost zero. I can join an organization that provides

o N

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relief to stricken countries. Better professionals, and in tears, told him So, to Piracy. Don't think about chances, but not by much. Let's cut to she didn't even have enough money eradicating Piracy. Work on doing the chase: I can be Matt Damon. He is for her lunch that day. The grizzled, good. I can't give a developer personally going to areas without theatrically costumed street dweller thousands of dollars in order to stay in clean water, bringing equipment, and said that was okay, and handed her business. I can contribute a little, get drilling fresh water wells. A some money, so that she would be a few others to contribute, get the sustainable solution. Boots on the able to eat. He might have said word out, and so on. But I have to get ground as the military likes to say. something about having enough. involved, I have to be active, if I Chances of you or I doing this? Only if want to do good. A minister I know you had a driving belief and passion, You see, we all have enough. And no, and admire gave an alternate and much luck along the way. You we are all in this very big sea together, explanation of the story of the Fishes would probably have to devote your even the thieves, even the pirates. and Loaves that is learned by many at life to this cause. So instead we Most of the people in this world have Christian Sunday School. He said that donate. some good in them. Not very many what probably happened was that are completely evil. I cannot change most of the people would not venture Really seems hopeless now, doesn't the evil in the world, I can only add to into the desert without some food it? And what on Earth does all of this the good in this world. That is what I gathered in their clothing. have to do with Piracy? You and I are am asking you to do. Wherever you Contributions were then asked of all living in abundance, while most of the can, whenever you can, do something who had gathered there and there world believes in scarcity. I have been good. was so much food, that those who had technically unemployed for more than nothing were showered with two years, yet I have worked enough Lest you think I have an extremely abundance. That is the image I want to eat and play the expert for WSM(!) large container of Kool-Aid (another to leave you with. Not "fighting" or Whenever I can, I try to donate to a registered trademark) from which I'm "eradicating" or "suing," but giving, developer or musician, or buy their imbibing, allow me a possible scenario. and being actively involved with that products, or promote their company. A The child in Africa may appear to be giving. Don't just flip a quarter into a lot of what I have set up on my web beyond my reach as I am not willing hat, and walk on by. Stop and learn site is for others, people I have met to devote my life to the fresh-water whom you're giving to, become and come to know, and believe in. cause. I do, however, know someone involved with their life, even if only at Now, there has already been a Saint in Italy who has taken part in some your own level of comfort. The Bonaventura, so I'm not shooting for humanitarian missions to Africa. logistics of the Internet are such that that. I'm a small pebble in a very big Through this acquaintance, I am no one has to go wanting—there is sea, but you all are here with me. If I introduced to a man who lives in a always someone who knows someone do a small thing, a good thing, in and town not more than a few kilometers who knows someone—you get the of itself it has a very small effect. Vast from that child. After doing my due picture—who can help. The "Arab numbers of us doing a small, good diligence, as the lawyers like to say, I Spring" was made possible by this thing will have a vast effect. But find a way to compensate this man for socially-interconnected new world, exactly who is here with me, in this any water he brings to the child, and and so people hurt by piracy can be very big sea? You may be tempted to to the child's village. The man knows helped by the same interconnected say that only good people, not thieves of another man who can build a fresh- world society that we have at our and pirates, are here. I once knew a water well, and so the temporary fingertips. Do good and make sure woman who was so distractingly measure of water delivery turns to a that good leads to more good. beautiful as to render your humble sustainable clean water supply. All scribe irrational. Yes, hard to believe. that this requires is enough people You've heard me—now here are some She would always give money to willing to do some good—not be saints, ideas and comments from the beggars, even if she knew them to be by any means—and the little pebbles members of Wusik Sound Magazine. fakes. One day, she didn't have can bring a wave of good. We'll start with WilliamK: enough money to give to one of these 54

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Piracy is killing the small guys, simple eBay, whatever. Those are even as that. I have seen religious people worse. who are all full of dogma and always complaining about others, but when it "But I can't afford legal software?! comes to piracy, they are the first Photoshop is too expensive!!! What ones to download warez and crap over should I do?" the internet. If you yell "You Shall Not Steal" they just laugh at you. And Well, nearly 15 years ago I decided to don't even try the classic "Don't do to go clean, at that time I didn't have a others what you don't want others to credit card, I didn't have much money do to you..." they just don't care, either, what did I do? Well, I started sadly. asking for copies from companies in return for something. 1% replied with Then there's the other type of people an OK and I started to go clean. who use pirate stuff, the ones that Sometime after that, I started using collect stuff, they don't buy, they alternative and free software too, that don't care, ever. Those we don't care was stage 2 of the whole thing. about, let them pirate, if you will. As soon as I got some money from a The World is full of people who just deal I made, I got a bunch of credits don't even know what pirate stuff is. on iTunes, deleted all my MP3, copied They think it's OK to use eMule to all my legit CDs back, and started download crap over the internet, they getting legit music on iTunes. just don't get it, no one told them. And when people tell them, they Photoshop was too expensive, so mostly say: "Oh, duh, it's not like I went for an alternative, those big Hollywood companies will PhotoPlus by Serif.com. It was cease to exist just 'cause I great, not perfect, but very downloaded some movies..." usable. I have already bought 4 upgrades of the software, sadly I And some try to pull the old "But you can't get any more upgrades now, used to make me MIX tapes, wasn't as they don't feature PayPal and that pirating?" Well, yes, but I made I don't own a Credit Card like 5 copies of my tape for a few anymore. But the latest version friends, while I purchased lots of is still working for me. I also got originals. Now, people get a pirated WebPlus and PagePlus from copy and distribute to thousands of Serif.com, all with great other people. discounts, like 1/5 the price of any Adobe crap. Then there's the even worse cases, "companies" who "sell" illegal copies of I also believe in cheap software, other companies' stuff on the net, people complain Wusik does too Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

much promo, but let's face it, Software SHOULD BE CHEAP, PERIOD! Companies that charge over $100 for anything should really think about this. Today 100% of all the stuff I use is legit, either from NFR copies, freeware, cheapware, or whatever I could find. Recently I found this great game site, Good Old Games, which is getting famous too. It's like iTunes for old CHEAP games. Every week they have a great promo. www.gog.com This time I got Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Eddition for $3 USD! Crazy eh? I also got a couple other great games, mostly for $5 USD and $3 USD each. Companies need to change, to see that things should be cheap, otherwise they will get in trouble, as piracy is growing.

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We also need to Teach people that people got this by using fake credit Best Regards, uncle Willy downloading pirated stuff from the cards, and making those companies internet is bad. It's like getting a sick PAY FEES for REVERSING And now, Trusty: hooker and not using a condom, really, TRANSACTIONS? So, that old tale that it's that bad. "Oh, but those companies are not It's about respect. losing money from this..." Is FAKE. I I would love to have a Red Ferrari, can say for Wusik, we have paid a lot Piracy is disrespect on all counts. but heck, I don't go stealing one. Well, of money from those reversed What I loathe about people who crack some people do, but do Warez-Headz transactions in the past, today they and people who download pirated want to be compared to Car-Stealers? are rare, as PayPal deals much better software is that they are usually boys They say it's different, but it's not, it's with that. who can shave, and nothing more. really not different. Mere sissies that have no respect for But then, people's lives are mostly anyone or anything...so they get none I have a cousin who I see like once a chaotic, sex drugs and rock 'n' roll. from me. None. For people known to year, and every time I see him, he <lol> So why should they care about use pirated software to make their gloats about how much pirate stuff he other things? They are wasting their music, it should get no shine either. got, it's hard, and he goes to Church, lives, wasting the planet, wasting the People who post on forums inquiring I told him the above sentences about animal world, etc ... why should they or letting slip they use cracks, they Religion and crap, he didn't care. care about such a silly thing as should not only be politely removed, Hypocrite! pirating software? but shamed and rebuked as well. The other day I was talking to an old friend I haven't seem for more than 14 years, he's Vegetarian and Buddhist, a great guy, for those who care, I'm a Vegan but not affiliated with any Religion. We were talking, he's a nice person, a bit nuts on the side, like I am, who cares, but also download pirated stuff from the net. Hmmm, I guess. What does Buddhism say about that? <roll eyes> But then again, I could use this subject to talk about other things people just don't get. If you pay someone to kill someone, does that make you a criminal? Well, it does, so you know that's bad. But then, if you are using someone's computer to download things that are illegal, did you know that most of the time those 56

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I could go all religious on this, but again, I don't have any affiliation to any religion, but I do believe that for the world to change to be a better place, it's time for everybody to start thinking about their actions: do my actions against others, the world, the animals, harm the way of life I want to keep? I bet they do. If you want this world to continue, it's time for everybody to change a bit, otherwise, it will all end. The Ecology will turn against us, if we continue to pollute, the economy will collapse, if people just contribute better and the animal kingdom will also collapse soon, if we don't rethink our unhealthy food chain. Well, I guess that's all I want to say about this subject....

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It is disrespectful to the people who spend time, money, and energy, and in some cases, blood, sweat, and tears making software products. Many do this full time and are feeding their families with the fruits of their labor. When cheap cowards download pirated software, they are just as evil and sissy as the people that cracked the software. It is disrespectful to the people that make the products that make music creation both affordable and possible for those who, in generations past, looked at gear from the outside wishing to get in. Piracy disrespects the tools. If you would never break into a music store and steal a keyboard workstation, you should never download pirated software. People who buy hardware

keyboards and workstations tend to have a lot of respect for the equipment they purchase. Likewise, when people buy software from companies, they not only support the developer that made the product, but also they tend to respect the software gear they spent hard earned money on. To be sure, when you spend $49$249 or even more (or sometimes less) on something, you tend to cherish it a bit more and spend the time giving it the respect it deserves. It is seen as something no different than were it a hardware box sitting on a desk. It is explored and put to use to its fullest capacity. With people using quick and easy pirated software, they in most cases, are simply wanting a new synth with lots of presets to make their crappy music, and when the presets are used up, the thing is tossed for the next pirated instrument or effect. Worse, when the presets are not to one's liking, as is often the case, these hacks using pirated software take to the internet forums and proclaims that "Product X" sucks... despite the fact it doesn't, it usually doesn't have the presets that douche bag was looking for to make the crappy "instant bangas" they wished it would make for them. A shame. It shows no respect whatsoever for the product, since the person using the cracked software barely knows what they are doing anyway. Most professionals and talented amateurs making music in any genre, far and away, purchase their software gear, and respect it enough to learn it and get the most

out of it. While they may not be happy with every purchase, they are more often than not careful before they purchase anything. People who know what they are doing and who still use cracks should know better than to be using them, and are far worse human beings than the idiot "produca" who has no idea what an LFO is. Your shame is double that person's shame. There are no excuses whatsoever for anyone using pirated software. People need to respect the folks who make this wonderful world of software production possible. People need to respect the tools themselves. Finally, people need be far more hostile in publicly shaming and rebuking the offenders. People who take the offenders to task should be held in high esteem and respected. It is all about respect. Cheers, Trusty And now, LeVzi: As far as I am concerned, Piracy is a huge problem that will never go away. In terms of the computer music world, if it can be programmed by a human it can be hacked by a human, and that's something all makers of software face. There are many ways to try and stop this from happening, from C/R to the Dongle to the humble serial, but as I said, the minds of the people Special Wusik Edition

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who program these anti piracy methods are only as good as the minds of the people who destroy them. I don't know if there will ever be a method of 100% securing software, so until then it is heartening to see so many people wanting to be 100% legitimate with their software. As for the music and film industry, piracy was going on long before the internet was born, with pirate videos and tapes floating about. The introduction of various methods to try to stop it all seem futile really, there is always a way around it. The financial aspect is often mentioned, quite how much is 100% accurate I wonder about, as I am under no illusion that the music and film industry would like to claim massive amounts of damage done, yet they still seem to be surviving quite adequately. I doubt this is the same for the software industry, especially smaller developers in the

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music industry who will really struggle due to piracy. If people really like the stuff they use, legitimate or not, then they are morally obliged to support the developer in one way or another. Maybe in an ideal world but for now, all we can do is our bit by supporting the developers by purchasing their music/software/films whatever they are releasing.

takes time away from coding synths, effects and other good stuff.

that ends up going unused. Then every new item gets their hopes up that *that* machine will be the one And now, Jeffrey Powell: that will whip them into shape. The problem is that none of them satisfies This will be a bit of a different take on because buying the equipment is a piracy. While I address the usual substitute for being in shape. questions a few paragraphs below, Unfortunately, getting in shape I'm going to spend most of my time requires work and discipline, and it's examining why a person with 1,000 not necessarily very fun. You can, of cracked VSTs actually downloads course, get into shape without any And now, Adrian Frost (anzoid): them in the first place. equipment, and that helps prove the point. If you weren't disciplined For me that is a personal decision People get into softsynths and DAWs enough to exercise and get into shape related to personal integrity and also typically because they want to express before you bought the equipment, the desire to do what is right by the themselves through music. They want then you likely won't be afterward. devs who produce the stuff I use. people to feel their emotions. They The cycle of spend and spend want to connect to other people continues. I've seen the argument used that "the through their music, and they want pirates wouldn't buy it anyway" but people to connect with them through So, often when G.A.S. (gear there have been enough examples the music as well. People who get into acquisition syndrome) sets in, I turn up of people making bank off of softsynths want to be good composers believe it's because we really and pirated materials that, for me that and producers. However, in order to truly just want to be better composers argument doesn't hold much water. be a good composer and producer, and producers. As we're all aware, We also have devs stating that piracy you've got to work at it. It's the type though, you can be a great songwriter does affect them - if not financially, of work that in many cases isn't very and composer without any "fancy" then at least emotionally as they see fun because it requires drive and equipment. Just consider all the great months (or years) of work turn up discipline to do it (along with a lot of music written 50 or 100 or more years cracked and offered for free. That's patience). ago. However, it requires work, and got to hurt. All of the devs that I talk so it isn't as glamorous as buying to that are doing this to make money There's a theory that suggests that in something new. Besides, this new are passionate about their work and modern times that people spend plug-in is *the* one that's going to are trying to make a living from what beyond their means because the item make you a great composer all of the other people (the pirates) decide to they're buying is really a substitute for sudden, right? "give away" for free. What gives the what they really want. For example, pirates that right? people buy exercise gear because What does this have to do with piracy? they want to be in shape. So, the I believe the popularity of software I guess that for us as customers we exercise gear ends up sitting around cracks is due to the out of control end up paying one way or another if unused, and the person sees a *new* quest to acquire software as a only because devs work on copy exercise machine and thinks, "If I had substitute for developing talent. Those protection measures which, inevitably, that, I'd exercise and get into better downloading all these tons of shape!" So they buy the new machine softsynths are deluding themselves. 58

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You can have every piece of hardware and software on the planet, but essentially none of it can make you any better of a composer than just an acoustic guitar from a pawn shop or a freeware synth can do. So, you find people with 150 softsynths from every major manufacturer that can't put together a coherent song... but they're always waiting to find the download of the latest and greatest VST... you know, to take their nonexistent composing to the next level. They think they're helping themselves, but they're not. It does stink when you really want an awesome synth, and you don't have the money. In fact, you might never have the money. Just realize one thing: you don't need it to make music that can change the world. A good song is a good song anywhere and on any instrument. Use what you can get and save up for the product or two you'd really like to use.

folks who don't use cracked software but still must buy every new synth. I've been through the same feelings myself, and I struggle with that same desire to buy things when what I really want to do is write better songs.

These are my thoughts on piracy, with some opinion on how developers should react too. Piracy:

I view piracy less from a moral To answer the actual basic questions, standpoint and more on a practical software piracy and using cracked basis. Aside from broken software and software is wrong, period. There is no risking infecting your computer, you acceptable excuse in my book. It don't get either support or clean doesn't matter what your income is, updates when using a pirated program. and it doesn't matter how big the Using forums to learn what I use and company is. It does hurt lots of pointing one or two attentive companies big and small, and it developers to bugs in their software, causes all sorts of problems for has made me a better producer and legitimate users with all the copy got me better programs. In the end: I protection schemes used to combat it. feel like I'm a winner. It's my hope that everyone will think twice before downloading a software While trying to stop piracy I believe crack. Get a book from the library on that developers should not take chord progressions or work on lyric measures that risk crippling their own ideas while you take time to save up software. The worst case scenario is some bucks to get the one softsynth that the programs cannot be installed you really want. If you do this, a I realize at some point someone will couple of things might happen. be thinking, "Hey, I know of a big You might find that once you producer and he uses cracked have the money saved up, that software." You may very well be right. you really didn't want the synth I imagine that the majority of at all. You also might find that software cracks are not downloaded you've become a better by these people, though, but by the composer in the meantime and bedroom producers found in homes all that your equipment doesn't across the world. They'll give lots of matter as much. If (and when) reasons for why they don't pay for the latter happens, I think you'll software, but they'll have a hard time find it to be more satisfying than realizing that the "need" for all these downloading 50 new softsynths softsynths is really just a misguided and flicking through the presets. and fruitless manifestation of the desire to be able to create music that And now, Robert Halvarsson has meaning, purpose, and feeling. To (suecae_sounds): be fair, the same can be said of many Special Wusik Edition

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properly when the developer disappear or their company goes bankrupt, in which case what should be the better legitimate alternative sadly risks becomes quite the opposite. I'm thinking in particular of the Challenge/Response authorization system some companies use. I see where they are coming from, but I should be able to use what I buy thirty years from now, whether the company that created it still exists or not. I've stopped buying software from companies who use this, and pool my resources to those who operate under a more customer friendly paradigm and use graceful copy-protection: (Audio Damage, Wusik and Synapse Audio come to mind). All in all: - My advice to producers: support the scene, get your stuff with a clean conscience and enjoy the added benefits. - My advice to developers: point towards the added value users get if they buy your stuff. And above all: don't break your software trying to stop piracy!

And now, David Baer: Piracy! Arrrrrh! Actually, the degree to which I loathe software pirates is proportional to their level of economic well being. If 60

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there's an impoverished genius out there who could become the next Mozart ... let her have the software by all and any means. Software pirates aren't inherently evil like, say, the filthy scum who seek to hurt people they've never met by writing viruses. But the individuals who pirate software they could afford to buy, they are at best ethically challenged. They hurt all of us, not just the vendors, as can be attested to by anyone like me who has recently upgraded their DAW. I've invested close to 40 hours in this process so far and a good half of that has been trying to get all the various music software I've accumulated registered. Every company has a unique solution, often times a rather elusive one (and I'm thinking about you, IK Multimedia). To date, I've avoided acquiring anything requiring an ILOK because that just rubs me the wrong way. But at this point, I'm wishing every single program was in fact ILOK enabled. It would have saved me half a standard work week.

be a key evaluation factor in selecting which software to buy. Just as an ILOK requirement has kept me from buying from certain vendors, not using the centralized service would be a very negative factor for future purchases. A central registry would benefit everyone including the vendors who today often garner the wrath of paying customers who experience registration frustrations. It needn't be (indeed, shouldn't be) complicated. Anyone who has bought software from Cakewalk, for example, appreciates the ability to log on to their account to see every serial number and authorization code for all their Cakewalk software. Ideally, you could log onto a centralized service, download a single file, and every piece of software from participating vendors would be ready for action.

I wouldn't even mind a requirement that the authorizations be updated annually, as long as it could be done with one logon and one download. As for security, there's no reason a centralized registry would be less I think the vendors have a lot to secure than the parochial solutions answer for in this regard. I'm talking now forced upon us. I also would not about the major players here, not the object to a requirement that the small operations run by one or two process uses an internet connection developers. There's no excuse that for maximum ease. This doesn't mean they haven't collaborated to offer a that your DAW needs an always-on centralized registry service. Once built, connection, but rather just an the cost per registration transaction occasional one. I cannot imagine how should be miniscule, thus allowing difficult my DAW upgrade would have them to offer the small vendors been if I had had to use a separate access at minimal or no cost. If such a machine for authorization code access. thing were in place, it would shortly Of course, an offline alternative would October 2011

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need to be provided, but if offline registration introduces extra effort on the part of the customer, well that's their choice.

some moves, it could actually occur This approach has numerous that pirated software pages appeared advantages! above the official developer's websites in the search results. First of all, it's legal, duh. Second of all, it's fair to the people who spend There's also the sad example of (a their time developing software. It will Think how ubiquitous PayPal has large number of) people who actually also help keeping your computer virus become and how easily (and securely) don't have enough money or means free – no one knows what's hidden in to pay for their software. In my those pesky warez packages. And it facilitates online commerce. A finally, I'm sure that 99% people will centralized authorization service could country, the price of a standard DAW or some more powerful VST find it more satisfactory. It feels good offer the same ease of use. It would instrument/effect is larger than the to have “your own” tools, even if be a winning proposition all around. average payment! I can only imagine they're freeware or bought for a low a cheerful dude coming home from price – they're yours, you didn't steal And now, Tomislav Zlatic (bpblog): work to his wife and kids, saying them from anyone, and everything "Woohoo I bought the latest version of you make with your own tools is One thing that has to be defined Cubase with my last paycheck and 100% yours! before any discussion about piracy is also picked up some sweet VSTs! the following - piracy equals stealing. Hooraaay! :D"... It's important for everyone to Well, there you have it! Piracy, the understand this. The word piracy is BAM, BAM, BAAAAM, the wife final frontier. just a term for a specific type of theft. performs a triple dragon punch combo Like carjacking or pickpocketing. Any and instantly kicks him out of the attempt to describe piracy as a "less house. severe" type of theft is futile. People who release software tools put an No one likes getting their ass kicked amazing amount of time and effort by the wife! So, what do people do? into research, development and They used pirated software, since testing of their products, much like it seems like the only option any other type of manufacturer. available. The fact that the final product is not something you can physically put your hands on, doesn't mean it's ok to steal it from the author. Would you grab a MIDI controller from a shop without paying? Would you have dinner in a restaurant and leave without paying? Well, same thing with using pirated software (as well as music and movies). Now, another big problem with piracy (besides people not accepting that it is illegal and should be illegal) is the fact that it is so easy to do! Cracked versions of everything are all around the internet. Hell, until Google pulled

But there are other options available! There is a huge amount of quality software available for free use, and even the commercial software is occasionally available for free purchase at ridiculously low prices via group buys and nobrainer deals. By utilizing freeware tools and focusing on finding good deals for commercial products, a person can build a pretty damn powerful software studio, even on a very tight budget.

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Creating

Sounds

FM Synthesis by Adrian Frost

Part 2 - Basic Synthesis and a bit of practice In last month's article on FM synthesis we took a very brief look at the beginnings of FM synthesis and I introduced you to the soft-synths that we'll be using throughout this series. This month it's time for some basic theory and a bit of practice using Concrete FX's "Feed" synth.

If you do further reading on FM A warning right here and now, we're synthesis you might sometimes find not going to be delving much into the that the term "operator" is used to mathematics of FM synthesis, others describe a combination of two have already done that work and oscillators and an envelope, however produced better write-ups than I could we'll stick to the one to one ever hope to produce. My aim in these correspondence between oscillator articles is to give you enough useful and operator that is most commonly knowledge of FM synthesis that you'll used. It helps though to be aware that be able to create the sounds you want Building Blocks - Operators operator is sometimes used in this to create for use in your own music. If way. you do want to look into the One thing becomes very clear when theoretical and mathematical side of you start digging into FM synthesis, a Last month I mentioned Yamaha's things, which is fascinating in its own lot of the elements that go to make up DX7 - the first widely available right, I highly recommend Dr. John an FM synth have different names commercial FM synth. All of the DX7's Chowning and David Bristow's "FM compared to the bits and pieces you'll operators produced a basic sine wave - Theory and Applications: By Musicians find on a subtractive synth. Despite and that's all. Many FM soft synths for Musicians". Unfortunately this this these two types of synthesis these days offer a whole range of book is currently out of print but can actually rely on at least two of the oscillator/operator waveforms but often be picked up from online book same basic building blocks - those retailers at a reasonable price. we'll always be using sine waves being Envelopes and Oscillators. We'll during this series. Why? Firstly, that's take a look at envelopes in a few what Yamaha did on the DX7 and they Right, back to our operators. To do minutes, thankfully they use the same didn't come off too badly. Secondly, any type of FM synthesis you need at terminology as in subtractive because it makes things simpler and, least two operators. One on its own is synthesis but they do perform a thirdly, you'll be blown away by what not much good. This month we'll be different function. For actually making you can do with just a couple of sine looking at basic synthesis - what can sound, FM synths use oscillators, waves. be done with just two operators - but except that they are called in future articles will be diving into "Operators". complex synthesis to see what

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happens when you start using multiple operators, put together in different formations - it gets pretty wild! Introducing ConcreteFX's "Feed" I'll using ConcreteFX's "Feed" to illustrate all of the things that I'm talking about. "Feed" is a three operator FM synth that was released as freeware in 2006 by Jon Ayres. At its heart is a matrix that determines how the three operators "feed" into each other to produce some very interesting sounds.

at the ready. Good, let's get going then.

You can download "Feed" from Basic synthesis - First steps www.concretefx.com/Feed.zip Note that the "F" of Feed is uppercase. Although Feed has three operators we'll only be using two. Our two You'll also be needing a spectrum operators (Ops) are labelled "Osc 1 / analyser. I'm going to be using VertexDSP's "MultiInspector", Main" and "Osc 2" - as you can see, oscillator terminology is still often reviewed in June's Wusik Sound used. What are we going Magazine, and MeldaProduction's "MAnalyzer" that I took a look at in to do then? First of all, July's issue. You may have a different we'll think about what is plug-in that you prefer to use, I won't going to be happening hold that against you. conceptually. Most simply, the output of the first OK, so you've downloaded Feed, your operator (Op1) "Osc 1" is DAW is running, Feed is open in front going to be fed into the input of the second of you and your spectrum analyser is Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

operator (Op2) "Osc 2". This creates, in effect, a short chain as shown in Figure 1. The operator on the left, Op1, is called the Modulator and the operator on the right, Op2, is called the Carrier. Thankfully one picture makes everything a hundred times clearer... I hope!

Figure 1

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Creating

FM Synthesis

Sounds Figure 2 In Feed, how you set "1>Filt" and "2>Filt" will determine which of the operators you will hear. At the moment you can hear Op1 and not Op2. We need to swap that around so set "1>Filt" to zero and turn "2>Filt" to 100%. We're doing this just to make things simpler for ourselves. When we come to look at algorithm based synths we'll find that the Modulator, Op1, is rarely heard in the finished sound. Its job is often, simply to modulate the carrier, Op2. So, we'll start that way even though we're using a matrix based synth that would typically give us more options. When you play a note (try an "A" at 440 Hz) you'll hear a single tone - a sine wave that will appear as a single peak in your spectrum analyser. Actually, Feed's sine wave is not 100% pure, at least as seen on the analyser. You'll probably have a smaller peak showing to the right at about 1300 Hz - don't worry about it, it's adding very little to the sound but does give Feed a bit of extra character once we start in on the FM synthesis. Figure 2 shows what you should see in your spectrum analyser.

Figure 3

Now for some FM synthesis. Let's modulate the carrier! On the "FM Matrix" turn the control marked "1>2" clockwise. The output of Osc 1 (Op1) is now being used to affect the frequency of Osc 2 (Op2). As well as listening to the sound, watch the spectrum analyser as you move "1>2". What happens? As the amount of sine wave being fed from Op1 into Op2 increases more peaks appear on the spectrum analyser - Figure 3. These peaks are side-bands, or harmonics, at 2, 3, 4 and 5 times the frequency of the original note. You'll notice that the peaks get smaller as frequency increases, eventually, the higher you go, the harmonics become too quiet to hear but they are still, at least theoretically, present. In terms of the sound, it should get brighter as you increase "1>2".

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This is the essence of FM synthesis. Modulating one sine wave by another produces a series of harmonics. The bandwidth of the sound increases as we add in more harmonics leading to a richer sound - exactly what we hear from Feed. Mathematically it is possible to calculate all of the harmonics that we would expect to see, and hear. As I said, others have already done all the mathematical hard work for us; it remains for me to just show you the equation used to predict the harmonics produced: fh = fc Âą (k Ă&#x2014; fm) Where fh are the harmonic frequencies generated, fc is the carrier frequency and fm is the modulator frequency. k is an integer. It's upper value, i.e. the number of harmonics produced, depends on the Modulation Index - something we'll be looking at next time. One thing that you might have noticed: the equation mentioned above predicts that we'll have harmonics below our carrier frequency, i.e. below our "A" at 440 Hz. So, where are they? fc and fm are both

frequency except that its phase is reversed so, in effect, our "negative" frequencies appear above 0 Hz and get added back to the corresponding positive frequencies that we can see already. So, they are there, you just can't see them! Note that we've only been talking about frequency and not amplitude in this basic discussion of what's going on, so I've not even attempted to account for the size of the peaks as seen on the analyser.

Well, you almost get that, except that the higher frequencies reflect back (alias) at the Nyquist frequency (half the system's sampling rate) and appear around, and below the original frequency. The reflected frequencies don't necessarily land in such a way as to produce nice, regular harmonic sounds. In fact, reflected frequencies can be a way of adding enharmonic frequencies, i.e. frequencies that don't "fit" with the original tone, to a sound. Also, our negative frequencies, as Let's push things a little further. As predicted by the earlier equation, may you saw on the spectrum analyser, well put in an appearance as they and as theory predicted, playing an "A" don't line up neatly with the reflected at 440 Hz created harmonics at 880 harmonics. It can all get very Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz, etc. This is interesting... and noisy. great as long as we're playing low(ish) notes. But what happens when we Figure 4 shows what these reflected play an "A" at 7040 Hz - 16 times the frequencies looks like in the spectrum frequency of, or 4 octaves above, our analyser. I've drawn a red box around original "A"? The sound itself is not the original frequency. This result is, particularly pleasant but according to maybe, not unexpected, though it's what we have already seen, and since most definitely a feature and not a fc and fm are equal, we'd expect bug. I shall say no more about it at this point except that we can use this harmonics at 14080 Hz, 21120 Hz, feature to our advantage when 28160 Hz and so forth. designing sounds later on.

Figure 4

440 Hz so, above our note we would expect to see harmonics at 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz and so on. This is, in effect, what we see on the spectrum analyser. For the harmonics below our note we would expect to see them at 0 Hz, -440 Hz, -880 Hz, 1320 Hz, etc. Now, a negative frequency is the same as a positive Special Wusik Edition

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Creating

FM Synthesis

Sounds

Figure 5 Spicing things up - Envelopes One Modulator and one Carrier... maybe they don't produce the most interesting of sounds, but we can see already the potential we have in our hands to shape the sound coming from the carrier based solely upon the amplitude of the sine wave from the modulator. As more signal is fed in, i.e. as the amplitude of the modulator wave increases, the louder the harmonics that are produced at the output of the carrier. Sweeping "1>2" from zero to 100% shows this effect. At this point it's time to throw in an envelope. Using Feed we're going to set things up as shown in Figure 5. We're still in the realms of basic synthesis since Op1 still modulates Op2, but this time we're going to use an envelope to control the amplitude of Op1's signal. Both the "1>2" and "2>Filt" controls need to be at 100%. On "Envelope 1" increase the attack control, "Att", to about 20 qb (quarter beats). That's all you need to do for the moment. Now play a note. The sound will start as a simple sine wave since there is no input from the modulator. As the amplitude of the modulator's output ramps up over the 20 quarter beats the sound will become brighter and brighter until, finally, with the output at its peak, 100%, we'll have exactly the same sound as we had before when we increased "1>2" manually. This isn't exactly earth shattering but it's the second principle that we need to grab hold off for creating sounds using FM synthesis. We can use envelopes to increase the harmonic content of the carrier over time. This is slightly different from an envelope's function in subtractive synthesis but is very useful when it comes to building up sounds from multiple operators. Where do we go from here? Hopefully this month's article has whetted your appetite for more FM synthesis. If you have the time, spend some of it playing around with Feed and get to know what this deceptively simple looking synth can do. A few things to try out:

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October 2011

Set Op1 to modulate both Op2 and Op3. Listen to the output of both operators ("2>Filt" and "3>Filt" at 100%) and sweep the "1>3" control. Then try to create the same effect using Envelope 3. Finally, experiment using Envelope 2 as well so that both Op2 and Op3 are changing over time. Set Op1 to modulate itself using the "1>1" control with "1>Filt" at 100%. Turn off Op2 and Op3. The result might not be what you might expect and is different from what would happen on many matrix based FM synths where the sound would simply become noise. Play around with Envelope 1's Sustain and Decay controls to create some strange bouncy, bubbly sounds. Chain all three operators - Op1 into Op2 into Op3 and listen to the output of Op3.

Next issue: We'll be taking a look at the C:M Ratio and its effect on the Modulation Index. Which leads, inevitably, to the question of just what is the Modulation Index? We'll be thinking about harmonic and enharmonic sounds and, finally, we'll be having a closer look at ConcreteFX's "Digital" which will introduce us to FM algorithms. See you next time!

Special Wusik Edition

, Arduino by WilliamK

Its not Soft, its Hard! Arduino is an open-source ,single-board microcontroller, which makes it easy to handle input and output ports to and from a computer or even other devices. If you want more information, check out the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino

process: compile, link, and upload the program to the board – all via one USB cable (which also powers the device).

Compile? Yes, you program it in C, but it generates machine-code upon compilation, which makes your program run as fast as possible. This is But why do I love it? Simple..it’s simple. not true with other boards such as the It works. It’s easy. Did I mention .NET boards: Netduino and such. Those simple already? are incredibly slow for some operations, but faster for others. We won’t go into Even if you’ve never programmed that now, but perhaps at a later time. before, it’s still simple, but it will require you to learn C. However, the What can I do with such slow Arduino included examples are enough for you board? Its only 8 bits, and only 16 to mess around with and learn by Mhz? Come'on! Only 2K of RAM?! Yes, yourself. today's computers are light-years ahead, but keep in mind that you won't When it comes to microcontrollers, run Windows on it. most things are hard to handle and require many programs, compilers, Let’s say that all you want to do is linkers, debug-tools along with complex create a box with some Faders, Knobs, and expensive software and hardware. and other electronic things, all That’s not the case with the Arduino. connected and sending MIDI information. For that, 8 bits and 16 The Italian guys behind it wanted to Mhz is a lot, really. make things as easy as possible, and they have everything done in one The Atmega microcontroller has a program: the Arduino IDE. Behind the hardware serial interface, which when curtain, it uses several open-source set to the right speed, acts as a MIDI tools, but you don't need to bother with Output port. All you need is to make a those unless you want to do so. MIDI cable with a resistor and you are ready to go. Of course, for MIDI Input, The Arduino itself relies on an Atmega things get a bit more complicated. You chip, with later boards using the will need to purchase a MIDI Shield or make your own electronic PCB for that. Atmega328 microcontroller. As a side note, some people call it a So, let’s only worry about MIDI Output microprocessor, which is kinda wrong. for now. This ATmega alone is hard to grasp, as it requires several tools to handle it, You have multiple Analog Inputs on the plus page upon page of information to board, so you can connect faders, pots, be read in order to understand all the and such. Those can be read by the things it can do. You can do all that, if Arduino program and translated into you are really hardcore when it comes MIDI events. to your programs. The great thing about all this is the However, with the Arduino, all you community behind it. Don't be shy, use really have to do is download the the Arduino Forum! People are nice and software-package, open the Arduino will mostly help you out. Just be sure IDE, open an example, hit “Upload”, to be clear on what you need and include as much information and and it does everything in one singleOctober 2011

source-code as possible. They really hate when people ask something in one short-paragraph and provide no background information. Also, remember to share your work. YouTube videos and pictures are a must so don't forgot those. Personally, I'm using the Arduino platform for several things, not just music related, but also to make life easier with some house gadgets. Another great aspect of the Arduino is that even the Hardware is open-source. You can even make your own Arduino clone board or even a bare-board solution. With the help of Google, you can find some nice tools to handle not just the Atmega328 chip that is used on the Arduino boards but also other chips, such as the Attiny line. Ebay is also full of Arduino compatible items for purchase, and recently the Arduino site has added its own store. Always search for your project idea online, as there's a great chance someone already did what you want to do and has shared all information on how to reproduce it with an Arduino board. Yes, there are other solutions out there, even 32 bit based, but they rely on much more complex chips that can't be just cloned or breadboarded. What I like most about the Arduino is that I can buy Atmega8 chips for $2 USD each, and make my own tiny-board by using its internal 8 Mhz clock with no external components needed. It’s just as simple as you can get. Be sure to check Beat707.com to see my first Arduino Based project. I also feature some other projects over at the Arduino forum. Just search for WilliamK to see what I'm up to. www.WusikSoundMagazine.com

Artvera: Drumatoxin

Artvera Drumatoxin by A. Arsov

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October 2011

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The truth

inspiring drum libraries you will ever get. I have owned it for a few years and have never been keen to share this secret weapon with you, my dear readers. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve used it in countless songs without letting you know, but it happens that we have this special Wusik issue and I've decided to let this Artvera product come out into the light. So, good luck, my dear Drumatoxin.

This is one of the most unusual drum loop libraries I've ever heard or used. Drumatoxin is a drum library with a "women moment" integrated deeply into its essence. Drumatoxin was created by our beloved Vera and the same thing as happens with creatures of the opposite sex, also happens with this library. All of the included content is really hard to understand and no Theoretically matter how long you deal with it, you will never figure In theory, it looks very out the inside logic that simple. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost 2000 quality drives this library. Maybe we drum samples in 32 drum will never really understand it sets offer a broad spectrum but somehow the less I of usage in various musical understand it, the more I like styles.â&#x20AC;? That is transcribed it. So logical in a bizarre and from Artvera's site. unique, unusual way and Drumatoxin is collection of beautiful sounding in all its drum and percussive sounds weirdness - it can substitute including industrial, ambient, for a whole rack of different electronic sounds and basses effects that you used to use along with sequencer driven when you try to squeeze sets. Regarding the more juice out of your drum description, nothing much to loops. It is definitely one of write home about. the most useful libraries for all those unusual moments in Practically your life and in your music. But please - don't get me But when you open your wrong. All the loops are beloved Wusik Station and somehow straight to the open the Drumatoxin point and will fit nicely in directory, you will find an your arrangements. No almost endless number of matter how odd they sound. various kits and an ultra They are very logical in a impressive number of drum woman's irrational way. As loops ranked all over the we all know, the day we keyboard in many sub understand women's logic we directories. Only 2000 drum will also understand the samples? You're kidding me, whole universe. It is Vera. The whole collection is definitely one of the most like a woman's handbag - a

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October 2011

never ending story. I really don't know where Vera gets all of those samples. Does she torture her husband or record secret meetings that are not of this world? I don't know and I don't care. It sounds good and fresh. OK, you will not find the bass drum where it should be (according to our anticipations or habits), ditto for snare, but it is not so important as long as it sounds good. And man, yes it sounds good. So, you get 577 presets and 2000 drum samples for $40. What the hell are you still waiting for? It definitely won't be your main drum collection, neither your starting point for a new song, but when you need something really extra, something that only women can provide, then Drumatoxin is a must have. I'm not so happy that I've told you all this, but after using Drumatoxin in so many songs maybe I can finally share this library with the rest of the world. Available on http://www.artveramusic.com/ Don't miss this one. It will be available only till Thursday but they forgot to tell us, which one ;-) By Mr. Straight logic "can think about only one thing at once" typical male - Sex, yes, please - Arsov.

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Nucleus Sound Lab Roundup

by David Keenum Ben Paturzo Jeffrey Powell

A sampler is only as strong as its delay, we now present the Nucleus sample content. At least that’s the Sound Lab roundup! way I look at it. Even with effects, filters, and modulation, the sample content is sill the primary factor in the OB Resurrection success of a sampler. You might not By David Keenum agree, and I can respect that, but for The OB Resurrection was reviewed in me, the sounds (samples) are the the September 2007 issue of WSM issue. I’m not primarily interested in (http://issuu.com/Wusik/docs/wsm_0 sounds I can develop from raw 17_96_dpi/95). OB Resurrection waveforms. Usually, I have a features sounds from various deadline, and I need to get to creating Oberheim Xpander and Matrix synths. music. So for me, I need quality It consists of 450 megabytes of material. Then I usually need to samples, arranged into 85 unique “tweak” the sounds, and this is where Soundsets and 453 Wusik Station Wusik Station shines. It is very easy presets. The presets range from to adjust the ADSR, turn on/off a somewhat basic sounds like basses layer, or edit the effects. But first I and leads to complex pads and need the samples. atmospheres. The presets are When it comes to quality sample arranged by “Author” and by “Type,” material and presets for Wusik Station so if you have a favorite preset (and EVE for that matter), no one programmer such as Artvera, for does better than Nucleus SoundLab example, then you can easily find her (http://www.nucleus-soundlab.com/). presets grouped together. Personally, Their libraries have a consistent I prefer the presets quality, with both well-edited samples arranged by type, and interesting presets by talented although I can preset designers. So for our Wusikspend some time focused issue, we wanted to feature with Tim Conrardy’s the Nucleus Sound Lab libraries. presets. He was a Except for the MK Digital Keys library gem of a man who (http://www.nucleuscould write soundlab.com/mk-digital-keysmasterful presets. I reason-refill.html), these collections seem to gravitate to have been previously reviewed in presets that end WSM, but we chose to revisit them with a “TC.” one more time. So without further 70

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The OB Resurrection sounds have an analog “flavor” that owe a lot to their synth heritage, and you will find a good assortment of your usual synthtype sounds. But the strength of the collection lies in the four and six layer sounds, where you get that “Analog Goodness” blended together. Even the lead presets have a lot of interesting things going on in the background. The pads and atmospheres are downright “dreamy.” In that light, I would characterize OB Resurrection as new sounds based on some old analog favorites. The price is $39 for a single format, $49 for the Multi-Format download or $59 for the Multi-Format DVD (including international shipping). Product information: http://www.nucleussoundlab.com/ob-resurrectionwusikstation.html

VS Resurrection By David Keenum

Wusik Station’s XY pad fully mapped to a variety of parameters.

The Sequential Circuits Prophet VS was a revolutionary synth in both sound and design. Its groundbreaking Vector Synthesis (VS) led to the development of a number of instruments, including our own Wusik Station. So this is a rare sampling project of an equally rare and special instrument. According to NSL’s website, “VS Resurrection includes all the classic waveforms from the VS as well as 14 more complex, filtered and effected waveforms. Using these waves as a starting point, Nucleus SoundLab designers created patches that highlight vector synthesis' strengths.” The library is 600mb, with 108 unique Soundsets, and over 300 presets. As a tribute to the original VS' vector synthesis, each preset has

VS Resurrection was reviewed in November 2007 (http://issuu.com/Wusik/docs/wsm_0 19_96_dpi/67), but let me sum it up by saying that if you are looking for some 80’s digital goodness, look no further. A lot of the sounds remind me of my old DX7 II, but thicker. My favorite sounds are the bell sounds or sounds that use a bell-like sound, but I can recommend this library on a number of levels. For one thing, it sounds different from any other library I know. Also, the sounds have interesting layers that many times sound like how I expect Vector Synthesis to sound. And then there is the XY pad. The XY pad is a seldomused feature in Wusik Station that owes its lineage to the Prophet VS. Recently, the XY pad has been used as one of the key features in Camel Audio’s Alchemy, but it was in Wusik Station first. Every one of the 300 presets in VS Resurrection utilizes the XY pad, and it’s eye opening for this Wusik Station user! It makes me wish I had a hardware XY pad! The price is $39 for a single Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

format, $49 for the Multi-Format download, or $59 for the MultiFormat DVD (including international shipping). Product information: http://www.nucleus-soundlab.com/vsresurrection-wusikstationsamples.html Ambient Drums By David Keenum Ambient Drums was reviewed in the January 2008 issue of WSM (http://issuu.com/Wusik/docs/wsm_0 21_96_dpi/47). This collection is focused on percussion sounds for atmospheric/ambient/background/ effect/soundtrack uses. It contains 500 MB of percussion hits, booms, whacks, clinks, and scrapes, arranged into 24 kits (12 dry and 12 wet). The sounds in the dry and wet kits are

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company, Access Music. Figure 1 is one model. Jeremy Janzen, Master of Nucleus SoundLab, has provided for us Outbreak, a soundware product based on the sounds of the Virus TI hardware synthesizer, using the power of extensive 96 kHz multisampling, manual looping and professional preset design. Viral In the original review, I suggested Outbreak is available as a VSTi plugin, “Freakin’ Cool and Unusual Drum and a sound library Percussion-like Sounds!” as an for Camel Audio’s alternative title for the library, and on Alchemy, and a revisiting the collection, I still agree. Reason 4.0 Refill. The sounds are interesting and unique. From the As a side note, demo 10 on the website: product page, titled Wusik Station Viral Outbreak Presets, will give you a great idea of contains all how the collection sounds. manner of TIYou can create a traditional drum based sounds. track with the sounds, but the Classic strength in Ambient Drums lies in its processed sounds. My favorite sounds wavetables, raw saw and pulse waveforms (sampled at multiple are the ones that sound like they are way in the distance, whether they are pulsewidths), unison dance leads, breathtaking pads, bizarre formant booms or scrapes. And I like the rainsticks, but then again, I like pretty effects, massive supersaws and even punchy synth drumkits. The Refill much all rainsticks, real or recorded. Details follow: The price is $29 for a single format. The ReFill includes the No sampler required! Viral Battery/Kontakt patches + raw .wav Outbreak is powered by a full files at no extra charge. Product information: http://www.nucleussoundlab.com/ambient-drums-reasonrefill.html duplicates, with the wet kits being processed by a convolution reverb. Each kit is mapped to about one octave and starts at C1. The lowest note (C1) is consistent throughout the kits. In addition, there are 30 presets that use the Wusik Station wavesequencer.

Viral Outbreak By Ben Paturzo The Virus TI (Total Integration) series of hardware synthesizers was introduced in 2005 by the German 72

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copy of the amazing WusikEngine V5 by Wusik.com. -

Nearly 3.5GB of multisamples comprising 180+ soundsets.

Sampled at 32-bit 96khz quality! For resource efficiency, then carefully downsampled to 24-bit 48khz. Figure 1

Comes loaded with over 1000 presets by the best preset designers out there: ProSounds, Teksonik, Tim Conrardy, Jeremy Janzen, rsmus7 and more!

An amazing, TI-inspired, GUI by Vera Kinter.

Mac users please take note the VST Plugin is PC-Only at this time.

Considering that an Access hardware synthesizer can reduce your trust fund by a few thousand dollars US, we should be grateful for Jeremy's hard work. Not only that, but he has managed to get some of the best sound designers out there—even Chris Sciurba (Ugo), who isn't listed above,

Figure 2

Figure 3

has a hand in this veritable cornucopia of presets. With so many presets, you are like the proverbial kid in the candy store. If you are familiar with the Wusik Station synth, you'll feel right at home, since Viral Outbreak uses WS 5. Here, in Figure 2, I've opened the File Browser so that you can see the list of sound designers. For me, seeing Tim Conrardy and Vera Kinter seals the deal. I opened Tim's ClavaVirus, Figure 3, and had a play. Very nice. I've never thought of grafting a Clav with a Virus (boy, now there's a punch line), but sure enough if the Master didn't capture it. Turning to another of my favorites, Tasmodia, I tried to narrow it down, without luck, so you'll just have to go through the 300 or so presets! I mean, the Synths, Keys, Atmo'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I couldn't find a bad one in the bunch. Probably brought

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October 2011

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Figure 4 the Good Donuts to the Preset Party, did ol' Jeremy! Vera Kinter again demonstrates her delightful talent. Like before, if there is an "off" preset, I couldn't find it. Tinkly, shown in Figure 4, will first make you smile, and then loosen your jaw in amazement the more you play. Let's put it this wayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;her presets make you want to play them. I can't offer higher praise. There are even "Basic" presets, if you want to keep it simple. Viral Outbreak is an excellent value at $89. NSL might be having a sale, so it's worth checking it out, but the work that went into these presets is worth far more then what is being charged. Great job, Jeremy! Now bring those donuts heah son! Viral Outbreak was originally reviewed in the April 2008 issue of WSM http://issuu.com/Wusik/docs/wsm_ap ril_08/33. necessary harmonics in each of these zones, and this allowed the Roland MKS to reproduce the sound of a grand piano (or other instruments) better than the very rudimentary sample-based instruments made by its competitors. So, in short, the NSL MK Digital Keys Roland MKS-20 became one of the by Jeffrey Powell "must have" piano instruments for a number of artists in the eighties. In the mid-1980s, Roland came out with the MKS-20 digital piano module You'll find its signature sound on a number of well-known hits like "Right featuring their Structured/Adaptive Synthesis technology. Essentially, the Here Waiting" by Richard Marx and "I idea was to divide the keyboard into a Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That" by Elton John (who also used it on number of zones where important tour for many years). While certainly sound characteristics differed. sampled pianos have improved over Roland's algorithm then produced the Product information: http://www.nucleussoundlab.com/viral-outbreak-vstplugin.html

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October 2011

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the years since then, there's a certain distinctiveness to the sound that's still sought after today. In fact, in contemporary gospel music, the sounds of the MKS are still in heavy use. In MK Digital Keys, Nucleus SoundLab has sampled the Roland MKS-20 and used the tools of Wusik Station to produce a more versatile soundset than the original hardware could produce. The original hardware module had eight different sounds (Piano 1, Piano 2, Piano 3, EP 1, EP 2, Vibraphone, Harpsichord, and Clavinet), and NSL provides samples

However, with Wusik Station, you don't have to just stop at the basic patches. The onboard effects and easy interface make tweaking the sounds very easy. I loaded up the EP 2 patch, placed the double chorus in as an insert effect, lengthened of all eight sounds. Interestingly, the the release, increased the polyphony NSL sampleset provides all eight to 64, and I was off in an electronic sounds in four different-sized Wusik piano wonderland. If you have Wusik soundsets. The sizes are small (S), v. 6, then you can also use another medium (M), large (L), and extra trick to get a great piano sound. large (XL). This means that virtually Since Wusik is multi-timbral, you can any system that can run Wusik load up Piano 1 in the first preset Station can use this sample set as layer and your favorite Wusik acoustic you can simply pick the size that piano in the second preset layer, and works best for your system and your then mix them to suit your tastes. project. The sampling of the eight This is a great way to get a versatile sounds is fantastic, and the soundsets and rich piano sound. are very playable, which is important for such a sound that's geared toward Beyond these basic soundsets, NSL keyboard players. Among the has also provided 46 custom presets soundsets, Piano 1, EP 1, EP 2, and using the sounds, and these were the Vibraphone appear to me to be designed by the great preset designer, the most versatile. Piano 3 is that Daniel Stawczyk. The presets include typical dance piano sound (not the basses, electronic pianos, keys, Korg M1 sound...the other one) that effects, and a couple of is familiar to many, so I think it would wavesequenced patches. I like that find its place into a number of artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the presets use only the small or tracks as well. I installed all four medium versions of the soundsets so sizes of the samplesets, but I found they're playable on probably all myself using the medium and large systems. The presets are good, and almost exclusively. I didn't hear they have a surprising variety. My much gain in sound quality and favorites included Organic Hope (an playability when using the XL set, but ambient EP combining EP1 and EP2), I could definitely hear the reduced Pace (an atmospheric wavesequenced sampling in the small set. I'm a patch that cleverly uses the piano player, and I really enjoyed vibraphone patches), and Reso playing the basic patches. Lutions (several basic soundsets layered with highly resonant filters). Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

I like the variety in the presets, and they show some clever programming. Most of all, they're useful presets, which is something I always appreciate. The sampling here is deep in the larger sets (seven octaves worth with six samples per octave and six velocity players per note). The total soundset size ranges from 327 MB (for the small version of all eight instruments) to 4.83 GB (for the XL version). So, if you plan on running the XL version, be sure you've got the resources (hard drive size and speed) to handle it! As a piano player and a fan of the Roland sound, I really like this set. The patches are very playable, and the samples sound crisp and clear. The samples here work great in their raw form, but with the power of Wusik Station behind them, you can really use them to create some awesome keys and electronic pianos. If you like the sounds in the demos on their page and are interested in some great keyboard samples for Wusik Station, I definitely recommend purchasing MK Digital Keys. You can pick up the Wusik version for $44 from their site. There's also a multiformat version which adds to the Wusik patches some patches for Kontakt and SFZ. It's available for only $49. Product information: http://www.nucleussoundlab.com/mk-digital-keysreason-refill.html www.WusikSoundMagazine.com

Dmitry Sches'

First Look Review

"Diversion" &

KiloHearts'

"kHS ONE" by Adrian Frost

Last month I had the privilege of being able to review DiscoDSP's brand new synth "Corona". I

kiloHearts - "kHs ONE"

mentioned in that article that I would be taking a look at another When you visit kiloHearts' website at www.kilohearts.com you are two brand new synths this month. greeted with a clean, well Both of the synths are by designed site that proclaims: "At newcomers to the VST soft-synth kiloHearts we believe that the system requirements for a virtual scene, both are subtractive instrument shouldn't include a synths and both are very good PhD in Synthesis. Getting to the sound you want should just be a debut offerings from promising matter of thinking what you want new developers. to do, and do it." It's hard to know which synth to start with, both of them excellent and have particularly interesting "bits" that need to be pointed out. So, I'll flip a coin - heads for "Diversion" first and tails for "kHs ONE"â&#x20AC;Ś and it's tails. For the doubters, yes I really did flip a coin! 76

makes up the signal flow includes a small arrow built into the border that points you on your way. I think that it's the little touches like this that make ONE stand out.

Here's another one: hovering over any control reveals a line of text at the bottom of the screen that explains the function of the section that you are working on. This is sounding good already and It's not invasive but is there if first impressions of ONE when it you need it. ONE happily ships has been downloaded and with 100 patches including an installed are very positive. This "init" patch with sensible defaults synth looks good, it oozes quality. thank you kiloHearts! Too many It is clear that the design of the synths don't include a means of interface has been very carefully resetting everything so that you considered so as to put can start making your own everything within easy reach. It is sounds so this gets a big thumbs possible to follow the synth's up. logical flow just by how it has been laid out; each section that

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First Look Review

ONE isn't a complicated synth. You Moving onto the filters, of which there The Shaper sits between the two have two oscillators with three are two along with a Shaper that we'll filters and offers either an Overdrive different of waveforms - Saw, Square come back to. Each filter is multior Foldback mode. Overdrive does (Pulse Width adjustable via the shape mode with low pass, high pass, band exactly what you'd expect it to do - it control) and Noise. You also get a sine pass and formant modes available. warms up the sound nicely. Foldback sub oscillator. With the Shape and They sound good and clean but with a is hard to describe but sounds really Sync controls associated with each of bit of bite as you raise the resonance. good especially when you control the the two main oscillators you get a Both filters have envelope and key drive or mix via an LFO. According to surprising amount of control over your following controls which makes them the ONE's well written manual; for waveforms, and hence your basic that bit more useful. which I must again thank kiloHearts: sound. "This mode folds high amplitudes back

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October 2011

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Dmitry Sches'

"Diversion" &

KiloHearts'

down in a sine wave shape, One question that comes to mind is resulting in ringing FM-like sounds." "Where are kiloHearts aiming with Somehow that phrase doesn't quite ONE?" This isn't a high power "do do justice to how good the Foldback everything including making the mode actually sounds. toast" kind of synth. In fact one could even say that it is quite Having mentioned LFOs... ONE has limited in some ways. You don't two of them - a Voice LFO and a have dozens of waveform options, Global LFO. What's the difference you don't have a huge handful of between the two? The Voice LFO is LFOs to contend with and you only "per voice" which means that, again have three envelopes of which only according to the manual, "each new two are routable. So who's going to note gets its own LFO, restarting its use this synth? oscillation". The Global LFO acts independently of the Voice LFO and Firstly I'd say that ONE would make isn't retriggered on every note. a fantastic synth for someone who is taking their first steps into sound Whilst there is no single modulation design on subtractive synthesizers. matrix you can route different parts Such a person wouldn't be a total of the synth here and there without raw beginner, you still need to have any problem. There are enough any idea of what you're doing to get sources and destinations available the best from this synth. It's to keep most of us more than happy. certainly one, two or three steps up from most basic "learner" synths In terms of using ONE on my but it isn't going to have you tearing computer I noticed a max CPU load out your hair in frustration. of about 10% on the heaviest patches. I'm running ONE in Energy Anders Stenberg, ONE's developer XT on an i5 430M processor with says "Everything we add is weighed 4Gb of RAM. So, not too bad. On against how much complexity we some of the simpler patches the feel it adds to the UI and the CPU meter barely registers at all. understanding of the synth. If it adds more value to the range of As always in a review it is very sounds that can be done than it difficult to describe how something complicates things for the users, we sounds, you really need to hear it add it, otherwise we don't. I think for yourself. To my ears it sounds we've filtered out a set of features very good. The sound is generally that covers a pretty broad spectrum quite smooth with no nasty of sounds. So, while the feature list surprises but it is possible to dial in is a bit shorter than on some other some bite and a bit of "Grrrr" synths, I'd like to say the features without too much effort. we do have are the 'right ones'."

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October 2011

"kHS ONE"

So is that it? Have I relegated ONE to the realm of sound design newbies? No, not at all, remember I said "Firstly". So, secondly, ONE is going to appeal to those who want to do sound design but who also want something that works "out of the box". ONE is one of those synths that it's a pleasure to use. It's easy and comfortable but is deep enough that you're not going to run out of things to do with it in a hurry. This is a fine synth whose sound is, dare I say it, beautiful. When I first fired up the demo, before even thinking of talking to ONE's developer, I loved the sound - and in the end that is all that matters. ONE fits well into a mix, it neither dominates nor disappears. Some of the included pad sounds are sublime - Glitter, Land of Sand and Tombsong, in the lower registers, are the ones that come to mind. ONE can also pull off some pretty punchy thumping bass lines too. Any complaints, reservations or the like? No actually. Nothing to complain about, all is good. It may be tempting to say that ONE could do with this or that extra feature, but that would detract from its simplicity which, personally, I think is its major attraction. kHs ONE is available direct from kiloHearts website in 32 and 64 bit versions for Mac and Windows. It only costs 99 Euros (ÂŁ86 or $119) which is a very reasonable price for a synth of this quality.

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First Look Review

Dmitry Sches - "Diversion" Now we move onto Dmitry Sches "Diversion" synth. There would actually be very little point in comparing these two synths as they are so different that to do so would not be fair to either of them. Diversion is a four oscillator subtractive synth that has a few interesting tricks up its sleeve. If I were to be allowed to make one comparison it would be this: Diversion also has an extremely high quality interface. There's a lot more going on but the whole synth is clear and functionality is well defined. I'm not going to walk you through every single aspect of Diversion's design. There is a demo available from Dmitry's website at www.diversion-synth.com. Download, install and try it for yourself. So what things need pointing out in particular? Well, looking at each of the four oscillators the first thing you note is that there are a lot of options on offer, some of which you may never have seen before. In particular you have the "Buzz","Sciss","Sub" and "Brill" controls which all shape the oscillator waveform in their own way. Buzz adds some, not unpleasant, buzz to the sound. Sciss appears to bring in some high pitched harmonics while Sub gives you a bass boost. Brill is the most subtle of the controls adding a bit of sparkle to the top end.

controller. This is one of those times when you wish you had four, no five there's one in the centre too, XY controllers to hand. But I'm afraid I don't, so I have to use my mouse. Even doing that the potential of these controllers for sound shaping is obvious.

multi segment envelopes are particularly interesting because, again, they can be routed anywhere and give you a level of control that you just don't get with the normal ADSR envelopes. Each of them can be oneshot or looped and you can save and load envelopes that you've created yourself.

One of my current interests in music making is FM synthesis (the second A feature on the arp that I don't think installment in this series elsewhere in that I've come across before is the this issue). Diversion offers FM ability to set the timing of each step. synthesis so, of course, I had to give Right clicking above the level bar of it a go and the results are very good. each step you get the option to set Osc 1 can modulate Osc 2 and Osc 3 the sync rate for that step. This can can modulate Osc 4. With the amount lead to some interesting patterns and of control that you already have for is an interesting development of the shaping the basic oscillator waveform more standard arp that you find on a FM synthesis becomes real fun. Throw lot of synths. If you end up using in the fact that you have some very Diversion it is worth spending some good modulation options available and effort on learning to use the arp Diversion proves to be a very effectively. It's quite a powerful thing competent and usable FM synth. that's tucked away in its own corner. Talking of modulation optionsâ&#x20AC;Ś Diversion has an 18 slot modulation matrix with 22 sources and more destinations than I wanted to count. I think that every single control of the synth can actually be modulated - this gives enormous flexibility when designing sounds but could be a little overwhelming. Thankfully the destinations are grouped into 6 subgroups on the right-click menu.

In order to further shape the sound Diversion offers two buses that each include a multi-mode filter with 22 modes. There are also controls for distortion and "Lo-Fi". Considering all of the other options on hand the buses might just qualify as the least interesting section of the synth, but they do their job and do it well.

Finally we come to Diversion's included effects. There are twelve FX Apart from the mod matrix there are 4 slots available. Four are dedicated to LFOs with one dedicated to vibrato, 4 processing the output of Bus1, four ADSR envelopes with one dedicated to are for Bus2 and the remaining four Each oscillator also has its own XY pad amplitude, 4 multi segment envelopes, are for the general mix. There are 9 1 16 step arp and 1 16 step gate. The different effects in total but you get that can be assigned to a MIDI Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

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Dmitry Sches'

"Diversion" &

KiloHearts'

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"kHS ONE"

First Look Review

two of each type that can be put into any of the FX slots. This is the only thing that seemed a little weird to me, and it's pretty minor. You can only ever have two of each effect in you FX chain. It's hardly a huge limitation; it just felt a bit odd. Again, as for kHs ONE, there really is nothing to complain about in Diversion. It's a good, solid usable synth. It takes a bigger hit on the CPU than ONE, with some presets are can only get three instances running before the sound starts to stutter. You'll need a reasonably powerful computer to get the best from Diversion. You'll probably also need, or want, to have a good grasp of basic synthesis concepts before digging in to create your own sounds. This synth has huge potential and it will be very interesting to follow its development. And the sound? It's good, very good. For pads, atmospheres and sequences I'd say that it's up there with the best of the best. Very clear and pristine maybe even a slightly clinical sound but so deep. As I write I've got the synth loaded in my DAW and I'm messing around with the patch "SEQ Dream Chimes" (Yup, I'm multitasking…) and it is awesome. I could play a couple of chords and just sit and listen for half an hour. Basses and Leads are also very good but it's with the long, evolving, moving, textured sounds that Diversion excels.

Conclusions Some would say that the VST soft-synth market is saturated so will these two synths be able to find some space? I think that they will. The developers of both synths are responsive and interested in hearing from their customers, they are both active at the KvR forums and appear to believe in what they are doing and the worth of what they have produced. This is a good thing as they're going to need to prove themselves as newcomers to the VST world. First impressions, as mentioned earlier, are very positive for kHS ONE and Diversion. So, let's stand back a moment and try to sum everything up… two new developers, two high quality subtractive synths and one huge pile of potential. Both of these synths deserve recognition and both developers can be rightly proud of what they have created. These are good synths and both are worthy of your time and attention. Take the time to try out the demos available from www.kilohearts.com and www.diversion-synth.com and see if you can fit either of these two into your line-up.

Diversion is available from Dmitry Sches website at www.diversion-synth.com for $150 (109 Euros or £96 at time of writing. Remember, exchange rates change!)

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Linplug

relectro by Adrian Frost

Peter Linsenser of LinPLug has been in the VST business since Steinberg first released their Virtual Studio Technology standard to the world back in 1999. In that time LinPlug have released a large number of successful VST instruments, but no VST effectsâ&#x20AC;Ś until now that is. Released on the 20th of September "relectro" is LinPlug's first VST effect, and we've got our hand on a copy in order to tell you all about it! As I did for LinPlug's "MorphoX" synth a few months ago I'm going to do a three issue review of relectro. This issue is just an introduction, next time we'll look in more detail at some of the things that you can achieve with relectro and finally I'll attempt a tutorial putting into practice some of the "theory" that we'll have covered. According to LinPLug, "relectro is a specialised effects plug-in designed for creatively modifying drum loops and samples and converting them into 82

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unique and unusual electronicsounding drums." Certainly interesting but my own explorations of relectro would suggest that maybe it can do more than that. Read on. Relectro is available from www.linplug.com as a 32 or 64 bit plug-in for Windows and Mac. Once you've installed the plug-in you're presented with the interface shown in the image. Relectro's interface is classic LinPlug - clean, smart and well labeled. LinPlug include a generally well written manual in the setup file and it is worth taking the time to read through it to see how relectro works. There are enough new ideas and ways of doing things in relectro that the manual is a real help. Personally I've never spent much time using effects like this; I've tended to use what might be called more traditional effects.

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Processing start in the top left hand corner and works its way across to the bottom right hand corner where you have two control wheels. Using the rightmost wheel you control how much of your original signal is mixed in with the processed signal - a fairly standard control possibility. Next to it is the AMT (Amount) wheel. It has a similar but slightly different purpose. As you increase AMT you increase the amount that your signal is being

turning to complete mush - unless mush is what you're looking to produce. Input also features a stereo delay. This is odd. In my experience delay normally goes at the end of the effects chain so that you add delay to the overall processed sound. Why put the delay at the beginning then? Well, it looks like it's there to give you more sound crunching options. It's also interesting to hear what happens when you start processing a signal that already has a delay on it. Things getâ&#x20AC;Ś strange.

processed. The easiest way to think of Anyway, let's move back over to the other side of the plug-in. The manual it is that you each control starts (internally and with AMT at zero) in a explains that relectro consists of four neutral position - i.e. having no effect sections: Input, Main, Modulation and on the sound. As you increase AMT all Output. The Input section offers a filter with which you can roll off some control values move up to the value that you have set in designing your of the high end of your signal. The preset. As you can see that leads to a Leak control allows you to feed the subtly different effect than just removed high end straight through to increasing the wet/dry mix. It's a the output and hence back into the control that needs playing around with signal. Leak helps to keep a sound to see how best it can be used. crisp and stops you're initial input Special Wusik Edition

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The Main section gives you the bulk of relectro's sound shaping features, and there's quite a lot here to work through. I've not even begun to get a good grip on all of the different controls on offer in this section - this is kind of why I'm going to do a three issue review - there's simply too much here to try and understand it and explain it in one article. Suffice to say that there's a lot going on here and there is an exceptional amount of interplay between the controls - what www.WusikSoundMagazine.com

Linplug

relectro

you do with one affects what you do with the others.

become the new maximum values for didgeridoo. Finally, using the same those controls, i.e. with the AMT synth preset again but using "Deo control at the top you hear the same Mod dh" in relectro I ended up with LinPlug is renowned for their sound as when, previously the AMT an ethereal, cut-off wind-blownâ&#x20AC;Ś modulation "sections", if I can put it control was between 0 and 100%. thing. like that. Starting way back with Actually clicking the camera and GakStoar in early 2000 (see WSM July watching what happens is a lot There are some very interesting 2011) LinPlug started including a well simpler than trying to describe it. possibilities here that will be worth thought out modulation matrix in their investigating over the coming months. synths. As GakStoar progressed to OK, that's a lot of talk about what What's going to be hard is describing become Delta and then Albino the relectro does. How does it sound? To exactly what relectro can do. Sound modulation matrix improved and a try relectro out I downloaded and samples may be needed. highly functional arpeggiator was also installed LinPlug's RMV drum machine introduced. This arpeggiator appears - it seemed the obvious partner for This is version 1 of LinPlug's first ever in Albino, Octopus (LinPlug's FM relectro. I connected the two effect plug-in. Is it good? Yes, it is. I synth), MorphoX and now, in a slightly together and hit the "Play" button on think some patience and thought will modified form, in relectro where it's the default loop in RMV. The result - it be required to get the best out of it. called, simply, a modulator. Either was like listening to a low speed There are so many options that it way, and whatever you want to call it, Sample & Hold preset on a classic seems to me that it would be crucial it's good to see it make an synth. The sound is resonant and kind to gain a good understanding of what appearance here. In fact relectro of funky. At this stage I'm pretty is happening. The included presets are features two of these 16 step much using the "twiddle and see" a good place to start but they don't modulators. Double the fun since they method for checking out what tell the whole story. I feel that there is operate on the signal independently. relectro can do. Randomly moving a definitely more in there than you You use the modulation matrix to bunch of controls and changing to a might think on first glance or listen. direct the modulators to any one of 26 fast hi-hat based loop in RMV left me destinations. You can even use one with a weird reversed sound effect Anyone who has been reading WSM modulator to modulate the other, or that was actually quite fun. over the last few months knows itself. already that I'm a LinPlug fan. I can't So, moving swiftly on before I (and won't) hide the fact. They create Finally, the Output section. It features produce any more weirdness. How good, usable, musical, interesting the two control wheels that I've does relectro cope with things other plug-ins and relectro is looking to be already described along with low and than drum loops? A gentle string type a great new addition to the line-up. high pass filters and a chorus. One synth pad sound piped into relectro interesting feature here that I'd have using the "Turbulator dh" preset You can buy relectro for $79 or â&#x201A;Ź59, not figured out without reading the produced a pleasant gurgling, bouncy direct from LinPlug at manual is the ability to take snapshots effect whilst leaving enough of the http://www.linplug.com based on the current position of the basic sound that you still had a usable AMT wheel. When you click on the pad. The same synth preset using camera icon the current control values relectro's "Drunk Bassline vv" preset associated with the AMT at that point ended up sounding something like a 84

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I Hate You, Arduino by Not William

8 Bits? Pffff... Now, I must disagree with all this Arduino love. Give me a break, that thing is so outdated. There are so many other alternatives out there that it’s just not funny. If you visit SparkFun.com and also HackaDay.com, you will see that there's many alternatives to this crappy Arduino silly thing.

http://wiki.tinyclr.com/index.php?title =FEZ_Native_Programming Honestly, it’s still complicated compared to the Arduino. Oh well, I guess I will have to force my way and make him forget this whole Arduino love thing.

Before I forget, I did see another option. The guys from Texas Well, granted that they are mostly Instruments make a cheap 16-bit more expensive, but heck, if you have board for only $ 5 bucks. I was dollars to spare, who cares? impressed by it as it was so cheap. Its called LaunchPad, and comes with Personally, I haven't used any other some extra chips and stuff. He didn't boards, as my “master” only wants to like it since it was too hard to use the Arduino, since it’s so cheap program. What a lazy mind, gesh. and easy to find online. Ok, I know. Instead of Still, I remember one time, I digitalWrite(PinNumber), you get to managed to get him to order a FEZ work with the Port outputs directly, Panda, which is a much nicer board: using binary information to figure out 32 bits 72 Mhz with 64K of RAM and which bit is which pin. What's the big 512K of Flash. It took a while to deal? Oh darn, I can't figure out a few arrive, but just to disapoint me, it simple things, so I’ve got to read that was not a real-time device. It was PDF Datasheet once again. But who fast for most things, but not for any cares? It’s cheap! audio based stuff. It used some sort of Microsoft C# language, which is Now those Arduino buggers say they very easy to understand, but after will release a 32-bit Arduino, but figuring it out, it turns to be a didn't someone else already do that? “translated” language or something I think I saw an Arduino 32-bit like that. alternative already. I can't recall the name, but I think it was Uno32 from I wasn't afraid, though. I knew Microchip or something. It was cheap “master” would do right and figure out too, just like the Arduino boards. But a way to make this board work, So, I couldn't find a way to order from he did. The nice guys from FEZ gave where we live, and there were no him the option to erase .NET from the eBay options. Darn. board and use pure C to code for it. Here's a link for some detailed Still, I'm starting to think I'm wrong, information, including free tools to and maybe the other alternatives are program it up. not as popular because they are too hard to handle, impossible to order, or just too expensive for more people. October 2011

I remember seeing on one site that more than 90% of all projects online are Arduino based, so I guess those people are right after all. I hate to be wrong. The other day I was trying to understand how to setup a Serial Connection using the NXP LPC chip found on the FEZ Panda, when turning it into an ARM Develope Board (see above). Oh boy, it was a complex task, and we were only messing around with Serial Transmission. We hadn't even touched the Reception code yet. The NXP LCP chip is fast, 32-bit, and all that glory, but it’s hard to program, at least compared to an Arduino. I must agree on that. Still, it’s fun to go from a Basic setup to a more Advanced setup. Still, no NXP LCP stuff on eBay or at least not the ones I want. We did see some LCP basic boards on eBay, but the details were vague and the English x Chinese texts didn't help much. Still, you can get a cheap LCP board for around $20 bucks and that will get you 32-bit and 100 Mhz. Crazy eh? Too bad you will be mostly alone, as there's not many people using those boards, at least compared to that darn Italian thingy we talked about before. I still hate your guts, but I'm also starting to love you. Go figure. Maybe I'm just a big flip-flopping dude, or maybe I'm starting to understand why people love the Arduino so much.

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w e i v Re PreSonus Studio One www.presonus.com www.studioone.presonus.com by Ben Paturzo

Figure 2 Figure 1

PreSonus is a company that, since its founding in 1995, has consistently developed professional and affordable tools for musicians and audio engineers alike. Jim Odom, musician, producer, and LSU graduate in Electrical Engineering, founded PreSonus. Jim, seen here in Figure 1, currently plays guitar with blues great Tab Benoit and was nominated for a 2006 Grammy for Tab's record Power of the Pontchartrain. Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, PreSonus makes some of the most desirable audio gear on the market. Included in the mix are the StudioLive 16.0.2 mixer (Figure 2) with a 16x16 FireWire interface and two stereo, 32-bit

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Figure 3

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floating-point effects processors, and enough inputs and outputs (Figure 3) for a small studio. PreSonus also makes some fine audio recording interfaces, ranging from the AudioBox USB 2x2 USB recording system (Figure 4) for simple chores, to the FireStudio Project (Figure 5), a complete 24-bit/96K professional recording system combining eight Class A XMAX microphone preamplifiers, 24-bit/96k sample rate conversion, and a zero-latency matrix router mixer. Figure 6 shows inputs and outputs. Whether USB or FireWire, mixers, signal processors, preampsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they even make a cool 4-channel headphone distribution amp (I've been good this year, Uncle Steve!)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;PreSonus has you covered.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

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w e i v Re PreSonus Studio One Figure 7 With this much history in hardware, it was a natural step for PreSonus to develop their own DAW, almost two years ago. Studio One (Figures 7 and 8) has quite a few unique and innovative features, such as a 64-bit floating-point audio engine that automatically switches (Pro version) between 64-bit and 32-bit operation on the fly to accommodate 32bit plug-ins. Imagine what this does for speed and accuracy. Studio One Artist features the same audio engine but always operates in 32-bit mode.

Figure 8

Studio One's software development team in Hamburg is led by ex-Steinberg programming wizards Wolfgang Kundrus (creator of Nuendo and large parts of Cubase) and Matthias Juwan (Cubase, VST 3, and other Steinberg products). Wolfgang and Matthias' team worked with the PreSonus team in Baton Rouge to develop the ideas for Studio One, but the software is based on Wolfgang and Matthias' project when they were running KristalLab. German code, Louisiana flavorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it just doesn't get any better than that. 88

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Review

Figure 9

You know you're in a different, and, I would contend, a more friendly and intuitive DAW from the start. Check out the opening screen, Figure 9. Right away you're offered a chance to view some two dozen tutorials on using Studio One, as seen in Figure 10, or to configure a hardware interface, or open a recent file, or start a new project. Clean, efficient, and easy to take in and use, right away.

Figure 10

I choose to open an existing song, and open one of the tutorial and demo songs, Roland Guerin's Jazzy Song, Figure 11. This might overwhelm a new user, but it brought, the first time I played with Studio One, a big 'ole smile to my face, cher. This looks like, and is in fact, a most professional and solid DAW. There is much to discuss and explore, but...

Figure 11

PreSonus has announced version 2 of the software, set to ship at the start of November. We will wait until that version comes out, in order to bring you up-to-date coverage of this excellent DAW. Stay tuned!

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w e i v Re Zero-G www.zero-g.co.uk by Ben Paturzo

As soon as I saw the title, Brazil Chillout, and read the blurb:

We were all surfers back then, because that was cool, and because the Beatles hadn't hit these shores yet. Surf

the classic sounds of Brazilian bossa nova and

music, skateboards, endless summer, and then:

samba fused with a modern style and contemporary Tall and tan and young and lovely

feel…

The girl from Ipanema goes walking well, I just had to get it—and on sale? Oh, say no more—

And when she passes, each one she passes goes –

say. no. more. I burned a path to where my wallet was

hiding in fear. The start of the '60's: running around with my crazy cousins, going for long rides along the ocean

What's this? This is Boss! It was Garota de Ipanema ("The

with my Aunt Fifi and her '55 Buick Tank, hopelessly in

Girl from Ipanema"), a bossa nova song, a worldwide hit

love with my other cousins—not the crazy ones, the

in the mid-1960's that won a Grammy for Record of the

beautiful ones, you know, the ones whose mother was

Year in 1965. Written in 1962, with music by Antonio

Americano (oh my, Uncle Chris married a "white" woman!). Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. John F. Kennedy was President, with a gorgeous wife and

English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.

kids, and how I wanted just to shake his hand, like millions of others. 90

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Yes, all that came back from just reading the blurb on Zero-G's site. Back then, for a 9-year old, just three years after arriving in America, the world was bright and clean, brand new and full of promise. All you had to do was sit on the soft sand, at Cabrillo Beach, and look at the pretty girls in their bikinis, and you were, ahem, in the mood. No little blue pills needed! So would this collection from Zero-G do the trick? Brazil Chillout has 32 Full Construction Kits, Stereo Guitar Loops, Bossa Nova Style Drum Loops, Samba Style Drum Loops—all in 680 Acidized WAV files, 680 AIFF Apple Loops, 700 Stylus compatible REX2 files, 37 Kontakt instruments, 37 EXS24 instruments, and 37 NN-XT instruments. The 32 construction kits give you a wide choice of styles ranging from classic Jobim to smooth Ivan Lins, from

acoustic to electric, and with tempos ranging from a soothing 60 BPM to a House-y 115 BPM. In addition, there are extra guitar riffs and drum and percussion loops to add even more of that Brazilian flair to your music productions. But how good is it? Oh my. Those 32 Construction kits, with titles like Tristeza, Mambossa, and Felicidade, are so beautifully recorded, and truly evocative of those times, yet as modern as today, that I found myself transported with sheer pleasure into those simpler days. The kits are broken down into their component parts, as, for example, Lazy Afternoon, has 12 parts, including both piano and electric piano, as well as a guitar track. Milk n Honey, a leisurely 60 BPM trip into smooth seduction, has 22 parts, made up of parts 1 and 2 of piano, guitar, bass, and so on. Special Wusik Edition

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You could use this collection just for its percussive elements, so expertly recorded—and played—that the drum loops, for example, just beg for inclusion in your next song. But, for me, what stands out the most in Brazil Chillout are the guitars—so warm and intimate, so inviting that you are drawn into the melodies. Zero-G really has done a wonderful job with producing these guitar elements. Just lovely. You can probably tell I was most pleased with this collection. It did not disappoint in sounding authentic, but also modern. The production values are absolutely top-notch, with the guitars especially wonderful. Makes a person want to pick up the stringed serpent once again! An excellent value at $89.99.

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w e i v Re

Audio Damage Phosphor

by Ben Paturzo

Figure 2

Figure 1

Figure 3

It's not so much that the guys at Audio Damage march to the beat of a different drummer, it's more like they don't hear a drummer at all. Phosphor, their first synth, is modeled after the alphaSyntauri hardware synthesizer, introduced in 1979, that used an Apple II as its host computer. Using some circuit boards that plugged into the Apple II, along with the associated software, you could jump into the world of 16-sine-wave Additive Synthesis music making. Figure 1 shows the Apple host sans cover, Figure 2 shows the circuit boards, Figure 3 is a promo for the finished system, and Figure 4 shows what we looked like playing our alphaSyntauri back in the day. See kids, that's why baby boomers are so grouchy (get off my lawn!). So why would purveyors of 64-bit instruments want to emulate an 8-bit microcomputer? Probably because they can, and because they liked doing it. Anything else has me making bald spots from all the head scratching. Phosphor is a delightful throwback to those days of truly lo-fi music, like the catchy stuff that kept us glued to those darn arcade games. The interface is simple enough not to need the manual, something the Audio Damage boys are good at. Besides, don't you want to watch Chris Randall's tutorials where he tells you you're all Ritalin-popping Halo-playing geeks? But I kid Chris, as he is our next ambassador to the United Nations. So let's get serious. 92

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Figure 4

Figure 5

Here we see Phosphor with its default settings (Figure 5). Phosphor has two oscillators with up to 16 partials or harmonics, including the fundamental or root harmonic. Sliding the vertical bars adjusts the level of each partial which will affect the waveform of the oscillator. Below each oscillator is an ADSR to modulate the amplitude envelope of that oscillator. Phosphor's ADSRs let you control the curvature of the Attack, Decay, and Release segments of the envelope. Each oscillator can also frequency modulate the other which Audio Damage calls "cross-modulation." The Crossmod sliders enable the Primary and Secondary oscillators to modulate each other's frequency, creating a much wider range of tones than they create individually. Since the timbre created by frequency modulation changes with the amplitude of the modulating signal, you can use the envelope generator (ADSR) of the modulator to make the tone of the carrier vary over the duration of the note. Very nice.

Phosphor also has two LFOs that can Another example, the LFO to Filter be used to change, or modulate, sliders: moving these sliders to the several parameters of the Primary and left of center causes the LFOs to Secondary Oscillators, and the decrease the filter frequencies (as if frequencies of the filters associated you were dragging the dot in the with the delays, as shown in the mod filter's control to the left), and moving section below the LFOs. These sliders the sliders to the right causes the reflect Audio Damage's interface LFOs to increase the filter frequencies. design in that one slider can affect Each LFO has quite a lot of control multiple parameters. For example, the over waveshape and waveform as Pitch slider: moving the Pitch slider to shown in Figure 6. From the four basic the right causes the LFO to raise the waveforms, one uses the Waveshape pitch of the oscillator, moving it to the control to create the variety of left causes it to lower the pitch. waveforms seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6

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w e i v Re Audio Damage Phosphor Figure 7

If you miss seeing actual values for things like ADSR attack time and LFO Pitch mod values, check your DAW, because like Figure 7 shows (using energyXT 2.5.4) where there's a will, there's a way. As befits an Audio Damage plugin, there is a delay. This stereo delay has a range of up to 2 seconds, with Feedback and Cross Feedback controls to mix and match delays to your heart's content. Phosphor has lowpass and high-pass filters which come after the delay lines in the signal chain. These filters can be adjusted to alter the timbre of the delayed signal. For instance, you can use the lowpass filter to create a "darker" sound, or the high-pass filter to create a "thinner" sound. The filters are

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controlled in tandem with the graphlike controls labeled, appropriately enough, FILTER. Since the filter controls change the low- and highpass filters simultaneously the filters act like a band-pass filter with a variable width. Dragging the white circle in the control changes the corner frequencies of both filters. Dragging up and down moves the corner frequencies farther apart and closer together; dragging left and right moves the frequencies in the same direction. As you pull the white dot downwards, the filters move together and allow only a narrow band of frequencies to pass through. You can then move the dot left and right to hear that band move up and down in frequency.

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Phosphor comes with 80 presets. The Space Cadet preset (Figure 8) shows you can get quite a nice sound with just a few harmonics. The verySyntauri pad preset with its shimmering bell-like tones is also very effective. The lead preset, Migraine, with its "lo-fi" plucky synth tones, takes advantage of the Phosphor Vintage button (the Space Invaders alien) that's in each oscillator's panel. Again, all in deference to the state-ofthe-art hardware of the 80's. The keys preset, Sine-U-Soid-All (Figure 9), had elements of piano and sitar-like tones, courtesy of Phosphor's crossmodulation controls. The SFX preset, Alias Ocean, evoked ghosts flying through a haunted house in some old black-and-white classic. Quite a

Figure 8

Figure 9

variety of presets to get you started making your own. Phosphor is priced at an impulse-buy of $59. This is a clever little synth that belies its simple interface, recreating the sounds of the "bad old days" just as easily as inventing new sounds. Its take on Additive Synthesis is very user-friendly and its FM modulation capabilities adds another dimension to the palette of sounds you can create. Check it out!

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October 2011

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Adventures In Capitalism

Steve Jobs by Ben Paturzo In the late 1970's I worked at the At the end of the 1970's Steve Jobs Micro Electronics Center (MEC), a and Steve Wozniak visited the Palo division of Xerox, located in El Alto Research Center (PARC), a Segundo, California. The MEC was a division of Xerox Corporation. There pilot production wafer fabrication they saw a computer running a Graphical User Interface (GUI) using a plant, making what were then called raster-based or bitmapped display, a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) integrated circuits, for use in Xerox mouse to interact with the GUI, a machines of all types. During my time What You See Is What You Get at MEC, I got a chance to use a (WYSIWYG) text editor, an objectoriented programming language called computer called the Alto. This was no Smalltalk, and a few other things, like engineering mockup, no prototype with wires hanging out the side. This Ethernet and the Laser Printer. In 1984 the Apple Macintosh was was a fully-fledged, completely integrated system, as if it just came unveiled, with many of the features the two Steves witnessed years earlier off the production line. The Alto had a GUI, a mouse to interact with the GUI, at PARC. a bitmapped display that I used to run a drawing program that was pretty

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October 2011

complete, including contextual (think "right-click" menus) menus. All courtesy of PARC, again, years before the first Macintosh. If you don't believe any of this, read Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer (William Morrow and Company, New York, 1988), written by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander. As for me, I lived it. I saw what Xerox had, and squandered. Their first "personal" computer was not the futuristic Alto, but a box that could have come from IBM (think "DOSsy"). When Apple showed that the public wanted something like the Mac, Xerox tried to

Figure 1

recapture the magic it had had all along by introducing a GUI-based computer, but by then it was too late. Xerox had the keys to the kingdom, but all they could see were copiers and [dumb] word processors. Think of the first portable MP3 player, and you'll probably come up with the iPod, introduced in 2001. However, in 1998, Diamond Multimedia (the people that made video cards) introduced another of their portable MP3 players, this one called the Rio, shown in Figure 1. You might think that this was a flop, something no one has heard of, or ever used to play their music. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued Diamond about a month after the Rio was introducedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so the record companies knew what was going to happenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Diamond ended up selling about 200,000 of the Rio players. Back then, when you thought of portable music players, Diamond was the name you thought of first. As part of building the Lucasfilm empire, George Lucas created the Graphics Group, part of Industrial Light and Magic, and responsible for us believing in light sabers and the return of the Ark of the Covenant. In 1986, Steve Jobs bought the Graphics Group from Lucas and, with Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, founded Pixar. Catmull was the guy that Lucas got to lead what became the ILM Graphics Group, and is to computer animation and graphics, what Moses is to the Bible ("RenderMan"). Smith worked at PARC in the 1970's, creating (with Dick Shoup) SuperPaint, one of the very first computer paint programs. The people Lucas had in the Graphics Group, and the people Xerox had at PARC, are now legends. They have changed the world in many Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

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Adventures In Capitalism

ways that we now take for granted. These scientists, engineers, programmers, teachers, artists, and philosophers were the visionary and creative leaders of their time, which was also my time. I was privileged to witness, though I didn't know it at the time, the creation of a new world— what people now call The Information Age.

started largely by Steve Jobs. It's almost as if people want a fairy tale, rather than the truth, something to pacify the loss they feel, and that I also feel.

That last part surprises you? Just because I found Jobs insufferable, egotistic, infuriatingly condescending, Steve Jobs left this vale of tears at the elitist, and judgmental to a fault— to these devices what the iPod was to impossibly-young age of 56, one year doesn't mean that I didn't admire him players like the Rio. What Steve Jobs short of my current age. I was not and wish him to stay, just a little brought to these devices was an one of his peers, but we shared this longer—please—with us. I didn't want amazing intensity of purpose and age together, this technical epoch so him to get sick, and I didn't want him focus, a rare gift for marketing, and dramatic and full of innovation. What to die. the ability to believe when no one else people are saying now is that Jobs did. Akio Morita of Sony had these was a visionary, a genius, someone I've written and talked about the Cult qualities. Jeff Bezos has these who was responsible for the computer of Mac for a very long time. Now I will qualities now.The hype surrounding (Mac), the portable music player have to deal with the making of Saint the new Kindle Fire shows that Bezos (iPod), CG movies like Toy Story, and Steve. On a talk show last night and Amazon are quite capable of many other things. He is being (Charlie Rose), they played an old "pulling it off, Steve Jobs style." I will compared to Thomas Edison, and, in interview with Steve Jobs and John personally miss Steve Jobs not some ways, I think that is accurate. Lasseter of Pixar, and it was quite because I rilly rilly deep-down want to Ask any teacher who invented the moving to see Jobs so healthy—but be a Mac groupie, or because I'm light bulb, and he will probably say the point is he himself stated that he willing to wait in line to buy "Edison." The tragedy is that these wasn't responsible for the Pixar something—anything—or because I people are teaching our children, movies, that it took a team of thought he was some gifted visionary because Edison didn't invent the light dedicated and creative people. He who "knew what I wanted before I bulb—or a number of other things wasn't merely being modest, he was did," as well as the other rubbish attributed to him. Steve Jobs will be stating fact. Apple started with the being uttered after his passing. No, remembered, as Edison is work of Steve Wozniak; the Mac came those aren't the reasons. Let me remembered, for many things that he, from the work done by PARC; Pixar explain. in fact, didn't accomplish. No one started with the work of men like remembers, or talks about, Charles Catmull and Smith, who got us There have been times in my life when Steinmetz, or Nikola Tesla, who were believing in worlds like Tatooine and a it felt like I had a fever—I burned to both Edison's peers, and I would dark dude Jethro Tull would have do something that had appeared in contend, his intellectual masters. But loved (Aqualung—think about it). my mind. I needed to do this thing Edison was a master promoter and so The iPad didn't spring fully-formed before I would know peace again. And was Steve Jobs. People think that the from Steve Jobs's brain, an so I toiled and built, designed and electrical service they now receive is Athena/Zeus version of "slate" dreamed, while something kept due to Edison, but that service came computing. There had been a number pushing me on until it was completed. from contributions made by Steinmetz of these types of computers, from More often than not, what I created and Tesla. People will now think that Palm planners to things like the Nokia amazed those around me, to the point the age of personal computing was internet tablets and more. The iPad is of embarrassment for me. They

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Special Wusik Edition

October 2011

Steve Jobs contributions to newspapers and magazines—even a book. I felt driven until they were completed. At other times— most times (!)—I have been incredibly lazy, content to let life slip by. In my heart I believe that Steve Jobs had that fire, that fever that drives you to complete a dream, that inner thought it was—fill in the blank push that won't let up until you finish (positive)—but all I knew was it had it. The difference is, I believe, he had to come out, like a birth too-long that fever most of the time, perhaps delayed. These "things" I'm referring all of the time, with no letup. There to have been stories, paintings, music, are many stories of his voracious electronic designs, computer reading, his incessant drive to learn programs, technical articles, and explore, and his need to create. A

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October 2011

technical blogger might be surprised to find that Jobs had read what he had written, and, in fact, written a lengthy response, all at a time when most people would be resting from their long work day. This is what I will miss, this energy and drive to create, from this man who irritated me immensely, but whose inner fire I know so well. I only hope that he finally has the peaceful rest due to such an extraordinary and creative spirit. Goodbye Steve.

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MeldaProduction Free Audio Effects Part 3

MCompressor, MLimiter, MOscillator & MNotepad

Due to life intruding on MCompressor pleasure I didn't get time to I've mentioned elsewhere in look at any more of WSM that I'm a compressor MeldaProduction's effects junkie. In my opinion you from the Free Audio Effects can never have too many Bundle for the last issue of compressors. MCompressor WSM. So I'm making up for features all of the controls it this month. Four reviews that you'd expect to find on for the price of one, or two! a quality compressor. You can also side chain Just to remind everyone of MCompressor if you so what is going on... desire. MeldaProduction offer a bundle of free VST effects. In use on a single track You can download the pack MCompressor is clean and from transparent. Used with http://www.meldaproduction drums it can add a decent .com/freevstplugins/ amount of punch to the sound and in particular Whilst the whole bundle is seemed to do a good job of free you can buy an bringing out the kick drum upgrade to the "Pro" edition on a track I've been that adds oversampling and working on. The "Enable resizable interface windows. Custom Compressor Shape" The price? Only â&#x201A;Ź30, and setting allows you to create the bundle keeps getting all kinds of weird and updated, almost faster than wonderful shapes that will I can write reviews. Since have a rhythmic effect on looking at MAnalyser and your sound. Check out MFlanger two new effects some of the presets to see have been added how this can be used to MNotepad and MOscillator interesting effect. which I'll also be looking at along MLimiter and Used on the main buss MCompressor. MCompressor helped to glue the sound together, 100

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October 2011

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by Adrian Frost

again without imparting any particular flavour to the sound. For electronic music I believe that it's perfect fit. MCompressor certainly isn't a "feature" compressor. It doesn't colour the sound and manages to stay in the background whilst doing a brilliant job of tightening up the sounds that it is used on.

MLimiter Swapping MCompressor for MLimiter on the master buss and things immediately start to look interesting. I was able to push MLimiter hard and achieve pleasant results. MLimiter does colour the sound and you can add varying amounts of harmonics to the output and so create tube or tape type saturation with ease. All of the "Pro" version effects from MeldaProduction feature up to 16 times oversampling. The effect of this is noticeable as you push the limiter even though, computationally, you're asking much more of the plug-in. MLimiter is definitely going to find its way onto a lot of my tracks.

MOscillator The last two plug-ins that I'm going to look at this time fall into the "Utility" category. When you plug in MOscillator it makes a noise immediately - a clean sine tone. To get rid of the sound you have to either turn off the plug-in or hit bypass. You can adjust practically every feature of the wave produced by MOscillator using the superb "shape" controls that are on offer here, and that appear on many of MeldaProduction's other plug-ins. Special Wusik Edition

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MeldaProduction Free Audio Effects

So what is the point of MOscillator? You can play the tone all over the keyboard... but is it music? Well, I'm not sure that is entirely MOscillator's purpose. According to the website: "MOscillator is an antialiased generator plugin with adjustable oscillator shape. It can be used as a testing generator for analyses or, thanks to the integrated modulators, for more advanced effects such as subbass enhancement." As a guitarist and bassist I can see that MOscillator could be useful for tuning purposes. It loads up incredibly quickly and the tone is constant, so no more fiddling with the guitar and the keyboard at the same time. I've yet to try it for subbass enhancement, I generally don't produce the type of music that needs to make the floor rumble but I can see that MOscillator could be good in that role. A little test to see "how low it will go" is encouraging. I made the desk shake, the windows rattle and attracted the attention of my wife and probably the next door neighbours. The world is good.

you're getting all of these plug-ins for scraps of paper the next time you less than €2 each. Bargain! work on a track. MNotepad has no settings of its own, just plug in and go. It's worth mentioning again that MeldaProduction also offer three Conclusions Whenever I use MeldaProduction's free different bundles with a whole range effects bundle I can't get over the fact of effects some of which build on the that all these plug-ins are being given foundation laid by the free plug-ins. The three bundles on offer are: away for nothing. They are high The MCreativeBundle at €169 (roughly quality and easy to use. It's true that £150 or $245) for 18 effects. the interfaces won't appeal to MNotepad The MMasteringBundle at €399 everyone. They are somewhat Finally we have MNotepad. It's a... (roughly £355 or $580) for 20 effects. different but, personally I like them a notepad! Maybe not exactly an effect lot. The fact that sub-components get The MTotalBundle at €599 (roughly but it can be used anywhere in your £530 or $875) for a whopping 54 used across the whole range of DAW that you'd stick a VST effect and products is a definite plus in my book. effects. gives you a means of taking notes Learn one and you've pretty much about what you're up to. The uses are learned how to use it across the whole Visit : almost endless - lyrics, track notes, http://www.meldaproduction.com/free bundle. noting settings... I'll leave you to vstplugins/ think up others. The nice thing is that The total bundle is now up to 18 everything you write is saved along effects. If you jump in and pay the with your project so there's no fiddling requested €30 for the upgrade to Pro around trying to find post-its or other 102

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October 2011

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Wusik Thank you

by the Wusik and Wusik Sound Magazine Team

It has been a long ride, full of ups and downs, but we are still here. The Wusik Team would like to thank everybody who has supported our work or contributed to the project over the years. Since the earliest days, when we were handling our first release (Wusik Station V1), we have gotten tons of support from users and also friends, who have contributed in every way possible. Still today we get a lot of contributions, which make the whole thing possible. Without user support and love from those great friends, we wouldn't be here today. That's why we want to thank everybody involved, and everyone who has contributed, supported, loved, and cared about Wusik. We couldn't have come this far without your help. Thank you.

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