A Patch Sheet for the MFB Nanozwerg, so you can save your favorite settings (patches). I was shocked to find no such document on the web, so I made it myself. (Yes it looks crappy, but it works.) I cut the parts from the Microzwerg patch-sheet and filled in the blanks.

Download here.

Share your favorite patches on Twitter and I’ll re-tweet you! Don’t forget to mention me in your Tweet; @Sonof8Bits.

Don’t let this synthesizer’s size or single oscillator put you off, this synth has quite a lot of tricks up it’s sleeve!

Manfred Fricke Berlin, a modular synth producing company that in the last years has joined the modular-synth market by creating modules like we know and love from Doepfer and similar companies like Analogue Systems, has been releasing some semi-modular synths like the Microzwerg, Megazwerg and the smallest and lightest of the bunch; The Nanozwerg. The Nanozwerg has a single oscillator (triangle, saw, square, pulse), a switchable filter (low-pass, band-pass, Notch, High-Pass), a single LFO (triangle, saw, square, sample & hold), a knob to modulate the filter with either LFO or VCO, a knob to modulate the oscillator by itself (VCO) or LFO, some patch points and a sub-oscillator to fatten-up your sound. The Sub OSC also includes a Noise generator which makes it possible to synthesize non-harmonic sounds like drums. Pretty standard synth stuff, and the reason why I bought the thing in the first place. But here comes the fun part..

The patchable ports on the device (CV in, Gate in, VCF in, VCA in, LFO in, LFO out and audio in) offer more options you’d ever expect from such a small and perhaps simple synth. The LFO in accepts CV messages to oscillate the LFO along with your notes, making it possible to use it as a second oscillator (via audio in), which is a fantastic idea in itself, but it’s also possible to use it as a high speed modulator for the oscillator giving the Nanozwerg simple FM capacities. (Analog FM synths, do such things even exist?) Patch the LFO into the VCA and you have AM, into gate for interesting rhythmic gating effect and patch it into VCF and the filter will move along with your LFO. (Yes, simple FM filter capacities as well!) There are more options, but if I spoil all the fun there’s nothing to discover for you…

.. OK! One more! Use the Sample and hold from the LFO as a sound-source (LFO out -> Audio in) for that 8-bit burning sound from the old days.

In short, if you have a modular system this might not be interesting for you: The filter is only 12dB per octave, there’s only one (normal) oscillator, it’s monophonic. But if, like me, you’ve just started making your journey into analog, this is a great place to start. It’s pretty cheap (Around €215,-), it’s more powerful than any competitor (Dark Energy, Mopho etc.) and KORG DS-10 users will feel right at home using this synthesizer. Somehow it even reminds me of the software.

One last thing; The power-plug is amazing! It’s small, lean and light like a mobile-phone charger. Kudos for that! Why do we have to have so many wall-warts huh? (I’m looking at you, Roland, Korg, Kawai, and EVERYONE ELSE!)

Dual Tone Multi Frequency

I was cleaning-up my samples folder and ran into these samples I once made, probably back in 2007 or 2008. Simple and funny, the dial pad of a telephone can be used to add a whole different beep to your bang.

Theoretically you can sequence a telephone-number in Ableton and initiate a call! Just hold the phone’s receiver up to your speaker while playing back the sounds and the call should commence. Oh, this will work only with a landline, mobiles don’t dial that way. I have little experience with VoIP phones, so I don’t know if they work with DTMF tones. Head on over to Wikipedia to learn more about DTMF.

Download DTMF Dial Pad Drum Rack

Once downloaded, put the folder “JordyVision” in the samples folder of your Ableton Library, usually found at:

Ableton/Library/Samples

Put the drum rack file (.adg extension) in the correct presets folder of your Ableton Library. That would be “Drum Rack” in this case, typically located at:

Ableton/Library/Presets/Instruments/Drum Rack

You can make your own folder within the Drum Rack folder if you wish. Most of the time I call these “My Presets”, “My Patches” or something along these lines, pick a name you’re comfortable with.

These and more samples can be found on the Son of 8-Bits / JordyVision samples page.

Free Ableton Live Drum Racks: Roland® TR-505 & TR-606

The sample packs I’ve been handing out the last few days, in Ableton Live drum rack format, free of charge!

The installation notes are included in the download, but here’s one with pictures:
Put the folder “JordyVision” in the samples folder of your Ableton Library, usually found at:

Ableton/Library/Samples

Put the files “TR-505.adg” & “TR-606.adg” in the correct presets folder of your Ableton Library. That would be “Drum Rack” in this case, typically located at:

Ableton/Library/Presets/Instruments/Drum Rack

You can make your own folder within the Drum Rack folder if you wish. Most of the time I call these “My Presets”, “My Patches” or something along these lines, pick any name you’re comfortable with.

If Ableton gives you a “Samples couldn’t be located”, then let Ableton search the library and they should pop-up. Feel free to ask for help in the comments.

That’s it! Enjoy your vintage drumming.

Download via my samples page

Another vintage drum-computer, this time completely analog, but sampled just as deliciously and noise-free as possible.

Samples recorded through an M-Audio Fast Track Pro using the TR-606′s only line-out, the mono line-out. Noise reduction via Ableton Live’s gate device. Further editing and sample-rate conversion done in Audacity. Rendered in both 24-Bit 96000Hz AIFF and 16-Bit 44100Hz WAV.

Go to my new Samples Page to download.

All samples recorded, edited and converted by JordyVision at studio moimooi, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Original sound-design by The Roland Corporation.
©2011 JordyVision / Son of 8-Bits
℗2011 studio moimooi

File hosted by Prowess Records.

The vintage sample-based digital drum-computer, deliciously sampled for your sampling pleasure; The Roland TR-505 Sample Pack

Samples recorded through an M-Audio Fast Track Pro using the TR-505′s line-out (mono, left output). Noise reduction via Ableton Live’s gate device. Further editing and sample-rate conversion done in Audacity. Rendered in both 24-Bit 96000Hz AIFF and 16-Bit 44100Hz WAV.

Download via my brand new Samples Page.

All samples recorded, edited and converted by JordyVision at studio moimooi, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Original sound-design by The Roland Corporation.
©2011 JordyVision / Son of 8-Bits
℗2011 studio moimooi

File hosted by Prowess Records.

I was changing some things around in my studio when I noticed I haven’t used my Korg Kaosspad in quite a while. I started wondering what I could do to integrate it into my everyday producing workflow. I always used the device as a send/return effect on my DJ-mixer, or as a master effect after the mixer. But since I hardly DJ at home anymore I figured I’d reinstate it’s purpose on the production side of things: How to use the Korg Kaosspad (or any external sound-effect) as a send & return effect in Ableton Live. And then I remembered I still had a (cheap) spare sound-card lying around somewhere…

I bought this simple USB audio-interface when I still had one of those iBook G4′s with only a line-out but no line-in. (What were they thinking at Apple HQ?) You can get one for about €35,-/$40,- but any soundcard with at least one line-in and out will be able to pull this simple trick off.

Now, before we start I wanna mention that this will only work on a Mac, since they’re able to use multiple sound-cards at the same time as an aggregate device. Once you’ve got such an aggregated device up and running, you should have at least 4 outputs (or 2 stereo outputs) and 2 inputs (1 stereo line-in.) I did this by combining the Griffin iMic and the build-in soundcard (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Aggregate Device

Connect the line-out of the external effect to the line-in of the sound-card and the line-in of the effect to the line-out of the sound-card. When using a simple device like the one above together with the a Kaosspad, use a stereo RCA cable with a stereo mini-jack at the other end. But this might vary depending on what audio-interface you are using as well as what effect you are connecting it too. A mono effect like a distortion pedal (for a guitar) works a little different, but it’s perfectly possible with most sound-cards.

Now set-up a channel in Ableton and use the “external effect” device. And select your freshly created send and return channels Like this (Figure 2):

Figure 2: External effect in Ableton Live (Click to enlarge)

Now you should be able to use the effect. If not, try different channels but watch out for creating feedback loops! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments!

When you make music on your computer, (and let’s face it, who doesn’t these days. One way or the other,) there’s always the lingering thought of your drives crashing and you losing your data, and thus your work…

Well, Gobbler‘s got the solution for all you producers out there: Free online backup of your Ableton, Reason, Logic, Cubase (and other) projects, including the AIFF/WAV files, MP3′s and I even noticed it backed-up a short movie-clip that I use as a sound-source in Ableton. This cloud-service is similar to our friend Dropbox, as it also allows you to share your files with your friends and other people you work with. But this one is aimed, and only meant for, music production, and gives you a lot more space as well!

During the beta you get 25GB of free cloud-space, and another 10GB when you finish the tutorial, similar to Dropbox. And like Dropbox you also get extra space for referring friends. So, want to keep your music projects safe, sign-up for Gobbler.

As you can see, I’m gonna have me some fun. JordyVision style. My new toys;

Roland TR-505

Classic drum-machine using PCM samples for the percussion. Easily circuit-bend to ajust pitch and volume per sound. (Check out Youtube)

Vintage Synth Explorer

Kawai K1m

Uses waveforms stored in PCM form to synthesize sounds, the joystick enables layering of sounds. Contains the classic sounds of  the Korg M1 and the Roland D-50.

Vintage Synth Explorer

Casio VL-1

Da da da! (Need i say more? I do?! Ok, White Town – Your Woman)

Vintage Synth Explorer

Realistic Concertmate 300 (Casio PT-1 clone)

Radio Shack’s copy of the Casio PT-1. Very similar to the VL-1, with more sounds to play with.

Special mention:

Korg Monotron

The already famous rip-off of the Gakken SX-150.

Korg Monotron

Stylophone

The original… replica! With 3 waveforms. Connected to the Monotron’s line-in it opens up a new array of sounds.

Stylophonica

Click to buy at Play-Asia.com

Detune Ltd. unleashes it’s newest and first creation onto the masses.

Although it’s a follow-up to the Famous KORG DS-10 and KORG DS-10 Plus, the KORG M01 Music Workstation is the first under the Detune flag. So, how does the software turn out?

A lot of fun, as expected. Great for everyone who wants to make music on the go, wants a bit of lo-fi in his or her set-up or wants an emulation of the real M1. It sounds like you expect it too, a little lo-fi (because of the NDS’s 22050Hz sound-card.) But the sound is crisp with a dash of 16-bit crush in the form of anti-aliasing in the low-end and a bit of stutter in the lowest part of the dynamics. (A sounds low-volume tail will blink in- and out- of existence.) The layout of the app is easy to use and will have you writing all kinds of music in no time. No matter if you want to make something electronic like techno or Dubstep or want to try and throw in a real composition. This app can do it with the quite large collection of samples built into the application. These samples include the original sounds of the KORG M1 and some bonus sounds to broaden the spectrum and give you some modern sounds to play with. Sometimes modern means Roland 808 or an Amen snare though. As a whole, it’s perfect for re-creating an end 80′s/begin 90′s vibe. Chicago house, Tears for Fears, Detroit Acid here we go!

But there are three small things that I think should and could have been included. It features two effects: Delay and reverb. But you can only choose 1 for the whole track. I would have liked me some delayed beats and reverberated melody. The second thing is that I would have preferred a DSi mode in the app. A little bit more memory and CPU so the app can do a little but more like DS-10 Plus has double mode on the DSi. (I could surely use 2 effects if it featured DSi mode!) And finally, linking with the KORG DS-10 is impossible. There’s is no link mode in the game at all, so syncing two M01′s is also out of the question. But yeah, that’s revenue management for ya, it will probably be featured in a new version called M01 Plus…

At the end of the day, the software is great fun and a recommended buy. But it’s probably going to be sold out for a while.. Keep an eye on the following link to see when it will hit the stores again.

Buy KORG M01 Music Workstation [Amazon.co.jp Limited Edition] (Nintendo DS™) at Play-Asia.com

EDIT: Preview of a track I’m working on.

EDIT 2: Finished version! (Released on the EP: Y.A.M.A)