Review: MFB Nanozwerg

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!)

Related:
MFB Nanozwerg Patch Sheet

MFB Microzwerg Review

Ableton Drum Rack: DTMF Dial Pad

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 samples page.

Ableton Drum Rack: Roland TR-505 & TR-606

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! Edit: Beware though, this Drum-Rack only works in Ableton 8.2. Thanks Tomas for sharing! But you can still use the samples found in the download.

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

Roland TR-505 Sample Pack & Roland TR-606 Sample Pack by JordyVision / Son of 8-Bits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available at http://sonof8bits.com/about-me/contact.

This is a Creative Commons release, however, commercial use is allowed through a license. A license is free, but registration is required. Go to http://sonof8bits.com/about-me/contact for said license. Make sure to include your full name and a valid e-mail address.

More samples? On this page.

Roland TR-606 Sample Pack

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.

Roland TR-505 Sample Pack

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.