PC and Music News

Karma-Lab introduces Catalyst Volume 1 – Creativity Xplosion!, a new set of 32 exciting and inspiring KARMA-fied combis for the Korg Kronos. Priced at only US$32, the sound set includes grooves, backing tracks and sonic textures in a wide variety of styles, ranging from a mixture of Hip-Hop, Dance, Electronica, Trance & Techno categories to Ambient, Jazz, New-Age, Film Score, and World/Ethnic categories.

As is usual for Karma-Lab combis, Catalyst Vol. 1 pushes the KARMA function to the absolute limit. Each combi is composed of 4 complete KARMA Modules and 8 fully-voiced scenes for maximum variability, featuring extensive control via the KARMA Realtime Controls (8 sliders, 8 switches) and the other controllers (joystick, ribbon, vector joystick, 8 RT sliders/knobs, and 2 switches over joystick). In addition, the Kronos's Drum Track has been programmed to add an additional complimentary percussion or drum element in every combi.

FXpansion is proud to present Analogue Mayhem, a Geist Expander featuring edgy, organic electronic sounds generated almost exclusively with a large analogue modular synthesizer.

Anything but vanilla, Analogue Mayhem defies genre categorization and is infused with a refreshing energy and attitude. Producers of dubstep, techno, electro, hip-hop, ambient, drum & bass and other creative modern styles will find Analogue Mayhem a trip to use.

Even whales would cry if they could hear the sounds produced for this sample pack.

This sample pack contains sounds you can use for a variety of musical genres and even for games, movies and theater productions.

The sounds within Drones have a long sustain with chirps and modulations ranging from deep and dark to high and light. They will bring some nice textures into your arrangements. Some of the sounds feature a sustain phase of up to 12 seconds, more then enough time to find nice parts to cut and re-sample.
All samples are mapped in the following formats:
Kontakt, EXS24, Reason NNXT, Structure.

In the pantheon of vintage analog drum machines, there's an unsung classic that isn't from a big name manufacturer like Roland or Korg, but from a toy company. Released in 1981, the Mattel Synsonics was an affordable black box that housed a fully analog kit consisting of kick, two toms, snare, cymbal and hi-hat - all playable via velocity sensitive pads.

Of course, since it was a "toy", few artists took it very seriously - with one notable exception: Kraftwerk.

Unlike the more insectile sounds coming from the Roland and Korg boxes of the same era, the sound of the Synsonics was vaguely reminiscent of the Simmons SDS-V or Pollard Syndrum. The toms had an aggressive vibe that few products from that time could match - and the cymbals were glorious blasts of white noise.

This weeks rack was created by sampling the harmonics produced by each string at the 5th, 7th, and 12th fret. The instrument comes set up with a macro knob that allows you to switch between the different samples, each of which has its own unique character. This allows for some cool effects, such as holding the sustain pedal and changing the sample while you play, which creates an interesting morphing timbre.

There's a macro knob that reverses the samples, creating a swelling, somewhat glitchy sound, not unlike those from some of my favorite psychedelic Beatles tracks (or my 3rd Ableton Live Rack: Reversed Piano"). I've also been experimenting with the Grain Delay plug-in more and more these days, and there are some macro knobs to control that effect.

If you are not a Live user, you can still use the samples included in the download.

Spectral Machine provides a wide variety of ear-catching audio effects. For example, users can freeze a sound, apply separate delays to different frequencies, or create multi-band tremolo effects. Spectral Machine also provides a number of effects specifically for monophonic sources, including pitch quantization and sine/noise decomposition.

Spectral Machine is available in VST and Audio Unit formats for Macintosh OS X, and in VST format for Windows. The cost is US $75.