Posted on 25/08/2016
Recording pioneers One of the pioneers in brnging synthesizers into mainstream music, american keyboardist Roger Powell worked with both the Moog company and ARP instruments on various designs. He showcased his abilities on a solo album in 1973. A year later he joined American guitarist and producer Todd Rundgren’s band “Utopia”. The style was prog […]
Posted on 25/08/2016
Chick Corea was an early adapter of synthesizers, and started using them really heavy in the “Return to Forever” period. From the album “Where have I known you before” (1974), Corea used them regularly, and with big success. The next album -“No Mystery” – further reinforced Corea involvement in synthesizers. Culminating with Return to Forever’s album […]
Posted on 25/08/2016
Now that we’re already in the nerd department, let me introduce you to “Instrument Search”. search for “Instruments” – tracks that include certain instruments – traditional or electronic. search for “Machines” – tracks where a specific synth or electronic unit was used. These searches are found in the “Music Search Matrix”, available on all content sites. […]
Posted on 12/08/2016
Mixed sample rates You may find yourself in a situation where you accidentally came to record at one sampling frequency, and then later record something else with a different frequency and wind up with a bunch of files with different sampling freuqnecies in the same session. This situation can actually happen in a DAW – […]
Posted on 09/08/2016
A Moog speciality The earlier Moog synths uses a trigger system that is different from the mainstream. Today almost all synths use the standard +5V gate impulse for this purpose. But the Moogs use the S-Trigger instead, where the voltage drops to zero. Devices capable of sending triggers, may have a built-in setting that […]
Posted on 09/08/2016
When Total Recall wasn’t really Total Recall Since the beginning of recorded music, there has been a need to store and recall your sound and mix parameters. The more advanced the recording sessions – the more more urgent the need. In the late 1970’s the large mixing console manufacturers, like Solid State Logic (SSL) and […]
Posted on 04/08/2016
Child of many names… Envelope generators also have many alternative names and abbreviations: “Contour Generator”, “EG”, “ADSR”, “AR”, “ASR”, “ADHSR, “DADHSR” “Trapezoid Generator”…. They may have different feature sets, but the main purpose for all of them is to generate a voltage contour, going from zero to a number of values and back to zero […]
Posted on 03/08/2016
This way – or that way? The Voltage Controlled Switch is a less common module in a modular synth. As the name implies it is a circuit that can switch connections depending on voltage level. And it has some great creative potential. One way… Use 2 input sources, and let the switch determine which of the sources will […]
Posted on 01/08/2016
Performance at a price If you want to get the full benefits and sound quality from digital audio devices, it is imperative that the elements in the system are all synchronised to a common master clock – called Word Clock (WC). The is especially true – and even mandatory – when you are working with […]
Posted on 31/07/2016
“Any ol’ snake will do…” It may seem that “a cable is a cable”. But there is in fact quite a difference between the various cable types. Nornally the quoted performance specification of a piece of equipment requires using the proper cabling. Cabling for Digital Audio Signals For digital AES/EBU or SPDIF cable connections, you […]