[via synthtopia.com]

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Free For The Next 30 Days

San Francisco based Zaptunes has launched offering unlimited DRM free mp3 downloads for $25 per month. They say they’re adding songs constantly, but have started with 8 million tracks from all four major labels and many indies. To kick things off, the $25 is waived for the next 30 days.

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Detune – an application development startup created by the developers of Korg DS-10 – have announced Korg M01, a new music workstation for the Nintendo DS based on the classic Korg M1.

The  Korg M1, released in 1988, sold for over $2,000. Korg M01 is designed to emulate the Korg M1 – at least many of its features and sounds – as a $60 app that runs on a $130 handheld computer.

Can a cheap app for a game platform replace a vintage keyboard synthesizer?

Check out this demo for a taste of what the Korg M01 can do, and leave a comment with your thoughts:

[via synthtopia.com]

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Wacom has announced the second generation of nextbeat, their DJ MIDI controller. Now we can’t say that we’ve seen many of these puppies in the wild, but Wacom is giving the platform at least one more refresh to see if it can garner some additional market share.

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Add some HEAT to your mix. Get the warmth and sonic character of analog “in the box” with HEAT (Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology), an easy-to-use Pro Tools|HD software add-on that gives you the euphonic characteristics of prized analog gear without the expense or added bulk. Whether you’re mixing music or sound for picture, you’ll get the unmistakable sonic characteristics of a vintage analog console or outboard gear to “gel” your mixes together—right in Pro Tools.

Developed in collaboration with renowned audio designer and Cranesong founder, Dave Hill, HEAT tightly integrates with your Pro Tools|HD system, enabling you to easily create rich-sounding mixes like never before—with unique warmth, punch, and clarity.

Easily add analog warmth and character to any Pro Tools|HD mix
No need to launch a plug-in—access HEAT right in your Pro Tools Mix window
Control HEAT across every channel of your mix, without having to manage multiple instances
Realistically re-create the sound of audio mixed through vintage analog gear
Designed in collaboration with Cranesong founder, Dave Hill

Old School Sound, Modern Technology

HEAT does more than just warm-up your sound—it actually fuses the color characteristics of vintage analog consoles, vacuum tube circuits, and analog tape into your mix using high-quality, sophisticated algorithms. In the analog world, euphonic characteristics are introduced across individual audio tracks when mixing on an analog console or tracking to analog tape. HEAT works similarly, processing all audio tracks individually. But it also gives you the power to tweak its Drive and Tone controls globally to get the sound you want, whether that means something richer, brighter, smoother, or livelier. You can also A/B individual tracks or the entire mix to compare your handiwork, choose a pre or post insert state, or bypass HEAT altogether.

Set It and Forget It

HEAT uses the Pro Tools|HD TDM architecture to work its magic, but it’s no plug-in, making it fast and easy to access and use. That’s because HEAT appears right in the Pro Tools Mix window—no need to insert it on every individual track or select it from a menu. Use it on your entire mix, with global Drive and Tone control, for total effortlessness—just “set it and forget it!”—or bypass it on a track-by-track basis to only affect certain sounds.

The Magic of Outboard “In the Box”

Whether you’re mixing music albums or music beds, you can finally step away from costly analog gear and get the sound you’re after “in the box” with HEAT. Easily create great-sounding mixes that have the familiar sonic characteristics of being mixed through a vintage console or box—including the pleasant harmonic distortion that “glues” your mixes together—without having to endure the usual technical complexities—or expense.

Wake Up Your Post-Production Sound

If you’re a sound designer or sound effects editor, adding a little HEAT to your tracks can make any sterile-sounding recording or canned effect sound punchier and livelier. Experiment and you can even change-up the character of audio assets into something better or more unique.

Get more info and the demo from AVID

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Here at online-mixing.com !

A really good news from our clients, online-mxiing.com is giving away 3 x 10% coupon discount codes.

The first 3 people to purchase our service by using “HAPPYEND” coupon code in our shop will receive 10% discout!

Coupon Code: HAPPYEND

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ReBirth is back! Propellerhead Software’s legendary Techno Micro Composer has been resurrected and made available for the iPhone.

get in on www.propellerheads.se

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[via buzzfeed.com]

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This video captures Propellerhead Software trying out what they call the world’s biggest drum machine.

They don’t explain the details – but it looks like they are using a custom MPC-style MIDI controller to trigger Kong in Reason 5, and projecting their computer screen as video onto the biggest skyscraper in Stockholm

[via synthtopia.com]

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Sound designers, editors, mixers, geeks and Star Wars fans. Our day has come! Ben Burthas presented “The Sounds of Star Wars“, a new book written with J. W. Rinzler. Inside it you’ll find all the secrets behind the making of the sound effects of Star Wars, and also the book includes a sound module with speaker and external output for playback of 250 different sounds (pretty amazing, huh?).

Guests at Celebration V in Orlando were honored with a rare appearance by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt. Burtt should be a familiar name to fans from his iconic work on all of the live-action Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. His accolades include academy awards for A New Hope, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.,Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and nominations for many more. As panel moderator Pablo Hidalgo puts it, “He’s the reason so many of us have high-end surround sound systems in our home theaters.”

Burtt came to discuss his latest book project, The Sounds of Star Wars. Written with New York Times best-selling author J. W. Rinzler, Sounds tells the intimate details behind your favorite Star Wars sound effects. From the majestic hum of a lightsaber to the lowly chitter of a Jawa, every effect has a story. This lavishly illustrated tome is more than just a book, it includes a sound module that lets you listen to over 250 original sounds from the Star Wars series in high-quality stereo as you read along.

A Book About Sound
It is hard to imagine how one would encapsulate the vast world of sound into the written word. Burtt found that merely writing about sound wasn’t enough; the reader needed to hear the audio in context with the stories. Modern technology now makes it possible to include the sound files in the sound module attached to the book. Over 300 photographs illustrate scenes from the films and show Burtt with his team recording audio in the field or sculpting the sounds back in the studio. Each of the sound effects described may be listened to with either the built-in speaker or a stereo headphone jack.

An “Organic Soundtrack”
When George Lucas approached Burtt about making the first Star Wars film, he had specific desires for how his fantasy world should sound. As Burtt puts it, the sound effect “language” of science fiction films at the time was pretty much electronic. Early films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, and War of the Worlds were created with clean, electronic-sounding sound effects and most films and television series after were created in the same mold. During Lucas’ first conversation with Burtt, he stated that he wanted an “organic soundtrack” and a “used universe.” He wanted squeaky doors, rust, and motors that didn’t start up quickly. Burtt’s solution was to collect sounds from the real world rather than use a Moog synthesizer as an initial source. “We did incorporate an element of electronic sound,” Burtt continued, “but it was imbedded in a world of organic sounds.” With sound devices based on the real world, the effects would seem authentic to the listener in some way even if they couldn’t identify the source of the sound.

Sound as Character
Burtt’s toughest challenge was in designing R2-D2 to Lucas’ specifications. Fresh out of film school, he faced the unprecedented task of creating a character that couldn’t speak and yet the audience could still understand him and he could act alongside veterans such as Sir Alec Guinness. With other tasks, such as creating the rumble of a starship engine, he could look at other films to find inspiration from different audio samples. Not so with Artoo; there really never was a character like him before.

Burtt had to create expressive sounds that gave the impression of emotion instead of forming words in a known language. Half of the idea for Artoo came from discussions with Lucas. “After all the experiments I did for months and months with Artoo, I got into discussions with George about [his voice]. We realized after a while that in our discussions we were vocalizing the sounds to ourselves. He would say something like, ‘It kind of needs a deep-veep-dzoop-eep,’ and I would say, ‘well, tweet-ehp-oop-waooo-waaaa.’” It didn’t dawn on Burtt immediately that he was already making the sounds that he was looking for in other sources. They needed something like the sounds of a toddler who hasn’t learned to communicate with language yet so he started recording these sounds with his own voice. The final breakthrough was when he began to combine his own voice with electronic sounds from a keyboard synthesizer. From there, he started assembling Artoo’s “vocabulary” one piece at a time.

Aliens and The Duke
For the Mos Eisley Cantina, he needed to create an entire bar full of different aliens. Many of these alien languages started with Burtt’s own vocalizations. “As I was developing sounds for Artoo I had different ways of honing my voice, creating vocalizations like that. I can’t do it in front of an audience; you have to do it in the dark.”

“I used to try so many experiments,” Burtt explained. “We were at Goldman Studios doing some remixing. [At that time] I was always looking around the back rooms of studios for something interesting and I found some recording stock in the trash. It was an ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) session with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.” The strange voice of Garindan, the long-snouted spy in the streets of Mos Eisley, was derived from this tape of John Wayne. “It wasn’t directly his voice, it was his voice triggering a circuit on a computer.”

read more on starwars.com

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