Propellerhead has released Radical Piano for sale, a new Rack Extension instrument that brings a wide range of natural and bendable piano sounds to Reason and Reason Essentials. Using a blend of sampled pianos and physical modeling synthesis, Radical Piano is a lightweight, authentic instrument with sounds ranging from pristine concert grand pianos to creaking living room uprights.
Mario is a good friend of Gearjunkies. We have posted already more of his great work he does on custom specialised software controllers. His latest work is a controller for the u-he Diva software synthesizer. Inside the controller there are 2 Doepfer USB64 Midi Interfaces, one special Wheel Electronic for Pitch and Mod Wheel and the MKE Electronic for the 4 octave Fatar keyboard with velocity. The DIVA Controller has about 90 knobs and 25 switches.
The Pianocade is a synthesizer designed to sound, look, and feel like vintage arcade games. It’s easy for people who want to dive right in, powerful and feature-rich for people who want to tinker, and fun to play for everyone.
Mopho x4 is the newest addition to DSI’s revered line of analog subtractive synthesizers. Building upon the same award winning voice architecture of the Mopho and Mopho Keyboard, the Mopho x4 boasts huge sound and 4 voice polyphony in an ideally sized, portable, and elegantly designed package. Use it to create huge unison basses, creamy leads, maniacal sequences, and ethereal pads.
Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH released trial copies of their latest soft synthesizers, Padshop Pro and Retrologue.
After the release of Google+ last year it has been relatively quiet (we think). But that doesn’t mean Google hasn’t been busy. This week they annouced a new high quality ‘Studio Mode’ for musicians to play live concerts, online! Bands can now stream online concerts to their fans with good sound quality.
Being a DJ, producer, remixer, music culture researcher as well as a label owner, Anna Gavanas is a mainstay of the Swedish electronic music scene. When producing, her perfect sense for musical intensity and mellowness guarantees a captivating listening experience. Tracks like »Technomad communitas« simply can’t stop, won’t stop.
TAL-U-NO-LX is a fully rewritten emulation of the popular hardware with a new engine and GUI. Up to date zero feedback delay filters and carefully calibrated controls make this synth a good replacement for the analog device with all the advantages software plugins have. As an addition, the TAL_U-NO-LX also supports portamento and different filter LFO waveforms and some more useful features. An arpeggiator with different sync modes and hold function is also included. A very fast envelope with a smooth roll-off and emulated inaccuracy gives this synth the typical sound. The synth was calibrated after a hardware device that’s property of TAL.
Paolo Apollo Negri is considered one of the finest Hammond organ players throughout the world, but his love for synthesizers has grown stronger and stronger in his live sects and studio works with The Link Quartet, Wicked Minds, Black Widow, Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra and many others, as well as during his solo career. His last release, “Cobol”, is a synthesizer wonderland, where Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard, with its different type of synthesis, plays a central role, creating spacey landscapes, evocative intros and old fashioned polyphonic analog solos.
The Dark Knight Rises is currently the biggest film in the world. To score this film German composer Hans Zimmer wired up his beloved Moog Modular and let the vintage oscillators sing. Zimmer’s body of work in the film industry includes such prolific films as Rain Man, Thelma & Louise, and The Lion King. For the past few years Zimmer has been working very closely with Christopher Nolan composing scores for Inception and the Batman trilogy. In this video Hans Zimmer and Richard King discuss the sound design of The Dark Knight Rises, fast forward to 5:12 to hear Zimmer’s thoughts on using a Moog Modular as part of the score.
Dave Smith Instruments is just a week away from introducing DSI’s new Mopho x4 synthesizer keyboard to the world. This new synth is polyphonic Mopho keyboard! The Mopho x4 is the newest addition to DSI’s revered line of analog subtractive synthesizers. Building upon the same award winning voice architecture of the Mopho and Mopho Keyboard, the Mopho x4 boasts huge sound and 4 voice polyphony in an ideally sized, portable, and elegantly designed package. Use it to create huge unison basses, creamy leads, maniacal sequences, and ethereal pads. The Mopho x4 is sure to satisfy all your polyphonic analog synthesis needs.
Based in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, O.N.O produces the tracks for hip-hop unit Tha Blue Herb. He is known for creating unique grooves with distinctive sampling treatments and complex beats. Besides being musically active as part of a group, he has released albums as a solo artist under the names of O.N.O and onomono, playing live shows using only hardware gear and appearing at numerous rock festivals and music events. Elektron caught up with O.N.O to interview him about his musical career, the equipment he uses, and what role Elektron machines play in his sound.
Apple today announced that OS X® Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a download from the Mac® App Store℠. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion includes iCloud® integration, the all new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration*, Dictation, AirPlay® Mirroring and Game Center. Mountain Lion is available as an upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard for $19.99.
Karma-Lab has released KARMA Motif Software, a dedicated PC/Mac program for the Yamaha Motif XS and XF (US $199). This brand-new entry in their line of software applications brings the award-winning and patented KARMA algorithmic music technology (previously only available for Korg workstations) to the Yamaha Motif, giving it new interactive groove generation and arranger-like capabilities.
A bank of over 400 presets, a collaboration between Hans Zimmer and Howard Scarr. Practically all Zebra sounds in the The Dark Knight as well as The Dark Knight Rises soundtracks are included, plus several more that didn’t quite fit into the scores. Furthermore, the pack includes Hans’ custom built version of Zebra, dubbed ZebraHZ. Many of the more recent patches make use of the extra features available in ZebraHZ.