David’s Adventures Through the World of Music Creation and Sonic Exploration

I spoke to the guys over at Gforce and they acknowledged the error in the Minimonsta manual that I’ve been pointing out in earlier posts. The oscillator octave knobs are not the MIDI CC as stated in the manual, since those assigned to the Delay L and Delay R knobs. You can of course do your own mapping but then it all comes apart since I’ve created a Nord Modular G2 patch for controlling the Minimonsta:Melohman.

When it comes to nice effects, and mostly free stuff, I’ve been acquainted with Audio Damage by a friend. Patrik showed me what Replicant can do and Daniel and Zoria kindly gave me the Fluid plugin as a birthday present. $29 for a fantastic sounding chorus effect - which fills the gap in my chorus effect collection containing UAD Roland CE-1 and UAD Roland Dimension D - is f***ing close to free. Now when the US Dollar is rated pretty low towards the Swedish Krona I gave merely 180 SEK for it .. and I accidentally happened to get Liquid ($29), Vapor ($29 too, as Fluid, Liquid and Vapor all are in AD’s mod effect series) and Replicant ($49) as well. You should do yourself a favour and look them up.
You should also check out Chris Randell’s blog over at Analog Industries.

Happy reading!

.. to the next.Still searching for nice, valuable and handy VSTi’s. After trying Cakewalk Rapture, which could have been something for half the price and twice the features, I installed the latest demo (v1.4.0) of Z3ta+ with two heavy eyelids after a long day at the office. I must say I’m a bit curious of that the new 1.5.3 version has to offer - or is it updated just because ..?

Okay, a lot of 6’s everywhere. 6 oscillators, 6 LFO’s, 6 general purpose Env’s and 16 (sixteen) modulation matrix rows. It’s said to be a wavetable synthesis and it is. What cought my sleepy eyes, and ears, the most was the Shaper section. A section where you could alter the waveform (of which there are 60 in this soft synth) in many different ways. None can be modulated though and Cakewalk did receive an e-mail regarding that today.

I’m keen on letting companies know what I do think, and where I think they can improve. For example; is it too much to ask to be able to enter value from the keyboard instead of using the mouse or arrow keys? Wanting to go from 6 to 9600 using the wheel on the mouse is a bit boring (referring to Cakewalk Rapture now), and having two knobs with the same MIDI CC where the delay knob is the one reacting instead of the oscillator octave (referring to Gforce Minimonsta now) is just plain dumb. Not responding to inquires like those, especially when I’ve bought the product is a bit ignorant I think. Sure, I can map another CC for the Octave knob on the Minimonsta, but my G2 patch will not work for the one’s downloading my patch to use with their Minimonsta unless they map the knob to the same value. “To make this work, you need to…” - sounds like Microsoft Windows if you ask me.

Back to Z3ta+. Besides the not-being-able-to-modulate-some-parameters it’s an okay instrument. I think it’s the kind that will grow on you when you finally get around their thinking regarding the modulation matrix - which can do some pretty wierd stuff when using the “Function” as a destination which then can be a source on the next modulation row (or later if you prefer). What the modulation matrix does not offer is a drag-and-drop to re-order the rows which is a nice thing to do since the LFO can modulate itself, for example. However, the Env can not and that’s on my suggestion list to rgc:audio.

Another thing that bugs me a bit is that Korg don’t offer a demo of the Legacy Collection Analogue (or Digital) Edition so I haven’t been able to try it. My local music store don’t have it installed - which I think Korg should offer, at least. I’m not going to buy something I can’t try and listening to demo mp3’s isn’t that fun of a deal. Really ..

I was listening to the demos of the Korg Legacy Collection Analog Edition (KLCAE) the other day and I must say that the Mono/Poly sounds a lot more interesting than Arturia’s emulation of the Jupiter-8V (so shoot me!) for example. Having decided to dump the studio for a corner of my girlfriend apartment, I must store some 61-keys synths and aim to keep a small one and go virtual.

Software has come a long way in a very short time, so following the development is pretty darn exciting with all the new (and old) synths popping up here and there. I’ve recently invested in both an old and a new one (Gforce Minimonsta and the FabFilter Twin) and I came across the KLCAE which I have neglected for some mysterious reason. I must say that the Mono/Poly sounds really impressive and is a lot more exciting than Arturia’s emulation of the “King Roland” (the Jupiter-8V that is). I tried the demo of the Jupiter-8V, which is a very good emulation but I can hear the Mono/Poly chewing a Jupiter for breakfast.

So, while we’re talking about the Korg Legacy Collection I must admit that the Digital Edition is also very tempting since I’ve had a lot of Korg gear though out the years; 01/Wfd, 01R/W, Prophecy, TR-rack, Wavestation EX, Wavestation SR and today I have a Z1 in my studio. Even though I loved the Wavestation I got rid of them since I was only playing around with the wave-sequencing and not composing (which was my main objective) but now I miss the possibility and listening to the Alphaville song “New Horizon” (from “Salvation”, 1997, I think) really makes me want one again - hence the Digital Edtion.

However. Since computer are getting faster and faster, really quick too, I was wondering what Korg has planned for the near (or not so near, but still not far) future. It must be every Korg lover and gear junky’s wet dream to have an updated version of the Digital Edition featuring a 01/W and at least a Prophecy but more preferably, in my case, a Z1. They are digital, so why not give them a try?

Am I asking for too much?

I know they won’t sound like exact replicas of the hardware, but does that have to be a bad thing?

I guess I have to e-mail the proposal to Korg. Wish me luck ;o)

So I opened up my wallet (VISA card) a bit today and purchased a FabFilter bundle containing Timeless (their super cool delay unit), Twin (their super cool dual oscillator synth) and Volcano (their su… yadda yadda filter). I’ve been trying the demos after my music buddy (Patrik) show them to me, and now when the demo has expired I thought - why the hell not?

Also, I accidently purchased Gforce Minimonsta. I’ve read a couple of Minimoog emulation reviews and the Minimonsta is the one that has gotten the best reviews and the demo sounds fantastic - so now the installation files sits nicely in a folder on my desktop waiting for me to get my lazy ass over to the studio and install the real thing.

You can read about a little adventure my brother and I had last weekend here:

1400 km in 17½ hours