Dubspot Animoog Tutorial part 1 of 3

Dubspot have some amazing tutorials on their YouTube channel which are very useful for producers of all levels. I noticed that they've uploaded the first in three tutorials covering my all time favourite iPad synthesizer, the Animoog by Moog Music inc.

I thought that the readers of Voltage-Controlled would be interested in an in depth look into the capability's of this awesome little synthesiser so I've embedded the first part of the Dubspot Animoog tutorial below.

Check out the Dubspot site for more cool tutorials and don't forget to subscribe to their YouTube channel here.

I'll post the second and third Animoog tutorials to Voltage-Controlled as soon as they are uploaded by Dubspot.

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FutureMusic sampling special 'making of' videos

FutureMusic magazine have uploaded two 'Making Of' videos to go along with their Sampling special edition. Part one is hosted by Cyclick and part two by Groove Criminals (Both regularly supply the free samples that can be found on the free CD that comes along with FutureMusic Magazine).

Part one focuses more in foundsound (eg, recording every day objects) where as part two talks about creative ways of getting cool sounds out of your synthesizers and drum machines. To be honest I preferred part two as I'm a huge synth nerd.

They're about 20 mins long each but you might find something interesting/useful. Watch part two if you just want to look at lots of cool synths.

Click here if you're interested in lots of free samples from Voltage-Controlled

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NodeBeat HD iPad screen capture demo

Here's another video of me playing about with the display recorder tweak on my iPad. This time the app I'm using is the NodeBeat HD app, which is a fun little generative music sequencer.

I'm hoping to get lots of these iPad display recorder videos up on the site, they're fun to make and it gives me a good chance to show off some of my favourite music making apps.

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What is ReCycle?

I love using .rex files in my music, it's an easy way to take your loops and create something completely different. ReCycle is a stand alone program by Propellerheads that lets you take your audio loops (say a basic drum loop) and chop them up into different segments that allow you to craft them into something unique that you can use in your productions.

Heres a short video by the folks at Propellerheads; it talks you through ReCycle, Rex loops and how you can use them to add something special to your music. I'd recommend using ReCycle to help make your audio loops a little more manageable and inspirational.

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iPad display recorder & DM1 drum machine demo

iPad demo videos have become a pretty big part of Voltage-Controlled over the last few months. I've uploaded quite a few videos that I've taken using the camera on the back on my iPhone. That's all well and good but the quality of the videos have obviously suffered, so I got thinking about how I could go about making my videos a bit better.

At first I thought about investing in a decent camera but Voltage-Controlled rakes in little to no money from ads and donations so I couldn't really afford it. I remembered someone telling me a while back that if I jailbreak my device I can use third party software to take screen captures directly on the iPad. I looked into it but found out that the iPad 2 that I was using couldn't be jailbroken on iOS5.

However, I heard a week or so ago that it's changed and I can now hack my device and install the screen capture software. So I did it, I jailbroke the iPad and brought a tweak called display recorder.

It's a pretty basic app but it doesn't record audio which is a shame. That's not too much hassle though as I can record the audio into my laptop using my Saffire 6 interface and then sync it later.

Anyways, I thought I'd try it out and upload a video to YouTube. Here's me messing around with Fingerlab's DM-1 drum machine, one of my favourite drum machines on the iPad. DM-1's available in the appstore for £3.99 but I think I picked it up a few months ago when the price dropped to 69p.

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Broken sample links are now working again.

I mentioned in the last post that some of the sample packs on Voltage-Controlled were hosted on the file sharing site MegaUpload. As MegaUpload was recently shut down the samples were made unavailable for you guys to download.

I've just finished re-uploading the lost sample packs to minus.com and they are once again available for you to download free of charge. The sample packs that I've had to re-upload are:

• Voltage controlled sample collection vol.1
• Free FoundSound percussion loops and one shots
• Punished 909 kit (MC-303)

Luckily I haven't been using MegaUpload for long so only three of the packs were lost but it's still a bit of a hassle have to re-upload them.

Just to make it clear, all of the samples available from Voltage-Controlled are copyright free. I created them so that musicians, sound designers, film makers, etc. can use them in their productions and creations for free of charge.

If you have any other questions or problems then please get in touch with me at DanWeatherall@Voltage-Controlled.com

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Samples unavailable at the moment

Right then, since megaupload has been shut down some of the samples on my site have been made unavailable. Until I can find a suitable replacement site to host my samples they will be temporarily unavailable to download. I'll try and fix this as soon as possible and apoligise for any inconvenience that this has caused.

I know megaupload has been used by some to upload pirated material but some of us actually use it to host our own material. If anyone can suggest another free file hosting site that I can use to host my samples and loops please post a comment below or email me at DanWeatherall@voltage-controlled.com

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iPad multi-track recording with VST support

Wave Machine Lab’s Auria studio offers a 48 track digital recording experience for your iPad with VST support. Well it seems that the VSTs will have to be purchased through the app itself so don’t get yourself too excited about importing your favourite VSTs to your iPad. Also, with Auria studio being an audio recording app it looks like it supports effect VSTs only (So we won’t be running NI Massive on our iPads anytime soon).

The promo video looks really impressive though, by far one of the best studio apps for the iPad I’ve ever seen.

Auria studio will be avalible in the first quarter 2012

http://www.auriaapp.com/

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Shakie - Pellet Percussion for iPhone & iPod Touch

The beauty of Shakie lies in its simplicity. You’re not confronted with endless menus and settings; it does what you expect it to do. It’s a percussion instrument for your iPhone or iPod touch that’s controlled using the accelerometers and gyroscope that are built into your iDevice.

Shakie relies on a realistic physics engine, when you tilt or shake your iDevice the on-screen pallets will respond and trigger a number of samples. This gives the app a really natural feel and makes playing really fun.

The UI consists of just three pages: the main shaker page, the menu page and the info page. Everything is clean, simple and ready for you to pick up and play.

The app comes with 10 high quality built in sounds:

• Bells
• Castanet
• Chimes
• Maraca
• Rattle
• Shaker
• Shaker Dry
• Shaker Gritty
• Spoons
• Tamborine

Get Shakie from the app store now

www.shakieapp.com

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Bitwig, Ableton live killer?

The first thought I had when I saw the teaser video for Bitwig was "This is pretty much just a copy of Ableton", The similarities are remarkable but it's mainly the clip launcher and UI that remind me so much of Ableton. Apparently a few of the guys working on Bitwig are ex Ableton employees which would explain the similarities between the two DAWs.

By the looks of things the guys at Bitwig have crammed some pretty cool features into their new studio. General tracks (audio + midi), online collaboration, per-note automation and modular instruments are just a few of the features included in Bitwig.

Could this be an Ableton killer? The software will soon be going into the Beta testing stage so only time will tell. I'd love to get my hands on a copy though, just to take it for a test drive.

For a full list of the features of Bitwig Studio check out their site here.

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Punished 909 kit (MC-303) - Free samples

OK, so they're not actual 909 samples. The samples here are taken from the 909 kit on my MC-303 groovebox (Which are recorded from an original 909).

The MC303 has a really nice gritty sound to it (especially when you turn up the low boost), to add to that gritty flavour I ran the sounds through some plugins (Drive, EQ and Compressor).

There are 17 one-shot samples in this kit in .wav format. As always the Voltage-Controlled samples are completely royalty free so you can use them in any project you want without having to clear them.

>>>Download the samples now (.zip)<<<

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Moog reveals MINITAUR analog synthesizer

Moog Music inc. Have revealed the new addition to the Taurus family. The MINITAUR is a standalone analog synth, it looks perfect as a desktop synth.

"Minitaur is a powerful, compact Analog Bass Synthesizer that features a classic one knob per function design. It is the first instrument in the Taurus family that does not have foot pedals. At only 8.5" x 5.25" and less than 3lbs, the Minitaur puts legendary analog Moog bass into a package designed to fit seamlessly into today's performance and production environments. There are no confusing or convoluted menus to dig through. Plug in a MIDI controller or hook it up to your computer and start playing immediately.

Don't be fooled by it's size. Minitaur delivers all the growl, snarl and low end assosiciated with the Taurus family of Bass Synthesizers in a rugged performance package that is small enough to take with you anywhere."

This thing looks and sounds incredible. It’s stated on the Moog website that it will be sold for just $679.00 (Roughly £440) which is a pretty fair price. I can just imagine this thing sitting on my desk next to my laptop. Looks like I’m going to have to save up some money for its launch at winter NAMM.

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Voltage-Controlled MicroKorg Ableton rack by LynchAudio

I've been meaning to post this on here for a good while now. Matt from LynchAudio has made an awesome Ableton Live rack using the MicroKorg samples from the Voltage-Controlled sample collection Vol.1 sample library.

Go check out his site, download the free Ableton instrument rack and watch this demo video that he's made.

If there's anyone else out there that would like to share what they've created using the Voltage-Controlled samples then please get in touch (DanWeatherall@Voltage-Controlled.com) and I'll post a link up on the site.

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