Yesterday afternoon during a conference call a very interesting idea was suggested by OASYAN Count2Four123.
Probably you know iTunes and their podcasts? So his idea was to organise a weekly or monthly discussion of OASYANs to talk about OASYS, electronic music, music in general etc. The content of these kind of discussions should be kept flexible, but of course Tips & Tricks, new tracks of OASYANs, etc. would be the focus.
Now, more or less half a year after starting with this blog, I was looking into the visitors statistics again. To be more precise into the domains, as I wanted to get an idea from where the visitors are coming.
And there was one domain of a country I never heard of - Tuvalu. What a nice name!
So whoever you are and whatever the reasons were to visit my blog - I just wanted to send you my special greetings. It was you who made me look into the books and search the internet to learn more about Tuvalu.
… on the other hand the domain “tv” could also direct into a completely different direction. But I prefer the above explanation, as otherwise I never would have heard of Tuvalu.
Here you find the link to Daz’ free OASYS Randomizer.
It is a small …. unspectacular tool which most likely is underestimated by some OASYANs. Which is fine for those who just are using the HD-1 sounds like Piano, String, Brass, of course the GM bank and the factory sounds of the Virtual Analogs.
But in case you want to use AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix and do not have the time to read the manuals in detail but still want some more sounds…. hm, then there is no way around this tool. Together with RC’s & KARO’s new Analog Collection I highly recommend to install the Randomizer. And the nice thing about it is… you only have to press one button to open the door to some more sounds.
Here is one example consisting of just two sounds:
iRandom mix1
Sorry about the bad timing but I did not use a click, just recorded the “bass” and then added the “iRandom Giant Rotary” pad.
The pad sound is a randomized version of the great factory sound “Giant Rotary”. It is one of these sounds where a lot of controllers have an impact on the sound. This was not change in the randomized version. I called the factory sound up and pressed the button once! Yes, once. The new version is now a little bit “dirtier” and morphing from a flanging pad into a digital kind of noise when the Vector Joystick gets used. Again, probably not everyone’s taste, but defenitely mine and a must have, saved to several media.
The other sound, kind of Bass, is a modified version of one of my Polysix Sounds. The other meanwhile ten sounds are stored and two lead sounds let me seriously think of selling the Moog Voyager! Someone once posted - I guess it was Stephen Kay - that there is no real need to keep those instruments anymore… I was sceptical… I was.
usage of randomizer (aka iRandom) @ one’s own risk
It’s very simple to use. Just run it up and set the MIDI port/channel, select the Program type (type of EXi #1) and hit Randomize. The Depth slider sets how many randomly selected parameters will be randomized. You can apply the randomization to existing programs or an initialized program, it really doesn’t care (or even know).
Currently the software supports AL-1 (99 params), PolysixEX (37 params), MS20EX (64 or so params). The PolysixEX randomization is the most conservative and gives some interesting results, the AL-1 is okay’ish and the MS20 randomization is generally bizarre.
The way this software works is very simple. In my development version of this app I can put it into a learning mode and when I change a bunch of parameters for the selected EXi type the software records the MIDI/System Exclusive commands used to change each parameter and the maximum and minimum value seen. That “learned” data is then built into the application and when you hit Randomize it looks at the learned data for the selected EXi type and uses it to generate a spray of random parameter values. Without a sysex spec, this is the only way to make it work. The generated parameter changes are always valid because they are based on the learned max/min values.
It would be easy to add support for all the Oasys engines including HD-1 and of course any new engines. I suspect STR-1 would be very interesting to work with. The app just needs teaching about those, which can be a rather long procedure (setting the maximum and minimum values of every parameter on the Oasys !).
It’s a Universal Binary, but I haven’t tested on Intel yet. I don’t think there is any code in there that would be affected by running it on a different processor so it should be fine.
Enjoy … oh and keep the Oasys volume turned down, the results can get pretty wild !
Not very hot “News”, as this site exists already for quite a long time. Anyway for those who are seriously interested in synthesizers and do not know Theo’s website, here is a great online resource:
But that’s not all, as Theo is the organiser of a Synthesizer Meeting in his beautiful hometown Kufstein.
Synthesizer Meeting with Sales Corner
Date: Saturday/Sunday 1./2. September 2007
Opening is on Saturday at noon - with open end. Overnight stay possible (sleeping bag and pad needed). Sunday starts with a shared breakfast, the meeting ends at 2:00 p.m.
Meeting point: the Gymnasium Kufstein
Gymnasium Kufstein, Schiller Str. 2, A-6330 Kufstein
Parking place in front of and behind the building
Additional information - contact theo.bloderer@bluesynths.com
During I was writing an e-mail to another OASYS user I realised how impressive the network is that comes with OASYS. Be it either on the support side or even better - when it comes to making music.
No doubt the machine itself is worth the money. That is something I realised after a certain time. But as a kind of side-effect you get something that is even worth more. There is a small and friendly community that is trying to support other users or give informations to those who are thinking of purchasing one of these instruments. But at the end of the day most if not all bought this machine to make music. And this is what I like most, meeting new people with similar interests and trying to work together on tracks. Here you can find already two examples which were played by Ebse, Andreas Ecker aka “the headroom project” and me.
Most likely Ebse I would have never met in the real world…. and now we are working together on our CD. By the time we meet more and more people who are interested in working together and a kind of musical network is developing.
Latest contribution is the following - a remix of Richard Courtel:
It is based on this version which Ebse and I recorded recently: “2k7″
By the way - the title does not have anything to do with Mr. Stephen Kay.
The original track consists of several OASYS sounds. The Piano intro is obvious, the bells which are using the internal delay, the bass which consists of two different sounds that are mixed and filtered via the ribbon controller, several pads and the STR-1 synth sound at the end. Only drums and voices are external sounds. Oh… and the guitars or lets explain it that way - the track is 100% silicon.
Richard Courtel aka RC-IA and KARO are releasing 128 new Programs for KORG’s OASYS under the name KARO Virtual Analog.
The collection consits of 64 Programs designed by Richard who programmed AL-1 sounds, whereas the remaining 64 programs were designed by Kurt Ader aka medusaland of KARO mostly by using MS-20 & Polysix EXis.
Richard composed and recorded two tracks to give you an idea about the sounds.
In this demo song you can hear 14 of his 64 AL-1 patches plus one voice and one drum track (= House Kit). No external treatment. It is probably worth to be mentioned that Richard recorded everything within OASYS !
And here comes audio demo #2, composed and recorded by Richard:
Deutschsprachigen Usern - deren OASYS in gewisser Hinsicht wahrlich in der Wüste ruht - sei gesagt dass es Neuigkeiten gibt.
Richard Courtel aka RC-IA und Kurt Ader aka medusaland haben gemeinsam ein Soundset für KORG’s Flaggschiff fertig gestellt. Die 128 Programs setzen sich aus 64 AL-1 und ebenso vielen Klängen, die zumeist mit den EXis der LACollection (sprich MS-20 und Polysix) programmiert wurden, zusammen.
Damit Sie sich ein “Bild” machen können, gibt es zwei Audiofiles von Richard:
In obigem Audiodemo sind 14 der 64 AL-1 Sounds von Richard zu hören. Zusätzlich hat er je einen Voice und Drum Track eingespielt. Letzterer besteht aus den Sounds des “House Kit”. Alles wurde im OASYS eingespielt und aufgenommen - “no external treatment”.
Es ist wohl längst an der Zeit einmal für meinen Freund Michael Stiedl Werbung zu machen.
Besucher dieses blogs wissen wer Michael ist - DER Supporter dieses blogs. Was wenige wissen ist, dass er nebst seinen grafischen Fähigkeiten auch ‘mal gerne zur Kamera greift. Dieses “Hobby” hat dazu geführt, dass er seine Fotos ins Internet gestellt hat. Die entsprechende Webseite ist hier unter j u s t p i c s zu finden.
Ernst Hefter, ein mittlerweile langjähriger Freund, und meine Wenigkeit dürfen unsere bescheidenen Schnellschuesse ebenfalls deponieren.
It was the day of Live Aid which “changed the world”. Most famous pop and rock musicians performed life on stages in UK and the USA, to collect money. It was the time I liked to listen to Ultravox whose Midge Ure was one of the inventors of Live Aid. As it sometimes happens in live someone else took alone credit for this great idea. Anyway….
One of the top acts was David Bowie who sang “heroes”. His band performed this song in a version as good as I never heard it again. The band consisted of top musicians of which Thomas Dolby was one. And it was his performance on keyboards that made this song so unforgettable to me. As a curious person I checked my records for his name and surprisingly on many tracks it was Mr. Dolby again who added great keyboard playing to them. Some examples? Do you remember Foreigner’s “Urgent” and “Waiting for a girl like you”? Do you remember for example the great atmospheric intro sound of the later? That was for example Thomas Dolby.
Like Phil Collin’s “In the air tonight” P5 pad sound the one in “Waiting for a girl like you” was one sound I always tried to program on any new keyboard I got. Hm… beside the DX-7 of course. Another sound I programmed on every keyboard was the one Thomas used in Joan Armatrading’s “I’m lucky”. Although my favourite track on Joan’s “Walk under ladders” record is “Only One”. Thomas performed together with some of the best musicians in business during that time, Jerry Marotta on Drums and to me the ultimate bass player - Tony Levin. Very surprisingly for a person who owns 15 different Peter Gabriel CDs (by the way - thanks to my friend Peter Kubelka who searched the internet for very rare recordings of PG that are not available on his regular CDs - thanks to both Peters!).
Thomas Dolby worked with several other musicians but in addition always on his own tracks. He released several CDs many of which you can find on iTunes. One of my favourite tracks is “Living in a suitcase”. Everything put together very nicely, Piano phrase, “guitar” not bad either, same is true for bass line, the beat…. not to forget the vocoder and the lyrics.
Thomas Dolby is to me an excellent keyboarder and his sometimes athmospheric sounds are unique and kind of musical signature. But what impresses me most is the fact that he can write real songs of which “I live in a suitcase” is one example. Writing songs does seem to be so easy… but everyone who tried it once, knows how difficult it can be. It is much easier to switch on the Arpeggiator, isn’t it?
But back to “I live in a suitcase” - the studio version is “1a!” but his live version is not bad either and can be listened and viewed @ YouTube: “I live in a suitcase”
addendum: Thomas’ blog
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thanks to Dan for the kind permission to use his fotos!
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to open the door to some more sounds.
