this is a current picture of the original MS-20 box in which I received the small black devil more then 25 years ago
So here is another iRandom audiofile. Everything was played in one piece. I made a lot of mistakes to prove this!
iRandom Xsample III
But seriously, everything was played in a row. Sometimes you can hear it when I switched to the next sound which is using completely different IFXs. I did not edit much, but there are two or three short sequences in which I decided to fade them out quite fast for obvious reasons. Furthermore I used a little bit of compression on the single stereo audiofile by using PSP’s Vintage Warmer PlugIn. For the sounds… yes, there is also some KARMA.
Most of the sounds are results of my work with Daz’s iRandom. Interestingly most of them are using distortion which is not the result of randomization… sorry, this was me. Usage of delays? Guilty, my Lord!
At around 5 mins (when you really listen that long..) you can hear my actual favourite sound. It is a single MS-20 sound using PWM + Ring. This sound comes to live by usage of the controllers. In this case it was Ribbon, Pitch Bender and of course the VJS. For this sound you really need the left hand to move the bender, the ribbon and the VJS. I made a “_pmm version” and a “_dolby version”, the latter playing the chords. The next song “sad ganges” is one of two STR-1 sounds.
At the end there is one.. no.. not “one”, it is my favourite STR-1 sound. And again VJS and Ribbon got used a lot. The sound starts as a kind of Dulcimer can become kind of Koto (not plugged enough I know! therefore “kind of..”) and in the lower range when you decrease decay and sustain its like a DX-7/TX-x16. All in one program..
Somewhere at the beginning you can hear a flanging sound like the one used by Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran in “planet earth”. But to be honest, this sound was programmed by Peter Schwartz aka “ski”… after some iRandomization it changed a little bit its character, but still benefits from the original programming which is using several (!) controllers. By the way, I used the controllers a lot.. but of course you realised that already. OASYS is a performers keyboard, we know it.
At the moment I have 17 iRandom sounds and 13 convential programs. The later are the result of my work, the first mostly, too but with one or the other exception (see above). As I was asked by several people if they can get the sounds I would like to announce the following. As soon as I have a complete bank full of sounds I will make it available. Details to be announced.
BTW - thanks to all the people who sent me their feedback for the iRandom demos.
As you probably meanwhile know… I am big fan of Daz’s iRandom software. Somewhere here you can find already an audio example and here comes another one:
iRandom Xsample II
The ambience consists of iRandom sounds only.
The “melody” sound is my favourite at the moment - a very expressive MS-20 solo sound. Unbelievable how you can influence the sound by just using the Pitch Bender together with the Ribbon. Completely forgot what the MS-20 is capable of!
In the short intro comes a kind of “synth chor” sound that reminds me a little bit on “Gina X”. By the way, now I know why Mr. Daz names himself a “Victim of LFO Abduction”. The chor sound is followed by a karmafied MS-20 program which is moving thru the stereo field. Last but not least comes the STR-1 “bass”.
…. and that’s how it can sound together with some KARMAfied drums - for some probably to much KARMAfication on the drums;).
iRandom Xsample II + KARMA
oops.. forgot - everything was performed “live”. Which means I looked for a fitting drum kit, for the right KARMA, pressed the record button of dp5.1 and triggered the drums. During playing I switched “a little” around, jumped between drum patterns, moved the faders… everything in real time. I did NO editing afterwards, no quantization, etc. as you can hear easily at the end of the file, where the drums are getting a “little” chaotic, sorry for that. That is what can happen within 30mins when you start playing on the OASYS and dig into KARMA.
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 !
During programming and playing some sounds on the OASYS I became curious about the differences of all these internal VAs one has access to.
There are many obvious ones, for example the number of Oscillators, Waveforms, Filter types, Modulation Sources and Targets etc. But this is not what I am interested in, you can find that on your own either in OASYS or the manual. But for example, how do the SAW waveforms in AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix sound? Is there an audible difference or at least a visible one? And what about the Filter?
Screenshot of dp5.1 project showing MIDI file and corresponding audio file of AL-1, MS-20, Polysix and a “reference”
So I decided to program INIT files for each of OASYS`VAs as there are non by default. Each one consisting of a single oscillator, playing a SAW waveform. The different Filters and their CutOff (CF) are completely open (depending on the VA this means value = 10 or 99) and Resonance = 0. For MS-20 the High Pass Filter was not touched. Additionally I tried to set the envelopes to the same settings within the different synthesizers and deactivated Keyboard Tracking and other Modulation Sources as most as possible.
I recorded then with MOTUs dp5.1 a MIDI sequence consisting of one note played legato. During recording I closed the filter (CF: Max -> 0) and after reaching 0 I increased Resonance to Max (R: 0 -> Max) and opened the filter again (CF: 0 -> Max). Afterwards CF was kept @ Max and R was put from Max -> 0 and finally the filter closed at the end. This MIDI File was copied to two more channels in dp5.1 to get equal MIDI Data for transfer and trigger AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix.
Audio files were recorded by using OASYS’ ADAT Out which feed as usual ADAT In of Lynx Audio Interface (OASYS WordClock Sync was set to “external”). Audiofiles were exported from dp5.1 to Bias’ Peak which was then used to make screenshots of the thre + audio files.
Canditate 1: AL-1
Screenshot of AL-1 audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1
AL-1 audio file
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Canditate 2: MS-20
Screenshot of MS-20 audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1
MS-20 audio file
_________________________________
Canditate 3: Polysix
Screenshot of Polysix audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1
Polysix audio file
…. last but not least the “reference”
Reference:
Screenshot of “reference” audiofile recorded with MOTUs dp5.1
Reference audio file
The process of changing CF and R of the “reference” file is not as fast as in the other files. The generated MIDI file used for AL-1, MS-20 and Polysix could not be used. Voyager was used to give listeners an idea of how a Moog behaves in a similar situation.
It would have been interesting to compare the LAC brothers to their hardware ancestors, no doubt about that. Anyway, I would like to congratulate the person(s) who programmed all the different VAs and most of all the one who did the Polysix. I remember myself posting @ korgforums shortly after the LAC release that the Polysix sounds a little “moogish”…..
OASYS Users who updated from OS Version 1.1.0 directly to new OS 1.2.3 most likely are missing the LAC-1 PCG file. This file was not included in the 1.2.3 updater.
Unfortunately WordPress does not allow me to upload the PCG file as it does not meet their security guidelines. I guess they never heard about the .PCG extension. Therefore I uploaded it to the following web address (file size is appr. 560kb): http://members.chello.at/peter.mahr/LAC-1.PCG
Save file from your browser but check if any suffix was added to the file’s name. It must have the name “LAC-1.PCG” nothing else, nothing added to the name. After transfering it to your OASYS load the file. You succeeded if you find in PGM Bank User-D 000 a sound named “Doubled Screamer”.
If you are using the download link and the LAC-1.PCG file above, you are doing that on your own risk.
… but there is an alternative
you can find the same file as a zipped version at KORG Germanys forum.
Use the folllowing link: http://www.korg.de/forum.html then go to the thread “Neues OS”, scroll down to a posting from “Michael@KORG” from Mo, 15 Januar 2007 13:10 - there you go.
Once you have the file loaded to your OASYS you will recognise a fade-in and -out appr. every 30 seconds. You get rid of that if you go to http://www.korguser.net/ and purchase an “auth code” for the LAC-1.
Please let me know, in case of having problems with the links.
this is a current picture of the original MS-20 box in which I received the small black devil more then 25 years ago
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Screenshot of dp5.1 project showing MIDI file and corresponding audio file of AL-1, MS-20, Polysix and a “reference”
