It’s all been a bit suspiciously lively this month. The kids have gone back to school, autumn seems to be making it’s mark and we’re a month away from getting a heating system installed in our house. But no matter, what’s been going on in music technology, synthesis, software and hardware?

Podcast version:

Erica Synths release their still not quite finished Techno System – Vladimir gives us a new version of the dazzling Euclidean Circles and we all pretend to know what that is – Audiophile Circuits League take on the awesome Sinfonion – Native Instruments release a whole bunch of stuff – Endorphin’s BLCK_NOIR ships – Noise Engineering goes all posh with 5U modules – System80 open preorders on their Eurorack 808 drum machine – Polyfusion is back – Make Noise add a third dimension to Rene – Expressive E gives us a a value edition Touche – Analogue Solutions Generator is ready to generate – Elephant hits version 1.3 with the ultimate Dial update – Voltage Modular gets released – and we try to remember why we cared about the OP-Z.

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But first some more Surface Go news. It’s taken longer than I hoped but I am battling on through my Surface Go testing – I mean who wouldn’t want an iPad that can run desktop software? I did the first episode on running music apps in Windows 10 S – that’s a new mode of Windows that only lets you run Windows Store apps. I ran FL Studio Mobile and Stagelight plus a couple of MIDI controllers and an audio interface with pretty good results. So it can be done in S mode but the lack of plugin support and ASIO support means that it’s not ideal. Right now I’ve moved the Windows 10 proper and testing is continuing. It’s looking good at the moment – should have another video up shortly. I plan to do it in chunks rather than everything all at once, so the next video will feature Cubase, pro Tools and Live – then I’ll do some virtual instruments, a bit of Maschine, some more DAWs, guitar effects and so on until i run out of things to test.

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Erica Synths Techno System

We’ve been quite excited about this since it appeared at Superbooth. Now I know modular is supposed to be all about the unlimited potential of bleeps and noises, the expanse of variety and neverending possibilities, but sometimes it’s nice to have something that’s intentional. It’s built to do Techno – it has an awesome drum machine, drum modules, mixer, effects and a bassline synth – and it flippin’ does the job. I love it. The only snag seems to be that they can’t quite get the Sample Drum to work to their satisfaction, so although it’s now out and available it will ship without the sample playing module. I hope they get that sorted out soon because it adds a lot of welcome variation and sound potential to the rig.

http://www.EricaSynths.lv

Euclidean Circles

Euclidean Circles is this dazzling three rings of blazing LEDS that you see on everybodies rigs. These are handmade by the awesome Vladimir Pantelic and it’s a trigger sequencer. It generates patterns based upon algorithms first described by Euklid about 300 years BC. There are 6 channels of output, 2 per wheel and you dial in rhythms and off you go – instant polyrhthmic triggers infecting your rack. The new version lets you manually edit the steps which takes it away from the algorithm for the first time. There’s a new F button that gives quick access to a favourite feature, like a variation, fill or next pattern. And there’s an optional switch panel for muting outputs. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable module that’s all over the place and V2 just seems to increase its usefulness.

http://www.vpme.de

Audiophile Circuits League Sinfonion

The Sinfonion is an amazingly musical module invented by Mathias Ketner. It’s like a massive quantizer, harmoniser and chord generator with which you could control your whole rack. It was to be built by Instruo and has that rather lovely Instruo aesthetic. Then it seemed to get lost somewhere and news on development stalled. We’ve recently heard that it’s been picked up by Audiophile Circuits League and is pushing forward into production – hooray! It just seems that it wasn’t working out with Instruo which is a real shame as it seemed a natural extension of their Harmonaig module. So it’s still very cool except that it’s adopted the ACL colour scheme which, for me at least, is just not as organic as the Instruo – but i’m sure we’ll get over it. Check out the Sinfonion first contact video on YouTube – this thing is amazing.

http://audiophilecircuitsleague.com/

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Native Instruments

Native Instruments had a bumper release party this month. They announced Komplete 12, Kontakt 6, Massive X and a few bits of hardware. Komplete 12 is of course the usual bunch of pretty much everything including Kontakt 6 and any other products released since Komplete 11 – that’s not a whole lot but it’s some. It includes a load more content of course. Massive X is included but won’t actually be ready until the new year. The small amount of info we have on it suggests that it’s a radical departure from the original and it certainly looks different. Kontakt 6 on the other hand doesn’t look any different at all. Apparently it’s easier to build your own instruments…. That’s about it. As what’s become the industry standard for sampled instruments you’d think they’d pull something awesome out of the bag – not sure yet. But it Komplete Ultimate is not enough for you then consider the Collectors Edition which bumps up the expansions to 50 and goes pro on all the string library. You also get that very important €25 e-voucher to spend in the store.

The other device of note is the Machine Mikro Mk3 – the mini machine box MIDI controller to run with the Maschine software. No screens on this one, just pads and a few controls. NI have sent me one to check out so expect a video on that soon – might run nice with the Surface Go.

http://www.native-instruments.com

Endorphin BLCK_NOIR

The annoyingly named BLCK_NOIR has arrived. It’s a dark drum module that can solve all your percussion needs in a single, modulatable and effectable module. You’ve got 7 drum sounds feeding into 5 channels with 8 effects and some seriously filthy throttle and flap filtering. The manual is particularly entertaining with the usually colourful Endorphin embracing the dark side. It looks like a load of fun and a bit like squeezing the whole Erica Synths Techno System into a single badly behaved module.

http://www.endorphin.es

Noise Engineering 5U

Recently Noise Engineering ported some modules to Reason as Rack Extensions. Well now it’s gone the other way and has created some posh 5U modules that fit in with the Moog format of modular. They look really serious but i don’t imagine 5U users have had anything quite like them in their racks before. I don’t know any 5U users but you imagine them to be the seriously old boys of the modular world – wisened and deeply in thought about electrical signals. The modules in question are the Basimulus Iteritas Magnus and the Manis Iteritas Magnus – their nastiest parameterized digital drum synthesizers. I think it’s great that these old modular heads have something new to play with.

https://www.noiseengineering.us

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