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International Music Production School

Grandmother – Moog’s New Semi-Modular Synth

Grandmother – Moog’s New Semi-Modular Synth Gearheads rejoice! Legendary American synth builders at Moog have announced the release of a limited series synth called the Grandmother. The synth is a callback to the heyday of Bob Moog’s original lineup of synths from the 1960’s and 1970’s, it’s fully analog with no digital components for saving/recalling presets. The unit features modules for arpeggiation, sequencing, a spring reverb, an analog filter and an external audio input. External instruments can be routed through the Grandmother’s effects modules via that input. The synth has a relatively straightforward layout so those not typically inclined on pure analog won’t have too hard a time getting started right away. For all those sound explorers out there you’ll be pleased to interact with the 41 patch points on the synth, each of which can be routed to external Eurorack gear or Moog systems for further modulation. Moog’s Mother series …

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How To Be Prepared When Performing

How To Be Prepared When Performing Playing a live show can be a really stressful situation depending on the type of person you are. The sound is deafening, there’s a crowd screaming expecting a certain level of entertainment from you, plus there are bright lights everywhere and unless you have the zen qualities of monk levitating on Mount Kailash, you might have a hiccup in your performance here and there. With that being said, the skill of performing can be honed the same way producing can be. Here are 5 things to keep in mind to help your next performance go as smoothly as possible. 1: Know Your Crowd/Venue and Figure Them Out. Don’t even start preparing your set until you’ve got this figured out. It seems simple but sometimes you need to really think about it. When you first start DJing or playing shows with your band, you need …

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Sitala – FREE Drum Sampler

Sitala – FREE Drum Sampler Decomposer just released their free drum sampler instrument for alpha/beta testing so now is the time for you to get your hands on it. Satal is designed as a straightforward instrument built for a simple workflow, the user interface certainly lends to that notion. The plugin can be downloaded as a VST or AU format. Multiple formats are supported for loading into the plugin – WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, FLAC, and many others! A nice feature is the ability to save your kits for recall later; the instrument comes loaded with some presets already though, two drum machines called “Classic 08” and “Classic 09”. It comes with 16 sample slots which you can load your own external sounds into, Mute and Solo buttons are located below each sample pad. There are four knobs placed on the right side of the plugin that can be used to shape the …

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Wheel Method – A Different Way to Visualize Rhythm from John Varney

Wheel Method – A Different Way to Visualize Rhythm from John Varney How many of you have ever practiced your rhythm before? Drummers may be nodding but if you aren’t a drummer then you most likely haven’t practiced rhythm or looked at a rhythm sheet with the notation on bar lines. Typical rhythm notation doesn’t stray far from the classical method of notes on staff lines, there are pros and cons to this method. Pros include generalization from sight reading musical notation and familiarity but the format doesn’t often account for polyrhythms in a meaningful or clear way. This can be frustrating. The ‘Wheel Method’ described by John Varney in a recent TEDEd video attempts to mediate that issue with a layered visual approach to rhythm notation. The Wheel Method involves using concentric circles to represent multiple instruments and their respective timing. Like a clock, imagine a hand or needle spinning …

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Momentum – FREE Sample Pack from Audiomodern

Momentum – FREE Sample Pack from Audiomodern We’re continuing from our last post the trend of free stuff so today we’re letting you about ‘Momentum’ a free sample pack from Audiomodern. Momentum contains free downloadable audio files in WAV format ranging from ambient sounds to drone textures to pads; 30 royalty-free sounds are available in high-quality 24-bit WAV format. The majority of the samples run about a minute in length giving you a lot to chop up or simply use unchanged as background textures. Subtle automation has been included in each sample to keep the timbre changing over the runtime of each thus keeping the sounds fresh. With some fine-tuning and shaping, you could map the samples to a sampler and use them melodically to attain some pretty lush sounds. The pack isn’t designed as a preset pack so you’ll have to make your own instruments from the sounds but …

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MSpectralDelay FREE Until June 3rd

MSpectralDelay FREE Until June 3rd MeldaProduction is currently offering FREE download of their new plugin MSpectralDelay which is a unique creative delay plugin. It “works in the spectral domain and lets you perform various transformations on the delayed signal – from changing pitch to arbitrarily transforming individual frequencies. It’s complex, but it is still easy-to-use for the beginners.” MeldaProduction is known for their unique bundles of plugins that are highly complex but easy to use! Here’s the description from the Melda website: MSpectralDelay is extremely powerful, therefore also complex. So we have exploited its features and created 20 active presets on the easy screen, each as versatile as a dedicated plugin. These make using the plugin easy even for complete beginners. Traditional delay plugins feature a simple feedback delay, which produces identical copies of the original signal, sometimes with a possibility of filtering, distortion or other basic effects. MSpectralDelay lets you transform individual frequencies. …

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