January 13, 2010 - new Synths, Small Album Update

No, I haven’t bought any more :^)

I think that whenever you buy a new synthesizer, there’s a period of time where it’s almost unusable. It’s not so much an inability produce sounds, but rather a general dumbfoundness relating to how it should be used. This is how it was with my Nord Rack 2X that I bought over the summer. Was it better for bass sounds, pads, or leads? What are the harmonics like on the oscillators? Do I use it in the background or foreground? I essentially had a very expensive red box sitting there and no idea what I was going to use it for. Sure, I had plans for how to use it before I bought it, but trying one out in a store and actually using it in your own studio are two very different things.

A little over month ago I finally had the “ah ha!” moments I had been waiting for. The first was when I discovered exactly what the Modulation Envelope section does, while the second was finding out just how flexible its two oscillators are. Will it replace my Poly Evolver or Prophet V software as my main workhorse synth? No, probably not. But it is definitely turning into a centerpiece in my music and will show up quite a bit in the next album.

Meanwhile, I found an excellent free software synthesizer the other night called Synth1, by Ichiro Toda. It claims to be modeled after the Nord Lead 2, which I can understand as far as its structure goes, but I think it ends up sounding different. For being freeware, it sounds out of this world… as long as you don’t use the built-in presets. This will probably also start showing up on some tracks in my next album.

Speaking of which, progress on Inside The Beat is coming along great. I’ve finished three songs and have been working on a fourth, although I’m thinking one of these may not make it into the final album for quality reasons. If it does get cut, it will probably show up on the EP that will follow the album, or as a B-side on a single.

Also, if you haven’t seen them yet, I’ve put up promotional images that were taken for Inside The Beat up on my website and on the Facebook Page. A little outside of my normal style of dress, but it was LOADS of fun shooting these and I really think it reflects the view I have for the album. A very special thanks to my friend Curt Richter for shooting these!