I fully admit I'm a huge fanatic for the 1980s powerhouses of music production, and it's a pleasant surprise the past few years to see some of those developers trying to preserve their legacies.

Among the most active of these legacy-prolonging brands is the remaining staff from New England Digital, best known as the developers of the Synclavier systems from the late 70s to the early 90s, with virtually unprecedented digital sound, and the first to support 16-bit sampling (even Fairlight fans had to wait until 1985 for the CMI 3).

Needless to say, when I was first informed a few months ago that they were revisiting hardware synthesizers with some one-ups from the Arturia VST recreation, I was immediately tempted. Fortunately, my family was supportive and generous enough that they were willing to pre-order it as a late Christmas gift (the production has apparently been slow for customers, meaning I only got my own unit a few days before this was published).

Enter the Regen.

At first glance, I admit I was a little deterred: desktop synthesizers are not normally my thing over the old rack-mountables, but despite the form factor, it seems to definitely be capable. Powering up took a much longer time than I'm used to for a hardware synthesizer (barely less than a minute without external storage), but then, this is the first "new" synthesizer I've had in a long time.

Like the classic Synclavier, the Regen is a multitimbral synthesizer (albeit 12 parts instead of the usual MIDI standard of 16), capable of sampling as well as true synthesis (including the innovative resynthesis of audio recordings they innovated in the mid 80s), and unlike the Arturia recreation, it seems to support literally every sound-design-related parameter of the classics, particularly multisample support (up to 48 samples per partial, just like the old systems!). It doesn't stop there, however: it also adds some features unseen in NED products before. For the first time, Synclavier samples can have controllable filters applied (effectively making them passable for their old Fairlight competition), and in addition, analog modeling a la many 90s synthesizer classics are also a sound generation option, as well as built-in reverb! This is all in addition to supporting 12 partials a la the Arturia VST as well (the original hardware supported only up to four per timbre).

How does it handle all of this power at one's fingertips? The manual suggests it does so by computing a variable maximum of resources depending on the complexity of the session. The most obvious case stated: polyphony has a probable max of over 90 voices, but it does state the polyphony limit will be lowered with enough effects applied, the two clear cases being the new filters and reverb algorithms. Haven't tried to test these limits through a multitimbral production yet (a matter I hope to fix soon), but upon pressing the Volume button in the Master section on the unit, you can also find a meter that is generous enough to inform you of the CPU load, so it's not overly difficult to figure out if you're doing something too CPU-heavy or not.

Many of the classic presets and sounds are included (from the famous Michael Jackson "Beat It" FM/additive gong to the pizzicato violin multisample in the "Princess Bride" soundtrack), as well as some new ones by some new sound designers, but let's face it: many people will want to create their own, especially given each bank still only has up to 64 timbres. With an SD card (not included with my own order), it is possible to add more timbres and samples, and best of all, I have confirmed via the Synclavier3 software that it is easily feasible, albeit a bit time-consuming for samples, to convert all of the classic timbres into a Regen-compatible folder of text files! I was a bit surprised that the format of the timbres is that simple, especially in contrast to the binary code of the older format, but I'm certainly not one to complain about that, especially if I feel it best to make a small edit on my computer for whatever reason.

My only ongoing gripes with it: for user sound storage (timbres and samples alike), the Regen relies exclusively on SD card storage. It would be nice if there were alternative storage options, or better yet, the ability to edit sounds in realtime through a computer connected to the Host USB port (which does transfer MIDI, at least). In addition, the Regen only supports two pairs of outputs out of the box: one balanced, and one unbalanced. The manual suggests USB accessories that can work with the Regen include a Bluetooth audio transmitter and a USB audio interface, which could help mitigate this issue, but it still could've made a better impression to me if it supported more audio outs, especially given we're talking a multitimbral module. Still, this criticism I can let slide given the relatively small form factor: multitracking is an option for the desperate, anyway, just like in the old days.

Overall, well done to Cameron Jones and the rest of the Synclavier team for keeping their legacy alive, and with some pleasant surprises as a bonus!

The Synclavier Regen can be ordered from their website. As of this writing, production is paused atm, but will resume next month.

Admittedly a rather short blog entry title, but it's a complex word to make up for it.

Nitpickiness aside, Phenomena is the title of a new EP I'm going to try to get released soon. A contrast from what I admit has been a lot of soundtrack-style stuff I've made lately, this revisits the retro scene, exploring the world of spacesynth in particular. Six tracks and about a half hour's worth of material will hopefully make it a pleasant listen for most, especially relative to my darker music.

Unfortunately, Phenomena may also be the last album worth of retrowave music I release for a while, for reasons both creative and personal. This is not to say I won't make a few singles, however: I just can't picture myself throwing out new music that's entirely original as quickly as other musicians have without the chance of creative burnout. I hope readers and listeners alike will understand: I do pride myself on trying to be quality with my work.

Phenomena has a tentative release date of December 1st of this year, though that may still change depending on commitments in my personal life. What I can say, however, is that it will be released on my personal Bandcamp page, where people are still free to check out existing work, as well as iTunes and Spotify!

Hope you'll enjoy the album next month!

First of all, for those of you who aren't up to speed, I attended the Synthetix synthwave meetup in New York City last Saturday. It was definitely a blast reuniting with Marko Maric of Radio Pure Gently, though I also ended up meeting some new faces in person, such as Von Hertzog and Protector 101!

Now that that event is over, I've decided to attempt an overhaul of my activity. I've been far from dead despite the lack of uploads on SoundCloud and YouTube, and I'm hoping that it will show over the next few months, if not weeks.

1) I've come to the conclusion that I've spread myself across too many websites for a single person to handle. Unfortunately, this means that I'll be dropping a few of the sites I'm on. While thankfully, most of the sites of concern are relatively insignificant, SoundCloud is also pending a decision due to its upload limits and recent bad changes. In contrast, however, this will hopefully mean that the sites I remain on, such as YouTube, I'll be more active on.

2) I have been working on music during this seemingly silent period, though most of said music has been soundtracks for others over synthwave for myself. The good news is that an album worth of soundtrack music for one person in particular is nearly finished where the music itself is concerned, at least, so expect YouTube teaser tracks in the not-so-distant future.

That'll be all for now, and practically all I can do this week due to family commitments. Until next time, take care!

Well, may as well write up something new while I attempt to get more original musical ideas.

A month or two ago, TAL released a sampler VST. Unlike its high-end competitors like Kontakt, it's advertised as an attempt to recreate old-skool samplers over multi-gigabyte sample library playback.

Probably the most notable feature it has to implement this retro intention is its multiple DAC emulations, one of which seemingly based off of the Emulator II. Other modes consist of an AM6070 chip emulation, and a Sample-Hold mode that results in the lo-fi sound so many retro nuts are used to. There also is a Linear DAC mode, but this has resulted in tuning issues for me, a bug I hope will be fixed later.

Filters are overall great, though I can't hold back the criticism that there's only one filter for all of the layers. Same for the envelopes, though the modulation section makes up for it a tad via how many options and combinations are available.

No presets come built into TAL-Sampler other than a few waveforms. However, there are some presets freely downloadable separately, including a ton of samples taken from the archives of the late Steve Howell/Hollow Sun. And, should you wish to import and export your own samples, it works with compressed audio as well, particularly FLAC, which is a lossless compression format for audio.

The TAL-Sampler is available from TAL's website. There is a demo version available, though the price for the paid version is relatively affordable.

http://tal-software.com/products/tal-sampler


Enjoy, fellow retro sampler nuts!

Well, I reluctantly decided to sell my Oberheim DPX1 already. One reason for this was to save up for a true sampler: the Emax II rack.

I've been spending the past hour or so messing around with this sampler and the zip-stored sounds included with it. My father has warned me about the dangers of zip disks and drives, so, partially for this reason, I spent most of the time further experimenting with sample dumping.

It turns out that my DPX-1 may very well have been sending samples successfully despite not receiving them, as it appears the problem I had was Elektron's C6 software, which claims to support transferring MIDI sample dumps but really can't receive, apparently, as proven by others' experiences as well as my own.

That being said, I switched to EMXP for sample dumping. While this was first and foremost meant for converting legendary Emu formats (such as the Emaxes and the Emulator II), you can also receive the raw samples from Emax samplers via MIDI, though it appears you cannot transfer samples or sample banks to them at this time. Hopefully its creator will implement that soon, though sending samples with C6 does work, so that will suffice in the meantime.

In short, I finally made my first successful sample dump thanks to a Roland-branded MIDI-to-USB cable and use of dedicated sample receiving software! Expect grainier sounds in some of my future compositions as a result of experimenting with hardware sampling!

Yesterday afternoon, this game was officially released as an early access game on Steam, possibly confirming the suspicions that my work is not finished for the game quite yet.

Regardless, check out the game for yourself here. Mac and Linux users, you can buy and play this game as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/296010

Personally, I just finished glancing at some of the reviews so far for the game. Not only were there no overall-negative reviews at this time, at least one of them has acknowledged my contributions to the game, quoted below:

"The heavy mechanical beats and ambient dronings of the background music do an excellent job of keeping you engaged in the atmosphere of the cybernetic and neon-tinted highways around you." - CueZero, August 2014

Overall, I'm feeling very excited over the reception so far!

Many of you who have known me have noticed how much my soundtrack work is influenced by Brad Fiedel. This composer is best known for giving us the theme from the Terminator movies, though he scored a few other hits as well like Fright Night and even True Lies.

Well, I was searching for my own video covering his Terminator 1 theme on YouTube, and in the process, I found this from the man himself!

Any fellow musicians (and aspiring musicians) who read this, definitely check out this opportunity! I regret to say I personally will likely take a backseat due to the timing of my upload, among other reasons, but I still look forward to what others have to offer.

Decided to make previews of the patches from the expasion cards for the D50 and D550 as well. This is the first video, for the PN-D50-01 card by Roland themselves.

First, the bad news: I've been largely unable to think of new tunes for a while, now. Hopefully this will change for the better soon.

Partially because of this, and also because of hearing about other producers doing this, the thought occurred to me: should I remaster my older material? I'm beginning to lean toward this idea, as frankly, I feel my production and mixing skills could've been way better until fairly recently.

I've already begun with the title track for my debut album in synthwave: "Prison of the Mind". The remaster is currently for a limited audience for the sake of critiques, but I will hopefully publicize it on SoundCloud soon.

Just an update of sorts for everybody.

Finally have previews of all of the Roland D-50 factory presets available for listening on YouTube! The demos are split into two videos, 32 patches played per video.