Alex Ball – in his latest video – takes a look at the legendary Akai MPC60 MIDI Production Center.
The MPC60 was developed by Akai and Roger Linn and released in 1988, and went on to be used on classic albums by DJ Shadow, Dr. Dre, J Dilla, MF Doom and others.
Key features:
The often-copied 4 x 4 pad grid
A ‘crunchy’ 12-bit sampling engine
60,000 note sequencer with 99-tracks
Roger Linn’s influential swing feature
512 kb of RAM, which provided 13.1 seconds of mono sampling time
Floppy disk drive storage
Flexible connectivity, including MIDI, individual outputs and more
Watch the video and share your thoughts on the Akai MPC60!
Topics covered:
0:00 History of the MPC60
3:46 Intended use of the MPC60
8:18 Demo: The MPC Song
8:55 What people actually did with the MPC60
10:27 Sampling
12:15 Demo: Passable Hip-Hop
13:13 Groove, Feel and Swing
14:49 After the MPC60
15:29 Discussion with TUBEDIGGA
22:04 Patron Outro Jam
Elektron has released a free firmware update for the Analog Four & Analog Keys synthesizers, adding a wide range of new features.
OS 1.55 adds a Euclidean Sequencer Mode, Control All, Loop Pages, Rotate Arp Sequence, Save Trig to Sound and more.
New in the Analog Four & Analog Keys OS 1.55:
Euclidean Sequencer – This new sequencer mode can bring a new sense of motion to your patterns, courtesy of two Euclidean generators that algorithmically distribute trig-like pulses across a sequence.
Page Loop – This lets you instantly jump to the sequencer page you want to work in, as well as looping it with ease alongside any other specific pages you want to focus on. Hang in one place and replay, or tweak until the sound is just right, until you’re ready to de-loop.
Control All – Access full, simultaneous control over parameters across all tracks by holding track and twisting away on your parameter of choice.
Rotate Arpeggiator Sequence – Analog Four’s arpeggiator can now move in fresh ways. Rotate your offsets to ensure your arp sequence isn’t set in stone, and find new melodic pathways.
And more – Other updates include Save Trig to Sound, as well as a number of improvements and fixes. Read the full release notes for a complete overview.
Sonic Charge’s Synplant 2 is one of the most innovative synth plugins released in recent years, not only thanks to its unique ‘genetic’ workflow, but also the groundbreaking Genopatch function introduced in version 2.
Genopatch is an AI-powered tool that generates synth patches based on imported audio, analysing a sample to create a similar-sounding patch in Synplant based on its sonic characteristics. As the first synth plugin to introduce this kind of capability, Synplant has been consistently ahead of the curve when it comes to AI-based sound design.
Today, Sonic Charge continues to lead the change with the introduction of PhenoType, a new feature for Synplant 2 that allows users to generate synth patches from text descriptions. Much like prompt-based song generators like Suno or text-to-sample tools such as Waves Illugen, PhenoType responds to text descriptions, using these to guide Synplant’s sound engine towards a patch that reflects the input.
The process is simple: once you’ve downloaded and installed the script (which is free for Synplant 2 owners), just open up PhenoType and type in a description of the patch you’d like to create.
This could be anything from simple, well-known sounds (“reese bass”, for example) to more complex descriptions that cover multiple timbral characteristics, like “soft ambient pad, slow attack, sweeping resonant filter, strong reverb”.
Once your description is ready, hit EXE to generate a patch, or alt-click to edit the previous result. The RND button will suggest a random prompt if you’re lacking inspiration, and a handy CLR button empties the text field. Each patch will be accompanied by a description beneath that shows how PhenoType would describe the sound its created, and a confidence score that rates how close the results are to the initial description.
Notably, PhenoType isn’t built on a large language model, or even marketed as an AI-powered feature. Instead, the algorithmic text parser runs locally in Synplant with no internet connection required. Its specialized neural network works with hundreds of internal tags – along with synonyms and variations – to build its patches, and Sonic Charge advises that simple, natural English will get you the best results.
The company suggests that specific prompts like “a reverb-drenched pad with a slow attack and some modulation” should work well, while more abstract descriptions (“a sound that resembles a busy cafe heard from the street outside”) are beyond its abilities. (If the parser doesn’t understand your description, it’ll generate a random patch instead.)
PhenoType is still in its early stages, and though it performed well at generating basic patches from easily understandable prompts, complex descriptions typically yielded mixed results.
While the text-to-patch concept isn’t entirely novel, Sonic Charge is the first established plugin developer to integrate this kind of tech into a well-known software synth – and much like Synplant’s GenoPatch feature, PhenoType is another major leap forward from a perpetually innovative developer that continues to surprise us.
“The idea for PhenoType came from working on a new technology for Synplant: an algorithm capable of describing Synplant patches using words and tags,” reads a press release from Sonic Charge.
“At some point, we started thinking: If an algorithm can create descriptions from patches, should it not also be possible to run the process in reverse and create patches from descriptions? Once this idea was planted, we simply had to try building it.”
Visit Sonic Charge website to find out more and download PhenoType. You’ll need a Synplant 2 license to download and use PhenoType: the plugin is priced at €149 but a free trial is available.
