Optigan.com has introduced a new sound disc for the Optigan and Panoptigon, GIALLO, created in collaboration with German music producer Hainbach.
What they say about it:
“GIALLO is a genre of B-movies that was popular in 1970s Italy and found a cult following among cineasts. These cheap horror and thriller flicks featured soundtracks that were as raw as they were fantastic. This disc pays homage to their shocking and ghostly sound.
A fan of the sound, Hainbach recorded two rare Italian synthesizers, the Farfisa Polychrome and the Elgam Carousel. Made with varispeed in mind, this disc adds a dark shimmer to your own scores.”
Features:
Chords:
Arpeggios and bass from the original groove box, the Elgam Carousel. As spooky as a fairground at midnight.
Keys:
Described as the queen of all string machines, the Farfisa Polychrome features a unique chorus setting that is absolutely haunting.
Keanu Reeves and Tony Hawk have been indulging in a bit of a mutual love-in, as well as talking about their favourite music.
Reeves was appearing in the skate icon’s Hawk Vs Wolf podcast and conversation touched upon music and video games. Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack turns 25 this year and the series played a not insignificant role in the wave of interest in nu-metal, skate punk and related genres in the early 2000s.
“Music was just a huge part of skating, especially in the formative years of the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Hawk said. “So, when I got to do a game, I wanted to represent the culture, including music. So, I just was throwing bands in that I listened to growing up. They were easy to get.”
“So, that was my contribution to the game in terms of the old-school music,” he continued. “Then, they (the games company) had their own pretty robust music department to get newer bands at the time, the stuff that people associate with [the games] like Goldfinger, Powerman 5000, Fu Manchu, stuff like that.”
Interestingly but, when asked about his all-time favourite band, Hawk namechecked politicised UK post-punkers Gang Of Four, not a group you’d ever link to skate culture in any shape or form. He also mentioned The Clash as “the ultimate favourite.”
Also in on the interview were Reeves’ fellow Dogstar members. Drummer Robert Mailhouse asked if he’d ever skate without listening to music. Hawk replied that music was a constant presence in skateparks back in the day: “They were mostly playing K-Rock [over the intercom of the skate parks],” he explained. “K-Rock was that sound. Rodney on the ROQ, that was one of the first vinyl I ever bought.”
The episode also contained much talk comparing the respective lives of a working rock band with that of a pro skater.
Dogstar originally formed in the early ’90s and released two albums – Our Little Visionary and Happy Endings in 1996 and 2000 respectively. For years they were assumed to have been little more than a footnote in Reeves’ more renowned career in Hollywood. But then post Covid the band reconvened, releasing their first album in 23 years last October – Somewhere Between The Power Lines and The Palm Trees. They recently lined up an extensive US tour for August and September.
Analoguesque Sound Designs has released a free sound library, Analoguesque Random Experiments, for the ASM Hydrasynth.
What they say about it:
“The Hydrasynth randomization can reel in the randomness in a pleasantly controlled manner, depending on the method chosen, and this produces more inspiring musical results. The most impressive feature is the use of existing presets as a seed for the randomization, which generates patches based on those already in the synth. This greatly increases the chance of producing a musically playable patch without falling foul of simply generating similar-sounding patches over and over.
Traditional random patch generators often (but not always) produce un-musical results, or require extensive editing to get them back to reality. Happy accidents occur but the results can often be unplayable. The Hydrasynth randomization allows more control to produce patches that are often playable “out of the box”, or that only require minimal editing to get them going.
The 128 patches in this bank are all generated using this technique, with only minimal editing in some cases to bring the sound in-line.”
Analoguesque Random Experiments is available now as a free download.
