The new album From A Place To Bury Strangers, Synthesizer, features a record cover that you can turn into a DIY synthesizer.
The album cover features the circuit board for the synthesizer. If you’ve got basic synth DIY skills, you can solder on the electrical components needed to turn it into a working synth.
This video features a hands-on demo of the assembled synth, along with tips on assembling it.
Topics covered:
00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Preview
00:52 – Disclaimer
01:55 – Build tips
02:27 – Fake CA3080 chips
04:00 – Large ground plane
05:29 – Might need help
06:17 – Where’s Waldo
06:58 – Schematic vs. PCB
07:59 – No instructions
08:35 – Trying the synth
10:28 – Adding delay
11:52 – Piezo and tap triggers
13:23 – As a guitar effect
16:34 – Mangling a drum beat
Synthesizer is available now for $52.99. Full kits are priced at $195.99, but they are currently sold out.
Roland’s latest SP-404 MKII update turns its legendary sampler into a Serato DJ controller.
SP-404 MKII’s V5 software update brings native support for Serato DJ Pro, Serato DJ Lite and Serato Studio.
Tomorrow is 404 Day, Roland’s annual celebration of its popular and influential SP-404 sampler, and this one’s a biggie, as the instrument reaches its 20th birthday this year.
In recognition of the anniversary, Roland has announced a major update for the SP-404 MKII that brings Serato compatibility to the sampler for the first time. With built-in integration for Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite, the SP-404 MKII becomes a pre-mapped controller that can be incorporated into both DJ sets and hybrid live/DJ performances.
The sampler’s DJ Mode already gave SP-404 MKII users mixing functionality, but Serato integration takes this one step further by transforming the 404 into a highly portable DJ controller with access to Serato DJ features such as real-time stem separation and hot cues, along with its extensive selection of audio effects.
The V5 update also brings compatibility with Serato Studio, the company’s DAW, enabling SP-404 MKII owners to use the sampler as a pre-mapped controller and USB audio interface for the software. They’ll also be able to route audio from the DAW through the 404’s effects, and trigger loops and samples in Serato Studio using the hardware.
If you’re an SP-404 MKII owner but you don’t own Serato DJ Pro or Serato Studio, you can download Serato DJ Lite for free to test out the sampler’s new compatibility.
To celebrate the SP-404’s 20th anniversary, Roland is throwing parties in a long list of cities across the globe featuring live performances, beat battles, artist panels, and exclusive 404 Day merchandise giveaways, while several Roland Stores will be hosting events, including the Roland Store London and the Roland Store Tokyo.
Roland has also shared a fascinating conversation between SP-404 designer Kenji Yamada and current project leader Takeo Shirato where the pair discuss the development of the instrument and its influence on musical culture.
If you are not Roland SP-404MKII owner, you can purchase it via Amazon site.
We take sample editing for granted these days; in one form or another, it’s integrated into pretty much every DAW on the market.
Back in the early ’90s, working with samples was a time-consuming task, and bringing loops of different tempos together in a single project was even tougher. Released in 1994, Propellerhead’s ReCycle was one of the first pieces of software to tackle this problem, making it possible to time-stretch samples without changing their pitch and paving the way for developers like Ableton to incorporate advanced sample manipulation tools into modern DAWs.
More than thirty years later, the company – now rebranded as Reason Studios – is re-releasing (recycling) ReCycle as a free download and launching a beat challenge competition hosted by Def Jam’s VP of A&R Don Cannon. ‘ReCycling the Beat’ invites competitors to flip a given sample in a new production – ideally using ReCycle – and submit the results before April 16 to be in with a chance of winning a year-long subscription to Reason+.
ReCycle works by automatically detecting the transients in a sample before chopping the loop into individual slices, the number of which is set using the Sensitivity slider. This allow the sample to be played back at different tempos without altering the pitch or introducing time-stretching artifacts.
An envelope, EQ and transient shaper can be applied to each slice, while gain and pitch can be adjusted for the overall sample. ReCycle operates using its own file format, REX2, which has since become a standard for storing audio loops with slicing data and is supported by a number of software samplers and DAWs.
ReCycle remains a piece of music tech history, and it’s a decent, if somewhat limited, piece of software with an excellent transient detection algorithm that holds up against some of its contemporary counterparts three decades on.
“We’re thrilled to make ReCycle accessible to everyone. It’s a piece of music software history, and we believe it still has a lot to offer today’s creative minds,” notes Reason Studios CEO Niklas Agevik.
Find out more and download ReCycle over at Reason Studios website.
