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It is ‘come to Jexus’ time for Moog Muse owners – sound designer Jexus (sounds-for-synths.com) has announced a 300+ patch sound library for the Muse.

What Jexus shared about the Jexus Moog Muse Soundset:

“The Jexus Moog Muse Soundset contains over 200 brand-new patches, many of which are dual-timbre, so if we add up all the unique timbres (timbre A + B), the library comes with over 300 unique & new sounds.

In my demos I am also playing / demonstrating some factory patches that I made for the Moog Muse. These patches are my favorites, I adjusted / improved them and I wanted to play them “my way”;) You can download the original factory patches for free on Moog’s website. The improved Jexus factory patches are included as a free bonus in the library file that you’re buying.

Many of the presets demonstrated in my Youtube videos are played with the delay set to 12-bit mode to add some grittiness, but when you load the soundset into your Muse, the majority of presets will actually load up as 16-bit to give you a clean starting point experience.

P.S. Let your Muse warm up good before playing these presets. If it does not reach its full / optimal stability, some of the presets may sound a little bit different, especially the ones using FM or extreme resonance settings.”

Jexus Moog Muse Soundset Video Demo:

The Jexus Moog Muse Soundset is available now for $37.90 / €36.90 / £29.90.

Host Ziv Eliraz – in the latest loopop review – offers his usual in-depth look at the new Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control, a unique MIDI controller with motorized pots.

The Roto-Control costs about $420, and features fully-assignable motorized touch-sensitive knobs, user definable haptics for detailed control, high-res screens that provide easy-to-read labels for every control, and internal memory with storage for over 8000 assignments.

Topics covered:

0:00 Intro

1:45 Overview

2:50 Modes

4:25 Build

4:45 I/O

6:00 MIX mode

7:25 Automation

7:55 PLUGIN mode

8:20 Live learn

10:10 ROTO Setup

10:40 VSTs

12:00 Racks

12:50 Issues

13:05 Automation

13:40 MIDI mode

14:45 MIDI learn

16:50 Motion rec

18:45 Software

19:20 Pros & cons

23:30 Outro

Eliraz notes several issues that he’d like to see addressed:

• Automap, at the very least in instrument racks is a must I think, but since Ableton Live devices have so many parameters, it would be great to be able to pre-populate with automap and then customize
• Drum rack parameters aren’t remembered across different drums.
• If a parameter changes its name, you lose control of it (e.g., Meld, Echo)
• Need to rename racks otherwise, ROTO control doesn’t identify the rack properly – though apparently that’s a feature not a bug 🙂
• Clock sent out isn’t tracked properly by external devices in the first bar.
• I didn’t test this with every Live device so there may be other issues!
• Learning 14bit CCs doesn’t work; doesn’t support 14bit CCs with custom MSB/LSB pairs

View the video and share your thoughts on the Roto-Control in the comments!

Native Instruments released Claire, late last year – a virtual instrument for Kontakt 8 that captured the sounds of a Fazioli F308, a 10-foot Italian concert grand that also happens to be the world’s largest grand piano.

This week, Native Instruments has announced Claire: Avant, a new “avant-garde” instrument also featuring the sounds of the F308, but with a more experimental spin. Designed to be “as expressive as it is unconventional”, Claire: Avant is said to explore a variety of unorthodox articulations and preparations that reveal unexpected resonances, overtones and percussive textures in the piano.

Recorded with the piano’s lid off, these unique playing techniques and sound modifications alter how the strings are struck, plucked or dampened, expanding the instrument’s sonic palette beyond traditional piano tones. Each note has been equipped with up to 13 different velocity zones and three round robins in order to create a “living, breathing” instrument that creates evolving and complex sounds.

Claire: Avant’s samples can be processed with the onboard Particles engine, a granular effect that generates shimmering textures, or a selection of additional effects that includes reverb, delay, compression, saturation and EQ. Its sample library also features a number of different microphone placements that can be blended via a slider on the instrument’s interface.

Claire: Avant walkthrough video:

Native Instruments has described the F308 as “the crown jewel” of pianos, an instrument that delivers “immense power and harmonic richness”, with an extended string length that contributes to its exceptional clarity and deep low-end. Rather unusually, the F308 equipped with a fourth pedal, which allows the player to soften the sound without changing its timbre, by reducing the distance between the strings and the hammers.

Claire: Avant is available now for $99/€99/£89, or as part of a bundle with the Claire grand piano.

Find out more on Native Instruments’ website.