Host Ziv Eliraz – in his latest loopop video – shares a hands-on review new Elektron Tonverk, a polyphonic multisampler and audio processor.
As ever, Eliraz first offers a comprehensive introduction to the instrument, showcases the instrument’s unique capabilities and offers some musical examples of its capabilities.
Topics covered:
0:00 Intro
1:45 Overview
2:50 Polyphony
3:35 Multi player
5:15 Memory
6:15 FX & sends
7:30 FX & buses
8:45 Routing
9:40 I/O
12:00 Panel tour
14:00 MIDI on buses
14:40 Presets
15:20 Projects
15:50 Pages
16:40 Single player
19:10 USB sampling
20:40 Multisampling
25:20 Sub trakcs
28:00 Super track
30:25 Effects
36:40 Send FX
38:35 Sequencing
39:25 Step edit
41:30 Seq lane
43:00 Transform
43:40 Mutes
44:20 Transpose
45:10 Chain & song
45:55 Recall/perform
46:50 Arp
47:40 Scales & chord
48:20 Setup
49:05 Pros & cons
53:55 Factory patterns
Watch the review, and share your thoughts on the Elektron Tonverk in the comments!
Minimal Audio has announced the release of a new free formant-shifting plugin, fittingly – but perhaps a little unimaginatively – named Formant. Promising “real-time formant-shifting with musical, transparent results”, Formant is a fast and simple tool for experimenting with different vocal characters in your productions.
A lightweight and stripped-back plugin with a basic XY pad interface, Formant is equipped with a built-in tilt EQ for brightening or darkening the tonal balance of the sound. Both this and the formant-shift can be controlled via the XY pad, and there’s a Mix slider underneath for adjusting the balance between wet and dry signals.
The Minimal Audio team tell us they’d like to offer music creators an “accessible introduction” to their take on vocal processing with Formant, and are currently working on an advanced vocal production plugin named Evoke, due out later this year. This isn’t the company’s first free plugin release: they’ve previously given away Rift Filter Lite and Squash, an OTT-style compressor.
So how exactly does formant-shifting work? The technique is best explained in terms of the human voice. A typical vocal signal, like all signals with an inherent musical pitch, comprises a fundamental frequency – the root pitch – and mathematically-related harmonic overtones.
Regular pitch-shifting will transpose the fundamental and related harmonics up and/or down while maintaining their relationship, resulting in an obvious transposition of musical key. Need to tune a C vocal up to a C#? Then pitch-shift it up by one semitone – easy.
A vocal’s formants, on the other hand, are its inherent spectral frequencies – unrelated to pitch – created by that specific vocalist’s vocal tract, mouth shape and other resonant characteristics. It’s why, for example, one singer singing at C3 will sound completely different to another vocalist singing the exact same note. In broader terminology, we usually refer to this as ‘timbre’.
The process of formant shifting, then, allows you to manipulate these formants (and therefore timbre) while maintaining pitch. At subtler values, this can be used to gently shift a vocal performance’s timbre up or down, while more extreme changes are often perceived as ‘gender alteration’ – think extreme, chipmunk-style shifts or house-style deepening effects.
And though we’re using the human voice to illustrate, all audio signals contain unique formant frequencies, making formant processing a useful tool for altering the timbre of any instrument.
Minimal Audio Formant is available now for macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats. Find out more and download the plugin over at Minimal Audio website.
Developer Oliver Greschke (Elastic Instruments) has updated Elastic OSC for iOS to add support for DX7-style FM synthesis.
Elastic OSC is an 8-voice polyphonic synth for iOS, largely based on the voice engines of the Mutable Instruments Plaits’ Eurorack module.
Update 1.1 allows you to import DX7 banks into the 3 OP6 engines (19–21). Each OP6 preset / DX7 bank consists of 32 DX7 sounds, which you can switch through using the Harmonics slider.
The update also includes a wide range of DX7 sound libraries, including classic DX7 presets, patches by sound designer Jexus and more.
New in Elastic OSC v1.1:
Added DX7 Bank and Wavetable Import: Import DX7 banks from one of the many online sources, create new ones via the Generator link, or edit your bank on the Plaits Sound Editor website
Added dozens of new presets from sound designer SOI and a new Artist Category for SOI sounds
Added Preset Compare feature: instantly switch between the current and original preset version
Improved preset saving: the current preset name now appears in the text field above the SAVE button, making it easier to edit
Bugfix: fixed audio hum/engine issue that sometimes occurred when opening the app
Bugfix: incorrect layout on iPad Pro with 13-inch screen
Improvement: knobs respond more sensitively now
Improvement: harmonics slider now has 32 steps for OP6 engines (reflecting DX7 preset switches) instead of linear values
Bugfix: Improved DX7 envelope behavior – the app now more accurately reflects the envelopes of DX7 presets. Some of your OP6 presets might sound a bit different, but they are now much closer to the original hardware sound”
