Analoguesque Sound Designs sound designer Ian Wilson let us know that he has released 3 free sound banks of 128 patches for the ASM Hydrasynth.
What he shared about the three sound banks:
Bank 1 is “Analoguesque Bread & Butter I”, which contains 128 presets covering analog blips and bleeps, FM sounds, large basses, and a host of presets that will be familiar to lovers of 80s synth hits. How about Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” lead or Duran Duran’s “Save a Prayer” sequence. Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” or “Nodisco” leads anyone? The jewel is a synthesized version of the famed Fairlight ARR1 preset, which is uncannily close to the original. This sound is used prevalently in 80s hits from bands like The Cars, Tears for Fears, Yazoo, Duran Duran, and The Art of Noise, to name a few. There are also drum and percussion sounds that can be tweaked with the macro knobs to provide fun alternatives. On that note, many of the presets can be tweaked subtly or even drastically using the macro knobs, expanding the sonic palette beyond 384 presets.
“Analoguesque Bread & Butter II” continues in a similar vein to I, with another 128 presets covering large basses, leads and pads. Plenty of timbral ground is covered by these presets, showcasing the sonic tip-of-the-iceberg potential of the ASM Hydrasynth.
“Analoguesque Esoteric I” is the 3rd bank that is a little more “out there”. Lots of atmospheric pads and very large sounding presets in general, that should fill gaps in any genre of music.
The three soundbanks for the ASM Hydrasynth are available now as free downloads.
Vindor Music founder Fernando Trias let us know that the company has open sourced its ES electronic wind instrument software and hardware.
The Vindor ES was a low-cost entry-level electronic wind instrument that launched in 2018 and sold until 2020. But they say that the instrument as a commercial product was casualty of the COVID pandemic.
Now they are making the design open source. The release includes all the source for the firmware, Android, iOS, Mac and Windows apps, as well as the CAD files, BOM, schematics and PCB layout of the circuit boards. It includes everything you need to make your own ES and program it to do whatever you like.
“We hope this will inspire hobbyists to port the ES to a new CPU,” notes Trias, “and continue the mission of providing an affordable and functional electronic wind instrument.”
Video that captures the ES-1 in a live performance by the Somerville Symphony Orkerstar:
Developer Geert Bevin (Moog Music, Roger Linn Design LinnStrument, MPE Standard) shared this video demo of MIDI Widgets, a new application for Apple Vision Pro that lets you add virtual controls to your hardware MIDI instruments.
MIDI Widgets is the first spatial MIDI designer. It lets you create virtual faders, buttons and knobs that you can position, anywhere in your physical spaces. The MIDI control widgets will stay anchored in space where you put them.
In the video, Bevin demonstrates adding custom virtual MIDI controls for the Subsequent 37. While the Subsequent 37 is already a knobby synth, it’s easy to imagine using MIDI Widgets to expanding the capabilities of synths like the Yamaha DX7 and the Sequential SixTrak, which have great-sounding synth engines, limited by clunky patch editing.
Features:
Designed specifically for Apple Vision Pro
Create as many faders, buttons and knobs as you need
Freely position and orient individual controllers
Spatial snapping makes it easy to build out perfectly aligned larger control surfaces
Controllers automatically remain anchored to their location, even across restarts
Controllers can be grouped in scenes and are easily recalled for different purposes
Freely re-position and re-orient entire scenes
Scenes can send MIDI messages to multiple configurable MIDI ports
Support for Bluetooth LE MIDI devices
Built-in virtual MIDI to send MIDI to other Vision Pro apps on the same device
Per controller MIDI channel selection
Per controller MIDI Control Change, Channel Pressure, Program Change or Pitch Bend messages
Per controller 7-bit and 14-bit Control Change resolution
Controllers can optionally reset to a neutral position upon release
Faders and knobs can be unidirectional or bidirectional
Every part of a control can be assigned a different color for recognizability
Colors can easily be copied and pasted, individually or as complete color schemes
Controllers can have optional labels that can be placed on any of the four edges
A floating tool window follows your left or right hand and allows editing anywhere
Multiple controllers can be used simultaneously, allowing for dual hand interaction
MIDI Widgets For Vision Pro is available now for $9.99
