NAMM show in Nammaheim, CA

The annual NAMM show is the get-together of all the musical gear makers and their retailers. Lots of guitars, amps, synths, and software. The show is big - nearly 85,000 registrants this year

The Retro Thing blog has some coverage of new synths from the show. MatrixSynth also pointed out that at NAMM, hardware synths seem to be making a bit of a comeback.

While the world has definitely gone host-based - you can get some incredible virtual instruments these days - there are still great synths to be had (for a price). Virtual instruments are way cheaper and easier to use.

However eventually your computer *will* run out of power, and then what will you do?

For some good-natured general coverage, check this LA Times article.

OS Version 2 Available For Virus TI Synthesizer

What? You haven't downloaded it yet? Like, get on it man!

If you want to see an electronic musician drool, just tell him or her to read this from FutureMusic:

The Graintable oscillators applies techniques as those used in granular sampling and pitch-shifting algorithms to synthesizer Wavetables. It opens up a whole world of new possibilities. Imagine bending any Wavetable far beyond what is sonically possible with common Wavetable synthesizers. It all happens in realtime and of course all parameters can be modulated in realtime as well.

The formant-based oscillators work in a similar fashion, only with one crucial difference: the formants remain fixed as you play. This effectively turns the oscillator into a filterbank on steroids comprising up to 256 resonant bandpass filter poles, whereby the cutoff of each virtual pole is determined by the harmonics in the current Wavetable index.

Actually, the description is very tech-heavy, but it's hot - the bottom line is "...it's like turning a nice ambient patch into a dark, gritty sonic monster by only changing one continuously variable parameter."

(I would have by now, but my brand-spankin'-new Virus Polar is in the shop getting a brain replacement...)

24, composer Sean Callery, and the Synclavier

24 is about to start its new season... the best blog post I've seen is from Ken Levine, who made up a hypothetical 24 spec script rejection letter. Read it, it's funny.

24 gets its big hybrid orchestral / synthesized sound from Sean Callery. I was surprised when I learned the show does not use a real orchestra, but just Sean working in his home studio. The soundtrack album is lovely stuff, you can hear a little from the album in this 24 parody on YouTube.

It turns out Sean Callery got his start at New England Digital, the makers of the Synclavier, the $250,000 digital recording solution that was the high-end machine to use in the 80s. Sean was a product specialist, and got involved with hands-on productions and sound design early on.

I met another Synclavier vet this past week, at an excellent 2-day seminar on Logic Audio led by Bruce Nazarian, who has a digital media consulting practice in Las Vegas. Bruce has a number of sound editing credits on IMDb, many done on the Synclavier. As Bruce was training us on Logic, he often noted how easy things are today vs. the Synclavier back in the day.

The Synclavier is a classic, check it out the here and here. (I assume you all know where to find 24...)