Description:

PulseModulator is a model of an extremely rare (and exceedingly strange) tremolo pedal from the 70s. Three LFOs effect the VCA at the same time, and the whole mess goes through a distortion circuit, resulting in strange modulating pulses of sound.

Audio Damage added tempo sync to the individual LFOs to make it more useful in a modern DAW environment.

Controls:

• Pulse Speed: These three knobs control the rate of the individual LFOs. If the sync switch for an LFO is engaged (the “1″, “2″, and “3″ switches on the bottom) that LFO will be synchronized to host tempo and the knob will select different tempo divisions.
• Pulse Depth: Perhaps unsurprisingly, these three knobs control the depth of the individual LFOs. That is to say, they control how much each LFO affects the dry signal.
• Boost Amount: This is labeled as it is on the real pedal. However, the label implies a boost circuit, but in fact it was more of a fuzz. We’ve modeled it as a fuzz but called it “Boost” as well.
• Pulse Shape: This controls the waveshape of all three LFOs.

Installation: For Windows, unzip PulseModulator.dll and place it in your VST plug-ins folder. For OS X, unzip the archive and place PulseModulator.VST in your VST folder and PulseModulator.component in your AU folder.

Download page

In this video, Chris Randall demos Synthpond on his iPhone driving MKS-80 via OSC/Pd. Using Synthpond as a sequencer to drive other synths makes things a lot more interesting, because of the expanded sound creation options available as soft synths.

Here’s Randall’s explanation of his setup:

As the title says. Synthpond running on my iPhone is talking to Pd via OSC. I made a patch to turn the Synthpond OSC data in to MIDI notes. I’ve got Pd sending MIDI to Cubase via MIDI Yoke.

The MKS-80 is receiving note data from MIDI Yoke in Cubase. All effects are from an H8000FW except reverb, which is [redacted].

Regarding the specific Pd patch, I’ve got the Synthpond /freq to MIDI note, and /life to velocity. Now that I’ve got the proof-of-concept out of the way, I’ll probably route xPos and yPos to CC data to control panning and such, and perhaps wire the Synthpond affectors to fire something else. Once I have the patch more usable, I’ll put it up for download on Analog Industries.

via Chris Randall:

This is a video shot and edited entirely by my 16-yr old cousin Michael for one of my micronaut tracks while he stayed with me for his spring break. It was shot with a Cannon HV20, edited in Final Cut Express, with minor post in After Effects. It consists of footage he shot around PDX. Just to be clear, my input consisted almost entirely of explaining to him how quickly the edits should happen for “glitch” style videos, and showing him some Chris Cunningham work. Otherwise, he came up with this entirely on his own.

For the micronaut song, gear used is MKS80 for the melody, Goldbaby samples for the drums, Soniccouture Abstract Bass (pt. 3) for the bass, and some sample I had lying about that I can’t remember the source of for the electric piano part. Audio Damage effects, plus the Eventide H8000 for the pitch-shifted part on the melody and reverbs. Recorded and mixed in Cubase.

The track is embedded below, if you want to download it.

Chris Randall shared the latest Micronaut video – Assemblage #1 – on Vimeo. It’s actually archival footage that he wrote a new track to.

This Replicant screencast by Chris Randall demos the latest sound mangling software from Audio Damage.

Here’s the Replicant description:

Replicant is a delay-based effect in the “beat slicer/looper” vein, with some tricks of its own that separate it from the herd. From a simple delay or panning effect, on up to massive random beat mangling, Replicant is a capable plugin well in line with today’s modern electronic music styles. Stuttering buffers and filter drops are easy to program, and the comprehensive randomization features give it a mind of its own, if so desired. If you’re looking to add some chance to your programming, you’ve come to the right place.

Replicant is available as a VST effect for Windows, and as an AudioUnit/VST effect bundle for OSX Universal Binary. Note that you must have OSX 10.3.9 or greater to use the Macintosh version of this plugin.

Features:

• Tempo-based delay and looping effects, from 1/128th note to an entire measure.
• Six independant randomization controls, for subtle changes or extreme aleatoric madness, including a global randomize button.
• Unique “Hold” feature, to store a random sequence you like.
• Resonant low-pass and high-pass filters that change over time.
• Pan position that changes over time.
• Two separate direction modes, for entire events or individual repeats, with randomization.
• Full MIDI Learn for hardware control of every parameter. (VST only; handled by host in AU version).

Audio demos are available at the site.

Chris Randall of Analog Industries demos an alpha version of Automaton:

This is a quick demonstration of the sequencer engine and the effects in Automaton. The software is still in alpha, and some of the user interface elements are missing, but you can get the general idea of what is going on with this, I think.

First and foremost, though, he’s a musician, and he wants to load up your iPod with a bunch of free music. So that pretty much everything you listen to will be his music, but under different names.

Randall’s not into all that “music wants to be free” Internet hippy crap. He wants to get paid for his music, but he understands the value of a little peak-a-boo tease, too.

Because of that, he’s shared dozens of free electronic music tracks at his personal site. They come from a variety of his music projects, including Sister Machine Gun, Micronaut & Scanalyzer. If you’re a podcaster,the music is “podsafe”, too.

You can preview a few tracks below – but visit his site to get the the motherload.

Image: Chris Randall

Analog Industries’ Chris Randall has taken a break from coding and grindhousing to reveal some of his synth porn secrets:

I’ll mention that I got my LensBaby 3G lens today for my Nikon. I was wondering how the camera work in the Buchla Music Easel film that was making the rounds lately was done, and thanks to a hint from the kindly Professor Kirn in this post on CDM, we learn that a LensBaby 3G was used. Since I’m a big fan of little depth-of-field, I determined this was Exactly What I Needed, and furthermore Deductable (by virtue of posting the pictures that result in this very blog.)

More uncensored hardcore synth action at Randall’s Flickr page, along with some cute pictures of flowers and kitties.

Analog Industries‘ Chris Randall gives his Elektron MD and MM a workout. Nice improv and a great demo of what Elektron’s gear can do.

This track may cause glitchtronic knee syndrome, though.