Mandala

Videographic Modulations for Meditation and Visualisation – music and visualizations by Jeffrey Siedler, from 1995.

via JeffreyPlaide:

Shortened from its original 21-minute version, this work is a visual and aural meditation.

The abstract images were intended to instill a calm, giving the mind a focus, much as would be accomplished by focusing on a mandala. The ambient music underlying the imagery was composed to create a relaxation of the body and is of a suitably unearthly surreal quality to bring about an aural complement to the animated visuals.

The images and music represent levels that transcend the world of appearances, the world of this reality. The images describe the harmonic patterns of the natural universe.

Created by analogue video synthesis, the imagery results in a complex cascade of dynamic modulating waveforms.

Synesthesia has announced that it’s updated the Virtual Brain for the Mandala drum synthesizer to support multiple pads.

The new Virtual Brain v1.50 was developed from requests made by Mandala players and has been tested extensively in multipad experiments with Danny Carey of the rock band TOOL.

The new “Virtual Brain” v1.50 software is available now to anyone via free download from the company’s website at http://www.mandaladrum.com. Even without buying the Mandala, anyone can download the software and tinker with it – on its own, or with other PC or Mac-compatible musical devices.

The Mandala is an advanced drum synth device that works as a USB MIDI controller with most major music software such as Battery 3, Reaktor, FXpansion BFD, Ableton Live, Propellerhead Reason and Apple GarageBand. Synesthesia also offers a special set of presets and HD snare players for Battery 3.

Details on the update below. Read more…

Synesthesia Corporation has released 50 Native Instruments Battery 3 presets for the Mandala 2.0, along with the HD Black Beauty Battery 3 Player for Mandala.

They are available now to anyone via free download.

The presets configure drum sampler Battery 3 for use with the Mandala, using only samples from the Battery 3 12GB library of more than 100 drum kits with more than 23,000 individual samples. The presets configure the Mandala pad as a straightforward MIDI controller.

The Battery 3 presets also:

• Assign samples in up to seven circular trigger zones across the Mandala pad.
• Extensively use the Mandala’s 128 circular strike zones to change triggering and effects parameters as drummers play, for true HD drumming.
• Cover playing styles from straightforward grooves to experimental sonics.

The HD Black Beauty Battery 3 Player for Mandala is designed to offer you an accurate digital representation of an acoustic drum, via 3,360 samples of a single vintage 1970s 5×14 Super Sensitive Ludwig Black Beauty Snare Drum. Read more…

Synesthesia Corporation has launched a new website for the Mandala 2.0 High-Def Drum & Synthesizer and announced that it is now taking orders for the new product.

Mandala 2.0 is the new version of Synesthesia’s high-def drum and synthesizer, co-developed with professional drummer Danny Carey of the progressive rock band Tool. The company announced the new product in October, and will begin shipping in early December.

Now a computer peripheral—its USB cable plugs into PC or Mac—the Mandala 2.0 emulates an acoustic drum. It offers drummers and musical explorers a drum pad that “knows” exactly where it’s hit and how hard, across seven assignable zones—with an immediate trigger delivering the fastest-traveling sound possible.A new kind of synthesizer, the Mandala 2.0 offers players the top of the line, most accurate model of a physical drum (via 3,000 professionally created, proprietary samples of the Black Beauty Snare Drum)—along with a library of sounds derived from more than 100 other instruments. In all, the Mandala 2.0 features four gigabytes of sound samples. It’s a synthesizer with drumsticks, with a drum pad so sensitive it responds even to a fingertip touch.

“We’ve been working around the clock to get the Mandala 2.0 into the hands of those who’ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival,” said Vince De Franco, Synesthesia founder and CEO, and inventor of the Mandala. “We’re on track to start shipping December 1. We appreciate all the enthusiasm directed our way after unveiling the new Mandala 2.0. We think it’s a huge leap forward in harnessing technology to enable virtually unlimited potential for creating music.”

The Mandala 2.0 retails for $349. Each Mandala is hand-crafted and thoroughly tested before it is shipped. Expect two-week delivery. Synesthesia is offering eligible 1.0 customers $50 off any Mandala 2.0 drum they buy before May 31, 2008.

Synesthesia’s Mandala 2.0, a high-def virtual drum and synthesizer, looks pretty awesome. It’s a USB-based drum controller & a new type of synth, too.

Here’s a video that shows off the Mandala in action:

Read more…