It’s been brought to my attention that WFMU is having their annual fund-raising drive. Not only is it a worthy cause but the fund raiser itself is hugely entertaining radio. If you are unfamiliar with WFMU be sure and check them out on the web. They have a no bullshit web presence, an amazing blog, live streams and archives, and music and personalities you don’t hear broadcast 24/7, well, anywhere.

Well, after a few posts of looking at and celebrating cross-platform plugins, I’m going to whip the wheel back and bring up a Windows-only environment that I think has some pretty brilliant moments, thanks to a few individuals.

I speak of course of SynthEdit, the loved/hated/bashed/celebrated plugin development environment. It’s hard not to get into the pro/con argument even though it’s really fuckin’ tiresome. It’s easy enough to bash considering some of the crap it’s spawned - a vast field of gewgaws that is distracting to the uninitiated, many of which are barely indistinguishable, as well as the occasional dodgy developer who uses it for some sort of VST Three-card Monte. The latest round of bluster has to with the well-documented and over-discussed multi-core bug (multiple instances of the same plug will take down its host). And I suppose it could shoulder some blame for the user who thinks that DSP development is as easy opening an object-oriented software program. But every time I’m fully over it I am reminded of some of the brilliant things some people can do with it. Because so much of the environment is open to raw DSP coding, in the right hands, even imperfect as it may be, it can be truly inspiring.

First up, developer Ugo has released a few new goodies that promise to be as good to look at as they are fun to play - I say without having actually played any of them. No demos, you ask? I don’t download demos any more unless it’s something I might be able to afford. So when I’m skint why torture myself, or why try something just because? If it endures and it’s something I might use when I have the funds then I’ll download the demo… But I digress. I’m not sure which of these I’ll eventually buy because they all look so unique and interesting. M-Theory, the 2nd coming of his popular String Theory synth, promises to be gorgeous and useful. But the loop mangler Disturbance is really unlike anything I’ve seen produced with SynthEdit, and looks like it would fuck shit up but good. And the beefed up Ironhead looks tempting, better sound, more control. Additionally, we Metallurgy users got a nice update on that as well, though to be honest I haven’t really used my Metallurgy all that much. (Note to self…)

Also on my radar is KvR favorite xoxos who has a great imagination when it comes to synth design. His new CIRCUIT plugin, “probability based MIDI sequencer that joins short phrases together to create natural feeling rhythms” looks especially clever. I love tools that generate MIDI data you can throw at tracks to, create sounds you wouldn’t otherwise come up with bashing on the keys and tweaking the filter. This looks to be a very nice addition to energyXT.

And I would be remiss when talking about commercial SynthEdit creations not to mention ChordSpacePlaya. Have I written about it before? Who knows. Nevertheless, it’s a brilliant piece of programming. I use it mostly as to develop melodic ideas. And for strings and pads it’s dead useful. And it’s author, or at least his/her public KvR persona, is one entertaining mofo. I don’t use it often but when I do it always helps me come up with things I’m too feeble to do on my own.

What have I missed?

I’ll finish up my series of posts celebrating cross-platform plugins with an elder statesman of the cross-platform plugin world, SonicCharge’s absolutely awesome µTonic (or microTonic).

I bought this back shortly after it was released, or at least when it was reviewed and demo’d in Computer Music. I made the decision like 15 minutes after installing the demo. It is really that fabulous. It is both simple - the presets are by and large brilliant - and really, really deep. To this day I’m constantly surprised by the sonic interest it adds to my music and the sounds I can get out of it - and I use it a lot.

I’m bringing this up for few reasons:

• It fits in perfectly with my cross-OS celebration, natch.
• A few months ago SonicCharge updated all the code for today’s top-o-the-line Macs (and a built a new Vista installer, though the program itself worked fine).
• In conjunction with said update they also released a new folder full of patches.
• To give away a little freebie pack of patches for use with µTonic.
• To make you suffer through a lot of back story.

All of this after the jump.
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I’ll go ahead and do that thing that a blogger is never supposed to do and apologize for my absence.

I’d like to say the lack of posting on my behalf is because I’ve been too busy with web development work - which is partially true. Or that it’s because I’m trying to get some goddamn music finished up so I can release a few albums I’ve been working on for a few years - also true, more or less. But really, the long and short, mostly I’ve been pretty uninspired to do any writing on the site.

Even with my erratic posting schedule, keeping up a blog takes a tremendous amount of time, especially when you’re as long-winded as I am. Add on top of that, that I’m at heart a terrible slacker. It’s a wonder I’ve kept this up as long as I have.

Yeah, there have been some cool software/soundware releases in my absence, but I haven’t incorporated or upgraded anything in my studio: I’m waiting for some clients to, you know, actually pay - “The check’s in the mail” may be a hoary cliché, but for a freelancer it’s actually something you hear on regular basis. So I can’t really talk about new toys. Nevertheless, I’m working on my studio and DAW and I’ve made a few changes to my setup, and I’ll get to all of that eventually. There have also been some tempest/teapot controversies, minor shake-ups, and technology developments. I’m not sure where I’ll pick up on all of that, but it’s not like there’s been a shortage of things to write about.

In any case, for those few of you who still have me in your RSS reader, or to those who’ve stumbled across me and keep checking back, I will get back to it. I’m not promising Bigger, Harder, Faster, Stronger, but it would be nice if got back to 2 or 3 posts a week.