Gary Numan has just celebrated 30 years in music.
Numan is perhaps most famous for his new wave classics Cars and Are Friends Electric, but has re-invented himself in the 21st Century with a dark fusion of complex electronics and harsh guitars. His most recent albums Jagged and Pure are a far cry from his earlier songs, and are well worth a listen for those of you that prefer your music on the darker side of black.
His website notes:
I’ve been around for 30 years ago since That’s Too Bad was released, my first ever single, and so it all began. Any of you go that far back? Any of you even born then? I guess I should have had friends over and then gone out celebrating such a historic moment. What I’ve actually done today is design one of the tour t-shirts, the access all areas passes and tweaked the new design NuWorld web site for its imminent launch. I always did know how to party. Still, all that celebrating stuff can wait for the tour. That’s why I’m doing it. See you all soon.
Yes, some of us have been around since 1978, Gary.
And, with pop kittens Sugababes reaching the top of the UK charts with Freak Like Me, a song that basically added the girls vocals over the Are Friends Electric? bassline, it seems there’s something of a renaissance going on . Indeed, his songs have also been sampled / adapted by Basement Jaxx, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson ahd the Foo Fighters.
Given his genre-defying influence, synthwave wishes Gary Numan an extra special (and extra synthetic) 30th anniversary! Numan is touring extensively this year in the UK.
For more information, see: http://www.numan.co.uk
One thing that can be tricky to figure out on a new blog is, well, what to actually blog about! Given there are 1,000s of pieces of Hardware, and Software popping up all over the place. Well, whilst I try to figure that out, here’s one thing I can talk about – my odd little Korg Micro Preset!
At first touch, The Korg Micro Preset synthesizer offers the world a bizarre matrix of pre-set sounds, ranging from 1970’s Dr Who effects, through to rather curious synthesizer noises and acoustic sounds. At its heart, it’s a 32-note monophonic preset synthesizer with 6 push-button presets including voice, synth1, synth2, brass, string, and wood.
On the technical front, it’s single-oscillator design has only rudimentary decay/release envelope controls and no access to the guts of the sound generation stuff. And, no MIDI or other method of external control – of course. Although, the manual does claim the Micro Preset can be used as a guitar-synth!
Our friends at Sound on Sound have given us a sneak preview of quite a novel idea …
On their blog, it says UK pro audio distributors Out Post Sound have announced that they will be distributing Punchlight’s Cue Light systems, which provide visual cue information for Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).
Products available include the Universal Studio Display — a large timecode readout with record indicator — the Recording Display, which illuminates differently when the DAW is in record and record-ready modes, and the Recording Lamp, a classy looking desk light (below), which glows different colours depending on the status of the DAW.
The products can be connected to DAWs such as Pro Tools (HD, LE and M-Powered systems), Logic, Sonar, Cubase and Nuendo, via special trigger boxes that connect to the MIDI outputs of the connected interface.
MIDI triggered lights? Sounds like a bright idea to me (apologies – Ed).
For more details on the range, head to Out Post Sound’s web site.
Novation is launching its latest and most affordable controller to date, Nocturn. Featuring the latest Automap Universal 2.0 software, exclusive to Novation controllers, Nocturn provides automatic, instant and intelligent control of all automatable plug-ins within every major sequencer, including Pro Tools.
Nocturn features eight touch-sensitive rotary encoders, each equipped with a bright eleven-LED ring (ideal for laptop DJ’ing in a dark club environment). These are accompanied by eight user-assignable illuminated buttons and a smooth, professional 45mm cross-fader. The finishing touch is Novation’s unique ’speed dial’; a touch-sensitive rotary encoder that instantly takes control of whatever your mouse is focused on.
Featuring a new ‘heads-up transparent control GUI’, Automap Universal 2.0 places a transparent control map across your computer screen, to be recalled or hidden at will. Little or no user setup is required, and plug-in control can be customized to be laid out just the way you like it, no matter what music software you use. Simply boot up the plug-in, and you’ll see at a glance how the parameters are automatically assigned to each of Nocturn’s controls. An instant click and control ‘learn’ function is also available for quick re-assigning of controls, or for creating your own controller map in seconds. Multiple page options mean that you can assign a potentially infinite number of parameters for each plug-in.
Automap Universal 2.0 also categorizes all your control maps. A simple browsing facility lets you review all open plug-ins, then quickly switch to control any one of them. Automap Universal 2.0 also supports standard MIDI protocol, providing the same heads-up display for quick and simple assigning of MIDI parameters. This ensures that Nocturn can also control an external hardware MIDI device, any non-automatable plug-ins, or the mixer page in your sequencer.
Nocturn is due to ship worldwide in Q1, 2008.
This is synthwave.com; a website dedicated to music related hardware and software synthesis.
From vintage analog hardware, to classic digital gear from the 80s and 90s, through to cutting-edge VSTs. On occasion, there’ll be articles on alternative music including industrial, futuristic, electronica, and synthpop genres. And, perhaps a blog or two about our own (humble) noise-making experiments.