UNTZ! | Jack to the Sound of the Underground » Production

New Gear: TB-303

dupont — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:48:40 +0000

New gear has arrived in the Untz studios. The (in)famous Roland TB-303 Computer Controlled Bass Line synth. It’s a bit weird to program, but all the more fun because of it (an excellent short & sweet howto for programming a TB-303 is on youtube here if you ever wondered how the thing works). Below is a recording of my first simple jam session, of course accompanied by the TR-909 drum box. I love odd-note acid patterns. Enjoy :)

303+909test by dupont

New Gear: TR-909

dupont — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:29:34 +0000

New gear - or maybe old gear would be more appropriate :) - has been added to the UNTZ studios: the all time techno classic from Roland, the TR-909 drum machine. It integrates well into my Ableton Live setup, it being the master MIDI device. My findings so far: the shuffle setting creates a good groove, the sounds have much more punch than samples, and the 909 drums sit very well in the mix without much processing. Also, the real time instrument parameters are great to tweak the sound in a very direct way. It is true what they say, almost anything you do on the 909 sounds “techno” straight away.
Below is my first preview of a simple track using the TR-909.

Abltrack28-tr909test by dupont

Preview: Rvaggelen & Dupont – Les Charmes de l’Horreur…

dupont — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:50:39 +0000

Time to put up the first music preview. This track was made back in 2002 together with Rvaggelen in one sitting. I guess this would best be described as tech house… After the long intro there are some sweet vocodered vocals from the ever wonderful Tori Amos.

This tune was never released (not even on the web) until it was put up on Soundcloud by yours truly. If you hadn’t heard of Soundcloud before: go check it out, there is a ton of music waiting for you to listen to. For your convenience, here is the soundcloud player so you can listen to the tune immediately. Simply click the play button :)

dupont & rvaggelen - Les Charmes de l’Horreur n’Enivrent que les Forts 01

Korg Nano Series USB MIDI Controllers

dupont — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:20:21 +0000

Korg has put out some very cute (i.e. tiny) USB MIDI controllers a while ago that are worth a mention. It’s a series of very affordable and portable controllers, consisting of:

1) Rotary knob / fader combo
2) Twelve-drumpad controller (like the pads on AKAI samplers)
3) Two-octave piano keyboard

The controllers are small indeed but knowing it’s Korg they can’t be bad. At least they won’t take up much of your desk space :)

Each one of these will only set you back EUR60 max! Looks like a perfect set of kit to include in your laptop carrying bag too.

Click to visit the Korg Nano series website

Also sold online by Thomann Cyberstore

Speedy J’s “Open Collabs” Music Competition

dupont — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:20:20 +0000

Dutch techno legend Jochem Paap - aka Speedy J - has launched an interesting concept: harvesting sound bits and parts of tracks from producers in the Soundcloud community to use for his upcoming album. An interesting way of using your unfinished tracks as a starting point for new material, anyone who is a member of Soundcloud can send in their material. Soundcloud is open for free registration to all which means basically anyone can compete. The Open Collabs website states that it accepts “[…] synth jams or loops you ended up ditching because they didn’t work, or parts of tracks that you got stuck with […]”. The sample material is all in the techno / ambient / electronic style with the main focus on 4/4 techno. The website states that all material sent in will be treated as raw material, so it might end up different than you intended.

If this sounds interesting to you: signing up is free and easy: just follow both links in this post and follow the instructions within each site. I know that I will definitely send in some material and see if it is accepted and turned into something new or exciting. Should your material be used in the final production it is good to know that you will receive a share of the profits that the Open Collabs album generates.

Acid Techno is back in your browser

dupont — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:37:01 +0000

Today I was sent a link by Lars to an awesome sound comparison test page. The test and comparison is of the original acid machine, the Roland TB-303, and a few of its numerous clones around. The Acidvoice website has sounds clips for no less than nine 303-clones of various riffs and waveforms to study for your pleasure. The in-depth analysis button next to each machine reveals all the extended clips.

This great site has much more info and sounds, including the obligatory but very cool owner’s kit list.

Also recommended is the acid distortion pedal test at the bottom of the page :)

Link: http://www.acidvoice.com/

Acid Techno in your browser

dupont — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:27:03 +0000

The Hobnox website is offering a web application written in Flash by the somewhat uninspiring name Audiotool. The app itself is nowhere near uninspiring: consisting of two TB-303 clones and a TR-909 clone it is many tech head’s favourite old-school setup. To make it even better: the web interface makes it easy enough for anyone slightly familiar with these classic machines to create an acid / techno track within a few minutes. Just connect the machines to the mixer by dragging their outputs to it to get going. As an added bonus there are also a couple of effect pedals that can be inserted between the synths and drum machine and the mixer.

Link: Hobnox Audiotool