I’ve been listening to a lot of old rave tunes lately, and for a long time I’ve been thinking it might be fun to write one. To make it more interesting, I used only one bit of software, FXpansion’s Geist. No host, no other plugins, no hardware.

Geist is the perfect sampler for this. It’s not unlike using an MPC in terms of features and workflow and a fair few rave tunes were written with them back in the day, along with trackers and Atari STs, neither of which I have access to or any desire to meddle with ever again.

So without further ado, and with tongue firmly in cheek, here is the result:

Because I’m feeling the old skool love, here is the Geist preset for this tune. It will even load in the demo version. Now, I’m off to find my white gloves and whistle…

That said, I’ve had some fun programming it, and here are some of the results. 20 patches, all with a very ambient and filmic edge. I haven’t delved too deep into the VAST algorithms yet, but there are a few nice tricks I’ve discovered (check out the ‘Symphonique’ and ‘Sunset Fade’ patches for some nice random elements). The KDFX is the key to all of these patches, providing some lush long reverbs, so make sure you have the appropriate settings so you can hear the intended KDFX studio.

None of these patches use samples, just the stock K26xx ROMs.

One more thing to mension is that most of the Pad sounds use the Data Slider to alter the Amplitude Envelope times. A good place to start is to put the Data Slider somewhere near the middle.

So prepare to hold some long chords…

Download my K26xx Cinematic & Ambient Bank Here

Or have a listen (all patches recorded straight from the Kurz outputs with no additional effects)…

Demo mp3

p.s. check out the new VAST PROGRAMMING forums over at cunka.com. There are some very knowledgable and friendly folks there.

127 brand new sounds for your Evolver (I left a default patch at the end). They mostly fall into the ‘dance’ category (electro, house, drum and bass, etc etc). Lots of big basses, leads, crazy fx and sequences. There are NO ‘sequencer’ patches (like some of the factory patches that just play sequenced loops regardless of any keyboard input) mainly because I find those kind of patches of limited use, so ALL of my patches are fully playable on the keyboard. Also make sure you try the mod wheel and aftertouch as I try and program something interesting for these 2 controllers in most patches.

It should go without saying that I think the Evolver is an amazing synth. Everyone should own at least the desktop model. The bang-for-the-buck factor is off the scale!

Anyway… without further ado, here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

Download my Evolver sound bank

Download the fxb file here
or download as VST3 presets for use in Cubase 4

Here’s a set of sequences that I programmed for AudioRealism’s BassLine Pro. You can actually hear most of them at work in the mp3 demo over at the product page, but they never made it into the installer, so i’m throwing them up here instead.

This is a damn fine plugin. I recommend it to anyone looking for a raw analog sound. My one complaint though, is that the sequencer is AWFUL to program. It’s modelled fairly precisely on the TB303 seqeuncer. Fair enough, you might think, but why recreate the inflexibilities of old hardware? The TB303 wasn’t exactly a joy to program in the first place. I can only imagine how much more fun a plug like this would be to program if it had a piano-roll type interface for the sequencer.

Download the sequence patches here

Download the presets

The first patch is a bowed string model, based around the methods discussed in this article on Sound on Sound.

The second patch is a plucked string (sounds very much like an accoustic guitar). Its vaguely based on the Karpus Strong theory of a small amount of noise going through a tuned delay (a comb filter in this case). Its a really simple patch but sounds remarkably good!

I’m pretty new to this stuff, and there doesn’t seem to be alot of info on physical modelling with modular synths on the net, so if anyone has any good tips or links, I’d love to hear them.

Download the two patches here

Download the drum maps here

Download the bank here

A Cubase SX3 Midi Device Panel for the Evolver. Includes ALL parameters, including the new OS2 parameters. (yes, the panel is BIG!)

Evolver_Cubase_SX3_Device_Panel.zip
[screenshot]