The Enticer – Oblivion VS Rigormortis Live PA

My god, it makes me want to get back into hardcore. Give it another go. Every time i make another pass into what it’s become now i get more and more depressed by it, but listening to this still-fresh 4-year-old stuff we were up to makes me think there’s still hope

Regardless of the awkward format and the fact that the list has EVERYTHING including the really, really shit stuff, i hope someone will find some enjoyment in there. Watch the volume though!

A special notice. Jeroen of Zero71, and Aaron of Hardcore Crossbreed; I know i let you both down tremendously near the end, and i’m deeply ashamed at how poorly i handled things. I hope you understand that i was at somewhat of a musical critical point, where i literally was feeling pain at cranking the stuff out. It wasn’t fun, it didn’t feel good. Like a gangrenous leg, I needed to cut it off completely. I’m nothing but grateful for the support you showed me, and i hope you can forgive me.

For all its ridiculousness, these are seriously good news! I’ll sum up the tastiest bits gathered from the available info.

• Uses the faster DSi clock speed to effectively double the available synthesis. That’s 4 dual-osc synth parts and a ridiculous 8 drum sample channels.
• Even if you don’t have a DSi, DS-10+ will finally unlock the song sequencer nice and proper. Videos show performers tweaking parameters and making on-the-fly edits while the song is playing. Previously, the song sequencer was an either-or situation, meaning for the most part if you wanted to make music, you were stuck with rapidly toggling patterns manually OR tweaking parameters. Now you can sequence the track in its entirety and make parameter adjustments as it plays. Hello effective live performance!

To give an indication of what people can do with a dual DS-10 setup, have a gander at this rather nastily polished trance track.

Excited! Woo!

To begin with, there’s a dilemma at play here. On one hand, the DS-10 is a softsynth marketed as a true synthesizer, a tool for music production, and AQI have emphasized the difference between the DS-10 and music games time and time again. “This is not a toy” they say. “This is a synthesizer that happens to be running on the Nintendo DS”. On the other hand, this is a very limited synthesizer obviously aimed at entry-level practitioners, running on a game console. In addition it has few if any “professional” features, including a woefully limited sequencer.

So what do we review it as? A my-first-synthesizer to ease beginners into the sheer awesomeness of patching and playing a synthesizer, or as a real tool for making serious music? Much like AQI, i can’t seem to make up my mind, so i guess i’ll be reviewing it as both.

First impressions, a walk through the basic features
The DS-10 is a very sexy package. From the black, faux-brushed-metal case to the sheer black cartridge proudly carrying the Korg logo, it immediately commands a sense of awe. Booting it up, seeing the Korg logo flash by on a DS is a kind of crazy experience. It’s a seal of quality for a kind of gear far, far removed from Nintendo land. The presentation overall is minimalistic, with labeled square buttons on a gray background. This is not software that tries to impress you visually, but its clean and refined design impresses nonetheless. It is clear from the start that these guys mean business.

The first menu offers 4 options; Single play, Multi play, Data exchange and Options. Single play is where you’ll spend most of your time, Multi play sets up linked play between up to 4 DS consoles, Data exchange lets you transmit song data from one DS to another, and Options swaps between left and right handed control configurations, as well as several brightness settings. Tapping buttons is fast, accurate and responsive, something that remains true throughout the whole application.

Opening single play throws you into the song browser. The DS-10 can store up to 18 songs across 3 banks (labelled A through C). 3 song slots are dedicated to two demo songs and one “init” song that loads with default settings.

Opening a song slot faces you with the DS-10 workspace, where one screen contains a flow chart describing the signal path, as well as buttons linking to the editors for the various devices the signal will encounter along that path, as well as buttons for saving, setting the tempo, and other options affecting the song as a whole. The other screen contains whatever editor you have currently selected from the flow chart. The flow chart is always navigable with the face buttons or the d-pad, and the screens can be swapped by pressing a shoulder button or tapping an icon in the top left of the screen.

The signal path is quite simple (as expected), containing two emulated MS-20s and the DS-10 specific drumsynth, all of which pipe in parallel through a mixer device with a single assignable effect device.

Songs consist of 16 patterns, each of which can contain up to 16 measures of time in which to place notes, drum hits, knob tweaks and any other kind of data the DS-10 lets you record or explicitly set in one of the many editor windows. in addition, patterns on the DS-10 hold patch settings for both synthesizers (not the drums however), meaning you can have some really wild differences in sound from pattern to pattern.

A “blank” song isn’t quite blank when you first load it up. When you load an empty song, every pattern contains a 4-step “metronome” beat, with a kick drum every 4 measures and a single note from one of the two synthesizers. It’s ridiculously easy to begin playing around, and AQI have done an excellent job putting the most important features within immediate grasp.

The first touchscreen you’re faced with is the keyboard controller for Synth 1, and tapping the key produces an immediately satisfying saw wave tone with absolutely no latency whatsoever. This immediacy is integral to the pleasure of playing a synthesizer, and i literally breathed a sigh of relief when i heard it; Commands given the DS-10 are carried out instantly and accurately.

Quickly browsing the further editors for Synth 1, we see a matrix-style sequencer (for precise notes and adjustments), an x/y controller (for setting more than one property at a time in a quick and intuitive way), a synth edit window (with all the knobs for setting up the “static” sound of the synth) and a patch window (for setting up parameters that change dynamically over time rather than just when the note is played). This setup is naturally the same for both synths.

At the bottom we find the drum sequencer, a deceptively simple 4-track matrix sequencer using samples pre-generated with simplified versions of the synthesizers. In addition a 4-pad drum controller has been included, letting you trigger drums using 4 large finger-friendly buttons, triggering in sync with the tempo of the pattern is playing, which is a very nice touch.

Patterns are easily switched between on the pattern screen, with large buttons for every pattern, as well as the option to wait until the current pattern has played through before triggering your new selection, ensuring everything happens on time. This screen also has mute and solo buttons for every instrument, which is quite handy for doing ridiculously clicheed things like dropping out the kickdrum for a bit and then letting it back in, or soloing the bass synth.

It can’t really be understated how quick and easy it is to navigate the DS-10. It’s a very efficient setup perfectly suited to the device, buttons and knobs handle lovely, and the unit never really feels inadequate for hands-on purposes.

Overall, first impressions are incredibly good. This is an entry level virtual analog synthesizer running on a Nintendo DS. It’s almost too good to believe.

Working the knobs
Watching youtube clips of DS-10 users can be a depressive affair. The unit is a playground for jamming and making fun bleeps and boings, but apparently rarely sees use beyond that. Let’s be clear about one thing if any; You can produce monstrous sounds on this unit if you know what you’re doing.

The DS-10 synth engine has 2 voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), each running one of four waveforms; noise, sawtooth, pulse or triangle. The absence of a sine means the triangle becomes the sub bass element of choice, whereas the pulse and sawtooth are excellent for kick drums and leads respectively. The noise oscillator mostly sees use when generating percussive sounds, though the oscillators can be pitch tuned independently (hello unison saw!) or duty cycle synced, and synchronizing a noise wave to something like a sawtooth can produce some very gnarly sounds. Cool.

Every synth has a single resonant voltage controlled filter (VCF), which can be set to either bandpass (let a subset of frequencies through), highpass (let high frequencies through) or lowpass (you get it by now).

A single ADSR envelope generator sits pretty on the far left, and it’s all the envelope you’ll ever need. Assignable both positively and negatively to almost any parameter you can think of, this is where you’ll get most of your dynamics from.

The voltage controlled amplifier (VCA) has few but handy options; a volume knob, a drive control and a toggle switch for the envelope generator. The sheer terror a resonant highpass filter coupled with the drive can inflict has to be heard to be believed!

The DS-10 lets you save your synth settings to one of 24 slots which carry over from song to song, and also comes with a selection of handy (though clicheed) presets to start you off.

An introduction to patching and CVs
The synth patch window, where you drag “cables” from outputs to inputs to add dynamics to a sound, is an area i’ve seen people bewildered in the past, so i’ll go through the basics of patching; On voltage controlled synthesizers, parameters could be controlled by, you guessed it, voltages.

It helps to think in simple mathematics. What happens when you multiply a number by 0? You get nothing. You multiply by 1? You get the original value. You multiply with something between those two, you get a percentage of the original value. Control voltages (CVs) are typically bipolar, meaning our “simplified” CV can be a number between -1 and 1, letting you invert the CV as well.

The DS-10 has a selection of CV outputs that can be connected to controller inputs. Most of these outputs are LFO (low frequency oscillator) outputs, and the DS-10 comes with 4 variants of LFO;

1. Triangle (goes up and down)
2. Sawtooth (starts at the top, drops down, then hops back up top)
3. Square (flips between high and low)
4. Sample&hold (randomly picks and holds a level, useful for those cheesy 70s computer noises).

When you patch an LFO output into something like the pitch input, the knob over that input works as a multiplier for that CV. The default zero position (centered) is 0, the far left is -1, the far right is 1. What this means is if you turn the knob to the far left, the pitch will be bent down hard as the CV approaches its peak, and bent up hard as the CV approaches its nadir. Turning the knob far right gives the opposite result. The starting offset for this modulation is wherever the pitch was to begin with.

All LFOs run in parallel, meaning they have the same starting point every oscillation. The frequency for the LFOs can be tweaked freely, or syncronized to the tempo/BPM of the song, in which case the LFO frequency knob works as a multiplier knob of the song tempo.

There are SO many ways to apply patching to create an interesting sound. The DS-10 patch window lets you patch the maddest things, such as the second oscillator output to the filter input. The simplest things work great too, such as adding a slight triangle LFO oscillation to the pitch for vibrato. In addition, as you’ve probably understood by now, patching stacks with knob tweaks, which really opens up for some fun realtime tweaking!

What about drums?
The MS-20 was apparently quite well known for it’s great percussive sounds. The DS-10 tries to give us a taste of that by offering what is essentially a drum sample generator. Drum sequences can be built with up to 4 different mono drum samples, none of which can be tweaked live. This can feel staggeringly limiting at first, but once you realize you can still control gates (how long each note lasts), panning, volume and pitch per note, you begin to realize just how much you can hack out of the drumsynth with a little creative programming. Far from limiting, i found the drum synth and sequencer among the most creatively inspiring elements of the DS-10. Sometimes knowing where the walls are makes it easier to place the furniture, if you know what i mean.

What’s this network play about then?
One DS-10 runs as master, other DS-10s run as slaves. What this means is that all slave DSes will run in sync with the tempo set by the master. I haven’t had the chance to really play around with this yet but i think a few dudes with DS-10s can put on a killer minimal techno set with a little practise. The facilities for tweaking parameters on the fly in pattern mode are that good.

How does it all sound then?
Quite good! In spite of the DS’ natural limitations (something comparable to 22khz sound) and the basic requirement of an external amp and great headphones, the DS-10 is a very capable synthesizer, and has quickly become my favorite way to pass time. Perfect for playing around when in transit, waiting or otherwise, the DS-10 is as close to a fast forward button for real life you’re likely to find these days. It’s simply awesome to have this kind of sound in such a small cheap package, available at any time. That the DS-10 uses next to no battery is another huge bonus. That’s the magic of music really; With tools like these you feel like the sky’s the limit. Which brings me to the next point…

What the hell were they thinking!?

The DS-10 is crippled. Straight up. For a piece of software ostensibly made for music, the facilities for actually making music are barely even there, viciously tearing the DS-10 from the pantheon of GODS and reducing it to something it set out specifically to avoid becoming; A toy. The problem can be summed up in a word: Sequencer.

The DS-10 offers 16 patterns per song. What this means is that your entire song is made up from 16 tiny bits of music put in varying order. It will take you mere moments to realize the 16 patterns simply isn’t enough to write a melody in, or even to create a real sense of structure to your song before it starts sounding repetitive. You can’t layer patterns, and most crucially, you can’t tweak them while in song mode. Switching between patterns manually is far too cumbersome, and as efficient as the interface is, actually hopping between tweaking a knob and back to the pattern screen to go to the next one is simply not a viable option.

It’s still possible to make songs on the DS-10, but your songs will invariably be incredibly limited, repetitive affairs. You will bash your head into the 16-pattern ceiling over and over again until you finally give up and start accepting that these are your options and what you have to deal with. However, unlike the limitations of the synthesizers, the limitations of the sequencer scream “i could’ve been fixed!” at you every time you run into them. There is simply no good reason there is only 16 patterns available. Even 32 patterns would have alleviated this problem tremendously. To put things into context, a typical Renoise song of mine uses something in excess of 70 patterns, and each one of my patterns has 64 steps. 16 patterns is just a joke, and i’d love to hear why AQI made this choice, because it has effectively denied me the ability to make real music on their software.

I just have to say this one more time; You can’t tweak knobs while in song mode. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

What we have here, friends, is an awesome, AWESOME DS software package with killer sound and lots of headroom, and these guys have just gone and taken a big fat dump on their amazing product for what appears to be shits and giggles. It’s unforgivable, and so frustrating it almost makes me want to cry sometimes.

Overall
The DS-10 is a fantastic entry to the world of synthesizers. It’s quick and easy to learn, it sounds great, and it’s a perfect match for the Nintendo DS. It is, however, a complete joke as a sequencer; You’re so limited you can barely even afford a pattern for the ENDING of your track, much less a pattern for snare rolls or other such fun stuff. I recommend it to any and everyone. Just keep your ambitions in check, and know what you’re getting into.

Examples
Transit (MP3)

Kraftwerk- It’s more fun to compute (“remix” or whatever)

In spite of some minor (easily mended) sound issues and the wireless dropping out on us basically *precisely* when we needed it for the streaming, it was a total riot. My face still hurts from all the smiling.

Special thanks go to Blå, for being supportive, helpful and supplying a fantastic venue and crew, Fux and Benny Ill who volunteered to open with an utterly massive hiphop/baltimore club/electro/dubstep set, really nailing the kind of mood we wanted for the night. Thanks guys, you rule.

Only downside to it that i can find is that it only supports “songs” made up of 16 patterns à 16 steps. 256 steps does not a whole lot of music before you have to repeat something. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to tweak on the fly, and it’s better as a doodling/inspiration tool anyway. Just lots of fun to use.

listen to Piano Texture 3

It’s melancholy, lonely ambient on a level i haven’t heard in a long time. Simply numbered rather than titled, tracks 3 and 8 in particular put me in a place that makes me want to curl up and cry.

I often feel as though ambient music is the only genre that can truly transport us somewhere else, sometimes completely changing our state of mind in an instant. I tend to gravitate towards the harsher, darker side of it, but Sanfilippo’s work is gentle and moving, and should be listened to by anyone.

Another favorite for me, right next to Lucisferrato’s Ingermanland.

Listen to the Ultima Thule broadcast, check out the samples on his site, and if you enjoy it, please buy this album to support this brilliant musician.

If you’re not up to speed on this; watch this.

Done? Here’s Timbaland’s response.
“It’s from a videogame, idiot. Freakin’ jerks”
It’s around the 6 minute mark.
Not enough for you? Well.

from mtv news:

A European musician Tim is familiar with is, however, is the Finnish producer who accused him of stealing a beat (see “YouTube Clip Claims Timbaland Got Furtado Track From Finnish Dude”). Timbaland called the accusation “foolish.”

“It makes me laugh,” he said. “The part I don’t understand, the dude is trying to act like I went to his house and took it from his computer. I don’t know him from a can of paint. I’m 15 years deep. That’s how you attack a king? You attack moi? Come on, man. You got to come correct. You the laughing stock. People are like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ “

Great work man. Not only did you demonstrate complete ignorance about how the fuck copyright laws operate, but you showed complete disregard for the hard work of another musician, which makes you, by most standards accepted in western society as fact, a fucking asshole.

I used to have a great deal of respect for this producer, and that respect just became really hard to justify. I find it intensely satisfying that the first hit that pops up on youtube when you search for timbaland is evidence of plagiarism. Rock on.

There was a time, right after i felt the whole ID&T Thunderdome/Gabber thing was beginning to bore me, when i turned to breakcore. I’m not sure exactly how i got into it; probably through Ec8or, considering the Patric C connection to the gabber scene. Before breakcore became a household term, DHR was basically the easiest way to get at it, and for a while it was good, bullshit politics and all.
For a while i was making the most godawful amen-driven mashup garbage imaginable, and i thought Alec Empire was a god. Ironically, this album was what turned me away from DHR completely.

According to discogs.com, the album i’m writing about was released in 97, making me 15 at the time. I guess my slavering over DHR, which seemed at least to WANT something, can be explained away with puberty. However, this album and my long surviving love for it is something i’ll stand for anytime.

Purchased at Tower records, somewhere in london, at a time when i was going through some pretty rough times at home, Christoph de Babalon’s debut album, “If you’re into it, i’m out of it”, stands, in my opinion, as the single most mindblowing experience in terms of electronica that i can remember. It beats out listening to Arne Nordheim’s Warszawa when i was a kid, it beats out Klaus Schulze’s dune, even discovering Kraftwerk. All these artists, awesome as they are, don’t stand for any particular philosophical direction beyond their work. They never represented more for me than sound.

I listened to this album expecting breaks and distortion. What i got was the beautiful, haunting opening track Opium; 12 minutes of pads, strings and reversed bells, echoing on forever.
I listened through the whole album lying in my bed that night, start to finish, and not a single sound was disagreeable. It embodied everything i needed at the time; A frustrated yet melancholy *drive* forwards, in spite of the label that released it. Nothing else on DHR ever came close to matching the originality and artistry of this release. This album was never particularly dancable, moshable, or even headnod worthy. What carries through like a straight line right through it, is the will to combine an emotional core with a violent exterior.

The first real mindblower came with”What you call a life”, with its Charlie Manson samples underlying a simple, building amen breaks over melancholy pads, is something i listen to often, to this day. It went on to inspire most of my work from there on. It taught me that a piece of music doesn’t have to be all out in any direction. It can be multiple, separate entities all going their own paths, but coming together where it counts; in essence.

“What you call a life” is the single most inspiring piece of music i’ve heard, and you can hear its influence in almost everything i’ve done since then.

The second most amazing piece on the album, “Water”, was a darker, less emotional piece, mechanically pounding through complex patterns of amen breaks, super low pitched kicks, noise bursts and howling background ambience. The track has multiple directions at any time, making it pleasingly tough to hear whenever something begins or ends. “Water” taught me about messing with expectations, it taught me how to build into a break when you least expect it, cutting it off when it hurts the most, and how a simple evocative title can communicate more images to your listener’s mind than any number of samples or lyrics.

“If you’re into it, i’m out of it” is the most evocative breakcore record ever made, and at the time, there was nothing like it. Nothing.

To get your hands on the glorious soundtrack, simply make a copy of sounds.dat (located in your Defcon install directory), change it’s extension to .zip and extract its contents with winzip or winrar. The files are (logically) the largest ones in the archive, and they’re all high quality OGGs. If you want them on your iPod or somesuch, it’s pretty straightforward to transcode them from ogg to mp3 using winLAME for instance.

Thanks Introversion for a fantastic game AND a fantastic soundtrack. It’s kept me company at work for quite some time now

Some sweet spanish fetish-tinged electro/industrial for those that care. Not really work safe, some nudity involved. Ye have been warned. Defcheck out their tune Meskaylina. Very sweet roll to it.

http://www.renoise.com

Renoise 1.5 final has arrived, and it’s every bit as good as we were hoping. If you’re looking for a budget priced sequencer that kicks all kinds of balls, you’re set. Tres bon

www.outlet.no

or for a lovely lil shortcut to the good stuff:

Straightjacket EP-2005.rar