Octatrack MK1 users might be getting conditional locks!

    Elektron recently launched updated versions of their boxes, including an Octatrack MKII.  Octatrack MKI owners might still benefit from this release as Elektron has now officially anounced via their website (see image below) that the MKII OS will be compatible with the MKI box and will "include the functionality of the MKII".  As you may have heard, the MKII will support conditional locks, which is a great way to add probabilities to your sequenced steps--opening up a whole lot of good fun.


    (source: https://www.elektron.se/support/?connection=octatrack#resources)

    Now, to further legitimize my suspicion that MKI will now be able to do conditional locks (aka trig conditions), have a look at the manual and you will notice that everything is almost identical between the MKI and MKII manuals except for the highlighted sections below: CONDITIONAL LOCKS and FILL MODE. (MK1 manual on left, MK2 on right)

     

    So, congrats to all MKI owners as it looks like you will have at least one more OS update to come (but perhaps more!) with additional features here and there.  Personally, I'm still waiting for program change parameter locks, which are present in the digitakt and monomachine.

    What features would you like to see implemented in the MKII OS?

    audio production, tech




Official Drupal 8 version released TODAY

11/19/2015

Very happy to announce that the fully supported Drupal 8 was finally released today after over 4 years of development and hard work from the open source community.

Drupal 8 features major improvements, including a new theme engine and a nice selection of API's that allow it to play competitively well with the outside world.  I'm very excited about this update and will soon be porting Synthmode.com to Drupal 8 to take advantage of all the new features.

But what are you waiting for? Go give it a test drive!

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Kilpatrick Audio PHENOL

The Kilpatrick Audio PHENOL is the 2nd semi-modular synthesizer I've owned (the first being the Korg MS-20), and it is also the closest thing to a modular.  Soon after getting my hands on it I started realizing what the modular fuzz was really all about.

The PHENOL packs a lot of modular features in a small package.  This includes a very simple but useful divider and powerful multi-mode envelopes--all things that are not very common outside the modular world.

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Drupal 8 beta days nearly over

9/14/2015

Drupal is one of the most robust and widely-used open source CMS (Content Management System).  All kinds of websites, from small to huge, use Drupal as a platform--in fact Synthmode.com was developed using Drupal.

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MicroBrute and PHENOL Analog Synthesizers

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7/29/2015

I recently made an unboxing video and demo of the Kilpatrick PHENOL semi-modular analog synthesizer.  The PHENOL turned out to be a very fun and inspiring synthesizer so I decided to make another video of it interacting with the Arturia MicroBrute via CV.

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Vaporwave Aesthetics

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7/27/2015

You may or may not have heard of vaporwave, but chances are you have already been exposed to some of its stylistic ripples.  What I mean by this is that mainstream culture machines such as MTV have already started mining this underground internet-born artistic movement.

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Octatrack OctaEdit?

7/23/2015

Finally a software editor and librarian for the Octatrack DPS-1? So says user and creator, Rusty, from the Elektronaut forums, who claims via his website that the software will be finally released this month.  The project got started as early as April 2014 and has been under development--I even wrote about it on a previous post that included a sample-video of a new feature that Rusty was developing.

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Kilpatrick Audio PHENOL

The Kilpatrick Audio PHENOL is the 2nd semi-modular synthesizer I've owned (the first being the Korg MS-20), and it is also the closest thing to a modular.  Soon after getting my hands on it I started realizing what the modular fuzz was really all about.

The PHENOL packs a lot of modular features in a small package.  This includes a very simple but useful divider and powerful multi-mode envelopes--all things that are not very common outside the modular world.

Everything else on... more

AKAI MPC 1000

The MPC is THE icon of sample-based music--more specifically hip-hop. While there is an entire line of MPC's out there, what makes the MPC 1000... more

sampler
Zoom Sampletrak ST-224

The Zoom Sampletrak ST-224... the poor man's MPC... the last of the 90's samplers... and there's a good chance you've never heard about it.

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Korg MS-20

I still remember when I won my first analog synth, the Korg MS-20, on an ebay auction for about $1000 in 2004.  The synth was still in its cult-... more