New Order/Peter Hook – The Happy One (aka Spot the synths!)
Just lately I have been re-immersing myself in the whole world that is Joy Division/New Order/Factory Records/etc.. in fact, anything from that golden age of musical renaissance that was the New Wave revolution of circa 1979. This has involved re-purchasing Joy Division back catalogue, books, documentaries and films, as well as scouring the interwebs for anything remotely JD/NO related. I’ve even bought myself a ticket to go see Peter Hook give a talk on his life & times as bassist with the aforementioned bands as well as being part owner of the legendary yet doomed Hacienda night club in Manchester.
Anyway, whilst pootling about the web tonight, I came across the following video that, albeit in poor quality, shows us the legend that is Tony Wilson (co-founder of Factory) presenting a segment on a show (The Other Side Of Midnight) that has Peter Hook playing a track called “The Happy One” live, along with a bunch of synth geekery behind him. See if you can spot anything that I haven’t already seen.
I can make out an E-MU Emulator EII, a Roland D-50, Apple Macintosh SE/30, Yamaha TX-816 & Akai S900
EmulatorX2
Call me a heathen. Call me a splitter. Call me a deserter. Call me a dessert (I find Tiramisu pretty inoffensive).
But, I’m really getting into software instrumentation.
Everything I seem to do just lately is done with software and only the occasional appearance of hardware.
I have gone on & on about the benefits of hardware over software and then become a fence sitter, saying they can peacefully, and fruitfully, co-exist. And now I find myself almost shunning hardware, not consciously, but I just seem to be able to get what I want directly from software !
And this was no more evident than when I recently acquired E-MU’s EmulatorX2 software sampler. Ok, so the bargain bucket price of £69.99 (New) was an absolute deal maker, but it’s feature set and reputation drew me closer and after playing around with it for a few days now, I’m nothing short of impressed, and dare I say it, converted !
What impresses me most is it’s clarity, it’s speed of loading and it’s unique sound shaping and sample acquisition features. Also, the manual is one of the best I’ve read in a long while. Just a shame that it’s a PDF file (which I have now printed out). I was even impressed with the travel pouch provided to carry the USB XMIDI 2×2 around in.
I’m not going to go into any lengthy review on this. You can Google and find many decent efforts. No, I’m just going to say, this is the most fun I’ve had with a sampler (or any other software instrument) since the heady days of the late 90′s when Akai got it so right with the S6000. Just a shame that their VZ8 software sampler never made it past the prototype stage at NAMM in 2003.
All I can say is, if you have a spare £69.99 and are looking for a single, powerful and fantastically spec’d tool, you can’t go wrong with this.
Amazing.
E-MU Announces FREE Proteus VX download !!
Ok, anyone that knows me knows that I just love free stuff !! ;o)
So imagine my excitement when I stumbled across an item telling me that E-MU have decided to release their Proteus VX software instrument completely free of charge ! And to top it all off, they’re including the v2 Proteus X Composer Bank. The only catch is that you have to subscribe to their newsletter. Seems perfectly reasonable 
)
Why are they giving it away ?
Well, of course there’s a reason and it’s because they are soon to be releasing the Emulator X3 Streaming Sampling Synthesizer software. X2 prices have been tumbling as low as £69.99 at Digital Village so it was on the cards. Here’s their blurb…
Yep, that’s right! As we release and launch E-MU’s next generation Emulator X3 Streaming Sampling Synthesizer software, E-MU celebrates and is pleased to announce that we will be providing the full version of our Proteus VX Software Sound Module software which includes the enhanced v2.0.1 Proteus X Composer Bank. (a special E-MU tweaked version of the Composer bank) that can be used in all versions of our Proteus X or Emulator X software. Proteus VX is not copy protected or card locked like other versions of our instrument and sampling software, and can be used either as a VSTi or in stand alone mode. You can get to the free download by clicking on the Proteus VX logo on the front page of www.emu.com
As well as coming with a massive soundbank as standard, you can also load up any other .exb file, which means this instantly becomes a gateway into the wonderful world of E-MU and some of their most unique sounds ! Pop along to Digital Sound Factory to grab a couple of well spec’d freebies and browse their store for more goodies. I can personally recommend their EMAX Collection, which converts beautifully into .exb format (I used Extreme Sample Converter) 
So, anyway, grab it while you can !!
Emax Collectors Edition Sample Library
Just thought I’d share this one with you. I treated myself yesterday to a new sample library from Digital Sound Factory. As you may well know, I’m a sucker for any early sampler like an Emulator or Fairlight and I am always on the look out for good sample libraries. So when I found this one, I was VERY interested. However, the $149.99 price put me off rushing out to get this. So, when I got a mail the other day telling me they were offering 30% off all their libraries till July 31st, and with the current exchange rate between the £ and $, it was an opportunity too good to miss. In total, it cost me a shade over £50 )
Not bad for 872 Programs !
These are really cool too. Ok, so there are some average staples in here, but there are some classic E-MU library sounds all over the place. And E-MU’s tendency to exploit the colourisation that their early samplers gave to sounds gives us some cracking stuff to play around with.
Only one problem however. These are all in Soundfont format. Now, I have nothing against this, and I can easily accomodate them within a number of environments, but I really wanted these in my Fusion, and there is a known bug in the free Fusion Converter that doesn’t translate the velocity setting. So each of these 872 programs plays at full velocity and I now face the prospect of manually tweaking each one ( Apparently, the upcoming update to Fusion Converter addresses this issue. I hope it arrives soon.
Anyway, here are some links for you if you want to check them out, and don’t forget, the 30% off offer finishes at the end of July.
Emax Collectors Edition Bundle (the 6 volumes that make up the bundle are also available seperately @ $34.95 each)
There are also audio demo’s all over the site, so check them out…
Coldplay Studio clearout !!
Risking yet another deluge of idiots asking me if *I* still have these itmes for sale, I noticed that Coldplay are having a bit of a spring clean. Items include…
Emu SP1200
Roland SH-101
Pearl Syncussion SY1
Korg PolySix
Roland Jupiter6
LinnDrum LM-2
Oberheim Stretch DX
Korg MonoPoly
And just to remind anyone thinking of emailing me asking about these items and whether I still have them for sale or if I can ship to some Aussie backwater hick town, population 5, where the father is also the mother’s brother, I WILL hunt you down and rape you !! ;o)
Some lovely pictures….just because….
All shots from the EBoard Museum
Take a long look at these pictures and the synths contained within. Am I alone in thinking that these are beautiful objects ? Show me a Triton or Motif or whatever hardware synths are left nowadays (except the Alesis Fusion maybe) and they all look the same. These synths of old were all unique not only in sound but in looks too. If anybody wonders why people like me get moist around the gusset for old synths, here are some prime examples….
Emulator I
Prophet 10
Roland SH-101 Blue
Yamaha DX1
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS and Prophet 5
Elka Synthex
Yamaha CS-80
