A phoenix rising…

A varied release, to say the least. Many different well known techno artists from Japan’s techno-scene, featuring DJ Tmykisb, Yebisu303, Doremimate and 909 State to name just a few. Ranging from acid bleepery to danceable and deep to surprising. The release demonstrates a love for the original techno sound lost in the days of minimal unimaginativism and dubstep repetition.

DJ Tmykisb opens the album with the filter-happy ‘Chrono Kitten’, an uplifting track that makes the waist wiggle. Even if seated it’s hard not to move to this sliced madness slightly reminiscent of ‘Tokyo Disco’. 909 State gives a distorted slammer likes he does so well, after which Beel’s ‘RTF_SHT’ takes over with a surprisingly deep track not unlike Richie Hawtin’s better (Plastikman) tracks. The compilation wouldn’t be complete without a good acid track! And that’s where Pulse2Pulse comes in. I should say the same for dub, and the compilation also satisfies those needs with Yebisu303′s ‘Blueprint’, a last-minute favorite of mine. In the track’s layered background there’s a loop playing which stimulates the imagination while the recognizable dub synth does it’s work of playing with your sense of rhythm. (Watch out for a very groovy break followed by a drop like we haven’t heard since at least 2005.) Yes, there’s even a melodic techno track like Carl Craig is good at producing, Choochoogatagoto is the one responsible.

The CD supplies well to the techno loving people out there that are missing the original vibe. We need kickdrums, not plops. We want acid, not just a simple sine-wave. Minimal and tech-house have their place, on this album too. But playing the same sounds over and over is what kills a genre, a scene. This album bravely steps-up where even the hardest techno DJ’s have sold-out to simple bloops and over-used samples. It’s been enough!

A CD release is rare these days, especially for electronic music (Techno). But it does give a sense of nostalgia to open-up a sealed CD box. Welcome to the post-digital age where physical releases are becoming a rarity and more of a promotional tool than an actual selling point. That’s why I appreciate Cassette Records effort to put this out there, no matter what the market is doing. To step-up and say, nay shout: Techno isn’t dead yet! I haven’t even finished listening to the CD yet, and this is what the music is telling me. The CD holds even more surprises towards the end, but I’m not gonna spoil anymore for you. You should go out and check this out for yourself.

Track List

1. dj tmykisb / Chrono Kitten
2. POP STORE JUNK / ZTN
3. iserobin / 7420247
4. Limited toss / Gus
5. 909state / Armed poker
6. BEEL / RTM_SHT
7. Pulse2Pulse / Bouncer
8. Yebisu303 / Blueprint
9. jackmaster YOSHIKI / PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM
10. choochoogatagoto / Hat Season
11. doremimate / Gymnopedia
12. Sakoo / Heartbeat
13. tofubeats / technoizer X
14. SOL / One More Thing…

The album’s liner notes were written by Bibinba. I’m proud of you, 友達!

A quick resume of 2011′s favorite’s and accomplishments.

My favorite track of the year is a Chi’town style House track. Original version by Benny Rodrigues, remixed by Surrealism.

Benny Rodrigues – House Music (Surrealism’s Daft Funk Remix) by EARMILK

I made the first ever EP produced on the Korg M01 Music Workstation for Nintendo DS; Y.A.M.A.

My review of Korg M01 Music Workstation (Or Workstaiton as it’s spelled in the software…) was one of the most viewed posts on my website, along with the TR-505 / TR-606 sample packs for Ableton Live.

Of my own productions, Sick’O'Six is my personal favorite, it’s unreleased as of yet.. (Keep an eye out for a certain 12″ in 2012!). But you can hear it in my Cloudcast: 303 Decks Don’t Need FX. Apparent in this track is my transition from digital to analog production over the year. 2012 will be mostly analog, a happy perspective.

The biggest loss of this year was NOT re-visiting Japan! I miss the place and people and I really hope to be there again soon..

However, the biggest win was going to Paris with @Mooiechocolat. And I’ve been to Paris again with @CaroSiburny. And I’ll go again this very week!!! I ❤ Paris!

A happy, healthy and Acid 2012 everyone!

A Patch Sheet for the MFB Nanozwerg, so you can save your favorite settings (patches). I was shocked to find no such document on the web, so I made it myself. (Yes it looks crappy, but it works.) I cut the parts from the Microzwerg patch-sheet and filled in the blanks.

Download here.

Share your favorite patches on Twitter and I’ll re-tweet you! Don’t forget to mention me in your Tweet; @Sonof8Bits.

Don’t let this synthesizer’s size or single oscillator put you off, this synth has quite a lot of tricks up it’s sleeve!

Manfred Fricke Berlin, a modular synth producing company that in the last years has joined the modular-synth market by creating modules like we know and love from Doepfer and similar companies like Analogue Systems, has been releasing some semi-modular synths like the Microzwerg, Megazwerg and the smallest and lightest of the bunch; The Nanozwerg. The Nanozwerg has a single oscillator (triangle, saw, square, pulse), a switchable filter (low-pass, band-pass, Notch, High-Pass), a single LFO (triangle, saw, square, sample & hold), a knob to modulate the filter with either LFO or VCO, a knob to modulate the oscillator by itself (VCO) or LFO, some patch points and a sub-oscillator to fatten-up your sound. The Sub OSC also includes a Noise generator which makes it possible to synthesize non-harmonic sounds like drums. Pretty standard synth stuff, and the reason why I bought the thing in the first place. But here comes the fun part..

The patchable ports on the device (CV in, Gate in, VCF in, VCA in, LFO in, LFO out and audio in) offer more options you’d ever expect from such a small and perhaps simple synth. The LFO in accepts CV messages to oscillate the LFO along with your notes, making it possible to use it as a second oscillator (via audio in), which is a fantastic idea in itself, but it’s also possible to use it as a high speed modulator for the oscillator giving the Nanozwerg simple FM capacities. (Analog FM synths, do such things even exist?) Patch the LFO into the VCA and you have AM, into gate for interesting rhythmic gating effect and patch it into VCF and the filter will move along with your LFO. (Yes, simple FM filter capacities as well!) There are more options, but if I spoil all the fun there’s nothing to discover for you…

.. OK! One more! Use the Sample and hold from the LFO as a sound-source (LFO out -> Audio in) for that 8-bit burning sound from the old days.

In short, if you have a modular system this might not be interesting for you: The filter is only 12dB per octave, there’s only one (normal) oscillator, it’s monophonic. But if, like me, you’ve just started making your journey into analog, this is a great place to start. It’s pretty cheap (Around €215,-), it’s more powerful than any competitor (Dark Energy, Mopho etc.) and KORG DS-10 users will feel right at home using this synthesizer. Somehow it even reminds me of the software.

One last thing; The power-plug is amazing! It’s small, lean and light like a mobile-phone charger. Kudos for that! Why do we have to have so many wall-warts huh? (I’m looking at you, Roland, Korg, Kawai, and EVERYONE ELSE!)

The design of the official JordyVision Youtube Channel has been updated

It was in desperate need of a brush-up and Youtube supplied just the thing; Channels 2.0.

Subscribe, befriend, comment or just watch. To make things even easier for you, there’s a small subscribe button up to the right, and one below. Thanks!

One of the best consequences of a new (net-)label is the fresh names it brings; Hyo

After missing the third EP, (I might do a review of it anyway) Cicuta releases a hard hitting six track EP with three original tracks and one remix each. The tracks are dark and abstract and take you (back?) to a sentient industrial machine gone rogue.

Here are some previews to give you an overall impression.

1908 Tunguska (PREV) by ‘Hyo

Chemical Imbalance (PREV) by ‘Hyo

Skyquake (PREV) by ‘Hyo

The tracks miss a bit of bass sometimes, a matter of taste perhaps, but the overall sound makes up for most of it. Some parts of the tracks remind me of Unmarked Noise’s release; V. Black with it’s quirky synth riffs and off-beat rhythms. The remixes take the idea of  ‘dark and industrial’ and give it a little more structure and in case of the Bran Lanen remix add a bit of imagination, a small silver-lining at the end of the storm. If, like me, you’ve got a yearning for more retro-techno this is well worth your bandwidth.

Tracklist:

01. Hyo – 1908 Tunguska
02. Hyo – 1908 Tunguska (Po Remix)
03. Hyo – Chemical Imbalance
04. Hyo – Chemical Imbalance (Bran Lanen Remix)
05. Hyo – Skyquake
06. Hyo – Skyquake (Drugstore Remix)

Download link (Active on December 15th!)
Can’t wait? Here’s a download for Cicuta003 : Ajana EP.

New DJ set! It’s been a while…

Playlist:

01. Omar S – Sarah
02. Acid Andee – Feelin’ Me
03. Jordan Peak – Brutal Life
04. Teva – I Wanna Be
05. Black Box – Everybody, Everybody (JordyVision’s 2011 Digital Shoeshine)
06. Eli Escobar – Desire (Ian Pooley Dub)
07. Jay Tripwire – Spaced Out
08. Manuel Araneda – Plato Tipico (Sheehan & Clausen Remix)
09. Timid boy – How To Kill A Piano In 3 Lessons (Dana Ruh Black Flowers Remix)
10. JordyVision – The Grind (V.1 M01)
11. Deep Future – Do It all Night
12. Wehbba – 3 Days
13. Timid Boy & Alex Costa – My Girl
14. Marc ‘o’ Tool – Me
15. Benny Rodrigues – House Music (Surrealism’s Daft Punk Remix)
16. Kris Wadsworth – It’s time
17. JordyVision – White Tie
18. Jay Tripwire – Acid Babies
19. Gingy & Bordello – Amino
20. JordyVision – Sick ‘o’ Six
21. SOL – The Morph Balls

Dual Tone Multi Frequency

I was cleaning-up my samples folder and ran into these samples I once made, probably back in 2007 or 2008. Simple and funny, the dial pad of a telephone can be used to add a whole different beep to your bang.

Theoretically you can sequence a telephone-number in Ableton and initiate a call! Just hold the phone’s receiver up to your speaker while playing back the sounds and the call should commence. Oh, this will work only with a landline, mobiles don’t dial that way. I have little experience with VoIP phones, so I don’t know if they work with DTMF tones. Head on over to Wikipedia to learn more about DTMF.

Download DTMF Dial Pad Drum Rack

Once downloaded, put the folder “JordyVision” in the samples folder of your Ableton Library, usually found at:

Ableton/Library/Samples

Put the drum rack file (.adg extension) in the correct presets folder of your Ableton Library. That would be “Drum Rack” in this case, typically located at:

Ableton/Library/Presets/Instruments/Drum Rack

You can make your own folder within the Drum Rack folder if you wish. Most of the time I call these “My Presets”, “My Patches” or something along these lines, pick a name you’re comfortable with.

These and more samples can be found on the Son of 8-Bits / JordyVision samples page.

Free Ableton Live Drum Racks: Roland® TR-505 & TR-606

The sample packs I’ve been handing out the last few days, in Ableton Live drum rack format, free of charge!

The installation notes are included in the download, but here’s one with pictures:
Put the folder “JordyVision” in the samples folder of your Ableton Library, usually found at:

Ableton/Library/Samples

Put the files “TR-505.adg” & “TR-606.adg” in the correct presets folder of your Ableton Library. That would be “Drum Rack” in this case, typically located at:

Ableton/Library/Presets/Instruments/Drum Rack

You can make your own folder within the Drum Rack folder if you wish. Most of the time I call these “My Presets”, “My Patches” or something along these lines, pick any name you’re comfortable with.

If Ableton gives you a “Samples couldn’t be located”, then let Ableton search the library and they should pop-up. Feel free to ask for help in the comments.

That’s it! Enjoy your vintage drumming.

Download via my samples page

Another vintage drum-computer, this time completely analog, but sampled just as deliciously and noise-free as possible.

Samples recorded through an M-Audio Fast Track Pro using the TR-606′s only line-out, the mono line-out. Noise reduction via Ableton Live’s gate device. Further editing and sample-rate conversion done in Audacity. Rendered in both 24-Bit 96000Hz AIFF and 16-Bit 44100Hz WAV.

Go to my new Samples Page to download.

All samples recorded, edited and converted by JordyVision at studio moimooi, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Original sound-design by The Roland Corporation.
©2011 JordyVision / Son of 8-Bits
℗2011 studio moimooi

File hosted by Prowess Records.