Ancient and noble ninja warlocks,
Here at the R0b0tninja, sometimes the darts I throw are poison-tipped, and sometimes they are merely diamond coated. Nevertheless, enemies sometimes appear that require more attention than my hydraulic shurikens can deliver, and your friendly yet merciless robotic ninja can be waylaid by sonic potential, and promises of infinite energy.
The people at Native Instruments, long discussed by your humble r0b0t narrator for their instrumental prowess, have unveiled Komplete 4, which is a plug-in based group of multiple synth, sampler and effects programs that, under the control of Kore, combine as one to form a giant R0b0t of musical destruction. Each synth on its own is a powerful weapon, much like the lions of Voltron, only these are easily capable of devouring entire skyscrapers, lengthwise, in their powerful jaws.
Individually, the different plug-ins available are as follows: Absynth, Kontakt, Massive, Battery, FM8, B4, Pro-53, Akoustik and Elektrik piano, Guitar Rig, Vokater, Spectral delay, Kore and Reaktor. Together, these sonic blast-dragons, if you will, threaten to overtake mankind as the pinnacle of evolutionary intelligence, and, as with all of man’s tools, have the power to create as well as to destroy.
This monstrous compilation of audio processing is too deep to be described collectively, and so, your R0b0t ninja has taken it upon himself to report, in detail, on the different qualities presented in each. Some, (like absynth and reaktor), are available as 400 dollar programs alone. By themselves, they are like hand-held universes: fully accessible from our own dimension, yet so intricate and multi-faceted as to defy full definition. Attempting to combine them all and successfully express their true power to the uninitiated would be like explaining the brilliance of Rembrandt to a blind man with no ears. Not completely impossible, but nonetheless, a thoroughly ridiculous task.
Anyway, in the coming weeks, expect to find new updates of this herculean process on the R0b0tninja post, and watch this new audio potential affect change within my dub and hiphop galaxies. I will begin with Absynth (as recent trends would have us follow), and give you a basic walkthrough that, when shown to the beasts of the field, will grant them instant comprehension of the universe and its workings. Unfortunately, all others will gain only a topical understanding of modern synthesis and sampling techniques.
So it goes
That’s right my ninjas – we here at MNP are giving away a subscription to dwell [I believe that's 10 issues over 12 months] to one of our readers. How do you get in on this, you ask? It’s simple – every visitor who leaves a comment [a content-related comment, not just 'first!' or something foolish] on ANY MNP SITE, along with their email address will be entered. The ninjas will then select a commenter at random, and name the winner on Novermber 26th. Every individual comment counts [the more you comment, the more likely you are to win] so visit all of our sites and let your voice be heard.
myninjaplease.com
architecture.mnp
green.mnp
music.mnp
politricks.mnp
arquitectura.mnp
robotninja.mnp
the pimp’s corner [warning: may be too hood for the white belt]
Too lazy to post a comment? Well, we won’t give you anything for free – but you can follow this link to pay for your own [discounted - 2 bucks is 2 bucks] subscription to dwell. There are only a few publications we’ll point you to off-line, and this is one; don’t sleep!
[helpful hint: look in the 'Talk of the Dojo' section of the sidebar to read comments made by other MNP readers]
Robots and Ninjamen,
My audio bredren De la Mancha, programmer of synthesizers and digital music/art, has released a Commodore 64 inspired synthesizer for use with your VST compatible frame (pro tools, live, logic) though, unfortunately, DLM’s plugins only work on Windows machines. From the site:
basic64 is inspired by the 8 bit sounds of the classic Commodore 64.
It’s not a straight emulation, but is based around the SID chip with some extras for that 8-bit retro game sound, lofi gritty noises or just plain oddness
features
- 16, 8 or 6 bit sound quality
- 3 oscs, each with their own ADSR envelope
- oscillators can be sync’d and ring modulated by each other
- pitch envelope modulation
- pitch wobble option, for subtle instability
- 2 tempo-sync LFO’s to modulate pitch, cut-off and pulse width
- LFO’s have attack/release curves
- tempo-sync arpegiator
- flexible routing to state variable filter (LP, HP & BP)
- envelopes can be reset or continuous at retrigger
- monophonic or polyphonic option
- midi learn / midi CC support
- 128 presets by sinkmusic & WhiskeyPriest
Like all true R0b0tninja, I respectfully acknowledge the works of supreme instrument creators such as De La Mancha. Some use Reaktor, some take this more direct approach, but all must inevitably answer to the Supreme Ninja-master in the sky. R0b0tninja blasters set to annihilate.
Most esteemed space-ninjas and robots
As you may know, one of the many advantages of being a robotic ninja, is that travelling through deep space poses no real threat to our livelihood. While your flesh-and-blood ninja has to rely on various ninja-magics and/or ninja-spacecraft, we robotninjas can survive even the raw vacuum of outer space, giving us the freedoms to explore vast reaches of the solar system and beyond. At a colleague’s post at NASA, please find several examples of the field recordings I made while in orbit around Saturn. On a routine expedition to Jupiter, investigating an orbiting artifact placed there millions of years ago by advanced, god-like superbeings (turns out it was full of stars), I happened to pick up some interesting sounds on my various antennae while passing by Saturn. Intrigued, I beamed the samples back to earth, and my good friends at the National Astronomical Super Atomics have posted them for the world to experience. End ninja-transmission—-dictated but not read.
Greetings my ninjas and/or robots. In conjunction with the bombastic jazz ninja Herbie Hancock, Ableton Live is holding a contest to see who can represent Herbie’s music with the funkiest soul power. Sample, re-record, or be inspired by Herbie’s abstract funk: his pattern-based thought process offers countless possible candidates. The winner’s music will no doubt be heard by the Man himself, and almost as amazing, will win the latest as yet unreleased version of Ableton’s extraordinary music production software, Live 7. No doubt, the R0b0tninja is well-versed in Herbie’s massive musical proliferations. Witness the results of this challenge on the R0b0tninja, and who knows, maybe R0b0tr0n itself will take notice. But beware–the corporate entity’s blessing is as deadly as its curse.
Use magnetic tape, my ninjas. Please. For years, the most respected ninja-audio scientists have known that analog and digital recording offer two distinct sonic possibilities. Analog recievers/recorders tend to use tubes to amplify the signal, and magnetic tape to record that signal. This process, as I will tell you, disregards the odd-numbered harmonics in a given sound, leaving the signal with a warmer, richer tone (for examples, see the latest posts on my music sites, or, compare early Bob Marley to his later stuff). Digital recording, in comparison, either includes odd numbered harmonics, or excludes even numbered ones. And for any of my ninjas hopelessly confused: all sounds are conglomerations of smaller sounds called harmonics. The almagamation of these harmonics become the sounds that we all know and recognize. It is the sworn duty of anyone bearing the title of R0b0t Ninja to honor and refine these sound wave harmonics to the macro-evolutionary apex at which we find ourselves. Which led me to purchase this little number on the ebay.
It’s amazing. I love it so much, as does black jesus–feel free to witness it’s sonic warmening on the R0b0tninja, as well as the R0b0tr0n/dub R0b0t interwebs. It is called an Akai M-8, 1/4 inch reel to reel tape recorder, with bloody, wonderful orange tubes glowing inside it. Ancient, high ninja-technology represent.
My silent but deadly ninjas,
Eidos, maker of such classic games as Tomb Raider and a few others, has developed Traxxpad, a mixing and sampling software/game that allows beginning beat-smiths and seasoned beat-masterdragons alike to mix beats in the comfort of their train-station, automobile and aeroplane dimensions.
Considerably less powerful than a laptop but far more powerful than a cell-phone, using the Psp as an audio production machine both interests and enrages your usually agreeable R0b0tninja, for reasons that I will soon describe.
Technology has always been a mainstay of music production: the first pianos, organs, harpsichords, and drums, were all pieces of high technology at their time. Intense dedication was required from the individual to transform these intimidating and complex machines into instruments of beauty and creation. This PSP sound system, therefore, represents a powerful, portable and accessible instrument that allows the common lay-ninja to create on similar levels to that of a R0b0tninja warl0rd. This pleases me, but it also fills me with a murderous rage that can only be quenched by spilling countless gallons of the blood of mine enemies.
For it also stands at the nadir of a trend of musical dumbening, pioneered by sony with its playstation title MTV’s music generator. Guitar hero, parappa the rapper—-these are the classic, you-can-do-it-too, douchebaggy games we all know and love, that allow anyone with 50 dorra to make what amounts to awful cartoon rap and classic rock. What the music generator and Traxxpad do is extract the you-can-do-it concept from the goofy, classic video-game modality, and create a soulless, musically deadening synthesis of edutainment and homogenous culture.
A stripped-down music production tool that lets average users ‘create’ beats using pre-selected samples and auto-quantized rhythms, Traxxpad lets you step-up to the genius-level status of the last 10 years of pop music with ease (although, I do think it’s cool that you can record using the psp mic and import your own loops with a memory stick…). I still have trouble accepting producers who only use samples and pass it off as their own–whatever happened to self-mastery? Now is the time, my ninjas, to bring it back to the skills.
R0b0tninja mind/body connect
I ninja Dreadren,
Who wan tes. As Iman would say, praise be to the most high in all him forms and works. Blessed is Iman robot, who would help H.I.M. bredren to behold Jah glory, decapitate baldhead vampire, and who in him breath, make babylon tower fall. Blessings be to Iman ninja who, by Jah mercy, slay the seven-head beast with him hand, and teach overstanding to lost I-dren along the Way. Jah Bless.
Myninjas, when I attempt to describe the ninja-blasting potential of different synthesizers to you (in these posts, and in the greater soundscape), I can only offer you different aspects of certain instruments, midi structures and samplers that people like Ableton and Propellerhead have taken the time to create.
That being said, for the more esoteric ninja for whom the current synthetic lexicon is never vast enough, Native Instruments Reaktor 5 allows the discriminating r0b0tninja to forge his own weapons of mass destruction and distribute them worldwide in the online Reaktor 5 user library. Good luck battling the US military, although as a r0b0tic ninja you probably have more important things to worry about…
The Reaktor core is unlike anything else. While several audio applications can mangle audio into feedback loops, leading to chain reactions of deafening proportions, inside the Reaktor, highly unstable elements can be multiplied together exponentially. Different levels of macrocosmic and cellular elements can be combined to form instruments, the user able to arrange and assign knobs and sliders to any of the endlessly customizable inner connections. Combine that with its ability to be used as a VST (virtual instrument) inside Live or Logic or whatever, and you begin to understand the pure nature of its sonic potential; as in life, the uninitiated will risk certain deafness, while the pr0b0t faces only the risks of being def.
Most venerable and esteemed ninjas: one of my many arch-nemesis is up for auction! Be forewarned–the next owner of this fire-breathing, car-eating R0b0t dinosaur will be, as per agreement, subject to R0b0tninja preemptive attack. The last time I fought this bastard, it had ate the back half of my 1999 subaru outback while I was in the store buying a blunt. I just ran in for like…five seconds, and I come out to see this R0b0saurus ass nigga eating all on my whip. I beat him down hard, but not before he ate like half my ride up.
