Noise

Freebies and the decline of civilisation.

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It is a full time job trying to keep up with all of the stuff being made freely available, or at a goodly discount, to help people through their locked-down existence. For example Sound On Sound are maintaining a list of software deals available on noisy stuff. One such deal was from Heavyocity who produced a #StayHome instrument for Kontakt.

https://youtu.be/4gdTUZFL96Y

 

They asked for a $10 donation for UNICEF et al or it was available for free. Who can resist things that so delightfully bleep and bonk?

So I fill in their form to make an account – because how can you possibly buy anything without setting up an account and providing all your personal details these days? I am then sent off to PayPal to make the purchase/donation. I log in to my PayPal account but my money is rejected and I am sent back to Heavyocity with red text on my details. Red text is never a good thing. Apparently the email address I use for my PayPal account does not match the email address I used for my Heavyocity account. Who knew that was a thing? I can think of five domains I own and can use for email (there are probably more) and for most of them I will use a multitude of addresses as befits my needs. So I am a little peeved that Heavyocity has taken it upon themselves to specify which email address I should use.

Not to worry I shall just use my bank debit card. I am sent back to PayPal where I am now a guest. Before I can make my purchase/donation PayPal demands that I provide my phone number. I have had a PayPal account for many years and have never given them my phone number – which suggests that they do not really need it and so I never will. So declining to give them my phone number I return to the Heavyocity site to see if we can resolve this problem. Alas there Get In Touch and Contact Us links just take you to their Zendesk support pages with no obvious way to actually get in touch and contact them. As I do not do the whole TweetyBook thing that was not an option either.

So I just gave up and downloaded it for free.  It is very good.

 

But don’t get me started on PayPal:

A promo code you say?  Let me just type that in…..

A is for Audio Units and April Fools

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Who does not love mangling some noise with some new Audio Units? I know I do and my Downloads folder is invariably over flowing with Wiggles, Moniques, Hats and the like.

The latest batch included Izotope’s Mobius Filter, PSP’s StompDelay and WavesFactory’s Phi.

Audio Units in Ableton Live

The first adds a flanging, phasing, equalisation type effect within a simple and effective interface.

The second provides a plethora of settings for delays, echoes, loops and related effects.

The third utilises the universal Golden Ratio (hence the name Phi) and applies that to enhance even the most mundane recordings. There is probably no type of audio that would not be greatly improved with the use of this plugin.

Chuck them all together and you get Don’t Do Meths…

https://soundcloud.com/duncan-moran/dont-do-meths/s-R4Drh

Only one of the three was released on April 1st 2016.

Looks sound

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While looking at the pictures of Sasaki Makoto…

[iframe src=”http://www.sasakimakoto.com/portfolio/7-contact_sheet.html” width=”100%” height=”480″]

[iframe src=”http://www.sasakimakoto.com/portfolio/8-contact_sheet.html” width=”100%” height=”480″]

…the first question that comes to mind is…

What would that sound like?

Like this…

and this…