Nominated for the SchallWelle Award

Like the previous years I have been nominated for the yearly Schallwelle Award that is organized by the German Electronic Music club Schallwende. The price is decided by both a jury and the audience. As a listener to electronic music you can vote on your favorite artist and album in both national (that is German in this case) and international categories. Feel free to vote if you want. You can find Synth.nl under international artists and my Apollo album under international album. You can find the voting link here: http://voting.schallwelle-preis.de/.

Only 3 AtmoSphere copies left!

Yesterday I visited the Ron Boots & Friends New Years concert and had a great time. At the stall that my record label Groove Unlimited had there I learned that from the original print of my second album AtmoSphere (2008) only 3 CD copies are left! After that they are out of stock and I don't know yet what is going to happen. All three copies are signed by me personally by the way. So if you don't have this album in your collection yet, NOW would be a good time to order one before they are gone. You can find more information on the album and also the link to the Groove website on: http://www.synth.nl/AtmoSphere

Merry Christmas!!

I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas!! I was working on a little movie that I wanted to have ready for today, but unfortunately I didn't quite make it, but I still wanted to share some of it with you. I'll guess the movie will come next year or maybe some parts later this year in the demo reel I'm making for my website. Here is a simple scene I made with only primitives in Cinema 4D. The snow was done with the Magic Snow plugin.

But this one is a lot more complex and there for the movie took a long time too render. It ran on 10 machines here for a couple of days and then when it was done there was an error in it, because one render machine didn't have the Turbulence FD plugin on there that I used for the fire :( I also wanted to put even more decoration in the tree, but just didn't have more time. To be continued I guess.

And here is a close-up scene. As you can see the tree is very detailed. That also adds up to the render time. Ah well I had a lot of fun making this while I also made this years Christmas track called 'SynthHerald'. It got me in the Christmas spirit early. I hope it will help you a bit too :) Again have a great time with your loved ones today. Merry Christmas to you all!!

Syndae Christmas Special Online!

The new Syndae Christmas special is online! It features my new Christmas Song called 'SynthHerald'. There are two editions my track is in the family edition. All the music on this Christmas special is especially made for this special by all the artists. I always find this a very cool concept.

You can listen to the Christmas special on http://www.syndae.de

20% Discount on All Synth.nl titles at Groove Unlimited

I have some great news for you. My record label Groove Unlimited gives 20% discount on all its own releases until the 30th of December 2011! That means you can buy all my CD's now for a very low price now. Buy 5 and get 1 free :) This offer includes also all CD's from other artists that Groove released in the past years. I can recommend you to check out artists like: Ron Boots, Eric van der Heijden, Gert Emmens and Nattefrost might you not now them yet. And do also check out the Dutch Masters and Analogy compilation CD's. Highly recommended. Well more information on http://www.grooveunlimited.nl. Go to 'CD shop' and then press 'Groove Products' in the menu on top for an overview of all Groove Products. Don't let this offer pass! Right in time for Christmas I think ;)

Synth.nl Soundbank in Rob Papen's Predator 1.6.2 update

I have some nice news for you. In the latest update of the Predator synthesizer made by Rob Papen you'll find a nice surprise. I made a complete bank with 103 sounds for Rob. All the sounds are in the traditional classic synthesizer music style that I also use in my own music. So now you can play with those Synth.nl sounds yourself :) The update is free if you already have a license and if you don't I would suggest you to check Predator out because it is really good in my opinion. You can find more information about the 1.6.2 update here: http://www.robpapen.com/nl/15Dec2011.htm and more information on Rob Papen's Predator here: http://www.robpapen.com/predator.html. If you download the update do let me know what you think of the sound bank. It is the first time I did something like this and I'd like to hear if you appreciate it.

Apollo now also on Itunes and Amazon!

My Apollo album is now also available as an MP3 download purchase from Apple Itunes.com and Amazon.com. I guess that should make it available to anyone now. Here are the direct links to the albums:

Itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/apollo/id485526488

and Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006H580EA/ref=dm_sp_alb

If you have any problems, please let me know and you can find the other sales links for CD's and more information about the album on http://www.synth.nl/Apollo

Building SammichFM DIY Video

This year I build a Wilba SammichFM DIY synthesizer kit. It is based on the famous Yamaha OPL3 sound chip that was also used on the famous Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and SoundBlaster 16 ASP sound cards. It is a 4 voice FM synthesizer that sounds a lot like the famous Yamaha DX series. During the construction of the synthesizer I filmed the whole process. This movie is an excerpt of the 4 hours total build time. I made the 3D animations myself in Cinema 4D. The music you hear in the background in a track called 'Thermosphere' from my 'AtmoSphere' album that I released in 2008. More information on the album on http://www.synth.nl/AtmoSphere.

Synth.nl on Last RoboCast Podcast

Unfortunately Ian Price decided to stop producing is fabulous podcast called RoboCast radio. I think he did a great job in making this radio show over the last years together with his two droids. I want to thank Ian for all the airplay he has given my music and I'm honored to be with even two tracks on his last show ever. He played my last years Christmas track called 'HolySynth' and he also played a track from my latest Apollo album called 'Apollo 11'. I think most of the shows will remain online for a while, but go give this farewell show a play for sure. You can find the podcast on this URL: http://robocastradio.podomatic.com/
Thanks again Ian and I hope life treat you good in whatever your plans are!

BIT Project (Part 2)

Last time I showed you the rough model of the building of BIT BV, but now it is time to add detail. Today I spend a couple of hours modeling this security camera. BIT has a lot of these all around the building. I modeled it as close as I could from some picture I took of them. It looks simple I guess, but I can tell you it is a LOT of work to model something like this from scratch in Cinema 4D. Well I'm quite happy with the outcome myself and I'll put them on the building soon. There is a lot of other stuff I also need to model and I'm starting to get an idea of how huge this whole project will be. I hope to update you soon with some more stuff I made.

Recorded some Seasonal Greetings

Last week I recorded some Christmas and New Years wishes and send them to all the radio stations I know. Lots of them are preparing or already recording their Christmas and New Years specials so I though better early than late :) So the chances are big that you will hear me talk through some EM radio shows here and there ;) I also send them the Christmas tracks I made the last years. I'm still working on a new one for the yearly Syndae Christmas Special. The deadline is the 17th of December, so I still have some time. I guess you will hear it somewhere around Christmas.

TC 4000 Reverb and RME ADI-8

Recently I added two new devices to my studio. My friend Hans found a very cheap deal on two TC 4000 Reverbs, so we both bought one. I didn't use it until now, but I can tell you it is very good. I missed the VSS3 and NonLin2 algorithms since I sold my PowerCore X8, but they are back :) And more! This reverb really sounds top notch. I also bought a very cheap RME ADI-8 AD/DA converter that was traded in at one of the music shops I come a lot called Live Music in The Netherlands. Both of them are now in the spot where my Eventide H8000 was before. This one is now on it's way to the USA for repair. When it gets back I'll have to find another spot for these two, but they are here to stay for sure :)

One set of MB-6582 knobs left!

A while ago I build a Wilba MB-6582 synthesizer kit. I was too late for a group buy and had to buy a full bag of knobs for myself. In the mean time I have sold a large part of the remaining knobs and today I'm sending away another set of them. I just counted my knobs and I still have one set left. So be quick if you need these knobs, they are hard to get by in small numbers. If you are interested just send me an E-mail and I'll make you a nice deal.

Apollo on CDBaby.com as CD and MP3 Download

I have good news for all of you living overseas (well from my point of view). My Apollo album is now also available on CDBaby.com. If you order the CD there from outside Europe it will save you serious on the shipping costs. I think this is just in time for your Christmas Shopping ;) You can also download it as an MP3 download in high quality if you don't want to wait.

You can find it on this URL: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Synthnl3

My other CD's are also for sale on CDBaby.com of course you can find them on this URL: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Synthnl. Thanks for your support!

BIT Project (Part 1)

At the moment I'm working on quite a big and ambitious project. If you have read my biography you will know that music is just a hobby for me and that my main job is actually operating a business ISP company that is running a couple of data centers in The Netherlands. Our current website is Dutch only and needs a big overhaul. I'm currently working with my colleagues on some ideas for the new website. The first this is that is needs to go in a multilingual CMS system. So the good news is that you guys will be actually able to read it later on :)

One thing we want to have on there for sure is a virtual tour through our data centers. The idea is to use real video footage in combination with 3D animated graphics. But before you can create any animation you need to build a model of the whole building. And that is what I'm currently doing. Bart Auceps made a start with the model a while ago in Autodesk 3D studio max and I just completely redid large parts of his model in Cinema 4D and also made some adjustments and additions already to the model. I'm also redid the texturing already.

So now the rough outside of the building is almost done and I need to work on the detail and the interior and after that I need to build the server rooms of the data centers. Most things here I did from the top of my head, but next week I'll take some pictures of details of the building to be able to reproduce that also in the 3D model. I guess this will be project that will take a couple of months for sure. I will post updates on this blog from time to time so you can follow along.

In our house style we use a couple of Dutch bridges as a metaphor for stability and reliability. In the past we took pictures of these bridges and altered them, but for the new website I'm also experimenting with a rendered approach. In the picture on the right you see a bridge that in real life is in Amsterdam, but now it is in my computer. In this way I can get it from any angle and position the water and clouds etc. anywhere I want. I don't know if we will use it yes, but I hope so, since I think it is starting to look quite realistic. If you are interested in the old website and the company you can have a look on http://www.bit.nl/. This website is Dutch only, but I guess you can use Google Translate to read what it is about. There is a lot of text on there btw, but the new site will have more graphical elements and less text for sure. You can click all the pictures for a bigger version btw and every thing you see is computer generated. No actual pictures where used anywhere.

New Groove Unlimited Website Online

Yesterday my record label Groove Unlimited launched the first part of a new web design that I did for them. I made the 3D logo design in Cinema4D from an EPS file of their old logo. The website was build with the Joomla CMS. I think it looks quite new and fresh compared to the old website. The old website is still running by the way since there is a CD shop on there with lots of articles. In the mean time we are also working on a new webshop, but it is a LOT of work to complete that project. So this is step 1 of a 4 step project actually. If there is more news I'll let you know of course. But for now I'm happy that this first step is live. You can find the new website on http://www.grooveunlimited.nl/ or the good old http://www.groove.nl/ which redirects to the new site for now. P.S. you can actually buy all my music from the CD shop ;)

SammichFM (Part 7)

The next step in the process of building the SammichFM is the painting of the letters for the front and back panels. The idea is that you put paint on the paper that is on the panels and then peel it of to reveal the letters. Somehow that is not really my thing :) I always end up having paint everywhere. Maybe I'm to impatient I don't know. But somehow I also do manage to get it of with some thinner and don't screw up that bad, so it kind of looks OK I think.

The most tricky part is that the inside of letters like 'P' stay on when you peel of the paper and you have to get that of somehow and if the paint is not completely dry yet, you smear it out. Ah well now you are warned at least ;). On the right is a picture of the back panel. As you can see it has two audio outputs. You can assign any of the four parts of the synthesizer to an output, so it is a real multitimbral synthesizer actually. Quite  more than I expected when I started to build it.

And here is a picture of the fully assembled and fully operational end product. The SammichFM :) On top you can clearly see the buttons to select the 4 parts of the synthesizer. So you really get 4 for the prince of 1. Looking back on this project I think it is not a beginners project. Especially the soldering of the SMD components is quite challenging and not suitable for anyone without proper soldering experience. The rest is fairly simple, so maybe get some help if you want to build one for yourself and you are not so experienced.

And here is one final picture: a nice family portrait. On the left is the SammichFM and on the right its sister the SammichSID. Nice shot I think :) I personally like the blue leds and blue backlit display better on the SammichFM. But to conclude this series: These synthesizers are very similar in looks, but very different in character. The SammichSID is way more analog sounding and fat, but the SammichFM is very complementary I think.and they make a nice set together. OK now I'm going to work on the movie and hopefully I'll be able to show that any time soon.

Virtual DIY Project (Part 4)

I worked a lot on the virtual DIY project the last days. I also modeled some new components again for it. In the picture you see a white Molex connector on the bottom right corner of the PCB that I made myself and in the middle you can see two black Heat Sinks on the power regulators that I modeled. It is so much fun to create this stuff from nothing.

On the right is an overview render I made just before I put these components on the PCB, but I think it looked nice in this perspective so I did want to share this one as well with you. All components on this PCB are hand placed, so I think you can imagine how much work this has been. On the bottom right are also some new components I modeled. Some capacitors in green, red and broken white.

 Here is another overview picture from another angle that I made using the 'depth of field' feature in Cinema 4D R13 to make it look more artistic. I think it turned out quite OK even though I'm still trying to improve my skills especially on lighting objects. I focused the camera somewhere in the middle of the picture so you see that the foreground and background is a bit blurred out.

And here is one more overview picture on the right. The modeling of the PCB is now completely finished. I'm just working now a bit more on texturing and lighting to make close-up shot nicer. But I'll call this project as good as done now. Next thing up is make some kind of intro animation with it for a DIY movie that I'm planning. More following later on that. I guess that this will take a while before it is done and ready to show. So a little patience please :) I hope you enjoyed this so far at least. Oh and just in case you missed it in the previous posts. You can click on the pictures for a larger version.

Analogy 3 on CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon

One of the first releases I did was a track called 'Synthology' that I made for the compilation album 'Analogy 3' that was released in 2007 by my record label Groove Unlimited. The nice thing about this sampler concept is that the artists involved were only allowed to use analog synthesizers. It is a very nice and very varied album that was mixed together as one long mix by Ron Boots. I just found out that the album is now also for sale as CD both also as MP3 download on the popular sites like CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon. More information about the album and also the direct links to the album on these sites can be found on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/Analogy3

New track coming on EM Portal CD II

I recently finished a new track for the upcoming EM Portal sampler CD. (vol 2). I was inspired for this track by some samples that I took in the London Underground in 2008 when I visited the Oxygene tour by Jean Michel Jarre in the Royal Albert Hall in London. The track will be called simply 'Underground'. Highly appropriate since I made it underground in my basement as well :) I did have some trouble finding inspiration after the long work on the Apollo project, but I got it done in time to make the deadline. The CD will be released in the first quarter of 2012 to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the EM Portal forum, so you'll need to have a bit of patience, but that will for sure be my first release coming up now. Do have a look at the forum as well by the way. Lots of info on electronic music and also concert information etc. to find there. OK when I have more information on the CD I'll let you know for sure.