Interview with Bruce Gall on AR FM about PrimiTiveS

Bruce Gall from Sunday Synth at the UK radio station AR FM did another two hour special. This time on the PrimiTiveS album I did together with Remy Stroomer. Bruce played all 9 tracks from the album and in between he did an extensive interview with me. It was broadcasted on the airwaves and also on the web stream. I cut out most of the commercials, so it is a bit lot shorter now. You can listen to most of the album though. I hope you will enjoy it and buy the album of course when you like it. You can find a copy of the interview here: http://www.synth.nl/interviews/AR%20FM%20Interview%20(07-04-13).mp3

PrimiTiveS available as MP3 and FLAC

I have good news. PrimiTiveS is now also available from the download shop of Groove Unlimited. You can chose between two formats. Either 256 Kbit/s MP3 or Full Quality FLAC. Both files include the complete artwork. You can pay with PayPal or Ideal (from The Netherlands) and after your payment you get an immediate download link in your E-mail. All very easy and it saves you shipping costs if you are from outside Europe. You can find the download links on these URL's:

MP3 -> https://shop.groove.nl/gr-198-mp3
FLAC -> https://shop.groove.nl/gr-198-flac

More information on the album here: http://www.synth.nl/PrimiTiveS

Two more PrimiTiveS tracks on Elektroland Radio

Here is another chance to listen to two more tracks from the PrimiTiveS album by Remy and Synth.nl. They were played by Bjorn Jepessen on his radio show Elektroland. This radio show is also available as a podcast online, so you can download the show and listen to it whenever it is convenient for you.

You can find Bjorn's Elektroland show on this URL: http://www.nattefrost.dk/elektroland/playlist.htm

Ambient Visions Interview with Remy & Synth.nl

Remy and myself were recently asked to do an interview with Ambient Visions about our collaboration on PrimiTiveS. We gladly accepted this of course. Remy and I both answered half the questions and it is all about how we met and how the album evolved. I think it is an interesting read. So if you are interested you can find the whole interview on this URL:

http://www.ambientvisions.com/primitives.htm

Solar Power for my Apollo Studio

For all of you that always worry about the power that my studio uses. Even though it even isn't so much as many think. (the whole studio is on one 16 Amp fuse). But I have good news for you. The whole studio is solar powered now! I put 13 solar panels on the roof of our garage. They are 250 Watt Peak each so that is a total of 3250 Wp. It isn't even that sunny yet in The Netherlands but they are working hard already. 55 KWh in 3 days time. So from now on my music is totally CO2 free!

Here is the inside unit. It doesn't not only deliver the power to  the house, but also measures it. On the display you can see the power it delivers. I have already seen 2900 Watt during the afternoon when the sun was pointing directly at the panels and the summer still has to start :) I also ordered a network interface for this unit so that I can read it out from my PC. It makes nice graphs from the measurements. The last thing to do now is get the power company to install an intelligent measurement unit as well so I can see how much power we do and how much is coming from the solar panels. And I also have to file some papers to apply for subsidy from the local government here.

[Release] PrimiTiveS by Remy & Synth.nl

First of all my apologies that it took so long to write this message. I have been very busy with work the last few days. But here is the good news:

PrimiTiveS was finally released on CD on the 6th of April! It was released during the E-day festival organised by our record label Groove Unlimited. So after 1,5 years of work it is finally there! Both Remy and myself are extremely satisfied with the end result. I think the music is a good mix between Remy's music and my music, but we both would never have made this on our own.

You can read a bit more on the album and listen to some samples on my website. The samples are just short fragments. Everybody agrees so far that the CD is much better than the samples :)

You can order the CD from these places:

http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artiest=synth.nl
http://www.desertedislandmusic.nl/

It will be available later on more places like CDBaby.com as are my other albums and it will also be available later as digital download in both MP3 and FLAC format. This can all take a while though. I will let you know when this happens.

The first reviews are also in already. You can read them here:

http://www.synth.nl/reviews-primitives/blog (don't forget to press 'Read More') on them. So far the reactions and reviews are very very positive :) We are both very proud of course!

Last week Bruce Gall of Sunday Synth did a 2 hour special on the album including an interview with myself about the creation of the album. I got permission to put it online in case you missed it. It will be an opportunity to listen to most of the music of the album as well. I will put that online soon and let you know.

So don't wait and order your copy now. You won't regret it :) Please let me know if you need any assistance in acquiring the album from your country. Thanks for your support!

I hope you will have as much fun listening to the album as we had creating it.

You can find more info here: http://www.synth.nl/PrimiTiveS

PrimiTiveS on Dreamscape Radio

Here is the first chance for you to listen to a track from the upcoming PrimiTiveS album of Remy & Synth.nl. Ron Boots plays a part of the openingstrack from the album on his weekly Dreamscape Radio. The track is called 'Underground Tubes' and it slowly warms you up for the rest of the album. (we hope). The whole track is 12 minutes and 18 second long. I hope you like it. You can listen Dreamscape Radio on this URL: http://www.dreamscaperadio.nl/. The show will be online for a week so be quick to listen to it.

Another Release coming with Ron Boots!

While I'm very busy together with Remy Stroomer to promote our new collaboration album I have more exciting collaboration news. Last year we spend a weeks holiday again together with Ron Boots and his family in BorkHavn, Denmark. And YES we brought our synthesizers along with us again! We made a lot of new music there and decided that we will release this music on a new collaboration album. We still have a lot of work on this album, but the plan is to start working on this right after E-day. We already selected the best pieces that will go on the album. I'm really looking forward to another release together with Ron Boots. More news will follow later this year.

Quick Update on PrimiTives and E-Day

I have a quick update on PrimiTiveS for you: Everything is done for PrimiTiveS. Wouter Bessels has done an excellent job on the mastering and everything is of now to the mastering plant. I also send out the first album previews to some radio stations and the reactions are very positive. I already got 4 interview request from that, so keep posted for news on those. I also replaced the sneak preview clips I uploaded last week with the final mastered version. You can find them on the usual URL's: http://www.synth.nl/PrimiTiveS and https://soundcloud.com/synthnl. of course this is only mp3 quality so the actual CD will be much better. More good news is that E-day goes on for sure! Enough tickets are sold now so you can definitely pick up your copy on Remy's stall on E-day 2013 on the 6th of April in Oirschot in The Netherlands. More info http://www.e-live.nl

Keep E-day Festival Alive! Order Tickets now!

The release of PrimiTiveS was planned on the yearly E-day festival that my record label Groove Unlimited organizes every year. Unfortunately the ticket sales are very bad and the event maybe cancelled :( That would be a real bummer and mean no release party for PrimiTiveS either and possible the end for the festival definately :( So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy a ticket and come and pick your copy up at the E-day festival in Oirschot in The Netherlands on the 6th of April. Remy and I will both be present and sign it for you if you like. E-day is a great festival with concerts all day a lot of artists present and a great atmosphere. Go buy your ticket here NOW PLEASE!

http://www.e-live.nl

Let me know if you need any assistance.

PrimiTiveS Sneak Preview

I promised to get back to you when I had some sound clips. I have put together a short mix with sound clips from the first masters I got back of all the tracks of the PrimiTiveS album together with Remy Stroomer. The mastering process is not complete yet, but this will give you a good idea of the music and the overall sound of the album. You can listen to them on both my SoundCloud page or on my own website. Here are the URL's:
https://soundcloud.com/synthnl + http://www.synth.nl/PrimiTiveS
I hope you like them.

PrimiTiveS pre-order possible from Groove Unlimited

Remy and myself finished our work on our PrimiTiveS album. Wouter is very busy now for us doing his mastering art. We can hardly wait for the final release on the 6th of April. In the mean time Groove Unlimited is already preparing the release as well. From now on you can already pre-order the album from the Groove Unlimited CD shop. If you want to get it as one of the first I would say go to the website an order your copy. We will have audio clips available very soon, but I guess when you like Remy's and Synth.nl music you don't have to wait for that ;) You can pre-order your copy on this URL: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artiest=synth.nl. If you want to be sure you can also get your copy first hand on the E-day festival on the 6th of april in Oirschot in the Netherlands. There are still tickets available. More information on http://www.e-live.nl/. More information soon!

PrimiTiveS Artwork Animation

I made a little animation of the artwork for the upcoming collaboration album together with Remy Stroomer. This animation and all the artwork was made in Cinema 4D.

New E-Day 2013 Website Design

Twice a year Ron Boots asks me to make a new design for the yearly E-Live and E-day events Groove Unlimited organizes. This this it is E-day time again on April the 6th. I made a new header graphic based on all the pictures he got from the artists and tried to make it look a bit like they are all on stage. I hope you like it. There are still tickets available by the way for this fabulous event where also the new CD 'PrimiTiveS' by Remy and myself will be released. So some listen to some nice electronic music concerts there and pick up your copy of PrimiTives from Remy and me personally. More information on http://www.e-live.nl where you can also have a better look at the new graphic I made.

PrimiTiveS Artwork Pre-Renders

This weekend I had another studio session with Remy Stroom in my studio. We are really almost done with the music for the album now. There is only one more studio session planned for the final touches. We also finished the artwork for the album now. I made some pre-renders of the artwork so you know what it will look like when it is finished. It always gives a nice idea to put the images on a jewel case for a rough idea. I thought it would be nice to share there views with you. I presented the cover before but in the picture on the left you can see the pre-render of the front of the CD.

And in the picture on the right is a render of the back of the CD. You can also find the track list here. As you can see the CD hold 9 tracks and it will be approximately 72 minutes in length. Today also Ron Boots visited my studio and we listened to the album. He agreed with us that this album is a good mix between Remy and Synth.nl and that it is music neither of us would have made on our own. I hope that gets you excited :) At least we are for sure.

And here you can see what you will see when you open the CD. There is also a little story about Remy and myself and how this album came about. In the mean time this story is also on my website together with the track list on this URL http://www.synth.nl/Primitives. Here there will be some audio material to listen to as well very soon and the links where you can pre-order the album as soon as that is possible. I will keep you posted on that. I hope you like the artwork in the mean time. Btw. You can click the pictures for larger versions. More information coming soon!

PrimiTiveS Studio Session with Remy and Wouter

At the moment Remy and I are working hard on finishing the collaboration album we are working on called 'PrimiTiveS'. Recently we had another session in my studio and this time also Wouter Bessels joined us. Wouter is Remy's mastering engineer and he will also do the mastering of our upcoming album. It was nice to chat a bit with the both of them, but we also did some hard work. Remy and I played the last lines of music so from now on it is only producing, mixing and mastering. The hard work has begun.

Wouter didn't stay all day, but we discussed a good bit about what we would expect from his mastering work. I worked with two different mastering engineers so far and they all have a different approach I guess. Wouter sure knows what he is talking about though so I have confidence in him :) He did like the rough mixes we have so far, so I guess we are getting somewhere soon. We have to by the way since the dead line is nearing. We discussed with Wouter that we would have to deliver track end februari. And that is soon.

This weekend Remy is coming over again and we have another final session planned in the first weekend of March. That will be the last chance to make any alterations. This weekend we will also finalize the artwork and we will probably share that with you after the weekend. We already determined the track names etc, but now also the track lengths are knows, so expect an update on that soon as well. I know you are all waiting for audio samples. You can expect those somewhere next month I guess. It is getting very exciting for me 2012 was a year without any release, so I cannot wait to get some new music to you guys. Keep on reading here for more news :)

PrimiTiveS Cover and Release Date

Just before the end of the year I had another meeting with Remy Stroomer to work on our collaboration album called 'PrimiTiveS'. Initially this project was planned for 2012, but we didn't make that deadline. We did set another dead line though. The release of this album is planned for the 6th of April during the yearly E-day festival in Oirschot that is organized by my record label Groove Unlimited. We also worked on the artwork some more and in the picture on the left you see the cover of the album. The album will be released by Groove Unlimited and will be for sale as a regular CD and and MP3 and FLAC download. I hope to update you with more news, artwork, soundclips etc soon. But I thought this was good news to start 2013 with and I wanted to share it with you. We are going to work some more now on the final mixing, mastering etc. Talk to you soon!

QuiRobinez Sounds for the Korg Kronos

Those of you who know my music and actually read the text in the booklets of my albums should have seen the name of my good friend Qui Robinez. He is an excellent sound designer and he made a lot of sounds for the Korg M3 and the Access Virus TI that I used in my music. Now he has discovered the Korg Kronos and started to make sounds for that synthesizer. He has some free sounds on his website, but now also started selling some very good premium libraries for the Korg Kronos. Together we build an online website where you can buy those sounds as immediate downloads. You can preview the sounds in his excellent YouTube clips that are also online so you know what you are buying. Go check his website out and if you own a Korg Kronos do buy the sounds he made. You won't regret it! You can find the website here: http://www.quirobinez.nl

Happy Holidays and Groove end of Year Sale

First of all I'd like to wish you all happy holidays! Groove Unlimited has a nice gesture for you until the end of the year. They offer a 25% discount on all Groove Unlimited releases on both the CD store as the download store until the 31st of December 2012!
So if there is still some music you wanted to buy from Synth.nl, now would be a good time do do that :) Go to http://www.groove.nl and enjoy :) Unfortunately there were no Synth.nl releases in 2012, sorry for that, but I promise you there will be something new for sure in 2013! Talk you you all soon!

DIY Rotating Clock Divider

It had been a while but last weekend I fired up the soldering iron again. This time not even for myself but for my friend Hans who is also into modular synthesizers. He asked me if I wanted to solder an euro rack size module for him. In this case it was a rotating clock divider with a break out box with some switches to control it. The whole thing came as a kit with documentation. So I started soldering right away along the documentation. During the process a couple of choices had to be made because you could make the kit behave as another function as well. But Hans wanted the Rotating Clock Divider functionality.

The start of the kit if quite straight forward, but at a certain moment you have to solder components on both sides. That can be a bit tricky sometimes and you do have to do that in the right order. On of the things that had to be soldered on the bottom side were the leds. They are colored leds, but they look clear. At first I didn't understand which led went where, because there are also colors on the front panel, that didn't match. This whole thing didn't make much sense to me, but it turned out that this was OK. They were stuck on a piece of paper in the right order.

Here is a picture of the finished kit with the break out box. There was one little ring missing from the kit to hold a mini jack on the front panel. When my friend Hans came here yesterday to pick it up I told him the bad news. I suggested to E-mail the supplier and let them send another ring. But then Hans pointed on my desk to a mini jack I had lying around and it had exactly the same ring, so I mounted that one for him. I can get those jacks any day at my local electronics store, so no problem. I just didn't assume that they could be exactly the same type.

Then came the exciting moment to test the module. I used my lab power supply to put the required 12 Volts on the module. I'm used to  turn the current limiter to 0 Amps and then gradually turning it up to see if it doesn't have any short circuits. This is a very safe method to test newly soldered DIY projects. It will save you power supply and prevent the module to burn up when you did make an error. Everything held well on 0,08 Amps though so that looked quite OK. Then I used a function generator to put a clock on the module and it started producing clock divisions nicely. So the module seemed to work just fine. Now Hans is probably playing with it at home. I hope he enjoys it :)