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.