Apollo 3D Project (Part 8)

I promised some moving 3d animations after all the stills I have posted here. Well here is the first of a lot to come. This is the intro movie for the Apollo Teaser film that is coming soon.

Apollo Status Update

I promised to write an update on the Apollo Project. Well here it is. Yesterday I visited my friend Hans in his studio for another listening session and we determined that all arrangements for all the songs are done now. The last weeks I added a break to one song and an intro to another one and did some moving around in some other songs, because I wasn't satisfied yet with them. If you click on the picture on the left you can see the track list with the actual length of the songs that they are now. The CD will be a total of 70 minutes. So you'll get your money's worth of audio at least ;) But am I done now? NO not yet. Only one track is completely done now and I sent that one to Hans for mastering. I'm still working on the details in the other songs, adding sound effects, making drum variations, adding some little filler melodies and so on. In the mean time I'm also trying to get the mix for all the songs more in balance and when that is all done Hans still has to do the mastering. So progress is still slow, but steady. I still don't dare to name a release date though.

Rhodes Chroma Polaris in the Studio

I'm currently selling a lot of synthesizers to make room for some new stuff and I didn't really plan to buy other stuff, but then told me he was going to sell his Rhodes (Fender) Chroma Polaris and I couldn't resist to try it out. It is a very nice analog synthesizer that was developed by the ARP engineers just after they were bought by Fender/Rhodes. It has 6 voices with two VCO's each. And it was one of the first synthesizers to have a decent and full midi implementation.

And here you can see the whole synthesizer in the picture below my V-Synth GT. It looks very nice only the membrane keys are notorious for breaking down, but this one was just serviced and all the keys work like a charm. I played a bit with it today and I must say it sounds really nice, warm and analog. I'm very happy to add this to my collection since they are quite rare and especially in this state. It is quite mint actually. I'm sure I'll use it on some future production.

Great E-live 2011 Main Act and new Website

Recently Kees Aerts announced that he was going to leave my record label Groove Unlimited. That leaves only Ron Boots as the owner now. Kees always took care of the technical side of Groove and now Ron has to do that too. As you all know Ron has become a good friend of mine and he asked me to help him out there. And of course I'll do that gladly. The last weeks Kees moved the Groove websites to my little VMWare platform at BIT-2A and I build a new website together with Ron for the announcement of E-live 2011. Ron has arranged a very special main act there and you'd better reserve your tickets quick because I hear they are going out very rapidly. The other acts will be announced soon and I can tell you they will be worth it too. And of course I'll be there again with a stall and I'm sure by then my Apollo album will be done and I'll have some more 3D animations with me as well. So go on and order your tickets now! You can find the new website on this URL http://www.e-live.nl/. More info is coming soon so keep track of this website.

Synth.nl interview with Gearjunkies

I recently did a nice interview with Gearjunkies. It is mostly about my Apollo Studio and in this interview I also answer some questions that I get a lot over the E-mail. Gearjunkies is a really great site by the way if you like synthesizer and studio equipment so bookmark it. They often have nice scoops and are always actual with news. There is also a nice section called user studios where you can enter your own studio. You can find a copy of the interview on the URL at the bottom. It was fun to do, I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.gearjunkies.com/news_info.php?news_id=6405.

Apollo 3D Project (Part 7)

Slowly I'm starting to understand just how much it is to make a complete 3D movie. I have more and more respect for those Pixar guys every day ;) I'm still working on some new scenes for the Apollo project. Here is a re-entry scene I'm making with a cool cloudy Earth in the background. The Earth rotates to add to the dramatic speed effect. I only have trouble getting it to rotate in the exact right direction. And every try takes a long while to render before I see result again. But I will get it right some day ;) I'm thinking hard at the moment about all the scenes I still need to make and that is a lot :) But I just go on one at the time.....

In the mean time I also started to learn about Adobe After Effects and I loved the integration with Cinema 4D. I have seen that I can do stuff easier afterwards by rendering out separate layers in Cinema 4D importing them and fixing stuff in After Effects. That saves a lot of render time in the end. I downloaded a demo of the CS5.5 Production Suite from Adobe and I love it. I was very fond of Sony Vegas, but the integration Adobe provides with Premiere, Photoshop and After Effects is really so cool, that I decided to go on and use Premiere. You can make your scenes in After Effects and import those in Premiere and you don't have to render it to video from After Effects first. You can just change stuff in an open After Effects project and it changes instantly in Premiere. Very cool.

I also made this Synth.nl - Apollo in Cinema 4D intro movie that is totally animated. The Moon rotates and the screen starts empty, the letters and Moon flies in and the everything disappears again. I can't wait to show you. I'm working hard on a small teaser movie to show you, but I'm not satisfied yet with both the music and video. Progress on the Apollo album is very slow unfortunately, but I'm working hard here and can't do more than this. In the mean time I have a list with all the things I still have to fix in my music and I listen to the whole project regularly with my friend Hans. There is one more song where we want to change the arrangement, but for the rest it is starting to be detail work. But still I don't dare to say when the album will be ready. It is way more work than I anticipated.

VGA Monitor Repair

This morning when I entered the studio one of my screens acted a bit strange. It switched on and of immediately again and then it tried again. I hesitated for about 15 second and then decided to go and try to repair it myself first. I saw this behavior before with the Behringer REV-2496 I repaired a while ago, so I suspected the power supply right away. But the biggest challenge turned out to open it up. The case is made of plastic and it all fits very tight. This took me about an hour :)

When it was open it was easy to spot the power supply and a closer investigation showed me two electrolytic capacitors right away that looked suspicious. On the top they are not flat anymore, but it looks like their are under pressure. Usually those are the bad guys. So I took the power supply PCB with me to the local electronics shop and took new capacitors with a bit higher voltage rating than the original with me.

And here is the lot that I took out. I actually replaced all of them just to be safe. It was about 5 euro's worth of material so I could take a chance with that. Luckily the power supply PCB is a single sided one, so de-soldering the capacitors was quite easy. When the new ones were in I switched it on and nothing happened. Oops.. Did I do something wrong? Instinctively I felt all the capacitors and one got very warm. So I switched the power off immediately. And then I saw I put it in the wrong orientation. Stupid me.

I de-soldered that one again and took a new one to replace it. Again just to be on the safe side. And then I could only hope that this stupid mistake didn't break anything else. But luckily that was not the case. I guess I was quick enough powering it down again. So after that I reassembled the whole thing again. That was a lot easier by the way than taking it apart since now I understood how the construction worked. And here is another picture with a fully operational VGA monitor again :) Now back to work!

Apollo 3D Project (Part 6)

I just wanted to let you know that I'm still working hard on the Apollo project. The progress on the music is still slow, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually. I'm also still working on the 3D work for the album promo. I even took a training for Cinema 4D to learn some new things. It was very interesting to work with someone who knows the application very well and I got the opportunity to ask all the questions I had. I especially learned a lot about all the render options and how the lighting system works in the render engine.I also learned some new functions and tricks.

Armed with this new knowledge I started working on a new scene for the promo video. Here you see the Apollo capsule in the water. I told you before that I animated this to look like a real ocean, but of course the capsule has to float on top of it and move along with the waves. The teacher of the course explained to me how to do this, but it is a very tricky process I learned. It is based on the dynamics engine and that can be very random like sometimes. So I had the scene right a couple of times, but when I rendered it out it looked different. So I redid it a couple of times. I guess I have some usable takes now.

Next thing to work on was the helicopter that had to come into the scene. I got the rotors turning now, but it is hard to get it to look it moving realistically. I guess that will take some more tweaking around. The problem still is render time though. Every time I try something it takes a whole day to see the result. I guess it will be worth it in the end. As I wrote before I showed some animated shots on my stall at the E-day festival recently. The reactions were very enthusiastic so that motivates me to continue to struggle along :) More soon!

Lots of Airplay on Soma FM lately

Lately Soma FM has been giving my music a lot of airplay. I'm very happy with that since Soma FM is the largest Internet streaming radio station in the World with a lot of listeners. It is a listening supported commercial free radio station. So I would say give them a listen and consider a donation if you like it. There are several channels on Soma FM with their own specialty. My music is mostly played on the channel Space Station Soma, but also sometimes on Black Rock FM. I think there is a channel there for everyone. You can find the stream on their website on this URL: http://www.soma.fm.

Don Quixote track selected by the Schallwende Jury!

I have some good news. The track I made about Don Quixote a while ago was selected by the Jury. It will be released on the Schallplatte CD that is released by the German Electronic Music Club Schallwende every year. It is distributed to the members only and is not for sale. It is the 13th sampler CD released by them already and I'm very proud to be on there again. The theme of this sampler CD was literature this time. I don't know yet who else will be on it. The CD will be released on the 4th of June during the Grill Fest in Essen. If you'd like a copy of the CD I guess you will have to become a member. You can find more information on their website http://www.schallwen.de. I will be present during the Grill Fest to pick up my copy for sure :) When the CD is released I will put a copy of the track on my website so that you can listen to it. The mastering of this track was done by my good friend Hans Landman again. Last week we did the final version in his studio together. My other friend Ron Boots will be responsible for the mastering of the whole CD. So I'm sure it will sound just fine :)

Dutch Masters Review by Bert Strolenberg

Bert Strolenberg from the website Sonic Immersion did a very nice review of the Dutch Masters album that was recently released.

You can read the whole review here: http://www.sonicimmersion.org/review.php?letter=V&review=72214

More info on the Dutch Masters CD here: http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters

Modena on KlangArten Podcast #14

I was quite happy when I saw that a track of my first album 'AeroDynamics' from 2007 got some airplay again. Even I didn't hear this one for a while. The host Brammi played the track 'Modena' on his latest podcast KlangArten.

You can find the podcast on this URL: http://www.klangarten.de

More info on AeroDynamics here: http://www.synth.nl/AeroDynamics

Korg Poly 800 Repair

As you might have noticed I'm currently selling some of my synthesizers. I had some synths where I just couldn't find a nice spot for anymore and after the Musik Messe I really want to buy the Roland Jupiter 80 and Korg Kronos. So I need even more room now and money. One of the synths I wanted to sell was the Korg Poly 800 that I hardly ever use anymore. But when I tested it some of the knobs on the front panel didn't work that well. So this morning I decided to open it up and investigate what was wrong with it.

I actually expected that some of the switches would be the problem so I started by disconnecting all the wiring from the PCB that holds the knobs and took my multimeter to test all the individual switches. But after doing that they all seemed to work. Then I started to see how the knobs are interfaced and I saw quite quickly that they were arranged in a scan matrix with some diodes on the PCB. So after that I measured all the individual diodes and they turned out OK as well.

So then I started to look on the main PCB where the scan lines were going. And I decided to go and see what happened there with the oscilloscope. So I rewired everything back and starting pressing some knobs. And to my surprise all the knobs worked again. So probably there were just some loose connections on the inter PCB wiring. That was the easiest fix ever I think :) Well at least now you know what a Poly 800 looks like on the inside.

And here it is on the outside. As you can see it is a reversed keys version. At the time I thought it was cool, but now all I can think is that it doesn't fit my other synths :) And since I have enough analog poly synths now I have no need for it any longer. And in the mean time I also have a buyer for it already so it will leave my studio soon. In the mean time I also sold my Alesis Andromeda A6, Roland RS-09 and Roland SH-09. And more is going soon, as said before to make room for nicer new machines. If you like a list of what else I'm selling just let me know, but I have to warn you up front: I don't ship anything so local pickup in The Netherlands only.

E-day 2011 Dutch Masters Promo Video

A new version of the Dutch Masters Promo Video. This one was made for the official presentation at the E-live Festival 2001 in Oirschot The Netherlands.

E-day 2011 Report

Last Saturday I was present at the E-day festival in Oirschot (NL). I really had a great time talking to a  lot of people and I even sold quite some CD's at my stall. I didn't really count on that so much because I didn't really have that much newly released material. I did bring the Apollo sneak preview too as I promised. It played it in a CD player with some headphones attached. About 10 visitors listened to it. Luckily they were all very positive even though it isn't really finished yet, so that gives me good motivation to finish it and release it as soon as possible :) Thanks to my friend Chris by the way for taking these nice pictures!

I also had the Apollo 3D work with me. I showed it on a separate screen on my stall. It did it's work alright it caught the attention of a lot of people and that gets you talking easy. It seems that they liked that too, some didn't even thought I made them myself. I told some people as well about my plans to do more with the combination of music, 3D animations and video and they liked that idea. I also brought another video that I made especially for the presentation of the Dutch Masters sampler CD that was going to be presented on the festival in the main hall. I was quite nervous for that actually. It took me quite some time to make.

Ron Boots though of something though that made me even more nervous he called all the musicians that contributed to the Dutch Masters album to the stage starting by me. I really don't like to be in the center of attention like that. We all had to tell why they chose our painting and how we transferred that in to music. I think it was a nice idea to get the attention, but I had been very busy synchronizing the audio to the video so I'd rather have not everyone talk through the video, but all right ;) It's Ron's party after all. During the talk even more of the artists walked in so eventually 8 of the 10 were on stage. Quite unique I think.

And here you can see a picture with the whole line up. I'll give you the names from left to right: Gert Emmens, Bas Broekhuis, Rene van der Wouden, Remy Stroomer, Michel van Osenbruggen, Eric van der Heijden, Rene Splinter and Ron Boots. Unfortunately Meesha and Void had to work that day so they couldn't come. I guess the whole presentation thing did it's work because quite some Dutch Masters CD's were sold. And as you can see it is a limited edition so if you are interested you should be quick. I have published the video we showed on my YouTube page by the way so you can listen to an excerpt of all the tracks too judge if you like it.

Another highlight for my that day was the release of the I-dentity album by Remy. He launched that by performing parts from it live on stage. In the title track there are four contributing artists, Gert Emmens, Erik Wollo, Francis Rimbert and Myself. Gert and Erik joined Remy on stage when he played the I-dentity title track. You can find more information about the album and this track on my website http://www.synth.nl/Remy and more information on the Dutch Masters sampler CD can be found here http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters. I will post the YouTube video on my blog as well so you can easily find it. I hope you enjoy it :)

Apollo 3D Project (Part 5)

I planned to work more on the music for Apollo last week, but I had to do another little job in between. I'll tell you more about that after the weekend. In the mean time I also did some more 3D animations for Apollo. I finished the whole parachute deploy sequence now with the three parachutes  attached to the capsule. I think it turned out quite OK. Now I need some nice camera movements and this scene is done.

A new scene I started will be just before the parachute scene. This is the part where the capsule enters the Earth's atmosphere as a burning asteroid. The capsule is designed as a blunt object to reduce speed through the resistance of the air molecules, but that friction results in a lot of heat. I used the pyro cluster functionality to create the effect of fire and smoke. It looks very cool when you see the animation. I'm also experimenting with the same pyro cluster to create the rocket engines I'll need later on. If you are at the E-day festival tomorrow in Oirschot (NL) you can see all my animated scenes on my stall.

Synth.nl with Apollo Sneak Preview at E-day

Coming Saturday I will be present at the E-live festival in Oirschot (NL). I will have some nice stuff for you in stock. First of all I will bring a sneak preview of my upcoming Apollo album. You can listen to it on my stall. Please note it is not finished yet I'm still working on it, but you will get a very good impression of what it will sound like. I will also show some of my Apollo 3D animations at my stall. Also a sneak preview. And then there will be a nice surprise produced be me in the main hall, but I'm not going to tell you yet what it is :) So do come and pay this very nice festival a visit. It will be worth you visit. Nice concerts, nice people and new stuff too see and listen. More information on http://e-day.groove.nl

Roland Jupiter 80 Preview

The last two day I was at the Musik Messe in Frankfurt Germany. I was there together with my friends Hans and Eugene and we had a great time. There were two new synths on the Messe that I was very interested in. The Korg Kronos and the Roland Jupiter 80. Unfortunately we didn't get to play on the Kronos, but Roland CE was so nice to give us a private demo of the Jupiter 80 and we even got to play with it ourselves. I had read a lot of things about it before we left. Most people start with comparing it with the Jupiter 8. Well I can tell you it has nothing to do with that classic. So forget that association right away! If you are looking for a Jupiter 8 buy a Jupiter 8 ;) Some people also call it a rompler. Well it is FAR from that either. Roland pushed the marketing especially though with their Super Natural technology. And I can tell you it does sound great. You get very realistic piano's, guitars etc. It also holds something that resembles the AP technology from the V-Synth GT. It plays a natural legato like effect in between notes when that make it sound very real. It is emulating the playing style on these acoustic instruments. I love that in the V-Synth GT, but there you can also combine it with the synth engine.

OK Cool thing with the acoustic instruments, but to be honest I was not interested in that so much. When you know my music you know I don't use much acoustic sounds. So I was especially interested in the VA synth engine. And I was very pleasantly surprised by that. The VA engine is much like the one in the Roland GAIA. And I already liked that sound a lot and also the layout of it. In the GAIA you have 3 one oscillator synths that you can stack all with their own LFO, Filter, VCA, two envelopes and an effects sections. Well you can stack 8 of those in the Jupiter 80 without any polyphonic restrictions. So that gives you 27 one oscillator synthesizers in a stack :P I can tell you the sound power coming from that is amazing. You can also create sounds that are so incredibly alive. I just loved it. The GAIA has some restrictions when you use oscillator sync for example the synth goes monophonic. Well you don't have these restrictions in the Jupiter 80 we were told.

You can also chose to combine the VA sounds with wave sounds or the super natural technology. The synth has four sections. Drums, Solo, Upper and Lower. In both upper and lower you can stack 4 tones. And a tone is like a GAIA or super natural sound. In solo you can use one. You can stack them or make keyboard splits to play those sections on different parts of your keyboard. A very cool feature is that you can use the highest not you play always on the solo section. You don't need to set a split point for the lead sound then. It is not a workstation by the way like the Fantom and we heard this synthesizer doesn't share any technology with the Fantom either. Everything is newly developed. I must say it sounds great and I was really impressed. I will buy one for sure. I just think it was badly marketed so far by Roland. The Jupiter name gets a lot of discussion going and I'm sure Roland did that on purpose. Even negative attention is good marketing because everybody talks about you. Analog synth purists won't like this machine for sure, but I don't care. I liked it a lot :) Thanks again Roland for the demo!

i-Dentity on Syndae #126

The title track called i-Dentity from the upcoming album from Remy was played on Syndae podcast #126. It is the last track in this set. It is an excerpt, but quite long. You can hear all contributing artists too. It starts with a piece that Remy played and then on top first Gert Emmens plays a solo, them it is my turn, then Erik Wollo and finally Francis Rimbert. The album will be released next week on the E-day festival that is organized by Groove Unlimited. I will be there too with a stall.

Synth.nl at Musik Messe 2011

On Thursday afternoon and Friday the whole day I will be at the Musik Messe in Frankfurt. So if you are there there is a good chance you will pop into me somewhere. I will be mostly in the synth hall I guess, but I'm going to do a quick tour of the other halls as well. There it lots of new to see. I'm looking forward to the Korg Kronos, Roland Jupiter 80 and a new maybe a new Clavia synth as well. I'm going together with two friends and I'm sure we will have a good time there like always. Maybe I'll see you there.