Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Petit Italian Harpsichord


Looking for a better harpsichord?  We’ll here’s a free one that sounds great and will load into your Kronos with only a little coaxing.  Here's an audio demo: Scarlatti

The nice people at Soni Musicae have done a complete sampling of a smaller Italian harpsichord.  Each note was sampled in stereo, for full duration, two stops plus lute.  The library is free, but because it is not public domain I can't create a KSC file that contains the samples.  But it is in SF2 format, so getting it into the Kronos is pretty straightforward.  

DOWNLOAD THE SMALL ITALIAN HARPSICHORD
  • First go to Small Italian page at Soni Musicae.
  • Download the SF2 file near the bottom.
  • Once you've unzipped the file you will need a special decompression software called SfArk. If you don't have it, for OSX users, you can find a copy here: SfArkXT OSX.  Windows here: Windows AFArkXT.
  • After you've decompressed the .sfArk file, copy the Petit Italien.sf2 to the SSD on your Kronos.
  • On the Kronos, go to DISK==>FILE==>LOAD to load the soundfont.  It will ask you for a destination and select an area in a program bank where you have free space (or programs you don’t care about overwriting).  Note, the conversion is going to create four programs so make sure you have at least four consecutive program slots available to be overwritten.

GETTING THE PROGRAM TO PLAY
Once loaded, go to the program slots you specified in the above step.  You will likely find that the programs don’t play.  You’ve run into a glitch that sometimes happens with SF2 conversions.  You will need to save the samples that are currently in RAM and reload them.  You would have to do this step eventually anyhow, so it’s no big deal.

Do the following:
  • Go to DISK==>FILE==>SAVE
  • Click on the drop down arrow in the top-right corner and select SAVE SAMPLING DATA.
  • In the Text box at the top give it a file name.  Make sure SAMPLING MODE DATA is selected and ALL (under Sampling mode options).
  • Click on SAVE.
  • Now find the _UserBank.KSC version of this file and click on LOAD.  Under KSC Allocation make sure CLEAR SAMPLING DATA is selected and click OK.

Now the programs should play.

PROGRAMS READY TO GO
I created four programs that are a little more fine tuned to the Kronos and you can download them here: Petit Italian PCG.  They include, among other things, the harpsichord keyoff samples from the Kronos library.  You will need to reassign the OSC1 multisamples to point to the KSC you just created.  To do so go to OSC/PITCH==>OSC1 BASIC and change the multisample(s) as follows:

Petit Italien-Jeux 1: stops 1 and 2
Petit Italien-Luth: lute
Petit Italien-Jeu 2: stop 2
Petit Italien-Jeu 1:stop 1

Save the programs after your edits.  Also, you can adjust the keyoff level in AMP2/DRIVE2.

Also, the people at Soni Musicae accept donations!

Wurlies, Rhodes and Acoustic Pianos


Here are some new EP-1 Wurlitzers/Rhodes and acoustic pianos.

Classic Wurly (val=trem) 
Wurly 200(sw1/2=trm/chr) 
Wurly200a(sw1/2=trm/chr)2 
Herbie Stereo-Vibrato 
Spring Rhodes (Fusion) 
Summer Rhodes 
Autumn Rhodes 
Winter Rhodes 
Warm German Grand 1 
Warm German Grand 2 
Warm Austrian Grand 
Warm Japanese Grand 
Debussy Steinway 

Demo - Classic Wurly

All the new APs are designed for more classical, jazz, ballads, etc. type playing. With the “Debussy Steinway” I was going after a piano sound similar to a new Baldwin Grand that I played often in a music store where I worked in my youth. With its new hammer felts it had a full, fat tone--a far cry from the clanging sound many pianos develop with use.


Demo - Warm Grands: Japanese, Austrian, German

Demo - Debussy Steinway

Link to PCG 

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Famous Synth Sounds Vol #1


Here’s the first volume of famous synth sounds for the Korg Kronos.  Hopefully, there will be others, but there’s no guarantee.  These were created primarily from scratch largely using the powerful AL-1 virtual analog engine on the Kronos. 

I want to acknowledge the useful information I derived from Mitchell Sigman’s book “Steal this Sound” as well as the programs found in the OP-X Pro soft synth by SonicProjects.  For most of the sounds, I was able to find drum tracks that fit the song and tempo.  You can use these for practice or performances.  Please read through the performance notes (found in the ZIP file) when available as they make sense of how I intended the programs to be played.  If no performance notes are available, the program should be played straight up. 



PROGRAM NAME
000
ELP: Lucky Man
001
ELP: From the Beginning
002
ELP: Aquatarkus
003
ELP: Trilogy
004
Who: Won’t Get Fooled
005
Who: Baba O’Riley
006
Winwood: See a Chance
007
Parsons: Sirius
008
Parsons: Separate Lives
009
SMB: Fly Like an Eagle
010
Floyd: On the Run
011
Floyd: Welcome Machine
012
Floyd: Shine on Diamond
013
Rush: Tom Sawyer Bass
014
Rush: Tom Sawyer Solo
015
Rush: Subdivisions
016
Rush: Camera Eye
017
Genesis: In the Cage
018
Genesis: Follow You/Me
019
Collins: Softpad
020
Journey: Separate Ways
021
Styx: Fooling Yourself
022
Styx: Babe
023
Winter: Frankenstein
024
Europe: Final Countdown
025
Toto: Africa Brass
026
Wonder: Living for City
027
WR: A Remark You Made
028
WR: Birdland Bass
029
WR: Birdland Brass
030
WR: Birdland Lead
031
WR: Black Market Lead
032
WR: Scarlet Woman
033
Hammer: Oh Yeah Lead
034
Hammer: Crockett’s Theme
035
Herbie: Rockit
036
Herbie: Chameleon Bass
037
Mays: American Garage
038
Mays: Chris Lead
039
Corea: Lead 1
040
Corea: Lead 2
041
Corea: Lead 3
042
Corea: Lead 4
043
Faltemeyer: Fletch Lead
044
Faltemeyer: Fletch Brass
045
Faltemeyer: Axel Lead
046
Faltemeyer: Axel Bass
047
Faltemeyer: Axel Chords
048
Jones: New Song
049
Duran: Save a Prayer
050
Duran: Hold Back the Rain
051
Berlin: Metro
052
MGMT: Time to Pretend
053
Nena: 99 Luftballoons Bass
054
Nena: 99 Luftballoons PdLd
055
Numan: Cars Lead
056
Cars: Let’s Go
057
OMD: Enola Gay
058
Japan: Gentlemen Prefer Polaroids
059
Kraftwerk: Home Computer
060
Lauper: Time after Time
061
Madonna: Holiday Synth
062
Summers: I Feel Love
063
BGees:Nights on Broadway
064
OB Four Voice Brass