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Review of ‘Die Stadt Unter Der Stadt’ Album by Kanal Drei on Romeda Records — August 21, 2015

Review of ‘Die Stadt Unter Der Stadt’ Album by Kanal Drei on Romeda Records

‘Die Stadt Unter Der Stadt’ is the latest album by Kanal Drei (aka 3dtorus) released on Romeda Records. It is available for digital download on all usual suspect online stores around the world (iTunes, Google Play, Deezer, Amazon…) and also on Romeda´s Bandcamp page, and Kanal Drei’s Bandcamp page, both of which also include a CD edition.

It’s an absolutely superb album which has a sparse minimal / techno feel at times with great variety in rhythmic sounds. There’s often a driving kick rhythm but also processed kick sounds, contrasting against syncopated hats. There are some excellent and unusual synth sounds – great layering of these and sparse use works really well. I also like the dark ambience in some of the songs which creates an excellent texture / contrast.

Note that I scheduled this review to be published on the release date of 21st August so was unable to embed from Bandcamp ahead of release. However, I have been able to embed the video of Fruher below:

 
Die Stadt Unter Der Stadt
Great atmospheric opening, slowly evolving sound with swirling-type lead and background sounds. I really like the bass drone and sparse use of percussive sounds. There’s a great delay on the voice, it has almost otherworldly qualities with really nice tonal variations. Towards the end a 4:4 kick pattern gives a great momentum then disappears to end the song nicely with the swirling type sound.

Signaterum
This song has a great opening rhythm layered really well with synth sounds and vocals too. Again there’s an ambience which contrasts really well against the more defined rhythm.

Nebelwald
Great atmospheric opening, kick pattern has a sort of urgent feel with background sounds swirling with a dark ambience. There are some great delayed sound effects sitting slightly in the background. The syncopated hats create a nice contrast and there’s great movement in the sound with a really nice change of feel about half way through.

Seelenruf
Another great atmospheric opening, dark ambience contrasts really well against the kick rhythm. The synth sound is sparse but really effective and the rhythm has great reverb on crash / ride cymbals and hats which create great layered rhythms. There are some excellent contrasts building a really nice tension.

Gitter
Great rhythm again, really like the delayed percussive hit sound. The syncopated hats gives a great contrast and again a great evolution of sound and excellent layering of percussive elements.

Wirbelstrom
This song has a great driving kick rhythm and an emerging synth which has a filter sweep effect which works really well. Again a great rhythm, the song evolves a solid techno feel through great layering. The syncopated hats really adds to the momentum.

Endlos
A great kick pattern to open, there’s nice variation in sound and I really like the EQ/reverb which gives a ‘suppressed’ feel. Syncopated hats create a great rhythm again and the sparse background synth sounds work really becoming more defined. Great movement in percussive sounds adds a really nice texture.

Mandelmilch
A great opening to the song, excellent percussive sounds and driving kick with great panning / delay. It’s an excellent rhythmic track, sparse synth sounds suit the style really well. I especially like the kind of pipe-like sounds which lead into an almost tribal section which maintains great momentum. The shaker towards the end adds a really nice texture.

Fruher
This song has a driving kick rhythm to open, great synth sound and I like the way the sparse hats evolve into a more defined rhythm. Again the song has a minimal feel with nice variation in the synth sound. The lead synth sitting in the background creates a great contrast. There’s a really nice change in feel about 2/3 way through with a great release at the end of the song.

Drehbankgedanken
The 4:4 kick gives the song a great drive and I really like the ‘wah’ type effect on the bass which creates a great rhythm. The syncopated hat really adds to this and the filter sweep on the bass really opens up the sound especially when the synth sound uses a similar effect. It has a great ebb and flow with a minimal techno feel but really nice changes in feel and sounds.

Review of ‘Remember the Highs’ album by Little Lapin — August 19, 2015

Review of ‘Remember the Highs’ album by Little Lapin

Little Lapin is the moniker of UK singer songwriter Lucy Hill, and she has been making her mark on audiences all over the world, from New Zealand where she was based for five years, to New York where she recently performed the last leg of her acoustic tour.

I reviewed the single release of Remember the Highs back in February and was really impressed. The album was released in May and I can only apologize for the delay in posting the review, it has taken much longer than I intended because this really is an excellent album which has outstanding vocals and each of the songs has great playing and arrangements. The album has a natural, organic type of feel, there’s a great vibe and excellent contrast between the edginess and sometimes sadness of the vocals / lyrics and more upbeat elements of the songs. The songs have a great way of telling a story with powerful, emotional vocals that you can really relate too.

Magnet Eyes
Great acoustic riff to open, a real edge of tension with a great bass line, lap steel and simple but effective percussion. The vocals are excellent, they’re really heartfelt with an edge of sadness which contrasts really well with the upbeat feel of the song at times. Really nice changes in feel too.

Over the Draft
A great acoustic riff and vocals to open accompanied by a great tremelo guitar. Drums enter the song to add momentum. The song has a great dreamy quality contrasted with more of an angst feel from the vocals at times. Great layering of sounds, excellent production.

Remember the Highs
A slightly distorted jangly riff to open backed by solid drumming opens the song with a great momentum maintained throughout. There’s a great edge to the song, the vocals are superb – they’re beautiful, gritty, edgy and create a great tension at times.

Go!Stop!Go!
Lovely acoustic guitar to open, simple percussion gives a great momentum. Vocals are excellent again. There’s a nice change in feel which gives a more uptempo feel at times. There’s really good layering of sounds too. Another song with a sadness to the lyrics / vocals but a positive feel to the song which gives a great contrast.

Sound of Summer
I really like the increasing intensity of the percussion to open leading to an organ and great vocals again. Really nice use of ride cymbal too. A great lead riff and a nice momentum provided by drums / percussion and bass giving an edge to the sound. Great changes in feel too.

In My Mind
A great opening groove from bass, guitar and simple but really effective percussion. Great vocals again, a really nice momentum to the song with an edge. A great lead riff with really nice trem.

Colour Blind
Lovely acoustic riff to open accompanied by great vocals. A simple arrangement but really effective. There’s a great angst in the vocals and a really good change of tempo to a more uptempo feel provided by drumming and distorted guitar returning to the acoustic feel with a really nice shimmering guitar riff. Bass adds a great contrast.

Panic
Another song with a great acoustic riff and lovely vocals to open, a slowly evolving synth sound builds a nice tension. This song has a great ebb and flow type of feeling.

A Nice Coincidence
Great acoustic guitar and vocals to open, bass and percussion give a really good momentum. There’s a really positive vibe to this song, a great feel.

Little Lapin on facebook
Little Lapin on twitter
Little Lapin website

Review of ‘Alice’ and ‘All Gone Wrong’ singles by Strobegirl — August 17, 2015

Review of ‘Alice’ and ‘All Gone Wrong’ singles by Strobegirl

Strobegirl is South London based singer, songwriter, producer Heather-Jane who is a vocalist, writer, guitar player, producer in logic, synths, keys and collabateur. She has an impressive back catalogue and is the vocalist and co-writer with Leeds based band Illustrial who will be featured in a future review.

She’s also recently featured in an eclectrocasts interview which you can listen to here.

Alice
This song has a great opening, an evolving swirling synth and great bell / chime type of sound. The vocals are excellent and the lyrics are really well written. The production is also brilliant, quite sparse but very effective bass and percussion. The song has a touch of the cinematic about it, a great uplifting vibe but with really subtle chill qualities too.

 

All Gone Wrong
This song has more of a defined percussive groove and great delayed synth riff, the swirling synth sound adds a nice element. The vocals are excellent again with some really nice harmonies. The lyrics are heartfelt with a dark edge which creates that great combination of an ambient / chill vibe but with an edge of tension too.

 
Both of these singles are from a forthcoming release, definitely keep your eyes peeled for that one, on the basis of these singles it’s going to be a great album.

Strobegirl on twitter
Strobgirl on facebook

Review of ‘What’s to Become of Us?’ EP by Soft Picasso — August 13, 2015

Review of ‘What’s to Become of Us?’ EP by Soft Picasso

Hailing from the seaside town of Morecambe in Lancashire , songwriter Nik, formerly bassist with John Peel session regulars Ella Guru, provides the musical foundation for the band’s sound. His understated delivery is complimented by the warm rich textures of Clare’s vocals. Clare, from Monmouth is an accomplished singer and founding member of a capella trio Barbieshop.

Recorded in a bedroom in Liverpool, the duo’s stripped back approach uses simple guitar, bass, keyboard and drum machine arrangements to support their intimate storytelling.

 
Soft Picasso have a great sound, at times jangly indie, other times there’s an acoustic folk or country influence with brilliant harmonies and a great edge of tension. The EP is a great collection of songs that highlights their talents really well.

Blue Eyed Boy
Quite an uptempo drum pattern to open which is accompanied by brilliant harmonies and a great riff. Verse has great vocals and really nice harmonies too. The guitar riffing gives a great momentum and the song has a nice edge of tension.

For Your Own
There are great sound effects to open accompanied by drums and a really nice guitar riff. The vocals are laid back with great harmonies again. The bass gives a great momentum and there’s a nice change of feel too.

Rebel Pavements
Acoustic guitar and vocals to open with great harmonies and the bass gives a really good momentum again. The drums enter gradually and are quite sparse which works really well. Great arrangement of the song too.

Wrong Type of Night
Great groove to open from drums / percussion and bass, the vocals are excellent again. There’s a really nice change in feel from laid back to more urgent and great harmonies again too. Really subtle build and release of tension.

Soft Picasso on twitter

Blue Soap Music website
Blue Soap Music on facebook
Blue Soap Music on twitter

Review of ‘Frozen Houses’ EP by Frozen Houses — August 11, 2015

Review of ‘Frozen Houses’ EP by Frozen Houses

 

This is an excellent EP. There’s brilliant acoustic guitar playing and excellent vocals with lovely harmonies too. I really like the ‘live’ feel of this EP, it sounds very natural yet retains a great passion and energy, there’s also a nice edge of tension at times too which works really well.

Stars on the Boulevard
This song has a great acoustic riff to open with a slightly distorted riff. The vocals have a great edge of tension to them with some lovely harmonies too. There are really nice changes in feel through the song which has a great arrangement, a really natural, almost live sound. I really like how the vocals have been processed – subtle but very effective.

Trouble Outside
This song has great acoustic chord strumming overlain by a riff, there are really nice harmonies again and the vocals are excellent, they have a kind of angst. There’s a great arrangement again, very little processing and a really natural feel.

Back on the Train
This song is more uptempo and has a kind of western vibe to the intro. The song has the momentum of a train too, it has an urgency contrasted really well by the subtle riff which has nice trem qualities at times. There’s great interplay between the male and female vocals too.

Listen
This is another song with a great acoustic guitar to open and subtle bass too. The second guitar adds a really nice contrast / resolution. The vocals again are excellent and this song also has an urgency which adds a really nice edge of tension at times.

Hummingbird
This song has a great opening, brilliant acoustic guitar playing accompanied by excellent vocals again. A simple but very effective arrangement.

Frozen Houses on facebook
Frozen Houses on twitter

Review of ‘Agent Z Saves the World’ compilation album on Factory Fast Records — August 10, 2015

Review of ‘Agent Z Saves the World’ compilation album on Factory Fast Records

 

There’s a great vibe to this album, a full on indie rock feel with uptempo riffing and some great soloing whilst a really good contrast is provided by stoner rock and rock and roll influences too. I love the heavy feel to this album which maintains a great drive and energy throughout.

The Garage Batz – I Never Thought
Nice bass riff to open leading into a great riff propelled by solid drumming. Vocals have a great energy. There’s nice changes in feel and great solos too. Great effects to ends with.

The Poulsons – Darker Dreams
A great drive and energy to this song which has a grunge / stoner feel. There’s also some great uptempo riffing and heavily processed vocals with an out of body feel to them and a really nice solo too.

Dianetics – Cognitive Dissonance
Great reverse guitar to open, creates a great chilled vibe then comes the surprise – a really heavy riff and intense drumming accompanied by some great harmonised lead lines. There’s a nice change in feel with the drumming, vocals are more spoken and I’m not sure if it’s a quote from a film but it’s interspersed with great solos, changes in feel and even a saxophone part.

The Pacers – Highs and Lows
This song has a kind of stoner rock feel, slightly distorted riffing and laid back vocals – there’s almost a surf rock feel at times too. It’s a great vibe.

Wild Horse – None For Me
Distorted jangly riff and chords to open leading into more of a chord vamp feel with great vocals which have a spoken style which really suits the song. A great vibe to this song too, there’s great playing to let loose but still retain control.

The Windsor Project – Never Coming Home
This song has solid drumming to open and propel the song with harmonised lead lines followed by heavy riffing, great vocals and excellent solos too. The song has a great intensity at times with really nice build and release of tension.

Disappearer – Goodnight Mr Frankenstein
This song has distorted guitar with great effects to open, drumming has great effects too providing a solid backbone. There’s a nice change of feel to a jangly riff and uptempo strumming. The vocals have a real ethereal feel, a great vibe.

Factory Fast Records website
Factory Fast on twitter
Factory Fast on facebook

The Garage Batz on reverbnation
The Garage Batz on twitter

The Poulsons on facebook
The Poulsons on twitter

Dianetics on facebook
Dianetics on twitter

The Pacers on facebook
The Pacers on twitter

Wild Horse on facebook
Wild Horse on twitter

The Windsor Project on facebook
The Windsor Project on twitter

Disappearer on facebook
Disappearer on twitter

Review of ‘Reproduction’ album by Cantalouper — August 7, 2015

Review of ‘Reproduction’ album by Cantalouper

Cantalouper started when David Bazan helped complete their first EP (Drool) at his home studio, after hearing a tape of four track recordings handed to him at a Pedro the Lion show. Cantalouper’s first full-length album, Mandrakes, was mixed and mastered by Kramer (Low/Galaxie 500). Cantalouper’s second LP, Reproduction, is now available on vinyl and digital.

 

Cantalouper have a great sound that’s somewhere between grunge, indie and stoner rock. The songs often have a postive or uptempo feel whilst the vocals provide a contrasting angst or simmering tension at times. There’s really good arrangements and playing on this album, the vocals are also great, suiting the style really well. The album has some really good riffing with a good range of tones built on a solid foundation provided by drumming and bass.

Parking Lot
A muted riff to open leading into a jangly chord riff propelled by drumming and bass, the song has a stoner rock / indie / grunge vibe and the vocals suit the style really well.

Katydid
Distorted riff and synth to open provide great momentum leading to an acoustic chord riff and vocals. The Kick drum gives a great momentum, there’s a really nice building of tension into the chorus. Vocals add a great angst.

Kindergarten
Great synth sounds to open, distorted riff gives a great contrast. The song has quite a laid back vibe from drumming and bass. The vocals are similarly laid back with an edge of angst again.

Stuffed Animals
A jangly riff with spoken vocals to open, the song has a great momentum from drumming and bass, the vocals are really good again. The song has great chord riffs and there’s nice vocal layering too.

1986
A slightly distorted riff to open, the song has a kind of lilting feel. It mainly has a spoken vocal style and synth sounds provide a contrasting element.

White Noise
Great atmospheric opening, bass gives a good momentum and distorted guitar adds a nice tension. Vocals are great again with some nice harmonies. Drumming propels the song along nicely.

Crybaby
This song has a more uptempo feel provided by drumming and distorted guitar riff, there’s a nice edge of tension and a brooding quality to the verses raising the tension really well for the chorus.

These Little Deaths
This song has great bass and distorted jangly guitar to open, drumming propels the song along. There’s some really cool riffing and vocals which have some great harmonies. The song has a great edge at times with a great build and release of tension.

Sleepyhead
This song has a dark lullaby feel to the opening with some great feedback and heavy bass and xylophone too. The vocals are laid back with a great tension and the ending is a little disconcerting.

You Have to Find Your Better Half
A jangly chord riff to open with great drumming and bass, the vocals have a more urgent feel to them. There’s nice changes in feel between the verses and chorus.

All Grown Up
This song has synth to open with a laid back drum groove. The vocals have a more spoken style and there’s a great change in feel with the distorted chord riffing. Some really good harmonies too and great building of tension released at the end of the song.

cantalouper website
Cantalouper on facebook
Cantalouper on twitter

Rock Back for Nepal (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) on Patetico Recordings — August 6, 2015

Rock Back for Nepal (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) on Patetico Recordings

RBFN1

 

 

 

 

Indie Artists Around The Globe Unite for Nepal in Disaster Relief Series

Rock Back for Nepal is the first in a 3-part series of disaster relief compilations being released by U.S. indie label Patetico Recordings. The label is partnering with nearly 60 independent artists and several small indie labels around the globe to make this happen. They have all come together in order to raise funds for victims of the recent catastrophic earthquakes in Nepal. All money raised will go directly to the relief efforts.

The compilations are being supported by several luminaries of the independent rock and shoegaze scene, among others. Whenever Tom Lugo reaches out to his musical family, you know it’s for a crucial and essential cause. The Rock Back for Nepal CD compilation is no exception,” explains Dean Garcia of seminal shoegaze bands Curve andSPC ECO. “I’m proud to be part of this relief effort / fund raiser for anyone affected by the recent earthquake disaster in Nepal and if I can help or contribute in some way to aid support and assistance to the many displaced people, I will without question. Please support this cause and donate as generously as you can”

Perhaps one of the most renowned personalities in the shoegaze / noise rock spheres, Oliver Ackermann (A Place To Bury Strangers,Skywave) has also lent his support to the cause. “It is a horrible tragedy this destruction of culture and life. I feel lucky that I can use my craft and contribute a song to this fund to help them raise money for relief. If we can all do something to help and give relief for the people of Nepal we should do it now.”

“Great to be among this sparkling array of brilliant artists, coming together for a great cause,” says Marc Joy of Welsh outfit Lights That Change.  Alexx Kretov of Canadian-Ukrainian duo Ummagma also expressed hope. “May the common freebie attitude towards indie music fall to the wayside. We hope people will support a higher cause by spending a few dollars and spreading this music far and wide.”

All three volumes are being released at the same time, and will be available through Bandcamp and Amazon.com exclusively, both digitally and on CD. The album artwork and design are by Gardy Perez.

The concept of the Rock Back compilation series was born in 2011, when disaster hit Japan and Tom Lugo, Patetico Recordings’ label owner acted on his empathy for charitable causes and non-profit organizations by reaching out to the community of artists he has in his network. They collectively put together a compilation and the profits were donated to relief efforts. The response was overwhelming, over 100 artists from across the globe joined in the efforts. What was to be a single CD compilation grew into the 8-disc compilation Rock Back for Japan. The compilation series hit the top 10 Indie Rock releases on Amazon.com’s chart for several weeks, with certain volumes holding the number 1 spot.

 

There are 54 songs across the 3 volumes including artists such as Lunar Twin, Lights That Change, Malka and Tape Runs Out that I’ve previously featured on my blog plus many more. If you like an indie / shoegaze / dreampop / synthpop / post punk kind of vibe then all 3 of these volumes are an excellent addition to your collection, featuring a great range of sounds and styles from acoustic to noisy and distorted; chilled vibes to uptempo and I really like the diversity of production too. These are great compilations in their own right and the fact that all sales will be given to the relief effort is testament to the generosity of the artists involved.

Patetico Recordings website
Patetico Recordings on facebook
Patetico Recordings on twitter

Shameless PR website
Shameless PR on facebook
Shameless PR on twitter

Review of ‘Reach for the Weatherman’ EP by Rum Thief —

Review of ‘Reach for the Weatherman’ EP by Rum Thief

RFTW

Rum Thief is solo artist Jot Green with support from his band (Johnny Brown, Lead guitar – live; Iain McGowen, Bass – live and Chris Hobs, Drums – live), based in Chorlton, Manchester. The project began when Green, after playing as a drummer in bands for over ten years, decided to record some songs of his own. Booking into Airtight studio in Chorlton, Manchester he performed the drums, guitars, vocals and backing vocals to produce his first EP ‘Clouded Mind’. The titular lead track generated interest from media outlets across the north west and with the help of ex band mates and a new live drummer, Rum Thief secured some local gigs, festivals, support slots and airplay on local and national radio. ‘Reach For The Weather Man’ is Rum Thief’s second EP and is characterised by Jot Green’s keen ear for melody and his sharp observational lyrical content.

 
This is an outstanding EP, it has great energy and a wicked vibe. There are high energy songs with great chord vamps and more acoustic sounds too. Rum Thief demonstrate a great control and ability to raise the roof or equally create a more chilled acoustic vibe. The vocals are excellent with great energy and momentum. Rum Thief are definitely one to watch!

Reach for the Weatherman
A brilliant chord vamp to open, the vocals are excellent and really suit the style of the song. There’s a wicked vibe, great energy and the bass and drumming give a great momentum. There’s a great surf guitar solo too.

Stitch in Time
A great riff and chord vamp to open, drumming creates a great groove. Really good vocals again, there’s almost a call and response feel between the vocals and guitar at times. The song has another great vibe, chunky riffs and solos open the sound up really well. There are some nice harmonies too and an uptempo section releases to drumming and strummed chords to end the song.

Dirty Shoes
There’s an uptempo acoustic chord strum to open with and great vocals again. An excellent distorted riff and great drumming propel the song along with shimmering surf guitar chords at times leading into a more uptempo section. The song has great energy and changes of feel.

My Friend
Great acoustic strummed chords to open creates a great vibe. Great vocals again, I really like the stripped back feel, the piano / organ sound really adds to the sound and when the drumming enters it gives the song a great momentum.

You can catch Rum Thief live on 21st August at their EP Launch Party at Night and Day Cafe, Oldham St, Manchester in association with Scruff of the Neck Records.

Rum Thief on facebook
Rum Thief on twitter

Blue Soap Music on facebook
Blue Soap Music on twitter
Blue Soap Music website

Review of Nave VST by Waldorf — August 4, 2015

Review of Nave VST by Waldorf

Nave

 
Nave is an advanced wavetable synthesiser that started life as an iOS app, growing to one of the most popular synths on the ipad and is now also a plugin available for PC and MAC in 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

It comes as a 500Mb download and uses elicenser as the license storage device. This takes a little time to install and set up and is usually a fairly straightforward process. Once installed, I loaded the activation code, downloaded a licence which then apparently I hadn’t loaded and couldn’t repair. However, a simple exit and reload sorted the problem.

Once loaded into my DAW (MuLab 6.5.32), I realised the display is slightly too big to fit onto the screen for my resolution but no problem, in the system settings you can change the size of the window from big to small which makes it fit on the screen and is still very readable. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to retain this setting which needs changing every time you launch the VST.

If you’re not familiar with wavetable synthesis, it is quite different to other synthesis techniques. Essentially for Nave, the wavetable is 2 waveforms which you can move through in 3d in any way you choose. This means that each note on a keyboard can access a different wave of the wavetable; You can cycle through all waves in a wavetable; An LFO can modulate the position within the wavetable for subtle or dramatic sound changes; Controllers can be used to change the position within the wavetable.

The first impression is that the GUI is well organised and easy to navigate around. I decided to dive straight in and try out a few presets. There’s a great range that are pre-installed from various designers and by category including basses, arps, pads, keys, leads and atmo. The basses sound very good, as do some of the keys, leads and atmos. I’ve put together a short demo track to highlight some of the sounds. These are all presets, the only external effects used were Convex by Glitchmachines and Raspberry filter pad by Dover Audio on the Time Lapse preset by Richard Devine to give it more of a rhythmic feel.

 

Looking a bit deeper shows that the GUI is arranged into different sections. There’s the top section which has the system settings and preset manager; wave oscillator section with all the controls for the wavetable oscillators; The oscillator section with the additional oscillator and mixer; An LFO section; A filter and drive section; An envelope detail section which also changes to the arpeggiator detail section, effects detail section, wave detail section, matrix detail section, control detail section and controls section depending on which button is selected.

That may sound really complicated, but in practice the workflow all makes sense and you can create a preset from the init patch in about 3 minutes, a bit longer to fine tune the sound to your exact requirements. Nave has a handy init button on the top section, meaning you can start from scratch really easily – and there is a confirmation in case you click by accident. The process is as follows:
Select wave 1 from the wavetable oscillator section. Click on the text below the 3d rendition in the middle of the screen to bring up a list of wavetables – there are 83 to choose from. Then adjust the travel setting for automatic scanning, the spectrum setting to change the sound colour and the wave setting to choose the start point.

Repeat this for wave 2 and make sure you turn up the volume of wave 2. You can add an additional oscillator and activate Uberwave for a boost to the sound but if you do, make sure you turn up the osc volume too.

Choose your filter type and set the cut-off and resonance. You can adjust keytrack and set drive values too if you wish.

And that’s a basic patch. Obviously there’s an awful lot more you can do to detune the waves, add effects, edit the wavetable, change starting points, increase modulation and so on.

For instance you have built in effects of phaser or flanger or chorus; reverb; delay; EQ and compressor which you may want to use and you could add an LFO modulation to the filter, ensuring you set the values in the matrix and/or modulate with envelopes – three are available, one for filter, one free and one for amplitude. You can loop the envelopes too which will then act like an LFO. There are 10 modulation slots and each modulation source can be used for more than one target. If I was being picky I’d like to see effect parameters listed as modulation targets too. The screenshot at the top of the post is taken from one of the presets I created and shows the modulation parameters.

One particular point of note that really stood out during this review was the CPU usage. It is incredibly low for what Nave is doing – I had 7 instances loaded for the demo track above and usage was about 30%.

Other points to note are that the arpeggiator is really good; there’s also a ‘blade’ keyboard option which is like a normal keyboard but each key has a blade (like a slider) that can be used to release additional modulations – and you can set up scale, keys and chords from incoming midi notes; There’s also X-Y pad controllers too.

 
Waldorf have also rolled out the Nave demo challenge. They are curious what you are doing with Nave and would like to listen to what musicians across the world are producing and will award the best sounding Nave demos with one of their soft synths – PPG Wave 3.V, Waldorf Edition, Largo, Lector or Nave and will publish the song on their website.

And I’ve created one which is embedded at the top of the post. I appreciate this makes the blog post back to front but if you’ve read all the way to the end it will make sense. It also means the track appears in my twitter and facebook posts. Hopefully. Apart from the drumloop, all sounds are from 6 presets that I’ve created in Nave. One of them is processed using Convex by Glitchmachines and the bass and lead sound have also been processed using Convex in the filtered drum sections. There are a couple of different delays that I’ve used too but it shows the variety of sounds that you can produce. It also shows with 8 instances of Nave, 3 instances of Convex, 5 instances of EQ and 4 instances of delay the CPU usage on the laptop was only 65% and it has fallen over with much, much less running than that before now.