Echoes of Machines, Windswept and Desolate – Sounds and Presets
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Echoes of Machines sees a brand new set of 64 sounds for Moog’s brilliant Muse poly synth by Anton Anru, with Kulshan Studios providing two of this week’s other selections!
Sounds and Presets
Echoes of Machines for Moog Muse by Anton Anru
It’s surprising, to me anyway, that the Moog Muse has slipped somewhat from the general synth consciousness. There was such a big fuss around its launch and now I hardly see or hear anything of it anywhere.
I have no doubt that it has a solid user base, and it is a superb analogue poly synth that I positively raved about when I was able to get my hands on it at a pre-launch event in Berlin during Superbooth 24. It’s a powerful, solid and big-sounding synth that embodies all that is great about Moog synths.
Well, now we have a new bank of sounds for it, courtesy of Anton Anru. Entitled Echoes of Machines, it’s a collection of 64 presets built around a concept of imperfection. Described as a collection of cinematic presets, there’s a good selection of sound types contained in there.
Echoes of Machines makes good use of velocity, aftertouch, the mod wheel and macro knob to deliver a decent amount of expression and performance to all the presets. There’s something for everyone in Echoes of Machines, and users are required to have the latest firmware (1.4) installed.
Pick up Echoes of Machines now from the Anton Anru store for $24.95
Windswept for Roland JD-08/JD-800/JUNO-X/Jupiter-X by Kulshan Studios
Not content with dominating the synth market towards the end of the 1980s and breaking Yamaha’s dominance with the D-50, Roland followed it up with the magnificent JD-800. It brought even better quality sounds to the table and reintroduced knobs, buttons and faders to digital synths!
Sadly, it had a couple of flaws. Its plastic case was prone to cracking, and then there was the unforgivable red glue issue that saw the compound used to keep the key weights in place, break down over time and seep into the delicate internals underneath.
But its legend endured, so much so that Roland reintroduced the JD-800 in the form of both a boutique unit, the JD-08, and an authentic software plugin within their Roland Cloud platform. You can also get that software model in their JUNO-X and Jupiter-X keyboards.
This new sound set from Kulshan Studios, programmed by Dawnchaser, is compatible with all of the above, which is a remarkable thing when you think about it. And this pack is aimed fair and square at the ambient genre.
If you’re into or influenced by the likes of Massive Attack, Boards of Canada, Tangerine Dream, Angelo Badalamenti and the like, this bank is right up your ambient alleyway! You get 94 presets in this bank and, as I said before, these will work with every iteration of this synth, from the original JD-800 right up to the software plugin.
Windswept for the JD-800 family is available now for $29.00 from the Kulshan Studios website.
Trance Mind for Behringer Deepmind by Ocean Swift
The Deepmind was Behringer’s first foray into the world of hardware synthesizers and it was a doozy! Inspired by the JUNO-106, it delivered excellent quality analogue sounds for a very reasonable price indeed!
It built up a solid following and remains a favourite to this day. More recently, Behringer reissued the Deepmind as the Deepmind X, in both keyboard and desktop unit forms. This new unit was merely an updated paint job and, possibly, a slight internal redesign to accommodate updated components.
The Behringer story has snowballed since then, and it’s good to see the Deepmind still in their portfolio. And it would seem that the team at Ocean Swift are happy too, as they release a new bank of Trance-inspired sounds for it, entitled Trance Mind.
There are 90 presets included. all geared towards the trance genre, including poly and mono sequences, pads, leads, thumping basses and much more. This bank is compatible with all versions of the Deepmind and is available directly from Ocean Swift for an introductory price of €14.99, down from €20.00.
Desolate for Waldorf Blofeld by Kulshan Studios
Following on from their ambient soundset for the JD-08 and JD-800 family, Kulshan Studios and Dawnchaser give us another soundset for that particular style and genre, this time for the Waldorf Blofeld.
The Blofeld is a tiny powerhouse of a synth, combining virtual analogue with FM and wavetable synthesis to deliver a compact but heavyweight synthesizer that is capable of a wide range of sounds. It’s one of Waldorf’s most enduring synths.
Decent polyphony, excellent multi-timbrality and a fantastic price made it an instant hit that remains popular today, helped by the recent release of a plugin version that also acts as a controller and editor for the hardware! There’s even an iPad version!
This bank is compatible with both the hardware and plugin, although it doesn’t say if it works with the iOS version. This collection of superb ambient-style sounds is a real treat and properly shows off everything that makes the Blofeld a much-loved synth.
You can buy this bank for $25.00 from the Kulshan Studios website now.
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One response to “Echoes of Machines, Windswept and Desolate – Sounds and Presets”
I think the Moog Muse was released a little too soon and had a few bugs to work out. Several early adopters posting at a particularly grumpy music site reported tuning issues but refused to run the (very easy) full calibration, which fixes it. This led to a difficult launch and some early bad reviews.
The Muse is now bug-free and stable. It is an amazing sounding poly synth with a beautiful UI. I had an OB-6 for seven years but sold it after buying the Muse. They’re both good synths but the Moog sounded better in our tracks and has features I now don’t want to live without.
Thanks for this post, I’ll check out the new Echoes of Machines patches.