SYNTHS & SAMPLING.
Synthesis, samplers, sound design, software instruments and patches.
20 Sample Playback Synths Compared
Multi-Timbral Synthesizer The Korg M50 is a low cost alternative to hi-priced workstations. Hi end features abound like the TouchView screen. Comparison Chart For Keyboards that use Sample Playback Synthesis The keyboards on this page all have onboard sounds. Other keyboards include Soundless Contro…
34 Articles on Software Synths and Samplers by Tweak
Basic Theory Understanding the Virtual Studio What is a Soft Sampler? What is a Soft Synth ? What are Software Processors Drum Soft Samplers Review: StormDrum Review of Guru Review of Stylus RMX Review of Battery 3 Review of Superior Drummer 2.0 Synths Korg Legacy MS-20 Review of Massive by NI Revie…
Access Virus TI Desktop Synthesizer and the Access Snow by SoundCravers Lab
Tweak Peeks at the: Access Virus TI Desktop and Access Virus Snow Access Virus TI2 Desktop Integrated Modeling Synth Tweak: A great choice for those doing electronic music. 16 ch multi timbral. Lots of voices, unlike other virtual analog synths. FX on every channel. Connects by USB2 to your computer…
All About MIDI Synth Modules
Who needs a MIDI synth module? In a World of Software, the Hardware Synth Module Fights Back by Rich the Tweak Modules at zZounds How MIDI Sound Modules Evolved To really appreciate what a synth module is I have to take you back to the beginning, So don your time travel suit and lets go back, back,…
Are Hardware Samplers Obsolete?
Are Hardware Samplers Obsolete? Hey Rich, I have an off topic question for you. What do you think about the use of hardware samplers over software sampling tools. I haven't used software sampling that often. I basically sample Gigasampler libraries with my e5000 (probably sounds dumb, but I do it an…
Defining Custom Bank Select Methods
Defining Custom Bank Select Methods Using Logic 8 I am going to show you how you get patchnames into Logic from your hardware synth. I am going to use the V-Synth GT as an example. Those of you who own the V-synth GT will find everything you need here to get your V-synth patchnames into Logic. If yo…
Evolution of SoundCravers Lab 2
by the Tweakmeister Rich The Evolution of SoundCravers Lab Page 2 Â Â back to page 1 Â Â Â Â up to page 3 Gear Notes from the 80's So, MIDI was hitting its first stride , and Yamaha, clearly the leader, saw where the money was and a few months later, the TX81Z landed in the rack. And yes, I programm…
Evolution of SoundCravers Lab 3
by the Tweakmeister Rich The Evolution of SoundCravers Lab Page 3 back to page 2 In 1996 I launched my website, called "Rich's MIDI Lab" after learning the ins and outs of PCs, DOS, Windows 3.1, and midi, html seemed easy. My dream was a total midi website for electronic musicians. Back then Real Au…
Free Audio Samples and Loops for your Art
Free Samples, Loops and SoundFonts Feel Free to use these in your Creations Courtesy of SoundCravers Lab Download these. Use them. They are sounds which will give you an industrial feel. When you want more, buy my CD Roms! Oops, you can't buy them any more; I've run out. No one give you as many qual…
Free Synth Patch Banks
Manufacturers free patches to Download feel free to link to this page DX200 Patches by Dan (studio-central member) Here is the sysex of my DX200 user bank (128 patches). The patches are in no particular order and many don't have any sequence pattern data. (One of the quirks of the DX200 and AN200 is…
How to Burn an Emu Sample CD Rom
How to Burn an Emu-format Sample CD Rom on a PC Things You Need to get started: For MORE EMU related pages please go to my EMU Resources Page SoundCravers Emu CD Roms Emu Format Sample CD-Rom The Mystik Garage My Classic Emu Sample CD-Rom Ice Kold Tekno Getting started You need 1. A compatible SCSI…
How to Connect your E-mu Sampler to a PC
Connect your Emu Sampler to your PC How to set up SMDI Sample Transfers over SCSI Propellerhead ReCycle 2.0 (Macintosh and Windows) Loopists, groovists, samplists! A new world is about to open up before your very ears! New and improved ReCycle 2.0 solves all your groove related problems — and lets y…
How to Program a Synthesizer by SoundCravers Lab
How to Program a Synthesizer by SoundCravers Lab Rich was part of the programming team for the Alesis QS series synths and Q-cards Lets say you want to go beyond tweaking factory patches and doing simple stuff like changing the instruments, octave etc., and want to develop voices all your own. This…
Ice Kold Tekno CD Covers
Ice Kold Tekno CD Covers Just save to disk and print on a printer. Thanks again for your support! Back to Ice Kold Tekno SoundCravers Lab's Sample CD Roms SoundCravers Lab Products List Celestial Windowpane Ice Kold Tekno Post Indie Mystik Garage Ice Kold Tekno Orkestra CD Rom Covers Ice Kold Tekno…
Ice Kold Tekno CD ROM of MS20 Sounds for EMU Samplers
Ice Kold Tekno Emu Sample CD Rom of Tekno-Industrial Sounds from the Korg MS-20 V. 3.0 and better than ever Order by PayPal CD-ROM for ALL Hardware Emu Samplers includes "Native" Master banks for ESi 3.0x, ESi 2.1 and Emulator IV (EOS) including ULTRAs (sounds great in 4.7) There are also banks that…
Index of articles on Sampling
Sampling and Sound Development Using your Hardware Sampler Creatively The Secrets of Great sound Samples How to setup an MPC based Studio How to Burn your own EMU CD Rom Surviving SCSI Hell A Page of Resources for Emu and other Hardware Samplers How to connect your emu sample to your PC What is a So…
Korg M3 Resources
Korg M3 Resources By SoundCravers Lab The Korg M3 is a workstation of the first class. There are 3 major workstations on the market as of this writing. The Fantom G , Motif XS and the Korg M3. At the bottom you can read some of the posts I've made in the forums as we debated which of these are the "…
Modern Virtual Analog Synths
Tweak Peeks at the: Modern Virtual Analog Synths Virus Desktop vs Virus Snow While the synths on this page may sound and perform like a real analog synthesizer, they are really digital models of analog synths. Hence they are called Virtual analogs or VA's for short. If you want real analog, look at…
My Favorite Vintage Soft Synths
Arturia 10 Year Special Edition Instrument Suite This collector pack, available in limited quantities, includes: My Favorite Vintage Soft Synths Enter the VV world (Virtual Vintage Synths) by Tweak There are vintage synth collectors. And vintage software synth collectors. One of them sleeps better a…
Ordering Info
Ordering Info How to order Sample CD-Roms from SoundCravers Lab This page for historical reference only I take pride in delivering an excellent set of products, excellent personal customer service that is fast and efficient. By PayPal PayPal is the only way to order from me. I am notified immediatel…
Pics of Vintage Virtual Synths
Pics of Vintage Virtual Synths Restored local archive. Dead external/affiliate links and unavailable archived targets have been disabled. Guitar | Bass | Keyboard | Microphones | Mixers | Audio Interfaces | Monitors | Sequencers | Soft Synths | Live Sound | Dr…
Resources for E-mu Samplers on the Internet
Resources for E-mu Samplers Cool Stuff A New Emu EOS editor is born called ZeoOS by Zuonics . Demo available. Looking for emu EOS manuals and tons more? Check out http://www.emusonacid.co.uk Our member Uncle Colin's Sample Source Page (e4b banks for EOS 4.7) What is the quietest drive for your emu?…
Review of Absynth 2
Review of Absynth 2 Multi-synthesis Software with Granular Sampling by Tweak If you are the type of composer that deals in industrial type sounds, the strange, the dark and uncanny, or perhaps one looking for new forms of rhythmic variation for the creation of some imposing loop chemistry, or heck,…
Review of Battery 3 by Native Instruments
Review of Battery 3 by Native Instruments Add quality sampled drums in the virtual domain of your sequencer by the Tweak Original Battery interface Note the huge number of cells now available in the Battery 3 interface Pros Easy to use Multiple Outs (with appropriate audio driver and interface) Soun…
Review of Kontakt 2
Review of Kontakt 2 A Good Soft Sampler gets Better I've been using Kontakt 2 for a long while now and I am very impressed and have dug down deep to really learn this piece in all its depth. Kontakt 2 blows away Kontakt 1.5 tremendously. It rivals any sample playback device on the market, hardware o…
Review of Kontakt 3 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of Kontakt 3 Native Instruments Komplete Software Suite KOMPLETE 6 brings together seven cutting-edge products that no studio should be without. Containing groundbreaking and multi-awarding samplers, synths, guitar/bass amps and creative effects, this collection represents Native Instruments'…
Review of Kontakt by NI
Review of Kontakt A Soft Sampler by Native Instruments by tweak Pros Flexible and friendly interface Works with Cubase, Logic and Sonar Cheaper than a hardware sampler, yet with more powerful programming options Cons (Version 2.0) Small fonts are hard to read in File lists. Overall: Great bang for t…
Review of Native Instruments FM7 and FM8
Review of Native Instruments FM7 and FM8 Software Synths True, yet improved FM Synthesis is back by Rich the Tweakmeister FM synthesis has made a resurgence over the past few years. This was probably due, at least in part, to the popularity of techno-oriented music. Those involved in these forms of…
Review of Reaktor Session
Review of Reaktor Session A thousand soft synths for the price of one. By Tweak You've probably heard the buzz about Reaktor. Wha? You haven't? Dude, it's a "build your own" softsynth application that lets you go into the uncharted lands of synthesis and sampling. Reaktor was introduced several year…
Review of Reason 3
Review of Reason 3.0 A great tool gets better By Tweak I was in no hurry to upgrade to Reason 3.0 from 2.5. I didn't think it was that big of an upgrade after reading the initial sales information. After all, there was still no audio recording facility, perhaps the one feature that Reason still lack…
Review of Reason 4 by SoundCravers Lab
Review of Reason 4.0 Introducing Thor and more by SoundCravers Lab It is probably good to mention what Reason 4 is not, just in case any newbies drifted in. If you are new, the next paragraph is important. Reason does not record audio ; it cannot send midi to external midi keyboards or synths, thoug…
Review of Spectrasonic's Omnisphere by SoundCravers Lab
Review of Omnisphere The best gets better by SoundCravers Lab Spectrasonics Omnisphere Software Synth (Mac and Windows) After many years of development, Spectrasonics is proud to release the brand new flagship virtual instrument Omnisphere. This epic 'Power Synth' breaks completely new sonic ground…
Review of the Emu E-5000 Digital Sampler
Review of the Emu E-5000 Hardware Digital Sampler by Rich the TweakMeister I've been using emu samplers for quite some time. Since 1995 I've used an Esi-32 maxed out to 32 megs with every expansion option they offered and developed 3 sample cd roms (2 of which are available on this site). Because I…
Review of the Roland V-Synth GT by SoundCravers Lab
Tweak Unwraps the: Roland V-Synth GT The V-synth GT is an incredible board for those who know what it is and know how to use it (or want to learn how to use it). However, it is not a synth for everyone. In fact, i think a newbie should stay far clear of this board until they really know they need it…
Review of Trilian
Review of Trilian by SoundCravers Lab Trilian just arrived at the lab and I am putting it through its paces. What can I tell you now? It surpasses Trilogy by a huge margin, yet retains everything I loved about it, including the great basses in there. Ah Trilogy, how I have missed thee! If you had a…
Secrets of Making Great Sounding Samples
The Secrets of Great Sounding Samples Give your home made samples professional quality by Rich the TweakMeister 1. A Hardware or Software Sampler. If it's hardware, then the sampler should be well endowed with memory. 32 Megs or better is good. Any of the Emus Ultras and Esi series are up to the tas…
Secrets of Making of a Large SoundFont
How to Build a Bank of SoundFonts Build you Own Custom Virtual Synth by Tweak Building a good SoundFont is the same process as building a sample based synthesizer from scratch. You can use any sample and tweak it with a wide range of envelopes, filter and resonance settings and effects just like you…
Sequencing with Reason (and Logic)
Sequencing with Reason (and Logic) A page devoted to making products work together by Rich the Tweakmeister Go directly to Reason/Logic Tips Being someone who has been sequencing back to the early days when analog synths were all we had, I was prepared to be unimpressed when the first signs of Reaso…
Sound Development Journal of Rich the TweakMeister, Page 2
Sound Development Journal of Rich the TweakMeister while Making the Post-Industrial CybrSound Depot Part 2 Back to Page 1 1-5-01 We are in Overtime, folks. I added a few more DnB style snares--rim shots with select frequencies removed and the kits just blow me away. I am planning to make one more su…
SoundCravers Guide Index
Guide Index Browse the restored SoundCravers archive by topic. Getting Started Assembling 6 different types of Home Studios Essential Concepts for putting together a Home Studio Guide Index How to make money in your home studio How to Set Up Digital Audio in your Home Studio Pic of Basic Setup Podca…
Soundfonts of the Korg MS-20 for the SB Live
Soundfonts of the Korg MS-20 for the SB Live Restored local archive. Dead external/affiliate links and unavailable archived targets have been disabled. Guitar | Bass | Keyboard | Microphones | Mixers | Audio Interfaces | Monitors | Sequencers | Soft Synths | L…
Surviving SCSI Hell
Surviving SCSI Hell The Poetics of SCSI for Musicians and Samplists Sample CD Roms in Emu format by Rich the TweakMeister The Mystik Garage i s an Emu Sample CD Rom formatted for all Emu Samplers. It features Lo-Fi Sound FX, unusual drum Kits, and lots of samples to add spice to your compositions. I…
Synth programmer for Hire! And other Services of SoundCravers Lab
The Tweak is IN! Rich has been doing studio work a long time... I am available for synth programming and sound sampling for the development of MIDI keyboards and Samplers. Commercial projects only. Java Pic Can't You Tell? for a better pic Original Music for Podcasts and Short Film Gear Consulting S…
The Electribe Page
Review of the Korg Electribe Analog Modeling Synthesizer Cutaway of Today's Electribe MX by SoundCravers Lab I have it sitting right in front of me as I type. When i bought it, I was a bit unclear about whether the Electribe would respond to its own controllers over MIDI from a sequencer. I am very…
The Emulator Station FAQ
The OLD Emulator Station FAQ To participate, please pose a question that you know the answer to , answer it, and send it to the list. Post direct to the list. That way, we have everyone's watchful eyes looking out for errors and exceptions, etc. Think of anything you had to learn "the Hard way" Freq…
The Evolution of SoundCravers Lab
by the Tweakmeister Rich The Evolution of SoundCravers Lab Go to page 2 Page 3 Rich's First Studio? Nah! There were even earlier ones! (1975) Lets say I started with 2 cassette decks , a guitar and a Moog Prodigy in 1984. (I could go back far earlier, but lets not, OK?) The Prodigy was a spin-off of…
The Making of a Sample CD Rom Page 1
Sound Development Journal of Rich the TweakMeister while Making the Post-Industrial CybrSound Depot by Tweak October 10,2000 to March 18, 20001 ( more info on this cd rom) 10-10-00 I've decided to do it and make an EOS only version of my Emu format sample CD Rom " Ice Kold Tekno ". I am already a we…
The Mystik Garage Emu Sample CD Rom
The Mystik Garage This Emu format CD Rom disk was made on an ESi Sampler. Loads perfectly into the Esi 32, Esi4000/2000, E4, E-Synth , E64, E6400 (and all the Ultras) and even the EIII add $5.00 Shipping Version 2.2 Now Available! $39.99 Not in stock-special order only. Send a private message to Twe…
This is Rich
This is Rich the Tweakmeister The TweakMeister, who also goes by the name Rich, is a composer with strong philosophical inspirations. "Music is the Cyberspace of Emotions", SoundCravers writes, "which exist not within us but outside, in the relationships that bond us together." In the music industry…
Tweak's Crystal Ball
Tweak's Crystal Ball A peek into the Future of the Virtual Studio and Cyberspace Formally trained in philosophy and sociology, the Tweak is skilled at taking contemporary trends and predicting future events. Here's my assessment. Take it or leave it. You will later discover I was right. :) Just to d…
Types of Synthesis in Modern Softsynths
What are Software Synthesizers And the Types of Synthesis within Today's Software Instruments By Rich the Tweakmeister Spectrasonics Omnisphere Software Synth (Mac and Windows) Tweak's Pick Selecting a software synth for your studio is like going to a candy store. They all look soooo good. And with…
Using Logic's EXS-24 Software Sampler
Using the EXS-24 Software Sampler Tips on the EXS and a Guide to developing your Custom Sample Library Revised for Logic 8 in 2008 by Tweak W hen I first got the EXS sampler, my thought was I'd just use it to spice up a few tracks in each song when my 2 other samplers, and esi32 and an e5000, got ma…
Using Propellerheads Reason
Understanding and Using Reason by the Tweak Pros Integrated music production package with synths, samplers, drum machines, effects, more requires no external hardware/software other than a midi keyboard and soundcard inexpensive Cons does not control external midi synths Reason and Accessories Cakew…
Using your Hardware Sampler Creatively
Using Your Hardware Sampler Creatively Is the Hardware Sampler Obsolete? Tweak says no, and shows you what you can do with a hardware sampler by Rich the TweakMeister Hardware Samplers Time Out! What is a Sampler? A Sampler , also called digital sampler is a device, either in the form of a hardware…
Vintage DJ Rig with the Roland SP980
DJ Rig with the Roland SP808 Roland MV8800 Production Studio Since 2003, Roland's MV-8000 has been a coveted centerpiece for many of the world's greatest hip-hop and R&B producers. With its powerful hands-on features, and its ability to incorporate a VGA monitor and mouse, it brought the best of the…
Virtual Synthesizers, Software Synths, Samplers (old)
Old article All About Software Synths and Samplers This page is older and has been updated here Making sense of the VSTi, DXi Jungle Time Out! What is all this VSTi, DXi, AU and Rewire Stuff? Here it is plain and simple. VSTi (virtual studio technology instrument) was developed by Steinberg as a Uni…
What are Software Samplers?
What are Software Samplers? How to Choose the Right one for your Studio by Tweak The process of "sampling" audio is everywhere in the modern studio. Sampling is just another word for recording sound on digital media. We find this process of sampling audio in our sequencers, multi track recorders, CD…
What's New and Cool by SoundCravers Lab
What's New (and Cool) page 1 Here's some of the latest studio gear, available from zZounds page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6 A Really SCHWEET DEAL KRK VXT8 Active Studio Monitor With a visually striking enclosure design that is equally functional -- providing low resonance, improved structur…
Working as a Sound Developer by SoundCravers Lab
Working as a sound developer under construction Sound developers have one foot in this world and another in the realm of the fantastic and impossible. Much like a writer may go off into a fictional world of drama when they write, the sound developer does the same thing, only in terms of sound. Each…