airwindows

Trance Bass with Moog Mother32 and DFAM

I thought it'd be fun to talk you through a Moog patch I made. Using a Mother32 and DFAM (or any other module that can produce both a kick and a trigger out when the kick happens) you can patch up a nice analog 'trance bass' that plays sixteenths and ducks out of the way of the kick. And you can do this over ANY sequence. Here's how!

Behringer D Guitar

Behringer D: $300 or so

Sonuus G2M: $80,  as little as $50 for an old one

Rockman or whatever distortion box: $60 to $100

Getting Behringer to retain the ability to set pitch bend range, so you can use older G2Ms to do this: priceless :) 

Back when I was growing up, this was unthinkable. Anybody who's interested in guitar synthesizer tech should look into this combination of budget gear… but if you get current Behringer Ds AND you have an older Sonuus G2M (or even...

Moog Mother32 QuickStart

Here's a video explaining the sequencer on the Moog Mother32. If, like me, you found the M32 fun and inspirational to europatch together but daunting to get sequencer notes out of, here's some help! It's one of those synths where everything's in mysterious modes of operation, and I'll explain how those work. Once you know the tricks, it's sort of approachable, but it's important to know what the main things are. For instance, most of the important things you need to do are done while holding Shi...

x0xb0x QuickStart

Here's a video on getting controlled notes out of the x0xb0x: I find that usually they're used for short 16 note sorta-random acidy stuff. x0x is great for that, but you can do so much more with 'em, so this is me showing how you can assemble much longer tracks on a x0xb0x. I hope this is a useful reference for people. Bear in mind there are other x0xb0x firmwares! This is for a stock willzyx x0xb0x, which I think is the same as the adafruit x0x.

Tanzmaus QuickStart

For today and the next couple days, I'm uploading some little videos I made partly for myself: I'm trying to get familiarity with bits of gear that make up part of my modular synth rig. If you were interested in using this stuff but can't get notes out of the things, these videos are for you! For now I'm doing Tanzmaus, x0xb0x sequencer and Moog Mother32 sequencer, and again, my hope is that I can learn to jam on this stuff as freely as on a guitar.

I'll start with the MFB Tanzmaus, a little d...

Modular Bastl Kastles

The moment I saw the Bastl Kastle, I loved it. This is why. Join me for an hour of intense, close-up patching, where I'll explain how to do things like sync the Kastle to external modular gear, use it as an extra oscillator, patch it into a Moog Mother-32 as a FM carrier, use two patched into each other as a Berlin School hard techno kick drum, and more!

DFAM Crossmodulation

Here's a little experiment. What happens if you plug the two oscillators of the Moog DFAM… into each other? (each VCO out into the other's VCO CV, right next to it).  Delightful things, that's what :)

Lincane Eurorack Panels

This: http://mdbuildingproducts.com/product/1-x-2-lincane-aluminum-sheet-020-thick-2/ is the panel that I made into the Bastl Kastle eurorack mount. You can get 'em on Amazon, at Home Depot, perhaps other places: don't know if there are any actually good places through which you can get this stuff, but there's some options anyhow :)

Using this sort of material (it'...

Moog DFAM Beat Syncing

Thanks to this Patreon, I'm able to work with more interesting equipment, which can give me ideas for plugins and inspiration in general. This will be one of the first Moog DFAM videos 'in the wild' (not part of a promo campaign: I just buy stuff if I can, when times are good). 

In this video, I'm demonstrating how to sync a DFAM to a Mother32 (which itself is synced to the rest of an elaborate modular system). You're told to sync it from Assign to Adv/Clock, which is more orderly and con...

Open Source!

I think this time it's real :) woohoo, substantially above $800! I'm kind of a wreck, just returned from my Mom's funeral and have some Console 5 work to do (straightening out that stuff so it's all working properly) but January 2018 will mark the launch of Airwindows Open Source. I will get together my Github (currently has some game stuff on it) so it's some kind of organized, and I will post templates (how I author plugins) and the source of PurestConsole, which I've just put out. That's two ...

Rick-izing the Black Guitar

This video is about an hour: I'm doing some electrical work on my black guitar (a Strat copy). I show how I'm using a 3-position Tele switch to wire the guitar so the bridge position is direct-wired, but the middle position includes a series capacitor with the bridge pickup. You'll also see my bass (wired similarly) and video rig (which falls apart during the video, and I patch it together again).

Car Sound Damping

I made these videos some time ago, and have just gotten back into that sort of videomaking. This is an hour and a half, a whole bunch of little video clips documenting me improving the acoustics of my Subaru. I'm using Dynamat, Frost King, and these things called Airtabs that cut down drag but also change the wind noise from lower to higher frequencies :)

Swappable Mega Dark Hat

Here's another Airwindows studio post that serves two purposes. One, I'm showing you an alternate mega-dark and loud hi-hat sound (like the acoustic version of a low-fi sampled dark hat) you can make with a $50 Wuhan cymbal and some tin-snips. But it was also an experiment to see if the Xiaomi Yi camera compresses its microphone. It does not! So this is what THAT sounds like, and also this serves as a YouTube reference. The drum parts are completely smashed to hell, and YouTube is getting the ra...

Speed-King-Izing Axis Longboards

I'm getting together a huge (18) pile of new plugins to make, including the mighty Iron Oxide 4, and also dealing with a YouTube issue where someone's tried to copyright strike white noise generated in a ToTape4 video, and trying to fix my porch. But I've got time to share some drum pedal experiments with you!

This is how to make Axis longboards 'feel' more like Ludwig Speed King pedals, but without the squeaks and vintageness. It's all about the geometry of the linkages, and works ...

$600 a month

Woohoo! I see a $600. If the Patreon is still at or above that at the end of April, we will see Iron Oxide 4 as the first thing in March! The Kagi plugins are coming! :D

I've been asked to do an AMA with a subreddit called r/AdvancedProduction

Forgive the thread maker for trying to BiCapitalize Airwindows, and if you'd like, drop by and ask me anything. Since it's Reddit I figure that does mean ANYTHING, so I will answer all manner of questions :)

Snowball Madness

To stay fresh with plugins, I code other things, and it’s become part of my open source initiative. In fact I’m starting off the plugin open source thing by setting up my GitHub page with hobby game projects (first Counterpart, and now Snowball Madness). So you can read the Java code of this plugin, and use it as a framework for your own ideas. A lot of the initial work was done by my brother Dan, who also advocates open source code.

2017-03-29 10:42:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Counterpart

I've made a video game! I was working on this for a couple years and it's time to share it and move on to maybe another game or two. They should be easier now that I've learned (I'm happy to help patrons if they'd like to teach themselves how to code Unity games :) )

Guitar Full Wave Rectification

I was just rebuilding an SG copy I own (Samick guitar, real bridge/tailpiece/pickups except the pickup baseplates were so worn out I had to put the Gibson pickups on Ibanez baseplates) when I discovered something. The Dan Armstrong 'Green Ringer' (or even a reissue, like the one I have) is far more significant to Frank Zappa's solo tone than I'd imagined, with instances built into his famous SG and also a Strat (I think I hear this effect on 'Watermelon In Easter Hay'), and here's the deal…

...

I HAVE CONSTRUCTED A MAGNETO-DYNAMIC INFUNDIBULATOR

No, seriously, I have! Watch the video and you can construct one too! You’ll need an XLR cable, a transformer (like a 600 ohm telephone transformer with three windings), some little diodes like stompboxes use for clipping, and a teeny capacitor. Two of everything, for stereo. You’ll want a soldering iron (if needed, I can make a How To Solder video) and either a multimeter, or in a pinch, guitar cables and some kind of amp (as shown in the video). With these, you too can build what I’ve bu...

Xiaomi Yi Tuning With autoexec.ash

Here's another Airwindows Starving Artist posting! It's kind of long, but this outlines what I've done to get high-performance results out of the Xiaomi Yi. I show the visual tools I made to focus and calibrate the Yi, explain how to set the saturation and vibrance controls, and make an impassioned plea for allowing the Yi to use its noise reduction when shooting compressed HD video. Even if you didn't hack your Yi like I did, there's stuff you can use here! :)

Not Just Another Dither

The votes are in, and the Internet has spoken. We’ve got a name for the new noise shaping variant on Naturalize (seen in this video) after a January of wild suggestions. Seems most people simply wanted to emphasize that this was not your ordinary dither, not your daddy’s TPDF.

I've not made a video yet. I will be following up with a proper product announcement and a video demonstrating the dithers/notjustdi...

Homebrew Kick Drum Mics

Much like my livestream on adding a Mudbucker to an electric bass, this video is about ways you can make custom drum mics using spare speaker parts, even if you’re not on a platinum seller budget! All about how a SubKick works, and a trick for getting DI beater click. Plus, these do not need a preamp to work! :)

In this video, I’m showing you how I made my ‘beater click’ and sub-kick ‘microphones’ and wired them. I’m assuming you either know how to wire things, or are willing to ...

Why I'm Kind Of Stuck Running Youtube Advertising

TL;DW: They're a monopoly and I expect them to quietly blacklist and suppress anybody NOT running Youtube Advertising.

As you might imagine, on YouTube this video is known as 'Why To Run Youtube Ads'. Follow along with my reasoning in the video, and you might come to the same conclusion: you've got to put across the appearances of somebody who's naive and available to be exploited by YouTube's promises, so you can piggyback on it by trying to do work that's realistic (and be paid in...

Name the latest Airwindows dither!

http://www.rkursem.com/poll/view.php?id=641f6546e6bc4b7a8

The successor to Naturalize is way better, and the Internet shall name it! As patrons you're probably more likely to care what it's called, so this is your opportunity to choose… or SUGGEST… a name you'd like to see in your DAW.

I'm hoping this can provide some useful publicity, because it's all very well making the best sounding ...

Crush All Boxes: Royalty Free Music For Patrons

http://www.crushallboxes.com 

http://www.crushallboxes.bandcamp.com  (to be filled with hi-res versions as needed and when I have time: $1 per download to help support Bandcamp with all that hosting)

Many times, listeners to my plugin videos have said, "This is terrible music, and you shouldn't do it! :D

Other times, people hav...

Building Chris's Bass (in a blizzard!)

This livestream is me explaining the modifications to my bass guitar, and then adding an Artec Mudbucker pickup and explaining why I'm doing it. Includes pickup cavity carving and demonstration of my signal chain :)

Livestreaming!

Join me as I tinker with an Xiaomi Yi :)

Airwindows Dimensional Kicks/Hats/Snares.zip

I've been asked to put out something that's patron-only, but I'm not willing to do that with the new VSTs.

Here's the solution! I'm so busy with the plugins that I have no time to make more little techno songs (for good or ill ;) ) so I am releasing ALL of the samples I was going to be putting out, all at once. I know I'll only end up thinking of more samples to do, so I might as well release the whole project.

You can watch the video for over an hour of explanation or just download the ...

Status, Week 3

Today, I released Guitar Conditioner (for free, natch): http://www.airwindows.com/guitar-conditioner/

Beyond that, I'm completely caught up in trying to debug VSTs. Turns out it's kind of tricky. This is slowing me down, but I have to take it seriously—in Audio Units I have some of the most reliable plugins out there, and I'm not thrilled to see the VSTs showing issues (not saving their settings). ...