Recent music heroes: Weldroid Attitude Indicator (Kahvi)

The following recension by Kert Semm was published at the Recent Music Heroes blog:

Recent music heroes: Weldroid Attitude Indicator (Kahvi)

"Aside every kind of obligatory nucleus-based angular metallic techno beat variations around here you can detect for krautrock-alike Moog-based blurbs in the vein of Tangerine Dream or its members` solo projects (Silicon Man Extraterrestrial), deliciously malicious sonic effects, in-deep-psychedelia-poking-around synth brooding or elemental cosmic layers to overlap and spice up the whole record. One of the best electronic albums of 2010 to date."

A flattering review and very interesting comparisons to say the least (not to mention the score of 9.6 and final recommendation).

Deviant me

CLick around HeRe

Actually, I have been a member since 2006, but haven't used my account much since then. So if you would like to get one of my EP covers in high res, or check my other 3d stuff, this is the place to go!

Synesthesia

This one was in the queue for some months now, so I thought it's time to share some info about it. As always :) the project started out to facilitate my own needs (for a flexible, CPU-light but still high quality saturation/distortion unit), but then it evolved way beyond my original expectations.

Synesthesia is a combined waveshaper / EQ / dynamics processor that is designed to be very light on the CPU, but sounds hi-fi enough to be put on the master buss without hesitation. A special combination of frequency-dependent harmonics generation and oversampling reduces aliasing way below audible levels, allowing smooth coloration of input material free of unwanted artifacts.

Synesthesia features highly flexible - per harmonic definition of distortion / waveshaping characteristics, opening up possibilities to emulate static distortion of many nonlinear devices. It is also possible to use it as a dynamics processor by setting up the dynamic waveshaper curve with respective attack and release time constants.

Some basic facts:
- VST 2.4 effect plugin
- Win32
- 2 ch in / 2 ch out
- All parameters subject to automation except for the distortion characteristics graphs
- Demo is fully functional but injects a burst of white noise every 120 seconds

Download link to revision PB7

(just unzip it to your vst plugins directory)

Download link to Quick-start manual
Download link to Quick-start manual (mirror)

Known limitations:
- no detailed manual (yet)

Roadmap (informational):
- A: all bugs fixed (check)
- B: linear-phase oversampling, RMS detection modes, more presets
- C: hysteresis-based detection, more presets

You can purchase a full license here. Price is `whatever think it is worth to you`, with a minimum set to EUR 5 to cover for overhead costs. You will also get Resurrect, a track of mine released at Soft Phase netlabel as a bonus gift ;-).

I will do my best to fix any errors as ASAP, but all potential customers are encouraged to try the plugin in demo mode first and go ahead with the purchase if - and only if - the demo seem to work without any issue in their environment.

The copy protection itself is based on a keyfile that needs to be placed where the .dll is installed and is tied to the user name alone. No re-authorization will ever be required and one license shall be valid for all future versions.

Forbidden Forest on the new Kahvi VA!

Forbidden Forest has been released as part of the new Kahvi Collective compilation called Secret Games!

Lots of great tracks from uber-talented artists (well and lesser known) a great honor to take part in this massive 1.5 hour "festival of music". Highly recommended!

Splines EP released on Soft Phase netlabel!

“Hungarian musician Weldroid, known for his bionic, bitcrushing releases on Kahvi, debuts on Soft Phase with a new EP. “Splines” is the tale of a mechanical man in search of his maker.

While Weldroid retains his signature robotic elements — pounding electronic beats, glittering circuitry, bone-deep bass, growling horn voices backed by minor ambient drones — there’s a warmer, human side to this album. An underlying natural pulse, the heartbeat of a world in need of saving. The power of hope and steadfast resolve. A lonely android wandering through vast, forgotten caverns, through luminescent pools of coolant, assaulted by chaotic code fragments, blasted by crystal-edged melodies and chilled, stuttering data streams.

Weldroid takes us on a journey through static-filled wastelands, tracking the stumbling footsteps of the mechanical man as he braves windblown grit and harsh sine waves. Glitched rhythms and plastic melodies are his only companions. A burnished bronze city gleams in the distance, at its rusted heart is the promise of restoration. The ancient machinery of “Splines” still throbs and sizzles with purpose, yearning to be awakened.” — Joshua Saddler

Don't open the box

Don't open the box by weldroid

Actually, I quite like this one. One-by one I started adding some selected tracks to soundcloud, and so far it has been an interesting ride. Listens from Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and Greece, hey!

Some more knobs!

New plugin, new GUI!

Stockholm

So, I have moved to Stockholm for some months, don't know if I will have much time for music or DSP, but hopefully things will eventually settle and I can finish the EP in progress (I have the skeleton of the final track, I just need to put it together). Another complication: lately I have been looking at FL Studio and IL's various plugins a lot, feels very fresh and exciting after years of Ableton live, so I decided to "switch" or - at least - to try to concentrate on that platform a bit. Of course my productivity suffers a bit, but well, no pain - no gain :-)

Attitude Indicator wallpaper

Now this release has been in the queue for quite some time, and so I had the time to play around with some of the material rendered for the track images. So if you feel like dressing up your desktop in AI colors there is a 1680 x 1050 sized wallpaper for you over here.

Attitude Indicator released at Kahvi Collective!

#292 - Weldroid - Attitude Indicator

"Weldroid is a Kahvi regular almost now - after appearing as guest artist in Wolandroids release a couple back, we now have an entire album for your listening pleasure! Attitude indicator is an evolution in the sound of Weldroid, some fairly glitchy and underground vibes mixed in with some excellent minimalistic beats.

The 15 tracks that make up this release (playing time around 1hr 20mins) are a vast array of different sounds, it sounds a lot like Weldroid was brainstorming the entire release and evolving the tracks, one from the previous. Some fantastic work, well thought out and produced.

Tracks of choice: Not every neuron, Tabby Cat, the oddly named Bonchida dreamin.

Another great release from Weldroid - lets hope we hear more from him again later this year!"/4T

Weldroid @ Alien Air Music show tonight!

"Iron Loss" was featured tonight at the Alien Air Music show on KXLU Los Angeles. Yippeee! (Cheers Pat!)

Have a look at the playlist folks!

Courvoisier released!

Update: Revision C released with fixed M/S matrix.

Download link
Download link #2

Courvoisier is a single-band universal dynamics processor with adaptive attack and release algorithms optimized for complex program material (mixes and submixes). Courvoisier uses free-form curves drawn over the histogram of incoming audio material (as opposed to traditional ratio and threshold parameters) to determine the transfer function of the processing.

Courvoisier is available for free.

Features:

- Histogram representation (sliding-window statistics)

of incoming program material and the resulting gain change
on which the transfer function can be drawn

- Free-form upward and downward compression and/or expansion

- Spline interpolated control curves

- All performance-critical code optimized in assembly
(utilizing SSE2 flow instructions)

- Two different adaptive attack algorithms (program dependent)

- Adaptive release algorithm (program dependent, scalable)

- Additional user defined adaptive release behavior

- Side chain filtering (low and high pass)

- MS operation
(with support for different transfer curves for Mid and Side channels)

- Stereo operation (adjustable stereo link)

- Dry mix option for parallel processing

- Peak, RMS and Hybrid level detection

- Very low harmonic distortion
(THD during normal operation is below -105 dB FS)

- Lookahead processing for minimizing distortion
with extremely fast attack settings

- Complex mode (oversampling with a twist)

Some nice pushbuttons...

...for the forthcoming audio processor.

Ambiophonics Processor VST: ambio.one

Download Link #1
Download Link #2

After some weeks of fine-tuning and testing the ambio.one plugin is released to the public. It features a highly customizeable crosstalk-cancellation solution based on the RACE algorythm developed by the Ambiophonic Institute.

The plugin can be used to process regular 2-channel stereo material for ambiophonic presentation. This is basically a 2-speaker setup where the speakers themselves are placed close to each other, but still, due to the crosstalk cancellation, the achieved soundstage can be (almost) up-to 180 degrees. (The ambiophonics.org website is stuffed with information on how to set-up such system, and also the plug-in has a detailed on-line help to assist any ambio-newbie :-)

The plugin can be used in any VST compatible host on the PC (it was tested with Audiomulch 2.0, Ableton Live 8 and Christian Budde's plugin analyzer, let me know if you find any incompatibilities with your host).

Compatibility with Winamp (and any other software capable of loading Winamp DSP plugins, like the great FFDshow codec), and foobar2000 is provided via wrappers:

Winamp VST Bridge
foobar2000 VST wrapper

System Requirements:
- VST 2.3 compliant host (or any of the wrappers listed above)

Now what could this be?

An audio plugin that will make you smile. Yes, it is made by me, and yes it can be yours for free. Soon. (Hint)

Black Glass alternatives

Hmmm, I've been thinking about enhancing the Mild Case EP that have been waiting in the release queue of a netlabel you know very well and is also linked on this page :)

If this plan succeeds then the original 4-track EP will transform itself into a full length, 8-9 track album. Meanwhile I have also been trying to do some improvements on the mix of "Black Glass", and for a limited time period you can hear the results @7161.

You can also listen to the original version if you like.