Synesia PB7: audio dropout in Cubase fixed

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4848144/synesthesia_PB7.zip

Bugs:
- Complete silence after preset change in Cubase -> fixed! (Thanks genieg for the help!)

Features:
- New presets added (using overdrive modes (synesthesia menu -> advanced options)).
- Existing presets changed to "Improved" overdrive mode (this results in a little bit more even distribution of overtones). You can change back to "Legacy" mode if you like, but "Improved" is better, trust me on this

Make sure you try out the softclipper input protection, sometimes it can produce a very nice fuzz when driven hard (and oversampled).

Videos!

Slowly, I'm adding all my releases to youTube to get better "visibility" than what bandcamp or soundcloud offers. For now I am uploading 606 Reasons to Live, but sooner or later all of my tracks will be available (with some nice visuals and in 1080p HD format of course ).

606 Relasons to Live released @ tonAtom!

Weldroid's latest album, 606 Reasons to Live, sees the veteran bitcrusher moving into new sonic territory, while staying true to his unique electro-soundscape storytelling.

Weldroid blends dark, swirling, solemn choirs with airy glass flutes and trilling 8-bit arpeggios, with a touch of in-your-face circuit-bent sawtoothed growl. But in the midst of the harsher static-charged fuzz, serene tones arise: gorgeous, shimmering chords drifting through and wrapping around the lo-fi bubbles and retro blips'n'bloops.

The glitchfactory grooves of "Lady Battery" and "Nitrogen Fairy" are particularly lovely, fading into ambient chords layered over stuttered percussion and snatches of echo-delayed female voice.

606 Reasons to Live is a compelling, hopeful narrative; a pixellated glimpse of wondrous hidden beauty. An ethereal silhouette dancing in mist-shrouded woods; flickering plasma glows trace sensuous curves, revealing the interplay of circuitry and mystique.
(Nightmorph / Joshua Saddler)

Camp?

Hey folks, this will be (actually, already is) the place to download all your favorite Weldroid releases in 24 bit FLAC format... or actually in any kind of format you wish. Of course all the releases are still and will be available from the respective netlabels, this is more like a collection from where you can download the original uncompressed material (you can even pay for it if you think it makes sense).

All income from the music releases will be spent on equipment and alcoholic beverages, I can promise that. :)

Weldroid Bandcamp WHQ

(Income from VST licences are of course to help the development of future plugins, that is: equipment and alcoholic beverages :)

Righteous Overkill

Stranglehold and Attitude Indicator are now both available at my bandcamp site in up to 24 bit FLAC (lossless) format.

No minimum price specified, grab it for free if you like, or pay what you can if you want to support the just cause of ruthless bitcrushing and saving of innocent melodies :)

Also, if you represent a netlabel and would be interested in releasing a 4-6 track EP somewhere during Q2-Q3 2011 let me know!

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

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

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)

Attitude Indicator

A new release is in the queue, with 15 tracks and a massive playing time of over an hour and 18 minutes. Stay tuned and enjoy the cover art for now! :)

37.4 - Mild Case

The new EP is almost ready (well, it IS ready, I just like to play around with some extra tools, pretending that it still needs some final touches here and there, just to revert back to the original on the next morning :-). The title is Mild Case - 37.4 and it kinda indicates this time I have not fallen completely to the dark powers (bitcrushers, distortion, etc...)

Release date is still undecided, so stay tuned!
(The picture above is just one of those concept arts I have came up while putting together the cover.)

Stranglehold!

First things first.

Although this is not somethig I would call "fresh news": Stranglehold has been released by Kahvi Collective. And how else could I celebrate its last days on Kahvi's frontpage than having a post about it? :)

Download and enjoy! (And make sure you check out other great Kahvi releases!)