The documentary was directed by Matthew Bate and was never made available commercially because the rights to the music on the film were too expensive to license.

What the Future Sounded Like pt. 1

What the Future Sounded Like pt. 2

What the Future Sounded Like pt. 3

One of the cheapest way to ‘analogize’ your digital synth / VST synth tracks is to process them using analog filters. Two of the cheapest ways of doing this are:

1-Use an analog filter bank or filter unit.

A cheap and great unit i use is  Electrix’s Filter Factory. This unit is no longer made (since Electrix sadly, went out of business) , but you can still find them used on Ebay. The Filter Factory has a pair (Stereo) of analog Low Pass / Notch filters, one LFO + buzz (overdrive), but it has plenty of manual controls (and MIDI) to give you many different sounds. This unit not only can be used with various synths, it has features made for live performance, such as phono inputs for DJ decks, tempo tapping button for the LFO speed, 4 LFO waveforms, an envelope follower and can be controlled via MIDI.
Another good and cheap analog filter is the $50 Korg Monotron, which has a real VCF analog Korg low pass MS-20 filter on board. The unit itself has a stereo jack where you care route your audio directly to the filter!

2-Use a bass envelope follower filter.

You can borrow a trick from Parliament / Funkadelic’s bass player Bootsy Collins and process your synth tracks through an envelope follower filter such as the Electro Harmonix Qtron. This pedal can be purchased used on Ebay and has various Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass filters that can be used with a variety of sounds, not just bass. The Low Pass filter is not as deep as the Electrix Filter Factory’s 4 Pole mono filter, but it can give wonderful results, and it is especially effective in bass synth tracks. This is one of the best envelope follower units ever made.

To complete this article, i did a little experiment with a used, lowly & cheap digital Yamaha TX81Z, a four operator FM synth, which can produce some great analog-like tones due to its ability to use different waveforms as operators (as opposed to the holy grail of FM synths, the Yamaha DX-7 which only uses sine waves)
i ran the TX81Z through the Filter Factory, the Electro-Harmonix Qtron and to complete the experiment, i ran it though, what is considered to be one of the best sounding digital emulations of analog filters, the FabFilter Volcano 2

This is what the original TX81Z sounds like playing the Odyssey..1 patch
You can find out how to download this TX81Z patch and many others by checking out our TX81Z editor librarian review

analogize-Original-TX81Z.mp3
Below is what the same piece of music sounds like processed though the Electrix Filter Factory. The first part of music is processed though the envelope follower and the rest of the music is processed though the LFO matching the tempo. The filter’s frequency was changed manually. Believe it or not, the resonance of the filter was nowhere near the upper limit of its range.

The next test is what the piece of music sounds like processed though the Electro-Harmonix Qtron’s Low Pass filter with me changing the frequency manually.

Next is what the Filter Factory and the Qtron pieces sound when mixed together in Ableton Live:

A quick look at all the recorded tracks in Ableton Live reveals that the Filter Factory ‘decompresses’ the sound by adding some wild dynamic variance to the recorded music via filtering and filter self-oscillation.

Just for kicks i tried to re-create the settings for the analog envelope followers in Fabfilter Volcano by using one ‘Extreme’ filter just set to the point of self-oscillation and by manually changing the filter’s frequency.

and this is what it sounds like:

Conclusion
Althought Fabfilter Volcano2’s filtering can probably pass for an average analog filter unit and despite the fact that this filter software can do things that would be impossible in an analog filter, i still couldn’t really get it to match the Electrix’ Filter Factory’s crazy self-oscillation and sound or the Qtron’s envelope following.
Maybe i need to play around with Fabfilter Volcano some more, maybe i haven’t mastered the software yet, but it seems to me like there is really no match for the best analog filters, at least not yet..

When i listen to the Filter Factory + Qtron mix, I can’t tell the original synth sounds came from a digital synth…  maybe you can?
for the money, i think you will be better off  buying some cheap, used, real analog filter units on Ebay and using them in your tracks, instead of spending big bucks on virtual analog synths.

The iPad music revolution is brewing. It seems every month we get new MIDI & OSC controllers apps.
It is a matter of time before we see hundreds of MIDI / OSC / Ableton touchscreen controlling programs!

Here is the latest round-up of iPad & Android MIDI controller apps:

Midipad
Midipad is the one of the most interesting applications created for the iPhone / iPad.
This software transmits touch-controlled MIDI data to Apple and Windows PCs over wi-fi. The software has several custom “views” (studioView, djView, launchView, fxView, keysView) much like Ableton does.

What it doesn’t do is to enable musicians to program their own custom MIDI controller interface, like the JazzMutant Lemur, but i expect someone to offer such features sooner or later.
The Midipad for the iPad is currently in beta, which you can see in action here:

TouchAble
TouchAble is another promising and awesome-looking MIDI Ableton controller coming for the Ipad!
The app looks truly impressive, with multiple screens and capabilities, makes me want to run and get an iPad!
I love how easily you can switch between views and how easy it is to scroll through your clips. I can’t even do that with my keyboard / mouse.
Watch is in action here and be blown away:

Griid
Griid is basically an Ableton clip launching app, think the Novation Launchpad on an iPad with many navigation improvements, and the fact that you can see what clips you are triggering without having to look at the Ableton screen to find your way around your set.. something you have to do in the Launchpad.

ANDROID

On the other hardware side of things, another touchscreen controller revolution is quietly brewing with the eventual release of cheaper iPad-like Android based touchscreen tablets, like the sold-out, $150 Augen’s 7-inch Gentouch-78 Android tablet, which will probably drive down the price of the iPad. MIDI apps have already been created for the Android platform.. and once the first tablet Android models are launched you are going to see a lot of competing apps, which is great for all musicians.

Musical for Android
Musical for Android seems to be the first Android app which offers some basic and common apps like a keyboard and tuner and  MIDI over wi-fi functionality.

Android MIDI pad
Android MIDI pad is a free Android app , built by Timothe Faudot. This app enables any Android device to send MIDI controller messages via bluetooth to a python server running on the host PC, which can be router virtually to any MIDI application.
Here is a great video of the Android midi pad controlling Native Instrument’s Massive synth remotely.

Right now, the iPad applications are more sophisticated, but i expect the Android side to eventually catch up, once the cheaper Android tablets are released and become popular, almost like a replay of the monome vs. Novation launchpad controllers.
The stage is set for the iPad and for the upcoming Android tablets to take over the MIDI touchscreen controller market.
Whomever creates the best apps, wins!

If you know of any other iPad / Android MIDI controller apps, please let us know!