Here’s Side 2 of the studio production notes for the 2022 Church of Hed album, The Father Road, an aural travelogue tracing the Lincoln Highway from San Francisco to New York City. Check out the prologue, where we cover the studio setup, our recording philosophy, as well as the hardware and software gear used for […]
Church of Hed: The Father Road – Recording Notes (Side 1)
March 2, 2023 by
Welcome to Side 1 of the studio production notes for the 2022 Church of Hed album, The Father Road. Check out the prologue, where we cover the studio setup, our recording philosophy, as well as the hardware and software gear used on the album. The prologue also includes background information on the entire Rivers of […]
Church of Hed: The Father Road – Recording Notes (Prologue)
January 10, 2023 by
This series of articles covers the recording of Church of Hed’s 2022 release, The Father Road. Consider it to a type of diary, but one with a backwards point of view. Most of the studio activity remains fresh in my mind, hopefully making it easier to glean meaningful insights on the techniques and tools we […]
XILS-Lab KaoX Merges FM and Analog Synthesis With Chaos
December 2, 2021 by
The sonic masters at XILS-Lab recently crafted another unique software synth, this time combining FM and analog synthesis. Somewhat modeled after the Yamaha GS-1, the predecessor to the DX7, KaoX also leverages virtual analog and chaotic oscillators to greatly expand its sonic depth. Its range of sounds is stunning, taking FM synthesis to an entirely […]
AAS has a Modular Synth Winner With Multiphonics CV-1
August 20, 2021 by
The software realm boasts multiple modular synth apps and plugins for both the iOS and desktop platforms. We previously covered miRack and Audulus on iOS; I experimented with other plugins for the desktop as well. The Moog Modular (Arturia version) and Model 15 definitely stand out on PC and mobile respectively. When I heard Applied […]
MDrummer by MeldaProduction is a Preeminent Drum Plugin
March 9, 2021 by
The Czech company, MeldaProduction, continues to garner praise among musicians and producers for their excellent plugin line. It’s a collection of instruments and effects including both paid plugins as well as many free options. We recently enjoyed the opportunity to review their MDrummer, a drumming environment with excellent sound quality and cool functionality. It was […]
XILS 505 Emulates The Classic Roland RS-505 String Synth
October 5, 2020 by
The Roland RS-505 string synthesizer is a true 70s cult-classic. That time-honored status made the RS-505 a perfect project for those software synth geniuses at XILS Lab. The XILS 505 plugin offers a great emulation of the original; providing musicians a flexible and sonically alluring string synth for their own music projects. XILS 505 Features […]
Summon That Vintage Synth Sound With Rob Papen BIT
October 21, 2019 by
Rob Papen boasts one of the top lines of synth plugins in the music production world. We regularly use Predator 2 on our own projects. It provides an excellent, state of the art sound while also being easy to use. Recently, Rob’s team released BIT, a soft synth focused on those classic vintage sounds of […]
String Studio VS-3 is a Powerful Physical Modeling Synth
March 6, 2019 by
Applied Acoustics Systems continues to be one of the leading lights when it comes to physical modeled synthesizer and effects plugins. We previously covered their Objeq Delay and Objeq effects: the former for the desktop and the latter on the iOS platform. They are both able to transform basic sounds into something otherworldly, as evidenced […]
XILS 4 Brings Tim Blake’s Crystal Machine Synth to Your Desktop
January 24, 2019 by
The folks at XILS-lab continue to amaze with realistic synth plugins emulating classics from those halcyon days of analog yore. We previously reviewed their PolyM, a great take on the Polymoog. This time out, our eyes and ears are trained on XILS-4, inspired by the setup of Tim Blake, legendary synth-master of those psychedelic spacerock […]
