Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Access Virus TI Control Centre - Burning to ROM

My Virus TI was purchased many years ago, and I'm re-familiarizing myself with it.
TI = Total Integration.
 

 
This means you can connect it to a computer and among other things, arrange your presets and patches via a VST.
For a machine that it now almost 20 years old, this is still really cool.
The makers in Berlin were way ahead of their time.
The memory consists of 4 banks or RAM and 26 banks of ROM (read only memory).
RAM (random access memory) is where you save any new patches to.
 

 
However, my RAM banks are full and I wish to transfer some of those patches to a ROM bank, to free up space for new patches.
 
I couldn't find much info in the web, but I think this procedure works.

You need to do what's called "Burn To Flash". 
This seems the same as burning to a ROM bank.
Do let me know if there are any mistakes in the procedure.
 
I'm burning from RAM A to ROM T 

 
 
This is a unedited video of the procedure.
There is no sound.
 
 From the TI quickstart guide:
Burn To Flash allows you to overwrite the content of the ROM banks in your Virus TI. 
As you may have already noticed, the Virus TI memory has been expanded to 26 ROM banks and all the new ones are only filled with INIT sounds. All those unused banks are waiting to be filled using Burn To Flash. 
 
 
In order to transfer a bank of sounds to the ROM section you need to select a source bank first. The “Select source bank” menu shows exactly the same choice of banks you see in Virus Control.

Next you need to decide where you want to write the bank to. 
By clicking on the letters A-Z you select the target for the transfer, as well as see the present content of the bank to be overwritten. Once you made up your choice, 
hit “OK” and proceed from the top again in case you want to overwrite more 
banks in your Virus TI.

The user bank icon indicates which banks already have been overwritten in the past. 
To restore the original banks later, see “Advanced Menu” below."
 

 The first time I tried this my Virus Locked up (above pic).
 

 
But with the second attempt all worked fine.


Only issue I found was that the newly burned ROM banks don't show up in the VST Plugin browser, though they are definitely there.
If anyone knows how to fix this, please shoot me a message.

Hope this helps others out there.

Many thanks to Marshal Arnold for his excellent video of the ultimate Virus TI setup in Abelton.
 
Links
+ Access Virus -The different versions 
 
 
 

Monday, 10 May 2021

Vitalise gig

 Some highlights from the Vitalise gig last Thursday.
It was so good to be able to perform live again.

Hopefully the worst of COVID is behind us.



 This is a nine week run of  live electronic music.
Held Thursday evenings, between 6pm and midnight.
 
Good Space 
33 Playfair St,
&
106-108 George St, The Rocks
 
Sydney
NSW AUSTRALIA


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Moog Subharmonicon - Short patch examples

 Fake LFO
The Sub H doesnt have a dedicated LFO
So set the clock to retrigger the envelope 
 
Now the envelopes work independently,.
and have independent attack /decay.
Set a slow VCF filter attack & a Fast VCA filter attack for example.
 
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Use the Sequencer on filters, VCAs etc
You can use the filter to add extra movement and life to anything that will take a control voltage

Here we are patching the output of seq 1 to the filter cutoff and seq 2 to the VCA


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Using the Envelope Generator outputs.
The Sub H has two EGs which are a great source of CVs (in addition to the two sequencers).
You can patch these to external synths like a DFAM (its filter cutoff for example) or use then internally

Here one EG is patched to Rhythm generator 1
and the other to rhythm gen 3
Now the speeds of the sequencers are envelope controlled.
Really any CV can be patched into these rhythm inputs.
You essentially have voltage control of the 4 clock dividers  

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Making longer sequences.
The SubH has just two 4 step sequencers, but its possible to combine them to
make longer sequences.
 
Here we direct both sequencers to oscillator 1
Sequencer 1 feeds the main VCO 1
Seq 2 feeds the 1st harmonic of VCO 1
Make sure the sequencers run at different speeds.

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Moog General

Moog - Mother 32/ DFAM/ SubHarmonicon
+ Moog Mother 32 - set up mode - assignable output, midi channel, tempo input settings
+ Moog sub harm & DFAM 10 ..... live jam with patch notes


Moog Modular
+ 901 VCO


Friday, 7 May 2021

Alesis A6 Andromeda - Midi , Mix Mode & MULTITIMBRAL SEQUENCING

 MID, Mix Mode, and MULTITIMBRAL SEQUENCING

This is part of my exploration of the Andromeda synth.
It's a wonderful synthesizer, which even after owning it for over 5 years I'm still just scratching the surface of what it can do.
 
The official manual is really long (as you'd expect) from such a complex synth, so this is my attempt to break things down, into smaller parts for myself. If this helps someone else, that great too. 

I'll constantly add to these posts as I discover more about this wonderful instrument.

The other parts are here:

Midi Clock


The A6 sends and receives MIDI Timing Clock. 
This is usually found only on time-based devices like a sequencer or a drum machine. 
But since the A6 has step sequencing and an arpeggiator it can control other rhythm-type units
or be controlled from an external MIDI source. 
 
The Andromeda is capable of sending and receiving on up to 16 MIDI channels simultaneously.
Mix Mode is used for this kind of MIDI application.
 
 
It is possible for the A6 to assign any Mix Channel to any MIDI channel if desired.
In Program Mode, the A6 sends and receives on a single MIDI channel at a time.
in Program Mode you can play only one Program at a time, 
In Mix Mode you can play up to 16 Programs at once, either from the keyboard
 (as layers or splits) or from an external sequencer.

 Or, you can have several different programs on different Mix Channels responding to the same MIDI channel. This means that if you want to play a layer of several Programs, you don’t have to clog the MIDI sequencer with duplicate tracks and messages.

Mix Mode

Use this mode if you wish to send & receive MIDI on up to 16 channels.

Each Mix channel can be assigned to a specific MIDI Channel with unique MIDI controller assignments.
 
The row of rectangular buttons just below the display area are used to select the Programs within a Mix. When a Mix Channel is ON, its associated LED will light. When a Mix Channel is currently selected for editing in the display, its LED will blink.
 

 Pressing the MIX button displays the Mix mode display screen.
 
The page tabs under mix mode are:
MIX
MIXDIR
KBD
PROG
CNTL
SOLO

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Page 244 of manual
The easiest way to use the A6 with a MIDI sequencer is to use one of the preprogrammed Mixes in the Preset or User banks. 
See the Program/Mix chart for the Mix set up for multitimbral use that’s appropriate for your situation. 
 
But if you want to start from scratch or edit an existing Mix, here are the steps:
 
1. Press the MIX button. 
2. Select a Mix to start with using the PROGRAM GROUP/NUMBER, and BANK keys.  
3. Select Mix Channel 1 by pressing the black MIX SELECT 1/9 key. 
     Make sure the right side of the display window has a box that says MIX CHAN 1. 
     If it says MIX CHN 9, press the SHIFT key and press MIX SELECT 1/9 again. 
4. If the green LED above the MIX SELECT key isn’t flashing, press it again to enable 
     the channel. 
     A small box in the display should say ON and an arrow appear pointing to the 
     current Mix Channel. The flashing LED above the switch means the Mix Channel
     is currently selected for editing and is ON.
 
Set the Keyboard parameters 
5. Press soft button 5 (KBD). 
6. If you want to play this mix channel from the keyboard*, make sure that 
     ENABLE is set to ON using soft knob 4. 
     Set the high and low ranges using soft knobs 1 and 2
 
Set the MIDI parameters 
7. Press soft button 6 (PROG). 
8. Set the MIDI channel for this Mix Channel by turning soft knob 6 (MIDICH).
9. Press soft button 7 (CNTL). If the first parameter isn’t MID IN , press it again. 
     Set MID IN to ON using soft knob 1. 
10. If you’re going to be using this Mix Channel to send note messages to
       the sequencer*, set MIDOUT (soft knob 2) to ON.
 
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Wine Glass Bay - Freycinet National Park, Tasmania

 Some pics of Wine Glass bay, Freycinet National Park, the Granite Mountains.
The main town is called Coles Bay. It sits at the foot of the granite mountains known as the Hazards and on the edge of  Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay.
 

This is about two and 1/2 hours drive from Hobart and Launceston on the east coast of Tasmania. 

Wine Glass Bay is part of the Freycinet peninsula







nn







Monday, 3 May 2021

Saturday, 1 May 2021

Acid set for Vitalise

 Preparations for the upcoming Vitalise gig this Thursday night.
 
 
Come along if you are in Sydney, Australia.

Address:
106 George Street, The Rocks

The official website for Vitalise is here
 
The venue: