OLD SCHOOL STOMP / NEW SCHOOL TOUCH
Traveling with Electronics : Old School Stomp / New School Touch
.....view the parts with sensitivity
and you will comprehend the whole
I've had a few requests to cover a synth app that I really like and also to demo the vari-speed features of the 2.0 firmware for the Pigtronix Infinity Looper. Recently, I've been using my ipad2 with a nano-key controller and the INFINITY, as a sub-chain in my live performance rig, so we'll be checking that out for the demo.
The synth app is one that has been around since 2013 and has rekindled my love of synthesizer sound design - NAVE by Waldorf - and it is stunning. NAVE was created on and for the iOS platform and has just been released for computer as a PLUGIN.
This makes it the second "made for iOS" synthesizer that has become so popular it's been ported over to computer (the other synth app is the wonderful SUNRIZER).
Visually Stunning - Sonically Rich - Captivatingly Deep
NAVE is a wavetable synth that takes things further than ever before, with independent control of how each table is played and how each spectrum is interpreted. It has two wavetable oscillators, a digital oscillator and two ring modulators, with the ability to mix, each of the five sources together with the elegant mix section (lower right).
The digital oscillator has triangle, pulse, saw, plus white and pink noise and when you activate "Uberwave" mode you can dial in up to 8 voices with detune (spread). This oscillator is very flexible and sonically rich.
You can edit the 3D graphic of any of the 86 wavetables - load in your own audio samples and Nave will turn them into custom wavetables (which you can also edit), and Nave even has a text to speech function that allows you to turn text into talking wavetables (which you can also edit).....captivatingly deep.
Nave's filter section has LP - BP - HP, three "looping" envelopes (filter - free - amp), and a very impressive drive section with five drive types and four options for location in the signal chain (pre / post filter & pre / post eq).
The modulation options are equally impressive with two multi-wave LFO's, mod and pitch wheels, a modulation matrix with up to 10 active paths, an X / Y pad and your choice of a traditional keyboard, a blade keyboard (with more X / Y options), or two additional X / Y pads....."can you say control freak!"
Waldorf went all in on the effects page as well, with MOD EFX (phasor or flanger or chorus), DELAY (stereo of course), REVERB (the richest iOS verb I have heard), an excellent three band EQUALIZER, a COMPRESSOR, and a killer ARPEGGIATOR.
They even threw in a four track tape recorder for sketches (the only weak link in the app, but nice to have). On this page you will also find the midi control set-up and of course a comprehensive midi learn mode.
Nave is an amazingly powerful synthesizer and it sounds like you are playing a really high end hardware synthesizer which would come with an equally high end price tag.
Fortunately it's a $20.00 iPad app - (NAVE is up there with SAMPLR in my top 5)
Here is a link to the manual
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Now on to INFINITY - The Holy Grail of Hardware Loopers
Pigtronix INFINITY Looper (V2.0 firmware update)
My DIY Control Box
undo/redo - reverse - volume/vari-speed
In play mode the red button is undo/redo - if you have a loop going and you overdub on that loop, the red button will toggle between the original loop and the overdubbed version - the red button can also put the looper into overdub mode when you are recording your first loop. The black button toggles between forward and reverse. The red knob is the master volume for both loops.
There is also a "loop-aging" option, where overdubs are not stacked but transform - fading out over time, like the early tape based loopers. The amount of feedback can be preset or controlled by the red knob.
In vari-speed mode (accessed by holding the black button down for 2 sec), the red button shifts both loops up by a pre determined interval (I use an octave) - the black button shifts down - pressing both together resets the original pitch. The red knob will transpose the pitch in a continuous fashion like a pitch wheel on a synth. This action is not stepped and this is old-school sampling so pitch & tempo are linked.....YES!
The INFINITY Looper is a sophisticated (high resolution audio), dual looper, housed in an old-school stomp-box form. You can check out my "first look review", to get a pretty good sense of just how powerful a performance tool the INFINITY actually is.
Here is a link to the interactive manual for the 2.0 update
INFINITY / control box - iPad2 / NAVE / SAMPLR - Korg NanoKey (check the videos below)
just a quick shout out!
My partner Colleen (the master of movement) has joined the web world, so please check out her site www.thebodyspeaks.today
until next month then.....safe travels.....dino
