Human Voices Redux for Omnisphere 2.6
Human Voices Redux is a soundset for Spectrasonics’ software synth Omnisphere. There are 120 patches, and all exclusively about voices: Big choirs, little choirs, lead vocal keys, human beatbox drums, wistful calls and effects, all made with human vocal samples and vox waveforms. Of course there are many beautiful pads, but many phrases have been retuned and granularized, and others turned into rich and unusual drum and percussion patches.
Latest videos:
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A DB-01 love song: 'Dreaming of Perkons'
What do you do when you're waiting for Perkons the God of Thunder to appear on Earth? You summon a pair of lesser deities and attempt to invoke the spirit of the God. So here we have two DB-01s, one playing pure percussion (on the left) through an EQ and mono reverb (Boss RV-6); and the other playing a droney percussive noise thing through overdrive (B3K) and stereo delay (Strymon DIG). And it's not so much a song as an extended noodle but it was a spur of the moment thing mostly inspired by Girts saying in a recent interview that the main surprise about the DB-01 was its percussive ability.<br /> The second half of this video is me giving a short mumbly explanation of the two patches. As usual what you see is 100% of the sound - no post-production EQ or compression, no other effects etc, only a little chopping up since I was pretty sure no one would want to hear 20 minutes of noodling. What I did especially like was the low bass drone of the right-side machine. I was originally intending to have both machines doing percussion, but the drone was so satisfying I had to capture the moment.<br /> <br /> 0:00 No talking noodle<br /> 3:15 Right-side ettings explained<br /> 5:00 Left-side settings explained<br /> 6:25 Altogether again<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove<br /> Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free -
The DB-01 turns two: An interview with its designer, Girts Ozolins
It's just over two years ago that the DB-01 was released into the wild. Gritty, aggressive and surprisingly deep, it may well eventually join the ranks of classic synths. Founder of Erica Synths and designer of the DB-01, Girts Ozolins, explains how the machine came to be, how it was designed and dives into its history, engineering and future. Along the way we also get an insight into some of the design philosophies of Erica Synths.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Origins of the DB-01<br /> 2:24 Sequencer integration<br /> 4:16 The design process<br /> 11:00 Links to the 303?<br /> 13:20 The drive circuit<br /> 14:28 A happy surprise<br /> 15:35 The preset debate<br /> 17:30 Testing the sound<br /> 19:50 Latvian production<br /> 22:30 DB-01 component changes<br /> 23:00 Verion 2 ?<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove<br /> Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free -
The Boss DM-2W: A simple delay perfect for synths (no talk)
Glorious random noodlings with the Boss DM-2W Wazacraft delay pedal and the Erica Synths DB-01. To some an 11-minute no-talking video with a three-knob delay pedal might seem excessive. Well, maybe so. But for delay pedal nuts (like me, and probably you if you're also reading the caption) it's only just enough. Even then I didn't use the delay time input, direct out or do much knob twiddlings The reason is that this pedal sounds beautiful and makes you want to play music, not twiddle knobs. <br /> <br /> There's no hint of line-level input issues (as you get with some pedals) and there's plenty of wet level to play with (unlike the Boss RE-202 which is a bit quiet imo). The nearest competitor that I've used extensively would be the famous MXR Carbon Copy. I had both the standard issue, then the deluxe version, but I think the DM-2W is a better fit for synth, not as dark and a more pleasant feedback tone.<br /> <br /> I am biased though since the original DM-2 was the first pedal I ever bought. That unit sat on top of a whole series of synths starting with the Korg Mono/Poly. I played live with it many times, always fearing I'd mismanage the feedback and blow something up 🙂 The new version seems equally dangerous! Not sure what happened to the OG pedal in the end, I even went on a hunt through some old boxes a few weeks back, but no luck. I'm sure it's out there somewhere still going.<br /> The audio here is just as you see it: The DB-01 going through the DM-2W with no other effects or processing.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Pattern 1<br /> 0:45 High feedback<br /> 3:25 Heartbeat<br /> 3:55 No tap tempo here<br /> 4:12 Adjusting the tempo<br /> 4:40 Pattern 2<br /> 5:10 Ambient noodle<br /> 6:10 Pattern 3<br /> 8:17 Pattern 4<br /> 9:15 Pattern 5<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove<br /> Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free -
Turn orphan DB-01 patterns into full themes
If you have any sort of sequencer then chances are you have banks full of orphan patterns, promising 16 or 32-step riffs that turned into dead ends. For DB-01 owners, here's one (pretty obvious) way of reviving them and hopefully making them into something more useful: MIDI them up to a polyphonic synth. Here the DB-01 is MIDIed to a DSi Prophet Rev-2.<br /> Not only is it fun just to flip through presets on your poly synth looking for 'matches', but they can turn into things which are completely different from the source mono sequence. A dirty bass pattern can sometimes even become a delicate polyphonic high melody.<br /> By also combining these experiments with some manual playing and arpegiator fun the theme can thicken out into something which sounds like it's been multi-tracked.<br /> Record all this into your DAW in one long take, align it to the grid, then use 'snap to grid' and chop out loads of new loops. Now your orphan pattern has now produced a big family ready to arrange. I think this is one of the most entertaining ways to create longer themes.<br /> No other effects, layers or tweaks used here except what you see.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Intro blather and setup<br /> 0:48 The awful starter pattern<br /> 1:20 The arp on top<br /> 2:18 Gate length quirks<br /> 3:50 Playing over the top<br /> 4:38 Add Space Echo<br /> 5:20 DB-01 off<br /> 6:20 Scale problem?<br /> 8:10 Pattern 2 - DB-01 only<br /> 8:35 Pattern 2 - Rev2 only<br /> 9:07 Added arp<br /> 10:22 Filthy original<br /> 10:50 Sweet new version<br /> 11:00 No more talk<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove -
Strymon phaser shootout: Zelzah vs Mobius (no talk)
The Strymon Zelzah phaser vs the Strymon Mobius is a music-only comparison for hardcore phaser fans!<br /> There aren't too many true stereo in and out phasers and Strymon have two of them. I bought the Zelzah first and have been very happy with it, but after buying the Mobius I've begun to question whether I really need the Zelzah as well. But can the multi-effect Mobius do as well as a dedicated phaser? Here I've tried to match the sounds reasonably closely and mainly stick to 4 and six stage examples. The Zelzah can also do chorus and flanging but it seemed to be stretching things a bit to go there as well so I've stuck with the phaser. Both units were set to maximum stereo width for the entire demo.<br /> Conclusions are up to the listener but to my ears they sound very similar. The Zelzah at times had a brighter and cleaner edge that I couldn't get on the Mobius, but the Mobius was able to get a much deeper effect which I often had to dial back to match the Zelzah. The synth used for the demo is the Rev2 8-voice.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Six stages pad<br /> 1:40 Six stages pluck<br /> 2:30 Barber pole<br /> 3:35 Four stages notes<br /> 4:14 Four stages pad<br /> 5:10 Six stage warbles<br /> 5:40 16-stages vs Zelzah 4+6 mode<br /> 6:57 Six stages - no feedback<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove -
The Roland E-4 as a lowfi synth glitch machine
Roland calls the E-4 the "Voice Tweaker" but here I use it exclusively as a glitch effect on the DB-01 synth. The DB-01's output is split with the dry sound going direct to the DAW and the other going to the E-4 mic input (which is overloading of course). The DB-01 is also providing a clock for the E-4 "scatter" effects. The result is a bit like the Fabikat Pladask pedal and some other grain and glitch processors.<br /> After a bit of talking at the start I just twiddle the knobs and run through a few of the scatter programs. Each one has a slightly different combination of short stutters, reverse effects, delay and lowfi bitcrushed processing. As there are about 200 scatter programs this is just a short taste of what's on offer. You can also change the clock rate per beat from 1 to 24 and this also has a huge effect on the sound. Here I stay at 4.<br /> In future I'll explore more complex setups with the harmonizer, autotune, vocoder and clock rates but hopefully this gives a little taste of the unit outside of its "voice tweaker" role.<br /> Probably also worth mentioning that - unlike most other E-4 demos - I actually bought this machine and paid full price.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Intro blather<br /> 1:22 Setup and routing<br /> 4:05 Music starts, no more talking<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove -
Five ways to make patterns with the DB-01
Starting with the bleedin' obvious and moving through to the "sounds bad now but wait a minute" method, here's five pattern creation techniques. Along the way there's a few extra tips and tricks including the rare "zero gate" option.<br /> It's a bit long but I thought it was worthwhile to show the full process rather than just cut in all the bits that worked on the first attempt. Watching videos where everything works perfectly and then not being able to instantly replicate that success can be a bit disheartening so there's quite a bit of tweaking and deleting.<br /> Hopefully here the joy of just experimenting, looping, randomly deleting and poking comes through. Just delete the crap and keep going :D<br /> <br /> 0:00 1) The slow and obvious way<br /> 0:47 2) Real-time record with fake metronome<br /> 2:10 Second bar in real time<br /> 3:50 Using an external keyboard<br /> 6:05 3) The randomizer<br /> 6:30 The dog's breakfast<br /> 7:10 Random steps<br /> 8:20 Rotate start<br /> 8:45 Force to scale<br /> 10:55 Gate length<br /> 12:05 Hearing the gate length<br /> 12:50 The zero gate<br /> 13:45 Gates with filter mod<br /> 15:00 LFO on note reset<br /> 16:10 Pitch envelope<br /> 17:28 Fast random example 1<br /> 18:45 Fast random example 2<br /> 20:47 4) The internal arpegiator<br /> 26:45 5) Using an external arpegiator<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove -
Two DB-01s play "gentle" stereo (no talk)
With identical machines it's tempting to play them as a stereo pair. Hard panning left and right with different sounds gives an interesting 1960s-style separation, although it can be offputting in headphones without a little stereo field "smoothing". For that I used the Zen delay in tape ping-pong mode and the Boss RV-6 stereo reverb. I was also keen to show the DB-01s playing "nice" lead sounds.<br /> Starts off with both DB-01s on 32-step patterns. I then play the right-side unit in arp mode 1-octave with 90% gate. By not holding the notes down the entire time you allow the underlaying pattern to poke through every now and then which can add variation (nad in this case some percussive effect) depending on how each section is played. The DB-01s percussion sounds also appear to sound almost uniterupted because of the delay, despite playing the arp and overriding the pattern.<br /> The second time around both units are in arp mode, with the left-side unit on a 10% gate. I also switch on the Zen's overdrive. I took down the volume of the overdrive section in the DAW since it adds a big boost. But there are absolutely no effects on the sound other than what you see.<br /> The patterns include quite a lot of pitchmod notes, accents and a little filter mod - almost a "Perkons-lite" style. (I'm really looking forward to that machine - even if it is blue. I'm convinced it shares quite a bit of sound-engine design with the DB-01).<br /> You can hear the uneffected "dry" sound at the very end.<br /> <br /> 0:00 Patterns + 1 arp<br /> 1:00 Patterns + 2 arps<br /> 2:10 Dry sound<br /> <br /> My site: https://richarddehove.com/<br /> Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove
Altair-4 soundset for ArcSyn
“Altair-4” is a soundset for SPC ArcSyn. It contains 100 patches widely varied between synchronized bass, leads and percussion; characterful drones; long self-generating textures and ambiences; special effects; stingers; drums and sci-fi leads. Every patch has a variation on the modwheel – be sure to try it! Celebrating five years of ArcSyn.
Metal clunks from the song "Fear"
In my dark-ambient song “Fear Has Brought You Here” I use a lot of hard metal clanks and clunks. They were recorded by me hitting a big empty metal skip with other bits of metal and a hammer. In this sample set you’ll find 60 metal hits and scrapes, including all the sounds used in the song. You can download the first 16 samples as a free taster.
Drum samples from the DB-01
Erica Synths DB-01 is primarily a bass synth but can also double as a heavy hitting drum machine. In this sample set you’ll find 78 kicks, zaps, thumps, noise hits and distorted growls suitable for heavy electronica or further mangling into deeper weirdness. You can download the first 16 samples as a free taster.
Dystopia soundset for ArcSyn
“Dystopia” is a soundset for SPC ArcSyn. It contains 101 patches of horror, tension, torment and sci-fi textures designed for cinematic, space music, ambient, gaming, sampling and horror. Rich intersection modulations are heavily randomized for constantly shifting texture. You’ll also find related keys, pads and special effects. It’s the deepest dive yet into the complex beauty of ArcSyn.
Sputnik soundset for ArcSyn
ArcSyn by SPC software is an incredibly deep VST synthesizer. Its combination of unusual oscillators, filters, noise sources and LFO sequencer makes it capable of some unique sounds. “Sputnik” is a collectioon of 100 sounds from subtle keys and pads to complex textures and syncronized basses.
Get both albums on CD
There's nothing like real-world physical media. Sure you can listen to the tracks on Youtube (or Bitchute), and download high-quality MP3s from any of the major music stores, or from this site direct, but if you're a collector then you'll want actual CDs.
I still have a small number of CDs of my first and second albums available. Click the button below to get both CDs for US$20. The price includes both albums and delivery anywhere on the planet. When ordering don't forget to include your preferred name and address! After ordering you'll receive an email confirmation. The CDs will be sent within 48 hours.
Both albums (including delivery) for $20: