A perfect style for our kind of music: the Solid State Logic (SSL) BIG SIX mixer sounds like the real thing!
With 16 inputs and the same count of USB I/O it suits amazingly well with any DAW. Adding the 16 inputs and the UAD Apollo and the Focusrite OctoPre Dynamic I can finally add all the analog synths and drum machines in the room.
The sound is fat and sharp, so we let you hear the result (soon).
Almost 64 Channels of pure SSL in every single song, preparing the mix for #12. Now this is FUN, and it is fast, just like on the real desk!
There is big news to come in the near future from Luxembourgs finest electronic music makers. Stay tuned…
A new plugin by ARTURIA called PIGMENTS has arrived in our studios. This is a great synth with incredible modulation possibilities, anything goes with everything! We know there are way too many, but what the hell…
As an old time Roland user I really like this little synth. Although it is not analog, it sounds as if it was… and editing is a real fun! I made some gourgeous soundsets for it and now I got the LUFTRUM 6 Soundbank for Roland GAIA which includes some extraordinary strings.
I made a little 24 bar upload to Soundcloud coming from one of our new songs. It is just the Gaia strings with some deep bass from a Moog Sub-37 and a Roland TR-8 Hihat.
Feel free to listen here: Two Breaths
More info on the Luftrum sounds can be found here:
Luftrum Gaia Soundset
Who knows how it works…? But then again, there is no fun without risk, and so we trust the beta and run our latest projects on it! And I must say it works great. It looks like a little update but the impact is really huge.
Our favourite drummer the magical MPC has got a brother from another mother, the formidable Toontrack Superior Drummer 3. This will surely help us get over these misty autumn days reading the handbook by the fire 🙂
You know we love knobs and faders as much as we like mice, but we have no idea how many there are in our two studios!
So maybe you can help us out and examine a small selection of our gear to win a CD.
Post the number of knobs and faders you see on the photo below on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/syntheziax/.
You can be the next happy owner of a rare original electronic music artwork Made in Luxembourg
I bought a Korg SDD-3000 back in 1983 and it got stolen from our rehearsal room together with a Korg Stage Echo…
Now they released the SDD-3000 pedal some time ago which is a very nice delay unit (except they forgot to include midi sync), and UAD released the SDD-3000 software plugin for their platform and this one is huge,, the preamps sound great and the delays are fantastic! (Get me another Octo…)
Holiday is over, let’s return to reality with all its fake news and iPhone staring people…
This is how it all started in 1987 with Atari ST, TwentyFour software and Roland D-50. I grabbed the ST today from the roof and fired it up. No surprise it started and even the floppies worked fine. 30 Years (even some more) since we first used these amazing sequencer techniques. I wish I still had my Commodore C-64 and the C-Lab software!
Syntheziax was a little quiet lately, but we are back with new toys and LOTS of new ideas, let’s see how fast we can bring up a new CD this time…
Maybe a little encouraging support from our friends could help us to get things done.
30 years old and still working! Emulator EIIIXP, Akai S-900 and Roland S-770, these were the beasts back in the good old times, but I don’t think I will be really using them. Even if I watch all those videos from JunkieXL (https://youtu.be/OHeY2vv5HI8) I must say that I am not very into this old synth/sampler hype. I am pretty sure I can create the same sound with just a little help from my plugins.
Now this little thunderstorm won’t keep us from having fun… We just remove the wires and keep on working!
Four years after the legendary MPC Renaissance, changing our music style forever, I am switching from white to black, going to the new MPC LIVE. I just hope they don’t use Windows on it… Looking at my photo I am not quite sure yet! 🙂
Today we’re in Live9 with this nice 24 track session view controlled by Push 1, Push 2 and TouchAble, a very nice constellation for creating the arrangement. No need to flip the pages! If only it could rain now… 😎
Who was talking about no more cables in the studio… 🙂
We think the best way to connect a good old synth without too much USB hassle is still MIDI. Recently we received an ALYSEUM U3-88c, a MIDI interface providing 8 MIDI In/Outs and 16 channels on each. Connects to USB-3 and is super tight! Nice thing is that you can switch on and off sync for every individual out in Live9. If you ever need a new MIDI interface, check it out here: Alyseum U3-88c.
And here is another nice tool, CopperLan free software, if you ever need to network computers: Copperlan
It is hard to imagine a music studio without all this cable mess but it actually exists. In this minimal setup all the cables are virtual, but the sound is real, fat and analogue. We can even inter-connect multiple devices with Ableton Link and everything is locked in perfect sync!
New Year, new toy…, now I don’t know if this 80Gb download is a pretty good thing on New Year’s Eve, but anyway, there is a new project around the block.
2017 will be great, hopefully the clowns are going home alone tonight… 😎
A little free-style I (mibo) recorded in one take on the iPad, just two Apps, Patterning and iVCS3. I am always amused how well this can sound. Feel free to listen and download by clicking the following link:
https://soundcloud.com/syntheziax/the-black-wolf-is-back-with-bomi-in-bed
If you like them you can download my free personal Desktop pictures which I made in my studio. (You could by the way also “LIKE” our Syntheziax Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/syntheziax/), it would greatly enjoy us)
mibo-desktop-pictures (it is a zip file with 5 pictures)
After all the virtual synths we used on our last album, Layer 8, I (mibo) had the strong need to turn real buttons again… So here is a nice photograph Daniel made last time we met in my Keng Paï Studios. Having fun is of course the main reason for making music!
Some like it soft, some like it hard, this little red monster is a brute, just a little swing on a button and it hurts as much as a needle’s stitch… and no, it has no strings!
A new addition to my little modular universe is this tiny metal box. They called it 0-COAST probably because the poor musician living in Luxembourg does not see a coast for some time… It is a really nasty sounding device and does not need too much special treatment to scream it out!
Now this is only a Falcon, but it sounds like a giant bird. We love the width and presence of these sounds and handling is really nice!
Check out this monster synthesizer at UVI’s website: http://www.uvi.net/en/software/falcon.html#overview
First full analogue synth in the house with over 50 virtual brothers and sisters, the little semi-modular Moog Mother 32 is the new aphrodisiac for the upcoming Syntheziax album.
As a global movement to modular synths is showing up, Syntheziax is putting hands on Reaktor 6. Now this makes FUN on a 4K TV. 🙂 New sounds around the corner very soon! Stay tuned for more…
As announced you can download and print the cover of our album Layer 8 here. Of course it is a better idea to order a real CD by email: mpc@syntheziax.com. This will not only look better but it will also sound a lot better!
We had a nice evening talking to Claude of Radio ARA (http://www.ara.lu). You can listen to the podcast by following this link: 2015-10-26-Bloe-Baaschtert.mp3
Not bad for one song streaming… thank you Apple !
I think this gets awesome (or maybe huge), if we reach a million streams.
Thank you, Mireille MEYER for this nice double page article in this week’s Télécran, issue 42, where you can read some interesting info about Syntheziax at work. (Text: Mireille MEYER, Photos: Gerry HUBERTY, Télécran 42)
Summer touring is over, so let’s start up the engines again for some new projects… Wait, maybe we need to do some promotion for our Layer 8 album first 🙂
As for the summer tour, Daniel was active at the Holland Connection while mibo put the groove on the St Tropez beaches…
Rainy Day, Dream away…
Layer 8 is coming in Top 100 in iTunes already, so the sales must be doing well! We would still prefer real CD sales as Apple & Co are taking way too much for nothing…
As of today, Layer 8 is available on CD and in selected online stores.
You can get all the information on our internet site http://syntheziax.com/layer-8.
We are hoping to read your feedback!
The first package arrived just in time for the release, now if I had a CD player to listen to the finished product…
One month ’till the release (party?)…
If you want to listen to our album Layer 8 on your iWhatever, forget those little white crappy earphones! The little monster on the photo below with the green cable is a great choice if you want to hear how it sounds on our big studio speakers. Plug it in, turn it up and enjoy a 72 minutes relaxing session!
(It is actually an AKG Q460, and you can buy it for about 89 €)
The recording of Layer 8 was done simultaneously in two studios, the Keng Paï Studios in the north of the country and the Second Cents Studios in the city of Luxembourg. This resulted in a huge traffic of exchanging messages. Our chat history is counting over 45’000 messages now. Almost every night the lines were glowing and the up- and download of the tracks to the cloud created some heavy traffic!
We have finished mastering our album "Layer 8" in the amazing Translab Mastering Studios in Paris. "Binj" Weber made an incredible job with our mix and brought out even more detail and punch! Now we can’t wait to get everything ready for the factory.
We don’t like our music dressed up like in the following photo, so we will provide a download link for our album cover for all our pirate friends! If you cannot afford 13 € to support our passion, at least print the cover and put it in the jewelbox…
We booked a day or two in Paris on June 13 (no, it is not a friday). Our agent sent us some information about the studio and we are really exited about how it looks from the inside! Who knows where this can be?
Black or white… sometimes decisions are so hard to make, but I think we found the right color! Now Daniel suggests we might add some photos, (what does he have in mind) as we are not getting enough response after the launch of the website!?!
What do you think?
Yes, it took us one month to get everything right, but now, after a final listening session at our friends from S.K.O.R.‘s amazing studios (https://www.facebook.com/skorband) we are really satisfied with our work.
We can’t wait to get the mastering done in … Paris! (more to come)
Listening all day to the same song is very hard, (some weirdos use it for torture), but it always gets better. Although we are mixing from the start of the project, we now took another approach to get the levels right. Almost seeing the end of the road!
Now we give the mixes (and our ears) a little rest, just like a good cook does with the meals… Listening on different sound systems, taking notes… as you can see it is a very demanding job!
Yesss, after 3 months we finished the recording process for our album. 13 songs, over 72 minutes of music! I am very proud of our work. Now let the mixing begin! The next two weeks are reserved for this hard task but the result is already promising.
Our Apollo’s received some help from their big brothers, the UAD Thunderbolt Octo’s, now we have a total of 24 DSP’s in the house, more than enough to handle all the always growing processing power needed for this project!
8 very special synths from the AIR collection (http://www.airmusictech.com) are a great addition to our already giant arsenal of music sources. I must say that every one is still unique in sound and possibilities and we are searchin for very special sounds as you will hear on the release.
2 months passed since the debut of the project and we are still on time, yes, 9 tracks are ready for the last pass. It looks like we are making a great record and I must say that I (mibo) have already lost the general overview who played what and who played where… Good thing is – we have not planned any live venues so far!
Another quick view on our synth shows the fantastic emulations of old monster synths like Yamaha CS-80, Roland Jupiter-8, Oberheim Matrix-12, ARP-2600 and the fabulous Minimoog, all by the french company Arturia (http://www.arturia.com).
Some songs were created in Logic X while others in Ableton Live9. Both sequencers (or DAW’s) have advantages, Live9 being mibo‘s preferred tool to use with Push, while Logic X is the main sequencer for Daniel.
One thing in common for all tracks however is the incredible Akai MPC. We decided to use it as our main drum generator for this album. The timing is so incredible, everything you play instantly grooves!
Our UAD Apollo’s and the whole bunch of plugins we bought over the time is one of the best investments we made lately. Being able to use a panoply of great sounding compressors, eq’s and effects is so inspiring and makes our tracks sound like processed with all these unaffordable goodies!
We must say we are extremely well on schedule, 4 tracks are structured to our satisfaction. Now there is a lot of work to be done, so sometimes there are long nightshifts the only way to progress. Go to sleep at 4am and then up again at 7am is sometimes a little bit hard!
Work on the album is advancing well, changing little melodies and simple grooves into always more complex arrangements, most tracks now use up to 20 different synths.
Some of the tracks were moved to a Vol.2 folder, replaced by others, to create a more homogeneous image. In The Bush, a track not included in the initial list, seems to advance to one of the main focused tracks of the album.
Some of our recent acquisitions include the fabulous u-he synth collection (http://www.u-he.com/), Diva ACE and Zebra2 are being heard on every track.
The primary selection having material for about 2 hours, we had to narrow the choice to 13 songs to fit on a CD. Hoping to be happy with our decisions, the near future evolution of the project however should make us revisit some of our initial choices!
In January 2015, Michel BONTEMPS and Daniel MACK, both synth wizards from Luxembourg, started a challenge to create a full album from 32 small sequences hiding among hundreds on the hard discs.
It was actually the first time that a dead-line for one of our projects was set: 3 months for a complete 70 minute CD! A very tight schedule when you start only with a melody or a groove and your working grid is only 4 hours a week of team work.
