Oneshots: Volume 1

Since launching Symplesound, my focus has been to create intuitive instruments and presets that make it easy for producers to create their own sounds – without having to be an expert at synthesizers.

Because of that, I decided to redesign all of the instruments on this blog and collect them into one pack, making everything much easier to use. The pack also includes tutorials, integrated effects and MIDI clips for inspiration.

They're still 100% free – because I want to continue supporting synth fans everywhere – and they're now available at the Symplesound shop, along with more free downloads and goodies.

Hope you enjoy these updates! Download them here.

The Haunting

So... Last week, I released my latest single on Audiophile Deep - "A Night At The Opera" - which is a dark track that's ideal for Halloween sets. At the time of this writing, it's still climbing the Traxsource tech house chart, so I'm stoked for that :)

There's a full preview at the bottom of this post and you can pick it up at Traxsource here.

But that's not the sole purpose for this post. In addition to making tracks and designing presets, I've been working on a different approach to sound itself that I hope you'll dig.

The idea is simple: Recreate real-world soundscapes as accurately as possible using synthesis – in this case, Ableton's Operator softsynth – so that the result is a virtual environment that sounds real, but was created entirely in Live.

In keeping with all of this Halloween spookiness, my first work in this medium is called "The Haunting" and it's a two-minute composition inspired by the classic haunted house meme.

Below is a Soundcloud audio preview. I'm also including the entire Ableton project file so people with Live and Operator (or Suite) can check out each sound and explore how it was created. And yes, you can use it in commercial projects - as long as you please credit me and send a courtesy notification. I'm easy that way.

This is completely new territory for me as an artist, so I hope it inspires people to delve deeper into sound design. I definitely have more projects like these and I plan to give them away on this blog as a way to teach producers that there's more you can do with synths besides make them beep.

(And if you appreciate what I'm doing here and want to show some love, please buy "A Night At The Opera" on Traxsource.)

You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook too, for more music tech info :)

Download The Haunting [Requires Ableton Live 9.2 and Operator]

Free Novation Bass Station II Instruments

A few months back, I reviewed the Novation Bass Station II for Keyboard Magazine. As modern analog synths go, the BSII packs a lot of analog power into a small footprint. So while I had it in my studio, I couldn't resist snagging a few samples of it to share with everyone.

For those who aren't up to speed on the Bass Station II, it's a dual-oscillator analog monosynth with a sub-oscillator and tons of nifty filtering modes, along with a nasty little distortion. As the name implies, it excels at bass, so that's the focus of this new pack.

"Glow Ballz" - Now available on Beatport

My first release in two years - a collab with Matt Lange, called "Glow Ballz" just arrived on Beatport today via Academik Records.

Here's the link.

If you're a fan of my free presets and loop packs, please take a moment to check "Glow Ballz" out and if you dig it,  buy it :)

Cheers!

Free Moog Sub Phatty Ableton Instruments

Moog's Sub Phatty (the basis for their new Sub 37, incidentally) takes their Phatty engine and adds a sub-oscillator and new "Multidrive" circuits that are capable of some really in-your-face sounds.

Since I've been using it for close to a year, I figured it was time for another round of Moog-based Simpler patches. Because the Multidrive is so unique and the extra sub-oscillator adds textural complexity, I focused on those for this pack.

"Glow Ballz" Arrives on Beatport: February 11, 2014

My new collab with Matt Lange, "Glow Ballz", arrives tomorrow - February 11 - exclusively on Beatport.

Here's a sneak preview on YouTube.

Korg Volca Beats Loop Pack

I just reviewed the new Korg Volca Series for Keyboard Magazine and the full report will be coming in the March 2014 issue. Until then, let's just say I'm quite taken with the Volca Beats groove box. Sooo… 

Since these analog babies are backordered, well, everywhere, I figured it might be a cool idea to post a loop pack for y'all.

To keep things useful and interesting, I mixed up the pack with some full grooves, some kick/snare patterns, some hats and some top percussion loops.

Everything is 24-bit/44.1 and all loops are two bars long. I even did a bit of multiband compression and limiting, so they're good to go.

Also, it's worth mentioning that every loop is 123 BPM, because house.

You can download it all here:

Francis Prève's Volca Beats Loop Pack

Feel free to follow me on Facebook for more downloads and music stuff.

Cheers!

Free Prophet 12 Ableton Instruments

Dave Smith's Prophet 12 is one of the most buzzworthy keyboards of 2013. It's arguably the deepest analog-hybrid polysynth ever released - and since all of my previous packs have used single note samples, I decided to create a pack entirely from chord stabs.

Because chord stabs are all the rage with the kids these days.

I'm also breaking with tradition and including twelve presets instead of the usual six. See what I did there?