Tag Archives: presets

Animoog Z Announced by Moog Music — my Beta Testing Perspective

Animoog App, Expansion Packs, , , ,

Synths are like friends. It’s not how many you have that matters, it’s the time you spent developing familiarity and building a relationship with your synth that brings joy and value.

And today, our dear friend Animoog comes back to us
with a new dimension. Welcome Animoog Z !

I’m happy to announce Moog Music has introduced Animoog Z, a major new version of the iconic Animoog ‘appstrument’ for iPadOS, iOS, and for the first times, on macOS and as an AUv3 plugin. Here’s the official Animoog Z announcement, the direct link to Animoog Z on the App Store and Moog’s video introducing Animoog Z and its new features:

Animoog is now a free appstrument for which there is plenty to have fun with. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ll want to unlock all features for $9,99, which will enable you to modify the envelopes, the LFOs, modulations, apply effects, as well as support for the accelerometer and the Apple Pencil. Three expansion packs add new presets and timbres for $4,99 each. They’re named ‘Fundamental Elements’, ‘Evolving Oscillations’ and ‘Outer Orbits’.

Providing Animoog for free to everyone is a brilliant idea. You can play with the built-in presets and if you like Animoog, how it sounds, how you can interact and glide over its touch keys, then you can get the full appstrument for only $9,99. This is incredibly affordable if you consider this is one of the flagship appstruments out there. Here’s the second video Moog released for the occasion, an Animoog Z performance by Suzanne Ciani and her Buchla:

Z — The New Dimension

The Animoog keys and configurable scales have been allowing us to play with a dimension of sound, live with our fingers gliding on the touch screen. Animoog Z adds a third dimension to draw a path in a space of timbres named the Wave Cube ; the notes we play now follow a path in this 3D space of timbres. As Moog puts it in its manual, this third dimension allows “more dynamic waveshaping than was possible within the original Animoog.” Funny this website’s title since 2014 has been ‘Animoog Love — an other dimension of music’!

Animoog comes to macOS and AUv3

This will please many, Animoog is now available on macOS and as an AUv3 plugin. The macOS version offers plenty of playing expressivity and you can use your mouse or your keyboard to trigger Animoog keys. Might not be as expressive as gliding our fingers on the iPad, but works well for plenty of use cases and playing styles. Animoog is not the first Moog appstrument to have jumped from mobile to desktop, Model 15 made the leap in January 2021.

Animoog AUv3 is a welcomed new feature requested by many players. This will ease integration into various workflows involving DAWs and other tools. There are a number of additional new features for us to discover in Animoog Z, such as the timbre editor, the arpeggiator and now a 16-voice polyphonic synthesizer. Animoog was one of the first synths to support the MIDI MPE specification and Animoog Z is no exception.

Lots of New Presets & Timbres

Let’s start with good news: the 3,000+ presets and 5,000+ timbres available for Animoog 2 can be imported in Animoog Z with a relatively simple process. Before we get to it, this now possible thanks to a recent update to Animoog 2 which adds an important new feature ; Animoog 2’s files are now accessible through the Files app. This is major given managing our collections of presets and timbres has been cumbersome until now. You can import your presets and timbres into Animoog Z by copying the presets and timbres from Animoog 2, zipping them altogether and opening the resulting zip file in Animoog Z. The manual will walk you through with screenshots in the ‘Importing Legacy Presets & Timbres’ section. I’ve been able to import thousands of Animoog 2 presets and timbres in Animoog Z in a single attempt.

One of Animoog’s strength is its large fanbase and community of players. This is exemplified by the diversity of unofficial expansion packs already available for Animoog 2. And I have multiple new free Animoog expansion packs to announce!

Obviously, you’ll need to play with and edit Animoog 2 presets to make use of Animoog Z’s third dimension. This also means I’ll need to update the list of available presets and timbres, stay tuned! Let us know in a comment if you have new Animoog presets to submit for our list of third party expansion packs. Presets and timbres can now be easily managed and shared in Animoog Z and this is immensely useful.

Animoog 10 years anniversary

The initial award-winning Animoog was release in 2011. Ten years later, we’re being offered a large diversity of incredible appstruments, musical instruments in their own rights, which lets you play music in ways not possible before. Animoog has its place in Jakob Haq’s video on the evolution of the iOS/iPadOS music making platform from 2007 to 2021.

Despite being 10 years old, Animoog still get lots of attention. I’ve seen Jean-Michel Jarre and Suzanne Ciani playing Animoog live in shows. Another recent example is Animoog’s presence in Apple TV+ Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson documentary.

Animoog Z Beta Testing Experience

I’ve got the chance to do beta testing for Moog since March 2015. Animoog Z has come a long way since the initial version I got access to as a Beta tester. The entire process lasted several weeks and we thus had the opportunity of discovering Animoog Z, finding bugs and providing feedback on features. Both the desktop and mobile versions were provided. This has been a unique opportunity to influence and contribute a bit to the design and features of Animoog Z. There’s some of me in it! :-)

We got our hands on presets only at the very end of the process. Presets obviously comes last. While I played quite a lot with Animoog Z, I didn’t record much of it at all. My previous Animoog solo performances are available for free in my ‘stars’ best-of album. Here’s the only video I have and it’s for my very first short test with an Animoog Z preset, the ‘The Meaning Of…’ pad preset. Nothing stellar, but you’ll quickly find out why I choose this preset to begin my journey into Animoog Z ;-)

Moog is pretty open to suggestions that makes sense. I focused testing for the context of my own music setup, which led me to find some edge bugs while getting familiar with Animoog Z. They have an excellent software development team led by Geert Bevin, which have been blazing at fast triaging and handling issues and requests. In the following interview, well worth watching in full, Geert explains how he initially got involved in the development of Animoog, which ultimately led him to become Moog’s software engineering and software product manager:

Onwards

Over the years, Animoog got updates with some new features and compatibility updates. Moog never abandoned Animoog. On the contrary, today we leap to the next level. This familiar yet new Animoog Z version offers an additional sonic dimension which promesses hours of fun explorations and inspired music playing.

I expect new community presets to become available over the coming months. Subscribe to our newsletter to learn about them and upcoming Animoog Z news.

Enjoy Animoog Z! – Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. Step-by-step Instructions to Install Third-Party Animoog Presets and Timbres with iFunbox
  2. The Table of Animoog Presets v1.6 Released: over 3,148 Presets and 5,129 Timbres
  3. ‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog Music, and other Animoog news
  4. New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update

Minimoog Model D App Launched by Moog — An Overview of Resources

Minimoog Model D, Moog, Playing, , , ,

What to expect in this article: what is the Model D app, link to Model D presets, video tutorials and which documentation to read. You’ll find more, even newly free Animoog presets and timbres! Enjoy :-)

Welcome, Minimoog Model D

Dear Animoog enthusiasts, rejoice! A few weeks ago Moog Music released a new stellar app-instrument, modern replication of their Model 15 modular synth from 1973 as an app, this time we get a modern version of the iconic Minimoog synthesizer initially built in 1970. The Minimoog is absolutely relevant today and remains an excellent tool not only to play great synth sounds live, but also for learning and experimenting with sound synthesis.

I’ve been fortunate and have helped beta testing Moog’s Minimoog Model D app before it launched. While my contributions were clearly minor, there’s a little of me in it! Many others have said it and I confirm with confidence that you’re in front of an outstanding app and a wonderful synth. Wikipedia introduces the original Minimoog this way:

[…] the Minimoog was designed to include the most important parts of a modular synthesizer in a compact package, without the need for patch cords. It later surpassed this original purpose, however, and became a distinctive and popular instrument in its own right. It remains in demand today, over four decades after its introduction, for its intuitive design and powerful bass and lead sounds

Amongst the significant new features Moog added to the app over the real-life Model D, you get “[…] the ability to play chords with up to four-note polyphony, an easy-to-use arpeggiator for rhythmic pattern creation, a real time looping recorder with unlimited overdubbing capacity, a tempo-synchronizable stereo ping pong delay module, and the Bender — a wide-range stereo time modulation effect module. The Minimoog Model D App also supports AUv3 Audio Unit extensions, which allows multiple instances of this powerful instrument to be used simultaneously […]” All these features brings lots of value to players and tinkerers amongst us. Here’s the official Model D announcement video.

This Moog app goes beyond the current versions of Model 15 and Animoog in terms of features and I can only hope these older Moog apps will eventually benefit from the nice things Model D can do.

Given that Model D’s price is less than a meal at a restaurant and considering that a physical Minimoog Model D synth will cost you several thousand dollars, it’s a bargain and the sensible thing to do is to head right away to the App Store!

If you read Geert Bevin’s interview on Synthopia, Geert being a Senior Software Engineer at Moog Music and leading the development of the Model D app, you’ll learn about this interesting difference between in the hardware Model D and its app incarnation:

“One thing that took a completely different approach was the actual feedback path – where you have the external audio which is normalized to the output of the mains. That’s really, really hard to do in DSP, because you have a buffer size which prevents you from having a real feedback path. Because of latency, you don’t get the same behavior.”

In the interview we’re also advised not to expect desktop or Android versions anytime soon, “It’s going to be a lot of work, if we go to other platforms. It doesn’t meant we won’t do it, but we’re going to need a lot of additional resources. We’re in the process of discovering how we can move through this software world, while building synths in the way we build them, which is with a lot of love and care and attention to detail.”

A Fountain of Presets

While the Minimoog really invites you to explore sound synthesis from scratch, I personally like presets as starting points and inspiration. It feels like standing on the shoulders of giants. Model D ships with over 160 presets and offers hundreds more in its in-app store.

If you search the web, you’ll find a lot more. And I’m going to give you a head start, here’s the 3 thousands presets we have for Animoog. Furthermore, in Tom Rhea’s Minimoog Sound Charts, you can even find the appropriate settings to play classic instruments such as the harpsichord, the cello, the flute, the clarinet, the trumpet, the xylophone and so on.

Here’s a test solo track I improvised with Model D made with haQ attaQ’s ‘init’ preset, which I modified a bit. Jakob gives this Model D preset to RISE 42 synth solos album heavily rely on this incredible product. I didn’t told anyone at the time, my apologies. I’m excited and have been writing a detailed article on using MIDI Expression with synths, you can simply subscribe to Animoog.org’s newsletter, or follow the Facebook page or the Twitter account to ensure you don’t miss it once I publish it. Meanwhile, the following ‘Embrace m’ track provides an example of improvising with two expression pedals connected to the Model D app.

Watch the (Tech) Doc

While I started by reading the Model D manual — reviews were obviously not available during the Beta testing phase — I’ll completely understand if you favor watching videos first! Amongst the most interesting ones, I selected the next two videos from haQ attaQ to share with you. They clearly explain modulation sources and how the filter works on the Minimoog. Absolutely valuable.

Read the (Tech) Doc

Years ago when I was looking for documentation on sound synthesis and synthesizers, one of the nice people who replied suggested experimenting with sound as one of the best way to understand sound synthesis.

I claim the Minimoog and its subtractive synthesis, centered on oscilloscopes, the famous Moog ladder filter, envelopes and modulations, is a great synth for learning and understanding sound synthesis

To help you in the process, Moog provides useful documentation. You can have fun with Model D without reading the manual, but to improve your understanding of the synth, and thus your ability to make it sound like you envision, you’ll likely need time reading and experimenting. Unless you’re already an expert, you’ll want to read the ‘Understanding Sound and Synthesis’ section. And even more important to learn to use the Model D app-instrument, head to the ‘Features and controls’ and ‘Using the effects’ sections. Here’s a tip before you dive. In my experience, the in-app manual is a bit awkward to use (as an example, it doesn’t remember where we were reading if you leave it momentarily to turn knobs a bit and go back to the manual), but there’s a workaround: you can access the full Model D manual on this official webpage. It’s easier to search and to switch back and forth to the app.

Here’s the diagram presenting the Model D audio and control pathways. After some time tweaking Model D, it becomes more intelligible! :-)

Bring in more (synth) joy

While we’re into exploring sound synthesis with Model D, the timing is good for an insightful introduction to synthesizer basics by the Suzanne Ciani herself.

https://youtu.be/36WMySitV74

I mentioned MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) several times in the past — this crucial modern MIDI standard elevates synth expressiveness to new levels. Unsurprisingly, Model D supports MPE as shown in this short demo where Jordan Rudess’ GeoShred app is used to control Model D through MPE.

The Model D app was only 5$ for its first days, and at the same time, our dear Animoog was on sale as well. So what I do to ensure fellow enthusiasts amongst us don’t miss such opportunities is by mentioning it on the Animoog Love Twitter feed:

Free Animoog timbres and presets

Hey, this is still an Animoog-focused website! I have several updates I’d like to share with you. While time is infinite, I’m not! Thanks for your patience and meanwhile, I’m glad to inform you that Table of Animoog presets and timbres eventually :-)


In the previous picture, I’m saying hi to all synth enthusiasts from at Moogfest 2016  and it’s only now, thanks to this new Model D app, that I’m happily renewing ties with it. I’m glad we all have this opportunity now.

Enjoy Model D! — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. Announcing ‘Model 15’ by Satri, the very first album of Moog Music’s ‘Model 15’ app solos
  2. ‘Unanimoog’ Featured by Moog Music, and other Animoog news
  3. Video Tutorial: Connecting Animoog to Model 15
  4. Final Version of Satri’s ‘Model 15’ Album: Four New Tracks

The Table of Animoog Presets v1.6 Released: over 3,148 Presets and 5,129 Timbres

Animoog Open Database, Expansion Packs, Playing, ,

I’m happy to write to you and I bring good news: an updated version of the Table of Animoog Presets, adding 572 new presets and 274 new timbres to Animoog from 6 expansion packs. This table that I’m gladly compiling for the community of Animoog players now lists a total of 3,148 presets and 5,129 timbres for Animoog. This gives us access to a large diversity of presets to explore for hours and hours.

Here’s the six new Animoog packs available.

Song-Haven MPE

The new  Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE) MIDI version of the Song-Haven pack bring 50 new presets to Animoog for $6,99. We were lucky to have Steffen Presley explaining the process to configure presets for the MPE MIDI standard supported by lots of interesting controllers such as the LinnStrument and the Seaboard.

Animaal

Then there came the wonderful sounds of animals with the Animaal pack from Terra Nova Music which brings 55 new presets and 134 new timbres for $3,99.

For this Animaal pack announced in October 2016, I presented three improvised solos done with the Animaal Animoog presets. Here’s a fourth one with Animaal’s Ear Worm preset:

RUST(i)K X & K

Sound designer RUST(i)K brought us the X & K pack which contains 251 new Animoog presets and 159 new timbres, available for free — RUST(i)K suggests a donation. RUST(i)K previously shared with us two large free Animoog packs, download them today :-)

Here’s a track I improvised for this announcement, played with the preset named ‘Bass Oh Boy 2.0’ from the RUST(i)K X pack:

analogue, I wish you were: Otherness and Stranger Things

Just like last year, ‘analogue, I wish you were’ brings us two new packs of Animoog presets, Otherness and Stranger Things with respectively 119 and 25 new Animoog presets and available for $1,99 and $1 on Bandcamp. It’s the first time we mention those new packs, let’s look at their descriptions:

  • Otherness: “119 presets containing otherworldly textures, ambient pads, unruly FX, and many other eccentric sounds only Animoog could produce!”
  • Stranger Things: “22 presets inspired by the warm vintage mood of the “Stranger Things” Netflix series soundtrack”

I like these presets. The following track is an improvised solo played with the Animoog preset named ‘PWM soft chords’ from William McFarland / analogue, I wish you were’s Otherness pack:

 

Anigrit

Sound designer Sound of Izrael gave us 121 free Animoog presets last year, this time he’s back with a new pack named Anigrit, which brings an additional 75 new presets and is sold for $5,99 on eBay. It’s the first time we mention these presets on Animoog.org, but for those amongst us whom couldn’t wait, we mentioned it on Twitter as soon as they became available:

Here’s the video presenting the new Anigrit presets in a nice track created entirely with those new Anigrit presets:

 

Table of Animoog Presets version 1.6

With all those new packs, here’s what the new version looks like:

Animoog Expansion Packs table

The permanent webpage for the Table of Presets and Timbres is found here

and it provides direct download links to these presets packs, contains guidelines for submitting presets along with some more info. Don’t forget the instructions to easily install those presets on your iPad without relying on iTunes.

Players will also be happy to hear that since my last blog entry, two minor versions of Animoog have been released, version 2.4.6 in April and 2.4.7 in June, bringing minor bugfixes and one small feature for those wanting to play along with existing tracks: Animoog now allows Apple Music to continue playing when Animoog is in the foreground. Animoog for iPhone followed the same path and got the same new feature, reporting now as version 1.3.3.

I read reports that the current version of Animoog doesn’t support iOS 11, Apple’s upcoming iOS version currently only available as a public beta. It’s extremely likely that Moog Music will update Animoog over the coming weeks to fix compatibility issues with iOS 11 before it launches.

Enjoy the new Animoog presets! — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. New Free Packs: 2,576 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update v1.5
  2. New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update
  3. Announcing the ‘Animaal’ Animoog Presets and Timbres
  4. RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres

RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres

Expansion Packs, ,

Dear fellow Animoog players, I have good news for all of us just in time for the holiday break: 251 new Animoog presets and 159 new timbres! The prolific sound designer Rust(i)k previously gave us two packs earlier this year, one with 132 presets last May and the other with 169 presets in July. Big thanks to Rust(i)k for providing us an even bigger playground to explore sounds with Animoog.

Here’s the announcement Rust(i)k wrote for these new X & K presets and timbres:

RUST(i)K : X & K Animoog presets and timbres

The presets are wide ranging and their names attempt to convey the intended mood. My goal was for these timbres and presets to allow a person to use Animoog for all synth needs. Essentially, the ultimate Swiss Army synth that can produce the most lovely of etheral pads and heavenly atmospheres to the booming wobbles of the bowels from hell.

The presets are categorized and arranged nicely. All the timbres are original and painstakingly compiled over the last 6 months.

I was going to set this up on a sale platform to make a couple dollars but with the holiday and my inner voice said to help my friend Doug Woods of The Sound Test Room in this time of adversity. Here's the PayPal address for people to donate the $5.55 to: thesoundtestroom@gmail.com

The timbres and presets are not lined up according to the bank number. Timbres are used from both timbre banks in both of the preset banks. Dividing them is to help not get overwhelmed with too many options. For every preset, pluck a single note, play a chord, hold it, and then sequence it. The presets are multi-dimensional in that they have a surprising variety of sounds per many of each of the presets. So treat this like an amusement park - and ride till you scream!

Happy Holiday and please enjoy. Best of health for all. And a special thank you to Satri here at Animoog Love for all the hard work he does for all of us.

RUST(i)K
Thanks Rust(i)k! Plenty of Animoog players will benefit from these new presets and timbres! :-) Here’s the download link for these RUST(i)K – X & K presets and timbres. And don’t forget to contribute $5.55 to thesoundtestroom@gmail.com through PayPal. If you’re not interested in donating directly to thesoundtestroom, you can get his albums directly from Bandcamp or the albums Doug Woods made with Colin Powell.

Why does RUST(i)K invites us to contribute to the thesoundtestroom? Jacob Haq explains it in this video. The short story is thesoundtestroom has created and shared tons of videos for iPad Musicians, such as app reviews and demos, and he is an important figure in this community. If you have interests in other apps than Animoog, chances are you heard of him already. Unfortunately, Doug Woods is very sick and a small financial contribution can help. That’s why RUST(i)K and many others in the community decided to help Doug in ways they can, just like what I’m doing myself with this post ;-)

I am personally indebted to the thesoundtestroom crew: in early 2015 and without knowing me in any way, they created and published a video for my January Planet Animoog solo from the Unanimoog album, a track which made its way to the Best of Apptronica 2014 album. This was the encouragement to then create my own videos for my improvised Animoog solos. These guys inspired me.

Here’s the initial Animoog demo video thesoundtestroom published in Summer 2012, not that long after Animoog came to existence!

Yes, Animoog is 5 years old and still is by far the most appreciated iOS music synth out there. Animoog is a reference synth. We can sculpt incredible sounds with Animoog

Please note that thesoundtestroom collaborators, Jacob Haq and Pants of Death are still contributing videos for the iPad musicians amongst us.

Because I want all of you to benefit from these presets and timbres for the holiday break, I exceptionally did not take the time to play and publish an improvised solo with these new presets, something I usually do. I have quickly tested the presets and timbres and I can confirm they’re pretty interesting. Don’t forget the instructions to install third-party presets and timbres on Animoog.

Now I have one more reason to update the table of Animoog presets and timbres over the coming weeks! Enjoy the holiday break and the new Rust(i)k Animoog presets and timbres, cheers! — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update
  2. Announcing the ‘Animaal’ Animoog Presets and Timbres
  3. New Free Packs: 2,576 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update v1.5
  4. Step-by-step Instructions to Install Third-Party Animoog Presets and Timbres with iFunbox

Announcing the ‘Animaal’ Animoog Presets and Timbres

Expansion Packs,

I have great news dear Animoog players! A new expansion pack for Animoog, and it’s an excellent one! I’m happy to share with you the Animaal pack, which brings us 55 presets and 134 new timbres from Terra Nova Music.

animaal

Here’s the official announcement for the new presets being released today and announced on Animoog.org before anywhere else:

Animaal: You've never heard Moog like this.

    NY, NY:  Today Terranova Music released a set of jarringly organic presets for Animoog, Moog’s synthesizer for iOS.  The Animaal library takes most of its inspiration from insects but also includes whales, birds, cats, and reptiles.  Technologist Matthew Aidekman sifted through hundreds of hours of ECM Artist David Rothenberg’s private library of nature field recordings and painstakingly transmogrified them into magical instruments.
    “When David showed me Animoog,” Aidekman said, "I was struck by its ability to make any sound playable. We’ve tested the limits of that by dumping tons of unusual biological sound in and making them play like professional instruments.” Aidekman said. The results are uncanny.
    Animaal spans from a searing rattle-snake inspired leads to “galloping” basses but it’s real power is in full spectrum drones and pads which seem to simultaneously strike the ear as single 3D objects and serve as complete living soundscapes.
    They’re slimy, they’re odd, they grow on you.  The beasts have been released.

On the Artists:
    An accomplished recording artist, writer, and thinker, David Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  Matthew Aidekman has been a record producer, music technologist, and composer currently working on technologies specific to Indian classical instruments.

Here’s a video showcasing some the included presets.

Regular readers of this site know I could not resist testing and creating Animoog solos from these new presets. Here’s the first one I played with Animaal’s Laughing Lyrebird preset. As usual, it’s raw Animoog improvisations, no overdub/effect, just Animoog played live with these marvelous presets :-)

The second one is played with Animaal’s Grunge Drone preset:

And a third one with Animaal’s VoxAmpTremolo preset:

With quality presets such as these ones, I’ll certainly spend more time exploring the whole pack! Now it’s your turn to play Animoog with these wonderful new presets, you can get the Animaal presets and timbres for $3,99 directly on Bandcamp.

Buying the presets will also get tracks from the Animaal pack creators, as well as improvisations I just share with you. On the preset’s download page, you find these pertinent additional details about Animaal:

“55 presets based on 134 new timbres derived from the sounds of hermit thrushes, humpback whales, seventeen year cicadas, superb lyrebirds, snowy tree crickets, various tree frogs, swamp demons, rainforest ambiences from Senegal and Cameroon, purring cats and European marsh warblers–quite simply, the best more-than-human musicians on the planet. 

The cognoscenti will realize that Animoog works with wavetables, not samples, so music programmer extraordinaire Matthew Aidekman has painstakingly converted nature sound samples collected by interspecies musician David Rothenberg into timbres that Animoog can use, and assembled them to make some of the most unique musical tools ever contained on an iPad.”

Yes, that’s one more reason to update the table of Animoog presets, now featuring over 2,600 unique presets! While I tackle an update, enjoy those great new Animaal presets and timbres :-) — Alex / Satri

 

Still reading and ready for something a bit unusual? Head to 8 minutes in the video and see Animoog played in the wild! Yes, that’s from Terra Nova Music as well :-)

Related posts:

  1. New Expansion Packs Table version 1.3, including new ‘Vector Universe’ Presets
  2. RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres
  3. Step-by-step Instructions to Install Third-Party Animoog Presets and Timbres with iFunbox
  4. iOS 8.3 Warning: Transferring Presets and Timbres

MIDI MPE Version of the Song-Haven Animoog Presets

Expansion Packs, , , ,

This is a guest post from sound professional the original Song-Haven presets which are now updated for the recent Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE) MIDI extension. MPE-ready Animoog presets are required to fully enjoy playing Animoog on the LinnStrument and the ROLI Seaboard. Yes, I’ll now have to update the table of Animoog presets accordingly :-) Thanks Steffen! — Alex / Satri

The Song-Haven Animoog bank ~ update for MPE

Better expression is one of my main goals as an electronic musician. Most recently we have witnessed terrific advancements in this arena. Moog Animoog began a big step in that direction with a whole new way of playing expressive electronic music, taking full advantage of the possibilities offered by the multi-touch screen on an Apple iPad (or later, the iPhone). This was a big inspiration for me, and I set about creating a bank of custom presets to take advantage of this new dimension of touch (the “Song-Haven bank” is currently sold right here on “Animoog.org”). This revelation eventually led me towards purchasing a ROLI Seaboard GRAND, which took a similar approach, but with a much larger 3D playing surface entirely different from a standard keyboard. Unfortunately, these two products were not directly compatible. That has very recently changed, with both the Animoog and Seaboard adapting the new MPE protocol. MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) is an extension of the MIDI 1.0 specification. Basically, it allows for multi-channel communication within a single instrument without having to make a lot of settings. Response on multiple MIDI channels is how it becomes possible to have expression independent for each note played, making for a much more organic sound than was previously possible.

Besides the ROLI Seaboard models, MPE can now be found on other new types of MIDI controller devices, such as the LinnStrument from Roger Linn Design, the Eigenharp from Eigenlabs, and others, with more to come. With the MPE setting, I can now successfully play Animoog from my ROLI Seaboard, which as you might expect, is quite a joy! It did however, suggest that I needed to tweak my custom presets to take a bit better advantage of this new marriage. Initially, I had created the Song-Haven bank to primarily take advantage of the polyphonic aftertouch, pitch gliding and other touch mods made available on the iPad screen. Velocity settings were mostly left out of my sound design because they did not translate using the iPad screen (The latest Animoog 2.4.3 update also added velocity support in the form of initial vertical touch on the iPad screen). Of course Animoog can also be played on a regular keyboard via a MIDI interface as well, but with very limited touch response.

Video showcasing the new MPE version of the Song-Haven presets:

All this has prompted me to create a slightly revised version of my Song-Haven bank, to better accommodate the velocity touch factor. But as with most everything, there are limitations. The Animoog has only four modulation slots. I had used all of these slots in most of my presets for various modulations, mostly relating to touch. As such, for this new MPE friendly preset bank version, it has been necessary for me to replace some of these slots in order to make velocity control settings. A small number of these settings, such as Mod Wheel control over LFO created vibrato were first among those I chose to remove, because they are unnecessary with MPE instruments, which are capable of natural vibrato playing instead. Otherwise, I would try to choose what I felt were the least important mod routings to replace. As such, this new version is necessarily a little bit of a compromise. Whether to use this newly revised preset bank version would depend on your playing preferences and what instruments you may have to play it. Animoog may seem to take on a different character when played from an MPE enabled controller, because of the different way of playing it (such as downward pressure for aftertouch, instead of vertical finger placement). It may take a bit of getting used to. I also found that many of the presets had a better playable range if I transposed the Seaboard controller down an octave. A greater emphasis on velocity control also make many of these presets more responsive on a regular MIDI keyboard as well.

Here’s an improvised Animoog solo by Satri, using the original (non-MPE) ‘Nebula Vector’ preset of the Song-Haven pack:

As the new MPE version of the “Song-Haven bank” involves some tradeoffs, there are some things to consider. On the Animoog, velocity control over volume requires that the “volume control” (to the right of the key controller) be set for the minimum velocity value. You may notice that in many of the presets in my new versions, the volume control seems to be set rather low, which is specifically for this purpose. Therefore, changing this control (whether from the iPad screen, or from an external controller) will override this setting, which will change or even eliminate this programmed velocity response. As such, an alternative for master volume control should be considered. But if you primarily play the Animoog from an iPad/iPhone screen, this newer MPE/keyboard version is not really recommended, because since the initial velocity position also controls poly-pressure (as mentioned above), the results are a compromise and may restrict playability.

For those who have purchased my Song-Haven Animoog bank, I’m offering this new MPE and keyboard friendly version free of charge, and will be offering both versions for those considering a purchase.

To new owners, the Song-Haven bank is available for $6,99 by sending money directly to Steffen via Paypal. There’s a total of 50 new presets, with some of them requiring that you already purchased the Acoustic and R. Devine packs in order to access their timbres.




To use Animoog with an MPE equipped instrument, go to the “Setup” tab in Animoog. In the MIDI section, set the CH. parameter to “MPE”. The pitch bend range can be changed also, but the most instantly compatible setting of 48 will give you a very desirable four octave glide range! Make sure that your MPE equipped controller is also set to transmit MPE and that the pitch bend range on both devices match. That’s all there is to it! Enjoy your new found musical freedom of expression!

Steffen Presley

Related posts:

  1. Animoog on the LinnStrument and the ROLI Seaboard with Expressive MIDI
  2. The ‘Expressive MIDI’ Proposal and Animoog
  3. Altermoog – 30 New Free Presets for Animoog and Version 1.1 of the List of 3rd-Party Presets
  4. New Expansion Packs Table version 1.3, including new ‘Vector Universe’ Presets
Animoog Expansion Packs table

New Free Packs: 2,576 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update v1.5

Expansion Packs, Playing, , , ,

When I published version 1.4 of the table of Animoog presets and timbres last May, I wasn’t expecting a new version coming this fast. Rejoice, today I’m announcing 352 new free Animoog presets, and they’re excellent!  This expansion packs table lists third-party presets and timbres that you won’t find anywhere else.

352 new Animoog presets are now available as part of this update. There’s now a total of 2,576 presets and over 4,500 timbres available for Animoog, lots of them free!

Version 1.5 brings presets from two sound designers, ‘analogue, I wish you were’ and Rust(i)k. The table’s page includes the links to download/purchase the presets and timbres. The full changelog is available at the bottom of the expansion packs page. Since the v1.4 announcement, I also published step-by-step instructions to install third-party Animoog presets and timbres.

Animoog Expansion Packs table

analogue I wish you were

Sound designer named ‘analogue I wish you were’ contacted me to share with you not one, but two packs of free Animoog presets. I’ve been playing with them the past few weeks and I can confirm that these are great presets! I’m amazed at the quality of what the sound designers amongst us are able to create for us, the players, to play with!
analogue I wish you were provided a preview for its Retro Futurism pack:

But never stop yourself at a preview, download and install the free presets for you to explore their capabilities. Next is “À la rescousse”, an improvised Animoog solo played live with ‘analogue I wish you were’ preset named ‘PAD ramp pur’ from the ‘Retro Futurism’ presets.

“La vue” is an improvised Animoog solo played live with ‘analogue, I wish you were’ preset named ‘FM PAD – no way back’ from the ‘RPG Fantasy Sounds’ free Animoog presets pack. ‘RPG Fantasy Sounds’ is now one of my favorite pack of presets.

You can get the free presets directly on analogue, I wish you were’s Bandcamp page. That’s also an opportunity for you to support the sound designer with a contribution, he deserves it!

Rust(i)k

After the nice presets we got from him last May, sound designer Rust(i)k offers us a second pack of free Animoog presets! Nothing less than 169 new and free presets which are, once again, of pretty good quality :-) Rust(i)k informed me that some of the presets’ timbres might be missing and may simply be replaced with Basic Sine.

Click here to download the free presets.

Here’s one of the numerous tracks I recorded with these presets, “Japon turquoise” is an improvised Animoog solo played live with ‘Rust(i)k’ preset named ‘Keys Iluminati’ from the ‘RePrison’ free Animoog presets pack.

Timbre requirements

During an online discussion with another Animoog player, we came to the topic of which timbres are required for a pack of third-party presets to sound as intended. With this information available, an Animoog player can know in advance if he has all the required timbres before downloading and installing a new third-party pack. The table version 1.5 now includes the list of official In-App-Purchase packs you need installed for the third-party presets to sound as designed without any [missing] timbres.

If you’re a sound designer that contributed one of those packs, please contact me to let me know which timbres are required for your presets and I’ll add the info for the next version.

YouTube Channels and an Improvisation

Remember that I provide a list of Animoog-focused YouTube channels?  Here’s an Animoog improvisation played by Subconscience. I’m amazed at the variety of sounds and styles that can be played with Animoog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FXKC7LYbVk&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy summertime — Animoog can be played anywhere, like shown on this photo from Lukas Gec (thanks Lucas!).

Animoog Summertime! (thanks to Lukas Gec for the photo)

Big thanks to ‘analogue I wish you were’ and Rust(i)k. Hope you’ll enjoy their presets as much as I do :-) Don’t hesitate to share this announcement with other Animoog players, the intention here is to ensure that as many players as possible are benefiting from those excellent presets! Cheers — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update
  2. 1,713 Presets: a Major Update to List of Animoog Expansion Packs
  3. RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres
  4. Altermoog – 30 New Free Presets for Animoog and Version 1.1 of the List of 3rd-Party Presets

Step-by-step Instructions to Install Third-Party Animoog Presets and Timbres with iFunbox

Animoog App, Expansion Packs, Wish list, ,

There’s well over 2,000 Animoog presets available now, lots of them free, and let’s be honest, the official mean to install third-party Animoog presets with iTunes is cumbersome and limiting. Animoog players ask the question often enough that I’m convinced it’s worth providing these step-by-step instructions on how to install third-party Animoog presets and timbres with iFunbox.

What are the benefits of of using iFunbox for installing Animoog presets and timbres?

  • You can quickly and easily install new Animoog presets and timbres from your computer to your iPad or iPhone
  • You can create folders and move presets in the folders you want
  • You can rename Animoog folders and presets, and thus order them to your liking
  • You don’t need iTunes which, for installing presets, is error-prone and for some of us, simply does not work
  • You can import your own presets for backups and then share your own presets with others
  • You do not need your iPhone or iPad to be jailbroken for installing Animoog presets and timbres with iFunbox

ifunbox

Is iFunbox safe? I’m not kidding, this is important: no one wants to install malware on his computer and suffer the consequences. I spent significant time searching the web and found no evidence that iFunbox would be malware. The proprietary software will show you ads but no source provided indications that iFunbox is unsafe in any way. If you have good reasons to believe installing iFunbox is actually unsafe, let us know in the comments below!

With these instructions, you can easily install plenty of great third-party Animoog presets, lots of them free, provided by nice sound designers sharing their work with us

ifunbox-animoog

The step-by-step instructions:

  1. Get the new and shiny third-party presets and timbres you want to install. You’ll find them on this table of Animoog presets and timbres
  2. Download iFunbox. I’ve seen reports that other similar tools work as well, if you can confirm, share it in the comments below. iFunbox is free and ads-supported, and I’m not related to them in any way
  3. Launch iFunbox. On macOS, the first time you launch an unsigned app you need to right-click on the app’s icon and select open
  4. Quit Animoog on your iPad or iPhone. To do that, double-tap on your iOS ‘Home’ button, browse opened apps to find the Animoog app and drag its thumbnail up to quit the app. If you ignore this step, you won’t see the new presets until you quit and relaunch Animoog
  5. Plugin your iPad or iPhone. It will show up in iFunbox
  6. Open the Animoog folder under ‘App File Sharing’. See screenshot above. The Animoog folder under ‘User Applications’ can’t be accessed and that’s fine since you don’t need it
  7. Create a new folder to host the presets you want to install
  8. Open the new folder and move your Animoog presets from the finder to your new folder. Note about the location of timbres: you can apparently copy your timbres in any folder under ‘categories’, presets are able to find the timbres no matter which subfolder there are in
  9. That’s it! You can use this opportunity to move and rename folders and presets while you’re there, otherwise you’re done, you can quit iFunbox and unplug your iOS device. When you’ll relaunch Animoog, the new presets and timbres will be there for you to enjoy!

If anyone knows better options than iFunbox or have related tips to share, simply write a comment below for all the community to benefit from your knowledge. Better together! :-) Maybe a future Animoog version will provide a better official option than the current one that relies on iTunes, that has been on our Animoog wish list since day 1, but as of today, using iFunbox is a useful, simple and free way to manage your Animoog presets.

And for those who read so far, I have good news, I got tons of fresh new presets for you from a few nice Animoog sound designers that contacted me. The new presets will be announced with the next version of the table of Animoog presets. I hope to have the time to release it by mid-July. Hope this post helped you better enjoy Animoog :-) — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. New Free Packs: 2,576 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update v1.5
  2. Altermoog – 30 New Free Presets for Animoog and Version 1.1 of the List of 3rd-Party Presets
  3. Announcing the ‘Animaal’ Animoog Presets and Timbres
  4. RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres
Animoog Expansion Packs table

New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update

Expansion Packs, Playing, , , , ,

Dear fellow Animoog players, I’m delighted to announce version 1.4 of Animoog.org’s table of expansion packs. This expansion packs table lists third-party presets and timbres that you won’t find anywhere else.

328 new Animoog presets are now available as part of this update. There’s now a total of 2,224 presets and over 4,500 timbres available for Animoog, lots of them free!

Version 1.4 brings presets from 4 sound designers: Steffen Presley, Rusk(i)k, Sound of Izrael and Subconscience. Here’s the updated version of the table of Animoog expansion packs. The table’s page includes the links to download/purchase the presets and timbres and installation instructions. Three of the four new packs are free, the fourth one being available at a very reasonable price. The full changelog is as well available at the bottom of the expansion packs page.

(click table to open the large version)

Animoog Expansion Packs table

Steffen Presley

I’m happy that sound designer Steffen Presley contacted me and that we’re now able to provide his expansion pack named Song-Haven. It is available for $6,99 by sending money directly to Steffen via Paypal. There’s a total of 50 new presets, with some of them requiring that you already purchased the Acoustic and R. Devine packs in order to access their timbres.




As you can see in the following YouTube demonstration video, those are high quality presets. They just got released and I haven’t tested them yet, but I soon will!

Steffen is also the nice sound designer who recently shared with us free Theremini presets.

Rust(i)k

Sound designer Rust(i)k is freely sharing with us 132 excellent presets. Here’s a part of Rust(i)k bio: “RUST(I)K is currently working on several projects and remains a major part of some of house music’s greatest venues and artists over the last 20 years. He now is experimenting with a variety of musical styles and methods as the IOS music world grows by the day.   In doing so, he routinely puts out preset or sample banks to various sites and several companies.” His full bio is available here. Rust(i)k’s excellent presets are freely available directly on Animoog.org: Rust(i)k presets.

Here’s two improvised Animoog solos, the one I just recorded named ‘San Andreas’ played with the ‘Lead PolyAnna’ preset, and the second one named ‘Going Rust(i)k’ I made with Rust(i)k’s ‘Lead Axe’ preset.

 

Sound of Izrael

Sound designer Sound of Izrael is sharing with us 121 new free presets. The instructions to download the presets are found this post from Sound of Izrael himself. Here’s the video that presents the presets:

Here’s an improvised Animoog solo named ‘Fatal Duel’ I made with Sound of Izrael’s ‘R Rusty boy’ preset.

 

Subconscience

Sound designer Tiziano Gileno Fasano, aka Subconscience, is sharing with us 25 free Animoog presets! Here’s Subconscience presets.

subconscience_041

Here’s an improvised Animoog solo named ‘It’s ongoing’ I made with Subconscience’s ‘Lead-polymulti’ preset.

Submitting presets

I added a new section to the page providing the table of Animoog expansion packs, here’s its content: Here’s what I need to know from you if you created great Animoog presets yourself and would like to share them with the community of Animoog  players, please provide the following information:

  • Your sound designer / artist name
  • Name of the preset collection / pack
    • Number of presets and timbres in the pack
    • Installed Expansion pack requirements (to avoid missing timbres)
  • Price
    • Look at the pricing of packs currently available
    • Many thanks in the name of the Animoog community of players if you decide to provide your presets for free, otherwise, 5$ is usually a good price for professional presets, pricing is up to you
  • Link to purchase
    • We’ll gladly host free presets on Animoog.org if you want us to, otherwise you are responsible to provide a download/purchase link that will endure
  • Some way for potential players to hear what the submitted presets sound like
    • Such as a YouTube video or a SoundCloud track
  • Description and anything else you’d like us to consider sharing in the preset’s availability announcement post

I’ll probably improve that list over time. Please understand that this list is updated only every few months.

The future has more surprises

As a bonus for having read up to here, I invite you to contribute to the documentary on Bob Moog being currently crowdfunded on Kickstarter: ELECTRONIC VOYAGER: Retracing BOB MOOG’s Sonic Journey.

Big thanks to Sound of Izrael, Subconscience, Rust(i)k and Steffen. Hope you’ll enjoy their presets as much as I do :-) Don’t hesitate to share this announcement with other Animoog players, the intention here is to ensure as many players as possible to benefit from those excellent presets! Cheers — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. New Free Packs: 2,576 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update v1.5
  2. 1,713 Presets: a Major Update to List of Animoog Expansion Packs
  3. RUST(i)K X & K: 251 New Animoog Presets and 159 New Timbres
  4. Altermoog – 30 New Free Presets for Animoog and Version 1.1 of the List of 3rd-Party Presets
Animoog Expansion Packs table

New Expansion Packs Table version 1.3, including new ‘Vector Universe’ Presets

Expansion Packs,

Here’s a present for the end of the year! A major update to Animoog.org’s list of expansion packs. This is the location where you’ll find presets and timbres that don’t show up in Animoog’s in-app store. As usual, you’ll find a web version with the invaluable links, as well as png and pdf versions.

The shiny new stuff in version 1.3:

  • Finally the appropriate presets and timbres count for Animoog’s bundled content. The table itself don’t list individual timbres categories, you’ll find them in David’ comments. Immense thanks to you David, everybody will benefit from your contributions!
  • A new expansion pack available, and it’s a good one, rejoice! Nikita Klimenko and I got in touch two months ago regarding Nikita’s ‘Vector Universe’ presets for Animoog, which bring a selection of 115 excellent new presets. They’re available for 5$
  • I improved and added some links in the description of presets, for those wanting to know more about their origin, as well as minor enhancements to the table

My honest opinion after quite a view jam sessions with the Vector Universe presets, I consider them of high interest. Of course that’s a pretty personal statement since your tastes and use cases might differ, but if you like Daemian and Alba Ecstasy presets, chances are you’ll like Nikita’s ‘Vector Universe’ presets you too.

Nikita’s was very nice to provide the presets for free to the ones amongst you following Animoog.org on Twitter. Thanks Nikita.

Animoog enthusiasts can now benefit from a total of 1,896 presets and almost 5,000 timbres. Thanks to the sound designers sharing their work. Year 2015 ends with happy news for all of us Animoog players. 2016 promises to be as exciting! ;-) Cheers — Alex / Satri

Related posts:

  1. 1,713 Presets: a Major Update to List of Animoog Expansion Packs
  2. Altermoog – 30 New Free Presets for Animoog and Version 1.1 of the List of 3rd-Party Presets
  3. Introducing the Exhaustive list of Animoog Expansion Packs
  4. New Free Packs: 2,224 Animoog Presets Now Available — Major Update