- Krikor Kouchian: Free LinnDrums for Live. Krikor has offered up his Pacific Alley LinnDrum instrument and FX rack as a free download to Ableton readers. Jason Grier: Download his unique sound library. Downloads Marc Houle presents Buji Tek: A free Live Set of techno tools.
- Effect racks are one the most powerful features available in Ableton Live today. They're an amazing way to really transform your sound and the way you work with Live. With the help of this compilation you’ll be able to expand your Ableton Live production library by using 20 essential audio effects, perfect for use in live sets and studio work.
- Download the Three Platers Ableton Live Pack. It’s an incredibly creative sound. SOUND DESIGN TOOLS // Kalimba. Next up we have a Kalimba by Sound Design Tools. The Kalimba is a pretty simple instrument. The tones of the instrument are so clear that they can cut through the mix in a really interesting way.
- This includes nearly 300 sounds, loops and effects organized into Drum Racks, with custom designed Effect Racks and carefully chosen Macro Controls. Download the Pack below and read our interviews with project coordinator Michal Mendyk and Ableton Certified Trainer Marcin Staniszewski, who assembled the Pack.
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For the generation who grew up in the 1980s watching VHS movies with synth-laden soundtracks, the city of Los Angeles has an evocative allure. Palm tree-lined boulevards, seedy dive bars, fast cars and big hair – the sense of nostalgia for this period of extravagance and optimism leaves a strong impression on those who were raised on this particular strain of Americana. Parisian producer Krikor Kouchian is no different, and it’s this very feeling that he’s explored on his new album, Pacific Alley.
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In the past Krikor has largely released music using just his first name. His discography reaches back to the late 90s and a variety of different styles, from lively ‘French touch’ club tracks to chopped up micro-sampled house, even dabbling in indie rock / electronic crossovers on labels like Tigersushi. Throughout this time the consistent feature in Krikor’s work has been a restless energy and a bold sound palette – you tend to notice when one of his track gets played.
Celluloid signifiers
Pacific Alley is a more reflective record than some of Krikor’s previous work – for every lively dancefloor track there is a moment of melancholy – and this duality matches the artist’s own feelings about the city he chose as his muse for this project.
“I always wanted to do something about Los Angeles because it’s a city I love and hate at the same time,” says Krikor. “When I was making the record I was thinking about classic West Coast hip hop and funk stuff, but I didn't want to just make a retro record. I had a much more visual vision of LA in the rain. The influence finally for the record was movies by directors like Michael Mann rather than music by itself.”
The album could easily pass for a soundtrack, it’s made up of short, distinct vignettes that play out like individual scenes, but the unmistakable flavour of the 80s and 90s is hard to miss in the gated snares, warbling synth lines and slap bass licks. The backwards glance also translates to the videos that Krikor and Nathalie Gasdoué have made to accompany the album.
“The video to “Niños Matadores” takes a lot of footage from ditch parties that happened in people’s backyards in LA in the 90s, and also a lot from 90s talks shows,” Krikor explains. “The main idea was to show a particular time in Los Angeles. We then mixed that footage with stuff we filmed with a green screen and an analogue modular video synth called the 3TrinsRGB.”
Capturing the creative spark
Although he was using modular equipment for the videos, Krikor’s main ingredients for the music onPacific Alley were a more modest, focused selection of old drum machines, synthesisers and effects units that he used on every track in a bid for a cohesive overall sound. He also placed limitations on himself to complete the music as quickly as possible.
“The record was written very fast,” he explains. “Most of the tracks took 10-15 minutes to write, and then in two or three hours the music would be mixed. Sometimes you can lose yourself in editing - the faster you do it after you write the track, the less chance you have to lose what it is.”
Krikor credits his embrace of creative limitations now with years spent producing solely on computers, initially using an early version of Live in 2001 and exploring Max/MSP as part of his studies at the Conservatoire in Paris.
“Giving myself musical barriers for this project was not about obsessively trying to reproduce the sound of a particular era, but more to prevent myself going too crazy and losing the point of the album,” he reasons. “I often set up my DAW to be loaded up like a mixing desk, with no more than eight tracks and two effects. I think this is a good way of sometimes using a computer, to not get overwhelmed by the possibilities. I ruined many tracks in the past by overworking things.”
The tools of the trade
Playing a starring role in Pacific Alley: Krikor’s modified Casio RZ-1 drum machine
Even if he didn’t set out to make an explicitly ‘retro’ album, Krikor used older equipment at the start of the signal chain, inevitably resulting in music that captured a particular moment in time. Central to the kit list was his modified Casio RZ-1 drum machine, which had custom soundbanks loaded into it featuring samples from the classic LinnDrum, TR-808 and CR-78 machines. The 8-bit processing of the RZ-1 gave these familiar sounds an additional digital crunch.
![Sound Sound](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125753581/318507228.jpg)
“I would record everything into Live,” Krikor explains about his creative process on the album. “Usually I would start building up some drums and then work in the synth parts, recording a take and modulating each part in real time. On this record I didn't do much editing, but the drums on the RZ-1 were a bit too dirty by themselves just coming out of a mono output, so after the initial jam I would record all the parts on the RZ-1 separately and rebuild what I did inside Live. This way I could mix it a bit cleaner.”
As well as the RZ-1, other key instruments included the Roland Juno 2 and Yamaha DX100 synthesizers, but one of the more cult units included on the album’s equipment list is the Fairlight CMI. A notoriously expensive, rare and complex synthesiser, the Fairlight is the origin of some of the quintessential sounds of the 1980s thanks to its use by acts like Herbie Hancock, Art of Noise, Jan Hammer and more. However, Krikor is the first to admit he doesn’t have the budget or connections to use an original Fairlight on his album.
Herbie Hancock putting the Fairlight CMI to good use in the 1980s
Krikor reveals that he “used the Fairlight emulation on my phone, and this is a very big part of the record. The application was made by the guys from Fairlight, so it's the same sequencer and the same basic sounds. I used the internal sequencer and put it in Live through a digital and MIDI box I have for my phone. It's efficient, with no latency, and it sounds really good.”
Part of the process
While the compositional side of writing Pacific Alley was focused on immediate, jam-friendly results, Krikor placed as much importance on the processing and mixing to achieve the sound he was aiming for. All of the tracks, once completed, were bounced to a particularly crusty cassette for a final layer of dirt, but before that came many stages in the signal chain. Still in the hardware realm, the most significant outboard processor was the AMS S-DMX, a pitch-shifter, delay, harmonizer and sampler which helped shape sounds on almost all of the album.
Krikor’s prized AMS S-DMX pitch-shifter, delay, harmonizer and sampler
“I think there might be one track where almost the whole mix went through it,” Krikor says of the vintage effects unit. “I love this machine. It's very unstable but it's very nice.”
After the initial recording stage, the majority of the sonic treatment was done in Live using a variety of plug-ins and patches. For example, the distinctive pitch-bending wobble on the lead synth in ambient track “Armas Y Heroinas” was achieved through a Reaktor patch designed to apply a warbling effect, as well as additional rack effects Krikor created in Live for his own instruments (more on that later) and also the Ampex ATR-102 mastering tape recorder plug-in from UAD, before finally hitting the actual cassette for the final master bounce.
“As a mixing and processing tool I use the computer a lot,” Krikor explains. “Nowadays I use it a bit less to write the track. I’ve been using the UAD plug-ins for many years, and I also used some from Sound Toys because a lot of those plug-ins are based on famous delays, and they sound quite the same as the original equipment to me. I couldn't tell the difference personally.”
Although he applied processing to age and warp the sonic content of the album, from a mixing point of view Krikor didn’t adhere to a specific ‘old-school’ approach, or indeed any method that differed from the approach he has always taken with his music.
“Even though there's this 80s, 90s feeling to Pacific Alley, most of the production process is the same as when I do some techno or more house music stuff,” he argues. “I first learned to use compressors and EQs in the 90s, but then when I switched to the computer I naturally used them the same way. It’s a more modern way of mixing than maybe they did on 80s movie soundtracks or whatever.”
“Reyes Del Barrio” from Krikor Kouchian’s Pacific Alley
Krikor’s instrument racks
In terms of bringing classic equipment into a modern production workflow, Krikor has been doing his bit by creating a special set of Instrument and Effect Racks for Live modelled on his approach to drum machines in the studio. The first three, emulating iconic Roland machines the TR-808, TR-606 and DR-110, are available as free downloads. Rather than simply providing another interface to play well-worn drum machine sounds, Krikor applied some processing of his own, and a range of controls to push the devices into exciting new sonic territory.
“The idea started from having fun with my 808 and the BIM delay by OTO Machines, and I wanted to share it,” he explains. “The sounds were recorded through the BIM’s 12-bit delay, with a 100 percent full wet signal but no delay applied, so the 808 just gets translated into 12-bit.
“When I started making the device I didn't want it to be a sound bank replaying the sample. I wanted to have the controls that you have on the 808, so I multi-sampled the 808 with different attack and decay tones so you can use it like a real machine. If you start tweaking the knobs, then it will react differently. You have plug-ins that do the pure 808 sound very well, but I wanted to do something different and add this flavour that I like.”
As well as the 12-bit drum sounds themselves, Krikor has created effects racks for each of the drum machines that offer many different ways to manipulate the sounds. The ‘OTO BIM TR-606’ device comes packaged with the aptly named TR-606 Destroyer, an additional effects rack that can be used on any instrument you like, but does a particularly fine job of applying distortion, low-res reverb and other artfully shaped means of degrading the original drum sounds. The ‘Mr. T-DR-110’ features a filter, a pitch shifter, the ‘Mr. T FX’ and ‘MS20-izer’ that, when combined, can contort a dry, familiar sounding beat into a thrilling new proposition. It’s with the TR-808 device that the impact of the effects is most noticeable – the clean drums sound fine on their own, but by engaging the ‘Old School Spank’ effects rack, your beat instantly leaps forth with a rich new ferocity. The ‘Phazing Tape’ parameter is particularly striking, edging pitch fluctuations into the mix with wonderful, musical results. True to the punky style Krikor has adopted since his earliest releases, these are the perfect devices for those who like their beats to be loaded with dirt and personality.
A portal into Paisley Park
The most significant drum set for Krikor in the making of Pacific Alley was the LinnDrum, and in line with his previous creations, it’s no surprise he was inspired to create an instrument rack celebrating Roger Linn’s iconic 80’s rhythm box with a few twists thrown in for good measure. Much like the other instruments, Krikor applied his own unique signal chain to the iconic sounds by loading the LinnDrum samples onto the RZ-1 and recording them through the OTO Machines BAM reverb effect. As with the other instruments, he multi-sampled the drum hits with varying decays and amounts of gritty, 12-bit reverb to give some wildly differing results. The accompanying ‘Purpleizer’ effects rack was of course crafted with one particular LinnDrum user in mind.
“I specifically made the multi FX for this one if you want to sound a bit like Prince,” Krikor explains. “I would say he's the biggest user of the LinnDrum, although “Mama” by Genesis was very important for me when I was a kid, and that track was all about the LinnDrum and the LM1.”
Coinciding with the release of Pacific Alley and this interview, Krikor has offered up his Pacific Alley LinnDrum instrument and FX rack as a free download to Ableton readers. You can grab the whole package in the link below, but first watch a trailer for the instrument that captures the spirit of Pacific Alley perfectly.
Keep up with Krikor on his website and on Soundcloud.
Photo credit: Sunny Suits
At the end of World War II, the formerly independent country of Poland found itself firmly within the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Despite brief periods of liberalisation, the next 40 years under communism were an era of political and economic repression that only came to an end in 1989 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc of allied socialist states. For many Polish artists and musicians of the period, censorship was a constant concern and repercussions could be harsh for creating work that was deemed to be decadent, anti-Soviet, bourgeois or simply not compatible with the state-sanctioned aesthetic of ‘socialist realism’.
It is therefore surprising to learn that despite the circumstances, one of the first institutions in Europe dedicated to experimental and electronic music was actually founded in Poland. Set up in 1957 to create musical 'illustrations' for movies, radio and television, Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) was an island of artistic freedom throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s. As one of the few studios in Eastern Europe with electronic music equipment, and crucially, engineers who could service it, the PRES was a center of research into the possibilities of tape music and saw the creation of many astonishing original electro-acoustic works.
Polish Radio Experimental Studio – equipped for tape music experimentation
While some of the studio’s Western counterparts (the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, the San Francisco Tape Music Center, GRM in Paris, the WDR Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne) were respected cultural institutions in their day (and have since taken on near-mythic status), the output of PRES remains underrepresented in the history of 20th century music. Now, in an effort to make the story of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio more widely known, the country’s cultural institute, Instytut Adama Mickiewicza (IAM), has commissioned a sample library to be produced from some of the works made at the studio by composers Krzysztof Knittel, Elżbieta Sikora and Ryszard Szeremeta in the 1970s and 80s.
We’re thrilled to share this special free collection of sounds and devices with you. This includes nearly 300 sounds, loops and effects organized into Drum Racks, with custom designed Effect Racks and carefully chosen Macro Controls. Download the Pack below and read our interviews with project coordinator Michal Mendyk and Ableton Certified Trainer Marcin Staniszewski, who assembled the Pack.
Download free Sounds from the Polish Radio Experimental Studio
Please note: Live 10 Suite is required to make full use of the devices included in this download
Interview with project coordinator Michal Mendyk
Can you briefly sketch the origins of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio?
Polish Radio Experimental Studio was one of the first electronic music centre in Europe, founded in 1957 in Warsaw as a department of state Polish Radio. The founder of the Studio was Józef Patkowski, a musicologist and expert in early electronic music. What’s interesting is that Patkowski was strongly supported by Włodzimierz Sokorski, a radical Marxist, chief of Polish Radio and former minister of culture of People’s Republic of Poland. Paradoxically, a couple of years earlier, it was Sokorski who introduced social realism and radical political and aesthetical censorship in Polish art and culture. He was famous for having said about Witold Lutosławski, one of the leaders of Polish music vanguard that “he should be thrown under a tram”. So, in 1957 the same guy was responsible for creating the most experimental music centre in the whole Eastern Europe! He later said that Polish Radio Experimental Studio was his way to redeem his previous sins. This is one of many example of how paradoxical cultural and intellectual life in an authoritarian system can be.
Uncovering the Soul of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. English subtitles available.
Along with the Experimental Studio of Slovak Radio in Bratislava, the PRES was one of the only official institutions where electronic music was produced in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Were the activities of the PRES ever overtly politicized, either positively as evidence of the “progressive” nature of socialism, or negatively as an example of “bourgeois” cultural activities that should be suppressed?
The situation of Polish culture was very special in the Eastern Bloc. After the death of Stalin in 1953 and the change of government in Poland in 1956, there was a strong tendency towards liberalisation in social life – what was known then as “The Thaw”. Although in many disciplines this tendency was later reversed, it did not change in art and culture. Of course there was a strictly political censorship, but almost no aesthetical one. Actually progressive, even avant-garde artists were strongly supported by the government as a part of official propaganda that was trying to say “We are socialist and at the same time we are progressive and liberal”.
Thanks to this paradox, the international careers of such figures as film director Andrzej Wajda, composer Krzysztof Penderecki or theatre director Jerzy Grotowski became possible. This was not the case in any other Eastern Bloc country where artistic experiments were restricted, if not strictly prohibited. For example, the Experimental Studio of Slovak Radio, created in 1965, regularly faced problems from the side and produced only a couple of dozen works.
At the same time, Polish Radio Experimental Studio produced over 300 hundred autonomous works and even more soundtracks for radio, film and TV. It also regularly hosted both young and renowned composers from the West, including Arne Nordheim from Norway, Lejaren Hiller from USA, François-Bernard Mâche from France or Franco Evangelisti from Italy. On the other hand the Studio was a part of socialist system. Therefore, although in practice it concentrated on autonomous experimental works, officially it’s main task was to create incidental music for radio, TV and film. So again, there emerged interesting paradoxes. For example the same composer could create experimental work with hidden anti-government message one day and on the next he was hired to produce the soundtrack for a pure propaganda film.
Eugeniusz Rudnik, a pioneer of electronic music in Poland, working at PRES
Unlike figures such as Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Henry or Luc Ferrari at GRM in Paris or Karlheinz Stockhausen at Studio für Elektronische Musik in Cologne, the composers working in the field of electro-acoustic music at PRES remain fairly unknown. What do you think explains this? Was it just a matter of Poland being outside of the European/American record industry? Or was the music or the composers’ activities somehow suppressed?
One important reason is of course that Polish Radio Experimental Studio was neither as advanced nor as productive as GRM in Paris or WDR studio in Cologne. This is a fact. On the other hand, in so called contemporary “serious” music there are still very strong “national centers” in Germany, France and America that largely focussed on what happens in their own milieu, without deeper interest in the peripheries.
Secondly, PRES did not have important achievements in the digital domain, in a way it has remained a purely analogue phenomenon. Its “golden era” was in the 1970s, more than 40 years ago. Many of the best works have been forgotten, especially because in the last quarter of the 20th century in Polish and Eastern European “serious” music has been dominated by conservative, neoclassical and neo-romantic tendencies. From this point of view experimental works were considered nonsense.
Also, after the fall of the iron curtain, artistic circles in many Eastern European countries became extremely interested in exchange with Western cultural circles, and very often undervalued their own tradition. It's only now, after almost 30 years, that this tendency has changed. Experimental music is a special case, I believe – in the post-techno era, there seems to be a global tendency of searching for the analogue roots of our contemporary digital sound.
Tape machine, mixer, filter banks, oscillators, chalkboard, giant ashtray – the classic 70s electronic music studio set-up at PRES.
And how did you come to the idea to use the recordings from the PRES archive to make a shareable sample library?
![Ableton sound library download free Ableton sound library download free](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125753581/954518110.jpg)
I could just say that creating samples is nowadays the simplest way to give archival recordings a second life. But I also strongly believe that Polish Radio Experimental Studio archives really fit contemporary music production practises. Actually, many PRES composers worked in a way that is more similar to contemporary music producers than to “serious” experimental music music composers from Germany of France. The latter were deeply involved in sophisticated artistic theories or advanced technological experiments. Most of PRES composers on the other hand, were as involved in experimental music as in incidental music and these two fields often mixed in very interesting way, making their film music more “experimental” and their experimental music – more emotional, sensual and accessible. On a technical level this means: the practise of sampling their own or other composers’ works, as well as popular songs; reusing the same material in different compositions in a “remix-like” manner, adding regular rhythmic pulses to experimental sounds and textures, etc.
Chineeyangqin cracked vst free. Produced at PRES: Józef Robakowski’s 1971 piece “Prostokąt dynamiczny”
Produced at PRES: Bohdan Mazurek - “Daisy Story”
Interview with sound designer Marcin Staniszewski
You are an Ableton Certified Trainer, a musician, a producer and you work as a sound designer for apps, film and television. How did you find the experience of digging through the archives of your own country’s experimental music?
It was an ear opening experience. I was aware of Polish Radio Experimental Studio and most of the notable composers that were active during its existence but I was astonished by the quality of sounds, and the unique timbres and textures they achieved with such limited tools compared to current technology. It's just mind boggling. The coolest thing for me was that most of that music is not super tight in terms of certain BPM or grid. It’s usually improvised and very alive, evolving all the time.
Digitized stereo tape mixdowns served as source material for the free Pack
What was the state of the materials you were given access to and how did you go about organising it? C dev technologies group.
I received digitized source material. Most of the material was recorded to tape, by professional engineers, and you can definitely hear that. I was given access to stereo mixes, so I had to be creative because it was often a challenge to find the right moments to cut the samples. As I was digging thru the material, the majority of the samples fell naturally into one of three categories - it was either some percussive sounds, sound effects or rhythmical loops, so I did not have to think too much about it.
How / why did you decide to put the material into Racks and Audio Loops?
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I decided to use Drum Racks as to me they are the essence of Live – the most creative and, at the same time, simplest tool. There are just endless possibilities with all the chains, grouping and macros. It’s also a very clear structure, so it was also very natural for me to put the samples in Drum Racks. As for loops, I didn’t really care if they are looping in a conventional regular manner. I was only looking for a grooves, and the weirder, the better. I mean I had access to some eccentric, crazy stuff, so I had to explore that side of it. I just wanted to be sure that it loops seamlessly. Don't ask me about the tempo or time signatures though!
What surprised you most during your work?
I discovered that compressors are one of the most overrated tools nowadays. All these compositions are very dynamic, to such an extent, that even a simple white noise burst was giving me goosebumps. There are some soft passages followed by noise explosions and such things create another level of tension. This dynamic dimension is lost nowadays and it’s a shame because it can be so powerful. No wonder why some old school engineers use compression so lightly.
Also, as I was working on the tune showcasing this library (I liked the idea so much that I started a new solo project called SICHER and you can expect at least an EP very soon), I was amazed by how much one can squeeze out of one loop or one sample. It’s so much fun and so much more coherent when you use just three or four samples and then mangle them to death instead of using 100 different samples from all over the place. You can be sure that they share a common 'timbre signature' and its not limiting at all. I found that I can make a whole drum kit out of one simple sound! It's just the matter of super simple operations like adjusting the start/end point of sample, or pitching it up and down. You want a clicky kick drum? Just move the damn start point so it does not fire off at the zero crossing and you got a nice click that will cut through the mix.
Krzysztof Knittel – “Study Nr. 1”
Krzysztof Knittel is a sound engineer, composer, performer, music journalist, social activist associated with the independent culture community during the martial law years, academic organizer and lecturer. Knittel has worked with a variety of styles, genres and techniques but one constant among all them has been his interest in electronics, which brought him to the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in 1973.
Elzbieta Sikora – “Voyage II”
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Elżbieta Sikora began her career studying under Pierre Schaeffer and François Bayle, two key members of Groupe de Recherches Musicales. She has been associated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio since the 1970s. After relocating to Paris in 1981, she has worked at a number of renowned electronic music studios and composed orchestral works and operas, many of which show strong traces of electronic narrative.
Ryszard Szeremeta - “Pulse Rate”
Ryszard Szeremeta is a composer, conductor, and long-time head of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. He also produces records, concerts, and electro-acoustic music performances, and was a member of the semi legendary Polish jazz quartet Novi Singers.
Download free Sounds from the Polish Radio Experimental Studio
Please note: Live 10 Suite is required to make full use the devices included in this download
Adam Mickiewicz Insitute gives general authorization to anyone who would like to use the samples in any manner, including their unlimited processing or adaptation.
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Learn more about Polish Radio Experimental Studio.
Follow Marcin Staniszewski on his website and download the full Live Set of his track “This Is P R E S”, which uses mostly sounds from the P R E S Pack.
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Photos by Andrzej Zborski, 1962–1972, Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
The project is co-organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA 100, the international cultural programme accompanying the centenary of Poland regaining independence.
Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2021.