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Back in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, I’ve completed one of the longest of my projects – an LP ‘Equinox: The Rite of Spring’. It tells about a catabasis-type journey through the night of Spring Equinox, i.e. March 20. A journey that followed a catastrophe. It started out in 2011 with a very grim two-part dream about the sun disappearing, and how the city I’ve been living in back then kept going as though nothing actually happened. I’ve expanded the…
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Just released PJ-6, a new soundpack for TAL U-NO-LX synth, which is an emulation of the classic Roland Juno-60 hardware synthesizer – beefed up to become a sonic powerhouse, despite its somewhat limited architecture. There is a free introductory version, and the full pack is available at Gumroad. PJ-6: a soundpack for TAL U-NO-LX synthesizer by black-sided sun is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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I see now, how practical was the claim by Enya‘s producer Nicky Ryan that they will never get rid of Roland Juno 60. Dug deep into TAL’s emulator (U-No-LX) and can’t stop tinkering with it. Despite its deceptively simple architecture, the synth is a sonic powerhouse with totally enormous capabilities. Surely it has some upgrades, such as Unisono mode and on-board effects, but it sounds great w/o them either: double-mode chorus does the job alright. Ironically, years ago I’ve stumbled…
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PHI MU LABS: ORIGIN is a collection of timbres created specifically for FM synthesizers. These patches have been also used to produce PHI MU LABS, vol. II library for KORG WAVESTATE and are included in that package as well. ORIGIN also includes the patches in Native Instruments FM8 format. All patches had been dialed up from scratch in DEXED, a software emulation and librarian for Yamaha DX7. Compatibles The patches in SYSEX format are compatible with a number of hardware…
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Have my hands full with rehearsals and gigs – we’ve got some kind of a residentship with a local venue, which is an Irish Pub. The only problem for me is that it’s located on the other end of the city from our appartment, heh. On the other hand, walking just under 3 miles one way then back again can’t hurt, and the weight I carry isn’t that large. Other than that I’m finishing yet another library – for FM…
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Finalized a track yesternight, did some rough mixing-up earlier today. The electric guitar parts are real: awfully recorded four layers. I’m getting somewhat better with guitar tremolo, but it’s way too far from ideal. Well, it’s a demo, anyway.
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The weekend is going to be busy: Quite unfortunately I’ve been hit with nasty flu, so I’ll have to perform wearing a medical mask this time. Not an enjoyable experience. Elsewhere, it is utterly enjoyable to see how many people come to download Luminophore pack. And it looks like it’s not only about being free – a few have actually tipped me for it. Other products are no worse. ;)
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Recently looked into my – quite multiple – bandcamp accounts and discovered that the very first album by my first band had been released around this time back in 2007. 18 years ago. I was 18 years old myself when this project – Lacklustre Mirror – started out. Had zero comprehension how things are done back then, except for composing music which I did since early childhood. The first album – The Book Of The Shattered Bonds – when it…
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Earlier today have uploaded a free pack for Surge XT synth to Gumroad (as freeware). And within hours got 5 downloads, with sixth extra – someone picked another freeware pack I’ve made for WhispAir previously. Looks like at least some interest is there. I guess, I know which synth I’ll be making patches for next. Probably for sale this time.
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Music by Lacklustre Mirror (my old band). Lyrics by Alexandr Blok. Translated to English: How often do we all, me and you,Bemoan our life’s misery!Oh, if only you, my friends, could knowThe chill and darkness of the coming days! Now, you cuddle your dear’s hand,Play with it joyfully,Then cry, once you notice lies,Or discover this hand holds the knife,Oh, dear child. There are no limits to lies and guile,Whilst Death is far away.Darker and darker will be terrifying light,And the…
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Uploaded my bank for Full Bucket Music‘s ‘Code Zero-One’ to Gumroad as a freebie. Code Zero-One is the free bank, which also contains custom wavetables created with AUDIOTERM software. They can be used separately. The winner of the KVR Audio Developer Challenge 2021, WHISPAIR is a 3-osc wavetable synthesizer with significant modulation capabilities, written in native C++ code for high performance and low CPU consumption. It is offered as a software instrument for Microsoft Windows (VST2/VST3/CLAP/AAX) and Apple macOS (VST2/VST3/CLAP/AU/AAX).…
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Messed up miserably yesterday uploading wrong files to Gumroad. Fortunately, fixed the issue before anyone purchased the libs. Aside from this converting the source DX7-compatible patches to FM8’s own format adding bells-n-whistles like filters and effects.
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The months-long work is done: Phi Mu Labs, vol. II – the FM-synthesis based sound library for Korg WAVESTATE synthesizer has been completed and published at Gumroad along with the first one. And here goes the video demo of several performances created with those multisamples I’ve been rendering and looping over all that time: Please tell me what you think of this. Graphics are made with Blender.
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In 1983 YAMAHA Corp. released DX7, the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling electronic instruments in history, selling more than 200,000 units. DX7 and its derivative models utilized the Frequency Modulation sound generation technology developed by John Chowning at Stanford University and previously deployed, although with little commercial success, by Don Buchla. With its bright, metallic and glassy sounds, DX7 and the subsequent models of the series, have largely shaped the sound of pop and rock music…
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Second cinematic library for KORG WAVESTATE NATIVE plugin and hardware WAVESTATE synthesizer is coming – with a bonus.
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The latest gig was kinda alright, although the venue left a very unpleasant impression due to an abundancy of trashed barflies who appeared to be dying to put on some cheap-sounding muzak right after our performance. One of them – a particularly drunk and probably stoned – slammed us loudly for the refusal of playing something he tried to order. Well, ’tis just another occupational hazard. I was pretty much prepared for this kid going aggressive, but fortunately he didn’t.…
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…If/when you do right, every gig is a celebration. At least it should look like the one for the audience. It’s nice if it feels like the one for the performers – a better rapport with the audience is invoked then…
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With Sombra Del Mar band. Same place, later time: Sinori Pub, Batumi; starting at 21:30. Hopefully it will be as fun as it was last time. Besides, I’m going full steam ahead with completing Phi Mu Labs II library for Korg wavestate AND FM-based synths that can read SYSEX from Yamaha DX7. This is pretty much a rince-and-repeat thing for now, not much fun, but hopefully the results will be more rewarding.
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It was a year of hardships for me. Don’t expect them to go away next year either, but somehow under pressure I’ve yielded more than, probably, ever: Written in memory of my friend Manticore, who suddenly passed away in late October last year. I knew him for 20 years… A sort of chronicle of the early days of 2024, preceeding the second ‘anniversary’ of the bloody invasion of Russia into Ukraine. The Russian dictator has brought a curse down upon…
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The independent web-label ‘The Day of Life Forgotten’ (Rus) have just released its seventh VA compilation from ‘Journeys, Wanderings and Immersions’ series. It features a track called ‘1000 Days’ by black-sided sun. The composition had been created using only custom-made timbres for Dexed (a Yamaha DX7 emulator), SurgeXT, Full Bucket WhispAir, and NI FM8. Below is the entire record. Have a great listen! Artwork and compilation by Ivan Kirichenko.
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For some of my projects I used (somewhat maligned, occasionally) Z3Ta+ 2 synth by Cakewalk. The migration is always painful, but with this thing it is a whole new dimension of torture and misery. :-) Thing is, activating it is a very non-straightforward process, and having proper CD keys for Steam-based version in my case proved insufficient. It even have changed a bit since 2022. Thankfully, there is now good instructions on this matter. After just a second attempt it…
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In May 2006, i.e. just under 19 years ago, I self-released the second LP with my project Decembered. It was called ‘A Treatise on Eschatology’. I was pretty much into Gnosticism back then, and basically that’s what the album was all about. Re-listened to it recently. Although those weren’t the brightest days of mine, the first half of the album feels luminous, probably more than anything I’ve composed before and after. But the most important track is the sixth one…
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…Those are totally great about gigging: first is seeing people burst into dance to a classic rock music – I didn’t expect the old rock-n-roll is still that popular. Second – a blissful hush afterwards. A relative one, of course, – in the streets even past midnight there are still cars, some people and the wind. But the last night was pretty calm, especially after all the storms that battered Batumi for days. Today stormy winds are back again. And…
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Will play tomorrow late evening with Sombra Del Mar band in Batumi. For the first time. Wish me luck. We start at 21:30. Sinori Pub, 14, Marjanishvili str. Come to see us and listen to some real rock’n’roll!
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A photograph surfaced at Facebook, dating 12 years back. 2012 wasn’t easy for me. Two creative endeavours I’ve invested a lot of efforts in crashed, I’ve lost an ability to sing and compose music for many months, and it had become totally evident that I wasn’t going to become a professional actor. Even though later I would resume performing, but without any hopes for being anything more than an amateur. On the other hand, I have accrued some hardware –…
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Just read somewhat a troubling news that My Dying Bride seems to have parted ways with their vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. Or, rather, they are coming out of their hiatus (which saw them cancelling all the shows in 2024) next year and doing at least one festival with Swallow The Sun‘s frontman Mikko Kotamäki. It is, to put it mildly, a weird development given that Aaron had been the band’s singer/growler from the day one, and was the band’s chief lyricist…
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Joined a cover band as a keyboardist. The Beatles, Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd, Stray Cats, etc. I guess 20 years ago I’d object doing something like this out of pride – and illusions. Now it’s just another job to sustain myself in emigration. And by all means, the good and honest one.
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