[ Hypnos Forum ]

http://roberthenke.com/

Sunday, January 29 2017. I decided that travelling to the U.S. in my profession as performing artist has to be suspended.

I enjoyed the United States for its cultural and social diversity, as a melting pot of different races, opinions and beliefs. For more than two decades I have given concerts, workshops, and talks, and I was invited as artist in residence at Stanford's computer music department. Just now I was in the middle of preparing and planing for upcoming performances. But the current government is massively propelling an atmosphere of hate and fear, which is very much against my own values.

Moreover, by applying severe travel restrictions to whole countries, that government - in my personal opinion - is destroying a big part of what made the U.S. the nation which I've admired. As long as scientists, doctors, students, artists, film makers, refugees and many others cannot enter the U.S. anymore simply because they were born in the wrong country, I don't want to have the privilege to be allowed in. My decision to not apply for a U.S. visa again in the current political climate is a personal act of solidarity with those who have no choice.

I've had a long term love hate relationship with iTunes.  Since I moved to Windows 10, iTunes has had some issues that are annoying.  Updates haven't fixed the annoyances and have introduced more annoyances.

So after doing some research and trying a few media players, I have enthusiastically settled on MusicBee. 

http://getmusicbee.com/

I hadn't heard of MusicBee until yesterday.  It has no operational issues with Win10 and actually has more features than iTunes.  The GUI can be customized to infinity.  The crossfader has longer fade times and the fade curves it uses sound better.  It plays FLAC.  You can use WASAPI or ASIO drivers instead of the most basic Windows drivers.  This solved some playback issues I was having with iTunes.

iTunes probably works fine on a Mac.  However, It still has several updates to go before it's flawless with Windows 10.  I will happily delete the dysfunctional bloatware known as iTunes.

Here is a Reaktor Filter I made recently.  Very pleased with the result.



Specs:

12db Highpass, Bandpass and Lowpass filters
Cutoff can be proportionally offset between the L and R channels
Dual independently adjustable Ring Modulators.  One for each channel.
Gated Noise module that envelope follows the input and has a separate fast noise gate
Saturation module with adjustable FAT !
Limiter that can sound clear or create an audible distortion effect
6db HP and LP final filters
Wet / dry signal mixer

Filter modulation sources:

Free run LFO with three waveform choices
Clock sync 8 step modulator with global shift and glide
Sample and hold modulator with output smoothing and two variable sample sources
Dual independently adjustable Envelope Followers.  One for each channel.

Anyone else here use Reaktor?