Moulin Noir

Akai Miniak

2012-01-15T21:29:00.001+01:00

For quite a while I have been "cheating" with digital Alesis Micron synths live. The synth engine is very flexible, I can have a HP and LP filter in series Korg MS-20 style, it can sound unusually analogue:ish, and above all: It can sound really, REALLY mean. And it's affordable and easily available if one gets stolen backstage.

However, the Micron has some drawbacks. The volume knob must be the worst placed in universe. I have to duct tape it, or else surprises will happen. And the sliders and bend wheel are awkwardly placed. After ten years or so Akai have repackaged the Micron to the "Miniak", and done most things right. Great feeling rubbery backlit bend and mod wheels, and very smooth action X, Y and Z knobs makes playing easier. Overall it feels and looks more "quality", and is slightly bigger and heavier. It's amazing Alesis old synth engine still excels today without any alterations. But the D/A converters are much improved so the Miniak actually sounds noticably better. And best of all. It costs almost like a VST plugin at the german webshops. €299, which is like 2600 sek at the moment. This must be a new world record in "bang for the buck". You even get a Gooseneck microphone for the vocoder.

Apart from some powerful bassdrums, the factory programs are not that impressive. But it's surprisingly easy to wade through the myriad of parameters with the keyboard shortcuts to parameter groups. If you know subtractive synthesis you don't need a computer to fairly quickly program this from the front panel. Still no aftertouch though. That's a shame. Another drawback is the visibility of the very blue on blue display. Yellow light would have looked nicer and been more readable. I strongly recommend Akai Miniak to anyone that wants an unusually powerful hardware synth with much more bite than contemporary Korg's and Rolands.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2011-12-24T11:44:00.000+01:00

Beware... Moulin Noir will recover from this dormant state.

WIWA the Revolution

2011-08-08T21:36:00.001+02:00

When I found this on youtube I didn't believe my ears. Or eyes. It's a cover of Style Of Life's song "Revolution" from 1983. First recorded on the Fostex 4 track portastudio in synthplayer Christer Jonsson's family's garage. I wondered how on earth someone found it?! It was on about 50 demo casettes (remember the compact cassette anyone?) and performed live between 1983 and 1985 at gigs at the Pacific Club and Folkets Hus in Östersund. How on earth could anyone remember this?

Well, it is a quite nice song. But after some googling I found out: The WI in WIWA is none other than Michael Winton, the drummer from Style of Life. Pioneering the very first DDrums btw. The Wiwa website is here: www.wiwa.se

Maxwell Jackson feat. AlleyCatz- Let The Right One In

2011-02-15T12:38:00.001+01:00

Chck out my brother's new band!

Maxwell Jackson official web

You got to hear this

2011-01-29T16:14:00.004+01:00

The swedish speaker brand QLN was the brainchild of hifi enthusiast Mats Andersen. It was later bought by another company and manufacturing was moved to china. QLN now seems dormant but this speaker is still available from Hifi kit. Mats was probably not involved in the design, but whoever did it got it so right. My opinion is that it's among the best you can buy regardless of price. And they now go for 3500 swedish crowns. (Slightly more than €350 at the moment.) Imagine the best studio monitor you can think of and add a sweeter high end that goes much higher, that it spreads the sound much better and goes straight down to 28Hz. This is it. You need an amp that can deliver lot's of current, but any small affordable good one like NAD or Cambridge will deliver. You sure don't need a subwoofer. If you really want to hear what Moulin Noir sounds like, this is the shit. And I'm not paid for saying this :)

QLN

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

2010-12-23T23:06:00.000+01:00

Listen:

Gläns Över Sjö Och Strand

Synth Afterwork: Hejdå

2010-11-11T01:11:00.000+01:00

Yours truly, Hans "Run Level Zero" Åkerman and Captain Daniel "Dupont" Jonasson are battling it out on the last Synth Afterwork. Be there or be square :)

Back to the Phuture

2010-09-27T13:54:00.000+02:00

What a lineup... :) Tickets here: Townsend records

New version of ASE Client

2010-09-12T23:31:00.001+02:00

The freeware SQL Client for Sybase databases created by yours truly has gotten a long needed update. ASE Client used to eat SQL Advantage for breakfast retrieving big result sets, and was considerably more stable than Interactive SQL. But Sybase tools has improved tremendously over the years so ASE Client is not not really needed any more. But I maintain it anyway, just for fun. It has some nifty features though. Exporting search results to xls gives you the column headers for example. Quickly getting all column names to clipboard is another winner. It will always have the features I miss from the tools Sybase supplies. The ones I have time to implement.

Well, ASE Client runs without installation on any platform that implements java. That's a cool feature. Footbprint is tiny, but big search results craves RAM.

Get ASE Client on http://www.moulin-noir.com/softwareindex.html

I don't have much time, but if you send me a request for a cool feature I will implement it. Find my email on the contact page att www.moulin-noir.com.

Ramblings in blue

2010-08-04T17:35:00.002+02:00

I think I'm in need of the brand new blue energy dome. I had not noticed a fabulous new album by Devo "Something For Everybody" is out.. with a completely hilarious campaign on youtube. This is easily the best Devo album since "New Traditionalists". Get the deluxe version!

Wisdom of today: If you don't document changes in the studio, you will at some point have to play a quite boring game called "follow the cable among a trillion other cables". Documantation, documentation.. the importance can't be overemphasized.

Seth Schwartz took a lot of pictures at the Drop Dead Pre party in Stockholm here.

I am finally discovering compressors... after almost 30 years. Well I've always used them, especially on busses. But now I'm discovering mixing in to single band compressors for effect instead of "unhearable" multi band compressors. So I went on a shopping spree and got me ART PRO VLA II, Joe Meek MC2, FMR Audio RNC and RNLA. I already had DBX 166 (the ancient version), DBX 266 XL and recently some digital SSL emulations in the Duende mini. Actually I've tried the 266 XL on the master with marvelous results but wanted different sounding options. No you don't have to have a $3000 compressor for this... don't let any status brand blinded type fool you. If you mix in to the compressor even a 266 XL can sound fantastic.

Drop Dead Preparty setlist

2010-07-25T23:12:00.000+02:00

It was a wonderful event.. more about it later. Did you take some photo's? Please contact me. Here is the setlist:

Dance of the Beauty
The House of Richard III
Kiss Me Quick
The Waiting Game
Conformia
Utopia
Windmill
Welcome Home
Spellbound
I Can't Sleep
Maria Calling
Descending (Basement Area)

Drop Dead Preparty, July 23

2010-07-07T17:43:00.000+02:00

Moulin Noir Live at Drop Dead Warmup party july 23:d

2010-06-16T14:15:00.000+02:00

DJ:ing at SAW June 17th

2010-06-13T22:53:00.000+02:00

DJ Dynamo Beat - conspiculously similar to yours truly - celebrates his birthday DJ:ing at Synth Afterwork, 6:e Tunnan, Stora Nygatan 43, Stockholm, Sweden. Expect some fabulous, forgotten and unusual new romantic hits =)

John Foxx @ Roundhouse

2010-06-09T18:13:00.003+02:00

Probably the best concert I have ever experienced :)

The noise-modular aka "The Zebra" is finalized!

2010-02-01T18:25:00.006+01:00

The last modules were the TipTop Z3000 VCO, Analogue Solutions SY02 (Korg MS-20 inspired filter/vca) and the Doepfer A134-2 crossfader. Placing is pretty dictated by the depth of the modules. Z3000 and SY02 had to go to the right. Schneidersladen helped with a bus extending cable, since the MFB backplane only has eight bus contacts.

Specs ended up pretty impressive: 4 VCO:s, 4 LFO:s, 3 envelopes, 3 VCA:s, 3 filters (though 2 are permanently in series), 2 mixers, 2 mixer/buffered multiplier/inverters, 2 crossfaders (also useable as VCA:s), 2 noisegenerators, 2 slew limiters, 2 808:ish sound sources, 1 random voltage and one 2x4 multiplier.

What didn't get there? Well, sample and hold, but two of the LFO's has the usual random S/H waveform so that is sort of covered. There is no true ring modulator, but the MFB OSC-02 has built in MS-20 like X-OR based ring modulator so that is also sort of covered. I had wanted a waveshaper, but I preferred another bigger VCO with more ins and outs.Yes, the Peavey Spectrum filter is gone.. It's no longer needed.

Component list from left to right

Racks: Schneidersladen

Upper rack:
MFB powersupply/midi interface
Doepfer A-117 DNG
Doepfer A-118 Noise
MFB Dual LFO
MFB OSC-02 Triple VCO
Dopefer A-138b Mixer
MFB Dual ADSR
Doepfer A-132-3 DVCA
Doepfer A-106-6 XP VCF

Lower rack:
MFB powersupply/midi interface
Doepfer A-140 ADSR
Doepfer A-170 SL
MFB Dual LFO
Doepfer A-180 Multiples
Analogue Soulutions MX224
Doepfer A-138c PMIX
Doepfer A-134-2 Dual VC CF
Analogue Soulutions MX224
Tiptop Z3000 Smart VCO
Analogue Solutions SY02 Multimede filter/VCA

This will have to do. Now it's time to make some new music.

Plugiator and other news

2010-01-16T16:51:00.005+01:00

I have finally published the images from the Ultrafoxx gig in the pictures area.

The Dynamo Beat club, where Hans and I DJ:ed drew a pretty decent crowd. Unfortunately we were riddled with technical problems, mainly a power amp that now and then refused to work. Shortly after 2 am it gave up completely. Well well, people seemed to have fun anyway.

I am still waiting for the last modules to the modular. In the mean time I bought myself a digital synthesizer. I have been depressed lately, and nothing is better to cheer me up than a synthesizer. Nowdays I have to make sure I get a small synthesizer for obvious reasons, this therapy has some serious space related drawbacks. ;D I had wanted the Plugiator with the Prodyssey plugin for quite a while, and now Thomann had a very good price at a fully loaded one. The technology comes from originally from Creamware (now Sonic Core), who's plugin products for dedicated Sharc DSP hardware is almost the only virtual analogue synthesizers I like. I plan to use the Prodyssey live. In the studio I am more interested with the FM, wavetable and organ synths than the analogue emulations.

The christmas cap was unfortunately not included. ;) I think my needs for digital synths are filled for quite a while now. (I nicked the picture from use audio, but since I endorse the product I hope they don't mind.) I also got an Alesis Multimix 8, to be able to patch in more of my effect boxes. It's simply the best and well thought out 1U rack mixer available today.

Club Dynamo Beat

2010-01-04T02:47:00.005+01:00

Club Dynamo Beat - A mysterious event that exists once in a lifetime..

DJ:s Anders (Moulin Noir) & Hans (Run Level Zero) plays a wild mix of synthetic favourites.. From Shock, John Foxx and Krisma to Mesh, Skinny Puppy and Depeche. Expect the unexpected. "Dance, Dance, Dance" sings Claudia Brücken.
Live appearance from the fabulous [twilight] theatre: http://www.myspace.com/twilighttheatremusic
Entrance: Free!
Time: 9 PM
Location: Sugar Bar, Kammakargatan 9, Stockholm, Sweden

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T16:43:00.004+01:00

A prosperous new year to you all!

My only new years promise:
There WILL be at least one new Moulin Noir CD this year.

Photo by Diana Malm from the Ultrafoxx gig.

Setlist for the Ultrafoxx gig

2009-11-11T00:02:00.007+01:00

I have spent some time in Portugal on a much needed vacation... spending some time learning the digital camera that has been collecting dust for years.

Info and pictures from the Ultrafoxx gig will come up soon. I am now collecting pictures from photographs... and have trouble finding pictures of Hans Åkerman. If you photoed Hans at this gig - contact me!

The setlist:

The Tower
Maria Calling
Kiss Me Quick
The Waiting Game
Castles
Utopia - Here We come
Live Happily
Spellbound
I Cant Sleep
Descending - Basement Area (the never ending version)

Ultrafoxx

2009-10-22T23:36:00.001+02:00

The Moulin Noir gig starts 22:30!
Club Ultrafoxx

Moulin Noir LIVE 24/10

2009-10-14T15:35:00.005+02:00

Modular, Step III

2009-09-17T15:52:00.008+02:00

What initially would be a one rack simple modular concentrating on noise and drum sounds got a second rack.. and is still growing. Since my wallet was a bit drained because of the Voicelive 2 and an in ear monitoring system this step contained just two modules: The Doepefer A-140 Envelope generator and a second MFB Dual LFO. I would like to have had four envelopes, but due to planned future modules I just couldn't fit the 12 TE for another MFB Dual ADSR. I had 8 TE to play with and that was it. Also the Doepfer has other features than the MFB. It doesn't have the Hold stage nor a lin/log switch. But it does have much longer times with a three way rocker switch for range, and the inverted out frees up the the MX224:s for other use. Placement is quite dictated by the depth of the modules. To the right will go some big and very deep modules, so the position to the left was the only option for the 5.5 cm deep A-140. Three envelopes and four lfo's will have to do. MFB lfo:s can be used as simple envelopes. Most importantly I bought 25 more wires. I had _grossly_ miscalculated how many wires that is required ;) (The red wires leads to the peavey filter that annoyingly has the inputs on the back side.)

VoiceLive 2 arrived

2009-09-03T02:39:00.006+02:00

I finally received the TC-Helicon Voice Live 2. Initial testing some presets with one of AKG:s absolutely cheapest consumer market dynamic microphones I concluded this thing is fantastic. The "built in technician", makes even this decent consumer mic sound great. Voice adaptive eq, deessing and a gate that seems to work as seemless as a well setup downward expander. And the harmoniser sets entirely new standards. The choir voices sound absolutely fabulous.

My original idea with this was partly to not have to lug around a heavy vocal rack live, and partly to test choir arrangements in the studio as a composing help. The voices can then be rerecorded with my "real" voice when I figure out a good arrangement. But this thing is so good you can use it for choirs in the recording. It even handles when you go from singing to a whisper. I had heard some nice demo's on the net before buing but it sure surpases all my expectations.

Downsides? Well, I've found one. A wallwart with a flimsy connector that is bound to pop out live. It's a pity since it's so well thought out for live use otherwise. A notebook style external powersupply would have made sense for such an expensive piece of gear.

Sparks - The seduction of Ingmar Bergman

2009-08-15T22:31:00.006+02:00

I listened to the premiere of Sparks new record, which is also a radio musical comissioned by Swedish radio:
Swedish Radio - Sparks: The seduction of Ingmar Bergman

It was WONDERFUL :)

Here is Russel's speach afterwards, Part 1 (Thanks Mrrf:):

Part 2:
The record has a warning text :)

"There is a chance this very dynamic recording makes you raise the volume more than usual. But we know what we are doing."

So and slow it grows

2009-08-10T08:23:00.004+02:00

Now it starts getting useable. In the second rack this far: Doepfer A-170 Dual Slew Limiter, A-180 Multiples, Analogue Solutions MX224 Mixer/Inverter/Buffer, Doepfer A-138c Polarizing Mixer and a second AS MX224. Placement is a bit dictatded by the fact the MFB rack is quite shallow where the power/midi module is.

Moulin Noir Live at Ultrafoxx

2009-07-30T16:44:00.008+02:00

For more information see Club Ultrafoxx at myspace!

More modular

2009-07-27T10:53:00.002+02:00

Rack two for the modular project just arrived with some vital utility modules. Now creation of some serious noise can begin.

Information about a stockholm gig can soon be disclosed. Preliminary date is the 24th of october.

Noise Modular Project

2009-07-15T21:52:00.010+02:00

I have had a Peavey Spectrum filter for quite a while. My original purpose with it was to add analogur filter to one output on the ASR-10. But I hardly used it. The spectrum is almost a monophonic synth with a mixer instead of oscillators. It's got a moog-like filter, a vca, and two envelope generators and the usual midi control. Well oscillators and lfo's was needed to make it sound. And MFB have recently released the wonderful VCO:s from Synth II as a module. So I bought a MFB/Schneidersladen rack and some modules. From left to right it's MFB MIDI/CV-Netzteil, Doepfer A-117 Digital Noise/Random Clock/808 Sound Source, Doepfer A-118 Noise/Random, MFB Dual LFO, MFB OSC-02 Triple VCO, Doepfer A-138b Exponential Mixer, MFB-DUAL ADSR, Doepfer A-132-3 Dual linear/exponential VCA and Doepfer A-106-6 XP Filter. I call it the "Noise Modular" since it has several sorts of noisegenerators. Notice anything missing? No utility modules! I had miscalculated Teileinheiten and two Analogue Solutions MX224 Mixer/Inverter/Buffer (splitter) didn't fit. How useful is a modular without utility modules? Another MFB rack is now ordered which to start with will contain the two MX224:s, a Doepfer A-180 Multiples, Doepfer A-138c Polarizing Mixer and Doepfer A-170 Dual Slew Limiter. I think this will be one for it's size very powerful synthesizer. The Doepfer XP filter is inspired by Oberheim Xpander and contains 16 filtermodes of which eight can be used simultaneously. Sounds from three parts of the racks can then be fed to the Spectrum synth engine. I'll continue to fill the second rack of cause. More lfo's and envelopes. And a ring modulator. The MFB oscillator has a built in X-OR gate type ringmodulator like the MS-20 and ARP Odyssey, but I definitely want a "true" ringmodulator too. Also the Doepfer wave multipliers seems very interesting. Expect to hear much from this on the next album...

Changes in website

2009-07-14T01:57:00.004+02:00

If you open this blog from moulin-noir.com.. the old news is now history, and will be found clicking the history button!

The Moulin Noir blogg

2009-07-08T22:10:00.002+02:00

Hello everyone.. The news section on www.moulin-noir.com was very seldom updated. Partly because things slowed down, partly because editing pure html is a bit cumbersome. Often news were rather updated on www.myspace.com/MoulinNoir but all people don't have a myspace account. So I've decided now that things start to happen again to communicate on this blog.. and integrate it as a new news section on my website.