It’s time for archaeology : let’s exhume 4 or 5 applications that ran on Windows 95 and try to make a nice freeware virtual studio for dance  / techno / jungle production.

the first thing we need is a good solid hard kicking BEAT BOX :

1. HammerHead Rhythm Station v 1.0 by Bram Bos

Download it here : http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/download.shtml

Old school beat !

This rhythm making software is basic and come with rock solid drum kit : 909 oriented, with hard & hardcore bass drum + closed hihat / open hihat / claps / snare & some nice breakbeats.

• there are 6 slots for user sounds.
• the user interface is straight forward, 909 style, it takes about 0.2 seconds to understand and master it.
• there is distorsion unit (per sample)
• you can also reverse the sound
• the shuffle slider adds some groove to your beats !
• tempo up to 250 BPM,etc..

The software come with funky presets : hip hop beat , jungle beat, hardcore gabber rhythm…
of course, it lacks some of refinements we found on our “modern”  plugins, like time stretch / slice , accents, filters etc.. But from the limitation come the creation!

 

Now that we have a good pumpin’ beat, we want some drivin’ TB303’s aciiid bassline:

2. RubberDuck 2.12 by D-Lusion

Download it here ! => http://www.d-lusion.com/DownloadRubberduck.html

some random note, amen break & knob tweaking :

One of the first (if not the first !) real time TB 303 software emulation for Windows.
Choose the  classic saw or square waveform for instant ACID action. Or choose/create hybrid waveforms for experimenting.

• 16 step sequencer / 16 patterns
• accents and slide
• distorsion for hard acid techno trance
• delay effect
• sample player
• funky randomizator, tons of nice presets and plenty of good things !

 

 

What about some Kraftwerk / Daft Punk / many funk band VOCODER real time action now ?

3. Cyclonix Vocoder V2

Download : http://www.cylonix.com/programs/cylxv200.zip
Information : http://www.cylonix.com/windows_vocoder.html

Vintage vocoding ?

Another gem from the windows 95 era that is free now and work flawlessly : it takes the sounds from your microphone input and output the vocoderized sound !
come with :

• built-in synth with predefined : pulse, chord1, chord2 or noise for carrier
• extern mode : use soundcard input for carrier
• you can load wav for carrier & modulator
• pitch tracking
• gain control for modulator & carrier
• echo /delay effects
• MIDI control
• and many more !

The manual has been converted to PDF here : documentation
because .hlp Microsoft format doesn’t work anymore on last version of Windows.

 

Synth ! Synth ! Synthesizer ! SYNTH NOW :

4. AXS Free version

It’s here : http://www.resolutionaudio.nl/
Direct download : http://www.resolutionaudio.nl/Files/Axs_For_Windows_Beta_4.zip

AXS is a real time software synthesizer with :

• two oscillators with classic waveforms : sin / triangle / saw / pulse / square  and PWM
• LP / HP / BP / BR filter
• envelope for filter / pitch / gain
• two LFO
• effect unit with delay / reverb
• tracker sequencer & sample playing
• many more !

It has a nice interface, and the sound is good.
There also TS-404 that deserves to be mentionned.

 

Note :

These softwares are also working in latest versions of Windows !
It has been tested on Windows XP and also should work with Windows 7 and Windows 8
And they will certainly not eat all your CPU..