Audio Damage AD042 Axon 2 v2.1.1
Axon 2 is a drum synth driven by artificial intelligence. (Well, “intelligence” might be a strong word. Artificial something-or-other.) An experimental instrument, Axon uses a modified artificial neural network as a sequencer, and features seven FM-based percussion voices, that are really a single 18-operator FM voice.
If that sounds weird, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It is surprisingly intuitive once you get the knack of it, and is capable of all-new, complex rhythms that repeat in surprising ways. It often gets referenced as a “random sequence generator,” but there is nothing random in Axon; it is entirely determinative.
The sequencer features seven “neurons” that trigger a voice and send a pulse when they have received a predetermined number of pulses. You can wire the output of any neuron to the input of any other (with built-in loop detection to prevent runaway feedback), and in this manner pre-program the artificial neural network without having to go through a “learning” phase.
The seven individual drum voices, each triggered by its attendant neuron, are 2-operator FM voices in a configuration to best make percussion sounds, with additional FM and AM busses that all voices send to and receive from. Each voice has a HPF, distortion circuit, and white noise generator to provide a full range of percussion-oriented voicing individually, while interacting with each other in new and unique ways.
FEATURES
• Artificial Neural Network sequencer features seven neurons, and is easily programmed to create strange new repeating rhythms.
• Seven FM percussion voices that also buss together to create a single monolithic complex percussion synthesizer.
• Full mixer with pan, level, mute, and solo on each voice.
• Built-in stereo delay with X/Y pad control over feedback and filter frequency, for live playability.
• MIDI in and out, for driving Axon from DAW and hardware sequencers, or driving your drum rack or other samples from Axon.
• Internal transport for non-synchronized playback.
• Resizable vector-based user interface.
• Drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.
• XML-based cross-platform, human-readable preset system, with copy/paste, for easy transferring of your own presets and third-party offerings.
Axon 2 V2.1.1 ChangesNew:
>>> Pitch knob replaced with larger display and increment/decrement buttons; this is much easier to use, especially on touch screens.
>>> Multiple outs are back! In addition to the main stereo outs, each Neuron has its own stereo output, labeled “Neuron 00” through “Neuron 06.” Unlike Axon 1, the mixer in Axon affects these outputs. In testing, we found this to be the more desirable behavior.
>>> A demo version (not that you care if you’re reading this) and a Linux x64 (Ubuntu 18+) version have been added to the deployment.
Fixes And Changes:
>>> The MIDI output has been re-written to suck less. The main thing you’ll notice is that the output notes follow the pitch for the attendent neuron. So if, say, Neuron 02 is set to a pitch of C3, the MIDI note that neuron outputs will be 36 (C3).
>>> Axon 2 was rebuilt with all current SDKs. A result of this is that the 32-bit versions have been removed from the deployment, and the required systems have been changed to Windows 8.1 or greater, macOS 10.11 or greater, iOS/iPadOS 11 or greater, and Ubuntu 18 or greater.
>>> The macOS preset location has been changed to ~/Music. Axon 2.1.0 will create a new folder with new factory presets in this location the first time it is instanced. If you have user presets, you can just manually move them from the old location (/Library/Application Support/Audio Damage/Axon 2/Presets/User) to the new one. Once you have done this, you can delete the old Axon2 folder in Application Support. We attempted to do this automatically with the Quanta installer, and, well, you all know how that turned out for Catalina users, so we’ve decided to be less aggressive this time.
>>> Many optimizations, refactorings, and general shennannigans.