Rubix

 A new series of recordings sees the introduction of a serious piece of kit into the Conny Plankton sonic arsenal: The Roland Rubix 4 by 4 is an audio interface which allows 4 in or 4 out – or 4 mono or two stereo inputs to be recorded direct to Ableton Live and each recorded input edited separately afterwards. These means different synths and hardware effects could be set up to record direct into Ableton. Often synced into different VST synths, this made for an altogether different approach to recording and mixing – especially in that mixers were bypassed altogether and everything recorded and played back through the interface. Of course, the finished mixes are as varied and unpredictable as ever!

The Sons of Plankton

There has been lots of big time editing and general moving around here in the world of Plankton recently: After Recent changes to the Mixcloud site limiting users to only ten shows for free, new Plankton Mixcloud sites have now been developed, with existing shows and mixes now transferred to the capable hands of the Sons of Conny Plankton, So Let me introduce to you:

Donny Plankton

Ronny Plankton

Jonny Plankton

Bonny Plankton

Links to these are also in the sidebar of the blog. All mixes have now been set up so they will still play their original places in this blog, so most people may not notice the difference. It does mean that people can still access all of the Plankton Mixes however!

Flow

 The latest series of recordings in 2023 see a series of sessions based on experimental approaches to using Ableton as both source recorder and editor. Most mixes were based on use of both the Hive and Massive X VST Synths playing simultaneously as source, with a few fleeting guest appearances from the Arturia MicroFreak synth, the Nifty Eurorack set up and the Roland MC505 Groovebox thrown in for good measure. The final mixes cover a wide variety of styles and genres – from atonal noise, to sequence based trance, to dark ambient soundscapes – and that's only the first track!

X Marks The Spot

 2023 rolls in with a new series of recordings from Conny Plankton. This time round, everything is based around a loosely connecting theme of explorations with the MassiveX VST Synth from Native Instruments: So we have atonal landscapes and dark ambient textures, interwoven with ARPs and sequences, loops and samples – to take us into new and undiscovered horizons.

Charivna Kulya

This is a slow, ethereal soundscape as a remix from different tracks from Magic Bullet - an experimental project from my old chum, Mick Magic over at http://www.mickmagic.net/

The finished mix was constructed from samples, loops, timestetched drones and reassembled sections made into pulses and beats, deconstructed and reincarnated by Conny Plankton into this Dark Ambient Mix.

Heart Of Darkness

This started off its life as an experimental night made many years ago of a computer-based pinball machine recorded onto cassette tape. The recordings were digitised, cut up, arranged into loops and some converted into Midi Files to be used as different presets for the mighty Hive VST synth. The epic mix began to develop - chilled and ambient but with a dark atonal undercurrent running throughout: A Heart of Darkness indeed...

Sync

 As Autumn Slides into Winter, a new series of recordings from Conny Plankton does emerge: Fresh from the Chrysalis, the loosely connected theme this time round is connecting up multiple VST synths to play simultaneously – a new set up for recording, which also brought in various hardware synths and other devices to join in the melee. The results are as unpredictable as ever, as the mixes evolved under their own styles and directions. Enjoy folks!