Young Monkey Studios

'young monkey' began as the vision of two musicians. Over a decade ago, it was just two people, an analog drum machine, two analog synthesizers, a Commodore 64 and lot of hoping and dreaming. Much has changed since then... 'young monkey' has grown to include a professional audio/video production facility, recording studio, creative design studio, and a hardware and software development studio. Projects have included film soundtracks, audio recordings and book publications to name just a few. We have even managed two TopTen alternative dance songs. Even through all that, one thing still holds it all together... 'young monkey' is a birthplace for new ideas and dreams.

'young monkey' has always been about creativity and originality. In order to meet this expectation of ourselves, we began developing custom software and hardware to facilitate creative ideas. There has been much interest in our developments and we have often been approached about our one-of-a-kind devices and software. With this in mind, we have started assembling the pieces... it is time to share dreams.

If you have dreams of your own or want more information about 'young monkey', contact us at: 

                                Internet
                               ----------
                           info@youngmonkey.ca

                                 - or -

                              dhomas@unb.ca

                                  Mail
                                 ------
                          young monkey studios
                           797 Mitchell Street
                             Fredericton, NB
                            CANADA    E3B 3S8

General Information

Future Development

One important thing to note about 'young monkey' is that we use all of our software and hardware products ourselves. For this reason, our products will continue to evolve long into the future. All of our products are designed by people who use the products on a daily basis. We have included many time saving features developed through years of experience and put the features that are needed most often right at your fingertips.

We are very excited about what we have to offer, and look forward to helping others towards finding their own dreams. We are very open to suggestions and new ideas and hope to hear from others out there.

In addition to other software products, not listed here, we are currently developing low-cost DSP and MIDI hardware for integration with our software and for third party applications.

Technical Support

We understand the frustrations of buying computer products and not being able to get needed support. We have been in that position ourselves.

'young monkey' will offer Internet support through EMail, a WWW Information System, FTP and more. We also have a couple surprises in the works. Of course... you can still send us letters through the postal service.

Free software updates will be available online as often as daily. If a bug is found, you will not have to wait six months, or more, for a new release. We will do our best to fix the problem and have an update online as soon as possible.

Developers

To faciliate the need for our customers to develop their own ideas for integration in our products, 'young monkey' will offer several developer programs.

General Product Information

OS Compliant

All software code follows Amiga OS guidelines and rules to ensure OS compatibility.

Intuitive Interfaces

User-friendly design: including WYSIWYG-like features that all programs should have, such as smart gadgets. For example: If a particular numeric entry gadget should not allow negative values, it will not let the user enter a negative sign, rather than changing it after you press enter. -or- If a gadget will have no effect at a particular time, it is disabled.

External Control

Where applicable, all software will be extensively controllable through ARexx.

Third Party Support

Where possible, support will be added for third party system enhancements, such as: MIDI libraries, graphics cards and audio hardware.

Preliminary Detailed Product Information

Please note: not all features are listed and not all listed features will be ready for the first release, but will be available in following updates.

As well as operating independantly, a special software control system will allow integration of these programs within each other. For example: The ability to directly read waveform data from a sampler disk (via the 'Sampler Utility' module) into a waveform buffer within 'WaveFormer'.

SIMthesizer

'SIMthesizer' is a waveform generator/modifier that combines mutiple synthesis technologies, including: analog, digital, wavetable, additive, subtractive, granular, frequency modulation, phase modulation, waveshaping, phonetic speech, Ghunöga, Re-Haus and more.

As well as generating new sounds, 'SIMthesizer's' extensive waveform modification features can be used to enhance existing sound sample data.

The 'SIMthesizer' design engine is very intuitive and can be easily understood by both novices and experts. Multiple components, called 'Elements', are arranged on a grid and joined together as 'SIMths'. Commonly used element configurations can be combined as macro elements, called 'modules'.

Education

The simplicity of 'SIMthesizer' makes it an ideal educational tool, as well. Beginning with as few as 2 elements (Sound Source element + Output element) waveforms can be generated and visually/audibly studied. As the sound designer gains an understanding of audio basics, new elements can be added to create enhanced and more complex sound structures.

Many tutorials and sample 'SIMths' will be included.

Emulation

In attempting to emulate existing synthesizer technologies, several important factors must be considered:

To better emulate these kinds of factors, 'SIMthesizer' includes several enhanced features:

In keeping with 'young monkey' philosophy, every original copy of 'SIMthesizer' will have a different internal Parasitic factor. This ensures that sounds created on one copy of 'SIMthesizer' will not sound exactly the same as on another.

Elements

Where applicable, elements have extensive parameter and modulation capabilities.

Clipping

Should any potential clipping occur at any point in the sound generation process, the 'element icon', where clipping would occur, is highlighted and the sound designer may examine the waveform and consider modifications. Because 'SIMthesizer' generates sounds in a higher resolution than the ouput waveform, clipping will not actually occur, but warnings will be generated to show elements where clipping would exist on the output waveform.

Data Conversion

8/12/16/24/32 bit data conversion.

Raw, IFF-8SVX, AIFF, NeXT, Sun, Wave, U-Law, A-Law, AVR, Mac, IRCAM, Voc, SampleVision, etc.

WaveFormer

'WaveFormer' is a waveform editing system designed to work standalone or in conjunction with professional sampling hardware and third party audio cards. Support for hard disk recording hardware is planned.

Includes many time saving features such as 'free-hand repair mode' which adjusts bad sample data. For example: given levels '0 5 10 32767 10 0', the level 32767 is very likely to be incorrect. To repair it, simply drag the mouse over the offending sample and it is adjusted to '0 5 10 5 10 0'.

Features

  • Features, such as the number of waveform buffers, clips and bookmarks, are limited only by available memory and/or disk storage space.

    MIDI SYStem EXplorer

    'MIDI SYStem EXplorer' is an extensively configurable MIDI exploration system, including a patch editor, librarian, control system and much more...

    Features

    Sampler Utility

    'Sampler Utility' provides the capability of transferring sample data between professional audio samplers and a computer.

    Features

    'young monkey', 'SIMthesizer', 'MIDI SYStem EXplorer', 'WaveFormer' and 'Sampler Utility' are copyrights of 'young monkey studios' and 'scott dhomas trenn'.