Developer Alexander Zolotov has released Virtual ANS – a software simulator of the unique Russian synthesizer ANS.
The original ANS is a photoelectronic microtonal/spectral musical instrument created by Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin, from 1938 to 1958. Murzin named his invention in honor of the composer Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.
Virtual ANS is a full-featured tool which allows you to create unusual, deep, atmospheric sounds. It’s multi-platform, with versions for iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux & Android.
With ANS, you can draw a complete piece of music, or convert sound to image (sonogram) and then make some complex sonogram modifications. According to Zolotov, “the potential of the program has not been explored yet, so it is…for people who are searching for something new”.
Here’s an example of ANS in action on iOS:
Here’s an example of ANS in action:
Here’s a demo of using it for sound to image conversion and vice versa:
Features:
- unique Virtual Analog sound engine;
- unlimited number of pure tone generators;
- powerful sonogram editor – you can draw the spectrum and play it at the same time;
- any sound (from a WAV file or a Microphone/Line-in) can be converted to image (sonogram) and vice versa;
- MIDI Input (only for Windows, Linux, OSX and iOS);
- supported file formats: WAV, PNG, JPEG, GIF, VNS (Virtual ANS 1.x);
- supported sound systems: ASIO, DirectSound, MME, ALSA, OSS, JACK (iOS and Linux), Audiobus;
- iOS: iTunes File Sharing; and
- iOS: Wi-Fi Export/Import.
See Zolotov’s site for more info.
If you’ve used Virtual ANS, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!
From the demos, its a bit hard to tell where this one’s strengths are, but its for sure an ambient or abstractionist composer’s dream. It blurs the line between an effects app and an instrument, so its an oddball offering that’ll take some time to find its user base. You have to admire its muscle and its donationware, too. I’m not a pad user so far, so I’d appreciate it if a few of you give it a once-over and tell us if its as snazzy as it looks. Plop a few jpgs in it and comment on the line between devising more pitched sounds versus slithery soundscapes.
how do I install this program? when I downloaded the version for mac from this website: http://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/ It gave me a “Start_OSX” file that opens a dialogue box that reminds of the mac console or even MS Dos. Not sure how to get from there to the beautiful waves / synth I see in all the photos and videos. Any ideas? I saw a download link for a paid version on Itunes but can’t find it anymore since yesterday. Thanks for any help.
I have the same problem – did you find out how to solve it?
Zolotov rules. He has a few other really fun little sound gadgets. Of course, SunVox is a brilliant little monster. If you get this and love it, send him a donation. He’s clearly a developer who deserves support.
I first heard of the ANS Synth through COIL with their album just called ANS.
Jhonn, Peter and other COIL members etched images into the plates and fed the original machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANS_%28album%29
ditto 😀
Reminds me of Metasynth 5.
that’s because Metasynth is based on ANS too. With a few detours and “slight” improvements.
warmest and by far the biggest
news of the decade for me. ive been looking for something like this for so long. this is absolutely brilliant. its mindboggling! cant thank this developer enough. donation incoming.
is it on the uk app store? can’t find it.. hope it’s on its way!
Hi Rich, per Zolotov’s site:
“Virtual ANS for iOS is coming soon! (will be available in the next few days)”
Cheers,
Danny
Sunvox is fantastic – if only it had a nice to use sequencer instead of the tracker nostalgia, I’d use it much more often.
agreed, pixitracker’s sequencer with sunvox’s depth would be so much win
wow… not one single negative vote on this post 🙂
Waiting for the iOS version. I think it could be a very good app for experimentation.
A. Zolotov is a gem. I have all his iOS apps, and adore the old school/new school aesthetic, not to mention the sound. For some reason, a sine wave through the built-in reverb of spectrum gen sounds waaay more Stockhausen to me, than a real sine through a real spring reverb on my modular!! Perfect for shaped noise. Two thumbs up. Will buy ANS instantly on iOS. I was familiar with film- and optical based synthesis from the work of Hugh LeCaine and Daphne Oram, but had never heard of ANS before yesterday, thanks for this, Alexander!
Fantastic!
I agree, he has a great vision/aesthetic that is too rare in the (music) software world. My only hope is that someday we see an integrated universe between the different apps.
I love the business model too of free on desktop/laptop pay on mobile. I hope it works well for him. I bought some of the smaller apps on iOS just to show support – but I ended up using them all the time anyway!
Been waiting for ages for Eric to get his act together and release Metasynth on iOS. But Alex has beaten him to it. Great stuff! Now everybody, do yourself a favour if you haven’t already, and go watch Stalker by Tarkovski. Solaris too. Not the rubbish American remake, but the hauntingly beautiful Russian original both with their hauntingly brilliant ANS soundtracks.
Actually, get the soundtrack for Tarkovsky’s *Solaris*, but skip the pretentious, overrated film, itself.
This thing is great, I have been playing with it for a couple of days now. It took a bit of time to get the hang of the user interface, but it’s tremendous fun to work with. Getting the hang of creating abstract images in a graphics app and having ANS turn them into audio, lots of possibilities there!
Anyone hear when he will put the iOS version up?
***Update***
From the forum 29/9/13: “As for the iOS version: unfortunately the first version was rejected by Apple due to some minor bug in code. Not it is fixed and reuploaded to App Store again. I think that the new approval process will be shorter…”
Apple can take ages sometimes, once something is submitted. I did tweet him (@nightradio) to ask if it had been submitted. No response though.
And finally it is available for iOS! 🙂
Desktop version from his website not running on OS X 10.9 8^(
Error message “…can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” – WTF is that?!?!