Dan Bull - Dear Lily

Lily Allen recently said she was quiting music as a result of music sharing. There is just not enough cash in it to sustain Lily Allen's passion. Another UK pop star Elton John recently stated that internet users connection should be cut off if they are caught illegally downloading. I mean how is he to sustain his £1.5 million a month lifestyle otherwise.

Thanks to Dan Bull - you can download the track HERE.

Siftable Music Sequencer

A music sequencer that uses Siftables as the interface. There are three "voices" - lead, bass and drums. Each voice has four variations, accessible via the four sides of the siftable. You can also apply reverb, filter, volume and tempo changes. Pretty cool. You can watch a short Ted Talk where designer David Merill talks about the idea in more detail and demo's a few other applications.

Laser Accurate Microphone

"Laser-Accurate technology revolutionizes the very concept of the microphone, trading mechanical parts movement for the patented and incredibly precise measurement by a laser of the movement of particulates suspended in air." The big up of this is that is removes all forms of coloration that a mic can exert on a signal. This may sound like a step backwards to Sound Engineers who amass a large collection of mics specifically because of their unique character of coloration. David Swartz assures those not to worry. The laser mic can be used a standard reference. Once the pure sound is recorded all colouring can be applied later removing the uncertainty behind microphones. Obviously a solid reference mic would be very useful in applications like Antares Mic Modeller.

via Dvice

Primeloops Free Samples

Prime Loops, providers of low-cost, high quality sample packs are giving away 200MB of free samples from several of their releases. Some really nice stuff in there and a few more freebies to be found across the site. Stay tuned for a competition to win one of their sample packs coming soon!

Pioneer CDJ-2000

Pioneers CDJ series of CD decks have long been the industry standard (in the same way Technics are for vinyl decks) and the eagerly awaited update has been announced for November 2009. New features include the ability to play digital files from SD card, DVD or USB storage device, a network capability to share files from storage devices, colour LCD screen, the interface to the Rekordbox software which allows you to browse tracks, set up cue points, store set history and more. Also with MIDI support the CDJ-2000 is set to retail for around €1799.

Tim Exile & The Finger

Beat mangling madman and Reaktor pervert Tim Exile has been busy beavering away for Native Instruments on a public release of his patch for live effect mashing. Titled 'The Finger' it's out now (€69) and accompanied by a free EP for download from his blog. Powered by NI's free Kore Player (nice wee box o tricks if you ain't got it already) and offers tempo-synced multi effects playable from a MIDI keyboard, with more features available for Reaktor users. Looks good, if we get our hands on a copy we'll let ya know what it can do!

Tweak Festival 2009 Limerick

Tweak is two! Currently in its second edition, Tweak is an interactive art and live electronic music festival taking place in Limerick City between the 21st and 26th of September 2009. Its aim is to promote understanding of the use of technology within our culture and to explore contemporary issues (social, economic, psychological, aesthetic and functional).

The festival will consist of a 5-day exhibition, (interactive artworks, robots and installations) comprising of artworks from international and local artists, 3 days of workshops and many evenings of live electronic performance. Check out the programme and our blog for all the latest news.

It's got Robots.. it must be good :)
You can check out a few vids from last years Tweak on Vimeo.

Joe Zawinul Profile - 1985

Keyboard genius and jazz giant Joe Zawinul in rehearsal and conversation one afternoon after Weather Report is put on hold for Joe's solo tour.
Photographed and edited by Estel Dillon. Produced by Steven Reiner.

thanks to EstelDillon