AudioLemon - Electronic Machines, Music & Culture

Stop SOPA Ireland!

2012-01-26T14:56:00.001-08:00

SIGN A PETITION AND FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP

Am I legally allowed repost this image? I have no idea. I wonder if Sean Sherlock (Labour), the Junior Minister in charge of bringing in the Irish version of the SOPA act, has thought about it much. No public vote, no oireachtas vote, no mention on IMRO website and an almost deathly media silence - Irish SOPA is planned to be whispered into law before the end of January. Only for this Wired post today I would never have heard about it.

Read this blog by T J McIntyre, an Irish legal expert and lecturer for a better explanation of what Irish SOPA is and how it could negatively affect technical and creative arts in Ireland.

Porky Prime Cuts - George Peckham

2011-08-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Vinyl junkies of a certain age are probably familiar with the 'A Porky Prime Cut' slogan etched into the runout groove of many a record...and here's a little interview with George 'Porky' Peckham himself (talking to Nico of No U-Turn Records). Not too many tips given away but the guy's a living legend (to some).

Bonus: cool record pix from Schallplatten

Alfred 4 Music

2011-08-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

A slightly odd one today. Not so much about sound but definitely useful when working with sound. In the video I show off a free app (mac only) called Alfred and how I use it to help me do the daily things I do with music on and offline. Alfred is generic and will do whatever you want but I made a video showing it off in an audio context. I love it and hopefully it is of some interest to you.

AudioLemon - Dub Siren

2011-06-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

A Dub Siren built in Max4Live inspired by the one found on Dub Scrolls. A Square wave controlled by 2 independent LFO's (a rectified sine and a pulse) both with retriggered phase, and a chopper section. There are 20 MIDI CC accessible internal presets and new ones can be saved as a seperate instance or with your track. It was designed to be used Live so it is very simple, very user friendly and sounds just about right I think. For more information just open it up and have a look inside.

You can download it from http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=712

I hope you like it!

1950s serial music with the Buchla

2011-06-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

"Incontri di fasce sonore is one of Franco Evangelisti masterpieces.
Recorded in 1957 at WDR, Cologne, it is one of the classic scores of the integral serial music era.

This is a preliminary study to investigate the possibility of playing 1950s serial music with the Buchla synthesizer and Max/MSP.

I've programmed 315 mixtures of 7 sinusoidal tones in Max/MSP
carefully following the score's instructions,
then I've played them freely in the Buchla, creating a variation piece.

• Sound generation: MAX/MSP

• Music interface, amplification, spatialization, ring modulation, frequency shifting: Buchla 200e

• Reverb: Jomox T-Resonator

• Reverse mixtures & reverb: EHX2880

all realtime, no edits."

A Day Of Beautiful Synthesizers

2011-06-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

A MuffWiggler meet-up for Irish modulators. A small friendly affair with some beautiful instruments. If only everyday could be like that :)

Thanks to Sandy for hosting it.

For those that might be wondering the small wooden wonder machine is the Ciat-Lombarde Tetrazzzi Organus.

Fake sound design to help humans

2011-06-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

Kinda following on from yesterdays post on how sound affects us, I came across this post (via Waveformless) on how mechanical objects, such as car doors and bank machines use carefully designed sounds to provide reassurance or provide feedback in day to day life. And they've just updated with another 5 fake sounds as well.

The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us -TED

2011-06-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

Can't go wrong with a TED talk..here Julian Treasure briefly outlines the ways in which the sound around us can affect us positively and negatively.

FMOD - Designing Engine Sounds

2011-06-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

FMOD is a sound design environment for gaming engines. There is a good 6 vid tutorial covering the basics of Sound Design in FMOD. The fifth tutorial is particularly worth watching. It demonstrates the use of a specialized tool in FMOD for designing the sound of engines. It is very successful combining great samples, clever layering, automation and specialized tools. The tutorial series itself is worth watching even if you are not going to use FMOD. It illustrates some basic sound design ideas for creating, layering and synchronizing sounds scenes. In an earlier tutorial they look at the use of randomization in designing sound scenes.

FMOD is fully functional free to download and it costs nothing until you want a commercial licence.

Protrude Flow,

2011-06-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Lovely artscience from Sachiko Kodama and Minako Takeno. More effects of sound on the physical world...this time sound modulated magnetic fields affecting ferrofluid.

Examples from the Phonogene manual

2011-06-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

Examples from the Phonogene manual from Pete Shambler on Vimeo.

"Several of the patch examples described in the manual for Make Noise's new sample buffer module, Phonogene.
The manual can be downloaded here: makenoisemusic.com/Phonogenemanual.pdf
(All sample videos found on YouTube)
theshamblers.blogspot.com" - the clearest examples of the Phonoegene so far.

140 dB

2011-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

""140 dB" is experimental film about interaction between sound and physical bodies. The main idea is to show how sound can change objects form and structure including human mental state." -

Torturous music in the real world is a little less creative with the likes of Britney Spears and Barney the Dinosaur.

LZX Modular Video synthesis - FAN VIDEO showcase

2011-05-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

LZX Modular Video synthesis - FAN VIDEO showcase from PLAYATTA on Vimeo.

Just a couple of freaks, dorking around with some powerful new hardware! Much more to come, the complexity understanding levels are still infant.

LZX Industries - lzxindustries.net

FREAKY DEEKY
freakydeeky.tv
VIMEO CHANNEL - vimeo.com/channels/freakydeeky

Looks like a lot of fun...

Cycling74 Max/MSP/Jitter Tutorials: Polyphonic Synth

2011-05-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

I was having a huge amount of trouble with poly~ object until they made this video. I found poly~ to particularly troublesome in Max. I kept seeming to make a bumble somewhere along the line. This video now makes it pretty idiot proof which is especially good for me :) It's a great video because it shows a lot of the problems I was coming across and explains really simply why it was happening. Max is a visual programming language so it is great to have visual learning resources. With the Cycling 74 tutorials, Baz Tutorials, Peter Batchelor, and the Delicious tutorials there are now some great Max/Msp resources out there.

John Conway Talks About the Game of Life

2011-04-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

John Conway explains his Game Of Life. There are a few apps out there that use Cellular Automata. Max/MSP has the Jit.Conway object, Reaktor, Audio Damages Automaton uses them. You can even get them on the DS.

3D sound from ordinary speakers

2011-04-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

Edgar Choueiri, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, has developed a way to play true three-dimensional sound recordings over regular loudspeakers, such as those found in televisions and computer laptops.

The technique may one day be used to allow 3D televisions to produce lifelike sound and to help people with certain types of hearing impairments locate noises. Segments of the video above incorporate Choueri's 3D filter to demonstrate the phenomenon.

The filter is designed to work with loudspeakers - not headphones - and can be experienced through standard computer speakers. (Make sure the right and left speakers are on the correct sides.)

Video by Michael E. Wood.

Nils Landgren: "Computer Love" / Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201

2011-04-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Nils Landgren using the Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201 on "Computer Love" from the 1984 Streetfighter. Just posting because it sounds animal. If you want to learn about classic vocoding have a look at this Roland SVC-350 vid or some tutorials on how to use the Vocoder in Ableton 8.

1929 "Finding His Voice" How "talkies" work!

2011-04-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

A Max Fleischer animated short showing audiences of the time how sound for film works - gets kind of cool about half way in. I love these old information vids. I have a good few of them on my hard drive.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

2011-04-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Eric Whitacre talks about leading a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, "Sleep," with a video choir of 2,052.

So it doesn't have a synth but 2000 people singing into their computer screens seems pretty electronic to me - using YouTube as a global musical instrument. I would love to hear from the tech to hear how he actually did it - how much was automated, the kind of processing involved. If you liked it check out In Bb another fantastic YouTube collaboration where you get to be the conductor.

Otomato

2011-04-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

A cool little browser app called Otomato that uses a mix between cellular automata and Monome style sequencing to waste literally minutes of your day. I haven't quite seen this kind of connection made before. CA is usually pretty tricky conceptually for a lot of people but it seems to make perfect musical sense when combined with the Monome sequencer style. It definitely feels like CA when you are using it. You can get it to repeat patterns, display some randomness or go completely chaotic and all with a very friendly interface. Now if only it was a Max4Live device :)

New Max4Live devices, LFO!!!

2011-04-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

The partnership between Ableton and Cycling74, resulting in M4L has been one of the more exciting and innovative developments in the DAW world of recent years, allowing Ableton heads unprecedented access to the guts of their software and devices, and helping put some shape and ease-of-use onto the sometimes bewildering (obstinate?) world of Max/MSP composition and programming via Abletons intuitive workflow and GUI. I've yet to really get into the guts of programming for M4L but I've happily incorporated devices built by others into my productions, opening up new modulation possibilities.
All of which is a lengthy preamble for the news that there's a new update for Max 4 Live and some great new objects, including an LFO so you can get your dubstep wobble on!

* Robert Henke's ‘Granulator’ is a sample-based synthesizer which can transform any sound into a lush soundscape or a wall of noise.
* ‘Kapture’ from Gareth Williams and Richie Hawtin captures the state of your Live Set as a preset that can be instantly recalled.
* The LFO by Manuel Poletti, included in the latest release of Max for Live, enables you to apply a low-frequency oscillator to any applicable device parameters.

Dynamic Range Day - March 25th

2011-03-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Many of you are probably familiar with the 'Loudness War' phenomenon, in which tracks are ever more compressed in order to sound 'big' or 'loud', at the expense of dynamic range (the quiet bits vs. the loud bits). If you don't know what it is...go have a look at the video linked above! The folks behind Dynamic Range Day have declared war on the loudness war and nominated March 25th as a day to bear in mind the dynamics of your music...there's a bunch of info over at their site, including a nifty competition... Go. Now!

Voltage

2011-03-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just liked this little vid.

"Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance." - thanks to Defekt for sending it my way.

C60 RFID Tangible Music Player

2011-01-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

Ultra-slick design agency IDEO were prototyping some ideas for tangible music players...and came up with the C60 concept, in which cards embedded with RFID tags are used to represent and trigger playback of a song or songs and create playlists. The thinking behind this is to allow for physical representation of virtual/digital music libraries, harking back to the (good old) days of physical media such as records/tapes/CDs. More at imissmypencil.com

Arduino-The Documentary

2011-01-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

The Arduino is a small microcontroller board designed for quick and easy electronics prototyping, allowing for sensing and control of input and output devices, with on-board processing capabilities. Aimed at artists and designers as much as electronics geeks there's a huge and talented community of users doing some pretty freaky and cool stuff, ourselves included! But you probably know all that already. Anyway, there's now a documentary all about this wonderful piece of kit with some possible glimpses into the future ;)

Urushi Lacquered Musical Interface

2010-12-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

Urushi Musical Interface from Yuri Suzuki on Vimeo.

Lurrrvely looking touch interface from Yuri Suzuki, lacquerwork box inlaid with gold tracks for touch control of audio. A collaboration between contemporary designers and traditional lacquer craftsmen in Japan in association with the Japanese embassy in the UK. Nice.

Otamatone-Japanese Singing Instrument

2010-08-11T03:55:00.000-07:00

We've seen some pretty WTF instruments in our time round here...but this is up there with the craziest. The Otamatone hails from Japan (had to really...) and is a 'singing' instrument, one hand on the neck controlling pitch the other hand opening and closing the 'mouth'. Added to the Xmas list...

BioRhythms-Science Gallery Dublin

2010-07-28T03:24:00.000-07:00

Declaration of interest time...I've been involved in putting together the new exhibition in Dublin's Science Gallery, both on the advisory panel and as an exhibitor. The theme is 'Music & The Body' and there's all kinds of cool sound making stuff to play with, from a Reactable to various scientific experiments. If you find yourself in Dublin between now and October, go check it out!

Audio modelling physics engines

2010-07-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well we've been away for a while...and a post with a _fascinating_ title such as this is hardly likely to drag our readers back, but hey. Gotta start again somewhere!
Physics modeling engines have become the norm for graphics in 3D and computer gaming...but only now are people trying to apply the same thing to audio. New Scientist has the lowdown... Some way to go yet I'd say, but judging by how quickly physics engines took off in gaming I'd say this is going to be a big growth area in the next couple of years.

Schranzknecht Modular Drums

2010-04-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

"No drumpattern switching here.
Basic drums by simmons SDS5 through a yusynth wavefolder.
MFB Step Seq Clock gets into a yusynth clockdivider which drives the upper baby10.
This one drives the lower baby10. The lower Baby ten switches some vca´s to control three different tracks: Beat, filtered noise and basic FM percussion.
In addition some other "events" are used to bring in a little more variation.
Sequence-switched S&H and CV-offsets for example.
Please excuse the harsh gate popping.
I´ve got another adsr and a dual slew limiter in my pipeline, but they are not ready yet.
More pics: www.vulkanware.de/diy" - thanks to schranzknecht for uploading it.

I look at modular vids all day long and I just liked this. Liked the drum programming. Can imagine a big bass behind it and me bumping in some no name club...

using ableton live to send CV signals

2010-04-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

using ableton live to send CV signals. from dan kirkhus on Vimeo.

"using ableton live and a handful of LFO type wav files to modulate external analog gear. fun stuff.

(if you're not interested in the "how" and just want to see the frostwave spaz out, jump to 3:30 or so.) this stuff *only* works with MOTU audio interfaces (see: volta). this is an easy and free way to send beat-synced LFOs to your outboard modular gear; moogerfoogers, sherman filterbank, little phatty... anything with a CV input." - thanks to dan kirkhus for the video.

If you follow this link you can find a link to download the Audio Envelopes hes uses in this video. Check for the updated link in the comments - Get it HERE.

TipTop Audio Z-DSP Demo

2010-03-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Got my new TipTop Audio Z-DSP with the Dragonfly card and very tasty it is too. So far TipTop have 2 cards the one thats bundled with the module, the Dragonfly, and another called Bat Filter. The Bat Filter contains 8 digital filters of various types ranging from 4 to 8 poles . More cards promised to come... with everything from compression, EQ, battling LFO's and anything else you can think of that can be done with 1000ms of DSP delaytime.

I made 2 demo's of the module. It is pretty easy to use and being able to modulate the parameters is really very sweet. There is a lot can be done so this is really just a taster. One nice touch is that the module can take severe clipping and will self oscillate once the feedback goes beyond a point. If I get anything more structured at a later stage I'll post that as well. For now if ambient droning hysterical weirdness is your thing you should enjoy these :)

Room 237 by AudioLemon

War Bug by AudioLemon

Dubspot Ableton Tutorials

2010-03-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

New York based music production school & DJ Institute Dubspot have a nice series of Ableton production tutorials on their site (and YouTube channel) which are well worth checking if you're of a Dubstep/Bass music persuasion. This tutorial is an overview of how to use Ableton's Vocoder (among other effects) to thicken a snare sound. Good advice in there for all engineers and producers too though! Bigups to Dubspot.

Roland TR-606 sync with circuit bent bliptronic 5000

2010-02-20T18:12:00.000-08:00

"Little improvised thing with the 606 and the bliptronic. You can run the trigger outputs on the 606 to the "link" input port on the 5000 to trigger it." - thanks to frostedminipete

Nicest video I've seen showing off the 50$ ThinkGeek Bliptronic 5000. It's a pretty trippy melodious affair until about 3.50 when some massive distortion starts screaming from the little plastic box. Tasty!

Avatar Sound Panel - SoundWorks Collection Exclusive

2010-02-19T15:43:00.000-08:00

Michael Coleman

SoundWorks Collection Exclusive Presents

“Avatar” Sound Panel
February 3rd, 2010 at the Fox Studios, Zanuck Theater

Featuring:

James Cameron - Director
Jon Landau - Producer
Christopher Boyes - Supervising Sound Editor / Sound Designer / Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Gary Summers - Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Andy Nelson - Sound Re-Recording Mixer

via Unidentified Sound Object

NAMM Oddities 2010

2010-02-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Every year the weird, wonderful and downright deranged offerings of the NAMM show are served up for you courtesy of Barry Wood. This year's edition is online now...the Spongebob Flying-V Ukele is a personal favorite.

Augmented Reality Drumkit

2010-02-04T03:58:00.000-08:00

Augmented Reality Drum Kit (demo #1) from squidder on Vimeo.

So AR seems to be the 'next big thing' for the year ahead...and the folks over at Squidder.com have combined it with fiducial tracking to make a demo of an AR dumkit. Air drums anyone?

Circuit Bent Megaphone

2010-02-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Scion Magazine 15: Casper Electronics from Scion A/V on Vimeo.

Peter Edwards shows off his guide to building a circuit bent megaphone on his Casper Electronics site... Lots of cool bent things for sale on his site too.

2 Step Drum Programming

2010-01-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Nice tutorial/masterclass on how to program killer 2step drums (it's all about the eighth note swing apparently) over on the BlackdownSoundBoy blog. Featuring tips from productions gurus like El B, Grievous Angel, MJ Cole and Sully this is a WICKED read!

HAITI 2010 by Monome Community

2010-01-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

Einpuls, a member of the Monome online community, sent me an email telling me that the Monome community have made an digital download album in order to generate donations for aid relief in Haiti. If you haven't already donated (or even if you have) you can download the 27 tracks in MP3 320 or FLAC for as little as a $1 donation. 100% of the sale proceeds will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières (msf.org). You can listen to the album and donwload it HERE. With 2 hospitals destroyed and 54 NGO workers missing they could do with the the help.

"When the community came up with the idea of a compilation album to generate charity donations in light of the terrible disaster in Haiti, einpuls started gathering tracks for the album and the monome community answered swiftly with more than 25 tracks being submitted in just a couple of days.

The community teamed up with Summer Rain Recordings (summerrainrecordings.net) to compile the compilation, with the end result being a 27 track album, each track contributed for free. The minimum price for the compilation has been set to $1 with no upper limit. Every penny helps, so please donate what you can." - Press Release

In Bb 2.0

2010-01-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

"In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users.

The videos can be played simultaneously -- the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders.

Learn more in the FAQ." - Go To In Bb 2.0

Nice little thing. I guess the original idea comes from Terry Rileys In C. (score here). It kind of reminded me of that Windows Sound Recorder video that was floating about a few years ago. Not the same but reminded me of it.

thanks to Keith for sending it to me.

How to use AR Midi Tool with the Augmented Reality DJ system and ableton live

2010-01-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

How to set up your midi with the ardj system and ableton live, or any other DAW like logic, garageband, etc...

download for free at http://www.lipert.net/ardj Mac only.

Looks pretty straight forward. There a few more demo clips if you look in the related section. Pretty nice demo here. Latency is always going to be somewhat of a problem when using video tracking but with Ableton only triggering on beat it's manageable. It's all free so if you have a Mac, Ableton and a Camcorder your ready to go.

The Eyewriter - Worth Watching

2010-01-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Graph artist Mr.Tempt suffers from the terminal Lou Gehrig's Disease. The disease is particularly cruel as it paralyzes the body but leaves the brain perfectly intact. The disease is always terminal but people can survive for extremely varied lenghts. Steven Hawking is one of the longest known sufferers having the disease for 30 years.

The Eyewriter is the combination of a €50 Playstation Eye, free software, a network connection and projector and with it Mr.Tempt can still tag the city buildings.

NI Synthsgiving

2009-11-27T05:02:00.000-08:00

INCREDIBLE offer from Native Instruments...from November 27th to 30th:
Reaktor 5 down from €379 to €99
for the dubstep wobble crew Massive is down from €179 to €99
and Absynth and FM8 same prices too!

Damn these software companies are spoiling us these days...who feels like spoiling the AudioLemoneers with a gift of Reaktor? (the gift that keeps on giving...)

Mastering with Bob Macc

2009-11-25T05:21:00.000-08:00

The more info and perspectives you can get on mastering your music the better, and here's an interview with a true pro: Bob Macciochi, a bit of a legend in bass music circles (an a nice guy to boot!).
Via Hyperblazing

Ableton is 10

2009-11-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Ableton has been on the go for 10 years now and to celebrate they're doing some great discounts and upgrade offers for all you lovely folks! Never been a better time to buy so go have a looksee!

BX Cleansweep FREE plugin

2009-11-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Brainworx have just released a new FREE plugin for all you Mac and PC users. BX Cleansweep is a low and high pass filter designed for use at the mastering stage. These guys do some pretty impressive plugins so this is a great chance to grab a freebie! While you're there snag their BX Solo plugin which allows you to seperate Left/Right/Centre information from your mix. Nice.

Touch Clock (Wogglebug Tip)

2009-10-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

"Following the Make Noise manual's suggestion for "stopping" the Wogglebug's clock by patching an otherwise unconnected cable into the Clock Input, I thought I'd try touching the end of the cable to advance the clock..."

For more details on the patch just click this to get to the original posting.

For another sweet sounding wogglebug patch have a look at navs.modular and if you fancy trying to build a wogglebug you can get Grant Richter's schematic here. Here's a pic of a wogglebug build into a CD case using Grant Richters schematic.

Designing Synths with Dasz Garncarz

2009-10-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

PART 3

"For LiFT Studios Broadcast 023 Haig Armen talks with Dasz Garncarz, a synth & interface designer about the challenges of interaction design and his work on the Nord Modular G2 synthesizer."

Dasz was the creator/owner/entrepreneur of Opcode's Revolve 100M sequencer (1999) as well as a crucial force behind the Infusion System's I-Cube (product and software development).1

There are 3 parts to the interview - PART 1 and PART 3. Might be a little dull but there is some interest for those who like designing their own interfaces in synthedit/max/usine etc.

ToneMatrix-flash based Tenori-On

2009-10-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

Simple...but loads of fun. Go play here. The ToneMatrix is part of Andre Michelle & Co's (HobNox) AudioTool project, a flash based synth/sequence/record environment that looks mighty impressive.

Kaosillator Demo from Tokyo

2009-10-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

On a random trawl of Tokyo's tech stores (drooool), I met Ade who clearly knows how to work his way around Korgs portable micro-synth, the Kaosillator. Here he is making it look way too easy.

Novation+Ableton Launchpad controller

2009-10-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

Bit behind with this one but Novation have teamed with Ableton to release a 64 button grid style controller that can be used to control things such as clip launch, panning, volume, scenes etc. It can also work with other software using Novations' Automap software. I think this looks pretty tasty and at £150 quite a bargain! There's a competition to win one+Live8 over at Novations site, as well as tutorial videos.

Doepfer Sneak Peek

2009-10-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

Doepfer Sneak Peek from niamhguckian on Vimeo.

An interview with the great man himself, taken from the documentary 'Totally Wired'. Dieter talks about the inspiration for the A100 series, his collaborations with Kraftwerk, and the future of modular. Unmissable!
'Totally Wired' is available on DVD from amazon.com

It's been floating around for a few days now. So Kraftwerk are to blame for the industrial grey. I wonder who is to blame for the horrible pots? At the end of the video he talks a little about his new digital modules and how there are going to be more coming out. I have the Bit Chruncher and very nice it is... would love to see more digital modules.

Ken MacBeth

Sneak Peek from 'Totally Wired' - Ken Macbeth from niamhguckian on Vimeo.

Ken Macbeth, of Macbeth Studio Systems. Ken talks about what inspires him, his vision for the M5 synthesiser, and making noise. Set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

David Vorhaus Analogue Electronic Music 1979

2009-10-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

"In this historical video excerpt, David Vorhaus talks about two of his analogue inventions - the MANIAC analogue sequencer, and the Kaleidophon from 1979.

The MANIAC (Multiphasic Analog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)) was an analogue sequencer having variable step lengths, and the ability to split sequences into several smaller groupings giving considerable sonic potentiality. Addition and subtraction of events was possible, as well as the possibility to chromatically correct the output during performance. David could program his MANIAC sequencer to play a background rhythm or combination of musical events, to then improvise over the top with another instrument or synthesizer.

The Kaleidophon was a double-bass-like instrument using four velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers instead of strings. The instrument is played entirely using the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the sound via a number of controllers and a joystick.

David speaks about the processes of making electronic music, and the developments that such possibilities can provide for the imaginative electronic musician. This excerpt is taken from the BBC 1979 documentary entitled "The New Sound of Music" hosted by Michael Rodd." - thanks to JeffreyPlaide

Talking Piano

2009-10-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

A "speaking piano" reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court at World Venice Forum 2009. Interesting use of spectral analysis to drive lots of motors hooked up to piano keys.

Dan Bull - Dear Lily

2009-09-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-09-22T04:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-18T03:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-08T10:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

Neurosonics Audiomedical

2009-08-27T05:08:00.001-07:00

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. | Flabber

Foreign Beggars, Shlomo, Scratch Perverts= Wicked video! Neurosonics Audiomedical

Low Frequency Entity

2009-08-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

low frequency entity - subcycle labs from christian bannister on Vimeo.

Christian Bannister from Subcycle Labs has created a patch for visual multi-touch manipulation of a bass synth (Native Instruments Massive). He's using Processing to create a representation of the bass sound, with various parameters controlled by the user, this demo both looks and sounds pretty amazing!
More info from the man himself over at Subcycle.org

TR-808 Classic Beats on Korg Electribe SX

2009-08-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Part 1

Part 2

Never heard the Electribe sounding so good. I'm a sucker for 808 beats :)

thanks to harlemnightsmusic

Pressure Sensitive Keyboad

2009-08-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Apparently engineers at Microsoft are working (or have completed) a pressure sensitive keyboard. I can definitely see this being useful to a laptop musician such as myself who sometimes must use the computer keyboard for note entry (as in Abletons keyboard mode) and who wants to get a bit of 'feel' into their bars.

Carl Craig. At Cité de la Musique, Paris, France

2009-08-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Never seen this before. It's an hour long session with Carl Craig and a live Orchestra. Lovely jazz infused strings with live detroit beats and Carl Craig tweaking a Doepfer Eurorack on stage for electronic bubbles and fx. It's pretty tasty in parts. Carl Craig has some mixing capabilities and when he starts to warm things up the tracks happen. It starts off a bit dodgy but it warms up quick enough. - via grandcrew

Expert Sleepers release Silent Way (Mac/PC, AU/VST)

2009-07-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

Silent Way is a kind of like MOTU VOLTA in that it will allow you to use DC coupled soundcards to control analogue synths directly. Unlike MOTU VOLTA Expert Sleeper is very reasonably priced and works on both MAC and PC. At €36.94 (a very odd number) it is very affordable. A demo that craps out after every 15 mins is available. Silent Way can do automatic pitch calibration of your oscillators frequency so you never have to tune again. I didn't see any LFO's but you can send automation from your soundcard directly to your modular so I suppose you could draw them in. There is a list of of compatible devices including soundcards and analogue oscillators that will track. Very nice,very cheap, definately worth the download if you have a compatible soundcard. If you are interested there are tutorial video's showing how to use Silent Way in Ableton, Cubase & Logic.

Clone an 808

2009-07-20T08:33:00.001-07:00

Eric Archer provides schematics and a how-to for building your own TR-808 clone! He's put his efforts into a 'Big box o Techno' and the results are pretty impressive...now where did I put that soldering iron?
There are some other interesting sounding devices on his page too...busy man.

Oliver Sacks - Musical Minds Documentary

2009-07-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Musical Minds, a documentary based on Oliver Sack's excellent book Musicophilia, can be watched free online until the 7th July on the PBS/Nova site. Unfortunately it is only available to those in the US or at least with a US IP address. If you live in the EU and are very determined to see it you could try going through a proxy or a VPN to change your IP address to one in the US. If you're not bothered there are a few youtube clips to whet your appetite until it does come this side of the water.

All Odosynths Now FREE!

2009-06-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Odo from Odosynths is well known on the DIY synth forums especially the SynthEdit forum. A heavy synthedit user he has just released all his softsynths for free. Odo was already very generous giving away a lot of synths, drum machines and processors but he has decided to release all his softsynths for free.

The one pictured above, the Double Six XXL, is an FM synth with 32 possible 6-op or DX7 style algorithms and 16 4-op algorithms. Even a cursory glance at the interface lets you know that this is a well functioned synth. 11 different waveforms for the operators, clipping/distortion/overdrive & and LoPassFilter on each operator, 19 LFO shapes, 8 and 14 stage envelopes, multimode filters, throw in a few sequencers and you get the gist.... FM on steroids.

Theremin controlled Mario

2009-06-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

So Mr Greig Stewart has set up a site to cater to 'Theremin controlled gaming projects', yet another service I didn't know I needed, but now can't stay away from! Theremin controlled Mario is just the first in a series...including a neural interface to shoot fireballs (although maybe that's just wishing on my part)!

In his own words:
"The sound from the theremin is split into its frequency and amplitude components in real time, which are then mapped to values in a linear scale representing the X and Y axis. Pitch becomes horizontal control, and Volume becomes vertical control.
The X and Y scales are then cut up into different zones. In this case, Left; Right and dead zones for the horizontal, and a single trigger and dead zone for the vertical.

The trigger zones are then mapped onto a virtual joystick hooked into an emulator."

For more visit www.thereminhero.com

Econo Monome - junkbox controller

2009-06-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Long time electronics tinkerer Mike Cook has built himself a Monome type grid based controller out of 'spare parts' he had lying around. All based on an Arduino and with complete DIY instructions (assuming your bits box is as big as Mikes!).

Via Make

The solution to Piracy 1992

2009-06-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

3 Drum Machines, 2 Modulars, 1 Tu-Ki - LIVE.

2009-06-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

So we had a sweet day down in Tu-Ki's studio. We brought the modulars down to see if they'd play nice with all other gear. An 808, a 909, an MPC 1000, 2 modulars and Tu-Ki being killer on the decks. We were just messing about really trying to see if we could get it all synced and working. The track above is a live jam... about 11 mins long... starts cooking a few mins in... no edits, no mastering, no mixing, just the machines sounding raw. The 808 is going through the Frostwave Resonator for a bit more bite. It really was a lovely way to spend my B'Day.

If you like it we are going to try and organise something for this year DEAF festival. PushMoveClick and Tu-Ki doing a live thing... hopefully projectors and cameras again. Anyways hope you like the track.

Richard Lainhart Performs Olivier Messiaen's Oraison

2009-06-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Richard Lainhart playing "Orasion" composed by Olivier Messian in 1937. Originally composed for 6 Ondes Martenots you can see it here being played on the Buchla 200e with a Haken Continuum Fingerboard. For me it's a very beautiful piece of music.

"From the time I first touched the Haken Continuum, I'd wanted to use it to play a composition by Olivier Messiaen called "Oraison". I first heard "Oraison" years ago as a student of electronic music, and had fallen in love with its simple, beautiful harmonies and profound sense of mystery.

"Oraison" is not only a lovely piece of music, but has historical interest too - it may be the first piece of purely electronic music written expressly for live performance. Also of note is that Messiaen re-arranged "Oraison" for cello and piano and used it for the fifth movement of "Quartet for the End of Time", which he composed in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941; the "Quartet" is one of the great classics of 20th-century music.

"Oraison" ("prayer") is from a suite of pieces for six Ondes Martenot called "Fete des Belles Eaux" ("Celebration of the Beautiful Waters"), composed for the Paris International Exposition in 1937. The Ondes Martenot was among the first electronic instruments, and is still among the most expressive. The Continuum's own expressive qualities seemed at least the equal of the Ondes Martenot's, while allowing for polyphony and the possibility of performance of the work by a single player. I transcribed "Oraison" for my Buchla 200e/Continuum system, programmed the modern system in homage to the sound of the Ondes Martenot, and now offer this performance to you.

Oraison, composed by Olivier Messiaen in 1937 for six Ondes Martenot, transcribed for Buchla 200e synthesizer and Haken Continuum Fingerboard controller and performed by Richard Lainhart in 2009." - Richard Lainhart - via electro-music forum.

Music Box: Mapping & Visualizing Music

2009-06-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Music Box was created by Anita Lillie as part of her Thesis for the MIT HyperInstruments group. Created in Java and Processing, Music Box is a software used to organize large databases into visually meaningful maps. It starts off reasonably and you think it is going to be just another app but it soon becomes clear that this is an extremely useful tool. It can be used with any database but Anita has tailored it to music. You can check out her blog on the MusicBox and download her thesis PDF.

I have been looking around lately for more information on the visual representations of sound. I am starting to play around with the Jitter part of Max. It's slow and tedious and for now I can just about make a crappy music visualizer... a far cry away from interactive projected objects that have their own gravity and physical properties... but a start.

The HyperInstrument group that Anita is part of was also home to Tristan Jehan. Tristans thesis was based around teaching computers how to listen in order that they may firstly learn the structure of music and then improvise using that learned structure as a base. Music Box above uses similar tactics to analyse acoustic quality of music. Although the desired outcomes are different the methods used to achieve those outcomes are similar. If you have a little time it is well worth watching Tristan's MIT thesis defense where he describes his work with music analysis and computer created music.

About 30 mins in he starts showing all the ways he used to analyse music. Pitch, beat, chord structure, timbre and many more. Many of the methods he used can be achieved in Max using the Msp external objects he created. I can't seem to get access to his site at the minute but you can download the external for PC from Paul Hills website. It is interesting in his talk to see the techniques he used to interpret and map the results of analysis. Also his models use musical and psychoacoustic principles to help generate even more meaningful results. For example by analyzing the chord structure and the overall beat he was also able to determine the downbeat as being the beat where a new chord was likely to hit everytime.

To find out where this kind of research is going have a listen to a talk about Echo Nest a project with Tristan Jehan to create a music recommendation tool based on analysis rather than buyer habits or other forms of personal recommendations. It is an interesting talk and offers a possible solution for those talented musicians labouring away on myspace and soundclick who cannot get people to listen to their music because they just do not have access to the promotion machine. Maybe this will make for a fairer playing field.

ED: Anita responded to a question I asked on her blog."Yes, this is very closely tied to Tristan Jehan’s PhD work. Please see the link for more info on what is being visualized; the data come straight from the Echo Nest Analyze API."

xabec meets curetronic@OSTPOL

2009-06-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

xabec meets curetronic@OSTPOL from Mike Erkau on Vimeo.

A rare enough treat to see the Curetronic modular in action. There are another 2 vids of the curetronic on Mike Erkau vimeo account.

Ben Burtt Demonstrates how he made Wall-E

2009-06-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Part 1

"Ben Burtt demonstrates how he made Wall-E come to life and answers a ton of questions. This was a presentation I attended at Pixar and it’s seriously amazing to watch Ben as he demos how he made all the Wall-E sounds and what he bought on eBay to get new sounds. If you’re a fan of Wall-E and Star Wars, I really recommend watching some of this."
-Steve Weintraub"

For an interesting read on how Ben Burtt created the Wall-E's vocoded voice have a look at look at THIS article on MoviesOnline.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

via - benburttinterviews.blogspot.com

AudioLemon Doepfer A-149-1 Demo's (again)

2009-06-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is kind of a test post. I am trying out new flash players for the blog. I used to use Imeem but it has gotten so bad that I have to use something else. Their player used to be simple small, simple and efficient but now it's big, covered with ads and only lets you listen to 30secs after which you have to go to Imeem to hear the rest. I posted these demo's before but the Imeem player cut them off and it was generally a waste of time. If you want a better description of the patches, go to the earlier post.

I tried to figure out XSPF flash player but no matter what way I tried it I could not get it to load my playlist when posted on Blogger. I am hosting my files on google sites so maybe that's the problem.

I am going to use this for a while.. it's crazy easy and seems to work. If anybody has any problems with hearing the audio I'd appreciate if you'd let me know in the comments.

EDIT: This is driving me crazy!!! This player only seems to work in Firefox. IE and Chrome don't seem to work. I've also tried SoundCloud but it only lets you upload 5 tracks per month and if your doing demo's that's not a lot.

Any suggestions?

Augmenting Sound

2009-06-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Augmenting sound. Space 1 Bath. Video 3 from berio on Vimeo.

"Augmented Sound is a project that expands sound objects. The basic idea is adding one more layer to the sound reality of an object.

Actually, this project is the result of my thesis for the Computer Graphic Design Master at RIT, which had the following definition: A portable computer vision system based on video projection, which allows interaction between the projection itself, the physical space where it is projected and the user.

The aplication was build using Openframeworks and Supercollider. It can be adapted to any space or object. " - thanks to berio

I love the way he can use physical space like that. It looks like a lot of fun. You can see a video of him setting up the area's HERE. I hadn't heard of Openframeworks before. It's a C++ library purposely designed for all kinds of creative coding. Here's a demo from their website. Looks great...

made with openFrameworks from openFrameworks on Vimeo.

AudioMulch 2.0 Released

2009-06-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

AudioMulch 2.0 has been released today. Pretty good looking. For the price of a single analogue filter you get a whole lot of software. AudioMulch is, as you can see in the vid above, a graphic modular sound environment similar to Max/Msp or Synthedit or Synth Maker. There are two aspects of AudioMulch that set it apart from the rest. Firstly you can insert modules (contraptions) into a signal path without breaking the connection. This means no stops and starts as you're building your sound. Secondly it has a fairly decent timeline for automating module parameters something surely missing in Max/Msp. These two functions make it quite appealing in a live or studio set up.

You can download it and use it without restriction for 6 months and it is save disabled for a further 3 months but after that you have to pony up buy a license. The license is €189 which may seem a bit steep considering SynthEdit is free and MAX/MSP is only €250 for students. It does have a very easy workflow and is very straightforward and easy to use. Not as complex or detailed as Max/Msp or Synth Maker, it would have more in common with SynthEdit in that you are given fairly large (function rich) modules and you can connect them yourself in anyway you want.

For a list of the modules go to AudioMulch and while your there download it and see if it fits your needs.

Microsoft Unveils Motion Camera (Seriously Jaw Dropping)

2009-06-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Microsoft sure are trying to put a lot of tech underneath your TV. It is tentatively called Project Natal a controller free gamer environment. This thing is jaw droppingly impressive. Full body 3D motion recognition, facial recognition, voice recognition, the ability to scan in objects and all it's connected to the net. Wow!

Of interest to controller nerds like my good self is that Johhny Chung Lee of Wii Project fame has been working on the project. "The 3D sensor itself is a pretty incredible piece of equipment providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost. Depth cameras provide you with a point cloud of the surface of objects that is fairly insensitive to various lighting conditions allowing you to do things that are simply impossible with a normal camera....The human tracking algorithms that the teams have developed are well ahead of the state of the art in computer vision in this domain. The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I've seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product." - Johnny Chung Lee

Sony playstation recently put a patent on a video camera and ultrasonic ranging combination based controller for their PS3. In comparsion to the Project Natal controller it already seems outdated.

Digitize Me

2009-06-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Digitize Me from Tom D. on Vimeo

A short documentary on music production and vinyl records. In a world where everything is going digital, DJ's are keeping vinyl alive. Vinyl has outlasted CD's, the pressing plants are busy and nearly every CD released in Japan comes out on vinyl... (really??).

It's a nice edit having DJ Ali-G, a slammin' club DJ, who is ushering in the digital revolution with Pro-Tools and iTunes and laptop DJing and all that ill shit, saying that vinyl DJ's will always have the edge.

Is it the end of the Loudness War?

2009-05-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

We all know the scenario... you are at home, relaxing, watching TV (for those that haven't yet grated to the net) and relaxing watching your program then click the ads come on and you're diving for the remote to turn down the, all of sudden, screamingly loud TV. Ads can be perceived to up to 10dB louder than normal program material meaning they can sound over twice as loud.

Well the end may be in sight. The Communications Research Centre in Canada (CRC) loudness meter has been accepted as the international standard. There is a very good article on the website about the reason behind varying loudness of program material. It also details the research carried out to come up with an agreed standard for subjective loudness metering. Based on the data the CRC designed their own loudness meter and tested it against other loudness meters already in existence.

According to the report what made the finding so surprising was that Soulodre's meter was so simple. "While some of the meters modeled the complex interactions between sound waves, the ear and the brain, Soulodre's algorithm filtered out low frequencies from the loudness calculation and averaged the power of what was left."

"What it means," says Thibault (manager at CRC), "is that when you're adjusting the volume on the TV your ear acts as a high-pass filter: it's less sensitive to the low frequency sounds. Because your ear is more sensitive to the higher frequencies, especially those between 100 Hz and 8 kHz - the dominant frequencies in human speech - you base your volume calculation on the loudness of these higher frequencies."

Another modular drum machine

2009-05-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

"This is a similar patch, but with two VCAs. One with noise input and the other with oscillating bandpass with noise. The hi hat sound reacts to the clock output and the drum to the gate output." - thanks to Pehr81

About a minute in he starts to get lovely rolls and triplets on the noise hats. More vids if you follow the YouTube link. A gorgeous demo of the Klee Sequencer making a dark brooding drone.

granular synthesis in PureData

2009-05-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

"another 'classic': granular synthesis in Pd.

You can get the patch here: www.timvets.net/software/grains

Unzip both GRAINS.pd and GRAINREADER.pd into the same directory and load GRIANS.pd.
have fun :)" - thanks to tim167

Maybe watching Curtis Raods in the last post made you want to give granualar synthesis a go. You can download both Pure Data (Pd) and "Theory & Technique of Electronic Music" for free and start messing about with the patches from the links above.

If you prefer VST's maybe have a look at KTgranulator. It's not much to look at but it sounds great and it has a lot of flexibility. There's also a good article over on electronic music, a review of the excellent but expensive crusherX-Studio! At the end of the post is a fairly long list of places where you can get hold of decent granular synths for free.

The Granular Synthesis of Curtis Roads 3 part Vid

2009-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

PART 2
Curtis Roads talking about his music, how he started in synthesis and about his development of granular/particle synthesis. Curtis Roads is well known for his work in granular and particle synthesis. He has published two books, the first, considered to be the bible of computer music, is appropriately called The Computer Music Tutorial and the second is the definitive text on the history, techniques and development of Microsound.

The rest of the interviews can be found at VBS.TV via sonicstate.

When he talked about supporting for Autechre I couldn't help thinking about Gantz Graf.

A little random walks this way!

2009-05-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

I always like hearing demos of synth modules so I thought I'd post a few of my first goes with the Doepfer A-149-1. The Doepfer A-149-1 is a clone of the middle part from the Buchla 266 Source Of Uncertainty module. With this module I was expecting lots of random atonal plinky plonkiness. I read the description of the module on the Doepfer website which, for me, was a clear as mud.

The first demo is just that. Randomly plugging in cables trying to make the thing do something weird. It's a single triangle going through a Frequenstiener with Bit Modification from the A-189-1. Pitch, Filter and clock randomness thank to the A-149. There's a crossfade in the middle of the demo.

I went looking for more info. Found a great post by Peter Grenader explaining the module in friendlier language. For the second demo I tried something based on his description of the module. I used both random outputs to drive 2 oscillators. Both random outputs are synced. Meaning that one generates random octaves and the other generates random semitones within that octave. I ran the semitone one through a quantizer so as I could force the semitones into major or minor scales. Instead of atonal or chromatic random scales you get nice harmonic randomness.

For the third patch I used the Allen Strange patch reprinted in Doepferspdf manual. I changed it a little. Instead of using an Squarewave LFO as the input clock to the A-149-1 I used a Cwejman oscillator with a really thin pulse wave . This seems to give much cleaner random gate outputs. A lot better for driving synced envelopes. I start at audiorate (grungy oddly harmonic distortion) and work my way down to slower clock rates. The clock rate is slightly randomized and produces a little flurry of notes every so often. The voltage that drives the flurry of notes also drives the filter you'll hear it at the end.

PS. Really have to get a new player. That one from Imeem is really ugly now. Any suggestions?

"I Bring You The Future" - BrainJacking

2009-05-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Brainjacking, a more Gibsonesque name for neuroimaging, is where you put on one of those rubber brain hats and analyse EEG readouts to tell what's going on inside your noodle. There has been a lot of post on various blogs about brain and sound related issues. There seems to be a greater interest in what's going inside the mind when listening. Books like Oliver Sacks "Musicophilia" or David Levitins "This Is Your Brain On Music" have possibly sparked a general interest in studies of the brain and sound/music. More awareness of people with synaethesia or amusia or other unusual wiring's of the auditory mind underscore the fact that, much like beauty, music is in the ear of the beholder.

So what has this to do with synths and all things R2D2. Well, scientists from Maastricht University have developed a method to look into the brain of a person and read out who has spoken to him or her and what was said. 1 "We have [created] a sort of speech-recognition device which is completely based on the brain activity of the listener," explained Elia Formisano of Maastricht University, who led the group. 2 Well that's pretty cool. They can literally read your mind and get a computer to speak it back. Brain voice recognition and speech synthesis all in one.

Not only that, we have new breakthroughs in laser controlled humans. Flash's of light can be used to trigger specific sets of neurons in the brain. "The beauty of this optogenetic technique is its specificity. By using a combination of lasers and genetic engineering, scientists can control, to the millisecond, the firing of a specific class of neurons, allowing them to pinpoint problematic cells and circuits while leaving innocent bystanders alone, thus minimizing potential side effects." While of course this is all for medicinal purposes it does make me wonder if you could fire off the parts of the brain for music, rhythm, speech etc...

In my rambling sci-fi addled mind I put the two studies together and thought of people storing their musical brain patterning to computer and then allowing others to laser that track directly to their brains. Musicians will be those who can most coherently keep a piece of music directly in focus for a sustained period of time... or enough time for the rubber brain hat to do its thing.

Of course I couldn't end the post without a bit of cynicism (wouldn't be much of a sci-fi story without the dystopia at the end). Google, among others, are using brainscanning techniques to see if they can design better marketing campaigns. 1 Other groups, such as Neuro Focus, are going whole hog into "Neuro-Marketing" analysing the brains response to an advertisment, measuring levels of attentiveness, emotional engagement, response to repeat viewing. 2 Are the paranoiacs right... is it finally time to start wearing tinfoil hats?

Reggae PreProcessor

2009-04-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

"A pre-processor for reggae-dub music playback soundsystem style. To download a free demo: http://atikominus.gr/pre-A.M.P.html" - A nice idea. Even if you not playing over their juicy looking soundsystem you can still have a bit of fun. Going to the website lets you download a free cut down demo version. The demo is standalone, a single track can be loaded and no reverb or semi parametric E.Q.. It has the delay, the dub siren, the graphic EQ and the kills. No sign of the one in the vid on the site so I'm not sure if they just use it themselves or they are going to release it. Either way nice simple idea and good fun to play around with.

thanks to t-woc for sending me this one.

Donk Mecca - The Heart Of Donk

2009-04-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

A Donk-umentary following the Blackout Crew as they tour around northwest UK playing "Put A Donk On It" to sold out venues. Everybody slags Donk and Scousehouse but it's hard to deny the numbers. Donk for those that might not know is Northern Hardcore. A kinda of slapstick derivative of Hardcore, Grime and.... Donk! Glowsticks, Bikinis, sweaty topless steroid ridden men hugging, social deprivation and a lot of drugs. The documentary is in 5 short parts with Part 1 showing the fairly well kitted youth centre where Donk started, moving to mental hardcore kids partys and lastly to the brawly streets and nightclubs where it is now.

I might not like Donk but I'm a dirter raver at heart and always like the hardcore sounds. Can't help it ;) If you have secret dirty raver leanings check out Hard N'Bouncy a free sample pack from Serious Sounds. It's a great free sample pack that I use it fairly often. 500 odd samples with a really good Hoovers folder, a lot of the classic Hoover/Reese samples.

Miss California! Gay Marriage! Weed! It's the AutoTuned News!

2009-04-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Best and only good use of AutoTuning ever?

Bohemian Rhapsody Printer Remix

2009-04-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

We've featured some stepper motor music before on AudioLemon but this is a particularly niiiiice example so I thought I'd stick it up. Enjoy!

Audio Damage Pulse Modulator FREE

2009-04-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

Always a fan of the plugins from the Audio Damage crew and here's another freebie from em; the Pulse Modulator. Modelled on a vintage tremolo pedal it'll put some serious wobble in yer sounds!

Photosounder

2009-04-18T07:08:00.001-07:00

Photosounder is a tasty looking tool (currently Windows only) for turning sound into images (and vice versa) that can then be used for instrument extraction, resynthesis or other processing. While the concept of using graphics to represent and edit sound is hardly new (the closest example I can think of is Metasynth) this seems to be a pretty cool implementation, particularly when used with a powerful graphics editor like Photoshop.

Linux Multi Media Studio

2009-04-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

Linux users have so far got the short end of the stick as far as music making programs go (never mind trying to get your hardware to work!) but the new free LMMS looks promising (and for Windows too!). Utilising an interface very similar to FL Studio you have audio, piano roll and block sequencing at your disposal as well as a range of built-in synths and effects. The LMMS WiKi is pretty helpful too and they're open to working with user-developers (check out the artwork contest!).

(Via LifeHacker)

Max/Msp Video Tutorials

2009-04-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Baz has very generously created a large number of Max/Msp tutorial videos. So far it's up to tutorial 10 with a couple of parts to each tutorial. According to Baz there is going to be "a ridiculous amount" of tutorial videos. Not a substitute for the 100 or so text/patch tutorials that come with the software but if you are just downloading the 30 day Max/Msp demo and want to get up and running without getting bogged down in lots of text tutorials then this is the way to go.

The first tutorial is a basic sine wave oscillator and it works it's way through subtractive synthesis, tutorial 8 shows how to make a polyphonic sampler and the last vid so far is a delay feedback tutorial. Thanks to BazTutorials

First use of Electronic Instrument in Film - L'Idee (1932)

2009-04-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

I was reading a book on the history of film and according to it the first film to use the sound of an electronic instrument is the 1932 film by Berthold Bartosch L'Idee (The Idea). The book itself said it was the sound of the Theremin but as you can see from the opening credits the instruments is in fact the Ondes Martenot so maybe the book is a bit dodgy and there is an earlier use of electronic instruments in film. So far this is the earliest I've found.

The score was composed by Arthur Honegger a Swiss composer born in France and spending a large part of his life there."For Berthold Bartosch's animated satire L'Idée, Honegger set the remote, ethereal tones of the Ondes Martenot (representing the eponymous Idea in all its purity) against a restless, urban-jazz tinged ensemble dominated by trombone, trumpet, and alto sax that hinted at the influence of Kurt Weill."

L'Idee iteslf is also groundbreaking being described as the first serious, poetic, tragic work in animation. This of course was before Walt Disney sealed animations fate as being suitable for children only :(

thanks to Tomsutpen for posting the vid.