Playing the cars
Gary Numan lends his person and most famous composition to Sears for an inspired commercial about the latest DieHard battery. Utilizing a two-octave Car Keyboard, Numan “plays” his famed ’80s hit on tuned car horns. Although, he looks miserable throughout, he’s probably laughing on the inside…all the way to the bank.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vktqUM0VDtU&feature=player_embedded
Reason 5 KONG intro
Propellerheads continues to deliver nice demos for Reason 5, here’s the KONG
Has music just not sounded the same to you since Miami Vice went off the air? Then you’re in luck! The synth drums in Kong bring analog drum sounds back to your music. Most analog sounds these days are sampled, meaning the sound you load is the sound you’ve got. In this micro tutorial you’ll see how easy it is to make wonderfully tweakable analog synth drums and assign them to your pads
The Drumsette controlling a Polymoog
Awesome new drumset
The Drumssette is the result of a disassembled Tascam four-track recorder that’s been repurposed as an “analog” drum machine. Each of the four tracks has a drum sound which is played on a continuous loop. It has a 16 step sequencer that works by muting each track by default. When a step is triggered, it temporarily unmutes the track allowing the sound to play for that step.
As well, the rate at which the audio loops onto itself determines the clock speed. This is used to time the step sequencer but can also be used to gate an external device, for example the Polymoog shown in the embedded video below. There’s a lot of information available on Mike’s site, so check it out if you’re intrigued.
Time for MoogFest
Festival organizers AC Entertainment, producer of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Big Ears Festival, and Vegoose, announced today MoogFest 2010, a three-day festival celebrating the innovative vision of sonic pioneer, Robert Moog.
MoogFest 2010 will be held Halloween weekend, October 29-31, in Asheville, NC. Yes – you can come dressed as your favorite Moog player!
Confirmed artists Massive Attack, MGMT, and Thievery Corporation will be joined by over 25 additional acts, performing in multiple venues throughout downtown Asheville, including the Asheville Civic Center Arena, the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, and Asheville’s renowned world-class club, the Orange Peel.
In addition to the festival’s musical offerings, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, engage with artists in panel discussions, enjoy visual art exhibitions, installations and film screenings, and explore their own musical creativity with a variety of Moog instruments.
The complete schedule of artists and events for MoogFest 2010 will be announced on July 27th. Tickets will go on sale July 30th.
‘Bob Moog changed the course of music as we know it,” says AC Entertainment’s founder, Ashley Capps. “He put new worlds of sound literally at the fingertips of musicians, unleashing a creative revolution. We’re thrilled and honored to be able to celebrate his extraordinary legacy in the place that he called home and we hope to do so for many years to come.’
Details will be posted at the MoogFest site.
Synthesis – analog solutions
Electronic musician Calvin Cardiod has created another loving demo video, this time for the Analogue Solutions Tereshkova suitcase synthesizer.
Key features of the Tereshkova:
- Suitcase style design.
- Pure analogue voice circuitry.
- Rugged Steel construction. Quality chrome catches and cool steel spring handle.
- Stuffed full of electronics. No front panel space is wasted.
- Joystick, MIDI, jack socket patch points and more.
Bob Dylan goes electro – shame on you
Audience members at the Newport Rock Festival were ‘outraged’ Monday when rock icon Bob Dylan followed up such classic hits as ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘Maggie’s Farm’ with an electronica set composed of atonal drones, hyperactive drumbeats, and the repeated mechanized lyric ‘Dance to the club life!’ ‘We came here to see the authentic Dylan, the one with the Stratocaster guitar and signature wild blues-rock band behind him,” audience member Robert Hochschild said. ‘Then he walks out with these puffy headphones, some turntables, and a laptop? The guy’s a Judas.
BigRock, a modeled emulation of the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
ArtsAcoustic has released BigRock, an authentic, accurately modeled emulation of the legendary Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, a phase shifting stomp box, of which its first revision was released in 1974.
However, being in 2010, we´ve of course overcome most of the limitations of the original and equipped the BigRock with the necessary features in an special advanced mode.
BigRock features
- Easy to use.
- Authentic sound.
- Very low CPU usage.
- Full stereo.
- Host sync in phase.
- Sync phase adjustment.
- Stereo L/R offset.
- Add. filter section.
- Continuous color adjustment.
- Dry/wet mix.
- Amount adjustment.
- Center frequency adjustment.
- Fully automatable.
ArtsAcoustic BigRock is available to purchase as an effect plug-in for PC and Mac (VST/AU), priced at 79 EUR / $89 USD.
More information: ArtsAcoustic / BigRock
Mix approach and the dynamic range
The guys at Raven Software published a great post. This time the turn is for audio lead Mark Kilborn, who talks about the mix approach and the dynamic range on the game. Check:
When you play Singularity for the first time, you may notice that parts of the game are much quieter than others. You’re hearing this because we’re working with what audio engineers call Dynamic Range, which is the difference between the loudest and quietest sound in an audio recording. We believe it is the key to delivering a powerful and memorable mix, especially for a game that depends so heavily on sound to deliver its atmosphere and mood.
Volume is not an endless thing. With color, the brightest you can get is pure white. With volume there is a limit as well, and when you hit that limit you hear what is called distortion. This isn’t the cool distortion you hear from a guitar pedal, it’s a really nasty sound that can potentially damage your speakers. Some consumer audio receivers (like the one you may have in your living room) are designed to shut down if the DVD or game being played generates too much distortion. This is a safety precaution to prevent damage to your sound system.
Prodigy named the best dance act of all times – here’s the complete listing
The Prodigy, above, have been named the most influential dance act of all time, according to a GlobalGathering survey of UK club goers released today.
Do we really agree on this 
The Top 10 most influential dance acts are:
- The Prodigy (29%)
- Daft Punk (13%)
- Faithless (11%)
- New Order (9%)
- Orbital (7%)
- Kraftwerk (5%)
- Paul Oakenfold (4%)
- Carl Cox (4%)
- Fatboy Slim (3%)
- Chemical Brothers (2%)
Over 2000 festival and club goers took part in the survey, which was commissioned by the UK dance festival GlobalGathering to mark ten years of the festival. Music fans were asked to vote for the dance act they considered the most influential from a shortlist compiled by the Global team.
About GlobalGathering’s Top 10 Dance Music Acts Of All Time
Here’s what the festival has to say about their top 10 acts:
- The Prodigy continue to both push musical boundaries and garner critical acclaim. From the band’s debut single; Charly whose chart success hooked thousands of new converts to dance music to their recent critically acclaimed album ‘Invaders Must Die’ the band continue to be acclaimed as pioneers of dance music. Blending hardcore rock with drum & bass and techno, the Prodigy have created a truly unique sound which has often been emulated but rarely bettered. Commonly cited as one of the first dance acts to successfully crossover into the live arena, the band remain a festival favourite throughout the UK and Europe.
- French duo Daft Punk, 2006 headliners at the dance festival, came second in the survey with 13% of the vote. Bursting on to the scene in 1995 with their debut album ‘Homework’ the duo have been widely credited with helping to break dance music in the USA and the band’s blend of chart bound yet credible techno-disco continues to both grow in influence and transcend musical genres having been sampled extensively by hip hop stars including Kanye West, Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliot.
- Faithless, famous for timeless club hits such as “Insomnia”, “God Is a DJ” and “We Come 1” took third place in the poll. With over 10 Million global record sales, Faithless continue to be one of dance music’s biggest live draws and the band performed to over 7 million people on their most recent tour proving they are one of the most successful and influential dance groups of all time.
- New Order who came fourth in the poll, currently hold the title for ‘best selling 12-inch single of all time’ for the 80’s hit ‘Blue Monday’. The single release proved to be a defining moment in dance music history appealing to both dance music and indie fans alike. New Order embraced electronica throughout the 80’s and 90’s and also spawned the infamous Hacienda nightclub which was a focal point for the Manchester scene of the late 1980’s.
- The hugely influential electronica duo Orbital came 5th in the poll. The Hartnoll brothers, who have recently re-formed after their split in 2004, will be celebrating 20 years of festival-rousing anthems and cinematic sounds this year. One of the most influential acts in dance music history, Orbital accompany their music with expansive audio-visuals, and their trademark torch-glasses. Orbital were fixed firm at the top of the bill for the festival in 2009.
- Kraftwerk who are widely considered the inventors of Electronic music came in at 6th in the survey. The German band who still tour sporadically have been making music since the 70?s and went on to become a huge influence on the first wave of Detroit house and hip hop producers.
- Ranking in at seventh in the survey is trance DJ, producer and artist Paul Oakenfold, famous for his legendary Ibiza sets and remix work for the likes of The Happy Mondays, U2 and Madonna, Paul was the biggest DJ in the world throughout the 90’s and continues to play to packed dancefloors throughout the world. Fellow UK DJ and producer, Carl Cox ranks at number 8 in the poll, One of the most influential DJs in dance music history, Carl Cox has had a successful career that’s spanned almost 30 years, taking him from acid house veteran to the champion of techno.
- Also featuring in the top ten is Norman cook aka Fatboy Slim. Credited with originating the ‘Big beat’ sound, Cook received a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to British music’ placing him amongst some of the greatest British music acts of all time.
- Pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre, The Chemical Brothers, complete the top 10. The world’s favourite psychedelic acid-beat duo have always combined moments of egotistic indulgence and mind-numbing formula with visionary brilliance. This duo were one of the first electronic acts to move from clubs to arena.
Prince on the net
Less than a week after declaring the Internet “dead” and choosing to distribute his new album for free with copies of a handful of European tabloid newspapers to try to stem piracy, Prince’s new album has leaked to the Internet and bootleg CD copies are surfacing on eBay.
DATAMASKIN
