The Sheffield boys – Weekend synth treat
Cool video with the Mirrors 
– Not really hard to hear their influences – is it….
The video for Mirrors new single ‘Ways To An End’, released 23rd August via Skint
Filmed in Brighton’s The Duke of Yorks, directed by Simon Pollard
www.myspace.com/mirrorsmirrorsmirrors
Machine will get AU and Plug-in support
Some good news from Native Instruments coming your way, that is if you are a Machine user of course
Hi all,
I can finally break the news to you about the biggest feature that will come to Maschine in the next free update – which is plugin hosting!
So, according to popular demand, the upcoming 1.6 version will allow you to use VST and AU plugins as sound sources and effects in your Maschine project. This includes both the whole NI range of instruments and effects as well as any third-party plugin.
Check the screenshot for an idea of how this will look like. Instrument plugins can be used in any sound channel, and effect plugins can be inserted on both the sound and group channels as well as on the master.
Obviously the addition of plugin hosting requires quite a bit of development and testing. Regarding the timing of the release – version 1.6 is about to go into internal beta testing this month, and we are currently planning to make it available to you through a public beta test in January, with the final release probably coming up around two months later. As always, these are projected dates that can still change a bit.
Plugin hosting is the most prominent feature addition in 1.6, but there will be quite some more useful things being added with that update. Look forward to the coming weeks when we will post more details about Maschine 1.6!
Regards, Thomas”
Lowe on tour in the US
The synthpop trio Lowe has been asked to guest “The Real Radioshow” in New York City on November 22. The show is broadcasted live from Times Square, where Lowe will start their US tour. They will play new single “Breathe in Breathe out” from the upcoming album “Evolver” (2011).
Lowe have released several songs from the album digitally (see their web site).
After New York City, twelve more North American cities awaits the band that usually tours Eastern Europe.
Circuit benders are at it again
There are a total of 26 new knobs and two new switches on the front panel. The standard KPR77 has no control over any sound parameters and as a result is a rather lifeless machine but these new knobs take it into a whole new world of analogue percussion. We have also adjusted the trigger pulse of the bass drum to give it a more 808’ish clicking punch instead of the standard weak tick.
More background info:
The Korg KPR77 is one of those analogue beatboxes from the early 80’s that should probably be seen as Korgs answer to the Roland TR606. They were released in the same year but Korg made the huge mistake of not having ‘Roland TR’ written on the front, which is plainly a criminal error when it comes to analogue percussion. At least the absurd price of the TR606 these days would suggest as much. What didn’t help the Korg was that despite the fact that it had an LCD display (with a orange backlight!), the programming interface was initially somewhat counter intuitive despite being far superior to the TR606, and after a few years the front panel buttons usually only operated under steam hammer pressure. The other drawback was that the KPR77’s stock soundset seemed to have a complete lack of magic about it. The bassdrum is lightweight and weak with a poor attack and apart from the halfway decent toms, every other sound could be found better elsewhere. Having said that, the KPR77 is a lot more fun to use than the TR606 and can probably be picked up for less than a third of the price.
Turn your iPad into a sampling workstation
Sample Lab is a new app for the iPad that turns it into a sampling workstation.
Features:
- Pinch-zoom precision sample editor lets you select your audio and drag it right onto a track.
- 8 stereo tracks @ 44.1kHz with per-beat volume control.
- Pitch-shifting preserves time and gives you 2 full octaves from one sample; without chipmunking.
- Record your own samples, or import wav & mp3 files using iTunes.
- Trigger pads for tapping-in patterns or stand-alone performance.
- 4 real-time DSP FX: compressor, bit crusher, resonant cutoff, and phaser.
- Shuffle control for syncopation.
- Over 100 samples included to get you started.
- Audio Copy & Paste to share with other apps.
- Upload your mixdowns to SoundCloud to collaborate & share.
- Import new samples using iTunes.
Check out the video below for an example of Sample Pad in action.
Sample Pad is expected to be available in the app store as soon as iOS 4.2 is released to iPad. Pricing is to be announced. See the SampleLabApp site for details.
A few minutes with the app + some random samples and he showed us how it’s done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi7Vg8o7nfY
Soft step in Ableton live
Diane Douglas gives a in-depth tutorial of the SoftStep controlling Ableton Live.
Teaser for Euro leg for Recoil’s ‘Selected events’
Alan Wilder’s (ex Depeche Mode) tour visiting world with its project, Recoil, and the show “Selected Events 2010 – A Strange Hour”. After a series of live dates before in Europe and the U.S. the show now returns to Europe for a number of closing dates in November and December. For the new dates will show also include all-new parts, materials not previously been played during the tour, but also completely virgin video.
Special guests will also participate, including Gary Numan, Ade Fenton, Architect, Sono and Northern Kind.
Rare video with Vangelis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WJOCEm_rRM&feature=player_embedded
Yamaha CS80 with built in ring mod effects.
“Rare footage of Vangelis performing an improvisation on synthesizer at his Nemo Studios.
Some enhancement of the original poor tape video with denoising, contrast improvement and color correction.
Sound remastering for better clearity and stereo imaging.
Via MS
Cockos has updated REAPER to version 3.73.
Changes:
- AU:
- Fixed some AUs going blank when floating/unfloating the window (thanks, Camel Audio).
- Avoid opening bridges to scan for plug-ins (keep cached copy — hit F5 in fx browser to force rescan).
- Envelopes:
- Fixed editing of first envelope point.
- When hiding pre-fx volume/pan envelopes, values are no longer applied to main volume/pan.
- Mixer:
- Fixed positioning when adding first visible track icon or removing last icon.
- Fixed resize of hidden extended mixer components with track icon visible.
- Theming:
- Drag and drop of .ReaperThemeZip (or .zip with theme files) files to REAPER’s arrange now installs the theme.
- Fixed stretch configuration for some theme button images.
- API: added GetCurrentProjectInLoadSave() for context when loading project-specific extension state.
- Batch file converter: fixed dropping files on OSX.
- Configuration import/export: preliminary support for importing/exporting .ReaperConfigZip, accessible via action or preferences/general.
- Items: show take numbers for items without take names.
- MIDI editor: fixed marquee including too many items when zoomed very far in.
- Ripple editing: fixed ripple on first track when pasting/inserting multiple items.
- SMPTE LTC sync: leave framerate blank to use project framerate setting (default for new projects).
- Tooltips: fixed a bug that would cause some pan envelope tooltips to display incorrectly.
- Update arrange view periodically while bringing media online: Update arrange view periodically while bringing media online.
Cool introduction to Game Audio
How Games are Different from Anything You’ve Worked on Before
This session provides an introduction and exploration into the many ways in which video game music and sound design are fundamentally different from linear media such as television or film. It also covers what to expect when working on a game, and how being part of a game team is very different from being hired to score or do sound design for more traditional media.
Watch more videos at Soundworkscollection.com
DATAMASKIN
