FaceOSC JAM2 and Ableton
FaceOSC is a tool for prototyping face-based interaction. It’s built on non-commercial open source FaceTracker code from Jason Saragih.
FaceOSC linked up to Ableton Live via Just Add Music 2
Basic testing of vimeo.com/26098366
MoDrum, Bassline, Gruvtron playing in sync on one iPad
Running iOS music apps as “modules” – potential of in-device CoreMIDI communication
“Yesterday I just noticed that Molten Drum Machine support sending MIDI clock sync to other apps on the same iPad. That made me curious and after some surveys, I found some other apps also supporting this feature. So I had some experiments and I recorded what I can do so far this morning.
In this video I demonstrated 3 apps MoDrum, Bassline (from Finger-lab) and Gruvtron (from Sound Trends LLC) running simultaneously on the same iPad. The beats from 3 apps are synced by MIDI clock (MoDrum as the clock source). Since all the 3 apps are universal apps, it should be no problem to do it on iPhone too. This is really an awesome feature and made me feel like the apps as”modules” which can work together with other apps on the same iPad/iPhone, rather than running them as the only app exclusively on the device. Last week I noticed a project Polyonix trying to make multiple apps running simultaneously on the same screen of a jailbroken device. This will make controlling these apps even easier.”
Live mashup of 39 songs: Madeon – Pop Culture
A video of a live mashup is impressing general audiences as much as it is enthusiasts. It’s not a complex work, but it’s brilliantly performed, and in incorporating some 39 songs into one epic mash-up of Ableton-synced clips, it presents plenty of touchstones for audience members. The ingredients: FL Studio, Ableton Live, a Novation Launchpad, and a Novation ReMOTE Zero SL MKII.
“This is a little idea i’ve been playing around with to implement in my set, hope you like it.”
Tracklist:
Alphabeat – Boyfriend
Alphabeat – Fascination
Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars
Black Eyed Peas – Gotta Feeling
Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time
Capsule – Can I Have A Word
Chromeo – Momma’s Boy
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Daft Punk – Aerodynamic
Daft Punk – Around The World
Deadmau5 – Raise Your Weapon (Madeon Remix)
Deadmau5 – Right This Second
Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed
ELO – Mr. Blue Sky
Girls Aloud – Biology
Gorillaz – Dare
Gossip – Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)
Gwen Stefani – What You Waitin For (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Housse de Racket – Oh Yeah
Justice – DVNO
Justice – Phantom Part II
Katy Perry – One Of The Boys
Ke$ha – Take It Off
Kylie Minogue – Wow
Lady Gaga – Alejandro
Linkin Park – Crawling
Madonna – Hung Up
Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette – Boys and Girls
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
Nero – Me and You
One Republic – All The Right Moves (Danger Remix)
One-T – Magic Key
Ratatat – Shempi
Solange – I Decided (Freemasons Remix)
Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star
The Killers – Losing Touch
The Who – Baba O’Riley (SebastiAn Remix)
Yelle – Que Veux Tu (Madeon Remix)
Made with FL Studio & Ableton Live, played on a Novation Launchpad & Novation Zero SL MKII.
Free sample pack based on the classic Roland 909
Tape Death has released Jomox XBase-09 Kicks, a free sample pack featuring sounds from the hardware drum machine.
The Jomox XBase-09 is an analog drum machine based on Roland’s 909. The difference is like the Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fight in Way of the Dragon. They both got kicks, but at the end of the day Bruce Lee broke Chuck Norris’ fucking neck. The 909 is good, but the Jomox is better.
Our new sample pack consists of 53 samples from Hyphae’s XBase-09, created by Hyphae and Megatroid one hazy night in Hyphae’s studio. A secret weapon for years, we’re now sharing them with you cause we’re just good people. You can check out Megatroid’s new Jackie Onassis remix for a taste.
The Jomox XBase-09 Kicks pack is available as a free download (newsletter sign-up required).
Kittens on DJ Decks
“Some very talented kittens on turntable decks sounding much better that I would”
Drum machine in action – Roland CR 78 Demo
Although primitive by today’s standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time. The wood effect cabinet and preset rhythms of the CR-78 such as Waltz, Bossa Nova and Rhumba suggest that it was seen by its designers as primarily an accompaniment for an electric organ, but the CR-78 became one of the favorite instruments of Pop and electronic musicians in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Songs that make prominent use of the Roland CR-78 include “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins and “Duchess” by Genesis. John Foxx expresses his love for the CR-78 in this interview.
The CR-78 used analog drum voices, which sounded very little like real percussion instruments, but they instead had their own distinctive sounds. The unit also incorporated an early Intel microprocessor to provide digital control of its functions. Previous Roland drum machines had offered only a selection of preset rhythms. The CR-78’s key new feature was that in addition to offering 34 preset rhythms, it provided four programmable memory locations for storing patterns created by the user. These could be created by using step programming with the WS-1 box, which was available as an optional extra.
The CR-78’s front panel allowed the user to customize the preset rhythms by altering the volume balance between bass and treble sounds, canceling some sounds altogether, and adding ring modulation (“metal beat”) to the cymbal sounds. Many of the preset rhythms have a memorable character, and the ability to manipulate them further made the CR-78 a versatile instrument.
No digital control of tempo was provided on the front panel, with only an analog knob for the function. However, the CR-78 would also accept an external V-trig clock, allowing a control voltage to be fed in from another device such as a music sequencer. A selection of preset fills and rhythm variations were also available, either to trigger manually, or automatically every 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars. Some of these fills were used in synth-pop songs such as “Enola Gay” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “Underpass” by John Foxx and “Vienna” by Ultravox.
Roland also produced a simpler drum machine, the CompuRhythm CR-68. This was essentially the same as the CR-78, but without programmable patterns or the ability to fade drum sounds in and out. At the same time Roland also sold the TR-66, a smaller unit which offered fewer preset rhythms and no programmability.
In this video:
Mostly playing around with rhythm selections (incl. A/B variations), voice cancel, tempo, automatic fills, automatic fading, etc.
Unsound Krakow festival: Future Shock
Unsound has announced the central theme for this year’s Krakow festival: Future Shock!
Unsound will take the bestselling 1970 book by futurist Alvin Toffler as the starting point to create a program exploring ideas of the future from the past. Via performances, screenings, talks and installations, Unsound Krakow will also reflect upon key “Future Shock” ideas such “information overload” – a phrase popularized by Toffler. His examination and prophetic description of the disorientating effects of an accelerated rate of technological and social change will serve as a jumping off point for a wide range of musical and non-musical work to be presented in Krakow.
The festival is to take place between October 8th and October 16th, with October 13th – 16th as the key days including John Foxx & The Maths, Sun Araw, Laurel Halo, Deaf Center, Cut Hands, Sex Workers and Ital!
Please check out the documentary above on the Alvin Toffler book Future Shock, it’s a must see for all retro techno futurists!
Here’s another future inspired song:
Make sure to to checkout Herbie’s synths including the forgotten Rhodes Chroma.
Subdecay presents the tiny Octasynth
The Octasynth uses square waves, suboctaves and a resonant low pass filter to create thick creamy gritty synthy goodness
Background info:
This pedal with streamlined controls converts your guitar signal in to three octaves of square waves singing in unison, then sends them through a resonant filter. The end result is reminiscent of a vintage analog synthesizer… or in some cases a malfunctioning analog synthesizer.
The Octasynth reacts to your guitar and playing style. Tracking is usually best with the neck pickup. For some guitars it may help to roll the treble back a little too. Some experimenting with your playing style may be needed to really get full use out of this pedal. Palm muted runs can yield anything from funky bass stabs to staccato sequences. Let the notes ring for some sub bass thump or dreamy filter sweeps.
The Octasynth takes a “blunt instrument” approach to create synthesizer sounds. The filter is controlled by the depth knob AND how hard you pick each note. As a note fades away the filter sweeps lower and lower. This can trail notes off gracefully with the right settings and playing style.
The Octasynth is 100% analog. The Octasynth is MONOPHONIC. It will only track one note at a time. Power chords can sometimes create a musical, but glitchy effect. Diminished 9th chords… not so much. They just splatter and make a mess. Don’t try this on the carpet.
Controls:
The Octasynth’s controls are tailored to creating a sound quickly. No endless tweaking required.
Blend- A mix control for 3 octave voices. To the left, two octaves down. To the right, one octave. In the center a mix of all three.
Depth- The range of the filter. As this knob is turned to the right each note you play pushes the filter cutoff frequency higher. This control can be a bit touchy, especially in the lower range. When turned all the way down the filter stays below audible frequencies (i.e. there will be no sound at all.) It needs to be turned up at least a little bit for any audible effect. This design allows the filter to trail off to ultra low frequencies, which can make notes trail off gracefully rather than sputtering out.
Res- Resonance/Feedback for the filter. Turned to the right the cut off frequency of the filter is intensified. Turned all the way to the right the filter will approach near oscillation.
Level- Total output volume.
The Octasynth is tuned for electric guitar. We do NOT recommend the Octasynth for use with Bass guitar.
The second Fairlight preview – CMI-30A sampling
In this second video preview of the new Fairlight CMI-30A, Peter Vogel demonstrates the sampling page. This video includes what is probably the most expensive method of generatng a sawtooth wave known to mankind.
A bit of trivia: the sounds sampled in the making of this demo are used in the sting at the start and end of the video. Listen on big speakers.
The new CMI is unique in that it produces the classic “Fairlight sound” that defined music of the eighties as well as the modern Fairlight sound — that of uncompromising signal purity.
Both these extremes are made possible by the extraordinary processing power of the Crystal Core engine which lies at the heart of the system.
The Crystal Core media processor(CC-1) was developed by Fairlight.AU as the engine for its range of top-end digital audio workstations. The CC-1 uses FPGA (field-programmable gate array) to achieve performance far in excess of what can be achieved using even the fastest digital signal processor of conventional design.
Talking Robot Mouth Mimics Human Speech
Creepy I know 
DigInfo TV – http://diginfo.tv
DATAMASKIN
