iRadio and more from WWDC – Apple crunch on Last.fm, Pandora & Spotify?
“Whether it’s an exclusive single from an up-and-coming band or a pre-release stream of an entire album, iTunes Radio has it all. iTunes Radio will also be home to special events including live streams direct from the iTunes Festival in London and other exclusive iTunes Sessions.”
So will this be the death sentence for the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Last.fm – perhaps / perhaps not. It will all boil down to the catalogues available, niche segmentation on music, ability to differentiate and size of user base, but it is clear that this will have an impact going forward. What may lie in favor of the existing players is that Apple will most likely not be an indie lover, as share holder profits come first and one may expect that there will be room for those who really differentiate on music – not just music for the masses. There’s reason to assume this may be a long game going forward. While musicians may well wind up being as impoverished as always, the companies serving up the streams might eventually want to profit – Spotify for one is still chasing growth rather than profit, something that might have to change now.
“It’s the music you love most and the music you’re going to love, and you can easily buy it from the iTunes Store with just one click.”
Apart from iRadio we were also treated with the all time fattest Mac Pro to date:
The next generation Mac Pro is architected around an ingenious unified thermal core that allows the desktop to efficiently share its entire thermal capacity across all the processors. The result is a pro desktop with breakthrough performance packed into a design that is one-eighth the volume of the current Mac Pro.
face-meltingNext generation Intel Xeon E5 processors with up to 12 core configurations deliver double the floating point performance. With two AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs, the all-new Mac Pro is up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and delivers up to an amazing 7 teraflops of compute power.
The new Mac Pro also features PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 10 times faster than conventional desktop hard drives and includes the latest four-channel ECC DDR3 memory running at 1866 MHz to deliver up to 60GBps of memory bandwidth. With all that power, the new Mac Pro lets you seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects in the background.
The next generation Mac Pro is the most expandable Mac® ever built. With six Thunderbolt 2 ports that can deliver up to 20Gbps of bandwidth to each external device, Mac Pro is perfect for connecting to external storage, multiple PCI expansion chassis, audio and video breakout boxes, and the latest external displays, including 4K desktop displays. Each of the six Thunderbolt 2 ports supports up to six daisy-chained devices, giving you the ability to connect up to 36 high-performance peripherals. Thunderbolt 2 is completely backwards compatible with existing Thunderbolt peripherals, and allows you to transfer data between Macs faster and easier than ever.
iOS 7:
Well of course iOS has gotten a well deserved and long awaited face lift, but looking specifically at it from a music creation perspective the news are meager, but three things stand out though –
- Multiple pages in folders
- Multitasking for all apps
- Automatic app updates will be a good thing
Livid all in: Base Polyphonic Aftertouch & Colors
This video demonstrates some of the wild possibilities with aftertouch and the Livid Base MIDI controller, including a novel way to integrate the iPhone with the Base. The 32 touch sensitive pads can output polyphonic aftertouch, so if your synth is great enough to use that (such as the Madrona Labs Aalto plugin), you’ve got some fantastic possibilities at your fingertips. Stay tuned: after the audio weirdness, there’s a short explanation on how to quickly configure the Base using the online Editor.
Links:
lividinstruments.com/hardware_base.php
madronalabs.com/products/aalto
lividserver.com/editor
There are LEDs everywhere on the Livid Base. With the online editor, you can change the color of every LED, and save your setup to the Base so it always boots up with the colors you want. This tutorial shows you how to use the editor with the Base to change the colors on the drum pads.
Livid Artist Interviews Presents Alluxe (aka Laura Escudé). Alluxe stopped by our studio to perform a track from her new EP and with the BASE, her custom Ohm RGB, Ableton Live, Wii remote, and violin. She discusses her live performance setup with Livid founder Jay Smith, and explains the integration of her controllers. Check out part two of this video where she performs a track.
“Computer love” – on small Yamaha keyboards
Background video description:
Most of my small keyboards are from Casio. But I do have a Collection of small Yamaha keyboards too. Here I use some of them to play the Classic Kraftwerk song “Computer Love”.
You might notice that on the PC-100 keyboard the notes doesn’t seem to match the keys I am playing. The reason is that I had to use the transpose knob to be able to get the notes as high as I wanted them. So on this particular keyboard I am playing in another key than on the others.
4 synthrotek Ds-8 drum machine modules in rack w/ eurorack MFB SEQ-01 Drum Sequencer.
“Hey! Check it. We have 4 of our DS-8 Drum synth kits all racked up and being triggered by a MFB SEQ-01 Drum Sequencer. We are also using the synthrotek 16 step sequencer to add some CV into the drums, which work as great oscillators”
Originally designed by Coron in the 1980′s for drummers and percussionists to add synth capabilities to their sets, our clone stays true to the DS-8 Drum Synce circuit with a few modifications that expand its capabilities. You don’t need to be banging out beats to play around with this awesome synth!
Features:
- Amazing analog signal generation! – Wobbly lows, screeching sirens, dive bombs, squeals, and everything in-between. On-board pannable white noise generator puts out snare and hi-hat hits!
- Three different ways to play: use a piezo cell to trigger it like a real drum, send a Trigger/Gate pulse (~+5V) from a sequencer/simple timer circuit, or activate the DS-8 Clone with the on-board Manual Trigger momentary switch!
- Multiple controls to tailor your sound! Sensitivity sets your input threshold to adjust how hard you need to hit or the minimum voltage level to trigger the circuit. The length of the trigger pulse can be varied from staccato to a lengthy drop-off with the Decay control. Sweep adjusts the variation of the output frequency. The analog LFO (low frequency oscillator) circuitry is controlled by the Mode and Rate. VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) sets a base level frequency to limit your frequency range. Dirty up your signal with the Pan control, which varies the amount of white noise you’ll need for snare hits or deep tom rumble. Level controls the volume of the final VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) portion of your circuit.
- All potentiometers used for customizing your sound can be mounted on-board to minimize time-consuming wiring.
- Tone Control switch allows you to toggle between the two standard noise sources.
- CV Input makes the DS-8 Clone even better! Plug in an external LFO generator or use a sequencer to make some hands-free music!
- Powering your DS-8 Clone is no problem! Use a 9V battery or save some cash and use a 9-15V >= 100mA AC Adapter. The 9V battery also can act as a backup power supply that is only engaged when nothing is plugged into the DC Jack.
- PCB (printed circuit board) measures 6″ x 2.0625″ and is designed in-house by our very own electronics engineer!
Checking out Dubstep The Drop for iPad
For more information go here:
http://synthuniverse.com/dubstep-the-…
Get it from iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/dubst…
Dubstep The Drop by Brunkt Beatz brings everyone’s favorite part of dubstep directly to your fingertips. Amateurs and professionals alike can enjoy this app – its expertly selected and cut tracks make it easy for anyone to drop baselines with the touch of a button. Dubstep The Drop will put you in the center of the music you love – with little effort you will make the crowd go wild and experience what your favorite DJs go through every time they trigger a well-placed drop.
John Foxx And The Maths – ‘Rear-View Mirror’ (Unofficial)
Rear-View Mirror is taken from the album ‘The Shape Of Things’.
For more information about this album and new releases:
http://johnfoxx.tmstor.es/
Official page: http://www.metamatic.com/
This brilliant follow-up to John Foxx And The Maths’ debut Interplay was recorded and mixed at Benge’s studio in London. Like Interplay, it’s the sound of analogue synthesizers and drum machines – and on one track, feedbacking guitars played by Foxx himself. Although there’s a raw edge to the likes of ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Talk’ this album is arguably more reflective and emotional than Interplay. Though not overtly auto-biographical, there is a sense of looking back over a life and exploring feelings of loss over opportunities and lovers missed, and possible futures that will remain unlived. All these thoughts and angles are expressed in ‘Rear-View Mirror’, ‘Unrecognised’, ‘September Town’, ‘Talk’ and ‘Falling Down’ , as conversations are remembered through dreams and scenes finally played out. Far from wallowing in nostalgia or bitterness, in many ways this is a vital, even sometimes pleasurable experience. At the end of the album those shadow worlds and darker feelings are actually zapped into a new form of life with the macabre sci-fi theatre of ‘the Shadow Of His Former Self’. Meanwhile, ‘Vapour Trails”s upbeat electronic pyschedelia is rooted in the music of Foxx’s own youth, while ‘Tides’ looks widescreen over a lifetime’s experiences, pinned to a fast Motorik beat and still looking to the future as Foxx rides ‘those wild eternal tides, again and again.’ Looking back in order to look forward, the album is about a life lived and a view on those shadow existences that also somehow stay with us. Ultimately it’s a positive and necessary process. It’s that glimpse when things unfold and we feel aware – just for a moment – of The Shape Of Things. This limited edition version of The Shape Of Things also features a hard-back book designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, and a bonus album of remixes by the likes of Ghost Box, Wrangler (featuring Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire) and Gary Numan collaborator/remixer Andy Gray. There’s also a brand new track with Tara Busch, who recently supported John Foxx & The Maths on their Interplay Tour.
Disc 1
1. Spirus
2. Rear-View Mirror
3. Talk
4. Psytron
5. September Town
6. Unrecognised
7. Modreno
8. Falling Away
9. Invisible Ray
10. Vapour Trails
11. Buddwing
12. Tides
13. Astoria
14. The Shadow Of His Former Self
Disc 2
1. Evergreen (Radio Mix)
2. Shatterproof (Wrangler Mix)
3. Where You End And I Begin (Featuring Tara Busch)
4. Summerland (Belbury Poly Mix)
5. The Good Shadow (Tim ‘Love’ Lee Mix)
6. Watching A Building On Fire (Grayed Out Mix)
7. Interplay (Grayed Out Mix)
8. Evergreen (Xeno & Oaklander Mix)
John Bowen Solaris Demo
Here is a demo of the Solaris synth by John Bowen (www.johnbowen.com).
“I have this fantastic synt for a week now and worked with it for 6 evenings. I started building my own sounds right away and in this demo you can hear a sound that uses vector and wavetable synthesis. Everything is played live using the keyboard, the joystick, the 4 part switch buttons and the pitch and modulation wheel. This synth is the king of evolving sounds!”
For better audio quality go to SoundCloud:
http://soundcloud.com/insanic4/solari…
The general concept behind the Solaris synthesizer is to implement something like a giant wall-sized modular system entirely in software where you can select among several completely different types of oscillators and filters, exquisitely modelled after the components culled from a variety of legendary vintage synthesizers of yesteryear and even some current virtual analog innovations of today. With up to four oscillators, four filters, four amplifiers, four four-input mixers, six envelope generators, one looping envelope generator, five LFOs, two vector mixers and still more of these software modules available in each program, the Solaris synthesizer becomes absolutely unrivalled in terms of versatility and programmability.
Drift chaos modulator plugin – now in version 2.0
Sinevibes has released version 2.0 of its Drift chaos modulator plugin. It is designed to be a simple but flexible tool that can enrich static sounds with random yet organic motion, create chaotic filter and phaser effects, or add never-repeating, stereoscopic pulsations.
Inside Drift run two instances of the Lorenz attractor algorithm, which is a two-dimensional wave typically used for airflow modelling. Each of the four resulting outputs is separately used as a modulation source.
With the featured four-pole resonant low-pass filter and barberpole phaser the user can create many different stereo chaos effects which are designed to remain organic and natural regardless of the type of the source sound.
Price: $19. The update is free for existing owners.
In-depth exploration of the KOMA BD101
The KOMA BD101 is a complex (short) Analog Delay & Amplitude Modulation unit that can be used for filtering and treating audio signals; the very short delay time closes every “standard” application, but opens a whole landscape of sonic crushing and underclocking distortion. Pretty Wild. The IR sensor is very sensible to strong lights for shooting; so, on this video, its sensibility is not so strong than in the real life.
KOMA BD101 amplitude modulating Doepfer Dark Energy; Dark Time retriggers synth eg and BD101 is AMing signal for a rhythmic interaction; short delay and underclocking of BBD as usual.
The short BBD into BD101 is modulated with LFO triangle/square wave out from Doepfer Dark Energy. A lot of harmonics and – when underclocking takes act – a lot of severe audio changes. Not a standard delay, but a complex sound sculpting machine.
Serge Modular Sounds 10
Background video description:
The WAD was in a very sedate mood today, so I used it as a standard rhythmic delay. Delay A to out (center), delay B to the Frequency shifter with Up and Down outs panned hard left and right.
DATAMASKIN
