Dataline Live Elektron Session at Beatport, Berlin
Download full set at: http://dataline.bandcamp.com/album/da…
Analog Four, Octatrack, Machinedrum and Monomachine in action.
More info: http://www.elektron.se/
https://www.facebook.com/Project.Data…
https://soundcloud.com/dataline
Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter confirms new album in the making
Ralf gave one of his rare interviews when on tour in Australia:
The Catalogue has been more than just a tour, though. Hütter also suggests that it’s drawn a line under the band’s past.
“Now this is done, one to eight,” he smiles. “Now we can concentrate on number nine.”
So the long-awaited – and much discussed – new Kraftwerk album, the first in a decade, is definitely on its way?
“Oh yes.”
Is there a timeline? Hütter smiles broadly.
“Of course. It’s music non stop!”
Excerpt from the interview:
“Nowadays basically Kraftwerk is a space lab: we can land anywhere as long as we have the projectors and the screens.” Ralf Hütter, Kraftwerk’s co-founder and sole remaining original member, is welcoming me into his dressing room at the Sydney Opera House on the eve of the band’s final two performances of their eight show series based around 2009’s box set, The Catalogue.
It would be easy to assume that the man behind such cold, precise music would be standoffish in person, yet Hütter is a genial host. His eyes sparkle as he speaks, even as he pauses to find the exact right English word to explain his artistic philosophies. He also looks a good decade and a half younger than his 66 years – a testament to his band’s long-time advocacy of cycling, which inspired the 2003 Tour de France Soundtracks.
Tour de France is the most recent album featured in both box set and show, which cover the bands eight album output. Performing in just a handful of other cities – New York, London, their hometown of Dusseldorf – each album, from 1974’s Autobahn onwards, has been presented from start to finish and accompanied by with eye-popping 3D projections and surround sound. The response has been rapturous.
The ultra-portable Traktor Kontrol Z1
Traktor Kontrol Z1 is coming soon – the ultra-compact, pro-grade 2-channel mixer, controller, and soundcard for Traktor DJ and Traktor Pro 2. Pre-order now. http://www.native-instruments.com/tra…
Hook it up to your iPad or iPhone for a fully-functional Traktor DJ rig, complete with track headphone cueing, super-intuitive control, and premium, club-ready sound. Or combine it with Traktor Kontrol X1 or F1 controllers for the ultimate mobile Traktor Pro 2 setup.
More on Traktor DJ:
http://www.native-instruments.com/tra…
The track in this video is ‘Dilated’ by XLII. Visit XLII on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/XLIImusic
TRAKTOR KONTROL Z1 is the ultra-portable, professional DJ mixing controller forTRAKTOR DJ andTRAKTOR PRO 2. Its cue section lets you monitor and mix tracks with pro precision. Dedicated controls for two channels give you intuitive, tactile control over volume, EQ, filters, and effects. And the built-in audio interface delivers powerful, club-ready sound. Get total control and professional sound in a go-anywhere package – it’s pro on the go.
Want to deliver floor-shaking DJ sets with TRAKTOR DJ? Connect your iPad or iPhone to the Z1 and get a complete two-deck DJ setup with ultimate tactile control. Cue up the next track in your headphones while the current track still plays for the crowd. Mix and EQ with pro-grade faders, knobs, and buttons. Apply filters and effects with the ultra-intuitive one sweep knob. The Z1 even charges your iOS device while you play, so you never have to worry about battery life when your set hits its peak.
TRAKTOR KONTROL Z1 works perfectly with TRAKTOR PRO 2 – plug in and instantly start mixing with hands-on control and premium, club-ready sound. You can also expand your mobile rig with additional creative possibilities: Add TRAKTOR KONTROL X1 to control effects, loops and transport functions like play and sync, and TRAKTOR KONTROL F1 for creative Remix Deck™ magic. Whatever your style, build your setup around TRAKTOR KONTROL Z1 and rock the club or the after-party with the most compact, portable TRAKTOR system ever.
Time machine: Exploring the PPG wave 2.2
The German made PPG (Palm Products GmbH) Wave 2 series of synthesizers are incredibly great sounding analog/digital hybrid vintage synths. They use digital samples of wavetables and feature analog VCA envelope and VCF (filter) sections for a classic and warm sound. The Wave 2.2 has oscillators that can generate over 2,000 different single-cycle 8-bit digital waveforms! Covered by knobs, the Wave still looks analog and this comprises the “Analog Control Panel”. More complex and new-wave editing of the wavetables and samples is covered by the “Digital Control Panel” where there are several key-pad buttons and an LCD screen. Another familiar treat to analog junkies is the inclusion of an 8-track sequencer which features automation of pitch, loudness, filter cutoff, waveforms and more. A cool feature – its onboard sequencer will also record any filtering and wave changes, in real-time!!
The more commonly encountered Wave 2.3 (pictured) followed the 2.2 and had enhanced sample-playback capabilities. The sampler was pretty full-featured for its time and included upgraded 12-bit digital waveforms, Fourier analysis and linear playback of samples. The 2.3 model also featured 8-parts multitimbrality and MIDI implementation. The PPG Waves are know to create excellent pads, brass and bass sounds.
In fact it was Tangerine Dream who helped the company and the Wave develop. 1978 saw the development of the PPG Wave Computer 360. But the Wave Computer sounded harsh and tinny. In 1981, the PPG Wave 2 was released which added analog VCF and VCA filter and envelopes to warm the digital sound. The original Wave 2 had 8-voice polyphony, like the 2.2 and 2.3, but it had only one oscillator per voice. The 2.2 offered two oscillators per voice which opened up a whole new realm of sonic possibilities because two separate wavetable sounds could now be combined.
Vintage synthesizer track by RetroSound
“Miami Nights”
all synthesizer sounds: PPG wave 2.2 Wavetable Synthesizer (1982)
drums: Roland TR-707
sequencing: internal sequencer
recording: multi-tracking without midi
fx: a bit reverb and delay
more info: http://www.retrosound.de
FL Studio Guru | Sidechain Inputs and VocALign
Enter the Giveaway – http://synchroarts.us7.list-manage.co…
Setting up the VocALign plugin from Synchroarts. http://www.synchroarts.com/
Moog interview with Thomas Dolby
Moog had the pleasure to sit down with Thomas Dolby last week in England to deliver his custom Minimoog Voyager XL. Dolby talked with us about his experiences with Moog synthesizers, his musical process, and his history with many different musicians.
When were your first experiences with Moogs? When did you first get the opportunity to experiment and play with them?
There tended to be Minimoogs lying around professional studios round-about the end of the 70’s – 76-77-ish when I first got into studios. And when the Micromoog came out I picked one up second hand out of the back of Melody Maker. And that was the first off-the-shelf synth I’d owned. Before that the only synth I’d owned was a Transcendent 2000.
Ah, that’s the DIY one isn’t it?
Yeah. And I didn’t have a keyboard for it. So I could sort of generate tones but that was about it. I remember hooking it up to the keyboard from an ARP.
That’s very old school – in the sense of using it as an oscillator bank.
Yeah. So I was familiar with Minimoog but the Micro was the first one I could afford. And the next one was the Source. And for a while I had a three piece band, and I was basically playing the Micro and the bass player was using the Source.
And so I’ve used Mini’s a lot over the years but never owned one. The first serious recording I did with one was on the Foreigner “4” album. I remember Mutt Lange had left for the night, and left me for the night like a kid locked up in a toy shop. And I had six tracks and had to make an intro for “Waiting for a Girl Like You”.
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!
DATAMASKIN
