Kraftwerk Machine for the iPad
Kraftwerk has released something for the robot-lovin’ Apple fanbois – Kling Klang Machine for the iPhone & iPad.
Kling Klang Machine is an “interactive 24 hour music generator”. Here’s what the developer has to say about it:
It’s a novel system that creates music and sound based on realtime data depending on your location that are continuously feeded into the app, meaning the KLING KLANG MACHINE No1 can’t be compared with other generative music apps, which mostly utilize pre-programmed algorithms.
There are some nice ways to manipulate sound and store personal preferences.
For now the functionality is still kind of basic but the original concept will be more and more implemented in future updates and releases.
Unfortunately, there’s no video preview, at this point.
Kling Klang Machine No1 is $8.99
Here are the features:
1. WORLD TIME ZONE MAP
24 hours automated music
2. INTERACTIVE CONTROL
Bidirectional cross line: tempo and tune of sound
Zoom: room – sound – effect
Save: 2 memory locations for control settings
Reset: All settings back to default
3. MATRIX
Auto: Matrix sequence – variation after 16 steps
Loop: 16 step sequence in a loop
Clear: Clear matrix
Save: 2 memory locations for sequencer
4. MIXER
Direct access to all parameters through direct controls
Save: 2 memory locations for controller settings
Reset: All settings back to default
Simple Minds Feat. O.M.D. – Neon Lights
Simple Minds Feat. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Neon Lights
26/11/2009
Amsterdam
Heineken Music Hall
The Remix Project 2011
Kraftwerk – the Remix Project 2011 – clip by DJ Graffity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLElTE5LXjE
Pocket Calculator
Kraftwerk song offered by the FPCiudad of Huesca in the convention center in the peripheries Festival 2009, “Tribute Mix. ” This track is included on the disc Huescasuena.
Kraftwerk snippets on the original Vako Orchestron
Playing some snippets of “Trans-Europe Express” by Kraftwerk letting you hear the Orchestron’s “Violins” sound.
The sound you hear is the actual sound used by Kraftwerk.
Playing some snippets of Radioactivity (Kraftwerk) demonstrating the “Vocal Choir” sound of the Orchestron.
This sound is the exact sound (not a replica, it IS this sound) Kraftwerk used on Radioactivity and a small number of other songs.
As you can hear, I’ve got some problems with pitch stability. This is due to a worn out belt that connects the motor and the wheel that actually spins the record.
More info about the Orchestron: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestron
The thing underneath the Orchestron is the Eminent 1600 Orchestra. This is not the intrument used by Jean-Michel Jarre (that’s the 310U) thought it features the same sounds, and has a built in String Ensemble which is more or less the same than the Arp Solina String Ensemble. As you can see, I’ve got some problems with the contacts of the bass pedals.
Shared via dietervanmarcke
Stereoklang interview with UK synthpop act Mirrors, who toured with OMD this fall
We got an exclusive interview with the probably most hyped synthpop act in Europe right now – Mirrors. Mirrors has recently finished their European tour together with OMD and Stereoklang caught up with the frontman in the band in their studio chatting about their music, gear, influences and their work on the new album. Below is one of their latest video releases.
You have been touring with OMD during the fall, how was it?
It was of course a very special thing for us, we have always been big fans of OMD and it was even more fun to discover that they were also fans of us. The fact that we now come to play in front of an audience made up entirely of people devoted to electronic music is a tremendous experience.
Mirrors lets me know that they also felt that the two bands really complemented each other on stage, rather then just that Mirrors were there to warm up the crowd. Mirrors adding perhaps a more saturated, heavy and modern sound to the equation.
You have received very positive reviews, what is the secret behind the success?
Apart from being happy by this for me obvious fact they gave me this explanation: For Mirrors it is all about combining great and cold electronic sounds, with a heart. If your soul is not present there will not be any great songs, a cliché perhaps, but you need to follow your heart. A lot of bands are “just” making futuristic music, Mirrors wants it to be warm as well – just like Kraftwerk. Of course the songs need to be well structured. Almost everything we do emanates from a traditional piano exercise, then you can get carried away when you do remixes
Your stage line up resembles another quartet based out of Germany, is that a coincidence?
– Not really ☺, although I need to say that the dress code is a coincidence. Kraftwerk is certainly a massive influence. However, in a sense Mirrors is more kind of a revolt to the massive indie-scene we have in the UK – and we are the anti-thesis of that.
Can you tell me what synths you are using on stage, are you a pure hardware band or are there software synths hidden in your studio?
To begin with James is writing most of the material and what is being used differs, but in general you will always find a Juno 60, Moog Phatty (although they are dreaming of a Moog Voyager) and a Prophet in the mix. The Juno is used for pads and chords, the Moog for basses, and then we have some samplers like the MPC in there as well.
We asked them if the Linn drum sounds were genuine or samples, and although they could have lied to us, they said that they were samples. In general Mirrors rely very little on backing tracks. – If we can´t play it we loop it. We want to do everything live on stage. So if you spot an Apple on stage it will only be used for the visuals.
Read the full interview here >>
Maestro W-2 – Sound System For Woodwinds
This is demo of the W-2, as used by Kraftwerk, Van Der Graaf Generator, The Mothers, Wayne Shorter, and MANY other greats! The delay is added (for effect). NOTE: The high-end digital noise (aliasing) in the audio seems to be an anomaly of the video compression.
Via superfroe
Duel: Striped suits
Essays on Kraftwerk
Continuum Books has published a collection of essays looking at electronica music’s most influential band, Kraftwerk.
Here’s the publisher’s summary of Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop:
When they were creating and releasing their most influential albums in the mid to late 1970s, Kraftwerk were far from the musical mainstream – and yet it is impossible now to imagine the history of popular music without them. Today, Kraftwerk are considered to be an essential part of pop’s DNA, alongside artists like the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, and Little Richard.
Kraftwerk’s immediate influence might have been on a generation of synth-based bands (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Human League, Depeche Mode, Yello, et al), but their influence on the emerging dance culture in urban America has proved longer lasting and more decisive.
It’s available at Amazon for $18.96.
Details below.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction: The (Ger)man Machines
David Pattie
I. Music, Technology and Culture
1. Autobahn and Heimatklänge: Soundtracking the FRG
Sean Albiez and Kyrre Tromm Lindvig
2. Kraftwerk and the Image of the Modern
David Cunningham
3. Kraftwerk – The Decline of the Pop Star
Pertti Grönholm
4. Authentic Replicants: Brothers between Decades between Kraftwerk(s)
Simon Piasecki and Robert Wilsmore
5. Kraftwerk: Technology and Composition
Carsten Brocker (Translated by Michael Patterson)
6. Kraftwerk: Playing the Machines
David Pattie
II. Influences and Legacies
7. Europe Non- Stop: West Germany, Britain and the Rise of
Synthpop 1975–81
Sean Albiez
8. Vorsprung durch Technik – Kraft werk and the British Fixation
with Germany
Richard Witts
9. ‘Dragged into the Dance’ – The Role of Kraftwerk in the
Development of Electro- Funk
Joseph Toltz
10. Average White Band: Kraftwerk and the Politics of Race
Mark Duffett
11. Trans-Europa Express: Tracing the Trance Machine
Hillegonda Rietveld
Discography
Index
Via ST
Kraftwerk distorted – very funny
Even better then the original 
DATAMASKIN
