The charity auction by the Pablove Foundation for a 10 hour recording session with Butch Vig ended this afternoon and raised a whopping $10,150.00!!! It was a private auction so the only thing we can ascertain about the winner is the redacted user name "f***". Umm, not going to say the first thing that came into my head here ;-). Of course just because you didn't win the auction doesn't mean you can't donate to the Pablove Foundation. Here's a link to their merchandise page so you can pick up a Pablove shirt or bracelet. Which now that Butch Vig's down with them might just become the new hipster must have!
Track List: 01 - Persuasion 02 - Hamburger Lady 03 - Twenty Jazz Funk Greats 04 - Thank You Brian 05 - Maggot Death 06 - Rabbit Snare 07 - Lyre Liar 08 - Wimpy bar 09 - Sex String Theory 10 - Heathen Earth 11 - Industrial Intro 12 - R & D 13 - After After Cease To Exist
And if you dig TG, check out my version of Thee Gristleizer made for Reason.
Or if you're in a more mellow mood try my Buddha Machine Refill for Reason. Two combinators, one for each version of FM3's Buddha Machine.
Anyone recognize the two controllers just to the right of the XONE mixer (with NI logos on the front?)
UPDATE:
According to Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music those two new controllers are for controlling NI's Traktor and will be announced in detail in November. It's a great time to be a DJ!
On this date in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered The Magic Flute in Vienna at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. The Magic Flute is an opera comprised of two acts in the Singspiel form (which includes both singing and spoken dialogue.) Mozart died of "severe military fever" less than 3 months after the premiere at the age of 35. Below is the opening scene from Kenneth Branagh's WWI adaptation of The Magic Flute:
Less than 24 hours left on the Ebay Butch Vig Auction and the price is at $2,225. Still an incredible deal to record for a day with one of the legends of modern audio production. Just a reminder the auction is for the Pablove Foundation an organization named after Pablo Castelaz, a child that lost his life to cancer last year. This organization is dedicated to improving the lives of children with cancer specifically in the Los Angeles area. If you win the auction you get a 10 hour recording session with Butch Vig (producer for Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, AFI, Green Day, etc..) at Los Angeles based Dangerbird Studios. Dangerbird was co-founded by Jeff Castelaz, Pablo's father.
Director/Editor/Post Production: Bison Producer: James Bretton Production Company: Blinkink Additional Camera: Chris Nunn
How the video was made:
We approached Jon with the idea for arm-mounted cameras a few weeks before the show, and luckily he was up for it, so we broke out the power tools and set about making some mounts: After dissecting a couple of tripods and orthapaedic elbow supports, we had a solid platform for the miniature cameras.
We covered the gig with 5 cameras in total: 2 roving cameras, 1 static, and the 2 'lipstick' arm cameras that were wired into tape recorders at the back of the stage. The trickiest part was getting the cameras on and off Jon's arms whilst he continued to play as his set is more or less continuous..
The 'post production' on this video was unorthodox: All analogue and all in-camera.
We were really keen on making a gritty, abstract performance video. So we set to work with magnets, screwdrivers, VHS tapes and a host of other techniques: We made an initial edit and played this back through a £3 TV we picked up at the local market, and 'manipulating' it with a screwdriver allowed us to flutter and flicker the image on screen. We'd also bought an industrial strength magnet and used that to distort and twist the picture on itself. We made several runs through the track in this way before playing everything out to VHS (with obligatory stomping and scrunching).
This effectively gave us a new set of footage to make a tailored, grunged-up edit of the original piece.
I'm a big fan of arpeggiators, there's so many great uses for them beyond the basic note repeating. For a perfect example of what I'm talking about check out my Live Drum Box combi that uses a RPG-8 in connection with a NNXT sampler in Reason. And of course because of my love for arpeggiators I'm always looking for new exciting ones and the Animator Arp included with FXpansion's DCAM fits the bill:
French duo, Air, have a new album titled "Love 2" slated to be released on October 5th (October 6th in the USA.) The album was recorded in Air's northern Paris digs, Atlas Studio, with live drums provided by Joey Waronker. The band will begin a European tour on November 26th at Vox Hall in Aahrus, Denmark. A North American tour will follow in the late spring of 2010.
Alan McGee the founder of Creation Records was born on this day in Glasgow, Scotland in 1960. Alan McGee came to fame in the 1980s and 90s for signing almost all of the great bands in the U.K. to his label. His roster included: Oasis, Jesus and the Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Swervedriver, Teenage Fanclub, Felt, The House of Love and Ride. NME awarded Alan the "God Like Genius Award" in 1995.
In the latest edition of Nucleus Soundlab's Reason Wizardry, Jeremy Janzan demonstrates how to use Spider Audio Splitters with MClass Stereo Imagers to create multi-band effects. Now I'd used a BV-512 before to recreate a Moogerfooger MURF in Reason, but had never thought of linking multiple MClass Stereo Imagers to create multi-bands like Jeremy displays in Reason Wizardry. After watching the tutorial I started playing around with different multi-band effects ideas and came up with this distortion effect I'm dubbing "Sonic Warfare". It has 3 bands, which are controlled with the first two Rotaries (Rotary 1 is the Low Band, Rotary 2 split the High and Mid Bands.) You can choose the Damage type for the Mid and High bands with Rotary 3 and 4. For the buttons I have Button 1 switching between Tape and Tube for the Low Band. Button 2 turns off/on the body resonator for the Mid Band, which is set to an envelope follower type effect. And the last two buttons mute the Mid and High Bands. The PitchBend Wheel controls the P2 knob for the Mid and High Bands, and lastly the ModWheel controls P1 for the Mid and High Bands. I also added an RV-7000 with a drum reverb setting from the RFSB, this is a pretty subtle reverb, but if you want to turn it off just open the combi and flip the Aux Return to 0 on the line mixer at the bottom of the combinator. You'll probably want to play with the Damage Control and Master Volume of the Scream units once you find a setting you like, or you could always just load distortion patches for each unit from the RFSB. Enjoy!
Here's a Brutal example of the effect (first 4 bars clean):
By the way, I just realized that some of the links for a few of my older posted effects may no longer work, so if you come across one that doesn't feel free to e-mail me either thru the blog or on the Reason forum and I'll be glad to hook you up.
Nucleus Soundlab just announced their 50/50 sale on Viral Outbreak for both the VSTi and VSTi/Refill combination. Viral Outbreak brings the sound of the amazing Access Virus TI synthesizer to your desktop in either a Reason refill or a VSTi powered by a full copy of the WusikEngine V5 by the makers of the award winning WusikStation.
"It's our 50/50 sale on Viral Outbreak VSTi! Until October 31st, or until 50 licenses are sold - Viral Outbreak VSTi is available for 50% off. Multi-Format bundles are also discounted. Buy now while the deals last!"
Click Here to check out Part 2 and Here for the newest VSTi video by NSL on vimeo. And don't forget about the 10 Questions episode with Jeremy Janzen from last month! And of course after perusing those links you'll want to head over to Nucleus Soundlab and order a copy of Viral Outbreak for yourself!
I was messing around last night with some of my favorite plug-ins in Ableton Live and decided maybe it was time to revisit the CV Delay Combinators I was creating in the Spring. This new one, Version 5 for those of you counting, is based on the same principles but can go from subtle to glitchy with the press of a button. Control wise the Pitchbend wheel changes the Damage Type for the Echoes, the ModWheel increases the Damage, Rotary 1 switches up the pattern (which can be set to auto switch with button 1 - courtesy of a Malstrom's Mod A Curve), Rotary 2 switches the delay length, either sync'd or freely by Button 2 (which can also be set to auto switch by Button 3, courtesy of another Malstrom Mod), Rotary 3 controls the delay's feedback (which guess what? can also be set to auto switching by button 4), and finally Rotary 4 controls the Echoes Tone (when Pitchbend Wheel is at the center - otherwise it controls whatever P1 is for that damage type.) You'll probably want to play with different Matrix patterns depending on what you are running into the combi, to do so make sure Button 1 is disabled and now turning Rotary 1 will let you manually browse the ten different patterns of the Matrix... change up the ones you don't like and voila, you're ready to roll!
Butch Vig in conjunction with The Pablove Foundation is auctioning off a day with him in the studio on Ebay. The Pablove Foundation is named after a young boy that died from cancer in 2008 and is dedicated to improving the lives of children with cancer, specifically in the L.A. area. As of this post the auction has 2 days left and it's only up to $1,225.00 - considerably lower than what Butch's day rate would be. This is a once in a lifetime chance to not only support a great organization but record with Butch Vig, the producer for such great bands as Nirvana, Green Day, Garbage, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, AFI, Helmet, Soul Asylum, Jimmy Eat World, etc... And I'd imagine it's also tax deductible.
Trash Audio has a great post up with Alessandro Cortini detailing his studio set-up. As some of you may know Alessandro played synth in NIN for a few years and has a fantastic Buchla based solo project called blindoldfreak. Definitely go check this interview out!
Chilean singer, teacher, theatre director, political activist and folk hero, Victor Jara was born on this day in 1932 in a small town outside of Santiago, Chile. Victor was one of the founders of the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement, which incorporated traditional Latin American folklore and music into the newer social-conscious folk music that was popular in the Americas. During the CIA backed coup of elected leader Salvador Allende, Victor Jara was arrested and detained at the Chile Stadium. Later their he was tortured and killed by armed Chilean forces that feared his popular voice. After his death the military seized all of Jara's known work and destroyed it; however Victor's widow, Joan, managed to smuggle out some of his records and writings, which inspire many Latin Americans to this day. The stadium where VIctor was detained was renamed in 1993 the "Estadio Víctor Jara Stadium" in his honor. Joe Strummer perhaps summed it up best on The Clash album Sandinista, "As every cell in Chile will tell, the cries of the tortured men, Remember Allende in the days before, before the army came, Please remember Victor Jara, in the Santiago Stadium, Es Verdad, those Washington Bullets again."
With major labels pushing for new legislation to combat the onslaught of file sharing I can't help but remember my youth in the 80's when these same labels were concerned about people copying albums to blank cassettes and sharing them with others. A large majority of my junior high music collection was on copied cassettes. In fact the owner of the local record shop copied the first two Bad Brains albums on to cassette tape for me, because he knew I couldn't afford them & was itching to hear the tunes. And you know what? When I found a job I returned to the same store and purchased I against I with my first check. Now the music industry is taking a new approach to this concept by saying that younger bands won't make it because of file sharing. Never mind that younger bands can now record their albums at home and not in expensive studios like I had to in my youth... Am I the only one that feels insulted by this? These same labels that released albums only for sale in Walmart and other large chains are saying that we have to support them for the sake of independent artists? These same organizations that sat back and did nothing when local record stores were closing right and left in the 90's, the stores that made them money; but now they want to help the little guy? Sadly if this approach works we are going to probably see it in other industries soon... i.e. Remember the days when everyone knew each other in your neighborhood and you could buy your groceries at the local market, owned by your neighbor? That's why you should shop at Target. Well I'm calling bullocks. This is about major label artists alone. Independent bands have always made their money from touring and apparel. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning theft. Nothing makes me more sick than when I hear about some website selling illegal music or software for gain (I'm looking at you particularly here Russia.) But I fail to see how some 14 year old kid downloading the new Jay-Z record is going to bankrupt Shawn Corey Carter. Maybe I'm naive, but I think a lot of people are like me, they might download something to check it out and if they really like it they'll buy the record for the lyrics, artwork, and to support something they believe in... Here's Dan Bull with his take:
Here's an intro tutorial from B-more's Buik showing his Live set-up with Bomes Midi Translator. This guy's got the greatest tutorial voice I've heard on YouTube, sounds like a 1920's bluesman:
On this day back in 1924 one of the greatest jazz pianists off all time, Bud Powell, was born. Bud came from a family of musicians, his grandfather was a flamenco guitarist and his father was a stride piano player, which is what led Bud to adopt the piano early on as his instrument of choice. Famous for his large hands and left-handed stride style of playing, in which he would outline simplified chord structures using the root and fifth (with the occasional seventh and tenth note), led Bud to be known as the "Charlie Parker of the piano." Sadly Bud Powell suffered from mental illness for most of his life and was frequently in and out of mental institutions, where he was subjected to electro-shock therapy and large doses of Largactil, which left him unable to learn new tunes later in his life and led to his eventual death from self neglect. Below is a video of him hamming it up during a recording of his friend, Thelonius Monk's famous song 'Round Midnight:
Tonehammer has a great new sample set available for free called Phonoautograms. These samples are culled from First Sounds archives of the oldest audio recordings in existence:
"Its our pleasure to share a very special find with you all. The non-profit organization First Sounds has restored the earliest human audio recordings to a listenable state. Invented in the 1850s by French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, these "Phonautograms" actually predate Thomas Edisons earliest recordings by nearly two decades. They were made by projecting sound into a cylindrical horn attached to a stylus, which in transferred the vibration into lines over the surface of soot-blackened rolls of paper. These captures were purely optical. No device existed which could translate the recorded acoustic information back into sound, until the First Sounds organization acquired the artifacts, with the help of the French Academy of Sciences. They worked with scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other experts to devise a method of scanning and deciphering the images. In the spirit of celebrating the past and present day sonic pioneers who brought this piece of history to us, we converted one of the sets into a playable instrument. We chose the D Major scale recording titled "Gamme de la Voix – Vocal Scale (May 17, 1860)", since it made for the most direct and flexible instrument. You’ll notice that the distorted fidelity, pitch and tone yields a smeared and crackling quality, sounding somehow between a frail and warbly voice and a washed out flute. We think it actually sounds beautiful and reminds us of the humble beginnings that modern audio-visual media has grown from. If you happen to make any cool music with this little instrument, please do share it with the folks at First Sounds. They’re very interested in hearing how people use these sounds in creative ways. We’ve included Kontakt, EXS24 and SFZ formats, as well as a set of synthetic drum sounds made from the same source material. In the Kontakt version, the modwheel controls subtle vibrato and tremolo effects."
Note: The "Gamme de La Voix" samples are in the key of D Major, so when loading the "Gamme de La Voix 1" into the NN19 (if your are using Reason) you'll want to set your root key as D so the samples will be in the right key. If anyone sets these up in the NNXT send me a copy and your name will be immortalized on the blog ;-).
On this day in 1945 English singer Bryan Ferry was born into a working class family. Bryan came to fame in the 1970's with the band Roxy Music, a band so ahead of their time, I'm not sure if we've even caught up to them yet. Here's a great clip of Roxy Music performing "Ladytron" on the Old Grey Whistle Test, dig Eno's Putney performance:
On this day back in 1946 guitarist/singer Bryan MacLean was born in Hollywood, California. Bryan would grow up to play in one of the greatest underground rock bands to ever exist, Love. Love inspired countless acts, including The Doors, and Bryan MacLean's song "Alone Again Or" has been covered by many bands including The Damned and Calexico. Sadly Love never garnered the international fame they so deserved and Bryan passed away in 1998, just a footnote in musical history.
Trailer for Love Story, a documentary on the band:
The September issue of Nucleus Soundlab's Reason Wizardry is now available for download. The September issue is on processing, splitting and routing audio in Reason... and being an effects zealot I'm stoked! Head on over to the Nucleus Soundlab website to subscribe to this monthly phenomenon.
On this day back in 1926 John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. Trane is widely considered to be the greatest tenor saxophone player of the 1950's. In author Ben Ratliff's Coltrane: The Story of the Sound much is said about the strict practicing regimen Trane kept, sometimes practicing up to 8 hours a day! This discipline and beautiful playing is probably why he's the only jazz musician with a church, The St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. The inspiration for the church came one night in 1965 when Archbishop Franzo King and Reverend Mother Marina King saw Coltrane play and described the event as a "sound baptism". Coltrane would die just two years later from liver cancer, possibly onset by the addiction to heroin he had kicked years earlier. John's son Ravi is an accomplished saxophone player himself and as the executor of Trane's estate has made sure his albums are being remastered and stay in print.
Michael Jackson's This Is It premieres in theatres on October 28 and will only be shown for a limited run of two weeks. For ticket information, show times, and theatre locations go to This Is It Tickets. Below is a leaked clip from the movie:
Joan Jett turns 51 years old today! Joan was a founding member of The Runaways, an all girl rock group who's album "Live in Japan" became one of the biggest selling imports in UK and USA history. After The Runaways, Joan Jett became a huge solo hit with songs like "I love Rock 'n Roll" and "Bad Reputation".
Jeremy Janzen just uploaded a teaser of what's to come in the next edition of Reason Wizardry. He also recently wrote on the PUF that the next issue would be about processing, splitting and routing audio. If you haven't subscribed yet to RW, check out this video and get a hint of what you're missing:
Update: Next issue will be ready in the next 48 hours!
Last month the Supreme court of Argentina decriminalized marijuana and made personal use a constitutional right. Now I don't keep abreast about what's happening in South America, so I just found out about this today, but it makes me wonder when the United States will finally wake up and smell the ganja. Now first off I want to say I'm not a pothead, so this isn't about me... it's about personal freedom and justice. That's right, justice. By declaring "War on Drugs" our nation declared war on a part of it's own population. Locking people up in prison and throwing away the key for morality. In many states a heroin addict will receive a longer prison sentence than a child molester. Now you can certainly argue that by purchasing drugs the addict is supporting illegal activity and crime, but that's exactly why we need to rethink our current prohibition. Which is exactly what Argentina did last month when they decriminalized pot. Shortly before Walter Cronkite died he made a statement that I think sums it up best:
"Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs. And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure."
"In early 2007, I was looking to do something positive to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Joe Strummer when I received a request from a local jail. Malcolm Dudley, a drug and alcohol counsellor at nearby Guys Marsh prison in Dorset, was utilising his skills as a musician to set up a guitar class as a means of engaging prisoners in the process of rehabilitation. Borrowing a guitar from the prison chaplain and repairing an old nylon-strung instrument found in a prison cupboard, Malcolm began to make progress with the inmates. However, he soon became aware that their development was being held back by the lack of available instruments on which to practise between sessions. He wrote to me asking for help.
I immediately grasped the potential of Malcolm’s work, knowing from my own experience how playing guitar and writing songs can help an individual to process problems in a non-confrontational way. I bought half a dozen acoustic guitars and, just as Joe Strummer had painted slogans on his guitar, had them spray-painted with the titles of Clash songs – ‘Clash City Rocker’, ‘Stay Free’ and, of course, ‘Jail Guitar Doors’.
Having delivered the guitars and heard from the inmates themselves about the positive effects of the work that Malcolm was doing, I wondered if there might be other people like Malcolm in prisons across the country, willing and able to do the work, but held back by a lack of instruments. At the NME Awards in March 2007, I announced the formation of Jail Guitar Doors to find such people and meet that need. I am pleased to say that the first person in the room to walk up to me with an offer of support was Clash guitarist Mick Jones.
Since then, Jail Guitar Doors has donated instruments to more than 20 prisons. Sponsorship from Gibson Musical Instruments has allowed us to extend our reach beyond the UK.
The average cost per prison is less than £500, an amount which could be raised at a benefit concert by any band or artist that can draw a crowd. I’m asking musicians, particularly those of you who were inspired by the Clash, to raise funds to help inmates take the first steps towards rehabilitation. If you’d like to participate in this initiative, please contact me here.
Legendary Clash members Mick Jones and Topper Headon were reunited in the studio for the first time in 27 years when they joined Billy Bragg for a recording aimed at promoting the folk singers Jail Guitar Doors campaign. WWW.BREAKINGROCKS.CO.UK
With advocates for the blind pressuring automobile makers to install warning noises on electric cars (which emit no noise at the lowest speeds) Nissan has come up with a novel approach:
“We fought for so long to get rid of that noisy engine sound,” said Tabata, Nissan’s noise and vibration expert. With electric cars, “we took a completely different approach and listened to composers talk music theory.”
“We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic,” Tabata said.
Liam Gallagher lead singer of the mighty Oasis (R.I.P.) is 37 years old today. The antagonistic singer also founded his own men's fashion line Pretty Green. Love him or hate him?
I love finding out about boutique musical gear. It's like meeting Bob Moog before any one else has heard of him. Sadly many of these ventures fail - I know I was disheartened when Kilian from Rozzbox announced he wouldn't be producing his fantastic looking Oddulator synthesizer. But there's always someone that comes along and takes up the mantle. And with each LepLoop video this piece of kit is looking better and better:
Artist, Musican, big hat enthusiast, Alannah Currie is 52 years old today. Alannah is perhaps most famous for being 1/3 of the numerically challenged Thompson Twins, who rose to fame in the 80's with their album "Into The Gap" with the hit single "Hold Me Now". While she was at one time married to the rat-tailed lead singer, Tom Bailey, she's now living with Jimi "Rockman Rock" Cauty of The Orb and The KLF fame. Now that's what I call trading up!
This is just a reminder that you've only got a week and a half left to jump on the $19.95 discounted price for Nucleus Soundlab's Filter Research Reason refill. This all effects refill is one of my top 3 favorite refills for Reason. It features patches designed by Jeremy Janzen, Tom Pritchard, Shaun Wallace, Nick Hutton, and Jacob Hargrave. Seriously, if you are only going to buy one refill this month, it should be this one...
Just saw this post on MATRIXSYNTH showing a picture of LeLoop a "portable analog synth/sequencer for minimal electronic live music". I googled it and found these lovely YouTube videos that were just uploaded:
On this day back in 1951 record producer Daniel Lanois was born in Hull, Quebec. Lanois is most famous for the grammy award winning albums he produced for both Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind) and U2 (The Joshua Tree); but he is also a guitar playing singer/songwriter himself - his songs have been covered by the likes of Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris.
Multitouch table mtmini configured to be used as multitouch midi control surface with reason. thanks to seth sandler for the awesome tutorial to build the mtmini. visit www.sethsandler.com and nuigroup.com if u want to build one for yourself.
Just received this e-mail from the folks at Teenage Engineering concerning the beta-testing of their fantastic looking synth/controller the OP-1:
Dear people around the world,
This is the first OP-1 beta update from TE HQ since we announced the Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer. The reason you got this email is that you are one of the 4.465 people who signed up for the beta release.
Recap
The day before we went to the Frankfurt Musikmesse, we put the OP site online. On March 30th, 10:06:22 we got the first sign-up. During the trade show we kept the sign-up's open until we finally closed the form at 08:34:59, April 05th.
We where quite overwhelmed by the numbers and very happy with the response we got from all of you out there. But you might ask, 100 beta units and this many people!? Am I gonna get one?
Beta info
The selection process will use different parameters to make sure we get a wide range of people and countries included.
It'll work like this.
- By date: The first x signup's (and the last one before we closed) will be safe. - By country: we want to test the machine in different conditions. - Random: x units will be completely randomized. - Friends: Our closest ones, both musicians and freaks.
Release date
We will not announce any dates at this stage. Here is a quick status report:
- The Synth is really fun to use! - It sounds great. - We are hard at work with everything from the electronics and mechanics to embedded dev & DSP optimizations. - Two new persons joined the team to speed things up. - Check http://www.teenageengineering.com/now/ for the latest info!
We've got very far but will spend a couple of more months fine tuning and testing so we are 100% satisfied before we start talking about release dates.
On this day in 1927 the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System, later simply known as CBS, went live on the air from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey. The network was sold a week later to William S. Paley, heir to the "La Palina" Cigar company which became popular from it's advertisements on radio. Paley built the network from this small radio affiliate to the monster media conglomerate it is today.
Sir Sedric has uploaded the second part to his "Thor as a Programmable Filter" series, in the second part he gets into some more advanced terrain, which should make this video interesting to everyone wanting to design their own patches. Make sure to check out Sir Sedric's Beat Blog as well, where he posts his videos, music and Hip Hop related news and vids.
