WUGAZI

I am generally not a fan of mash-ups, but this pairing of Fugazi and the Wu-Tang Clan, dubbed WUGAZI is brilliant! One part Fugazi's "I'm so Tired", one part Wu-Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." =

Sleep Rules Everything Around Me by WUGAZI

M83 - Echoes...

ilovem83.com

VJ Franz K compares TNR-i and the original Tenori On

"The new APP! How does it compare to the original machine? I have both, so I'll tell you in DETAIL. Subscribe to VJ Franz K, for the most entertaining and informative reviews of electronic music gear and apps!"
-VJ Franz K

Africa Hitech - Out In The Streets

"Out In The Streets taken from Africa Hitech's '93 Million Miles' album - out now. Directed, filmed and produced by Sixty40"
-Warp Records

The Loop Loft - Hip Hop Drums Vol.1

New from The Loop Loft - Hip Hop Drums Vol.1:

We've taken hip hop back to where it all started: with "real" live drums. We know it's hard enough to find tasty drum breaks in your vinyl collection (let alone, clear the samples for legal use), this is why we recorded an entire collection of loops dedicated to hip hop production. With a wide range of influences and styles spanning from Jay-Z, Kanye, Jurassic 5, The Beastie Boys and The Roots, Hip Hop Drums Volume 1 is a diverse collection of beats and samples, all recorded specifically for making hip hop tracks.

Each session of grooves comes with a multitude of beat variations (different kick, snare, hi hat and ride patterns) as well as numerous fills for seamless transitions and breakdowns. We also individually sampled every single drum, cymbal and percussion instrument, so you can easily program your own beats using the exact same drum sounds from the sessions. Just load them into your favorite MPC or sampler and go! From subsonic 808 kicks, to 12-bit glitchy snares to old school funk kits, you'll have a vast range of hip hop drum loops and samples at your fingertips.

Stop digging through the crates and download Hip Hop Drums Vol 1 today!

Specs
Number of Loops: 274
Number of Samples: 72
Tempo Range: 85-150 BPM
File Size: 315 MB

- Instant Download
- 100% Royalty Free
- High Quality 24 Bit 48 KHZ Audio
- WAV, REX2 and AIFF (Apple Loops) Formats

$39 USD from www.thelooploft.com

Hip Hop Drums Vol 1 by thelooploft

Coming Soon - Essential Guide to Reaktor's Massive

I absolutely loved Brent Kallmer's tutorials on Reaktor's Newscool ensemble, so I'm pretty stoked on the coming up guide to Massive (no not the synth, the bad ass drum machine.) Check it:


"Native Instruments has not one, but two products called MASSIVE. You know the synth; now it's time to get cozy with the other—one of the most righteous drum computers in the universe. Get ready to go deep with the secret-weapon drum machine of the world's savviest producers. This is gonna be big."
-Blue Water VST

Record 1.5 : Vocal Delay/Repeat Tutorial

"trying to get a word in your song to repeat itself? Here's an easy way get it going."
-Mr.Brandon Peoples

Nucleus SoundLab OSDK!

For the last couple of months I've been working on a special secret freebie for Nucleus SoundLab that has just been released this afternoon to NSL newsletter followers! The Open Source Drumkit ReFill features well over 700 wav files mapped to multiple Kongs in one massive template combinator, complete with round robin snares, velocity layered hits and multiple mic'd drums. Accompanying this monster combinator are 21 fearsome kits designed with additional layers and effects, courtesy of Kong's physical and analog modeling drum modules and nine effects devices (as well as Reason's other fantastic effects machines.) The price of admission is an e-mail address, so what are you waiting for? Sign up for the Nucleus SoundLab newsletter to pick up your copy of the Open Source Drumkit ReFill today!

Olivia Broadfield: home recording Focusrite

Here's Olivia Broadfield in her garage studio, which some of you may recognize from her Propellerhead Music Making Month Event, showcasing the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24. Notice Propellerhead's Record on her desktop! Check it:


Video courtesy of Focusrite.

Apparat Band live (EB Festival Prague 10.06.11)

"Apparat Band live at the Electronic Beats Festival in Prague. Watch the band perform their songs "Arcadia", "Rusty Nails" & "Black Water"."
-Electronic Beats

Samonome

"A burnt hand, hundreds of solder joints, and a whole lot of time later, my "Samonome" Monome-Clone 'Arduinome' is completed. Here's a little sample of me playing with MLR, a truly wonderful app. The first sample (the second row from the top), is a resample of one of my Grapeflash songs. I resampled it with MLR. The other tracks were made using Reason/Record."
-Sam Bulkley

IannixSequencer - M4L Device

"A small demo of the "Iannix Sequencer" MaxForLive device I created. Using this device inside Ableton Live and Iannix you can create rhythmic patterns (like using a step - sequencer) with visual feedback of whats going on directly in Iannix."
-Softcore

tUnE-yArDs performing "Bizness" on KCRW

"Lo-fi yet sophisticated, Merrill Garbus' folk project as tUnE-yArDs is a patchwork of found sounds, field recordings and passionate vocals. She performs live for Morning Becomes Eclectic. Watch / Listen to the full session here."
-KCRW

pNORTNAOMI - Pyramid for Scapes

"Pyramid is a library of 50 custom samples complemented by 50 designed presets for Twisted Tools Scapes available now for registered users from the Twisted Tools website. Pyramid contains Sci-fi soundscapes , Drones and rhythmic pulses that can be manipulated into new mind bending sounds. I created each sound especially for Scapes concentrating on hi frequency content and feedback tones."
-pNORTNAOMI

Richard Devine Elements!

Richard Devine has 4 new sample packs available at Beatport's Sounds/to/Sample website. The packs are part of Sounds/to/Sample's Elements series:

"Elements are cutting-edge, copyright free drum loops and musical phrases created by the world's leading producers. Each pack consists of 10 loop elements presented as 24-bit Wavs assured to inspire and add spice to productions."

Devine's packs feature glitched grooves, drops, and tension builders and cost a meager $1.99 each. I'm skipping the Pad Thai I was going to pick up for lunch and ordering up Elements 1 & 4 instead. Looks like it's peanut butter jelly time at su casa. Order your own Elements @ www.soundstosample.com/elements/DEVSND/

Loops and Sample Element pack Example 4 on BeatPort by RichardDevine

Using Maschine w/ Traktor: DJing + Drum Programming

"In this brand new tutorial, Native Instruments product specialist, producer and DJ Matt Cellitti returns to answer a frequently asked question: How to incorporate Maschine audio loops and samples into a Traktor DJ set. Cellitti explains and demonstrates how you can create Maschine drum patterns and loops and add them to your Traktor Pro 2 set by syncing the tempos and dragging and dropping Maschine patterns into Traktor's sample decks. This technique is the easiest way add customized audio loops, samples, sounds and additional ingredients to create live remixes on the fly. The setup does not require any advanced MIDI syncing; you can get this done by simply cueing up the tempo of Maschine to match Traktor and then dragging the patterns in!"
-dubspot

Delay Freakazoid

"Early beta of a delay effect I'm developing."
-Rishabh Rajan

Tenori-On Midi Madness using Roland SonicCell

"King Tet plays Tenori-On as a midi-controller using the Roland SonicCell desktop synthesizer. Recorded with Zoom Q3HD. Visit Facebook page."
-Neon Riot

Interactive Virtual Keyboard Loops

"Pusch Keys Bank P1 - P8
Interactive Keyboard drums loops
Sounds Propellerhead Reason"
-pivotao

Reaktor Aurea - Audio Demo

"Audio demo for Reaktor Aurea ensemble.
Description: 2 OSCs Parabol / LFO based synthesizer

Download for free: http://www.thecolorspace.net/software.html"

-the colorspace

Reason 5 Makes A Pretty Sweet Mastering Suite For Non-Reason Mixdowns

"Thanks to its external audio sampling and sample-playback capabilities, Propellerhead Reason 5 makes a handy mastering solution for your music irrespective of that music's origin platform. SO long as you can bounce your music to a WAV file, you can play it back in Reason 5 and feed it through the impressive-sounding MClass rack effects.

While that may sound fairly straightforward, there are some nuances to this method. For instance: what device in Reason 5 should you use to playback your unmastered audio? That and more are covered in this methodical how-to video."
-Gearwire

MD8 from New Atlantis Audio!

New Atlantis Audio - MD8

Elektron Machinedrum vs. Dr. Octo Rex

"It's an electronic Swedish showdown, to the power of eight! This collection of high def Machinedrum loops injected into Combinator racks with realtime control make for a powerful combo for twisting, turning electronic beats."

Pick up your copy for $8.88 USD from Rackflip.com.

MD8 Reason ReFill by Rackflip

KORG monotribe x 12 (Relay)

"Ready to tweak some real analog hardware? アナログ・リボン・シンセサイザーmonotribeの最新デモ映像は、monotribe12台による演奏。12台は最初の1台目をマスターに、シンク・ケーブルによって全て同期しています。演奏は3人が各々4台担当。1台ずつシーケンスを使った演奏をして、気に入ったフレーズやリズムができたら、次へとリレーしていきます"
-Korg

SOUNDCELLS Digital Genome V.2

"In modern molecular biology, the genome is the entirety of an organism´s hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or in case of this fine ReFill it´s the AMIGA1200 encoded in Reason´s NNXT samples. The AMIGA1200 (code-named ‘Channel Z‘) with it´s 8-bit Paula chip was extremely popular among producers all over the world in the early nineties. "Digital Genome" picks up the thread where Soundcells left with "bitBUMPER deluxe" with it´s funky, housy and spacy lo-fi character! Warm, gritty, sleezy, dangerous and nostalgic are the keywords. This ReFill can be used as a full workstation since everything the old Amiga had to offer is in there: basses, keys, lead synths, warm pads and enough drums and percussion to eat your heart out. And do not forget the wonderful FX section. The 170+ Genome combinators are conveniently built up with the right button functionality. Version 2 adds 25 new combinator patches, some minor additions/changes in detail as well as great new backdrops...

Digital Genome v2 Contents:

• 178 combinator patches, great for many different styles of music.

• 6 different folders: Bass, FX, Keys, Leads, Miscellaneous, Pads.

• 189 NNXT patches containing the basic sounds which were used for the combinators.

• 230 original AMIGA1200 samples, 178 MB uncompressed.

• 21 fresh and great useable rex loops."

Buy Digital Genome now for 23.90€ from www.soundcells.de until July 31st!

Radiohead - Staircase (live From the Basement)

"Here's a new track called Staircase, taken from our upcoming 'From The Basement' session.

And no, you're not seeing double. The doppelganger drummers are myself and Clive Deamer. Clive has long been one of my favourite drummers and so I was really excited when he agreed to perform with us. Hope you like what we've all done."
-Philip Selway

Ital - Culture Clubs

Daniel Martin-McCormick of Mi Ami and Black Eyes fame has a new 12" out under his Ital guise, courtesy of the Lovers Rock label. Dig it:

Propellerhead Artist Interview: Felix Cartal

"Felix Cartal spent his early years as a musical pinch hitter... filling in for local Vancouver rock bands whenever they suddenly needed a member. After taking a class on MIDI production in high school, however, Cartal realized both the advantages of being a solo artist and the power of producing with Reason. His sound still borrows heavily from his punk rock origins, using synths to convey the heaviness and aggression normally coming from guitar amps.

After successful releases on Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records and tours with MSTRKRFT, Felix Cartal is still driven by his band roots both in sound and production philosophy."
-Propellerhead

Reason Disco School

Using Reason's Disco School ReFill:

"Make your dance music sparkle with Reason Disco School, the new ReFill from Propellerhead Software that recreates the classic sounds of disco. There will be fever."
-Propellerhead

Reason Tutorial 14 - REX Loops in Kong

"This Reason 5 tutorial shows a few tricks for using REX loops in Reasons Kong Drum designer. Topics covered include Mute Groups and Chunk Trig."
-Vst-Patches

SBTRKT - sbtrkt

Refill: The Theory, Part 5 - Progressions

"The Theory is not your average reason refill. It's an idea refill, a scale and chord resource, a midi score checker, and a teaching tool for Reason 5 and Record 1.5

-152 song files (76 for Reason 5 & 76 for Record 1.5)
-17 Chord files containing 82 chords, each in individual clips organized four different ways: by quality, type, interval structure, and type versus structure.
-12 Scale files containing 223 scales in individual clips, and 30 full scale maps that contain the scales plotted across the entire keyboard.
-12 "chords on scales" files that contain all the chords transposed and plotted across 30 scales where they fit. 30 more Chords On Scales files, one for each scale, that have the scales and chords transposed for each key.
-3 scale files that include every possible 5, 6, and 7 note scale organized by structure, mode, and transposed in modes. 1 file containing 30 full scale maps transposed for each key.
-1 Music Theory overview - a song file that works as a course covering everything from sight reading to time signatures, the circle of fifths, chord construction and more.
-2 pdf files: a companion to the music theory overview, and a chord & scale index listing the spelling for every chord and a cross reference of every scale.

Refill - 77.5 mb, total download - 88.6 mb."
-3rd Floor Sound

X-Station Space Drone

"A droning atmosphere demonstrating the hands-on interface of the X-Station. See my related blog post at unatta.net"
-Peter Bajzek

SAMPLED hip hop BEAT performed live

"Mp3 is coming soon. Stay tuned and support:
http://facebook.com/KiriMusic
http://soundcloud.com/KirillKorshunov"
-Kiriusha1980

Sweetwater Minute - Vol. 94, Focal Factory Tour

"Join Sweetwater's Mitch Gallagher as he enjoys a special tour of Focal's manufacturing facility in France! Focal makes some of the most highly-respected monitoring speakers available, check out their lineup here. With so many monitor manufacturers in the market today, it's refreshing to be able to see the actual manufacturing process from an inside perspective. Enjoy the video, and thanks again to our friends at Focal for this very special tour!"
-Sweetwater

Xils Lab Synthix

Inspired from a old monster, aclaimed by a lot of synthesizer gurus, it is not only a new virtual analog : thanks to exclusive new features, the sound and the possibilities of this new polyphonic synthesizer enhance the XILS-lab inspiration tools.

A little extract of the features :

4 LFO like modulation sources.
4 envelopes (with a special feature, increasing far away the sound design possibilities).
2 oscillators : simple, but with some wonderfull crosss modulation features.
1 filter : not so simple !
1 polyphonic sequencer (up to 4 tracks, with legato mode), part of the modulation sources.
More than 25 modulation nodes, with 29 sources and 38 destinations.

More news coming soon.

Hear some samples @ www.xils-lab.com

REAKTOR's Newscool - Part 6

A Damaging Admission and 3 Killer Techniques


"The long-awaited conclusion of the series on Native Instruments REAKTOR's Newscool, including a damaging admission and 3 killer techniques for using Newscool in your music."
-bluewatervst

Misssing Pieces Refill - Preview 05: XYZ-Tablet Synth

"This is preview of "XYZ- Tablet Synth" combinator device from Navi Retlav - Missing Pieces Refill.

If you have tablet, or any device with multi axis controls like kinect and software for transforming it in to midi controller, this combinator will help you to play music and fx-es with your favorite synth sound.
Audio Samples from this video are not included in this refill.

New Reason Refill Coming Soon !
Subscribe for more videos and feel free to give comments."
-NaviRetlav

Com Truise - "Brokendate"

"When talking about the music of Com Truise (one of the many pseudonyms of New Jersey designer/musician Seth Haley), the nostalgia bit inevitably comes up, so let's get that out of the way. Yes, his songs tap classic sci-fi and proto-electro in a way that is distinctly early eighties in scope. But they're also remarkably weird—stutter-step proggy and intoxicatingly psychedelic, like those classic touchstones got drunk on lava lamp juice inside a pinball machine. After his well-received Cyanide Sisters EP, a grip of remixes for artists like Twin Shadow, Neon Indian, and, uh, Daft Punk, and a few floating MP3s, Truise's first LP, Galactic Melt, will finally enter brainspaces this summer."
-Ghostly International

Pressure ReFill from New Atlantis Audio

New Atlantis Audio has a new Reason ReFill called Pressure:

"Add a distinct sense of suspense, pressure and dark atmosphere to your music and scoring projects with this unique set of Combinator instruments for Reason.

Powered by a brand new set of hand-crafted 24 bit steam recording soundscapes, Pressure is bursting at the weld seams with a diverse set of dense and intense playable atmospheric rack instruments, with loads of tweakability and hands-on control.

Use the 100+ MB of sample footage to create even more steamy new instruments of your own, or drop them directly into the timeline in Record and go nuts.

Specs: Includes 30 Combinators, 24 bit audio, 110MB of Content"

Available now for $9.99 USD @ www.rackflip.com

New Flying Lotus tracks on Soundcloud!

Flying Lotus uploaded a slew of new tracks to his Soundcloud page in the last 24 hours. Here's a few of my favorites:

Melting3 by Flyinglotus

CARPET CARPET CARPET ''07 Rough Loop mix2 BEAT FOR ELZHI by Flyinglotus

Happening really mdrender1 by Flyinglotus

Cluster Flux!

According to SonicState.com, a new Moogerfooger effects pedal is expected to be announced later this week! The MF-108M Cluster Flux Bucket Brigade Device will be adept at a wide range of modulated delay effects including vibrato, chorus, and flanging. With extensive CV, Midi control, a multi-waveform LFO (with Sample & Hold), and bi-polar feedback capabilities the MF-108M sounds like it's going to be the premier modulation effects pedal for guitarist and keyboard players alike. The pedal will ship with a computer application editor for managing the ample Midi control possibilities, like tuned flanging! The Cluster Flux MF-108M is expected to begin shipping later this summer. Flux yeah!

Record 1.5: How to Fix Recording/Playback Delay

"Having trouble with your audio recordings live playback time? Here's a quick fix."
-Mr.Brandon Peoples

Joystick Journeys: The VCS3 Collection

New Reason Refill (and Kontakt bank) from Scot Solida @ The Electronic Garden - Joystick Journeys: The VCS3 Collection:

"Welcome to the weird, whacky and wonderful world of the EMS VCS3. This unusual instrument was developed by EMS in the late Sixties and intended as a portable electronic music studio. Unlike more famous instruments of the day, the VCS3 was initially released without an accompanying keyboard. As such, it was embraced (often by those under the influence of certain mood enhancers) as a resource for special effects. It became an electronic voice for space rockers, psychedelic bands and sound designers. The VCS3 and its big brother the Synthi 100 were used by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create effects for many programs, including of course, Doctor Who."

Joystick Journeys includes:

- Over 850 .wav format samples
- Over 70 patches
- 101 REX files

All for the low price of $20 USD! More info, mp3s and demo refill available @ www.theelectronicgarden.com

Kutiman - Thru Jerusalem

Youtube mash-up by Kutiman

A Great Moment in P Bass History

"Clash bassist Paul Simonon talks about learning to play bass, his technique, how he got turned on to the Precision Bass, and the iconic "London Calling" album cover and what led to that historic moment when he "sort of smashed up" his beloved Precision Bass."
-Fender

dubxile's Reason Reggae Tutorial

"Reggae tutorial using Reason 5"
-dubxile

10 Questions with Giles Reaves!

Giles Reaves, aka "Selig" on the PUF, recorded and produced his first solo project, Wunjo, for MCA back in 1986. Tracks from the album were picked by the national Hearts of Space public radio program and played heavily. From there Electronic Musician Magazine went on to call Wunjo one of the top electronic albums of all time! It is with great pleasure and honor I bring to you this edition of 10 Questions with Giles Reaves:

- You work out of Nashville, a town famous for lapsteels, acoustic guitars, and cowboy boots - how did you get into synthesizers and what is your background in music?

I first heard about synths as a young boy when I lived in Gainsville, FL (my original hometown). My older brother is a radio engineer who got his 3rd Class Radio License when he was something like 13 years old - I would have been 7 at that time, and he was already building electronic circuits in his bedroom which was next to mine. I think the smell of solder went to my head! He knew about synthesizers and talked about them, pointing them out on records like Abbey Road (The Beatles) when that first came out.

Fast Forward to Jr. High and High School in Huntsville, AL. A teacher’s husband had a Paia synth he let me borrow for a few months around grade 10, and that really lit a fire. I have notebooks from that time where I’m designing my own synth, and some proto circuit boards my brother helped me with at one point. But it never went further, with music (drums/piano) competing for my time and creative interests. On growing interest around that time was in the recording studio, but there were only a few small ones in the Huntsville, AL area. But when my best friend’s older brother moved to Nashville to build a studio, the stage was set for my eventual arrival. But first, it was off to U of U in Salt Lake City for my freshman year of college (on a percussion scholarship, so I couldn’t pass it up). After only one year the Recording Studio call was getting louder than the percussionist call, and I transfered to Belmont College in Nashville. My original goal was to learn all about recording in Nashville, and then move to LA or NYC from there. During the 80’s my brother lived in NYC and my folks lived in the LA area, and in multiple visits to both coasts, I soon realized that I didn’t see myself living in either city. Back in Nashville, not being a country music fan, I had managed to find all the ‘cool/misfit’ bands that were doing punk, reggae, space music, goth, techno, industrial, electronic, jazz, roots, you name it. It was a real ‘music city’ right under the surface just waiting to live up to it’s name. So after a few years I gave in and choose Nashville as my ‘home’, with a personal mission to make folks more aware of the OTHER music that was everywhere, and help the city live up to the name “Music City”.

My musical background is that I’ve played piano all my life (don’t remember NOT playing piano), and studied drums beginning in the 7th grade officially, continuing my percussion education up through my freshman year of college. So I’m basically self taught (plus a few years of music theory) on keyboards, and ‘school taught’ on percussion. I got my first drum kit in the 8th grade, but never actually officially studied ‘drum set’ as an instrument. I started programming drum machines in the early 80s (Linn Drum!), and got more into drum programming since I was a keyboard player AND a drummer (and keyboard players were the first ones with drum machines, not drummers!). My first full time studio gig saw me running a production room with a 24 track Studer tape machine, access to the main studio’s mics and Bosendofer piano/B3/Rhodes/Clavinet, plus the production room’s Fairlight CMI, DX7 AND DX1, Jupiter 8, Oberhiem Pro One and DMX drum machine, Simmons SDS5 and (rare) sequencer, and probably a few instruments I’ve probably forgotten about! That room is where I began to ‘put it all together’ for my musical direction, even ‘prototyping’ the music for my first solo project (“Wunjo”, MCA/Master Series 1986).

My entry into the world of Reason (and working totally in the box with synths) was when I had a gig building backing tracks for an Aaron Carter tour (2003). I no longer had my Sample Cell because I had upgraded my computer, so to build these tracks I needed a sampler for starters. Reason was at v2.5, and after a short demo I realized that it had more than enough power for what I was looking for. I used Reason for all the instruments (drum loops, samples, horns/strings, etc) on the backing tracks for his “Aaron’s Juke Box” tour, my first ever use of Reason (showing me just how easy it was to grasp). 

- You've worked as an engineer and producer on a wide range of music.  From Industrial (Dessau) to Country (Chet Atkins) to Southern Blues (Derek Trucks Band), is it difficult for an engineer to work in so many different styles/genres and how did you get your start in engineering?

The first engineering job I got was when the singer of a band I was playing drums in started dating a local studio engineer in Nashville named Marshal Morgan. I got up the nerve to ask him if I could sit in at the studio and learn, and he said yes and apologized that he could only pay me $5/hr (I was making $2.75/hr dipping ice cream before that!!!). The music was all ‘mainstream country’ (Mickey Gilley, Anne Murray, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Osmond Brothers, etc), but it was RECORDS being made. I only had this job for a few years before moving up to a full time studio job at Castle Recording outside of Nashville. That studio was owned by a European family who was into all sorts of music, from their own family bluegrass band, to dance music and synth pop - I had found my ‘home’ for the next few years. From there I slowly went ‘independent’ as it’s called, and began my musical career as well...


- Having worked on both the production and engineering side of music creation which do you prefer and how are they alike/different?

I have only recently realized how unique my musical experience was, mainly by having had a small home studio from 1986 onward (before they were even that common), while simultaneously working in major studios around Nashville (which was during a time when the technology was really moving fast, and Nashville studios actually moved ahead of NYC and LA by embracing the digital revolution more fully in the early days). 

At home I had to work within pretty strict limits, while at work I had an almost unlimited playground! So I begin cross-pollinating between those two worlds by sometimes enforcing artificial limits in the big studio (to ‘force’ creativity), and sometimes bringing in expensive gear to my home studio (to enhance the audio ‘quality’). Constantly moving between these two worlds has given me some unique insight on how to combine the best of both, which has served me well as big studio use has diminished while home studio use has grown. The natural progression has been that I’ve done more traditional engineering jobs at big studios, and more production work at smaller studios. But I’ve also been a studio musician during this same period, which is yet another role I play in the studio (big and small). 

But I would have to say that my FAVORITE studio experience is when I can bounce between all three roles on a single project, which actually happens fairly often especially out here in Utah where projects tend to be more self-contained (read: small budgets). For the small budgets, it helps to be able to hire one person who can produce, engineer, arrange, and play half of the instruments! This is more common with singer/songwriters than with bands, where I tend to produce/engineer more than arrange or perform.



- Recently you wrapped up a tour with Emmylou Harris in which you performed on Letterman!  On the tour you play both keyboards and drums at the same time!  Tell us about the set-up you used for this?

I’ve played piano all my life and drums staring around age 13. I’ve often wondered how I could combine them, but never found the right approach. When Emmylou asked us (myself and producer/guitarist Jay Joyce) to join her for a few promotional shows (because we were the ones that played on the latest record), we both had to step up and do things we had never done before. Jay added Moog bass pedals to his guitar rig (playing on almost half of the songs), and I combined drums with keys and/or key bass. I had originally considered using all real instruments (like in a promo video we shot after recording the CD), but I soon realized I would need to go ‘electronic’ for this approach to work as a ‘touring’ setup. 

So I combined parts of my V-Drum setup with a USB keyboard, and moved things around until I found a fairly comfortable setup. From there I had to program the drums and keys to be flexible enough to cover the 13 songs from the CD. On the recordings  I played moog bass, drums, various percussion, piano, ‘plucked’ piano, rhodes, wurly, vibes, pump organ, marimbula (bass kalimba), B3 - obviously we couldn’t bring all of those on tour! So I quickly realized that Reason/Record was going to be the software ‘heart’ of my setup. I’ll be covering this setup on my webcast as a part of the Propellerheads Music Making Month this May 2011.


- Your own music has been quite successful, including the album "Sea of Glass" which reached #11 on the New Age charts shortly after it's release in 1992.  I've heard your sound described as "space music", which is a genre I have to admit I'd never heard of before, where did that description come from and do you feel it adequately describes your sound?

Back in the 70s it was also called Ambient Music, but that name was later used for a different genre causing confusion. Space music was coined by (IIRC) Steven Hill (Hearts of Space Record, who released “Sea of Glass”) to try to re-define the genre. In 1986 I did my first solo release for MCA/Master Series titled “Wunjo”, which was my reaction to the more aggressive music I worked on during the day. The original songs for Wunjo came from late night sessions after my day job. Everyone would leave the studio after the session, but I was still a bit wired (and all the gear was still on), so I’d put in a blank cassette tape (remember those?) and hit record and just jam out. But the thing is, although I was wired I was also tired, so the music I ended up recording on those evenings was mostly slower stuff with no drums or drum machines. I even had a DMX, a Fairlight and Simmons drums (as well as acoustic kits!) all available, but the music that came out late at night was more subdued and calming. It didn’t hurt to be all alone out in the country in a studio that looked like a castle! 

There wasn’t tons of overdubbing on the final release, keeping more to the ‘improvised’ spirit of the original cassette tapes (but I re-played all the parts rather than try to use the actual tapes). It was those very cassette tapes that I used to get the first record deal! BTW, Wunjo had an interesting distinction at the time in that it used no multi-track tape (it was entirely MIDI sequenced), and was mixed direct to digital (this is 1986, so it was a big deal at that time). That was a big thrill for me at the time (as an engineer!), to release an ‘all digital’ CD when most releases of the day still had an analog component of the production, which for quieter music really made a difference. If nothing else, the noise was almost non-existent on this project, which would have been a concern for a quiet and sparse production like this if we had mixed to analog. 

But as to the description “Space Music”, yea it seems to fit as well as anything. But I never think ‘genre’ when I’m writing and producing my music. It always seems weird to me to hear folks asking how to produce a certain genre, especially in the dance world where every artist IS practically their own genre. I tend to refer to artists rather than genres myself, and I tend to take one idea from one artist, one from another rather than try to recreate an artist’s or genre’s ‘sound’. But I also wouldn’t put all my music into the Space Music genre, not by a LONG shot! ;-)



- Having released albums on both major (MCA) and independent labels (Hearts of Space, Space for Music) what's your take on signing record contracts and in the age of the internet are record labels as necessary as they once were for distribution?

I’ve not been a fan of the big labels (for anyone but the big artists) for years. Having experienced both, I can say that in the end I’d rather deal with the mid-level ‘indy’ labels over the really big (or really small) labels. In my experience, I have always preferred dealing with the small to mid-sized operations where you can always get on the phone and talk directly with the ‘top dog’. My experience with larger labels was totally the opposite, where no one in charge was ever accessible, unless you are a ‘top’ artist. So that’s what I mean by big labels not being a good fit for anyone but a top artist. As for the future, I’ve all but given up on trying to guess where things are going next - I’m just hanging on for the ride!

- Are you currently working on any new solo material?

I have stuff laying around that really should be put into some form or another. At times I have felt somewhat restricted (my own doing) by the ‘ambient’ label of my earlier work, and have tried to put more rhythm into some projects. But I guess I still get most of my drumming out of my system on other folk’s projects, but I never get to really ‘space out’ on those projects, so that’s what often comes out when I’m alone! But yes, I DO plan to finish a solo project within the next year. It’s weird how my own projects always take a back seat to anyone else’s, either a friends or a paying client’s. 

Maybe it’s not a problem that many other readers will be able to relate to, but working on music full time can actually make it more difficult to produce your own music, not less! Working on other projects also seems to lead me to more ambient pieces because I’m sonically-exhausted after listening to music all day. :-)

I also have a side project with Portland OR electronic musician and mad scientist Dave Fulton. We have one project out on Hypnos Records from a few years back, and are trying to finish some projects for release in the near future. In both cases there are individual songs that are pretty much finished, but I’m such an “album” guy that I put off releasing anything until there’s enough for an album. Speaking of ‘album’, Dave's suggestion is that our next project be released as a download and vinyl. Cool with me!


- Let's switch gear - you've done the last few Record U tutorials for Propellerheads, which I really enjoyed.  Did Propellerhead come to you with the topic initially and are you going to be doing any more in the Record U series?

Yes, the Propellerheads came to me asking to write one article and see how we both felt, and have since asked me to stay on and do a few more! I’ve been writing part time for Recording Magazine for many years now, so I’m no longer a stranger to technical writing. In fact, I seem to actually enjoy it, and the positive feedback I’ve received so far has really encouraged me to continue further down this path. I would one day like to host my own hybrid tutorial world (for lack of better words) that presents tutorials in a way that combines the best of blogging, webcasting, written and video tutorials, and the online forum into a single concept. Film at eleven. :-)

- In addition to the Record U tutorials on May 30th you're doing a live video cast as part of Propellerhead's May Music Making Month event (this interview was done in mid-May). What can we look forward to in your presentation and is this going to be recorded at your home studio?

I’ll be ‘web-casting’ from the studio I run (with manager Rob Duffin) in Draper UT (South SLC county) called Annex Recording. This is where I do my larger projects and work with clients, when I’m not working in Nashville. 

I plan to cover my live setup from the Emmylou Harris gigs, and live setups in general. I also plan to cover the general topic of cross-pollination between the acoustic and electronic worlds, something I’ve come at from both directions! From there I have a handful of prepared directions I could go, and many more free-form directions that could be suggested by host Ryan Harlin or anyone in the chat room. So you never know, I could be showing SSL tricks, synth programming tricks, arrangement tricks, mixing tricks, who knows!


See Part 2 on PropellerheadSW Youtube page!


- And finally, speaking of home studios, what gear makes up your workplace?

Currently at home (my ‘personal’ studio), I run a Mac laptop with a Digi/Avid interface, and use a USB keyboard. I also have a Fender Strat on hand for what I like to call ‘playing’ guitar. Now here’s the funny part: my small monitors are in the shop and I’ve been using my Roland “Cube Monitor” and headphones for most recent work. I also have a sub-woofer to help fill out the bottom end. The thing is, the cube is MONO (and dual concentric, so all sound really does come from one point!).  For composing and generating ideas, this is great because I don’t tend to get hung up on the mix aspects or worry about panning. I use phones when I need to deal with stuff like that, but as I don’t really mix here it doesn’t matter. In fact, I’m going to keep this setup even when the ‘stereo’ monitors are back!  There really is a difference between ‘creating a song’ and ‘producing a track’ - I guess I learned my craft when they were two different jobs done by two different people, so I tend to keep wanting to work with a similar mentality even when working alone. But I’m not saying ‘don’t mix at all’ before the actual mix - I actually do a bit of mixing while I’m working, I mean, you can’t really get into a song if the mix totally sucks, so it has to at least ‘be close’ so you can work out the parts!  But I have learned that you can easily get distracted with mix decisions before the song is even ‘a song’, and that can actually de-rail the creative process for me.  So (as always) my setup’s limitations are currently serving me well and there’s no need to change what’s working!

Thanks Giles for the great interview!


Video courtesy of campacavallo
Sea of Glass track courtesy of bp996959

Friendly Fires performing "Hurting" on KCRW

A danceable and summery departure from their debut, Friendly Fires explore new songs from their eagerly awaited and highly praised sophomore release, Pala, in a live setting for Morning Becomes Eclectic. Watch / Listen here: www.kcrw.com
-KCRW

D16 SilverLine Group Buy!

Buy one D16 SilverLine effects plug-in and get the rest for FREE! D16's SilverLine effects have nearly all won Computer Music's prestigious "Performance" and "Value" awards and are used by some of the biggest names in the business. Group Buy ends June 15th, so jump on that shit!

Major Lazer in Jamaica New Album Preview

Diplo & Switch just spent a couple weeks finishing up some work on their second Major Lazer LP in Kingston, JA.
-Mad Decent

cb -- plans & ideas

launchpad + ableton
-conorowenbarry

DEFCON3

"DEFCON3 is a complete multiband lo-fi, distortion, audio deconstruction device that is capable of taking any audio and completely mangling it in a variety of ways. It can go from subtle dirt to all out war in just a few knob turns."

Download DEFCON3 for FREE @ www.teamdnr.net

Rewiring Record

Everyone's biggest complaint about Propellerhead Record when it was first released was its Reason-like lack of support for third-party plugins. Propellerhead claimed this was in the interest of stability, whereas user claimed "shut up!" But hey, calm down everybody, don't you realize you can just rewire audio from Record into any Rewire-capable recording software? In effect, Rewire let's you use third-party plugins in sessions started in Record.

So it's not exactly like having those plugins in the Record environment, but Rewiring to a second DAW (like Logic Pro in this case) is still a useful technique to have in your bag of tricks, for reasons explained in this Rewire video tutorial.
-Gearwire

Jazz Midi Files

One of the best ways to learn a new song is by studying the music. Being much more accustomed to DAWs than sight reading I like to import MIDI files and recently found a great site that features such files called Doug McKenzie's Live Played Jazz Midi Files. Doug McKenzie, no relation to Bob, is a retired college jazz music instructor from Geelong, Australia, so he really knows his subject matter, eh. Now to import these files into Reason you just need to open Reason and go to "File" (top of screen just to the left of Reason) and drag your cursor down to "Import Midi Files". The files from Doug's page sometimes include not only the piano parts, but drums and bass. You'll need to load appropriate combi patches for each sound - I really dig the "Electric Piano" bank in the Reason Factory Sound Bank for the piano parts. If you're interested in learning jazz piano you should definitely check out Doug's youtube page with videos of him playing along with piano notation! You can also buy a DVD direct from Doug's Site with over 170 jazz standards on it. These DVDs aren't copyrighted so teachers can copy songs off for their own students to learn. Cool!

Tim Exile - Google Guitar Homepage Song

It had to be done! I saw the Les Paul interactive guitar Google homepage a couple of hours ago so I performed a quick song/mashup about it... here it is.
-Tim Exile

Vladislav Delay Quartet

Out now on Honest Jon's Records the debut album by the Vladislav Delay Quartet!

"Finnish experimental artist Sasu Ripatti, most often known as Vladislav Delay, has put together a new group called the Vladislav Delay Quartet, with a self-titled debut album due out in May. Ripatti has always been a man of many projects, producing on his own as Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Sistol, with each guise differing greatly in style. Vladislav Delay Quartet features an electro-acoustic ensemble with Ripatti on percussion. Other members of the lineup are Mika Vainio, who handles electronics and processing, and live instrumentalists Derek Shirley and Lucio Capece (the latter of whom appeared on the Vladislav Delay’s 2009 album Tumaa). Those two play double bass, bass clarinet and soprano sax. The album is mixed and produced by Ripatti himself."

Vladislav Delay Quartet "Debut" Exclusive Track Preview by sasuripatti

Photo courtesy of Luka Knezevic - Strika and the Dis-Patch Festival Flickr page.

Mastering Redrum Knobs Switch

-silverfiltermusic

Tenori-On Performance Modes

Solo Mode


Score Mode


Random Mode

Media artist Toshio Iwai collaborated with Yamaha to design a totally new musical instrument. Tenori-on combines a MIDI controller, tone generator, sampler and stunning visual user interface. Most importantly it’s a unique new way to approach playing and composing music. Music instantly becomes a wall of light graffiti as you paint the sounds across its 256 LED buttons.
-Yamaha

pNORTNAOMI - Crim (segment)

A combination of techno and dubstep that's almost completely sequenced by Colorflex. Logic sends colorflex program changes and colorflex in turn triggers kontakt and Razor.
-pNORTNAOMI

Kore - The Past Generation Workstation

Native Instruments have announced the discontinuation of their Kore product line:

"Native Instruments has decided to discontinue the KORE product range, in order to utilize its development resources in the best interest of its wider userbase.

KORE 2 will be supported through further maintenance updates for the time being, with 64-bit plugin versions of KORE 2 for Windows and Mac OS X currently in development. Technical support for KORE will also continue to be available.

All owners of the full versions of KORE 1 or KORE 2 (excluding software-only versions) can purchase MASCHINE at a special crossgrade price of $449 / €399."


Thomas, the NI Forum Admin went into further detail on a thread in their forums:

"Hello everyone,

You might have already seen the formal announcement above outlining the fact that Kore is not a central part of the NI product roadmap anymore, and will not be developed beyond its current second generation.

On behalf of the Kore team, I would like to reassure you that this decision was not made lightly or on short notice. It is also based on the fact that the technical concept of Kore, with its integrated instrument engines, has always made it require an extraordinary amount of development resources just in order to keep it compatible with the rest of the NI instrument range, and this effort was increasingly hard to justify, especially compared to other NI products, their popularity and related feature requests.

As Maschine has developed into a host for NI instruments due to popular demand from its already very sizable userbase, the feature set and purpose of Maschine and Kore would be bound to overlap more and more in the future. In order not to create redundancy, but rather invest all resources into one single host system and expand it as efficiently as possible, the decision was ultimately been made to focus future development resources to Maschine.

Obviously we do not expect Kore fans to be happy about this announcement, but we hope that the upcoming maintenance updates, including the 64bit features, as well as the crossgrade offer to Maschine combined with its expanding instrument hosting features, will accommodate as many Kore users as much as possible.

I also want to reassure everyone that technical support for Kore continues to be available for an unlimited amount of time.

Keir and I will try to answer any questions and comments about the situation with Kore in as much detail as possible in this thread.

Regards, Thomas"

I've always thought Kore 2 looked like a pretty cool controller but could never justify the price tag. Now it becomes another NI Legacy product along side it's siblings: Intakt, Kompakt, Spektral Delay, Akoustik Piano, Bandstand, Vokator, Pro-53, Guitar Combos, Elektrik Piano and B4. R.I.P.

Turnado Rex ReFill from Neoverse!

Josh Mobley, aka Neoverse, has a new Reason ReFill called Turnado Rex! Sick sounds twisted even further with Sugar Bytes Turnado plug-in. Here's what Josh has to say about it:

"I was caught off guard with this plug in and I love it. The sound mangling possibilities are immense. there are 81 rex loops based off of a drum loop and a snippet of one of my songs. with a down and dirty record song showing how awesome rex files work with kong. The grooves range from nasty rhythms to airy percussions with a few melodic loops thrown in."

Download Turnado Rex for FREE on the Josh Mobley Music Facebook page!

Recording on Location with Focusrite's Saffire PRO 24

Live recording session featuring the Focusrite Saffire PRO 24, KRK RP6 monitors and Blue Bluebird microphone. Pro Tools 9 is used alongside the Focusrite Midnight plugin suite, providing compression and EQ.

The Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 is a 16 in / 8 out, bus-powered FireWire audio interface, featuring two high quality Focusrite Mic Preamps. It forms the basis of a high quality, incredibly portable professional recording system.
-Focusrite

pNORTNAOMI - Drain Rom 03.Sc-vol2

A delicate Sci fi Ambient drone. This is part of a 36 piece soundbank I have created to be used in Scapes, lurker and graincube. I'm thinking about making the Nki and reaktor map available once I find a decent online host to post on. You can listen to the rest of the samples on my soundcloud page.
-pNORTNAOMI

Uniquesquared Ryan Noise Videos

APC40 Video Mixing Tutorial


Interview

Ryan Noise stopped by the Unique Squared studio to show how to set up a template for Video Mixing using the AKAI APC40. He maps out the buttons on the APC40 to trigger banks within the software he uses.
-Unique Squared

Ableton Live Tutorial: Drum Rack + Impulse = DrumPulse

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, I was building a drum track and decided to use Drum Rack. While programming my beat and tweaking controls I thought, "Man, I wish Simpler had some of those cool random options that Impulse has so I could use them in Drum Rack." Now, flashing back to the time when Drum Rack came out with Live 7, everyone (myself included) was like, "Yo, forget Impulse! Drum Rack is the stuff!" Then began the war between die-hard Impulse fans and Drum Rack spearheads. But wait! Why should we have to choose? Why is it one or the other? Then I had an idea...
-dubspot

UPDATE: Here's the link for Thavius Beck's "Follow Action" video Pat mentions at the end of this tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VGYK5RsCU

Pyongyang City Sessions Zip 001

Free dubstep sampler from the Manchester based collective Pyongyang City Sessions featuring Bay, Cykl, Stickman and Elsewhere. High quality dubstep and stripped back Drum & Bass! Tip of the hat to Sitting Ovation who clued me in on this fine release. Download your copy @ www.pycsessions.com!


PYC Zip 001 by PYC Sessions

KORG monotribe まるわかりビデオ Vol.5

KORG monotribeの機能を解説。Vol.5は「SyncKontrol for monotribe」。monotribeをiPhoneでコントロールする話題のアプリを紹介します。

SyncKontrol for monotribeについて、詳細はこちら。

monotribeについて、詳細はこちら。

-Korg

New from Audio Damage - Panstation!

Panstation is, without question, the most sophisticated autopanner plug-in available. We started with a loose model of the venerable Drawmer M500's panning engine, then added the counting features from the Audio & Design PanScan (probably the most famous vintage autopanner, and the "secret weapon" of many well-known producers.) The result is an autopanner plug-in that is second to none in both feature set and sound.

Panstation Features:

• Four different panning laws, including an exact 1:1 clone of the M500 pan law.

• Ten panning waveforms, including all the waveforms present in the M500.

• Free-run, MIDI tempo sync, MIDI note trigger, MIDI note number, and CC control of panning.

• Audio trigger counting feature from the A&D PanScan.

• Easy-to-read user interface. No squinting at tiny pixel fonts.

• Relative phase control of each side, for tremolo and stereo widening effects.

• MIDI Learn for full MIDI CC control over every parameter.

Check out the demos and buy your copy for $39 @ www.audiodamage.com

Twisted Tools Presents | Kero's Bits & Beats OUT NOW!

FREE Download!


It's summer time and we're excited to kick things off with an incredible new sample collection by Detroit Underground Record's KERO. The free 184MB collection features an insane collection of bits and beats straight from KERO's vaults which you can use freely in your own music productions!. Just login and download for free.
-Twisted Tools

NIHOND HAMMOND DPM48 -HD- MACHINE DRUM

Nihon Hammond DPM-48 born in Japan 1984
Here's demo of my DPM48
more infos : http://www.pianovintage.fr
Enjoy !!!
-Piano Vintage

Farewell Colleage: behind the pads

Short video on the "making of" the sampled parts of "Farewell, colleage".
Full song:

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/ander-toledo
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beat-O-rama/112157855519629
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/minoreffectmusic

-BeatOramaTube

Using Ableton Live w/ Maschine Tutorial - dubspot

In this video Native Instruments product specialist Matt Cellitti, explains and demonstrates how to use Maschine to control Ableton Live and simultaneously as a plugin inside the software. Together Maschine and Ableton are a powerful combination for production and performance. Cellitti starts by showing us how to load the Ableton Live template that can be accessed via Maschine's hardware or Native Instruments bundled Controller Editor software. He then goes into detail of how Maschine can be used to trigger clips, scenes and FX as well as control other parameters such as individual track volume. After this, he explains how to switch Maschine to a standard MIDI controller within Ableton to program and perform new drum parts and synth lines, all without stopping the music in Ableton Live.
-dubspot

Arturia Spark Now Available!

We are excited to announce that Spark, our much anticipated drum machine, is now shipping! In this new video, you will be able to witness the amazing electro sounds and live potential of the beast. The footage also features short interviews of Arturia staff members and one of our Sound Designers, all of whom were involved in pushing the boundaries of beat technology.
-Arturia

Creating Mix Groups In Propellerhead Record: A How-To (Video)

Promoted as the DAW for musicians, Propellerhead Record nevertheless features some of the most sophisticated (and intimidating) mix routing of any multi-track recording software. While this opens the opportunity to do some very creative things in the mix interface, it also makes certain basic functions — like creating mixing sub groups — a little confusing.

That's why we've put together this step-by-step video on how to create submixes in Record. It may require a few more steps than creating subgroups in other DAWs, but the visual routing component presented by the virtual rack view (ported from Reason) aides the process. As does Owen's patient, guiding voice.
-Gearwire

Block Expansion Jacks with Soft Pot Tutorial

Here I have wired a touch potentiometer to my block for added control. The touch strip is called a SoftPot and is made by spectra symbol. I purchased it from sparkfun and added it to the side of my block for additional controls. Super easy and fun.
-Livid Instruments

Batteries Duo at Uptown Apple Store, Minneapolis

Batteries Duo's recent trip to Minneapolis featured a performance at the Uptown Apple Store, using their Mac, Ableton Live Software and some fun with MIDI controllers. This performance features their original composition, Parking Lot.
-TheBatteriesDuo

The New Moog Production Faciltiy in Asheville, NC!

Tank Spencer (real name?) gets a tour of the brand new Moog Production facility in Asheville, NC:


Courtesy of newsRadio570

-008' Monotron

New FREE Monotron Reason ReFill from -008'

Here is my latest freebie made from the very cool Korg Monotron Analogue Ribbon Synthesizer. Combinators, Kongs, Rex, and more. There are also a few patches that aim to act as emulations.

ReFill Contains:

-3 emulations
-10 Basses
-10 Leads
-10 Synths
-10 Pads
-32 Rex Loops, plus 2 Rex Player Combis
-4 Kongs

Download -008' Monotron today for FREE from www.008refills.com

Andras Fox Videos

more @ soundcloud.com/andrasfox
-Andras Fox