From around the web and Colorado for the week ending 31Aug2009:

Word of the week : SNLEP (Snow Leopard). I already dropped a few posts here and here on the topic.  A few more for the mix:

• http://www.ableton.com/pages/faq/osx_106 – This is form the main Ableton site
• Presonus not doing so well http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/08/26/presonus-hardware-first-show-stopper-mac-os-10-6-problem/

Free Stuff:

• TITAN synth – get a free copy (source Gear Junkies) and the direct link http://www.bestservice.de/actual.asp/en/790340a212p83p90p161
• Extend Live has a free collection of delay effects.  Take a look http://www.extendlive.com/?p=19

Gear Watch:

• Wacom is entering the market with nextbeat (slow page load) – an “instrument for creative DJs” source Gear Junkies
• Open source sequencer based on Arduino (and other) chips – I ran the page through a translator, here are the bullets (more on Arduino below):

1.Hardware Step Sequencer
2.8 marks a 8 patterns each with 16 steps
3.Each track can have its own MIDI channel (input, output)
4.Internal resolution of 24 pulses per 1 / 4 note (PPQN)
5.Inclusion of external MIDI devices
6.External and internal synchronization (play, stop, resume, clock)
7.Modifying the sequence during playback
Open-source software concept
Programming by Arduino IDE
Based on Atmel ATmega1280
USB interface for communication with the PC / MAC
MIDI interface (MIDI input, MIDI output)
Silicon 28 buttons, 2 rotary encoders with confirmation and an LCD display

• Apparently this bag is APC40 friendly – how do you transport your APC?
• Okay – this is just plain cool! Do you know Otto? Hardware for real time slice sample control – take a look…

Mark Mosher from Modulate This found a great video on how Depeche Mode is using Ableton to real time process the drum needs.  Forget about the performance and DJ types of things you can do for a minute. This is enabling more “studio trickery” to enter the realm of live music.

I found the YouTube channel for Dave Smith – if you are a synth person (like me) check it out. http://www.youtube.com/user/DaveSmithInstruments.

Have you seen the “Squarepushin on the APC” video? This is fun:

New friends? I hope so – I was selling a blade server this past week and the buyer turned me onto a company in Boulder named Spark Fun. In short – they are a technology company and offer free (online) and pay-for classes (in person) classes on a lot of circuit technologies.  Do you need to get your soldering chops up? Are you about to enter the Arduino chip programming area (like me)?  This looks like a great local resource!

What is Arduino? Via Wikipedia:

Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple open hardware design for a single-board micro-controller, with embedded I/O support and a standard programming language.

The Adruino site.

Why should you care?

Well, here is a simple starter project from Spark Fun for a MIDI controller. This unit allows you to control MIDI how ever you want. I am not sure if this guy (next video) is using such a controller, but this is essentially the building block.  (beware, this will freak you out a little):

Until  next time – spread the coolness and thank you.

Create Digital Music has been expanding the breakdown of the Snow Leopard compatibility grid here.

Here’s a few videos on the topic – they are of marginal interest to the music / Ableton world, but insightful to some.

And this one

People are crawling out of the rocks for this release.

Is it the low price tag?

Is it recession boredom?

Hard to say.

As I mentioned earlier, proceed slowly. Verify that your hardware and software is ready for the upgrade.  Twitter, Facebook, friends, sharpie on the men’s room wall is NOT a reliable source all the time.

With Snow Leopard coming out tomorrow (28aug2009) there are a lot of people nervous.  Here’s the main reason why:

Very few digital audio professionals rune one app or hardware on a (computer) Mac.  A new OS release provides the opportunity for some hardware and software to work on the new OS leaving a patchwork of compatibility seriously hindering performance and work.

So far the big fail is coming from Presous (no compatibility until later October). In the interest of keeping this professional, talk to me directly on my Presonus experience.  Here is a CDM article for more info.

Create Digital Music also has this article compiling the score as the information becomes available.  So far CDM seems to be the most comprehensive coverage on the OS migration from a digital audio perspective.

If you know anything send it through to us or get your comment on in the CDM post(s).

What ever you do – procede carefully – here are a few tips:

• Don’t upgrade right before a gig
• Back up everything
• Know how to roll back
• Contact your hardware / software vendors regarding the new OS
• Test your new gear (I usually run Ableton in the background for 24 hours or more while poking at the CPU with a sharp stick)
• Have a back up plan
• Consult your local pagan computer guild on what you should sacrifice to appease the digital gods in this time of great change

As for Ableton specifically I have already collected varying advice, all from reliable sources.  Here is the link from Ableton (forum), a few notes I will pass along:

• Regarding 8.0.4  : “While Live 8.0.4 may work without problems, we cannot guarantee compatibility yet, as internal tests are still ongoing.We will release a free Live 8 update in the next few weeks which will officially support Mac OS X 10.6″
• What about 7.x? Should work, will lag in testing.
• And what about 64 bit? Coming…not yet.
• What should you do? “If your main concern is stability, we don’t recommend upgrading to 10.6 until compatibility for Live and all of your third-party software and hardware products has been assured by the responsible companies.”

This link will return a search for “Snow Leopard” in the forums.

I am (seriously) not a Mac person.  My little white bastard box stumps me on a regular basis.  It does, however, play Ableton perfectly with almost no downtime.  I will be watching the digital airwaves for news and pass along anything valid to our user group.

Good luck everyone – see you soon.

–Marc

If you wander over to http://www.indabamusic.com/featured_programs/show/tcm you can download all the info (many MB’s)

I have provided a skeleton set to play with (Ableton 8, my 7 install was not being happy).  I have kept the same license, here is a copy and paste form the Indaba site:

Creative Commons Non-Commercial 3.0 license. This means you are free to promote your mix for non-commercial purposes. For more information on this license, go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

This is not all of the “stuff”, but instead a bunch of “stuff” I liked and dropped into a generic Ableton set. Everything is pretty straight forward.  Color coding denotes similarity (like an A and B section of a verse).

I hope you enjoy!  Feed back is welcome!

Attribution (found no formal attribution info so…):

• http://www.indabamusic.com/featured_programs/show/tcm
• http://www.thecrystalmethod.com/

Around the Web – Ableton, Denver, and other items:

• http://www.thecovertoperators.org/ have released a Video Tutorial Pack – I would like to hear more about htis, the cost is pretty reasonable, here is a link http://www.thecovertoperators.org/vmchk/Tutorial-Videos/Guide-To-Ableton-s-MIDI-Devices/flypage-ask.tpl
• Max for Live preview video : http://www.ableton.com/willits-video also http://www.xlr8r.com/tv/ and http://www.christopherwillits.com/
• Free Swazak Live Pack : http://www.ableton.com/swayzak
• Tutorial to edit audio in Ableton – some tips in there just over 2 minutes http://winksound.com/video/Ableton-Live-Editing-Audio-in-A other fun stuff at http://winksound.com/
• Don’t forget that you can remix Crystal Method http://www.indabamusic.com/featured_programs/show/tcm – I also put up my working skeleton version here http://content.abletondenver.com/5/crystal_method_come_back_clean.zip (Works is licensed source http://www.indabamusic.com/featured_programs/show/tcm : “Creative Commons Non-Commercial 3.0 license. This means you are free to promote your mix for non-commercial purposes. For more information on this license, go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/”)
• House anyone? DJ Sneak @ vinyl on Sat/29 http://www.coclubs.com/show/detail/22837 http://www.myspace.com/sneakthedj
• De La Soul at Bluebird (classic) http://bluebirdtheater.net/eventdetail.php?id=23715
• Sept 5 & 6 – Infected Mushroom – 2 Day stop at the Fox – http://www.foxtheatre.com/Store/ChooseTicket.aspx?sid=15500 – good stuff.

Let me know what the view from your area is?

–Marc

Subject: Formal Welcome and Thank You from Ableton Denver

We are live (but you probably know that already).

Initial Inertia:

Our first meet up is looking like the final week of September, a Wednesday somewhere near downtown. Suggestions welcome, I hope to formalize something later this week.

Agenda:

*Get to know your Ableton and Electronic musician contemporaries.
*Talk about the future
*Exchange ideas and create a wish list for the group and our community
*Talk shop
*Begin discussing speaker and presenter options (there are many!)

The community is already very wide and diverse. We have performing musicians, laptop-ists, DJ performers, electronic musicians, glitch and ambient performers, IDM, and so many others using Ableton looking to learn, teach, and share.

Since we are in the early stages of development our group would like to hear your voice! We have needs for bloggers, speakers, teachers, students, circuit benders, and musical visionaries and shamen (sha-people is PC but not nearly as fun) . Contact us to help!

info[at]abletondenver[dot]com

For anyone on the meetup.com site get your profile dialed in – it only takes a few minutes. Introduce yourself! If you are not part of our meet-up go there now!

http://www.meetup.com/Ableton-Denver

The site rolled out fantastic. We are working on more sample libraries and some set to put up there, so stay tuned. Your content is desired – share more and get ahead! (we have an open source back ground – sharing is the way to go).

Help us put the puzzle together by:

Sending ideas
Suggesting speakers
Finding more members
Providing content or mixes to our site

No, not the band, the wall wart!

If you are in Denver and need a power supply an don’t want to spend too much money here is your place to remember: Action PC.  They are located just south of Yale on Colorado Blvd.  Here is the site http://www.actionpc.com/.

They have bins (seriously) of power supplies and they are mostly $4.95 each.  So the Boss power supply you just threw at a cat outside your apartment window may be gone forever but that doesn’t mean you have to cough up $20+ for the replacement.

Most (not all) of the barrel diameters (inside and outside) for the plugs are pretty standard.  the 9v tip – ~500ma Boss adaptor is the same 9v tip – ~500ma used for a corledd phone, etc.

Do pay careful attention to what you are doing – there is margin for smoke and fire. Try not to get no-name power supplies. If there is any thing loose inside put it back. If you see melted plastic anywhere, don’t buy it.  All common sense stuff.

I have a drawer of power supplies in my gear closet and I love it.  I jst gave one away yesterday with some gear I sold and BLAMO, there was another one!

Action PC recycles computer stuff.  If you are PC orientated (and there is some mac stuff too) this is a great place to know!

Okay – getting this thing rolling huh? Frees stuff version 1 – The Talking Little Smart alphabet DESK.

Contents: 1 zip file with over 20mb of samples – 131 files licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

http://content.abletondenver.com/5/alphabet_desk.zip

Sample info:

• Format wave (*.wav)
• 44.1khz
• 16 bit
• mono

There were a few files where pops were unavoidable.  Some were wiped in editing but a few had to stay because the edits to kill “de-popping” messed with the speech.  Only a few samples have pops.

I got this at a garage sale earlier this month and then plugged it into my Ableton rig through effects and it kicked some major ass.  Download and let me know what you think. (I was having fun hitting K-I-L-L with a good 4-on-the-floor running the toy through a filter then delay – I will post some mixes real soon).

My favorites:

• /other/press_a_button.wav
• /other/square.wav
• /other/triangle.wav
• /other/scale_*.wav (free scale for you glitch types)
• /sound_this_is/elephant.wav
• /sound_this_is/monkey.wav
• /where_is/queen.wav
• /where_is/robot.wav

Enjoy!

–M

Up next? Some MP3 loops from my JoMoX w/unreal processing and Udu loops (where is that stuff in the archive?)

Just putting up an official press release for anyone who wants to forward this along.

August 19, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!

Denver Ableton User Group has begun!

We have turned the site  LIVE at http://abletondenver.com.

This new website facilitates file sharing, learning, and loop / sample exchange thought the custom file system programmed especially for this site.

Registration is open to anyone and file uploads are beginning.

This site represents a huge step forward in community allowing people to trade data and samples to grow musically. Check out the demo: http://abletondenver.com/file-upload/

Ableton Denver is the result of much programming and  planning.  The site acts as the central point of contact for Live performances, remixing, sample / loop / set trading, and education for Ableton and other forms of electronic music.

Site features include:

-News feeds from Gear Junkies, Create Digital Music, and Home Studio Connection
-File browsing open to the public!
-Loop, sample, and project trading to registered members (registration is free)
-News for Ableton and electronic music in Colorado
-Teacher and student connections
-Musicians for hire
-Services for hire
-Any thing to expand the Denver Ableton scene

The site is currently administered by Marc W. (DJ Not So Much) and Chris Lawhead (Lawhead Music) but our administration panel is growing!

Both Marc and Chris have been performing live in the Denver / Boulder area for over a decade each and turned to Ableton in the past few years to create more music.  Marc has a long history of synthesis and programming spanning over 20 years while Chris is a classically trained musician with a focus on live performance and live looping. Both use Ableton very actively and keep personal studios and other resources available.

The Ableton Denver User Group website is already populating with information and news!  The first meet up is scheduled for later in September.  There are many events planned for the near future including:

-Tutorials
-Demonstrations
-Guest speakers
-Live Performances
-Social Gatherings

To stay up to date visit the Ableton Denver Website! http://abletondenver.com

http://abletondenver.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106696377587
http://www.myspace.com/abletondenver
http://www.meetup.com/Ableton-Denver
http://twitter.com/abletondenver

Thank you!

contact : info[at]abletondenver[dot]com