So we had a killer turn out for ILL.GATES – thank you everyone.  If you need help or have questions send it into the community!

Some new friends and the whomp truck is in news.

Is this cool yet? Nope, I don’t think so. But not at Line 6’s fault (Jobs is the issue) There is no new media, no mention of iPad (a great gauge to the alert level of L6).

The new (Apple iPhone OS dev agreement still cripples this hardware / software app). Keep watchin, keep hoping, or maybe generation 2 iPads will fix it?

So how about an early trickle of one a slate on Android?

Minimal techno tutorial on YouTube via Dub Spot

Back to Android. There seems to be some ground being made into audio, CDM really gets it good in this article. The ALSA and other libraries are there and totally ready for  exploit. Android based multi-touch control is SOOO close – I would drop an iPad in a second for a good Android device (I want to hack). Until then I will use the iPad.

Swing it with your python hanging out Python based swing (thx Cache Flowe)

Some friends at ATX Ableton drop some comment on the Livid block.

I want to get High (pass filter) so High (pass filter) – I use high pass filters in my analog processing (post Ableton) with great success (thank you Borat)

FEA Labs is making a bunch of opto-compressors. I have not used this brand, but the collection looks nice. Dual band optical compressors are wonderful for Ableton as they can keep your sound stable after the D/A conversion.

Dual Band Optical Compressor-Limiter
Dual Band SMX Optical Compressor
Opti-FET Compressor

FFE Labs

Let’s drop some serious WTF on Opto

I can (and often do) lecture on compression. In general (and especially in Ableton) they are A-B-U-S-E-D!

Digital compression is a joke, sorry, it is true. Once you work with real compression (mechanical compression is best – using the room to settle your sound) or a killer strip or tube line or a dedicated unit you look at the digital versions as effects processors that mimic the real deal.

Now you can get a lot done with the digital versions, most modern engineering is done in the digital realm (enter Multi-band compressions aka mastering). But this is not the type of compressor I am talking about.

Optical compressors use light to compress the sound.

This is cool because you can not overdrive light (unlimited head room and range). A (real vacuum) tube or valve compressor is close. But the compression is essentially happening with the conversion of sound to a electrons (pure energy) in the context of the vaccum tube (Thermonic Transmission via Wikipedia). This is not optical compression. Although it is often sold as such (ART marketed some of the pre’s as optical at one point – they all got returned).

Here is result #1 and the explanation is not quite developed yet, so here is an a fast diatribe.

In essence your sound is converted to light (energy). No, not SPDIF/ADAT light, but a simple modulation of light based on your input signal.

In total darkness (or else things leak and sound bad) the light is transmitted in open air to an optical cell where it is captured. The optical cell is more or less a solar panel.

So your sound goes form controlled voltage (normal analog audio signal) to light (pushed through a LED let’s say) and the received by a solar cell. While your sound travels as light there is no way you can run out of head room in that environment. So by controlling the “gain” of light you compress or attenuate the signal as light where the curve, control, and performance is very easy to deal with regardless of your sound source.

Usually there is no attack, knee, or ratio. Most of my (many) optical compressors have 2 knobs – pre/post or input/drive.

The change is subtle, but when you are plugged in a loud speaker system or a picky input (no headroom) optical compression is the way to go.

The coloration is minimal, spikes are usually eliminated, dynamic range stays almost unchanged (as long as you are mellow and not driving signals hard). The optical compressor is just damn awesome for controlling your output as it goes from you D/A to PA.

This is very subtle stuff, but the investment is 100% worth it!

The number one place I used opto-compressors in my live keyboard rig was before and/or after filters. If you start stacking filters you can have certain freqs stack and gain 30, 60, 90db (yeah I said 90db,non-linear math my friends).

This would save the crowd’s ears from, well, being destroyed.

If anyone wants to mess around with opto-compressors contact me before the next meet up and I will bring a few. (I collect compressors).

I just got a question regarding how ILL.GATES used sample selection (pretty slick stuff) to “scan” through his 128’s.

It is not too obvious unless you really know your stuff in this area of Ableton.

So here is a walk through to allow you to get a “magic knob” to select samples inside the Sampler instrument/effect.

1. Drop in a MIDI track.

2. Drop an Instrument Rack on the MIDI track (this provides macros)

3. Drop a “Sampler” in the instrument rack. So everything should look like this:

4. Place your samples in the sampler. You can drag groups into the “Drop Samples Here” area. (ILL.GATES used 128 samples and the “128 term” because there are 128 “slots” as MIDI is 2×2x2×2x2×2x2 = 128.For the example I will use 4 samples and by the end you will understand how to use 2,4,20, 0r 128 samples.

4b. Open up the “Zone” tab and you should have something that looks like this:

Note : MIDI starts at zero!!! So 0 to 127 is the range! This is called “offsetting” or “zero offset” and is common in anything digital.

5a. Click on the “Sel” button / square to the left of the piano roll (“Key” is selected in my shot where “Key”, “Vel”, and “Sel” are grouped together).

5b. Initiate “Map Mode” and assign the area in green where the piano roll was to your macro. It should look like this:

5c. Close Map Mode.

6. Adjust the “Zones” (blue horizontal lines under the piano roll / sample selector area to be 1 (one) note and not all notes. It should look like this:

Helpful tip: Adding samples and adjusting the zones can be a pain. You can duplicate or alt/option drag to copy. This will copy the zones.  Then you can hot swap samples.  One of may approaches available.

7. Wrap it up! This step is IMPORTANT anytime you are NOT USING 128 samples.  This is also why macros help so much. Here are the sub-steps broken down:

A. MIDI Map your controller to the Sample Selector macro. You can use CC’s or a series of note values (make sure your series of notes are the same quantity as the number of samples you are intending to use).  Here is a shot of the MIDI Mapping on the Sample Selector macro:

B. Edit the range of your mapping to match the number of samples. Remember that MIDI starts at 0 (zero).  Or did I already mention that? Here is what is would look like mapping 4 samples starting at position 0 (zero):

Complete!

No, really, your done.  Now can scan through samples like ILL.GATES was showing in our recent workshop. (this is just handy stuff!)

I hope that helps! There are a number of features in the Sampler that are bitchin’ but this should get you over the hump real fast.  You will also need to have a MIDI clip running to hear your results, but that is another story all together.

–Marc
Electronic Music Missionary

[EDIT] Here is a great fast moving video that is the root of this post and discussion:

ESKAMON: “Fine Objects” – Ableton Tutorial by ill.Gates from ESKMO on Vimeo.

ILL.GATES this weekend!

22may2010 : City Hall

Start Time:    Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 9:00pm
End Time:    Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 2:00am
Location:    City Hall Amphitheater
Street:    1144 Broadway
City/Town:    Denver, CO fbook link

23May2010 : Ill Methodology Workshop (21+ @ walnut details Details and RSVP $50)

24May2010 :Ill Methodology Workshop (18+ @ woudl shop details and RSVP $50)

Pre pay using using this paypal address for ILL.GATES: thephatconductor@gmail.com or contact Ableton Denver with questions!

What to bring to the workshop.

Here’s The Phat Conductor:

ESKAMON: “Fine Objects” – Ableton Tutorial by ill.Gates from ESKMO on Vimeo.

Back to the post!

Brining improv back, this certainly does look interesting – improvisation is an area of great exploration and focus for m.  There are a few key elements worth noting:

-The basics – “Solo over form” and “what is form” in Ableton
-As a solo artist
-In conjunction with synchronization
-In the “live band” context and how to cue and communicate these ideas as well as scripting got them in the sheet music.

This is a great article form our friends over at Audio Tuts providing a help list for the “pre-mastering” stage. A good read or at least a good scan.

Damn, fabric driven controller, no seriously – if my fashion designer wife and I collaborated for the purpose of sound this is someplace we could visit:

fabricmachine from Kathrin Stumreich on Vimeo.

The Quote from Dave Smith (classic) :

“As I always say, as a designer, if you design something digital, you spend all your time adding slop in. If you’re designing analog, you spend all of your time trying to take the slop and the noise out.”

The full article is a group intervirew with Tom Oberheim, Dave Smith, Roger Linn, Jaron Lanier, David Wessel, Keith McMillan, John Chowning, and Max Mathews.

My iPad is coming (I know, I suck, 100% hypocrisy) Rather than spam out a full page of low quality vids of demos of apps here is the Top 25 according to Audio Tuts

Oliver found some Kaoss hacking – not my thing but kinda cool.

I am out for now! More in a bit! –M

This article has been long overdue. The subject of MIDI sync is generally misrepresented. Use of wireless is pushed as a solution and not a liability to the masses. This is wrong.

Of all the questions I get MIDI sync “how-to” is by far the one common thread.  Ableton offers a standard solution that relies on technology that is over 25 years old. The protocol is NOT perfect and you need to think before you incorporate MIDI synch in your live set. (note the lower case “l”)

First the APC and other controllers

The APC is a USB class compliant MIDI device. There is a proprietary handshake that “syncs” – NOT the same as MMC/MTC/SMTPE by a long shot.

The APC sync is orientated mostly towards the “handshake” where there is a “sync” with the GUI in Ableton and the hardware (what and why LEDS light up).

If you want to MIDI sync generally you use a MIDI cable or SMPTE type of clocks (often BNC connection)

Now for the bad news

Professionally MIDI sync does not work well. When you DO see this live understand that there is a ton of work invested in making this work reliably.

Using MIDI to sync 2 laptops is flaky at best.  The success depends on  where your tolerance stands. Personally my set is disrupted at 10ms or greater lag/error.

This problem is, in short, because Ableton and most MIDI apps  operate in master/slave mode.n other words there is  a leader and follower of time. The follower will “resync” (re-orientate) at every defined interval (sync 2 machines and watch the BPM – it is in constant flux. I have seen +/- 5bpm).

It gets worse –

To sync 2 boxes you will need an audio or MIDI break out box.  If you go cheap you will have even more issues. (crappy timing crystals and bad electronics are par for the course)

Sometimes this stuff works well or well enough for certain apps.  I have jammed with people via and it is okay for me at times.  I usually lead because my sh!t is so tight (insert bad  joke here).

Okay, now it gets even worse –

If you want to do it right start saving your lunch money.  To sync live for a large gig using a Master / Slave can be suicide (not enough interest in going through the why). So the way you should do it is via a central time code generator and slave all machines. This practice is the agreed standard.   The least expensive unit is over $1.5k and that still needs more hardware to generate MIDI time.   (Big Ben)

And then it gets worse again –

Wireless MIDI = suicide live.

Midi over Wireless (any format) = suicide live .

Why ?

Simple – any script kitty can crush you with a smart-phone in a few minutes (so bad you will not be able to reconnect for the rest of the evening).

You will never find out who.

I am a programmer by day, I HAVE to be aware of how networking operates.  Any use of wireless LIVE is suicide – I may sound alarmist but there is no joke here.

Opening the door a little :

I can crack the  best wireless encryption in under 5 minutes period. From there you are destroyed (that is an understatement).

DoS (denial of service) type blasts will shut your set down.

Despite today’s 802.11i robust security network (RSN) advances, WLANs remain very vulnerable to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. While you may not be able to prevent DoS attacks, a wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPSWIPS) can help you detect when DoS attacks occur and where they come from… source and other stuff here

Packet sniffing will allow me to take control of Ableton remotely with a little work (injection – not my specialty – but give me a few hours…). A malicious script kitty will do something like drop 10hz blast to blow the sound system or 17k @ +20 db and make everyone deaf. You are not getting any gigs after that issue…

One solution lies in OSC via MIDI over ethernet (not wireless).  But Ableton does not natively support OSC and the middle ware leaves lag. I have not bench marked this protocol, but I hear good stuff.

Sorry to kill any ideas but I am a firm advocate of professionalism and any wireless connection is a HUGE liability. (There is a sub-conversation on whitespace/4g and the dynamic mapping for interference that is slowing down the release of this awesome spectrum for data communication and how this can crush your sync ideas)

Apparently Moldover was hacked in a show via similar methods.  If you leave wireless on during your set you are opening up to problems (Apple remote script is something I saw on the radar – I don’t care because I kill wireless when performing).

Many people may disagree with me, and I accept this fact.  When they get crushed by this type of method they will not know how, what, or why this happened. So my argument is usually going to fall on deaf ears.

How much of a risk is this?

Not sure, but there is more than enough risk out there to NOT do it.  As your show scales your rick increases – more people leaves a greater chance of someone messing with you.  Wireless can have a 1/4 mile + range. In any city that puts a few thousand people minimum in range of messing with you.  Using a Pringles can I have pulled in wireless connections over a mile away up in the mountains.

There are a few wireless methods you can use that are more secure, I have a friend who IS all IT security and knows this stuff inside and out – he agrees with me 100% and the safe ways to do wireless in a performance are out of my scope (and I work on this stuff all day everyday).

So who the hell am I?

I have been doing this ’stuff’ for well over a decade. I was teaching MIDI and synthesis professionally in the 1990’s.  I started programming in the 1980’s (I am old). MIDI sync is fine in the studio, risky live, and a bad idea as the central part of your set.  If you must use it live you need to refactor your set and hardware for reliability and use only high end equipment.

I have not mentioned EM blasts, interference, or jamming. Each is pretty easy and will shut you down.

There is a long list of DO-NOTs – too many to even begin discussing.

For the record – MIDI sync has GREAT results when you are syncing 2 hardware units. As soon as software comes into play you increase your potential problems. There is a huge spectrum  of possibilities between success and failure with a billion variables. There is no “one” answer, only best practices.

I  advocate the tightest rig, best security, and absolute professionalism when playing live.

All you people using hacked copied of software stand to hurt the whole community.

However in the basement – do what ever you want!

Why the alarmist view?

Working in the programming and development environment for many years now I HAVE to know how to hack. I am a “white hat” hacker and this is part of the job description.  White hat is all about hacking your applications looking for problems.  I am NOT an “black hat” hacker – I do not hack out of malicious intent or to hurt people.  Please be clear on this item!

Again, back to my professional experience – buy me some good scotch (not single malt please) and I will indulge you on things I know and stuff I have seen that will scare the mortal crap out of a anyone. From Facebook exploits, XSS craziness, how to sniff wireless, and a long list of weird stuff I would only talk about in person and leave out of print period.

Please allow this article to be a reference form the conservative side of technology.

Hello all – we are proud to announce that there is a second ILL.GATES workshop available for Monday May24, 2010 at The Would Shop.

Your RSVP link via Meetup.com.

This event is 18+ so bring your (not too) little brother or sister!

Don’t forget the ILL.GATES is performaing at City Hall (map link) on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 9:00pm. Facebook Event link and the CoClubs link.

About the ILL.GATES visit and his evening at City Hall!:

ill.Gates - http://mutimusic.com - http://thephatconductor.com
[Toronto][Muti Music, Amorphous Music/Child's Play/Om Records, Addictech]

ill.Gates is a Toronto-based composer, performer and educator. Over the past 15 years, he has established a global fan base and a reputation as one of the most dynamic electronic music artists around. He regularly tours across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Gates has headlined at such festivals as Burning Man, Shambala, the World Electronic Music Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Festival. He also has cultivated a thriving creative partnership with the San Francisco-based bass music icon Bassnectar, including a chart-topping remix of ‘Maximum’ by DJ Vadim that sold so fast the duo were accused of chart hacking. Please welcome ill.Gates back to Denver for another mind blowing bass fueled performance!

EPROM - http://eprommusic.com - http://myspace.com/eprommusic
[California][Surefire, Black Acre, Cloak x Dagger]

EPROM is known for his diverse, funky and energetic sets, which cross the lines between live remixing and manipulation of hip hop and dubstep with his own obscenely bass-heavy neurocrunk transmissions. EPROM has played alongside artists like Flying Lotus, The Glitch Mob, Skream, Lazer Sword, Kode9, Mochipet, Rustie, and many others. EPROM has worked with internationally renowned MCs and has slated multiple vinyl releases in the coming year. DJ supporters include Starkey, Jakes, Bassnectar, The Glitch Mob, Rustie, Megasoid, Zombie Disco Squad, Riton, Basement Jaxx, and BBC Radio One’s Mary Anne Hobbs.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - http://basslabmusic.com - http://facebook.com/spectrebeats
[Denver][BassLab, True Movement, Daly City, Dirty Circuit Records]

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. brings a diverse mixture of bass heavy music combining glitch hop, dubstep and beyond with a flare for the unexpected. His seamless blending of styles and tempos and on the fly mash-ups has made him a crowd favorite in Colorado. Co-founder of the BassLab crew, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. has built a large following from the infamous Jungle Labs warehouse parties, regular nights at Denver’s Beta Nightclub, and his mixtapes on the Temporal Fusion podcast. Recently S.P.E.C.T.R.E. has signed with Propa Tingz’ True Movement label and released the Bad Girls Go To Hell EP which is currently in the top ten charts on addictech.com

Before we talk about mutants, here is a listing I bumped into for the Boulder Laptop Orchestra (up coming) http://bit.ly/9hP0D4.

About those mutants, they are Jazz Mutant(s)!

Via Gear Wire We learn that  Jazz Mutant Lemur V2 (free upgrade by the way)  is now super-dooper! Ableton is supported ke the front of a wheaties box.

Copy & Paste:

• …new, easier to use GUI…
• …seamlessly with leading software applications.
• Ableton Live users, in particular, will benefit from some of the new features…

However, Jazz Mutant has a summary (gosh they sure are cool)

• 3 new objects for boosted interactivity: the Breakpoint, the Gesture and the LemurMenu objects.
• New Tabbed function for the Container object: keep your projects simple and ergonomic.
• New Alias “mirror” objects, for saving time and memory.
• Mouse and Keyboard control for transmitting mouse movements and keyboard shortcuts.

Ohh, there is a promo picture I think looks cool, and see more here:

Free Stuff – head over to Sample Radar for some free dub samples.

Reminder: If you need to build ONE BUTTON like I did:

The get your Brain at Livid. While you are there check out the short run of the Diablo.

Here’s something easy and great. Use a Korg Kaos Pad KP3 as an Ableton controller.

Compare a street value of $349 t a $220 ONE BUTTON.

Remember – Cache Flowe Sunday

As promised! Cache Flowe will be joining us for an evening of Live visual processing. This is going to be an amazing evening for all!

Those of you interested in adding a visual element should check out Processing.org, the source for much of the scripting and framework Cache Flowe uses in his live sets.  Beyond visual Cache Flowe will be performing music and explaining his set up and approach to a full Live A/V set. A few key topics:

• Real time MIDI & audio
• Rendering music videos
• Use of the Eclipse IDE
• ChucK (audio programming language for real-time synthesis) and vocal processing

When : March 14, 2010 7pm

Where :  The Walnut Room located at 3131 Walnut Street in Denver.

How Much? Not a single penny – FREE! Just the way we like it!!!

RSVP NOW!

Cache FLowe Bio : Mashing up idm, hip hop, funk, drum and bass, trip hop, experimental, jazz, techno, and dubstep, CacheFlowe creates genre-skewing electronic music that has received acclaim from local and international press. Producing with a computer since 1996, he’s honed an original style that’s defined by stuttery, complex breakbeats, deep analog basslines, techno-flavored synths, organic instrumentation and contorted samples. Working on the same Ableton Live set since early 2004, CacheFlowe’s live show is a fast-paced smorgasbord of chopped breakbeats and analog synths on 8 channels of audio. He bobs and weaves through an array of electronic genres and tempos, using nothing but sounds and loops from his own productions. Appearing on official record label releases alongside the likes of Twine, Ladytron, Daedelus, Ulrich Schnauss, Starkey, Machinedrum, ISAN, Submerged, Fog, and sharing the stage with Amon Tobin, edIT, Machinedrum, Dizzee Rascal, Mochipet, Jeff Parker (Tortoise), DJ Olive (MMW, Sonic Youth), Nels Cline (Wilco), and countless local talents, CacheFlowe continues to freak the beat in new and exciting ways.

You can find Cache Flowe at CD Baby, Discogs, MySpace, and via Plastic Sound Supply on YouTube and of course his main site.

Some video for your viewing pleasure!

Media and Press information is located here.

Just say no to forest fires.

RSVP Now! FaceBook

This is the a Controllerism special we are calling “The Petting Zoo“. Here is what we got:

• Jazz Mutant Lemur presented by Darren Kramer
• Monome 128 and Launchpad by David Henderson
• DJ Tech Tools MIDI Fighter band Livid DIY by  me.
• Snyderphonics Manta presented by Dawrin Grosse
• Arduinome presented by Mike / Circle Six(wiki link – this is a Aruino chip that works like a Monome)

Following the presentations stick around for some great hands on work with each unit and presenter.  (okay, now you get the petting zoo reference?)

When : February 28, 2010 7pm

Where :  The Walnut Room located at 3131 Walnut Street in Denver.

How Much? Not a single penny – FREE! Just the way we like it!!!

Our evenings sound track is provided by Circle Six via his Ardionome! Next Month Cache Flowe!

But Wait, there’s more…

Our (new) friends at Curious Inventor are so kind they are loaning Ableton Colorado Stribe Duo and Midiator.

The Stribe Duo needs little explanation.  I would sum it up with”pretty lights, crazy control,  and great feed back”.  If Neanderthal don’t cut it go to the site.

Kicking it up a notch – the Midiator converts video game energy into MIDI.  Yeah, that is a PS2 controller. (think of it as Doom to MIDI conversion)

If anyone wants to help present and learn these great pieces form Creative Inventor send me an email at inf [at] abletondenver.com. I would love to hear from you!

How about some photos?o

Darwin Grosse

Darwin Grosse is an artist, producer, media software developer, and the Director of Engineering for Cycling ’74. He is also a prolific writer, having authored more than 120 articles for Recording magazine, several product manuals, and countless product tutorials. Formerly the editor of CreativeSynth.com, he now focuses on bringing his Beginner Mind to music and media production. [credit]

Darwin’s Play site : http://www.20objects.com

Darwin’s Blog :  http://www.darwingrosse.com/

Darren Kramer

Darren Kramer is an Edwards Trombone Performing Artist and Ableton Specialist and is in demand as a freelance trombonist, composer and educator throughout the United States.  Kramer graduated from the University of Miami and moved to NYC where he toured with Matchbox Twenty, Tom Jones, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies.  He has also recorded with such artists as Michael Brecker, Eric Marienthal and Jerry Hey and his original composition “Not Far From Here” was a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.  Kramer is now the President/CEO of his own music company, DKO The Darren Kramer Organization, whose inspiring concerts, educational clinics, five exceptional recordings, and over fifty challenging arrangements (Available Now for small group AND big band!) have helped modernize the trombone and expand its role in contemporary music.  The 2010 DKO CD release is entitled “Beyond The Boneyard” and features an inspiring one man band performance utilizing electric trombone, keyboards and computer loops.  This cutting-edge project is also being presented by Kramer throughout the country as a music software PowerPoint Presentation “Creating Music Using Software and an Electric Trombone!”.

Find Darren at ElectricTrombone.com

David Henderson

[bio pending]

Catch up with David at http://www.dhenderson.com

Mike / Circle Six

[pending]

Take a listen via MySpace.

Curious Inventor

Well, they are not coming here in person, but they will be with us in spirit. Digital spirit that is…

“We’re a few mechanical and electrical engineers from GaTech trying to make it easier to make and sell inventions. We write how-to guides, sell cherry-picked parts and tools, and also manufacture kits…”

Pay them some support here.

DJ Not So Much

Hey, that is me! If I launch my website I will put a bio up.

No forest fires! MEDIA AND PRESS

I hope everyone had a good New Year.  I am still battling a sinus infection (or alien experimentation gone wrong).

We are still excited to have Darwin speaking at the next meet up.  This will be your #1 opportunity to get you Max for Live off to a sloid kick.  The details for that evening start here.

Two days Extended to Jan 10 – get DEEP discounts from Nick’s tutorials. Go here to get the whole scoop: http://nickstutorials.com/archives/585

Our studio at Colorado Music Lab is moving along. Yesterday I invested a nearly complete 8 more hours doing wiring and minor details.  We hung a ton of pictures as well.  The place is looking good!  Photos and video coming soon! Open house 23Jan2010!

The MIDI Fighter has arrived! I am working on a review right now. It is pretty awesome!

Mark over at Modulate This! has a great year in review, check it out! He is not only a great guy, but super knowledgeable.  We are lucky to have people like him in our Colorado region!Mark has alos done a good job at wrapping up some recent debate on sound quality.

Ableton 8.1 was recently release (we tweeted). Here is a point of entry at Synthopia. Also, as fo 28Dev2009 Live 8 development Halted due to bugs, read more on the forum.

Event : Basslab presents Siren

Livid Block Ne – inrto:

livid block NE Intro from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

Richard Devine’s GrainCube Reaktor Ensemble via Synthtopia: (when did music production turn into a video game screen from the 1980’s?)

Sharpen your Launchpad Skills:

Video Shuffler / Max for Live Device Demo:

Hell Yeah – Jeep Techo!:

Quick Demo of Video Shuffler – my MaxforLive Device from digital funfair on Vimeo.

Of Note:

Free Basslines sample pack

Free Dulcimer Emulator

New Pricing on Reason

Best ‘Net Releases of 2009

Free Percussion Samples

Free Patch Library For Harmless Synthesizer from Modulate This

Free Reason ReFill – Monologue

(via Synthopia) All Xoxos Plugins Now Freeware!

Free Music Sequencer For Linux, MusE

CDM Biggest Tech Stories of 2009