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

No post should escape the reminder the Darwin Grosse from Cycling ‘74 (the company producing Max, Max for Live, etc) is speaking at our next meet up!

Now for some business!

Via Ableton Freaks Twitter posted this site- http://www.maxforlive.com/. Good stuff.

Also targeting Max for Live is Novation’s STEPSEQ (via Synthtopia).  The quote:

Conceived as a cool but powerful sequencer to enable Launchpad users to program melodies, leads and basslines quickly in Live, the buttons are configured diatonically (as opposed to chromatically, as with a traditional step sequencer). The degree of the scale and its tonal centre can be set by the user, meaning that, once set up, any note you trigger in your sequence will fit in harmonically with your track, making it really easy to keep within the context of the song.

This is a free download from Novation. The following video is ~9min

Here is something fun from Think Geek:

This is only one of many variants on the LED / programmable interface. There are also a grip of “Macro Controllers” (like the Nostromo Series that I re-program for editing). I would love to talk about the usefulness of something this type of programmable controller.

Here is one example, from my mixing. I have been mapping a standard USB num-pad to may basic transport functions in Cubase for about 5 years. The buttons are always the exact same. I even have a little cheat sheet on the whole thing. The time I save editing via this interface is amazing.

Now I certainly miss the days of a fine console and nice big fat buttons, but I am faster now. Plus, I enjoy distributing my money on smaller quality mixers and other items.

Now, I still very desperately want a Solid State Logic X-Desk very bad. But the nearly $3000US street price makes this a lower priority.

Also if interest – Ableton is spreading. So happy to see this happening.  TC Electronics is the latest to jump on the free distro with gear purchase. The brand new Impact Twin is a new break-out box. It looks like an extension on the Konnekt series (my current break-out box for Ableton). So far I am real happy with all my TC gear. The free Ableton version is “Ableton Live Lite 8 TC Electronic Edition”. I suspect it is like the Launchpad version.

Some free plugins anyone? There are a few listed on the Psychic Modulation Plugin Page. Let me know any about any success with these.

Next up – Monome + Max for Live, hell, why write when there is video?

maxforlive: monome integration from stretta on Vimeo.

How about a digital (ly modified) didgeridoo?

Cool, but I wonder if he is getting the same latency issues I had when using Blue-Tooth for audio applications?

Pure Magnetik announces Fuel for Max. The details are coming through slowly, keep your eye on this!

Finally – 10 cool audio gifts for under $100 at Synthtopia.

Here is a preview I picked up on the twitter environ (2 minutes). The release is scheduled for November 23, 2009. (http://audionewsroom.blogspot.com/2009/11/max-for-live-release-date-and-public.html) – the day after our meet up (phew!).

So, if anyone is ambitious enought to learn like crazy and present their findings for our next Ableton Denver meet up – PLEASE talk to me.

I will be digging in – but there is so much on my list (just my sample editing list is 5 pages long, then they need to be placed in Ableton).  Plus I am crash coursing on the Launchpad – SO MUCH NEW TECHNOLOGY!

Bleh – watch the video…

Enough gear drooling, here is a nice tutorial for producing minimal tech house using Ableton. Enjoy and have a happy Friday in Denver!

What happens when you put APC40 and Launchpad together in Ableton?

My instincts tell me:

“Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes… The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” [see audio clip]

biblical proportions sound bite Ghostbusters sound bites

or this

Over at XLR8R there is a video available for Max for Live. This is looking like the number one program for effects junkies, such as myself.

If you are done reading and want to watch, here it is the  link to the video. Or you can scroll down.

The video definitely goes over some of the cool parts of the application. The goal of “getting us excited” is very much there.  Off the record, a little make up or a woman’s touch would have been good.

Buffer Shuffler is neat. The interface looks really cool, but I am hoping it will not chew up more CPU/GPU.  In case the listening folks don’t know, rounded corners, transparency, and gradients take away cycles form Ableton (or any other program). So all you Vista users turn your window settings back to “classic”, just like my Vista box looks like Win 95.

Tome Cosm shows how to create drum loops in Ableton.  This dives deep into Ableton sound design. Check out more videos on his Vimeo area.

Creating Drum Loops in Ableton Live from Tom Cosm on Vimeo.

5 minutes, some good stuff. Always helpful to listen to other people working through Ableton.

Courtesy : http://www.sonicacademy.com