First on any agenda, we have a meet up happening. July 14, 2010 FREE – Lucid Gallery. Serato will be the topic – get ready for the Bridge!

If you figure out how to do that drum rack thing please contact me!

Some rapid tutorial on exporting VSTs outward in Ableton. Another interesting option is Sound Flower – I am still mastering this app in trying to get a “Virtual Audio Cable” instance going. I am close. For now I re-sample using some straight forward routing (for any laptopist) out my SPDIF digital outs back in, yes I have physical cable connecting the two. This is the only reliable fast  and easy method to permanently borrow sounds from the web or similar.

I know there are other solutions, but many of them require a total rewrite of audio settings, and this is sometimes an undesirable inconvenience. Debatable none the less.

Numark clones Vestax? I can’t say, I am not watching this closely.  From Gear Junkies or more to the point do we give Ean more credit for opening up these ideas? Or more to more to the point will there be little “single” deck versions for goof balls like me who seek scratch.

Text message style sums this up completly: SPL Blog FTW nuff said.

You did get your free download form Ableton for some new live Packs right? (direct link to *.zip) Info Page.

An answer to the drama that is “This is WTF was Hawtin using?”. Gear Junkies starts the journey. Okay, here’s the rest at http://griid.net/ and the same video as before with some text applied on YouTube with Hawtin.

Livid Instruments is talking about aluminium Block and OHM64. Hmm…

Pioneer’s DJ side announced a collaboration with Serato to ensure compatibility of the latest CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 professional series digital media players with the Scratch Live software. I would call this a golden hint as to things on the way? (**cough bridge)**

How about a time line? “The free Scratch Live Version 2.1 software update compatible with the updated CDJ-2000/900 is scheduled to be released in the third quarter (Q3) of 2010 from Serato Audio Research.” source

A must read for Glitch Mob/Hop / controllerism on EMusician
Livid is 100% stepping up to the plate seeing Max4Live.info drop native Ableton control on to the OHM64. Now for the same treatment for the block. Now we get a SERIOUS UPGRADE for the APC / Launchpad series.

In short, you need to go here, spend your $25, and improve your output. http://www.nativekontrol.com/apC_Series.html. This is some serious controller action going on. The market is growing both in physical possibilities and thorough software advancements. Fantastic.

Closing out – Darren Kramer (Handler of the Lemur and clinician) is dropping a software clinic on July 10, 2010 – the details :

10-11:30am
Everyday Joe’s
144 S. Mason Street
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524

Darren Kramer – Ableton Specialist and Electric Trombone Performing Artist www.ElectricTrombone.com All musicians and educators, regardless of age or skill level can benefit immensely from this technology  Basic to advanced concepts will be demonstrated via Live Looping w/ Electric Trombone, Synths, Vocoder & Lemur!

Personally I love 105 BPM.  I don’t know if that has any impact on the heat though.

Gonna hit on the “Game Changer” here for a sec.  In short “Meh”.

Ean Gold is someone to watch, and this is a great idea. When I put this item in perspective with my controllers (analog/digital/etc) this is no more than a novelty.

Again the Dicer certainly is cool, it fits a need, and I offer my props on that level.  The real question I ask is simple:

“Is the DJ crowd deprived of gadgets?”

Seriously, this is no more than a tightly packaged PIC micro-controller that is well thought out.  The polish that Novation added is the only real leap (packaging and marketing).  The “Game Changer” label certainly gets under my skin and contributes to (this editors) diminishing view of Novation.

Perspective : I first knew Novation in the late 1990’s when my friend Greg was repping and I managed an all synth/keyboard boutique.  But we are the jolliest buncha’ mean folks you may meet when we get on the “who sucks” discussion.

In short, the only gear I am not pissed off at is Nord and anything I have not owned.  (But there was a huge issues w/Nord about a year ago – but that was all US distribution channels).

Back to the Dicer, and in the scope of Ableton there is no “standard interface” like the turn table.  The APC is the only kinda’ almost, the Trigger Finger is also a good contestant.  So the universal “game changer” is probably not going to happen for the modern digital musician.

But this is not a sad note – “The Bridge” is coming. We are all hoping that this is a stable non-crashy release with some fun stuff.  This is going to close the gap on DJ-Ableton artists.  This is awesome!

On the note of “Ableton Artist” – is it DJ? I don’t like getting grouped with that crowd (I have never DJ’ed, so don’t box me in!). Electronic artist is not quite there, electronic musician is totally good but too long. What the hell are we?  There is a bunch of software nipping at the heels of Ableton and you certainly do not what to reference your trade by the name of the product (sorry Ableton). So what do we call our self?

The Ableton spectrum is HUGE – from folk to techno to dub-whatever to a bunch of categories I could not describe.

Electro-crunk-wobble-swing-remixed jazz changes? HUH?

So the point is clear – make your own game changer. I am working on my own game changer as I hook up with a crew who has a CNC machine (oh HELL yeah).  So if you ever wonder why I don’t do too many shows or gig like mad, I am usually soldering, programming, and plotting!

Other News

Fader Fox gets a rejuvenation. Check out this article form CDM, here’s a sexy image. The big change – USB!

File Under: I was wrong!

I was predicting apocalypse with “DJ Hero“. Well, we are still here! But now there is a new threat to society and our lives. It comes from the same concept.  As Mark Mosher reports – there is a real MIDI keyboard included in  the new Rock Band.

Is the the end?

Is doom near?

Mark has some great commentary as well, worth the stop.

Probably not. Here’s a video:

Follow up coolness – Mark is a synth guy (is it our age?). So much of his work touches me in that special place, you know, in the oscillator. Here’s something fresh on Modular Synthesis.

OMFG REMIX! Here’s a link for some Bass Nector Natives. Get them NOW! These don’t stay up long. Save time and go right for the stems HERE.

I gotta tell you – go out have fun! There is nothing really happening on my radar screen.  The iPad hype has faded, iPhone 4g is not really a gamer changer (LOL), and no new software releases are on the horizon.

Or is there…???

–Marc

PS new site on the way. New domain too.

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).

Steve Nalepa’s workshop was great (quite inspirational).

Here is a little decompression on the event:

First off I want to mention that Steve, like many others, encourage the exploration of Post-Ableton (PC) processing.  Bring your Finalizer, effects processor, hell – get crazy!

One thing you are reminded of immediately when in the classroom environment for Ableton is that there is a lot of stuff to cover. Me, for example, could stand to smooth out my arrangement view use.  I am almost never in arrangement view (really) – but I still know how to use it well.

There are also many ways to do the same thing – some faster, some better, some understandable.  Using myself as an example  - I use Cubase for editing period.  Often I will run and re-render samples through Ableton, but Cubase is faster and has more tools (for me) allowing a better workflow and control of results.

Cubase is hardly the solution for everyone, but after using this platform for well over a decade, that program is not going away soon in my studio.

In the beginner realm here are an few areas that need attention:

• Insert versus bus/send effects
• The how and why behind signal flow
• Knowledge of the great hacks available in Ableton
• History of signal processing (no really – compressor first, last, both?)
• Reverb is may not be your friend, neither is compression when playing live (the house should treat your sound for the room)
• How to get your project size reduced (CPU load, file size and complexity)

Steve Nalepa had a focused agenda and he did awesome.  But 5, 10, or even 50 hours is not enough! My presentation on the beat-repeat effect is no less than 2 hours!

Steve had a lot of insight on how the various majors are arranging the set and setting up effects.  This is sometimes very hard to find, much less someone to share  a dialog.

It has become pretty clear that we need to do some kick start courses, and that is just what is planned!  It looks like June we will be hosting cost effective classes to jump start APC users to expert status.

Reminder : ILL.GATES is still 23May2010 and 24May2010 has been added.

Livid + Ableton integration creeping forward, original post.

M4L – Livid OHM64 integration plug-in v2 from Monoque on Vimeo.

Check out Mark’s set up (OMG 16 seconds!)

Some News:

Euphonix is now Avid (reminder)

Direct SCSI back up info – great for saving your legacy material as you migrate to PC.

Looking for $39,000? Here’s how one person got it!

iZotope has a critical Mac OS patch (popular plugin)

What a great point of entry on sound design!

Tom Cosm’s top 5 VSTs – anything look familiar?

Why do we love Cache Flowe?

Kratwerk uses my fav audio interfaces!(RME)

And finally – how is my Livid OHM64 doing? After 60 hours of programming and debugging I got it 99% dialed in and just killing it!  So I moved the projects and controller to my Mac (from PC) and started integrating all the other controllers (APC40, Stribe Duo, and MIDIFighter).  Everything was working awesome!  Then – 10 minutes into the set all the settings on the OHM64 blew out.  All my work is gone. Yeah, I have backups, but there is something wrong with my unit, so I am getting ready to deal with it through Livid.  SO CLOSE! So I pulled the OHM64 and swapped in a MPD24 for a gig.  It sucked, it was like losing an arm.

Enough on the eye-fad already!

http://communikey.us/ coming up – I will be there!

Rapid fire:

Thx Ean for this post on cabling and essentially professionalism. Good read!

I have a Black OHM64 on the way! I will bring it to the next meet up (working on it).

Facebook account now set up (as user*) go to: http://www.facebook.com/ableton.colorado and grab a friend request. We will not refuse anyone, but we could ban ya…

* why? So we can post stuff to the account, the user group is “fan” thing and this should have been what I used initially.

Build your own damn “what is that thing called?” using this technology.

Super-dooper cheat sheet for Ableton.

I am becoming a rather BIG fan of Livid Instruments. The following post is how (damn) easy it is to build you own (freaking) controller (foot pedal version):

A guide to effective mixing of drums (part2)

Free JoMoX samples. I am working on the same thing, but I am using a Leslie cabinet:

Jo-Leslie Render #1 by dj-not-so-much

Jason is cool, support him!

Is this coming to Colorado? Should it?

I am so happy to add a controller to our next meet up!

Mark Mosher (Modulate This!) will be joining us on Sunday to present Audio Cubes. Click here to read what Mark has to say on the topic.

In my mind, Audio Cubes, from Percussa, are like a 3D reactable table after shedding several thousands of dollars and pounds.

This page will get you in-line pretty fast (great stuff).

And some informative video:

Tell us about how YOU control your electronic music so we can keep the demos coming!

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

To use the parlance of our current time:

OMG OMG OMG Cache Flowe haz teh ROXXOR!

Yeah, what is the world coming to huh?

In other words – Cache Flowe dropping some mad skills for an A/V set! Do come!

Got your history in order? How about this article outlining the past 120 years of electronic music.

Linux side note – Launchpad getting ported to, you guessed it – LINUX! Here is the article. Relevancy? We got it. Her you go:

• One day Ableton will run on Linux! (probably not)
• The algorithms are getting more widespread and the “uniqueness” of Ableton is diminishing. This means open source software will start getting projects dialing in these ideas
• Ableton is not the ONLY program.
• Linux is Cool

I could go on, but I would be geeking out too hard.

FREE STUFF – some live packs on Groove Packs site – click here for a zip file. Get it while the link works!

Mid/Side processing – check out this new unit via Gear Junkies.

How about a  good debate on 16 vs 24 bit? Thx to Joe for keeping the thread hot.

The Boulder Laptop Orchestra is performing up in Boulder 13March2010. I am getting more details on this…

More soon!