Week of Labor Day 2009
Update: Meet Up – I am trying very hard (too hard IMHO) to get my date solid. Emails and phone calls are not being returned by my venue of choice. I am open to suggestions and moving ahead with to talk to a new club opening up in central Denver where I also have friends. The last Thursday of Sept is my date. I am sure many many people out there have dealt with clubs and club owners – it is like the exact inverse of a used car sales person (or put into mathematical terms : 1/(used car sales person))
Enough math.
# Some shows:
- Vendetta Festival Sept 25-7 for the Gothic/Industrial inclined. The link. Some locally orientated acts such as Blackcell and Torso will be performing as well as nationals. Check out the line up, this is a 3 day festival at 3 different clubs. If I can make it I would love to see The Horrist at the Bar Standard. The Horrist (aka Oliver Chesler runs the Wire to the Ear blog)
- BASSLAB 003 is this Friday (11sept) at Beta – local and otherwise will be thumpin’ – ( Future Simple Project, Fresh 2 Death, S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Project aspect, movax on visuals ++). For details here is the Facebook page.
- The show of shows is happening, again in NYC the AES Conference. For music geeks this is the holy grail (yeah NAMM is cool but this is much smarter while NAMM is flashy). So if you are in NY October 9-12 2009 go check it out. In fact – Sweetwater is (was) giving away free admission.
# ABLETON
- New Max for Live Screen Cast – the long awaited is closer http://www.extendlive.com/?p=110 (site was crashing for me)
- Extendlive.com also has a free Operator download available at http://www.extendlive.com/?p=96 (site still crashing) “free give-away from the Presentation I held at the Ableton Live User Group in Berlin”
# Free Stuff
- Line 6 if giving away the farm, the POD Farm that is. Go here and download a ton of plugins. Offer ends September 30, 2009.
- Reason 4 is on the way and if you want $129 worth of free piano sounds go here (gotta get Reason 4 however).
# Content
- Gear Junkies [article link] pointed out this cache of techno samples / loops from Click Produce – there are several different packs available to suite your style.
- Need to get your Ableton Synthesis up to par (or synthesis in general)? Go here – tons of great videos. We have a lot of instructors in the Ableton group if you want some hands on time or geek talk. I am one of many synthesis people, drop a note.
# Gear Watch
- Akai MPD18’s are hitting the street at $99. This is USB and MIDI (yeah) pad controller. What a great way to add a few more (velocity sensitive) pads. Check it out at Akai. The info out there is a little vague on the MIDI (5 pin) – but it appears to be real. I have been watching this item for a few months and I have almost 100% confirmation on the MIDI as well as MIDI over USB.
- Also – Allen and Heath are shipping the Xone:22 – a 2(x2) Battle mixer at $299 street. Here is a Future Music link because the Xone site is not as good a resource (link). Here is what I like : 2 channel battle style mixer that allows you to flip phono inputs into line inputs making this a 2×2(x1), there are XLR outs (OMFG!), a real FX loop (OMFG again), and it looks like the unit will be InnoFader ready. (I have a support ticket into A&H on that item). The last ship date was 16Sept, that has been pushed back to middle October according to a phone call this morning.*
# Of note
- In keeping with current technology as it happens, BPM magazine reviewed the APC40 http://www.bpmmagazine.net/2009/08/akai-apc40-ableton-live-controller/ – I am a little grumpy right now so I will refrain from discussing the article. At least I know what is “happening”.
- Joe at Home Studio Corner pointed out Drop Box here here. Dropbox is a file sharing site located at http://getdropbox.com where you start off with 2gb of room to share / trade your files (sound familiar?).
- How Good Monitor Mixing Enhances a Performance article link : http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/how-good-monitor-mixing-enhances-a-performance/. Pretty basic stuff but a good reference point of monitor mixing and live band considerations for the hybrid performers.
- Hey everybody – did you know that The Walnut Room is coming to south Broadway? That’s right – the old Freaky’s on Ellsworth and Broadway (1 block south of 1st Ave) finally went up in smoke (literally) and The Walnut room is moving in – eta is Fall 2009. This has been going on for a while, but last week I went over and peeked the windows. Looking really nice! Map Link
- And finally – the LAREST CONTROL SURFACE EVER! CDM got this to my digital doorstep : http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/09/02/gps-beatmap-ford-ltd-salt-flats-locative-driving-control-surface/. In summary – beats and sounds are overlapping and mapped via GPS. So you drive around the and mix is created. If you don’t get it – watch the video. This is a revolutionary idea for music and mixing. A living, breathing radio remix. This could prove to be very fun and interesting when you tie in your iPhone / similar device and have massive participation. Imagine directing a Flash Mob using this technology?
As always, if you know or see something let me know. Local Ableton, electronic music, and shows welcome!
Post script – did you upgrade to Snow Leopard yet?
* I am NOT a DJ, but I do use DJ Mixers in my rig (some are circuit bent). The DJ Mixer can add amazing real time control to Ableton – when you hot rod a little harder you can explore entirely new ideas.
