Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: ableton, groove, midi, mpc, quantization, Sound Design, sp1200, templates, timing
Ableton approached me for development of some of Live 8’s groove templates, specifically the MPC and SP1200 grooves. I spent many hours recording and analyzing various takes from both machines. These methods included MIDI export, audio recording, MIDI recording and a few others – all in various DAWs employing different analysis tools and measurements, to try and figure out what is really going on in these mysterious groove engines.
With the help of the smarts over at Ableton I think we got a very nice set of grooves that accurately replicate the nuanced timing of these machines. Dr. Dre would be proud!
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: ableton-live-rack, eight bit, lo-fi, midi, midines, nes, nintendo, Sound Design
MidiNES editor for Ableton Live
MidiNES Editor – MidiNES_Editor_Live.zip
The MidiNES is in fact a pretty cool little toy to have in the studio. This is an Ableton Live based editor I created for it a while back. For those of you that own these plastic bricks of eighties nostalgia, just load up the included session file and open midi tracks for channels 1-5.
Channel 1 – Pulse 1
Channel 2 – Pulse 2
Channel 3 – Triangle
Channel 4 – Noise
Channel 5 – PCM Samples
Filed under: Live Performance | Tags: ableton, atarah-valentine, beats, doepfer, drumkat, electronica, kamoni, machinedrum, mpc-1000, percussa, performance, sampling
For the past six months I have been helping produce and refine Atarah Valentine’s live show. Atarah has recently completed a full length album “delivered within a blend of strings and piano, organic beats and computer blips”. He is an incredibly dynamic and versatile performer with an amazing singing voice.
Not only has this project has been a lot of fun, but it has been unique learning experience adapting the album for live performance. My live setup with Atarah has evolved over the past few months, from a simple Ableton rig with Percussa’s Audio Cubes to this full blown all hardware concoction. The MPC is handling playback tracks and percussion samples that are triggered via the drumKat. The Machinedrum is synched to the MPC for live electronic beats and the A-100 Modular is used for sci-fi alien attacks on the Pentagon, white noise sweeps and filtering.
Tom Rose is the other geek in the band and he plays live bass, trumpet and a secondary drumKat (also hooked into the MPC) that triggers many of Atarah’s bell and glock parts.
Be sure to look for us soon in a city near you!
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: ableton, beats, drum-machines, electronic-music, elektron, hip-hop, house-music, korg, machinedrum, mpc-1000, puremagnetik, synthesizers, techno
Filed under: Publications | Tags: ableton, api, blog, doepfer, drumkat, dumbo, electronic-music-production, kamoni, machinedrum, monomachine, music-studio, puremagnetik, Sound Design, trash_audio
Trash_Audio just published some Kamoni Q & A in their Workspace & Environment series.
http://trashaudio.blogspot.com/2008/11/workspace-and-environment-kamoni.html
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: ableton-live-rack-pack, ambient, drum-kit, drums, electronic, elektron-machinedrum, generative, glitch, granular, kamoni, Sound Design
I was sending sysex data to my Machinedrum the other day when suddenly it began blurting out the most digitally obscene sounds I have ever heard from it! I was a little offended and you might be too once you hear them. This is the stuff I love – when a piece of gear generates sounds that it could never create under its normal operating mode.
I took some time today to program a drum kit and then some Live Racks that cycle through various samples repeatedly while simultaneously jumping between sample offsets every 10ms or so creating interesting transients. Here’s a quick mp3 demo and a download link for the Live Pack. Enjoy!
This pack is now available as a free Puremagnetik download here.
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: instruments, overclock, sounds, synthesizers, toys
We hit Toys r Us recently and went on a shopping spree. The Overclock and I were feeling rebellious so we went during the school day. After filling the shopping cart with toy pianos, lapharps and synthesizers we were confronted by an army of todlers all brandishing plastic swords and laser guns. During the bloody battle that ensued The Overclock couldn’t let go of his Hannah Montana synthesizer and he was lost in the turmoil for the duration of the afternoon.
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: beats, canada, drum-machines, french, montreal, mpc-1000, producahs, quebec
My MPC-1000 joined me for a new project this past weekend in Montreal. No more details to come.
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: audiocubes, electronica, midi-controllers, percussa, Sound Design, synthesizers
I had the pleasure of working with Belgium based Percussa this past month on a new sound pack entitled “Emissions”. It’s a free Ableton Live Pack!
Emissions utilizes an array of textural ambiances, specifically designed for use with Percussa’s AudioCubes. AudioCubes are a tangible interface for creating music and sound.
See more about Percussa and the Emissions pack at: http://www.percussa.com/isounds.php
Filed under: Sound Design | Tags: electonic piano, mellotron, recording, samples, Sound Design, synthesizers
Engineer Mike Reina fine tuning his Mellotron
Last week’s Mellotron sampling session for Puremagnetik at “The Brink” in Virginia. Mike Reina (pictured here) is a great Mellotron technician and overall sound engineer. More details to come!
