Here is another video this weekend. Again something we like to watch and show you, … of course. It’s Chris Randall (Audio Damage) doing a jam on the Elektron Analog Four with the soundpack by Richard Devine.
Simon Mills from the band ‘Bent‘ opens his studio doors and gives a walkthrough of the track ‘Swollen’. Simon has remixed this classic track under his new guise ‘Napoleon’ Mills and has built up a musical portfolio that graced everywhere from Eastenders’ Queen Vic to the Acropolis in Athens and featured cameos from members of Faithless, Simian and The Beloved, not to mention a multitude of revived songstresses from crackly charity shop records.
With inspiration ranging all the way from grime to flamenco, listening to the French hiphop outfit Ghostown is a bit like turning the frequency knob on a radio receiving signals from all corners of the world. Rael Powell, the beatsmith and vocalist of the project, explains how he masters his loops.
Below are some of the new releases we have encountered this week on the Loops and Samples front. Just like the quality of the audio software we use these days the quality of the content we use (loops and samples) equally matches the high standards of this software. Below is this weeks selection.
The Clocktave is a scratch tool to make music with. It is based on just one concept: the Clocktave. A Clocktave (Clock-Octave) is a note scale to scratch with, ranging from 1 to 4 octaves. The notes of the octaves are divided between exactly one rotation of the record. Every note of the scale appears at the same position over and over, regardless of which octave you are in.
Renowned techno DJ and producer, Gayle San, has adopted the Xone:DB4 as her mixer of choice for touring and production work. Gayle San started DJing 18 years ago with vinyl, then progressed to CDs, and most recently her set up is digital, originally based around the Xone:4D and now the new Xone:DB4 mixer and Xone:K2 controller.
Designled technology startup ROLI introduces the Seaboard GRAND, a radically new kind of musical instrument and digital controller that reimagines the most iconic of musical instruments – the piano. An evolution of the piano keyboard, the Seaboard has a soft threedimensional surface that enables unprecedented realtime, intuitive control of the fundamental characteristics of sound: pitch, volume, and timbre. Piano and keyboard players can instantly transfer their skills to the Seaboard and begin exploring its new capacities. Pre-orders will start on april 14th, with only 88 Seaboards becoming available!
After the mysterious new synth they strated teasing last week, Native Instruments put out another teaser video for yet another product. “Supercharge your beats“, they say. Safe to say it has to with beats, drums. Will this be a new version of Battery (4). Or looking at the video, maybe Battery for iOS, seeing those funky buttons and ‘sample deckish kinda‘ pads?
Virtual instrument and plug-in developer Rob Papen is proud to announce availability of two limited-edition synth plug-in bundles, EDM Synth Bundle and Urban Synth Bundle, each comprising three carefully-chosen Rob Papen virtual instruments with combined savings of around 45%…
Well, today is the day we all have been looking out for. Ableton today has globally released version 9 of the Live software together with the dedicated Push controller. Ableton has updated their website, but we experienced much slag as the website is very (VERY) busy. If you get through, you can pre-order the Push controller (with Live 9). Existing users can log in to the user account where you’ll find upgrade options. Prices for the Push controller range from 499 to 998 Euro, depending on which Live 9 version. There’s also more information on shipping information.
The complete collection of Orange amps and cabinets inside AmpliTube Custom Shop is now available in one package: AmpliTube Orange. You get faithful “true to the original” models of some of Orange’s vintage and current dream machines. AmpliTube Orange includes 8 amp models: the AD 200, Dual Terror, OR 50, the Thunderverb 200, the Tiny Terror, the AD30TC, Rockerverb 50 the OR-120 and 9 matching configurable speaker cabinets.
Below are the releases we have encountered this week on the Loops and Samples front. Just like the quality of the audio software we use these days the quality of the content we use (loops and samples) equally matches the high standards of this software. Below is this weeks selection.
This time we have a cool video trailer for an upcoming documentary on modular synthesizers. “I Dream of Wires” (IDOW) is an independent documentary film about the phenomenal resurgence of the modular synthesizer – exploring the passions, obsessions and dreams of people who have dedicated part of their lives to this esoteric electronic music machine. Written and directed by Robert Fantinatto, with Jason Amm (Ghostly International recording artist Solvent) serving as producer and co-writer, IDOW is set to receive it’s festival premiere, May 2013.
The Novation Launchpad is an easy to use app for iPad that will have you making beats and music instantly. It comes with eight ready-to-perform sessions that span different musical genres. You can re-combine the loops and sounds included in these sessions within the multi-colour Launchpad grid to make and remix your own music. The built-in time stretching always keeps you locked into the beat so your loops don’t go out of time.
Korg have released another demonstration video of their latest version of the KAOSSILATOR. In this video they show us how to create a house track from scratch with the supercharged version of the palm-sized KAOSSILATOR, reborn as a powerful track-making tool and loaded with live performance power.