Thursday, December 1, 2011

A Tuned 808 Bass Drum in Ableton Live [Free Ableton Rack 36]



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Hello, AfroDJMac here with a tutorial and free Ableton Live Device Rack for you! This week I give you an Roland 808 bass drum sample that can be tuned to play in key with your song or as a bass line. The Roland 808 has some great low end on it and it makes for a nice instrument to create earth shaking bass sounds. At higher octaves this synth makes for a nice electric keyboard like instrument #bonus!

Download: http://bit.ly/freesynth36

Every week I release a free Ableton Download @ http://www.afrodjmac.com

Enjoy and spread the word!

Daily App Deals: Get KORG iELECTRIBE for iPad at 50% Off in Today’s App Deals


To celebrate their release of the iKaossilator ver. 2, Korg is holding a special sale of 50% off for their iPad apps until December 2nd.    


Korg MS-20
 

and iELECTRIBE

Wednesday, November 30, 2011






MODEL E AND VB-1 REVIVED

Throughout the long history of Steinberg, many products have come and gone, many have been superseded by new variants and others have been dropped completely. Once in a while, however, some of our developers like to dig up one of these long forgotten gems and polish it ready for current operating systems.
As these revived products remain discontinued, their updates are not officially supported. Updates for discontinued products are sporadic as these are voluntarily provided by our engineers in their free time.
Today, Steinberg would like to share with you the following:
Model E  classic analog synth with ultra-low CPU load
VB-1  virtual bass emulation with selectable pick position

Maschine Tutorial: Sound Design w/ Vocal Samples / Create Sampled Instruments




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More info: http://bit.ly/sEqxOG
In this video tutorial, Dubspot Instructor Matt Cellitti offers tips and tricks for transforming and shaping ordinary sounds with Native Instruments Maschine's high-performance sampler and and turning them into versatile sampled instruments. Cellitti is co-designer and developer of our Maschine program, along with our very own Heinrich Zwahlen. For those looking for high quality training on Maschine's hardware/software combination, this is the program. The classes will be available in our school in New York City and at Dubspot Online this January.



It’s not too hard to see where the inspiration for this sofa came from!

It’s not too hard to see where the inspiration for this sofa came from!
The Synthe Sofa, via Woouf Barceloa, which makes a variety of bizarre squishy things.

verge(in): Jeremy Ellis - Maschine and Maschine Mikro




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Master MIDI manipulator Jeremy Ellis recently stopped by our DJcityTV studio to show us his new routine featuring Native Instruments' Maschine, Maschine Mikro and some seriously funky samples. Who ever said drum machines had no soul?

Korg microARRANGER Official Product Introduction




Uploaded by  on Nov 28, 2011
Meet the Korg microARRANGER, the easy, fast, and fun way to turn your ideas into complete songs. Perfect for guitarists and songwriters, the microARRANGER is a "no skills required" musical partner that can instantly provide any musician with a complete backing band. For more information, please visit www.korg.com/microarranger.


Features:
  • Compact composing/performing keyboard that acts as your musical arranger
  • 61-key Natural Touch mini keyboard; Velocity sensing
  • Built-in stereo speaker system
  • 4 Stereo Effect Processors with 89 effect programs.
  • 304 Styles; each is a complete and interactive musical environment for capturing your inspirations
  • Each Style includes Intros, Endings, Fills, and four Variations, all are completely editable
  • Styles follow your chords, voice leading, and tempo settings – you are always in control!
  • 660 Preset Sound Programs and 128 User Programs provide excellent Korg sounds
  • 32 Drumkits; 64 User Drumkits;
  • SD/SDHC card slot for data storage, importing Styles, sharing data with a computer DAW, etc.
Audio demos are available at the Korg site. Pricing and availability are to be announced.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Ableton Live: How To Connect Multiple Control Surfaces


From WINKSOUND



Ableton Live accommodates up to six individual controllers on one computer enabling a deep level of hands-on expressiveness and freedom when producing or performing. During an Ableton Live User Group workshop hosted at Devotion Gallery instructor and sonic artist Adriano Clemente shares how he synchronizes two MacBook laptops to form a modular system of 10 Novation Launchpad controllers enabling him to control in a myriad of plugins and Max For Live devices in real time.


In this tutorial Devotion Gallery's Director of Education, Brian Jackson, explains how to setup multiple control surfaces within Ableton Live to quickly map desired functions and stream line your production and performance work flows.


Devotion Gallery is a Certified Ableton Live Training Center located in Williamsburg, Brooyklyn housing a comprehensive arts education program where they offer numerous Ableton Live courses and workshops for users of all levels.





Learn more about Devotion Gallery:
Website - Learn.areyoudevoted.com
Twitter - @DevotionLearn

Yamaha PSR-190 Drums for Ableton



From DJ AFROMAC
I like to think that there is a place for just about every sound or instrument, somewhere, in some song.  It doesn’t matter how cheap it is or whether it’s top of the line gold or a bargain bin reject, sometimes things fit perfectly.  I’ve found this to be true with a cheap RadioShack microphone, which barely qualifies as a nice toy, but actually records some nice room sounds for drum tracks.  And another time with my far-from-classic Yamaha PSR-190.  I got the PSR-190 shortly after starting to play guitar and was immediately amused by its built in rhythms and preset sounds that are nothing like the instruments they are named after.  Its career in dust collecting was off to an impressive start.  But as I grew and ventured off into the world of recording, I began to appreciate its character. I think I began incorporating it into some of my songs as its final test, failure meaning a swift trip to the Wednesday morning trash pick up or an adolescent reenactment of the final minutes of any good Nirvana concert (read: smashed to smithereens). Now I would never want to listen to a track composed entirely of PSR-190 sounds, but a layer or two often fit surprisingly well.
This week’s Free Ableton Live Rack is a drum rack made up of the Yamaha PSR-190′s awesomely late 80s-ish kit.   There’s some really indispensable kick and snare sounds, and the toms… the toms are such a charming $80 attempt at Phil Collins that you have to love them.  There were fourteen sounds in total, but to make things fit nicely on your MPC style pads, I modified a Kick and Snare sound, stretching them using Ableton’s Impulse instrument.  I’ve included some FX to allow for some further sculpting.  The video will take you through the particulars.
I’ve included links to my first ever solo album (released under the name Project Nairb), which is littered with a light dusting of my once mocked and now prized (and sometimes still mocked) Yamaha PSR-190. Have fun and enjoy.


Where To You by AfroDjMac


Sunday, November 27, 2011

Seasons of Change (Animoog)




Uploaded by  on Nov 
Another Animoog piece. Again, the drums were sequenced live in Garageband. To anyone who is wondering how I did this, I simply recorded the Animoog into computer using an audio i/o and lined it up with the video. Hope you enjoy!

Let me know what you think!

Free MP3 of recording: http://soundcloud.com/ratface1987/season-of-change

Phaedra Firing On All Four Cylinders

Alchemy Mobile for iPad




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3:00 min demo video of Camel Audio's Alchemy Mobile FREE synth for iPad. All sounds from Alchemy Mobile. Sounds triggered internally or from external MIDI keyboard (via iRig MIDI interface).






Demo video of the Camel Audio Alchemy Mobile Free iPad App. All sounds from Alchemy. In some clips an external keyboard (with arpegiator) was used to trigger the App. Others were triggered internally or featured rhythmic patches. Some clips utilise the drum/beat player in the App for backing.


For more information on Alchemy for iPad visit the website.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Phaedra, A New iPad MIDI Step Sequencer


Chris Randall shared this sneak preview of his ‘bad boy’ software step sequencer, Phaedra.
Phaedra is an ”analog” style four-channel MIDI sequencer for the iPad. The design of the Phaedra step sequencer is inspired by the Moon Modular 568 Quad Sequential Trigger Source.
Here’s what Randall has to say about Phaedra:
I still have a long way to go, but it is coming along nicely. Each step has note, velocity, gate time, and a pair of MIDI CCs of your choosing. I haven’t yet coded in the chaining feature, but it’ll be able to do 4 x 32, 2 x 64, and 1 x 128 modes. The steps can be 32nd note, 16th note, 8th trips, and 8th note, and each “bus” can run in arbitrary lengths. The “Live Control” knobs on the left can be used to modify one of the four destinations.
I haven’t yet conquered “MIDI background mode,” as used by many iPad synth apps, but I hope to include it, as well as Korg’s WIST. It already does normal hardware MIDI and Network MIDI fine, though, and can clock, or be clocked from, an external source.
No release date has been announced, but Randall says that he hopes to have work on it wrapped up by Christmas.
Here’s a brief demo of Phaedra in its current state:




The demo is pretty basic, considering the current state of the iPad music platform.
The Moon Modular sequencer IS a bad boy, though, so a software version, paired up with a iPad MIDI interface and a multitimbral hardware or software synth, could prove to be a relatively inexpensive way to create a powerful step sequencing set up.

iPad Music Show Pilot Episode 2




Nick Batt & Gaz Williams are back with another ‘pilot’ episode for the iPad Music Show.
Items covered include:
  • Hardware
    • Apple Camera Connection Kit
    • Alternative USB kit
    • Dock Extender
    • Line6 MIDI Mobilizer
    • Yamaha i-MX1
  • Apps:
    • Accordéon
    • Set List Organizer
    • Keyboard Arp & Drum Pads
    • ThumbJam
They’re looking for ideas for better names for the show – so if you’ve got an idea, let them know!

MOOG APPLE LAPTOP LOGO



BeatMaker Getting All Sorts Of MIDI Love




Intua has announced BeatMaker 2.2, and they’re bringing all sorts of MIDI love to the iPad music workstation.
Here’s what’s new in BeatMaker 2.2:
  • MIDI Out, Sync, Thru and MIDI-over-WiFi support
  • Virtual MIDI inputs/outputs
  • MIDI Hotplug
  • MIDI Import: import MIDI files into the song sequencer and pattern editor
  • Export individual patterns to MIDI files
  • New Swing feature for recording and pattern editing
  • DropBox file sharing support
  • Revamped Sample Lab/Chop Lab. Now everything can be tailored within the same interface.
  • Non-destructive chopping options
  • Customize sample bounds per pad
  • Automatically create track patterns from chopped samples
  • Export song to individual audio tracks
  • Added amount multiplier and invert ADSR options
  • Support for Apple Loops slice points (reading & writing).
  • Korg’s WIST support (synchronizes supported music apps playback).
  • Other general improvements and iOS 5 related fixes
This update has yet to hit the App Store. Version 2.1.2 is available for $19.99.
If you’re a BeatMaker user, let us know what you think of it!