Archive for September, 2008

Ah, toys, gadgets, gear. Every week it’s something new that gets us excited about making music and questioning our commitment to financial responsibility.

This last week split my wig a few times with some cool announcements, so here are the best of the best, in a list as random and unorganized as my desk.

Stanton DaScratch

This touch-sensitive USB MIDI DJ controller, aka SCS.3d, promises fast response and easy customization. It can control an entire computer DJing system from one compact device or easily add to your existing system.

DaScratch introduces Stanton’s StanTouch technology, which is supposed to incorporate finger movements familiar to DJs, such as scratching, scrubbing and circular touch-pad navigating. The main surface works in three modes–Slider, Circle and Button–in which the surface responds to touches in different ways. In every mode, DaScratch responds to multiple simultaneous touches. If you buy more than one of the $249 units (available now), they can snap together to create a larger control surface.

Dave Smith Instruments Mopho

OK, one question: Did it really take this long for someone to think of calling a MOnoPHOnic synthesizer the Mopho, or is Dave Smith just the first one with the cajones to do it? Well, I for one say bravo to curse word innuendo.

But moving on, the Mopho actually looks like an extremely badass synth for a $439 list price (available now). The one-note/two-oscillator analog synth features a synth engine based on the DSI Prophet ‘08–one of the greatest 21st-century analog synths–with the added bonus of two sub-octave generators–one per oscillator–for additional girth and crushing basses. It’s got an audio input for passing sounds through the legendary Curtis lowpass filter; it includes 5-pin MIDI ports; and at only 7.5-by-5 inches, it’s very portable.

IPJ “iPhone Jockey” Software

Dude, these apps from Japanese company New Forestar are only in beta, but to my knowledge are the only apps for the iPhone/iPodTouch that attempt to turn them into mini CDJ-style audio players. Two iPhones and a mixer? That’s what up.

The features of these apps include a jog dial with virtual scratching and tap tempo, a pitch fader, play/pause button, cue button, forward and backward buttons, a seek bar and a time display. In addition, they’ll use the iPhone’s accelerometer to issue sound effects when you shake the device. No word yet on when the programs will become available.

D16 Decimort

What’s your favorite “mort?” Voldemort, Mort from Family Guy or maybe it’s the Decimort, the new bit-crusher plug-in from D16 Group. Decimort aims to recreate the highly sought after coloration of vintage samplers such as the E-Mu SP-12 and SP-1200 and the Akai MPC 60mkII that was the result of encoding techniques, lower sample and bit rates and conversion circuits.

Decimort’s main sections include a decimator with controls for bit rate and sample rate and a filter with four filter types and controls for cutoff and resonance. It’s available now for preorder at 29 euros. After the first week of October, the price will be set at 35 euros.

Universal Audio Moog Multimode Filter

On the heels of it’s recently announced UAD-2 DSP platform, Universal Audio has announced the released of the Moog Multimode Filter plug-in for UAD-1. UAD-2 users who buy the UAD-1 version now ($199) will receive the UAD-2 version for free when it’s available.

Here’s list of key features:

• Classic Moog ladder-type 24 dB/Oct (4-pole) & 12 dB/Oct (2-pole) LPF/HPF/BPF
  
  

• Extreme distortion via 0/+20 dB Input Gain, replicating MiniMoog external input
  
  

• Stunningly “analog”: self-oscillation, smooth saturation, zero artifacts/quantization
  
  

• Enveloper Follower, Six LFO wave shapes, and DAW tempo synchronization
  
  

• Mono & Stereo processing with Spacing/Offset features from Voyager
  
  

• Includes Free low-DSP Multimode Filter SE version for high instance counts

Other than music, there’s little that we love here at Remix more than the Adult Swim animated shows of the Cartoon Network. One of their shows that has flown under the radar, Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil, combines our favorite things — irreverent humor and DJ culture — like no other.

The main character, DJ Jesus (pronounced “hey seuss”) is an up-and-coming San Francisco DJ who pulls off miraculous publicity stunts to further his career and dates Lucy, the supposed anti-Christ who’s continually pursued by a bunch of bumbling clergy. Oh yeah, and the devil is in there too. Fans of Adult Swim shows will recognize the ubiquitous voice of H. Jon Benjamin (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Home Movies) vocalizing several lead characters.

In these few clips, you’ll see DJ Jesus playing with an MPC, human beat boxing and whipping up some miracles. Bounce over to AdultSwim.com for a ton more. (PS: this show is funny, but not made for kids.)

How many times have you fired up your DAW with the intention of writing a track and sat there overwhelmed by too many options, or doodled around with creating the perfect synth sound that never comes, effected the same beat over and over or done everything but actually write some music?

Hopefully, never. And hopefully, you’re the A#1 chief badass of all time. But the reality is, most of us on some occasions get bogged down with all the other aspects of audio production that take time away from the actual songwriting. That’s why a good old fashioned acoustic piano or guitar can be vital. There’s nothing else to do with them but play music.

However, today I received a demo of a new software program that actually does something that’s pretty rare: It identifies a unique problem of the music producer that no one else has addressed, and attempts to solve it.

The program, Tanager SongFrame, is in a sense a pre-DAW. It’s chief focus is to assist you with the process of songwriting, without all the bells and whistles that are necessary for production in a DAW but can be distracting to songwriting. When you’re finished with a song, you simply export from SongFrame, which creates WAV Audio Tracks and MIDI files that show track markers and are compatible for importing in literally every DAW, to be used as scratch tracks for your full production.

SongFrame’s notable features include an audible chord library, thousands of possible chords progressions taken from popular songs and musical compositions from every era and genre, hundreds of placeholder drum patterns, VST plug-in hotsting, audio and MIDI recording, a lyrics module and a SongBit Notebook for saving ideas.

Check out Tanager’s videos for a run-through.

Tanager has also produced a couple of other very helpful musician’s apps. Chorducopia is an audible chord library with more than 50 chords per key to help you in practicing an instrument or with songwriting.

But for traveling laptop musicians and producers, Chirp could be indispensable. Whenever you’re in a spot where you want to make music but don’t have the luxury of playing a MIDI keyboard or other type of controller, you can use Chirp. It’s basically an 18-key musical keyboard and 10-drum pad MIDI controller in software form. It maps its triggers to your QWERTY keyboard and send MIDI messages to your software, just like a hardware MIDI controller does.

Richie Hawtin is always so far ahead of the DJing technology curve, it just may be futile to try to catch up. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by his innovation to do your own thing. In this video on ResidentAdvisor.net, Hawtin explains his current live setup using Native Instruments Traktor with four virtual decks and an Allen & Heath Xone mixer/MIDI controller (as well as an extra computer just for effects).

If you still think that it’s cheating for laptop DJs to use a software’s auto beat sync, allow Hawtin about 10 minutes of your time to justify himself for offloading that task to his computer helpers. As always, his endeavors are quite impressive.

Last week I mentioned that I got the Shure PSM 200 in-ear monitors and would report back about how I liked them. I have to admit I was scared. After more than seven years of sticking my head in the monitor wedges onstage, I didn’t know how I’d react to using in-ears. More importantly, I didn’t know whether I’d even get them to work or if they’d blow up my ear drums or if I wouldn’t be able handle the mix inside my brain.

I can report that they are indeed awesome. Two of my bandmates and I went to the practice studio a couple hours before practice to figure it out. What’s the joke about musicians screwing in a lightbulb?

How many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Seven: one to do it and six to watch and say, “Aww, I could’ve done that!”

Anyway, it only took one guitarist to figure out the routing stuff with the Mackie 1604 mixer, and then we plugged it all in and had it working with time to spare before band practice. The cool thing is that the earphones have limiters built in so your ears really won’t blow up. And while it takes some getting used to, it’s really nice to hear every word you sing, even when weird synth frequencies try to battle it out with certain notes you’re singing. For now, I’m just singing with one ear in, one out, but I think that’s mainly because we don’t have the other instruments routed through the earphone mix yet. But I actually dig going with one in-ear and one monitor. Pretty awesome. More to come about touring preparations….

Check out this sweet video from Current TV on label Ghostly International (home to artists such as Matthew Dear, Dabrye, Kill Memory Crash, Solvent and Tycho), which includes an interview with Ghostly founder Sam Valenti IV. The video, called “Ghosts of Techno,” covers how the label started, the concept and its intent to bring music and compelling visual artists together. Click HERE to see the video.