Kero Live October 9th, 2004 @ Wabi-Detroit

.:Kero Live October 9th, 2004 @ Wabi-Detroit:.

This week's artist is Kero performing live in Detroit. This link was forwarded to me by an email as a suggested liveset performance and it is a pretty good one. The set is a nice set of IDM that progresses into some techno.

I have no been able to confirm the website of the artist in this set, or any more details about the performance, so if anyone out there has any more information, please forward it my way.

Summer NAMM 2007: Roland SP-555

.:Roland SP-555:.

Summer NAMM is upon us, and with that comes some new gear. From all the reports that I have read online thus far it appears to be a real lackluster show except for one very interesting piece of kit coming out of Roland.

Roland has announced the SP-555 sampler, based off of the SP-404. The new sampler comes with 16 velocity sensitive pads, 37 effects algorithms from the Fantom, and a new Loop Capture feature.

The new LOOP CAPTURE function allows users to sample live audio from the 555’s inputs, (you can also play loops from the pads of course), with real-time effects tweaks. Hasn't this always been a feature? Wow, welcome to 1997 Roland.

Internal memory includes up to 6 minutes of stereo sampling, but is expandable with a 2GB compact flash card that can be accessed on the fly for up to 12 hours of sampling. Doesn't it seem like 2GB should be standard in these machines now?

Despite some of my minor quips, the new SP-555 does appear to be a fairly solid sampler. No news on release date or price as of yet, but this may be one to keep an eye out for livePA artists.

DJ Zyx Does Cubase, Reason, Rebirth + Controllers Live PA

While searching the Youtube I found this video of DJ Zyx doing a screen capture of some "live" work, perhaps better described as on the fly work, with Rebirth, Reason and Cubase. Quite interesting and I am amazed his computer is not hiccuping under the load. I wish he gave more details though explaining how he set it up to work. Most of the comments appear to be in German.

AirRack: Free Effects Rack for Live Audio

.:Maizesoft AirRack @ KVR:.

Chinese Software developer Maizesoft has released a very cool little tool called AirRack. AirRack is a live audio rack environment, similar to Reason in many respects, designed for live audio effects. The rack comes with nine modules:

Amplifier: the component to connect with the audio interface.
Mixer: route other devices to the amplifier.
Effects: dual effects which load VST effect plug-ins.
VSTi Loader: allow you to give real-time performance.
MP3 player: play MP3 audio file.
CD player: play the CD track with your CD-ROM.
Loop player: play an audio file as a loop.
Sound FX: a simple sampler to trigger sound effects.
Graphic EQ: 31 band graphic EQ.

The program can load VSTi and VST instruments. Cost is FREE and is Windows only. Unfortunately, since I am a Mac user I cannot try this out, so would any of our Windows readers perhaps like to give this a download and a try?

You can download it at the website .:Maizesoft.cn:. (which is in Chinese) or over at KVR at the above link.

Keyboard Magazine - Electronica Unplugged

.:Keyboard Magazine - Electronica Unplugged:.

Peter Kirn at Keyboard magazine has a nice article where he covers live laptop performance recordings, and in the process breaks away from the mold that most of us are thinking, and instead interviews several laptop orchestras including PLOrk, The Moscow Laptop Cyber Orchestra, and Share.

The whole concept of a laptop orchestra is an interesting one, and one I would like to see more off. I sort of see the logical progression in it from drum circle, to jam session to full on orchestra.

if you are interested in some more livePA orchestra related stuff check out some of our other blogs on the topic. .:LivePA Orchestra:.

via Createdigitalmusic.com

GetGigs.com

.:getgigs.com:.

Looking for another resource to find some gigs? Well someone out there was bright enough to aptly great a place called getgigs, where you can list yourself, find auditions, and also find people who are looking for musicians.

Music Software Reviews

.:musicsoftware.ning.com:.

So ages ago I started this music software review page on the social creation tool known as Ning. This was way back when Ning first started. Unfortunately the project just sort of trailed off without me ever following up on it.

Well I just happened to stumble across the site again, and I thought, why not try to get it back up and running again. So I thought I would go ahead and post this on the blog here to encourage anyone out there to sort of post up your review and description of music software.

Feel free to add new software or post a review of software that you are using.

Free to be DIY for you and me....

Free to be DIY for you and me....

Authors Michael Dean and Chris Caulder have a released a new creative commons book outling music creation from anywhere and everywhere from your backpack.

the author states:

I came up with the idea for this book, Digital Music – DIY Now! in early 2005. I’d just finished writing three books by myself and making two movies and wanted to do something different. I wanted to write another book, not by myself, but with some really smart buddies.

I wrote a proposal, pitched it to my agent, Matt Wagner of Fresh Books, and he secured a publisher, Que. Que is a well known publisher with a lot of decent tech books out, and they get their books into everywhere.

Que liked my idea of writing with several other experts, and I thought I’d enjoy the challenge of working with others. It seemed like a nice change from the isolation of writing a book by myself.>

So head on over to their website and check it out. The book comes in two .PDF versions.

via Boing-Boing.net

Mastering engineer John Dent on the art of mastering

While obviously part of a larger corporate marketing effort, the videos hosted on this page are actually worth having a look at-- a two part lecture by mastering engineer John Dent on the subject of what he does, and how it affects the ultimate outcome of our productions, courtesy of the Red Bull Music Academy. A good primer for those who might not grasp the scope of a mastering engineer's role in the overall success of the tunes we release. The information is delivered lecture style along with examples of the subjects discussed, with rather decent audio quality.

.:Check it out here:.

Psylab Live Vermont Firefly Festival 2007

.:Psylab Live Vermont Firefly Festival 2007:.

This week's liveset comes from the group Psylab. This set is a nice mix of trippy psychedelic grooves and beats that mixes laid back with danceable quite well. This is a good late night mix. Psylab consists of Steve Asaro on percussion, Joe Giglio on bass, Ed Guild on visuals and sampling, and finally Neil Larson on keyboards.

For more information about psylab, as will as information about their upcoming gigs head on over to their website at psylabunderground.com

Bigbeat on a Korg ESmkII

Fun video of someone demo'ing some breakbeat work on a Korg ESmkII. Not sure how much is loops and what are sample hits though, but some good stuff none the less.

Hey Check it out. We got Polls

Woot!!! Woot!!!

Blogger went live with template polls today so we can now post polls in the sidebar for everyone to post to. If your reading through the RSS feed head on quickly over to the main page and give our poll a quick vote.

We are starting off real simple on this first one. The question is "What are you using for your LivePA?".

Hardware, PC, Mac or some Hardware/Computer combination.

Let us know and lets find out what everyone is using.

LiveAPI.org - Ableton Live, Open at Last

.:LiveAPI.org:.

Slow to be on the ball with this one, I know, but with the rush on the net about the Ableton Live API hack I figured I would let the commotion settle down, and then shoot a nice sweet injection back into everyone's veins who may have missed the news.

So what is this project? Well basically some hackers went and got their little fingers into Ableton Live to open it up through Python access. The project already has three packages including Python support, OpenSoundControl (OSC) and the Ableton Live API documentation.

Frankly, I am not a coder so I don't know what all this means, but here is what the Liveapi.org boys have to say.

Quote:

The trick here is to detach yourself from thinking MIDI, think combos, think interactions, think progressive organic behavior that you have control over using an object oriented language rather than being limited to 'on/off' of a note or 1-127 on a CC.

And finally, OSC isn't really 'the big deal' about LiveAPi, the Python API access is. It's basically an example of how powerful this interface can be, we shimmed in a network transport layer interface to allow remote control. Just imagine what you'll be able to do.

On the ho-hum side of things, you could recolor your clips automatically if you wanted. All bass immediately becomes green, all leads red, etc. You could do name matching on that type of stuff. Or, you could 'tie' knobs together.. Turn a dial from 1-127, another dial goes from 127-1 inversely. If that kind of stuff doesn't turn you on and you don't do performance stuff, then this probably isn't a big deal for you -- yet.

I've been dreaming up ideas since the release that have nothing to do with playing music, but are more about automating processes within Ableton to save me time.. But that's just what _I_ want. You've got the power to make what _you_ want.

Lusine Live in Chicago

.:Lusine Live at Chicago:.

This week's liveset comes from artist Lusine. Lusine is Jeff McIlwain and is a mixture of ambient, melodic experimental sounds. This set was recorded in Chicago, but I am not sure when. For more information about Lusine head on over to his webpage: lusineweb.com