Sunday, December 30, 2007

Tooltech - LivePA for the usb camp @ camping village / nature one

1 comments



Tooltech - LivePA for the usb camp @ camping village / nature one

This week's liveset comes from artist Tooltech off of the labor_51 recording label. It is self described as a minimal to techno set that is 58 minutes long. This set was done with Ableton Live and was posted if not recorded this past August.

For more information about Tooltech head on over to http://toolte.ch

Thursday, December 27, 2007

New Poll: What Drum-Machine Are you Pining For?

2 comments



Well we have had quite the rush of drum-machine news over the past week haven't we? With all of these new drum-machines out and coming out you surely must have your heart set on one of them. So which one are you craving the most? Checkout the new poll on the right hand column of the main page of the blog and vote for which drum-machine you want the most.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Boomchik Goes Official!!! Now Called LinnDrum II

0 comments



.:Dave Smith Instruments:.
.:Roger Linn Designs:.

Remember the Boomhick drum-machine partnership from Roger Linn and Dave Smith that we heard about from last Winter's NAMM? Well it looks like we finally have some offical shots of the devices along with a name change. It is now called the LinnDrum II.

Not only that, but it is also going to get two versions, each sold separately by Roger Linn and Dave Smith. One version of the LinnDrum II will only be slightly out of your price range and will be all digital. It will be sold from Roger Linn Designs. The other version of the LinnDrum II will probably be completely out of your price range and will be all analog with an additional four voice synthesizer built in. This one will be sold by Dave Smith Instruments.

That is it folks, no other word on specs or pricing. Do Smith and Linn have you drooling yet?

via LivePA.org

Friday, December 21, 2007

What is Your Lust Worthy Gear for Christmas?

6 comments



Well Christmas is fast approaching upon us here. we all have our wishlists, gear lusts and wants. Sure there is something on there that you may be getting, but lets face it. Not many of our friends or spouses can afford to drop $1,000 or more on a gift. That still leaves us with your lusty gear lists of wants that we may or may not get. So do you have a gear list that you are just wishing for? Lets hear it in the comment section if you got one.

Here is mine.
Jomox Xbase 999
Elektron Machine Drum
Elektron Monomachine
Korg Kaossilator
Korg Mini-KP
EMU Roms (Darn these things are expensive these days)
Korg ESX1
Haken Audio Continuum
Nord Modular
Novation K-Station (I Still want one of these)

Anyone have $15,000?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Jomox Quietly Announces the XBase 888

0 comments



.:Jomox Quietly Announces the XBase 888:.

UPDATE: Wow, anyone notice the image on this post that I linked to over at Jomox just went from rendered to actual photo of the device?

Now here is one that has quietly slipped under the radar and I only found out about due to some browsing over at Novamusik.com. Jomox has quietly announced the XBase 888, a new 808 styled drummachine.

So what is this fun new little drummachine? Well Apparently it is built off of the XBase 999 engine, but is designed to be slightly more affordable than the 999 by eliminating some features such as the X Filter. The sounds are also more smooth leaning towards that of the 808. That being said the Jomox website is very clear that this is not an 808 clone.

Additional features include 9 Instruments: Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Lo Tom, Hi Tom, Hi Hat, Clap, Rim, Crash and Ride. All are polyphonic (Awesome!!) and have individual outs.

Here are some more specs.
- 9 instruments
- Analog kick, toms, snare
- 5 sample based instruments with analog VCA envelope
- 31 samples per instrument
- Own samples can be uploaded by the Jomox Editor
- LCD Display 2x 24 Characters
- 10.5V 2A ~AC external power supply
- Metal steel enclosure
- Wooden end cheeks
- Weight 5kg

Hmm......Man I would love me some Jomox and with the Machinedrum also getting some update loving I sure wish I have about $3,000 to drop on some gear right now.

The Jomox 888 will be available in January for $1,500.

Elektron Releases MKII Versions of the Monomachine and the Machinedrum??

0 comments



.:Elektron.se:.

Well, it looks like there is some discussion happening at the LivePA.org boards that the Monomachine and the Machinedrum have received a slight make over with new MKII versions of both machines. Details seem to be limited but from what can gather the Machine drum has received a new slimmer case, a new power supply, a better signal to noise ratio and the ability for patterns to go up to 64 beats (up from 32). The Monomachine on the other hand seems to also have the new slimmer case, a new power supply with better signal to noise ratio with the added ability to load your own wavetables.

Nice!!!!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Chimera Bc16: Bite-sized patch synth

3 comments



The latest, tiniest invention to hit the synth scene comes from fledgeling one-man synth company Chimera Synthesis, and features an analog VCO, LFO, ADSR envelope, VCA, VCF, ring mod and noise generator, all in a case the size of a cd! Packed into that space are also sixteen dedicated knobs, a headphone jack, and a space for two nine-vold batteries; alternatively, it can be run from a third-party +/-8 to 12 volt source. The website is under consruction and somewhat short on details as of the time of writing, but it does say that the Bc16 can be used with a MIDI/CV converter or hooked up to other Bc16s. Future updates there will (hopefully) give us sound demos of some kind.

Monday, December 17, 2007

CNET: Hands on with Tenori-On

0 comments



.:CNET: Hands on with Tenori-On:.

While we have seen plenty of news and review about the Tenori-On coming from Europe, the news on the device from the US media and artists has been rather mum. Perhaps we might be seeing a little bit of a change in that CNET.com has gotten their hands on the Tenori-On and offers up some preview insight. While the article does not go into much detail about the device that we do not know already, there is a rather tasty interview with the Tenori-On creator which outlines some of the design concepts behind the device along with the hinting of it officially coming to the US in 2008.

Be sure check out the link along with the accompanying CNET video on their site.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Alert-Live at Parallel 17

0 comments



.:Alert-Live at Parallel 17:.

This week's liveset is another linked over from Denvertronic.com (Is Denver that big of a LivePA hotspot?) and it is a very nice change up from some of the past music we have seen on the site. This week's set is a nice down tempo breaks set from Alert. Alert is also the owner of Dope Recordings.

Be sure to check it out if you are looking for more music in this vein. Also, a big ups to Denvertronic.com for dishing up yet another great liveset.

Vangelis and his CS80

1 comments



Being that the 25th Anniversary of Blade Runner is coming out now, I thought it might be appropriate to dig up a great video of the film's main composer and one of music's great virtuoso's messing around with his Yamaha CS80.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Pleatheristic Live: Someone in the World

1 comments



A great video of a live duo performing. Even better is that it has a live drummer, which is something I would love to see more of from LivePA artists. Electronic sets are getting cheaper and cheaper these days.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Ableton 7 Released!!!!

0 comments



.:Ableton Live 7 Released:.

Looks like Ableton after a very short BETA run of the new Ableton Live software has released version 7.0 to the masses. As part of this new 7.0 release Ableton has gone the route of so many other DAW manufacturers these days and has "created" a suite with the release of its software.

As part of this suite comes six new instruments including an electric piano, a VA synth, a string modeling synthesizer, and a couple of drum synths.

The price for Ableton 7 is still at $499 US and the suite package comes in at $799. For those people who have purchased version 6 since October of this year, you are eligible for a free upgrade. There are also several upgrade paths available for all of the Ableton Live users regardless of your version with prices starting at $119. For more information head on over to the Ableton website.

Jean Michael Jarre Interviewed About Oxygene Live Tour

0 comments



The above video is an interview tour with the famous Jean Michael Jarre regarding his latest Oxygene Live Tour and the recording of that tour for DVD. A moderately interesting video that gives you some great gear porn shots of Jarre's setup.

via Musicthing

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Bit Shifter Live at Openair 2003

0 comments



.:Bit Shifter Live at Openair 2003:.

Since it seems that the fantastically planned Blip Festival is just wrapping up, I think it might be appropriate that we feature as many of the Blip Festival artists on the next few LivePA Podcasts as possible.

So with that, lets go ahead and get this week's liveset started by featuring a liveset from one of the more well known 8bit artists out on the net, Bit Shifter.

Quote:

Bit Shifter explores high-energy, low-bit music composed and performed on a Nintendo Game Boy. The result is an unapologetically fun foray into an evocative and distinctive soundset traditionally reserved for video game sound effects and background music, all done on a console generally misperceived as being technically limited. Made possible by Oliver Wittchow and Johan Kotlinski's respective home-brew Game Boy musicmaking programs Nanoloop and Little Sound DJ, Bit Shifter's music adopts and subverts the playfulness inherent in the familiar Game Boy soundset, repurposing it into the service of novel idioms. Based in New York City, Bit Shifter has performed over one hundred shows worldwide, having recently circumnavigated the planet in a 20-date world tour with fellow chiptune compatriot Nullsleep


For more information about Bitshifter heand on over to his website bit.shifter.net

Monday, December 03, 2007

2008 Blip Festival

0 comments



.:BlipFestival.org:.

All I have to say about this piece of hardware is, "Damn that is hot!!"

via Makezine.com

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Korg Zero 8 Demonstration

0 comments



Back at this past 2007 Winter NAMM a lot of people were raving about the newly announced Korg Zero 8. Although it is amazingly priced at around $1,800 it certainly has its share of bells and whistles with eleven different EQ models, built in effects, firewire and more.

Holotropik in the above video has a nice little display of the model in action. Too bad you can't tell how good it sounds from these videos, but if they do show anything it surely demonstrates that Korg knows how to make something that is glittery and shiny.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Devo Electribe Remix

2 comments



An imaginative remix if I do say so myself, courtesy of Japanese techno soldier Denkitribe. Features an Electribe MX and a Mini KP. Unfortunately, I was unable to dig up much information on this artist.