$400 Mini Laptop: Everex Cloudbook

.:Everex Cloudbook:.

Here is a neat announcement for CES last week. Everex, the makers of the $199 desktop computer running the gOS has announced a new mini-laptop called the Cloudbook for a very low price of $400. Now this is obviously not going to be your power house laptop running Ableton Live and visuals, but with the CPU clocking in at 1.2 GHZ that is nothing to sneeze at. You could probably get Albeton Live up and running on that no problem. At the very least it could be a great alternative for running some midi software or as an auxiliary device.

What sets this apart from the similarly priced Asus eee PC is the hardware specs is not only the 1.2 GHZ VIA C7®-M Processor, but the fact that it also comes with a 30GB harddrive. Something you can actually put real files on.

Additional specs include the following:
512MB DDR2 533MHz SDRAM
30GB Hard Disk Drive,
7" WVGA TFT Display (800 x 480)
VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics
VIA High-Definition Audio
802.11b/g
10/100 Ethernet Port
DVI-I Port, (2) USB 2.0 Ports
4-in1 Media Card Reader
1.3MP Webcam
Headphone/Line-Out Port
Microphone/Line-In Port
Set of Stereo Speaker
4-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

It is expected to be available at Wal-Mart's and online starting January 25th.

Even 6 year olds can use Ableton Live

Found this great video over at the LivePA.org boards. Here is a six year old, presumably named Dune from the video title, playing with Ableton live. I have no idea if he wrote the music (man it would be cool if he did write it), but at the very least it does demonstrate how easy to use Ableton is.

It leads you to wonder though. If a six year old can do it so easily, how talented really are all of you laptop users........ d-_-b


via LivePA.org

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

Tech Support Showdown 2007 - LAPTOP Magazine

Tech Support Showdown 2007 - LAPTOP Magazine

We have discussed on this blog several times about this laptop brand and that laptop brand. Price, build quality, etc. etc., but one of the things that is perhaps most often overlooked in the laptop purchase is the customer service and tech support lines.

What is the experience like when you have a problem with your laptop? Can you contact them from the road, and how punctual are they about getting it back to you.

All of these questions are extremely important, but often times overlooked in the laptop purchase.

Laptop Magazine has posted its second annual tech support showdown comparing all of the major manufacturers from Sony to Apple. The magazine ranks the warranty, the tech support and more.

So head on over there and read up and find out where your laptop brand stacks up, or read up on what to look for in your next laptop purchase.

via Engadget.com

Ableton Live Wiki

.:Ableton Live Wiki:.

New to Ableton Live, or are you just looking for a good place for info? Perhaps you are the Ableton master and wish to share your info.

Then head on over to the Ableton Live Wiki for a great alternative resource to the Ableton Manual and messageboards.

Panasonic Toughbook: The Ultimate Gig Laptop?

.:Panasonic.com:.

The Panasonic Toughbook. Sure you have seen them on those TV commercials at construction sites and in your local police car, but have any artists out there actually considered picking up a Toughbook? The club atmosphere can be a pretty rough ride for a laptop, even tougher if your are adding on flights and constant touring.

The Panasonic Toughbook is designed and touted to be able to handle the toughest of environments, offering shatter and scratch resistant screens, a very hard magnesium alloy casing, and a shock mounted HDD. Most models even offer a water proof keyboard (gotta avoid those spilled drinks) and in some models a touch screen interface. While the price of these machines on the whole is generally more expensive than your traditional laptop, you are getting quite a deal of more security. These aren't underspec'd at all either. They are sporting Core Duo processors, and a 1,000 nit screen designed for outdoor use. The only thing off the top of my head that I am wondering about is performance and heat as related with a laptop in such an enclosed case.

Has anyone out there performed with a Tougbook before? They certainly seem like they could be a logical investment for the laptop musician, yet you don’t see anyone performing with one.

Laptop Lounge v2.0.0 in Seatle Washington

Laptop Lounge v2.0.0 on Virb.com

Are you an artist in the Portland area looking for a place to perform, or perhaps just a fan looking for something to do on a Thursday night?

Well there is a new weekly event called Laptop Lounge 2.0 which is designed to feature local acts on the upper West coast.

quote:

Laptop Lounge, the legendary night that introduced Portland to countless local acts, is back with an upgrade! Last Thursdays, starting in May, the lounge will showcase bleeding edge electronic musicians doing thing their thing live. The lounge has moved to Pi-REM, where you may hear the splendid geekery on an EAW audiophile-quality sound system, view some great art on the walls, and order one of many hundreds of unique beers and wines in the loungiest of lounge settings.

We're kicking things off with a few live performances from artists on Portland's latest and greatest gift to the world of electronic music, Buried in Time.

Last Thursdays at Pi-REM
433 NW 4th Ave (@ Glisan)
21+, free, 8pm

For more details and contact info hit up the Virb site liked above.

TC Electronic Konnekt Live

.:Konnekt Live:.

At this past week's Musikesse T.C. Electronics announced the release of a very interesting little audio interface that is designed for live performance. This new sound interface is called the Konnekt Live and it features a master compressor and finalizer on the analog outputs, as well as extensive output routing. The Konnekt Live offloads the master out DSP processing from your computer, to the audio interface.

DSP effects on the unit include the following:
Fabrik C Live
3-band finalizing compressor with MINT (Meta Intuitive Navigation Technology)

Fabrik R Live
Nine classic reverb algorithms

ResFilter
Lo-cut/hi-cut filter with 6, 12 and 24 dB slopes. It also features inter-communication-bus facilitates for controlling and tweaking multiple plug-ins and parameters from one plug-in.

via Sonicstate.com

Wii Loop Machine Demonstration

The above is a follow up to the Wiimote performance post, that shows the Wii Loop Machine in a demonstration. The author, Yan, takes us through all of the features of the Wii Loop machine.

Check out the rest of this websit at .:The Amazing Rolo:.

Konpiùta - LivePA may 2006

.:Konpiùta - LivePA May 2006:.

This week's Liveset is from artist Konpiùta. It is from way back in May 2006, and is another taste of the modern minimalist IDM with a hint of more atmospherics then you probably normally hear in IDM. If your looking for more of his music be sure to checkout his website at .:Konpiuta.com:.

Solving the Software License Issue: Multiple Computers

I am posting this topic up for discussion since I think it will gather a huge range of answers. This discussion recently surfaced on the LivePA forums and I also posed the question on the Serious-Sounds.net forums to get people's reactions. Here is our hypothetical....

You just went out and purchased one box (copy/license) for Abelton Live. You own two computers at home, a desktop and a laptop for music production. It is perfectly legitimate for one to think that you might want to work on your music in both a studio and perhaps a live setup.

What do you think should be the restrictions regarding how you can install the software on your computers? Ableton Live comes with Windows and Mac installations. Does your opinion on installing change at all if lets say your desktop is a PC and your laptop is a Mac?

Here are some responses from people online.

xe-cute says:

Hypothetically my view is that you should be able to install it on any computer you use for your own use. Obviously this can not be easily enforced in reality hence the limitation to an install on one computer. It would be good if they could distinguish such a thing by either fixed I.P. address or Post/zip code. But then that rules out laptops and such things that travel. Personally if I bought anything I would expect to be able to use it where and when and upon whatever I wanted, whenever.

Faolon says:

I know what the "technical" answer is...but like you already said, as for a personal 'view' on it..it all stems down to how you define personal use. Technically...1 purchase gets you unlimited (unless OEM) on 1 machine, but personally...I think this is a fine line. If I was to buy Ableton to use for DJ'ing rather than production say...then chances are..the main machine I'm going to want it on is my laptop...so I can play out live, but I'm also going to want it on my PC....as thats where I download all my mp3's too from I-tunes/Napster or whatever. Question is....SHOULD I have to buy another copy for my PC? My personal point of view on this situation is..simply no. I would be using the application the same amount as I would if it were just installed on my laptop, but for my personal ease (lets say so that downloads cant corrupt my laptop) it's installed on both.... Now, my feeling is...if my laptop was at home, but my pc was in a seperate studio (ie. different mailing adress) then I would need to buy copies of the software for both machines.

Dave Webster

I guess in an ideal world purchasing a licence for it should be more like a membership card and you could use anyones copy of the program so long as you own a licence to the program. You would then be free to install it on whatever computers or laptops you own.

So do any readers out there have an opinion? I think I know where most answers will go, but lets hear 'em.

Create Digital Music - Pimp my Ableton Controller: Custom Keyboards, Custom Paint Jobs

.:Create Digital Music - Pimp my Ableton Controller: Custom Keyboards, Custom Paint Jobs:.

The folks over at CreateDigitalMusic.com have a cool post up from Bill Van Loo showed who has customized is Apple QWERTY keyboard and midi controller for Ableton live. From the looks of it, it doesn't look like there is any custom hardware modding on this one, but it is amazing how much a little paint job can do for visually helping one organize their setup for performance.

You can find more info on this paint job over at .:Bill Van Loo's Flickr post:.

Laptop Battles: The Modern Scratch Off?

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while, but never really knew where to go with the topic, so I decided I might as well just have a little introductory post.

Laptop Battles have been a sort of hot topic in the West coast music scene for the past couple of years, and it is just now starting to make its way to my area out in Chicago. As laptops have become more and more prevalent in LivePA, more and more artists have hopped up on stage to perform. While laptops have gotten more people on stage, doing more with their music, the laptop itself is a rather boring object for the audience to look at. I found this fantastic post on NPR talking about laptop battles and this quote just popped out at me.

via NPR

"There'd be some guy sitting on stage in a pool of light with his computer, playing music. But for all the audience knew, he could have been checking his e-mail or surfing the Web. There was no energy."

The laptop battle format was created to spark life and energy into the laptop performer by introducing a battle format where competitors compete against each other in an all out performance blitz lasting anywhere from 2-10 minutes. The result of the entire experiment is an insanely animated and often times auditory wall of sound that ranges from genius to chalk board screech. The format was setup by Kris Markle aka. Kris Moon, and has now expanded across the country offering listeners a new form of LivePA that some of us purists or traditionalists might not appreciate.

In all though if you get the opportunity to see a laptop battle in your area, you should check it out, or better yet, tote your laptop along and lay down for two minutes and see what you really are made of.

For more information, and if there are battles in your area check out the links below:

.:LaptopBattle.org:.
.:Myspace.com/Laptopbattles:.

Underworld - Cowgirl Live 2000

Here is classic song that we all loved back in the day from everyone's favorite underground movie "Hackers". Underworld performing their hit Cowgirl with a bunch of live clips.

As my favorite livePA artist Mux likes to say: "Rave Rave, Techno Techno!!!"

Environmental Sound Collapse: Live Video with Nanoloop

Here is a live video of artist Sound Collapse performing with a Nanoloop and a Nintendo Gameboy live. The video is an .WMV file.

.:Environmental Sound Collapse Live Video:.


Check out his homepage at
.:Soundcollapse.org:.

Different Strokes: A Prototype Software System for Laptop Performance and Improvisation

One last academic article for everyone for the week. This article is from Mark Zadel and Gary Scavone from the Schulich School of Music, McGill University. This article sets forth to present to the reader the progress of laptop based performances and discusses some of the issues surrounding the perceived lack of active creation (doesn't that apply to all livePA?) and the visual aspects that a laptop brings to a performance.

.:Different Strokes: A Prototype Software System for Laptop Performance and Improvisation:.

WARNING: The linked file is a .PDF file.

The Object of Performance: Aural Performativity in Contemporary Laptop Music

Continuing with the postings of highly academic .PDF articles about live performance, Caleb Stuart of the University of Canberra has written an interesting paper about the emergence of laptops for the use of modern performance.

There are some interesting arguments here that may get you thinking about which side of the fence you sit on for laptops and performance.

quote:
...we have not lost performativity but instead the audience needs to make a shift in their understanding of performance in the live
computer mediated digital audio environment from a visual focus to that of aural performativity. [The] music scene addressed here is experimental in nature and is followed by a small subculture. This sub-culture in the last few years has itself become comfortable with the nature of live performance and the computer as an instrument.

Warning: This is another .PDF file.

.:The Object of Performance: Aural Performativity in Contemporary Laptop Music:.