Show Your Vocoder Some Love

See more T-Pain videos at Funny or Die

Here is a quick lesson to you. Don't mess with your Vocoder, it might just turn on you. You know, now that I think about it I would love to see that battle play out. Daft Punk vs. their Vocoder. FIGHT!!!!

Dave Smith Releases the Mopho Desktop Synthesizer

 

DaveSmithInstruments.com

Who doesn't love Dave Smith and analog gear?  Unfortunately for most of us the price is just too much for most of us to bear and even if we could afford the equipment the thought of exposing that nice Prophet eight to the possibility of a spilled beer is enough to make any LivePA artist cringe.

Dave Smith Instruments has announced a new monophonic synth module called the Mpho.

Mopho is a compact and affordable—but powerful—monophonic analog synthesizer. The voice architecture is identical to a single voice of the Prophet '08, but with a couple of unique twists to distinguish it from its award-winning sibling. We have added two sub-octave generators—one per oscillator—for additional girth and crushing basses. It also has an audio input that lets you process external audio and mix Mopho's own audio output back in pre-filter for feedback effects that can range from subtle distortion to extreme skronk. The Push It button is a manual trigger that lets you play a specific note or latch notes and sequences on. It can also step through a sequence to play short melodic lines without a keyboard. Of course, Mopho can also be used with a MIDI controller or external sequencer.
Mopho is fully programmable and all the parameters can be tweaked from the front panel. The four Assignable Parameters controls are assignable per program for optimum performance control. A free editor is available for Mac OS and Windows to facilitate programming. (And, if you already have a Prophet '08, most of Mopho's parameters can be controlled from the Prophet's front panel via MIDI!)

Ohh, did I mention it is only $399? Yeah, real analog, real Dave Smith. $399. This looks like a very nice compliment to the original evolver.

via LivePA.org

Roland VP-550: The Best Tool No One Knows About?

While browsing on some of the shopping sites this evening I stumbled across this instrument called the Roland VP-550. Never seeing it before I had to look into more about what it was. I found out it is a dedicated harmonizer/vocoder vocal synth.

In fact it is perhaps one of the best sounding vocal harmonizers I have ever heard, creating fairly realistic sounding choruses

Jordan Rudess has some excellent Youtube Videos that showcase some of the versatility of the VP-550. Quite frankly I am blown away and surprised no one else is really talking about this interesting instrument.

Jazzmutant Lemur Releases v2.0 Firmware on October 3rd

Jazzmutant Lemur Releases v2.0 Firmware on October 3rd

Everyone's favorite touch screen interface that no one can afford has just released updated firmware. The full list is below. New features, enhanced junk. Any Lemur users out there? I have always loved this thing, but it seems like it is just one step away from being the ideal touch screen interface. 

• Breakpoint object – Offers total control of synthesizer or sampler envelopes with a multi-segment envelope editor to allow you to really get inside a sound, live on stage!
• Gesture object – This emulates a trackpad control with advanced gesture recognition and has three novel ways to interact with your sound.
• Alias – Now you can easily produce a copy or alias of a controller object that sends exactly the same information to your computer.
• Tabbed Container – Containers are virtual panels that contain a selection of controls.
• Mouse and keyboard control – Now Lemur's objects can be used to remotely control the mouse cursor or computer keyboard.
• Workflow improvements – Setting up your custom performance interface is a breeze with the improved and new-look Jazzeditor.
• Extended scripting abilities – You can now modify the physical behavior, appearance or size of an object in real time.

 

via LivePA.org

My New Addiction: Slagsmålsklubben

Over at the livePA.org boards there was a topic posted about Slagsmålsklubben, a Swedish electronic sixtuplet which is blowing my mind as of late. They have quite a number of videos posted over on Youtube much like this one above. Pretty much, I cannot get them out of my head and I just had to share it with everyone.

Stanton DaScratch Touch Sensitive DJ Pad

 

Looks like Stanton is offering up a new, interesting DJ controller to the mix. Above is the new Stanton SCS.3D Touch Pad. There is definitely some interesting design elements here with the USB cord being touched underneath the device. Admittingly it does look a little cheap though. 

Even after watching the video though I am slightly confused as to what this device is. Is it supposed to be replacing the  turntables or the mixer? Maybe I am just stuck in my old ways in thinking that a mixer style interface is even needed for software. All in all though this looks like an interesting approach to software DJ mixing, but I am curious if the touch interface (all the fad these days) is really any more intuitive or useful than traditional knobs and sliders.

Price comes in at an affordable $300 and features "plug and play" capability for all of the major DJ software out there, including Ableton Live.

via Gizmodo.com

Jam The Tubes: Live Online Liveset

http://jamthetubes.blogspot.com/

Sort of last minute, but I recieved word that tree members from the LivePA.org community are performing right now via Ustream for a live event on the net.

This is an event they plan to host again in the future so keep and eye for it, and if you are interested in performing yourself then head on over to the website to get more information.

via LivePA.org

Roland MC-808: Daft Punk Jam (Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger)

Found this nice video of a guy jamming on his MC-808 doing a liveish remix to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". I gotta say it is pretty good and shows off the MC-808 a little bit. I feel sort of remiss about the MC-808 because I think it has gotten sort of a bad rap for the LivePA crowd. It certainly has its limitations as a full on workstation, but as a straight up sampler I think it has some really great features and playability.

11 Free VST Synthesizers That Sound Great!!!

Looking for some great free VST synths to produce with? Then check these ones out. They are garunteed to get you  some new sounds for your set.

Audiotuts.com: 11 Free VST Synthesizers That Sound Great!!!

Taking the Electribe ES-1 further

From changing the colour of the LEDs lighting the buttons to adding switches in order to make old functions new again, owners of the original Korg Electribes seem to be taking matters into their own hands. Though the internal components are fare more tightly integrated than in the great circuit bending and user-modded machines of the past, such as the SK-1 and the famous Roland x0x line, today's ever more tech-savvy end users are nonetheless finding ways to creatively modify these increasingly cheap little boxes. Noticing this, I've decided to consolidate a few of the more interesting and successful user mods I've seen floating around the net, as well as inluding links to some useful tools and such for the models I talk about.

Of course, modifying any of these while they are still new and under warranty will void said warranty, but you already knew that, right?

The above video shows what happens when someone decides that Korg's sense of design just isn't up to snuff with their own refined sense of aesthetics. Blue LEDs and a sweet paint job on the case are obviously the answer! It might not change the way the instrument sounds, but it's a start.

Another useful and increasingly popular modification is the addition of a battery pack, detailed in a nice PDF file and AVI video in the file section of the Electribe Yahoo group, where you can find all sorts of other useful utilities as well, such as the blank pattern/sample template in Zip format, and the pitch knob map. (You'll have to sign in with a Yahoo ID to see.) For those wanting to dive in a little further, there is also a Max/MSP editor for the ES-1 as well.