Feedback

I don't have a lack of musical project ideas, but I'm curious what you'd like to hear next. I don't consider the results binding, but if there is an overwhelming preference for one kind of music, I'd be more inclined to pursue that direction. If you're not familiar with some of the options, I have posted a page with all my releases available for streaming.

maxforlive: stepfilter

Some of you may recall a step filter video I created for the monome that used the Doepfer vocoder bank as a set of filters. This was somewhat confusing due to the layers of dependencies. The application generated rough envelope data as MIDI. The MIDI data was sent to a Doepfer MCV24 MIDI to CV interface and the CVs from that controlled the filter bank. Why not create the filter bank directly in Max?

So here is a video of a maxforlive monome-controlled audio effect. There is a built-in noise generator to make it easier to design the step filter operation. Then you can process audio from the track. One nice side benefit is you can move the center frequencies and level of each filter, as well as bandwidth of all filters.

As this video involves screen capture, I recommend viewing the video in full resolution at the video's vimeo page, and enable HD. Otherwise, you won't be able to see what is going on inside the user interface.

maxforlive: polygomé

maxforlive simplifies monome workflow. For example, if you want to use polygomé with a DAW, you must open your DAW software, open polygomé, set up sync in polygomé, set up sync in your host app, set up MIDI output routings from polygomé, set up MIDI routings in your DAW. There is a lot of overhead. With maxforlive, you simply drag polygomé into your track as a MIDI effect. Then you can start playing immediately. There is no setup. Everything is in sync.

As this video involves screen capture, I recommend viewing the video in full resolution at the video's vimeo page, and enable HD. Otherwise, you won't be able to see what is going on inside the user interface.

How Education Kills Creativity

If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. We stigmatize mistakes, we indoctrinate our children to be afraid of being wrong, thus bludgeoning the creativity out them.

new monome greyscale edition

Not walnut, but black silicone over a steel enclosure. I was hoping 'greyscale' meant native LED brightness control, but at this point, it still looks to be on/off. $500, available in January. The enclosure is slightly slimmer than the walnut version. Bus-powered 128s (thanks to the lower consumption LEDs) with tilt sensors on the way. More info here.

Piracy vs. Obscurity

In the introduction to his book 'Makers', Cory Doctorow explains why he is providing electronic versions of the book gratis.

"Why am I doing this? Because my problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity (thanks, @timeoreilly for this awesome aphorism)."

Cory, thanks for that laugh. Best one I had all week. You? Obscure? I guess it is all relative. You're not Paris Hilton famous. However, I don't read boingboing any more because of you. You pimping your books. All the time. Even the most tenuous connection... "Oh yes, that person had feet. You know who else had feet? One of the characters in my book, 'Little Brother' which can be purchased at..."

Next time you feel the need to leverage the mighty resources you have available to publicize your book, just, don't. Show some self-restraint, or, better yet, use the opportunity to promote some other deserving writer who doesn't have the same resources you do.

It's a trap

The Ricardo Villalobos post on CDM caused quite the uproar. I read a the interview in its entirety, and it looks like the two choice quotes were already extracted. In context, they don't jump out at me like they did in Peter's write up. Basically, he's saying that technology A sounds better than technology B. It is really odd to hear an electronic musician argue for an arbitrary division of good and bad based on what technology was used because, historically, we've struggled with other people making the same argument to us since, well, forever.

This same argument blossomed in various flavors over the years. Mixing in the box vs. mixing on a console. Analog recording vs. digital recording. Analog modeling vs. analog. Electric guitars were not considered 'real' musical instruments because they required amplification, and so on. Any musical instrument except for the human voice is a product of technology. Some good points have been made about the strong and weak points of various technologies, but ultimately, it comes down to how we choose to use them.

I watched 'Up' last night. I don't think Pixar has ever made a bad film. I was skeptical of the premises of the last three films (Ratatouille, Wall E, Up), but I think they've turned out to be some of the best work Pixar has ever done.

Pixar realizes that they're specializing in a technical field - movies made entirely inside a computer - and that high tech gloss fades over time. Therefore, if you want your work to stand the test of time, there has to be something more than the technology at the core of your art. Pixar has consistently excelled at the fundamentals of good film. Good story, strong characters, endearing performances, cracking script, etc, etc... Arguably, Pixar does a better job at the fundamentals than normal Hollywood films.



It is easy to be blinded by technology, to be satisfied by the technical gloss, but this is fleeting. For your music to be truly great, it must have strong fundamentals, or else it is an empty shell. We can blog and discuss technical issues because we can. Specifications are concrete. Blog posts tend to be product-driven. It is far more difficult to talk about the underlying artistic principles. This leads to a lot of blah blah blah about bit depth, mixing engines, SMT vs. thru hole, analog to digital conversion, frequency response and so on, but it seems absurd to be obsessing about this minutia when the underlying music is cardiologically bankrupt.

Z-DSP Experiments

I'm one of the lucky few beta testers of the new TipTop Audio Z-DSP eurorack module, and boy is it a lot of fun. The Z-DSP is a lot like the TipTop Audio Z5000, except embiggened. A lot. There are three CV controlled parameters per program. There is a feedback loop that you can tap into on the front panel so you can insert a filter or whatever module you can think of inside a part of the DSP process that is usually closed to tinkering. You can change the personality of the DSP by inserting a different card on the front panel. You can even voltage control the clock. This is serious sound-mangling mayhem.

The short audio files I produced represent only one patch idea using one program on one card on this module. I could spend a great deal of time exploring various options without even changing the DSP program on the Z-DSP. The fact that I could load another program is another whole world of possibilities. If, somehow you got bored of that, you can load a card with a different batch of programs. Egads, this thing is endless.

I used three TipTop Z3000 oscillators to perform some additive synthesis, using triangle waves, as I wanted a few extra harmonics in there. The mixed output went into a Cwejman RES-4 filter, with the frequencies of all the filters modulated by a Cwejman VCO-6. This is what I fed into the Z-DSP. I inserted the Elby Synthacon filter into the Z-DSP's feedback loop and controlled the feedback with a joystick. I recorded the output, and played with the joystick, audio input on the Z-DSP and filter settings in real time. The Synthacon filter is interesting as I can selectively bring low pass, band pass, and high pass variations into the feedback loop whenever I want. This was interesting to control as feedback loops can be very unstable, but this always seems to be easier to 'feel' in the analog domain.

I made another pass using the stepped output from the VCO-6 and played with that for a while. These are creative commons license, so feel free to download and use yourself if you like.

Drone 1
Drone 2

I processed the two drone passes in the DAW and back out the modular and recorded the filtered and triggered result back in.

Processed drones

Next is the drum pattern. I started with a stock BPM pattern, then I edited the pattern slightly, then I edited the sounds. The next clip demonstrates the progression of results.

Drum edit progression

Lazily recorded a bass line using the Prophet 5. I wasn't too concerned about mistakes as I intended to edit the snot out of the recorded audio in the DAW.

Prophet bass

Recorded another mono pass, panned each left and right, making it stereo.

Stereo Prophet bass

Post edited result.

Processed Prophet bass

Here are all of the elements together.

Composite

I'm not sure if I'll do anything with it, but I thought you might enjoy listening through the process.




UPDATE: removed the embedded quicktime links in favor of linked MP3s as some people were having compatibility issues.