… or do I really need any more?
So my arsenal for music production comprises
NI Komplete 6 (Reaktor, Kontakt, FM8, Massive, Guitar Rig, Absynth, Battery)
Ableton Live Suite (Sampler, Tension, Operator, Electric, Collision, Analog)
Older NI synths (Pro-53, B4)
UAD-1 plugins
Xils (VCS3 emulation)
Xoxos drum synth suite
TRackS mastering plugs
Most of the AudioDamage plugins
AAS Ultra Analog
Image-Line Harmless
A few other free or [...]
I had a real adventure last night, installing Windows 7. I ran into a problem so infuriating, and yet so completely boneheaded and ridiculous that I had to laugh. It’s described here. In essence, if you bought the EDU $29.95 Windows 7 Home Premium from Microsoft, the download file won’t actually work [...]
The way that Tim Exile’s “The Finger” is capable of completely destroying an audio source is intoxicating. I keep trying to use it ‘reasonably’ and end up doing things like this. Believe it or not, this started out as synth pad, a bassline, and a steady beat.
Then I started resampling the [...]
So I downloaded the new ITunes last night, and tried out the Genius playlist feature. It is kind of amusing. First thing — it doesn’t know obviously, but it does a pretty good job if a track is in it’s database. For example if I chose Martyn’s “Vancouver” it puts together a [...]
I built a new computer. I installed Windows XP SP3 on the new computer. I install my working set of music software plus a few other essentials. Everything works perfectly.
Except for 2 packages of VST plugins. Every VST host application stalls when it tries to do the initial plugin folder scan.
I’ve been getting good support [...]
The Sonuus G2M Converter is, at $99 almost cheap enough for me to impulse-buy. But I’ve played around with guitar-to-midi converters from time to time and I’ve always been disappointed, and besides, after paying bills I’m already broke for July.
This thing is, of course, monophonic, and who knows what it does if you play [...]
The big buzz (and trending Twitter topic of the day) is Google OS. This will apparently comprise a minimal Linux Kernel, a graphical rendering engine, and Google Chrome. It will be perfect for what people spend 95% of their computing time on: dicking around in a web browser, and running web [...]
So this NI Komplete Special is definitely the talk of the music production blogs today. It’s a great deal IMHO, but it raises some questions…
Q1: It kind of makes everyone who dropped $1200 on Komplete recently feel like a chump, doesn’t it?
Q2: Does this mean NI is hard up for cash?
Q3: Is this an [...]
My posts about Paul Stretch may be the most widely-read thing I’ve done on this blog. I know that my build for Intel/OSX has been downloaded many times.
Unfortunately I don’t have access to a PPC Mac and I can’t be arsed to figure out how to cross-compile a PPC build, or do a universal binary [...]
Notice my clever hash mark — because my posts get forwarded to Twitter … I’m becoming a blog/facebook/twitter whore.
My friend Dylan wrote “Here’s a problem I’ve been trying to figure out for a while now: say you want to drop a track in from the very start instead of fading it in slowly, but it starts before [...]
Someone asked me this on twitter: “Is it possible to fix a tracks tempo in Ableton and then export it for use elsewhere?”
The answer won’t fit in a tweet, so I’m posting here.
It’s not a big deal but it’s not 100% obvious how to do this. If you only ever deal with Live, once you [...]
http://www.cornwarning.com/xfer/hallway-samples.zip
Objects involved: Screwdriver, Steel Thermos, Spraypaint Can, Rubbermaid Shelves, Sheetrock Wall, Stair Rail, Wooden Legs That Used To Hold Up Kitchen Island, Sniffing.
Recorded with a Pacific Pro Audio Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone, Presonus Tube Pre, RME Hammerfall DSP + Multiface, 24-bit, 44.1 Khz. All samples normalized, a few really quiet ones treated after normalization [...]
http://www.symboliccomposer.com/page_main.shtml
Symbolic Composer has a certain appeal I guess, if Max/MSP seems too easy or inflexible. I’d even consider messing with it — if it was free!
But $495???
Keerazy.
Remember to make ANY SOUND with SCom, you write a lisp program. They have a giant library with loads of interesting stuff in it, and I can write [...]
I guess I know why it’s so huge, but jeez, maybe they could split the application file from the included content? That is a 45 minute dowload at 400Kb/second! Imagine someone on dialup trying to get it!
This is a common ‘helpful tip’ about playing live or DJ’ing with Ableton Live — ‘put a limiter on the main output bus.’
After recording a set last night (which you’ll hear about when I get approval from one artist to use a track) I have spent some time rendering, tweaking, and then re-rendering a mix, [...]
My APC40 came yesterday, and I spent a few hours fiddling with it last night…
The build quality is impressive. Almost absurdly so — the knobs are big and solid, the faders are smooth. The hard rubber end cheeks are some designers wet dream — they seem to have no purpose except to enhance the ’stealth [...]
AudioMidi is one of those online retailers, like NewEgg that once you find it, becomes your vendor of first resort. I can’t recommend them highly enough — competetive prices, prompt shipping, and first rate customer service.
I ordered my Akai APC40 yesterday, and called them to ask if they were backordered and when they’d [...]
Groove Quantization was one of the ‘big deal’ features added in Ableton Live, and I suppose if I’d read all the marketing shiznit more carefully I would have figured it out before now, but as usual I only learn by doing.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
http://www.cornwarning.com/chaircrusher/Chaircrusher-LiveGrooveQuantize.mp3
So what I did here:
1. Load the track “Amazon” [...]
This is Dave Smith Instruments’ Mopho playing some patches generated randomly by the Mopho Pro Editor.
The Mopho Pro Editor is like any other editor for external MIDI instruments: It’s kind of buggy and ill-documented, and half the time something about it doesn’t work and you can’t figure out why. But when it does work, [...]