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Some interesting things I found recently:

# Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

The new episode of Electric Independence documents a visit to Vince Clarke's incredible home studio that features more analog gear than, well, probably anyone we've ever encountered. The founding member of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure is enjoying the country life in Maine but still cranks out the jams, or as he likes to put it "making something from nothing."

# Micro Tutorial 20 – ReWire with Logic (YouTube)

How to set up a session with Logic as the ReWire host for Reason & Record.

We'll look at how to set up ReWire inputs in Logic and how to patch separate audio outputs in Record.

# Propellerhead CEO discusses iPad music software

From MusicRadar:

Propellerhead Software's Reason is an app that many (not least MusicRadar) are touting as a perfect fit for Apple's iPad, and it seems that a port to the new tablet may not be beyond the realms of possibility.

Our sister magazine Computer Music was recently in touch with Propellerhead Software's CEO Ernst Nathorst-Böös, and when asked about the potential of the iPad in a music-making context, he said: "From a technical standpoint, the iPad has very similar capabilities to the iPhone.

"We have yet to see if the difference in form factor between the two is a big enough differentiator to turn the iPad into something different. I suspect it is."

While Nathorst-Böös was unwilling to be drawn on whether Propellerhead will develop iPad apps, he did say: "the iPad is at least as powerful a computer as the ones we started making software for back in the 90s. And that's pretty exciting!"

Some interesting things I found recently:

# NAMM Oddities 2010

Barry is back with the NAMM Oddities of 2010:

My NAMM experience went really quite smoothly this year. I didn't have to deal with any injuries or camera failures.

The show was a little smaller than last year, which was most apparent in my favorite haunt, Hall E. There were some open areas where there weren't any booths set up at all. That being said, there was no shortage of invention and innovation at the show. Because of that, I think the great unsung heroes of the Oddities need their own motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor global economic collapse stays the mad genius from the swift creation of strange musical devices."

# Use the WiiMote as a musical instrument

Winko Erades van den Berg on making music using a computer and a Wiimote:

An article that appeared on the Create Digital Music website, about making music using the WiiMote and a computer, drew my attention. Several hints were given on the how to, but as always in doing new things the information was scattered everywhere and nowhere.

After reading many articles and watching many videos I found out how to realize a working setup for myself. In this article I’ll try to explain the steps needed to create a working setup for yourself.

# Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie

Mellodrama, a documentary by Dianna Dilworth, explores the rising and falling fortunes of the Mellotron – the first musical keyboard to "sample" the sounds of other instruments – from its birth in a California garage in the 1950s, through its dominance on concert stages in the 1970s, through its almost religious cult of followers in the 2000s. From the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" to Black Sabbath to Kanye West, Mellodrama is a 50-year odyssey of musical invention, revolution, betrayal, and rediscovery.

Includes 8-page booklet with essay by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, Mellotron and Chamberlin production timelines, and more.

# Drum machine shootout

Plughugger has a comprehensive review of Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic.

This review compares three software drum machines and how they stand against each other. Three audioguns, twenty one sonic bullets. Two swedes and one american. Drum roll, please…

While there are a whole bunch of drum synthesizers on the market and many of them are very competent – my selection ended up with Audio Damage Tattoo, Audiorealism ADM and Sonic Charge Microtonic. My primary criteria was that they should be available for both PC and Mac – and they should be able to create more than one type of overall sound. I chose not to include any of the drum machines from the polish developer D16, as each and every drum machine is locked to a specific model and besides – I don’t own licenses for any of them.
Waldorf Attack is a classic that I seriously considered to include, but decided against as it doesn’t contain a sequencer. Also, three products against each other is clear as a german sausage soup. But the Waldorf Attack is a fantastic drum synthesizer, especially for creating weird electronic percussion noises.

I love Microtonic (and the D16 drum machines), but I think it’s inevitable I’ll end up getting Tattoo at some point.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Piano Squealer Synth

Marc Nostromo developed the Arduino Piano Squealer Synth for the Arduino Pocket Piano, an arduino shield produced by Critters and Guitari.

The engine implements a small monosynth with a few waveforms, a HP/BP/LP continuous resonant filter, decay and a few little own tricks that generate a LOT of aliases, making a great dirty digital synth. Since the Pocket Piano has only 3 potentiometers available for control (the 4th one being hardwired to the volume), I use a “page” system to implement series of 3 parameters to fiddle with. To switch “page”, use the rightmost note of the A.P (NOT the one under the led, the one left to to it). To help you know which page you are at, you can use the led: it will flash a number of time equivalent to the current page you are at.

The source code of the Arduino Piano Squealer synth is available under GPL License V3.

… read more

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Contest

Show what you can do with Arduino!

Arduinos are awesome – with one simple controller, you can make almost anything! What new things can you make with Arduino? We've teamed up with the creative folks at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and the Arduino Team on an Arduino contest to find out.

The rules are simple: to enter you must make a new Instructable that involves the Arduino IDE. You can use any hardware that you like, or none at all. Be sure to provide the code you used so that others can follow in your footsteps. Make something amazing and win a sweet Meggy Jr RGB from Evil Mad Science or an Arduino Mega from the Arduino Team to power your next project!

So what are you waiting for? Document a project you've been meaning to write up, or make something new! We can't wait to see what it is.

The contest deadline is 15 November, 2009.

# Beaterator Music Challenge

Rockstar Games has launched the Beaterator and MySpace Music Challenge, a contest for the recently released music application Beaterator for PSP system. The aim of the Challenge is to highlight emerging artists using the Beaterator platform as a tool for music production. The Challenge winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000!

Artists that are chosen as semi-finalists will have the opportunity to have two songs featured on the Challenge promotion page, where MySpace Music and Rockstar Games fans will be able to check out the competition and vote on their favorite songs. The first song will be your “featured song” — the one that you feel best represents your sound.
The second song will be one that you create using Beaterator, which can be an original track, remix, or other song that showcases your use of the Beaterator software.
The winning artist or band will receive $5,000, have their winning track featured on the PlayStation®Network – which is visited by millions of PlayStation owners every day, and they will also have the opportunity to be featured on the MySpace homepage.

Beaterator is a music-making application for PSP system that acts as a portable 8-track music studio. In addition to the 3,000 included loops, it features a drum machine, full keyboard, synthesizer and sequencer; as well as the ability to import any sound via either a Memory Stick Duo™ or the PSP system’s built-in microphone. This is a true portable music studio.

# Modulate This Electronic Music Blog Turns 4

Mark Mosher writes:

Modulate This has turned 4 years old! In year 3 the blog experienced non-linear growth in page views and subscribers.

Congrats, Mark! Love the blog.

If you’ve never checked Modulate This! before make sure you do. This blog on electronic music production and sound design is a wonderful source of articles, videos, downloads etc.

# cl516: Omega 8 as a Drum Machine.

cl516 turns a Studio Electronics Omega 8 into a drum machine.

Rather than play the usual handful of musical hooks, I thought wouldn't it be useful if it was drum loop time.

Well, long gone are my TR-909, TR-808, Machinedrum, Xbase09, MFB-502, and I haven't picked up those D16 plugins yet. So I decided, why not use the Omega 8?

# Video Ram Synth 1

Gijs Gieskes uses the video ram of a Sega as an audio source.

The video ram of the sega gets slowed down by a binary counter, so it can be used as a audio source.

There are 3 oscillators that control a multiplexer, the multiplexer connects 1 out of 8 patch cables to the binary counters input, so there are some nice changing patterns in the sound.
Another multiplexer is connected to the same oscillators and makes some extra connections to glitch some more video.

There is a magnetic patch bay for the video ram, and the sega controller on the front can also be connected with magnets or metal wands.
The original idea was that the device can be used for drums, buts more a synth.. In another version i will probably build a small sequencer into it..

I will probably mainly use it for exhibitions, it is allot of fun to play with, because you control the sound and the video at the same time.

MusicRadar has launched SampleRadar, a new weekly giveaway of pro-quality, royalty-free samples.

We’ll be offering you loops, hits and multisamples in a wide range of genres, and you won’t have to pay a penny to download any of them.

Our first theme is dubstep, the much-talked-about style that features elements of garage, grime and 2-step. One of the great things about dubstep is that you don’t need loads of gear to create it – in fact, many of the scene’s most prominent producers make their music at home using little more than a computer and some software.

This being the case, pretty much anyone can try their hand at dubstep, but to give you a leg-up, MusicRadar is offering you 342 royalty-free samples for nothing.

More information: MusicRadar

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