Results for Ninja Tune

Some interesting things I found recently:

# ESKAMON "Fine Objects"

ESKAMON is the new colaboration project between Amon Tobin (Ninja Tune) & Eskmo (Warp, Planet Mu, Ancestor). “Fine Objects” is the first single by the duo that’s set for release on Eskmo’s own imprint “Ancestor.”

“Fine Objects” is the result of the pair’s unique take on sonic exploration and the manipulation of field recordings. From the onset, the two went out with a recorder, gathering sounds from around the house, yard and studio. Material recorded out of the studio included sounds from a parking garage elevator, a broken harp and the droning tones from a discarded piano. These were combined with more home-centric sounds to form the central theme to the song. With lumbering alien bass and intentionally dry, off-kilter percussion, “Objects” quickly grew into it’s own symbolic representation of taking “odd pieces” and allowing them to grow into something a bit more “refined and ablaze.”

Fine Objects is out now, just $1 USD for the mp3, $2 USD for a wav copy.

A wav sample pack of the sounds created for the song + an Ableton pack and 10 minute tutorial video by ill. Gates utilizing the material from the original pack are available to download at no cost (in exchange for your email address). A remix competition is apparently in the works as well.

# Knowledge Sabre Remix Competition

Kmag, Sabre and Critical Music are running a competition for producers to remix Sabre's One Hundred Teeth. Not only do you get to download the original tune for free but also all the stems needed for remixing.

The winning remix will receive £1000 of Addict clothing and a SoundCloud Pro Plus and three runners up will get SoundCloud Lite accounts. Deadline for entries is Sunday May 2nd 2010 and the winner will be announced by May 12th.

Sabre recently spoke about the track he made for the competition and his new album. He also gives a brief to point producers in the right direction for the competition and talks about how he approaches remixes himself.

# Periodic Waveform Editor for iPhone via TouchOSC

Sebastian @ little-scale writes:

This is a simple periodic waveform editor for the iPhone / iPod Touch made using TouchOSC. The waveform has sixteen steps. There is also a slider that controls the frequency of the waveform. This is not supposed to be something useful; rather, it further explores the idea of touching sound, something that I have been fascinated with. If someone wants the Max/MSP patch or the TouchOSC template, please let me know.

I got hooked on music from the Ninja Tune record label back in the mid nineties. DJ Food, Funki Porcini, Amon Tobin, Vadim… Just a few of the artists that got me excited about music in ways I hadn’t experienced before.

Ninja Tune was founded by Jonathan More and Matt Black, the guys behind the most excellent Solid Steel radio show. As electronic music duo Coldcut they have hundreds of releases and remixes on their name.

If you’ve never heard of Coldcut you can read up on Jon and Matt on their wiki page.

With Sound Science, Coldcut offers a collection of quality sounds similar to the ones found in their own recordings.

This exclusive sample pack produced for Loopmasters by Matt and Jon themselves features a huge collection of previously unheard and unreleased material which is sure to grace many future hit records through genres such as Hip Hop, Breaks, House and Drum and Bass. A true skeleton key of sound, the loops and samples are a must for every serious music producers collection.

I’m not sure how to best describe the Coldcut sound, but I know it has to do with head bobbing. Funky breakbeats, jazzy bass, high energy synth stabs, groovy melodic samples… mix it all up in a blender and you know it will sound delicious.

What do you get?

Sound Science includes over 350 loops in both Wav and Rex formats, almost 300 single shot sounds, and 45 patches in various popular sampler formats.

The loops are categorized in the following folders, with 4 tempo subfolders each (70, 88, 100, and 133 bpm):

• Bass (37), includes nasty synth basslines, regular bass guitar, some lovely double bass grooves and even the odd clarinet loop.
• Drums (166), from jazzy acoustic drum kits to glitchy electronic drums. There are some real gems here, so authentic and funky. Get your chopping tools ready, you’re going to want to cut these up!
• Musical loops (111), including complete musical themes, simple synth melodies, super sweet chords, funky orchestral stabs, electric, acoustic & nylon guitars (love the foot tapping in the background), various pads, Moog sounds, Theremin… I could go on for a while but I think you get the idea; this stuff is diverse!
• The last loops folder features a bunch of vocals and sound effects (41). These include blips & bleeps, wobbles, jazzy vox, dubby delay sounds, scratches, and more. Quite some unique and useful sounds.

The larger part of the single shots comprises of drum sounds, also conveniently divided in subfolders for kick, snare, toms, etc. With just 8 bass samples and 11 instrument samples the bass and instrument folders look a little bare. Where applicable the sounds (and loops) have the root key included in the file names.

With the exception of the drum kits and hits the included sampler patches are basically single shot sounds mapped across a few octaves. Nothing to get too excited about.

The variety of sounds in this library is just what you would expect from Coldcut; a mix of real instruments and synths, acoustic drum loops and electronic breakbeats, sugar sweet melodies and noisy sound fx, and lots in between.

Check the audio demo from Loopmasters for an idea of what Sound Science has to offer.

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So what do I think?

One of Sound Science’s samples says “let’s just use a sample”, and that is exactly what this sample library is all about. It has that old school sampling vibe, authentic yet fresh.

Due to the wide variety of sounds and styles Sound Science might appear to be a bunch of random samples. However, once you start tossing them together you will find that many actually work together very well.

I only wish they would have put a larger amount of samples in the collection. 350 loops may seem like a lot but many of them are variations on the same beat/melody.

Still, Sound Science is a great sample library delivering the Coldcut vibe I was hoping for; you’ll be bobbing your head in no time!
Now let’s just hope there will be a Sound Science 2.

More information: Loopmasters / Coldcut Sound Science

Loopmasters has released Coldcut – Sound Science, an exclusive sample pack produced for Loopmasters by Coldcut’s Matt and Jon, featuring a huge collection of previously unheard and unreleased material which is sure to grace many future hit records through genres such as Hip Hop, Breaks, House and Drum and Bass.

For your delectation and musical pleasure we have prized open the Coldcut sample vault. Located deep within a secure facility at ninja hind quarters and sourced from over twenty years of electronic music creation, this library contains only the strongest survivors of sound. Digging deep within our repository of digital delights we have created a treasury of tools for your use. All the samples have been chosen with micro attention to sonic detail, a range of carefully produced elements that will have you creating new genres in minutes, rocking a party like you just don’t care, or making your bass face till it hurts…..its all here, liberated by Coldcut for you.

Coldcut – Sound Science features

• 620MB: 37 Bass Loops, 166 Drum Loops, 111 Musical Loops, 41 Vocal/FX Loops, 126 Drum Hits, 21 FX.
• 45 Ready to play sampler patches for Kontakt, Halion, Nn-xt,Exs24, and Sfz.
• Royalty Free and ready for your productions.

Coldcut – Sound Science is available now in various formats for download starting at £29.95 GBP, and on CD for £39.95 GBP.

More information: Loopmasters / Coldcut – Sound Science