wire to the ear

This morning I had a message on Facebook from a friend of mine George Gábriš. The message said. “Yo I found this to be quiet bizzare.” and there was a link to the video above. Apparently someone figured out you can use the magnetic strip of a drivers license as a mini ribbon controller for Ableton Live.

Using the magnetic strip on the back of my driver’s license to make a ribbon controller which then controls Autofilter in Live 6 via MIDI. - db3l

He has some other cool videos up including an Ableton controller made of Popsicle sticks and pennies and a controller printed on a regular piece of paper.

By the way you can friend me on Facebook too: click here

Do you remember this post about the new Leipzig rack mount synthesizer from Analog Solutions? Well first off that synth is now shipping and some tasty audio samples are online including this one:

According to the Analog Solutions website there will be a keyboard version coming soon. If you prepay you can choose your own limited edition color. I’ll take mine in white and pink with blue leds.

LEIPZIG-k … coming soon. Keyboard Leipzig with extra functions, like 2nd LFO, LCD editing (of MIDI setup), CV/Gate/CV2 inputs & outputs on rear panel, and more! (Above) is first prototype metalwork, the wooden side panels are missing! Production model will be BLACK, but if you prepay you I might give you a choice of limited edition coloured editions! Contact me if you are interested. Expect the price to be around £799 exc. VAT and delivery. - www.analoguesolutions.com

I am beginning to wonder if there are now more new hardware synths being manufactured new than ever before. Of course I want them all.

When I first started making music I worked at a ridiculously loud volume. I had to feel every kick drum in my chest even if I was working for hours at a time. Over the years I learned my mixes came out better if turned the volume down below eleven. Today I work very quietly; slightly below talking level. This lets me work for long periods of time without fatigue. However, I think it’s a good idea to have a subwoofer with lots of power to check the low frequencies of a recording from time to time. The best scenario is to have the sub attached to a speaker selector so you can turn it on and off separately from your nearfields. I use a Presonus Central Station with the CSR1 remote control for speaker selection. Another good option is to have the sub attached to a foot pedal. M-Audio BX10s are a an example of a subwoofer that has a foot pedal attachment.

A subwoofer can cause audio mayhem unless it’s placed properly. Here’s a good way to find the spot on the floor it should be placed:

1. Create an even full bass sound in your DAW.

2. Record that bass note stepping up over a low octave.

3. Move the chair you sit in while you work out of the way and put the sub-woofer in that spot.

4. Play your low bass octave. Have it looping continuously.

5. Get on the floor, on your hands and knees and move around the room listening to the scale. In some parts of the room one or more of the notes will feel weaker or less loud. Those parts of the room are bad places to put the sub. When you find a place that every note has equal volume and quality you found a good place to put your sub!

I should point out the better your room acoustics and treatment the easier it will be to find that sweet spot. In general most small studio rooms need a serious amount of Bass Traps. Room acoustics is another full post (or book!) but if you want my fast recommendation I would say go spend 2.5k at RealTraps.com. Take a look at their Mini and Monotraps. You can make your own traps for less money but it will take some research and sweat and they wont look nearly as nice as the RealTraps stuff. For a huge amount of info and help regarding room acoustics head to the John Sayers forum: click here

photo credit: phunkstarr

Last week I stopped by my neighbor’s studio. He records voice overs for Jamster. If you live in Europe you know the company because they are the ones who torture you with ring tone commercials like the dancing annoying frog. I noticed he had a SE Reflexion Filter sitting on his couch. I asked him what he was doing with it and if he liked it. He said he did use it for a while but he just built an all new vocal booth and it was overkill. He told me he was selling it and I could take it and try it out.

Although my studio is well treated it’s still not perfect and I always was very interested in the SE Filter gizmo. It sure looks cool. I took it into my room and tried to hook it up. I say tried because the thing is very heavy and even my strong mic stand wasn’t good enough. Eventually I rigged it up to work and got to testing it out. I recorded a bunch of audio files with and without the filter. So what happened? Nothing. What do I mean?

There was absolutely no difference between the audio files using the filter and without it. I have read on many forums that this thing works. However, now I suspect that most of these people got this home and convinced themselves it was doing more than it was. I’m not saying for sure it can’t help you but this is not a slam dunk product. I clearly heard my room reflections and computer fan in pretty much the same way with or without the thing. I listened very carefully and set it up in many different positions.

I tested the Reflexion Filter extensively and found that it definitely reduced room reflections. I tried it with vocals, both sung and spoken, and it gave me a tighter, more focused sound. - emusician.com

The thing was I had the money to buy it from him, it was new looking and I could had it for almost nothing. Before I tried it I had myself gear lusting for it. Even after I knew it was useless to me I had to sit down and snap myself out of buying it. After all the thing looks pretty nice with its chrome curves!

My point is trust your own ears. Even if everyone is telling you the sky is green if you see it blue call it blue!

A video of Erasure using the Reflexion Filter: click here

Gearslutz is a probably the most populated pro-audio forum on the net. There is a serious amount of traffic going on there. You find find threads discussing the minor details of a five thousand dollar micpre that go thirty pages long.

Yesterday I started reading a thread started by someone who just found on a vintage Roland RE-201 Space Echo to purchase. The RE-201 is a fantastic vintage tape echo machine. Soon after Mike Manthe’s first post claiming he finally found one another person “tstu102″ answers him also mentioning he just located one and how happy he was. Do you see where this is going? Yep. It didn’t take too long for them to realize they both were talking about the same unit. Seems like the seller said yes to both because the second guy was willing to pay more money.

At first Mike thought thought tstu102 had read the thread and went after the unit. But then tstu102 did a good dead and told the seller he wasn’t going to buy the unit and he should honor his first deal. I thought it was a pretty interesting read about the Space Echo and human nature. Read the thread yourself: click here

I’ve used a real Space Echo and they are very meaty. If you can’t get a real one there a nice emulation for the UAD-1 or the new Boss Space Echo RE-20 hardware pedal. Although not quiet the same beast I find myself turning to Fabfilter’s Timeless for a effects in that ballpark.

photo credit: Lorenzo Desiati

I’ve been in the studio a lot lately. I finally finished a string of remixes and now I can take the rest of Spring and Summer and complete my next album. I already have a few songs done and about 30 half finished songs. I’ll now go and listen to those ideas I started and pick about 10 to complete.

The song I am working on now is called “I Know Your Pain”. I get a certain audience at my shows… people like myself. I can really relate to them. I guess they feel the same way and thats why they show up! This song is more or less how I say “Yes I know how you feel”. I know when I go to a concert of a band I really like I feel connected with everyone else there. Everyone there has something in common. This song walks around that concept.

The following audio sample is completely at the demo stage. Just pure simple drum, bassline and vocal. I usually work this way without much trickery until I get a full arrangement done. The kick is my new Jomox Mbase 01, a snare sample being smashed by D16’s Devastator and the bassline is a secret (sorry). Nothing is on my voice except a little compression.

I’ll step away from this song now and not listen again until next week. When I do put my ears on it next I will be ready to move parts around and add fills and effects. The first new fresh listen is critical because I will hear it as “new”. Only then can I be a proper judge of what’s good and what sucks.

Wire to the Ear takes you to Jomox. from wiretotheear on Vimeo.

Last week I decided to buy a Jomox Mbase 01. It’s a 100% analog kick drum module. It gives you kicks that range from a small click to complete bass insanity. It can convincing do any 909 or 808 kick drums plus many more variations. Honestly it’s the best kick drum I ever heard. I will be doing another post with samples and a full review. Take it from someone who performs live every weekend: having a killer perfect kick drum is vital!

My first go to place for all things analog boutique is Schnieder’s Buero and since I already have a Vermona DRM1 MKIII on order with them I thought I would just add the Mbase onto the order. Unfortunately they said they were out of MBase’s and didn’t know when new ones were coming in. Next I walked over to Sound & Drumland and they told me it would be about a month. A month? Come on man! I have money there must be a way right?

So I did what any American born capitalist would do and emailed the manufacturer direct. Just a few minutes later Jürgen Michaelis the owner and producer of all the Jomox products emailed me back saying he had one left and I could pick it up from him. I knew if I was going to Jomox I had to bring my camera.

I got on my bicycle (it’s the best way to get around Berlin) and made my way to Neukolin to Jomox headquarters. What I did not expect was Jürgen being so open and friendly. He could see I was seriously interested in what was going on and he put aside a good hour of his day to show me his workshop and toys. I’m very pleased to be able to show you the video above.

Do you see that Mbase 01 he signed? That one is mine!

Here are a few bullet points I picked up from my conversation with Jurgen Michaelis:

• He once worked at Sound & Drumland.
• He repaired Roland TR-909s at a place called Xtended which still exists.
• Because he did repairs for the Roland drum machine he had access to the papers and could design his own machines (the Xbase line) when Roland decided not to compete in the Analog space.
• Roland has never shown any ill will to the Jomox line.
• He personally took a trip to Taiwan to find a manufacturing plant for Jomox products.
• He hand tests every Jomox product still.
• The metal work comes from within Germany.
• He doesn’t listen to much electronic music (I did give him my album though!).
• He is thinking about moving to America someday.
• He did tell me what he is working on next but I can’t tell you (sorry!).

Besides the video I took a few still photos. Check them out: click here

The Bent Festival is a traveling roadshow where people display and perform with their Circuit Bent instruments. We all know what circuit bending is right? If you live in a city hosting one of the shows I recommend going. It’s one of those things your girlfriend will laugh at you for but it will make you a better person. Enjoy some truly interesting home brew creations ranging from the starter mod “Speak N Spell hack” to a Furbee gone berserk.

The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture. - www.bentfestival.org

As I mentioned in this post I went a few years ago and really enjoyed myself. Each year the festival grows and is now associated with Make Magazine which is one of my favorite reads. I saw the following video on the mighty Matrixsynth blog today:

New York - April 24-26
LA - April 17-19
Minneapolis - May 1-3

Miro Pajic who records under the name Hypnotizer for my label was in my studio today. I hooked up my Nintendo DS and let him rock out with Jam Sessions for a while. To make it sound even better I ran it through Izotope’s incredible Trash plug-in.

Miro is a legend in the techno scene with over 80 releases, many on the infamous PCP label and these days on Klikhaus. Check him out here:
www.myspace.com/pajicmiro

Last night I went to the infamous and quite beautiful nightclub Berghain in Berlin to see the Tenori-on launch event. I’ve been highly interested in the Tenori-on since I first read about it almost a year ago. The device is right up my alley: a sequencer, white leds, and it’s made for live performance. So what did I think when I finally got to see it in person?

When I walked into Berghain they had kiosks hooked up with several Tenori-on available to use. Right away I was shocked at how bright the white leds bling out at you. You instantly get that “wow this is futuristic” feeling.

Upstairs in the main room it was crowded as I suspected it would be. I mean come on this is Berlin where even the women are sequencer freaks! Lots of people wearing Ableton shirts and the stage had four Macbooks ready to accompany the Tenoris. This was my kind of geekfest!

We heard three live acts before the inventor of the Tenori, Toshio Iwai would talk. The first two acts were ho hum. I was mesmerized by the Tenori but the music and technique of the first performers was not interesting. The third act Sutekh from San Fransisco blew me away! I never really heard of this guy before but most of my friends did. He played all noise and he had the Tenoris led display going crazy. It was quite evil and machine like. I cant explain what he was doing but the Tenori-on’s display reminded me of the scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey when they travel through the worm hole. Inside the visuals he was doing two things at once and they seemed to be going at different speeds. I even think he played a game of pong! Without the visual aspect would I have like the music so much?

Finally it was time for Tenori Toshio to speak. He gave a really incredible powerpoint style talk. He detailed how he got the idea to create the Tenori-on. He showed the early software he programmed, including a game that was never released for the Super Nintendo system. He showed his art installations all which had elements of the Tenori-on. Finally he took us by video to Yamaha and the factory where the Tenori-on is created. He ended with a video of a robot who polishes the metal on the Tenori. I was laughing pretty hard when I realized the robot was talking to itself as it finished tasks.

There was a full night of performances after Toshio Iwai spoke. I will have some interviews from some of those artists on Wire to the Ear soon. You will find it pretty interesting how they were invited to perform for this tour and what they received as payment!

To see the full set of photos from this event: click here