wire to the ear

Do you remember my post “Feedback as a sound source.“? I talk about how it can be useful to add feedback into your sterile digital recordings. Up until now I have had to aim my microphone at my speakers and hit record. One major thing I don’t like about doing that is the chances of blowing a woofer are pretty high when using Yamaha NS10Ms. So I was really pleased to see a new plug-in called Acoustic Feedback by Softube which simulates feedback.

I wanted to try the demo today but when I got to the download page I realized it requires an iLok. This maybe a deal breaker for me because I’ve lost dongles and USB Flash Dives in the past. I’m also out of USB ports on my Macbook Pro. I don’t want to get into the whole copy protection debate. I don’t steal or pirate software. Companies have the right to use iLok or Syncrosoft if they so choose.

Release your inner beast with the first realistic guitar feedback simulator on the market. Go from moderate and subtle to rampant and wild by the twist of a knob (or two). To break new musical ground, try inputting a synthesizer, a violin, or even your mother’s grand piano. - www.softube.se

I really want to hear a drum machine and vocals run though this plug-in. Acoustic Feedback is $99 USD and is available in Native formats for VST/AU/RTAS, Mac/PC.

Spectrasonics has been creating a series of videos for it’s upcoming super soft synth Omnisphere. The latest video is quiet excellent. Eric Persing knows how to get you excited about a product. The video takes a time line tour of arpeggiators in vintage synths. You get to see a Moog Modular, Roland Jupiter 4, Jupiter 8, Juno 60, Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, Roland JP-800 and Access Virus all “arping” away.

I like the implementation of the step sequencer/arpeggiator in Omniphere too. The “oh nice” moment comes when he drops a Jazz midi groove template into Omnisphere and the arpeggiator locks to it. The Omnisphere arpeggiator also has a swing parameter which is vital in today’s electronic music.

To see the video click on “Continue Reading…” because it’s a Quicktime I didn’t want to have it slow down the main page of this site (it autoloads). Read “Superb arpeggiator history video from Spectrasonics.”

If your a musician of any type you should already own Melodyne and you should watch the video above. Being announced at Musikmesse this week Celemony presents “Direct Note Access“. The new feature which will be added to all versions of Melodyne allows you to now pick out and move notes inside chords!

• Access individual notes in chords and polyphonic audio: see them, grab them, edit, mute, stretch.
• Tonescale feature allows you to change the scale of chords by clicking in a palette of choices.
• Play polyphonic chords using a midi keyboard in real time.
• Imagine tuning a guitar after it was recorded!
• Your sample library now has new abilities. Any polyphonic sample can now be reached into and altered!

This new feature will start to show up in versions of Melodyne starting in the fall. I’m personally excited by this new feature. I can also now imagine a few more years down the road being able to load up a fully completed stereo song and reaching into it and changing notes of individual sounds.

Here is an interesting plug-in. It’s been available for PC for a few months but now that I can use it on my Mac it’s worth a post here. It’s a four channel drum machine plug-in that uses samples (PCM) and analog modeling. What’s unique is the fact that this virtual machine has been “virtually” circuit bent!

You get four pads and individual outputs. Each pad allows the usual stuff like pitch, decay, tone, pain and volume. You also have chaos and chance sliders. Chaos sets is the amount of bending and chance sets how often chaos occurs.

Inspired by a combination of several old school beat boxes and the circuit-bending culture that revolves around cheap, and old, hardware musical instruments (such as the “toy” Casio and Yamaha keyboards of the 80s), Broken Drum Machine brings the lively, “ever changing”, circuit-bent drum machine sounds to your DAW. - NUsoftting.com

You can use your own samples and even alter the GUI. When you do so you can save your changes in what NUsofting calls “Modpaks”.

Here’s a few audio samples of BDM in action from the NUsofting website:

This plug-in is 35 euros/about $50. There’s more audio samples, demo songs and a demo version of BDM at the NUsofting website: click here

Last night I finished a remix for 80s Belgian EBM band Absolute Body Control. The lead singer is Dirk Ivens from The Klinik and also Dive. The keyboardist Eric Van Wonterghem can be found today in several projects including Detune-X. Most of the music they recorded together was over two decades ago and they recently got back together to re-release material and perform at some of the huge festivals in Germany such as Wave Gotik Treffen.

The song I was asked to remix was Neverseen. It usually takes me about a full week to do a remix but Eric was on a deadline and I was able to get this done in four long days. The original song was recorded on a 4-track. I was given the vocals and the full song.

One key part of the remix is when I combine my Yamaha CS-5 and a clip of the vocals in Ableton Simpler with the start time automated and have them micro-tune against each other. You can click the screenshot above to see my Ableton screen in full size.

Here is a clip of the original song:

The Horrorist remix of Neverseen:

Look for an interview with Eric from “ABC” in the upcoming issue of Sonic Seducer Magazine. I also answered a few questions in the same interview explaining how I met Eric and how the remix came to be.

I just released a new EP on my label called Diagnosis Terminal with Miro Pajic. One of the songs “IO” has a heavy swing to it. It’s a very easy two step process to implement Swing in Ableton Live. Swing is of course popular in Jazz and is one of the main stylistic points in modern “Minimal” techno.

To hear it work let’s create a test clip. I put and instance of Impulse with a Roland TR-808 kit on a track. I double clicked an empty Clip Slot to create an empty Clip. Then in the Midi Note Editor I laid down a 4/4 kick, Snare on the 2 and 4 and a 16th note closed Hi Hat.

On the top left side of the Ableton interface, to the left of the metronome “dots” you will see a number 0. That number represents the Global Groove Control parameter. Click and drag that number upwards to about 55.

Lastly, back down to the the Clip View and under the Groove drop down menu choose “Swing 16″ which matches the 16th closed Hi Hats you have placed in your clip. Now listen to the loop with the Groove Control parameter at 0 and then at 55:

If your working with a pattern that is mostly 8th notes set the Swing to “Swing 8″. This is the classic rock swing preset you hear on vintage drum machines.

Be sure to check out the swing parameters in plug-ins like D16’s Nepheton or Audiorealism’s ADM as they both Swing in a awesome aggressive nature. For MPC timings and unique Groove Control patterns try out Propellerhead’s Reason 4 ReGroove Mixer.

Do you like to swing?

I am huge fan of Tom Waits. Even if your not into his style you have to appreciate the crazy broken pianos, drum kits and liquor induced vocals he produces. Besides his drunken rants he also creates some awesome love songs like Picture in a Frame and I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You.

Michael Blair is one of the people behind the Wait’s sound. He has created a drum kit expansion library for EZdrummer by Toontrack called “Twisted Kit“. It features some of these unique sounds based on real life objects such as Cardboard Box, Hubcap and Cakepan.

In October of 1985 Tom Waits released the album Rain Dogs. The album was an instant classic and marked a new sound for him. A rough, dirty neo-blues style with awkward rhythms and hard edges. Part of the band that contributed to that sound was drummer and percussionist Michael Blair. His highly personal instrument set-up which included a mix of regular drums and odd bits and pieces like trashcans, bedroom furniture and rusty bicycle frames fit perfectly with the sound that Waits was looking for. The combination of Michael’s timing, expression, and junkyard sounds created a rich and useful range of musical textures to accent Waits’ intricate storytelling. - www.toontrack.com

Unless you make music that utilizes real drum kits EZDrummer is overkill. But this new expansion pack should at least be a good reminder that making your own sounds is a great way to spark creativity and be original.

Do you know of any great drum kits online free or for sale that feature offbeat real life objects?

photo credit: jorenobniano

One of the greatest things about working in modern DAWs is the ability to stretch or shrink audio with ease. Warp markers and the variables that go along with them are incredibly useful tools which should be looked at carefully. Here is an example how I used these features to perfect the timing of an analog synth I recorded.

Sometimes to make my first vocal in a song stand out I make an intro that pulls the ear away from center. Then when the first verse begins I bring the notes and sounds into a center space. I know this sounds a little abstract so listen to the audio sample below to know exactly what I mean:

The bright bell like synthesizer melody that plays before the vocals begin is my Electrocomp-101. What you don’t realize is that the last note before the vocal begins is actually only half as long. I used Ableton Live’s Warp Markers to stretch the that last note. This is something wonderfully easy to do. Inside the Clip View click the Warp button on. Once it’s lit yellow you can now double click on various places over the wave form to create Warp Makers. All you have to do now is drag the markers around to change the length of the individual areas. Use you ears to get the timing you like.

But most people stop there and that’s not using the full potential of this feature set. You can improve and tailor the sound of the Warping engine on a given clip by adjusting the Warp Mode. The following audio sample is the Electrocomp-101 melody Warped to fit my song but with the default Warp Mode “Beats” selected:

Do you hear that last note? Not smooth or natural sounding is it? Ableton can do better. To get there I clicked the Warp Mode drop down menu and selected Texture Mode. I also now experimented with the Grain Size and Flux setting until the last note sounded like it came from the Electrocomp directly at that length. Keep in mind that the last note was really only half as long. Take a listen now:

Most other sequencers now offer similar features. Of course you can get wild and mangle your audio on purpose. The next time you wish you held a note longer or screamed “GO!” for just a few more seconds select a Warp Marker!

I’m not going to talk too much about my own music on this blog. People can find plenty about me all over the internet under The Horrorist. But news like this is fun to share so here you have it.

The song is called 13 Dobermans and it has remixes by The Advent, Die Krupps, Felix Krocher and Gabriel Palomo. It’s released on a big German alternative/goth label called Out of Line Music.

The song was recorded completely “in the box”. Some of the plug-ins included Audiorealism’s Bassline Pro, D-16 Nepheton, Izotope Ozone and Wavearts Power Suite.

Robert Green has been circuit bending instruments for about 7 years. If your not the type to pick up a soldering gun and risk electric shock but need a bent device definitely take a close look at what Robert has to offer.

Besides the usual Speak N Spell and Casio SK modifications, Robert specializes in digital drum machines including the Alesis HR-16, Roland TR-707 and Yamaha series. Some of his bends use a patch bay modification and others metal switches.

This Alien-Devices modified Alesis HR16 drum synthesizer features 28 sound modifications which are controlled by 14 three-way switches. The modifications can effect the drum sounds in subtle or drastic ways creating beat mutations, digital filtering, distortion, synth tones, envelope warping, overload, bizarre beats and electronic textures. These units are excellent sample sources as well as stable live instruments and are fully MIDI capable.

If you want to get your hands dirty and try some modifications yourself there is a CD-Rom video tutorial for sale on Amazon called Circuit Bending for Beginners. I personally have not seen it but I’ve heard good reviews. There is of course plenty of free stuff to start watching on YouTube including “Circuit Bending Workshop” by Ben Goldstone. The comments under that video are pretty interesting.

A few years ago I went to the Bent Festival in New York. It’s a nice geek fest of circuit bending. My favorite “instrument” was a old dot matrix printer rigged to play audio notes depending on which key you pressed. Here are the upcoming dates/locations for 2008:

Los Angeles Bent Festival - April 17th-19th, 2008.
New York Bent Festival - April 24th-26th, 2008.
Minneapolis Bent Festival - May 1st-3rd, 2008.

Do you own any bent instruments?