wire to the ear

Cycling ‘74 is a San Fransisco software company that makes a semi visual development environment for music, video and controller applications. An all new highly anticipated version five was released last week. I’ve never used the software directly but in the past some of the applications people created with it have peaked my interest. For example the Hypno VTheramin.

Now that there is a new version, updated tutorials and lots of videos I think its a good time to jump in and see why artists like Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Daft Punk, Autechre and Jamie Lidel all use it. Also remember that Ableton has announce a strategic relationship with Cycling ‘74 which is another good reason to understand the product.

In use for over twenty years by performers, composers, artists, scientists, teachers, and students, Max is the way to make your computer do things that reflect your individual ideas and dreams. Version 5 is a dramatic transformation of Max that begins a new chapter in the program’s history. - cycling74.com

People are using this software to create synthesizers, samplers, control Monomes and lighting rigs. Some people compare it to Native Instrument’s Reaktor but I think Max goes further? Jitter is the video and matrix processing component which I believe there is no counter in Reaktor. Correct me if I am wrong as I am learning.

Here are some more links worth checking out. I will be re-reading these pages until I jump into the actually software and start designing my own toys:

Visit the Cycling ‘74 website: click here
The Cycling ‘74 page on YouTube: click here
Create Digital Music - Max 5 Preview: click here

So do you use Max/MSP/Jitter? Please let me know in the comments what your doing with it.

Being an expat living in Berlin I remind myself of NYC by reading a photo blog aptly titled “New York Daily Photo“. When I read today’s post I knew I has to mention it here. Apparently last Friday night in Union Square there was a silent rave! First off, you know someone is old and out of touch when they use the word rave but that’s what everyone is calling it so I will play along.

Friday’s silent rave was organized by Jonnie Wesson, an 18 year old exchange student from Britain, attending the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn. Silent raves are popular in London and Europe - large scale silent discos with thousands of participants have taken place in the U.K. “The basic premise is that a hundred or a thousand or a few thousand people all turn up in a public place, turn on their own headphones and dance” says Wesson. “It’s always fantastic and weird to see thousands of people dancing silently. It’s always in a public space, but it’s not meant to cause disruption, but only because it’s the last place you’d expect that sort of thing.” The rave at Union Square was organized by Wesson through a Facebook site. It was scheduled to start at 6:17 PM. “It’s a random time that fits in with the ethos of the flash mob.” - newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com

I have to say this is majorly spastic. In my last post I said to go to a circuit bending festival is worth is even if your girlfriend laughs at you. If you go to a silent rave you deserve to be laughed at! Then again, the weather is nice and it’s more fun than the television.

By the way I have my own daily photo blog from Berlin. Everyday I put a photo up so come and take a look:
http://theberlinimage.blogspot.com/

The photo you see above is from: A. Seraphin
More photos from the Silent Rave on The Village Voice’s website: click here

Here’s a scenario I run into all the time. I have a new release ready for my record label. I need to make 30 second previews of each song. I make the shorter clips in Ableton Live. Live doesn’t not export as MP3. I drag the rendered previews into iTunes, convert then drag the MP3s out. Lastly, I need to select all the previews in iTunes, click delete, send to trash and then empty the trash. Thats really stupid so I was thrilled to see one of my favorite companies release an audio converter for Mac.

I know there are some other audio converters but Techspansion makes one of the hottest Mac Apps called Visual Hub. Visual Hub is a video converter that is the de facto standard. Its ultra fast and works on any video type. I also like that Visual Hub uses Sparkle and so does AudialHub. What’s the Sparkle? When a new version of an application is ready from a developer you get a notification the next time you launch the app and with one click it updates itself. This is an important feature for programs that do conversions because the developer can update and add new files types often. So heres some details for AudialHub:

• Conversion from dozens of audio types to popular formats like AAC, MP3, WMA, AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless, 3G (cell phones), Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and even Audio and MP3 CDs!
• Audio tracks inside video files can also be converted!
• Common tags (Artist, Album, etc) are automatically passed when applicable.
• Up to 16 hours of audio can be converted to a single MP3 CD.
• Easy-to-use Trim capabilities to narrow down short segments of audio.
• Quick Preview capability to check out compression quality and Trim settings before a full conversion.
• Dynamic file queue, allowing mid-conversion changes or additions, Pause/Resume, and an “always ready” Assembly Line Mode!
• Run multiple simultaneous conversions in separate queues with separate settings.
• Growl notifications, Dock progress indicator, and AppleScripting automation support!
• Normalization, audio track selection, multiple decoder options, and direct access to add custom low-level command-line settings!
• Detailed Users Guide and Help Center.

There is another bit of excellent news here in that AudialHub uses the Lame encoder for MP3s. Certain digital download stores like Trackitdown (big for dance music in the UK) only accept MP3’s encoded using Lame. Itunes does not use the Lame encoder. In fact, audio previews will play back at the wrong speed if you do not use Lame.

AudialHub is $19. If you already own VisualHub you get it for $15
www.techspansion.com/audialhub/

I’ve been very pleased with the amount of readers that are coming to this blog each day. In fact so many of you are showing up that several times my ISP/server took the site down. One way around this is to install a WordPress plug-in called WP-Cache. I’ve been putting off installing it because I knew a major new version of WordPress was about to be released. Well WordPress did get it’s new update (2.5) about two weeks ago and I let the dust settle and tonight upgraded. As far as I can tell you as a reader can not notice any difference. I however see tons of changes in the admin and post writing area. Over the weekend I will install WP-cache.

So what about some changes for you? First off some of the advertising on this site will change. I never decided to blog for money but I was really curious to see if any cash could be made. You will notice some changes in that area as I tweak things, get rid of crap that isn’t paying. I really do appreciate anyone who clicks a link here and then buys something from a sponsor or affiliate link. It pays for my hosting and buys me the coffee needed to type away each morning. As far as real content I want to add more video features. There is an amazing new piece of screencast software for the Mac called ScreenFlow I am going to start using. The video presentations should be a bit more snazzy. I also think it’s time I get my mug in front of the screen and talk to you face to face. I’m a little hestitant but so far everything here has been really cool. And of course I can always delete any bad comments (haha)! I think I need to buy a new light and maybe a greenscreen.

So this test post and update to seemed to work. Thanks for your continued visits. More electronic sequencer analog digital bleep drone data on the way!

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.”

Is this some kind of Wire to the Ear special? Nope. TapeOp is free for everyone, anytime. If you make music you should head over, sign up and get some new bathroom reading. All you need is a valid email address. I’m not 100% what the deal is but since I started receiving my free copies I have not gotten any new spam that would make me think it’s coming from them. I like this quote on their website:

Third class USA Subscriptions are free, but not 100% guaranteed to arrive, or may arrive torn. However, 98% arrive just fine. - www.tapeop.com/subscription

TapeOp was founded in 1996 by editor in chief Larry Crane who according the TapeOp.com is “is an internationally known water slide champion.”. The articles have a US centric, high end gear (class A pre-amps, etc…), smart feel to them. It’s a very different experience than reading Computer Music for example.

I just received the newest issue and instantly a few articles peaked my interest. There is an interview with John Buckman who created Creative Commons which I talk about in my post titled “Put a Creative Commons Licence to your music.“. In the letters section there are a few reactions to a previous article talking about CD prices that are interesting. They bring up the point that if a CD were $7 piracy would be a non-issue. I can agree to that to some extent. There are several reviews of course, including one for the Groove Tubes SuPRE mic preamp which is very gearlustable!

To round out the TapeOp experience they have a terrific forum. If you find yourself in a gorgeous recording studio somewhere in the woods on the side of the mountain and its filled with vintage gear you don’t know how to use head over to messageboard.tapeop.com and ask some questions. They will have your answer!

There is a company in New York called Voxonic and they are doing something that completely blows my mind. They can take a vocal track from a song and change the audio into a new language. For example, the vocals from a English hip hop track can be made into French or Spanish in the artists original voice. The artist does not have to re-sing the song or know the foreign language! The results are amazing believable.

Take a listen to this clip “French/English/Chinese”:

I came across this company while listening to an interview with Arie Deutsch the Co-founder of the company on NPR.org. I highly recommend taking a listen. During the interview they play several more audio examples including Bill Clinton’s inaugural speech translated into Spanish: click here

Voxonic has developed proprietary patent-pending software, which transforms voices, making it possible to replicate any person’s voice in any language. Voxonic applies its “Voice Models” to transform speech from one person to another. All we need is a one-time, fifteen-minute sample of your voice. With that we will be able to present you saying what you want in the language of your choice. - Voxonic.com

For me this is one of those “wow they can do this now” moments. Imagine this technology built into your DAW? Another amazing fact from the interview is that Mr. Deutsch says the processing happens quickly in about the length of the source. So could this mean with a much faster computer we are approaching real time language translation? Voll giel!

The most popular story in the music section of del.icio.us this morning was a website (www.beatbox.tele2.se) where you control a beatboxing dog. I have absolutely no idea what this website is trying to sell or do. Using your computer keyboard you can make the dog make several sounds including Sniff, Grunt, Bark and Scratch a Turntable. Hitting the space bar starts recording your selections. I think this is supposed to sell TV, phone and internet service somehow.

It’s good to remember the music business is alive and well in some regards. Some producer got a phone call to create these doggy sounds. Imagine that.

Does anyone here understand Swedish?

I’ve been in a few studios where the main desk is set up so you stand instead of sit in front of it. Every time I asked why, I got the same response: I like to dance while I work! I can relate because although I sit when working you better believe when I get my song sounding good I crank it, stand up and dance my ass off. Besides reminding myself that I’m mentally ill the exercise gets my brain fresh for another editing session. I love this video. This is how they do it in Belgium! It gets good about 45 seconds in.

What do you think?

Some of you may have noticed errors when visiting Wire to the Ear. Usually at the top of the site you see “User has exceeded the ‘max_questions’. We are aware of the problem and are working on fixing it. I would like to mention it happens because the site has become very popular which I am really happy about. Thanks to everyone who is coming and visiting, it’s greatly appreciated!

We are going to install a Wordpress plug-in called WP-Cache which according to support will help the issue. If it doesn’t fix the problem then we will have to either switch to a virtual or dedicated Server or simply switch hosts.

If you have some knowledge of these kinds of things please leave some comments. Any advice is always appreciated.

photo credit: jaxmac