wire to the ear

Here’s some video from a Rave called Tunnelvision which happened sometime in 1995. As you can see the event takes place in a public tunnel and lasts until 7:00am which causes the locals to complain. However, surprisingly the promoters secured all the proper permits so the event was not shut down. Between scenes of people dancing (which are hilarious) you get a glimpse of the local news coverage of the event.

I started playing events like this in 1992. I would bring a Roland TR-909, 2 TB-303s, SBX-80 Sync Box, a small Boss 8 channel mixer which when pushed distorted in a delightfully frighting way and a Shure SM-58 microphone to yell at people with. Sometimes I would let people come on stage and twist the knobs on one of the 303s.

This video is fun to watch but the events in New York were far more crazy.

It’s clear online music collaboration has potential. Mixmatchmusic came out of beta this week and there are a host of other similar services including Splice, eSession and digitalmusician.net. Electronic Musician magazine has an article online comparing a bunch of them but it’s from October 2007 so keep in mind things change fast online. To read the article: click here

Channelflip.com is a net “TV” channel full of tech stuff and they have profiled yet another competitor in the online music collaboration space called Rifflet. For any of these to succeed in the long term they need to be free (ad driven and paid pro-accounts sound good to me), beautiful, fast and have a strong community.

Have any of you tried any of these services? How was your experience?

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Paul Mawhinney’s has a 50 million dollar record collection. I always imagined there must be people with insanely huge vinyl collections. I personally have 5000 records in storage all mostly from the 80s. My favorite 12″? A German edition of Depeche Mode’s “Leave in Silence” on clear vinyl.

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it. - veryapeproductions.com

So are you still hording a giant record collection? Do you have any records that are crazy expensive collectors items?

Brian “Botkiller” from Albuquerque, New Mexico shares his thoughts on playing live. I agree with what he says concerning doing your own share of promotion. Even if your playing an event with 10 other hot acts and you you know it will be packed you want 50 of your own superfans front and center. Remember crowds follow the lead of the people near the stage!

I talk about working with promoters and clubs and promoting your shows. - brianbotkiller

He’s also correct to mention that the person who books you is probably not the only individual who you need to deal with. Getting to know a few people who work at the venue early on could save your if anything goes wrong at 2AM.

I noticed he kicks off the video by mentioning he just bought a house. Congrats to Brian but later in the video he mentions sometimes he only gets $10 for a gig! He must be in one hard working band! Maybe he has a day job? Something about his “vlog” videos crack me up but I respect him for going for it.

brianbotkiller.fwank.net

Real analog synthesizers, hairspray and makeup. What more do you want? If I had a time machine I would spend a few hundred years in the 1980s.

via Best Free Documentaries

Infrasonik is a Canadian company which produces sample packs for electronic musicians. They just posted an outstanding video on YouTube of their top 10 Ableton Live shortcuts. This is one of the best Ableton Live tutorial videos out there. I knew most of the shortcuts but this was a nice reminder of a few forgotten tricks. If you use Live I am sure you will learn something.

On the Wire to the Ear YouTube channel I have created an Ableton Tips & Tricks Playlist. So far I put five videos in it and will be added more as a come across videos I think fit.

Ableton Live - Uses for White Noise from Andreas Wetterberg on Vimeo.

Andreas Wetterberg from The Covert Operators is always sharing wicked Ableton Live tricks. In the video above he shows you how to mangle white noise into something useful.

White noise is both annoying and useful. Here’s why. - Andreas Wetterberg

Watch how he maps the keyboard to the Note Value on the Ableton Resonator plug-in. Good one! Later he tosses together White Noise, Auto Filter, Compressor, Phaser and Autopan into a stew and comes out with some nice scratch effects.

By the way if your looking for a place to grab some white noise don’t forget my post, “Simply Noise. A website with a single purpose.“.

Be sure to check out all of The Covert Operators stuff: www.covops.org

Another great music documentary has popped up on my favorite place I find my daily “TV” viewing aka Best Free Documentaries. This movie called “Scratch” chases down the origins of Hip Hop’s background sound.

Grand Wizard Theodore (the “Thomas Edison of the movement”) recalls the day, way back in 1975, when his grandmother told him to turn down the music he was making in front of his Bronx River Houses apartment. In order to hear her, he put his hand on the turntable, holding the record in place. As he moved his hand, slightly, a new sound rose up. And so, he smiles, scratching was born. - Best Free Documentaries

An interesting side note is that this video is one hour long and it’s on YouTube. They have started rolling out this feature for some film makers. Believe it or not my favorite Scratch track of all time is Reckless from Ice-T… seriously check it out: click here. Oh yeah and while your listening to it listen for the TB-303’s!

Have you put any Scratching into your own productions? Have you tried any of the various Scratch plug-ins?

A Documentary By Michael Greene. In October of 2006, a small mom and pop record store in Southern New Jersey named Full Circle Records announced that it was going out of business and that the liquidation sale would continue until mid December. Ironically, at approximately the same time, Tower Records, the iconic juggernaut of the music retail market, made the same announcement. Something has happened to the music retail world and it seemed to have happened overnight. …Or did it? The Final Days Of Full Circle Records is a fascinating documentary that provides valuable insight into the rise and fall of the record store industry and subculture which may change the way you think about music, music retail, and the art of collecting music forever.

via bestfreedocumentaries.blogspot.com

“Hey can I be in it?” - the little sister

“Yeah you can dance.” - underneath0skin

“That’s like your basic techno beat right there.” - underneath0skin

Yes it is kid. Your already better than 90% of the fools out there. This brings back a lot of memories playing with the first bunch of music gear I got. My little brother and I used to rock out in the basement. There are cassette recordings of it all somewhere. Someday I’ll find them and be amazed.