Music Tech in Review – Episode 1 – Podcast Chat by cdm

I’m obsessed with podcasts. When I moved to Berlin every time I missed english speak or felt alone Leo Laporte and his podcasts were in my ear. After I blogged for a while I knew I had to do a podcast too. I also knew I couldn’t do it alone. Most podcasts with just one host seem really boring to me. After I met Peter Kirn last month at the SAE/Shocklee Panel for IMSTA I knew I had to run the idea past him. Create Digital Music is without doubt an important source for music tech words. I credit that site for killing my subscriptions to Keyboard and Electronic Musician (I still get Sound on Sound). Honestly we don’t know if we have the energy to keep this up but we enjoyed recording the first one. I assume we will keep it going, get a cool name for it, add some audio bumpers and become more comfortable talking. We will get the quality up a bit too. I hope you enjoy our ramblings.

Topics covered: Google Listen, RockBand 3, Korg IMS20, Polychord, iOS Midi, Meeblip, Step Poly Arp, Magic Fiddle, Beat Bop, Pro-Tools 9, Ohm Studio

Links to all the topics covered on one nice Bit.ly bundle: http://bit.ly/musictechtalk1

“This was entirely impromptu, but we do intend to plan ahead and do it right and make it a regular thing. That raises a couple of questions. What would you want in such a program? (High on my list: adding some actual music and music discussion, guests, interactive Q&A…)” – Peter Kirn, CDM

Photo credit: Seattle Municipal Archives

As good as the iPhone is at rendering web pages it’s nice when a site is optimized for it. I’m pleased to announce that if you do have an iPhone (or other mobile device) you will get a specially rendered version of Wire to the Ear.

As you can see the posts and comments render nicely. The only drawback is the iPhone’s lack of Flash support which means many of the audio clips I post and Vimeo videos won’t show. Rumor has it Adobe and Apple are on the case to get Flash going (let’s hope!).

If you want the old site there is an option button. Don’t forget to add a Wire to the Ear icon/bookmark to your Home Screen! Now I am with you everywhere…

One year ago today I installed WordPress and starting typing this blog. My main motivation was to give my friends a break from the relentless emails and instant messages I was invading them with. I couldn’t stop showing them new audio gear and software I thought was cool. I figured if I started my own blog they could come and visit if they so cared and I would also find new people to have conversations with. I am happy to report I have gained quite a lot of new friends and my old buds are reading the blog too.

Another motivation was to have a place for common questions I was being asked repeatedly. Today if someone asks me a question I have a post I can point them to. Getting an unwanted distored sound from your DAW? Go here: keep-your-channel-faders-low… You don’t know how to bring in external hardware into Ableton Live? Go here: use-the-ableton-live-external… By the way if you have a question you want me to try an answer send me an email: oliverchesler@wiretotheear.com

Of course as a professional musician having a blog is a must. I’ve been using Wire to the Ear to share my remixes and new releases. Getting unbiased feedback from strangers should be a priority for any artist. Your friends and family are always going to tell you your music is good.

My goal is to continue to post a balance of original content mixed with the best stuff I find along my online travels. I’ve had a blast visiting Jomox and doing interviews with people like Dan McPharlin so expect more material like that. I really want to give my fingers a break and get in front of the video camera and do some video posts or even a fancy show. So far the test video posts I did were too geeky to show the world. Eventually I will figure out a way to produce something that I am happy with.

If you want to help support Wire to the Ear all you have to do is go tell your friends to read it! Remember you can also subscribe to the RSS feed by: clicking here

Thanks for reading!

photo credit: jpc101

There are thousands of ways to mangle audio in weird and wild sound. Here’s a screencast of a trick I sometimes put to work. Here is the end result (4 samples are loaded in this player):

Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-1.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-2.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-3.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-4.mp3)

Here is the original sample I used:

Download audio file (16122__Incarnadine__sinister_preacher_reading_revelations.mp3)

The technique uses multiple Ableton Simplers in a Device Group. If your an Ableton wizard you will know this stuff  but if your not a regular user of Simpler and Macros you will learn something.

Sample credit: Incarnadine