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Propellerhead Figure is $1, People

Posted by Alexplosive on April 6, 2012 in Gear

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Fifteen years ago, my grad school friends and I were introduced to Propellerhead‘s ReBirth and we welcomed a new era of virtual instruments.

Most compelling about ReBirth was the fact that my friends who were not electronic musicians were totally obsessed by ReBirth.

Something about it.

This week, Propellerhead is actually late to the mobile music party by introducing Figure, a playful electronic dance music making iPhone app.

Despite Propellerhead’s tardiness, I have to say there is a spirit in this app that is remarkably similar to that of its grandfather.

Can Propellerhead capture a new audience with Figure? Or will Figure be quickly written off as a failure because it doesn’t readily appeal to their established customer base?

All I have to say is, it’s $1, people. Just download and enjoy the fuck out of this ridiculous little bargain mirth-maker.

Wait, what, no export?

You honestly believe your friends really give a crap about the latest loop you made in Figure while you were taking a shit? Or that you’re going to turn that Bad Larry into the next charting single?

Your $1 investment just didn’t go far enough?

Really?

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Mini-studio … back … step-by-step #bedroomstudio

Posted by Alexplosive on February 21, 2012 in Gear, Motivations / Business
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I got clearance today to set up a mini-studio downstairs by/in our bedroom. w00t! I like it. Nothing like walking past the gear to and from the bed to tempt the soul. Yummy-yums. I’m looking forward to getting back on the saddle again.

OMG, I’m truly a bedroom musician now. How horrifically trite.

You know, I still need a microphone setup. Maybe I can get comfy enough downstairs that I’ll be able to belt out some vox from time to time. I can hack it. An industry friend also promised to send me something cool I can use.

I still have a couple of projects sitting on my desktop just waiting for my contribution.

It’s time.

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Hulu as an Audio Sample Source

Posted by Alexplosive on May 5, 2011 in Gear, Music
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I wrote a while back about wanting to sample / bring in more real-world audio into my music, but didn’t know where to find good quality samples. I tried YouTube, but the audio quality of the content up there is terrible. I think Hulu is where it’s at. With Hulu, you can get access to a ginormous library of production / broadcast quality content – score!

So, tonight I used Hulu as my sample source, Maschine as my sampler, and Soundflower to route audio from my browser into Maschine.

Sampling on Maschine was as easy as could be. Built-in trimming and normalization made it an absolute joy. Again, I never even looked at the Maschine UI on the screen – instead I watched and browsed content in my web browser, while using the hardware Maschine controller as a full-featured desktop sampler.

I searched Hulu on the word “electricity”, as well as some related terms that I forget now, and sampled some stuff into Maschine.  Here’s an example of the source material I came out with after about an hour+ of sampling:

I’m liking the Hulu / Maschine combo for source material!

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Like Rock Beats Scissors, Bad Audio Kills Video

Posted by Alexplosive on April 25, 2011 in Gear
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I was searching last night to see if sampling audio bits from YouTube videos could be a source of new organic audio material, without me having to wander around outside my house (EEK!) and record cool shit.

ANSWER: NO.

Does anybody out there know / give a shit about recording high quality audio to go with their videos? Seems not. Funny thing is I can handle bad quality video any day, but unlistenable audio is unbearable.

THE EAR DOESN’T BLINK.

In a recent ACM Transactions on Applied Perception paper by Nicolas Bonneel, Clara Suied, and Isabelle Viaud-Delmon, “Bimodal perception of audio-visual material properties for virtual environments“, these researchers have shown that by simply increasing the quality of the audio, the audience has a greater perception and understanding of what’s happening in the video.

Just saying. Sound matters, people.

CHUUCH.

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Not bad for a few hours a week (that’s what she said?)

Posted by Alexplosive on April 5, 2011 in Motivations / Business

Exhausted / wiped out, pushing through some work tonight.  Looking back on what I’ve been able to cobble together in just a few hours a week over the past several months, I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve accomplished so far – 11 tracks and 46 minutes – not bad!

Check it out:

 

 

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Maschine = SampleBitch

Posted by Alexplosive on March 31, 2011 in Gear

Slammed and tired, no music tonight, but just a thought I’ve been thinking about using Maschine as my sampler (see earlier post).  Very excited about this, but heading out on the road & will return to the music in a couple of weeks…

 

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YouTube = Sample Library?

Posted by Alexplosive on March 28, 2011 in Music
Cover of "Treats"

Cover of Treats

I was listening to Sleigh Bells “Treats” today, thinking about the palette of sounds they use on that album to keep it together.

A#1, I love that they have a palette. It reminds me of something I read about Depeche Mode, where they would choose their gear ahead of time, and define the sounds that would be used to create every track in the album.

B#2, there seems to be a nice touch of sampling of real world sounds in “Treats” that makes it fresh, and live - not staid and electronic.

C#3, I was also listening recently to a pre-release track from power electronics artist The Vomit Arsonist – the cut was nothing but live and raw, dense and engaging.

The punch line is that I want to do more (with) sampling. So, how to do it on the cheap, both time-wise and money-wise?

I’m not going down the path of expensive mics and field recorders, nor do I have the time & patience.

What about the old industrial music trick of sampling horror movies? A little more appealing. YouTube = sample library?

To be continued…

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