May, 2007 archive

Kansas City Kansas Community College, Lewis University and the Conservatory of Music and Dance-University of Missouri at Kansas City have announced a call for scores for the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, to be held October 11-13, 2007 at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Each concert will feature an 8.1 speaker diffusion system. Any composer regardless of […]

At the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Microsoft Surface, the first in a new category of surface computing products from Microsoft. Surface turns a tabletop into a dynamic surface that provides interaction with all forms of digital content through gestures, touch and physical objects.
While no musical […]

We’ve got another helping of great free electronic music for you today, courtesy of Part2, an independent record label based in Cambridge, UK.
part2 is a new label, launched in March 2007. The label features ambient, abstract and hard to define electronic music. While currently a net-label, part2 plans to offer cds and other media soon.
Current […]

 

 Ian Stewart - Driftwood [7:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’ve seen images of Monolake performing, you may have wondered about the unique instrument he uses, the Monodeck II:
In this video, Monolake jams with the Monodeck II:

Monolake, aka Robert Henke, uses a custom MIDI controller, along with Max, to control Ableton Live. He calls the Monodeck II “an industrial grade prototype.”
Here’s Henke’s story of […]

Andrew Hasenpflug sent word about a new music composition contest, the Kunstgegen Foundation 2007 Music for Modern Dance Performance Competition.
Here are the details:
The Kunstgegen Foundation 2007 Music for Modern Dance Performance Competition will go to the work that most exemplifies the qualities of interest, emotion, intellect, and compatibility with modern dance choreography. The winning […]

Toontrack Music has announced the Claustrophobic and Twisted Kit EZX expansions for EZdrummer.
Descriptions:
The Claustrophobic EZX
The Claustrophobic EZX marks a new step for Toontrack in driving the development of percussive samples. The audio team at Toontrack has utilized drumhead selection, room and microphone configurations to fuse the qualities of a high end drum recording and the […]

VertexDSP has released a product update of MultiInspector.
The update includes a new high-resolution mode for the low-frequency bands. There is a context menu at the top of the GUI to select between the new HiRes Mode and the old Eco Mode. The mode selection is shared across all instances.

Enhancements:

Performance improvements
Switching signals via solo/mute now displays […]

Wallander Instruments has introduced the WI Visual Instruments series - collections of virtual instruments that combine advanced behavioral modeling with extensive amounts of sound data extracted from acoustic measurements and recordings of real instruments. The first release is a brass collection - Brass1.
Description:
Distinguishable for the WIVI instruments are their extreme realism and expressive capabilities. Even […]

 

 Wallender Brass Demo [0:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Apple today launched iTunes Plus, offering DRM-free music tracks with 256 kbps AAC encoding, for audio quality almost as good as the original recordings, for just $1.29 per song.
iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, […]

Misstress Barbara, a DJ best known for her love of hard beats, was born in Sicily in 1975. She moved to Montreal at age 8, where she has lived ever since.
When she first began performing, she described her main style as Drummy Funky Pumpin’ Techno. Her most important musical influences came from jazz and […]

 

 Misstress Barbara Techno Mix: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Linda at Moog sent over an update on Moog products:
The MF-107 FreqBox is shipping
The MF-107 FreqBox is different from other effects – the effected sound is not a processed version of your input signal, but the sound of the input signal modulating an internal oscillator. It contains a VCO with continuously variable waveshape, and the […]

JamJunky has launched a new site designed to make it easy for you to upload music that you’ve created and get feedback from others.
Here is how JamJunky works:

Upload your song and put in all of the information related to the song
Send the song to your friends using a special encoded link
Friends post their comments
If applicable, […]

Former Enigma co-producer Jens Gad is back with his second album under the name Achillea, Amadas Estrellas.
Gad doesn’t stray too far from the style of Enigma, creating chillout world music grooves that feature a wide range of sampled sounds from around the world over programmed rhythmic backing.

AudioRealism has announced a new virtual drum machine, AudioRealism Drum Machine (ADM), that promises to capture the best of the sounds of drum machines of the early 80’s.
Features

Three realtime switchable drum machine models
Internal 32 step sequencer with global accent per step, four prescale selections per pattern, flam and shuffle, 128 patterns per instance
Pattern transformation […]

 

 Roland 606 style demo [0:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Roland 808 style demo [0:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Roland 909 style demo [0:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Groove Monkee has announced the release of Groove Monkee Rock, 1,500 MIDI beats and fills covering 10 styles of rock music: alternative, ballad, blues rock, classic, contemporary, hard rock, punk, metal, funk rock and pop plus sections of half-time, basic rock and prog rock.
In addition, there are over 200 extra drum fills, 100 intros and […]