June, 2007 archive

DJ/producer Reid Speed began career in the New York City drum & bass underground in the nineties, when it was still a bit of a novelty for a woman to be DJing. She quickly built a reputation, though, in the word of drum and bass.
Since then, she’s toured the world spinning drum and bass, [...]

 

 Reid Speed Filthy Nasty Breaks: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Crysonic has announced that its line of pro audio products should have full support for just about every computer music platform, except for maybe Commodore and Atari, within the next two weeks.
All current Crysonic technologies and products, including future releases, will soon be available in multiple plug-in formats, including Universal Binary (Intel/PPC) Mac OS X [...]

Big Fish Audio has introduce two new sound libraries.
Descriptions:
Primal Drums features a collection of powerful and evocative rhythm beds, contained in 50 construction kits (over 700 loops). The kits range in style from massive cinematic drum scores to exotic worldbeat, ambient, and eclectic street beats.
An essential tool for producers and composers, Primal Drums also [...]

M-Audio has announced that its shipping the Torq Xponent integrated hardware/software DJ performance and production system. The Torq Xponent system brings traditional CD DJ-style control and mixing to the world of computer-based DJing.
Torq Xponent is a hardware/software system. Xponent is both an advanced MIDI control surface for Torq DJ software and a four-output USB audio [...]

Pioneering synthpop band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) members Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto have re-formed to help the Live Earth cause to raise awareness of global warming, with a special performance from Kyoto, Japan on 7.7.07.
Live Earth will begin in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007 and continue across all 7 continents with [...]

Apple has released a video introduction to using the iPhone, below.
Based on what I’ve seen, it looks seriously droolworthy.
This is what cell phones are going to look like in five years, intelligently combining mobile features with music and Internet services. It’s too bad we’ll have to wait five years for something like this to [...]

 

 Getting Started With The iPhone: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tiger Claw Records is organizing a showcase of circuit-bending musicians in Madison June 28th. It promises to be a psychedelic experimental toy revolution.
Roth Mobot, Spunky Toofers, Talking Computron, Igloo Martian, and Creme Dementia will all be playing.
Here are the details:
June, 28 2007 at The Klinic Bar
520 S. Park St., Madison, Wisconsin
Cost : $5
via GetLoFi

Ueberschall has released Liquid Instrument Series Vol. 8 Drums, a new VST that makes it possible to move, pitch, stretch or even delete any single note of the snare, hi-hat, or bass drum loop without affecting the rest of the groove. All loops and single sound loops automatically adjust their tempo to your arrangement.
Try radical [...]

A forum member sent me info about an upcoming performance by ambient space music master Steve Roach, being held at at Grace Cathedral: Mystic Chords and Deep Immersions.
Roach plans to present an evening of pure, expansive soundscapes. His atmospheric works should be a perfect match for the reverberant acoustics and sacred space of the Cathedral.
Lynn [...]

Jason at KeyToSound sent us word of a contest that they are running that is probably the first ever synth sound scavanger hunt.
KeyToSound’s NexSyn has a cool feature, NetNotes, that lets you share, browse, preview and download synth sound presets via the Internet.
Here’s a screen capture of the NexSyn preset browser that shows how this [...]

The latest DJ in our series of Chicks that Mix is 23-year-old Montreal native Vivie-Ann.
Vivie-Ann says her sets cover everything house with a hint of ping or pong – anything that makes hands fly in the air. When asked to describe her sound, Vivie-Ann says it’s “bump in the night with a little dynamite,” adding [...]

 

 Vivie Ann Live At Circus: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Propellerhead has announced it has started beta testing for Reason 4.
Reason 4 introduces:

Thor, a sophisticated synthesizer;
The ReGroove mixer, a new way to adjust the rhythmic feel of tracks;
RPG-8, a versatile arpeggiator;
A newly rebuilt sequencer; and
Workflow enhancements that give musicians the control and power to make great sounding music faster and easier than ever.

“This is clearly [...]

 

 Thor Funky Fat Boy [0:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Thor Sacred Femenine Choir [0:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 I Am Thor: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 RP-8 Trancing in the Boys Room [0:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Native Instruments has introduced a DJ Hardware Guide, an extensive online resource that provides DJs with practical information about how to best choose, set up and operate the components of a computer-based DJ setup.
The guide understandably has a strong NI Traktor bias - so keep that in mind if you rely on it. The guide [...]

DJ Jez sends word about an electronic music show he does for 216Productions with several other electronic music DJs.
Musique Non Suck : All Electronic Radio features a weekly DJ mix of electronic music. The DJ’s influences range from Jean-Michel Jarre to Eno to Soft Cell - so you won’t know what to expect until you [...]

Paul at Microscopics, a new UK net label, sent word about their first (re)release.
Microscopics is the label of Mat Jarvis, aka “Gas”, who had a cult electronic music hit with his CD Gas 0095, on the EM:T label.
Here’s info from the label on Gas 0095:
This first release on the new Microscopics label has been [...]

 

 Gas - Microscopic: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download