April, 2008 archive

Native Instruments has announced an upcoming KORE 2 workshop tour for US and Canada.
On 11 dates in different cities, NI product specialists will demonstrate the unique musical workflow of KORE 2, and how to efficiently integrate its versatile functionality in different studio and stage setups.
Workshop topics include:

Introduction to KORE 2,
efficient usage of the KoreSound database
sound [...]

Craig Padilla - Below The Mountain

The Spotted Peccary label has been consistently putting out great ambient, space and synth music albums. Their latest release, Below The Mountain, by Craig Padilla, is no exception.
We’ve reviewed a couple of other albums by Padilla, The Light In The Shadow & Genesis. While his last two releases had more of an ambient or space [...]

Q. What’s the difference between a bagpipe and an onion?
A. No one cries when you chop up an bagpipe.
Glamorous MIDI controllers like the Tenori-On get all the press, but MIDI bagpipes are where the real action is.
There’s a significant amount of work being done in the area of bagpipe-style MIDI controllers. And it’s no surprise [...]

London’s Southbank Centre is one of the hippest venue’s in the world, and it’s the home of an event, Massive Attack’s Meltdown 2008, that may be the event of the year.
Massive Attack’s Meltdown will feature performances from:

Gong - Seeded in Paris during the 1968 student riots, Gong weave their unique magic with an imaginative mix [...]

Electro-Music - a forum & site focusing on electro-acoustic music, has announced electro-music 2008, a three day conference/music festival to be held at the Renaissance Center in Kingsport Tennessee, August 14 - 16, 2008.
The program will include lectures, demos, jam sessions, and concerts.
The scope of this festival is very broad, covering all aspects of electro-music, [...]

Spectrasonics is doing a great job with their Omnisphere videos. Somebody there “gets” Internet media, podcasting and the idea that your best marketing is just doing something awesome that people will want to talk about.
Their latest video intros a new contest and dribbles out some more info about Omnisphere.

This video, via BBTV, is really pretty strange.
At the 2008 Bent Festival for experimental electronic music, Xeni encountered Krach der Roboter (”Noise Robot”), who offers a message of peace, crackers, and chaotic tonal algorithms for all mankind.
“Why do humans love robots so much?” Xeni asks.
“Actually, people love animals, babies, and robots,” Krach replied. “But animals [...]

It looks like analog video synthesis is starting to see the surge in experimentation that the Internet has brought to audio synthesis.
This is a preview of a Sergio Martinez’s DIY FPGA-based video synthesizer. Martinez connected the FPGA to an old computer monitor, and then recorded the images with a cheap webcam. The coloured dots are [...]

This iPhone synthesizer video is making me lookforward to iPhone apps in iTunes.
FYI - this is just the latest of many iPhone music software stories.

Not sure what to make of this - pask present has created a sort of steampunk electrochemical synthesizer:
Pressing a key causes salt solution to flow over a copper and aluminium connection, generating a low signal which is filtered by a capacitor and then amplified, creating a complex white noise, with amazing fluctuating oscillations.
The device demonstrates [...]

SONiVOX MI has released Anatomy, a sample library for Kontakt that features exclusively human body sounds.
Anatomy offers over eight-hundred instruments that “twist and transform the human body into one expansive collection of physiological melody and rhythm. Anatomy sonically explores the human condition in ways never dared attempted previously, delivering you a deep, diverse & rich [...]

Stretta got his hands on the new Tiptop Audio Z5000, a modular analog CV-friendly DSP effects processor, and says “Go buy one”:
What the world needs is a Eurorack-format DSP with CV control. Along comes the Tiptop Audio Z5000. First of all, it is in stock, you can buy it now. None of this, announce, wait [...]

Hercules has announced the availability of the new Hercules DJ Console Rmx.
The DJ Console Rmx features a solid metal casing with non-slip pads, a straightforward layout and a built-in audio interface with 4 inputs, 4 outputs.
The audio console, supplied with a carrying bag for total mobility, retails for $349.00.
“We consulted with over 1300 DJs throughout [...]

Controversy is brewing over a wall-mounted gadget that tortures teens and young adults with sound.
The Mosquito, which is designed to target loiterers, projects a shrill noise reported to be only audible to teens and young adults. Nearly 1,000 units of the device have been sold in the United States and Canada, sold under the company [...]

Set designer and robot artist Roland Olbeter has created a series of electro-pneumatic sound machines capable of performing entire string quartets.
The first commissioned composition for the robotic instruments was Elena Kats-Chernin’s Fast Blue Air, which takes advantage of the range of noises created by the pneumatics.
via WFMU