Category Archives: Articles

Jaron Lanier, DJ Spooky Jam on ‘The Sound of Sci(l)ence’

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spookylanier

Haverford College, in suburban Philadelphia, plays host this coming week to electronic and experimental hip hop musician DJ Spooky, virtual reality guru and composer Jaron Lanier, and Living Colour percussionist Will Calhoun as they gather for an event called “The Sound of Sci(l)ence.” The conference takes place June 15 – 17.

“The Sound of Sci(l)ence: Listening to Quantum Mechanics, the Big Bang, and Nanotechnology,” is a three-day series of conversations, workshops, and performances exploring the intersection of music and quantum mechanics. Supported by a Mellon Arts Residency Planning Grant from Haverford College’s Hurford Humanities Center, the event pairs visiting artists Will Calhoun, Jaron Lanier, and Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) with Haverford faculty and students in an effort to widen the scope of quantum mechanics pedagogy through the study of sound, as well locate synergies with courses across the academic disciplines.

Organized by Chemistry professor Joshua Schreier and Physics professor Stephon Alexander, who describe the idea behind the workshop this way:

“Mathematically, quantum mechanics (QM) has many analogies with the classical wave phenomena of sound, and yet the pedagogy of QM is almost entirely visual. This series of conversations and performances will explore how to ‘listen to’ the simple systems used to teach QM, how this can increase student comprehension, reach out to non-technical audiences, and for its own inherently aesthetic benefits. In addition, we would like to explore how this could be used to explore/comprehend our research interests in cosmology and nanoscience. “

The event is FREE, but registration is required. Attendees can register for tickets at this link. Continue reading →

Pseudo Scratching In Ableton Live 8

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This video demonstrates how to emulate a scratch-style effect in Ableton Live 8 using the new delay Modes in Live’s Ping Pong Delay.

This is not meant to replace vinyl nor will it produce a totally authentic sounding scratch sound, but it is a Ableton Live only solution and is a nice add-on to your effects arsenal.

You can download the template at dubspot.

The Complete Guide To MIDI Bagpipes; Covering Practice Pipes, Robotic Bagpipers & The Frankenpipe

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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 why: MIDI bagpipes combine two of the world’s most maligned instruments, the synthesizer and the bagpipes, into a state-of-the-art, cutting-edge computer music user interface.

That lets you play Sailor’s Hornpipe.

Check this video out and then tell me it wouldn’t have benefited from a bit of MIDI bagpipes:

Here are the latest options for getting your MIDI bagpipes on:

Master Gaita, top photo, lets you use bagpipe fingering to control the MIDI universe.

The instrument made from a PVC tube with nine touch sensors. A 2.5 meter long cable leaving the plastic box carries the MIDI signals to the computer or sound module.

Features:

  • Five selectable with a simple command chromatic fingerings (Galician, Asturian, Scottish, French and Extended (2.5 octaves wide).
  • Compatible with other bagpipes as Gaita de Boto, Sac de Gemecs, Xeremía, etc.
  • Any key/octave performance.
  • Independent control of drones. Tenor drone must be tuned either in first or fifth grade of the scale.
  • Four switchable sound programs with two instruments each.
  • Duete by upper or lower thirds performance.
  • Direct PC connection via joystick plug.
  • Standard MIDI connection using the supplied MIDI cable.
  • MAC or portable computer connection with a USB MIDI converter (not included).
  • Auto-shut off after two or ten (by selection) minutes of no activity.
  • No mouth or legs support needed because of its bagpipe-like held down.
  • No finger moistening needed to activate sensors.
  • Nine volts battery or external power supply.

vPipes is described as Next Generation Bagpipes.

vPipes is an electronic Uilleann Pipes emulator (without regulators) affording the possibility of practising in a variety of situations which would prove to be impractical or impossible with a real set of pipes.

Features:

  • 2 x High-performance, advanced RISC architecture main processors
  • Backlit Mini LCD Display
  • Continuous force sensor for realistic octave change emulation
  • Li-Ion rechargeable battery
  • In system battery charger
  • Compatible with 4 AA 1.5V standard batteries
  • Integrated synthesizer
  • RISC-based digital signal processor (Synthesis/DSP)
  • High-quality wavetable synthesis
  • Serial MIDI in & out
  • Effects: Reverb + Chorus
  • Surround on two speakers with intensity/delay control
  • Four-band parametric equalizer

The Degerpipes is an electronic bagpipe chanter. It’s designed to be a practice instrument, but it’s also a MIDI controller.

Key Features:

  • Same size and finger spacing as a long practice chanter.
  • Dual output: PHONES and MIDI. Headphones and MIDI devices can directly connect to the DegerPipes Chanter. It’s also possible to connect the phones output to an amplifier or a stereo.
  • The chanter contains all electronic components as well as the battery. No external box or additional equipment is needed.
  • Authentic Bagpipe sound including drones generated by wavetable sound synthesis. Highland Pipe and Smallpipe sounds integrated.
  • Perfectly tuned chanter scale and drones by usage of crystal oscillator and microprocessor control.
  • The Pitch is adjustable in a range of more than three octaves. This enables you to play together with other instruments in any key.
  • The drones volume is variable and can also be switched off.
  • Through MIDI output every MIDI compatible tone generator or other MIDI equipment can be used (for example PC with notation program).
  • An extended cromatical scale is available allowing you to play tunes which are not playable on the real pipe chanter.
  • Driven by a cheap standard 9V Battery, Accumulators are also usable.
  • Up to 100 hours of playing with only one battery.
  • Automatic power off after a minute of no activity.
  • A Metronome is integrated within the Chanter.
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Promote Your Music With iPhone Ringtones

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Apple quietly introduced an update to Garageband that adds a cool new feature: iPhone ringtone creation. Anything you’ve got in Garageband, you can turn into a ringtone.

For some people, that may mean the end of getting double-charged for ringtones at iTunes. If you’re a musician, a sound designer or if you’ve got a podcast, you might want to create ringtones to promote your song or show. You could do this with your music, a show theme, sound effects or a catchphrase.

Here’s what you need:

  • GarageBand 4.1.1 or later
  • iTunes 7.5 or later
  • iPhone with software version 1.1.2 or later

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating ringtones with Garageband:

Step 1: Select Some Audio In Garageband

Select Some Audio In Garageband

Open your Garageband file, turn on the “Cycle region” button, and then adjust your the sides of the selection to get the audio you want. You can preview the ringtone by pressing the “Play” button.

That’s it. Your selection should be under 40 seconds long.

Step 2. Send Your Ringtone To iTunes

Send Your Ringtone To iTunes

Once the cycle area has been set, choose Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes.

Step 3. Check Your Ringtone In iTunes And Sync It

Your custom ringtone will show up in iTunes. Give it a preview, and then you can sync it to your iPhone!

Tips:

  • If you want to make a ringtone out of an existing piece of audio, like an .mp3 file, create a new Garageband file and drag your audio in, and then follow the instructions above.
  • You can find your ringtone on your computer from iTunes. CTRL-click on your ringtone and select Show in Finder.
  • You can share your ringtones on your site for people to download. To install, they just drag the ringtone to iTunes and sync their iPhone.

Bob Moog Bio

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Bob MoogWhat would the world of electronic music be like without the inventions of Bob Moog?

Bob Moog’s namesake analog synthesizers have affected popular music in ways he might not have expected back in 1954, when he began building theremins with his father. But 50 years later, Bob’s musical instruments have catapulted so many styles of music into the future, and his contributions to both players and technicians grow even more profound in retrospect.

Where would rap and hip-hop be if groups like Parliament and Funkadelic hadn’t used Moog keyboards? Where would rock and roll be if groups from Yes to Edgar Winter hadn’t used Moog keyboards? Would jazz music have branched off into fusion without Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea using Moog keyboards? And would classical music have enjoyed such resurgence without Wendy Carlos and her modular Moog synthesizer?

The questions are hypothetical, of course, because synthesizers have infiltrated every style of music, and so many companies have tried to recreate the analog sound that Moog pioneered.
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Mac Universal Binary Applications

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Macintosh Universal Binary applications are ones that run natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Mac computers. These are sometimes referred to as Mactel versions, because they run and the Macintosh Intel-based machines.

Mactel Music Applications:

  • Airfoil
  • AudioExpress
  • AudioLeak -  an Leq (Long-Term Equivalent Level) analyzer for audio files.
  • CastAway – Wooden Brain Concepts
  • Crystal Synth
  • Boom Recorder
  • eJamming Station -  Real-time Internet-based music collaboration software
  • iFeedPod – Carnglass Software
  • iSquint – iPod Video convertor
  • iTuneMyWalkman
  • iTuneSEnabler -  copies iTunes songs, playlists and Podcasts to mobile phones or any other device which can mounted as a volume.
  • Garageband
  • Max -  an application for creating high-quality audio files in various formats, from compact discs or files.
  • MIDI Monitor
  • MIDIPipe
  • MUVO Helper
  • Nuke4All -  Allows using the Hartmann Music “Nuke” USB Controller to work as remote control for other synthesizers and devices via MIDI.
  • Pod2Go – Kainjow
  • Podcaster
  • Podcast Maker
  • Remodellizer-  Allows editing of the model files for the Hartmann Music Neuron music synthesizer without the time consuming re-modellizing process.
  • Sample Manager – Audiofile Engineering
  • Senuti – iPod to Mac music transfer
  • SyncTunes
  • Video2Pod
  • Vodcaster – TwoCanoes.com

If you have information on other major Mac music/audio apps, let us know!

Advanced Audio Effects in GarageBand

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by Jeff Tolbert

GarageBand ships with plenty of fantastic effects and several useful presets for those effects. But the wonderful thing about audio effects is the vast range of things you can do with them, many of which you probably wouldn’t stumble upon just by randomly moving sliders. This article will help you create three of these less obvious effects: pumping drums, ping pong delay, and a comb filter.  You can create these effects using both GarageBand 1 or 2.

I’m assuming at the outset you have some experience with GarageBand and its effects. If you don’t, check out two ebooks I’ve written to get you started: Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand covers GarageBand basics, using loops and introductory song composition; the latest, Take Control of Recording Music with GarageBand, is loaded with information on recording Real and Software Instruments and the basics of using GarageBand effects.  Both ebooks have been updated to cover GarageBand 2.0.

Pumping Drums

One cool trick is to create a super-funky “pumping” drum effect. What this effect basically does is to overuse an Audio Units compressor in such a way that it only allows the main body of each drum hit through before immediately clamping down and squelching the sound for a moment.Then the compressor enhances the quieter parts, emphasizing the quiet high-hat hits and the tail of the snare drum sound.

For this example I used the AUDynamicsProcessor, the loop Modern Rock Drums 02, and a tempo of 120 BPM. Here are some compressor settings to get you started (see Figure 1):

  • Compression Threshold: -80 dB
  • Head Room: 33.3 dB
  • Expansion Ratio: 30
  • Expansion Threshold: -87 dB
  • Attack Time: 0.005 Secs
  • Release Time: 0.087 Secs
  • Master Gain: 6.0 dB

Pumping drums in Garageband

Figure 1: Starting settings for the “pumping drums” effect.

Play with the sliders to get the effect you want. The following guidelines will help:

  • The Compression Threshold should be fairly low for the effect to work. However, if you set it too low you’ll squelch everything. At the same time, if you set it too high you won’t end up compressing anything and you won’t hear the effect.
  • Head Room affects how “hard” the compression is. You probably want it fairly high or all you’ll hear are the initial attacks of each drum hit. You can almost set this slider visually—play with the slider while you watch the Comp Amount readout. If the entire bar consistently fills with blue you’re maxing out the compression—in other words, you aren’t giving yourself any headroom. I like to set it so the Comp Amount only fills about halfway.
  • Expansion Ratio and Expansion Threshold are fairly enigmatic, and honestly, I’m not sure quite what they do. Suffice to say that if the Expansion Ratio is set to 1.00, it doesn’t seem to matter what you do with the threshold control. If the ratio is set relatively high, moving the threshold closer to zero can have some very strange repercussions. I generally set the ratio high and the threshold low and leave it at that.
  • Set the Attack Time so you can hear it clamping down on the bass drum. If you set it too low, it will start compressing the initial attack, and the bass drum will sound a lot quieter. For the pumping effect, you want the attack to come through before the compressor kicks in.
  • Set the Release Time fairly low. If you set it too high, you won’t get the “breathing” effect, especially noticeable in the high hat.

For even more control, you can use the AUMultibandCompressor to set different compression levels on different frequencies. This way you can compress the bass drum and the high-hat separately. For example, you may want the pumping effect on the bass drum only, leaving the high-hat more natural sounding.

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GarageBand Tips and Tricks

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Apple’s GarageBand is one of the hottest new music applications in years, and it brings state-of-the-art music technology to a broader audience than ever before. It’s a fantastic tool for making music quickly and easily, and lets you do a lot using just your computer and the loops that come with the program. Other GarageBand users have those same loops on their machines, though, so if you want your songs to sound unique, you’re going to have to do a little extra work.

In this article, author Jeff Tolbert shares some of his favorite techniques for being more creative and productive in GarageBand. Many of these suggestions are taken from his 68-page electronic book, Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand, which you can purchase for $10 online. This article was written originally for Garageband 1.0, but should still be applicable to new versions.

Plan the Song

It’s fine to play around in GarageBand—dragging loops up from the browser, rearranging them so they sound cool together—but at some point you’ll want to stop and think about your goals. Are you making a soundtrack to your latest iMovie project? If so, what’s the mood of the movie or the scene? The clearer you are about your goal the smoother the process will be. You might want to make a little drawing of what you want your song to “look” like. Maybe you want it to start with a bang, then alternate between quiet sections and loud sections, and end with a longer loud part that fades out at the end (Figure 1). Or maybe it should start quietly and build slowly until the end. It’s your call. GarageBand comes with a ton of loops, so you should be able to find something that fits your goal.

sketch of a GarageBand song

Figure 1: A simple sketch of a song.

Change the Default Tempo and Key

Dare to be different! To keep your GarageBand tunes from sounding like everyone else’s, change the default tempo and key. If you listen to songs on Web sites like MacJams.com (http://www.macjams.com/), where GarageBand users upload their latest creations, you’ll notice that the vast majority of the songs are in the key of C and have a tempo of 120 beats per minute.

Even if you only change the tempo by a few beats per minute (118 instead of 120), that will be noticeable; subtle, yes, but noticeable.

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Electro-Acoustic Music

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Electro-acoustic music is a term used to describe a broad range of modern classical electronic music. It often explores the interaction of natural and electronically generated sounds and effects.

The term electro-acoustic refers to a process that happens in any microphone or loudspeaker – sound is transformed into electrical signals, and then transformed from electrical form back to sound. This process is central to all electronic music, because it turns sound into something that can be shaped using electronics and computers.

As a musical genre, electro-acoustic is sort of a catch-all term. As electronica is used to refer to any pop electronic music, electro-acoustic is often used to refer to any electronic music in the classical tradition.

Electro-acoustic grew out of the pioneering work of experimental electronic musicians of the 1940′s and 1950′s, such as Pierre Schaeffer. Shaeffer created Musique Concrète, a style of music that anticipated the later rise of sampling. Schaeffer was interested in the idea of manipulating sound as a tangible object. He took tape recorded sounds and created a huge variety of effects through splicing, speed changes, looping and reversing them.

It also incorporates the tradition of the early synthesists, such as Edgar Varèse. Initially, electronically generated sounds were used as source materials for further tape manipulation. In the mid 1960′s, the emergence of modular synthesizers and computer-based sound manipulation allowed further control over the shaping of sound. Artists like Morton Subotnick explored using gestures to control sound, and combined electronics and synthesizers with acoustic instruments and even dance.

The term electro-acoustic has been adopted by many artists and organizations working in the world of classical electronic music. While the technology of electronic music is constantly changing, electro-acoustic artists continue to draw on the history of ideas pioneered by early electronic musicians.