Ableton Live tips: This set of videos, via Bjorn Vayner, shows “features in Live you may have overlooked or forgotten about.”

Part 1 looks at ways to resize multiple tracks in the Session View and how you can continue a stopped Session from where you left off.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2 looks at how you can change the tempo and/or time signature by triggering a scene, how you can expand the Mixer View and how to capture and insert a scene.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3 looks at how to make custom names for notes or ranges of notes appear in the MIDI editor.
The second trick shows a quick way to double the output of your computer keyboard.

Jacob Remin demonstrates his Cheap, Fat & Open synth:

the CHEAP, FAT and OPEN synth put trough the audio gate of an electribe. trigging some more noisy sounds in rhytmical patterns is real fun, and it makes we want to implement a gate sequencer to the platform

More images are available in his Flickr stream.

Below, he demos a light sensor:

Click here to view the embedded video.

via jabstarr:

using mini-jack cables as stylophone sensors turned out to be a clever move: the cables carry 3 signals, allowing me to run 5V and GND through the cable along with the sensor signal. this opens up for modular plug and play with home built sensors, that get powered by the platform.part of the CHEAP, FAT and OPEN project: http://tthheessiiss.wordpress.com

Check out this official demo video of the Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer.

Description:

The SYB-5 reproduces the fat and sharp sound characteristic of classic analog synthesizers.

The 11 internal synth sounds are based on combinations of three oscillator waves (Saw, Square, Pulse) and filters that fluctuate according to the envelope and LFO changes. The external pedal input means that bassists can put their foot into the performance by connecting an EV-5 Expression Pedal to control the filter and LFO rate.

If you’ve used the Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer, leave a comment with your thoughts/ratings!

SOS’s Paul White got this demo of the new Yamaha S70 XS synthesizer at LIMS 2009:

Just in from Yamaha are the S70XS and S90XS performance keyboards. They both run on the same operating system, the only difference being the size of the key beds: the S70XS has 76 keys, while the S90XS has 88.

Both models have weighted, hammer-action keys so, even on the smaller model, users get the feel of a real piano.

On-board controls have been simplified by Yamaha so that only the most commonly used features are available to the user from the button-driven interface. This, the manufacturers say, provdies a less cluttered menu system that lets users access the most important parameters quickly and easily while on stage.

See this previous post for details on the Yamaha S70 XS and S90XS keyboard synthesizers.

The Quintrigger, by Mr.Ugly, is an interesting suitcase style, steampunk-esque noise machine:

It’s a quintoscillator feeding into a Hex-Schmitt Trigger that I fed back into itself. The first of many projects where I design something from scratch then circuit bend the shit out of it. The quintoscillator triggers the Schmitt Trigger, then the Schmitt Trigger feeds back into itself via all of those lovely switches! Each switch has 3 positions of modulation, so the number of drone combinations is amazing! And there’s 4 separate outputs. I think that if each output was run through effects into a mixer, you could create some pretty intense walls of symphatic drone. And it all runs off a 9V adapter.

Have fun getting this through TSA inspections!

via doctorultra

This is a promo for Automatic Gainsay’s Analog Compendium Series, a new collection of DVDs focusing on vintage synths.

via AutomaticGainsay:

Now you can have Automatic Gainsay videos at home in full DVD quality in sound. If you want to get closer to these amazing synths, this is the way to do it!

Instructions for ordering Analog Compendium DVD volumes are stated in the clip.

Currently available: Analog Compendium Volume 1: The Minimoog

This video shows to program a Roland TB 303 and Roland TR 909 drum machine.

via klausito1970:

Another howto, this time for a Roland TB-303 Bassline and a TR-909 Rhythm Composer. For the 303 I used the pattern from Fatboy Slim’s song: “Everybody needs a 303″.

The 909 pattern is a quite simple Kick, Snare and Hihat pattern.Future Retro Mobius sequencer is master midi clock and the 303/909 follow as slaves. The 303 is connected via a Doepfer MSY2 converter.

This is a short audio visual demo of the vintage Roland SH-5 synthesizer.

This is a nice screencast by Audiotuts+ that demonstrates how to create gated sequence effects with Ultrabeat.

Explains author Toby Pitman:

I’ve only just scratched the surface of what Ultrabeat is capable of in this tutorial. When it comes to drum sounds Ultrabeat rivals any software on the market. Its ability to combine analogue with sample synthesis allows for literally any percussive sound to be produced and we’ve seen it’s not just for drums. You could do a month’s worth of tutorials and still have more left over before you covered it all. This is testament to Logic’s feature set which is really deep once you delve into it. Next time you reach for Stylus RMX give Ultrabeat a thought. It might just become your favorite drum plug-in.

More info at the Audiotuts+ site.

This is a quick demo of microtonal Gameboy synthesis – 18-TET Tuning with NanoLoop (Hacked ROM).

via littlescale:

18-TET = 18 divisions of the octave instead of 12 (which is standard for western tuning). Special, special thanks to Abrasive for his help and his idea with this – all of the credit goes to him of course. On left, the original ROM with its frequency lookup table intact, and on the right the edited ROM with the 18-TET lookup table.

Demo 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video demonstrates a custom arcade-style DJ controller for Ableton Live, inpired by the monome project.

Details are available at the DJTechTools site.

Ethnic digital drum machine w/ Sherman Filterbank & TENORI-ON (by Franck Smith)

Using traditional percussion samples on TENORI-ON w/ Sherman Filterbank 2, Moog Analog Delay + digital manipulations via Korg Kaoss Pad KP3.

Features: filtering, micro-pulses, timbric percussion patterns, ethnic digital drum machine.

Used in this video:
- TENORI-ON
- Sherman Filterbank 2
- Korg Kaoss Pad KP3
- Moog Analog Delay (MF-104SD)

http://www.odiolorgnette.com
http://www.myspace.com/sthintosmither…
http://www.myspace.com/znshn

via znshn

This is a demo of the iXY MIDI Controller (App Store link)for the iPhone.

Description:

iXY is the ultimate MIDI X/Y controller for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Featuring multitouch 6 axis control and an intuitive UI, iXY gives you creative on-the-fly control of your software synthesizers, DJ and VJ software.

Features:

• Use up to 3 X/Y controllers to control up to 6 MIDI parameters
  Intuitive interface with touch animations that glow under your finger tips
  iXY is now compatible with MIDI Servers from the Open Source DSMI Project

If you’ve used the iXY MIDI Controller, leave a comment with your thoughts!

via jetdaisuke

This is a demo of the Acxel Resynthesizer acxelisation process.

via erasemusic:

Analysing the vocal intro of the track “bootsequence” by erase, the track plays along whilst acxelisation process takes place and the video ends with the acxelized sound.

This is a synth jam on the Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer disco classic I Feel Love.

It’s a nice demo of what the Pro-One can do – but it also highlights how different the filter on the Pro-One sounds compared to the Moog synthesizer of the original.

via retrosound72:

I feel love……with this synth.

Sequential Circuits Pro-One Analog Synthesizer with different settings (OSC-Sync, PWM, VCF, Envelope…); internal sequencer is triggered by the Roland TR-808: drums: Roland TR-808

For me one of the best monophonic analog synths ever.

Roger O’Donnell shows off his Moog synthesizers.

Roger O’Donnell’s solo debut the “The Truth In Me” was entirely produced on the Moog & the Mac.

Here, he gives us a tour of his entire Moog collection, runs thru their history and demonstrates the sounds using song parts from the album. The MiniMoog, MicroMoog, Moog Source, MemoryMoog, and Moog Voyager all make an appearance.

via worldsfair

This is a vintage Korg synth jam featuring:Korg MS-50, MS-20, MS-20 and SQ-10.

via Newueel:

Another interesting experiment with only original live created MS-20 / MS-50 sounds (incl. beat), no FX at all!

The SQ-10 triggers and sequences all synths:

• The MS-50 plays a rythmic bass pattern (SQ-10 channel A+B).
• The MS-20 plays another rythmic pattern using 2 different tuned VCO’s, also sequenced by channel A+B, but using the inverted signal, which also goes through the MS-50 integrator for portamento purposes. EG1 controls the VCO frequency and swaps between 2 CV values every 32(!) steps, by using step 1 trigger output (which triggers once every 8 steps) divided by 4 (MS-50 divider) to generate a trigger once every 32 steps.
• The other MS-20 plays a simple beat, a bass drum with hi-hat pattern (channel C).

Acidlab Miami Bassline TR-909 jam via pac209.

This is an audio demo of the Moog Prodigy synthesizer.

See this post for more info and ratings for the Moog Prodigy.

via Sketchboxx:

All sounds made with the prodigy, except the drums.

This is a very nice gear porn video for the Serge Creature M-odule, with some awesome extreme closeups to go along with the audio demos.

If you’ve used the Serge Creature M-odule, leave a comment!

via hexenduction:

This is the Serge Creature M-odule by Sound Transform Systems.

All sound was generated by the Creature.

A touch of delay was added by the Moog MF104 on some sections.

Shot with a Kodak Zi6 in Macro.