salamaundra » tekstuff

back to tape

maux — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:10:15 +0000

TEAC Open Reel cassette system…i want one !

found on Analog Industries

post reactable

maux — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:01:22 +0000

reactable is dead(ly expensive)….back to the kitchen… :D

Click here to view the embedded video.

I found this via CDM…you can read the full article here

this is tekno

maux — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:28:35 +0000

mindblowing (tnx to Josko 4 the link)

Click here to view the embedded video.

At last weekend’s L.E.D. festival in London, Aphex Twin projected a mutated video of the crowd and used advanced face mapping technology to randomly substitute in his own evil grin.

patternarium

maux — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:46:17 +0000

wicked idea from Sonic Charge (a very clever audio software indie by Magnus)

a web based random drum pattern generator that works with the sound engine of their Microtonic drum machine.

u can copy and save the patterns…and use them with Microtonic…a good reason to buy this plug…(apart of its amazing sound).

go for it : patternarium page

fair software : Reaper and Renoise

maux — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:42:16 +0000

it’s time to start my new year resolutions:

software to dig more :
Ableton Live is a great tool, and Max4Live is very sexy…spanky….but expensive…(and the marketing of it starts to be a bit annoying).

instead I am very intrigued by a couple of softwares that are very cheap…real bargains considered the quality…I can buy both of them
and still I am saving some dosh to go out on NYE (instead of buying the spanky max4live).

Renoise
a mod tracker…works like the old digital sequencers of 25 years ago…no timeline, no clips, NUMBERS.
great for obscure techno…but actually you can do anything with it… only 49 euros !
watch what you can do with Renoise and a Launchpad

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reaper
a “normal” DAW (like Cubase, Logic)…but slimmer and smarter than those bloated whales…I love the GUI and more than anything I love their anti marketing campaign..

you can read on the website:

Honest Business Model
We offer a good product at a fair price.
We don’t spend money and effort on marketing, complicated piracy protection, or other things that do not directly improve REAPER and the user experience.
We think the good will generated by playing fair and being responsive to users is more valuable to our business than short-term profits.

No Intrusive Copy Protection
We believe that technological enforcement of copy protection is not in the best interest of our customers.

a full license cost 225$….BUT…if you are just playing with it and not macking any money…or even if your income from music is less than 20.000$ a year
(and I def make less than 20 grand a year from music), you can get the discounted license for 60$ !
(and anyway if you are a pirate you don’t need to crack it…but only deal with your karma).

on the top of that it works really well, has many plug ins included, and does internet streaming with Ninjam…and aldo distribute the cpu over your network…guck yeah :-)
…it was about time… I am sold…actually…I am buying it.

monolake : uncompressed silence

maux — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:46:01 +0000

Robert Henke is the man…I have been following his music from the beginning…
I am still in love with Cinemascope and Interstate…and his liveset is probably the ultimate electronic liveset…period.

he is one of the minds behind Ableton…and he does many workshops around the planet sharing his knowledge….and many other good things can be said about him…he is humble !

I met him at the Sonica festival 3 years ago where I had the honor to share the same stage (Deadbeat, Rhythm and Sound and Greg Hunter were there too)..that time he played in front of 30 ppl (maybe less)…while thousands where lobotomized on the main stage by some rubbish trance…but he delivered an amazing set…and he didn’t behave like a rockstar…even if many of the bloated rockstars (who were playing on the lobotomy (trance) stage) were actually using a software that he created…period again.

he just released Silence, a new album…(dunno where he finds the time to do music)…

I haven’t got it yet…and I am very curious.
I am very pleased to read that he also joined the movement to stop the Loudness War…and he didn’t use any compressors for this album…and no limiters during the mastering.
This is a link to a very interesting conversation about mastering between Robert and Rashad Becker, the guy who mastered it:
http://www.monolake.de/interviews/mastering.html
and it confirms what I wrote in the post “Mastering is killing music” more than 3 months ago…cheers.

maxforlive : beta testing

maux — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:14:55 +0000

started to test the beta of Max for Live…
few crashes…but…wow…this is just the beginning…and maybe the end.

this is an unofficial alternative site full of good infos : http://max4live.info/

(still…I like Plogue Bidule more than Max…and Pure Data is probably the real thing)

tonematrix

maux — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:59:47 +0000

we probably going to see pretty soon more of this web music software
soon no need of Ableton anymore

the tonematrix

mastering is killing music

maux — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:06:56 +0000

I (finally) start to be tired of this music that sound loud…and louder.
I mean…enough is enough!…let’s stop the loudness war.
the heavy use of multiband compression and brickwall limiters is killing the dynamic range…and the music.
many ppl in the music industry regard the mastering as even more important than the mixing and the recording itself.
especially record labels…they know that spending a relative small amount of money in a “good” mastering studio can transform a dodgy sounding album is a blasting hit….that will sound loud even out of the computer speakers and those crap headphones…well…true..a good mastering can really do that…
but an exagerated mastering can also kill the music…and the listener…
it’s the same for the images…all is glossy nowadays…and saturated…
I am honestly very unhappy with the mastering that mr Dave Black did for my album “viceversa” for example…too compressed…too much bass…
and I had enough of all this wobbly trend…from Tipper (his Wobble Factor is TOO LOUD!!) to blasted dubstep.
INFACT…MUSIC THAT SOUNDS TOO LOUD IS LIKE WRITING ONLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS…
or like somebody screaming all the time….
I have mastered many of the tracks of the cloudcycle project…I am not a pro masterer and I don’t have pro gear and I am not sitting in an acustic treated room…but I reckon that I can do a decent job with my software (since we can’t afford to pay for a mastering session)…not as loud but loud enough…
but now I realized that I pushed the level of some tunes too much…trying to be loud as the trend…
so after a lot of reading (and listening)…I decided to remaster them…at a lower level…with little compression and very little limiting…so they don’t look like bricks anymore…infact…greg was right.
this are few links about the loudness war:
loudness wars (wikipedia)
The Loudness War Analyzed (on musicmachinery)
loudness wars (on stereosubversion)
dynamic range foundation – an organization defending the dynamic range, they release also a free plug in to check the dynamic range.
turn me up – another organization defending the dynamic range
justice for audio

plugs for blogs

maux — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:11:49 +0000

more plugs…this time for Word press…the blog engine that is powering this blog. (and cloudcycle).

WP-Cumulus – a cloud of tags with an amazing flash animation spinning the words around
(you see it on the right in this page)

WP pic-lens – cooliris for wordpress galleries…the wall of images..

WPtouch iPhone Theme – automatically select a slimmer theme for those browsing the blog on the iPhone

Viper’s Video Quicktags – easy way to embedd videos from youtube, vimeo and all of the others (pretty much).

Sociable – to be network friendly

SoundCloud Shortcode – off course…to easy embedd sets and tracks from soundcloud

Blubrry PowerPress – plug in to podcast…very good !

Audio player – yep…the audio player I use in this blog.

plug generation

maux — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:20:50 +0000

I decided to do some posts about my favourite plug ins…
starting from the free ones…starting from firefox:

hyperwords : a must have…to search the web behind and after google…translate, convert currency and any sort of measure just clicking on a word….a great tool to crawl around.

cooliris : the coolest…no words

lastpass : finally stop to remember all the log in passwords to different websites and shops and registration forms…so useful.

down them all : download manager…no need to explain I guess.

speed dial : the famous multi panel page with the favourites

snipi : great to prepare galleries (for Word Press) with pictures found on the web

xmarks : syncronize your bookmarks with all your computers from the web

all in one side bar : the famous sidebar

I don’t need to write the link for adblock, do I ?

apc40 – it works

maux — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:43:22 +0000

in the meantime I had the chance to try for a week one of those APC40 (a friend just come back from japan with it)
well…what to say•…it is sexy…it works painless…plug and play…it feels solid…but the sliders are a bit “light”…
….but…hey…shame no midi editor…only ableton…
so….do I want one ? or instead one of those Livid’s Ohm 64 ?

death of the cds

maux — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:40:33 +0000

I never liked them…as support for music it sucks…
they told us the story they sound better and that they would last forever…the first lies of the digital age…
but….maybe there was a good reason….and a good way to recycle all that plastic….

Click here to view the embedded video.