Ableton Live 6: Hidden New Features and Tips, Crossfader Curves and More

Software improvements don’t always fit well into marketing materials. Hype aside, music software is both musical tool and instrument, so for those of us who use apps daily, it’s the little stuff that often matters. Live 6 is full of those kind of improvements, having been working with the beta lately. Dave Hill from Ableton […]

Prototyping Custom Gear: Friendly Plastic a.k.a. Shapelock

I received an email this morning from a friendly fellow Australian named Keith. He had googled his way to a short post on my site Jaymis.com looking for a source of Friendly Plastic/Shapelock/Polymorph in Australia. After a couple of emails back and forth I figured out that he’s Keith from plasq/Comic Life/Rax, and he figured […]

Max/MSP + Ableton Live 6: Free Tool Makes Additive Sounds

The brains at Ableton have long had a fascination with tools like Max/MSP; Live architect Robert Henke (aka Monolake) regularly prototypes new software ideas in Max, and long before Live was released, was well known in the Max community as a patcher. One of the things I like best about Max is that it’s a […]

Cubase SX4 Screenshots: More Soft Synths Coming

Ever since Apple’s Logic Pro bundled a huge library of synthesizers and effects into a DAW, its competitors have been gradually adding more instruments and sound processors. Even without Logic, the step is a pretty obvious one: there are only so many DAW features you can add from year to year to try to compel […]

Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman, Live in L.A.

Two synth musician legends are hitting L.A. this week. Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman start out their Los Angeles appearances with a free in-store “meet & greet and mini-concert” Wednesday at 5pm at our favorite vintage synth retailer, Analogue Haven. Then, at 7:30pm Thursday they’re playing Hollywood’s Knitting Factory; click through for tickets. If any […]

High Speed Cameras for the People: Slow Motion Video Roundup

I seem to be addicted to slow motion video at the moment. It may be the imminent release of the Red with its promised 120 full frames per second, or maybe I’ve just been watching too much Mythbusters. But all this high speed video showing up on TV has me excited. I’m willing to submit […]

Keyboard Maker CME Posts Bizarre Anthem/Music Video: “I am self-determined”

In a bizarrely, inadvertently awesome piece of marketing propaganda, Chinese keyboard maker CME (the Centrl Music Company, distributed here by Yamaha America) has posted a surreal music video of pop rockers singing a rock anthem. The lyrics, at least from their translation, could well be the theme song of the music technology blogger / commenter […]

T-shirt Challenge: “New records have sound all over them” – Bob Dylan

I admire someone like Bob Dylan who can combine producing fantastic music with producing outlandish, sometimes random statements. Vying for the dumbest music quote of the year, Bob gives us this gem: “New records … have sound all over them.” And goes on to say: “CDs are small. There’s no stature to it.” (CDs actually […]

Slooooooooow Motion: DVGuru's 2nd Challenge Winner

The video speaks for itself really. I don’t know if it was shot specifically for the DVGuru Challenge, but it hardly matters, because the results are beautiful, and double extra bonus points for the Boards of Canada soundtrack. I want a Phantom so badly it hurts sometimes.

Slooooooooow Motion: DVGuru’s 2nd Challenge Winner

The video speaks for itself really. I don’t know if it was shot specifically for the DVGuru Challenge, but it hardly matters, because the results are beautiful, and double extra bonus points for the Boards of Canada soundtrack. I want a Phantom so badly it hurts sometimes.