Tuesday 27 September 2011

Alchemy Mobile! Great stuff!

Camel Audio has just released the mobile version of Alchemy for iOS.
Alchemy has always been a great example of combining power with inspiring interface.
We have seen this before with Spectrasonics great Omnisphere remote but this time you get the whole synth engine on the go and it is actually pretty cool to create a loop in, lets say Beatmaker 2, load into Alchemy, jam along and record it, copy back to Beatmaker 2. This works great.

As soon as I find some studio time I will see how it performs as a remote.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Sound Design VS Instrument Design

Back in the 90s people spent thousands in order to get a few presets on a hardware. Devices like the EMU Proteus 2000 where basically nothing else but a ROM chip full of samples and some subtractive synthesis modules (cool filters) and an FX chip. Today is not much different, but you usually get Kontakt player or something similar instead. Both times have something in common though: the buyers usually use the presets as given and only modify them with the pre mapped controllers. My point is that there is more to sound design then just engineering or recording the audio material, but a good sound designer programs a complete instrument. Something that allows, or even better, inspires a good performance. Back in the days people shelled out a grand in order to get the "Virus" or "Supernova" sounds. But you always got an inspiring interface along. Today all the mapping is often up to the musician... no wonder everyone is drawing automation instead of performing it.

Sound collections should be delivered with mappings for popular controllers,  touchscreen devices have made it extremely simple to create custom and inspiring interfaces wich could be bundled with any digitally distributed sound set. And even dedicated hardware controllers have become very cheap, such as the Novation remote SL series providing xy pads, Pitch mod sticks and after touch (not polyphonic though) close enough together to control all of them with two hands (I think the Impulse with mod/pitch wheel is a step back).

The importance of a good controller mapping is very well illustrated by this video showing the use of an Haken Audio controller to control the sounds recorded earlier:

Amon Tobin's Making of ISAM sounds

It is not the sounds alone that make the magic happen, but the performance manipulating them afterwards.
This is the reason why I am looking forward to the future, at things like the Linnstrument. Or maybe we might even get a velocity and touch sensitive smartphone/tablet computer one day? Who knows, but today a simple mapping could lead to more interesting songs and productions. I think people who purchase sounds want to perform, not map or worse spend their time programming controller modulation behavior  I hope someone creating a sound set right now finds this inspiring :)

Thursday 8 September 2011

KarmaFX, time flies...

Just a quick post because I found out that one of my favorite windows only plugins is now available as audio unit on the Mac:  http://karmafx.net/?id=1
Yummy! Will buy that license maybe next month or so. It is especially dear to me because it is coming from a former Jeskola Buzz plugin developer. Some of them have entered the VST/AU plugin circuit since a while, such as Whitenoise, KarmaFX or Joachim. Just to name a few.

If you have a PC standin arround make sure to check out Jeskola Buzz and its offsprings. There is nothing in electronic music you can't do with that. It is amazing. After switching from hardware to computers I was using Buzz tracker alone with a Doepfer Pocket dial to create my music. Some even argue that it was the main inspiration for reason... but thats straight from the rumor mill :P
I go patching virtual cables now!

Tuesday 6 September 2011

iMaschine for my Ego Express :P

OMFG THEY did it!!!

A friend working over at Native was teasing me since weeks that something REALLY big is coming up, and he knows about my obsession with mobile music apps. It drove me nuts! Can't wait to get my hands on this:

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/de/products/producer/imaschine/

But Looking at the screenshots I think I will stick with Beatmaker 2 and nanostudio cause I do not see core midi support in iMaschine specs anywhere... Will be a fun toy anyway though :)

Friday 2 September 2011

Welcome dear readers...

Since this is my first post in this blog I use the oportunity to invite all of you to read my bio on the profile. Just so you know what you are up to...

The main topics discussed here will be about media production, music, and the tools.
I did blog in the past about mobile music production. The blog was quit successfull but I did not keep it up for long because my job and the local pub demanded my time and presence. Even though I don't take my job that serious I do drinking and blogging had to stop - I had to set my priorities straight, right?

Anyway, there is a lot of good stuff out there I want to share and facebook, YASN, etc are just not the right place ( annoying my friends with topics they don't care about... great).
So here we go, enjoy the ride!