Israeli funk musician and producer Kutiman, creator of the famed , is back with an encore. Once again, he’s mixing the best performances of YouTube into a single video. Calling it a “mash-up” is perhaps unfair: this is really mix and remix. It’s no different than laying down multiple tracks in a studio, except that the players were working independently in different parts of the world. “My Favorite Color” is a jazzy, soulful number, particularly carried by those on the original song “Green.” The rest is really arrangement, and it works pretty darned-near perfectly. (An occasional ragged rhythmic edge seems only fitting to the form.)
This raises a question. I don’t think anyone would question that the ability to work musically in the same room, to pick up on physical gestures, eye contact, and inhabit the same space together is the ideal for collaboration. But there’s no reason that shouldn’t stop musical expression from taking place in less-than-ideal circumstances, too. You could think of it less as a poor substitute for playing together in a room, and more an improvement upon lonely solo production, a chance to add collaborative musical experiences to, say, time late at night after a long day of work. It could the ability to share something with someone who would otherwise be separated by geography – as imperfect as a letter from a pen-pal, but also as intimate.
As the above video hits my inbox this week, so, too, does a new video from the creators of Ohm Studio. Among other ambitions, they hope their software production workstation, now in progress, will be Internet-connected and collaborative. In its execution, it represents nearly the opposite of the YouTube video above: whereas a tool for simple YouTube sharing is mixed together by hand, an accidental session, this software is engineered with intricate connections of workflow. On the other hand, they both represent the same idea: cloud-connected creation, across geography, between human beings.
Software workstations have traditionally not only emulated studio hardware, but assumed one person in front of one computer working in isolation. So part of what the Ohm crew have to do is to answer how one piece of software can be used by more than one person across the Internet. They make an effort to do that in this video; it’s best to watch. (Thanks to Cid Andrade from Ohm for sending this our way.)
They write:
Ok, the Ohm Studio brings real-time music collaboration. But when two people are working together in the same project, how exactly does it look like?”
We’ve just put online a sneak peek of it, a video capture of two people starting a track from scratch. We see both screens, listen to both audios, and understand how artists will be able to compose/produce as if they were together.
I still think there’s value in solo creation, but that doesn’t have to exclude collaboration. I’m curious – YouTube upload or sophisticated DAW, does any of this look practical to you? How have you collaborated online, if at all? (Or is it back to a rehearsal room or studio to work face-to-face?)
Ready to cut the cord and go wireless? With mobile gadgets getting involved in music-making, it seems a logical solution – maybe not reason to throw away your MIDI cabling, but worth at least trying. Bluetooth could be an answer. In fact, it could work even without all those pesky, pricey mobile tablets and phones lying around, just with good, old-fashioned MIDI gear. (‘Bout time.)
Bluetooth and MIDI are a logical match; the big surprise is that these two haven’t paired off (cough) much earlier. We’ve seen the occasional implementation or paper or rant, but not much real-world usage. That could be about to change – that is, provided ample real-world testing.
Bluetooth mobile sync: First off, owners of Korg iOS software just got a Bluetooth-based update that provides sync. (See video below, shot by tipster and reader Danny Fluck.) Entitled “Wireless Sync-Start Technology,” KORG promises their Bluetooth feature now enables two iPads running iElectribe or iMS-20 to sync with one another with zero latency. (The update also includes perhaps more widely-useful features – SoundCloud support and AudioCopy, says .)
The name suggests that what the “sync-start” technique does is actually to match any latency between the two devices so that they start at the same time. That’s how multiplayer gaming typically works, and it applies easily to musical applications: you ping connected devices, then delay the start points of each of them to match the slowest device so that they sound together. (I think I’m saying that correctly and clearly; it’s Friday.)
Danny reports that it works perfectly and “instantaneously.”
Okay, so cool, as long as you only use iPads, and you’re lucky enough to have two iPads handy, and you only use KORG apps, you’ve got a nifty solution – but that’s a little limiting.
Bluetooth MIDI on Android or any hardware device. A bit further-reaching is something Peter Brinkmann, primary author of libpd, has been testing. (See video, top, which is much snappier than my explanation.) Now, Peter is no MIDI fanboy; when several of us talked about adding MIDI to libpd – an embeddable version of the open source patching environment – he described MIDI as a “plague upon humanity.” (I don’t recall seeing that quote anywhere on the website.)
But here’s the thing: MIDI is obsessively compact and simple, and absurdly easy to implement even on the cheapest microcontroller. That makes it ideally suited as a means of making inexpensive hardware inter-operate, and without using up lots of power or bandwidth – just as MIDI was designed to do.
Furthermore, as Apple tablets and phones demonstrated USB MIDI connections, it got Peter (and some of the rest of us) thinking. Yes, it’s too bad that Android devices lack key USB host capabilities that would let them talk to hardware. On the other hand, once you start attaching lots of cables to a device, you might as well use a (more powerful, more flexible) computer in place of the tablet. So low-power, efficient wireless – like Bluetooth – seems the way to go.
Like a good engineer, Peter went and hacked the solution he wanted himself. Partially inspired by , Peter started documenting the process on his blog.
. (He later and moved it off the bread board.
. Here’s what I’ve been told by mobile engineers to whom I talked: performance has greatly improved in Bluetooth implementations in recent years. That means that part of the reason Bluetooth MIDI may have been adapted is that, when people first began testing this a few years ago, the implementations weren’t yet good enough – and no one has checked since. (Until now, that is.)
Since then, Peter has for the Android platform, all under a free Apache license, so anyone can try it out. And since it works natively with Pd for Android, this means you can very quickly hook up a Pd patch to Bluetooth support on any Android device. There’s even a sample patch and code to get you started!
As far as I know, Apple doesn’t let you implement a similar solution on iOS, so this would remain Android-only. (Hey, come on – iOS can’t have all the fun.) I’m curious to hear if I have that correct, though, so please do share.
The next step: refining the hardware rig and interface design and most importantly, testing. Correction: I claimed that the MIDI interface was not opto-isolated; it actually is.
Hacklab and testing: With that spirit in mind, on Saturday April 2 from 1p – 6p, we’ll have a free, open hacklab in New York. It’s mainly an informal get-together, but there will be short demos as we go. It’s the first step in broader testing and experimentation with these ideas. If you’re in the NYC area, you can . (just went up, so it may be quiet) The plan is to play a bit with hardware and software and different Android devices.
All are welcome to the hacklab, regardless of experience.
This isn’t just an Android thing, though. Part of the reason to use Bluetooth in place of WiFi is that it’s much simpler and cheaper to implement, and has more modest power requirements. As such, providing Bluetooth MIDI interfaces for other music gear is more manageable than it would be with WiFi.
More resources:
A describes early work, though this research could use a modern update.
A .
Meanwhile, in the Land of WiFi
, in the case of MoDrum and Bassline, using Apple’s own network MIDI framework. I’m assuming it claims it’s the most extensive such implementation because of the sync functionality.
SoundPrism Pro, in the trailer below, also recently added network (as well as wired) MIDI compatibility.
Incidentally, there are already compatible frameworks for Windows and Linux (in addition to Mac, of course), and no reason Android couldn’t also do WiFi MIDI, too. The advantage of Bluetooth remains doing so with less power consumption, and as direct serial communication over the wireless link.
More resources on the WiFi side…
From January:
And yes, devices like provide this kind of functionality over WiFi – though the Bluetooth radio could be cheaper and more power efficient. (As for performance, we just have to do more testing.)
Just don’t forget, all of this is a plague upon humanity and an abomination, so try to keep that in mind. Have a good weekend!
Native Instruments has a new synth based on the Reaktor engine, and it’s one about which to be genuinely excited. Taking additive synthesis to a new conceptual level, it works with the concept of per-partial control but adds functions like wavetables, enveloping, and effects to each partial individually. The result is a synth that gets sonically surprising in a hurry, and it represents the sort of multi-dimensional thinking I hope catches on in synthesis.
In a step forward for Reaktor, this synth doesn’t just sound different – it looks different, too. Whereas incredible sonic creations have been hidden too often in software behind banks of bland, faux knobs, Razor’s dynamic spectral display makes both the partials and their transformation in time clear and hypnotically beautiful.
Under the hood, the project packs some 320 partials and internal sound shaping, dual filter sections with 20 filter types, “dissonance effect” modulation, and in case your mind remained somehow unbent, a 34-band vocoder. There’s also a genre-spanning preset library, though the ubiquity of NI tools in Dubstep have caused people to already make that connection. (Fine. Spite them. Go make something that doesn’t sound like any recognizable genre. You have my blessing.)
The software is the result of a collaboration with artist , and represents an ongoing series of artist co-produced software releases from the Berlin-based Native Instruments. For his part, Errorsmith (also part of MMM and Smith n Hack) has been a forward-thinking Berlin staple for many years, and a DIYer at heart, combining just these sorts of modular monsters in his own work. What strikes me is that, working with NI, he’s come up with something that could be widely used. It’s one thing to create a strange creation for yourself, and there’s something even strangely pleasing about making it idiosyncratic. Making a tool that a wide audience can use to vastly-differing results is another matter entirely.
Thanks to advance availability, NI has already got some buzz going around the creation, so we’ve got a tutorial and free loops from our friends to share with you.
Steve Horelick, the man who gave us the Reading Rainbow theme song on his Fairlight CMI and then went on to make Logic Environments that produce otherworldly musical landscapes, has his own take. He walks through the interface one module at a time. Steve does not work for NI – this is what it sounds like when he’s excited about something. Listen closely to what he’s saying, breathlessly, because as always Steve has immediate, sharp insights into what everything’s for and why it matters. If you pay attention, class, you’ll learn something. (Let me say it again: this is someone who finds the Logic Environment intuitive, and can explain it to others. Apologies to Apple and Emagic veterans, but that has to count for something big.)
Steve Horelick also creates training for, and now helms, the massive training site Macprovideo, which in turn has its own blog now:
Francis Preve, fellow Keyboard writer who just launched his new Academik label last week (I was grateful to be there armed with a laptop and KAOSS Quad to open the celebrations), is prolific as always. He has two posts up on Razor, and also tells CDM he’s got some free loops for you to grab built with Razor:
With its über-pretty FFT display of harmonic motion, tons of really unique filters and a couple of beat-synced LFOs, RAZOR makes a deep cut into additive synthesis territory (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun).
So, I decided to beat everyone to the punch and drop a RAZOR-edged free loop six-pack on ya, so you can get a taste for yourself.
Tech notes and linkage after the jump…
Tech notes:
- Everything’s in the key of C minor-ish.
- All loops are 128 BPM.
- All loops are eight bars long.
[Francis Preve]
Steve Horelick: Francis has a life-sized Yoda figure in his studio, and the force is strong with him. (Seriously.) Synth programming deathmatch, anyone? New York versus Texas?
All in all, that should give you somewhere to start if you’re interested in Razor. I’ll be curious to hear what people do with it. If you’ve got questions you’d like to direct to NI, or if you’d like to hear more about how this instrument was produced, let us know.
Digital Trends - This new iPad dock from Alesis is the first of its kind, designed to make the iPad a portable and easy-to-use interface for creating, producing, and performing music. The iO Dock ($399) transforms your iPad (or iPad 2) into a professional tool for musicians, producers, and recording engineers, allowing users to create and produce music with connected instruments and professional gear, or all alone with one of the numerous iPad music-creation apps. Almost any instrument or professional gear can be connected to the dock, which also includes Core MIDI support and two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs. A convenient guitar-direct switch lets the guitarist play and record right into the iPad’s amplifier- or effects-modeling apps. We’re not going to say we know everything about the technical mumbo-jumbo, head on over here to get all the details, but we’d say that this is a pretty smart way to combine the functionality of creative apps with traditional recording methods.
Digital Trends - Market research group NPD has released on update to its Music Acquisition Monitor survey, and finds that the number of U.S. Internet users getting music via peer-to-peer file sharing networks has reached an all time low. According to the figures, just nine percent of American Internet users got music via P2P services in the fourth quarter of 2010—that’s down from 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. And NPD doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that the decline in P2P music downloading corresponds to the court-ordered shutdown of LimeWire.
Appolicious - A just released Android and iPhone app from Color.com is a new photo-sharing tool that streams images based on two layers: location and social. The revolutionary application of photo-sharing and consumption comes from Bill Nguyen, the brain behind the music service Lala, which Apple (AAPL) acquired in 2009. He’s pulled together a legendary team, which includes the company president Peter Pham, founder of BillShrink, and DJ Patil, the former chief scientist at LinkedIn.
PC Magazine - The royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29 will be recorded and immediately released in digital format in May, Decca Records said late Wednesday.
Mashable - At the beginning of March, Berkleemusic -- the online division of the Berklee College of Music -- and Grammy-winning guitar player Steve Vai set out to reach the Guinness World Record for most massive online guitar lesson. The whole deal went down at Livestream Studios in New York City and was streamed using that service.
Connecting something to something else – it’s a basic principle of musical composition, of improvisation, of conversation. It’s therefore an essential feature of software, code, and digital music interfaces.
But sometimes, it’s awfully nice to turn a knob and plug in actual, physical cord.
Our friends Ben Hovey and Chris Stack are here with more freebies and giveaways for the analog circuitry-containing portions of your studio. This isn’t just for the deep-pocketed, either – they share free listening, ideas that can be applied even to free software patches, and techniques that work even if all you’ve got is a Moogerfooger.
First up, Ben Hovey shares a funky, free EP he made while beta testing the spectacular, capable Moog MIDI MuRF effect pedal. With MIDI-manipulated modulations, the MuRF is a bit like having a little analog effect computer. And since you can use anything as a source, it can make its textures from synthetic sounds or – as Ben does here – “on the trumpet, farfisa, wurli, breaks, and even as an echo chamber (feedback from speakers->mic->murf->speaker->mic->murf…).”
If you could only have one piece of Moog gear, or even only one hardware effect, the MIDI MuRF might be it. And, just as importantly, Ben’s music is itself as perfectly-crafted as a polished piece of North Carolina pine, filled with funk. Give a listen and download:
by
It might be considered blasphemous – part of why I like the Moogerfoogers is the feel of the knobs and faders – but Ben has also built a remote controller with the popular touch control tool for iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, in case you’ve been hiding in your analog modular cave – lucky you). This assumes an intervening computer, though; you need something like to do the conversion. Going straight from mobile wirelessly to MIDI device is likely to be a topic of discussion here shortly, so that’s all I’ll say for now.
But the layouts look useful, and while I wouldn’t personally have any desire to duplicate the controls already on the Moogerfooger, having access to MIDI-accessible controls is indeed very nice.
Finally, Chris Stack, formerly of Moog Music but now doing all of this independently, continues his fantastic Experimental Synth series. I’ll say what I’ve said before, which is that you can borrow these ideas even if you aren’t lucky enough to have this (very fine) gear; if you have a computer and no pocket change at all, you can still do it in Pd. And if you can beg, borrow, or bribe your way onto the gear, now you’ll have lots of great stuff to try when you get there.
At top, the latest video and my current favorite, which shows all that’s happening in the wonderful world of modulars, specifically the imaginative Make Noise modules.
But wait — there’s more. Continuing the MuRF theme, here’s a means of syncing that box via a gate output for some rhythmic fun:
Have a Moog MuRF, Bass MuRF or MIDI MuRF? Here’s a way to sync it to the beat using the Gate output from a Moog Voyager (w/ VX-351). This method should work with other Gate-producing gear as well.
Tuning has been a big interest area for many of us of late; here’s a lovely demo of alternate scales with the Little Phatty, something I hope to try on more synths in general.
An exploration of non-Western tunings with the Moog Little Phatty. In this example, the Arabic scale, Maqaam Husayni is given a workout.
And finally, a reminder that harmonizers don’t have to be used exclusively on vocals:
I can’t simply rip off every single video Chris does, so be sure to check out:
And analog, digital, or … steam … keep the interesting music stuff coming.
Mashable - International memecore sensation Rebecca Black got the Conan treatment Wednesday night, when the Internet-savvy comedian released his new song, Thursday -- a cover of her unexpected hit, Friday.
