Good Watching: Synth Interviews, British Synth Artists, Musical Pioneers from Detroit to Berlin

Good Watching: Synth Interviews, British Synth Artists, Musical Pioneers from Detroit to Berlin: "

Pour some port, find a comfy spot on the couch, and fire up the YouTubes. A surprisingly-rich raft of terrific documentary video for synth and electronic music enthusiasts has been making the rounds.

In our queue: Analog Suicide interviews a legendary vintage synth spot in Berlin, an hourlong documentary features not only Richie Hawtin but a range of techno pioneers, as well as other shorts from T-Mobile (yes, the phone company), and the BBC scores more history of the British side of the synth revolution in music. Sit down and get ready, because here we go.

From Detroit to Berlin and Back: In-depth Interviews with Pioneering Artists

At top: an hour-plus documentary produced for T-Mobile’s Electronic Beats series follows the rise of techno legend Richie Hawtin, including some terrific Detroit footage with artists like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and of course Magda. Love him or hate him, Richie’s impact on electronic music is formidable, and it’s great to see coverage finally return to a tale of his roots. It seems the perfect way to get ready for Detroit’s Movement Festival, starting May 28. Via the astute music coverage on the XLR8R blog, here by Ken Taylor.

There’s quite a lot more Electronic Beats TV on the YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ElectronicBeatsVideo

Here are a few of my favorites. Kangding Ray of Raster-Noton is framed by signature, hypnotic minimal visuals. He has some wonderful things to say about the beauty of materials in sampling. Then there’s some beautiful footage of TESSEL, a morphing architectural form which really deserves some separate coverage here. Have a look:

Thomas Heckmann looks at machines, vintage and circuit bent, and talks about working with their idiosyncrasies in musical production.

From the role of machines to the role of humans, Moderat talk about collaboration as therapy, and what it does for them … and then go parachute jumping. I think people falling from a plane makes the perfect soundtrack.

Conversations for Synth Lovers, via AnalogSuicide

AnalogSuicide’s Tara Busch is one of our favorite journalists covering synthesis, and a great artist to boot. This week, she visits the legendary vintage synth destination Schneiders Beuro in Berlin. Via Synthtopia, who, like MatrixSynth, I think has an alarm that goes off when videos hit YouTube with certain keywords – incredible.

On the producer side, massively-accomplished producer Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Wire, Erasure) makes an appearance, too:

Lots more where that came from:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tarabusch

Synth Brittania

Via our friend and Chicago producer/nerd fashionista/writer Liz McLean Knight comes a BBC Four documentary that covers British synth artists in the late 70s and early 80s, including Joy Division, Human League, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, and Gary Numan.

There’s just too much goodness here. I want to sit down with the past and present staff of Keyboard and watch this one. Watch it while the Beeb lets you.

I’m personally gratified in that I believe technically and artistically, we’re entering another of these sorts of ages. Who knows what the cultural impact may be, but at least for those passionate artists and technologists who are involved, something’s happening. And these videos are a great place to begin for inspiration.

So, now that you have those to watch, I guess I really need not write until Monday! See you then! (joke … sort of.)

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Sonic LAB: Native Instruments RaZor Synth (10:24 mins)

Sonic LAB: Native Instruments RaZor Synth (10:24 mins): "Razor - additive synth plug-in (10:24 mins)

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monome arc4 plane

monome arc4 plane: "

Money no object I want to build a room of arc4s and monomes.

“I’ve always loved step sequencers and I see the monome as an opportunity to address some of the grey area between the one knob per function analog step sequencer and step sequencers with memory. The idea is to increase the available note range without sacrificing precision and increase the available sequence length range, without sacrificing direct manipulation and feedback. So, when the arc came around it seemed like a useful navigational tool to manipulate a large plane of data.” – stretta

For more info: flavors.me/stretta

Related Posts:

• Flowers. Another pretty Monome video.
• BeatBearing clear plastic chrome sphere sequencer.
• The Automaton buffer effect sequencer is available.

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Colortronics: The Purple Tape (Contest)

Colortronics: The Purple Tape (Contest): "

Comma’s “Colortronics” is out May 24th. 100 limited edition cassette tapes will be available exclusively at music.fritenite.com. To celebrate, we are giving them away to 3 lucky people. To enter, all you have to do is join the Frite Nite mailing list using the form below. Good luck! Winners will be announced this Friday, May 13th.

Email Address:

Email Newsletter by VerticalResponse

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Control with Room to Grow: Livid Adds Expansion Jacks; iPad Meets Tangible Controls

Control with Room to Grow: Livid Adds Expansion Jacks; iPad Meets Tangible Controls: "

In the never-ending quest to find just the right combination of faders and knobs for piloting your music, here’s a thought: add expansion capabilities. An upgrade to the Block, a grid grid and knob control surface by boutique Texan maker Livid, does just that. And for good measure, they’ve got a short-run iPad dock alternate, too, for those of you who want touch control and apps but want hardware control, too. That raises another set of ideas gaining traction this week: why not add tangible controls to these multi-touch tablets and such?

Room to Grow

At the heart of Livid’s controllers is something they call the Brain – the basis of a modular control surface. DIYers can build controllers from the ground up as part of their Builder system, or you can buy a controller like the Block that works out of the box. What Livid has done on the Block is effectively to give you both. You can use the controller out of the box, but you can use the 1/4″ jacks to connect sensors or foot pedals, and a pin header connection that adds eight more sensors. It means you can do a smaller DIY project for just the stuff you need, but without having to do all the hard stuff necessary to get the knobs and light-up pads the Block already has. More details in the Livid blog post, or see the demo video below.

Block Expansion Jacks

So that’s taking a tangible controller and adding to it. But what about the tablet and multi-touch control surface craze? Musicians are subverting the very feature of these tablet computers that supposedly makes them popular. DIYers are liberating control from those shiny, black, hermetically-sealed consumer goods, a bit like cracking into some alien artefact. We’ve already seen hardware from one commercial maker – Akai – that sits an iOS device in a keyboard dock (the SynthStation line). New options go still further:

Beyond the Tablet

Livid is doing a very limited run of the Block that includes a place to sit your iPad. (I’m actually a bit sorry that they make the space form-fitting, rather than have just an open shelf – in case you later swap tablets to something that’s a different size, for instance. But it’s a limited-run, and I guess if I want that, I’ll have to just commission Livid.)

As seen on Synthtopia, the design is now available. You get a class-compliant, driver-free controller that’s USB powered, features MIDI in and out jacks, 64 programmable, light-up pads, and the aforementioned expansion jacks. It’s a pretty full-featured product for US$460.

Block Station Hardware

It’s just a prototype, and may never be available, but Livid also mocked up how their Code (a big array of knobs) would work with the iPad. I love the Moog-style angling of the shelf and the smaller footprint of this design. And it does appear that it’s a design that could accommodate different tablets, in case you have an iPad and an Android tablet. (Well, that’s true of a bunch of people who went to Google’s developer conference this week, if sadly I wasn’t one of them.)

From Touch to Tangible

Tablets, by merging display, computing, and touch control, make software easier to control. What they can’t do is provide the function tangible controls do. That is, they do what the mouse and display and keyboard do better in some instances, but they can’t replace knobs and faders.

A research project by Mike Kneupfel for New York University’s ITP digital media program investigates these issues.

Touchscreens like those found on smartphones and tablets have enabled a new generation of versatile user interfaces. My thesis project, Extending the Touchscreen, aims to further this versatility by using conductive materials to construct a series of physical, mechanical, and electrical devices that touch, interact and communicate directly through the touchscreen interface. My goal in constructing these external devices is to make touchscreen interactions more tactile, physical and potentially more expressive and fun.

As seen in the videos, he takes two approaches. One works directly with the sensing capabilities of the touchscreen itself, augmenting it with different hardware that would come in contact with the screen. The other makes use of the hardware connection.

For all the Apple fetishism, I think that Google may be able to pull away some folks tinkering with this with their new, far more open approach to hardware development. But what’s nice about Michael’s project here is that Google’s announcement this week that they were vastly expanding hardware I/O capabilities validates his research, and suggests lots more potential that can work even in a consumer, not just a tinkerer, context.

Lots of crazy stuff on his blog; see also the thesis page and coverage in Creative Applications.

Side note: it seems some of the add-on hardware you plop on a touchscreen doesn’t work all that well; see Victor Agreda, Jr.’s disappointed review of those stick-on joysticks. (CDM readers had tipped me off about those before.) But the other approaches here do show potential.

And whether a tangible controller or touchscreen tablet, having control that has room to grow has some serious appeal.

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David Lynch completes electronic album

David Lynch completes electronic album: "

David Lynch has completed his long-awaited electronic music album, and is now (sort of) heading to Ibiza to talk about it.

Lynch, who took the world by surprise by releasing the electro-pop single ‘Good Day Today’ on Sunday Best last year, will deliver the keynote address at IMS:2011 (Ibiza International Music Summit) at the Ibiza Gran Hotel. Unfortunately he won’t be on the White Isle himself, but rather “beamed in via video Skype from his recording studio just off Mulholland Drive.”

The interview will take place at 8pm (local European time) on Thursday 26 May, and will focus on Lynch’s music production, including the full-length album that’s expected to see release later this year.

“I’m excited to talk to those attending the International Music Summit in Ibiza,” says Lynch in an official statement. “Twelve months ago Jason Bentley from KCRW gave a track I made with my engineer Big Dean Hurley to Ben Turner and Rob da Bank of Sunday Best Recordings, and we return this year to chat about the full-length album we have just completed. I look forward to chatting with them and everyone else in attendance on May 26th live from my own studio in Los Angeles. We’ll talk about the music and how it came to be and exist. We had such a blast making it and I am honored to be a part of the International Music Summit.”

IMS partner Ben Turner adds: “This is a true honour. It was at the IMS 12 months ago that I heard ‘Good Day Today’ for the first time, sat in the hills of Santa Agnes in Ibiza, trying to recover from the summit! I played this record and I was astonished it was produced by my favourite film director of all-time. Lynch didn’t make it for the dancefloors – he just made the music he felt inspired to make. One year on, its an incredible moment to have him beamed into the Ibiza delegation at the IMS so everybody can hear his musical story, his vision, and his future plans in music…”

Related Posts:

• Watch new David Lynch music videos
• David Lynch to release new LP
• David Lynch releases solo electronic single; hear it inside
• David Lynch Twitter interview
• Win the deluxe vinyl edition of David Lynch’s ‘Good Day Today’

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Tyler, The Creator “Public Disturbance” (Video Footage)

Tyler, The Creator “Public Disturbance” (Video Footage): "

A few days ago images were captured of Tyler in handcuffs while promoting his new album near Westchester High School in Los Angeles. Apparently the local po-po weren't in the mood for any celebrations of their own and arrested the OFWGKTA frontman for causing a public disturbance. A passerby caught it all on video and reveals what took place that day. So as it stands today, Tyler is a free man therefore we won't be seeing any 'Free Tyler' t-shirts but, you can still support the cause as his Goblin album is out now.

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Lando Kal – Further

Lando Kal – Further: "

Lando Kal, one half of Lazer Sword, makes his debut release on Hot Flush with Further which is released today on 12” vinyl and digital download. Highly recommended.

[See post to listen to audio]

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Create a Reverse Reverb Effect

Create a Reverse Reverb Effect: "

Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Audiotuts+. This tutorial was first published in July 2008.

When it comes to special effects, reverse reverbs are amongst the most useable processes there are. Although the method for creating these effects is often looked upon as complex, the right technique can lead to a transparent workflow and impressive end results.

 In this tutorial we’ll apply a reverse reverb effect to a vocal–a technique you might have heard used at the beginning of Justice’s ‘DVNO’.

Note: this article contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio, or download the audio files at the bottom of the post.

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Step 1

Choose the file you want to process and import it onto a fresh track in your DAW. It’s important to ensure this initial sound is reasonably dry and unprocessed. This way, any further processing will be easily distinguished and well defined. Make sure to trim any clicks or other artifacts from the start and end of the file, as again, this will ensure a cleaner end result.

dry_vocal.mp3

As you can see from the screenshots, I have used Cubase 4 here, but this technique can quite easily be repeated in other applications by using the same techniques.

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Step 2

Insert a good quality reverb processor onto a return or buss channel in the same way as you would in a standard send/return configuration. I have used Steinberg’s ‘Roomworks’ plug-in here but any studio-quality reverb unit can be used.

Load a preset with a very long decay time and little to no damping. Of course, you can program the reverb yourself if you feel confident. As for as the parameters needed, you can afford to use something a little over the top here in every area. This is a special effect so don’t feel constricted by the usual rules of thumb you might apply.

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Step 3

Send a large amount of signal from your chosen sound to this new reverb buss. To do this, simply use an auxiliary send and dial in a high gain amount. Again, feel free to use higher values than you would usually.

Be sure that you avoid clipping at any stage here so that you don’t introduce any unwanted digital distortion into the chain.

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Step 4

Reverse the sound you originally imported. This can be achieved directly in the arrange window of some DAWs (e.g. Steinberg’s Cubase, Apple Logic Pro, Ableton Live) or you may wish to use a standalone audio editing application.

It’s a sensible idea at this point to make a copy of your file so that you have quick access to both the edited and original versions. On playback you should now hear your reversed file being effected by the heavy reverb setting.

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Step 5

The next step is to export or record the sound of the reverb alone. The method you use here will depend on the DAW you are using, but generally the routes available to you at this stage are very similar.

In most DAWs you are able to route a channel to ‘No output’ or ‘No Buss’. This essentially means the files are still playing back but the resulting output is not heard through you audio interface outputs. The aux sends from this channel will still work and therefore you should only hear the reverb from the effects return on playback.

You are now able to export the area as usual and the file will only contain the reverb signal.

reverb_only.mp3

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Step 6

Now re-import this ‘reverb only’ file you have created into its own new audio channel. Playback the file to check that it contains only the audio you need and then name the new file and the track to keep things organised.

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Step 7

Again, reverse this file the way you did in step 4, using either the editing capabilities of your chosen DAW or an external audio editing application.

At this point you can also reverse the original audio file so it plays back as it did originally. This can be achieved using the method above or using the original or backed up audio file. On playing back the two channels individually you should now hear the original file and the reversed reverb.

reverse_reverb.mp3

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Step 8

At this point you need to start thinking about making the two files work together so that they playback seamlessly in an organic way. The first obstacle here is their timing, so switch off any auto snap mode your sequencer may have and start to move the two files around.

You should be able to quickly find points in the reverb file that resemble points in the original sound. Using these as anchors you can line up the two files so that the rise of the reverse reverb leads into your original audio perfectly.

final_processed_vocal.mp3

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Step 9

Once the placement of your audio is sorted you can start to fine tune things. Start by applying fades to the start and end points of all your files. This will ensure smooth playback of the whole sequence with no clicks and pops.

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Step 10

Finally, use your DAW’s mixer to balance the level of the two files so that they compliment each other in your mix. Also, try adding a small amount of the reverb to the original audio file to give it some space and help it blend with the reverse effect. If you like, at this point you can bounce the whole sequence into one file to make things easier.

For some interesting results, why don’t you try processing the reverse reverb audio further with some auto pan or tremolo effects? You can even apply further delay to the reverse effect for a really spacey feel.

Listen to an example of this technique in use:

example_of_use.mp3

Download the Play Package for this post (11.2MB)

Contents:

• Printable PDF Tutorial


• Audio files


• Mo’s Cubase project

Hear examples of Mo’s work or drop him a line at www.myspace.com/mohawkmuzik or www.MoVolans.com.

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Flying Lotus remixing Radiohead

Flying Lotus remixing Radiohead: "

In an interview with Colorado Springs Independent [via Pitchfork], Flying Lotus has revealed his attempts to remix Radiohead’s “new record”.

“They wanted me to remix the new Radiohead record,” said the California-based producer “and I’ve been trying to mess with that a little bit. But I haven’t gotten to it yet.”

Asked how he thinks the remix might sound, he replied: “It’s too early to say, man. I have no fucking clue. It’s difficult to work with, because the pieces that they gave me, there’s no real a cappella. It’s like piano and voice at the same time… So I have to come up with some shit that’s a little similar to the record, I guess, to an extent.”

Related Posts:

• Flying Lotus reveals details of new LP Cosmogramma
• Win signed Flying Lotus vinyl art print
• Listen to unreleased Burial + Flying Lotus collaboration
• Flying Lotus and Madlib album?
• Word on the Twittervine: Flying Lotus meets Erykah Badu, Cooly G and DVA albums

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