AbletonDJ101: Selecting Songs

There is one tip I would give to every aspiring DJ, especially those who want to start DJing with Ableton. Since songs take a longer time to prepare for live action, you really need to select the songs. Your style and your tracks are all your choices, and you shouldn't take too many advices there. Before torrenting "100.000.000 club hits" from PirateBay, think what you want to play. Audition every song, and be merciless. Keep only the great and good tracks. Delete the pretty good ones, ask yourself if are REALLY ever seeing yourself playing them. There are hundreds and hundreds of great tracks that you'll love, so don't be hasty in deleting those 1000+ tracks to find that one you really want in your collection.

I personally went the wrong way, and it took me two years to sort out tracks, figuring out finally my personal preference of disco-y but not too disco-y gut thumping house. It's obviously cheaper to stay legal as well and takes less time to do the Ableton magic with them.

DigitalDJTips covered the area with these articles:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/07/why-i-just-threw-away-nearly-all-of-my-music/ 

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/09/confessions-of-a-music-junkie-dj-mp3s/

DJing with touchAble, pt.2

As my previous post on touchAble was based on only couple hours of play, I left covering lot of the main points for later.

I played with the program today as I wanted to test if I can assign all the settings of a drum machine vst (roughly 40 knobs) to touchAble (which I can!), I ended up DJing with touchAble alone. It definitely seems to be equivalent to my previous setup (of two Launchpads & Nocturn if you haven't read the first part). I also played with the keyboard, which has a velocity sensitivity. It's not a professional substitute, but works. Also, I noticed when I was playing with my Wobblerator (my dubstep operator patch, which is available free by request), that if you press a key and switch to another mode like clips, the note will be left playing until you return to the keyboard and press another note.

I was able to switch between different tracks, racks and modes easily - touchAble is quick to use when you've had practice with the constantly changing layout. I originally tried to keep the top part for clips to see the names and progress, but then finally I was able to give up to the chaos, and got much more out. I had one or two mis-presses with the clips, but only because I didn't zoom in, which you can easily do while mixing.

Since you can't have button on/off effects with buttons, the snap mode works really well for those (as it does for any kind of riser effects). It would be great to be able to preassign some effects to always work in that mode, but the fact that the setting now toggles the selected rack, it could be a source of confusion. There is only a small setup menu as it is, and that's usually preferable.

DJs are probably interested by the fact that you can set to show two racks to EQ them at the same time, flip to adjust the volumes on the mixer site, and return back to the previous layout by pressing the then lighted device button. A very handy feature. The send effects seem to be a little further away, being under the mixer page which I usually have set for track volumes. Nothing too bad, but you might have to rethink your layout and settings a bit.

So even though I could do a DJ set with just the touchAble, I still like to keep at least something for knobs, or preferably my current setup with me. The program itself is very "Mac-like", without really requiring any manual as it is. My wife was also quick to pick up the basics when I showed her the program.

DJing with touchAble

I had great luck winning touchAble in ObediaTutor's Twitter competition, which partially sealed my iPad purchase. For those who don't yet know, touchAble is based on TouchOSC, giving a ready made template which you can change around (mixer view, clip view, etc.)

I was bold enough to sell away one of my Launchpads, leaving me with one Launchpad, Nocturn, and the iPad. With the Launchpad I have the nativeKontrol script, which I left unused for the most part. I use Guille's nifty script for the Nocturn, which came handy. You don't really want to use absolute knobs since they are quickly pointing in whichever direction when using relative knobs and faders with it.

As for layout for channels, I used a 4-band EQ, couple filter fx and beat repeat in the first "quick access" rack (for Nocturn that is - changing the rack in touchAble IS quick, although the return button is a bit small to my taste). Each channel also had a whole another rack for fx and delay and reverb in the sends.

For the convenience of it I set the touchAble to work through the router, which left me with a working internet connection, but with a cost of lag in the connection. For live use ad-hoc connection is definitely recommended, although I had a usable experience.


Some points I noticed while playing: 

 - There's no crossfader, at least not yet. Doesn't really bother me since with five channels it would be kinda difficult to figure out a working system. I've tried...

- At least currently there's no build-your-own customisable page where you could for example set all the EQs for easy access.

- Touchscreen is very usable, but doesn't beat the physical experience.

- There is an excellent snap mode for faders, which returns the faders to beginning point after release. I ended up using Nocturn for EQ and volume, as the initial touching point on the TouchAble felt uncertain, and leaps in the volume aren't welcome. I pretty much had the fx rack open on the bottom of the screen the whole time.

- I ended up using Launchpad for sends since they were quicker to access, and also for launching clips, although I used iPad for checking the clip names and their progress. Only times I needed to check the laptop screen was to see the waveforms, and the clip progression when there was too much of a lag. 

Even though I'm pointing out mainly things I had issues with, I can highly recommend touchAble, especially if you have a complementing controller such as APC40. Mainly something for some physical faders and knobs. After playing with the program for good couple of hours, I'm less likely to check the competitors, as I planned to do before. I ended up using more creative fx in my mix due to the snap mode and the sheer ease of it compared to my earlier setup (3 physical faders are harder than using touchscreen), and managed to have all the controls needed available at all times. I didn't even utilize the xy control, pads or keyboard so comments on those are for later.

The next update for touchAble is on it's way, and here's an excerpt on what's coming in 1.3:


Clips: 
- added Loop menu to clip module. Do loops on the fly - on whole tracks or on already prepared loops. think Traktor looping - Keep loops that you like. 
- Added beatjump/loopjump menu to clip module. Do beatjumps / loopjumps of a set size in the currently playing clip of a track. 
- track buttons in the clip module now function as 'jump to active clip' buttons. For group-tracks they allow to fold and unfold the tracks. 


Mixer: Completely rebuilt mixer: 
- added crossfader to mixer 
- added A/B control to mixer 
- added support for as many sends as you like 
- added possibility to show as many faders at once as you like - and you can decide which!. 
- added the possibility to control return tracks the same way you can control normal tracks 
- added "+" mode to fullscreen for double length faders for precision tasks 
- added snapmode to mixer 


Drums: 
- added velocity sensitivity to drum pads (as a third option, as we see it more as a gimmick) 


XYPad: 
- snapshots will be saved with saved templates of XY pad now 
- after morphing / playing / stopping snapshots the dots will not be affected by gravity till touched 


General: 
- Added support for 4 iPads 
- Finally touchable will connect via bonjour - tests show that almost no setup is needed to connect (forget the stupid guides  



Opinion: Highly recommended. Plus, the iPad is nicer than I hoped for. I barely touch my computer anymore...

Also, if you want to check what I managed to do, check out the Booming mix on the left, or at the Mixcloud site.

Moog goodies to drool for - or to drool on!

Moog just came out with newest additions to their product range. I'm definitely a fan!

Again, it seems to be very Moogish. Cool but too expensive to justify it...

Shady Marketing

This is totally unrelated to music, but I was reading the instructions on the car seat we have, and the front page is either mistake in marketing, or there's just something really wrong with me...

P.S. As labels I put totally unrelated search words, same that someone google-searched and arrived to my page. Go figure...

Writing Music on iPad with Modular Tabletop

CDM provides an in-depth article on Tabletop, a modular approach to making music with iPad. This looks very promising, as it leaves the old preconceptions of a workflow, and uses the strengths of what the iPad can offer.

Our Universe May Be a 'Multiverse,' Scientists Say

This has already been said in a different universe, but new evidence has been found that supports the idea of the multiverse.

Inside Turntable.fm

Good and lengthy review of the Turntable.fm from my favorite news source ArsTechnica. I have to say that the idea of the service sounds quite appealing, except when not being able to see the crowd reaction aside from people leaving the room, it feels that there would be a barrier between DJ and the listeners.

How The Internet Transformed The American Rave Scene

A great article from NPR delves into the transformation of rave scene and the changes internet brought. Oh the times of BBSs, and the high telephone bills for the Europeans who had to pay for short distance calls too..!

How to master music at home

If you're on a budget, and need some beginners tips for mastering your own tracks, here is a website that provides easy short tutorials on what to do. I like the simple layout and organized structure of the site. The information can obviously be found in hundred pages around the net.

My Early Musical Influences

OP:L Bastards' Scorpius has all that Moog induced goodness and hypnotic sounds that made it the first track to ever be in my DJ collection. It doesn't seem to get old, either, so there it remains.

Ableton Resource: Everything Ableton

Here's a great site for your bookmarks. Everything Ableton is full of useful information and links on Ableton. The layout is soothingly gray, too...

Url2la

You are listening to Los Angeles mixes ambient music from Soundcloud with pre-recorded police radio streams. You can choose between LA, NY, SFO, Chicago or Montreal, and you have the possibility to mix the volumes as you wish, or skip the track. Not that you really want to, though. This is excellent background ambience for anyone looking for Blade Runner feeling.

Greek Government Set to Decriminalize Drug Use

According to a Greek newspaper Ekathimerini the Greek government is set to decriminalize drug use, although other offenses such as possession would remain punishable. Similar ideas have been stated elsewhere in Europe as well, as chasing users is big burden on the police.

My early electronic musical influences.

A video with a track from Front 242. I still remember the first time I saw this demo and was all "ZOMG!". Thanks to @jasonswe for getting Front 242 in my head again! I recently listened to them in Spotify just to find how current they still sound. I think I need to go in search for Modern Angels and that other remix album if they could be discovered somewhere...



Oh, and the vid starts at around 30sec in.

The positive effects of XTC

Maastricht University has approved a grant for a study examining the positive effects on Ecstasy. Given the fact that it was invented as a tool for psychologists (or is it psychiatrists?) the conclusion should be quite evident. Perhaps extensive field studies are required...

UK to legalize private copying of CDs

UK to legalize private copying of CDs.

In related news, the amount of criminals in UK collapsed.

Physicists find hints of a light Higgs boson in LHC data

Physicists haven't found the Higgs boson quite yet, but they have pretty much calculated the area where it doesn't exist, which basically tells where it can be found. It is uncertain how long the discovery will take, but it will be a great day for science.

BBC News - How engineers create artificial sounds to fool us

BBC News - How engineers create artificial sounds to fool us.

"Many of the sounds we hear every day are entirely fabricated by engineers to persuade us to buy things." A great little BBC article on sound engineering.

MTV Launch AUGUST 1st , 1981

Music Television turns 30, and to celebrate the occasion here's the very beginning. Now, could someone please explain what happened to the Music?

Music Documentaries, Rock Docs, Concert Films

Musicdocs.com provides access to different music documentaries, which can be browsed by genre or artist. The site seems great, but the copyright issues seem a bit iffy to me, so be quick, your favourite one might disappear...

Could Finnish invention hold key to CO2 reduction?

A Finnish nuclear physicist has patented a method to neutralize and dissolve CO2 emissions from power plants while creating valuable compounds as side process. First purification facilities are to be built in Africa.

Drug use and nightlife: More than just dance music

Here's a link to a study that came to the shocking conclusion that there are generally more amphetamine-based drugs such as MDMA used in the club culture. I would have never thought that tracks like "Lick the Rainbow", "Ecstasy" or "Let's Take Drugs" could have relevance in the use of illegal substances...

Griid vs touchAble, side-by-side Guide + TouchOSC

Here's a no-resolution, please-everyone one-on-one comparison of Griid and TouchAble. I want to point that although TouchAble is at the moment the most advanced all-in-one iPad Ableton contoller, Griid has come out with interesting options is you have another controller or mixer in use.

Perhaps the most versatile controller is Hexler's TouchOSC. If you have the energy you can create your own controller template to suit the setup you already have.

Blog Status: Week Two

Two weeks of Blogger behind and time for more nerdy stats and recap of the week. I figured Klout is way to give a cool graph, as it reacted to the point I began blogging. The blog has now received a little over 730 views, and zero comments although they should be open to everyone. I don't know where the entry on the TouchAble review was mentioned, but it became the number one read post.

I began writing my thoughts about DJing with Ableton, as I try and do connect with people who do the same, and lot who are just starting. Twitter after all is a poor place to explain things better. All the texts can be found under the "101" tag, although I've actually had so much time I'm catching up with creating midi loops for drum machine VST, and chopping the newly acquired tracks. This has also meant less emphasis on the blog, although next version of 101 series is also in the works. I would also be interested to hear if you want to hear opinions on anything at all (as long as it is at least remotely Ableton/DJing related).

Thanks for reading, and special thanks to people who have retweeted and commented in Twitter!

Harmonic Mixing - Camelot Sound

Harmonic mixing is a method of creating a feeling of rising (or falling) energy, by mixing harmonically. With Ableton it is obviously even easier since you can alter the pitch and bpm unrelated to each other. The Camelot Sound website has the basics and some more advanced techniques explained.

I personally use Mixed in Key, since I won it in Loopmasters' competition. I can wholeheartedly promote it, but if you are tight on money, you can check free alternatives, such as Rapid Evolution (as long as you analyze only few tracks at a time to avoid hangups), or just use your ears and a keyboard. The latter is obviously the hardest at first, but gives you good practice.

If you are using this with Ableton, you can add the key to you song name, which might be preferable to naming the track itself. Wouldn't it be so nice to have Ableton understand ID3 tags and have a decent browser to take advantage of them?

AudioTag.info - Music Recognition Robot

If you pirated your tracks from some shady blog in 128kbps MP3 format ripped from some Youtube video, you might find this website handy. It recognizes the audio snippets you upload to the service. And THEN you go and buy the track, right?

Yes yes, I was joking, it has legitimate uses... It's actually pretty cool. I wonder if they got the idea from GTA 3?

(via DigitalDJTips)

IP Law Firm Sends Takedown Notice to IP Law Firm

In another news, IP law firm sends takedown notice to IP law firm. It was bound to happen!

Online Music Licensing Resources

Online music licensing resources. Get to know the terms and see the list of links. (Via @MarkMosher )

No PLUR in LA

LA riot police fired rubber bullets at ravers on Hollywood Boulevard to quell a riot that ensued when people were refused entry to the sold out premiere of EDC documentary. A block party ensued in front of the Chinese Theater, and cops used strong measures to break the scene. Perhaps using candies as a weapon instead of beans would have worked better?

Banning Porn is Against the Free Speech

A federal judge struck down an Alaska statute labeling it a crime to make sexually explicit materials available to minors. He ruled that the law violated the free-speech rights of online adults. Yay for free speech (I know none of us watches porn)..!

AbletonDJ 101 - Expanding Your Setup

One of the best qualities of Ableton is the possibility of integrating in different workflows. The most obvious and hyped is the Bridge collaboration with Serato, but there's also another easy way to connect. Propellerhead's ReWire concept was created originally to connect Reason, which despite of it's many great qualities, lacks in some ways (such as VSTs) where it is just easier to connect with others rather than work against the basic concept of the program.

From the Propellerheads website:

What is ReWire?

ReWire is a system for transferring audio data between two computer applications, in real time. Basically, you could view ReWire as an "invisible cable" that streams audio from one computer program into another.

So, what can ReWire do?
ReWire has the following features:

Real-time streaming of up to 256 individual audio channels (up to 64 with ReWire 1) from one application to another.
Real-time streaming of up to 4080 individual MIDI channels from one application to another (255 MIDI buses with 16 channel per bus). This feature requires ReWire 2.
High-precision synchronization - complete, glitch-free sync between the two applications, with no settings to make and no parameters to worry about.
Common transport functions - if both applications have built-in sequencers of some sort, you can play, stop, rewind etc. in any of the applications and they will both locate to the same position.
Additional querying - one application can "ask" the other about audio channel names, etc. This feature requires ReWire 2.

What is so great about ReWire is the easy setup.
Step 1: Launch the master program, which tells the slave what to do.
Step 2: Launch the slave program. Now they are connected, and aside from routing the audio you should be ready to go.

So how does this all apply to you again? Well, most obviously if you're into producing and are more at home with traditional instruments, Reason might be just for you. On the other hand, if you would just like to use Ableton as a sampler/sound mangler and/or VST platform, you could connect it with Torq. This way you don't have to warp your songs in Ableton and you gain the fluidity of a dedicated DJ program. You can then add your custom effects in Ableton and maybe a drum machine and all that. In my own tests the burden on the computer remained very usable and I experienced no glitches. You can also reskin Torq, leaving samplers and other unnecessary stuff out, giving you a clearer view.

Another alternative would be using Deckadance as it can be used as VST. Midi clock doesn't behave quite as nice as ReWire, but for those on budget you should at least check the possibility out. As I mentioned in my previous post, VJs can also benefit from the midi out option, as you can send BPM and commands out to all the major VJ software available. This with the dummy clips was my plan for a longest time, but the burden of mixing tracks and video was too much on my computer, plus the videos take a lot of space...

Click here for other related posts.

How Many Sell-Outs Does It Take To Change A Music Business?

Good article about music business and the whole industry, talking about industry built stars vs. "true" artists.

The Ultimate Equalizer (EQ) Guide

The ultimate EQ quide from Synesthesiac.org lists instruments, their frequency ranges and the application and usage of their frequencies. Useful list, although as always, it's your own ears you have to rely on.

AbletonDJ 101: Three Essential Things You Should Learn

1. Warping

Warping is overly emphasized and feared aspect of Ableton. If you spin genres like electro house, trance, or whatever made with computers which isn't based on old disco samples or similar, the beat is constant. This means Ableton will easily know the BPM. All you need is to set one warp marker in the beginning, right click, select "Warp 1XX BPM from here", set the second warp marker in the end, and that should do it. No videos you need to watch, or lengthy tutorials to read. Nothing.

But... Because of the next tip I usually go on and add a couple in between, usually right after breaks and big changes in waveform, wherever it is easy. When you learn it, warping a track takes minute or two, and then it's set forever.


2. Follow Actions

Follow actions are under the launch panel on the bottom left. Basically you want to take your track, create a duplicate (cmd/ctrl+d), loop first 8 or 16 bars, or whatever makes a good intro loop. Rename it "Intro Loop", or something along the lines. Then duplicate the loop you just created, take the next 16/24/32 bars that usually constitute a melody intro. Rename the loop. Continue until the track is split into small pieces.

From the follow actions, choose the corresponding amount of bars each clip takes, and below that select the arrow down option for "launch next". Some sections you don't want to add the follow actions, which gives you loops, and rest of the track you can launch from wherever, whenever, and have the track play normally from that part forward.

Finally, color code the loops differently from the ones with follow actions enabled so you can easily see by a glance which parts are going to loop until infinity, and which are jump to the next one. Launchpad and APC40 will indicate with blinking button that there is a clip coming on. If you listened to my instructions, the whole song should be on top, working as the track name indicator.

Then you just need to copy the track name from Finder/file explorer, select all the clips you just created and drag them to Ableton's browser to create als-file. Paste then name copied, and everything is now saved.


3. Dummy Clips

Dummy clips can send midi commands within or outside Ableton. Inside Ableton you can create fader/knob actions that work by launching the clip (which can be really handy for someone using grid controller such as Launchpad). The perhaps cooler application is to create midi clips, send midi out of Ableton, and into a VJ software such as CellDNA. That means you could basically control another control without ever leaving Ableton.

Easiest way to get started with dummy clips is to download Will's template that I mentioned in an earlier post. Explaining everything in detail would take too long, so instead I point you to an AbletonLiveDJ Forum thread. You need to register, but you really should, too.

Other related articles.

AbetonDJ101, List of Resources to Get You Started

Today I helped Timo Juuti (who produces crazy tracks, btw!) to find a DJ template to ease the jump from Traktor to Ableton. I ended up hinting about the same things I've mentioned to others so many times, so I came up with an idea to create a little package of resources for those thinking of DJing with Live. As it is, Ableton doesn't quite cater for DJs, so here's information on how to expand on it.


Aurex provides crazy hacks for Launchpad, Livid's machines, and APC40. The come for free, add cool functionalities to the controllers and use up quite a bit of CPU in my experiences. Here's a demonstration of Launchpad script:





Darren Cowley has created Max4Live devices, which, if you have forked out cash for Ableton, M4L and controller, really aren't that expensive, and they come with free updates as well. I've tested Octopad, and it really is worth it's cost! Demonstration of APC's Isotonik through a mix:

Isotonik 7 - Live from Darren E Cowley on Vimeo.

NativeKontrol website has controller scripts for:
Akai APC40
Akai MPD32
Korg nanoKONTROL
Korg nanoPAD
Korg padKONTROL
Livid Instruments Block
Livid Instruments Ohm64
Novation Launchpad

They work with Bomes Midi Translator without need for M4L. They cost some, but work great, and bring A LOT of functionalities to the controller of choice. I personally use the Launchpad one, and although it is a bit geared to producing, it works for me in DJing as well.




If you have an iPad, you probably should get either TouchOSC, or the refined version called TouchAble.




Will Marshall has further refined the Tom Cosm's Megaset, and created a DJ template. It is designed for APC40, but you can easily alter it as you wish. Note that this is Donationware.

DJ Template Redux from Will Marshall on Vimeo.

Last but most importantly, Tarekith's DJ effects
will give you all sorts of on/off & one knob action effects to play with. Plenty enough to get you started! They are also donationware.


P.S. There are interesting things done to controllers, which are too numerous to list coherently. Use Google, type *Your Controller* Ableton Script. From the top of my head I can name at least Max runtime based script for BCR-2000 and Guille's Python script for Nocturn.

P.P.S. Here's an earlier article showcasing a couple of videos for inspiration. Further posts can be found checking the tag 101 on the sidebar.

AbletonDJ 101: Why would I DJ with Ableton - The Inspiration

Two videos for inspiration, and Youtube is full of them....

Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods

I let anyone believe in whatever they will, but LA Times published a great article on the psychological and evolutionary foundations of believing. If you are happily religious you might just want to skip this article (although the language used isn't offensive in itself).

Taking care of your music library

@Digitaldjtips really nails it with this article about taking care of your digital dj library. After you've read that, read this as well:

Get Minimal With Your Music Collection

I've been currently relabeling my tracks (filling id3 tags with comments on style and sound) and removing unnecessary ones. Prepping in Ableton takes ages, especially when have tracks that I have listened 5sec in Beatport, and decided to get it - and never played it again. Having that sort of "noise" in the music collection makes everything take twice as long, and finding the right tune even harder. I have just now gone through all my tracks once, removed over 100 pretty-good-but-not-great tracks, starred them and ready to start weeding again.

I actually got into DJing through trance music for it's musicality, and slowly moved to electro-funky-poppy side through progressive house. Now my Trance folder stands for "Never playing this again, but saving it just in case". Same is happening to the Progressive folder. On a positive note, I find it is the sign of finding my own niche in the electronic music world.

File organizing in Ableton isn't as straight forward as with iTunes compatible programs. To top it off, I started DJing with Serato, and had ALL my tracks in SAME goddamn folder! Now, after couple of years I'm finally at the point of actually being able to take advantage of my library.

Distortion to the People

Here's a direct link to a free pdf article on distortion. Very interesting read I could add.

I'm lazy so I just copy-paste the abstract here. If you're even lazier, it's about leveling, headroom, clipping and stuff.

Despite new generations of converters, higher resolution and sample rates, lower jitter, and several other technical improvements in audio production, many music lovers believe that quality on new CD releases has generally been on a downward slope since the mid 90'ies.

In previous papers [19-21], one of the contributing factors was found to be the use of extreme level ("0 dBFS+") on new albums, combined with the lack of headroom in reproduction. Clipping in production and mastering causes listening fatigue, while the sound can be additionally distorted in the digital to analog conversion at the listener. Purely digital processing, such as sample rate conversion, filtering and data reduction codecs, may exhibit the same behavior.

In Part I, this paper describes measurements to quantify the level problem, and tests performed on commercial recordings to demonstrate the phenomena. Part II is practical, and discusses quality conscious levelling and processing procedures for use in production and mastering.

Custom MIDI Controllers

Create Digital Music just highlighted a cool new company that makes custom MIDI controllers. Apparently they use LividInstruments' DIY MIDI control unit called Brain, and the results are very cool as the video above demonstrates. I hope the pricing will be better than of the earlier similar candidates...

DNA circuits used to make neural network, store memories

Some first steps into making biological computers, by storing data into DNA circuits. I'm not sure if even Philip K Dick could have imagined this. These new discoveries are just mind blowing.

Unlicensed: Are Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player illegal?

Licensing and cloud music services, are the new services illegal? Great article from ArsTechnica on how outdated laws hinder the inevitable development.

PayPal, IFPI and Police Collaborate To Strangle Pirate Music Sites

Apparently IFPIhas come to an agreementwith Paypal to stop donations to AllofMP3 style of Russian music sites. Curiously, according to the Russian copyright laws (which, I admit, are a bit shady), AllofMP3 was completely legal site. It's the western pressure that finally has put a stranglehold on the services which didn't benefit IFPI.

When Patents Attack! | This American Life

NPR's episode gives a nice view of the most wretched scum of the earth and the enemies of progress, the patent trolls. The episode might not make you any happier about the matter, but is still well worth listening.

RA Reviews: TouchAble 1.2

TouchAble's Ableton controller for iPad is unsurprisingly getting a lot of attention. Of course when the death of the fathomed Lemur controller can pretty much be blamed on you, you're bound for bigger things. The problem with hardware controllers and Ableton is that because of Ableton's modularity, there's always something missing in terms of control. Software/touchscreen combination overcomes most of the obstacles, aside from the tactile control of physical knobs and faders. I guess I should share my two cents on the matter soon, since I won my very own TouchAble app in Obedia's Twitter raffle! This is actually third cool software I've won in Twitter. In physical world my biggest raffle victory so far has been handkerchief, which happens to be missing...

Here's the link to Resident Advisor's review on the TouchAble. Version 1.2 brought the addition of XY pad.

Oh, touchable.com is NSFW, so check your links when surfing at work.

Dan303: Tenori-On iPad app review

Here's a good review with a video of the iPad version on Tenori-On. It seems to me that iPad is slowly killing some expensive musical gadgety type instruments, that haven't gone mainstream due to their uniqueness. The positive side is that now, given that you have the iPad, you can have several cool instruments, all for reasonable price too!

Noise Gates Explained

Another short tutorial from @Loopmasters - this time explaining how noise gates work. Noise gates are used to reduce unwanted noise from the sound material. The obvious benefit is in sampling, when you dig out those 70's funky vinyls for proper human grooves.

Part two is also online, going more in depth. If you know the basic idea you can jump straight to there

Aurex Midi Controller Apps for Ableton

Aurex ( @aurexlive in Twitter) has made some cool scripts for Ableton controllers by Novation, Akai & Livid, meaning that all the major pad controllers have some cool features brought to users without Bome's or M4L.

Not quite sure how it's done, Aurex has created sequencers/apps that he shares on his websites with videos to demonstrate what each app does, and manuals to further show the details. I have tested the Launchpad ones, and I assure you that you'll love what the apps do.

I noticed in my tests that the templates are a bit gimmicky in the sense that pressing wrong buttons can mess up the lights, so checking the manual really IS necessary. What really ended up steering me away from the cool cool apps in the end, was that they really worked up the CPU of my poor old Mac... But hey, they're donationware, so you should really check them out!

I dag er vi alle Norske.

Nothing more to add.

SampleSwap: 6.4 GB of samples and loops

Here's a link to a nice collection of CC licensed Samples - 6,4GB so far. Obviously everything is not Loopmasters quality or such, but again, it's CC licensed!

London Pirate Radio

Here's an interesting video about pirate radios in London from Palladium Boots. It works a bit as a how-to guide as well. If I lived in higher density residential area, this would be interesting in so many different ways...

Found via @AmericanDJ_EU in Twitter

Creating drum fills in Ableton

Bang the DJ posted a tutorial that makes me want to bang my head to the wall. If you've used Ableton, you're obviously aware of the MIDI FX in Ableton, and in this particular case the Random plug-in..? It should be pretty clear what to do with that information in relation to the topic, but check out the website for more detailed info, pictures and even a video.

Blog Status

Now that a week has passed with the new blog I figured I'd post some geeky stats. I'm nearing 400 hits on my blog so far. Top 3 topics so far have been Bitwig, Francis Preve, and the No Breasts No Requests. Most visits have come from the States, but unless some of you are playing with proxies, I've received visitors from places like Brazil, New Zealand and Estonia as well. I also went and updated my "about" field, so you would better know who's spamming you. If you think you have interesting content around the same topics, but no interest in blog of your own, I might have space in mine. You've seen the cool slideshow on the first page, right?

I don't quite understand Klout, but I took an interesting looking graph snapshot. Guess the point where I began blogging.

My near future plans include adding some downloads for Ableton which will naturally be free, so stay tuned. I just need to find an easy and free hosting option.

Pluto has Another Moon

Hubble Photos Reveal that a fourth moon was found orbiting Pluto. This would have naturally been interesting if the discovery had been made when I was kid. Not even being a planet anymore, I'm not quite sure why we should pay any attention to that measly little rock.

Francis Preve - Ableton/Sound Design/Remixing Guru

Preve is a must-check for all the Ableton users, and perhaps also for all the electronic music producers. He shares good, no, great advice and free Ableton racks in his blog, has authored an pretty accurately named book called Remixer's Bible (which is primarily based on different articles he's written, together with artists' tips), and has written to Keyboard Mag & Beatportal with tons of useful information to all the producer minded out there. I'm also very much a fan of the tracks he's done, and the mashups he shares in his SoundCloud account.

Here's a link to BTDJ's Francis Preve - Trade Secrets interview.

18 pro remixing tips

Here are 18 remixing tips courtesy of Musicradar. I'm sort of surprised I had missed this. Maybe I'm not the only one, so here's the link. I can also whole-heartedly promote Francis Preve's aptly named Remixer's Bible that goes through these tips and much more!

Creative sampling tips

Sharooz shares his top creative sampling tips on MusicRadar. Some of them are quite commonly known and obvious, but I personally got some new ideas out of it, so I figured it's worth sharing.

8 tips for getting top performance in Ableton

Liine Blog listed good tips for saving the cpu power when using Ableton.

Here's a couple of mine:

1. Whenever possible, map your devices so that when they do nothing they also turn off. If you don't know how this can be done, add a comment and I'll show in pictures.

2. If you are DJing in certain range (128ish BPM, for example), you are just as good using complex warp mode as complex pro - you'll only notice the difference in CPU usage. This tip is obviously for the tracks that are in that same BPM range.

Found via Psicoff

Oh, I tried using darker skins and reducing screen brightness, but did nothing to me. I don't think we're talking much of a difference here.

The Formula Behind Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Here's a short and readable scientific description on how noise-cancelling headphones work from Wired.

And, if you want to see how wave interference works, here's a link to an applet showing you just that.

Novation Twitch

Here are couple of reviews on the new Novation Twitch controller. I've been itching (ha ha) for more info on this piece of gear ever since it was announced. I love the Novation gear I currently have, and as audio interface knowledge comes from Focusrite, I'm pretty confident that this is a solid piece of gear. My only reservation is that there's no Bridge for Itch/Ableton, and that the Bridge apparently requires a up-to-date computer ($$$). Therefore I'm still looking towards Torq and it's ReWire abilities.

Anyways, here's for more info on Twitch:

Firstly the DigitalDJTips review, which goes through the basic features quite extensively. Unfortunately the Slicer part, which is of great interested to the Ableton users searching for more fluid DJing options is left out.

Phil also made a video review:


There's also a review of the new version of Itch on the DJTT site.

DJTechTools has also made a review. Of course Ean Golden, who is the head of the site mentioned having been involved in designing Twitch, so you might want to take the review with a grain of salt. On the other hand there's a better explanation on how the Slicer works.

As a bonus. Max4Live magician S4racen has also received the unit, apparently as a courtesy of Novation. I can only assume there's going to be a nice integration to Ableton directly (although there's no runtime for Max4Live, which frankly, is bs). His initial reactions are found at ALDJ forums (requires registration).

Ableton Master FX Rack Tutorial

Here's an interesting two part tutorial on how to make FX rack for master channel. Personally I have only channel fx racks and two send fx channels at the moment, but I guess this would be interesting to try when I have more time.

Be sure to add a limiter if you add a lot of effects on the master!

Oh, and props for AbletonOp for making the tutorial in text and pics instead of yet another Youtube vid. These you can easily read on your coffee break and print them for later.

Link to the part 2

Cluster Flux Review

As I mentioned before on the Tumblr blog entry, I just can't help but love the naming policy of Moog. I love the products too, but they have to wait at least until next lottery results... Here's a link to a Cluster Flux review by Future Music.

Neutrino transformation could help explain mystery of matter.

Two research teams have found new evidence of transformations in elusive elementary particles called neutrinos. The findings may finally help explain why the universe didn't vanish shortly after its birth.

Madeon - Pop Culture as Music Videos

By now everyone has seen the original video of Madeon's jawdropping performance on the Launchpad. Some eager fan went and collected the music videos of the tunes used in the mix. If you liked the original, you'll like this one too!

(Except for the fact it made me feel old and amateurish with my Launchpads... :P)

8 Drum Synth VSTs Reviewed

Here's a link to MusicRadar's short view on some drum machine VSTs. Like I mentioned on my earlier post (this is a repost from my old tumblr blog), I'm liking the Nepheton a lot, at the moment, but to each their own, so you might want to dig into these. Drumaxx and Drumazon were the most interesting ones for me. Having just finished a regular mix it's time for me to turn to midi clips and make a drum machine based DJ session recording next, I think.

Darpa Searches for Life’s Master Clock

Darpa Searches for Life’s Master Clock

Interesting Wired article on Darpa's research on biochronicity. That is to say not how our body works, but what it will do next by combining different fields of science in creating models to calculate the workings of cells. If you're still not convince to read further, imagine the applications in cancer research, longevity and treatments of different conditions.

Secret Weapon - Lowender

Here's a tip for the DJ's and producers: Subharmonic synthesizer automatically creates subharmonic of the input signal. In plainer English: it creates a subwoofer-breaking rumble to your audio. All in tune of what you're playing.

You want to be gentle with it, so it doesn't sound overpowering or like a teenager's BMW. Properly used it provides an extra punch to your mix. Turntable and CDJ DJs can find these in hardware form, although for much higher price.

My First Proper Mix

Unashamedly mainstream, jumping all over the place with funky basslines, disco strings and familiar tunes, I deliver my first successful mix.

I find art, djing included, so tied to the moment it is created, that I've always hated recording mixes as they portray something different than what the original thought and emotion was. Being semi-rational creature I also admit that recording your mixes and posting them online is the only way to get heard.

Special thanks to Phil at DigitalDjTips.com, the articles on your site have been helpful in focusing my efforts!

Fun-kee Summer Mix by Twumpy on Mixcloud

Music Gets Physical in Biorhythm Interactive Exhibit

Here's an interesting article of an exhibit of different sonic experiments on the boundaries of neuroscience and music, experimenting on why we like the music we do and other profound questions of music.

Spectral Layers - Spectrum Audio Editor

Spectral Layers from DIVIDE FRAME on Vimeo.

A contender for Melodyne, Spectral Layers allows you to separate parts from songs. Looks interesting, and has both Win and OSX versions available.

nativeKONTROL LPC-Live

NativeKONTROL scripts use Bomes midi editor to bring complex midi commands into regular midi controllers. I spent the 32,50$ on the LPC (the Launchpad version), and I haven't regretted it for a second!

There is so much in depth to the LPC that it's useless to describe everything in detail, so here is a snippet from the nativeKONTROL website:

This Preset leaves all of the Launchpad’s default functionality intact and adds 7 additional Modes.
Track Mode - Provides control over the parameters of the selected Track (Volume, Pan, Sends x6) via Button Faders, Increase/Decrease and Reset switches.

Device Mode - Provides control over the parameters of the selected Device via Button Faders, Increase/Decrease and Reset switches.

Clip Mode - Allows you to chop up/rearrange Clips on-the-fly and/or play them Chromatically.

Drum Mode - Provides Drum Machine-like functionality via 3 Sub-Modes; Default, 16 Levels and Sequence. Includes Note Mute, Erase and Delete functions as well as the ability to Step-Sequence directly into MIDI Clips in Live

Scale Mode - Provide access to 40 Scale Types for any of the 12 Root Notes. Includes a variety of available Scale Types covering Common types as well as Exotic and Ethnic types.

Learn Mode - This Mode allows you to learn Chords (up to 6 Notes each) and Notes to the 8 x 8 grid. You can learn the Chords/Notes by either playing them from another controller or by playing them back from a Clip in Live.

MonoSeq Mode - This Mode allows you to monophonically Step-Sequence into MIDI Clips in Live. It provides control over the Pitch (quantized to a user-defined scale), Velocity and Length of the steps in the sequence via Button Faders and randomization.

Global Controls - This Preset also includes Global Controls (accessible from any Mode) for navigating Live sets, adjusting Global/Record Quantization settings, controlling Transport, adjusting the current Clip’s Transpose/Detune/Loop settings and more.


The description barely scratches the surface, so be sure to check the videos on the site. There are also different scripts for different controllers. The only downside is that with so much control put to one controller, there is also a hefty manual to read and memorize - something that might not sound so appealing if you plan to use it live.

I found that by learning one mode at a time, I've been able to learn what I want to do live, although there are some modes that I still haven't got to...

5 Tips for Getting Things Done and Self Motivation for Artists, Producers & DJs

Another repost from Tumblr. Phil Morse wrote a good article to Dubspot.com The title really says it all. Find time and work, stop procrastinating and checking Twitter/G+/my blog...oh nevermind.

Free Ableton Racks

Here are some interesting racks for Ableton from AfroDJMac. They've received quite a bit of fame and attention, and you probably know of them already. Reposting this just in case someone has not heard of them yet. Now is the time to check them out.

Do Social Networks Really Help Musicians?

Concise reading on the entropic nature of social networks and it's effects on finding artists online.

Mashtactic VST - Visual Interface to Create Mashups

MashTactic is a mashup VST that seems to be able to distinguish different elements of a track and filter them, or everything else, out. Here's a short snippet from the website:

* 8 stereo areas of sharp cut-off filtering.
* Adjust levels separately in all selected zones.
* A great tool for mashup music makers, as vocals
and other sounds can be identified and
manipulated within a full mix.
* Allows the user to emphasise or cut percussive
transients giving control over punch or softness
in any zone.
* Each zone can pan separately.
* Great for analysing balance and frequency mix of a
track you're composing.



Looks so promising I'm keeping my hands crossed that it's not just vaporware!

Four part article series on sample based DJing

Here's a little article series that deserves some attention. It portrays what you can do with Ableton, and how you can make your set unique even if you corporate only some of the ideas explained in the article. I'm steering to the same direction, having played with Ableton for couple of years now. Except...in my setup I'm combining "normal" tracks with drum machine VST, samples, and accapellas.

Try that with Traktor, eh?

Ableton DJ Tutorial Videos, My Collection

Here is my list of Ableton & DJing related videos on Youtube. I try to keep up finding and adding new videos to it, as well as keep the poor ones out. So really, trust my judgement!

Ableton Resource: Unit27

Unit 27, or former Monosyblaik creates Trip Hop and wicked Ableton patches he offers for free on his website in weeklyish patch collections. Given that they're free and well made, they're definitely worth checking out. For example here's the list of included devices in the latest collection:

• Bass Monomaker
• Formant Shift0r
• NY Style Compressor
• Smart Knobs v1
• MS Encoder – Decoder
• Citrus Distortion
• Dist Machine
• Drums Divider
• Dub Delay
• Formant Filter
• Formantager
• Freezeverb
• Headphone Speaker Sim
• Lo & Hi Exciter
• Multiband Distortion
• Stereo Reverb
• Vocal Remover
• Drum Repeat
• Tap Sequence
• Drum Synth 2
• Synthpler
• M-Axe
• Feedback Theory Synth
• Beat Juggler

1001 Uses of Ableton Live’s Utility Device – Part 1

I have a feeling that this tutorial is never going to get to the 1001, as the first part covers only 7 uses, but it is still such an interesting read that it's worth checking out, especially if you're into production with Ableton.

Link to the Audiotuts blog

New Brain Discovery May Help Prevent Relapses in Addicts

LiveScience article briefly explains how addiction works and what the new discovery in the brain pathways functions may help to alleviate cravings and thus overcoming addictions. Not that YOU would be addicted or anything, but it's nice to know...

No Breasts No Requests

Here's a blog with a collection of DJ requests and staff notes. Some pictures are a bit small, and some notes hard to read, but there's definitely something all the DJs can relate to.

My personal favorite so far has been

Guy: Can you play some cumbia?
Me: Eh?
Guy: You know Christina Aguileira?
Me: Yeah...
Guy: She has in that one song some cumbia in the middle part.
Me: I don't think I have that, but I'll see what I can do...


Found via DJTechTools, not Tumblr since I can't seem to find crap there.

Old Classic: How to Steal Like an Artist

This has been going around the internets for a long time now, but it is so relevant to any artist that I have to post it just in case there's someone who hasn't seen it yet. It's the same two principles (it's a job, nothing is original) you can find pretty much any art related article or interview, but for some reason seems to be hard to understand for many.

BITWIG - A Competitor for Ableton?

BITWIG, a German company founded by Ex-Ableton developers promises to bring something new, and based on the teaser pic, something visually similar to Traktor for the musicians and DJs out there.

Here's the blurb from the Bitwig site:

"Within the virtual environment of a computer anything is possible, yet on a fundamental level, the way music is created today with computers is still very similar to how hardware studios were used. With an entirely new approach, we want to take the next step in the evolution of the computer music studio and create the music software we always wanted to use ourselves.

Bitwig is based in Berlin and founded by Claes Johanson, Pablo Sara, Nicholas Allen and Volker Schumacher. Our experience in the computer music software industry includes Ableton, where we were all part of the development team behind the successful music software Live, and Vember Audio, creator of the critically acclaimed software synthesizer Surge."

Daft Punk Helmet Building Instructions

Here's a three part article on how to make yourself a Daft Punk helmet with lights and all (the one Guy-Manuel is wearing). It requires some skill, but interesting read for the amateurs as well!

Pandora Becomes a Social Network

It seems the social networks are becoming saturated, and the music services have to follow the suit. First Spotify announce about the collaboration with Facebook, Google Music is most likely going to be integrated to G+ in way or another, and now Pandora. I can't help but think about that crappy 90's band everytime I hear the name. Not that the crappy service works outside the US anyways...

The article in Wired

Pornostar Records

Pornostar Records might be my new favorite music label. Hailing from Hungary, they have funky disco-y beats that are just out there and make you move, starting from the hips. They have a nice player on their website with a selection of their tracks.

New Blog

Migrating from Tumblr to Blogger in anticipation of G+ integration. Watch this space.