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Propellerheads Reason programme has been at the forefront of music technology for years now, providing a self contained electronic music package that has been used by millions of home producers as well as a host of professional artists and producers. With its intuitive interface and powerful synths and samplers, Reason set the standard that other DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) had to meet. This was great for dance music production especially, but if you wanted to record audio on your tracks, this would have to be done using another software package, as Reason could not support this. They got round this by creating the Rewire system, allowing you to synch Reason with your audio recording software (such as Cubase, Logic, FL Studio and Adobe Audition). This seemed to work fine, but you would still have to flick between programmes, or bounce your tracks down and transfer them, which is not ideal for the creative music producer.
But now, Propellerheads have released Record, a multitrack audio system with both audio and MIDI capabilities which allows you to record, edit, mix and master your music. Like most DAWs available today, this has a host of effects, EQ’s, filters, compressors, and supports both audio and MIDI recordings. Record is, however, a self contained programme, so is not compatible with 3rd party plugins. This seems to be part of Propellerheads ethos, and works in cutting down on your CPU and it also means everything seems to work well together, with few glitches.
There are three main pages to Record – the sequencer page, the effects rack and the mixer. Each track you create (whether audio or MIDI) will show in each of these pages. Like Reason, you can flip to the back of your effects rack and rewire your set up as desired. As its all based on the old rack set up, with each track having its own channel in the mixer, it is extremely easy and logical to use.
Looking at the MIDI instruments it provides, Record itself comes with just one synth, the ID8 workstation which has just a few preset sounds that you would expect such as bass synth, piano and percussion. And as it does not support 3rd party plugins, your only option to build on your MIDI instruments is to add Reason to it, making it (you guessed it) Reason Record. Reason will run as normal, and you can open all your old projects providing they were made on version 4. You will then get all the same synths, samplers and MIDI editing tools that are available in Reason, which are extremely versatile and intuitive to use. You can build on your soundbank by purchasing some of the Refill packs that Propellerheads provide. Abbey Road Studios, for example, gives you all the vintage keyboard, melotron and piano sounds sampled directly from the studios, which can be loaded into one of their samplers. MIDI editing is very similar to that of Reason, in that you are working with clips, and there are plenty of editing tools allowing you to chop, copy, paste your clips.
Recording audio is made very easy with Record, and shares some similarities with Logic particularly with its comping facility. Set the section you want to record on a loop, press record, and it will create a separate file for each take, which you can then piece together to get that perfect take. Like their MIDI editing, the audio editing works in clips. Again, you can chop, copy and stretch your clips.
The effects that comes with Reason will provide the music producer with pretty much everything they could ask for, and these same effects are included with Record. One of my favourites is the Scream distortion unit, which has 10 different types of distortion available, all of which can be tweaked to your liking. For you guitar players, Record have also included guitar amp simulation pods for both bass and guitar, provided by guitar emulator specialists Line 6. You can choose your amp, cabinet, drive level and EQ, and you can even assign a MIDI pedal to be a wah for example. Finally, there is something called the combinator device, which allows you to combine several different effects into one device providing much better control over your sounds.
The mixer they use is based on the SSL’s 9000K, and its simple layout makes it very easy to use. Each channel has 8 effects sends, with some precise Eqs and filters you can apply on each. Routing your tracks to buses is extremely easy, in the same way that wiring your devices is. Simply press the tab key to see the back of the rack or mixer and you can wire up pretty much any input to an output.
Pretty much every parameter you see on record you can automate, and this is again done using clips on which you can draw your automation. Again this can be copied, pasted and edited to your liking.
If you are looking to record mainly audio, Record will do everything that most DAWs can, and when combined with the effects rack and editing, this is an extremely versatile suite. Combine it with Reason and you get a full music production programme with some of the best software instruments about. Bugs and glitches are common for brand new software packages which tend to get ironed out as they upgrade versions. But as a self contained programme, Propellerheads have minimised this, and very few problems have been reported. As its interface is based on a hardware rack set up, Reason is easy to use and nothing is hidden from the user. This makes things simple and easy to use and also allows the user to get creative with routing and combining devices together. Record have maintained this easy to use interface and so the user can make projects as simple or as complex as they like. For someone who is new to computer music, this is definitely a good package to start with. Reason is taught in many music colleges around the country because it is based on hardware, and once you grab the basic concepts, other DAWs will make much more sense.
Now the prices. Record itself (without Reason) costs £169. If you are a Reason owner already, you can upgrade to Reason Record for £99. (If you are on an older version of Reason, this upgrade package will upgrade Reason to version 4 anyway). The full Reason Record package costs £332.92.
But don’t take my word for it. You can download a demo version from the Propellerheads website for free and try it for yourself at www.propellerheads.se/download.
If you’re a fan of 60’s influenced psychadelic and garagey music, look no further than Bristol based band The Transpersonals.
http://www.myspace.com/thetranspersonals
This unique and talented 3 piece manage to blend retro jam band influences with a thoroughly modern lyrical sensibility. Their songs reference recent popular culture and politics sprinkled over eastern-tinged rocking tunes. The band admit to preferring the environment of the studio and the experimentation this allows them to performing live; consequently their gigs are a bit of a rare treat.
However, when I have managed to catch them live, the results are hypnotic and fascinating to watch. Extensive jam sections evolve seamlessly into quirky 60’s style pop and back again. The Transpersonals’ music sounds like an eternal personal cinematic soundtrack, which we are temporarily permitted to share for the duration of the gig.
Band members Timothy Hurford, Luke Barter and Matt Bane are accomplished musicians with a humble demeanour which belies the subtle genius of their material; they are clearly all devoted to the cause and have that rare focus and unity of direction that many bands seek.
Their songs and blurbs include quotes from Plato, Aliester Crowley, Noam Chomsky and David Icke to name but a few, and the band are clearly into the odd conspiracy theory, expressing interest in hallucinogenic drugs, UFO’s and aliens. All of this is delivered with a humorous undertone so you’re never quite sure if they really mean it, or whether it’s just a means to amuse themselves.
Signed to Guerilla Music Records, a small independant label founded by 2 ex-members of the major label A&R establishment, The Transpersonals have released an EP entitled ‘Hello Hello’ which is available on itunes, and has been critically acclaimed. BBC Radio 2 recently featured one of their tracks as a single of the week, giving the band some much needed exposure. Let’s hope that it’s the start of things to come… if only there were more bands like this; intelligent, steeped in evocative influences, and built to last. The Transpersonals isn’t about ‘making it’, its just who they are, and who they will continue to be.
If you haven’t yet witnessed one of Mark Thomas’s live shows, I strongly recommend you try and catch him next time he plays a town near you. He truly is one of the most original performers you will ever see. For the uninitiated, his act consists of a unique blend of information you really ought and need to know accompanied by a scathing wit. Audiences leave his shows inspired and ready to take on the more corrupt elements of the establishment… hopefully this will last longer than until the next morning!
Born in South London in 1963 to a mother who was a midwife and a father who was a self employed builder (and ex lay preacher), Mark did a degree in Theatre Arts and cut his teeth doing shows in miner’s soup kitchens and fund raisers during the strike, which must have given him a grounding in the hypocrisy of modern politics and helped to develop his radical mind set.
He became a professional stand-up in the mid 80’s, and has since had several of his own TV series on Channel 4, as well as writing for Private Eye, fronting human rights related documentaries and being featured frequently on Radio 4.
Mark’s current tour is about creating a people’s manifesto, which he intends to promote by having people stand for election. At the gigs, audiences have been invited to suggest policies, which Mark then discusses, and an audience vote decides which ones will be included in the manifesto. Policies so far have included declaring all Tesco’s car parks to be common land, making offenders convicted of homophobic crimes serve their sentence in drag, and holding open days at MP’s second homes if paid for by expenses. Mark is a mine of information about corporate and government corruption; at the gig I saw, he informed us of such gems as the fact that many top government buildings, including the Inland Revenue and the MOD are leased from tax dodgers with offshore accounts. Often his shows and TV programmes feature demonstrations against whatever organisation he is exposing.
All this does provoke the question ‘how does this man sleep at night?’ Although his delivery is very amusing, the issues Mark is dealing with are extremely serious, and somewhat depressing. His current tour really does highlight the fact that the country we live in is a democracy in name only; you only have to listen to some of the inconsistencies and corruption he has exposed to realise that.
Mark has been arrested and detained by the police on many occasions; one hilarious part of his routine involves an anecdote about evoking his legal right to have his fingerprints and DNA removed from police records… apparently we all have the right to do this if we are innocent, but most people aren’t aware of the fact, so the police continue to hold them on a register.
The main point here is that it is very important that brave pioneers like Mark continue to examine and expose the hidden mechanisms of our major corporations and political systems; its unlikely to change the world overnight, but his very existence ensures that at least some of the perpetrators of bad ethics are held to account. If only there were more like him!
For more information on Mark Thomas, or if you are interested in contributing to the People’s Manifesto or in representing the policies in a local election, go to www.markthomasinfo.com
September 09 saw the release of Logic Pro 9, the latest complete home studio software from Apple. This has everything that a music producer could need to create professional sounding recordings, whether you are a dance producer using MIDI instruments, or you have a live music set up you want to record. Here we look at some of its editing tools and instruments that I have found particularly useful, as well as some of the new features they have introduced for the latest version.
Now its only been a year since they released version 8, so it turns out to be an expensive hobby if you want to keep up to date with their latest software. Apart from forking out £408 for the complete package, you of course need to be a smug Mac user with all the right specifications (click here for details). Now I’m a Logic 8 user and am quite happy with its audio and midi tools for the music I make. But after trying some of the new features of version 9, and being a sucker for new technology, I’m seriously thinking of upgrading. I’d better start saving…
Lets start with some of its audio editing tools. Here we find there are some nice features that can make life a lot easier. Set a loop on the arrange page, plug a guitar or microphone in, press record, and Logic will take multiple recordings of each loop, which can then be edited or copied and pasted throughout your track. This really helps in perfecting your takes and requires nothing more than setting the loop of the section you want to record.
But Logic have taken audio editing a stage further with version 9, and have introduced a new collection of tools that allow you to quickly manipulate your recorded audio. This is called Flex Time, and it allows you to speed up, slow down, stretch and shrink your audio. Logic will detect the correct algorithm to use to change the audio (stretching drums, for example, will need a different algorithm to that of vocals) giving you complete control over the tempos of your songs. You can even quantize your audio if you want it to be tighter, or fit a specific groove. These tools are available in Logic 8, but the new version has its own page dedicated to Flex Time which gives a good visual representation and will cut down the number of clicks it takes to perform a complex task.
Another new feature of Logic 9 is its guitar amp simulation and pedal board. Choose from 25 amp heads, 5 EQ’s, 10 reverbs, 25 speaker cabinets and 3 mics to recreate some classic guitar and bass sounds. You don’t have to use this with a guitar – some of the distortion and effects are great to dirty up your drums, synths or samples for example.
For those that like to use MIDI instruments in their music making, Logic 9 has a selection of powerful synths, a drum machine and sampler built in, and is also compatible with AU instruments, if you are looking to build on your home studio using 3rd party applications. Its drum machine, Ultrabeat, is a beast, and gives you complete control over your sounds. You can select Logics drum sounds, or drag and drop your own samples into the machine, and each hit then has its own pitch control, filter, distortion unit, envelope, noise generator, and all of these can be modulated, and routed to its own mixer channel. Although it looks like the Millenium Falcon (as they have crammed so many ways of manipulating each drum sound into one machine), after a bit of getting used to, you will find this an extremely versatile instrument.
Even if you like to use other software programmes to create your music, by routing your tracks through the mixer section of Logic, you can really bring your recordings to life. The effects that come with it include several delay, reverb, distortion and EQ plugins, as well as all your modulation effects (phaser, chorus, flanger) amp simulations and a host of other nifty units. The Enveloper is one of my favourites, you can quickly change the gain of the attack or delay of a drum hit (for example) to give it some real punch, or to soften it up. It’s compressor is also a favourite of mine, in that it has many features including side chaining capabilities (great for those dance producers who want that sucky volume effect), and a mix dial of your compressed to dry sound, which is very useful when experimenting with compressing a full drum kit. The Channel EQ that is on every channel strip is extremely easy and intuitive to use, and will give you complete control over the shape of your sounds. Of course, you should always use your ears when mixing, but it has become increasingly popular recently to use visual aids to help you in your mixing. Just one click on Logics Channel EQ will bring up its analyser will give you a visual representation of the sound that is being generated, which many find helpful for finding problem frequencies.
Every parameter in Logic can be automated. Just press the A button on your keyboard, and a separate arrange page dedicated to automation is shown for each track. You can easily assign a knob or fader on your MIDI keyboard to a parameter by selecting the parameter you want to automate, press control and L, turn your knob/slider, and its assigned. Keyboard shortcuts I have found to be particularly useful in speeding up workflow, and you can quickly find out and tailor your shortcuts in just a few clicks.
Logic 9 comes with a huge collection (around 37Gb) of loops, sound effects and sampled instruments that you can quickly add to your music, which can be great if you are looking for some creative inspiration even if you end up not using the loop for your final mix. They are filed well under name, category (beats, kits, FX, for example) and its original BPM, allowing you to quickly find what you are after. You can search on a keyword, or scroll through the category until you find what you want. So if I wanted a congo loop for example, I can quickly type congo in the search engine, or scroll through the percussion category.
This is just a taste of what you can do with Logic 9 – its a hugely versatile and powerful programme with a manual as thick as War and Peace. The upgrade from 8 to 9 isn’t a huge leap, and I do wonder whether Apple will release a new version every year, just when the students are about to start term. The new features they have introduced are particularly useful for those that work with audio rather than MIDI. I’ve been a Logic user for a year now, and my only complaint (apart from cost) is that it is not particularly intuitive when compared to something like Reason. But after a bit of time with the manual and with some help online (check out Logicninja on youtube), you will find that Logic can pretty much do anything you want it to.
Mark Perry with John Peel
Few people can claim to have been the spearhead and true instigator of a scene. The birth of Punk is usually attriibuted to Malcom McLaren and the Sex Pistols, but there is a person who was the true underground voice of punk; Mark Perry of ATV.
The young Mark Perry was working as a bank clerk in 1976 when a Ramones gig inspired him to start a fanzine called Sniffin Glue.( One of the collaborators on the fanzine was Danny Baker, now known as a TV presenter and about as divorced from his punk roots as you could get.) Sniffin Glue became the UK punk scene’s bible and Mark Perry quit his job and did numerous TV and radio appearances acting as an articulate spokesperson for the emerging new phenomenon.
Early in 1977, Mark Perry hooked up with a young Miles Copeland to form Step Forward Records, releasing tracks by Fall, Sham 69, Chelsea and the Cortinas amongst others. Mark was also involved with Miles’ other labels, Deptford Fun City Records and Illegal Records.
The first incarnation of ATV was born shortly after, with Mark Perry on vocals and guitar. They released their first single, ‘Love Lies Limp’, as a free flexi disc given away with the last issue of Sniffin’ Glue (no.12), August 1977.
Mark with Mick Jones
From then on, the various line-ups of ATV read like a Who’s Who of musicians who would become influential or famous during the next decade; collaborators included Joolz Holland, Genesis P Orridge, and Jammo and Dobbo (World Domination Enterprises).
Following a brief unsuccessful flirtation with EMI, ATV released their first proper single, ‘How Much Longer’/'You Bastard’, on Deptford Fun City Records. Their first album was released in May 1978.
Ever at the forefront of innovation, Mark quickly became disillusioned with the limitations of the punk scene. He can be heard on a live recording berating the audience for their thug-like behaviour and disinterest in the ideological messages that he and other intelligent punk front-men were trying to convey. This led him to mutate ATV into the Good Missionaries, a more experimental project influenced by the nascent industrial scene.
From then on, Mark sporadically made departures from, and returns to the music industry, always somehow managing to be involved with the major faces of the future, like a young Alan McGee. In 1996, Mark got back into writing by providing the text for Erica Echenberg’s photo book, ‘And God Created Punk’, which was published by Virgin. In 2000, Sanctuary Books published ‘Sniffin’ Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory’, which compiles all the issues of Mark’s fanzine along with lots of new writing and photos.
ATV has gigged as recently as 2003, but it remains to be seen whether Mark will return to the live scene again in the future. ATV cds have recently been available through http://www.markperry.freeuk.com/index.htm but check first to see if they are still available.
ATV members included:
Alex Fergusson – guitar, vocals. Went on to play in Cash Pussies and Psychic TV,
Micky Smith – bass
John Towe – drums. Was in Generation X. Went on to play in Rage and the Adverts.
Tyrone Thomas – bass, guitar. Also in Convent Nuns and other bands.
Chris Bennett – drums. Went on to play in Secret Affair.
Dennis Burns – bass. Also in the Reflections.
Kim Turner – guitar. Played drums for the Andy Fraser Band.
Mick Linehan – guitar. Went on to play in the Lines.
Dave George – guitar, other instruments. Kept the Good Missionaries name going for a few years in Hastings.
Anno Graver – vocals. Sang with Gong and Here & Now.
Henry Badowski – drums, sax. Also played bass in Chelsea, the Damned and King. And solo as ‘Henry’.
Gillian Hanna – vocals.
Alan Gruner – keyboards.
Ray Weston – drums.
Karl Blake – guitar, drums. Also in Lemon Kittens, Shocked Headed Peters and the Reflections.
Nag – bass. Also in the Door & The Window and the Reflections.
Protag – guitar. Went on to play with Blythe Power.
Steve Cannell – bass. Went on to play in Danielle Dax’s band and others.
Allison Phillips – drums. Also played in Ut and Taboo.
Clive Giblin – guitar. Also in Shocked Headed Peters and other bands.
Fish – drums.
James Kyllo – guitar, vocals. Also played in the Dropkick Me Jesus.
Dave Morgan – drums. Also in the Weather Prophets and the Rockingbirds.
Bob ???? – drums. Also played with the Cardiacs.
Luci Bocchino – guitar. Also played in the Long Decline and the Flips.
Rob Ugly – bass. Also played in the Long Decline and the Dole Claimers.
John Isaac – drums. Also played with Christian Death.
Dick Ugly – keyboards. Played in the Dole Claimers.
Lee McFadden – bass. Played in the Long Decline and loads of others.
Tony Barber – bass, guitar. Played in Boy Wonders, Buzzcocks and others.
Kevin Mann – drums.
Grahame Hullett – bass. Played in Yacca and others.
Steve Carter – bass – Played in Sad Lovers & Giants.
Digger, Keith and Jammo
There are a few bands in the world who completely encapsulated the mood of their time and influenced a host of other musicians, but who sadly never achieved a place in the global public consciousness and never reaped the rewards they should have been due. One such band is World Domination Enterprises.
http://www.myspace.com/worlddominationenterprises
WDE were formed in 1984 by Keith Dobson, (a former member of trippy jam band Here and Now) from the ashes of a notorious project called 012, famous for their chaotic, and some would say unlistenable 10 minute guerrilla sets. He embarked on a poster campaign of bus shelters in West London, searching for ‘Gutterfunk bass and drums’ and was soon joined by Steve ‘Jammo’ Jameson, a stalwart of the West London scene where punk clashed with dub sound systems on bass, and a feisty talented young chap by the name of Digger Metters on drums.
World Domination Enterprises had a completely unique sound; Keith (Dobbo) would detune his guitar to a kind of edgy dischord and max out the treble, Jammo tuned down to what I believe was a low C sharp on bass, and wore it lower than any bassist before or since, and Digger was a tight, groovy powerhouse who had mastered the art of hitting his cymbals hard enough that the stands rocked, but never quite fell over.
The sound was like Elvis on PCP meets a very dark Beastie Boys; a kind of 50’s influenced rockabilly but with industrial and punk sensibilities underpinned with grooving subby/dubby basslines. Their live shows were electric, eclectic, angry and funky all at the same time. Jammo’s sinuous basslines provided the perfect complement to Keith’s frenetic bursts of guitar noise and savvy vocals, all performed with an attitudinous hip-swinging, leg-trembling stance. Audiences would go wild for their first single “Asbestos Lead Asbestos” and their unusual cover of “Funkytown”. The lyrical content spoke to a generation disaffected by Thatcher; intelligent youngsters who had left school with little hope of a job or a place in acceptable society. World Domination Enterprises gave these people a voice and fitted perfectly into the late 80’s squatter scene, playing gigs in West London with the Mutoid Waste Company (alternative artists who pioneered making sculptures from scrap and found objects, pre-empting the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin by nearly a decade) and at squat venues in places like Hackney. Although their sound was unique, WDE were compatible with their contemporaries, bands like Swans, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Test Dept, Einsturzende Neubauten, Crass, Psychic TV and The Birthday Party but with the added sexier ingredients of Rock n Roll and Reggae.
Their initial intention was to release only singles; 5 were put out in the late 80’s, “Asbestos Lead Asbestos” (1985); “Catalogue Clothes” (1986); “Hotsy Girl” (1987); “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” (1988); and “The Company News” (1989). They eventually bowed to pressure and released 2 albums as well; “Let’s Play Domination” in January 1988 and “Love from Lead City” (late 1988).
The band were championed by the late great John Peel, and featured on the covers of both Melody Maker and the NME, and their material maintained high positions in the UK independent charts. Inroads were made into the US college radio scene that was influential in America at the time, and in Europe where they toured three times; they also toured the USSR.
Despite their popularity, WDE were shunted around between different labels, never really finding their spiritual home in the industry. Perhaps this was due to their uncompromising spirit and refusal to commercialise their sound; they stuck to their guns and never betrayed their roots.
In the late 80’s during a depressed period, drummer Digger was recruited by Jehovahs’ Witnesses and things were never the same again; its hard to play tracks like “Hotsy Girl” when a band member has objections to material on grounds of immorality! Despite Keith and Jammo’s best efforts to reclaim him, Digger left the band. He was reluctantly replaced with a young drummer called Simon Doling, but Digger had been such an integral part of the band that it was hard for the other two to continue without him; proceedings eventually ground to a halt in 1990.
Luckily it’s not too late to hear this seminal band; The remastered CD album “Let’s Play Domination” was released on 1st September 2009, and it still sounds as fresh and exciting as it did the first time around. The re-release features all World Dom’s singles as extra tracks, plus one unfinished track. It includes a 12-page CD booklet with photos, lyrics and band-story. The album is available direct from the label’s website for £7.99. Buy it now and hear an amazing piece of forgotten UK music history!
Whilst the bedroom producer can compose music with just the click of a mouse, some hands on interaction with your music software will definitely help with the creative process. The keyboard is of course the most common MIDI controller, and they often come with a few knobs, buttons and sliders that you can assign to the parameters of your music software. Whilst this is great for previewing and tweaking your sounds, not all of us are any good at playing the piano. Or you may work mainly with beats or loops and find you don’t have the control you’re after with just a keyboard. Thankfully, it seems there is no end to the types of MIDI controllers out there. Here are a few of the more unusual ones that are out there at the moment…
The Zendrum
The Zendrum is a funny looking portable MIDI percussion instrument that you wear round your neck (or put on a stand), plug into your laptop, and then you have yourself an electronic finger drum kit. This is great for those percussionists that want to take their electronic beats to the live arena, or for those composers that are just looking for a new toy to help them with their beats. The early designs of the Zendrum in the early nineties by drummers David Haney and his friend Kim Daniel, caught the attention of Peter Gabriel whilst he was on tour. He asked them to design a percussive MIDI wireless system which could be moved around the enormous stage. They did this within three months it was promptly incorporated into the U.S leg of the tour. This led to the birth of the Zendrum Corporation, and generated interest from artists such a Mick Fleetwood, Earth Wind & Fire, and Billy Cobham not only for its visual possibilities on the concert stage, but also the unlimited array of sounds it offers to drummers and percussionists. The key to this is its clever ergonomic design and the extremely velocity sensitive buttons and pads. It has 24 of these buttons and they are all fully assignable to your music software. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to run out to the shops to buy one of these. Each one is custom made, handcrafted, carved from fine woods, assembled and tested by the inventors at Zendrum Corporation. A lot of care and attention goes into the creation of these instruments and for those drummers that want to express their creativity in rhythmic and expressive ways this is definitely worth checking out.
Yamaha Tenori-On
Major Japanese multimedia arts star Toshio Iwai has teamed up with Yamaha to create the Tenori-On, a 16 step, 16 channel music sequencer. At first glance, this looks like a cheap plastic toy with lots of flashing lights. At £599, this certainly isn’t cheap. But its the flashing lights that make this one of the most sought after instruments that is intuitive and provides the user with a “visible music” interface. Select your performance “mode”, press the 16×16 buttons, watch it light up and start making your music. As far as its synthesizer capabilities go, its not the most powerful, with just one oscillator per channel. But if you are looking to creatively combine using a step sequencer into your live performance, this will certain do the job. You can assign separate notes and voices to each “layer”, of which you can have 16 playing all together. Once you have your layers, this then creates a “block” which you can flick between during a live performance. Again, this can be synched to your music software, but is perhaps best for triggering beats, samples and loops rather than using it as a synth. Since its release in 2007, it has generated huge interest from artists such as Bjork, Yoko Ono and more recently little Boots. It is certainly a very striking instrument, and its no surprise that it recently won a place in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Eigenharp Pico
Eigenlabs have recently unveiled their Eigenharp Pico, an ultra versatile instrument that offers new and creatively inspiring ways to play your music software. Imagine a cross between a MIDI controller, clarinet, guitar and keyboard, and you get the Pico. It has 18 keys, a breath pipe and a strip controller, and can be used to record loops, program beats, create arrangements, alter tempo, all while playing live. For such a small instrument, it is amazing what this thing can do. Again, all of its controllers are fully assignable to your music software, although this is limited to smug Mac users at the moment. The keys are touch sensitive and are also sensitive to pressure in both directions. So you could, for example, play a note and wobble the key one way to get a vibrato effect, wobble it the other way and you bend the note. Or change these parameters to any others of your choice. As another example you could assign the breath pipe to a wah effect and the strip controller to filter cutoff. Another great feature is that you can assign the notes to play in a particular mode. So you could set it to play only the blues scale, flamenco, major or minor scales, and then every note you play will be in that scale. You might think this is cheating, seeing as you don’t have spend hours learning your scales anymore, but it definitely makes creative composing and improvising easy, even for someone who has no musical training. The Pico is available for £349 at the moment (due to go up to £399 in Feb 2010), and if you fancy taking it one step further, then look at the Pico’s older brother, the Eigenharp Alpha. This is abut the same size as a guitar and has the same and many more buttons and controllers than the Pico. But as you would expect the price also reflects this, retailing at £3950. I can understand why Eigenlabs claim that this is the instrument of the future. They are currently running a competition for Pico players to win an Alpha. Check out their website at www.eigenlabs.com.
O'spada bringing you cool electro funk from sweden
Swedish electro funk band O’Spada make dance music that will make you want to lip synch into the bathroom mirror. Hailing from Stockholm, they have been creating quite a stir recently after releasing two great singles in quick succession, and making them available for remixing, producing some fantastic results. Their latest release “Ten Strikes” combines upbeat funk with soul and jazz, and pieces it all together with some crisp 80’s sounding production. No wonder their label describe them as “a bastard child between Prince, Jackson 5 and Justice”. Synth stabs, wah guitar, and slap bass all groove tightly with the drums, providing the perfect backing for the melodic and soulful vocals of Julia Spada. If you’re looking for the kind of tune that you can dance to, clap to, and sing along in your best falsetto to, then you must get a copy of this. This is the second single released this autumn from their forthcoming (as yet untitled) album due for release in 2010, which if “Ten Strikes” is anything to go by, should be a cracker.
O’Spada formed in 2006 and soon gained a reputation for their recordings and live performances in their local Stockholm. Despotz Records, an independent label specialising in electronica, acoustic and pop music soon took an interest and decided to sign the band in 2008. Since then, they have been busy in the recording studio and released their first single “Time”earlier this year. This takes you back to a 1980’s disco, and you can hear influences of Ready for the World and the classic “I can’t wait” by Nu Shooz. With their retro sounding funk and catchy choruses, both releases really sound like they are classics from twenty years ago.
They have certainly created a buzz on many blogs, and after being featured on Radio 1, they quickly gained recognition all over Europe. But they didn’t stop there. They asked their fans if they thought they could top the wondrously produced version of “Time” by setting up a free online remix competition, which was of course met with huge interest. The lucky winners, electronic dance duo Suck Shaft (also from Sweden) provided some dirty analogue synth basslines with the chopped up vocals of the original, mashing it up with some heavy beats and bleeps. This provides a great alternative club version of an what seems to already sound like a classic tune. They did such a good job on this they were asked to remix the other single. Both are easily recognisable as being remixes of the originals, but they have done some interesting tricks with its rhythm and have provided some alternative basslines that go surprisingly well with the vocal melodies. All of these remixes and the originals can be heard on O’Spada’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/ospada
So there we are, a funky pop single for you from an upcoming band. If you hear this and you’re staying in for the night you’ll be singing into the hairbrush, if you’re in your car you’ll be singing along at the top of your voice, and if you’re out you’ll have to get up and dance.. O’Spada’s two singles can both be heard/downloaded on the usual sites – spotify, itunes, myspace and numerous other blog sites. And its not just the sparkling production of their two singles that gives them their sound – seeing them perform live you will think they have been around since the eighties and have practised every week since. They have three dates booked performing in the UK in London on the 18th and 19th December. Check out their myspace for more details. Enjoy!!
violet violet... we rock like girls should!
I happened to catch a great up and coming band the other day… Violet Violet. Consisting of 2 members who share a name, Violet Fliss on guitar and vocals, and Cheri Violet on drums and vocals, these girls are GOOD, not just good ‘for girls’. Often in recent years I have despaired, thinking it’s as though grunge never happened when it comes to girl musicians. During the grunge era, girls finally seemed to step up en masse to the level of male musicians, and gender no longer seemed to be an issue in rock and roll. But only a few years later we seemed to have returned to an earlier and culturally more impoverished era where girls would usually only be singers, judged on their looks and fitness rather than their ability. Even the few exceptions like Meg White, Charlotte Hatherley from Ash and Sharin Foo from the Ravonettes were presented primarily as colourful back-up, there to enhance the visual side of things as well as the sound. So what a relief to stumble across Violet Violet! Fliss’s guitar playing is superb; she manages to be solid, riffy and leady all at the same time, and with the judicious use of some neat gadgets, splits the signal to a bass amp as well as a guitar amp so there’s no lack of bottom end to the tunes. Cheri Violet is obviously an accomplished drummer and pounds out complex tribal beats whilst simultaneously delivering an effortless vocal, one of the hardest tricks to pull off. Incidentally, they are both gorgeous, but that’s not the point!
not a secret for much longer!
Originally hailing from Norwich, the girls have recently been championed by cool London promoters Artrocker, and the legendary Eddie Argos from Art Brut invited them to play as his backing band during a live show. Violet Violet currently have a new album out called ‘The City Is Full Of Beasts’, which given their charisma, could be a reference to the predatory males they are encountering along the way, but could equally refer to drummer Cheri’s interest in taxidermy, and the large amount of animal based subject matter in their songs… vultures, cats etc.
I reckon these girls could go all the way, given a hooky enough tune and the right promotion. Anyway, don’t take my word for it, check them out for yourself at http://www.myspace.com/violetviolet1
Producing your own tunes in your bedroom on a computer has never been so popular, so with that in mind, SoundFreak is bringing you a review of some current plugins to enable you get better results from your set-up.
Most computer music programmes come with a host of powerful synths, effects units and sequencers that enable the bedroom producer to produce professional sounding music using that package alone. But there are lots of additional instruments and effects out there that you can use to build your virtual studio, providing new sources of sound and inspiration. Vintage synthesizers, virtual analogue compressors, glitchy effects units and classic instrument emulators are amongst the many kinds of plugins that you can add to your library. Before purchasing any additional plugins that take your fancy, I would strongly recommend trying their demo versions first. Here are just a few of my current favourites, all of which are available for both Mac and Windows.
Sampletron
“Tron” instruments first appeared on the commercial market in the 1950’s, and peaked with the Melotron 400 in the 1970’s. You will have heard their use on many famous recordings, the most famous example being the opening few bars on the Beatles Strawberry Fields. This is the classic tron flute, which is still being used by many artists today, over a wide range of genres. Tron instruments are rare and in extremely high demand, so will be in the price range of only the most die hard enthusiasts. But now IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality have created the Sampletron, which combines authentic sounds such as Mellotrons, Chamberlins, and Optigans with its powerful SampleTank engine which will allow you to sonically take these instruments into worlds they have not seen.
The Sampletron comes with over 600 presets from 17 rare and vintage Mellotrons providing a superb edition to any music producers library. You can then time stretch, resample, pitch shift and add effects (chorus, flange, phase, distortion), giving you further options on its sound design that simply weren’t possible with the original instruments.
With over 7Gb of samples that go with it, including drum and musical loops, it is possible to create a full tune using this plugin alone. It is a multimbral instrument, meaning that you assign a different MIDI channel on your DAW to each of the 16 channels of the Sampletron. You can then split your keyboard with the different sounds or layer them on top of each other using their intuitive interface.
The authentic sounds it is capable of producing are extremely impressive. You can hear the tape hissing, and even the odd bummed note on some of the instruments, but this is what gives the tron instruments their character. From film scoring, to hip hop and electronica, this plugin is a must for those looking to add some vintage sounds to their productions. The Sampletron can be purchased online for around £164.
Minimonsta
This virtual vintage keyboard is an emulation of the Minimoog (an analogue synthesizer produced between 1971 and 1982), but with a few additional features that make it a much more powerful synth. If you are looking for that classic analogue synth sound, I can’t recommend this plugin enough. Artists such as Herbie Hancock, Air and Bootsy Collins all used the original Minimoog in their music. This plugin does a great job of emulating the warm sound of that classic synth, and the numerous presets that it includes show off the sounds that this is capable of. Here you can select the original Minimoog patches, as well as some great bass, lead and poly sounds. There is even a selection of Rick Wakeman patches for you to choose from, if that’s what you’re after.
It has all the usual features and more that you would find on the Minimoog – 3 oscillators, a filter and mixer section, LFOs, 10 waveforms to choose from, as well as envelopes and a delay function. They are laid out in the same way as the original, making it easy and intuitive to use once you have a basic understanding of analogue synthesis. But G Force have taken this Minimoog emulator even further, giving the user the option to create sounds that were not possible with the original. You can assign a separate LFO and envelope to almost any of its parameters with just a few clicks of a mouse, allowing you to take your sound design a step further. All the settings can be assigned to a MIDI controller giving you complete control over its sound. The Minimoog became a hugely popular synth not only because of the great sounds that it can produce, but also because of its simple layout, which was easy to understand, and it shaped the way future synths have been designed. The Minimonsta has retained this simple and intuitive layout, but thrown in some extra features, making it a beast of a synth, and one that is practically limitless when it comes to virtual analogue sound design. No wonder their creators describe it as a Minimoog emulator on steroids. The Minimonsta by G Force can be purchased for around £100 incl VAT online.
Automaton
Audiodamage have produced a number of effects plugins, which are great for the dance or experimental music producer who is looking to add that glitchy effect to their music. Their Automaton is my particular favourite. This is a tough effects plugin to describe, as it is based on a mathematical construction called cellular automaton, but the result is an effects processor that harnesses a mixture of chaos and predictability into your music. The principle behind this plugin involves a grid of cells that are in one of two states – dead or alive – and which change in population depending on the rules that you apply. These cells evolve in synch to your host DAW, and trigger effects such as stuttering, bitcrushing, modulation and replicating. The result produces effects patterns that form and dissolve, turn to chaos and back to order, and are constantly evolving.
For stuttering, glitchy beats, I have found this a particularly useful effects unit. By simply inserting this plugin to your drum track, and going through some of the presets, you will see what great constantly evolving effects you can get. Although you may enjoy its unpredictability, it is possible to have more control over when the effects are triggered, using its sequencer. What I love about this is its uniqueness, and the way it can be used subtly in triggering an extra hihat for example, or you can take it to the extreme and generate random IDM madness. You can pick up the Automaton for $49 dollars from the Audiodamage website.
PSP Vintage Warmer 2
This is a high quality digital simulation of an analogue style single/multiband compressor/limiter. If you are looking to add warmth to your recordings with the saturation effect you would expect when recording to tape, I would strongly recommend this plugin. It is also great for finalising a mix and mastering your tracks, and is very easy to use. The presets include those for bass, lead guitar, drum kicks and snare, final mixes and also a mastering first aid setting. Just finding the right preset and tweaking it to your liking can add some real punch to your music. I have always been advised that after you have mixed your track, the mastering should then be done by a professional – a fresh set of ears, and someone who is trained to identify problem frequencies and correct them. But not all bedroom producers can afford to do this, and for me, using the mastering preset on this vintage compressor/limiter and making some fine adjustments can do a pretty convincing job.
The Vintage Warmer has all the usual controls you would expect on an analogue compressor – Attack, Release, Knee control, limiter ceiling and multiband frequency controllers – so if you know your way around a compressor, you will be able to achieve your desired sound easily. This is one of those magical plugins that seems to make it all sound better, even on its default setting and is an invaluable edition to your virtual studio. The PSP Vintage Warmer 2 can be bought online for around $149.
There are thousands of other VST and AU instruments available, offering numerous ways to add some spice and inspiration into your music. If you’re tired of using the same instruments with your computer software then its well worth trying out some third party plugins.