TEC/MIX and British Academy Award Winning Composer, Troels Folmann, has launched a new premium sampling line: 8DIO Productions. 8DIO 8DIO is launching with over 40 deep-sampled products for Konta… [Read More]
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8DIO and composer Troels Folmann launch premium sampling line containing over 40 deep-sampled products for Kontakt
Monday, August 1st, 2011
FL Studio Mobile, Now Available on iPhone, iPad; Sampling, Android Support to Come
Sunday, June 26th, 2011FL Studio Mobile, previously announced for iOS, is now available for iPhone, iPod touch, and, in an “HD” edition, on iPad 1 and 2. The biggest feature: if you’re an FL Studio user, you can take your projects and load them on the mobile version for on-the-go editing. That makes FL the first major, non-Apple studio app to do round-trip workflows between mobile and desktop.
The release is also causing some mainstream outlets to notice, like BetaNews, who suggest this breaks a 13-year, Windows-only FL Studio run. That’s not entirely fair: Image-Line have released cross-platform software. The issue is that the full-blown FL Studio desktop version is deeply tied to Windows. FL Studio Mobile is a ground-up app. But it’s still big news.
BetaNews notes that the round-trip isn’t as easy as you might like:
Like Garageband for iPad, pulling files off of the iPad is kind of a chore. In order to load FL Studio Mobile projects into FL Studio for Windows, users need version 10.0.5 or later of FL Studio, and files must be dragged and dropped from the FL Studio Browser (or Windows folder) to the desktop one by one. There’s not yet an easy export feature for fast file sharing.
That could change, though, if the application adds iCloud support – and even this, as described, sounds easy enough to me.
Other features:
- Piano keys, drum pads with flexible layouts – so you can arrange, say, multiple stacks of keys or drums the way you like.
Instruments, kits, and loops included. - 99-track sequencer, piano roll and step sequence editing.
- Import/export not only FL Studio projects, but WAV and MIDI files, too. Unfortunately, sample loading isn’t available yet, but is coming.
An Android version is also in the works:
What about Android OS? It’s on the roadmap, stop nagging! We have a development team working on a low-latency Android audio-engine and there are many screen resolutions and device specifications to consider, it’s not as simple as you may think
FL Studio for Mac is still in the “forget about it and stop asking” category, so no change there:
Does this mean FL Studio on Mac OSX soon? FL Studio Mobile is not a port of the Windows version of FL Studio. It is the product of a completely separate development team, and code, so FL Studio Mobile, while compatible with FL Studio has no impact on FL Studio development and vice versa.
Just expect to read about this everywhere, thanks to a viral contest Image-Line is running. Guys, take it easy: I think people would blog your FL Studio Mobile without having an iPad to win.
FL Studio Mobile News
How To Make A Sample Beat (Sampling Tutorial)
Monday, May 16th, 2011
I made this Tutorial, because I now have 100 subscribers.. Enjoy…need help..then leave a comment
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Gold Panda on Sampling; Moby on Drum Machines
Thursday, April 21st, 2011Something has happened to the mystique of the musical artist, as the superstars have faded. It seems people are increasingly interested with understanding process, in understanding what’s inside the magical black boxes of sound.
Jess Gitner hosted Derwin Panda, aka Gold Panda, at National Public Radio’s studios for Morning Edition. She talked to the artist about the basics of how he constructs music from samples. It’s actually quite nice to me to see a story that’s elementary enough that it could be understood by non-specialists — it’s all to easy to forget that for the vast majority of even the music-loving public, a lot of what people do is a complete mystery.
It’s also worth watching Gold Panda in a live version of “You” for KCRW (a US public radio affiliate in Los Angeles). He uses the tried-and-tested Ableton laptop-plus-MPC combination. We spoke to Gold Panda at length about his process back in October, just before his debut album really blew up (entirely and unequivocally having nothing whatsoever to do with CDM):
Gold Panda Interview: Inspiration from Samples, Loved Ones, and Distracting Dogs
Listen to the whole NPR piece:
Gold Panda: Breaking Down Found Sound [The Record with Ann Powers / NPR]
In other news, Rick Moody, himself a novelist and musician, does a wonderful, intimate interview with Moby for The Rumpus. (Thanks, Paul Artz!) It’s ironic that Moody is conducting the interview, as he has been crafting an extended manifesto about why not to use drum machines (though he claims it’s only “rhetorical.”)
SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS #29: The Museum of Broken Things [The Rumpus]
There are some insightful moments; I like this quote:
Not to get too odd and esoteric, but there’s the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. Do you know what wabi-sabi is? The more entropic something is, the more endearing it is. A bucket that’s forty years old that’s been used by a lady to clean the floors of a house she’s been working in is way more interesting than a brand new bucket from Walmart. A broken down, crummy Wall-E is way more interesting than a brand new robot. And that’s part of my love of these guys, they’re all about entropy. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. They’re all dusty, they have pencil scribbles on them, none of them is cool, and the ones that sort of pretend to be cool are the least cool.
I’m not entirely sure Moby’s history of the drum machine is completely accurate – for one, I’d question whether it’s true that no one makes or is interested in drum machines any more. But it’s worth it for the massive gear lust geek-out.
In fact, if you read just one line of this rambling article I’m writing, read this one:
What would we need to do to resurrect the PAiA 7701 Drummer Boy or some similar design?
Where’s my blink tag when I need it?
Also, if you read only two lines, what’s Moby’s account name, so we know the next time he snipes us on eBay?
As for this business of drum machines:
I can’t stand drummers, and sometimes, other people, generally. I grew up loving the flavor of grape bubble gum, which is clearly an entirely-synthetic flavor barely resembling the taste of sugar, let alone a fruit. So I must be cut out for 80s drum machine collecting. But I’m just saying that rhetorically.
Also, internal combustion engines? So much more awesome than the horse. So much more.
Sampling in FL Studio with the Axiom 25
Sunday, April 17th, 2011
continued video with more demonstrations: www.youtube.com …upload didn’t come out looking too clear my apologies.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
I haven’t done one of these in a long time! So I figured why the hell not, they’re simple to make and it gives me lots of views teehee. This one is focused around alot of the UK Hard Trance arp styles. Also a few people have been asking me how I make “good” hard dance / Hard trance music, would you guys want a in depth tutorial on how to produce the genre? Let me know and I’ll see what I can put together, if enough people want to see it. Until then, enjoy this hard trance arp!! Samples taken from TSP Volume 1 and VEC Volume 3. Buy my album here: bit.ly
Video: Live Beatmaking and Musicianship on Display; Details from the Artist, Logic Sampling
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Let’s be frank. Computers really don’t demand any musicianship; they’re a blank slate with which you can do anything you like, and quantization is always close at hand. But bragging rights aside, whatever anyone else may think of the results, playing musical elements live can often be more satisfying. And it’s refreshing, at a time when software seems to be bending over backwards to offer bleeding-edge technology to compensate for your lack of time and tune, to see people getting more dextrous, not less.
Ukrainian-born, Toronto-based artist Andrew Andriyashev, going under the name Triple A production, sends along a video of his work in a friend’s studio. What’s nice about it is that everything – from instrumental parts to sample slicing – is played live. It’s not a new idea, but it’s nice to see it documented, and I was curious to learn how Andrew got lucky enough to get this studio and skilled enough to make it work.
He explains his tool set to CDM:
[The setting is] my friend’s home based studio in Toronto, called “Studio Dynamic.”
Yes I was using [Apple] Logic for recording. I chopped and changed the pitch of the sample in [open source audio editor] Audacity beforehand and loaded everything in EXS, which I later played along to the beat. It consists of 2 parts, instruments + the chopped up vocal sample.
All the other instruments were recorded live into Logic separately.
About my background: I was born in Ukraine but live in Canada now. I have been making music professionally for about 4 years now. Had placements on MTV in Europe and MuchMusic in Canada. Also I am currently an in-house music producer at one of the biggest recording studios in Canada, “Cherry Beach Sound”.
While my main website is under construction, some of my work can be found here:
Thanks for the nice work, Andrew. So, readers – got any tips and techniques you like to employ in production to keep it live? Or, alternatively, anything more you’d like to know?
What is the legality of digital sampling in regards to making computer music?
Saturday, January 15th, 2011Question by arcticwolf71960: What is the legality of digital sampling in regards to making computer music?
I mean, if I use little snippets of audio from commercial LP’s and CD’s in my music, and sell my works commercially, am I breaking the law? Where do they draw the line?
I haven’t actually completed any work yet, but I will soon.
Best answer:
Answer by curtf1964
It used to be that you could use up to 15 secs of a song without breaking the law but I’m not sure if that still stands anymore.
What do you think? Answer below!
SP-12, SP-1200 Sample Collection, Free Samples, and Some Tips for Vintage Digital Sampling
Monday, December 20th, 2010
Call it future shock. Love of retro gear is more than nostalgia; sometimes it takes time to appreciate what technology means. And so, today, classic digital samplers and drum machines like the E-mu SP-1200 and SP-12 can inspire even greater passion than they did when new. Today, producers can feel love not only for retro analog, but retro digital.
With plenty of 12-bit digital dirt, the original SP samplers sound gritty, warm, and unique. And one of my favorite samplists, Hugo of Gold Baby Productions, does a nice job of capturing that personality – enough for me to take note of a soundware set, which is something I tend not to do often on this site.
You can grab the second volume of SP-12 and SP-1200 samples for US$ 29, but Hugo also has a free holiday gift: over a hundred 24-bit samples from the SP-1200, none of which is in the paid version, have been added to the various nice free stuff on offer on his site:
http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html
Hugo talks to CDM a bit about sampling vintage equipment, good fodder for inspiration if you’re thinking of taking up a similar project yourself. (It’s a great way to spend the winter months, I think, fellow residents of the Northern Hemisphere.)
To start with, I have an extensive collection of drum machines, real drums, and percussion, all recorded by me over the last 20 years. I took a selection of these and got a Dubplate made. I also re-recorded some of them to tape. This made it easy to recreate one the SP’s more famous tricks — pitching down to get aliasing. The Dubplate was pressed at 33 rpm then played back at 45 rpm, then sampled and tuned down on the SP. Hello, aliasing! I used the same process on tape. I could have done this using pitch software via the computer, but that is not the Goldbaby way!
Back in the day, this trick was not originally done for sonic reasons. With a sampler only having limited sampling time, it was a ghetto way to get more [recording time]! So, with the analog filters and the 12-bit, 26.4 kHz sampling engine, you get both grit and warmth!
Another trick with old hardware samples is experimenting with how hard you hit the sampling input. For instance, snares sound great if you hit the input really hard. It kind of acts like tape and squashes the transient; it gives them punch. A high hat can sound grittier if you sample them at a very low level — it kind of works like bit reduction. Also, using threshold record triggering can help give a drum a sharper attack. It basically is a function where you select a threshold level for the sampler to start sampling.
Whatever you do, don’t read the sampler manual! All the advice they give is for getting clean-sounding drums.
I also did a few recording sessions with some newly-acquired percussion and drums.
I went through some of my old synth product audio demos and and sampled them also. I wanted to get that ‘sampled from a Moog concept album’ sound!
I also have a portable recorder I carry everywhere at all times. My field recording folder is a great place to dig for new sound ideas. I used a few in this product — check out Drum_Festival1_SP1200R.wav. The world is filed with sound…
So two months of doing this gets you about 1500 samples.
I think DRTFM (don’t read the f***ing manual) could be a new watchcry. Some sound samples:
All photos courtesy Hugo at Goldbaby; used by permission. (Is anyone aside from me impressed with how modern the panel designs look on the E-mu? I think we need an alternate MeeBlip case that looks like this – our plastic housing is the same shape as the SP-12. Any takers?)
Got vintage gear you like to use? Found inspiration for modern digital techniques from equipment from the past? Let us know in comments.
Side note: a project inspired by digital samplers of yesteryear worth mentioning here is the open-source Where’s the Party At. (It’s an 8-bit sampler, though; the E-MU would be easy enough to ape in a Max or Pd patch if you wanted to use the retro hardware as a jumping-off point.)
FXpansion releases Geist – Sampling Drum Machine
Friday, November 19th, 201018th November 2010: FXpansion has announced the release of Geist, their next-generation sampling drum machine designed to create evolved, custom beats and grooves, freeing you from the limits of pre-packaged loops and o…
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Exclusive Leak: Moog Music Make Filtatron, an iPhone Filtering, Effects, and Sampling App
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
The Moog app sits on my iPod touch, next to its analog predecessor Moogerfooger. Yeah, okay, I still like the knobs better, but it is fun, and the Moogerfooger doesn’t fit in my pocket unless I wear really silly-looking overalls.
Moog Music, they of the normally analog-only gear, have built their first iOS application. We’ve acquired exclusive details of the innards of the app, and I’ve been testing it today on my (second-generation) iPod touch. Blasphemy? Perhaps, but it’s a nicely-designed little application, and with audio input capability, could turn your Apple handheld into a tiny recording and effects-processing unit alongside other gear. (Game Boy plus iPod touch? Casiotone plus iPod touch?)
The application, Filtatron, hasn’t yet been announced. There’s no information on pricing or availability, accordingly.
Divided onto several pages (see screenshots), it represents a set of modules for recording, sampling, effects, and filtering. The controls are cleanly laid-out, and everything makes some sound, making it familiar and fun for people who know how to use it but very “tweakable” for someone who’s never touched something like this before. (There’s no question this could be a gateway drug to Moog’s genuine analog gear for the mass market on iOS.)
What it does:
- Filter + LFO
- Amp (drive) + feedback for distortion
- Adjustable, time-syncable delay
- Sampler with adjustable playback speed, loop points, and live recording
- X/Y pads for tweaking and performance, plus preset sharing.
You can actually use the app without any input, by transferring files from your computer or another application (with AudioCopy supprot). But connect a mic or line input (or use the internal mic on a device like the iPhone), and the Filtatron turns your device into a live filtering unit.
In case you’re afraid Moog are giving up on gear, there’s a Catalog link on the about page from which you can buy one of the Moogerfooger line. Or, you can just sport this app and a t-shirt. (It’s like owning a BMW lighter but no car. Well, okay, somewhat more useful than that.)
So, what could this be used for? One of the Moog engineers imagined importing audio, processing on the go on the device, then re-importing to your music environment. (Just in case you want to adjust that LFO just right on the bus.) You can use it for real-time effects. Or you can even use it as a really unusual field recorder, recording only in Moogified sounds.
I will say this: my impression so far is that it’s a lot of fun to use. Yes, there are other apps that do things like this. No, it isn’t nearly as satisfying to use as the Moogerfooger hardware – losing the tactile response really loses a lot. But it’s a different experience; something you could easily add to a chain of other devices or use on the go in a way you might not expect.
I also notice that, aside from getting Moog-like sounds, you really appreciate big, simplified controls. That says to me that software generally could learn a lot from hardware, not just in sound or tactile feel, but in design. Review forthcoming, but here’s the full run-down on specs.
Complete Specifications
Audio input will work via any adapter. You can use the headphone/mic jack directly (though to get audio out, you’ll need to use a 3-prong minijack – more on that as I test my camcorder cable with this and other apps). You can also use third-party devices like the Blue Mikey (good if you need a mic) or IK Multimedia iRIG (good for mono instrument/guitar input). I’m also testing the iRIG.
Via an internal design documentation, I’ve got the details on the internal specs for the app. The goal, says the document: “filtatron allows you to combine several sound sources and apply effects to them in realtime. Sound sources include line or mic input, looping sample playback, and an internal oscillator.”
Audio engine: 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. (Some apps, like RjDj, actually use less, so that’s worth noting.)
Filter: modeled 4-pole resonant filter, which Moog intended to be matched to their analog filters. Lowpass, highpass, cutoff, resonance, self-oscillation at high resonance – you know, the usual.
LFO, Envelope Filter: Routed to filter cutoff. LFO: sine, ramp, sawtooth, square, sample&hold. Crossfade/morph between LFO shapes. Bipolar LFO (sweep up or down). Free-tuned LFOs, sync to tap tempo.
Envelope Follower: Route sound inputs to sweep the filter, with adjustable reaction speed.
Tap tempo, separation, mix.
Amp (overdrive) effect with feedback. Also can self-oscillate.
Delay effect. Delay with its own LFO. Adjustable from a short flange to longer delays.
Pads. X-Y pads controlled by multi-touch control parameters for live performance/tweaking. Assignments:
VCF pad controls filter cutoff and resonance, LFO pad controls LFO Rate and Amount, Delay pad controls delay time and feedback. VCO pad controls oscillator frequency and level (amplitude) – if the VCO “Release” parameter is engaged (ENABLE button on VCO panel, main page), then the VCO x-y pad also controls the VCO volume gate — the VCO is silent when you are not touching the pad and sounds a note on each touch. ENV pad controls envelope follower amount and speed, and AMP pad controls amp drive and feedback.
Sampler: Play included loops, record your own samples, or bring in your own loops using either the AudioCopy/AudioPaste API or an FTP connection. Sampler includes play controls, playback speed (-2x to +2x), and tap-and-drag controls for loop start and stop on the waveform.
Record audio into the sampler dry, or record with effects for resampling capability. Recording is limited only by available storage, but playback is limited to 10MB each (ca. 2 minutes).
Preset recall and storage. Includes a number of presets, allows you to save your own, and provides onboard email sharing of presets.
Exclusive CDM Moog April Fool’s Pre-announcement
The Minimoog XL for iOS. All 61 keys, so small you can’t hit them. Still monophonic. Seriously. I want to see it in the traditional April Fool’s announcement, you guys on North Carolina.