Derek Scott at Bliss Factory April 2008
right-click to save: Derek Scott at Bliss Factory - DEFSF
Derek Scott, aka The Rhythmist [Dobox], has probably the best ear for song selection I’ve ever heard. His taste in music is astoundingly interesting to me. Maybe it’s the benefit I’ve had of having innumerable conversations with him about music and what makes a song great, but every time I hear a DJ set from him, I feel like I’m listening to something special. He’s a walking encyclopedia of knowledge for electronic music… from its long history, to todays production methods and new ways of promotion. I think this gives him a unique combination of skills and sense of aural aesthetics that are not like anyone else. If you’re into minimal techno, you’ll probably enjoy this set. To say it’s minimal isn’t quite right, because minimal tech usually isn’t this funky and full of soul. It’s not “house” per se, because there’s an unmistakable *tech* streak all the way through. So, yeah… it’s hard to pin down exactly what kind of music this is. Ok, like this:
This DJ set was recorded on April 25th, 2008 from DEFSF’s Radio Integrated show out of Bliss Factory in Alameda, California. Runtime is approximately 01:50:00. Many apologies for my relatively weak DSL bandwidth and the subsequent skips in the audio stream you’ll hear. If and when we can get our hands on the original audio feed file from DEFSF, we’ll point you to it.
You may catch a few tracks you know in this amazing set, but you’re going to be exposed to some tracks you won’t hear anyone else play, and I think you’ll want to hear more. Definitely head on over to the netlabel he founded named Dobox Recordings.
New Release: Jemset - ‘Untitled EP’
The weather around here is warming up, and so will your speakers after you play this new release. French Techno maestro Jemset presents us with his ‘Untitled EP’. But these beats are so good, the release really doesn’t even need a name. ‘Invitation’ is appropriately the first track, and gets things pumped up with its pulsing groove. Then it’s time to have a seat (or not) for the ‘Galactic Dinner’. Thick and meaty, this tasty track will definitely feed your head and your feet. Jemset definitely brings his own style to the Techno table, and we’re sure you will all agree that it’s a style worth listening to. Enjoy!
Autoimmune - MBM
I’ve been a Jack Dangers fan since the early 1990’s. My first exposure was a CD single for Mindstream. I learned about Meat Beat Manifesto from looking at the giant list of shout-outs on Nine Inch Nails’ “Pretty Hate Machine” release of the similar era. Listed along with The Orb, Orbital, and disposable heros of hiphopricy, meat beat manifesto was listed in good company. Eventually I tracked almost all of those bands down but it looks like MBM would be the long term peer to NIN’s longevity.
Today MBM released “Autoimmune”…
Along with definite nods to the mode firmly established on their 90’s era Satryicon album, the solid lineage of progress shows throughout the album. Dubstep / Grime in places, hiphop backup band in others… This album is much heavier than “At the Center”, but it still feels connected to it. You can definitely feel the fantastic attention to detail on everything from the heaaaavy drums and bass to the vocal treatments and etherial melodies floating around.
production quality is amazing. Basssssssssss… beat-driven with modest inclusion of procedural glitch. That’s my sweet spot. I like glitch, but I don’t love glitch-based music. I like beat-based music with some glitchy elements…
ok, I’ll live with one completely abstract track on this album. 
Ha, I like the album artwork. Structured, but randomized and grimy at the same time. Yep! That sounds about right.
final verdict: AWESOME!!
iTunes:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=276970538&s=143441
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016OAQH6/ref=yml_dp
Bleep (this is actually a slightly different set of tracks.. so I’ll have to save my pennies and pick it up someday soon):
http://www.bleep.com/player/?/ZIQ202CD/134405/maxiplus/D3F9D3/575757/00D126
Technorati Tags: MBM, meat beat manifesto
So many good things…
I have no idea what I’ll be able to do while I take my baby pseudo-hiatus. Probably nothing, but clearly there are people out there doing some pretty amazing things. Carry on… I’ll try to catch up someday.
Technorati Tags: arduino
Guitar Rising
YES. NOW. WANT.
DIY drum triggers… reading the sensor scientifically
I’ve learned so much about piezos, microcontrollers, serial data capture, graphing. All from people I’ve never even met in person. Tod E. Kurt’s work on the Arduino MIDI drum kit lead me to want to replicate the project for myself, and I’ve been running into some very tricky problems with the sensors triggering samples two or three times. I got a boost of confidence that I was detecting a real problem thanks to the fine work done by mschaff’s Ardrumo project. Now, thanks very much to Tom Igoe’s article on Sensor Graphing using a tiny arduino sketch, the terminal, and grapher.app, I can actually scientifically diagnose the reason why this is happening.
Using the DIY kick pedal that I’ve been working on…
I was able to capture and graph the data that the sensor is outputting. Here are a few screenshots of the highlights:
This first screenshot shows a good peak, right at the beginning of the strike. Then the ringing begins. If, for instance, I had the threshold set to 500, this would trigger not just one, but *three* midi notes. Ok, but what if I had set the threshold to closer to 750? a big problem with that is that I’m losing a lot of the dynamic quality of the kick pedal. I’d have to hammer on it just to register above the minimum value, and then there’s no way to play it quietly. Every kick would end up being 750 or higher.
But wait, there’s more! Here’s another reading:
Wow, so even if I had set the threshold to 750, I’d *STILL* get three notes off this one kick pedal strike! And then just to mix it up even more:
Here is yet another pattern of the data. a short hop at the beginning well under a reasonable threshold of 250, and then a reading over 500, and then an even higher reading on the “second wave”…
So, the question still remains… how to get a clean sensor reading? Here’s my current idea:
Charting it out helps. Now I just need to try to write the code so it follows this to test it out. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Technorati Tags: ardrumo, arduino, DIY, drum, e-drum, mschaff, tigoe, todbot, trigger
Lily Turntable b2
Lily Turntable is a Lily implementation of the aforementioned QT Turntable of old. It’s main function in life is to give you fine pitch control over audio file playback… which can be any kind of time that quicktime understands. Short audio loops seem to work ok. Long audio clips are great. It’s *possible* to use this to DJ with as a standin for a turntable. You’ll still need a mixer and another audio source, but that’s how QTTurntable came into existence, so maybe you will use it for that, or maybe you will use it for something weirder.
And I realize how “0.2 beta” this looks at this time. My intention is to dive more into Lily and make this patch do more…
Download Lily Turntable Version 0.2b
Installation instructions:
short and sweet
* download the lily app
* drag the file into firefox
* restart firefox once it’s done installing
* look for the new app in the Tools -> menu.
Longer, but still super easy
- Download the .XPI file to your desktop or where ever you normally would. Just make sure you can locate the file once it’s downloaded.
- Make sure Firefox is running. If not, launch it.
- Make sure Firefox has a browser window open. If not, open a new one.
- Find the .XPI file you downloaded on your computer.
- Drag the .XPI file into the open Firefox browser window.
- There will be an unusual prompt asking if it’s OK to install the file you dragged into the browser window. Hit yes and it will do it’s job.
- Once the file is installed, it will tell you that you need to restart Firefox. Go ahead and hit the “restart” button.
- Now that Firefox is restarted, look for the new application in the Tools-> menu.
- Done! Enjoy!
Known issues:
- there’s another slider below what I’m showing you in this screenshot. It doesn’t do anything yet. I’m working on it.
- the loop button doesn’t reset when you load a new file. I think I know how to fix that.
- the pitch sliders work. they’re compounding on themselves, so for instance if you have the +-10 slider at the top, it’s set to be -10% of the pitch speed. Then you can add an additional -2% by setting the other slider to the top. I think the +-2 pitch slider should reset to the center if you change the main pitch speed at all. I’m working on that too.
Technorati Tags: lily, stevecooley, turntable
SHARE San Jose, 2nd meeting, Wednesday @ 7:30pm, Orchard Valley Coffee, Campbell
Tomorrow (Wednesday) night we’re going to have the second meeting of SHARE San Jose (see http://share-sj.org for more info). Unlike the first meeting (which was a jam/talk session) this one will be talk/show, at a coffee shop in Campbell. It will be fairly informal - there will be opportunity for people to introduce themselves, talk about how our next jam session will be organized (which will be at Anno Domini), and talk/show whatever people bring to talk/show about. Details:
Wednesday Jan 23, 7:30pm (coffee shop closes at 10pm)
Orchard Valley coffee shop
349 E. Campbell Ave.
Campbell, CA 95008Feel free to being laptops to show/demo things. Headphones & splitters may come in handy.
…Tim…
Be there!
Technorati Tags: sharesj