Wednesday, February 25, 2009

arcDev Noise Industries Site Decoded


If you have ever tried to enter the arcDev website to download VST's or VSTi's you may have found it to be slightly confusing if you are unfamiliar with the command prompt system. This site has such fantastic free resources it would be a damn shame if you gave up due to frustration. So my goal here is to tell you exactly how to get where you need to with the path of least resistance.

To get VSTi's (VST Instruments)
  1. Open a new tab and go to http://www.arcanedevice.com/
  2. Type "open 1" This will open the directory for VSTi's.
  3. Choose which VSTi you would like to download.
  4. Type "get # (type the number to the left of the file and description).
  5. A prompt will pop up asking you if you would like to save the file you have chosen.
GO BACK TO THE MAIN DIRECTORY
TYPE "BACK"

To get VST's (VST Plugin Effects)
  1. Type "open 2" This will open the directory for VST Plugin Effects.
  2. Choose which VST Plugin you would like to download.
  3. Type "get # (type the number to the left of the file and description).
  4. A prompt will pop up asking you if you would like to save the file you have chosen.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Amon Tobin: Original Samples

Original samples used by electronica artist Amon Tobin. He is very secretive about his sources so that is why this list is so very small.

Amon Tobin Track

Original Source Track

A
Vida

Astrud
Gilberto - Corcovado [Quiet Nights]

Back
From Space

Isao
Tomita - Clair de Lune


Chomp
Samba

Herbie
Hancock - Watermelon Man


Deo

Deodato
- Also Sprach Zarathustra


El Chimi

Glass
Prism - A Dream Within A Dream


Golfer
vs. Boxer

Ennio
Morricone - The First Tavern


Keepin`
It Steel

Nick
Cave - Red Right Hand


People
Like Frank

Angelo
Badalamenti - Akron Meets The Blues

Angelo Badalamenti - Night Streets /
Sandy And Jeffrey


Popsicle

N/A
- Theme from Exodus


Saboteur

Aynsley
Dunbar - Watch 'N' Chain


Stoney
Street

Sonny
Rollins - Softly As In A Morning Sunrise


The
Braziliannaire

Jan
Garbarek Group - It`s OK To Phone The Island That Is A Mirage

Hobnox Audio Tool

This is a super cool Flash audio tool that Hobnox developed. It emulates a mixing board, 2 TB 303's, a TR 808, a TR 909 and a number of different effects pedals for your electronica performance curiosity. Now you can practice writing beats and bass lines right online!

REQUIRES FLASH PLAYER VERSION 10
Download page here

Tettix shows HOWTO make "Fake 'n' Bake" chiptunes with Reason

One of our favorite musicians, Judson "Tettix" Cowan, has taken the time to show us how he makes "Fake 'n' Bake Chiptunes" in Propellerheads' Reason. Which is awesome, because if I ever get off my ass and write that chiptune opera we've talked about doing for ages, I'll probably be doing it in Reason, not in retro hardware.

This is great stuff, Judson. Thanks so much for putting it together for us!

In part three Tettix remixes an old favorite, the dungeon theme from Zelda.

Previously50 Years of LEGO: Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon Time-Lapse Video
Tettix's Rites, free electronic album "remodeling" Stravinsky

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Glitch (History, Origin, How -To, Analysis)

Wiki Entry:

Glitch is a term used to describe a genre of experimental electronic music that emerged in the mid to late 1990s. The origins of the glitch aesthetic can be traced back to Luigi Russolo's Futurist manifesto The Art of Noises, the basis of noise music. In a Computer Music Journal article published in 2000, composer and writer Kim Cascone used the term post-digital to describe various experimentations associated with the glitch aesthetic. Glitch is characterized by a preoccupation with the sonic artifacts that can result from malfunctioning digital technology, such as those produced by bugs, crashes, system errors, hardware noise, CD skipping, and digital distortion.[2] Cascone considers glitch to be a sub-genre of electronica. [3]

History

Glitch originated in Germany with the musical work and labels of Achim Szepanski[4], who later gained popularity through the collaboration with Sebastian Meissner under the moniker "Random Inc."[5]. While the movement initially slowly gained members (including bands like Oval)[6], the techniques of Glitch later quickly spread around the world as many artists — including bands such as Kid 606, Team Doyobi and Autechre — followed suit. Yasunao Tone used damaged CDs in his Techno Eden performance in 1985. Trumpeter Jon Hassell's 1994 album Dressing For Pleasure — a dense mesh of funky trip hop and jazz — features several songs with the sound of skipping CDs layered into the mix.

Oval's Wohnton, produced in 1993, helped define the genre by adding ambient aesthetics to it[7]. Though the music of Markus Popp's band (Oval) may be the first in which the techniques of Musique Concrete were applied to the subtleties of Ambient, glitch is also informed by techno and industrial music. Turntablist Christian Marclay had been incorporating the use of scratched or otherwise damaged vinyl records into his sets since the 1970s; it is the rapid advance in technology and expansion of thought behind music that has allowed glitch to adopt this "broken" sound and use it as a stylistic marker.

Production techniques

Glitch is often produced on computers using modern digital production software to splice together small "cuts" (samples) of music from previously recorded works. These cuts are then integrated with the signature of glitch music: beats made up of glitches, clicks, scratches, and otherwise "erroneously" produced or sounding noise. These glitches are often very short, and are typically used in place of traditional percussion or instrumentation. Skipping CDs, scratched vinyl records, circuit bending, and other noise-like distortions figure prominently into the creation of rhythm and feeling in glitch; it is from the use of these digital artifacts that the genre derives its name. However, not all artists of the genre are working with erroneously produced sounds or are even using digital sounds.

Popular software for creating glitch includes trackers, Reaktor, Ableton Live, Reason, AudioMulch, Bidule, Super Collider, FLStudio, MAX/MSP, Pure Data, and ChucK. Circuit bending -- the intentional short-circuiting of low power electronic devices to create new musical devices -- also plays a significant role on the hardware end of glitch music and its creation.

Sub-genres

Glitch Hop

Glitch hop is a relatively new sub variant of the glitch form, and shares the name click hop, blip hop, downbreaks and break hop. Aside from the obvious lineage of hip hop and glitch this genre tends to borrow from the IDM and minimalist genres as well. The music is marked by the DSP laden sonic tapestry and twitchiness of glitch with a more hip hop style framework. The beat tends to follow hip-hop's break-derived conventions, falling into a range between 85-100 bpm. Instead of using just traditional drum kits, glitch hop's "nerdified drums" are augmented with clicks, bent circuits, and sometimes the cut up vocals of the MC. Swedish producer Andreas Tilliander's landmark Cliphop and Plee albums (released as Mokira by German labels Raster Noton in 2000 and Mille Plateaux in 2002) are considered by some as the blueprints of the genre.

Notable groups of this genre include the L.A.-based production group The Glitch Mob, other artists include Prefuse 73[8], Machinedrum, Dabrye, Kid 606, Jahcoozi, BreakBeatBuddha and Edit, who published glitch hop tracks as part of larger glitch albums. Cex and MC Lars also sometimes perform glitch hop material. CanopyRadio.tv is a well-known collaborative project that mixes jungle and glitch hop together into podcast form.

Popular Electronica act Autechre also experimented in a more instrumental style of Glitch hop, notably in more recent years.

Further reading

  • Andrews, Ian, Post-digital Aesthetics and the return to Modernism, MAP-uts lecture, 2000, available at authors website.
  • Bijsterveld, Karin and Trevor J. Pinch. "'Should One Applaud?': Breaches and Boundaries in the Reception of New Technology in Music." Technology and Culture. Ed. 44.3, pg 536-559. 2003.
  • Byrne, David. "What is Blip Hop?" Lukabop, 2002. Available here.
  • Collins, Adam, "Sounds of the system: the emancipation of noise in the music of Carsten Nicolai", Organised Sound, 13(1): 31-39. 2008. Cambridge University Press.
  • Collins, Nicolas. Editor. "Composers inside Electronics: Music after David Tudor." Leonardo Music Journal. Vol. 14, pgs 1-3. 2004.
  • Prior, Nick, "Putting a Glitch in the Field: Bourdieu, Actor Network Theory and Contemporary Music", Cultural Sociology, 2: 3, 2008: pp 301-319.
  • Thomson, Phil, "Atoms and errors: towards a history and aesthetics of microsound", Organised Sound, 9(2): 207-218. 2004. Cambridge University Press.
  • Sangild, Torben: "Glitch — The Beauty of Malfunction" in Bad Music. Routledge (2004, ISBN 0-415-94365-5) [1]
  • Young, Rob: "Worship the Glitch", The Wire 190/191 (2000)
  • Noah Zimmerman, "Dusted Reviews, 2002"

See also

____________________________________________________________________

All Music.com Definition/Statement:

As computer-aided composition slowly eclipsed the traditional analog approach to crafting electronica, the palette of possible sounds soon widened immensely, resulting in the advent of the glitch style in the late '90s. No longer was the artist confined to sequenced percussion, synth, and samples, but rather any imaginable sound, including the uncanny realm of digital glitches -- a possibility that was quickly exploited by a generation of youths with the means to create entire albums in their bedroom with only a computer and some software. Where early-'90s analog-toting pioneers such as Aphex Twin and Autechre had envisioned the quickly diminishing areas of electronica that had not yet been explored, and simultaneously, another insular group of pioneers led by Robert Hood and Basic Channel stripped away the elements of electronica that had ultimately become little more than ineffective cliché, a second wave of computer-armed protégés studied these aesthetics and used software to create microscopically intricate compositions harking back to these pioneers. First championed by the ideological German techno figure Achim Szepanski and his stable of record labels -- Force Inc, Mille Plateaux, Force Tracks, Ritornell -- this tight-knit scene of experimental artists creating cerebral hybrids of experimental techno, minimalism, digital collage, and noise glitches soon found themselves being assembled into a community. Though artists such as Oval, Pole, and Vladislav Delay, among others, had initially been singled out by critics beforehand, Mille Plateaux's epic Clicks_+_Cuts compilation first defined the underground movement, exploring not only a broad roster of artists but also a wide scope of approaches. The artists on the compilation, along with a small community of visionary artists in the software-savvy San Francisco/Silicon Valley area of California led by the Cytrax label, soon found themselves as the critically hailed leaders of yet another electronica movement. It wasn't long before the glitch aesthetic began being crossbred with existing genres, resulting in endless variations on the aesthetic, such as MRI's click-driven house and Kid 606's noise remix of N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton."

Related Styles

Glitch Album Highlights


Top Artists
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Top Albums
Click here for full list.
Top Songs
Click here for full list.
________________________________________________________
Editing Techniques for Glitch Production from Remix Magazine.com:

FRACTAL TENDENCIES

Aug 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Jason Scott Alexander

Simply mention the words stutter or glitch among DJ and remixing circles, and you're sure to conjure a discussion revolving around artists such as BT, Hybrid, Aphex Twin and Autechre, to name but a few. Longtime pioneers of the two infectiously accidental-sounding effects, they have carved an entirely new style of production and musical arrangement, not to mention forged two new categorical subsets within electronic music. This article will take a look at how to create and incorporate stutter and glitch edits into your productions.

In its simplest form, the stutter has become so mainstream that nearly every DJ mixer, DJ software and even some decks now offer a one-button solution for the effect. Likewise, glitch-music production has moved from the progressive remix studio to the dorm room, where students are using their PCs and off-the-shelf tools to disintegrate Top 40 hits into rhythmically and melodically unrecognizable piles of cuts.

These simple (some would say rudimentary and old-school) variations of the stutter and glitch edit are not what this article is going to examine. A stutter edit in today's terms isn't merely a case of repeating a slice of audio or MIDI-retriggering a sample at 16th- or 32nd-note intervals. Nor is it simply the sound of a CD skipping or of a gated pad — both common misnomers. The most complex stutter edits of today take on a decidedly more musical and melodic character. They are typically handpicked arrangement elements that get sliced and diced at such tiny, tight intervals that the end result ring modulates and creates its own pitch. Although standard tools such as Propellerhead ReCycle, Sony Acid and Bitshift Audio Phatmatik Pro are used to prepare audio for stutters, the expert artisans all agree that it's much, much deeper than simple beat slicing and beat mangling.

The discussion herein will comprise general ballpark guidelines, not rules. This is not a tutorial on using specific software tools, either. Remember, no single technique is the right technique; no single tool is the right tool; and no amount of theory can ever replace intuition or those funny-looking flaps on the side of your head. Be forewarned, though: Performing extreme stutter or glitch edits can be an insanely time-consuming endeavor, sometimes taking days or weeks to complete just 10 seconds of finished product — much like a cartoonist drawing animation cells. It's also a 99 percent trial-and-error process requiring lots of experimentation, tons of patience and a pretty good dose of fearlessness to boot.

ANATOMY CLASS

Describing the makeup of a stutter edit is extremely challenging, as it can literally take on any one of hundreds, if not thousands, of forms. A stutter is typically, but not exclusively, derived from the isolation and repetition of a plosive or attack transient in a vocal or primary percussive sound within a track. This isolated section, or slice, is usually an eighth note in length at its largest and falls precisely on or around the beat to form a strong rhythmic progression across several beats. A glitch, on the other hand, is usually a momentary eighth- or 16th-bar blistering of extremely minute slices of audio, a 64th note or smaller, often being derived from sustained sonic elements containing rich and complex harmonic textures.

Another key difference is that a stutter typically progresses with rhythmic shifts, or changes in note intervals and subdivided accents, whereas a glitch occurs so quickly that the slices of audio create a static, tonal or buzzing sound. Stutters most often occur at builds, transitions and breakdowns or anywhere you'd classically think of using a drum fill. Glitches, as their name suggests, are not used to emphasize or reinforce rhythm as much as they are sprinkled about at odd rhythmic intervals to jar the listener into taking notice. They artificially induce a momentary rhythmic change to the track by breaking up the monotony.

Oftentimes, stutter effects get blended with or dissolve down to theoretical glitches. That is, the individual audio slices, or elements of a stutter, can be reduced to 64th- or 128th-note values (or smaller), at which point they are no longer audibly stuttering but creating tones. You can see how this is a pretty gray science.

That said, with MIDI's timing being about as accurate as a sundial, trying to pull off sample triggers smaller than a 32nd note will sound like hell. Although it's still an often-used trick for some producers to automate and adjust the sample start point (on samplers that even have this feature) and have a number of notes firing off rapidly one after the other while sweeping the sample start knob, today, it's all about slicing up audio and manipulating each individual slice in your DAW. With sample-accurate timing, working with audio inside of a workstation allows total freedom of the resolution of your stutter spacing — not to mention all of the cool things you can do to each of the individual slices once you have them all spaced and lined up.

But what about source material? What's a prime candidate for stutters or glitches? The easy answer, of course, is anything. Practically speaking, though, for your stutters, look for rhythmic elements that already stand out in the mix: drums loops, lead vocals, vocal hooks, percussive synths, rhythm guitars and so forth. Elements like these that are already telling a story or keeping the rhythm moving are ideal. Stutters can be performed on individual tracks, such as the lead vocal, to accentuate a lyric or phrase; on stems, in which you can process a group of sounds together; or on the full stereo mix, which provides the greatest impact. Glitches are rarely administered to the full mix, unless, of course, you're aiming to break up the rhythm of the track; they're more like overlays, little decorative ticks and flicks that are surrounded by a solid backing.

PREPARATION, NOT PERSPIRATION

With the possibility of having thousands of 128th-note audio slices littering your arrange page, it's best to do your homework and get a grip on the audio you've decided to treat. Your first step is to decide if the section you wish to apply the stutter to is more of a sound-design element or an arrangement element. If you're intending to create a hook sound from a rhythmic element, such as a complex stuttered percussion loop with lots of processing, it's probably a good idea to take it outside of the arrange page and into a dedicated audio editor and preprocess the entire section with any tonal effects that you're considering. Then, you can take it into a transient-detecting loop-dicing tool, such as ReCycle, and slice it up there.

At this point, you want to make sure that your audio file is looped nice and tight, and remove any pops at the ends of your slices by manually or automatically applying minute fades to the front and back of each. These slices won't be your actual stutters, but rather starting-point elements from which you pick and choose and fine-tune the repetition and spacing of once you import them back into your DAW's arrange page.

Another cool trick is to first bounce your selected section of audio several times, each time applying different effects plug-ins, EQ settings and so on; then, take all of your bounced audio files and identically chop them up into small slices in ReCycle. Then, once you bring them back into your DAW and start building your slice edits, you'll have time-exact variations of your cuts with which to drop in and out of, similar to subtractive mixing.

If your stutter is going to be applied to already time-aligned elements, such as vocals, in a rather hit-and-miss fashion throughout the song, your best bet is to perform the slice edits within your DAW. For this, zoom in on the section of audio that you're interested in, set the grid to a desired resolution — say, 32nd notes — and perform a slice-to-grid command. Slicing the audio to smaller divisions is not terribly advantageous at this point unless you're intent is to dissolve a stutter into a glitch. Remember, you can always reduce your working grid to a finer resolution later and selectively reslice your chopped-up bits in half, quarters or whatever. Again, fading the front and back of certain slices may be necessary to remove unwanted pops. As you will see, using this method and saving your effects processing for application to the individual slices later on allows you greater freedom and control of the dynamics and motion of your stutters. Next comes the extremely laborious task of spreading everything out.

BARS AND BEATS

Once your initial slices are created and imported back into your DAW, it's time to start granularly piecing together the edit so that it stutters or glitches and sounds cool “in time.” Right now, the slices play through as normal. A cleverly performed stutter or glitch is not blind repetition or constant equal-interval cutting. It is for this reason that generic chopper tools, plug-ins or gate effects cannot possibly produce an authentic-sounding complex stutter sound. Those tools don't have the ability to think like a musician. Stutters aren't just effects; they are a form of 21st-century composition.

Take a look at a fairly basic one-bar stutter that will rhythmically repeat at eighth-note intervals over a straight four-on-the-floor pattern. You've lined up the group of stutter cuts so that the first slice containing the initial attack transient of the loop, or whatever you have, is sitting right on the one count of the bar in which you wish the stutter to begin. Next, copy and paste this slice every eighth note for the length of the bar, shifting all remaining slices to the right a full bar. These slices can either be left to play through in succession without stutter or manipulated later. Through experimentation, you will find that the duration of each stuttered slice need not necessarily be a full eighth note in length and often sounds better if you trim back the slice durations, dependent on the source material. Take a listen — it sounds basic and bland, right? You've just discovered the first key to making an interesting stutter: variation. Stutter variation can either be time variant, tonal variant or both. Time variation can come in many forms, including slice positioning, duration and relative spacing. Tonal variation can be the result of effects processing, variations in source material within a stutter sequence, induced pitch from extremely tight stutter spacing and so on.

Going back to the one-bar example, if you copy the last four eighth-note slices and paste them a 16th note to the right, you have a one-bar section containing four eighth-note slices for the first two beats and eight 16th-note slices for the second two beats. Just that slight introduction of variation to the stutter makes it more interesting, but it's still nothing to write home about.

A classic stutter build might take this example a step further by continuing the stutter across the following bar for two or three bars, reducing the stutter intervals to 32nd notes and eventually 64th notes across the final beat. But what could really add some life to the party is the introduction of some compound rhythm.

SYNCOPATION NATION

Shifting the beat emphasis from the usually strong beat to the beat that's usually weak is an important tool in making stutters stand out. Different syncopations can build tension and make for the rhythmic shifts caused by the imposition of compound meters. Consider a four-bar transition that takes you out of a steady kick-driven groove with a lead vocal over the top. You want to drop down to just a vocal stutter of the hook for the first bar and let the vocal line continue on with a pad, no beat, but reintroduce rhythm over the fourth and final bar of the transition, using the vocal itself, before you come back in with an explosion of the full mix.

You've chopped the four-bar vocal hook at pretty ruthless 128th-note intervals and brought it into place near the first beat of the first bar of the transition. (A tip: Slide the entire section of slices to a muted holding track directly above or below where you're working — it saves having to scoot everything over as you build the stutter.) Now, you don't want to start right on the first beat of the transition; rather, drop the first slice squarely between the third and fourth beat of the bar just prior to the transition. This syncopation will allow you to do something very cool next. Thinking in terms of eighth-note chunks for the next little while, you'll stutter the first 128th-note vocal slice for the duration of this pretransition space; then, starting on the first beat of the actual transition, you will repeat 64th-note slices (or two consecutive 128th-note slices butted or pasted together) for the first eighth of the bar. So far, it should sound like a fishing reel being cast out: a high-pitched buzzy whir in two pitch increments.

Now, as you increase the size of the slices, to not lose the motion of the lyrics, you'll want to advance through the slices over time. There is no set rule as to how to perform this; it's really up to your ears and acquired skill. However, a simple rule is to look for places that the syllables or vowels change in the lyrics.

Okay, now that you're sitting on the anticipated second beat, you're all lined up to drop in four 32nd-note slices of the progressing vocal hook for another eighth of the bar. Move ahead, and insert two 16th-note slices for another eighth of a bar and one eighth-note slice for another eighth of the bar. Now, you're two full beats into the transition, and it's time to let the vocal fly as normal. If it isn't already obvious, you'll want the vocal to come in at the right time, so some fudging with stutter slice elements will be necessary. This is why it's extremely helpful to have the intact audio waveform sitting above or below for reference.

For the end of the transition, you need to reintroduce the rhythm over the fourth and final bar using the vocal itself as your rhythm element. Because vocals typically are sustained notes at the end of a hook, it doesn't really make sense to use an attack transient for this. Instead, search out a cool-sounding section of the held note to stutter. Often, truncating the vocal tail just prior to where you start the stutter gives the brain room to breathe and builds greater anticipation for the stutter. Here, you could drop 32nd-note slices across the first two beats and shift from simple to compound time for the rest, inserting stutters in stairs of 32nd, 64th and 128th notes. Really, stutters and glitch edits are all about rushing and dragging time and then catching up right on the downbeat. So feel free to try out all sorts of crazy meters, syncopations — whatever feels right.

CAUSE IN DA EFFECT

The secret weapons of the pros in achieving the coolest stutters, though, is their arsenal of hundreds, if not thousands, of plug-ins. It's common to hear of producers performing multipass preprocessing treatments to prep their audio, even before a single slice is ever made. Likewise, smearing an effect across a final stutter sequence can help smooth things out and remove any harshness that may have cropped up. The types of effects they use range from the garden-variety stock plug-ins to extremely esoteric and complex “math music” applications.

Filter and phase plug-ins such as Sound Toys FilterFreak and PhaseMistress are notorious favorites among the stutter pros for their ability to deftly sync to and follow rhythmic material such as drum loops, breaks and guitars. Distortions, decimators and vocoders are another set of preprocessing tools that do wonders on lead vocals and drum loops. Distortion, in particular, is awesome for making stuttered vocals and beats sound really cool. And don't be afraid to go outside of plug-ins. Look to old, crappy stompboxes and overdriven economy mixers; sometimes, they're the rawest and coolest-sounding. It's all about adding the right coloration to the material while it's still intact so that you retain a smooth flow to the stutter once it's chopped and spread. Throwing ramped or envelope-modulated pitch- or formant-shift effects can really make a vocal stand out, too. Combining these in carefree, mad-scientist fashion is the only way to go.

Stepping it up a notch, you have such interesting processes as granular synthesis, sample granulation, spectral analysis and spectral morphing, resynthesis and cross synthesis. Typically, these are found in specialty apps and plug-ins like Yowstar's G Audio (incorporates former products Girl and Cosmetic); Tom Erbe's acclaimed SoundHack Spectral Shapers collection of timbral morphing tools (including +spectralcompand, +binaural, +morphfilter and +spectralgate); Native Instruments' Reaktor modular synthesis, effects and sound-design studio; GRM Tools; DFX's Scrubby, TransVerb, Skidder, RezSynth and Buffer Override; U&I Software's MetaSynth; Ross Bencina's AudioMulch; Cycling '74's Max/MSP; and Applied Acoustics' Tassman 4. And for the truly brave, there are such math- and code-heavy sound-design programming tools as Miller Puckette's Pure Data (PD), Barry Vercoe's C-Sound, James McCartney's SuperCollider and Symbolic Sound's Kyma system.

Those latter four are what many call math-music programs, or programming languages dedicated to manipulating audio in real time. They've each been around for many years, largely on the open-source Unix platform, and do take some time getting used to. If you wish to be on the leading edge of sound design, though, learning one or more of these environments is a must, and you won't regret the time spent.

Now, if you're a true glutton for punishment, you'll dig in and treat each slice individually. There, personal discretion and lots of free time come in really handy. By treating and processing your stutters a slice at a time, you can dramatically alter their dynamics and sense of animation. These individual treatments will be clearly noticeable in the eighth-to-32nd-note range, and you'll really get a charge out of the results. Then, try some postprocessing with flanged reverbs and retro tape delays if the stutter needs to sit back in the mix.

Overall, the best piece of advice is to use everything you can get your hands on, and keep your sound-generation possibilities wide open. Tons of freeware and open-source tools are out there to pick up on. The unique combination of your editing style and the sound-design tools you choose to use will set you apart from the rest of the pack, so listen, experiment and then listen some more. And remember, be fearless. There are no rules.

HYBRID IMPLEMENTATION: MIKE TRUMAN TALKS SHOP

What sonic elements seem to tickle the ears when stuttered or glitched?

Usually drum loops and percussion or anything rhythmical works best. Long pads, vocal washes, et cetera, that are stuttered end up being lost in a mix, unless you want that mid-'90s progressive-house vocal gate effect. The rule of thumb is that if you can't really notice the effect in a track, don't bother doing it. Otherwise, you're wasting loads of time on a programming trick that you'll be very proud of when it's soloed but will make absolutely no difference to the track on a club sound system. Go for big sounds pushed high in the mix to edit if you don't want your valuable time wasted muddying up a mix.

Is it true that the modern stutter concept has left the MIDI space and has nothing to do with retriggering samples anymore?

Not entirely. If you listen to our mix of Jeff Wayne's “War of the Worlds,” there are stutters and edits all over the beat programming, and it was all done using an Akai S3000 and MIDI. Loads of producers have been doing similar tricks with Akai MPC drum programmers for ages, but editing in audio onscreen is just so much easier.

What about sound design — do you leave your DAW for specialized processing?

We definitely go outside of Logic to process the sound files. The best technique we've found is to take one loop and process it through loads of programs and then chop sections out of the processed loops to generate the edit in an arrangement. We use Peak for Premiere plug-ins, Metasynth, Thonk, SuperCollider, Reaktor and a ton of little shareware programs that only do one effect well, but you use whatever program suits your idea. SuperCollider, for instance, was used for the granular drum effects in our mix of Sarah McLachlan's “Fear,” the really metallic smudges on the snare and kicks.

What's your processing trick du jour for treating stutter elements?

At the moment, we're messing about with specially edited Reaktor delays, feedbacks and granular synthesis. Most techies will have noticed loads of GRM Tools effects in our current tracks, as it's got a less-digital feel to it. We're trying to move away from the very robotic edits and put things through guitar amps and rerecord it to smooth things over a bit. Phase is a good old favorite on tightly looped edits. It just takes away some of the harshness. Also, it's a good idea to toy around with delays and reverbs to give a sense of depth to the chops.

__________________________________________________________________

The Aesthetics of Failure: Glitch Music, by Kim Cascone


The Aesthetics of Failure - Glitch Music
Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Promotional culture Culture-Music

Great paper on Glitch and computer generated electronic music.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The UPIC System

This tool/instrument is one of the key factors of the Aphex Twin sound.

___________________________________________________________

UPIC is a computerized musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It was developed at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris, and was completed in 1977. The name is an acronym of Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu. Xenakis used it on his subsequent piece Mycènes Alpha (1978), and it has been used by composers such as Jean-Claude Risset (on Saxatile (1992)), Takehito Shimazu (Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994)), and Curtis Roads.

Physically, the UPIC is a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display. Its functionality is similar to that of the later Fairlight CMI, in that the user draws waveforms and volume envelopes on the tablet, which are rendered by the computer. Once the waveforms have been stored, the user can compose with them by drawing "compositions" on the tablet, with the X-axis representing cumulative duration, and the Y-axis representing pitch. The compositions can be stretched in duration from a few seconds to an hour. They can also be transposed, reversed, inverted, and subject to a number of algorithmic transformations. The system allows for real time performance by moving the stylus across the tablet.

The UPIC system has subsequently been expanded to allow for digitally sampled waveforms as source material, rather than purely synthesized tones. In 2005, Mode Records of New York released a 2-CD compilation of works composed with the UPIC, entitled Xenakis, UPIC, Continuum, [1] which provides an overview of the machine's sonic possibilities.

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Notes on Composing with the UPIC System: The Tools (Equipment) of Iannis Xenakis (PDF)
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The UPIC System

    The UPIC is a configuration of a computer linked to a large-size digitizer table (75 by 60 cm) on which the user designs his music using an electromagnetic pencil. At the other end of the UPIC system, the digits are converted into sound through the loudspeakers. Two screens allow the permanent dialogue between man and machine.

    You can use the UPIC system in 4 steps: 1. draw waves; 2. draw envelops; 3. compose a page; 4. mixage.


    Take the pen, select DRAW on the function menu. Enter the bank of timbres. Draw your desired waveform and then the control screen will show the waveform: you store the waveform in the temporary memory of the computer. Then, select "HEAR" with your pen. Look for a pitch in the drawing area, you hear the sound immediately. Point on another square and after drawing the sound, you will hear a new timbre. About one hundred of timbres can be stored.

    Touch "DRAW ", select an envelop in the ENV- bank. Draw the variation in the sound dynamic in relation to time: the farther your pencil goes from the horizontal line, the louder the sound. Instantly, the envelope is displayed on the control screen; if you aren't satisfied, just draw it again.

    At this point, you are able to draw a PAGE of music, you compose just like a traditional composer but without training or limitation of tuning, conventional orchestral sounds or rhythms. The pitch (low notes, high, up) will be represented on theY- axis in relation to the X- axis on which you read the time read from left to right. At any time you may erase, correct, delete the drawing of a page to listen to a timbre, or to draw a new envelope.

    Each new line defines a "sound arc" at which you have allocated a timbre, an envelope and an intensity. Over about 2000 sound arcs are allowed to make. To hear the musical result, you have first to determine the duration of the page (from 1/4 of a second to 1 hour) by pressing on CALCULATE PAGE. In the same way, it's possible to modify the range of your page by AMBITUS: from a semi-tone up to 10 octaves (= Y- axis). Up to 100 different sound waves can be stored.

    Selecting "DRAW MIXING SCHEMES" you can mix these sound waves in horizontal or vertical direction, defining the architecture of your piece. The global score will be displayed on the control screen (SHOW WAVE). You can even EXTRACT a new timbre or envelope from that global sound wave.

    The UPIC system is controlled by a special set of computer programs which help the user to facilitate his musical choice, without the experience of programming or instrumental skills. The user controls all components of his composing process, from the inner sound structure to the outside architecture of the composition. The program allows to make complex timbres or envelope forms that would be impossible to obtain by freehand drawing.

    Click and see the full picture of String Glissandi bars 309-314 of Metastasis (1954)

    You can RECORD one or more external samples by converting them in your UPIC system. You can assign a global envelope to your page, make graphic or algorithmic transformations (rotations, symmetries, etc) . Once you have stored the set-up, the UPIC system includes also the modus of REAL TIME playback: when you move, accelerate, or stop your pencil , you can control the interpretation of the score manually. Just like a traditional instrumentalist or conductor.

    However, the UPIC-user is able to check and modify the musical result instantly, just like a sculptor. At any moment the UPIC-user can control his composing process. If the gesture is naive, the music will be naive. If the use is elaborated , the UPIC converts the appropriated gesture or manipulation. The composer is also the performer.

This UPIC-page from Mycènes Alpha (1978) will extend over one minute.
The original idea for developing the UPIC, belongs to the Greek composer Iannis XENAKIS (1922-2001) who wanted to convert the graphical drawings on his composition METASTASIS (1953) to notes for traditional performers. Xenakis imagined a machine to perform graphical music immediately and to produce the allocated sound waves. Living in Paris, Xenakis worked 12 years as an engineer with the architect Le Corbusier. About 25 years later, the Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) in Paris has realized the first version of the UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu). With this tool Xenakis created in 1978 "Mykenae Alpha".

Xenakis didn't want to exclude anybody to "compose" on UPIC, he introduced many groups of dancers, kids, computer minded people, non-musicians ànd composers to the UPIC tool.


Les Ateliers UPIC

"Les Ateliers UPIC" is founded in 1985 as a center for musical creation authorized by the French Ministry of Culture. In the beginning, "Les Ateliers UPIC " has promoted the research at the CEMAMu, especially the UPIC System. Later, the association enlarged its field of activities. Today, "Les Ateliers UPIC" supports the initiation, research, production, musical creativity, workshops, courses, concerts, etc. Since its foundation "Les Ateliers UPIC" has a large number of collaboration with composers, musicians, instrumental ensembles, vocal ensembles, teachers, universities, producers , theaters, opera houses and festivals from all over the world.

Les Ateliers UPIC
18, rue Marcelin-Berthelot
94140 Alfortville
FRANCE

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Example

Iannis Xenakis: Mycenae Alpha

Prosecutor drops a charge in Pirate Bay case

Huge win for the Pirate Bay in the Swedish prosecution of the BitTorrent search engine: The prosecutor has dropped one of the major charges against the four men who run the Bay, IT World reports.

Prosecutors dropped a charge for aiding in the copying of copyright works, because they couldn’t prove copies of the content were made. The music industry blustered:

It’s a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works,” [industry lawyer Peter Danowsky] said in a statement.

Ummmm … “making available”? I have no idea what Swedish law says, although I believe European law comports with U.S. Copyright law, which pretty clearly has been interpreted as requiring an actual distribution. Read back on the fate of the “making available” theory here and here and here.

Evidence presented on Tuesday included screenshots showing computers were connected to The Pirate Bay’s tracker, or software that coordinates P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file sharing. But a majority of the screenshots show that The Pirate Bay was actually down at the time and that the client connections timed out. The clients, or peers, were still connecting with each other, but through a distributed hash table, another protocol for coordinating downloads unrelated to The Pirate Bay.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

D16 Phoscyon (Virtual TB 303)

This thing is just sick! Amazing tones and capability. Truly a fantastic beefed up rendition of the 303.


Price: 59.00 eur

Also available in:

Total Bundle for 43.00 eur (- 27 %)
Classic Boxes Collection for 46.00 eur (- 22 %)

Overview

Taking the classic analogue sound of the legendary silver box into the future, PHOSCYON offers an unmatched sound together with advanced features such as a state of the art Distortion unit; fully user configurable BPM sync'd Arpeggiator and Randomizer; a unique 'Play Live' mode; vintage arrangement and pattern builder, full MIDI CC support and, to top it off, the most authentic 18db/oct low pass filter ever created!

Diehard fans of the original Bass Line will be blown away with PHOSCYON’s uncanny emulation of the classic, but will also marvel at the ease with which new sounds can be crafted; sounds which were not possible on the original. PHOSCYON gives you access authentic vintage sounds at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. With the familiar Bass Line interface coupled with the added sound generation tools, we at D16 Group feel that PHOSCYON is quite simply in a class of its own.

PHOSCYON's designers are also musicians who believe that in order for electronic music to stay relevant, it needs to evolve – just like any other genre. Our approach is to give forward thinking musicians and producers the tools they need to craft the sounds they want. Whether it’s Techno, Acid, Triphop, IDM, D&B, Ambient, or any other kind of genre-bending music, PHOSCYON will take your sound further. Please visit our ONLINE SHOP to start making new music now with PHOSCYON!

Capabilities

Phoscyon is a vintage analogue modeled Bassline synthesizer with a unique low pass filter with an 18db/oct dumping and constant resonance amplitude throughout the entire frequency domain. The filter sounds phenomenal! Hear that squelch and you’ll swear its analogue! We’ve also equipped it with a fully customizable integrated arpeggiator (essential in electronic music) as well as an exhaustively analogue modeled distortion effect, crucial for those screaming acid bass lines!

Hear the sounds of for yourself in the Audio samples section and be prepared to be amazed!

Phoscyon is PC and Mac VSTi version, but AU is in development. Release date is not known at the moment.

MIDI CC Map

ControlCC No.
Accent
Accent Decay20
Accent Link Mode21
Env Accent22
Accent Volume23
Reso Link Mode24
Sweep Time25
Distortion
On/Off40
Preamp41
Clip42
Size43
Wetness44
Density45
Brightness46
Dist route47
ControlCC No.
Arpeggiator
Arp. Mode50
Arp. Chord51
Arp. Multiplier52
Arp. Repeater53
Oct. Range -154
Oct. Range 055
Oct. Range +156
Oct. Range +257
Filter
Cutoff70
Resonance71
Env Mod72
Env Attack73
Env Decay74
ControlCC No.
Oscillator
Waveform75
Tuning76
Sequencer
Slide Time5
Step Length106
Tempo107
Volume7
Event threshold
Gate109
Accent110
Slide111
La bible de la musique sur PC, No 22 2007
» [...] ceux qui veulent voir du pays, les blasés de la 303, devraient jeter une oreille sur Phoscyon car il risquerait fort de les surprendre. On sent de l'mour dans ce plugin ! «
Future Music, May (174) 2006
» It's a fun synth with a mighty big sound that simply begs to be tweaked and then tweaked some more. [...] Definitely worth a fiddle «
Computer Music, (99) May 2006
» There are loads of 303 emulations already out there, but we're still relishing the prospect of testing d16's unorthodox take on the classic acid box «
Keys, Juni 2006
» Phoscyon ist eine äußerst autentische Emulation der TB-303 und ein echter Geheimtipp für Vintage-Sound-Entusiasten «
Beat, Juni 2006
» Phoscyon überzeugt vor allem durch seinen guten Sound und die Klangerzeugung. Subjektiv gefällt der Sound - insbesondere bei zugeschaltetem Plug-in-internen Verzerrer - sogar einen Tick besser als der der AudioRealism Bass Line «
Bigshot, May/June 2007
» Hosting all the features that made the 303 king, plus some massive improvements after years of tweaking, this emulator may just be the best reproduction ever wired. [...] Fatboy Slim might just have to change his track to, “Everybody needs a Phoscyon!” «

GUI

PHOSCYON

Full Features

  • 2 authentically emulated analog oscillators (saw/square)
  • screaming 18db/oct low pass filter with absolutely no self oscillation
  • filters equipped with transistor amplitude clipping
  • perfectly scaled knob ranges
  • additional synthesis controls expand the synthesizer's range
  • built-in arpeggiator:
    • 7 predefined chords and 1 user definable chord
    • arpeggiator tempo multiplier (1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6)
    • arpeggiator repeat feature
    • 4 arpeggiation patterns (Up, Down, Up-Down, Random)
    • defined offsets of octaves to work with
  • built-in distortion effect (equivalent to a transistor amplifier with equalization):
    • tailored for the Acid Bassline sound!
    • equipped with signal routing (Dist <=> Eq)
  • several Programming options:
    • internal sequencer (128 patterns, each pattern up to 16 steps, each step defined with Note, Gate, Accent, and Slide values)
    • external mode (compromise)
    • play Live mode
  • powerful randomizer:
    • generates patterns from user defined range of notes, user defined chords or predefined chords (Major, Minor, 7th, m7th, M7, m7-5, DIM)
    • generates random values for Note, Gate, Accent, and Slide attributes
    • allows user to define attribute frequency
  • fully controllable via MidiCC
  • precise synchronization with host sequencer