Saturday, September 26, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
GarageBand Now Has Midi!
midi0 allows garage band users to send notes to external synthesizers using the audio unit format.
I'll be testing this out today to see how useful it is.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
iTunes 9: Worse
Quick review of what I think about the drawbacks of iTunes 9 are.
1. Minimizing the window to "mini player" is now a 3-button command. The green upper left button no longer functions if you think about it. Collapsing itunes to get it out of my way was the only feature I used the most. Nobody ever remembers quick commands. Those were designed for power users who were doing repetitive graphics work. I want iTunes 8 back just to get this feature back...one-click minimize to the mini player please!! WTF.
2. The interface is harder to look at. They tried to candy it up even farther, but fucked up. The pause/play button is now whiter. But the playlist background is white. This is bad because you do not want a non-object (the background) to correlate color wise with the main buttons. Its giving me a 3d headache. Poor use of dimension.
3. I don't like how ever new feature requires an iTunes account now. It seems like apple wants to know what data is on your CPU. Why would I need an iTunes account to share across a home network? Lame.
Verdict: Its just an mp3 player. Screwing up the minimize window function and making it a key-command makes me want to digg up Soundjam MP.
UPDATE. FIXED!!!!! AN UPDATE to iTunes brings back the green button maximize function.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Osculator Animation + DTExplorer
http://www.rickigregersen.com/2009/09/09/dtxplorer-drum-kit-goes-processing/#content
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Skin Your Gear!
With Styleflip.com's flash editor I was able to make a star wars themed vinyl for an Electribe. The tool is pretty advanced, and you can order your creation. A wide selection of boxes are supported, like akai, and other DJ gear. I hope they make some more keyboard templates, beyond their midi controllers sometime!
Korg WaveDrum X Price?
According to yahoo groups the price will be $650. Since Korg.com doesn't even have a page up, I would wait till we are able to buy or get something more official to say for sure.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Downloadable Frequency Chart (PDF)
Ever needed a guide on frequency to help you mix? Ever needed to know where a sound will fall without looking at the meter?
Print out this chart from Stereoklang (PDF)
While a good start, I don't agree with it.
Critiques: Sounds starting at 200hz are not warm, as shown. These sounds clear and contain alot of information, some which is harsh! (Snares) Warmth is created under 80hz. You can increase warmth by increasing sub bass. Wheight is also wrong. It should be depicted as 100 hz and up, which is a range that the human body can feel, sort of like getting punched (kick drum attack). The rest in the diagram is OK.
LinnDrumm II Design
Looks like I didn't see this yet. Its a cool 3d mockup. Looks a little like a mixing console. Everything is starting to take this shape lately.
http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linndrum2/index.shtml
Mortal Kombat - Peroxide Mocha
One day we got bored and decided to cover the theme from Mortal Kombat by "The Immortals", with Rachel re-doing all of the vocals bits from the game...
Mortal Kombat
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Flat Loudspeakers
These speakers can be integrated inconspicuously on walls or in furniture. At the Internationale Funkausstellung IFA in Berlin from September 4 to 9, Fraunhofer scientists are presenting a completely new concept for ultra-flat loudspeakers that still deliver full sound reproduction.
The main advantage are these look to be installed for commercial use?
Friday, September 4, 2009
PSP Beaterator: Whats taking so long?
What is taking so long for Rockstar to make a PSP music creation game? Popular websites list Beaterator as a Rockstar creation in 2005. I know I played something with exact same interface, name, and flash technology running on a different website earlier than 2005. I'm taking a guess that it was purchased or liscensed by Rockstar and is finally making its way. WHATS TAKING SO LONG? I don't think anyone has been anticipating its release. I haven't. I remember playing Beaterator free on the web years ago. Corporate control made it disappear. Its only after Rockstar took control of Beaterator that I wasn't able to play it anymore!
I'm not going to buy it on PSP to support a flash game that was intended to be free and intended for everyone to use. I hope it doesn't sell well at all.
There are many free homebrew music creation titles on the PSP with similiar features!
Korg Wavedrum-X!!!
This looks rad!!!! I'm glad korg still has creative and advanced hardware coming out unlike their pop-tart mini keyboards. The Wavedrum WD-X emulates a hand drum realistically and uses precises sensors. Just from the video you can tell it must be better than rolands offering. I want one!
Korg MicroSampler Looks like Voltmeter
It seems like they come out with a new mini keyboard ever year.
From youtube "looks like a midi keyboard for troops in iraq... really ugly"
To me it looks like a plastic Voltmeter from electronics class or a yard sale toy. It looks like it has a sequencer at least. If it doesn't have time-stretch, pitch, beat-match, and sample chop, like modern samplers, then its not necessary to own, but I hope it does for the sake of people buying this ugly thing.
Go Take The Plastikman Survey
Plastikman is coming back? Fraid so. This time he is letting you have input on the album because he's out of ideas. This is a good marketing methodology because I can say bring back the analogue mixing setup that was used on Plastikman Musik earlier which is one of my favourite albums of all time and literally the best 808 + 303 recordings ever made!
Apple & Behringer's Website LOLs
Behringer has decided to copy the layout and navigation features from Apple's website. Personally I think Apple deserves it and that Behringer should be free to do so if they want to present themselves that way. Apple's is like Behringer but worse because they provide generic hardware at a premium price. At least behringer is cheap. Apple stopped having their own chips, motherboards, and other features custom designed so they can repackage the cheap components for profit. The base for the OS is copied from Unix. They threw out most of their technology years ago and stopped being cutting edge when they stopped pushing the latest hardware standards in PPC machines (No blu-ray? No e-sata? etc. etc.)
I don't think bloggers should be complaining about it since we basically copy news article from other sites too. No big deal.