Cool Control Surfaces

I'm loving the new controllers coming out that are built to integrate with Ableton Live, which I use as my main composition tool. They mimic the software program's grid and allow you to "play" a physical surface, allowing the software to reach into the actual (not virtual) world, where our hands and bodies can interact. Composers and musicians and DJs especially love Live because of its clip view. You can use it to launch entire sets of songs, all tempo matched, and intuitively mix, add additional tempo matched (or not) flourishes, integrate virtual instruments, etc. Composers can arrange and mix variations of a tune by launching individual parts at will. All on the fly. And now with these cool controllers we have tons of buttons and sliders to "play" the software with.

1 Akai's APC40 ABLETON PERFORMANCE CONTROLLER, $349
This thing is awsome, integrating a sliders, knobs the huge pad grid. Here is what they say about it:

The unusual front panel of the APC40 is packed with glowing buttons. It looks this way because it's designed to let you to take complete control of Live's unique Session View. Session View features a grid that allows you to load audio and MIDI clips into its cells. You can play and stop each of these clips in any sequence, and you can launch groups of clips together as a "scene." You can choose to have the software time-stretch and quantize all of these sounds so they flow together musically. It's an extremely simple yet wildly creative approach to manipulating sound, but until now there has been no true hardware solution that could free the user from staring deeply into their computer monitor with a mouse in their hand.

2 Novation LAUNCHPAD, $199
I like Novation's version better. It's cheaper, has a cooler minimal design, and even though it doesn't have sliders you can mix by switching modes and sliding up and down a column of the buttons. You should really check out the promotional video. Here's some of their description:

Each button has three color states so you can see at a glance what's loaded (orange), what's playing (green), and what's being recorded (red). Similarly, Live's interface tells you what section of the Session View the Launchpad is currently controlling. This two-way communication ensures that Launchpad and Ableton Live are always perfectly in sync.

Launchpad doesn't just launch clips. Switch to "mixer mode" and the same button grid offers a unique way to control Ableton Live's mixer. Volume, pans, sends, track arming, soloing and muting can all be controlled via the grid. Using buttons instead of dials, Launchpad lets you jump to different levels across 8 channels at once, useful for controlling multiple effects sends.

Again, software is finding it's way to our physical world, where we can interact in a natural, physical way.

3 This is an plain old ACCORDION
That's right, not a cool midi controller at all. So what's the point here? Just that there is really nothing new going on. Accordions have been integrating rows of buttons to trigger chords and notes in a really similar way for 200 years. It made sense then, and it still does. So why'd it take so long for the manufacturers to figure this out again? I don't know, but I'm glad they did.

But if you really want a midi accordion, you can have that too. Roland's V-Accordion goes for about $1600.

Every Second of an 5:57 Minute Song

How can our crowded minds possibly catalog store and recall every second of an ever changing 5:57 min. song? Take Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, for example. It's not a standard blues progression or something, like a hundred other songs. It's a totally unique string of fairly disjointed musical ideas. Yet somehow, an average person of a certain age, say, my age, who heard this song playing through their puberty has got every single moment of it hammered into his or her head.

I'm not talking about a musical professional, someone you expect to memorize the piano concerto they play at Carnegie Hall. I'm talking about how your average Jane and Joe (probably every single kid from my graduating class of J.H.S. 216), flat out KNOWS this song – stone cold by heart. This Muppet parody video really made me think about the magic of recorded music — and video, for that matter — the magic of recordING and how human memory works.

What is it, you hear something, see something a few times and your brain becomes a tape recorder? It sort of seems that way. I mean, that's what makes this video so funny. We remember the original video and seeing the spoof along side the remembered original in our head, is what makes it work. It's what makes it funny.

So for thirty years, I've been thinking my tape recorders (now digital) where helping me mimic and reproduce a live musical experience. They were the magical machines. Maybe what I've actually been doing is using my recorders analogously to how my brain already works. The more magical machine.

And to me, one striving to make good recording, working to produce multimedia experiences that work, that's kind of comforting. It means I know how to make the perfect recording. I just need to tap into what my brain is doing so well already.

Gear Purge

Creative space, with the emphasis on "space."

Gearchild has had just about enough, um, GEAR. It's heresy, I know. After all, I've been into this stuff since I was a kid, poking around my fathers Telefunken reel to reel in 1968. But something has happened. The gear has ceased to be fun, and the music has faded behind the clutter. True, I've been winnowing my possessions down already, and it may be only temporary. But I decided to undergo a major purge.

What it boils down to getting realistic about what I'm able to do in my life. When "stuff" becomes something I'm responsible toward rather than something that's a help to me, it's a problem. And I'm not just talking about music gear either.

PERSONAL STATISTICS I have a more than full-time job, a spouse and three children. By the time I got to my studio after work, I was usually so tired that I resented my equipment.
Like that annoying kid down the block, it kept looking at me with its blinking red, green and amber eyes and repeating "Wanna play? Why don't you play with me? Here I am." "Get out of my face!" I shouted back and proceeded to log onto ebay.

THE DRUMS Read Garbage Drum Set for the history, but when it came down to it I wasn't playing or recording these drums. I used to be a drummer back in the day, but years operating a computer mouse has left my wrists and soft tissue tender. An afternoon pounding the kit felt great, but I paid for it the next few days. And drums are too loud to not bother my housemates and my kids show no interest in playing them or using them to jam with me or their friends.

So I sold the cracked Zildjian New Beat high hats, the Sabian 20" ride cymbal, the Tama Pedal, the 1970s 16" Paiste crash cymbal, the Tama high hat stand, and the two cymbal stands. After alot of packing tape and trips to the post office, what was left was the "garbage" part of the kit, the drums themselves. They are sitting in my garage. One is a Ludwig floor tom, I think (the badge is missing). The rest are no-name junky brands that have pretty much no value on the used market.

Come and get them.

KORG MICROx I wrote about my love for my latest synth recently. It interfaced well with my computer DAWS and had heaps of sounds. But getting at it all was sort of like looking for ants with a magnifying glass from an airplane. If you are over 40, do not even attempt to read the text on the front panel of that thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a great synth. But with the time I have for it, I just was scratching the surface. When it comes down to it I can make just about any sound I want on my Mac virtual synths. So up on ebay went the MicroX.


PHONIC FIREWIRE MIXER/AUDIO INTERFACE A grossly underestimated piece of equipment. A few years ago, for $300, I got this 12 channel firewire audio interface that is also an analog mixer with great effects. But I also have an Mbox for ProTools. I've gotten into Protools because that's what I use at work for editing audio for web multimedia. When it came down to it I figured I could do everything I needed with the Mbox. So some lucky camper picked up the used firewire mixer for about $100. If you want a firewire interface/mixer, I'd check these out. Not quite a Mackie, but it does a lot of the same stuff, and it's much cheaper.


RODE NT1A Microphone
A great condenser mic. Quiet and wonderful for voice or whatever. But when it comes down to it, I can do what I need to, get a basic idea down, with my Shure Sm58. Someone picked it up for $100.


CAMERAS AND BRIEFCASES
I rounded out my purge by looking beyond my music gear to my other valuable stuff. Saddleback Leather makes these amazing bags. Thick leather and cool basic styling. They are designed to last 100 years and cost at least a few hundred bucks each. I got one a few years ago. I loved it, the way it smelled, looked and was built. But it was too heavy to carry. It was breaking my back. Picked up $400 for it on ebay, almost what I paid. Someone got a great bag.


Finally, I got rid of my Olympus E-500 digital slr camera. A great camera, yes. I take lots of pictures, and always have. A camera is almost always with me. But this camera was about 2 or 3 years old and I figured it was going to break sooner rather than later. So I sold it too. A wedding photographer in Ohio picked it up with the lens and a bunch of extras and got a great deal at that. I took the money from all this stuff and got the new SLR I'd been wanting.

My music studio now boils down to this:

• My Mac laptop
• M-Audio Prokeys Sx keyboard.
• Mbox Mini.
  
• A bunch of virtual synths, notably ImpOscar.
• My Garbage Guitar (read about it).
• $200 Fernandez strat.
• Edirol powered speakers.
  

And I'm thinking of making it even simpler. Meanwhile I have room to breath, I can just sit down and play without getting strangled in wires or demanding lcd screens.

And, importantly, I have a little more peace, which is just what I need right now.



--

Roland VS 880 Digital Multitrack

By the late 80s and through the 90s I was using my Macintosh IIci for midi composition using outboard synths and modules. But integrating live audio recording into the process was still beyond my financial means. The best I could do was sync my four track tape recorder to the midi sequencing software and record audio on tape. Full-on audio recording wasn't available until the Roland VS 880 digital multitrack arrived.

Like the Tascam TEAC 144, the original cassette Portastudio that revolutionized home recording, the VS880 was a giant technological leap for musicians. I'd purchased the 144 when it came out with faith that it could help me manifest the songs I'd only imagined in my head, and I was right. I'd experienced the revolution first-hand. The VS880 was no different. Finally 8 tracks of digital hard disk recording with automation, digital effects, editing and totally pristine audio quality were available at a reasonable price. And the VS880 shared that Portastudio feeling with its integrated mixer and all-in-oneness.

Its strengths were the sound quality and the effects board. The board was extra, but oh, so worth it! Everything from compression to chains of guitar effects where available, editable and programable. Oceans of reverb and even mic modeling. I would still recommend the VS with the effect board to anyone to use as an effects unit alone.

Weaknesses: Lack of storage space. It had a small drive and the outboard drives were proprietary and expensive. Editing was complex, as was the user interface. The faders were not only faders, but midi faders and input devices for effects and other parameters. The routing was all illustrated in the teensy display window.

None-the-less it was inspiring to use, and exciting to have swaths upon layers of super high quality vocals and guitars. After some time though, the very non-visual editing became too much of a distraction from my musical flow. I sold the thing and got a used power mac on ebay for 60 bucks, a Newer Tech G3 upgrade card and a copy of Cubase VST.

I still wish I had my VS880, however, if only to use as a mixer, effects box and musical scratch pad. Perfect for a vacation from the computer screen and a relief from mouse driven carpal tunnel syndrome.

Roland MBK-300 Midi Controller

The MKB-300 weighs a ton, on the other hand, how many 23 year old midi controllers do you have that still work perfectly?

This is the way they used to make them, solid metal all around and real wood too. Built like a tank, my MKB-300 controller has lasted over two decades and still performs flawlessly. When I got this around 1987 or so, a midi controller was still an exotic thing. I can't remember how many times I had to explain midi to my friends, musicians and non-musicians alike: "Well, it doesn't actually make any sounds on it's own, it triggers sounds in other equipment. . ."

Now days midi controllers are a dime a dozen. And they're flimsy, for the most part. But besides the build, this board was well thought out. 76 keys, semi-weighted action, and 128 memories all easily accessible, through its 8 bank buttons and 16 program change buttons. It allows two midi channels for each memory location. The two channels are set up as either programmable splits, in dual mode (2 midi channels stacked) or use the whole keyboard for a single midi channel, switchable with the second.

In addition, each of the two channels in each of the 128 memory locations had a programmable bank and program number associated with it. So when you hit a memory location, you got the channels you wanted, the split/dual or whole mode you wanted, and the program change you wanted. You were ready. If playing in a band, you could easily plan out a few sets worth of patches on a couple of outboard synths, or a multitimbral module. You could improvise as well, sending program changes at will, then conveniently snap back to your saved setups.

And no menus to navigate, a major annoyance, so for me, this early midi board hit a sweet spot in the development of midi gear. It did a lot, yet everything was on the front panel, perfect for performance. Just push a few buttons. May just one.

Ok, it had no aftertouch, but I usually turned reception of that data off in my sequencer anyway so as not to clog my midi pipeline. But it did have a bunch of midi outs, something you never see these days, and let's not forget the individual damper and soft pedals inputs for each channel, adjustable dynamics via a pot on the back and the handy-dandy transpose slider for easy key changes.

Back in the day (1984), his baby retailed way up there, somewhere between 1 and 2 grand. I have a feeling it didn't sell that well. It was overbuilt, and demand wasn't that great for midi controllers. I got it at a blowout sale for about $600 in 1988. I used it for about 10 years straight, and had it on the side, occasionally tinkling its ivories since, but less and less with the purchase of new toys that have replaced it. I hate to see it go, but I just need the space, and since it won't die, I finally decided to put it up for sale.

Garbage Guitar

Turned out my neighbor's son stepped on his guitar and snapped the headstock off. We were at curbside where he was putting it with the rest of his garbage. Would he mind if I took it? I can't bear to see a musical instrument thrown away. "You really can't fix that," he said. But he was throwing it out, after all. And I'd seen him strumming a Martin on his stoop, so it wasn't like he was hurting for an axe. What could he say? I took the crippled six-string home.

I took it out of the case and looked it over. The decoration was really nice, and the workmanship seemed good. The case was solid and I ran my fingers through the plush lining. When I flipped open the storage compartment I recognized that I'd stumbled into private territory. I found some seeds, tiny bits of weed and one of those tiny ziplock bags - no doubt the remnants of my neighbor's teenage stash.

What was garbage a moment earlier suddenly became invested with meaning; this guitar part of someone's life, an emotional piece of this guy's coming of age. I could imagine him jamming with his buddies and the good times he must have associated with the guitar. I understood why he might have been hesitant to let me take it. I doubt he remembered what was tucked deep inside, but no doubt he wanted to move on, and I bet it took some doing to let the guitar go.

The guitar is a Cortley copy of a Gibson Dove, and it looks like the actual Gibson that Elvis is playing in the picture. I even found a website dedicated to the copy guitar! People said nice things about it online, and I was inspired to fix it. I got me some Gorilla Glue and a clamp, did as good a job as I could gluing it back together. A bit cruder of a repair than I'd hoped. But when I strung the guitar up, it held.

And when I tuned it up and began to play, the guitar sounded with a warmth that made me smile.

Korg Micro X

"As an absolute minimum we would suggest 32 MG and a processor running at 120 MHz. There is no maximum system requirement, but an Apple G3/300 MHz with 64 MB or more would be very cool." -FROM THE BOX OF CUBASE VST, MY FIRST COMPUTER RECORDING/VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT SOFTWARE PROGRAM.

Boy do times change. My current mac blows those specs away, but software has gotten more demanding too. My 1.4 ghZ G4 notebook starts to hicup in Live or Protools with a just a couple of virtual instruments running — sometimes with just one demanding vst. Let's face it, not everyone can afford to get the latest computer every year.

Frustrated by crashes I went out looking for an external voice module to trigger via midi out of my sequencer. My adventure with the JV101 proved less than ideal. I wanted something editable and with more contemporary sounds.

I never even heard of the Korg Micro X when a salesman pointed it out to me. It's keyboard is so short you can barely play it on it's own, but with a controller keyboard (I already had one) and almost any computer (even my lame G4) the sounds, editing and system integration of this machine really shine.

Get this: The supplied editor opens just like a virtual synth inside of your recording software, so you can work seamlessly inside your sequencer, just like with virtual synths, only here the processing chores are all off-board, on the Micro X's back. Free of the CPU load of the virtual synths, my lame mac is running like a champ.

Add to that: Lots of great sounds, ample polyphony, editable, multiple arpeggiators, realtime control knobs and even built in templates for using its knobs as midi controllers for Live and other software, the little thing is a rocket in the pocket with a sequencer, and lot's of fun to play on it's own with it's cool patches and synced arpeggios.

And it comes with an orange case. Well worth the $500.

Yo La Tengo @ the Wellmont 12/31/2008

"Yo" like to trade instruments. James McNew, on guitar in the start frame, usually plays bass; Ira Kaplan, usually on guitar, plays keyboards on this one. Georgia Hubley is the drummer.

Yo la Tengo is a band I had always wanted to see. A melodious, decidedly fringe, cult-indi psychedelic/noise groove trio from the early 80's that (gasp!) stayed together. Their style varies from folky to noisy to covers from north, east, south and west, done... differently. So here they were, the eve of 2009, true adults, still at it, and my wife and I were taking two of our kids to see them. The result: The best and most wonderful parenting moment in the history of my fatherhood and my son's childhood. More on that later.

About the show:

How to describe their sound? Well I just tried, but it's best to listen. That might not do justice to the live show I saw. A lot of their recorded songs have a sing-song, melodic calm to them that, in live performance, coexists with a wild, brash intensity. Contrast and breadth is clearly important to them: a conventional, verse-chorus pop song structure with a minimal, tight groove is interrupted by the most insane, feedback-laden, bang it, bend it guitar solo you have ever heard. And that goes on for a long, long time. And it's musical. This band doesn't suck.

The New Year's Eve plan ran into a snag right away when my ten year old looked up the band on youtube. This decade old guitarist/skateboard dude decided Yo la Tengo were a bunch of nerdy old folks. He didn't appreciate the group's avant-a-cappella in that particular video, but we dragged him to the show under protest.

After a forgettable first band, the second came on. They were The Feelies, a 70's group recently back together. They were all pushing 60, I'd say, but you wouldn't know it from the energy. The Wellmont is old too, a movie palace that's been recently transformed into a music venue. Clearly it wasn't build for loud rock and roll, because the sound system was too loud and muddy. I brought ear plugs for everyone, and that helped at least curb the bleeding. The Feelies have a fun rolling groove, and their set was really great.

The moment of truth came when Yo la Tengo played. They did a bit of cornball holiday music sung along with an big band backing track. My kid rolled his eyes. But within a minute or two of picking up their instruments, Ira Kaplan launched into one of those totally over the top, body writhing, feedback squealing, guitar abusing, noisy solos. For like 15 minutes.

This was not what my ten-year-old had expected. He was truly in a state of shock. He threw his hands in the air. His mouth hung open and the look on his face seemed to say: "Holy sh*t, what the hell is going on?"

Vestax MR-44 4-track Cassette Deck

You may have read about my 4-track adventures, beginning with the original Portastudio cassette multi-track, the Teac 144.

After I wore that one down I had a Porta One. It didn't measure up to the original. For one thing I don't think it ran at high speed. Also the transport buttons were mechanical push down types, not the touch sensitive electronic ones the original had. Punch-ins were seemless and smooth as silk on the 144. Nonetheless, I think I may have even had two Porta Ones over a few years.


Then came the tiny Fostex X-15. It could run on batteries and had pegs like a guitar to strap it over your shoulder. Truely portable, it lacked the inputs and sends I was used to. I did strap it on and bring it to my friend Wally's place for a session. It never got back home.

That brings us to the subject of the vintage ad above, the Vestax MR-44, shown at the top of this page. Who had ever heard of this company? I hadn't. I was taking a chance, but I went for it because of the rack mounted convenience and the good ins and outs on the front. It was simple but well thought out.

This thing was great. It was smooth mechanically, the buttons were the soft touch electronic type, and even though it lacked individual EQ, it had multi-band equalization over the whole mix that worked well to patch things up and cut the mud out.

It sounded really good and was very, very quiet as far as tape hiss went. I made some good sounding recordings on it.

To my chagrin, one day it just stopped in its tracks.

It was out of warranty but I called the California number in the manual and a guy with a heavy Asian accent picked up the phone. His seeming confusion and the clamor in the background made me think I'd reached a Chinese restaurant. After determining that I'd called the right place, I described the problem to the guy. There was a silence, then. . .

"Ahh. Yeess! Not your fault. Our fault. We fix. Send," he said.

I did, and they repaired it for free.

Later, when I went to a Roland VS-880 digital 8-track, I sold the Vestax on Ebay for $175. The father of the kid who bought it wrote me a long email thanking me for making his son's first ebay purchase such a great experience. The MR-44 seemed to have endless good karma.

Vestax is still around, but they've switched to DJ gear. I bet it's pretty good stuff.