Ableton Live 7 & Ableton Live Suite are now available. I love Live’s minimalistic look and the way it turn half instrument half DAW but Live getting to version 7 very rapidly and it is questionable at the very least whether all the update have been worth of a whole new number and the price tag. The any audio engine improvement to any product should always be welcome tough. Live Suites is just a version bundled with the Ableton instrument that fit so snugly with live for all you completist out there.
I think I may have listed this before but if so it deserves another listing. Tunetorials has a bunch of great video’s to help you make music. The Reason ones are especially good.
XYplorer Free is a free non-music utility but music maker stend to be power uses when it comes to file management and spend a lot of time using Window Explorer bouncing around our sample bloated hard drives. XYplorer is a replacement of the Windows Explorer and it one of those programs you don’t know how you lived with out it once you get used to it. The audio previews, color coding, batch renaming, favorites tagging are so very useful. Plus it will run off a memory stick. The paid version even come with more goodness.
OK, it is inescapable now. T-Pain was on NRP. NPR! I had now idea how pervasive he was. The NPR story figures he is no something like 1/3 of the tracks on certain radio stations. In the NPR piece they refer to these stations as R & B. The has been almost no “B” for decades. I am not one of those people that hate rap or R & B and totally right it off. I just hate most of whats on the radio. Production wise it is horrible. Compressed to death and muddled beyond belief. In the words of Bob Dylan, “New records have sound all over them.” Artistically it worse. They need a new stronger word for derivative with an extremely negative connotation. I don’t get the appeal of it. So, much of it self aggrandizing garbage. Why the Average Joe would want to listen to how rich and great other people are told the same way by a whole host of rappers is beyond me. I know there are exceptions and know it is true of other genres but generally it is disposable noise. Those produce the music only care about the money not the music. A good chunk of the music is even about the money. But that is a different story.
This is about vocoders kinda. T-Pain signature vocal sound with basic his voice ran through a vocoder. Not auto-tune as a lot of people have though it was. I like vocoders. I think they are cool. But it is a dramatic effect and to me gets annoying after a while. It becomes gimmicky. Maybe a cover for poor or uninteresting vocal work. Especially after more than 2 years. What if the that Cher auto tune effect was on every other song and never went way? Or on every other song? What if Daft Punk was a guest vocalist on every 3rd song on the radio? Or if half the rock songs and Frampton talk box vocals. To me at least that is what it is like. I’m sure people will get sick of it and dispose of it like most pop music but it is amazing it has gone this far. I am not sure its lasting appeal says about the state of popular music but I do not think it is good.
It is nice when people use things a little different like vocoders creatively but sparingly. It really can and some wow without becoming a gimmick. Check the video below about the 5:50 mark. There is an amazing vocoder vocal part. I the song came out in 1975 and is great example of a dramatic adding a touch of brilliance.
Earlier I mentioned the NIN DVD with tracks in mutli-track format to let anyone remix the songs. The was going to be a website to upload and share the tracks which would heave been cool. But big business intervened & Reznor rants. Read it here. The DVD is still available though and for the price of some Normal CD’s it might be worth it to allow anyone to completely remix a big time commercial release.
“KORE 2 is the Super Instrument – a powerful software / hardware system with a versatile library of more than 500 production-ready sounds, with over 3,000 sound variations and over 400 FX KoreSounds. Find, play, and tweak sounds with unprecedented speed, power and ease.
KORE 2 features six integrated audio engines, a dedicated hardware controller, and the ultra-fast KoreSound® browser. Additionally, KORE 2 is infinitely expandable with the KORESOUND PACKS, KOMPLETE 5 or any other Audio Unit™/VST®-plug-in.”
It looks pretty cool. I think it would be good for those that just need 1 great tool and don’t want to fuss about with a lot of software. It just might fit that bill. At over $500 & 5 gigs it better do almost every thing even with the controller.
ARS has this article about big artist defecting from major label to Radiohead style. The Patch Lab use guessed it has lots of patches for VST’s.
You might have already seen this because anything gadgety and containing the word “robot” is bound to go viral on the Internet. The Robot Guitar from Gibson tunes itself. Though from the name you might think it plays itself until it gives bored with entertaining humans and attempts to take over the world. That thankfully is not the case. Gibson might have been around forever but high good cutting edge lately previously with their digital guitar. The Robot Guitar is either available in 24 days other world is going to end or something according to the giant clock on the site. Nothing gives the appearance of importance like a big count down clock.
If the Gibson does give you your fill of different electric string instruments check out this Mandocaster form Easwood Guitars makers of really slick retro looking axes.
T-Pain in My Butt or Vocoder Madness
This is about vocoders kinda. T-Pain signature vocal sound with basic his voice ran through a vocoder. Not auto-tune as a lot of people have though it was. I like vocoders. I think they are cool. But it is a dramatic effect and to me gets annoying after a while. It becomes gimmicky. Maybe a cover for poor or uninteresting vocal work. Especially after more than 2 years. What if the that Cher auto tune effect was on every other song and never went way? Or on every other song? What if Daft Punk was a guest vocalist on every 3rd song on the radio? Or if half the rock songs and Frampton talk box vocals. To me at least that is what it is like. I’m sure people will get sick of it and dispose of it like most pop music but it is amazing it has gone this far. I am not sure its lasting appeal says about the state of popular music but I do not think it is good.
It is nice when people use things a little different like vocoders creatively but sparingly. It really can and some wow without becoming a gimmick. Check the video below about the 5:50 mark. There is an amazing vocoder vocal part. I the song came out in 1975 and is great example of a dramatic adding a touch of brilliance.