sunday29march2009
two interesting documentaries about electronic music: Modulations (torrent) and Better Living Through Circuitry (torrent)
saturday21march2009
Press Conference, Tom Waits style
Creating Electronica
Lately I’m interested in making electronic music. I’ve started toying around with various software, here are some links for anybody who might be interested:
- Propellerhead Reason – A nice all-in-one solution with a fancy, intuitive interface. This was the first program I took a close look at, but I’m starting to feel it’s not really the right thing for me, as it’s too focused on creating songs from scratch, i.e. using synthesizers and MIDI sequencing.
- Ableton Live – This one is more focused on live performances and real-time sequencing, and has lots of awesome audio capabilities. It also supports VST plugins and ReWire, so I think I will use this as my main tool.
- Native Instruments Komplete – a software bundle containing pretty much all products from this nice company, they’re all very high-quality and sophisticated and are used by the likes of Radiohead and even Amon Tobin. I’m sure they’ll come in handy when I’m more experienced with this stuff…
- Glitch VST Plugin – Very nice for adding DnB-style glitch effects without having to know how they actually work ;)
- Audacity – If you ever worked with audio you’ve probably already heard of this very nice open source audio editor. It’s pretty easy to use, I’m currently just using it to slice samples.
- LoopBe1 Virtual MIDI driver – Emulates a MIDI keyboard using your computer keyboard, very useful if you don’t have a real MIDI keyboard at hand.
- M-Audio Axiom 25 – I bought this cheap MIDI controller (see picture), it’s really nice and seems to be ideal for beginners as it covers all the usual functions (i.e. keyboard, pitch/mod wheels, knobs, and drum pads).
tuesday27january2009
check out this fascinating video about the Amen Break, a remarkable sample which was used extensively in early Hip-Hop and became the basis for Drum & Bass
thursday8january2009
check out KJ Sawka, the human drum machine!
tuesday12august2008
this guy from France is creating some amazing video remixes with Amon Tobin tracks
tuesday5august2008
oh no! someone stole Iggy and the Stooges’ gear in the middle of their tour! they even took Mike Watt’s bass…
saturday16february2008
everybody loves beatboxing!
wednesday26september2007
I found an interesting Crass Documentary over at punktorrents.com about the band’s history and Dial House. I also finally found Christ: The Movie there, which I’ve been looking for for ages…
friday8june2007
We are not what we eat, we are what we don't shit.
– from “Supermarket Nightmare” by Victims Family
