Modulate This! - News, Tips and Links for Electronic Musicians and Producers

Modulate This! Interview With Smule's Dr. Ge Wang (Maker of iPhone Ocarina)

Want to know what one of the leading iPhone developers has on his mind?

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Ge Wang, CTO and Co-founder of Smule.com. Smule are the makers of extremely popular and innovative iPhone applications such as Sonic Lighter and Ocarina. Dr. Wang is also an assistant professor at Stanford University, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University and a BS in Computer Science from Duke University. Ge is the creator and chief architect of the ChucK audio programming language, and the founding director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk).

I asked a wide variety of questions in this interview - so - whether you are a musician, a developer, an iPhone user, or an entrepreneur, I hope you find this interview interesting and enlightening.

I've provided this audio interview in YouTube (for computer or iPhone users), and in MP3 formats*.

Part 1 - Dr. Wang discusses the iPhone as an application platform, how constraint leads to innovation, and his vision for using technology to bring people together. Watch on YouTube or Download MP3.

Part 2 - Dr. Wang discusses how people are using Ocarina and how Ocarina has brought music to the disabled. He also discusses the future of the Ocarina and Smule, and what it's like to be "Smulian". Watch on YouTube or Download MP3.

 

Links:

• Smule.com
• Orcarina Site|Buy Ocarina on iTunes
• Smule's "This Contest Blows" Contest!!
• TheGoodBlogs Midi file to Smule Ocarina Score Converter
• More Smule and Ocarina Videos on YouTube
  
• Stanford Laptop Orchestra
• Dr. Wang's Page @ Stanford

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com

---- Production Notes ---
Audio was taken from a phone conversation between myself and Dr. Wang. I originally intended to publish as transcribed text but felt of the tone of conversation would be lost so I instead published an audio version. I decided to present both sides of our conversation at phone quality to preserve the feel of the conversation. Note that for a short time in the beginning of Part 1, Dr. Wang was on a mobile phone with some signal drop out and the quality improves as the conversation continues. In addition to MP3 format, I've provided a YouTube format so you can easily listen to this from an iPhone or web browser.

Modulate This! - Best Products of 2008 for Electronic Musicians

Hope you all are having a restful holiday season. I continuously strive for the leanest rig that will give me the best results. In this post I’ll offer a list products that make up the core of my rig. Consider this my “If I was stranded on a desert island” list for 2008.  Note that some products in my list were not new in 2008, but I’m still using them tons so they’ve made the list. If you want to see all the elements of my rig, check out this photo album on MySpace.

Best DAW – Ableton Live 7, $499
For me, Live has been become more than a DAW. It’s at the core of everything I do and after years of use feels more like a musical instrument to me than some piece of software. See all my posts on Live here. Official Live site is here.

Best Hybrid Synthesizer - Camel Audio Alchemy , $249
Camel Audio just released a new synth called Alchemy. They've been working on it for 4 years. It's an additive, spectral, granular, virtual analog synth. The interface is really well done with a clever scheme for routing modulation. I think it’s one of the finest virtual instruments I’ve ever used. I’ll be writing more posts about this synth in the future. For now you can learn more about it here.

Runner up for me in this category is Native Instruments Absynth 4. It’s not new this year but is also a great synth. I also want to mention Spectosonics Omnisphere. I don’t own it and I haven’t tried it (no demo available), but from what I’ve read and seen in demo videos it’s a monster synth. I went with Alchemy because it has a much smaller footprint and has more features for those like me who want to manipulate our own samples.

Best Virtual Analog Synthesizer - Rob Papen’s Predator, $179
Predator is a virtual analog synthesizer for Windows or Mac that runs as a plug-in (VST, Audio Unit, RTAS).  It ships with a huge library of presets, and built-in tools for patch browsing and search.  It also has some innovative features such as preset morphing, intelligent preset variation, and chord memory. Even though Predator didn’t release this year, Rob Papen keeps the synth fresh with free updates. More posts here …

Best Controller Keyboard - Novation Remote SL, Starting at $299

I still love the way this controller and Automap 2 software helps make using software more like using a physical instrument. Check out official site here. I still get a lot of traffic on my posts on the M-Audio Axiom series controllers so it’s clearly a popular choice if you can’t afford the Remote SL.

Best Controllers for Those on the Go -Korg Nano Series, $49-59

This year Korg released USB powered slim-line controllers nanoKey, nanoKontrol, and nanoPad. I have Key and Kontrol and can say they are fantastic if you want more control while making music from your laptop. More here http://korgnano.com/.

Best Bang for the Buck USB Audio Interface - Novation Nio, $249
Microphone/instrument or line-level sources, low latency effects (Direct Mix Monitoring, 'Overloud' Guitar amp and distortion pedal effects, effects from the Supernova II and signal processing from Focusrite), two headphone outputs, four RCA outputs. All this for $249! See official site.

Best iPhone Music App – iDrum, Ocarina
Hmmm. This is a tough one as there is so much innovation going on in this space. My two favorites are iDrum and Ocarina.

iDrum has a great interface for making beats on the go and synchronizes with iDurm for the PC and Mac. Read more about it here.

Ocarina turns your iPhone into a true musical instrument. It uses every feature of the iPhone and has some fantastic social connection features. Checkout the official site here.

Best Field Recorder – Zoom H2, $179
I just got one of these back in November. It’s really fantastic. It weighs 4 ounces and has 4 mic capsules onboard for 360° recording in a W-X/Y configuration. You can also use it as a USB mic. I blogged about it here.

Buy Online
Most of these items can be purchased online. Support Modulate This! buy using these links: Musicians Friend, Guitar Center, Zzounds.

Share Your List
I’m sure many of you out there have a your own list so feel free to share your list using the comments link at the bottom of this post.

See You in 2009!
Have a safe new years eve and I’ll see you in 2009.

Mark Mosher
www.modulatethis.com
www.markmoshermusic.com

reFX Vanguard Update 1.7.2

Vanguard has been updated to 1.7.2. You can download the update from http://www.refx.com/?lang=en&page=downloads/products.

According to this page to a post in their forum here is what's new:

Changes:

• RTAS support has been removed completely. It was never officially supported by reFX and created a LOT of problems. It took us several months to implement and in the end the results where not satisfactionary. Also the demand is a lot lower than anticipated.

Fixes:

• Replaced the voice-stealing mechanism to avoid clicks.
• Save preset/bank dialogs have a default filename now. “.fxp”/”.fxb” gets appended automatically (if not already present).

Info and Video on the Korg M3 Music Workstation/Sampler

Korg announced a new keyboard, the Korg M3 Music Workstation/Sampler. 

The Korg blurb on this says:

"The M3 features a number of innovations distilled from the flagship OASYS including the new EDS (Enhanced Definition Synthesis) sound generator derived from the HD-1 engine design, the advanced second-generation KARMA functionality, and the multi-purpose control surface. Adding innovations such as the new concept of "virtualized hardware" that allows an even closer integration with DAW systems, Drum Tracks which provide a instant groove to play along with, and the new "Korg Komponent System" concept that facilitates more flexible system construction, the M3 music workstation/sampler opens a new and exciting page in music making, and is the workstation that rightfully deserves to wear the "M" that started it all."

Stephen Kay, the inventor of the Karma technology,  has put together a great video which highlights new features.

Check out these for more information:

- Official Korg Page
- Stephen Kay's Site
- Stephen Kay's Feature Description Page

Ableton Live 6 and Sampler now Available!!!

Ableton Live 6 and Ableton Sampler have released. Below are links related to each:

Ableton Live 6:

• Ableton Live 6 Overview Page
• Press release for Ableton Live 6
• What's new in Live 6 Video

Ableton Sampler:

• Ableton Sampler Overview Page
• Press release for Ableton Sampler
• Sampler video

Ableton is also offering discounts on instruments if you bundle with Ableton Live 6.

All these items are available on Ableton's newly revamped online store.

Checkout all my articles on Live 6 and Sampler.

Moog Little Phatty Tribute Edition - on sale

Musicians friend has the Moog Little Phatty Analog Synthesizer - Tribute Edition on sale for for only 1,379.99 (normally $1475) with free shipping.

Abelton Announces a Powerful New Sampling Instrument - Sampler

Ableton announced a new sampling instrument called Sampler. According to Ableton - "Sampler also goes deep in the sound design department, bringing powerful sample manipulation and brilliant synthesis capabilities, all with the intuitive usability familiar to Live users."

Sampler will come with a multisample library and support import of "popular" formats such as: AKAI S1000, S3000, GigaStudio, EXS, SoundFont and (non-encrypted) Kontakt.

Sampler will allow you to create your own mutlsamples (unlimited number of zones). Each zone supports  looping, key velocity ranges, and crossfades using a graphical editor.

Sampler's "Live's disk preloading technology" help to prevent RAM memory shortages and long load times.

Sampler sports some serious programmability as well as many modulation options including sample start and loop position as well as loop length.

Pricing. A serial number for the full version of Sampler (requires Live 6) will be available for EUR 169/USD 199 from the Ableton webshop.

Availability. Sampler will be available with the release of Live 6. Sampler is currently in beta testing with Live 6.

 
For more information, visit this page http://www.ableton.com/sampler.

Dimension Pro 1.2 - Free Update

There is a free update to Dimension Pro - Version 1.2. Registered users can get it here http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/kb2005302.asp.

 

According to the Cakewalk's web site, features include:

New Configurations

• Intel Enabled Mac Support — A new AU package file provides full compatibility on Intel-based Mac Systems.
• RTAS Support — RTAS package provides native plug-in support through RTAS for Pro Tools 7.0 and above (Mac) and Pro Tools 6.0 and above (Windows).

Image Line Software releases a VST version of the DirectWave Sampler

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to get a software sampler and don't have the budget for more high-end samplers I recomend you check it out DirectWave VSTi.

This sampler was previously only available to FL Studio users and is now available as a VST so you can use it with any windows-based VST host (diagram below show it running in Ableton Live).

One of my favorite things about DirectWave is the user interface for creating splits and layers. It's very intuitive and fast. Simply drag and drop samples to instantly create  instrument zone(s) which appear as boxes. Then drag the boxes to create splits and layers.

Another favorite feature is "select preset" (click diagram to see a larger view). When you click "select preset", the Preset Selector allows you to directly access samples and sounds on the Samplefusion Website. The manual explains it this way.

Opening the Preset Selector will show a browser menu where you can double-click sample names to download them. There are several colors used to indicate the availability of content

• Red = Free to all. 
• Blue = Free to FL Studio owners.  
• Gray = Locked (this content can be unlocked by purchase on the Samplefusion site).
• Black = Unlocked (purchased content).

DirectWave allows you to import DWP (proprietary), WAV (any), SF2 (Soundfont), AKP (Akai), Propellerheads Recycle, Native Instruments Battery, Kontakt *(nki), GIGA *(gig) & eMagic EXS24.

Detailed specs an a free demo can be found at this link http://www.image-line.com/documents/directwave.html. You can also purchase the instrument at this link for $99.00. The VST version is a free download if you already own DirectWave as part of FL Studio.

Cakewalk Rapture Virtual Synth is shipping - good deal at Musicians Friend

Cakewalk is shipping their new new virtual  synthesizer.

Musicians' Friend is selling it for for $199! (save $89)

Rapture Highlights:             

• Wavetable synthesizer with cutting edge sound manipulation capabilities, well suited for electronica-related music styles
• Non-aliasing resampling engine for pristine sound quality
• Over 500 professionally-crafted sound programsSix fully-programmable, stereo sound-generating Elements

• Multi-waveform Oscillators with ring modulation
• Two 16-mode filters per oscillator with LoFi and Drive
• Over 40 Envelope Generators, LFOs, and Step Generators for superior parameter modulation
• Comprehensive MIDI Modulation Matrix
• Mix and modulate all Elements through global FX and dynamic Step Generator
• Superbly designed graphical envelope generators and LFOs for ease of use
• Expandable with native support for SFZ sample formats
• Mac formats: AU™, RTAS®, VSTi™
• Windows formats: DXi (32-bit & x64), RTAS, VSTi