GeeksDreamgirl has an interesting take on using Dungeons & Dragon dice to stimulate your musical creativity.

Here’s her take on two of the more important dice:

d8

The d8 is perfect for learning scale degrees and practicing sight-singing.

Your first step is to grab a piece of staff paper and write out the scale you’re going to sight-sing in, numbering your scale degrees:

1. do
2. re
3. mi
4. fa
5. so
6. la
7. ti
8. do (upper)

Now, throw your d8 several times, writing down the resulting notes on the paper. You can start on do if you want. Once you’ve gotten a line of notes, sing it! Add rhythms or alternate octaves if you want to add a challenge.

d12

The d12 is Schoenberg’s dream die. Music majors, rejoice! Now the dice gods can determine your tone row for you.

The d12 is also excellent for all you wind players who have to do scale competencies in order to pass band. Pair it with the d4 for maximum torture… I mean, practice value.

1. C
2. C#/Db
3. D
4. D#/Eb
5. E
6. F
7. F#/Gb
8. G
9. G#/Ab
10. A
11. A#/Bb
12. B

Roll for your key!

Aleatoricism may have had its heyday in the 60’s, but it’s still an important tool for many electronic musicians. I like the idea of bringing more ideas from gaming into electronic music.

Image: Hugh Nelson

Livid is now shipping the awesome Ohm DJ & VJ control surface.

While the Tenori-On and other new control surfaces look cool, the Livid Ohm combines great looks with an intelligent combination of switches and continuou controllers. The only way it could be more awesome would be if the center buttons were a 16 x 8 matrix of pressure sensitive pads.

But then it would cost $1,600, instead of a fairly reasonable $790.

Ohm is a high-quality MIDI instrument designed for real-time audio and video performance. It’s backlit for use in any environment, and comes in rugged rackmount metal or handcrafted mahogany.

Ohm’s LED backlit controls feature a thirty-six button clip bank, onboard function controls, effect mute buttons, BPM tap, high-quality faders and knobs, and a DJ-style crossfader. Livid’s two-handed layout with a center button array is ergonomically designed for multichannel performance.

Here are the details….

Connectivity

Ohm provides both MIDI out and USB connectivity. The control layout was not only designed as the most comprehensive controller for VJ software, but was inspired by some of the most innovative and popular audio software programs like Ableton Live, and FL Studio. Ohm also makes an ideal companion for hardware such as analog synthesizers, video mixers, DJ software, lighting equipment, and other musical instruments.

Software

Ohm includes a free, fully functional copy of the all-new Livid Union 2.5 VJ software, completely integrated to match the controls of the instrument. Also included are demos of audio applications like Ableton Live & FL Studio demo.

Features

• Professional-grade controls
• LED back lighting with on/off switch
• 36 Button Clip Bank note pad
• 9 function buttons
• 8 slider trigger/mute buttons
• 8 High quality faders
• 1 DJ style crossfader
• 10 rotary dials
• BPM tap button
• 5 PIN MIDI out
• USB connection
• 12v DC (use included adapter)
• Compatible with any software that supports MIDI learn
• Livid Union 2.5 VJ Software Included Free
• Other Software Included: Ableton Live Demo, FL Studio Demo, AMG One Demo.

Ohm – Wood

• 6 lbs.
• 17.6(L) x 10.5(W) x 1.5(H)

Ohm – Metal

• 8 lbs.
• 19(L) x 8.73(W) x 2.5(H)

Littlescale demos syncing Nanoloop, a real-time Gameboy sequencer/synth, to Ableton Live:

Part 1

Nanoloop on a Gameboy (whose audio is coming in on track 2) is synchronised to the drums playing in Ableton (track 1). This is to test out a new interface I have been working on that syncs Nanoloop to a MIDI clock.

Part 2

GetLoFi has a roundup of videos and images from the Minneapolis Bent Fest 2008.

• Part 1
• Part 2

Above, Italy’s EraSer demonstrates his approach to layering glitch and bent sounds over a repeating background.

i3L (pronounced “i thrill”) is a freeware music controller app,  developed using Max/MSP from Cycling74 and is a support application for akaRemote by Masayuki Akamatsu.

And guess what? You can use it to control Ableton Live!

i3L receives pre-defined UDP messages from akaRemote.app running on the iPhone, scales the values to MIDI, and allows you to configure the sending MIDI channel and control change message number. You can use this program with any audio or video software which receives midi messages.

v 0.2 features:

• Multiple Screens
• Accelerometer
• XY slider pad
• Preset Saving
• Multiple Devices
• Port Configuration
• Sending and Receiving values
• Supports all current Firmware Versions

System Requirements

• Apple computer running Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later with Internal AirtPort
• jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch

Telekenisis is a tool for remote control of Mac application using your iPhone.

The iPhone seems to becoming the new “because it was there” controller for Ableton Live.

Synth DIY is a site that collects together schematics and other information for building your own synth modules.

Information is organized by products and tags, with special pages for things like data sheets and owner’s manuals.

What really makes the site interesting, though, is that many of the component parts for the synth modules are cross-referenced with information on how the part works and other designs that use the part.

Got a fever for more cowbell?

Dynamite cowbell, a free Windows VST, brings you “more cowbell than even Gene Frenkle can deliver”.

Features :

• 6 cowbells mapped to midi keys
• 5 velocity layers
• close and room mic levels
• damping control
• 5 bonus digibells
• 1 cow

Zero-G has released 5 new titles in its SoundSense Series sample libraries:

• Street Beatz contains 1 Gb of brand new professional NYC hiphop at a bargain price. Full of Earth Shaking Beats, Dope Grooves, Cool Vibes and Full Phat Construction Kits from the streets of NYC.
• LA Drums for Songwriters - Top LA session player, engineer and programmer Jeremy Janeczko who has toured with many top stars including Sheryl Crow, Cypress Hill, The Eagles, Alanis Morissette and Michael Jackson brings you a collection of acoustic drumloops for use in all genres of music.
• Grime Scene contains 500Mb of loops, growling basses, raw beats, and big clash sounds and a generous portion of grimey strings, percussion and atmospheres, incorporating Ragga, Grime, Reggae, Dubstep and many other influences.
• Old Skool House - a collection of old skool house samples - folders packed full of construction kits, beats, basses, pianos, organs, percussion loops, drum kits, stabs, riffs and more.
• Elektroytic is the second sample library by Ian Boddy in the Zero-G SoundSense series. Best known for his love of all things analogue and his weird and wonderful atmospheres, he has taken this sense of exploration and discovery into the realms of beats & loops. But these aren’t “normal” rhythms rather they are beats that have been twisted and mangled using a huge arsenal of cutting edge digital techniques. The resultant loops and one-shots provide a unique library of sonic inspiration for beat driven music, especially dance music.

Each of these SoundSense Series products is available for a recommended retail price of $59.95 / 49 EUR / £29.95 GBP.

Gnaural is a multi-platform programmable binaural-beat generator, implementing the principle of binaural beats as described in the October 1973 Scientific American article Auditory Beats in the Brain (Gerald Oster).

It can be used to synthesize sounds that affect the brain. Here’s a demo. It should be listened to using headphones:

The central theme of Oster’s article is that processing of auditory binaural beats within the brain bears distinct differences from that done for normal sound, emphasizing different neural pathways and highlighting different parameters of the sound stimulus.

Oster’s observations inspired a wave of research in to the ways in which binaural beats could affect the brain. One area of research explored how binaural beats could evoke a “frequency-following response” (also known as “brainwave entrainment”) in EEG measures. My personal interest in binaural beats has centered almost exclusively around exploring this entrainment potential as a means of facilitating meditative states. However, Gnaural was designed to be neutral with regard to any hypothesis or application, relying strictly on the fundamental findings as described in Oster’s 1973 overview.

Gnaural is an open source project. Versions are currently available for Windows & Linux, but not yet for Mac OS X.

A limited brower-based version of Gnaural is available. A Mac developer is needed to help port this to OS X.

What are auditory binaural beats?

In 1839, German experimenter Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered that illusory “beats” are perceived when pure tones of slightly different frequency are separately and simultaneously presented to each ear. Dove’s insight was to realize that since there is no acoustic mixing of the tones, the perceived beats must exist soley within the auditory system, specifically that part which processes binaural (e.g., “stereo”) sound.

While research in to binaural beats continued after that, the subject was largely viewed as no more than a scientific curiosity. Oster’s paper was landmark not so much for its laboratory findings, but in how it tied-together the isolated islands of research since Dove, in a way that gave the subject a renewed relevance to modern scientific questions.

In particular, Oster viewed binaural beats as a tool with cognitive and medical applications. Cognitively, he felt it could be used to explore neural pathways, and also to address higher-level questions, including how we spatially locate sounds in our environment, and our auditory system’s propensity for selective attention (e.g., the “cocktail party effect”).

Medically, Oster saw potential for binaural beats as a diagnostic tool, both for auditory impairments, and for a broad range of non-auditory subjects. Most notable was evidence Oster showed that a decreased ability to perceive binaural beats appeared to be a pre-onset indicator of Parkinson’s disease. He also presented corroborating data correlating subtle cyclical fluctuations of estrogen in women and their ability to perceive binaural beats.

Notable for Oster’s thesis (that binaural beats are processed in ways fundamentally different from normal hearing) was the fact that binaural beats are percieved even when one of the two frequencies is below the human frequency threshold, and also when both frequencies are below the human volume threshold. This, combined with the brain data available at that time, suggested to Oster that the processing of binaural beats followed different neural pathways in the brain from other auditory processing.

Broadly, the rhythmic influencing of brainwave activity is known as “driving.” And while binaural beats have no monopoly as an auditory driving stimulus, they do have the unusual property of being able to deliver direct auditory stimuli at sub-audible frequencies (below the range of human hearing), by virtue of the heterodyning being simulated within the auditory system.

The reason this is interesting in regard to FFR is that (generally speaking) the spectrum of perceivable acoustic frequencies is well above the frequency spectrum of brainwave activity. Thus, aside from binaural beats, the only means of presenting acoustic driving stimuli is by externally modulating sound (in to waves or pulses whose periodicity falls within the spectrum of brainwave frequencies).

Binaural beats, on the other hand, provide a direct means by which pure acoustic tones can be delivered to directly produce a driving stimulus within the range of brainwave activity. Perhaps even more important (in regard to driving) is that with binaural beats, the driving stimulus arises internally (within the auditory system). This suggests that binaural beats may more effectively induce driving than simple monaural modulation, if only for the fact that the resulting stimuli arises directly within neural pathways that can be measured in the course of gauging brainwave activity.

Gnaural is officially open source, released under the GNU General Public License.

To promote his new 4 track mini album of minimal techno, Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet has produced a special 30 minute DJ mix of similarly minimal grooves, Ringer:

Tracklisting

• Four Tet - Ringer
• Liquid Liquid - Bell Head (Harvey edit)
• Avus - Tear
• Burial - Raver
• Sam Clarence - Sextant daktari
• Wookie - Manchu 2
• Autechre - Play neu!
• Matt John - Olga dancekowski
• Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck
• Plastikman - Helikopter
• Siobhan Donaghy - Carl Craig remix
• The Field - Action

via nialler9

The !Malfunctionator is a DIY synth project, designed to be “a handy UFO dector doubling up as a Electro Music Device.”

It consists of 3 oscillators, each modulated by 3 low frequency oscillators. The oscillators are based around the hex invertor IC known as CD40106 aka 7HC04; the wave froms produced from this logic device are trapazoid . This modulator to oscillator combination allows the user to create a wide range of sounds:

[display_podcast}

The kit is for the synth electronics, without a case.

Analog Suicide’s Tara Busch visits Off The Wall Antiques to have a peek at the RCA-Victor “Electrified” Piano from 1939, a gorgeous Art Deco electroacoustic instrument.

Ueberschall has introduced Score FX, a sound library they describe as a comprehensive solution for professional, musical sound design.

Description:

This instrument includes 7 GIGs of brand new sonic stimulants. Featuring a progressive structure and layout made for building tracks from supplied “themes” and construction kits offering ease of injection into projects.

Thanks to the extended possibilities of Liquid you can shape individual notes within all the included phrases until each loop is tailored to your situations needs, making Score FX a great package for mood stacking sound design around Cues / Animation / Spots / Songs / GameAudio.

Here are the details:

Score Illuminator:

28 construction kits with all individual parts provided, allowing you to rebuild and rearrange the kits to your unique picture. Each construction kit is at least one minute in length with rich complex textural design and contrast. Thousands of single accents, hits and stings, evolving soundscapes and organic rhythms are grouped into logical themes such as: Concern”, “Mysterious”, “Pleasing” or “Scary”. The complete library is very user friendly and is categorized for easy and fast access.

The single loops / shots come in three main categories:

1. Accents - The Accents include 954 small hits for every cinematic situation. From “confused” to “disturbed”–”piercing” and “high” to “worry and anxiety”. Additionally there is a special folder with “Vocal Bits” in different styles.
2. Beds - The Beds concentrate on evolving and lively soundscapes. Each is about 30 sec to 1 min long and can be stretched or shortened with Liquid without any artifacts! All in all about 2GB of material in this section, 198 different samples, separated in 15 different folders.
3. Rhythms - The rhythms come with 362 files in 32 different folders. The complete loops can be time-shifted and pitched so it will perfectly fit to your production. Plus, you can even pitch single hits out of one loop and create interesting new percussive sequences. Or combine different sequences together and create new patterns.

With Score FX you can build and recall your own character presets to enhance your existing themes within projects. So whenever the character enters the scene, you will be able to trigger that individuals Score FX instrument and play the needed textures for that scenario. As your scenes evolve, Score FX can be used as the “shadow” of that character’s theme available for blending.

Film Score / Composer / Soundtrack

Exhaustive inspiration for hectic workflows. Mix and match FX from the entire collection to build your own mood presets and environments. Alter elements such as notes, pitch, rhythm and length of every sample loaded in the Keyboard. Add and Subtract emphasis by simply triggering the sounds as desired.

Game Audio / Animation / Production

If your work calls for engine layers (such as in Racing games where speed triggers additional audio tracks), this a great resource for ready to crossfade interactive, adaptable soundscapes to supplement existing layers. Motion / Impact / Transitions / Fades are all covered in the Score FX collection.

Score FX is Produced by:

• Ilya Kaplan - Candian Composer and musical sound designer working in the field of TV / Film drama, animation and documentary.

Specs:

Score FX sound collections have been encoded for use with Ueberschall’s Liquid Player to give complete flexibility. Constraints such as pitch and tempo are a thing of the past. Liquid is an exclusive Virtual Instrument engine co-developed by Celemony Melodyne Technology that works in all the popular DAWs.

All samples are recorded and programmed exclusively for Score FX and are 100% license free. No additional license permission required. You can use these samples in trailers, music library work, scores, songs–anything except for making sample cds.

pfilter is a free Windows VST that creates a steppy, gated effect, but using filter cut-off instead of volume to give a wider range of possibilities. It uses a variable state filter, triggered between 2 adjustable cut-off values by a tempo-sync’d probability-based step sequencer. An LFO can modulate the filter when triggered and trigger pulse length, attack and release can shape the sound

Features:

• tempo-sync step sequencer, with 2 to 32 steps over a sequence length of 2 to 32 beats
• can be programmed or random, by setting the probability of each step from 0-100%
• seeded randomisation for repeatable loops up to 100 beats long
• resonant variable filter, LP, HP, BP and notch
• filter triggered between upper and lower cut-off values, in either direction
• tempo sync LFO, with 6 waveforms and settings from 1/16 beat to 96 beats
• adjustable pulse length, attack and decay for shaping the modulation
• random swing for step sequencer
• wet/dry mix control
• midi CC and midi learn

The League Of Electronic Musical Urban Robots‘ Eric Singer demonstrates the Slime-o-Tron - a controller that works by moving conductive slime around copper nails.

What do you think? Is this the most disgusting way to create music ever invented?

Via Gearwire; More at Make.

Dave Smith Instruments is now shipping it’s Prophet ‘08 synth module.

Description:

The Prophet ‘08 Synthesizer Module is a tabletop “knobby” module with all of the features and controls of the Prophet ‘08 Keyboard (minus the keyboard, of course) in an even more compact enclosure. With real analog oscillators, Curtis low-pass filters, and analog VCAs, the Prophet ‘08 is capable of reproducing the familiar sounds of its legendary predecessors. But modern features like a greatly expanded modulation matrix and additional modulation sources—like three envelopes and four LFOs per voice—take it way beyond the vintage gear and make this a worthy and unique addition to the Prophet family tree.

Features include a gated 16 x 4 step sequencer, arpeggiator, split or stacked key modes with separate stereo outputs per layer, and rack ears for optional rack-mounting. The Prophet ‘08 module can also be used as an expander to increase the polyphony of another Prophet ‘08—keyboard or module—to 16 voices.

• Full-featured polysynth with a 100% analog signal path.
• Classic, real analog sound—including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filters—married to a modern feature set.
• Small footprint, huge sound.
• Tons of knobs for direct, real-time editing and performance.
• Used as an expander, increases polyphony of another Prophet ‘08 to 16 voices.

David at Hobnox sends word that they’ve updated their browser-based virtual studio, AudioTools:

Just a quick note that we just rolled out an update of the Hobnox Audiotool. As promised the TR808 is now online, along with two new stompboxes (Compressor and Bitcrusher) and some enhanced functions. Saving is still not possible yet, we’re working hard to make it happen for the next update.

It’s great to see AudioTools develop. Saving and offline use are probably critical, though, to AudioTools gaining acceptance.

Radionomy, a Belgian startup, is a site that lets you create a free, ad-supported Web radio station

The site, now in beta testing, is designed to make creating a Web radio station trivial, letting you browse through vast music, jingle and content libraries made available by Radionomy. You can also integrate your own musical creations or recordings.

Radionomy also supports a variety of social networking features, including tagging, embed code and station sharing. Here’s an example embed:

Radionomy broadcasts your station free of charge and bears all the costs, including copyrights. Radionomy is supported through audio ads broadcast with the stations. Radionomy offers a revenue share based on your station’s audience.

The name Radionomy come from the merger of two concepts: Radio + Autonomy. The founders of Radionomy thought that Internauts should be able to create radio with full autonomy.