AirPort vs. Ableton

So this is what I get for taking a music break. At some point a while back, I blindly said "OK" to installing a new AirPort driver patch for Mac OSX. Seemed innocent enough.

Flash forward to yesterday. Pretty much all of my demo tracks and works in progress in Ableton Live were making crappy static and buzzing noises. Like, speaker-breaking grade chop.

Turns out, it was the little driver from months back. And the solution? Turn off the AirPort while I make music. Great. Interwebs or making music, what a crappy choice.

I tried installing the old driver, but I have too many new dependancies with the very latest/greatest security update. Curses. Please, Apple, Steve Jobs ol'buddy... get this fixed!

2008 Update

It's a brand new year, and I've produced nothing cohesive enough musically to try and post. I've been in the process of dialing back all the virtual gear I use to minimize the knob fiddling off and on for about six months now, and it's paying off. The challenge now is to find quiet time to take some cool random bits of sound and turn them into something musical. This is a pretty typical hurdle for home based musicians, especially ones with day jobs, so I'm not feeling to bent out of shape over it. Stay tuned, I'll try to pluck some order out of the chaos and save it to an MP3 or three this summer.

Tip: Instant industrial music

1. Start with a MIDI clip of a drum beat (this is the only MIDI clip you'll need!)

2. Run it through two different drum machines, or at least two different drum sound patches (any drum plugin which uses, say, C1 as the 1st sound, D1 as the second, etc)

3. Put some heavy effects on the second patch, like an envelope filter, bit reduction -- whatever sounds edgy to you

4. Run the same pattern through a raw synth sound (I use a metallic pitched drum patch on my microTonic), and put an arpeggiator in the front (make it stay within 1-2 octaves and step in 3rds 4ths or 5ths) and distortion on the back (I use a the Saturator in Ableton Live coupled with a Compressor II)



Now, you can tweak things by changing the arpeggiator (turning "hold" on is interesting, too) and the drum pattern. Voila! Instant edgy noisy music with the only input being your drum patterns. This is especially easy in Live, because you can either setup a rack (group) with my drum synths and pitched noise synth, or put them on their own MIDI tracks but rig them to listen to the same track for MIDI input.



Check out a quick sample of this, alternating between two drum patterns here:



insta-industrial.mp3



In the breaks, you can hear the arpeggiator still chugging along because I have it set to hold on the last note input until it gets a new one, which in this case adds some variety just by taking the drum pattern away. All instant, all fun. Enjoy!

Shameless promotion!

Ok, I updated my 11011011 logo gear store. For now, I'm using CafePress, trying it out again. It's been some years since I used their services (six to be exact), so let's see how they do. One thing I love is they have black shirts now. Excellent! Go check it out (don't download the CD tho, it's for me to play with -- there's only one track).

Visit the 11011011 store at CafePress!

Yes, I know but...

Why is it that the progressive rock band Yes is always identified as "the progressive rock band Yes"? What makes them so special? Why do they get that privilege? Where are all the other "progressive" rock bands?

While I'm at it, why does iTunes put so many artists in the "alternative" genre? It's supposed to be stuff with distorted guitars, emotionally detached singers, and two note chords over a rock beat. Instead I'm seeing Lo-Fi, Hip Hop, Glitch, and even Pop thrown in there for good measure. What's the point of all these labels then? Is Apple lazy, or is "alternative" really now the new "pop"?

Typos are kiling me

So, I think ther must be some gunk undr my laptop kybrd which is keeping me from accurately typing crucial letter. This is cmpounded by my innat inability to spel and my occasional fumbled keystroles which produce the wrong ketter entirelu. Even worse, Blogr doesn't support inline spellchacking for Safari, my favite interweb browser. So I'm sp screwed.

Video of the Day: Memento, The College Years

An olde video from Olde English Comedy.

These guys are almost Kids in the Hall funny. But with less men in dresses. Unfortuntely. Because who doesn't like that? I know I do. And how.