What's On My Tablet

I finally got a tablet, ostensibly so my Kindle App displays more like a real book and I can write e-mails that read better than ones sent by an orangutan with a speak and spell. Since I am carrying the thing around everywhere on a transit system plagued by consumer device theft I opted for a sub-$200 model with a 7-inch screen. 1SaleaDay, one of my destination sites each morning, recently featured the Elocity A7 for half the retail price so I took the plunge. I was able to pretty easily root the device to gain access to the market thanks to a very helpful Android user community.

Though CoreMIDI offers the potential for the iPad of the future to replace my laptop, the iPad2 appeared to be a gateway to expensive interfaces and apps for what would amount to a toy. In the meantime I am enjoying what my comparatively cheap droid has to offer. The three apps I love so far are SPC and RD3 HD by Mikrosonic, and Caustic by Single Cell Software.

SPC has 16 pads that can be loaded with samples that can be looped or sequenced via a pattern editor. Pads can be set up to toggle. I have been loading loops from some of my tracks augmented with patterns created by the drums kits the app provides. It is only $4.99.

UPDATE: Mikrosonic has posted a couple of scenes I sent them so you can deconstruct ALP. Click here for more info.

Here is a demo video from Mikrosonic below:



RD3 is a groovebox with two 303-style basses and a drum machine with onboard effects. I enjoyed the phone version already, but the tablet version puts everything on one screen. It is incredibly intuituive to use with nice large intuitive knobs for tweaking filters. It is a bargain at $9.99

Caustic is like a more visceral version of Reason, with two 303 style bases, a subsynth, a PCM synth, and a beatbox. Patterns can be arranged on a piano-roll timeline along with synth lines. The mixing section has great inline effects. Version 2 will enable the user to load .wav files and soundfonts. Version 1 of Caustic has been free but version two looks like it will be well worth the $8.

One thing I have not been able to find yet on the droid platform is a good DJ program! So far I am using the simplistic Party Mixer which does the job, though it has less bells and whistles than my Ford Festiva. Droid DJ has nice visuals but is buggy. DJ Studio 3 had the nicest interface but crashed quite a bit, though people with rooted tablets should not throw stones!

Everyday Looper Doodles

I was home sick one day this week. I have no TV, and my sofa was bought for looks not comfort. However I was able to engage in some self-indulgent entertainment with my acoustic bass guitar played through a Behringer V-amp and sent to  Everyday Looper on my iPod Touch. The Looper app lets you post the loops to an IP address so each track can be downloaded in wav format. I tweaked the results in Reaper.

Everyday Looper Doodles by arthurlovesplastic

Getting My Groove Back!

This year has been a bit tumultuous to say the least! Over the summer I ended up buying a coop unit in Silver Spring. I never thought home ownership would be within reach for me in the DC-metro area. The place is modest but I have two bedrooms now so instead of taking over the living room, my studio occupies what used to literally be a crib room.

I decided to wrap up the project I was working on and take a musical break to focus on packing and the onerous mortgage application process. I actually did not miss music as much as I thought I would, because I had decorating as a creative outlet. Who has time to ponder musical ideas while contemplating window treatments? And I also took on a few music projects such as working with droid music apps and looper apps for bass to ease the withdrawal.

It can be a little intimidating to look at the blank canvas again, but I fortunately have had some cool plug-ins from xoxos.net, de la mancha, and HG Fortune to inspire me. The next CD is going to feature a few songs, the byproduct of processing some of the negative experiences of this year--much cheaper than therapy! I am also using some guitar loops from Cystem and working in some of my droid app doodles from my metro commute. It feels good to be back into it!

Below is a video of the wall of LED lights in the music room--a cheap impulse purchase on ebay that has really helped the ambience along with the silver accent wall.

Next Gig

On September 10 I will be doing a set at the Electronica Fest at the National Electronics Museum near BWI airport. The museum features a fascinating display of military technology. I will also be doing a workshop on droid apps.

I am trying a new setup for this one! Although my metrosexual camping table works great for DJ gigs where I have time for assembly, I needed a setup I could put together and take down quickly for festival gigs that provide little time between performers. And I developed a bit of a fetish for red keyboards last summer! Below is my audio mulch setup that just requires 2 USB cables. Hope to see you on the 10th!

Getting Loopy

At a recent gig I was in awe of instrumental guitarist Noveller and bassist Mark Beazley. Noveler had an enormous assortment of stompboxes to create a rich sonic pallette and Mark used a Korg ToneWorks to bring the audience to tears with haunting bass solos. Inspired yet intimidated, I decided to explore what bass effects and looping I could achieve on my iPod touch. After some careful research and a failed DIY cable attempt I opted to get an iRig to connect my bass to the iPod and play with some looping programs.

The first I tried is Everyday Looper, which has gotten a lot of attention thanks to some clever videos from talented users who make it look easy. However I had trouble with the seemingly cryptic touch and swipe interface. I ended up having more fun with RiffBox and StompVox.

Riffbox is an "intelligent" looper in that you can arm it to record only when you start playing, and specify how many events will be in the loop. You can also edit the start and stop point of the loop after the fact before proceeding to the mixer where you can add layers to the loop.

StompVox's simple interface allows you to switch displays between a looper, a gate, a reverb, and a delay. It is easy to use, yet generates enough unexpected results to make it fun to experiment with. The app lets you export wav files for download from a browser. Here is one of my self-indulgent doodles:



One closeted item that came in handy as a preamp to boost my signal into the iPod is a Behringer V-Amp I purchased for recording bass with the Window Shoppers. During rediscovery while packing for my move, I found it can get some really interesting synth, chorus and delay effects. Here's to music projects that I can indulge in while the midi gear is packed away!!

UPDATE: I gave Everyday Looper another try! The trick was to have the splash screen instructions in front of me--accomplished by having the screen shot from the app store on my computer--and it became second nature after a few tries. The trick is to generate a click track (by swiping the first three tracks and going to tools), which you can erase as soon as you have established a groove. I am now an everyday looper addict. I have to get my cheap thrills where I can these days!!!

Droid Apps

I love iphone music apps as evidenced by the EP Touch. However when it came time to buy a smart phone to keep up with my verbose texting friends, I ended up with an Android. I didn't want to be locked into a proprietary system, particularly after having spent $40 on an iPod video cable after Apple pushed out an OS upgrade that rendered aftermarket video adaptors useless. I also found the call quality of conversations with iPhone friends to be cringe-inducing as well.

Although I love being able to carry around a spare battery and load an SD card into my phone, the quality and selection of droid music apps still lags behind iPhone offerings. But the gap has narrowed as evidenced by this recent selection of droid apps. My favourites so far are Single Cell Software's Caustic and Mikrosonic's SPC.

Caustic is a step and song programming app reminiscent of Propellerhead's Reason that features a beatbox, two 303 style bassline generators, 2 synths, and a virtual analog subsynth. The built in sequencer allows you to place the patterns created in the beatbox and basses into a timeline, and then step program the synths. The mixer section provides delay and reverb sends, as well as FX inserts that include flange and phaser. One feature missing from droid apps is the intuitive pinch-zoom of the iPhone, but Caustic makes great use of easy to get to, minimalist screens to minimize the desire to enlarge the display, and you can zoom on the timeline pretty readily. Here is a doodle:



Mikrosonic SPC is a loop player with 16 pads. You can import samples via an SD card, grooves from their addictive 303-style RD3 app or third-party scenes downloaded from their site. Samples can be assigned to a keyboard or step programmer, looped or set as one-shot. Related phrases can be set to toggle. Samples can be sliced and diced. It is colorful, intuitive, complex and fun. I have it on my bucket list to make some scenes! But in the meantime I am having fun deconstructing the ones available at Mikrosonic..

CD Baby

I go through cd duplication and online retailers like tissues! But the one retailer I've been able to rely on for years is CDBaby. They survived the turbulence of the pre-iTunes mp3.com era and flourished under the helm of Derek Sivers, a guru who has moved on but continues to write a helpful, thought-provoking blog. The company, now under new ownership, has maintained a friendly shopping experience for music lovers and a supportive environment for artists while continuously rolling out promotional tools such as their new widget! I am going to be migrating a few releases from my back catalog over the next several months due to another vendor's fee increases and look forward to having a less scrambled discography.

Spring/Summer Hiatus

Ms. Arthur is planning to move this summer so the studio will be dismantled soon! I will be taking a break from music to focus on furnishing financial data and obsessing about my interior color scheme. I have a live gig scheduled during this time: I will be "performing" at Queering Sound on June 11. Click here for details. In the meantime, here is the latest release I've uploaded to the cloud. TTFN!

Xoxos!

If you think *I* am prolific, check out the staggering array of VST plug-ins offered by Rurik Leffanta. Below are a couple of samples embellished with the xoxos Effects Suite 2010:

Stactic delay with dub delay 2 preset:

Modulation delay with cross fdbk 7 preset:

Glitter with S ambience 3 preset and modulation with delay/chorus 200 ms and 10 ms preset:

As you can see here, he is giving it all away, but I am headed over to make a donation now!

May the Ohm Force Be with You!

I am about halfway to completing my next CD, which is a collection of remixes using loops from the Tapegerm Collective. Each new release is an opportunity to try out new shareware, and there are many VST developers bringing me much joy these days. One of them is Ohm Force out of Paris. Despite the fact their client list includes heavy hitters such as Trent Reznor and Martin Gore, their plug-ins are extremely affordable. I bought their Mobilohm phaser to support their efforts, but actually end up using their free filter Frohmage much more frequently.

Here is an example of the Frohmage "No Matter" preset, with the Cutoff Frequency and Resonance tweaked via midi controller:



And here is an example of the "Spra Cat" with the cutoff frequency tweaked real-time:



As if this isn't enough reason to love them, they sign their receipts "Thanks, the Ohn Men (and their cat)" !!!