Found this really useful multimonitor utility for Win XP... then I found out that Win7 has all this built in

I really enjoy wacking out beatz on the Akai LPD8... been trying to get instant mapping to work in Ableton using these scripts, but I've not had any success ... yet!

Need that boxy bass sound? What about a complete sample-set of the Bogdon Box Bass that I built a while ago?
The tone is halfway between a contrabass and a bucket bass, which we also sometimes use to record.
Of course this not a pro sample set, it's intentionally 'rustic' in it's vibe.

Download for Kontakt
Download for Ableton Live

As always, this is a CC release. See the sidebar for attributes. Have fun!

The excellent freeware audio editor, Wavosaur, has pretty much replaced Wavelab for my needs. However its manual is a bit lacking (in fact I can only find a quick start guide), so there are a few features and working methods that quite useful.

1. Edit the left-side or the right-side of a stereo file. Right-click on the db scale to the left and choose 'select' or 'deselect' from the context menu. Now any vst processing will apply only to that side. (note- there is also Multi-channel! But it's not that useful)

2. Auto detect regions from impulses and scramble for instant beat mangling. Tools->Slicing/Region->Auto Slice Region and again go to Tools->Slicing/Region-Scramble Region.

3. Batch processor with VST Chain (Wavosaur uses the current VST Chain)

4. Create Marker with 'M'... even while playing. Okay this one is obvious, but still it's a huge boon for quick selection. Especially since you can go to File->Export->Export All Regions

Go get Waveosaur

And finally download the lame_enc, (unzip) and place it in the same folder as Wavosaur and your File->Export->Export As Mp3 menu will work!

Gee, is it really one and a half year since we played this re-interpretation of that Danish childrens song in the hunting lodge? I still think it was kinda magical, as the sunbeam exactly illuminated us and no one else. I must have been natures own concert lightning. It was damn cold though, we my as well have been playing outside in the snow. The acoustics were great in that cabin, and the atmosphere was electric. Off course I'm kinda biased, after all it was my son we were celebrating.

The freeware plugin Voxengo MSED is a great way to add audio processing on just to the the sides of a stereo signal, or compress the middle, while leaving the sides untouched.

In the tradition of nearly all freeware, Voxengo MSED is missing a bit of documentation and getting it setup in any meaningful way is a bit tricky. So I've gone ahead and made a Track Template for use in the excellent DAW.... Reaper.

So go ahead and download the Reaper Track Template MidSide Stereo with Voxengo MSED. (to use, right-click in Reapers track pane on the left and select 'Open template')

If you are thinking "Mid-side! Whazz Dat?", then Emusician has a great article on a variety of mid-side techniques.

UPDATE - Since writing this post I've realised that Reaper itself can easily be setup to do mid-side encoding and decoding. In fact I found a Track Template for Mid-side encoding and decoding, simply by searching on the Reaper forums.

I recently found my girlfriends old Game Boy in a box in the basement. It's in great condition despite the fact that it was made 20 years ago. These old 8-bit wonders were really built to last. I bought a rom image of the music making software LSDJ from the developer and then bought a cartridge from Nonfinite Electronics who also flashed it with the software.

LSDJ running on Game Boy

Here is a short disturbing tune I made in the first hour of playing with it. I just made a few patterns and recorded it DI in LSDJ's very nice "Live" mode while tweaking the synths and the noise generator.

FirstLSDJ

This new found couch friendly device is gonna add a nice color to future work. I must say I don't intend to get on the Chip tune train although some of that stuff is very good like this remix from little-scale.

Now off to rest my eyes after peering at a non-backlit screen for to long.

UPDATE: Here is an Ableton Live set containing the loops.

Here's my version of a remix. I simply time-stretched an entire song that Rasmus did a while ago... but using variable time-stretching.

I turned, yet again, to the excellent Paul Stretch, which I just discovered has a drawable envelope that controls the amount of time-stretching over time. What a wonderful tool for massive sound transformation.

My reworked version, turned into a 10min piece, from which I edited together all the bits that scared the bee-jeebus out of me.
arp bad boy remix
I really don't know where all those spooky voices came from. Rasmus?

So what about getting a warm beverage (green tea or espresso), eating some pie and taking a power nap to this hour long composition?
Ceilings, Floors, Windows and Doors

Here's an ambient, Philip Glass type experiment that I cooked up last sunday, using the 64bit version of Reaper and the 64bit version of Kontakt. The 64bit versions are a great boon for using large sample libraries.
In fact I started this experiment by sitting down and seeing how many large sample libraries I could load up.
Some samples came off the net, some are from the Native Instruments libraries, quite a few are from the excellent folks at Sonic Couture.

Then, as I am wont do, I dumped copious amounts of vst plugins onto the outputs of Kontakt.
Mostly Audio Damages plugins... but also lots of cool freeware VST plugins that I've scrounged from the net. Only the best, most stable plugins - which also have a unique sonic characteristic

One of the most useful functions in Reaper for my particular workflow is the 'Save Live Output to Disk'.
That way Reaper records everything that it spits out. Remember to uncheck the 'Save output only while playing or recording'.

This way I can start and stop playback in Reaper, yet still record the leftover maths that is in the various buffers. I really like hearing this debris of numbers that have to unfold themselves, especially since I can continue to mess with the plugins' settings and have some 'bull by the horns' kinda control over the outcome.

The result was 15 minutes of audio, which I cut down to the choicest bits and came up with 2min 44sec
doors, windows, roof and floors

Been listening to the ambient compositions over at a blog called Ambienteer. I've been wanting to try out a technique that he has used... grab some melodic audio and time stretch it to an extreme....

I used the great Paul Stretch software and here is the result-
Long Lanetto Too