Livid Instruments is now taking pre-orders for their incredibly attractive Open Source Midi Controler. It features an 8×8 grid of programmable back lit pads. 16 rotary knobs. 8 Faders, A cross fader and 8 mute/solo buttons and a tempo tap. It’s fully class compliant so no need to bother with drivers. It has Midi in and Midi out so you can control external devices with it. It’s USB powered It’s wood paneled which automatically means cool.
One of the main features of this is it’s openness. It comes with Open Source software tools to create your own LED talkback interaction. And could possible support OSC.
Each one comes with Ohm Core software included for MIDI editing, and LED talkback programming and Cell DNA video performance software included.
It ships in June and it’s available for pre-order now for $599
I’m considering getting one. If I do I’ll post a review.
By now you are probably wondering what is this “maquina” thing I keep blabbing on about. Although it sounds like some sort of tequila or latin boy band sensation, maquina insensible is a little music project I started working on in December [2008] I think originally it was supposed to be a one-off song with a friend, but ended up being a personal project to keep my mind active. And though I can’t give you a final definition of what this is I can give you a sort of outline. And I will, for FREE. And I happen to know you like free things. So here it is.
Maquina Insensible. Is an electronicish album with a robotish theme. I have reason to believe it’s about robot oppression, robot depression, a strange entity that builds robots, a girl lacking the will to live, toasters and I think things turn out well in the end. I know, vague. The theme is ever evolving so it’s pointless for me to try to explain it to you.
As for the actual physical project. I am writing and recording all of the music. Captured by Logic and Ableton Live. I might as well give the Mac plug. “I am making this on an Apple MacBook Pro ” no they’re not paying me for that. Actually I am certain that I am not getting any money from this. Anyway, I’m making the music. As for vocals I’m looking to my singing friends for help. I have a few people in mind. As you saw shavva volunteered for the first song. [we're re-recording the vocals, now that he doesn't have a cold]. There will be Ten (10) songs. And hopefully I will be able to make it available for digital download, along with artwork for each track. [Image above is artwork for maquina I] when it is all done. I’m in no rush to complete this so it could be 4 months or 23 months. It will be finished when it is finished.
So why should you care? Well, I can’t answer that. I’m not really here to make you happy [yes I am]. But follow me on this little adventure and I’m sure you’ll learn something or other. I’ll use this blog to document my progress and failures so check back often. We’ll see how it goes.
So as you know I’m way into the twitter. And yesterday I posted a tweet that celebrated my 2000th tweet by offering someone a rad album of their choice and a song written by me. (hahaha) So turns out @dreenbean(Adria) was the winner. Now, yes I could have written a funny song about beans or something, but it turns out this person actually creates robots. And… I’m making a few songs about robots so might as well make lemonade to teach fish-horse with two bird hands on a bush.. or .. something.
La Maquina Insensible III [adria]
So in this land of persecuted robots (NOT BLADE RUNNER, those were replicants), that our sad heartless robot friend lives in, there is the creator and designer of all robots. Who is conveniently named ADRIA… it’s an acronynm for something or other. It could be a robot or a human I haven’t decided which story to rip-off yet. So anyway this song is about Adria creator of all robots. Could be a hymn. I dunno if robots have religion yet, is there a movie with that already?
The song itself was recorded in my room in a time span of 4 hours. I did the music and yes the crappy poor-man’s gustavo cerati vocals. The lyrics I made up while singing (that’s hard to do) and this song is totally for @dreenbean. (follow her on twitter)
So, before I regret posting this I present to you:
la maquina insensible from Sergio Enciso on Vimeo.
err.. pardon the singing.. but he’s a good friend. ( I couldn’t do any better if I tried)
This was recorded in one day. Video is my MPB’s webcam and an iMac webcam.
Middle video is a series of images shot with a D80.
Roland TR 808’s are great drum machin’s but they go for a pretty penny on the market. Just saw one on ebay for 1800. Now as much as I love these things I don’t have the extra cash to pay such amount. So solution, sort of, is samples. There are lots of people who provide 808 samples but goldbaby takes the cake. Not only do they provide you with clean samples of the 808 direct to an interface. They also provide 808 samples recorded into an Ampex 351 1/2″ valve 2 track tape machin’ something I will probably never afford, well maybe… So you get a big fat ass 808 sound for a minimal price. 24 bucks! The buying process is easy and even better they have battery kits. They also got the 909 and MPC60 samples which I will probably end up buying as well. Also check out the free section if you’re short on the cash.
Check them out. You’ll probably hear some of their samples in the next unnamed project thats coming up for this spring. :O
So some people have a hard time understanding how one can record their guitar, bass, mic etc. on their compy. All you need is an audio I/O interface. Sounds expensive but it’s relatively cheap beans. There are many in the market from cheap $199 usb boxes to Pro Tools HD expensivo hunks of metal. If you’re just tempted to get into the whole audio recording thing I’d go with something simple.
For example we have this really cool M-Audio Fast Track Pro 4 input Usb Interface. It has 4 inputs, 2 hybrid XLR/TRS inputs which I’m a fan of. You can connect both your XLR (mic for example) and TRS (1/4 inch, a guitar for example) into the pre-amps. It also has RCA inputs if you wanna hook up some freakin turn tables..yo. It also has a MIDI I/O So you can hook up your 80’s MIDI KEYTAR. It connects to your Pc via USB and records at up to 96kHz, 24 bit. which is greatish. Applications for this interface would suit podcasters very well as well as people who just wanna record their vocals and guitar and get it over with. It is also great if you wanna take your recording on the road, say you thought of a killer chorus to that new mathcore song and you were at Panera.
For example we have this really cool