Key Of Grey

February 5th, 2010 - If you're like me and have been procrastinating about writing music for the RPM Challenge by reading music blogs, then you'll like what I'm about to post. MusicRadar has 10,000 free samples for your downloading pleasure. Now you can download samples and sift through them instead of writing your album! Well maybe that'll just be what I'm doing. In all seriousness though, I've downloaded a couple of their packs so far, and they have some good stuff in ... Read More

Photo courtesy of One Small Clue February 2nd, 2010 - I was looking for MPC-style plugins, when I stumbled across Poise. Poise is a Windows-only MPC-style VST that is super-intuitive. You drag sounds you want onto the drum pads, and you're good to go. You can layer multiple samples onto each pad, and adjust parameters of each layer. No muss, no fuss. There's also a very simple MIDI learn feature for mapping to your MIDI controllers. What I like about it is that it ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Pro Audio DSP January 30th, 2010 - The Dynamic Spectrum Mapper is one of the most powerful compressors I've ever seen. Unlike a multi-band compressor which only has a few bands, the Dynamic Spectrum Mapper is able to sample a full frequency spectrum map and apply compression whenever anyspecific part of the frequency spectrum goes over that established threshold. If it sounds complicated, it is, however the fact that the DSM does this all for you, behind the scenes, makes ... Read More

January 28th, 2010 - Having recently picked up a copy of Ableton Live 8 Suite, I've been looking at expanding it. Togeo Studios has a whole bunch of free soundscape packs and presets for your downloading pleasure. They have a good selection and they sound great, especially for free offerings. As for Ableton, I'm still getting used to the interface. Coming from a Logic and Protools background, I'm still not entirely comfortable with Ableton's workflow, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. ... Read More

January 27th, 2010 - Following this week's unofficial theme of acoustic design, FuzzMeasure Pro was updated to version 3.2 today. FuzzMeasure is a Mac-only acoustic analysis tool that you can use to do anything from measuring the frequency response of your basement studio, to collecting impulse responses of acoustic spaces to be imported into your reverb unit (for example Logic Studio's Space Designer). It's professional grade software that costs a pretty reasonable $150. Unlike legacy systems that required fancy hardware boxes, FuzzMeasure works ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Kenji Kojima January 9th, 2010 - The idea of using pictures to generate musical values isn't a new one, but Kenji Kojima's RGB MusicLab goes about it a slightly different way. By analyzing the RGB values of a photo, notes are generated in a linear and predictable pattern. They are sequenced in order going from left to right, top to bottom, and the user can choose instrumentation and granularity, among other parameters. Check out the video below for a demo of ... Read More

December 28th, 2009 - These days, one of the most powerful tools that accompanies a good DAW is an included sampler and a sample library full of a variety of instruments. Realizing this, almost all DAWs include a decent starter kit of samples for you to produce with. However, these kits can only take you so far, before you want to expand to something more powerful and articulated. If you're looking to expand your orchestral instruments, there are two big names that rise ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Propellerhead December 19th, 2009 - Since the Triton I normally use to trigger MIDI is broken, I've been using a Korg MS20 controller (the one that comes with the Legacy Collection). In Reason, the MS20 is mapped as a standard keyboard. Unfortunately, the MS20 only has 3 octaves, and no dedicated buttons to change octaves. I can change octaves within the transport in Logic but I can't figure it out in Reason. It's a real pain when I'm using Redrum ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Pixelh8 September 30th, 2009 - 8-bit musician Pixelh8 has released his new software for the DS. It allows you to emulate sounds of the old school game systems without having the actual hardware. It's a homebrew application so you'll need to have your own game card along the lines of an R4 or an EZ-V. From the video (embedded below), it looks to be a well-featured application. You can choose different tones, intervals, and scales, as well as arpeggiation and effects. ... Read More

September 19th, 2009 - Tim Exile and Native Instruments have teamed up to release "The Finger", an improvisational piece of software that allows you to apply effects using a piano MIDI controller. Based upon Kore, it allows you to map and layer effects live, essentially playing the effects with the keyboard. You need Kore 2, Reaktor, or the free Kore Player to run The Finger. It retails for $79 US, and is pretty good value if you ask me. Sure you could map ... Read More