Well.. what I ought to do now, perhaps, is finish up the part 2 of the remixing project posts.. and then move onto a kind of postmortem of it.. and I would do that.. accept that I’m now onto a new remix project.. and that’s kind of where my mind is at at the moment.. so… lets dig into that.

Working on Remix projects means moving out of my safety zone.. I’m fine with that.. accept.. I tend to like to “orbit” my safety zone.. another words.. go out into the difficult stuff as much as I can.. and then once I’ve had enough, go back to the safety zone.. work in such a way that you’re incorporating new stuff.. going on an explorative adventure.. but you’re also integrating it with your already built muscles.. and so far.. I feel like I’m a little further afield from my safety zone then all that…

The problem with jumping too far out is.. suddenly you start to realize how badly you suck.. or that’s the feeling you get.. It disturbs you’re feeling of comfort.. 

As we speak I’m moving into a world of “being serious about electronic music.” Was I ever not serious about electronic music? Well.. serious in a kind of more focused way.. a kind of thinking that runs something like “this is what you must do to be successful out here” and then going after it.. in a focused sorta way. All I can really say is that I have a hell of a lot of work to do before I get to where I want to get to along this front.. enough so that I’m feeling a little unsure of myself.

Some of the basics of what it probably takes.

1. Get to know electronic music: I mean this from a.. “what’s happening” kind a level.. there’s a marketing element to this.. of knowing the market and figuring out how you want to position you’re self in said market.. but it’s also a kind of.. just feeling connected to it all. Electronic music is a world of a zillion generas and sub generes.. enough so that it’s possible that no one really knows this world in and out.
2. What are the production styles of the various generas.. how do you make the stuff? I’m me.. I’ll make my music my own damn way.. but.. having the ability to work inside of generas, or at least relate to various generas, will likely have some kind of pragmatic value.. I figure at least it would have some value to add to my musical vocabulary…

Ok, fair enough.. lets look at some other stuff.

I’m looking into the subject of live performance..

So.. I’m looking at gear like Mashine:

Here’s a video I rather like on it:

This video might give you some sense of what can be done with Native Instrument’s Maschine.. though it doesn’t really go too deep into it.. Native Instruments site does a bit a more.. but it’s still a little limited in what it tells you.. I’ve had the following twitter conversations:

Tweeting with CynicOne..  

cynicone@MattSearles ps: saw you were interested in MASCHINE. you’d get better use outta ableton live + pad kontrol or a mpc1k with jjos2xl IMHO…

cynicone@MattSearles …spent 2 hrs @ guitar center with one and it’s not ready for prime time. wait for v2 of the software at least.

MattSearles@cynicone well I already bought Maschine, it was on back order, so I’m waiting for it at this point 

cynicone@MattSearles aye….the lack of vsti sequencing, groove quantization & sample layering/editing capabilities were the negative 4 me.

MattSearles@cynicone you mean Maschine? Couldn’t you use it as just a controller in a DAW to drive external vsti’s? 

cynicone@MattSearles u could use it as a midi controller but really it’s a sequencer in itself. u have 2 run drums in maschine, then synths in a daw

cynicone@MattSearles its sort of a 1/2 baked software mpc at the moment. i like the idea but it’s not developed fully. 

Lets see if I can’t translate this into English…

Maschine has a built in sequencer.. kind of the old analog style pattern thing.. which is really how I think you want to work with it.. in large measure.. and for God knows what reason.. Cynic One is telling us that this Sequencer can’t be used to control external virtual instruments.. which does sound rather insane.. you can, as near as I can  tell, export MIDI from what you’ve sequencing in Maschine, and bring it into you’re DAW to then use with you’re more robust instrument library.. assuming you have such a library.. but you would think you’d be able to use some kind of inter application midi communication.. or something.. 

Sample layers is important to.. how hard you hit something.. say a piano or a drum.. effects the sound in more ways then just volume.. with sample layers you use different samples for different… well levels of how hard you’re hitting the thing.. basically.

Groove quantizing is.. if you have notes on grid.. as you would with a step sequencer.. things can get a little robotic… which depending on you’re aesthetic inclinations and the project at hand, can be a good or bad thing.  Groove quantization is a means for turning a robot into… well, a groovy robot… err.. gives it a more human-esk feel.

In terms of how this effects my analysis of “if it’s worth it.” 

Prior to the announcement of Maschine at NAMM, I was thinking I wanted to get into “this type” of technology. Everything I do, pretty much, takes place in the computer with software.. so I was figuring I might just get one of these types of controllers… and then when I saw Maschine I was like “oh, yeah, I probably want that.”

I’m very much attracted to the idea of this kind of production… and this falls into a number of categories.

 

1. I want more of my music production to involve controllers and human performances, even if quantized
2. I want some kinda controller set up for doing sorta “groove box” style production.. including for generative sorts of stuff.
3. I’m interested in playing with step sequencers that are connected to actual controllers. I think the reason I usually don’t like working with step sequencers is that I’m normally using them with mouse input.. which is not terrible exciting, and can often be a bit on the tedious side.
4. Maschine will operate as a controller for Ableton Live.. which at least has some value to me prior to investing in the new Ableton controller.. 

If I could kind of summaries it all.. Maschine is a pretty expensive piece of gear.. if it’s worth the asking price.. that’s probably a matter of how you plan to use it.. and I think Native Instruments making it with these limitations.. really works against it being worth the asking price. Still.. It’s a “we’ll have to use it our selves to really know” kind of thing.

Of course the thing is that I’ve already bought Maschine..  I’m just waiting for it to arrive.. so.. I’m sorta in the position of having to wait and hope for the best.

Tweeting with Veerrgg 

I had a somewhat related conversation with “Vergel E,” whom makes electronic music up in Canada.. and has a blog and podcast on electronic music that can be found here, where we got a little into Kore 2 and speculation on subjects related to Maschine Integration stuff…

MattSearles Wow.. some of the compression in Kore 2 sounds better then you’d expect

vveerrgg@MattSearles #kore2 is actually a pretty sweet DAW alternative. I’ve fallen in love with it as a “simple” environment to create/record in 

MattSearles@vveerrgg yeah I don’t think I’d normally take a compressor from guitar rig.. in a certain process sense. 

vveerrgg@MattSearles thats part of why i like it so much. it reminds me of the old days when I would just plug stuff together and see what happens

MattSearles@vveerrgg makes me wonder if I should work out how to program more of my Instruments/effects into its data base. Maybe program some patches 

vveerrgg@MattSearles that might be taking it to the extreme… but i agree there is alot of value in that database and “scene”interface

MattSearles@vveerrgg yeah.. I’ve heard that some of that might be painful.. 

vveerrgg@MattSearles I experimented with building scene changes in #kore2 it didn’t go over well. I’m still trying to learn an effective solution

MattSearles@vveerrgg Perhaps we must wait for #kore3 ? 

vveerrgg@MattSearles I’m curious to see how #kore might integrate with #MASCHINE . Ideally I would like to see it all combined into a DAW

MattSearles@vveerrgg me to, and wondering how #maschine might integrate into my process, since I usually program sequences more then play them 

vveerrgg@MattSearles if #NI built or integrated a visualization app into #maschine similar to #Resolume I would be very curious to try 

MattSearles@vveerrgg I’m getting super interested in visualization to, enjoyed your post on it ( http://tinyurl.com/blg4fp ) didnt know about #Resolume

vveerrgg@MattSearles I downloaded the demo of #Resolume and enjoyed playing with it. felt like a video version of #ableton based around video clips

vveerrgg@MattSearles made a #Resolume video based on some screen caps & video feedback. was REALLY easy once i had the material http://tr.im/gFqj 

MattSearles@vveerrgg I’m thinking I’m going to have to do that.. was thinking of doing pseudo similar stuff with Ableton/Max/Jitter

Ok, some context on this conversation 

On Resolume, Abilton and Max/Jitter 

Vergel and I share some interest in sound visualization.. and with this VJ-ing. Ableton have announced “MAX for LIVE” which you can use “Jitter” with.. This is a long conversation that I don’t really know too much about.. but basically MAX is a somewhat visual programing environment for all things electronic music.. and Jitter is something you can add to MAX that allows you to process video.. and is perhaps one tool that could be used for audio visualization.

I think the big thing is.. it will turn Ableton into a VJ tool.. and potentially a rather amazing video tool at that… Which along with the new Ableton Controller.. could be quite amazing.

On the subject of Kore..

I pretty much always use Kore as plug in in my DAWs… Kore is a combination of hardware and software.. it can load instruments and effects in it.. and stuff can be routed around, and controlled via its hardware controls.. which is pretty damn cool.. On the software side it comes with a number of effects, plus utilized a number of native instruments effects / instrument library engines.. and provides a way of managing them.. and you get this “super instrument” sorta thing where you have multiple instruments and effects programmed together into a single patch..

What I take to be how Vergel is using Kore 

But then there’s the stuff I find a little more mysterious.. which I guess is where Vergel is having his fun. For starters there’s a way of using it for live performance out of the DAW environment..

As a part of that is a system for live performance.. where you essentially create something like a “live set” where you can move between Kore patches.. where Kore essentially turns off the unused patches.. and you can move between these sets for different parts of a song or set list.. This is one of the areas where Vergel has been running into problems.

Another thing worth mentioning.. which I guess Vergel is also using? Is a built in.. gosh, I’ve never even used it.. what is it? Is it a step sequencer of some sort? It is.. well pretty rudimentary.. and I suppose this is a larger part of what Vergel was getting to with the question of Maschine and Kore integration.. 

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of an ability to modify the sequence as its playing.. not from the Kore controller anyway… and not only that but you don’t get banks of sequences…. and you can’t sequence modulation.. or I say all this without really knowing what I’m talking about.. but that’s my impression.

What would be kind of amazing is if Native Instruments really thought this out.. to the point that you had something like a step sequencing environment that integrated all these technologies..

It would make sense for them to do this as.. besides making the kinds of studio tools I use, they also have a rather substantial suite of DJ-ing tools.. which Maschine fits into rather nicely.. and you could see how the integration of all this stuff could really be cool… and make business sense for them

A few latter 

To somewhat complicate matters I’m looking at the Jazz Mutant Dexter and Lemur

Here’s a couple of videos:

First the Dexter

Dexter gives  you a multi touch graphic interface.. think iPhone, for controlling you’re DAWs 

The problem with Dexter.. besides being pricey, is that it doesn’t actually work with the DAW that is now my main DAW.. Digital Performer… So I’d ether have to revert back to Cubase or… go to Logic.. the latter of which being pretty expensive ($500).. as a pose to just an upgrade ( probably about $200)… 

And now for the Lemur

Lemur is like Dexter only.. you can make you’re own interfaces.. and I guess would generally use it for controlling like.. Ableton Live, MAX, Reaktor.. VJing stuff.. etc. What follows is one fellows swing at making such an interface.. to go along with.. I believe it’s a MAX patch.. working with Live?

DyNAmic sequencer from Lo-Fi Massahkah on Vimeo.

Very very cool..

So some more about this

The biggest problem with Dexter and Lemur is that its super expensive.. though for a few days past my writing of this.. it’s half off.. which actually makes it something worth considering for my self.. and yet……

You know there’s rumors that Apple will come out with a tablet Mac.. sorta iPhone on steroids.. that would be all touch screened out.. one assumes that such a device would be a much better device for doing what Lemur and Dexter do.. and its not at all unlikely that it could actually be cheaper..

If this were not enough, Microsoft has been working on multi touch technology to.. which it is likely to use as a means of differentiating it’s mobile OS from Google’s OS.. But even outside of all this, I’m sorta assuming that given the economy.. it’s not unlikely that the costs of the Dexter and Lemur will drop..

The list price of a Dexter is in the ball park of a Mac Pro.. at that price.. the potential market place is rather small.. I’m guessing.. It seems to be very much in the DIY MAX planet.. that’s the target audience.. which is often a little on the avant guard side of things.. not a group known for an excess of wealth… if the price were to drop.. and you were to focus on economies of scale.. you’d have a much huger potential market.. and you gotta be thinking with the possibility of Apple and Microsoft coming into that market place that.. well.. you really need to do something.

There are other issues I could drag up but.. but.. lets move back to the more or less original subject of all this stuff for live performance.

So electronic live performance

I’m gathering various tools along these lines.. There’s a really big challenge to working this stuff out.. if I can make my production style live.. The only way I can imagine it being possible is via MAX.. which is a very complex kettle of fish with which to attempt to tango.. 

But we won’t get into all that here.. we’ll end here.. with just saying.. well I don’t know.. that there’s an interesting set of challenges around this stuff.. and I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it more soon