This video is an overview of Intua’s BeatMaker 2, which they describe as ‘the most advanced mobile music workstation’.

I have had the successor to this version on my iPod Touch for quite some time now and can surely vouch it is impressive what they manage to pack into a $19.99 app.

Check out the details below – and let me know what you think of BeatMaker 2 - and the fact that it runs on a phone.

STUDIO

• Create multiple instruments with Drum Machine or Keyboard interface
• 10 effect units to choose from: Reverb, Compressor, Filter, Delay, EQ, Flanger, Chorus, AutoPan, BitCrusher, Overdrive.
• 3 effect slots for each instrument, unlimited global effect racks
• Customizable Cross Controller for all effects, to manipulate multiple parameters at once

DRUM MACHINE

• Up to 128 trigger pads: 16 pads over 8 different banks
• Chop Lab: Slice audio loops to automatically create new sound presets
• Control sound parameters on individual pad: volume, pan, mute, output bus, semitone, fine tune, reverse and autoscaling
• Low/high pass filter per pad with cutoff and resonance control
• Choose between various pad trigger modes: one-shot, hold & loop
• Customizable envelope (ADSR) control for each pad
• Exclusive groups and polyphony management
• “Live” modes: trigger, mute, reverse, velocity and tune spreading.

KEYBOARD SAMPLER

• 128 keys keyboard with pitch wheel with double keyboard mode, note display and zoom controls
• Easily create your own instruments from any sample combination with the keygroup editor
• Volume and filter ADSR envelopes
• Low/high pass filter with cutoff, resonance and key tracking
• 2 LFOs with customizable amplitude, offset and rate (synchronizable), controlling volume, pitch and filter parameters
• Polyphony control, with up to 32 voices per keyboard sampler
• Legato play mode with customizable glide
• Keygroup controls: volume, pan, semitones, fine-tune, reverse and one-shot, hold, hold & loop trigger modes

MULTI-TRACK SEQUENCER

• Create unlimited instrument and FX tracks
• Automations: Record, edit and replay instrument and effect parameters
• Record, draw, arrange and resize patterns along the timeline to build your song
• Compose and modify patterns with a piano-roll interface. Edit notes, parameters, and automations.
• Instrument and effect recording options: Quantize, take or partial undo, pre-roll, Overdub, note erasing.

WAVE EDITOR

• Full-fledged wave editor with intuitive pinch and selection for manipulating samples
• Basic edition tools: trim, cut, copy, paste, with 8 levels undo/redo
• High quality time-stretching and pitch-shifting algorithms
• Audio tools: normalize, silence, reverse, fade in and out, cross-fade
• Record new samples from device microphone or plugged instrument
• Loop points and tempo/signature editor

MIXER CONSOLE

• Realistic multi-track mixer with level meters
• Edit volume, pan, solo, mute and bus routing features for individual tracks

LARGE SOUNDBANK INCLUDED

• 68 Drum Machine presets from all genres
• 111 Keyboard Sampler presets, from synthesizers to realistic orchestral instruments.

SHARING & GLOBAL OPTIONS

• Export your songs to Audio or MIDI files
• Transfer and manage your files from your computer using the integrated FTP server
• Import any songs from your iPod library to create new remixes
• Upload your songs directly to your SoundCloud account
• Share audio content with more than 20 other music applications using the iOS pasteboard
• Supports BeatMaker 1 kits and projects
• Fully supports Retina display
• Native iPad version coming soon as a free update

Intua’s Beatmaker 2 is available now in the Apple App Store

Mind Bokeh, the new album from the electronic pop wiz Bibio, arrives March 29 in the U.S. and April 4 in the rest of the world, via Warp Records. The follow-up to 2009′s Ambivalence Avenue takes its title from the Japanese word “bokeh”, which means the blurry, out-of-focus part of a photograph– a very specific term that nicely captures Bibio’s distinct brand of atmospheric haze.

In a press release, Bibio promises that the new album will continue the restless genre-hopping of Ambivalence Avenue, switching freely between acoustic folk and woozy beats.

Below is the tracklist to Mind Bokeh, as well as a video sampler that includes clips from many of the album’s tracks.

Mind Bokeh:

01 Excuses
02 Pretentious
03 Anything New
04 Wake Up!
05 Light Seep
06 Take Off Your Shirt
07 Artists’ Valley
08 K Is for Kelson
09 Mind Bokeh
10 More Excuses
11 Feminine Eye
12 Saint Christopher

In the world of electronic music we always see artists trying to innovate and create new sounds to reinvent the whole genre. Ranging from all the hot new instruments and programs that just hit the market to developing their own by combining new school ideas with old schools instruments like the timeless minimoog voyager. While the level of creativity grows with each new wave of artists, many or relying on loops and are triggering in those sounds to compose their work.

With Edison, the situation is exactly the opposite of that. The video above captures a live performance – all one shot sounds, no loops, on take live to camera. Don’t think you will be able to get your hands on his hardware either, he is working with two DIY monome controllers built by his own two hands.

The video above was a 4 camera 2 projector shoot all shot in 1080p. The flashing bulbs were controlled by MIDI through what he calls the lunchboxes…

Edison’s album, “People are Bad Animals” is out now on Kid Without Radio Records and can be purchased at www.kidwithoutradio.com.

For a complete view from overhead, check the video below:

Mateusz Zdziebko‘s rather awesome music video, Sampled Room, is a clever demonstration of how, with a sampler, you can make music out of anything:

This is an example, how to use the basic stuff in your room in such creative and musician way. Just take some noisy and voiced objects and record them with any sampler. At the end use all this stuff to create any music u desire. Or… You even don’t need any sampler. Just use your friends, give them gadgets and transform your party into gizmo-jam-session. I can guarantee much fun. Enjoy!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Sound Sources:

• 2 Wine Glases
• Panties
• Bottle Opener
• Drier
• Tape
• Tube Pack From Whiskey
• Spring
• Old Russian Camera
• Spanner
• Water

Tools:

• Canon EOS 5D mkII
• DitoGear™ CrankSlider
• Microphone Shure SM 48

Shots, Edit & Music – Mateusz Zdziebko

This is a sneak preview for Konkreet Performer – a new “visual OSC controller and visualizer” for your DAW / Synth / Drum Machine / Sampler etc.

Developer Konkreet Labs hasn’t released much information on Konkreet Performer, but says it  ”aims to be used in the studio and on stage. it addresses digital music control and performance in whole new and unique way — be ready to explore multitouch to the extreme!”

This is the sort of thing that is exciting about the emergence of inexpensive multi-touch devices. It’s not a virtual fart piano – but the result of something treating new devices as a blank slate on which to create something new.

Particularly pay attention at about :30 where the beat gets going and the visualization really defines the sound being produced.

Interested in Konkreet Performer? Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hope everyone has had their fill of ghost touring, bobbing for apples, jack-o’ lanterns, and all the other haunted attractions that thrive during the fall season. My personal favorite part I look forward to most at this time are the movies. From the classics such as Halloween, The Shining, Amityville Horror, and Nightmare on Elm St. to the more modern hits like Saw, 28 days later, Shaun of the Dead, and The Ring, there really is no better way to get in the spirit of Halloween. Enjoy all the candy you can get and go watch either of my personal favorites: Ernest Scared Stupid or my newly acquired yearly tradition of Planet Terror presents Deathproof.

One of the most highly anticipated films of the year, Tron: Legacy is coming close to it’s release! Anyone else as excited as I am? Not only will this movie be filled with visual effects that will transcend oneself into a totally different realm, but the music couldn’t be more fitting.

Daft Punk has been working over the past year to create the most powerful album they have made to this date. With a movie set to be released in iMax 3D, filled with action and led lights all over the place, what group could possibly be more suitable for this role. This clip gives a preview to the song “Derezzed” of their album set to hit stores, December 7, nearly a week before the movie launches. You even get to see the cameo performance by the french electronic masterminds.

The Great Wave of Kanagawa

The Flaming Lips – Barton Hall at Cornell University

Falling Words

Visit Through the Water

Warner Bros. has an interesting program that they’ve recently expanded a bit—mail in an old DVD movie along with $5 to swap it for the newer, Blu-ray version. After mulling it over, I think I like the idea.

It’s $5 to upgrade most titles (some run a few bucks more) There are shipping charges and up to a two-month turnaround, but if you exchange 7 or more movies, at least the shipping is free.

Only 90 titles are offered at the moment, which, to be fair, surely has at least a touch of correlation with the fact that Warner Bros still doesn’t have their entire catalog released in BD. But premium titles, like the Batman films, are off the table.

Where I think the deal could be very appealing is if you were to pick up used WB DVDs for a buck or two, then mail them in, scoring yourself a $7 BD movie rather than spending double that or more.

how do you feel about the offer?

I have decided to add another artistic outlet for myself. Yesterday,  I started a tumblr entitled Somewhere in Hobbiton where I will post pictures, quotes, audio files, etc. that interest me. Please feel free to tell me what you think, I encourage feedback people!! This in no way means I will be abandoning this blog, just expanding my horizons so to speak.

This is all I have to say for now, I will let it speak for itself. I must get back to my final exam studying now. Frequently join me on a journey to Hobbiton!!!

http://somewhereinhobbiton.tumblr.com/