Tech and Gadgets
Not too long ago, me and my best friend Daniel started thinking about a project that had to do with vocals and harmony.
We decided back than, that we needed to go in deeper into Reaktor.
Since than, months have passed, and now Tim Exile comes along with this nice kit called ‘the Mouth’.
According to Native Instruments:
Electronic artist and innovator Tim Exile showcases “The Mouth” – a new software instrument that can turn any audio signal into music.
Sing, beatbox, or send a drum loop into it, and “The Mouth” comes to life as a highly expressive and somewhat unpredictable synthesizer, vocoder or talkbox-like instrument.
The Mouth can be used as a stand-alone application and as a plug-in in a DAW or host sequencer, covering all kinds of live performance and music production scenarios.
More info here: http://www.native-instruments.com/themouth
Can’t wait to get my paws on this beast!
One and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to look at some blueprints supplied by Native Instruments. The concept blueprint was than called Traktor Pro CTRL.
It was delivered in print, as that I was able to check the blueprint in 1:1 format. (real- sized print) This basically came down to an A3 format paper sized controller.
After reading through the specs, it became apparent that the controller would also feature an on board soundcard, cue section, effect section, EQ section, crossfader and above all, 2 decks.
Native Instruments than asked all fellow thinkers to answer an online questionnaire, in which we would share our views on the blueprint.
One of the more frequent answers would end up to be;”make it 4 decks”.
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Almost 14 months later, rumours started to turn up, pictures and youtube vids were getting leaked. It seemed that Native Instruments was getting ready to unleash a new breed of MIDIcontroller with accompanying Traktor Software.
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More and more information was being spread, and I was still bound by my NDA with Native Instruments. So I was not able to spread my knowledge on this matter.
With the 1st of November set as release date, all information is already open to the public, and I guess I am allowed to share this little story.
Demos are starting to turn up through the Netherlands and through twitter we had the opportunity to check out the Native Instruments Kontrol S4, as it was called now, at ToneControl.
This cool company that arranged a demo night last Monday and My buddy Marc and myself wanted to check it out badly. The demo night turned out to be a minimeet of the AboutDJ.nl forums, as that Wesley(dj_wb) and René(Rendoe) were there too.
Leon of Native Instruments, brought in by company owner Toon, was a great guy that showed and demoed the little beast.
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First thing I did was actually whip out the old design blueprint and compare size and layout. The size was the same, buttons were not changed that much, but, as mentioned earlier on, two decks were added, not to mention the all new looper, that basically adds a virtual fifth loop deck, that can be used as a layered looper.
(Think photoshop with image layers, or your average DAW software with tracks.)
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Leon guided us around many features of the software and controller, and even left us some time to play around with the controller.
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It’s hard to believe, but at first I was only in it for the software. After playing around with the controller for a while, I am actually thinking of selling my current setup and buy this bad boy!
Here’s the rest of the pictures worth sharing. Props and thanks goes out to Toon van Veelen too, as he supplied a few of the pictures featured below, and ofcourse being awesome enough to arrange this demo evening!
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Ever wondered what to do with your old vinyl bag? Here’s a quick hack that will pump new life into the old DJ bag.
Since I used, fellow Restricted Sessions/Lime member, Rick’s Magma Vinyl bag for the MIDI Fight Club in Tresor, I wanted one for myself.
The space that that bag offered, enabled me to hold my MacBook Pro, both my MIDI controllers, my soundcard, cables, headphone and still leave me with enough room to still drop in clothes and a big towel.
Through fellow AboutDJ member Royce, I received my own Magma vinyl bag and decided to do some small modding of my own.
I decided to make a small section in which my MacBook Pro would be stacked against the padding of the bag, so that that will leave me with a nice space in the rest of the bags main compartment.
No ‘how to‘ pictures, as it it a fairly simple add velcro action to make this happen.
The pictures were created with my mobile phone, so the quality is not too high this time.
Een leuk voorbeeld dat Creativiteit je enige beperking is.
Zie wat Tim Exile doet tijdens zijn – PROMO – live sessie voor Rob Da Bank, BBC Radio 1.
Hij maakt gebruik van een microfoon, twee BCR controllers, een BCF controller en een Reaktor ensemble om dit geheel plaats te laten vinden.
In een vorige berichtje liet ik al kort iets zien over de VMS4 van American Audio.
Als ik Fresh Fluke in het filmpje los zie gaan, kan ik niet niet anders
stellen dan dat dit een gaaf controllertje is.
Een verwonderlijke MIDI controller/ analoge mixer. In feite doet deze hetzelfde als de Allen & Heath Xone:DX, alleen voor een fractie, ik meen een kwart, van het geld.
Er wordt gezegd dat deze in de winkel gaat komen voor €399,-
Dat voor een combinatie van 4 kanaals mixer, geluidskaart en analoge mixer is niet mis.
Hier wat Ean Golden erover heeft te zeggen.
Nooit verwacht om te zien dat mensen een Novation Launchpad naast een Akai APC40 zouden gebruiken.
Als je mij mijn eerlijke mening zou vragen, zou ik je tot een paar minuten terug hebben gezegd dat dit a- niet mogelijk was om deze twee naast elkaar te kunnen gebruiken in Ableton en b- het volslagen onzin zou zijn.
Nu ik dit filmpje gezien heb, weet ik in ieder geval dat ik punt a in ieder geval weg kan strepen.
