The Machine Orchestra explodes the idea of a laptop orchestra, building a full-blown machine ensemble of the future. We turn to guest writer Jordan, a member of the ensemble, to look behind the scenes in a couple of articles. Rejoin us for part two later this week. -Ed.

Welcome to the world of Dr. Ajay Kapur and Michael Darling, the two California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) professors behind a novel laptop powered ensemble, the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra. Inspired by the work of visionary laptop ensemble pioneers and long-time friends Dan Trueman, Perry Cook (PLORk) and Ge Wang (SLOrk), Kapur has assembled a powerhouse of technical minds and creative musicians to create a laptop group unique in its own right. Backed by Kapur’s background in Musical Robotics and sensor systems, and Darling’s years of experience in technical theater design and mechanical engineering, the Machine Orchestra is taking the “laptop ensemble” into new territories.

With both the recent posts on musical robotics here on CDM and the debut of the Machine Orchestra at REDCAT / Walt Disney Theatre (LA) just days away, what better time to introduce the Machine Orchestra? The following is the first of a series of posts which I will be guest-writing here at CDM on the creation of the Machine Orchestra, the artists behind it, and the all-new undergraduate powerhouse that is the CalArts Music Technology: Intelligence, Interaction, and Design (MTIID) program.

For today’s article, I got to sit down and pick the minds of the conductors themselves, so without further ado, welcome Ajay Kapur and Michael Darling.

KarmetiK Machine Orchestra – REDCAT Preview from KarmetiK on Vimeo.

J.H: Ajay, How did you get started with musical robotics?

A.K: I was fortunate enough to study with Eric Singer in Brooklyn with LEMUR. He taught me the world of microchips and introduced me to mechanical engineering (Eric, thanks for showing me how to use a mill). Two years later, I crossed paths with the world-famous Trimpin, who has changed my life forever. Completely inspired, I began building my first robot, the MahaDeviBot—a robotic percussionist that models an Indian Goddess with 12 arms playing multiple instruments.

J.H: What is the Machine Orchestra?

A.K: The Machine Orchestra stems from the idea of localized sound. Inspired by the hemispherical speakers used by PLOrk and SLOrk, our goal is to take localization a step further, by distributing robots and instruments throughout a venue so that the audience can see and hear how the sounds are being created on stage. My aesthetic involves the physicality of performance– showing the audience what the electronic performers are doing through the use of gestural interfaces and robotic kinetics. The Machine Orchestra debut on Jan 27 has over 10 performers, 43 actuators, and 65 speakers. Very exciting. Check out our website for a detailed description of what to expect.

J.H: Michael, how did you get involved with Ajay and what is your involvement in The Machine Orchestra?

Michael Darling: Well this whole thing started as random conversations and a student’s idea. My student Matt Setzer had been using the programming and interface techniques he was getting from Ajay and the fabrication skills he was getting from me in his personal art making. After Matt forced Ajay and I to meet, what I remember from our first meeting is that we met in a hallway, walked down the hallway, and by the end of our short walk we had hatched a plan of collaboration …In the Machine Orchestra, I mentor and direct the physical and tangible aspects of the project. At this point, I create the physical armature that lets the robotic instruments perform. I also teach and guide the exploration and development of the design, mechanical and structural aesthetic. I am working with Jeremiah Thies (CalArts Theater Faculty) who has brought us his expertise in video design and technology.

J.H: What is the visual aesthetic of The Machine Orchestra?

M.D: When I started in on this project Ajay had already been building robot instruments for some time and was using a product called 80/20 which is basically industrial LEGO. It worked great except for the fact that it looked like 80/20 and that drove me crazy… I have always seen these robots as individualized organic forms and the construction of them to be an additive process with each aspect building off the next. At this point, we are trying to hide the fact we are making this out of scrap and surplus. I think we are still looking for what will physically make the Machine Orchestra look like “ours”.

J.H: What might we expect from the Machine Orchestra in the future?

A.K: This project is ready to tour. After our show in January, I hope we can start performing all over the world. We have made all the robots travel-ready and they can fit in suitcases…coming to a city near you! We also have 3 new robots in the works, but what they are remains a secret :).

Software of the year: Propellerhead Record

For all the major releases and upgrades and gear, as well as the dominance of a certain Berlin-based developer, if you had to pick one application of 2009, it’d be Record. Record tops the list not because everyone dropped everything to go use it, but quite the contrary. Record bucked industry trends, and provided a love-it-or-hate-it view of what audio software could be. In other words, it was quite reminiscent of Reason.

Centered on a mixer, emphasizing “recording” (perish the thought), and omitting expected features like MIDI out and plug-in support, Record resists modern-day conventional wisdom. That was divisive enough, even before the debates began over Record’s new hardware key. In the long run, it may be the simple fact that Record brings audio signal to Reason that gives it staying power. But in 2009, Record was the application about which everyone had an opinion.

See our original preview, May, plus details on the "Ignition Key" authorization system

Developer of the year: Ableton

What a year it’s been for Ableton. The company kicked off the year with “Share,” “Extend,” and “Touch,” as well as the release of Live 8. It sounded simple. But Ableton’s tech dominated CDM headlines in ‘09 with the variety of user tips and tricks, rants and raves. How’d they do?

New gear: Hardware was in the spotlight – and ranked highest in CDM clicks – even above the software. Many users embraced Akai’s APC40, the first commercial hardware to really balance a variety of Live’s features, as well as Novation’s affordable, simple Launchpad grid controller. But even as Ableton emphasized the ability of this hardware to work out of the box, hackers set about customizing their own control. We saw the Launchpad used with Renoise (complete with a mocked-up Renoise logo decal), and the Korg nanoKONTROL hacked to integrate more seamlessly with Ableton – even when KORG and Ableton themselves hadn’t worked on support. Lesson learned? Make tools for musicians, and you may find some support and development gets crowd-sourced, whether you intended it or not.

See: Hands-on with the Launchpad, nanoKONTROL Myr for Ableton Live, APC40 Hacking Superguide

Live, meet Max: Max for Live has already led to some incredible work, most notably stretta’s fantastic compositional toolkit for the monome. It earned praise (for setting a new bar for sheer power) and criticism (most notably for lacking a free runtime). Some jumped on M4L, some swore they’d stick to the traditional Max, and others swore they’d seek alternative or free solutions. In the end, Max for Live has wound up becoming bigger than, well, Max for Live. It’s begun a discussion of how live performance should work, and how software should integrate and be extended. And that’s a story that should be with us for a long time.

And a few wrinkles: The third prong of Ableton’s initiative was barely visible in ‘09; while a beta is underway, we don’t know much more about how Share will work in December than we did at NAMM in January. Live 8 has been beloved by some, even as others users expressed frustration with stability issues. CEO Gerhard Behles surprised everyone this month on the Ableton forum by conceding the company could do better and promising developers would re-focus on squashing bugs, even putting new features on hold.

As the saying goes, any press is good press. Ableton and their fired-up user base stayed front-and-center on CDM in 2009, even as twists and turns complicated the narrative. The story isn’t quite as clean and tidy as it is was at the beginning of the year, and you can read the full spectrum of comments calling this year everything from a triumph to a failure (and, hopefully, a few more reasonable thoughts in between). But without a doubt, Ableton is the developer of 2009.

Story of the year: Switching from Mac to Ubuntu

After years of tired debates about the merits of operating systems, the potential of the philosophies of open source versus proprietary, and whether Linux is ready for the desktop, in 2009 we saw a new spin: what if you switched to Linux to make your life easier?

That was the question Kim Cascone asked with his switch to Linux. And he wasn’t alone. One of the most-asked questions this year was how to make Linux work for music, particularly as users sought out more-reliable, more-affordable solutions for audio. (Yes, I know – “Linux” isn’t necessarily more reliable out of the box, as “Linux” could mean any number of setups, which I suspect is part of why the question was asked so much.) The popularity of Kim’s story, along with the turnkey Indamixx laptop or the Linux Laptop Orchestra we saw last week, suggest a challenge to CDM as much as a story. It’s the story we’ll likely see more of in 2010.

Linux Music Workflow: Switching from Mac OS X to Ubuntu with Kim Cascone

Biggest opportunity: Rock Band Network

Want a glimpse into the future of the music business? Here’s one way it could look. Rock Band Network provides an extraordinary level of control and customization, allowing your music to work as well with the hit game as music adapted by the developers themselves. As a revenue stream, as a promotional opportunity, and as a new way to play with your music, it looks fantastic. And don’t miss the fact that what made it possible was close collaboration with the DAW Reaper – a big coup for that package. Now, if we could just have the Amplitude Network, too, for electronic artists.

See our inside look at RBN with the folks at Harmonix

Surprise vintage tech: The return of CV

MIDI? What’s that? The biggest surprise revelation in January was that MOTU was set to release a brilliant plug-in called Volta, which elegantly bridged the gap between computers and, through control voltage, analog synthesis. Matthew Davidson (who wowed us with OSC and digital tech in 2009, too, in his monome work) walked us through his creation:

Analog, Meet Digital: MOTU Volta Connects the Mac to CV Synths, Effects Graphically

We also saw other CV solutions, DIY and commercial, Control Voltage on Moog’s Theremin, and in perhaps the hardware product of the year, Moog Music’s exquisite double-band MuRF resonant filter. And yes, the Moog piece even has MIDI for pattern changes and sync, while still making use of CV.

Most annoying story of the year: Anything to do with T-Pain

Yes, the iPhone is well awesome mobile technology. Yes, 2009 was the year in which the music world went from talking exclusively about “albums” to talking about “apps,” too. Yes, it’s amazing how Smule has popularized music technology and alternative interfaces and all that good stuff. Unfortunately, it was tough to focus on some of the wonderful things going on when you had to deal with the sudden and inexplicable success of T-Pain, capitalizing on everyone’s least-favorite effect – AutoTune. Not getting enough overuse of pitch correction on FOX’s hit show, Glee, ruining talented voices of kids and Broadway stars? Now put it on your iPhone, and suck the joy out of the (otherwise fantastic) “I’m on a Boat” video. We all love you, Smule, but, I’m on a phone? I’m in a time machine, trying to escape to some year where AutoTune has finally died.

To cheer up, let’s just remind ourselves why Smule’s chief mind Ge Wang is still cool, while I try to work out how to get off T-Pain’s press mailing list:

Interview: Smule’s Ge Wang on iPhone Apps, Ocarinas, and Democratizing Music Tech

And the Rest

Most important OS release:

Windows 7, for finally making us feel good about leaving XP – and, with the help of tools like Cakewalk’s SONAR and its BitBridge 32-bit plug-in support, giving us a good reason to go 64-bit, too.

Most popular how-to’s:

Instructable: How to Build a Music Studio in an Apartment

Abusing and misusing groove extraction in Live 8

Best reason to attend NAMM 2010:

The hopes of catching Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 synth, in the flesh

Most popular feature, and a reminder of what matters more than the gear:

Take it to the Stage: Reflections on Live Laptop Music from Artists

This analysis piece from a variety of top artists started a discussion about what playing laptops is all about. There was certainly no consensus, but it was – rightfully – the most popular feature story of the year, and something we should cover as often as possible. It’s the reason we’re all here. (Thanks to Primus Luta for putting this together.)

More Top 2009 Lists

Beatportal

Francis Preve takes on the top ten releases of the year for Beatportal, and I can’t help but agree. Having made my list of what caused the most controversy, these are the tools that – big splash or not – deserve some technological recognition.

MetaSynth remains a fascinating and unique tool for sound design, finally in a more modern release, and one I hope to work with more soon.

Logic 9 was a huge DAW release, though to that list I’d add SONAR 8.5 – two radically different tools, each markedly more mature this year.

FXpansion DCAM Synth Squad looks like the most brilliant soft synth of ‘09, and I’m long overdue in spending some quality time with it.

Dave Smith’s Tetr4 synth might make the top of my list if it didn’t have to compete with other fine synths from … Dave Smith.

Then there’s Melodyne, which resulted in some unique and creative results this year.

A must-read: 2009 Studio Technology Top 10

MusicRadar

MusicRadar, the online site that accompanies Computer Music and Future Music (among others), reviews the year month by month. But the list you want is:

In pictures: the best hi-tech gear of 2009

Yours’

Of course, in the end, what all these stories have been about is the full spectrum of ideas from our readers. So have at it. And Happy New Year.

For a generation of musicians of nearly every genre, the laptop has become an instrument. It’s easy to take for granted, but the rise of the computer for music has been remarkable. Less than twenty years ago, real-time digital synthesis and audio processing was the domain of expensive, specialized workstations. Now, $700 per seat can buy you a full-blown musical rig, with the computer hardware, gestural input courtesy the Nintendo Wii controller, and even a DIY speaker made from IKEA salad bowls. The next challenge is to make this setup as flexible and reliable as possible. Enter Linux.

According with the laptop’s graduation to instrument status, laptops orchestras have spread worldwide, inspired especially by the innovative Princeton Laptop Orchestra (“PLOrk”) directed by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook. PLOrk’s alumnus Ge Wang has even gone on to greater fame making applications for the iPhone via ocarina and T-Pain app developer Smule. The sounds of these ensembles may sometimes be strange, but by pushing laptop performance, the groups are a great place to look for how to get the most out of computer music, whatever your tastes may be.

Virginia Tech’s L2Ork’s claim to faim is that it’s a laptop orchestra powered by Linux. Why does that matter? For one, it makes a big difference on cost. By using Linux-powered netbooks, they’ve slashed the per-student cost from that of the Mac laptops used in some other ensembles, on a machine that’s more compact. Far from making sacrifices to save money, the result is actually  greater reliability, flexibility, efficiency, and audio performance.

As with the PLOrk ensemble, L2Ork combines expressive input with open-ended digital sound making production, localizing the sound near the computer itself using hemispherical speakers. In this way, the laptop instrument can attempt to learn something from acoustic instruments, which are played with human gestures and have sound sources that are positioned physically where the instrument is.

L2Ork

You don’t have to enroll at Virginia Tech to apply these lessons to your own music making, however. You can apply the lessons of the L2Ork ensemble to put together your own Linux audio machine. They’ve even further-documented the process of making PLOrk’s signature “salad bowl” speakers. And you can do it all without breaking the bank.

I got the chance to speak with Dr. Ivica Ico Bukvic, director of the Linux Laptop Orchestra and the DSISIS Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio at Virginia Tech.

CDM: What is your software rig for this ensemble?

Ivica: We basically use Ubuntu 9.04 (vanilla) with our own custom-built rt kernel, which apart from solid performance also offers full support of standby/hibernate/external monitor, webcam, wireless, bluetooth, etc. We also have various patches/scripts that deal with chronic UI bugs (e.g. order of panel icons in gnome getting trashed whenever a resolution is changed).

Basically, our configuration supports every single functionality of MSI Wind netbooks, which we use as the backbone of the orchestra.

FWIW, our setup offers pretty darn cool price point. The entire setup (MSI Wind, UA-1G soundcard, hemi speaker, [Nintendo] Wiimote/Nunchuk, all the cables/accessories, headset, and case) comes down to approximately $700/seat which arguably makes it as cheap as an iPhone setup, except you get to enjoy flexibility of using a laptop (ok, a netbook :-).

What music software are you using?

Our audio platform is currently exclusively [multimedia patching environment] Pd-extended 0.42.5 (running through [low-latency audio server] JACK) which we’ve also customized to allow advanced GUI setup (e.g. per-patcher configurable background, menu/ontop/resize/scrollbar toggles, what is IMHO better scrolling algorithm than what we currently have) as well as integrated several new objects whose source we are about to release (our multithreaded version of the Wiimote object for Linux has been already posted on the Pd-list a couple weeks ago, and it fully supports Wiimotes/Nunchuks without any interruptions to the Pd’s audio thread).

What do you do to get Ubuntu running properly?

Basically, it’s lightly-modded Ubuntu 9.04 that allows us to support all the hardware on the netbook, thus offering a quality desktop experience as well as RT audio performance. The kernel is custom-built 2.6.29-rc6-rt3. We have it available for download from a temporary folder off of my personal site
(http://ico.bukvic.net/Linux/). Once we clean everything up we will actually generate a full HD image and offer it for public download in hope to allow people to load that thing and thus allow them to have the best possible out-of-box experience (obviously as far as MSI Wind is concerned).

Is the hemispherical speaker something readers could build?

There are probably dozen videos on the VTDISIS Youtube channel that are designed to help potential L2Ork adopters build their own speakers, from cannibalizing/retrofitting the amps to improve their performance, to building cables and final assembly.

Videos

Rehearsal video shows how the L2Ork work out playing and soundmaking as an ensemble.

A quick look at how to make your own hemispherical speaker pod:

Local news coverage:

Virginia Tech students demo new laptop orchestra [WSLS10 NBC]

Laptop orchestra at Virginia Tech gives people an affordable alternative [WDBJ7]

More videos, and lots of how-to’s on the speakers (including the conclusion of the video above), are available on the VTDISIS channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/VTDISIS

Got more questions for the ensemble? Let us know.

I’d definitely like to offer, as well, some information on how to make Ubuntu work this well for you, and how to learn Ubuntu, Pd, JACK, and other free tools, in a way that’s beginner-friendly. That sounds like a decent New Years’ Resolution.

In the meantime, it’s worth mentioning that if you aren’t excited about the prospect of custom-configuring kernels yourself, the Indamixx Linux laptop we’ve featured previously is pre-configured in a similar way; the netbook I’m testing now even runs on the same MSI netbook. And that also, in turn, illustrates how research and volunteer efforts can go hand-in-hand with commercial solutions:

http://www.indamixx.com/

Smule, the folks who brought simulated Ocarina to the iPhone, are now thinking multiplayer. Instead of just playing a machine or a few of your friends as in Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Smule’s latest app turns your creations into a reality show with online judging. And the killer app itself? It’s a simulated, touch trombone.

It’s pretty wacky stuff, but Smule’s had some hits on their hands already, so I think the wackiness may be part of their secret. And it comes from a heavy hitter: Dr. Ge Wang, the founder, is also a professor at Stanford’s CCARMA research center, director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLORK to the East Coast’s PLORK), and creator of the ChucK Programming Language.

New in this version:

• Teaching tools: Floating leaves guide first-time musicians to learn songs in “self tutorial” mode, and a browser-based composition tool helps teach you to compose.
• Global judging: Online audiences can judge songs with emoticons and text and a 1-10 scale. Everything is integrated with the app itself (see image). Tromboning with the Stars, anyone?
• The Power of Silliness: The most important feature, though, may be that everyone sounds a little goofy playing it, which can actually be liberating. As Dr. Ge Wang puts it, “It’s like singing in the shower.” Well, except with judges.

The app is simple, but the concept I think is pretty remarkable. We’ve seen interactive instruments, and we’ve seen music games. By adding the judging element, though, this is a free-form instrument that can also be a game. Now, without getting too ahead of ourselves, you could do the same thing with a Worldwide Online Kazoo Contest. In fact, maybe that’s a great idea. I suppose you could say music itself can be a kind of social game, played out on a stage. But nonetheless, making it an iPhone app can help free people up to get that message.

Oh, yeah, and got any doubts about the business model for open source? ChucK is a completely free, ridiculously powerful programming language for synthesis. It’s infinitely deeper than Leaf Trombone. But that power, packaged for a broad audience, can become a hit business – and likely to be popular well beyond musicians. If that’s possible, I imagine more could be soon. Remember, too, that whatever the Apple fanboys tell you, the iPhone is not a dominant mobile platform – nowhere close. Apple’s proprietary hardware means it isn’t really intended to be.

I hope someone working on platforms like Symbian and Google Android takes note: pack in geeky, nuclear-powered synthesis features, and people will find ways to put them to use in consumer apps that appeal to everyone. Leave them out, and you miss the boat. Or the trombone, anyway.

Direct iTunes App Link [99 cents]

http://smule.com/

Now, some very amusing videos of this thing in action:

Sometimes, audio products come in sexy, exciting packages. But sometimes, they simply solve a set of problems. And the products that fit into the latter category can be as beloved (dare I say sexy), if not more so.

Since I first saw a prototype in the fall, I’ve been eagerly awaiting trying out Cakewalk’s V-Studio 100. It immediately resonated with features I wanted to see in hardware. Rather than talk the specs, let’s talk about the kind of problems you might like to solve in your mobile rehearsal, production, and performance rig:

• You want to mix live, but don’t want to carry a mixer. You’ve got a laptop set, but you’re mixing it with other sources – and you want to be able to add live instruments / voices / Nintendo DS / circuit-bent creations to your main output without routing through the computer (which also saves your bacon when the machine crashes / you accidentally overload the CPU in Live)
• You want to record your live sessions. ‘Nuff said. Sure, you have a portable recorder, but then you have to patch it in…
• A lot of the time, you reach for the mouse because a control surface wasn’t convenient. And then there’s the fact that, while keyboards now often have mixer controls, the faders aren’t motorized.
• You want to carry less gear, but you really need an audio mixer and some live effects and some recording and a control surface for your software mix.

And, of course, yours truly has been sort of encouraging all of these problems with talk of Game Boys and iPhones and custom-built Theremins and actually playing live instruments and pushing your Live set to the envelope and … oh yeah, then you want to record the whole thing.

I can’t vouch for whether the V-Studio 100 fulfills all my wishes just yet, because I don’t have the thing here. But while there are inevitable compromises in multi-function designs, the V-Studio 100 is set up in a way that appears to come close to what I think a whole lot of us need as laptop musicians. And despite the Cakewalk name, it’s actually aimed at users of a variety of Mac and Windows tools:

• Control surface with motorized fader: One motorized, touch-sensitive fader, plus 5 rotary encoders, 11 buttons, transport controls; supports Mackie Control and SONAR’s ACT
• Standalone mixer: 8 ins, 6 outs, headphones – mix while in audio interface mode or on its own
• Built-in effects: 4 reverb types, 6 channels of EQ and compression – so you can add effects to instruments / vocals in the box without having to worry about adding latency by routing through the computer
• USB 2.0 audio interface: 8 in + mix / 6 out, 24/96, 2 mic pres with phantom power, Hi-Z guitar in, MIDI I/O, ASIO, WDM, WASAPI, Core Audio support
• SD recording: 2-channel recording to SD cards in both standalone and interface modes, so you can make recordings whenever. SDHC-compliant, so you can add up to 32GB cards – and the 8GB and 16GB cards have been surprisingly cheap.
• Bundled software, including Vocal Strip: The Vocal Strip to me is the star, with vocal-specific processing tools, but there are also specialized Channel Tools, Peak Limiter, and LE versions of Guitar Rig, Dimension, and Rapture, plus an entry-level SONAR for PC

So, it’s a:

• controller
• gig recorder
• practice tool
• audio + MIDI interface
• mixer
• effects box

You can pretty quickly see how much you get into a compact setup. Sure, you could get a single motorized fader as on the FaderPort, and tote a portable mixer, and an audio interface, and a mobile recorder, but having them all in one box is a heck of a lot more convenient – less to buy, less to lug, and less to plug. The SD portion has some of the rehearsal-friendly features people like on Roland’s mobile recorders: markers, looped playback, and even a metronome. Also, the use of Mackie Control means the controller potion could make a nice companion for the likes of Logic or Ableton Live, not just SONAR. There’s not a lot there to control, but just having transport and a fader map correctly is a relief.

Of course, my general excitement aside, what makes this live or die is the way the dividing line is drawn between the standalone and computer-integrated functions. That’ll be top on my list in testing.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but the price ballpark I heard sounded quite reasonable, so I expect this will turn out to be a pretty good value. I’ll keep you posted. June is currently the planned date.

As you know, my policy is generally not to post press releases, but in this case I think there will be some delay before the same information is available on Cakewalk’s site. In lieu of the link, enjoy (excerpted):

Essential tools for music production in one affordable package
SONAR V-Studio 100 elegantly combines the most essential tools needed by today’s modern music producers and performing musicians in a compact and affordable package.

· High Speed USB 2.0 Audio Interface

· Universal DAW Controller

· Personal Digital Mixer

· SD WAV Recorder

· VS Production Pack suite of virtual instruments and effects (Mac/Win)

· SONAR VS digital audio workstation (Win)

Use SONAR V-Studio 100 with or without a computer

SONAR V-Studio 100 Hardware Features

High Speed USB 2.0 Interface

SONAR V-Studio 100 is a high quality USB 2.0 audio and MIDI interface utilizing world-class Roland engineering design and component technology.

· 8 in + mix / 6 out, 24-bit/96 kHz quality

· 2 mic pre-amps w/phantom Power, hi-z guitar input; MIDI I/O

· ASIO, WDM, WASAPI, Core Audio support

· Compatible with DAWs such as SONAR, Logic, Live, Cubase, and Digital Performer

Universal DAW Controller

SONAR V-Studio 100 is a universal DAW controller that supports all popular digital recording software for Mac/PC via Mackie control protocol, including Logic, Live, Cubase, and Digital Performer. Additionally, V-Studio 100 provides extended control capabilities over SONAR through the implementation of Cakewalk’s Active Controller Technology (ACT).

· 100 mm motorized, touch-sensitive fader

· 5 rotary encoders, 11 buttons and transport control

· Use with any DAW through Mackie Control protocol

· Advanced control of SONAR through Active Controller Technology

Personal Digital Mixer

SONAR V-Studio 100 is an ideal digital mixer for small groups or solo performers who need easy control of few instruments and vocals mics; DJs, MCs, and any electronic musician who needs to mix multiple sound sources. All users can enhance their live sound with the pro-quality on-board effects which offer easy routing and accessibility.

· Ideal for mixing small bands, solo musicians, DJs, home studios

· 8 inputs, 6 outputs plus headphones

· 4 types of reverb and 6 channels of EQ and Compression

Mobile SD Recorder Live Player

SONAR V-Studio 100 can capture that creative moment whenever inspiration strikes by providing high quality digital recording that can be used without being connected to computer. Record directly to the VS-100’s SD-card to capture song ideas, rehearsals, or live performances. Create backing tracks on your DAW of choice and transfer them to the VS-100’s SD-card for playback during live performance (even while recording). Likewise, recorded performances can be easily transferred from the VS-100’s SD-card for additional editing, tracking, and sweetening.

· Record away from your computer

· 2 channel wave recording and playback

· Capture rehearsals and live performances

· Play and record along to backing tracks

· Built-in metronome

· Insert markers during record and playback

· Loop a region for practicing parts or jamming

· Easily transfer audio to and from any computer via USB

SONAR V-Studio 100 Software Features

VS-100 Production Pack (Win/Mac) suite of effects and instruments includes:

VX-64 Vocal Strip is a seven-stage processor designed specifically for shaping and sculpting incredible sounding vocal tracks. Each of the VX-64’s stages have been fine-tuned to be vocal-specific, taking the work out of dialing in an entire chain of vocal processors.  The VX-64 features a new Cakewalk technology that employs phase-coherent, multi-band saturation to avoid unwanted distortion; unique filtering to avoid harsh artifacts at extreme high and low frequencies; and an auto-leveling circuit that prevents the tube saturation from sounding too harsh when high gain transients are processed by it. VX-64 also employs a new de-essing algorithm designed with Cakewalk’s LP64 linear phase effect filtering technology to remove sibilance without creating any frequency smearing.

Processing stages include:

• Input – simulates a tube pre amp
• De-esser – removes sibilance without smearing
• Compander – vocal compressor with an expander to reduce unwanted background noise
• Tube EQ – for adding character ranging from subtle warmth to intense heat to the vocal
• Doubler – advanced doubling effect providing the quality of actual re-tracking
• Delay – preset delays useful for vocal tracks with tempo sync
• Output – provide saturation control with a built in soft-clipping filter
• Order of processor stages is user definable with click & drag reordering

Channel Tools — provides easy and powerful control over individual placement of the left and right channels anywhere in the stereo field. Ideal for adjusting L/R channel placement, gain, pan/width, and phase; also provides a widening or narrowing effect to stereo recordings through adjustments to mid-side gain.

Boost 11 Peak Limiter — gives your tracks radio-ready punch through transparent peak limiting and volume maximization without additional coloring of the source material. Boost 11 employs a "look-ahead" limiter and PDR (Program Dependent Release) to provide professional results with a simple interface.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 LE — built on the latest award-winning guitar amp modeler from Native Instruments; 3 amps and cabinets, 11 effects, tuner, metronome, and over 50 presets.

Dimension LE — a streamlined version of the acclaimed Dimension Pro instrument from Cakewalk. Dimension LE features over 400 sound programs, ranging from bass, organ, and electric piano samples to cutting-edge synth sounds, rhythmic grooves, and a special edition of Garritan Pocket Orchestra.

Rapture LE — is a special version of the award winning Rapture wavetable synthesizer. It includes over 200 programs and hundreds of oscillator shapes. Rapture LE is perfect for performing the modern synthesized sounds igniting today’s pop, dance, and electronic music.

Cakewalk Studio Instruments — a collection of four virtual instruments that provide a fast and easy way to create backing tracks using a photo-realistic, interactive user interface. Instruments include a Drum Kit, Bass Guitar, Electric Piano, and String Section.

SONAR VS digital recording software (PC only) — a special entry level DAW based on the powerful SONAR 8 audio engine but offering a streamlined user interface.

Many in the CDM community miss the days when big-name gear inspired real love. Peer into the studios of even the most dedicated DIY software and hardware maker, and you’ll still see products from big manufacturers. And, much as some may unfairly deride newcomers, the lifeblood of electronic music is the person who opens a box and falls in love with a synth for the first time.

Much of the Korg product line can’t inspire the kind of raw passion that its older products, and boxes from the likes of Roland and Yamaha, once commanded. But then, at its supposedly entry-level end of the pool, something magical happens. It’s hard to put into words, but people really do love some of this stuff.

It’s hard to put into words in English, anyway. For a real demonstration of why Korg is cool and beloved, look no further than Jet Daisuke, who, peering at the Internet onlookers through crazy-colored shades and hoodies and knit caps, speaks to the music tech geek in a way that transcends language (especially as the viewers often don’t speak a word of Japanese). He reviews Korg in a way that silences haters, and he does it alongside reviews of yogurt. (Not a Yogurt soft synth — just, you know, yogurt.)

First up: the microKORG XL. It’s got a silly name that’s a contradiction in terms. It’s pricier than the original microKORG, and, being a typical American, I wondered if the heavier, larger, more feature-packed R3 wasn’t better.

Well, now in translation, Jet explains why the XL is an example of superior Japanese engineering. It’s absurdly light, and ridiculously simple to operate – so who cares if the R3 does a little more? The keys feel fantastic. And when you open a box, joy comes out – certainly in his capable hands.

(For the translation of what he’s saying, you may need to click through to YouTube.)

Jet also has a lovely little jam he’s put together with the microKORG XL and GarageBand. It’s an exercise in minimalism: use what you need, and don’t bother with extra features. Have fun. (Oh, yeah … fun.) Lastly, add bright, neon colors. Awesome.

And then, he takes the nanoKEY ultra-compact controller out on a Shinkansen, the train that makes us rail lovers ready to learn Kanji and causes the Acela to cry itself to sleep every night. Personally, just as with the XL, I love that the nanoKEY is so divisive. Some people hate its action, which feels like the keyboard on a laptop. Some people have managed to break theirs. (Yeah, it’s time for a road-worthy little case, maybe made out of pressed bamboo, a material I’ve been exploring lately.) But there’s one thing you can’t argue with: it’s small. It’s too bad Korg doesn’t just offer these in six packs, so you can grab one whenever you need.

This one isn’t translated, but I think he’s speaking the universal language of music geeks. (If he says anything especially worth noting, to our readers in Japan, feel free to let us know.)

So, Jet loves Korg. And, quite frankly, we absolutely love you, Jet Daisuke. You’re an icon for everything we believe in. Keep the mobile music jams coming:

Jetdaisuke conducts the gadget orchestra [Boing Boing Offworld]

Elsewhere:
Jet Daisuke Wins the Internets

By the way, Korg, if you think this means we’re letting you off the hook and drawing your name in little hearts, we’d like to see more of the Good Korg out. For starters, you did notice that Jet picks up on the fact that the microKORG XL lacks a shoulder strap. Given that we’ve heard Roland’s upcoming keytar — erm, make that a “shoulder-mounted keyboard” — may be on the pricey side, maybe you could offer one strap as an accessory, huh?

Thanks to LA FORCE in comments for pointing this out to us. And you know what, man? You’re right.

Make:Television has done a really lovely piece on CCRMA, the research center at Stanford University that works on problems ranging from acoustics and sound to musical instrument design. CCRMA is really just one microcosm of the whole music tech making scene around the world – a lot of increasingly beyond the walls of academia. But what a microcosm it is: I don’t think it’s understatement to say this is just the kind of institution a lot of us dream of. Among the highlights from the MAKE video that I could pick up:

• Ge Wang, professor and creator of ChucK programming language and certain popular ocarina-themed iPhone apps, and Stanford Laptop Orchestra director
• Carr Wilkerson: Electronic “Rub Board”(?) with a nice accompanying Pd synth patch
• A very nice Max/MSP app that everyone seems to be using for signal analysis
• Edgar Berdahl: a one-handed drum that “hits back”
• Nicholas Bryan building the legendary hemispheric speaker (incidentally, no one seems to be able to tell me who invented that)
• A giant interactive musical playground, with a Wii-powered teeter-totter (with one somewhat silly patch, and then another very lovely bowed-sounding patch)

Thanks to patospurlock on Twitter for the tip. I know at least some of you CCRMA students read this site, so feel free to chime in and identify your colleagues.

The featured Feedback Piano project is a hybrid with a bit of acoustical design (a piano), electronics/recording (mics), and digital/computer design (the Max patch that completes the circle). The results are really striking, and while it’s a lot less portable than a convolution reverb, it’s certainly very different having an actual piano into which you can play your saxophone.

Make followed up with directions on the Feedback Piano (please use a truly broken piano, thanks!) and we’ve got some video, as well:

HOW TO – build a feedback piano [MAKE Magazine]

feedback piano #1 from Alloy Electric on Vimeo.

Alloy Electric has more Vimeo videos of the feedback piano and other projects. (Nice footage, as well! Actually, I think, a bit artier than what Make:TV shot!)

More on Chris Warren’sblog and project website.

By the way, does anyone know why educational programs about Science always have to have some geeky-sounding guy shouting at you? (See the condensed history of all music tech at the end.)

Speaking as a sometimes-music-journalist, I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that we were all part of a vast conspiracy. Our job can become wrapping big-name artists into a polished, glamorous narrative. There are small nods to humanizing them, of course, but the message can quickly become: this person is special and different from you, this is the person you should want to be or want to consume, and as a result you’ll buy our magazine. I’ve never believed that myself, and I do believe a lot of great music writing is something very different, but there’s always that danger looming somewhere in the background.

Of course, now it’s 2009. We’re nowadays broadcasting minute details of our lives in real time, blurring the line between celebrity and nobody. We have all become a kind of text-only cinema verité. It can be downright scary to expose yourself that way, even as a non-celebrity. But then, in the occasional high-quality corner of a service like Twitter, something extraordinary happens: the little, insignificant moments of your life can actually prove to be what you want them to be. “Live each day like it’s your last” becomes “live each day like you’ll be pleased to read about it, even 140 characters at a time.”

Combine a really gifted creative imagination with a special kind of personal insight, and Twitter tells the side of a story a music journalist can’t: the day-to-day life of making music. Imogen Heap has been unusually generous with her Tweets. Following her Twitter feed, I think you’ll find new appreciation for her as a person and an artist, and also some of the ways all of us can work through day-to-day creative challenges and juggling to actually make music. It demonstrates that a world in which artists live-broadcast what they’re doing (but in the right quantities, and with the right attitudes) could be more utopia than dystopia.

Oh yeah, and thank God there’s a musician who drinks coffee sometimes and not just tea, and who gets a little wired.

Just looking at the month of January, we get bits of familiar insights into the day-to-day creative struggle. (Tip: go for a jog.)

Busy warbling away on A Cappella song… Darted out for a jog today in the sunshine. It’s a good day here at the hideaway….back to it :)

happy with verse/chorus lyrics/vocals but this one line’s been bugging me! Wouldn’t sit right. Here, by the kettle, it’s come to me :) x

I’m really starting to panic now at how almost impossible this a cappella one will be to do live. One thing at a time Heap! Bed I must go.

Imogen proves to be every bit as much of a gear lover as some of us, proof this ground isn’t the exclusive domain of dudes generally / Trent Reznor dude:

@mark_marshall Main bits: P-Tools, logic for VST/Midi etc, avalon 737, TLM 103, Waves, PlugsoundPro, Nord R3, Ivory, Liquid channel, M+K’s

Lots of NI stuff, TC electronic Voiceworks, Ircam solo instruments, Korg Electribe MX, occasionally dust off Ensoniq TS12

@REVERE I do indeed! So many great toys to play with! I have the Buddhamachine II. Really love it. X I’d love to make one if my own. X

And it’s not all techie gear — don’t forget the musical saw.

There are bits of music to hear:

12seconds – here’s some vocals i’ve been working oooooooonnnn!!! xxx http://tiny12.tv/HQ0JD

… and the moments of frustration that usually get left out of glossy-mag interviews:

@rguidry … my targets keep flying out the window. I’m closer every day. As long as I keep doing it.. I’ll get there. That’s all I know! x

jeeeeez… went jogging…meanwhile my inbox exploded with things to deal with and I’ve got nothing albummy done today. Juggling act. x

And in it, you watch music being formed. There actually is a certain narrative to Twitter, spread out into little pieces – something that gives some hope to our fragmented modern lives.

Had a really great day! Got 3 1st mixes done today. Will go back to them in Jan for a day but for now… Done x :) 6.30am! Time 4 bed x

Worked on rhythm for Swoon/ found some nice harmonies for 2nd ch. Nipped into town with my sis to see Lost and found Orchestra. I like saws.

Just having a bow of the old saw before bed whilst waiting for disk to back-up. Sounds quite nice but a little more practice I think! x

I am so sick of the sound of my voice!! Arghhh! Noises only tomorrow. Gonna start something new. A bit fed up with all these ones… x

Can’t sleep…just thought of lyrical spark for the new song. Throwing down strands of connections with laptop in bed. A start at least…x

ok.. that took a while but I now have a killer first verse and chorus lyrics. Waaaay better! Now for 2nd verse… first another coffee bzzz

Eeyore…I think Ive found my second verse so am going to hit the Heap hay, get another early bird session tmw and sing it into pooter x

I’m not going to try to reach any deeper conclusions about the usefulness of microblogging or Twitter, because I don’t have to. The point is that, with a Web-connected community of musicians, we get to share creative process with each other, and with the musicians we love. They arrive in real-time at times that may be random to us, and there’s no differentiation between our mate, our mum, an obscure artist or a famous one.

Sure, we’re all in information overload, surrounded by distractions. And sure, 99% of the volume of Twitter is crap. But then, there’s that occasional 1% that could remind you you’re not alone. So for that, thanks, Imogen!

http://twitter.com/imogenheap

For another great Twitter feed from a regular tourmate of Imogen’s, see:
Zoe Keating @ Twitter (zoecello)

Across series of colored bars, sounds warp and mutate. Vines entangle as organic threads of music. Fingers and objects traverse sonic landscapes in surprising, mysterious ways. Welcome to the worlds of BricK, the musical table interface by Jordan Hochenbaum and Owen Vallis, which, charged with software by Dimitri Diakopoulos, Jim Murphy, and Memo Akten, explores new musical frontiers. The tool uses a combination of open source tools for tracking fingers and objects on a table, then feeds those into sound and music environments.

Just following the landmark, long-awaited release of Processing 1.0, BricK demonstrates the expressive potential of the open-source platform. Processing allows quick and elegant development of stunning visual interfaces, while other tools (ChucK and Reaktor, for instance) serve as sonic engines. Sometimes the sounds themselves are not revolutionary, but by simply replacing the visuals and interaction – just as with changing the look of a score – the music is transformed, too. (At top: experiments with different interfaces for music using the platform they’ve built.)

CDM got to talk to Owen and Jordan about the projects. And now’s a perfect time – the gorgeous Roots is looking for a home, in case we have any curators / galleries / other interested parties in our audience. First, a review of what these platforms are:

Spaces, Multi-Touch Music

Spaces Multi-Touch Music Environment from BricK Table on Vimeo.

Jordan tells CDM about Spaces, their latest creation, which premiered alongside a performance by Daedelus in LA:

Spaces is the latest interactive multi-touch musical application for the Brick Table. Designed as a minimalist interface to free musicians from traditional compositional markers such as frets and keys, the environment enables musicians to compose intuitively through immediate visual and sonic feedback.

In this video, Spaces mediates a spontaneous composition and performance of a slow-moving ambient soundscape.

Spaces was developed by Jordan Hochenbaum, Owen Vallis, Dimitri Diakopoulos, and Jim Murphy.  It was recently used in a performance at the REDCAT lounge at the Walt Disney Theatre, Los Angeles, and further developments are currently underway.

Roots, an Organic Installation

Roots Multi Touch Tangible Installation Teaser from BricK Table on Vimeo.

Roots has been impressive in Web videos, but it’s looking to make the transition to the real world, after a shipping mishap prevented what was supposed to be its premiere showing at New York’s Minitek Festival earlier this fall:

“Roots” is an interactive installation for the Brick Table tangible and multi-touch interface, where multiple people can collaborate in making music in a dynamic & visually responsive environment.  Users use their fingers and tangible objects to create and interact with virtual branch-like vines that move around the screen, allowing users to create either entirely generative, semi-generative, or sudo-composed arrangements and compositions. 

Roots is truly a unique and expressive interactive installation which came together through an internet collaboration between Brick Table’s creators (Jordan Hochenbaum and Owen Vallis), and the super-talented London-based designer/developer Memo Akten.  It was recently selected as a featured Processing Exhibition on Processing.org and we feel it is time to release Roots into the wild…

So! We are calling out to all of you lovely CDM readers out there to get Roots out and into the public.

For more information on how Roots works, please see What is Roots?

Please use the contact on the BricK Table website if you are interested.

Behind the Scenes

CDM: How do the visuals relate to the sound?

BricK: The nature of the vine-like branches in Roots lends itself to creating music with what is — in our opinion — an organic and open feeling. We felt that the music should both sound and feel as if it is coming out of the visuals, and vice-versa, and so we did our best to stay true to this relationship in the overall musical aesthetic of the sounds produced.

The Spaces environment expands on the theme of unconventional visual representations of sound manipulation. Each column is an open space connecting an idea with a musical parameter. Combined with the visual feedback, we decided Spaces would work best with slow-moving ambient soundscapes, although it is certainly possible to experiment with other musical styles..

What sorts of relationships did you experiment with before settling on something you liked?

BricK: With Roots, we first worked with Memo to develop the visual elements before even attempting the musical side of things.  We discussed various approaches to its visual and musical relationships. Did we want it to be completely generative? Did we want a more direct and repeatable relationship between your finger and the resulting sound?  We really liked both ideas, and so we made it all inclusive– making it able to create completely generative, semi-generative, or directly manipulated/composed musical outcomes by the use of finger pressing, sliding, and tangible object interaction.  This really makes Roots unique in comparison to other environments which enable generative musical arrangements.  Each performer can exert as much or as little control over the relationship between physical, visual, and musical interaction as they want at any given moment.

In Spaces, we discussed a few different ideas about the layout and design of the interface. Ultimately, we decided on Spaces being able to control four different instruments, each with four parameters (volume, and three others). We toyed with different methods for visually representing the value of each column without turning them into a traditional slider. We felt the cool-to-hot color morph in each column was fitting: the user has to rely more specifically on the sonic result rather than exact value, veering from more traditional musical interface paradigms.

How did you deal with timing relative to the visuals?

BricK: In Roots, it was necessary to have the generative data play in a relatively synchronized manner to maintain a degree of musicality. As the vines move around the environment, the musical outcomes are quantized to various beats. [Ed.: The quantization all happens in ChucK.] That being said, continuous finger movement scrubs audio in a direct 1:1 relationship that gives the user the feeling of direct manipulation when that is wanted.

Spaces has no generative movement (at the moment) which means timing is always completely synchronous with finger movement, both sonically and visually. We tried to make sure that the way in which the colors morph feel as free and smooth as the slowly evolving musical outcome.

Can you talk a bit about how the sound is generated?

BricK: Roots uses audio buffers as its underlying sound source (although the musical outcome is VERY different than the original material). Each vine gets assigned an audio buffer which is then ’scrubbed’ through as the vine generatively maneuvers around the screen.  The audio and buffer manipulation is done using the ChucK audio programming language. By simply changing its source material, Roots will produce vastly differing musical results.

Spaces generates sounds in a number of different ways, all using Reaktor. Each of the four instruments employs a selection of synthesis methods. Some columns control pitch, other columns control combinations of filters and effects. The clicky percussive sounds are generated from an audio loop which is granulized and re-synthesized with altered delay rate, etc.

What are your future plans for these pieces?

BricK: Roots is ready to go, but in our free-time, Owen and I play with using it as a sequencing device in other ways — using movement and vine-location to pluck notes, control effects and filters, etc.

Exploring Roots along these other avenues will probably create the need for a new GUI interface, which means perhaps Roots will have a new little cousin sometime in the future.  That being said, we are really happy with Roots as is (we reached our specific goals), and we are more interested in giving it the proper debut it deserves, rather than changing the way it works.  We had a great time working with Memo, whose work I actually first came across here on CDM, and would love to work with him again in the future.

Spaces was developed in a very short timeframe for a performance at the REDCAT Lounge at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and so we are absolutely looking to expand the possibility of what the Spaces interface is capable of. First, we would like to expand the number of instruments capable of being performed. Secondly, we would also like the interface to be “physics”-enabled, for example, using a flick motion to send a bouncing ball down a column to automate a parameter as the user concentrates on other instruments.

The Software

Just to review, here’s the software powering BricK:

tbeta (“The Beta”): finger tracking. tbeta is an open-source, cross-platform computer vision and multi-touch sensing platform. It’s the successor to the former touchlib, which wasn’t as cross-platform or quite as awesome. More on tbeta on Create Digital Motion.

reacTIVision: fiducial marker tracking for objects. (Fiducial markers are these funny, cellular-looking patterns pictured at right that allow you to track specific objects manipulated on the table. reacTIVision is the open-source library developed by the folks who did reactable. Sounds as though we might get fiducial tracking in the other library, though.)

ChucK: a strongly-timed, quick-to-code sound and synthesis language. It’s elegant enough that it’s used for real-time programming – as in, onstage, in laptop ensembles like PLOrk and (its West Coast descendent we just saw here on CDM) SLOrk.

Native Instruments Reaktor: The modular sequencer, instrument, and effect builder, which we cover regularly on our Kore minisite. It’s the only commercial / non-open-source choice here, though it may actually replace ChucK on Roots in the future.

More Info

Brick website

We routinely talk about how the interface paradigm of a computer — screen, QWERTY, trackpad – isn’t optimal for music. But how many of you have, in a pinch, done a live laptop set with just your computer, and found some way to make it work? The Stanford University Laptop Orchestra, set to play this year’s Macworld, natch, is making the most of what it has:

“We tilt the notebook and use its built-in accelerometer to expressively control sound. We use the trackpad as a kind of violin bow,” explains Ge Wang, SLOrk’s founder. ”You can make some wild, diverse music with the MacBook.”

And why not? Designing expressive interfaces can pay off in something that’s satisfying, absolutely. But however you decide to play, a lot of it comes down to how you approach an object compositionally and musically. So, there’s two ways to look at this: on one level, it’s a novelty, and while to most of us seeing people playing behind Apple logos is nothing new, I’m sure Apple enjoys seeing a swarm of their machines. But on another, the real point is that the Stanford orchestra is getting the most mileage out of the machine. Trackpad? Check. Accelerometer? Keyboard? (Why stop there – Apple Remote? Webcam?) You’ve got quite a lot on the laptop itself to use.

We’ve looked at laptop orchestras before, but here’s still more:

Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk): Musical Macs [Story for Apple Pro by Dustin Driver]

SLOrk

Via: Stanford’s MacBook orchestra exposed [distorted-loop.com] and Macworld maestro Paul Kent’s Twitter.

Previously:

Laptop Orchestras Proliferate, from Princeton to Moscow

How to Record Laptop Performances – And Make Them Sound Live (linking to a story on the topic I wrote for Keyboard Magazine)

And for the mother of modern laptop orchestras, recently winning a MacArthur Foundation grant, see PLOrk at Princeton