Indaba Music, a community and suite of online tools for musicians, announced today they’ve revamped their online recording and production tool using Java and JavaFX. The result: a platform-agnostic, online interface that allows you to record music “directly to the Internet.” And the band Weezer is excited enough about it that they’re giving their official endorsement.

Indaba, along with some others, already had an online music production tool. The new version expands on that idea, allowing you to record audio signal directly online, and beefing up tools for mixing, editing, and looping. Just like tools like GarageBand, a pre-built set of loops is ready for people to quickly mock up songs.

With some help from Sun’s JavaFX technology, the browser/desktop barrier isn’t as noticeable. You get a graphical-looking interface that works the same anywhere, plus the ability to drag audio files to and from your desktop.

indabamusic.com

javafx.com

Interestingly, Weezer’s endorsement focuses on the fact that they don’t know how to use other music software. I have to admit some skepticism here – a lot of musicians I think are savvy enough to get to use creative new music software, and a lot of the basic functions of the Indaba software itself are straight out of tools like ACID and GarageBand. Nor do you have to worry about any JavaFX tool blowing away your REAPER, Logic, Live, Pro Tools… well, you know.

On the other hand, while this is basically just an ACID-style audio production station in the browser, I’m curious about what new applications might take advantage of in-browser collaboration that don’t look like existing audio tools. Maybe we’ll have specialized tools for working out specific ideas or sharing snippets in-progress. And there’s no question that building some tools in the browser makes sharing more immediate.

I’ll be talking to the Indaba folks and the JavaFX team a little bit about the technology, and with Sun in particular I’ll be sure to ask about some of the future potential here for other tools. If you have questions, let me know.

I usually try to steer clear of the marketing crud, but this is too bizarre to pass up. Taco Bell, anxious to jump on this whole “indie music” bandwagon, is using the only currency it has: combinations of refried beans, cheese, rehydrated ground meat, and tortillas.

Here’s the plan: they find 100 bands, and give them $500 in Taco Bell food while they’re on tour — just in case the burritos were the one thing breaking your tour budget. (Okay, there is that whole fuel cost and lodging thing, but get some bikes and a tent and you should be fine.)

The grand prize: the kind of fame that can only come from including hot sauce packets in your marketing plan. And to think, all this time people have been chasing music press and blogs and word of mouth and such. PR helpfully tell us that they’ll get “a well-known indie rock producer” to record the single. (Wait — aren’t “indie” and “well-known producer” supposed to be mutually exclusive?) But it’s really the hot sauce packets that seal the deal:

The singles will then be promoted on www.feedthebeat.com and through online advertising and in-store efforts in the Spring of 2009, as the Web site address will be featured on Taco Bell’s iconic Sauce Packet, which reaches more than 208 million people in about a month.

Oddly, talking about this has only made me hungry. I know, I know — I’ll try to find a real burrito, not a Taco Bell.

If a CDM reader happens to win this, we’ll be proud to see your name in lights extra spicy.

feedthebeat.com

Reader Mark notes that, as covered in Pitchfork, Girl Talk got the right idea after last year’s contest and shared their taco winnings with fans. Now that’s good publicity.

Readers: got better ideas for viral condiment marketing? (Oooh, wait, I shouldn’t say the word “viral” in the same breath as a fast food joint, should I?)

You’ve seen plenty of live rigs with mile-high stacks of keyboards and sound modules. But this setup is different: one of the world’s best bands is using an elaborate setup of software synths. Binding it all together is one of the most sophisticated software configurations I’ve ever seen, the fruits of labors by of our friend Jonathan Adams Leonard – a talented musician and technologist – in Kore 2. I wouldn’t exactly recommend this kind of setup to anyone else; it involved pushing Kore to its bleeding edge. But Jonathan’s walk-through of the hardware and software programming for this show is an inspiring one. (For us mere mortals, Jonathan does have a fantastic, free collection of modular tools for Kore, built and editable in Reaktor.)

Jonathan goes through every gory detail of the setup on our special Kore minisite. We’ll have more on Interpol’s tour soon to follow up:

Behind the Scenes with Interpol: Obsessive Details of Hardware, Kore Software Rig [Kore @ CDM, kore.noisepages.com]

And in addition to the software, there’s the rich hardware setup, as assembled by Chad Miller (Lenny Kravitz), assisted by Ally Christie (QOTSA, Mogwai). Yes, these are some of the best techs on the planet, working hard for one of the biggest bands. Good stuff. I wish I could have been in Gdansk, Poland (seen below).

Getting fed up with all this Lilliputian nonsense of mobile devices and ever-smaller portable music gadgets? Well, here’s a massive leap in the opposite direction: DIY sound electronics maker and David Crowder*Band drummer Bwack created the biggest, most oversized sampler he could design. From emprise34’s xanga blog, details of Bwack’s Herculean creation:

he was commissioned by our good friends from the band family force 5 to construct the largest sampler in the history of live rock music. and, with the assistance of his carpentry proficient padre, don bwack, he has done it. there were a few necessary requirements: one, it needed to withstand much energetic punching, and kicking, and general jovial abuse from one of the rowdiest live bands on the planet. there was also the need for it to dominate space with an aesthetic presence large enough to compete with one of the more style conscious outfits on the planet; the family has panache in spades and this thing had to be classy to occupy a stage such thoughtfully coifed hair and magically coordinated garmentry.

You have to see the results to fully appreciate the monster:

The only real challenge: topping this. I suggest, perhaps, a three-story high modular synth with firehoses for patch cables.

Thanks to Bill van Loo, Friend of Bwack (and creator of his own manner of wonderful things), for the heads-up!

The Monome is small and elegant, but there’s something to be said for traditional instrumental controllers like a keyboard. So why not combine them? David Phipps of the electronic jam band Sound Tribe Sector 9 did just that, and sends CDM this photo of the project in process. He’s off on a five week tour starting Friday, so it’ll be on hold for a bit, but even not-quite-done I had to share it. David writes:

i hope to bring ‘The Peaceblaster’ on tour in the fall. note the unashamed reference to our album available July 8th:)
i picked up a 5-octave fatar keybed and MKE electronics from doepfer via analog haven.  he carries 2-5 octave bare keybeds with simple channel/octave controls, all fatar (the highest quality italian-made keybeds you can get…and doepfer is the ONLY place you can order a
keybed from fatar without being a manufacturer). the 8 knobs and faders are the doepfer PKE, a super simple plug and play solution that could have been a midibox or arduino. add a edirol midi>usb cable, usb hub, and multi-voltage power supply and i’ve got one power plug, one usb
port, and midi out to drive hardware synths.
i’ve left room in the enclosure for a mac mini (or small form factor pc or linux box)…but that’ll be a stretch of my willpower to get it done.

I’d call it a keynome. (For the record, the product name monome rhymes with Ma Gnome, not Ma No May or ole.)

About that new album: it’s available independently through the artists. Their freebie add-ons are really interesting. The CD pre-order includes a coupon to watch a rehearsal online. But the Fan Pack is even better: aside from the CD, which includes fully-recycled packaging, it adds a 1GB STS9-designed flash drive with the digital album, video from DemocracyNow!, photos, screensavers, and the like, an autographed picture of the band, a handmade doll, a download coupon for a live show, a print with a box of crayons to color in your own design, a poster, a 7" vinyl, and other extras. US$99.99. Even if you’re not an STS9 fan, there are some good ideas for artists looking to make music purchases tangible again — especially if they have a fanbase this loyal. See their merch site for all the goods.

I especially like the crayons.

Previously:

Sound Tribe Sector 9 vs. Monome: Video, 8by16

Building a Custom Monome Controller, with STS9’s David Phipps

Perhaps fueled by YouTube comepetition, robotic instruments are looking more and more impressive. What I’d most like to see: a robotic battle of the bands. The latest creation comes to us from the all-robot band The Trons, based in New Zealand. They have cute names, and I bet the ‘bots are more fun to date than some, ahem, real drummers my friends have gotten involved with…

The crew:

Ham (vox and rhythm guitar), Wiggy (single string lead guitar), Swamp (drums), Fifi (keyboards, one hand working!)

Hmmm, basically true of my keyboard playing, as well. And here’s their blurb:

The Trons are a completely self playing robotic junk band! They are made mostly from old computer and mechanical parts and play original songs using an array of old amps and instruments. They now have five gigs under their belt and have just completed Hamilton’s Ignition Fringe Festival.

They even did an “interview” in NZ (speaking as a sometimes-music journalist, there are times when you might prefer to speak to robots):

MM: How did you get together and what made you want to start a band?
TT: This old photocopy card vender machine turned up and was going to the dump. And there was this pile of meccano and an old guitar. We just put three and three together.

Who are some of your inspirations? Do you look up to some of the pioneers of electronic music, such as the Juno 6 or the Commodore 64?
Definitely the ZX81. Clive Sinclair and 1K of RAM! You gotta have limitations to make good music. We can’t keep away from 3D Monster Maze too.

Hamilton, NZ’s Mammoth Live Events Guide Interviews The Trons
http://www.myspace.com/thtrons

Thanks to NZ’s Frank “flunki” for the tip!

Previous robotic musicians on CDM:
Yellow Drum Machine Robot Creator: You, Too, Can Make Your Own Robots
Robot Drum Machine Roams, Samples, Bangs On Stuff
Video: Robotic Theremins, Ready To Replace a Human Near You
Robots Can Be Friendly, Groovin’: Max-Powered Keepon and Beatbots
Robot Drummers, Compared: Like Musicians, Robots are Better When They Listen
Robot Drummer Responds to Human Playing; How They Did It

In fairness, this isn’t really off-topic. The connection of ladies to music is clear here. There are, too, the fantastic Ladies of CDM — few in number, yes, but mind-bogglingly awesome in quality. (Ladies, feel free to roar here.) And, of course, for those of you who are not ladies yourselves but an aficionado of ladies, it’s clear that, like roller skates, synths and music are part of the essential lady-attracting formula.

The bad news I have to break for Flight of the Conchords fans:you’ll be waiting until well into 2009 for a new season.

Side note: CDM loves New Zealand.

Pray that one day your onstage train wrecks will get this much analysis. Mine tend to involve only free produce — not always fresh, sadly.

Wilfred Fumbly says, just so you don’t have to bother him about it any more:

I took it off for a couple reasons. First, I’m pretty busy with work and found having to respond/answer/defend was taking up a lot of time and mental energy.

Secondly, I began to question my original theory. At the time, it seemed like a reasonably theory because the song isn’t exactly in C#… it’s close. So a sample rate screw up seemed a good explanation and the math seemed to work in its favour too. I began to doubt the theory though, as time went on and VH continued to play the song at other shows in the same weird key.

It’s possible that they simply adapted to a screwed up computer file and my theory was right all along. But there’s no way to know that. Apparently VH has played the song in C, C#, and D on various tours… but I didn’t know that at the time.

So, rather than mislead people into thinking I knew the answer for sure… I took the video response off.

Cuz I’m not sure anymore.

Or maybe the whole event is the result of a discontinuity in time, produced by the unnatural attempt to keep Van Halen’s career alive, as The Master suggests in comments.

What’s amazingly tiresome about this argument is the esoteric tweak-freakish strong-minded opinions toward one cause or another.
Here’s the bottom line. The mighty Van Halen is nothing but a dream, a dream best left remembered. To go out on tour in their current state, and with the current line-up, is a complete waste of time. Shame on them, and shame on anyone who promotes their ridiculous conceited behavior. I’m glad someone one was out of tune. Who cares if it was Eddie or the keyboard. They sucked, they sounded horrible, and people paid a LOT of money for it. Shame shame shame! If they all got on the same page way back in the day, they might have had a better chance of staying together as a band. If Eddie quit drinking and started smoking weed, or if David Lee Roth did the opposite, then they might still be together. You can’t have a pot head and a drunk competing with each other for control of a band like that. They both need to be on the same page chemically.

See? Everyone has a theory.

I Want My Nerdster TV

Having made my obligatory crack about generic college rock at CMJ, musical taste is something CDM generally likes to avoid. I believe technology can serve music of all kinds; the idea that computer tech has to be genre-specific was shattered long, long ago. But if you write a love song featuring Commodore 64s and floppy disks — well, come on, everybody’s got to appreciate a gimmick sometimes, especially with a catchy tune. Computer Camp Love comes to us from Datarock, who earn extra cred by collaborating with fellow Norwegian rockstar Annie, and generally being from Norway, which is one of CDM’s Favorite Countries. Sadly, I can’t go see them Thursday, because I’ll be too busy hanging out with Simian Mobile Disco.

Computers are love:

And I also believe electro is important: it takes a campaign to get America’s plain-vanilla taste in rock instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums again, eh?) out of the box in this decade. (That’s why it’s especially cool Thomas Dolby recently added live brass.)

But how to do it? I think you just have to do something funky, danceable, with the word electro repeated over and over again. The punky UK-based Tigerpicks demonstrate. Witness:

I like the alternative electro dimension they inhabit.

Update: Yes, I know they’re cheesy. Yes, I know this is the word electro, not the music. They intend nothing else. I had a friend in college who would spray Cheez Whiz into his mouth. It’s like that. (Wait … suddenly hungry.) Just play along. Now I’m going to work on a track that shouts “Trashcore Jazzadelic IDM Glitch Funk!” I’ll see you in 72 hours. End of line.

CMJ Notes

If you’ve got any hot band tips or you yourself are playing here, let me know. I’ll come say hi. The more obscure you are, the better. ;)

cnet’s Caroline McCarthy (a fellow “downtown Manhattanite”) has a terrific take on the digital music side of CMJ:
CMJ’s Music Marathon: What’s in store for digital music?

If you want a look at the future of music, DeVotchKa might be a glimpse. On first hearing, you say, “hmmm, they sound sort of Eastern European … punk.” And then you realize they’re singing in Spanish. In fact, this band, which got an extra injection of popularity from the movie Little Miss Sunshine, is a hybrid Romani – Greek – Slavic – Spanish – Latin – Punk – Folk – Rock indie band that got its start playing burlesque.

What does this have to do with digital music creation? Because if technology is every going to escape being a novelty, best left to studio recording experts or electronic-specific niches, artists will first have to liberate electronic sound. That means, much as we love the Theremin being used as a Star Trek cover instrument, its repertoire will have to broaden, finally freed from its “sci-fi” trappings.

And does DeVotchKa’s Nick Urata ever liberate. He seamlessly blends Theremin sounds with the ensemble’s folk-tinged instrumentation, sometimes even playing the guitar and Theremin simultaneously. (It helps that the Theremin isn’t an instrument you have to touch.) This video will give you very little idea how good the results are; go see the band live if you can. (They conveniently showed up across the street from me for the last two nights here in New York, launching a new tour and the much-delayed release of their latest album, How it Ends, in Europe.)

DeVotchKa’s name, influenced by Russian, and their general aesthetic sensibilities, make the Theremin into something new: a Russian folk / punk rock instrument. You imagine Russians playing the Theremin for generations, nomadic Russian Jews and Gypsies playing Theremins around the campfire hundreds of years ago.

Last night’s highlight: a raucous, grungy burlesque-style solo on Theremin, as a limber leotard-clad aerial artist climbed bolts of cloth into the lofty heights of lower Manhattan’s Spiegeltent. Your first sign an instrument has soul is when it’s played in burlesque / by gypsies. (Just ask the piano and the violin. Seriously.) Impressively enough, the Theremin cuts through the sound of clamorous tuba, trumpets, guitars, strings, and drums. And if the Theremin can do it, there’s hope for the rest of synths and electronic sounds.

DeVotchKa
More Theremin stuff