It’s a bit trippy as you make your way through the opening of this video, which features a spooky song and, awesomely, a hooded man who has replaced his face with a certain hit open source controller. (“Darling, wake up, you’re shouting the names of Max/MSP patches again in your sleep!” / “I was dreaming – and I saw that man again. The man with the Monome for a face! He said – he said there’s something I must do. Where’s my MacBook?”)

Ahem. Get past that bit, and your reward is some deliciously sharp Monome virtuosity from Primus Luta:

For the pilot episode of the PEMF (Personal Electro-Magnetic Field) Sessions I go to work on The Roots "Criminal" Remix called "Break the Law." It’s a more dub than step take on the song featuring a firsthand look at the process of creation using the Heads Instruments. Specifically looking at the nsMpLR, strgs and prcs.

It’s a remix here, but naturally you could apply this to any production technique. It’s amazing how freeing the simple process of mapping musical elements to a grid of buttons can be. That would tend to confirm my suspicion that, somewhere at its soul, the Monome is a HyperMPC – an MPC with a lot more buttons, extended by everything a computer can do.

Tool of choice in this case: the wildly underrated modular patching environment / music host, Plogue Bidule.

Good stuff. If this is just the pilot episode, I can’t wait to see what’s coming. (But does Primus Luta get off the island? And is he one of the final Cylons?)

Primus Luta’s site: http://avanturb.com/

Monome official site (yep, CDM aka me will be heading to welcome them to their new Catskills barn!)

Along similar lines, a New Yorker story this week looks at Monome user Flying Lotus, and “Steven Ellison’s atomization of hip-hop.” What better to work on your atomization than the ultimate minimalist digital grid of pads? (Interestingly, he uses a lowly M-Audio Trigger Finger alongside for more conventional pads. Saying this “brings back the physical gesture of the drum” seems a stretch. I’d say it brings back the physical gesture of the Poke, recalling a time when primitive Man sat around poking his significant other – ah, yes, in fact, that’s a tradition I generally keep alive.)

Previous Monoming on CDM

It’s campy horror sounds, remixed into digital music — the perfect way to celebrate the holiday! From our friend TRASH_AUDIO’s Surachai, who’s on the compilation:

We have teamed up with Cock Rock Disco to compile a horrific compilation of the very best campy 80’s horror movies ever made, remixed by some of the greatest digital grind, metal, breakcore, and electro artists from around the world. Artists including Silon Fist, Terminal 11, Vytear , The Teknoist, Sgure, Toecutter, Duran Duran Duran, Eustachian, Bong-Ra, Captain Ahab, Surachai, Dead Noise, DJ Floorclearer, Droon.
Enjoy the ride into hell, because this will be your last!

Happy Halloween – Free Compilation [TRASH_AUDIO]

Here’s another mix — thanks, Kempton!
http://kemptonmooney.com/audio.html

Ah, the BBC. Their world news sounds like an apocalyptic rave and their inexplicably long-running, trippy strange “children’s” sci-fi show has one of the greatest pieces of synthesized music ever.

I’m running out of ways to say Delia Derbyshire is one of the most brilliant composers ever to use electricity, so let’s just get straight on to the bit where Coldcut show up and hold a big musical party for the Beeb Radiophonic Workshop and do their own kickass remix of Who’s opening titles and sounds. (Making the classic Doctor Who video feedback seem psychedelic? Not really a challenge. And yet these episodes always wound up with wandering around a rock quarry…)

Coldcut were there, the wonderfully-talented Dick Mills and Mark Ayres… sounds delicious. I’m still waiting for the Derbyshire music release, and I think there’s still more that could be done to document the UK’s electronic history — CDM stands at your aid, ye worthy workshop of sound.

BBC Electric Proms 2008: Coldcut
Via Carter Rosenberg’s tumblr and
vdmx co-creator David Lublin’s Twitter

Because it must be done, let us also consider Orbital’s classic remix (thanks, gwenhwyfaer) – provided it doesn’t make you hide behind the sofa:

When is it legally permissible to sample and reuse content? What’s in the public domain? And what is this Creative Commons thing about?

These questions are perpetually important to anyone in digital media, but there have been a number of resources I’ve come across just in the last few days that may be friendly to those curious about these questions.

Fair Use

Seesmic, the video community, has started a discussion with LA-based entertainment lawyer Michael Donaldson about copyright and the oft-misunderstood Fair Use provisions of US copyright law.

Here’s a teaser video; follow through and the Seesmic community asks questions about what the law means:

Mr. Donaldson has also written up a PDF report on fair use and online video. While it’s video-based, it’s worth a look for musicians, as well.

Via wire to the ear

Public Domain

Public Domain covers works that can be used and distributed freely, without restriction. Lifehacker points (via Ars Technica) to an online tool created by the American Library Association:

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Digital Sliderule Makes Copyright Law Dead Simple [Lifehacker.com]

Now, "dead simple" to me would be a wild exaageration — you’ll see that various amendments to US law have allowed all sorts of complex loopholes to keep works out of the public domain. But it does make things more visual — even if it requires that you know whether a copyright has been renewed. Notably, the early history of recorded music is rapidly approaching public domain — that is, assuming labels don’t successfully lobby the US Congress to provide new exceptions.

Those of you outside the US, of course, have different laws, though you are subject to US laws wherever you are, if you’re sampling works that have a copyright in the United States.

Confused by Fair Use (which seems to boil down to nearly nothing) and Public Domain (which seems only to cover really ancient work)? That’s the reason the Creative Commons organization has created their alternative licenses, for artists who want their work to be more freely accessible, or those who want to sample and remix works more freely.

Creative Commons

Before making use of Creative Commons, there is a lot to understand. Later today, we’ll talk a little about the back-and-forth between Creative Commons and writer and publisher organization ASCAP, getting into some of the debate over licenses and the subtleties of the licenses. Wherever you stand and whatever your needs as an artist, it’s good to at least get the pitch and see what you think of it.

Here’s "Wanna Work Together?" from 2006, by CC. It’s part education, part propaganda — but it is a good introduction to the basic idea behind the concept, and what it means.

For some, Share and Share Alike is a political and ethical issue, linked to patent law and free / libre / open source code. Here’s a video (sorry, poorly recorded) from O’Reilly’s Ignite presentations. The challenge of Ignite is you have 5 minutes and 20, self-advancing slides, so if she sounds unusually worked up, the time pressure may have something to do with it! (I’m giving one of these this month — more on that soon.) But it does illustrate some of the ethics and philosophy behind the "Commons" idea. There are people who will disagree with some of these ideas — even including people who make use of Creative Commons licenses. That’s a matter for further discussion, though. At the very least, I think Sarah does a good job of encapsulating her ideas in a short amount of time.

Did they get it right?

Here’s the important question — do these tools and videos get their facts straight? Are there other details they miss? Have you seen better explanations in video? Let us know.

small.cat, aka Roald Blijleven, has done what I think is a brilliant remix of the Dance Tracks Digital / Dirtybird remix contest track “Dum.” I heard it as satirical, deconstructing the stems into something quite different. I actually laughed out loud at a couple of spots. I realize of course, that mistaking satire is a sore spot at the moment. But I enjoyed it, anyway. And I mean that in the best possible way – I think the musical result is really satisfying.

And bonus points for doing a remix in Reason for a contest sponsored by Ableton with an included Live set. (Hey, I think you should use whatever music tool makes you happy.) Roald writes:

well i have finished my remix. did it in Reason. it was quite a pain to prepare everything, as the samples they provide were not just notes but full melodies and stuff. so i put them all in Audacity and cut everything up to size to load in Redrum and NNXT. it’s on the website right now, so take a listen. if you do not believe i just created the world’s greatest new hip sweaty-ass jiggling track, let me know. because i can’t think of a single reason not to like it.

It worked for me. My ass is sweating. (Wait a minute – I think label founder Claude VonStroke wanted the track sweating, and ass jiggling. No matter.)

Naturally, the spirit of remixing is coming up with something different than what you started with, so I look forward to hearing what else readers have in store, here and elsewhere.

It’s amazing that, even today, relatively few artists release stems when they want to encourage remixes. A new remix contest with The Martin Brothers’ new track “Dum,” on the Dirtybird label, goes further, by providing not only individual stems, but a full-blown Ableton Live set, completely with warping parameters and even some plug-in inserts. That should mean just about anyone can pick up the track and start remixing – and, of course, Live is a big hit with the remix scene. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this, but coming from Dancetracks Digital, which has made a big impact with its Live-ready downloads, you can expect a friendly set to get you started.

Of course, this is likely to create some truly awful remixes, since it’s actually so easy to do it’s even easier to do something terrible. (That includes me, having fiddled with the set for a few minutes. I’ll have to get back to it to do something not bad.) On the other hand, by taking some of the drudge work out of the task and making it really easy to do a mediocre mix, I think this could – ironically – make it even more clear when a remix is done right and stands out above the crowd.

Interestingly, roughly the same week Ableton are backing DTD and Martin Bros., Digidesign is pushing its new Transfuser product – an electronica and remix-friendly instrument for Pro Tools – with The Crystal Method and Remix Magazine. They are offering stems, but they’re not pre-loading a Transfuser set as DTD is doing with Ableton Live:

Remixing Pro Tools: The Crystal Method Contest

You know who Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method are. But the cast of characters in the “Dum” contest is worth watching.

Dancetracks Digital has attracted the likes of Danny Tenaglia and Francois K as a kind of boutique alternative to online heavyweight Beatport. The label, Dirtybird, is the creation of DJ Claude VonStroke and has put out his “Who’s Afraid of Detroit?” as well as the debut “Deep Throat.” The latter sold 11,000 copies, which wouldn’t mean anything — except that that’s 21st Century sales of vinyl. The label knows something about how what works on the dance floor, so appropriately enough label founder warns would-be contest participants, “Please don’t bother turning in your big room electro house remix. I want to hear some sweaty ass-jiggling tracks.”

I think I’m going to start admonishing readers to come up with “sweaty nerd, pocket protector-busting I.D.M.”

The track is clever stuff … particularly once the brothers start scat-singing into the mic (hence “Dum.”) But you think you can make it better? That’s the idea. Here’s a sample:

"Dum" Track Excerpt

Possible rewards: exposure (embed-ready players containing submitted remix tracks, and a label looking for new talent), software, music gear, swag, downloads, and even a mixing and mastering session here in NYC.

CDM is working with DTD on the contest, so I hope to provide some insight into the remix scene, Ableton Live, and how labels like Dirtybird tick. Stay tuned.

Dirtybird Remix Contest

And yes, unfortunately, this isn’t Creative Commons-licensed. With the exception of a few, CC-specific labels, even independent labels haven’t yet embraced open licenses. The challenges and opportunities there are a topic for another story.

Plenty of bands have jumped on the "remix generation" bandwagon, releasing music to be remixed and sampled and visualized as a publicity stunt. But, then, plenty of bands aren’t Radiohead. Readers here may have been disappointed that our favorite superband didn’t embrace Creative Commons sharing when announcing their iTunes-only stems. But a number of the artists we follow came up with some brilliant work.

In Visuals: Robert Hodgin, aka Flight404, has the enviable job of exploring new visual expressions as his day gig of sorts. Working primarily in code developed in the open-source, Java-powered Processing, he develops a technique and then iterates and iterates on it until it goes from computer gimmick to refined artistry. He blogs that process, as well, pushing forward the rest of the Processing community. His video above uses abstract, generative processes to visualize Radiohead’s "Weird Fishes", but is developed enough to become organic. It’s a voyage under the sea. Via our sister site, Create Digital Motion.

In Music: A number of readers tackled the Radiohead remix contest. Here’s my favorite: our friend Alan Molina created a sparse string accompaniment that spotlights Tom Yorke’s vocal part. He explains:

Thanks for listening!  I actually recorded and mixed all the strings.  

They are all a violin (just lots of layers of me).  My profession is an orchestral violinist–this remix was an outlet to do something different!

I used Ableton Live 7 for the effects, and used  the kind of mic that clips on behind the bridge of a violin.  Done on my couch in front of my computer!

Of course, the other direction to go is stretching the tune past the point of recognizability, with strange bizarro-universe remixes pulling the tune to experimental glitch and faux-punk. Here are a few of the more unusual takes on their music:

But I have to say, I’m delighted by these results. They really do give me a new sense of the music. And to people who complained that it’s a publicity stunt … well, hey, at this point, I think you all know who Radiohead is, so I don’t particularly feel like I’m shilling for them. (Hey! You’ve got to listen to this new band!)

What’s wonderful about this is getting to hear the songs differently — and, whatever Radiohead’s celebrity, you’ve got to admit Thom Yorke’s voice got to where it did for a reason.

But if you are looking to discover some new music, definitely check out the comment thread on the previous story with other artists offering remixes and stems.

And if you’ve got a favorite Nude remix you want to share, let us know in comments.

No, not photos of you remixing in Ableton in the nude! Sheesh. Wish I hadn’t opened my inbox. ;)

The era of artists regularly releasing stems for remixing seems imminent. In the meantime, we see occasional examples of artists who get it. Radiohead have a new feature on their tune Nude, promoted with Apple. Purchase stems of a song (that’s by stem, so you pay US$0.99 * 5 stems + 1 full song if you want everything), and you get audio via iTunes Plus. Purchase the full set, and you can also download a GarageBand / Logic Pro-compatible project with all loop, tempo, and key information embedded, as pictured at top. (Unless I’m mistaken, that’s also the ideal way to get uncompressed audio for use in other tools.)

If you happen to prefer another tool for remixing (say, one that rhymes with Mabledon Dive and is often seen running on computers from Apple), these are just DRM-free audio files, so the choice is yours. Upload the finished results to the Web, and the band will review submissions and open them to votes. There are already a number of remixes up at the moment.

NUDE RE/MIX on iTunes

Radiohead Remix Site

Hmmm, nude remixing? Brings new meaning to “bedroom producer.” Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Radiohead does specify that you can’t use these for commercial purposes; it’s too bad they didn’t choose to apply a Creative Commons non-commercial license, which would formalize essentially what they’re saying. But this is otherwise done quite nicely, nonetheless, and I hope we see more of this.

Like remixable music? Nine Inch Nails has a whole remix site, and indie label Magnatune lets you remix all their artists’ work via a Creative Commons license (though they typically don’t offer stems). Online music outlet Dance Tracks Digital goes beyond stems with full Ableton Live-ready projects, suitable for DJs. That’s just for starters; if you have other favorite remix resources, let us know.

Dorkbot Chicago

Any CDM-ers in the Chicagoland area are most warmly invited to this months Dorkbot at Deadtech, 3321 W. Fullerton Ave., on Wednesday at 8pm for food, drink, and brain-swelling information regarding micro-sampling and alternative musical controllers like QWERTY keyboards, game joysticks, and bicycles.

This week’s presenters will be Liz McLean-Knight and Michael Una, contributors to CDM.

See you there!

ByteMe, Perth; CDM Me, Brisbane

Australia is CDM’s second home, land of crazy creative contributors and designers, and birthplace of the CDM logo and graphic identity. And now I get to go there.

First up is an epic visualist festival in Perth, 11/30 – 12/9. (Jaymis and I arrive 12/2.)

ByteMe Festival

Okay, odds are, you aren’t anywhere near Perth, as it’s supposedly the most isolated city on the face of the Earth. But on the off chance that you are in/near Perth, you’ll definitely want to come out for this one. Visualists like Artificial Eyes and Jean Poole, not to mention festival organizers VJZoo, join a convergence of visual artists from game development to experimental film and motion graphics and special effects. I’m on a panel Wednesday night, but mostly Jaymis and I will be hanging around covering the festival and chatting with cool people. And we get to see whether our first in-person meetup creates a geek matter-antimatter temporal singularity.

12/10 – 12/14 we return to Brisbane, and odds are far likelier that you live there. There’s talk of doing some kind of music event in Brisbane. If you’re interested in helping us organize even a casual meet-up, Brisbanites, let me know. -PK

Okay, calling anything “Web 2.0″ is about as cool as casually slipping in the word “synergy.” Generally meaningless; definitely faux pas. But splicemusic.com was already tending that direction, with a website that allowed users to remix each other’s music live on the Web, and share and network with other community members in that process. Now, Splice itself has reached its own 2.0 release, and things are heating up fast. It’s not so much the typical Web community features that set it apart (blogging, becoming “fans” or friends of other users, bright, Web 2.0-y colors, and community-based ranking). Instead, it’s the fact that Splice can do things previously only possible in dedicated, offline software:

• Online arrangements: as before, remix and arrange tracks without leaving your Web browser
• Real-time effects — yep, you read that right. You can actually apply common effects like flanger, delay, and distortion via the Web interface.
• Online virtual instruments in the Web interface
• Store drafts online privately, until a track is finished
• Collect samples from around the site to use in your song

Splice

Real-time effects and instruments in a Web browser? That’s a surprise. Java has made that possible for some time, but it’s new to Flash, and even in Java actual implementations have been few — let alone integrated in a full-blown community site open to the public and ready to use.

Best of all, we hear that Bram de Jong, famed as the gifted plug-in developer in the Smartelectronix collective, engineered the new plug-in system. There’s even a Web version of his SupaTrigger plug-in. If you don’t know Bram’s work already, check out his cross-platform, donationware plugs:

Bram @ Smartelectronix

We’ll be talking to Splice more about what’s new, where it’s going, how it was developed, and what this means for music making on the Web; stay tuned.

In the meantime, I’ll say it again — don’t assume you’ll be throwing away your non-Web music software anytime soon. Web software is still extremely constrained in terms of access to the local file system and audio hardware inputs and outputs, for starters, meaning it’s actually technically impossible to have anywhere close to the feature set you get in offline apps. Furthermore, for high performance processing and low latency, audio apps actually have to get more intimate with the operating system than even typical desktop apps do, and require support for plug-in technologies and ASIO and Core Audio drivers … the list goes on. And that just about wraps it up for the browser.

Where there may be new opportunity is in “rich clients.” Unfortunately, systems like Adobe’s Apollo — now AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) are extremely limited in comparison to so-called “native” development tools. In fact, the closest you’re likely to get is Java, especially if a Java app adds some additional desktop integration for the OS-specific dirty work; Java’s own internal APIs are in a woeful state as far as multimedia.

But that’s not to take away from the importance — and surprise, rapid development — of tools like Splice. In fact, they demonstrate just how rich the experience can be when you add the Web. Future desktop music apps would do well to take a close look at these kinds of features.