Electronics and synths are hard and you can’t hug them; plush animals and toys and blankets and pillows are soft and huggable. And we won’t even get started on the slightly-absurd gender associations of soft textiles and hard, toxic electronics. Or at least, so goes the traditional assumption.

But increasingly, designers are becoming interested in soft design. So in a last-minute addition to Handmade Music NYC, Richie Brown has added plush instruments – a ring modulator and two synths, which in turn can be patched together. They’re instruments you can hug. (Next step: make the connections soft, too, I think.)

As this was happening, by coincidence I was checking out a project called felted signal processing [Flickr set], using conductive soft materials for sound. That project is the work of Sarah Grant, and something I hope to cover more. We’ve also seen felt used as a very practical material for a surface and keys on a synth project (with a hard enclosure), and none other than monome creators Kelli Cain and Brian Crabtree did a feature story here on CDM on their felt + circuits project.

Don’t get me wrong: making electronics work with soft things is a significant challenge, and sometimes feels like trying to make an airplane fuzzy. I hope we’ll work on some community documentation and collaboration here – and perhaps we’ll even have a soft-themed hacklab online and with handmade music.

One superb reference: CNMAT’s wiki, particularly the Materials section.

Check out Handmade Music NYC

Squeezable instruments are just the beginning. Handmade Music Brooklyn for July is, quite literally, our biggest, craziest lineup ever.

If you are in the NYC area, be sure you don’t miss Handmade Music tomorrow night (Thursday).

Complete lineup at handmademusic.noisepages.com
RSVP on Facebook or email handmade@3rdward.com

View Larger Map

“UP” Sound for Film Profile from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Miguel Isaza has created a must-read new blog for anyone interested in sound design, and much to our delight has put it on noisepages. He’s being incredibly prolific with posts, covering creative projects to get your ideas flowing, terrific overviews of leading people in the field with links to interviews and resources for learning about their work, and tons of links for learning your craft technologically and artistically.

http://designingsound.noisepages.com/

Naturally, Pixar figures prominently, with some of the best sound design on the silver screen in recent years. I’m looking forward to finally seeing UP; Michael Coleman offers the video above. See Miguel’s site for more links and interviews and an overview of the all-star team that did sound for Pixar’s latest.

Thanks for this great resource, Miguel; I’ll certainly be reading daily.

Hate soundware and generic downloaded samples? You’ll love this. The “Slice of Winter” sound pack created by Covert Operators for CDM doesn’t have a single sound in it – not one; you bring your own. Instead, install this pack and you get a whole mess of slicing presents for use with Ableton Live’s Slice to New MIDI Track feature. Grab an audio clip (or record your own), hit Slice to New MIDI Track, apply a preset, and you get a new Drum Rack instance with slices mapped to pads, effects, and live controls. (You can see what I mean as Bjorn plays around with the feature in the video.)

Naturally, this works nicely for drum loops, but if you apply to vocals or weird found sounds or other material, you can get all kinds of results. You’ll need Live 7 as it’s a new feature, but you can use the free trial to try it out; the trial is still unlimited time-wise and now even saves for the first 14 days.

It’s not so much that this is something other tools can’t do – even some hardware drum machines have a similar feature. But in the context of Live, slicing takes on a different quality. It integrates with all the clips you have sitting around your session, can map to those warp markers, and gives you virtual drum machines with live controller mappings and the ability to insert effects (including third-party plug-ins) on each pad.

We feature this technique in the CDM Winter Guide for two reasons. One, it’s a perfect antidote to sets that get boring because you have clips looping endlessly. Two, you can get a lot of mileage from this feature musically, so it’s something to live with for a while (which was the idea of the guide). In the guide, we have a detailed tutorial for using the feature, how to make your own presets (which isn’t clear in the manual), and some creative ideas. Francis Preve joins in with some tips; he used this feature heavily on his single “Caboose.” Previously:

Free Tutorials, Techno iPhone Ringtone from Francis Preve, Celebrating Single “Caboose”

Get the Guide + the Pack

So, be sure to not only grab the sound pack but download the free PDF, or get the bound treeware version to keep on your desk:

Print Edition + Free PDF Download @ Lulu.com

And for the free Live Pack download from Covert Operators:

http://covops.org/cdm

More Brain Dumps on Live

Covert Operators also makes other lovely stuff for Live and live performance, including software (like a utility for making better use of the BCR2000 controller), Live packs (free and fee), and an in-depth video subscription series with power tools for Live use.

If you want still more Live knowledge, Grooveboxmusic has a limited-time deal on three hours of free tutorials, on special through the end of the month:

Grooveboxmusic.com: Free video tutorials [Ableton.com, via the ever-vigilant Synthtopia.com]

Now pray for a snow day to actually get some Live time for music making! (I know I’m hoping for one. Or an Elton John Day.)

If you’re hungry for some patch content, the download-rich PatchArena has you covered, with a massive library of free, user-created content:

PatchArena Downloads

There are particularly large sections for the all-in-one studios EnergyXT, FL Studio, and a number of others. (Correction: Intua BeatMaker for iPhone/iPod Touch is promised, as well, though I got my categories confused — no files there now, so we’ll check in if some get posted! But it could be a great place to upload BeatMaker presets; see the thread on PatchArena’s forum.)

Francesco Silvestri writes CDM to let us know about his latest addition, a huge set for Cakewalk’s awesome soft synth Rapture. He says:

I’ve released Muz3um, a free set of patches for Rapture the virtual synthesizer by Cakewalk.This collection is built on waveforms from vintage synthesizers.

It features:

• 661 presets organized in categories (Basses, Keys, Leads, Pads, Sequences)
• 573 waveforms
• 36 impulse responses, taken from amp sims, cabinets and lo-fi speakers, providing additional colors to the set

It’s great having those impulse responses alone – meaning even if you’d rather program your own sounds in Rapture, this could be a must-download.

Update: This also works just fine with Rapture LE, meaning lots of Cakewalk customers can use the pack. (Thanks, Chad!)

Have a go and let us know what you think, Rapture users!

Rapture Muz3um OS X

Rapture Muz3um Windows

Hello, coming to you live from San Mateo and the Maker Faire hosted by Make Magazine. If you stopped by the CDM booth today, I hope you stick around a while. This site, for musicians, DJs, composers, and soundmakers, covers the audible side. Create Digital Motion covers VJing and live and interactive visuals (for an audience we like to call visualists). We cover store-bought hardware and software as well as DIY, and love having everyone from beginners to advanced readers around.

Here are some links to more information on some of what I was showing:

Sensors and MIDI: Working with sensors and physical inputs is what some term “physical computing.” We’ve covered lots of physical computing projects here on CDMusic.

I wrote up an introduction to MIDI for Make 07 which would be a good place to start if you’re relatively new to MIDI.

The MIDI sock monkey and infrared and touch sensors are powered by Lady Ada’s MIDIsense, as introduced here:
Sensors-to-MIDI with the MIDIsense Board. See also the Arduino board, which we’ve covered mostly on the motion side.

Barcode scanner to music converter, powered by Processing, a Java-based development language that makes programming friendly for artists. Check out the official Processing site, Processing Blogs aggregator, and Processing coverage on our sister site, Create Digital Motion.

Live visuals: The live video-processing “mirror” via the MacBook was built in Max/MSP/Jitter. Check out our ongoing Jitter coverage on CDMotion. Nope, no “source code” / source patch available yet — it’s a bit too messy, the reason you don’t see more open-sourced Max patches!

And totally off-subject: The keyboard I was using is a ReMOTE 37SL from Novation. Nothing to do with Maker or Maker Faire but very handy to have around … and well worthy of combining with other DIY hardware.

Talk about digital technology and music, and people are often skeptical: doesn’t technology get in the way of making music? But technology and music have always been interwined, and even for advanced composers, better understanding the technology of how acoustic instruments work is fundamental to realizing musical ideas. Unfortunately, orchestration books, despite their best intentions, can be disastrous for composers trying to understand instruments. Books by definition can’t include musical examples, and the texts themselves are often divorced from real practical information.

Now the good news: the Web could offer an antidote.

Check out this extensive site put together by the Philharmonia Orchestra:

The Sound Exchange: The Orchestra: Instruments

This is not the “young person’s guide to the orchestra” it first appears: click through, and you’ll find practical, opinionated thoughts on real-world playing from the orchestra’s players. Imagine “textbooks” where real players talk about playing, instead of the lone voice of a theorist.

That’s not to slam tried-and-true orchestration references, and in fact, we could see those develop, as well. Gary Garritan is working on realizing a completely free version of the classic Rimsky-Korsakov Principles of Orchestration, to be released on the Garritan forums. This one will make use of Garritan’s virtual orchestra so you can hear and see all the examples. It’s something of a modern technical acheivement in itself, really, that you could make a software-only orchestra sound like a real one, an exercise in artificial orchestration. The results are due this month; I’ll let you know when they appear.

Online resources promise not only to be free, but to cover instruments left behind by mainstream commercial textbooks. The next time you’re writing for the viola da gamba, for instance, you might actually get some useful advice.

Found online compositional resources you like? Let us know in comments.

Drums: There’s an enormous drum lessons database at DrumBum.com, with everything from cymbal cleaning to dumbek. And of course, we’re especially interested in the DIY drum triggers how-to. This isn’t just Web community-contributed stuff, either; you’ll find drum celebs like multi-Grammy artist Paul Wertico. (More on him later this week.) And for a little inspiration, check out the section of drum solo video clips, like the one of Keith Carlock of Sting and Steely Dan fame, pictured below. (via AudioMastermind)

Guitar: iCompositions.com, the GarageBand-focused music community site, this week unveiled a set of free guitar lessons from member Ed Nicholson. There are four QuickTime movies so far on scales and chords, with more planned. A free registration is required for viewing. While you’re there, you can also check out some free GarageBand tutorials.

Keyboard: I regularly write for Keyboard Magazine, but like many of you, I rarely sit down with the keyboard chops lessons included with the magazine. Very often, something isn’t of interest to my playing, or I just don’t have the time. (Sound familiar?) Now, though, you can quickly navigate to what you need, because the entire Play section is online, grouped by skill level. The guys who contribute to this section are some mean, talented keyboardists, so it’s worth checking out what they have to say — and maybe picking up something fun to add to your practice routine. MP3s and printable GIFs of the sheet music (pictured above) are all there. I think I can safely share this one despite the conflict off interest, because I’m going to go have a look.

Theory: It’s not new, but it’s been making it’s way around the blogosphere: Ricci Adams’ Musictheory.net is an invaluable collection of Flash-based lessons, trainers for drilling instrumental skills and ear training, and utilities like blank staff paper printers and chord calculators. The collection has been growing rapidly, with a lot of new, useful stuff; early versions were pretty basic but he’s working his way into more advanced theory (read: the stuff you could probably use freshening up). I’ve used these in theory courses with students, and they’re pretty handy, at least as a supplement to resources on paper. You can also download the archive so you don’t have to be online to use them.

Got some other online resources you’ve found useful? Hit comments and let us know.

If that kind of traffic sounds overwhelming, and you’re still asking questions like “why would you want to do this, anyway?”, check out the related Wind Controller FAQ. In answer to the “why” question, here’s one good reason from the FAQ: “A wind controller can be used for alternative sounds that a musician cannot produce on their acoustic instruments.”

Looking at it from the opposite direction, why not? What could be more expressive than breath? Now’s a great time to go check out the FAQ and group, with Akai introducing new wind controller at NAMM (pictured). (Found via an aborted attempt to start a Google group on this topic.)

For starters, there’s a relaunched forum, far friendlier than the old mailing lists while maintaining archives of years of collective wisdom on the program. There’s a rich collection of interviews with artists, and a growing selection of new tutorials. (The tutorials are especially valuable, as they’re written in a friendly, blog-like style and are more immediately practical than some of the tutorials in the software’s documentation.)

There’s a lot still to be fleshed out — several categories are a bit thinner — but what’s really encouraging here is that Cycling is taking a true community approach. Best of all are the updated user pages, where people are sharing their work. Ableton co-founder and Live visionary Monolake has a page there, for instance. (I think that may date to the old site, but grab his step sequencer, and go see if you can create the next Ableton Live and put it on your user page.)

Nor is this a closed site — there are plenty of links to external content. Speaking of which, I’ll be working on some additional Max/MSP resources here, though I don’t expect to post them until after our own redesign.

A major shout out to our friends Wallace Winfrey and Tim place for their fantastic work on the site — kudos. We’ll be spending a lot of time on this site over the coming months.

Unusual controllers for performance (tablets to game controllers)

Cool Max projects (flaming sound organs to musical punching bags)

Essential Max tools (my favorite add-ons and upgrades)

It’s everything you need to start making weird, futuristic music and art. Well, not quite everything, but enough to blow my mind, anyway. I’m planning more online tutorials and possibly another print follow-up soon, so stay tuned!

Unusual Controllers for Use with Max

Part of the fun of using Max is that it’s easy to manage incoming data from devices in performance — not only the usual items (keyboards, drum pads), but unusual controller, as well. In particular, you’ll want to take a look at the built-in “hi” object (human interface), which enables use with a broad range of USB devices, even if not intended for music. More resources from CDM:

Guitar Hero PlayStation Guitar Controller, a prime target for Max hacking

The P5 Data Glove is an inexpensive game controller that works especially well with Max (even though one of my colleagues insists on using it with Macromedia’s Director, which is trickier)

Wacom Tablet External for using a graphics tablet (only works with OS X, though there are other options, too)

USB-to-real-world sensor interface lets you attach sensors, other devices; as an alternative, my personal favorite device in this category is the real world – to – MIDI device, the US$149 MidiTron

Great Max/MSP Projects

Max is the undisputed champ for designing sophisticated experimental installations, instruments, and other prototypes quickly. Here are a few of my favorites I’ve written up on CDM (some combining Max with other software):

Musical punching bag / disco floor

Minority Report-like Virtual Reality Environment (shown at top, navigating the NYC skyline)

Flaming Propane-powered Pyrophone Organ Game (shown below)

String Thing fretless cello-like instrument

Turntable Art

Turntable-Controlled Vibrating Chaise Longue

Coal-Powered, Steam-Driven Power Plant Music plus further details of interfacing coal-powered hardware with laptops

More Max Tools

Worth adding to your arsenal:

Jitter 1.5 and Max/MSP 4.5.5: Starting with the mothership, here’s why you should upgrade to the latest version

Game sound objects for emulating Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Coleco Sound

Cycling ’74 distributes the Lemur multi-touch control surface, ideal for Star Trek-like control of Max patches; see recent update to the software

Tap.Tools is my favorite Max add-on; an indispensible collection of time-savers at a really low price