I ask you: what is the foundation for rhythmic electronic music? I suggest that the humble step-sequencer is the backbone of many of today’s musical genres and memetic evolutions. To have electronic rhythm, you need to start with a clock and go from there, dividing it into fractions and multiples. Then start assigning sounds to those divisions and you’re pretty much there- techno is happening.

I’ve been working on prototyping a sequencer-synth and in doing research, I’ve come across numerous projects that tackle this idea with great enthusiasm. Because a sequencer can drive any type of electronics, projects tend to fall into two categories: audio, or visual. Additionally, I’m seeing two main drivers for the sequence itself: the nimble arduino, and the CMOS 4017 Decade counter IC. I’ll survey here some of the finished projects to give an idea of what’s possible. Come with me, won’t you, on an exploration of the world of DIY sequencers.

The mighty Ars Technica regularly takes on technically-intense reviews of processors and operating systems, but this time they’ve turned their attentions to something else altogether: DJ software. Dave Girard helms the review, with an exhaustive look at both basic DJ virtual decks (Disco, FutureDecks Lite, DJ1800) and full-featured software (VirtualDJ, Traktor DJ Studio from Native Instruments, and MixVibes Pro). (Thanks for the tip, Ryan Pollack!)

DJ Software for Windows and Mac OS X [Ars Technica]

The DJ apps get the full Ars Technica treatment, down to helpful figures explaining how DJing works for the uninitiated. Traktor DJ wins handily on Mac and Windows at the high end; for casual use on Windows VirtualDJ gets a nod. Girard also tests the hardware with the cheap Hercules DJ control surface / interface. This is exactly the kind of review from which I run screaming — round-ups are a total, life-sucking pain as a reviewer. (Yeah, I’m sure there’s a Logic 8 / Live 6 / Cubase SX 4 / DP 5 mega-review in my future, but in the meantime I’m going to try to keep enjoying life.)

The review also wins extra points for including an image of this business card. I wish Ashok had played my puberty party.

It’s a rare treat to see Ars doing DJ software, but there are some notable omissions.

Vocoding is capable of a broad range of sounds, from the traditional “robot talking” effects to unique, organic-sounding synth and drum effects. Like many commonly-used techniques for synthesis and processing (and qualifying as both), vocoder effects can be cliched — but they can also be used to great effect.

The only real challenge in using vocoders in software is routing, since you need two signals — a carrier and a modulator. People are regularly asking how to do this on the Ableton Live forums, because there’s not an obvious way in Live to sidechain signal. Here’s one tutorial, and it’s friendly to people who have never used a vocoder before:

How To Use A Vocoder In Ableton Live [SonicTransfer]
More Orange Vocoder Tips [SonicTransfer]

Since some of the links are broken, here are the vocoders mentioned in the article. Both are Mac/Windows compatible, but only mda TalkBox is free:

Orange Vocoder Mac, Windows [Prosoniq]

mda Free Effects (Download the whole archive in VST Windows or VST/AU Mac format; TalkBox is in each version — and yes, the free mda stuff now runs Universal on Intel Macs)

First a foldable MIDI keyboard, now a travel guitar with a jointed, removable neck so it folds into a case:

Stewart Guitars Stow-Away (via)

Detach this sucker’s neck and you can fit the guitar into a briefcase, not to mention terrify your friends. (Oh, for the love of God, you broke your guitar!) Bonus: heightened terror alerts won’t make people think you’re carrying a gun. They make a similar model called the Road-Runner.

But while we’re at it, what else could you put in your mobile guitar studio carry bag? Here are a few suggestions from CDM posts past:

1. Vox DA5 miniature practice amp (see comments for similar models)
2. Fender keychain pocket tuner
3. iPod Nano with iRocker pocket tuner, metronome, virtual chord book, fingerings, and scales
4. Treo running miniMusic software for scoring, composing, beats
5. Laptop running Guitar Rig 2, made easier by Guitar Rig’s bundled, compact interface/foot pedal combo. And soon, Intel MacBooks should be supported

Guitar and bass players, what’s in your bag?

Welcome, Computer Music readers — feel free to drop me a line. Here’s a roundup of Max/MSP resources, as a companion to the feature story on Max I wrote for Computer Music Magazine. Max is a deep, deep program, but to get you started, I’ve lined up:

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!