Through Thursday, March 31 at midnight, you can grab SoundToys’ Devil-Loc plug-in for free, concluding a giveaway that began at the TapeOp party at South by Southwest. Devil-Loc is a nice-sounding emulation of the Shure M62. Chris Conover, in thanks for a Record beta I sent his way, points to the offer, a code (which I’ll share with readers), and mentions some ways he likes to use it – particularly, he says, on drum room mics:

It is inspired by the Shure M62 Level-Loc, which was designed to be a leveling amplifier for microphones to avoid spikes and fades. Users have discovered the M62 to have incredibly gritty, dirty, and unusual compression characteristics that made drums sound larger than life and quite aggressive.

Chris Conover at theProAudioFiles.com

The only bad news in all of this, aside from the expiration date, is that the plug-ins do need an iLok, if you don’t have one of those handy.

More than an opportunity to pimp SoundToys (whose work I really do enjoy as creative sound plug-ins), I think it’s a good opportunity to point to the site for which Chris is writing, theProAudioFiles.com. It’s full of reviews, tips on mixing, interviews, and resources for sound production. It could be a great place to start to get your mind on sound work.

http://theproaudiofiles.com/

For their part, SoundToys will have a Deluxe version of this plug-in next month. It’s really just as interesting to learn about the history of the Shure hardware on which it’s based, if you’re not already familiar with it:

The Shure M62 Level-Loc was designed by Shure to be a leveling amplifier mostly for mics. The concept was it would keep an even level (locked level) once it hit a certain input so you wouldn’t get “fade outs or blasting”. It was super simple with only a switch for three “distance” settings based on how far from the mic you were. The M62V upped the control a bit by adding an input level knob. However, the reason it became famous was not because it did a good job of leveling, it may have, but largely thanks to SoundToys user Tchad Blake and his desire to push, abuse, and do deliciously evil things to his tracks. He discovered that pushing the Level-Loc gave you gritty, dirty, unusual compression that made drums gigantic and nasty. Both of which are good things. So we’ve taken that concept and dropped it in the simple two control Devil-Loc. Then we’ve taken it further than the original hardware with the Devil-Loc Deluxe.

Read up on the plug and the contests and giveaways going on:
https://www.soundtoys.com/sxswpromo/

Then grab the actual plug – while there’s still time – via this link:

https://www.soundtoys.com/sxswpromo/&rc=340-9736-993

Austin isn’t generally associated with electronic music, but from bands to strictly electronic acts, you see lines blurring all over the place. And amidst the many, many things happening here in Texas in the coming days, we’re fortunate at CDM to help support two events.

Tonight is the Allies Electronic Lounge – 416 W Cesar Chavez, 9-2, no badge and free, with Two Fresh, DJ Vadim, Eskmo, and Mindelixer. I’m especially excited about Eskmo’s music, and wherever you are in the world, you can take a listen, free. (Topspin just launched their media platform for everyone if you want to do the same with your music, and they’re naturally partying it up here in Texas to celebrate.)

http://www.musicallies.com/electronicalounge/

There’s some of the crackly clap sound that the kids love these days, to be sure, but Eskmo has some serious sound design chops, and a vocal style I love, very often reminiscent of Matthew Dear. I’m told Eskmo works with Native Instruments’ Maschine drum sampler instrument live. If you have any questions about how he works, let me know; I’ll be doing some research. Eskmo, aka San Francisco’s Brendan Angelides, has been on Warp and Ninja Tune, but he also has a mean mix of Brainfeeder music:

http://www.eskmo.com/

Friday night, it’s another free event on a rooftop in the heart of downtown Austin. I’m playing at 9pm on the spot to warm things up, so come say hello. Lots of free tech to win. No downloads yet, but again, if you’re not in Texas, let me know if you want any tips or information from these folks — I can sum it up by saying they’re all a bit insane with Ableton Live automation and sound design with Operator and NI’s Massive.
http://academikrecords.blogspot.com/

Analog and digital, gadgetry and module, DIY and ready-to-play, today in Austin we’re blessed with a get-together at the insanely-amazing Switched On music store. Austin’s noisiest manufacturers are dropping in to show some of their wears.

If you’re not in Austin, have a look at the lineup below and see if you have any questions for these makers, and I can bring back those answers to our readers around the world.

The event is free, 4:00 – 7:00 pm. It’s very informal and intimate – just sound geek boys and girls hanging out.

The Victory Grill Cafe
Across from 1111 E. 11th Switched On
Austin, TX

Switched On: a place where your money goes to die, but vintage synthesizers and circuit-bend video machines and other goodies replace it

I’ll kick of the proceedings with the MeeBlip, our fully open-source synth – which, now after several months of use and creative users, I can now say quite a lot about.
http://meeblip.com

Then…

Bleep Labs is a locally owned & operated manufacturer of some of the most creatively unique sound toys, some of which can be interfaced with CV supported hardware. His Thingamagoop 2 light controlled Analog + Digital Synth Friend is a hot item in every store who carries it. Please come check out some of his other gadgets that will blow you away!
http://www.bleeplabs.com/

Livid Instruments has been crafting controllers for electronic music in Austin, Texas since 2004, and offers a line of commercially available control surfaces and DIY products through dealers and distributors worldwide. Livid will be demoing it’s product line with software tools like Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Reason, ArKaos, and Traktor.
http://www.lividinstruments.com/
http://www.lividindustry.com/
http://www.lividdesign.com/

Dann Green of 4ms will demo synthesizer modules, including the Rotating Clock Divider, Shuffling Clock Multiplier, and the soon-to-be-released VCAMatrix. The RCD and SCM are hackable microcontroller-based timing generators for creating complex rhythm patterns, and the VCAMatrix is a 4×4 CV-controllable analogue signal mixer/router.
http://4mspedals.com/

Mickey Delp will be demoing several Delptronics products including the Guitar Meister, which plays real guitar sounds on a PS2 guitar controller; and the Bender Sequencer, a step sequencer designed for DIY synth builders and circuit benders. Mickey will also be showing his custom synthesizer created for Dorkbot’s SXSW event. The synth was sponsored by, and built with parts from Radio Shack.
http://delptronics.com/

bubblesound is proud to be joining this line up a month after we relocated from NYC, and we will be showing off our new oscillator: the VCOb. This is the first time the VCOb will be demo’d in public, so come on down. The VCOb will be joining the rest of the bubblesound line; the SeM20, the uLFO, the cvWS and the LvL+rm. It starts shipping in April.
www.bubblesound-instruments.com

Sometimes things look interesting even before you can fully grasp just what they mean. Such is the case, I think, with what’s happening with SoundCloud’s on-the-go tools. Now, back in the beginning of this service, I predicted it’d become the Flickr of audio, and I wasn’t alone. But it’s becoming something else, something that really involves mobility.

The SoundCloud crew are out at South by Southwest, as good a gathering as any for the intersection of Web nerd culture with music and film. And they have something to show for it, too: they’re unveiling new Android and iOS mobile apps, among other updates – and location, with FourSquare.

Android phone owners certainly no longer need to feel like second-class citizens, with bug fixes, track commenting, and Twitter and Facebook sharing. You can also add widgets to your homescreen, a feature that iOS lacks. (I have to say, for all of iOS’ sophistication, the one thing Android does very well is make apps integrate with one another, and with data and the cloud.)

There are updates not only for Android, but iOS and desktop, too, detailed in a blog post geared for South by Southwest:
Create & Share (Even) More Easily

Both Android and iOS users get Foursquare interaction. That could mean … well, something. The ability to make recording a sound an event, to tie it to a place in the real world, is theoretically compelling. Exactly what you’d do with this data I think has a lot to do with the content itself. Might this be a way to tie, say, a live set to the venue at which it was played, or sound samples of an interactive art gallery installation, or an open mic night that has recordings and not just pictures? Possibly – although there’s nothing saying you really need a fancy tool to do those things, either.

With the Interactive portion out of the way, SoundCloud now gets unleashed on South by Southwest’s Music Festival, which has grown to an extent that it feels like all musical output has collided on one point. It’s a quantum singularity as much as a music festival. So we’ll see if SoundCloud does something interesting at those events – or if it’s just another eager Web name against the backdrop of a lot of booze-drenched music parties. And to me, it’s an open question how to use these tools to get more people in person, in the flesh, at live events, which I think for many musicians is the goal. (That is, you’d use SoundCloud to encourage people to get off their computers and go hear some live music!)

SoundCloud isn’t sitting around hoping you’ll figure it out, though; they have some tips:
SoundCloud 101: How to host your events sampler!
SoundCloud 101

Any of you in Austin or elsewhere in the musical world, if you do catch cool stuff happening with SoundCloud or other Internet-enabled audio, we’d love to hear about it.

Next week, as the South by Southwest Music Festival descends on Austin, Texas, I’m pleased CDM gets to be involved in a few terrific independent events. No badges, no cover, free drinks and even free giveaways – if you happen to be in Austin, you can save money and then do what I’ll probably do, spend it all at the awesome Switched On synth boutique.

Here’s the schedule:
Wednesday 3/16: Switched On Meet & Greet, 4-7p
The MeeBlip synth meets local electronic instruments at Austin’s legendary boutique synth and sonic and visual electronic shop, Switched On. We’ll be relaxing, geeking out around synths, and I hear word of some surprises TBD.

Thursday 3/17: Allies Electronic Lounge, 9p-2a
Two Fresh, DJ Vadim (and The Electric), Eskmo, and Mindelixir all play live performances. “Powered by Native Instruments” – expect to see some Maschine virtuosity in honor of the sponsor. CDM is a sponsor, and we’ll be talking to artists about their techniques. More details below.
RSVP: http://www.musicallies.com/electronicalounge/

Friday 3/18: Academik Label Launch Event, 9p-2a
Academik launches a new electronic label on a rooftop lounge in central Austin, with Francis Preve (also a writer for Keyboard), Secret Panda Society, William A, Sentinels, and Shreddward. I’ll play an early set, too, and there are giveaways of the M-Audio Venom, Reason+Record, Korg Legacy Collection, Thingamagoop 2, Ableton t-shirts, and more every hour.
Academik Blog Post

Let me repeat. Everything is free, no cover, no badge. And at some events, you might walk away with free drinks or a synth.

More below on Allies and Academik…

Thursday with Allies: Free Live Electronic Music, Open Bar

Click for full-sized flyer. RSVP.

Okay, Eskmo, this is pretty darned trippy. Am I going to be out in the desert outside Austin by the end of the week, basically seeing this?

Eskmo: “Cloudlight” Official video

Eskmo | Myspace Music Videos

Friday with Academik: Free Rooftop Beat Lounge, Giveaways

Click for full-sized flyer. Blog post.

Like the aspiring artists themselves, there’s an abundance of Web services with big dreams of stardom. Most will fall into obscurity, and wading through them is a big chore. And then, love them or hate them, there are the huge pop hits, raking in cash and making kids swoon.

So, here’s a bet. Topspin, already one of a handful of genuinely-promising services for artists and managers to make the music business work, is about to get bigger. Think the Beatles right after they land in the US.

You’ve probably already used Topspin from the other side: know those ubiquitous boxes that ask for your email and return the favor with a free track? That’s the one. (I’ve included a couple from our friends at Saturn Never Sleeps, and Tricil, who tipped us off on this story, to jog your memory.)

Collecting emails is vital. Over the past few years, Web and music conferences have been packed with sessions describing a future where independent artists don’t languish in obscurity, because they collect a handful of “true” fans. Without being able to stay in touch with those fans, none of those visions is possible.

Topspin is a lot more than that, though. It’s an easily-embedded shopping cart for music and merchandise that works on any site or Facebook page. It does international currencies. It’s that email tracking, but it also manages connections on Facebook and Twitter, and helps you follow up on those emails without violating privacy. (Hint: abusing emails isn’t something anyone wants to do. On the contrary, you want to be as well-behaved with email as possible to keep from getting blacklisted.) It has extensive analytics, so you can figure out who your fans are and where they are.

To me, these services are really essential to music in culture. The actual income for most artists won’t be enormous, though every little bit helps. (For instance, imagine artists earning just enough to pay for their health insurance here in the US. That can transform your life and career.) But income aside, the connection between artists and listeners is necessary to getting music heard, and knowing where to play live gigs. That means having smarter artists impacts the rest of us – it means that someone we’ve discovered and loved might actually come to our town and play, for instance, or is motivated to release an extra EP.

And that’s where the news portion of this story enters: Topspin, previous accessible to the few, is coming to the many. In March, just in time for the epic South by Southwest Music Festival, Topspin is rolling out their platform to absolutely everyone, with pricing starting at a lean US$9.99 a month.

With anyone able to climb onboard, and evidently wildly-affordable service prices, Topspin could become the service everyone uses. The company is also promising new platform features and a redesigned app. 4,000-plus artists use Topspin now since it opened in 2008 as a private beta, including the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Arcade Fire. I’m guessing that number could rise from four thousand to “just about everybody.”

That’s all Topspin is saying as of yesterday, but more details are coming; we’ll be watching. I hope you’ll watch here on CDM, of course, but naturally you can use a Topspin widget to get in on the announcement, like so:

There’s also a US$5000 grant program for exploring direct-to-fan business plans, with celebrity judges from Columbia Records, William Morris, the Pixies, Billboard, Berklee, and the like. Details on both:

New Features + Open Access for All Artists+ $5000 D2F Grant

Speaking of how to make this all work, there’s an excellent presentation from LA’s New Music Seminar that explains how you’d put this together as an artist. It’s relevant really whether or not you want to use Topspin. (The contest above also is open to non-Topspin users.)

Getting Practical: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building an Online Marketing Plan That Works (Ian’s Presentation From New Music Seminar Los Angeles, February 2011)

So, in the spirit of this, here are two sets of artists I really like who demonstrate just how useful Topspin can be in practice. First up, Atlanta-based musician (and long-time CDM community member) Johnny Blaze, aka Tricil, who tipped me off to this story this week via Twitter.

Tricil’s a perfect example of the kind of artists who can thrive in the Web age, a solo “melodic IDM”-centric musician and keyboardist, Live programmer, releasing a music video via iPad, and so on. Tricil tells us that this tool, particularly the mailing list signup, has been invaluable.

On the band-cum-label side, there are our friends at Philadelphia-based Saturn Never Sleeps, including King Britt and Rucyl. They likewise rely on mailing lists to promote unusual, often experimental music from lesser-known artists, along with their far-out musical parties.

There you go — see how easy that was? You got to immediately hear some music, and see if it’s for you without sacrificing cash or worrying about filling out a payment form. They got an email address to keep in touch with you, but can repay you in the form of more free music or, depending on where you live, actually playing for you live and meeting you in person.

And whatever other analyses there may be, if any of this helps keep live music alive, it’s a good thing.

Tried Topspin? Let us know what you think – including criticisms of what you don’t like about the platform, along with what you do.

Handmade Music is our party for people who make things that make music. If you create your own musical tools – whether acoustic instruments and soundmakers, hacks, circuit bends, custom Pd and Max patches, electronics, or code – we want to hear from you.

We’re looking for contributors in NYC, Texas, and around the world:

• Live acts and projects in New York
• Street team volunteers in NYC and to help organize and promote events in other parts of the planet
• Live acts and projects for a special South by Southwest Interactive showcase in Austin, Texas with our friends at Etsy.com

1. If you can get to Austin, TX or NYC, tell us about your project or act! And feel free to pass this along to friends, students, and the like. The calls for artists will be ongoing.

NYC + Austin/SxSW call for works 2011 – direct Google Docs form link

2. Be part of Handmade Music anywhere on Earth: Also, while we’ve hinted at this before, 2011 is the year in which I’d like to really help support people trying to organize similar Handmade Music events in other parts of the world, building on regular events in Austin and Toronto and events held in cities like Amsterdam, LA, and Porto, Portugal.

If you’d like to help make Handmade Music grow in your part of the world, you can sign up for that and we’ll send more information (and yes, we welcome volunteers here in the NYC area, too!):

Handmade Music 2011 Global Organizing

Want to know more? Read an explanation of what Handmade Music’s about.

Austin is whirling with South by Southwest excitement, so why not make some swirly radio noises?

Yes, Handmade Music Austin does have a big blowout party in the midst of South by, with a huge music lineup. Wish I could be there, gang, but I’ll be staying here in NYC.

On the docket:

FREE performances starting at noon by Florene, The Hearts & the Minds, WHITE, The Loud Objects, Bodytronix

$10 for a workshop

Registration and details:
Handmade Music Austin #6 Super Show + update

Eric Archer writes:

I’m rolling out a new kit for HMA#6. Its called Tune In Tokyo and makes swirly noises like tuning an old fashioned short wave radio. Its just a cartoonish version of the real thing, but when I hear it I think OLD RADIO!! As some of the boys have pointed out, there was an .. um .. playground game by the same name, which is explained fully in urbandictionary for the curious. That’s Mt. Fuji on the board art.

The circuit has three square wave oscillators made from a 4584 (same as 40106), and an LFO. The LFO sweeps the frequency of a fourth oscillator made with 74HC4046. These frequencies drive the inputs of a 74HC594 shift register. Its outputs are sent thru a network of specially weighted resistors, which are designed to convert 1′s and 0′s into a sine wave. This digital sinewave generator recipe is an interesting shortcut to sine wave generation and I’ve only seen it in Don Lancaster’s CMOS cookbook (1977). The opamp at the end of the resistor net is just there as a buffer. This circuit gets its sound by abusing the properties of the digital sine wave generator via decimation and aliasing effects.

This is only one of the kits we’ll teach at HMA6; we decided to create a free-for-all where folks can select from a menu of kits and seat themselves at a table where others are building the same kit. We’ll also be offering the Autonomous Bassline, Nebulophone, and some of our beginner kits as well. Should be crazy enough to fit with the SXSW insanity that pervades Austin this time of year!

If you make it and record some of the action, do share!

The audience response to the work Joy showed was really overwhelming, as search activity danced around the globe and photos came to life in three dimensions. And it was nice to be able to show them the tool used to create these projects, Processing, and encourage people to try it out for free, even if they hadn’t tried programming before.

But I was surprised by how people reacted to a quick musical demo I closed with. Using Java, I wrote a simple program that checked my Gmail account using IMAP, then translated the time spam messages arrived into MIDI notes. I’m still developing a more advanced real-time version, so I threw the resulting SMF file into Ableton Live.

I’ll actualy be showing a newer version of this for Internet Week at an event sponsored by Make Magazine; more on that in a few days. (I’ll also use that as an opportunity to post some updated code.)

We spend so much time talking about how visualization can make data more expressive that we sometimes overlook other media. The spam “musicification” made sense to people partly because even the untrained ear is sensitive to musical timing, I think. Sonification of data isn’t always the right choice; the results can be abstract, though perhaps there’s value in that, too. But it’s worth remembering that people are sensitive to sound as they are to visuals. Since it’s not an either/or choice, necessarily, it’s too bad that so often designers neglect aspects of sound and timing while focusing only on what something looks like. It’s a challenge, certainly — there’s a reason most of us mute annoying sound feedback on computer interfaces — but I think it’s an area in which we’ll see a lot more discussion.

Now, data in smell-o-vision — that’s a story for another day.

Texas, here we come. Before the armies of bands hit Austin for South by Southwest, we’ve got some events going during SxSW Interactive — the “spring break for Web geeks” festival of online tech.

Laptopists battle it out Saturday night 3/8: The Digital Showcase at the Austin Museum of Art is holding a Laptop Battle for Texan laptop artists. I’ll be judging, along with CDM reader favorite (and reader) proem, and two other judges. The night also  features performances from New Berlin and Richard Gear, plus live visuals from CDMotion contributor Dan Winckler. Details at AMODA, upcoming.org. (A paltry $4-$7, and even 18 year-olds can get in.)

Explore creative interfaces for data Sunday 3/9: My panel with interaction design pioneer S. Joy Mountford (Apple, Yahoo) will look at how Web information can become a fluid, artistic medium for visualization and sonification. Details at Create Digital Motion. (Requires SxSW Interactive badge.)

Live CDM music and motion party Monday 3/10: Bring your musical, visual toys, custom code, and DIY projects and hang out with other CDMers at 8pm, then stick around for live performances from musicians and visualists. Details below; let us know you’re coming at upcoming.org, Facebook, SXSWHERE party guide. Free, no badge required.

More on the CDM party — good chance to chill before SxSW Music unloads on you!

CDM Live Music + Motion @ SxSW Interactive

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/447754/?ps=6

Brought to you by CDM and Livid Instruments, makers of the Ohm. (See our interview last month; very curious to see Jay use this live in the party — will try to get some video of it in action, assuming I’m not playing at the time.)

8:00 PM — Open mixer / project share: bring your custom code, custom patches, favorite music and motion toys, and DIY hardware — finished or not — and hang out with CDM readers, Austin’s digital scene, and SxSWers.

Music

proem
http://www.proemland.com/

Peter Kirn
http://createdigitalmusic.com

Lila’s Medicine
http://www.myspace.com/lilasmedicine

Motion

Live visuals from Livid Instruments and Friends:

Jay Smith – Livid Instruments
http://www.lividinstruments.com/about_history.php

Kusser – Open Labs
http://www.myspace.com/kusser

… and surprise visualist appearances

FREE
Please RSVP
No SxSW badge required
(but you can wear it as a badge of honor, if you like)

And the East German judge says…

More specs on the AMODA party Saturday: