It’s a strange and wonderful sampling instrument and live rig, capable of mangling and remixing live, synced to tempo. It’s proof that live computer performance doesn’t have to be in only one tool, or use one technique. It’s a ready-to-play, affordable instrument you can pick up and use. It’s a Reaktor patch gurus can pick apart and learn from, along with other resources from one of Reaktor’s masters. It’s a new blog and an opportunity to talk about live performance. It’s an EP release.

It’s actually all of these things – a tool, but more than a tool. The Finger, a US$79 / EUR 69 instrument, is a product, first and foremost, created by master live electronic performer and hacker Tim Exile. Tim is such a dedicated Reaktor user that he once managed to give himself a repetitive stress injury from connecting patch cords. (Not recommended.) You can run this thing out of the box using the free Kore Player, or get in deeper with a full version of Kore, or get into the patch itself with a copy of Reaktor 5 (also included in Komplete 5 and 6). It’s quite a product, too. I could try to explain it, but I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as Tim does in the video.

I’m not sure I agree with the marketing material’s claim that this is “a new type of live performance and remix effect.” In fact, Reaktor, Max/MSP, and other tools have led to all sorts of similar, original performance tools. Unlike going into a gig with just an Ableton Live set (something I’m doing in, literally, fifteen minutes), having a custom tool means focusing on performance techniques. And “new” hardly matters – Tim is a ninja at working with Reaktor’s deep sound DSP layer, Core (not to be confused with Kore). Whether it’s new or not, this is the ultimate patch from one of Reaktor’s masters. Along with Reaktor creator Stephan Schmitt’s Spark, it’s proof that sound packs from NI – or anyone else for that matter – don’t have to be limited to stock presets.

More than that, though, The Finger is connected to a music release by Tim, and is already triggering discussion of live performance and sound design – issues that go beyond any one tool. Tim has started a new blog to talk about his own take on live performance, starting with more info on his EP and some tracks you can hear:

http://thenowwave.blogspot.com/

Other folks I know have picked up The Finger and started to play with it, including the underlying Reaktor patch. Most notably, see Richard Devine transform The Finger from a Sound-Like-Tim-Exile machine into a Richard-Devine-Sonic-Insanity-Generator. (See, just because you use someone else’s tool doesn’t have to mean you need to sound like them.) With Max for Live coming, hackers getting smarter and slicker with open source tools like Processing, ChucK, SoundCollider, and Pd, and techno-literacy again on the rise – more connected than ever by these Interwebs – I think we could be in store for a really wonderful age of creativity, in which people make part of the craft of music making the craft of tool making, as well. Designing a tool, after all, is designing a system, in the same way that composition (in any medium) is about designing a system. Finally, instead of keeping that to ourselves, we can actually share the whole process.

In the meantime, let’s watch those videos, on Reaktor, The Finger, and more.

Richard Devine takes on The Finger:

Native Instruments The Finger vs Richard Devine from Richard Devine on Vimeo.

Tim Exile performing in Reaktor:

Tim shows his Reaktor-based setup – not just The Finger, but beyond:

Related tools:

Updated based on feedback in comments See also…

Sugar Bytes Artillery2, which focuses more on effects – and offers a whopping amount of effects variety, from step-sequenced buffer scratchers to vocoding. As with The Finger, the idea is to map effects to keys.

Rekkerd notes that Sugar Bytes has just discounted Artillery2 to 50% through October. Devoted loop manglers will buy both. I’m going to wait for a Richard Devine video in which he routes Artillery2, Lucifer, and The Finger together in one chain, then randomizes all the settings – your move, Richard.

The Lucifer plug-in is now discontinued, but Devine Machine offer a range of related looper/performance tools – from the practical tools to the manglers.

The basic ideas here I think are worth copying: making use of the keyboard to control things live rather than having modulation all running automatically, routing different effects together for mangled results, and loop recording and effects that are synced it time are all useful concepts to combine. I’d love to see people push those concepts in various directions, and the exact combination of ingredients you want is likely to be personal, so it’s well-suited to DIY concoctions, too.

If you’ve worked at all with patching your own creations for music, visuals, and control, this has probably happened to you: you’ve made some change, and forgot what you did. You think of something you did some time ago – and forget what it was. Or you want to be able to easily collaborate with other people, and that means a lot of files flying around and no idea which file has which change. All of these problems are familiar to programmers. The solution: a technique called version control. Sounds fancy, but it’s really accessible to anyone, not just advanced programmers. And once you try it, you’ll never go back.

Git is a popular version control system that’s all the rage these days – aided by the star power of Linus Torvalds, its creator (who uses it for Linux kernels, not Max patches, sadly). Mormo aka Tomasz comes to the rescue of patchers with a complete guide to applying Git to patch management. Now, I’m a big fan of Subversion (”svn”) myself — but even then, you can follow the basic guidelines here and get something going.

Aside from the technical details of how this works, Tomasz gets into some of the deeper issues of what this is really about: sharing, collaboration, and openness.

Basement Hum: Version Control and Max/Msp. Part 1: Delegate Versioning to Git
Basement Hum: Version Control and Max/Msp. Part 2: Fragmentation vs Collaboration

Before you get scared away, just trust me on this: if you make patches, even simple ones, if you have zero programming experiment, you’re going to wind up loving version control. Naturally, this kind of version control could eventually be applied to musical materials and not just code and patches – and that’s when things get really interesting.

This works well for Max (and Pd) because it uses text-based patches. (Code will work nicely, too, lovers of Processing or Csound or SuperCollider or Chuck.) If you have binary files, it’s going to be tougher to do things like merges — sorry, Reaktor.

Tomasz writes:

Hi, I posted the first two parts of a three part series on why and how a version control system (git) can be relevant to musicians creating software devices for their music. The monome application-creating community and its use of max/msp form the case in point.

SVN would work fine too. I chose git partly because i’ve started using git lately at my day job (web development) and i’m interested to get to know it better. Also i really like that its trivial to put an existing project under git control, just a couple of command line instructions and no need to explicitly configure a repository.

There have been complaints lately from certain bloggers that Git makes it harder to share a repository online. I asked about that specifically, and Tomasz responded:

From your git managed directory it can be as easy as running:
git push

This will work if you’ve cloned a github repository as described here:
http://www.basementhum.com/2009/02/version-control-and-maxmsp-part-2.html
(though in the article i typed a more verbose version)

A demo is short for “demonstration,” and its purpose is to show others what you can do, musically. In the past, a band with major-label aspirations would scrape together a bit of cash for a few hours in a studio and crank out a few copies of their best songs on a tape or a record and then send it off to various A&R departments, hoping for a record deal and a contract with a fat advance. These days, technology has made the concept of a demo and its applications somewhat different, but we’ll always need to share what we’re capable of with others.

If you’re in Chicago this Tuesday… During my time at Modsquare a few years back, I organized a Demo Swap at a club in Chicago, where guests would get in free if they showed up with a stack of 10 or more or their demos on CDR. Not only did I discover talented local acts who I featured on our free online compilations, I met artists that I would later book at events, and learned that fellow attendees who had met at the night ended up collaborating on projects. Since I had so many people asking me to do another one, we’ve reincarnated the night at Ramp Chicago. So if you’re close to Chicago, show up at Sonotheque on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 9pm with a stack of demos or promotional material, get in for a reduced cover, and start meeting your fellow musicians and industry types (Peter Kirn of CDM will be there!). Read more about it here: Demo Swap July 17 at Ramp Chicago.

Where’s it going?

Figure out your intentions with the demo. Is it to get signed to a label? To book gigs? To find like-minded potential collaborators? To get work scoring a film? Similarly, determine the audience. Is it the A & R people at a label? The talent buyer at a club? Other musicians? Each of these requires a different approach.

Getting signed

If you’re trying to get signed to a record label you have to take into consideration the sort of label. Most thriving independent labels focus on staying within a particular niche or “sound,” especially in the fields of electronic music and indie labels. If those are the types of labels you are hoping to release with you should make a demo that will fit within those niches.

First, find out if unsolicited demos are accepted at the labels you’re considering. You don’t want to waste time and money on something that won’t even be listened to. Then make sure you’ll fit there. Don’t submit psychedelic folk to a minimal techno label and dark drum and bass likely won’t fly at an indie-emo label in the Midwest. While you don’t need to bend your style to fit in with a particular label, you should look at the rest of their releases and consider whether or not you think you would fit alongside the other artists. With my own label, subVariant, I focused on IDM and melodic, glitchy 4/4 tracks, and I was always surprised (and a little annoyed) when I would get trance, folk, and hip-hop demos.

Include a short bio along with a brief description of what you sound like, and feel free to name-drop musicians you’ve played with or acts that you’re similar to. Faced with an unfamiliar situation (you, the unknown artist), humans look for a familiar point of entry, and more well-known names will help them get to know you better.

If you create wildly divergent styles of music, perhaps you should consider setting up one or a few side projects so that you can package your sound appropriately to each label. This also depends on the label type. Some are far more eclectic and open to different styles while others have a laser-sharp focus on one particular sub-genre.

After about a month or so, drop a note via email and pleasantly ask what they think of your demo. If you don’t hear anything back, or you get a “no,” suck it up and move on to the next label. Or, if you think their criticism was constructive, go back and rework your songs and have a fresh demo made.

And if you’ve only got one or two labels in mind that you’re absolutely in love with, make a jaw-dropping first impression by sending your demo overnight via FedEx, DHL, or UPS (or if it’s a PO box, then USPS Express) in the States or the international equivalent. Telefon Tel Aviv did this and got booked to Hefty records.

Getting booked

If you are trying to book a gig at a club or other event, it’s best to provide a short (20 or 30 minutes, tops) overview of what you do live, either as a live PA or a DJ set. An actual live recording would be best, and if you can hear an exuberant crowd reacting to your music, even better! You’re trying to convince the talent buyer that crowds love you when you play out, and that you’ve got a solid act. Myself, I’ve got links to differently-themed DJ mixes on my website and as CDRs that are appropriate for different types of gigs (ie: 4/4 mix, IDM / chill mix). Make sure you include a one-sheet with an overview of who you are, why you’re interesting, and what you sound like.

For more on this, check out my other article, Getting Booked: Ten basic tips for getting live electronic music gigs.

Getting a partner

If you’re looking for potential collaborators, create a short demo showcasing the kind of tracks you would like to work on with someone else. Make notes on the kind of things you’re hoping to get help with for each track. So if , say, you’re trying to find a vocalist, but have no idea of the melody or lyrics, just put up the instrumental track with a note that says something to that effect. But if you’ve got the melody and lyrics down but just need someone to perform it, you can sing it yourself and mention that the current vocals are just one interpretation. Here’s a list of online places where you can find like-minded musicians:

• Splice Music http://www.splicemusic.com
• Kompoz http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/home.music
• EM411 http://www.em411.com

Getting jobs

If you’re looking for commercial work, then you should present a spectrum of the sort of thing you’re capable of, be it emotive washes of sound, or rocking party music. If you’ve previously scored a film, include a three or four-minute clip of the tune (provided you have permission to do so) and briefly describe the scene it was used in. You should also include a one-sheet and bio that present your unique talents as a musician and suggests that you’ll be professional and easy to work with. Testimonials from happy former clients are also a great idea.

The demo itself

Don’t waste money on getting your demo professionally mastered or mixed, especially if you’re sending it to record labels. Try to find a set of flat response speakers or a friend’s professional studio monitors and try to mix it so it sounds pretty much the same on any sound system. Remember to keep a non-hard-limited or non-compressed version of your demo somewhere so that when the time comes, a professional audio engineer has “room” to work their magic.

For all types of demos, keep it simple & short. Put your best track first, followed by two or three in descending order of perceived strength. While an album may have a real winner at the end to leave a positive impression, often times people who are pressed for time will stop at the first or second track, and skip through perceived “filler.” Make sure you grab them with the first song, and keep them hooked with the ones that follow. Unless you’re submitting to an ambient / noise or abstract label, leave off the tracks that have five minutes of building sound or slowly extinguishing outros, or make edited versions of those songs.

Plan on having it in multiple formats to accommodate the preferences of the recipients. Chocolate Industries only accepts CDR demos, but Archipel accepts links to online tracks but not as email attachments. At the night I help book, Ramp Chicago, we ask that any local act who wants to be booked show up at one of our nights and hand us a demo. This gives us a chance to meet in person as well shows us that the act is serious about wanting to play and will make the effort to come see what we do. Here’s a list of formats your demo can be in:

• CDR / DVD-R (here’s some nice packaging)
• Online, zipped or archived as one file
• Online, separate files to download
• Online, streaming
• On a 16 MB flash drive
• On a 16 MB SD card
• On a social networking site like Myspace
• A business card, flier or postcard with a link to a URL where people can grab your stuff (here’s a printer)

No matter what the medium, always make sure your contact info is on the disk, card, or page where your files are. And don’t just put it on a sleeve with a blank CDR inside, since the two pieces will invariably become separated.

For all demo applications except for commercial work, don’t waste time and money by creating elaborate artwork for your demo. A record label will come up with its own artwork and concept (sometimes with your input, sometimes not), a talent buyer isn’t interested in the underlying themes of your music, and a potential collaborator is focusing on the music.

One thing you can do is to make the packaging of the disk or the postcard with the URL stand out in a singular way so that it will be easy for you to follow up later and reference your demo in a stack on the recipient’s desk. For instance, you could glue a sheet of bubble wrap on the back of your business card if you make pop music, make a CD case out of purple satin if you make lounge-y tracks, or (as one demo I received) create your business card in the shape of an flash memory stick from a Play Station Portable.

Success with your demo

Having a polished demo (or multiple versions thereof), while important, is just one of the steps in achieving success with your music. Networking can help you get a personal recommendation to the head honcho of a record label—start asking your friends and contacts if they know anyone at the label you’re considering and ask for an introduction. Checking out events and clubs in your city and introducing yourself to the talent buyers will be the first step to getting booked for local gigs. Taking advantage of the opportunities provided by social networking tools and online communities will help you find other musicians with whom to create stellar tracks you couldn’t do on your own. Being professional, doing excellent work, and going the extra mile for your clients will thrill them and they’ll refer you without you needing to ask for it. Your demo will change over time to reflect your current work, but keeping a professional attitude and commitment to your music will always help you get where you want to go. Good luck!

Do you have a favorite medium for demo creation? Is there one social networking site that you consider superior to others? Do you have any success stories with creating a demo that you’d like to share? Let’s hear it!

We’ve already been exchanging some great tips for organizing your life, both musical and mundane. On the musical side, one of the most compelling software tools just got a big update today:

Minim: Music Management for Musicians

This elegant, very Mac-like utility organizes your songs, storing lyrics and audio/MIDI files and letting you track metadata about what songs are on what albums and work in what venue and are in what state and require what musicians … you get the idea. Basic features:

1. Metadata and lyrics
2. Albums and album art
3. Audio and MIDI files, images, and videos
4. Collaboration via iChat (nifty!)

The update features a slick new interface and the ability for songs to live in multiple albums. You can even upload directly to the community site iCompositions.

It looks really nice, but I’m also enjoying the wiki approach for content, since it allows the app and data to live, cross-platform, on a flash stick. Anyone know a good, TiddlyWiki-style wiki (or TiddlyWiki plugin) with multimedia support? And anyone using Minim for your music? I’d love to hear how it’s working for you.

Here in the US, it’s almost tax time for anyone who lacks an accountant and procrastinates. That’s all the more reason to consider tools for keeping your life together, from mundane stuff that has to get done to musical and creative materials that keep you inspired and artistically productive. It’s a huge volume of information.

My recent solution has been to un-tether myself as much as possible from traditional, platform-specific, offline applications. I’m not one of those people who believes music software will someday all be online, Web 2.0-style. Music DSP and complex music creation software loves to be tied to a platform, running locally, performing advanced sonic marvels on your local CPU; end of story. But that’s all the more reason to have less to deal with for everything else. With licenses for Ableton Live, Reaktor, Max/MSP, and various plug-ins to worry about, live musical sets to backup and organize, visual programming code and patches and video files and everything else, and four machines in the house, three of which regularly go out for gigs with me in alternation — well, you get the idea.

I plan to do a full writeup on this soon, but here’s a quick peak, because I’d like to get some of your feedback before I do a full feature. My organizational toolkit right now is:

1. Gmail for email, with the Greasemonkey Gmail scripts to speed things up.
2. Google Reader for RSS reading, which I’ve found bar-none is the fastest way to get through RSS feeds thanks to its latest update.
3. Google Docs and Spreadsheets for mobile document reading and sharing, though I do still rely on NeoOffice for Mac and Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows for everything else. And, of course, a local text editor (TextMate for Mac and SCiTE for Windows) is still essential.
4. del.icio.us for bookmarks, plus the Firefox extension, though I am looking for a better tool for online research — when I actually want to clip and take some notes.
5. Basecamp for organizational stuff, which is now running CDM, basically — definitely a must to have separate “groupware.”
6. Flickr for photos.
7. New — TiddlyWiki for taking notes.

The bit that’s stuck me up the most is figuring out how to track projects and to-do items. I’m a big fan of Getting Things Done, but finding the right “trusted system” has been hard. As a creative, you wind up with enormous projects, lots of complex due dates and dependencies, and sometimes need to focus in on specific projects. GTD should work, but the system becomes critical. Paper’s out of the question, because it gets overwhelming fast, and it’s too tempting to start spawning new lists of tasks all over the place.

One thing I’m unsure of is the fact that most GTD systems are strict about not putting due dates on tasks. That seems fine, except that a lot of times due dates are what determine what you do next. But I’m coming around to the idea of using reminders in conjunction with an independent calendar with all the dates on them, using more TiddlyWiki magic like GTDTiddlyWiki or MonkeyGTD.

I’m curious about what you’re using.