Come on – you know that occasionally you want technology to respond when you slap it.

As my sister watched an episode of the television show Quantum Leap, I thoroughly enjoyed watch Dean Stockwell’s character Al give his pocket computer, looking for all the world like a 7″ tablet, little helpful smacks.

SmackTop does that for music. Yes, we hear, ad infinitum, the complaint that laptop musicians simply stare inertly at blue glowing laptops as if checking their email. Now they get to put a little skin in the game, literally. And a version 0.3 update makes this humorous novelty genuinely useful:

Imagine your laptop as a MIDI drum kit. SmackTop is an open-source application for Mac laptops which translates physical motion into MIDI messages. Through real-time analysis of the built-in accelerometer’s output, SmackTop is able to classify four different ‘smacks’. Now you can control your favorite DAW by simply tapping your computer. Slap samples, ping notes and hit record – SmackTop is the MIDI controller you already own.

Try it yourself, free:

http://code.google.com/p/smacktop/ (they miss the obvious name, “SlapTop,” but…)

Got another motion-sensing laptop that’s not a Mac and feel jealous? Maybe someone can port this.

In January, we also expect to catch up in person with developer Raymond Weitekamp and Interface LA, the awesome live performance collective in southern California. Stay tuned.

Slap that laptop, make it free!

Now, a tribute to slaps we love…

You’ve heard all the complaints about laptops onstage. But since there are many arguments for a laptop, why not put all that powerful hardware to use, and make your Mac laptop part of a musically-expressive performance?

Track Master, a Mac-only application available on the Mac App Store (and one of the few serious music offerings we’ve seen there), is a great place to start. It transforms the built-in, multitouch-capable trackpad on recent MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs into a MIDI controller.

The trackpads on those are actually impressively sensitive and accurate, tracking as many as eleven fingers at once. (So, uh, you can use all of your fingers and invite a friend’s index finger. Or play it by yourself, if you’re the guy who killed Inigo Montoya’s father.)

I’ve been playing with Track Master all morning (uh, yeah, sorry about the blog posts coming late), and it works brilliantly. With mappings to X/Y or scales, you can assign it to any number of instruments and effects. There’s an added bonus, too: by taking over your trackpad for musical use, you don’t risk bumping your trackpad, which makes the QWERTY keyboard more useful as a controller live, too.

If you still want to hide away your laptop, you can also make use of the larger Magic Trackpad hardware.

Full feature list:

Notes Mode

• Play in any key
• Can play with up to 11 fingers
• Chromatic or other scales for easy input
• Key latching, simply press escape while touching the trackpad Ed.: Yeah — that’s important! Keeps it on when you need it. I turned off the option to use “click” for the same feature to avoid accidentally disabling the feature.

X-Y Mode

• Tracks X, Y and finger on off for each number of fingers
• Has assignable control for up to three fingers
• MIDI learn functionality built in to make assigning controls a snap

Interface

• Shows exactly where your fingers are on your trackpad
• Displays which notes are active based on where your presses are

Also, due kudos to Apple: this kind of functionality is exactly the sort of thing an intelligent operating system should provide. Now, can you just please stop breaking plug-in validation, so we’ll love you forever?

Here’s an easy review: if you’ve got a (supported) Mac, get this. Period. US$4.99 well spent.

Track Master at the Mac App Store

Reforge, an iPad audio editor, has gotten a major update with version 2. It’s a ground-up rewrite with a new audio engine, and adds support for Sonoma’s increasingly-popular AudioCopy/AudioPaste API, which provides clipboard functionality for sound between iOS apps.

The novelty of running an audio editor on a tablet is clear. But how would you actually use it, in practice? I asked Tib Horvath, Reforge’s developer, to answer that question. He responds to CDM with some tips. It’s a pitch for his product, of course, but then that’s true if you describe the utility of any tool, and he has some nice ideas about what makes Reforge unique and how you’d work with it in production.

Tib writes:

Let me preamble that with what I believe Reforge is good at: Reforge modifies waveforms nondestructively. So copy, cut, paste, crop. But [it's also good at] also splitting stereo files into two mono files, or a mono file into a faux stereo file.

Then there is automation for volume, stereo balance, stereo widening and low and high pass filters, [as well as] time stretch or pitch (each is independent, but not yet automated).

You get all of this with a feel for actually touching the waveform and directly working with it.

So how does it fit in a production workflow?

1) None of the multitrack [iOS] apps support automation to the extent that Reforge does. So, if you need a sweeping low pass over a drum beat, copy the beat into Reforge [using AudioCopy, if you like], do the adjustments, render the file, and copy it back to where it came from.

2) Some apps work with mono files, but [what if] you have recorded/generated this great sounding stereo loop? Import into Reforge and split it into two mono files to copy over to your multitrack of choice.

3) Some multitrack apps do not work well with loops that just don’t fit. Get the loop into Reforge and make it fit by time stretching it. Clean up pops and other problems at the same time with the automated filter features.

4) Adjust the pitch of a voice recording — for example, if it is off-pitch or if you are looking for a special effect.

5) Podcasters tend to generate long recordings. They can now (since long audio files are only supported with Reforge 2.0) split and splice them. Or import podcasts (any other audio except audiobooks, [since they have DRM applied]) from the [iTunes] Library [accessible in the iPod app], and chop it up for easier digestion or further processing.

All of this is familiar to those who use dedicated audio editors on desktop. While many tools, such as DAWs, incorporate waveform editing, having a dedicated tool can be useful in assisting everyday audio tasks, making the drudgery of dealing with audio files take up less time.

Putting this on a mobile platform has a number of potential benefits:

• Form factor and interface. It’s just easier to pick up a tablet as a representation of your audio and carry it around, show it to others, and edit by touching the interface. You could manage some waveforms over a coffee before heading back to the studio or other workspace, in a way that involves different sorts of interactions than you’d have with a laptop.
• For the all-iOS producer, a tool like Reforge means you can work between other iOS apps more easily, producing sound and music all on the tablet without having to resort to the computer.
• For the person on the go, Reforge of course means the ability to do this editing in the field, as it were, without carrying along a heavier computer.

I do wonder, however, if this kind of easy audio copy-and-paste couldn’t come to desktop environments. Computers and hardware have long borrowed ideas from one another; it seems inevitable that traditional computers and tablets will do the same. And that means, even if you don’t ever touch an iPad, you could see positive benefits in the tools you use.

So, that’s what the developer says — and my speculative take on matters. Are you using Reforge, or other related tools? Let us know how you work.

Also, if you’re an iOS user who doesn’t already use Reforge, and you can tell us something useful about your workflow, I’ve got a promo code for you. Just be sure to leave a real email address in the comment field; only CDM administrators can see it, and we will only use that address for your code.

The tracker is back. Piano rolls and fake multitrack tape turn out not to be the only way to conceptualize how music is put together in digital form. And Renoise is a terrific way to learn a ground-up approach to production, because you get the quick workflow of the tracker without having to sacrifice so many of the “comforts of home” we’re used to in modern DAWs. So we’re pleased to have our Renoise + Indamixx contest going, not only for existing users, but newcomers, too.

Renoise users have one way of evangelizing why they love their tool, which is to show off, as seen in the excellent video above. But what if you’re new to Renoise, or new to trackers in general, and want to experiment? You don’t even need to make a cash investment: you can start to experiment with a relatively full-featured demo version on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The time investment is the likely barrier. So I asked Montreal-based Dac Chartrand of Renoise, who is also the man who keeps tabs on the community, to share his tips. Here’s what he suggests:

1) XRNS files are source code. Find one you like, load it up, press the spacebar and start clicking around. Renoise will happily chug along as you explore each and every facet of the sequencer. When you get bored of clicking, try remixing. Move some notes around, press the escape key and jam on the QWERTY keyboard. Anyone familiar with trackers will tell you that this is how it’s always been done, this is how it always should be, file sharing since the days of Amiga. PRO TIP: Tutorials and Demo Songs are in the Help menu.

2) YouTube is your friend. Go there, type Renoise, watch and learn. Enthusiastic users show off their tunes, some even make "Do It Yourself" tutorials for good measure.

3) Download the "Pattern Command Quick Reference Card" PDF file. This DIY reference was created by a user in the Renoise forums. It’s a cool print out that folds up and sits pretty  on your desk. Pattern Commands are special columns to the right of notes; lets you take sample manipulation to the next level.

PDF: http://paulmerchant.com/downloads/RenoiseReferenceCard2.pdf

4) If you don’t know trackers, then forget everything you learned about other DAW workflows. You must unlearn what you know in order to be a jedi master. For example, other sequencers  have a very strong relation between track and instrument. In Renoise, instruments go anywhere,  tracks are what you make of them. Other sequencers have a timeline, Renoise has patterns that you chain together to make a song. A newbie mistake is to try to make one gigantic pattern.  Instead, make several smaller patterns and sequence them.

5) Documentation. Yup, it’s thee copout tip. But seriously, there are tons of documentation on the Renoise website. Not reading them is kind of stupid.  When all else fails, browse the forums or see if anyone in IRC chat can help.

DOCS: http://tutorials.renoise.com/
FORUMS: http://www.renoise.com/board/
IRC: http://www.renoise.com/community/chat/

Thanks, Dac! Now, I’ll also be working on some stuff for CDM soon, as well, but this should get you going in the meantime.

Must-Have Renoise Utility

Bantai at Renoise also shares (via comments) an excellent tool for sharing your work in Renoise, compressing files, and – aprospos of Dac’s suggestion – inspecting existing XRNS files.

Another tip: you can get the filesize of your song down by up to a factor 10 if you use lossy compressed samples instead of the default 32-bit stereo FLAC file format. I reckon a small filesize wins you bonus points in a tweaker’s compo.

Since Renoise songs are basically ZIP files containing song data and samples, it’s almost trivial to run the extracted contents of the song through OggDrop or a similar application and zip it up again.

It can be easier: I have written a Java tool that takes the work out of your hands and compresses your Renoise XRNS song automatically:

XRNIRipper

(Java geeks, he also writes me: “I’m using vorbis-java lib from xiph.org and a modified version of jFLAC to support Renoise’s custom 32-bit FLACs. There are also several libs included to convert sample and bit rates. Curiously enough, I couldn’t find any other Java apps that encode files to Ogg Vorbis.”)

More Videos, Tips?

It’s a couple of years old and based on an earlier version, but I especially liked this tutorial for demonstrating what the workflow is about:

And if you Renoise-using readers have tips, or if you find a YouTube video you think is especially awesome, please do share. I’ll get back to working on my basic guide.

Mac users luck out when it comes to managing audio files, with exceptional choices like Snapper from AudioEase and the all-powerful AudioFinder, not to mention – if your needs are light – features like Leopard’s QuickLook. Windows users, by contrast, have been mostly left out. But good news: we’ve got a lovely solution for you.

TaggedFrog is a free/donationware utility for Windows XP and Vista that brings some powerful file management facilities. And what’s great here is that it looks dead-simple to use.

Lunar Frog TaggedFrog [Publisher Site, Free Download]

As the name implies, the tool is built around tagging files. Drag and drop files to the iTunes-style Library, then tag them with identifying keywords. That’s it: now the files you need just show up automagically, and you can navigate them by tag. You can also tag directly from a context menu in the Windows Explorer file manager, and if there is keyword metadata in the file itself, TaggedFrog can import those keywords. (For tips on cleaning up that menu, see my previous how-to piece below.)

That’s all nice, but the one essential feature that had been missing is audio file preview. You can thank our friend Brad of Brad Sucks for nagging the developer until it got added:

TaggedFrog adds audio previewing [Brad Sucks Blog]

Important: don’t forget as I did (doh!) that you need an extension to make audio preview work. Look for Croak on the download page. Drag the Croak folder to your [install]/TaggedFrog/extensions, and you’re good to go. An extra “extended information” pane will appear with a play button, optional auto-play, and loop options.

With audio preview, this already-lovely interface is now the perfect tool for managing your audio projects.

Also, what I really like about this approach is that you add only what you need to the library, in ad-hoc fashion. The problem with even the more elegant tools on the Mac OS Finder is that they all tend to assume you want to index huge chunks of your drive, or manage everything from the file system. TaggedFrog by contrast lets you cherry-pick that handful of files you actually need and store metadata about them, while ignoring everything else. You can even move the files when you tag them, so that you actually store them in a logical place instead of … ahem … a random folder in which you happened to leave something.

Of course, if you want actual sample editing and other fancy features in your file utility, you’ll want options like the aforementioned Mac tools. But if you do your editing in other tools anyway and just need to stop losing files, this seems about perfect.

If you start using this and come up with a useful workflow, do let us know. And if you like it, do donate to keep it free.

I know I’ve literally started using this today on my Windows box.

Previously:

Tips: Fix Windows Explorer, Be Happy

Sound is a wonderful, if invisible thing. To work with these tiny fluctuations in air pressure that make up what we hear, we always work with some sort of software metaphor. So why not make that metaphor pixels – and why not manipulate the visual element directly?

Translating between sound and image is not a new concept in music software. The deepest tool for these functions is unquestionably the Mac-only classic MetaSynth, which sprang from the imagination of Bryce creator and graphic designer Eric Wenger. To me, one of the most appealing features of MetaSynth has always been its filter tool, the one component that allows you to work directly with sound using imagery and painting tools. The core of the tool, however, turns images into a score for synthesis, which opens up powerful features for microtones and the like but can conversely make simply designing sounds more challenging. (Side note: Leopard users, read this re: MetaSynth.)

Photosounder looks like MetaSynth, but it more directly translates between sound and image. It also has a uniquely straightforward interface for precisely adjusting controls and mappings. Put these together, and you can really use Photosounder as an audio tool. That opens up not only experimental techniques, but even makes conventional tasks more accessible.

Photosounder is also under very active development, with recent additions like a lossless mode for better sound fidelity and loop modes. The result is a really compelling looking tool for audio manipulation.

What can you do with these pixel powers over sound? Users have been experimenting and posting some pretty impressive stuff:

• Isolating and removing individual instruments – making this an ideal remixing and sampling tool – using Photoshop
• Making entire tracks from photographs (which, again, was possible with MetaSynth as infamously employed by Aphex Twin, but sounds very different here)
• Processing using Photoshop filters
• Making beats by drawing
• Extreme time processing

Photosounder is currently Windows-only, but Linux and Mac versions are promised. (By the way, I think that’s going to become more commonplace as savvy developers take up cross-platform development tools, toolchains, and frameworks.)

It’s cheap enough to impulse-buy, too, at EUR25 non-commercial or EUR99 commercial.

http://photosounder.com/

Photosounder examples (with video)

I hope to get my hands on Photosounder and show off some features with this soon. Thanks to everyone who sent this in! (And yeah, after four or five people I finally get around to mentioning it!)

The best way to see what’s possible: check out the videos. Here’s a selection of my favorites:

Want to load ReCycle REX sample files onto your MPC? Or looking for a better solution for chopping up samples – that is, firing up ReCycle on your screen? Joe Lambert writes in to share his GBP11 Mac utility for the task:

Just a quick note to let you know about a little application I wrote that lets users easily convert chopped Recycle files into Akai MPC program files.

http://apps.steamshift.com/

This essentially allows a producer to chop a breakbeat (or other sample) using their Mac instead of having to use the built-in chopshop and small screen on the sampler itself. It also makes sample CD’s with pre-chopped loops a lot more useful for MPC users.

Unrelated, but he also has a nifty “virtual BCF2000″ utility so you can make use of its control mappings on the road, even when you don’t have the Behringer handy. (Editing in coach class, anyone?)

I’m curious what your REX/MPC workflows are like and if this is helpful.

MPC Forever

I certainly have no doubts that this is relevant to some people. I actually spent a good part of yesterday and today hanging out with MPC creator Roger Linn. Among many other conversations, Roger noted his own bemusement at the ongoing popularity of the original MPCs – to say nothing of the MPC as a category in general. You can buy version 3.10 software for the MPC60 from Roger Linn Design. Tom Oberheim’s SCSI adapter for the MPC also came up. From that site:

NOTE: As of March 1, 2009, Tom Oberheim’s Marion Systems has stopped manufacturing the MPC-SCSI due to diminished demand. However, he’ll make another batch if there is enough demand. If you definitely wish to purchase one at for the former price of $300, email us to let us know and we’ll add your name to a waiting list. When the list grows long enough, Tom will make another batch and we’ll contact you.

Yes, just to be clear, we’re talking the MPC60 and the now-defunct SCSI. (While you’re at it, maybe you’d like a new dust case for your Apple III?) Of course, despite allegations that electronic music tech is easily outmoded or disposable, the MPC is doggedly neither. And while I have no personal need for an MPC60, elegant achievement that it was, I find something comforting in that. So I’ll do my own small part – with apologies to Tom and Roger – to call attention to the thing.

Of course, if you do want something new designed by Roger Linn, the LinnDrum II is planned for release later this year. The moment I can talk more about that, I will.

It’s a tough time for the music tech industry like so many industries. But there are beautiful products coming from independent developers – indie, boutique shops crafting musical instruments in code. The folks at Devine Machine, makers of the likes of Guru and Lucifer, unloaded three big announcements overnight – enough to make you think there’s some obscure trade show going on at the end of March no one told you about.

Here’s the capsule view of why they matter:

OTR-88: A modeled electric piano

The beautiful thing about electric pianos like the Rhodes is that they’re really electromechanical instruments – amplified, yes, but entirely organic in the way they produce sound. OTR-88 is not the first attempt, as the developers imply, to use physical modeling techniques to try to reproduce those properties. Applied Acoustics’ Lounge Lizard, for instance, (available in Ableton Suite as Electric) follows similar lines. (Native Instruments’ Electric Piano and Digidesign’s Velvet have modeling approaches of their own, but also make use of samples.)

But OTR-88 does appear to go further. Tine movements are modeled in 3D. There are elaborate models of pickup interaction and velocity response. Herbie Hancock was consulted on the design. And you can adjust keys on a per-key basis. That should appeal to sound designers and electric piano aficionados alike. You can thank new physical modeling research by Efflam Le Bivic, one of Devine’s two developers.

I’m really eager to play this one.

OTR-88 Electric Piano

Krishna 1.5: Samples to Synthesis

The Krishna synth instantly earned respect for its “Frame Synthesis” approach, which makes it atypically easy to turn recorded samples into oscillators – a hybrid approach that threatens to end forever the synthesis versus sampling debate. 1.5 has a rebuilt engine, more LFO and ADSR routing destinations, and this tasty-sounding feature:

‘Snap to harmonics’ option for the filter : each note will instantiate a filter to resonate to its own harmonic.

Krishna Synth

One Shot Recorder

OSR is a terrific-looking little tool that’s designed to grab sounds while you play them. Set a threshold, record, and OSR spits out ready-to-use samples. That makes setting up a quick sampling or multisampling session — times when you may have a whole mess of samples to record — much easier. The new release now supports standalone and more pg-in formats, has a decay control, automatic sample reordering, and a pretty new UI.

One Shot Recorder (OSR) Sample Capture

OSR looks like the dream tool for a big multisample creation. Sometimes you may just want to grab some quick, beat-synced samples. Not new, but related, Live Sync Recorder is a tempo-synced VST. Turn it on, and it just rolls, slicing up your audio into one or two bar loops.

I actually can’t believe I didn’t know about this – I expect to put this to use very, very soon.

Live Sync Recorder Free

If you like that, there’s a fancier version, too.

I’m a big believer in open platforms, computer platforms, and the power to customize stuff. Unfortunately, there’s a simple reality: developers’ work is sometimes a bit like the proverbial bull in the china shop. (Code SMASH!)

In short: a lot of times when Windows’ file managemer Explorer is hanging, it’s not Microsoft’s fault. Misbehaved shell extensions – often installed without your permission by other tools you’ve installed – are often responsible.

If you’re like me, you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort if it saves you time down the road. For me, a few tweaks to Explorer resolve some of Windows’ biggest annoyances and make it workable, productive, and enjoyable for music making. (Greetings, FL Studio and SONAR and Reaper and Windows-only plug-ins!)

At the end of last year, I wrote up a story on troubleshooting Explorer for Rain Recording, the custom music and visual PC makers. (Rain takes care of a lot of the other Windows annoyances right out of the box, but shell extensions are added by software you might install after you get one of their boxes.) It’s not really a music story, but I think if you can solve computer annoyances, you can get on with music making – and I still believe computers are far more interesting, on balance, than outboard gear alone. Explorer oddities are not among those reasons, so I:

• Nuke bad shell extensions
• Customize the context menu so that, instead of a terrifying, moldy wasteland, it becomes a productive tool
• Stop network bottlenecks from hanging the system while it looks for disconnected file servers

Troubleshooting Windows Explorer [Rain Recording Pro]

I’m interested to hear how you work, though, and I’m sure there are tips I’ve missed.

Previously:
10 Free Non-Musical Windows Software Every Musician Should Use
12 Free and Cheap Must-Have Music Utilities for Windows

By the way, to revisit a previous story, I’m still not entirely happy with any antivirus software. Antivir is quite lightweight, but posts ads for buying the full version every time it updates. I still long for a simple, lightweight tool that doesn’t nag you and can be switched off (updates and resident protection) whenever you want. I also have to question whether viruses are the threat they once were – meaning, with other protections, what you may want is something a lot more modest.

Hands-on control is a wonderful thing, as NI founder and Reaktor “mastermind” Stephan Schmitt noted in our story yesterday on his creation Spark. And LFOs are often not terribly interesting. But even using your feet for modulation, you may eventually run out of limbs. So if you want to record automation but keep the human element, a motion recorder is not a bad way to go. Spark is just out, but our NI minisite writer Peter was so into it that he created a motion recorder for himself just to use it:

BlackBox Recorder: Free Reaktor tool to Enhance Spark and Kore

Now, as it happens, you don’t necessarily have to use this with either Spark or Kore, so it’s worth mentioning here. You will need Reaktor to use the patch, though maybe this will give folks ideas for creating something similar with Max or Pd.

It’s a simple tool, but motion recording can lead to all sorts of other ideas. Got a favorite tool for recording human automation quickly? Let us know.