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16 July 2000 I finally picked up a copy of the July 2000 issue of Keyboard, read through it, and low and behold they made some edits (suprisingly very few) but there's a typo in the first line which was a mistake of the editors--NOT MINE! Although, it was my mistake for leaving out "Propellerheads Software" to begin with. There are supposed to be support RBS files available, however the Keyboard magazine website wont be updated until tomorrow. They even used the graphics I made up for the meter charts! MP3:: Meanwhile, back at the goat ranch....I took the new edit of e-priori, and exported various parts to audio files. Imported the AIFF files into Pro Tools and took a crack at a new mixdown of it. This is the 317 BPM version I recently posted. Some details about how i did this: Since there are several different types of samples used, I created different files for different parts. One file has drums, one with the top 303 melody, one with the second 303 melody, one with the Wavetable samples, one with the upright bass samples, etc. Most of parts i converted from stereo to mono. Instead of rendering the delay effects on the 303 lines, I copied and pasted the line to a second track then offset the audio by a dotted quarter note. The first 303 line is similar except I used 2 copies of it rather 1. Each of the second tracks is offset to different steps (dotted half and dotted quater note). The drums were compressed a bit, and eq'd. The upright bass was compressed. and i mixed and added some reverb to the pad sounds. The wavetable track was duplicated and offset by 17ms (this creates a cool little chorusing effect without DSP) and panned the trackes L and R. blah...blah...blah... you can still tell it was created on ReBirth, but the mix is a bit cleaner so you can hear each element more distinctly. There are some things i need to fix though. Bad Zero Crossings are causing pops and the intro wavetables have a funny glitch when the PCF cutoff makes a sudden shift.
=Peff 14 July 2000 - happy Bastille day, i think... What? You Still haven't checked out my article on ReBirth in the July 2000 issue of Keyboard Magazine!!!? no big dealio, I haven't either :-) TXT:: o.i.n.k. (Mr. ReConstruct Mod) got me to hook into Rocket Network. It's the networking software where Logic Audio users or Cubase Audio VST users can collaborate on projects together. We're tinkering around with a little project using ReBirth Beats and some 303 lines i tossed in on the fly. If you want to check out what we're up to, download the Rocket Logic Audio and Rocket Controller software. If you're having problems e-mail o.i.n.k. since it's his job to fix to help you get set up :) The project we're collaborating on is in the Public Techno Studio on Harmony-Central, and it's called "dumb beat". Actually some others added some pads and stuff to it and it's sounding pretty cool :-) Perhaps the propellerheads will make Reason Rocket powered as well - now that would be cool :-) 13 July 2000 TXT:: I've just been informed that Keyboard Magazine has published my article with 10 Hot ReBirth Tips. I haven't seen it yet (no subscription). I added some of my best tricks in there :-) Including suggestions on writing 32step patterns, 3/4 meter songs, the "Plucked 303" ala Can of Vibe trick, pitch tuning, and several techniques using the delay. 303:: All of the TB-303 loops have been ReCycle!'d. I've tested them out and some sound glitchy because I didn't slice them on precise zero crossings. The TB-303 waveforms are pretty dramatic and I opted to slice them between notes rather than on zero crossings. Next time, i'll try something different to get them less glitchy. I've also added a new pattern/sample/REX archive from Koen "F-NUL" Heldens from the Netherlands. =Peff 11 July 2000 RBS:: I made some changes to the Red Stripe Mod Demo track, e-priori. I decreased the tempo down to 317bpm and fixed a few funny sounding drum hits in the patterns. I also tweaked some of the levels that seemed a little too hot. I almost forgot how much fun ReBirth is with all this other stuff going on. It's available on the RBS page here or on the Propellerheads Song Archive. Attn: Jackplug, I've picked up work on that RSDNB file again. So who knows I might have something finished soon--unfortunately it's spawned a few new ideas for the Redstripe Mod :-) MP3:: The Remix of Zapruder Red's "Four" is online! It's named IV. (Peff Remix)
303:: Niklas Hjelm Smith's First Project 303 Pattern has been transcribed to the TB-303 and tracked. I'm used my custom Neve D.I. input to record this one. It gives a little more coloration to the sample which is not quite as bright as the other samples, but a little more musical sounding. This 303 sample is the first to be introduced as an REX file for Cubase users. This will also be handy for Alkali Users and REASON users through the Dr. REX module. Addendum: Ok, so i managed to finish both of Niklas' Project 303 submissions as well as a few other REX archives today :-) Enjoy!
7 July 2000 MP3:: I received a New Remix of Visions Peace of Mind Remix from mp3.com artist DJ Savage. I dig the effect that he did with Buchla Flute sequence. This remix is has a definite sonic collage feel, and there are some nice moments in it. I wish the timing was tighter, but the audio quality is quite good :-) These creations are all placed on the Visions Remix Page. The samples are still available for anyone interested in trying their hand at remixing the track. I might even give it a try myself... Actually i figured out what I didn't like about the original. The drum groove quantization template I used didn't work with the variations i made with the drums. I need to go back and either re sequence certain drum parts or move them around in Pro Tools. TXT:: I think i finished up that Remix for Zapruder Red as well. After setting up the monitors again, I listened and found a bunch of problems with it. The sub bass (from the Red Stripe Mod) was throwing some dissonance into the mix so I had to resequence/retrack the audio with the sub bass tuned to the rhodes piano textures. I'm pretty happy with this project. It turned out better than I thought. Everything was tracked into Pro Tools 5.0.1 (the update arrived a few weeks ago). I spent about a month coming up with drum patterns for the remix. Then I did all sorts of twists and turns with the patterns by cutting and splicing them in Pro Tools. It's quite handy for quickly editing narrow slices, drill effects, and reverse loops. :-) On a bad note. I've been listening to tracks i've posted when I wasn't using my Genelecs. Damn some of them suck. I apologize for making people listen to that crap. I guess that's one of the nice things about rebirth. You don't have to worry about all those little things you can't control. 4 July 2000 - Happy Colonists Kicked England's Arse Day! TXT:: I finally got my monitors back yesterday, so today I can really celebrate my independence from crappy home stereo speakers! Damn those Finnish took forever to do the repairs. Actually it was repaired in the US, but they ordered parts from Finland. I guess everybody over there is obsessed with Football (soccer) and too busy to get anything done. Since i sent the monitors in, i rearranged my workstation configuration and had to make a couple of new cables for the monitors. I couldn't find any Neutrik 1/4" Phone plugs, so i had to opt for some switchcraft unbalanced ones. The monitors use XLR (F) pin 2+. I used Canare Cable - i have about 100m of a 200m spool left. You never know when you need a custom cable :) Note to self: Order some more Neutrik TRS 1/4" plugs and some Neutrik XLR M&F connectors. 25 June 2000 TXT:: Met up with Ritchie Argue aka Cipher, one of the makers of the Regulator Mod :-) He was visiting SF from Vancoover, Canukland. I took him on the bay area tour. We took a little ride down to 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California = Apple Computer's main office. Then a little exursion over to Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale. Oddly enough Fry's was not too busy and getting through the check out line was pretty easy! Took a ride back up to SF, over the Golden Gate to Marin, then over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to the East Bay, then back into SF over the Bay Bridge. It was a pretty long drive, but I think Rick finally has an idea of how big the "Bay Area" really is now. By Ritchie's recommendation I picked up a Linksys 4 port DSL/Cable Modem router switch to install on my friend's DSL (no more swapping ethernet cables) Man this sucker was easy to install and works great. Auto-sensing 10/100 switching hub as well as a DHCP router so now I can plug into my friend's DSL guilt free :-)
20 June 2000 JPG:: I've added a couple more shots of stuff to the Gallery. MP3:: Created a little Mini Web Page Layout for the MP3.com page using an old site design intended for this page. I was a little suprised that the MP3.c HTML filters accepted image maps. I'm also working on compiling the next DAM CD. There are a few tracks which need to be finished and added to the servers before the CD Tracklist is complete. 303:: Niklas Hjelm Smith sent in a couple of cool patterns. I need to transribe them sometime soon. Also in anticipation of Reason's Dr. REX, I will be converting these samples to REX format for use in Cubase and Reason. Similar to the TB-303 sample I used in the Archer demo for Reason. 14 June 2000 TXT:: HEAT WAVE!!! Literally....it's so unusually hot right now and sitting in front of warm equipment is rather pointless. I've installed an adaptec 29160n SCSI card in my old 8500 and all I can really say is "Damn! Adaptec Rules!" I love these no brainer hardware upgrades. I just popped the SCSI card into a PCI slot, connected up the ribbon cable to the hard drives and the system automatically booted off the cards :-) Unfortunately Pro Tools doesn't like it when the PCI bus is dominated by the SCSI controller so I have to limit the throughput to 20MB/sec rather than the full 160/80 MB/sec :-( MP3:: I'm moving all the cardioid tracks over to the "Peff" page and slowly phasing out the tracks. It's easier to manage one page and now that mp3.com's servers are so much faster, it's not such a big deal to have 20 something tracks listed on a single page. 10 June 2000 TXT:: I've been busy with stuff. Right now I'm tweaking out a mix tape that a friend of mine made. It's pretty amazing how you can digitize the whole thing, denoise it, fix balance problems, edit that damn gap in the middle of a 60minute cassette, all on your computer now. I've made one of those unsolicited remixs of Laurent Garnier's Track GREED for the remix contest on his site. Wish me luck! Actually I've posted the remix on MP3.com and I managed to sneak it past their copyright police :-)) So if you wan't to take a listen - it's the only track you can't download in mp3 form. I'm not sure if the contest is still open, but the samples are still available from Garnier's site.
Also, I'm in the middle of remixing a track for Zapruder Red, who made a stunning remix of Visions. He sent me some samples recorded on a 4-Track - cool moog, and rhodes samples that i'm trying to fashion into a dnb style remix. All this remixing is inspiring me to create another mod, but I'm still trying to finish up polar. I need to focus and finish all these projects in the queue! 30 May 2000 MP3:: I've been clearing off my hard drive, and stumbled across an old REASON file that was never completed. I figured that someone might be interested in taking a listen to the incomplete track. Who knows when reason will be available :-) This track is mostly 3 different REX files mixed around with some Subtraktor Noise FX. I think this was started with an early alpha version and there was some problems because of the MIDI file.
22 May 2000 TXT:: I'm flying back to the US now. What a fantastic trip/vacation!!! The plane trip over was a hard one. I tried to sleep but got none. Jonas (Mr. Funkateer) decided to swing by my Hotel, and although I was totally exhausted, we gave Hami a ring and met with him for a real British Pub experience. Hami's collegues, Sony Playstation Game developers, joined us for a few "Pints". After Struggling back to the hotel, I tried to get some sleep that night, but the jetlag really hit hard and I couldn't sleep at all. Thursday morning/day is basically a blur. I think I met up with Jonas, Hami and the Sony people for a bit of lunch. I'm not really certain though. All Iremember is talking to people over the phone all day and finally getting a solid 3 hours of sleep before going out on Thursday night to Scala. Have you ever experienced people in Real Life calling you by your internet nickname? It's an odd experience. At the Red Stripe Party, I met a lot of people from 5emedia including Jackplug (Paul). What struck me oddly was that so many people recognize me as "Peff" and not by my real name. So all night long people kept referring to and calling me "Peff". It's an odd thing :-) The DJs played a lot of killer Drum and Bass all night. One of the Highlights was hearing this MC improvising over the the DnB tracks chanting "ReBirth" and "Red Stripe". Jackplug had all these great graphic images projected on the walls including Jesuspark's great mod interface. Anyways, I think the promotional party was quite a success. Congratulations Jackplug and 5emedia, you guys did a fantastic Job! There were also 6 iMacs set up in the Scala VIP room where people had a chance to sit down and Play with ReBirth and the Red Stripe Mod. It's pretty funny since everyone got really sucked into the program (just like anyone who is probably reading this). It was interesting to see how many people were totally unaware of the program (quite a few girls were busy playing with it, too) Kaustik made it to london, but was a bit too exhausted to make it to the party. It was good to speak with him over the phone, but it's really too bad that he missed the fun. Jesuspark, Hami, Janjan, Lazerbill, Jonas, Jackplug, were all there :-) Friday morning, I was up early and decided to go do some gift shopping to get that out of the way. I had a hard time getting a cab, so the hotel calls up this "Mini-Cab" company. I thought to myself that they were going to send someone with a Mini-Van, and I ended up getting this Black Stretch mercedez-benz limo who only charged me a few £ more than a black-cab would have cost. I felt just like a rock star ;-) Later we all met up and hung out in London. We feasted on this mediocre chinese food. I guess we were all really hungry since we ordered enough food for about 16 people, and there were only 6 people dining. Saturday morning I planned to meet with jesuspark and his girlfriend, Nina, at the Tate Museum of Modern Art. It was quite impressive. I had a chance to see some nice pieces as well as some junk (literally--there was this cube of compressed junk). Some masterpieces from all the greats of the 20th century. A bit of culture is always good for the soul - especially surrealists :-º Jackplug's friend Bernie had a toothache, and she had to return home early, so JP kindly offered her ticket to me for Leftfield at Brixton Academy. The show was amazing. Most astonishing was the crowd. I've never seen a more enthusiastic crowd for an electronic group. It wasn't the typical rave crowd like we have in the states, or a club crowd. It was a nice gathering of people of different ages and backgrounds all there to enjoy Leftfield's performance. I must say that the British have a much deeper appreciation for electronic music than the US, and I'll bet the rest of Europe is the same way. Leftfield open the show with the SICKEST SUB BASS that basically rattled every bone in my body. You could tell it was a real analog filter because it was hitting these really subby harmonics. I noticed on stage that they were using a couple of Sherman Filterbanks, and I thought to myself, "Ahh, of course!" That bass literally "Rocked" the house! Well, it was the first time I've ever heard any Leftfield, but the crowd had such a nice energy (sure it was chemically induced, but it was nice) which made the xperience quite enjoyable. The dub stuff was great. Sunday - I ventured over to browse some record shops and dropped into easyanthing internet cafe. Surfed around a bit on the Windows machines--well sunday was "one of those days", but I wont go into it more than saying i had to deal with windows. I sorta became aquainted with this producer/all around cool guy, RIO, who invited me back to London to go party with him and his friends. I'm looking forward to it. Moral for the day: Fortune favors the bold, and good things come to those who wait. Sunday Finally ended and things worked out much better ;-) All in all I have to say that this trip was intense. Finally meeting more of my online aquaintances was great, and now i'm dead tired from all of the fun. 15 May 2000 RBM:: Polar mod side stick demo is now online:
MP3:: I've also pieced together a track using the Polar.RBM mod and other Gear. Hell's Foyer features some ambient textures from ReBirth. It's not pretty, nor is it pleasant - It's a Cardioid Track :-) 13 May 2000
I've made one minor modifications to the sample set. Rather than using a Distorted TR-909 Clap, I've replaced it with an acoustic sidestick. I was trying to find the right reverb effect for the stick--for a nice trail with some ambience-- but I couldn't get any DSP to generate the right verb sound. Vintage freaks will love this one... I ended up routing the sample through an EMS VCS-3 "Putney" and used the built in spring reverb. A triangle wave modulated the Dry-Wet Mix to give it a shimmering sound, and the Putney's internal speakers were on to add feedback into the spring reverb box. This new stick sound really complements the overdriven 909 kicks, but it's a little bit noisy (analog you know :-) I'll probably have a little sample of this up soon.
9 May 2000 RBM:: The new mod has a name! Polar. Unfortunately, a project has come up and I've been too busy to work on the graphics. The interface is approximately 70% done but the last 30% are probably the most difficult parts. I've also started up on another track which incorporates these samples--more weird stuff for fellow IDM lovers. MP3:: Einzelganger and Rob CEE (aka S@MP) have contributed visions remixes as well. Two completely unique versions to add to the remix catalog. Please take a listen Visions Remix Page I've put the VCO project on hold. The project is going to be epic so I plan to post parts as the project continues. To hear the lastest take a listen below:
ok, I can hear some of you saying "What The F#%*!?" no drums!? no 303 ;-) Perhaps I suffer from musical bipolar multiple personality syndrome... TXT:: I'm getting ready to go to the UK for the big Red Stripe Thingy. Looks like there is going to be quite a few constituents from the European ReBirth Using Community there, and I'm looking foward to meeting everyone. Everyone in the London Area should try to make it to this event! There's some other stuff coming soon. I think....Nothing is ever certain until it's actually released :-) 21 April 2000 RBM:: Construction on a new mod is well under way. I've been busy with that (as well as taxes) these past few weeks here. There's no name for it yet, but you can take a listen to the 386BPM demo track on my MP3.com page. Basically it has a bunch of analog samples including those distorted TR-909 sounds that I mentioned before. I've also been playing around with some cool DSP effects which create a totally different sound from anything i've heard before.
My Graphics work is really rusty. It feels like i'm doing this for the first time. It's been months since i've designed a GUI. This one will be pretty cool though. I'm doing things completely differently from previous mods. Thanks to inspiration from Wolfgang and Thomas Merkle (jesuspark) who have really set a new standard for interfaces. I might incorporate the samples into a Cardioid track, and name the mod accordingly. The sounds fit in that style of IDM music. MP3:: I started up another side project called the Virtual Computer Orchestra (VCO). Kind of a dorky name, but it speaks for itself. I'm trying my hand at doing some orchestral arrangements again. You can take a listen to the short snippet on the VCO mp3.com page ReBirther, Right Angle sent me another Visions RBS remix. I'm waiting for him to upload the MP3 to make it available. I'll post the RBS file up soon as well. TXT:: The Microwave thing isn't going to happen, so I've decided to check out GRM tools - man these RTAS plugins are cool. There are VST and TDM versions of them available from www.ina.fr I'll probably get these in lieu of any new hardware purchases. Uncle Sam really sucked me dry this year:( Well, I hope everyone has a happy Easter! 5 April 2000 MP3:: Lazerbill has created a remix of Visions! using the RBM version of the samples. Check out Chacotay (Little One) on the Visions Remix Page TXT:: Waldorf has informed me that the Microwave IIXT use a DSP based filter system. So I guess that means that the original Microwave has achieved Vintage Status - especially with that filter circuitry :) So i guess i wont be selling the Microwave. As some people have noticed, this site and Computer Controlled as well as the CC FTP and hotline servers were down. Apparently the niftywerks service provider had a router malfunction over the weekend, and it took awhile for them to get everything back up and running. It didn't really affect me since I've been recovering from some serious dental work since last Thursday. :-¯ Jeeze. It seems like I'm servicing everything this year. I guess this is a good way to prepare for the new millenium :-) However my e-mail has been fuxored but it's working now. To anyone who attempted to e-mail me over the weekend, I apologize about those error message responses. Everything should be working fine now. 1 April 2000 MP3:: WISSING has remixed Visions! Another fantastic twist on the original track. Please take a listen on the Visions Remix Page txt:: The one crappy part about having gear for a number of years is the unavoidable need to have it serviced. This has been one of those weeks. I sent in my Monitors to be serviced. It looks like they might have to go back to Finland...but i'm hoping the North America Service center can deal with it. I replaced the Memory batteries on a couple of synths this week. The Microwave was a bit difficult since the patches were lost when the battery died. Fortunately Waldorf has the factory patch sysex files available on their ftp :) One cool thing I discovered in the Microwave is that the filters use Curtis Chips! I never realized this fact before, but this explains the phatness of the filters. I was thinking about selling the unit, but not until I can confirm that the new Microwave IIXTs have the exact same analog filter circuitry. I've also had my Teeth serviced this week. It's been awhile, and the dentist had to scrape off 8 years worth of nicotine and caffiene stains, but I have to go back on Monday to have the other half of my teeth sandblasted. 29 March 2000 TXT:: I'm just testing out something here. Showing my friend Jason how to use an FTP. 28 March 2000 MP3:: The first Visions Remix is in from Zapruder Red. He did a fantastic job tweaking out the samples in to a cool Trip-Hop groove. You can take a listen to the track on the Visions Remix Page. TXT:: I've been engrossed in this new track that i've been creating in PT5.0 - Having MIDI incorporated into PT is fantastic - It doesn't quite have the features of Cubase or Logic, but the MIDI sequencer follows the traditional "Simple and Easy to Use" Digidesign philosophy. I had to tweak out the MIDI latency compensation a bit. On my slow system, I set a large buffer size, but I'm able to get more than 8 tracks of simultaneous audio playing through with RTAS plugs working as well. The latency is horrible for realtime recording, but for arrangement and editing, it's bearable. 24 March 2000 MP3:: I set up an MP3.com radio station which plays selections from the various projects I've worked on over the past decade. Check out Peff - The Definitive Playlist . It's strange to look at this list of songs because they vary from one end of the musical spectrum to the other. I'm starting to think that my musical diversity is really odd. I did the old 'Car Stereo Test' on some of the new tracks I've put out there, and damn i need to roll off some bass. Actually I mastered some of the tracks and reuploaded them to my sites. On that note, I'm sending in my monitors for a check and scheduling a hearing test soon. TXT:: Pretty boring week here. I backed up 16 gigs of data, and made redundant copies of vital stuff. I really need to upgrade to a faster CD-R. This old 2x might not last much longer. I made 4 coasters during this last back up session. Jackplug wanted a bio/link page to go on the RedStripe Promo CD. His project is coming together. Perhaps I just might make it over to London in May for the Red Stripe Party...eh...who knows... I sent Analoguesamples.com a copy of those Distorted TR-909 Bass Drums I spoke with an old friend, Skot, from Superfuzz. We did some work together years ago, and he filled me in on the never ending saga of their battle with Warner Japan. We might do some work in the future - possible 21 March 2000 TXT:: Fooling around some more with that other mod I'm working on, and I came across a cool new trick on ReBirth. After playing with a real TB-303, I'm using this technique in ReBirth to emulate the sound a little bit better. Read all about it here: Techtips #12 RBM:: I finally got around to sampling the TR-909 running through the Sherman Filterbank distortion - The BD is sweet baby! Supah Phat and Supah Nasty! I also grabbed some TR-606 samples from Analogue Samples, Loaded them into the MPC and processed them through the Sherman Filter Distortion. After trimming things down and shaving off all the noisy tails, the results are looking quite promising. Now to plan out a GUI :-) =Peff 20 March 2000 TXT:: Messed around with PT5.0 and MIDI for a bit today. It's pretty cool having that capability, but i'm still trying to familiarize myself with all the new nifty features. Thanks to Jackplug who helped me out with the stupid title bar on this page. Why didn't any of IE users (win users) tell me that it was messed up in the browser! oh well. Better late than never i guess. RBM::
There's a small update to the Visions samples mod I added some of the
pads into the unused sample slots. The mod has the same internal name
so you should trash the old one before installing the new Visions_Drums.rbm.
Download it from: Vision
ReMix Sample Page 19 March 2000 RBM:: Whoa...yeah a ReBirth Mod! I almost forgot how much fun these things are :-) There is a ReBirth Mod version of the Visions ReMix samples. The mod has NO GUI so you will have to use the Standard Interface to program it. It is also available on the Vision ReMix Sample Page 18 March 2000 MP3:: As I mention below, I'm opening up the samples from Visions for remix. I have uploaded the 16bit 44.1KHz .WAV format files in ZIP archives. For you people on smokin fat pipes, there is a single 20meg Stuffit Archive. Everyone is welcome to download the files, but if you use them for a release, please contact me so that I can explain how to word the licensing. This is Especially important if you intend to upload the songs to MP3.com or other copyright conscious sites, or if you intend to release the mix on a label. My latest track Paradigm Shift is a featured track on MP3.com's intelligent Techno genre--Hey! My friend Karen Bentley, an amazing violinist, recently sent me a CD to encode and upload to MP3.com. The latest recordings are from a series of live performances with a percussionist, Ian Dogole. Check out their tracks here. You can hear Karen on several other projects on MP3.com as well. She performs on the track Succubus on my page as well as the entire Succubus series and Konzerto by Stuart Diamond - a project I co-produced and engineered. Other Pages include: Electric Diamond, Ariel View, and Tesseract. Members of Tesseract are Researchers at Stanford University--the guys who developed FM synthesis and Virtual Modeling Synthesis technology for the famous Yamaha DX and VL series of synthesizers. I also had the opportunity to record her playing the Hrimaly Stradivarius Violin -- this was amazing. I'll upload an MP3 clip of this session sometime later. Actually, I made a little ReBirth Mod with some of these sample, but it's really bizarre so I've never made it public. Needless to say, Karen keeps me pretty busy with stuff :-) TXT:: I installed Pro Tools 5.0 LE upgrade last night (it's been sitting in the box since January). It seems pretty nice but it's really not compatable with the old Audiomedia III card. Maybe I'm missing something, but PT5.0 doesn't have the "Voice" enable features that PT 4.3.1 has. Importing PT4 documents into PT5 automatically assigns the voice settings and I can't seem to change them. Oh well. I'll go bug the guys on the digidesign message board to get the skinny. It almost seems like they are forcing me to upgrade to a Pro Mix or at least a Digi 001. some of the demo RTAS plug ins cause my system to crash, but removing them from the Plug-ins folder fixes that problem. It will be interesting to have the MIDI sequencer in Pro Tools. To W. Merkle: What's different in today's posting? Click on it and find out :-) 14 March 2000 TXT:: PC to Mac Conversion project is done! The second Powerprint USB adapter and PrinterSwitch work like a charm. So the office automation set up is working without a hitch. A click of a button in Filemaker Pro automatically selects the appropriate printer and prints out the documents. Technology is a wonderful thing :-) The scanner also arrived today, and everything is running through a cheapo USB hub. I did some experiments scanning the TB-303 manual. There's some cool stuff in there that people might be interested in seeing. I'll post up some images soon. Apparently Wolfgang Merkle, jesuspark's bro, has a clue! MP3:: I've finished up a new Cardioid Track! Paradigm Shift is now available for a listen on MP3.com. It's a lengthy piece with lots of crazy sounds and drums. I started this track back in December before the Reason Project came up. I put it on the side to create the track Archer for the NAMM show. Many of the noise samples are TB-303 sequences driving a Buchla through control voltage/gate modulation. Everything was recorded and arranged in Pro Tools. Other instruments used are a Korg Prophecy, Korg O1R/W, Studio Electronics ATC-1, Cheetah MS-6, Akai MPC-3000 & S3000XL. Effects include the Lex300 (now repaired see my pics) PCM-70, moogerfooger ring modulator and phaser, sherman filterbank, etc. I actually played the bassline by hand and looped it in Pro Tools -- it's not sequenced. There's something about doing things "live" which gives a nice feel. Okay, so the rest of it is highly sequenced. I've been picking up some cool arrangement tricks to get those warp/nothing type of sounds :-) 13 March 2000 TXT:: PC to Mac Conversion Project is almost complete! I finished up the printer formatting for that damn database. It's nice now since there are pop up menus for repetitive tasks (unlike the DOS version) and the Powerprint USB adapter working like a charm. I picked up a little USB hub and will be adding on a second Powerprint adapter for a multiple printer set up. I found a cool little control panel called PrinterSwitch by Daniel Schwartz of Brookline Software. What's more, there's a scripting addition which controls non PostScript printers. Applescript currently only handles postscript printers with the Desktop Printer Utility, the "Print Using" Scripting addition adds Scripting control to various printer drivers in the chooser - Very cool if you need to automate specific printing tasks. There are a few bugs with PrinterSwitch, but a stable work around is available. Whys is all of this necessary? Because my mom knows how to play games on the Mac, and automating it is imperative so she doesn't interrupt me while I'm making tracks :-) With all this database stuff, I've been inclined to learn SQL. I'm also working on a new website for my family (anyone with a clue can figure out the URL) Since the site is hosted on a <gag>MS-f#c%en-<gag>Windows<cough>N freaken T server (it's not that bad - i still think apache is faster and more reliable though), I'm trying to learn a little Cold Fusion. My Cousin Carole and her son Miles will be doing a lot of interface work on the new site from their G4:-) The interesting part is that all this web based database stuff isn't much different from the old style DOS database stuff. PHP looks interesting - I like the fact that it's open source and the fact that i'm a little familiar with the old dbase stuff. But since the site is served on Cold Fusion, I might as well take advantage of this opportunity. So I've ordered some books from Amazon.com - we'll see how this goes. I'm hoping that all this knowledge will help me further develop my next version of Peff.com. Thanks Emmet for hosting the site! 7 March 2000 MP3:: This seems as good of a time as any to introduce some new tracks I've been working on. This stuff is not ReBirth related and can be found at www.mp3.com/cardioid It's mostly MPC-3000, TB-303, various Analogue, and Pro Tools stuff. Xylox has included one of the Cardioid Tracks on his mp3 radio station playlist where he features various electronic artists on MP3.com. Thank you, Ray! Be sure to check out the music from Xylox, it's really quite amazing! Click the banner and be prepared to Turn On, Tune In, and Space Out! 5 March 2000 MP3:: The Pro Tools mix of Visions sucks. So I'm not going to post it. However since it sucks so much, I think I'll make it open for remixing. Check back for details on how to get the samples. I will probably post up segments of all the audio parts, including drums, vocals, basslines, pads, TB-303, and loops. TXT:: Thanks to everyone for recommending Solitaire games! I ended up downloading and purchasing a license for Hardwood Solitaire. They did a really nice job with the card graphics :-) I still think it's a terrible shame to use the G4 as a solitaire machine. Let me recant about the sheer speed of the G4: I've managed to convert the entire fiscal year of Lotus 1-2-3. Spreadsheets over to *cough* MS - *cough^@#$%@#%#$* Excel in about 2 hours. It's quite strange since 10 years of bookkeeping data, word processing, and correspondence, created on the 486 fit onto only 4 floppy disks. I copied the floppy data onto my 8500/G3, then transferred the data to the powerbook. Took the powerbook over to the G4 and built a crossover cable to connect the machines, and transferred the data from the floppies into the G4. AirPort is looking quite attractive at this point... I transferred data and applications from her old PowerMac 6300CD (piece of crap 603e). After Installing a copy of toast on there, I burned a CD with all that data. 6300s have an internal Apple 600i 4X SCSI CD-Rom drive which works well with Akai Samplers :-) I got a USB version of PowerPrint to connect up the old printers to the G4. These adapters work really well!, Powerprint 5 has drivers for just about every Parallel printer in existence. I still have the old Serial Port version for use with the older computers. My fellow mac users who don't know about this product might be interested in it since it will let you connect your Mac to just about any PC printer out there. The new version will also let you tranceive data with some of those multipurpose/scanner/printer/fax combo machines. My mum decided to get a scanner as well, so I ordered an Epson Expression 1600 since it has both SCSI and USB connections (and optional Firewire:-) Apple should have put about a dozen USB ports on the back of the G4. Side Note: I think we paid more for the 486 system (about $4,000 not including the printer) than I did for the G4 system with monitor. E-mail stuff:: I received Two interesting E-mails yesterday. The first was from Sam Evans, perhaps the youngest ReBirth User in the world!:
The Second e-mail was from a 13 year old named Jeffrey Kelbick from Ambler Pennsylvania, a self-proclaimed "hacker" who also uses the nicname, "Peff":
More TXT:: I think I will compile a list of other people using 'Peff' on the web - No, my sister-in-law is not Traci Bingham from Baywatch! , but I am into Pefftronics (their site is temporarily down). RBM:: I've pulled out the TR-909 and I'm going to make some wierd noise with it for the new mod. I listened to some aphex twin the other day, and I noticed that he uses the TR-909 a lot. It doesn't sound like a 909 since it's processed through a bunch of stuff. So in homage of R.D.J. I'm going to create a set of drum samples in that style.
=Peff probably not the first, and most certainly not the last :-) 28 February 2000
RBS::
After I finished that MIDI project, I figured it was time to hit ReBirth
again. I've started up a new track for the RedStripe Mod. Jackplug seems
to like this track a lot. It definitely has more of a Drum 'n Bass feel
than the demo I made for the mod. There's no name for the track yet,
it's just a bunch of patterns. RSDNB03.zip MP3:: The Pro Tools mix of Visions has been sent off to MP3.com, but I'm really sick of the track. After all that tweaking it lost it's groove. This stuff happens. RBM:: Yeah believe it or not. I think I'm working on a new one. It's been too long. I started making some noises on the Buchla 200 modular. Some sequential noise stuff filtered, distorted, spring reverbed etc. I started dropping some of these samples into an RBM and came up with some cool patterns. Eventually I'll finish it up :-) 23 February 2000 TXT:: I'm starting something new here. This page is going to be a little journal for me to keep track of the stuff I'm doing. Not everything will be ReBirth or Propellerheads related, however, since this web page was founded on ReBirth MODs, that will always be the primary focus. I'm not in the habit of keeping journals, but I try to keep the site constantly revised. This seems like a good place to keep a written record of the stuff I'm doing. MP3:: The Mackie 3204 Mix of Visions is now available from MP3.com. The Pro Tools Mix will be posted separately if people are curious to hear the difference in what I was previously complaining about. Like I said before, No offense to Mackie since they make excellent products, but the work I produce with Pro Tools is consistently better. This might be due to the production techniques involved in the recording process. The Pro Tools mix of the track should be available sometime next week. 22 February 2000 TXT:: Rather than lose sleep over that damn mix, I've decided to track and export all the audio on Visions over to Pro Tools™. So I didn't make it to bed (actually the couch) until 3:00am, but it was all worthwhile. Even the preliminary mixes are sounding 200% better than mixing through a Mackie. No offense to Mackie, it's just that there's so much more control in Pro Tools. Also I think I learned that mixing several sources through a single Reverb causes a lot of harmonic weirdness - especially with a dense reverb patch. By tracking each instrument individually with effects, the mix sounds so much cleaner and more spacious. This should be an easy mix down after the arrangement is set. 21 February 2000 TXT:: <BEGIN GRIPE> Ugh..I'm taking a break to rant a bit...I've been trying to mix down this track and slowly facing the fact that Pro Tools rocks. It's basically a MIDI track I did in Cubase VST with some audio bits, but the problem is that I'm mixing it on a Mackie 3204. Each time I go through the mix, it sounds a little different. I've finally decided that the mix I did at 2:00am this morning works better than any of the 8 mixes I've done since. There's something to be said for computer based automation. The effects aren't so hot if you don't have the horsepower in your CPU, but the automation makes life so much easier <END GRIPE> The track is for this little Native American Indian Electronic Song challenge set up by an avid listener on mp3.com. Check out the station for other works that people have been making for this challenge: Burning Bush - Native American Indian Song Challenge MP3:: My submission for the challenge should be available soon from my mp3.com page. Please check out Visions. There might be some problems though since MP3.com has been facing legal issues with copyrights. They might assume that the Apache Indian Chants I used in the track are sampled illegally, but I have mechanical license to use them :-) 15 February 2000 REASON:: I've posted some detailed Information about the track Archer [Mix 2]. This chart details what sounds are synthesized, the loops used, and the samples used. Also the effects and control voltage modulations of the various devices. Tage sent me this e-mail:
3 meters high - That's a lot of gear :-) 13 February 2000 MP3:: I'm such a dumbass! I keep forgetting to post my thanks to T.G.Virus and SpinThis! for the sample production on Archer. REASON:: I used a sample from the Metallicon+ Mod from the ReBirth CD. This sample was loaded into a sampler module and routed through a Filter effect. The Matrix sequenzer modulated the Filter for a PCFish type of sound. The Scratches were originally intended for the track, Keep Going, but I used them in Archer instead. I took a few seconds of Spin's Scratching, imported it into ReCycle, and Created an REX file. The Scratch.REX file was then loaded into Reason's Dr.REX player. A MIDI track in Reason's sequencer controlled the REX segment playback. 11 February 2000 Happy Birthday Mom! Sorry for being such a rotten son, but no one can be as perfect as you :-) 9 February 2000 MP3:: Archer [Mix 2] MP3 file is now available from my MP3 page. It's a better mix with more dynamics in the drums and some other Reason Subtractor sounds. Also, I'm happy to say that after 2 years, persistence has paid off. Someone has been squatting on a particular domain name, and their registration with network solutions inc. has expired! I got lucky and registered the domain before it was renewed, so this site will finally be located at Peff.com Actually, I might revise this site or perhaps create a new one. This depends on whether or not I have any real REASON to do it :-) 7 February 2000 MP3:: I've been reworking my latest track, Archer, made with REASON. The new mix is a bit different from the current demo MP3 file available on the Propellerheads website. It should be available shortly from my MP3.com page. Keep an eye out for Archer [Mix 2] 5 February 2000 Reason:: Well I've been down in Los Angeles this week for the NAMM convention. This is my first visit to the convention and I'm definitely not disappointed. The thing is HUGE and it's a gear freaks paradise (or hell). It's a bit of torture to see so much stuff you really want but can't afford. I met with Ernst, Marcus, Peter and Tage as well as Jesuspark and his brother. Last night we were out drinking where Marcus and Tage made the joke that they should have a Gearaholics Anonymous session set up at the convention. 12 steps to recovery from Gear Addiction. Other highlights for me was the chance to meet Robert Moog and Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi of Roland Corporation, Japan. I wont even begin to go into details about equipment, but I'll just say that there was a lot of nice stuff. My
sincerest thanks to all of the Steinberg people and Ernst and the Propellerheads
for the invitation to come to the show. I had a great time and It
was very nice meeting all of you. Thank you also to Ken at Digidesign,
Paul at Manley Labs, Gail at Big Briar, Paul at Summit Audio, the guys
at Studio Electronics, and Ron at Neumann.
MP3:: A new track created exclusively with the new Propellerhead's Application, REASON, is now available from my MP3.com page. Archer [NAMM 2000 Mix] Make sure to check the song story for information about preproduction. 28 January 2000 Reason:: Go to the Propellerheads website and check out Tage's New Users Area. Just do it and you will be happy :-)
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