Giraffe Dung

you know, i can't fucking stand reggae. i was hoping this thread would point me in the direction of some 'proper' reggae, stuff i'd been missing and just thought i knew what reggae was, but no! i just think it's meandering, monotonous shite. i don't even like bob marley. at all. what's wrong with me??!

he's totally undeserving of the level of props he's had, but there are a couple of decent tracks on his album. the i love college track is nice, it's kinda a throwback to accessible college rap rock groups in the 90s- although none of them felt the need to claim hip hop to be taken seriously. he sounds almost exactly like eminem sometimes and he was in the rawkus 50. that's pretty much why he's blown up i think.

maybe beatport? thudrumble? serato whitelabel, if you use scratchlive? better still if you use a dvs just make your own shit up from any of your favourite songs, it's part of the beauty surely...

yeah i assume it's definitely going to be a dongle rather than a link in the signal chain, although i have also realised it does clearly say 'fx midi controller' on it so maybe disregard what i just said about the proprietary nature in my earlier post... whether they're going to open itch up for midi input i'm not sure, they might be just allowing it to send midi out, and to be honest i think they might just be tripping over the nomenclature.

well basically it'll add two effects to itch. it's not a midi controller, it'll be proprietary, and when you plug it into itch you'll be able to use the effects (that will get added in on its release). you'll have to use this to use the effects. i doubt it'll even send midi for controlling third party stuff, can't see anyone wanting it for that use really as it's too specialised

saw this a couple of weeks ago and dismissed it as fanboy fake, but charles ono (vestax vp) has just confirmed it over at djtechtools' article. apparently it's a wip, but it already looks pretty cool. it's not clear whether this is going to work for the ns7 as it's the vci300 it's touted as being a companion to. in fact this brings up the question as to whether the itch software is specific to the hardware it controls, perhaps gizmo will confirm this- do you use a separate application for the ns7 and vci300 giz? if itch does become a fairly modular system it would be great, especially if they licence third party addons for approval. i really really wanted a 300 but eventually started looking at the 100 because it seemed silly to get something like that that could only emulate a turntable/mixer setup when you could choose to go to a completely different level with traktor instead. however the platters and general ergonomics and design of the 300 are much nicer, maybe this is the start of something and i should continue to hold out?

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Get_Your_Music_Off_of_Your_iPod it looks fairly straight forward but it might be outdated. i will give it a go with my nano (the last generation, not the latest long thin one) and my macbook asap and let you know what gives...

did you get the one with the amazingly awful faceplate and pro x or the original?

wait, scratch that- it's only $150 if you own reason. if not then it's $299 and the combo is $629. LOL. that's ridiculous. you could have the full suite version of ableton live, or logic pro, or cubase 4, each with change for that, which all do more- and perhaps most importantly are expandable. the closed architecture will be the downfall of record, it's easy to poach customers from cubase to logic and vice versa when the customer gets to take all their 'equipment' with them (plugins) but when you have to use completely different stuff, even if you found your perfect kit... hm. *edit pipped to the post haha

$150 is admittedly a great price, whilst it's certainly nothing brand brand new it does have a good interface and price point, although... i dunno, garageband, ableton live (esp lite), and so on might just make this redundant even for the price

the oooohs and aaaahs were obviously from band people who assume that this software means they're not going to have to use studios anymore and will take the place of engineers. i sense that the ssl mixer and line 6 stuff (modelling of modelling?!) is probably a big draw, for anyone who believes the hype about software modelling anyway. the funny thing is i might have been mildly more excited about this if they hadn't released that ridiculous teaser. the comping looks good, kinda like what apple said logic 8 would do but didn't. this is more or less an epic fail in my book. it doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking at all from what i can figure.

thanks mate waist down i was au naturelle

wahey!

hm... i know daw's a bit of a loose term but i'd hesitate to even put ableton live in that category- software like logic pro, cubase and sonar, yes- to me it's all to with the extent to which you can use them to do the real nitty gritty of audio and midi work, not just make music. so to that end i'd put ableton as a piece of music software with daw features, because there's things it just doesn't do. the reason i'm making this distinction is because i don't necessarily think that props are going to release a daw simply because it's on the grapevine that they're releasing a new product that has audio input. also, surely the important thing from all of this is the OMFGWTFBBQF reactions, which i don't really see anyone having from ANOTHER daw... like i say, hm... hehe

amazing. i'm straight over to the turntable for this one. love it

it only 'looks a bit like aero' though- there's far, far more to the ui than transparency effects and round corners. i've done the same in the past and there's no comparison.

where have they announced a daw tom?

i'm not sure what you're getting at infect. windows 7 is an operating system, like xp or vista. making xp look a bit like screenshots of 7 with theme software isn't the same. if you mean can you install it, as long as your system meets the windows 7 requirements then sure- but you can't upgrade from xp you'll need to do a reformat/reinstall.

so... propellerhead record. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/05/09/p...tool/#more-5839 still gonna have to see this.

i don't know who any of those people are, hopefully they're experienced and not just john smiths who got roped in off the street with the qualifier 'hey did you know that you can make MUSIC on a COMPUTER?'... assuming they do and this isn't acted the props have piqued my interest. i honestly can't really think of anything that would literally blow me away that much, it must be a completely new way of thinking. they're no stranger to innovation though, rebirth, reason, recycle, all ground breaking stuff... we do get to find out later today what it is, i think. any guesses? the only clue i can garner so far is that the OMG moments have been reactions to onscreen stimulus only, as in, no audio, no penny dropping moments as they actually use the software- so i assume it's a new way of thinking rather than just an evolution of ideas... i think it's safe to assume it's music related though- right? to be honest i can't imagine really getting that excited about any computer software, the reactions were kinda hyperbole ridden.

ah.... okay this doesn't really work. the thing is maschine *is* the software. well specifically the hardware/software combo. it'd be like getting an mpc 2500 and then just using the midi out to make the pads control reason. you're going to have to go to a shop or to someone's house and actually use an mpc or a roland mv or a maschine or something, because at the moment i don't think you understand- doing things in software, *especially* sampling and phrase sequencing, is really convoluted- but unless you've seen how well it could work, you don't even realise. i was exactly the same. if you've got no qualms with the workflow of your current setup, don't change on a whim. you need to use maschine or mpc first or see a video that really details what's different and makes you go 'ohhhhhhhh... all this time i could have been doing it like that!'. of course, you may not have that response and may be just as happy with your workflow. if you want pads because of the ergonomics and the association with the 4/4 measure, then yeah, just integrate a mpd, or pad kontrol, or trigger finger, into your setup. try before you buy to find your favourite feel. also, jonny's right. maschine's midi capabilities are limited. you can't sequence anything else from maschine, and you can't sequence or automate maschine from anything else- except using program change commands to switch scenes (this second point is a problem the mpc 2500 also has, btw. you can't use an mpc 2500 as a sound module as only the currently selected track can be receive midi in). this is a shame, and also i don't want to second guess ni but i would also imagine that the 1.1 update won't provide a complete solution to this problem. at the end of the day it depends what you want out of it. you can still load it as a vsti when you want to get geeky and tweeky with it and then send the outputs to the bus ins of your daw, as well as automatically track out individual tracks and sounds from maschine. if you're not sure why it'll be a massive problem for you then it won't, basically. in the same vein as being able to usb chopped samples over to the mpc, which is dramatically underusing the mpc's main plus because people are used to another way of doing things, some people are scared of doing things a different way (or just like to think they know best), you're underusing maschine if you just want it to be a sound module... apparently the 1.1 release is 'imminent' though, so we'll see.

fuck yeah you might as well. akai will lie to you and say the pads in the mpds are the same as the 2500. go and line them up next to each other in a shop and you will see that they're different. if you mention this to akai, saying specifically that the rubber is not as soft and the pads don't have the same depth, they will say you're imagining things, but you're not. the 2500 pads feel good, the 24 and 32 feel pretty good. and as x2k says, the pads are only part of the mpc's appeal- being able to switch it on and it be 3 seconds before you can get going, without the machine itself making any noise, being able to do everything without disengaging psychologically from the unit- no controlling with one thing, looking at another and playing with something else. not only that, but sampling on an actual sampler is a huge factor. basically, the only advantage to the mpd over any number of other midi controllers is the pads, which are the most like mpc. the thing is part of the whole mpc pad fetish is the charm, and the mpds don't have much. maschine, on the other hand, does what mpd don't. the pads don't feel anything like mpc, they're less comfortable but more accurate. maschine samples directly- this is big (officially there's no bug and i have to be a bit careful but i have had a couple of problems with it). you also get the ability to sit and stare at maschine as you would an mpc, completely ignoring the computer. in fact one big thing maschine has over the mpc is the fact that you can sit anywhere with it (providing you've a laptop), it's a much more comfortable weight than mpc, and the only cable is the usb. i've written a full review for skratchworx which is a bit held up at the moment, but it's coming. there's an update on the way and i think giz wants to wait. of course, it's much more expensive, but it's WAY more value for money...

i can definitely vouch for the quality of the hak. the reason i suggested the aem100i is because of the fader, the third channel, and the effects- i assumed the third channel and the filter must be the two things that had attracted you to the xone32, and the fx on the 100i are reportedly (i have to admit i haven't tried one... except maybe possibly at a trade show and if so don't really remember) really fun to use. if you're after something to have fun with rather than be just a workhorse then effects are probably a good idea (although it depends entirely on your definition of fun of course!)- not to say you can't add on effects later with, for instance, a kaoss pad, which is when i'd stop recommending the hak and say you're making as good a choice as any with the 08 (better fx routing)

another much much improved feature is magnifier. now you can magnify the whole screen and have it follow the mouse like on osx- a brilliant feature for flash videos that haven't got a full screen button stability of the system in general is better, when dealing with errant programs end task is usually pretty much instant and doesn't affect the rest of the system. also, dragging the title bar to the top of the screen to maximise and dragging it away to restore just seems so natural and intuitive that after using 7 for half an hour i was trying to do it on xp and vista without even thinking about it. you can also drag windows to the side to easily make them take up a half screen.