Felix has been invited to play a set on the SPIRAL tomorrow night. Five turntables play samples on an endless loop, creating a sonic chaos that is simultaneously cut to vinyl. There might be some synth / drum machine action in there too. Come join the party! The Spiral will transform Carriageworks into an experimental sound recording studio and performance space. Visitors can manipulate looping beats and electronic sounds to record tracks on a vinyl-cutting machine.
The person who cuts the record becomes the main attraction, while people can observe the entire process from the seats that form a ring-like area called “The Spiral.”
I'm happy to announce that one of my tracks Bass Frequency has been included on the Dalekovod (power lines) – series of electro music compilations released on Crobot Muzik.
This is the fifth release in the series including 40+ leading electro artists, united under the name: We Are The Crobots!
Includes my track Waterworld Dub, a mammoth compilation of excellent electronic music..
It is great to see so many in the electronic music community rallying together to contribute music or purchase this compilation to assist with medical and then sadly funeral expenses.. His music will live on! All money raised was going directly to Andreas Gehm for expenses incurred by severe health issues; since his passing on 20 June 2016, it now goes to a friend of Andreas for funeral and other expenses. Thank you to all who contributed, donated, and helped. compforandreasgehm.bandcamp.com/ Compiled by Andrew Duke
Around about this time last year we had the pleasure of recording Trus'me's forthcoming album, 'Planet 4' at the Analog Cabin Studio. Here's a little insight behind the inspiration for the album..
http://www.stampthewax.com/…/10-things-that-inspired-trusm…/ Analog Cabin, Sydney Here I could submerge myself in a new alien environment, with engineers I had not previously worked with. The array of new synths and a new methodologies, helped to create something progressive and exciting to work with. I feel that comes across in the LP by the energy in the arrangements and production. Going through some old music projects I recently came across some mutisamples for a couple of the analog synths I had at the time in Logic EXS format for the Sequential Circuits Pro One and Oberheim Matrix 1000. The samples include some of my own patches for the Pro One and whatever was in the Matrix 1000 at the time, I didn't have any way of editing it so really just used some of the sounds as is. I recall not loving the timbre of it and selling it off after a few months. Included in the pack are 22 multisampled patches which you can download here.. The Pro One on the other hand was the main mono synth used on almost every track and sketch I put together for at least 10 years. I loved the tone and the fact that it could be driven by the gate pulse from the TR808 and the basic inbuilt sequencer was great. Even running audio through the CV in would produce some crazy results. I ended selling it along with a bunch of other gear to fund a move from Australia to the UK. The build quailty was pretty terrible but so much character. It must have been an interesting time at Sequential HQ with some quirky design decisions such as the Budda etched into the circuit board along with some mushrooms among other things. If you have one open it up and have a look.
Unfortunately we were all having so much fun using the synth that there are only a few multisamples which you can download here.
A gift from Screechy Dan and the Inner West Reggae Disco Crew for the city of Sydney.
End the lockouts. Put down your guns and your badge. Recorded at Analog Cabin! Big Up Inner West Reggae Disco Machine #casinomike
This Saturday Analog Cabin & Boogertron bring you Bass Patrol 3
We are Back! After the success of the last party and constant requests of reliving it once more we thought another round is in order. Two rooms of goodness for your earholes in a new warehouse space. Blaze is a proper old school Hip Hop DJ & BBoy from the 80's. He published the very first Hip Hop and Graffiti focused magazine in the world Vapourz in 1988 and also was involved in hosting the Panic Zone series of parties from 2003 - 2005 along with supporting almost every international Hip Hop act touring in the 90's - 2000's. We are very excited to have locked in Blaze for a rare set in Sydney in Electro & Miami Bass mode. 8 till late $15 entry + booking fee and BYO venue will be revealed on the night but is in the inner west for those that wanted to confirm the area. Also we are offering pre sale tickets via the link below.There will be very few tickets at the door and we don't want anyone who really wants to attend to miss out. https://buytickets.to/basspatrol Lineup Blaze (Panic Zone) Drox (Analog Cabin) Typhonic (Databass, Booty Call, Philthtrax) RAINE SUPREME Toobs (Boogertron) Flurrd Illbot (Analog Cabin) with Mr Claude Money (Boogertron) just added. https://www.theticketfairy.com/eve…/bass-patrol-3-11jul2015/
I have a bit of an obsession with vocoders, sci-fi and machine inspired beats. Electro, funk and early hiphop that utilize the vocoder in interesting ways are high on my musical radar and I am always on the look out for something new / old or different that i haven't come across before. for production.
If you have any suggestions that I may have missed please feel free to share in the comments section. In the past I had owned a vintage Korg VC10 which I really liked and is used on some of my favorite Electro records but can be quite hard to understand clearly the vocal or voice elements. This model in particular sounded great but had limited functionality. To hear an example of it in action check out I-F - Space Invaders are Smoking Grass. When I decided recently that I would like to buy a new modern Vocoder for the Analog Cabin Recording Studio I jumped head first into some research which I thought may be useful to document here for other robot vocal freaks. Firstly I thought it might be helpful to provide a bit of background information about the Vocoder as the technology is much older than most studio equipment, let alone audio processors and has an interesting history as it was not developed for music applications at all.
How to Wreck a Beach a book about the history of the Vocoder cites Homer Dudley as the inventor in 1928 which is surprising for such a futuristic sounding effect.
The Vocoder was initially developed as a phone scrambling system for military use.. You can find a technical explaination of how it works below. A vocoder is an audio processor that captures the characteristic elements of an an audio signal and then uses this characteristic signal to affect other audio signals. The technology behind the vocoder effect was initially used in attempts to synthesize speech. The effect called vocoding can be recognized on records as a "talking synthesizer", made popular by artists such as Stevie Wonder. The basic component extracted during the vocoder analysis is called the formant. The formant describes the fundamental frequency of a sound and its associated noise components. The vocoder works like this: The input signal (your voice saying "Hello, my name is Fred") is fed into the vocoder's input. This audio signal is sent through a series of parallel signal filters that create a signature of the input signal, based on the frequency content and level of the frequency components. The signal to be processed (a synthesized string sound, for example) is fed into another input on the vocoder. The filter signature created above during the analysis of your voice is used to filter the synthesized sound. The audio output of the vocoder contains the synthesized sound modulated by the filter created by your voice. You hear a synthesized sound that pulses to the tempo of your voice input with the tonal characteristics of your voice added to it. I highly recommend purchasing the book if it is of interest. You may still be able to pick up a deluxe version that includes a 7 inch with a reissue of some super rare vocoder related boogie, electro funk and early hip hop direct from the publishers website here. The above video goes into some more detail about the history, early developments and also presents some influential examples of our favorite vocal effect. One interesting point noted in this video is that one of the most recognizable modern day examples - Planet Rock by Africa Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force which in fact is not a vocoder at all. Arthur Baker the engineer for the recording session of Planet Rock points out that (They only had a few things, and so we basically got all of our effects out of the Lexicon PCM41, including Bambaataa's electronic vocal vocoder sound. ) "It wasn't like they had walls of outboard gear and walls of keyboards," Baker remarks. "They only had a few things, and so we basically got all of our effects out of the Lexicon PCM41, including Bambaataa's electronic vocal vocoder sound. That came through a really, really tight delay, almost like a tight electronic phasing, and then there was the state-of-the-art Sony reverb. However, other than that, there weren't a whole load of effects on that record.
You can also read the Full Interview with Arthur Baker about the making of Planet Rock in Sound on Sound's Classic Tracks Feature.
There are many Obscure and not so Obscure vintage options available on the second hand market which can fetch big money these days. While I'm not going to suggest for or against going for the vintage models be aware they are getting on in age they will require more care than some of the more modern options.
Here is a video playlist of demonstrations of many of the vintage vocoders that may be available on the second hand market including an early interview with Giorgio Moroder on how he uses his. which i believe looks like an early Moog or Bode unit. The video is a bit blurry so it's hard to make out exactly which version unit it is.
Here is a collection of some of my favorite classic Vocoder tracks to check out. In Part 2 I will review some of the vocoders I have had a chance to use and also include a guide of which modern vocoders are currently available.
If you weren’t already planning on making the Subsonic Music Festival pilgrimage in 2014, let this change your mind. A month out from this year’s event, the boutique camping adventure has completed its line-up and the full list of names on the bill is long.
Scroll down and you can see everyone Subsonic’s rounded up for this December, from the already-announced likes of James Holden, Alexkid and Ellen Alien to new additions like Detriot native Mike Huckaby who I am very much looking forward to playing after on the River Stage on Friday night. For Subsonic, the bill’s all about “fulfilling our ethos as one of the most musically-diverse and innovative festivals in Australia”. All up, Subsonic will be bringing 150 acts over five stages to the Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, which is set a short 2.5 hour drive from Sydney. This year’s festival will go down from December 5-7, with tickets onsale now.
I put together an EP of unreleased material and released via Bandcamp.
released 03 September 2014 Tracks produced between 2007-2012 in various home studios in Melbourne, London and Sydney. Editing and mix down completed between 2013-2014 @ Analog Cabin www.analogcabin.net I’d like to thank Roland, Ensoniq, Sequential Circuits, Korg, Akai, Elektron and all the music freaks as passionate about electronic music as I am. released 3rd September 2014 Photo: Chris Frape Written and produced by Adrian Burns Mastering : Brendan @ Breakneck Mastering Drox on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/drox Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/droxindustries "The interactive software I wrote and am playing in this video recycles my keyboard input into an accompaniment to my continued playing, which is why I called it a "concerto generator". I use part of one of the keyboards for control data entry, and the small switches upper right to access pre-entered numerical patterns. The sliders are mainly pre-Yamaha FM synthesis parameter controls, for the number of harmonics and amplitude and frequency of the FM modulator and carrier that constituted each musical voice.". Lately I have been able to sit down and listen to records a lot more and in the last week quite a bit of Miami Bass and early Electro have been on rotation. One thing I noticed while listening to these records are that some of the Miami records have House and Acid House versions or remixes on the 12 inch release which is not so surprising as these two particular records were released in the 80's. As far as I am aware this may have been a effort to appeal to the hip house and acid house that DJ's were playing in clubs at the time.. Usually most of the other 12 inch releases (that I have come across anyway) stick to the traditional format of a radio mix, original and instrumental. After listening to the two tracks below and a bit of digging online and was not really able to find much info related to these remixes except for a youtube video of the Eerk and Jerk track. Don't get me wrong I love the originals but I also find these versions particularly interesting as they are a slightly different take on the acid and hip house of the early 80's.. The first track is from Gucci Crew II - 5 Dollar High (House mix) on their own Gucci records label. The original vocals are accented with a vocal chanting Acid House throughout the track which sounds familiar but I can pick which release it is sampled from.. Additional production and mix is credited to the House Boys but I can't find much info about them online.. Gucci Crew II was one of the most prolific and crucial Miami Bass groups during the '80s and early '90s. The group originally consisted of MC V (Victor May) and TFS aka 240 Shorty (Clevelan Bell), and Rick Taylor (Disco Rick) as their DJ. Disco Rick left in the mid 80s to go solo as a producer. The group debuted with a self-titled album in 1983 and followed it with So Def, So Fresh, So Stupid in 1987, Everybody Wants Some in 1989, G4 in 1991, and The Best Of Gucci Crew II in 1994. Their hits during that time included: Sally (That Girl), Truz N Vogues, The Dating Game, The Cabbage Patch, Pushin and the classic Booty Shake. The group stayed true to Miami Bass Music legacy of booming 808 drums and party themes. MC V passed away in 2007. Download - Gucci Crew II - Five Dollar High (House Mix) The second track is from Eerk & Jerk - Eerk & Jerk (House Mix) which has more of a hip house vibe utilizing the rap of the original version whhich I was able to find uploaded too youtube below. Download - Eerk & Jerk - Eerk & Jerk (House Mix)
Does anyone out there have any other examples they could share? feel free to message me or post in the comments section below. Submerged Turntable from Brian Lilla on Vimeo. I stumbled onto Evan Holm's sculpture work using turntables as the central theme. which is a really creative and interesting use of electricity. He utilizes the record and turntable as a metaphor for decay. If you would like to see more of Evans work go and check out his website evanholm.com/. Recently I have been more aware how seldom I completely immerse myself in a complete recording. skipping through songs to see if they are suitable for DJ sets earmarking for later or they increasingly end up in the "listen to later" pile of records in the lounge room which has increased to several crates in their own fully fledged area. I've decided to put some time to listen to a classic album in full with no distractions focusing on the music only on a regular basis.. I suppose the concept is pretty simple in itself be totally present in the moment much like when you completely focus on your breath when meditating or on the wave when surfing as some examples. No smartphones, tablets facebook, twitter just the music. Do you remember the last time you actually did that? Active listening is the term coined by Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy from Classic Album Sundays who explains the idea in more detail below. "When is the last time you listened to an album from beginning to end? And sticking it on in the background while working on the computer, talking on the phone or doing chores around the house does not count. I mean sitting down and giving the album your full attention. For many of us, it has been awhile. Hearing is like breathing and smelling – it does not require an active, directed effort; we do it subconciously. When we want to look at something, we direct our gaze toward the object; when we want to touch something, we must reach out. In short, we have to focus our attention. Hearing, however, is different as we constantly hear 360 degrees around us. We can hear things going on in the other room while we chat to a friend whether or not we are trying to listen. We cannot shut our ears and therefore we often take our sense of hearing for granted." Greg Wilson prominent UK DJ personality has been heavily involved which you can find more of his input on his blog here.If you would like to get involved yourself but are unsure where to start maybe try the top five records of all time from Mute Records Bossman Daniel Miller, Martin Ware, Trojan Sound System or Ashley Beedle or the many other suggestions on the site I just got myself a new turntable preamp hand made my the lovely folks at Condesa Electronics which is in the post on it's way from Adelaide. The first record I have randomly picked out is Prince & the Revolution - Around the world in a Day which I'll admit not listening to yet but Prince is a boss so that works for me. . Wikipedia tells me that Prince asked the record companies to release this on the downlow with minimal promotion after Purple Rain did so well. It still managed to go platinum and have several number one hits. Let me know if you plan on or have done the same.. What was the last album that you listened to in full with no distractions? These days I don't get as excited at new releases of gear at the annual trade shows so much but really like when someone reverse engineers a product to compliment or sometimes even improve an existing device. The time and effort required tom do this is massive and requires patience and some creative solutions at times. A good example of this is the work of Kiwi Technics for dragging several vintage synthesizers into the 21st century with their various user installed upgrades for the Roland Juno 106 and JX-3P along with the Korg Polysix. Although these have been around for a while bar the Juno update which is fairly recent. Another upcoming user installed update I'm looking forward to is for the very popular Volca of portable analog device from Korg. The modification kit is the Amazing Machines Volcano interface which adds midi out to the device. so you can use it as a sequencer for other gear. This is great but nothing new as not long after the initial release some clever people at Koma Electronics worked out what you can hack on the Volca Beats. The impressive part of this 3rd party midi kit is that it will also enable you to record Parameter Automation directly from your KORG Volca to your External MIDI Sequencer or DAW! This is big news indeed and the developer has indicated that the kit will be released next Monday March 10. Find out more via the Amazing Machines Facebook Page.. Red Bull Music Academy has uploaded every one of their previous lectures to their soundcloud account which are freely downloadable. This is massive, I am going to add these to my portable player and listen whenever I am on the move. So many to choose from but I have really just glossed over whats available so far but the ones that I have ready at the top of the playlist are below. Sir Mix A Lot, Legowelt, Hank Shocklee, Deodato, D-Bridge & B+ If there are any you are really hyped to listen to let me know in the comments. Hello World....... My name is Adrian and I am a DJ and producer from Sydney, Australia. who is constantly fascinated and in awe of this crazy world and all the good music out there from the past and also present. Often I find myself sharing content that I personally find of interest with friends via email, social media and in person over dinner or at the pub so I thought it might be an idea to document this info online to include more people that can get involved in the conversation. The time feels right once again to share with you my musical interests and discoveries as a DJ and avid music enthusiast as well as info related to music production, engineering and anything else that feels right at the time. I presented a monthly podcast titled 'Radio waves from Space' which ran from 2007 till late in 2012. and managed to only repeat one track in that whole time and really enjoyed the process of sharing this with the world at large.. At it's peak there were over 2000 subscribers via the iTunes podcast subscription tool. It is no longer online but I may share some of the mixes here at some point. The project came to an end as at the time I was DJing several times a week and just did not have the time or energy to put in to continue it. I believe the creativity that evolved from the podcast influenced my Djing and the wildly varied styes of music I was and I suppose still am playing regularly. I enjoy older styles such as funk, reggae along with early punk and modern electronic styles. Recently I have become more focused on music production and have set up with some close friends a recording and production facility in the heart of the Sydney CBD named Analog Cabin which does as the name implies have the look and feel of a Cabin and contains quite a few interesting Analog production tools. I plan on sharing some of our experiences setting up the space, creating music and the trials and tribulations of running a recording studio in 2014 after the facilities recent 1st birthday. The plan for the site itself is to include mixes from myself and other DJ's and electronic acts that I respect and enjoy their take on things. along with video blog posts from the studio, production techniques and general gear nerdery. As with everything new the virtual space may expand and morph into something else entirely at some time in the future. Welcome ~ Adrian |
A mainstay of Sydney's techno and electro scene for more than twenty years, Drox has earned the respect and love of fans and has carved out an imposing yet super humble etching on the local scene. Categories
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