To mark my debut bandcamp release, BROOKLYN CIGARETTES, I made this video using video from The Prelinger Archive.

Digital Lo-fi - Brooklyn Cigarettes

The "debut" album by Digital Lo-fi.

On one hand, having all that screen real-estate would be super useful. On the other, one of the main advantages of the MPC1000 is that it's a brick--by which I mean its shape. Sure, invest a couple of hundred into upgrading a "blue" edition MPC1k and you'd have a a small sample based DAW with a intuitive, sturdy interface and great OS (JJOS). But you can also lift it with one hand and stack it on tight surfaces.

I don't know if I'd take that MPC in the video on the road without sweating it a bit.

Good lord I needed to push that last headline down.

Minor doings afoot at DLF HQ.

Aiming to have the first, widely available Digital Lo-fi release in January. The final mixes are done, looking into mastering, then up on bandcamp. I have the cover production under way. So I should be able to pull it together in a couple of weeks.

Have some ideas about monetizing, as well as using it to begin to build an audience.

Also, at present, rearranging my work space. Ditching a few items, give more room to move stuff around. I post a few photos on Twitter, and will do the same here but I need to set up some sort of system for processing and sharing photos.

Back during the longest running iteration of this blog I was big champion of the KvR Developer Challenge. (I'll assume if you're reading this you have at least a passing familiarity with KvRAudio; if you don't, it's a message board community for audio software enthusiasts.) For the first few years that I was discovering software based audio production, I wasted a fair degree of time on KvR. I wasn't "top poster" or even a visible presence really, but being rather obsessed with software instruments and production it was a honeypot. As my taste and interests developed I rather quickly burned out on the site. These days I only go back when someone links to something of interest or it contains information I can't find anywhere.

Regardless of KvR's actual usefulness, the developer challenge is a worthy endeavor. You can read about it there, but in a nutshell, software developers submit freeware software and VST plugins, users donate money to a pot, companies donate prizes, everyone votes. The first year happened when I was at my most when I was at my most active on the site, and I tried all the entries (I started a track that was nothing to be composed using nothing but the competition software, save my host), and discussing them, and promoting the competition on digitallofi.com. The next round I didn't have as much time or inclination, so I only downloaded the plugins that were of interest to me -- I think about 6. Both years I gave a short rundown of what I thought were the top plugins, and I have to say I had a respectable batting average in picking what ended up winning.

One of the main things to keep in mind, that while the majority of entrants are Windows-only software, I would say that Windows users are probably a lower percentage of audio production enthusiasts, especially since Logic is Mac exclusive. So anything that is available cross-platform is going to garner more votes. Personally, though my DAW is a Windows machine, I don't pay much attention to anything that isn't cross-platform. For the same reason the competition is always heavily weighted to Windows software: there are a couple of development "kits" (SynthEdit and SynthMaker) that are Windows exclusive. By and large all the software that comes has a certain sameness. Not everything, mind you, just an awful lot of it. Both packages allow you to import your own raw code; but I get the feeling that an awful lot of the released software is strung together stock modules with a clever GUI.

Software that is cross-platform speaks to an understanding of base-level coding and DSP that gets me interested in software. It's a great democratization of development exists and some people do some pretty crazy, inspiring and slick stuff. I'm sure most of these developers put a lot of work into it It's just not that interesting to me.

A couple of things have changed since I last checked in. They opened up the competition to Reaktor ensembles, Kontakt sound libraries, loop libraries, and even synth patch collections. Which is cool, as the rest of the collection is still mostly Windows (and, guestimating, largely SynthEdit/SynthMaker) based.

So all that said, the following are the plugins/soundware that I downloaded and will be checking out over the next few weeks. This is not a prediction of what I think will or should win; it is merely the few things that caught my eye - I've yet to put anything through its paces. If I'm overlooking some gem I'm all ears. I encourage you to check out a few, kick in a few bucks to pot. I truly think this is a great thing that advances the technology and art of computer music.

• » Modulok (WaveShaper) A drum sound library created on a modular synth system.


• » Proximity (vladg/sound). This is a slick looking plugin that looks like it might be handy for mixing.


• » The Total Composure Orchestra (Total Composure). A Kontakt orchestral library created using public domain samples and custom scripting.


• » PTEq-1a (Ignite Amps). A "vintage" modeled EQ. At first glance I would have guess this was a SynthMaker built plugin. I'm really curious to see what this brings to the table.


• » Orchestral Strings One (Sound Magic). A sample/modeling hybrid string orchestra in a custom wrapper. Impressive.


• » Commodore 64 Synthesizer Sessions DELUXE (Bedroom Producers Blog / Rhythmic Robot). A deep Kontakt library of, natch, Commodore 64 sounds. 8-bit retro fun if that's your thing. Not really mine, but it's a professional looking package.


• » Particle Of God (Noizefield Instruments). A crazy looking Reaktor ensemble.

Honorable mention for sheer weirdness has to be Inspiration by Musical Entropy: a expansion of the Oblique Strategies method of generating ideas and breaking out of creative ruts.

If you don't have the same ironic prejudice about Windows only software that I do, I would recommend checking out: ThrillseekerXTC by Variety Of Sound (people seem to love his analog modeled mixing tools tho' they've never really clicked with me); Sifft by xoxos (a SynthEdit developers who really uses the platform to do something unique and unexpected); Flame
by Martin Eastwood Audio (Martin has previously developed a few custom coded Windows plugins that had a deserved reputation for quality.)

Voting closes in a couple of weeks, so get on it. I'll report back what I'm voting on.

Before my girlfriend and I moved into our current (fairly spacious) apartment, and I was simultaneously forced to cut down on my expenses, I was working out of industrial/artist building in a working class suburb of Providence. It was a big open space on a busy corner; not quiet but on the 3rd floor in a not a busy building. For a while we lived in the one apartment zoned for residential (it wasn't a great situation most of the year and too expensive) but my upstairs studio was pretty excellent, especially for making music. It was spacious enough that 2 or 3 people could work in there comfortably, and even set up an amp.

One of the best things about the space was an expansive work table there when I moved in. It was about 9 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep., 36 inches off the floor. It was a big slab of graphite (?) built on cast iron legs. You could stand on it and it wouldn't shake at all. It was wide enough for my flat-screen monitor, a couple of racks on which I sat my monitors, the Mackie Control, a small mixer, and whatever MIDI controllers or toys I was mucking about with. Ideally, I would have liked it a few inches taller, but by and large it was a great desk to work on. Alas, the desk was not mine, too heavy to move non-professionally, and I would have had no place to put.

So when I moved my home studio into an actual home, the spare bedroom I'm sure my fellow travelers are well familiar with, I needed a new solution. And I wanted a standing desk. Beyond the newly touted health benefits of not sitting on your ass for hours on end, I found that it was much easier to create music when I could stand, especially recording on my own.

But if you've ever priced commercial standing desks you know that they are absurdly expensive. Moreover, what I wanted was more of a work table. So I set about building one.

I looked at converting an Ikea desk but sturdiness is definitely an issue once a desk starts getting taller, and Ikea is not known for their quality building materials. My first attempt was something I modified from instructables, built with plumbing pipes and joints. In the end I wasn't able to raise it up taller than 24 in. (definitely not standing for a dude who is 6 ft.) without it being impossibly wobbly. After about six months the middle of the desk started to sag.

So, when I went to (finally) paint my studio (it was an overbearing orange for some reason), I dismantled that sad attempt and cast around for a new approach. The "ah ha!" came when I stopped searching for "standing desk" and started to search for people who had built work tables. By nature a work table needs to be sturdy. It's much different than something you are merely typing or mousing on. And in this search I found these two links:

How to Build a Heavy Duty Work Table

Tinkering Monkey Custom Standing Desk

Fortunately, the friend from whom we had inherited our apartment was a woodworker and had converted a room in the basement in a shop. I was using it for my electronics tinkering, but there was a pile of mismatched wood, among which were 5 4x4 oak posts. If you've ever used or held these you'll know how sturdy they are. So after getting a friend with a skill saw and some skill to help me cut them to height, I bought a couple 2x4s, a bit of hardware and a sheet of oak plywood which I cut to my desired dimensions.

I'll start another post with some deeper details on how I constructed the desk. But let me finish up by saying that for a barely intermediate level construction project you can have a standing work table that is strong, sturdy and built to your specifications. I don't know how much the 4x4s would come to if you had to buy them, but the rest of it was probably came to about $100, so it is not expensive.




View the album on Google+

I have no shame in admitting my geek love for the audio software rockstars at FXpansion. I have bought almost every product they have released, and there is scarcely a DAW-based project I work on that I don't use one of their products. (I plan on writing about them in more depth over the coming months.)

I also follow a lot of the team on Twitter and they're all, to all outward appearances, funny, smart, politically aware folks. Which is neither here nor there I suppose, other than they are worth adding to your timeline.

I bring this up because this morning the company's official account tweeted this:

Coming soon! M__ is our brand new __ plugin. 1st to guess what it does / biggest LOL wins it! Bonus if you get the name too! Go go go!

-- FXpansion (@fxpansion) September 21, 2012

So, have at it. You're chance to get in on the next coolness from fxpansion.

Update: As is no to surprise to anyone reading this, it turns out the product is Maul, a multi-band distortion and modulating tone shaper. I'm sure I'll get this while there is an introductory offer of $70. Beyond that, a reasonable $99.

While I undoubtedly listen to most music digitally, either on the iPod or laptop, or on the studio monitors, I still buy vinyl and maintain an once again increasingly less-than-manageable collection of albums I still think are worth hanging onto. (I did a purge in my last move and whittled it down to one crate of my favorite LPs.) Buying CDs and downloads is a necessity of economics and convenience; looking through stacks of vinyl at a great record store is fun and can occupy me for hours. Most of my purchases are used--a lot of the new music that I listen to just isn't released as vinyl or in "collector" editions that too expensive for impulse purchases. I think it's great that labels are releasing vinyl again, both as reissues and as new releases; $18 to $24 a pop is not exactly pocket change.

So a lot of the vinyl I buy is music I already dig, bought in elegant reissues or great condition. Or music I always wanted to check out, oddities, or something I might mine for samples that I can grab for a low price. But in terms of electronicia (are we calling it that now?) or IDM, or a lot of the stuff I listen to was created during the digital age, rare, or released in limited edition runs that I can't justify.

So it's pretty excellent to be able to recommend an album, available on vinyl, that has great contemporary electronicia (electronic, idm, ambient, downtempo, experimental, techno) at a ridiculously reasonable price. As a bonus, the money goes to charity. It's a compilation of exclusive tracks solicited, curated and manufactured by Chris Randall via the Analog Industries blog.

(Full disclosure: I am frequent poster over on that site, chat with Chris on Twitter, his wife wrote the platform I'm using for this blog, and I submitted a track to the compilation, though I didn't make the cut. However, I ponied up the cash to buy it myself.)

There's really not a bad track on it, but, for me, the standouts for me are Goldbaby, Milkfish, Bitmud and Randall's own. It's a beautiful package that is full of music that is well flattered by the analog process. (The MP3s are thrown into the bargain.)

And, yes, I want a vol. 2. Grab a copy while there's still some left.

Buy it on Bandcamp

A remarkable movie. Haunting and poetic and compelling. A joyous and sobering analogy of where we are as a country, or simply a study of community, family and endurance. It over-reaches in ambition and underplays to its strengths. The little girl who stars is just amazing; the actor playing her father gives a fearless performance in a role at once brutal and heroic. The special effects are stunningly real. The music is stately and organic, at time haunting, at others full of nobility.

It is a movie worth seeing on a big screen.

Watch the video here.

The Performance

The initial riff was one of the first few sequences I created in Phaedra (Naughty Panther), an "analog style" step sequencer. 3 of Phaedra's 4 channels are triggering the Sequential Circuits MultiTrak. Using Pheadra's channel mutes I combine and switch the sequences to create movement and variation of the riffs.

Additionally, the MeeBlip is receiving all MIDI channels (on that, more later) thereby essentially doubling the MultiTrak.

Phaedra is acting as the master clock. So while the MPC 1000 is using its own sequencer, it is synced to Phaedra. And because at the time I recorded this I hadn't actually gotten around to learning Song Mode, I'm shuffling among the 4 different MPC sequences. All 4 sequences are a remixed breakbeat. To be honest I'm not sure what sample library I got the loop from but it was from a commercial loop library, chopped up in the MPC and re-sequenced. There are also some Goldbaby one shot samples supplying extra hits and doubling certain hits of the beat.

The Dave Smith Instruments Evolver and Mopho are the synths that are providing what is essentially the bridge. The Mopho is providing the bass line that comes in at roughly 2:10. (Again, doubled by the MeeBlip.) The Evolver is clocked to the MPC and using its internal sequencer; it's the counterpoint sequence that swells starting at about 2:22. I'll be honest, the sequence I'm using is modified from either a factory patch or something from Rozzer's fantastic Evolver bank; I take full credit for adjusting the filter envelop and cutoff, as well as mucking about with several other parameters.

For effects, the global send is the Electro Harmonix MemoryMan for a bit of echo. The MeeBlip is fed through a fairly unremarkable DigiTech digital delay. But the secret sauce there is a little home-brewed feedback loop generator called the F-Loop that I picked up back in the 90s at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn. Kind of a one-trick pony but it's a fun trick. (I'll post about in the future.) I also have an Aqua Puss analog delay on... something. The Mopho? Anyway, it's a fantastic analog delay.

Video Production

The performance is being mixed down in a Yamaha mixer, and recorded in Cakewalk Sonar. I "mastered" in Sonar using Ozone. I recorded 4 takes, and the video is a mix of the 4 performances, but the audio is from the 2nd take, which I choose mostly because it was the shortest of the 3 takes; none vastly better or different than another. Edited in Vegas Studio HD.