Showing posts with label Ableton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ableton. Show all posts

Friday, October 23, 2009

New Google Music Service Launch Imminent

Google will soon launch a music service, we’ve heard from multiple sources, and the company has spent the last several weeks securing content for the launch of the service from the major music labels. One source has referred to the new service as Google Audio.

We’re still gathering details, but our understanding is the service will be very different to the Google China music download service that they launched in 2008. That service, which is only available in China, allows users to search for music and download it for free.

This new service will be available for at least U.S. users, our sources confirm, although it isn’t clear if it’s a download or streaming service, or both. Google already has a decent (if little used) music search engine that can be accessed by simply typing “music:)” before a query (example). But songs are not available for streaming or download from those searches.

We’ll update as we get more details. 

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Another Blog – does it help?

Does it actually help to inundate the web with all these cross-linked Social Networking sites? Since the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, WordPress and a slew of others, interlocking and interchangeable websites now mesh into a cohesive whole, where each web API can either push or pull from another or vice versa.

Immediately it becomes obvious that all these sites hashing data and back and forth can only bolster your web presence, ultimately culminating in a more ubiquitous ranking and visibility on sites like Google.

It also quickly comes to bear that there is an awful lot of redundancy in this practice. Is this good or bad? Some say it is negative because there is only a small percentage of original material being posted into the new Internet environments. A lot of activity is simply automated to pull from already existing RSS feeds and duplicate recent activity across the board.. Thus, updates posted to other sites simply mimic once original content and do not present anything fresh and new.

But the upside to these avenues I’d the fact that now people have a choice of what software application and/or API they prefer to use to get their word out and to subscribe to others. Because these apps all seam and mesh it makes it more likely that a person trying to make contact with the outside world is able to do so with a vast array of separate apps, or simply choose a favorite site and still get what they are looking for.

Case in point – IA Blogs are somewhat standardized in content and do indeed echo each other. But this allows presence to be much more vast and far-reaching if not for the merit of programming all the sites to integrate, instead more possible outlets are given for the ultimate goal… To be seen and draw the right audience one wishes to communicate and interact with.

The future of the Internet present person or business is looking fully attainable through the always dreamed of ‘free’ apps and OpenSource collaborations that serve all functional purposes and manage to make life easier for the general public to find, meet and interact in ways till now thought impossible and technically too complex.

The Internet is once again evolving due to the nature of human beings constantly wanting bigger and better tools to reach others through technology. The fact that data traffic on the Internet is absolutely exploding with no settling down in site is a good indicator that these apps and ideas are working and will continue to do so.

We are aided in reaching our goals by some of the smartest engineering and application capabilities ever seen. History will show whether all this ‘linked’ hype is worthwhile and beneficial.

Need help integrating apps to talk to each other? We are here to help. Contact us through any of the various avenues we created – we’ll be more than happy to assist.

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Absolute Freedom of Ableton Live!

First of all, it is imperative that you readers understand the crux of this post... A serious explanation of Ableton is first necessary. From the creators themselves:

Ableton Live 8 provides a comprehensive environment for writing, producing and performing music.

Session View
Live is the only music production software with the "Session View": a unique grid for recording and playing musical ideas and phrases. The Session View is non-linear, so you can record and play back your ideas in any order you want. When you're working on a new track, this is a smart, flexible way to write and record. If you're performing music live, it gives you complete flexibility and freedom to improvise.

Arrangement View
Live also has a second view: the "Arrangement View," a complete music production environment. This is the linear counterpart to the Session View and is well-suited to "traditional" recording, arranging and mixing. These two views interact with one another, each with its own strengths and intricacies. Both views are based on the single principle of creative, intuitive music-making.

Uninterrupted creative flow
In Live, you never have to stop the music. Record audio and MIDI on the fly, drop in loops and samples, add effects and swap sounds without ever hitting the stop button: everything happens in real time. You're free to improvise and the computer actually becomes a musical instrument—an expressive and creative tool, perfectly at home on stage or in the studio.

Beats made easy
Live's unique Drum Rack combines drag-and-drop simplicity in a familiar pad-style interface. Each of the 128 drum pads can have its own instrument or sample plus effects. Slice beats, loops or REX files to MIDI for additional control options and use the new groove feature (which includes grooves from the legendary MPC and SP1200 machines) to add swing to your beats.

Creative expression for DJs
Mix and match tracks and loops automatically, remix on the fly, capture audio loops in real time from decks and other external sources, incorporate your own productions into the mix, and much more. Whether it's the centerpiece of the DJ rig or just a creative sidearm, Live gives DJs entirely new worlds of creative expression.

Looping with Live
Not only for guitarists, the Ableton Looper gives you classic sound-on-sound looping without the limitations of a hardware device. Looper is set up for remote operation, so you can record, overdub, undo and more without touching the computer.

Totally compatible
Live works seamlessly with controller hardware and assigning custom MIDI controls is simple. Live supports AIFF, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files, VST and AU effects and instruments. Live can handle REX files and runs as a ReWire Master or Slave, so it works nicely alongside other DAWs like Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase or Reason. And if you have a multicore or multiprocessor system, Live supports that, too.


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Now that being said, the most important issues to glean from this are the various ways of implementing such a diverse and obviously mind cultivating application. First, I will delve into the VST plugins that are actually exterior (some internal and embedded) to Ableton, simply because expanding on their capacities in turn reflects on the absolute creative freedom Ableton supplies.

Stay tuned for the first in a massive and probably never-ending mass of blog posts touting this paradigm of software.