Clear Notice came about almost entirely through Twitter. Kieron James, the man behind Clear Notice, organized the whole release online. Not only are the artists discovered through Twitter, but the album mastering and artwork were done by Twitter contacts and, just for added value, Keiron organized a video for each song on the album (through Twitter again!). Check this stunning example for Tricil’s track “The Emancipation” by Burning Head.

The music itself is all important of course and it is a great album. There are some exceptional tunes here. David McSherry’s “U?+”, alka’s “sOMn ambulance”, tricil’s “The Emancipation”, rktic’s “nordic walking” and Tapage’s “Wounds” were all highlights for me and could easily be mistaken for songs by artists such as Chemical Brothers, Plaid, Orbital or Aphex Twin.

So if you want to support music and artists at grass roots, grab a copy of Enter Calico. It’s £7.99 from Bandcamp and should be available on iTunes within a few days. I recommend.

Above, you can see my controller for the DSI Evolver. There’s a fair amount of controls here, oscillator functions, filters, envelopes and delays. All the knobs spit out the correct midi control numbers for that parameter. Underneath the Amp Envelope settings you can see the program change functions. I can select any patch from the four internal banks and click up/down to audition successive patches. Because of the way Max integrates with Live, I can even midi learn the up/down buttons and use a midi controller to skip through patches. As my Evolver isn’t directly infront of me when I’m at the computer, this is a real time-saver.

The down side, if there is one, is that Ableton Live cannot process sysex. This limits the number of controls and devices you can control in this manner as a lot of hardware can only be controller using sysex. In the case of the Evolver, there are many more controls which cannot be accessed using conventional midi control changes, so a larger ‘all inclusive’ Max For Live controller isn’t possible. Generally though, manufacturers make the most common parameters available via midi control change so there is still plenty that can be done.

The next logical step is to create a rack containing the controller, along with an External Instrument device. The Live External Instrument device is amazingly useful if you have multiple inputs on your soundcard. With my Evolver hooked up to a dedicated pair of inputs on my soundcard, the External Instrument device allows me to specify which midi port and channel the Evolver is attached to, as well as which inputs to use on the soundcard. Once the rack is saved this means I never have to worry about routing midi and audio when I want to use my Evolver. I simply drag the saved rack to an empty midi track, and my dedicated controller is there along with all the midi and audio routing. Ready to go!

If you look closely at the rack picture you’ll also see an Arpeggiator device in the rack. The point here is that the rack can contain any midi or audio processing plugin. I could put a limiter after the External Audio plugin to stop any scary peaks getting through to my speakers, or a midi Scale device to always force my Evolver to play in a selected scale. Once the rack chain is decided, using an external synth like this is as easy as adding a software plugin. All the configuration is done, you just drag and drop a preset to an empty midi track and start browsing patches.

I’ll be uploading some finished M4L controllers soon.

1. Mouse free browsing – Live’s browser can be a bit clunky, but you can actually navigate quite well without ever using the mouse. Cmd-Shift-F/Ctrl-Shift-F will take you straight to the browser search. Then type the name of your plugin, Live device or sample and hit enter. From here you can hit the down arrow on your keyboard to start browsing the results. Select the correct item and hit Return to insert it on the currently selected track. Bingo – quick, hands free file browsing.

2. Multiple track selections – Almost any track parameters can be changed on multiple tracks at once. Cmd/Ctrl click to select more than one track and then change any parameter. It works on the obvious stuff like volume and panning, but also parameters like input and output routing, expand/collapse, automation parameter selection and even freezing.

3. Naming tracks – Hit Cmd-R/Ctrl-R to rename a track and instead if hitting enter when done, hit the tab key to rename the next track.

4. Favorite plugins – Take a favorite plugin, something that you use again and again (an EQ is a good example). Now Group it (Cmd-G/Ctrl-G) and assign the most common parameters to the Group’s 8 macro knobs. With an EQ you could have Low and High Cut and 2 bands of parametric EQ with control over frequency, gain and Q. Now save it as a Live device. Whenever you need your EQ, insert this device instead of the plugin itself and you will be able to do 80% of EQ tasks without ever opening the plugin interface.

5. Changing the grid size – Probably my most used keyboard shortcuts are Cmd-1/Ctrl-1 to decrease the grid size, Cmd-2/Ctrl-2 to increase it, Cmd-3/Ctrl-3 to turn triplets on/off and Cmd-4/Ctrl-4 to turn the Grid off altogether. These apply to the Arrangement page as well as the Midi editor. Make these key presses instinctive and you’ll be editing much faster.

Modular Sessions Set 001 by Rozzer

On the surface it’s reasonably standard. It’s a grid based sequencer – notes, gate, tie, velocity and two control changes. What’s unique about it is that you can set different loop points for each of those elements, which allows for anything from simple 303-style basslines to endlessly evolving, rotating, mutating melody lines.

The other unique thing about this is that it’s designed to work solely within musical scales. The sequencer ‘grid’ adapts itself to whatever scale you choose. Choose a chromatic scale, and you get a full 12 steps to play with, but choose a pentatonic scale and the grid automatically adapts itself to show only 5 rows. You don’t need to know any music theory to get great results.

Add to all that a bunch of useful randomisation options and it becomes a really useful tool.

Anyway, this video will explain better.

Download M4L patch here

The problem is that PCs and MACs have notoriously shakey midi timing. If you’ve never noticed this, you probably don’t need a Sync Lock, but if you’ve ever been frustrated by the midi clock coming out of your DAW then read on.

I’ve owned an MPC2500 for a few years now. I love it dearly, but I’ve always thought of it as very separate to my DAW. There was never any reliable way to sync the two, despite the MPC being able to send and receive both midi clock and midi timecode. The problem is that midi really isn’t that stable on Macs and PCs. There are apparently many reason for this which i won’t go into here, but Innerclock’s page on the subject is very interesting.

The solution is remarkably simple. The Sync-Lock is a box which has two audio inputs (connected to two outputs on your soundcard), a midi output, a din sync output and a 1/4 jack output. The two audio inputs accept audio pulses, which are generated either with a simple WAV file or with a specially written plugin that comes with the Sync-Lock. One is for clock pulses and one for start/stop commands. The box then converts these (in less than 30 micoseconds according to Innerclock) to midi clock, din sync and pulse signals (for analog sequencers etc). The result is a clock output which is sample accurate (or as near as damn it) to your DAW’s audio output.

The results? Well, I’m only judging by my ears. To do a full scientific comparison between Sync-Lock’d and non Sync-Lock’d clocks would be tedious. I can tell you that the first time I had a proper jam with my MPC, Evolver and Future Retro Orb all synced to Ableton Live via the Sync-Lock, a huge smile appeared on my face, and didn’t leave for a long while. The Sync-Lock works. It just sits there and works. You can really ‘feel’ the difference in a tightly locked groove. I find that even at really low tempos, where timing errors really becomes apparent in any system with a poor clock, the Sync-Lock remains absolutely solid and resulting groove just feels ‘right’. Like it should.

If you are a gearhead, into sequencers, drum machines, Roland TR-XXXs etc, but love your DAW too, and are frustrated at getting them all to play nicely together. The Sync-Lock could well be the answer. It’s not glamorous, but it solves a problem and it solves it in fine style.

Finally, I’d like to say thanks to David from Innerclock who, when I initially had problems setting up the Sync-Lock, called me on the phone several times (from Australia to the UK!) in order to get me up and running. Top notch support.

I’m really happy with this purchase and I would miss it dearly if I had to do without it. Can’t say any more that that really.

The track uses my new modular for bleeps and effects, lots of FXpansion Synth Squad, a Studio Electronics ATC1 (bassline), a Kurzweil PC3 and a Future Retro Orb. A high honour goes to Soundtoys Echoboy for the dubbiest delays you can find in software.

The Monsters Have Been Multiplying by Rozzer

Seems like finally someone gives a shit. Check out Innerclock. They are a company specialising in getting rock solid clocks for synchronising your gear. The site can be a little waffley, but there’s some great information there, like just why timing matters.

In an nutshell, solid, reliable synchronisation of ANY piece of gear to your DAW via midi clock is pretty much impossible. There are too many other things that your computer needs to do at the same time for it ever to keep a reliable, stable clock. Innerclock seem to have come up with a nifty solution. It’s a small box called the Sync Lock. It works receiving audio pulses from your DAW’s soundcard and converting those to midi clock, dyn sync or voltage pulses and it does all this in less than 20 microseconds! Because the Sync Lock is driven via your audio card, which is sample accurate unlike your midi interface, the result should be sample accurate clocks! Bliss!

It sounds too tempting to pass up, so Innerclock have my order. Watch this space, I’ll report back soon.

I really must hook this baby into the Rozzular :)

I haven’t had a great deal of time to play yet, but initial thoughts are that it oozes analogue character. The oscillators have an insane range (something like 15 octaves). The filters are clean, but very nice sounding. The envelopes could be a little longer, and I can’t for the life of me work out how you reset LFOs, but hell – I’m on a learning curve and it’s all good.

It’s actually quite hard to avoid just patching in regular bass and lead type sounds. If any readers have modulars and want to chime in with a tip or a trick, I’m all ears.

Here’s a few samples from my first recording session.

FM Sweeps by Rozzer