Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Akustikkoppler first full length album 'Im Glanz Der Nacht'


Akustikkopplers first full length album 'Im Glanz Der Nacht' is available as CDr on Hamburg label Wachsender Prozess and for sale at the Ausklangfestival tonight and tomorrow.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Hörbar Jahresausklangfestival 2010

Jahresausklangfestival 2010

Am 28. und 29. Dezember veranstaltet die Hörbar in Hamburg zum 16. Mal ihr Jahresausklangfestival. Im Kinosaal finden Konzerte statt, im Keller bieten im Bereich der Experimentalmusik tätige Label Tonträger feil. Für die Beschallung sorgen die DJs Jetzmann, Evapori, St. Martin, Drop out, Gisli.

Die Konzerte:

Dienstag , 28.12.2010,
- Institut für Feinmotorik
- Augsburger Tafelconfect
- TeraZza

Mittwoch , 29.12.2010,
- Roel Meelkop
- Herr Penschuck
- ?Alos

Kombinat tape B.S.E. from 1991 available

The second official Kombinat tape B.S.E. from 1991 available as download at

http://kombinat.bandcamp.com/

again you decide the price.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Das Kombinat tape Existenz from 1990 available

The first official tape by Das Kombinat, Existenz from 1990, is available as digital download from http://kombinat.bandcamp.com

You choose what you pay for it or if you fetch it for free.The tracks are not remasterd or edited, they reflect the exact same experience of the original tape.

Jeremy Bamber tapes

A listener in the chat brought my attention to that old tape, asking what tracks are onto it. I found it quickly in the archive (a sudden and unexpected experience of order) and popped into a tapedeck, it actually contains recordings from probably the first Notstandskomitee concert,with Kazim from Serpents on electronic drums.

I guess its due for a rerelease...

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Forbidding the internet

Our governments had problems with the internet since the 90s I remember. Latest campaign in Germany is the possible upcoming rule that you have to declare the suitable age of your intended audience and block out younger ones. Nobody knows how to do it precisly (especially judging the content), rendering all German websites potentially illegal. Particular blogs are worried about it: http://www.vzlog.de/2010/11/in-eigener-sache-wir-schliesen-am-31-dezember-2010/
The green party and the Linkspartei failed both to vote off that new rule.

But how about Canada forbidding hyperlinking:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/12/07/hyperlink-supreme-court-defamation-libel.html

Even if its not a real crack down, someone wrote at Slashdot:
"You simple make something very common illegal and then you don't enforce the law.
This way you make a lot of people criminals and you can cherry pick whoever you want to go after.
It is a very common way to get rid of the whole inconvient equal to the law thingy.."

And in Germany we have the instrument of 'Abmahnung'

Monday, November 15, 2010

Wall of Korg

Yesterday at Institut Für Elektronische Klangerzeugung, the studio by Matthias Schuster (Geisterfahrer, Das Institut, Bal Pare) with whom I run the music project Akustikkoppler.

Von Akustikkoppler


for music tracks visit http://soundcloud.com/akustikkoppler

Friday, November 12, 2010

Things That Happened limited vinyl

Yesterday at my gig at Rote Flora I was given my copies of the compilation Things That Happened by Reduktive Musiken. Its a limited vinyl LP with live tracks by Wäldchengarten, Government Alpha, Praying For Oblivion, Audible Pain and Notstandskomitee VS TBC with me performing Pure Data patches and TBC Thomas processing them with FX and feedbacked mixer. He was objected to my suggestion of the vs in the name but I found it quite funny, more in the sense of Ultraman VS Kamen Rider, not really versus but collaberating.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Heilpflanzen sollen verboten werden

Zitierter Text:
Jede(r) von uns benutzt im täglichen Leben Heilpflanzen in Form von Tees,chinesische, ayurvedische Mittel, Kräutermischungen etc. Dies soll alles verboten werden! Lest selbst:

Ab April 2011 soll das Gesetz für Nahrungsergänzungsmittelund Heilkräuter (THMPD - Traditional Herbal Medical Product Directive)EU-weit durchgesetzt werden. Das bedeutet: Die auf Teemischungen basierende Kräuterheilkunde wäre dannwahrscheinlich um die Hälfte der dort eingesetzten Kräuter beraubt, da es wenig"wissenschaftliche Forschung" über gebräuchliche, einheimische Kräuter gibt und diese dann ohne aufwändige Forschung keine Zulassung als Arzneimittel bekämen. Fast alle chinesischen und ayurvedischen Heilpflanzen und ein guter Teil dereuropäischen Heilpflanzen sollen mit dieser EU-Novelle verboten und aus dem Handelgenommen werden.

Die Gründe liegen auf der Hand: Die Pharmaindustrie hätte die Naturheilkunde"Schachmatt" gesetzt und könnte diesen wachsenden Markt für sich übernehmen. Jetzt sind wir alle gefragt und können noch Einfluss nehmen. In Deinem, Ihrem, Eurem und unserem Interesse BITTE diese Petition unterzeichnen,um dies vielleicht doch noch abzuwehren . . . *Bitte an alle Freunde und Bekannte weiterleiten, damit die Liste möglichst lang wird. Stichtag ist der 11.11.10. also es bleibt nicht mehr viel Zeit.
* * Man muß sich auf der Seite vom deutschen Bundestag registrieren* *

https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/index.php?action=petition;sa=details;petition=14032

und die Petition dann unterzeichnen - es dauert nicht lange !Hier noch ein Link mit sehr guten Infos bitte durchlesen !!!

http://www.gesundheitlicheaufklaerung.de/eu-richtlinie-thmpd-das-aus-fur-heilpflanzen-und-naturheilmittel

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

November events

After the adventures in Canada a packed November lies ahead. Starting on the 4. the exhibition hybrid by Das Kombinat will be shown at Einstellungsraum Hamburg. On the 11. a Notstandskomitee concert at Rote Flora, Hamburg. Exhibition @ Piksel Festival in Bergen, Norway from 18. till 21., in between there will be a Placard style concert in Bergen with another live performance by Notstandskomitee.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Wonderland Wednesday

the desktop sharing feature of wonderland

just attendend the Wonderland Wednesday meeting, first time for me in 3D chat for years. In the 90s we created a lot of artistic multiuser VRML worlds and had meetings via Blaxxun servers. After they went down there was silence but I kept looking for open alternatives, to create surreal multiuser experiences. Finally the open source Open Cobalt and Open Wonderland are good enough so I guess I will start to use Wonderland, also because I program Java but have a vague idea about Smalltalk, on which Cobalt is based.
What I like on Cobalt is that its based on P2P technique so they dont need a server. And its easier to jump from world to another.
trippy desktop sharing feedback

The Java based Wonderland has better looking graphics but uses much more ressources. But its has more optional modules to plugin and add features and development seems to happen faster. The default avatars and the worlds, as you can see on the pictures, are boring but everything can be customized easily. Both programs are mainly for business and education but I dont intend to simulate the real world.
New experience for me was the usage of voice chat, back in the 90s we had not the bandwidth for that fancy stuff, just text chat to communicate.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Friday 10. September exhibition and radio concert

Another gallery closes in Hamburg, Germany. More than 70 artists exhibit on the last three days of Galerie Linda,10. - 12. September. I am going to show an interactive installation made with Pure Data. I setup everything during the day but be there later because I have an Elektronengehirn radiospecial with concert on Radio Gagarin @ FSK in the evening, 20:00. Stream is available.

http://www.chezlinda.de/

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

26.August Elektronengehirn and much more live on Stubnitz in Hamburg

Do, 26.08.2010, 20:00 Uhr

STUBNoIse

Konzertabend mit

Ramunas Jaras (ENDICHE VIS.SAT)
Elektronengehirn
Jetzmann
Y4HK Soundsystem

TBC
RENOISED
--------------------------
ENDICHE VIS.SAT

ramunas jaras is a lithuanian artist known for his inventive musical ventures and multi-stylistic stage productions. jaras is a performance artist, musician, and author. he has organized countless actions, both orchestrated and spontaneous. he is also known for his solo theatrical work as ENDICHE VIS.SAT.

--------------------------
Elektronengehirn: Geburt Der Kunst, erster bis dritter Satz

Der Französische Künstler Robert Filliou erklärte 1963 den 17. Januar als Geburtstag der Kunst. Dieses Ereignis wird international mit verschiedenen Ausstellungen, Performances und Konzerten gefeiert, so auch 2010 im Grazer Medienkunstlabor ESC. Als Mitglied der PD-Graz Gruppe komponierte Malte Steiner aka Elektronengehirn das Stück 'Geburt Der Kunst' in mehreren Sätzen mit der Open Source Software Pure Data und führte das Stück von Hamburg aus via Internet in Graz auf.
Am 26. August ist 'Geburt Der Kunst' zum ersten mal in Hamburg vor Ort zu hören.
--------------------------
Y4HK Soundsystem
Die stubnitz-sealectors präsentieren ihren soundtrack vom schiff.
JETZMANN
Musiker (Bass, Elektronik), Texter, Moderator bei Radio Gagarin (FSK Hamburg), dem Fachmagazin für musikalisch Randständiges, komponiert für Choreographien live:noise mit bass/gitarre,looper,feedbacks mal mit text,mal mit film
TBC (harshnoise hamburg)
sagt eigentlich schon genug.tbc wird euch was zu hören geben,verlasst euch drauf.
RENOISED
spielt e-gitarre ohne computer oder andere playbacks diesesmal erzählt er mit seinem instrument "a sailors tale" und träumt sich damit auf und in die weltmeere

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Linux video editing workshop 22. August Hamburg

From 14:00 till open end Malte Steiner lecture about video formats, gives an overview of the free open source applications available for Linux and gives a practical demonstration from capturing via editing till finishing a DVD and online video.

Software includes Cinelerra, Kino, OpenMovieEditor and more. The workshop is free and no registration necessary but would be great if you drop an email to steiner AT block4 DOT com stating your particular interests in this workshop.Bring your laptop with an installed version of Cinelerra, internet wont be available on location.It happens to be at
Norderstr. 71 ug
20097 Hamburg, Germany
targetautonopop.org

Unlimited Liability reopens tonight

Tonight, 15. August, at 19:00, opens Unlimited Liability, Michel Chevaliers temp art store. On the 22. August I give a workshop on Linux videoediting there, starting at 14:00.

15. August–17. Oktober
Do-Fr: 15-20h
Sa-So: 12-20h
Norderstr. 71 ug
20097 Hamburg
http://targetautonopop.org/

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Saturday, 14. August schedule

Finally! Saturday concert schedule confirmed, Notstandskomitee play 21:00. The exact schedule is:
16:00-18:00 Steffi
18:00-20:00 Evapori & Jetzmann
20:00-21:00 Ditterich v. Euler-Donnersperg
21:00-22:00 Notstandskomitee
22:00-24:00 Max
24:00-X DJs Evapori/Jetzmann & Steffi & Max

I created a webpage with some infos: http://block4.com/index.php?id=122

Monday, August 9, 2010

Friday, August 6, 2010

Notstandskomitee concert 14. August Hamburg

I perform another Notstandskomitee outdoor gig on 14. August in Hamburg. Its a small art and music festival at Bullerdeich, Hammerbrook. More details soon...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

exhibition and radio performance 10. September

My next exhibition is in the Galerie Linda Hamburg on 10. September. Its sad because this nice gallery where I exhibited 2006 and 2009 has to close, they got thrown out by their landlord for no appearant reason. So its the last day exhibition with 70 artist, each one get 1m x 1m, I am going to have a small interactive installation there, certainly made with Pure Data.

At that evening I am at Radio FSK and do a radioconcert as Elektronengehirn. I am now thinking about combining that...

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Bourbonese Qualk

Anyone remembering Bourbonese Qualk? The whole backcatalogue can be downloaded for free at

Saturday, July 31, 2010

lecture 2.August Linux Audio

I am going to lecture about Linux Audio and production with open source tools at Linux Stammtisch Centro Sociale Hamburg on Monday, the 2. August, 20:00. I will show Ardour, Pure Data, Csound, Qtractor, Alsa Modular Synthesizer, Minicomputer and more.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Alan W. Moore in Hamburg

Alan W. Moore is in town and going to have 2 lectures. Tonight (28.7.) he speaks about the “House Magic” project at Frise Hamburg, 20:00.

Alan W. Moore, art historian and retired artist, speaks about the “House Magic” project. This “bureau of foreign correspondence” (himself) is a years-long project dedicated to explaining the movement of occupied social centers – besetzten Häusern mit politischen Richtung aka “Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestione” (CSOA) – to a U.S. audience. The first show was produced by the visual arts collective at ABC No Rio in NYC last year, and included “wallpaper,” stencils, banners, videos, books and dossiers from the internet. Later shows of this mobile archive were in Chicago and Philadelphia. Moore's research trip this summer has taken him to London, Madrid and now Hamburg. Auf Englisch mit some Deutschliches interpolation. With pictures.

Tomorrow 20:00 he speaks at Unlimited Liability (Norderstr. 71 ug) about "New York Art Gangs, post-'68"
--"Artists' groups do not make objects so much as they make changes"--

Beginning with the Arts Workers Coalition in 1969, NYC artists formed groups to advance their agendas and ideas. The arising of the Soho district, Gordon Matta-Clark, P.S. 1, Artists Meeting and Art & Language New York, Colab and punk art, Political Art Documentation group, and Group Material comprise a trajectory or lineage of politicized artistic practice. Today sees a resurgence of collective formations in the USA, and also a consideration of collective practice in itself. Alan Moore was a critic, video artist, and member of Colab, ABC No Rio, MWF Video Club, and hangs out with 16 Beaver Group. He is doctor (without medicine), and teaches when he can afford to. He is in Hamburg researching for "House Magic," an information project on European occupied social centers.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

go west

The last couble of weeks a friend of mine from Toronto is riding from Ontario to B.C., on horseback. Although he has no direct wireless connection, on some stops he can update the blog and gallery. Pretty amazing journey through Canada:

http://gowestyoungmen.com

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Notstandskomitee Automatenmusik on iTunes available

The 4. CD album of Notstandskomitee from 2001 is now available on iTunes

Like the previous release, the split album Y2K with Cyberthreat, all electronic tracks are instrumental, bordering on the IDM area.

The main synthesizer was the Nord Modular 1, all sequencing is done internally with its step sequencers. Additionally Csound, some other hardware synths and effects where used.


Physical release was in 2001 on Block 4, available on vinyl LP and CD with bonustracks, which are all included in this digital release.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

video workshop

This year I am going to give a workshop / lab again at Unlimited Liability art store in Hamburg, but not about Pure Data again, this time about video editing with open source tools, mainly Cinelerra. Exakt date will be given soon.

Notstandskomitee 20. anniversary 2011

Next year is 20. anniversary of Notstandskomitee and I hope I can release the backcatalog way back to the cassettes at least on the ITunes of this world. Right now I am listening through all the material, nice memories but some stuff I have to leave out because of the liberal use of samples from movies in that time which I can't release in these days.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Homeopathy

whats about this bashing of Homeopathy, why noone question the practices and prices of the pharma industry?
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/0,1518,706257,00.html

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

my studio is a tardis

Now I am certain, my studio is sort of disfunct Tardis. Its bigger from the inside when it comes to misplacing things and times shifts, usually forward, when I start to program sounds for new tracks.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Notstandskomitee live video Münzviertel Strassenfest

Notstandskomitee live at Münzviertel Strassenfest, 19.6.2010, Hamburg. It was windy,cold and wet, few people, monitors kept collapsing, in short: a typical Hamburg streetfest. I expected the worst, a new low in my career, but it was fun and good test of equipment.
Please note the small black netbook which ran the whole show, together with Archlinux and a realtime kernel. Csound replayed the loops from the studio, process them and provided synthesis for my solos.

Notstandskomitee Münzviertel Strassenfest 2010 from Malte Steiner on Vimeo.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

doubles instead of floats

Münzviertel Strassenfest concert was great. I expected it to rain the whole time and junkies explaining me on stage how stupid electronic music is, but actually everybody enjoyed it. The schedule was tight but it was even room for one encore (which I prepared just last night). I will post a video soon. Csound, except some minour glitches nobody noticed, ran fine on my Atom single core netbook. And the bass was allright, lot of compliments about the sound quality. I think its because its Csound compiled with doubles instead of float precision but what do I know.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Notstandskomitee live @ Münzviertel Strassenfest 19.June 2010

Notstandskomitee performs at the Münzviertel Strassenfest in Hamburg, 19.June 2010 19:00 at stage Repsoldstrasse. I just picked up poster and flyer, well, two ways of spelling Notstandskomitee and none right. But anyway, if the weather is ok its going to be a blast, with more bass as at the Le Placard Headphone festival.

Friday, June 4, 2010

cellphone robots

Robots, with cellphone brains. Lets say Android androids, at least now I know what I do with my G1 Android phone which I cant update to the latest Android version 2.2.
http://www.cellbots.com/

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ardour 2.8.9 is out

The latest version of Ardour, the free open source DAW for Linux and OSX, is released:

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

video of Elektronengehirn LAC performance

I uploaded a video of the Elektronengehirn concert at the soundnight at Linux Audio Conference 2010 in Utrecht. Its a full length video of the performance in SJU Utrecht at Linux Audio Conference 2010 on 3. May. Not much to see, more to hear. Algorhythmical composition processes been live controlled and augmented with some live playing. The piece is done in Pure Data and running on a Linux laptop (Arch Linux), all sounds are synthesized in realtime without samples or prepared tracks.

Elektronengehirn concert LAC 2010 soundnight SJU Utrecht from Malte Steiner on Vimeo.



More videos from that soundnight can be seen at Rui Nuno Capelas channel.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Processing and framerate

After his lecture in Hamburg, Peter Kirn showed me some Processing sketches with nice framerate, restoring my faith into that system and Java 3D in general. I tried Processing some years ago but was not that impressed by the framerate and wondering how all the others create big scale installations with it.
Here is one of my small old examples, who needs flash anyway?
http://www.urbanunits.com/index.php?page=urbane_signale

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Einstellungsraum 2009 catalog


Last saturday my copys of the 2009 catalogue from Einstellungsraum Hamburg including my November exhibtion arrived but only today I had time to open it. Very nice.

news about Linn Drum 2

so the new LinnDrum 2 is not abandoned, only Roger and Dave go different ways:

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linndrum2/index.shtml

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Notstandskomitee live @ LePlacard, Gängeviertel Hamburg 15.5.

I will test my new Csound based Notstandskomitee set at the Le Placard headphonefestival on saturday, 15 May 23:30 at the Druckerei, Gängeviertel Hamburg, but it will be streamed too:

Monday, May 10, 2010

Xyramat live at Pudel Salon Hamburg 11.5. 2010

Blurred Edges Festivals, organisiert vom VAMH,

---- Dienstag, den 11. Mai, ab 20 Uhr bei freiem Eintritt (Spende erwünscht)-----

Xyramat - Live -

"Lack klebt auf Schwarzgeld nicht" im Salon des Golden Pudel Klub.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Das Kombinat exhibtion Hamburg, 7. May


After long absence Das Kombinat will do an exhibition in Hamburg in Kunstlift Hamburg with audiovisual installation inclusive unreleased and never heard before tracks.


Only 7. May, 17:00-22:00

Das Kombinat macht Fahrstuhlmusik
Muzak installation in an actual elevator.

Kunstlift Stresemannstr. 100, Hamburg, Germany

Elektronengehirn live Utrecht 3.May LAC

Elektronengehirn perform the piece 'Geburt Der Kunst, Satz I und II' live at the Soundnight 3. May at SJU at Linux Audio Conference 2010 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This piece is composed in Pure Data for a concert at 17. January 2010, which is declared as the birthday of art. In Utrecht it will be augmented with a new second part.

29.4. catalog release by Einstellungsraum

Catalogue release of Einstellungsraum, including my exhibition from November 2009:
Am 29.04.2010 ab 19h ist der EINSTELLUNGSRAUM e.V., www.einstellungsraum.de,  in der Jupibar des Gaengeviertel.  Anlass ist das Releasen unseres jüngsten Kataloges, dem nämlich aus 2009. Aus unseren Restfördermitteln und viel Eigenarbeit dokumentiert er alle Ausstellungen, Aktionen und dazugehörige Textauszüge zum Jahresthema 2009 "shared space".  Sharde space ist ein holländisches Verkehrskonzept und bedeute "gemeinschaftlich genutzter Raum". Die Jupibar des Gaengeviertel an der Ecke Speckstraße und Caffamacherreihe nutzen wir nun gemeinsam mit den beteiligten KünstlerInnen und Gästen, um diese Broschüre, die 2010 im Hyperzineverlag erschienen ist und vom EINSTELLUNGSRAUM e.V. herausgegeben wird, öffentlich zu machen. Es gibt eine kleine Leseaktion mit Brigitte Engel-Hiddemann und das, was die Jupibar zu bieten hat.  Wir freuen uns auf interessierte Gäste. Die benachbarte Ausstellung in der Speckstraße von Silke Peters und Kimberly Horton "Unter diesen Umständen" wird zeitgleich geöffnet sein. 

Saturday, April 17, 2010

sqlite tool

When working with SQLite Databases (hint: IPhone), this can come handy as an editor/management tool:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Google open sources VP8 video codec

Google going to open source vp8 video codec which could be a good thing for HTML5 web video:

http://newteevee.com/2010/04/12/google-to-open-source-vp8-for-html5-video/

Sunday, April 11, 2010

mastering an Akustikkoppler album

Mastering an album of my band Akustikkoppler which I present tomorrow to a Hamburg label. Its very dark ambient, hopefully it gets a release.

A synthpop vinyl single by this project is due since a year, but the label we gave the master took so long to get their act together. But now its about to be released but I believe it when I hold it in my hands.

Meanwhile tracks can be listend at Soundcloud, on our Myspace page together with our first music video and we have a Facebook page too.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

which label? and what kind of music is this?

Passed this afternoon with a friend listening to the latest yet unreleased Notstandskomitee album to determine what kind of music it is and which label might be interested. It would be the 5. album release. You can get a glimpse at Soundcloud. Its difficult to judge on your own. Jim 'Foetus' Thirlwell once said "bleed now, sell later" and this is what I do, creating the music and later sort out the tracks and compile them to a album.

http://soundcloud.com/notstandskomitee/sets/t-e-m

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Thursday, April 1, 2010

case of miserable easter bunnys

Its close to easter and its not the first time I blog about strange candys. The look of these chocolate easter bunnys is remarkable. I mean they could at least made them smiling but so the small faces bear all the misery of life.


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

robot voice control via Android cellphone

Some people use an Android phone for robot voice control. Interesting is that the voice recognition is done online, the phone send a recording into the 'cloud', read to Google, for analysis, getting back a textstring. But pretty powerful Api anyway, just one line of code for doing this.

http://androidcommunity.com/cellbot-diy-android-robot-gets-voice-control-video-20100331/

Monday, March 29, 2010

vhs covers

I already posted it a while ago on my Facebook account, but I really spent some time here, browsing through old 80s VHS covers discovering known and unknown trash movies.
"The covers in this section may contain violent themes." . Yeah.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/vhs-videos

Friday, March 26, 2010

screencast tutorials on CSound editor QuteCsound

More screencasts, remind me to do some for Minicomputer and AMS. Alex Hofmann shows how to work with Csound through QuteCsound editor:



The others

basic Linux synthesizer tutorials by Leigh Dyer

Leigh Dyer made some basic synthesizer tutorial screencasts on Linux:



Check out his blog for Flash free Ogg Theora videos:
http://blag.linuxgamers.net/?cat=117

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Icon Midi controllers

Never heard before from this company, Icon. Because I build my own software instruments I tend to drool more over controllers than the current boring synthesizer offerings. So far I missed some news about controllers from Musikmesse, but Icon seems to build some USB class compliant devices so that they run under Linux, unlike the epic fail Novation Launchpad.


Their I-Stage and I-Creative are most destinct, I wonder of the quality and wether the leds can be controlled via Midi to give optical feedback, would be cool for stepsequencers!

They also offer a MackieControl clone called QCon for 500.- €, only downside: only 1 of the 9 motorized faders is touch sensible.

http://www.icon-global.com/music/music/index.php

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

reverbscapes with Csound

Ever reverbed a signal, pitchshift the reverb, apply delay and bandpass to it and feedback to reverb? Instant Eventide feel, just done with Csound on Linux. Nice resonances and reverbscapes. Going to provide the patch soon...

Elektron +Drive memory upgrade

I dont like to make advertisement for free but as a Machinedrum owner I was curious, here is the text from Elektrons collapsed site:

The +Drive divides a machine in 128 Snapshots, which allows for thousands of patterns, sounds and songs to be stored internally and more or less instantly recalled. The +Drive also makes it possible for the Machinedrum SPS-1UW+ MKII to host over 6000 ROM samples. The Monomachine SFX-60+ MKII can be loaded with more than 8000 DigiPro user waveforms.

A Machinedrum Snapshot can contain up to 128 patterns, 64 kits, 32 songs and 8 globals. If the Machinedrum is a UW model, each Snapshot also contains a sample bank. A UW MKII sample bank consists of 48 ROM sample slots. A UW MKI sample bank consists of 32 ROM sample slots.

A Monomachine Snapshot can contain up to 128 patterns, 128 kits, 24 songs and 8 globals. In the case of the Monomachine MKII, a Snapshot also contains a Digibank consisting of 64 DigiPro user waveforms.

Either load a completely new Snapshot or a single Machinedrum sample bank/Monomachine Digibank. When loading a new Snapshot, all data will replaced by new content. Loading a new sample bank/Digibank means all other content of the current Snapshot stays intact. Load times for both options are just a few seconds.

The +Drive gives the enormous advantage of having thousands of patterns and kits available. Change Snapshots during a live performance for a completely new session. Load a fresh Machinedrum sample bank or Monomachine Digibank and experiment with new sounds in your currently active patterns and kits. A +Drive opens up a world of new possibilities.

All Machinedrum and Monomachine models are possible to upgrade with a +Drive. When you buy a +Drive, you will receive detailed instructions how to send in the unit for the upgrade. Shipping back to you after the upgrade has been carried out is included in the price.

If you have bought a new Machinedrum UW/Monomachine after Feb 1st, you are eligible for a 30% discount on the +Drive upgrade price. This offer is valid until August 1. Mail us for more info about how to obtain the discount.

Elektron Octatrack at the Messe

Musikmesse is open and the news roll in. While Roland release just another virtual analogue synth, Korg surprises with a toyish analogue pocketsynth, basing on MS20 technology they said:

http://www.production-room.com/korg/korg-monotron/


Elektron presents their Octatrack which is a 8 track sampler/sequencer with realtime timestretch and warping, someone said already its Ableton in a box.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/musikmesse-2010-elektron-octatrack-prototype-video-241309

Their website collapsed but interesting was a note about socalled +Drive which gives more machines in Monomachine or Machinedrum, sounds like a softwareupdate but not sure for now.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

new poly synthesizer by Radikal Technologies

Radikal Technologies presents a new digital polyphonic synthesizer at Musikmesse, the Accelerator. Soundengine uses the digitial osc and filters from Spectralis, unfortunately not the analogue filters. Its subtrative synthesis again but with some expanded modulation goodies.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

eat the cat!

Italy freaks out because a tv chef recommended to eat cats. What makes cats more privileged then chicken, cows or pigs? And why animal activists chime in in that case but not in the horrors of factory farming? Eat the damn cat or maybe considering stop eating meat/fish at all?
BTW I hate cat with synthesizer pix. I love cats, I love synthesizers but the combination doesn't work. Best Gearslutz post in a while was about a cat vomiting in an expensive piano. Great! Maybe it made it in the stock sample library of Omnisphere...

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/0,1518,678515,00.html

Monday, February 15, 2010

new projector technology by Casio

Being a media artist, video projectors are a key component for me. In my exhibitions I have to run projectors rather long, sometimes extended outside the opening times as in my installation deStatic which is shown in public every night. A major concern are the expensive bulbs which usually ran for 2000 or 3000 hours. LED based projectors are out for a while but they are not that bright. Now it seems that Casio find a new way to combine LED and lasers to create a bright projector with 20.000 hours runtime. And no mercury!
http://casio-projectors.eu

Rosegarden sequencer update

The free open source Linux midi/audio sequencer and notation software Rosegarden just got a major update to modernize the application and the codebase. It was a years worth of work to port from old QT3 to QT4.


Friday, February 12, 2010

new Xyramat 7" on MMLabel

Xyramat released a limited 7" on MMlabel, a collaboration with Thorsten Soltau:"Lack klebt auf Schwarzgeld nicht: Korruption I und Korruption II"

Linux Audio Conference 2010 Utrecht, The Netherlands

This years Linux Audio Conference happens to be at the artschool in Utrecht, in The Netherlands 1.-4. May 2010. Its for both, developers and users, with a lot of lectures and concerts. More details at

http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2010

I hope to be able to perform there a piece with Elektronengehirn and the new set by Notstandskomitee at the clubnight.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Minicomputer binary for Ubuntu 9.10

I don't provide binary packages for Minicomputer (to much hassle for all the distributions) but for Ubunutu 9.10 Karmic there is one available at following Launchpad repo:

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Minicomputer version 1.41 released

just released the version 1.41 of the softwaresynthesizer Minicomputer for Linux. Its mainly a bugfix release:

- fix: names of patches and multis were displayed wrong, only the last letters which are usually blanks (1.4 from yesterday didn't resolved it completly)
- fix: change so that it can be now compiled without being in C99 mode
- new: using alsaseq eventfilter to receive only events that are processed

more at

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

network concert sunday 17.1.2010

As a member of PD-Graz I perform on sunday a network piece I composed in Pure Data. I will perform in Hamburg, stage is at ESC in Graz. But ORF will pick up and maybe even a stream is available, not sure about that.

http://esc.mur.at/artsbirthday2010programm.html

new Notstandskomitee remix

Notstandskomitee remixed a song for Trike, check it out at

http://trike.bandcamp.com/album/friday-songs-remixes

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Arno Juerging

Lets begin this year with some cineastic. Splatterbuffs certainly are aware of Andy Warhols Frankenstein and - Dracula, drastic reinterpretations of the famous tales (avoid the German DVD releases, they are cut!). Both have German actors in the main roles, Udo Kier as lead and Arno Juerging in servant roles. While Kier continue to act till this day on both sides of the big sea, its difficult to trace Juerging which stuck in my head for his outragious performances in both movies. IMDB lists only a few movies for him and its said that he commited suicide shortly after the release of the two horror movies, which cant be true -at least regarding the point of time- because I found traces at least till 1984 (which can be just the release year). There is an Arnold Jürging in the German comedy Didi Der Doppelgänger, and here is a clip featuring him again in a supporting role: