Music • Sound • Video • Art

It’s interesting sometimes how restrictions (in this case a time restriction) can lead to interesting insights.

A friend of mine sent an email yesterday. The short exchange (I was pressed for time) is below pretty much verbatim.

On Wednesday, January 28, 2009,  [my friend] wrote:

>lunch sounds good…
>
>btw, what kinda music software do you use? and what’s good out there
>for mac?

I replied:

I use Digital Performer, Logic, Live and Reason depending on what I am working on.

Reason – Very complete and relatively inexpensive. I believe there is a demo at their site (www.propellerheads.se). Strength: All in one, rock solid, reasonable CPU demands. Cons: Self contained; (To add vocals or external audio tracks have to use it via ReWire with another application.)

Live – Absolutely fantastic. The new Live8 will be even more phenomenal than the amazing Live 7. I discuss the new Live 8 on my blog (scroll down below the “Chinese HipHop” article). You can also get a demo from their site. (www.ableton.com) Pros: Effin’ fantastic program with amazing loop playing capabilities and built-in plug-ins. Cons: Not many.

LogicStudio – Amazing what you get for $499 — loops, plug-ins, industrial strength sequencer. If you were seriously getting into music, this would be perhaps the single best purchase you could make. Pros: AMAZING VALUE; rock solid; industrial strength; lots of included plug-ins and instruments; Cons: Learning curve

OK. So I was, um, not thinking. If I had been, why would I make a resolution only TWO WEEKS before NAMM to NOT buy any new synth plug-ins before June 2009? I don’t even have the excuse of being hung over. Oh well…

Here are some damn interesting things announced on the first day of NAMM, several of which will migrate into my possession at some point this year. (Note that except for a short discussion of Live8, this is mostly a list with links. I’ll write more on each of these in the future.)

Ableton announces LIVE 8…

The biggest surprise to me was the announcement of Ableton Live8. Caught me completely by surprise.

First, if you have not checked out the videos on Ableton’s site, please do. Reading about the new features is not nearly as effective (IMHO) as seeing some of them in action. I’ve provided links to YouTube videos below, but better quality videos are available directly from Ableton at this link: http://www.ableton.com/home?movie=4

First up, there is an overview of Live8…

(OK. So I am a little late to the party on this one, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless…)

Apparently, w-a-a-a-y back in 2006 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the release of Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Brian Eno and David Byrne made available all of the constituent tracks to two songs from the album (‘A Secret Life’ and ‘Help Me Somebody’) for remixing and use under a creative comments license. Marc Weidenbaum over at the excellent online blog disquiet contacted musicians he liked and asked them to submit remixes for inclusion in a downloadable collection. Marc noted that the result, Our Lives in the Bush of Ghosts, has been downloaded 25,000 times.

That is cool in itself. However, of even greater interest to me is that the tracks are still available (as mp3s or as 1.2GB of WAVs), and the Eno / Byrne project site is still accepting audio and video remixes. (So far 272 audio remixes have been submitted.) It should be noted that the creative commons licensing terms covering non-commercial use of the material are really very liberal. You can re-interpret the songs as you will, or do something completely different using just a portion of the material. Whatever you desire.

This was a seminal album for me as it — and Eno’s Music for Films — were probably the two albums that inspired me enough to spend my summer savings on a Monopoly back in ’81/’82 and thus start this particular thread in my life.

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• More info on Life in the Bush of Ghosts is available here and here.
• The update on Marc’s project Our Lives in the Bush of Ghosts is available here. His original announcement and more back story on the project is available here.
• The Byrne/Eno site and audio files are available here. Be sure to allow pop-ups or you won’t be able to complete the registration agreement.
• A link to the excellent ambient/electronica site Disquiet is available here.