Expert Sleepers Running Sequential Pro-1 and Arp Odyssey in Cubase 5

Silent Way is running from within Ableton Live to control the pitch of my Doepfer A-110 oscillator and trigger my Doepfer A-140 ADSR via a Motu 828. The pattern at the end is generated by Numerology.

Silent Way is running from within Ableton Live to control the pitch of my Livewire AFG oscillator and trigger my Doepfer A-140 ADSR via a Motu 828. The pattern at the end is generated by Numerology.

Ever since I figured out how to remote control clip recording in Ableton Live 7 over midi, which was about a year ago, I’ve been trying to build the “ultimate computer based loop station”. I’ve built increasingly more complex Live Sets utilized all sorts of routing tricks and midi conversion scripts and always ended up sort of discontent, because my setups could not be operated effectively with just the 10 switches and two pedals my Behringer FCB1010 midi controller provided. No matter what I tried, I always seemed to end up staring confusedly at the floor board wondering where the hell I was while my potentially brilliant musical idea vanished into thin air.

Then I stumbled over Expert Sleepers Augustus Loop 2 which provided a completely programmable midi control environment and I knew this would give me all I needed to come up with a controlling setup I could use to actually control my loops. The main remaining problem now was that if I used more than one loop the FCB1010 out of the box wouldn’t give me any feedback on what loop I was operating on. Then I found out about the unofficial Uno firmware upgrade (http://www.ossandust.be/). I had a friend burn the downloaded image file on an eeprom chip and was now able to operate the unit in “stompbox mode”. In short, this makes it possible to have one row of buttons on the FCB1010 act as pedals that operate independently of the selected patches in the other row. Now, I can select a loop to control by stepping on one of the buttons in the lower row and the LED on this button stays on even when I press buttons in the upper row to manipulate the loop.

I have written my own lua midi script and gui for Augustus which I’ve been able to extend even further since Os, its ever helpful developer, has built in some event timing support. So, for the first time since I discovered the joys of live looping I’m very content with my setup. That’s why I’m making it public here. Maybe someone finds it useful, too. And hopefully I’ll get to making more actual music now instead of working on my setup (well, one can dream).

• I expect people to send me fully constructed skin bundles (like the examples). However I'm willing to accept just a pair of images that replace the images from the default skin, which can be combined with the default gui.lua script.
• The maximum size of the GUI is 1024x512 pixels.
• The background image doesn't have to be a small tile, as it is in the default GUI. It can be a single image that spans the entire GUI. Remember though that you need to round up your image to the next power of 2 size (e.g. if your GUI is 400x250 pixels, a background image would need to be 512x256 pixels).

• plug-in (VST)
• user manual (pdf)

• plug-in (AU)
• plug-in (VST)
• user manual (pdf)

Darkroom's new album - Some Of These Numbers Mean Something - is their 8th to date, and marks the 10th anniversary of their first (Daylight) released by 3rd Stone in 1998.

The original brief for the new album was: guitar under a microscope. In places it's the heaviest Darkroom album yet, but also the most accessible, combining 70s space rock, 80s Sheffield electronica, 60s guitar instrumentals and 90s post rock.

Mixing classic synthesizer & guitar tones with contemporary post-production, this album combines improvisation with carefully crafted and layered arrangement, and rewards repeated listening.

From Santana & Tangerine Dream to Cocteau Twins & Tortoise: file under ambient stadium rock.

Instruments that sound good inspire better music, and it's a struggle to make music with bad-sounding instruments, irrespective of how talented you might be. Software instruments are no different: although they are usually discussed and sold in terms of their 'features'  what really makes you return to an instrument repeatedly is the much more elusive factor of inspirational sound quality.

I don't know enough about programming to understand why some software tools fascinate you while others make you want to get another job, but I do know that when I use anything by ES I get excited by what I'm hearing. These tools have the sonic richness of great analogue instruments - with the features of innovative digital ones.

- Brian Eno

Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is optimized for modern networking technology. Bringing the benefits of modern networking technology to the world of electronic musical instruments, OSC's advantages include interoperability, accuracy, flexibility, and enhanced organization and documentation.

• Fixed a problem where Augustus Loop's GUI would stop Logic's Key Commands from working.
• Fixed an issue which could cause Apple’s AU validation tool (as used by Logic) to run very slowly when validating Augustus Loop on OS X Leopard.

• Augustus Loop’s GUI is now fully skinnable and scriptable.
• MIDI behaviour is now scriptable.
• Added Record Offset feature, which helps with latency problems in live situations (see this thread).
• Fixed an issue which could cause Apple’s AU validation tool (as used by Logic) to run very slowly when validating Augustus Loop on OS X Leopard.

• plug-in
• user manual
• example skins and scripts

• First Windows version.
• First Mac OS X VST version.
• New GUI.
• Fixed various filter problems. In particular, the filter cutoff was being limited to about 2kHz - now the full range up to 8kHz is usable. Therefore, this version may sound different to previous versions at the same settings. A preferences setting is provided to revert to the previous behaviour, which may be useful if you have to re-visit an old mix after upgrading.
• Added ‘Tape Stop’ feature.