synnack

synnack full live performance at Together Fest 2013

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

synnack will perform the full live show (with live video) as part of Together Fest in 2013 on Friday May 17th. Our set begins promptly at midnight (so technically speaking, teh show is on the 18th but you'll need to arrive on the 17th to see the start...)

Details on the FB page for the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/507552645958651/

ROOM 1 — CLUSTER MAG presents #FEELINGS LABEL SHOWCASE:

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BEN AQUA (TEXAS, #FEELINGS, DFA RECORDS)

MOHEGAN SON (NYC)

DJ KILBOURNE (JERSEY)

SWELTA (BOSTON)

with MAX PEARL (CLUSTER MAG, NYC)

ROOM 2 — CVLT presents:

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BLACK ASTEROID (Motor, CLR, Electric Deluxe)

+ SECRET SURPRISE GUEST!!!

••OPENING SUPPORT FROM••

SYNNACK (LIVE)

& CVLT RESIDENTS

SHIMODA

PUNKETTA

EL POSER

GLASS TEETH

with VISUALS by CTRL ALT DESIGN

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HOSTED BY: LIL MERMAID & FRIENDS

$10 BEFORE 1AM or ALL NIGHT IF U HAVE A TOGETHER FESTIVAL WRISTBAND / EVENT TICKET
$15 AFTER 1AM FOR NON WRISTBAND / TICKET HOLDERS

21+ NO DRUGS ALLOWED

4 LOCATION RSVP@THECLUSTERMAG.COM WITH YOUR FULL NAME BEFORE 8PM 5/17

I am not a DJ I am a DJ

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

This morning I did a DJ set as part of the Together Festival in Boston.

Performing electronic music for most people is sort of a hybrid of playing things, and DJing. (my rant on this). You could never play all the things on the recording, but you also try to play, or remix them, as much as you can.

In some sense then, I've never DJed before and today was my first time. Of course I have performed countless times exactly the same way I did today, but never with (mostly) other peoples music. I'm so used to performing my own music that, in a way, it feels disingenuous to DJ. I didn't just press play (mostly) but I loaded tracks into Ableton Live and made loops of different sections of things, and performed a sort of live mashup type of thing. Combining tracks together, and adding some of my own yet unreleased material. But even still it felt weird, like i was "getting credit" from the people there for music I didn't actually record. Interesting feeling. Not important I guess as I was SUPPOSED to be DJing other peoples music, but as a musician it sure did feel weird.

The DJ setup was outside in a parking lot. They had a nice setup with a canopy thing over the booth to minimize glare for the performer. I realized part way through the set that I have never performed electronic music in any way outside before. I've performed outside many times as a guitar player when i was a teenager. But since getting into electronic music, not once (that I can recall) was it outside. It was actually quite fun. Its' a completely different experience to essentially be sitting right off of a busy street (Massachusetts Avenue) with all the hustle and bustle of city life all around me, and cranking ambient drones and glitchy beats. In full sunlight. The wind blowing against my face and the PA speakers pointed at my head. Come to think of it, it wasn't really the performing that was interesting in this setting, it was the listening. Hearing these sorts of tracks at loud volumes outside in the city on a spring day was quite amazing. Someone else clearly agreed with me as they walked over to a bench next to where I was performing and sat down and closed their eyes in full bhudda position for a while.

What a great experience. I shall listen to music loud and outside again. Thank you to Pat DiPaola and the Together crew for booking me.

I recorded the entire set (resample feature in Ableton Live).

Here's a link to download it, and the full set list of things that i used in somewhat this order to make the set.

Download the full set (it wont always be here...): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18262281/synnack-Together-DJ-Set-05-14-2013.mp3.zip

01. StartFragment:000001 by synnack from v2.5
02. by Access To Arasaka from void()
03. Dissociation by Attack Sustain from Create.Destroy.Rebuild
04. V4641 Sgr (2nd Approach) by Ghosts in the Clocktower from I Enroute
05. capture this (II) by Byetone from death of a typographer
06. März (vs. Newt) by Hecq from 0000
07. From a Distance by The [Law-Rah] Collective from Field of View
08. Pure (Ena Remix) by Architect from Upload Select Remix.2
09. Virta 1. / Current 1. by Pan Sonic from Katodivaihe
10. Wurzel by Pole from the Waldgeschichten single
11. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground by Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld (ANBB) from Mimikry
12. Eleven Eleven Eleven by Sul.a from Ink Spot
13. Whitesuperstructure by Robert Lippok from Redsuperstructure
14. St0minux by 3tronik from Anpassung
15. Dowry by Cepia from Dowry
16. Recurring by Bonobo from Recurring, the Live Sessions EP

Max for Live and Audio Reactive Visuals at Together Fest

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

synnack will once again deliver a Max for Live technical session at Together Festival in Boston. This time focused on the "audio reactive" synnack setup that uses Max for Live to create visuals.

The session is on May 17th 2013 from 4PM-5PM at 614 Massachusetts Avenue, #203, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Facebook Event Page

Details on TogetherBoston.com

Session Description:

Musical innovators have always sought new ways of making unique, personal sounds. Today’s most creative computer musicians are pushing the boundaries with Max for Live, turning Ableton Live into their own customized instrument. Together 2013 hosts a unique lecture and demonstration of Ableton’s “Max for Live” by Clint Sand and video collaborator, Jennifer McClain. Clint is the creator and host of the largest free Max for Live device sharing platform at www.Maxforlive.com andperforms under the name “Synnack”. The session will cover the basic use of Max for Live for beginners, as well as a demonstration of more advanced Max for Live integration with a custom VJ system written in Max/Jitter for more experienced users. Following the set, McClain and Sand will present a a full technical breakdown and discussion of how the audio/visual demonstration was made. Every device, every patch, exposed.

Max for Live lets you build your own devices for use in Live. Create custom synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, audio effects, and much more. Max for Live also allows you to build devices that modify Live itself, including the properties of tracks, clips, and native Live devices.

Every Max for Live device includes an Edit button, allowing you to look at (or modify) how the device was made. And Max for Live comes with a collection of Live’s native interface elements, so you can build devices that look and feel just like Live.

synnack DJ set at Together Fest

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

synnack will be performing a DJ set Together HQ in the parking lot next to 328 Mass Ave from 11am to noon on Tuesday May 14th. I believe they will also have this setup as a live internet stream as well for those not in Boston.

The set will feature a live mashup of drone/ambient works by some well known and obscure artists combined with some light weight beats to bridge you from morning to afternoon. I'll be performing this from a tented DJ booth in the HQ parking lot where there will be a mesh canopy to shade the dance floor (so the projections can be seen).

Ableton features synnack live visual work

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 EDT

Whats new in Max for live in Ableton Live 9

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 EDT

Ableton Live 9 is finally shipping! Of the many new and cool features, the inclusion of Max for Live into Live 9 Suite is a welcome addition that is driving many new users to the world of Max for Live and our community at maxforlive.com. The fact that M4L is now free if you own the Suite isn't the only new thing though. Check out a full list of new things in Max for Live in Live 9! (Note M4L in Live 9 requires Max 6.1 or greater is installed).

From Cycling74:

New features in the Live Object Model or "LOM". Please see below in this blog post for a full list of LOM changes.

API: retrieve all notes in a midiclip without selecting

device width: settable

Devices: improved patcher loading time

live.dial: narrower in tiny mode

LiveAPI: get AudioClip file path

LiveAPI: misc improvements & changes

LivePack: resolve file path

MFL devices: all devices are Max Projects. Among many benefits, this now allows developers to include both the Win and Mac versions of externals when Freezing devices to make them cross platform. See the "Max for Live Device Projects" Vignette in the Max doc for full details.

MFL keyboard focus: fixed various issues

MFL parameters: enabled ordering of automatic mapping of on external MIDI controllers

Rye Pluggo MFL device: minor gain improvments

startup: improved Max for Live startup time

textedit: un-focussing device un-focuses textedit

undo events: events during a mouse down are merged into a single event

New Max for Live Devices

The new "Max for Live Essentials" pack includes:

Buffer Shuffler

Convolution Reverb (including a device to create your own IRs!)

Pitchdrop

Device Randomizer

Envelope Follower

LFO

MultiMap

XY Pad

Instant Haus

Mono Sequencer

Note Echo

Envelope

Expression Control

LFO MIDI

DrumSynth

What's new in the Live Object Model (LOM)

The following are new additions to the LOM taken from LOMChanges.pdf by Cycling74. This document only reflect the state of the LOM at the time of writing, for uptodate documentation and more explanation of these specific properties and functions, please refer to the LOM documentation included in Max for Live.

Application

open_dialog_count Get/listen to the number of dialog boxes shown.

current_dialog_message Text of the current message box; empty if none is shown at the moment.

current_dialog_button_count Number of buttons on the current message box.

press_current_dialog_button(index) Press the button with the given index on the current dialog box.

Application.View

scroll_view for the “Browser” view

toggle_browse() Reveals the device chain, the browser and starts hot swap for the selected device. Calling this function again stops hot swap.

browse_mode True if HotSwap mode is active for any target

Song

create_scene(index) Index determines where the scene is added; it is only valid between 0 and len(song.scenes); 1 will add the new scene at the end of the list

swing_amount 0.0 1.0; right now only affects midi recording quantization and direct calls to Clip.quantize(...).

capture_and_insert_scene() Optional argument that can either be 'Song.CaptureMode.all' or 'Song.CaptureMode.all_except_selected'; the latter will capture all playing clips except for the selected one, leaving the slot of the selected track free in the new scene.

create_midi_track(index)

create_audio_track(index)

duplicate_scene(index)

duplicate_track(index)

session_record Get/set/listen to the state of the session overdub button.

arrangement_overdub Get/set/listen to the state of the arrangement overdub button.

session_record_status An integer that changes when the state of Live's new session recording button changes. Can be observed but not set.

create_return_track() Adds a new Return track at the end.

delete_track(track_index) Delete the track in the 'tracks' property at the given index

stop_all_clips now has an optional argument 'quantized' (default is true). Calling the function with false will stop all clips immediately, independent of the launch quantization.

session_automation_record Get/set/listen to the state of the new Automation Arm button in Live

re_enable_automation_enabled Get/listen to the state of the 'Back to Session Automation' button.

re_enable_automation() Trigger 'Back to Session Automation', reactivating automation in all running session clips.

delete_scene(index) Deletes the scene at the given index. Raises an error when there is no scene at given index or the index is invalid.

trigger_session_record (optional: record_length) Starts recording in either the selected slot or the next empty slot, if track is armed. If record_length is provided, the slot will record for the given length in beats. If triggered while recording, it will stop recording and start to play back the clip.

Track

delete_device(device_index) Delete the device in the 'devices' property at the given index

duplicate_clip_slot(index) Works like 'Duplicate' in a clip's context menu;

Track.View

device_insert_mode Get/set/listen to where a device will be inserted when loaded from the browser. Can be 'default' (add device at the end), 'selected_left' (add device to the left of the selected device), or 'selected_right' (add device to the right of the selected device).

ClipSlot

create_clip(length) Length is given in beats, must be bigger than 0.0; can only be called on empty clip slots in MIDI tracks.

delete_clip() Deletes the contained clip

fire(record_length, launch_quantization) The resulting clip will be refired after the given record_length; launch_quantization overrides the global quantization if provided.

is_playing, is_recording, will_record_on_start will now return the respective state of the contained clip if there is one (they used to throw errors in that case)

Clip

Reminder: Note format is (pitch, time, duration, velocity, is_muted)

get_notes(from_time, from_pitch, time_span, pitch_span) Returns a list of notes that start in the given area just like get_selected_notes

remove_notes(from_time, from_pitch, time_span, pitch_span) Deletes all notes that start in the given area

set_notes(list_of_notes) Will apply the given notes to the clip, overwriting existing notes Note: Accessing these properties if is_midi_clip is false will generate an error

duplicate_loop Makes the loop two times longer by moving loop_end to the right, and duplicates both the notes and the envelopes. If the clip is not looped, the clip start/end range is duplicated. The function has no parameters. Available for MIDI clips only.

is_overdubbing Get/listen to whether the clip is overdubbing

file_path Get the location of the audio file represented by the clip Note: Accessing this property will generate an error if is_audio_clip is false

quantize(quantization_grid, amount) Quantizes all notes in the clip to the quantization_grid (one of Live.Song.RecordingQuantization) taking the song's swing_amount into account; throws a runtime error if called on an audio clip.

start_marker Get/set/listen to the clip's start marker in beats, independent of the loop state. Raises an error if set behind the end marker.

start_time The time the clip has been started, relative to the global song time, the value is in beats

end_marker Get/set/listen to the clip's end marker in beats, independent of the loop state. Raises an error if set before the start marker.

gain Get/set/listen to the clip's gain setting; range is 0.0 to 1.0. Raises an error if called on a MIDI clip.

gain_display_string Get the clip's gain display value as a string (e.g., “1.3 dB”). Raises an error if called on a MIDI clip.

available_warp_modes Returns the list of indexes of the warp modes available for the clip; Raises an error if called on a MIDI clip.

warp_mode Get/set/listen to the clip's warp mode as an integer index. Raises an error if called on a MIDI clip. Note: Available warp modes are 0(Beats), 1(Tones), 2(Texture), 3(Repitch), 4(Complex), 5(Rex), 6(ComplexPro).

clear_envelope(device_parameter) Removes the clip's automation for the given parameter.

clear_all_envelopes Removes all automation in the clip.

has_envelopes Get/listen to whether the clip has any automation.

quantize_pitch(pitch, quantization_grid, amount) Same as quantize(quantization_grid, amount), but only for notes in the given pitch.

Clip.View

grid_is_triplet Get/set whether the clip is displayed with a triplet grid

grid_quantization The grid quantization; possible values can be found in Live.Clip.GridQuantization

show_loop If the clip is visible in Live's detail view, this function will make the current loop visible there

Device

can_have_drum_pads (only true for drum racks)

drum_pads Read/listenable list of all 128 DrumPads for the top most drum rack, inner drum racks return a list of 0 entries).

visible_drum_pads Read/listenable list of all 16 visible DrumPads for the top most drum rack, inner drum racks return a list of 0 entries).

class_display_name Get the device's original name (e.g., Operator, Auto Filter).

type The device's type. Possible types are 0(undefined), 1(instrument), 2(audio_effect), 3(midi_effect).

Device.View (readonly, of type Live.Device.Device.View)

drum_pads_scroll_position (int) Lowest row of pads visible, range: 0 28 Note: Accessing this property will generate an error if can_have_drum_pads is false or the drum rack is nested

selected_chain The currently selected Chain (only available in instrument racks)

selected_drum_pad The currently selected DrumPad (only available in drum racks)

DrumPad

chains Read/listenable list of contained chains

name Read/listenable

note Readonly

mute Read/write/listenable

solo Read/write/listenable, exclusivity needs to be maintained manually, same as in tracks

name Read/listenable

Chain

delete_device(device_index) Delete the device in the 'devices' property at the given index.

Added has_audio_input, has_audio_output, has_midi_input, and has_midi_output all readonly.

Scene

fire and fire_as_selected now have an optional argument 'force_legato' (default is false). Calling these functions with true will launch all clips immediately in legato, independent of their launch mode.

fire(force_legato, can_select_scene_on_launch) now has a second parameter can_select_scene_on_launch (default is True). If set to False/0, the scene is fired without selecting it.

is_empty Is true if none of the slots in the scene is filled.

Push

The Push control surface now has functions that allow Max for Live to use its controls more easily.

get_control_names() Returns the list of alls controls' names.

get_control(name) Returns the control with the given name.

grab_control(control) Releases all Push functionality from the control so that it can be used exclusively from Max for Live.

release_control(control) Reestablishes the Push functionality for the control.

synnack quote on cycling74.com

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 EST

Cycling74, the makers of the Max programming language and collaborators with Ableton to create Max for Live featured a quote from me on their new Max for Live product page. Thanks guys (and girls)!

synnack @ Berklee Electronica Music Club

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 EST

synnack will participate in the Berklee School of Music "Electronica Club" with a lecture and demonstration of the practical uses of Max for Live for audio and visual integration on April 4th 2013.

7:00pm start at 22 The Fenway, Room 112.

Follow Berklee Electronica Club on Twitter or Join the Facebook group

Session description:

Musical innovators have always sought new ways of making unique, personal sounds. Today's most creative computer musicians are pushing the boundaries with Max for Live, turning Ableton Live into their own customized instrument.

The Berklee Electronica Club hosts a unique lecture and demonstration of Ableton's "Max for Live" by Clint Sand and video collaborator, Jennifer McClain. Clint is the creator and host of the largest free Max for Live device sharing platform at Maxforlive.com and is an Ableton sponsored artist (see Electronic Polymath: http://www.ableton.com/clint-sand) who performs under the name "synnack". The session will cover the basic use of Max for Live for beginners, as well as a demonstration of more advanced Max for Live integration with a custom VJ system written in Max/Jitter for more experienced users. Following the set, McClain and Sand will present a a full technical breakdown and discussion of how the audio/visual demonstration was made. Every device, every patch, exposed.

Reflections on the new 2013 live setup

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

Last week synnack performed at Planet Myer Day 11 in Leipzig. The set debuted several new tracks in the works, as well as our new video work. Here's a video of the start of the set plus the first track we played.

The new AbletonLive-to-Maxforlive-to-Max-to-ResolumeArena-to-Projector setup for the visuals worked flawlessly.

Outside of the new visuals, a few new updates to my Ableton Live setup to share:

Several new synnack tracks near completion. At this show I played "Hieroglyph" and "Thorium"; both from the upcoming v3 release. (More on the new release soon...)

I'm using Live 9 exclusively. Using a beta build on stage is sort of nuts but Live 9 has been extremely stable for me. (I used b59 on stage for the curious). It worked like a champ. No issues.

I redid my Live set to only require 8 tracks. I had about 12 tracks in the last version of my set I used last year. It always required using the left/right bank select buttons on the APC40 on stage to show the clips I wanted to fire in the grid, or to show the right "Track Selection" button for me to select a given track for the "Device Control" knobs to work on it via the "blue hand" (Ableton Live users will get that...). This is a huge pain on stage and is distracting from acting on the spontaneous ideas that pop in my head while playing. So for 2013 I decided I would force myself to only require 8 tracks so everything for a song would be in one display on the APC40. The downside is some things are submixed down to combined clips so I have less flexility to only play specific things, but it was a good tradeoff. Having everything right there greatly simplified navigation on stage and let me focus more on the performance.

I also used a new Max for Live device I created that gives me a large visual status of the currently playing clips. This was a HUGE win. When you see people bent over their laptops on stage squinting and staring at the screen in Ableton Live, often its to see the status of the currently playing clips to see how long they have left before they might consider firing something new. My new "Clip Status Monitor" device blows this up huge. I can see it from across the stage. The net is that there's much less squinting at a laptop screen and more focus on the music. I will post the device up to maxforlive.com soon when I clean it up and comment it correctly of course.

The set looks deceptively simple but thats the point. It's easy to read and find things on stage. 7 tracks of audio clips, and 1 track with nested racks of samplers of all the things I want to play on top of the other tracks Live. You'll also notice a "Visuals" group track. That's where it gets complicated. I have many Max for Live devices there interpreting the audio into numbers that get used to control the visuals. (how this works can be found here and here)

I'm still giving up for now on the idea of using iPad(s) on stage. It would be so much simpler to fly to a show with only my 2 iPads instead of the APC40... but I still find I much prefer actual knobs and buttons on stage. I'm old sure but having physical knobs, faders, and buttons just feels better. I will incorporate it in there some day, especially for X/Y controller type things. But for this show, it was just my APC40 and LPK25 (I'm so old I actually do play parts on actual synth keys *gasp*)

A review of the night can be found on the Reflections of Darkness site. As well as some cool pics of the set at black-cat-net.de. The review makes me snicker a bit but in a good way. I intentionally do not interact with the audience and keep all the stage lights off. We are trying to focus them on the sound and video. The synnack sets are meant to be more and more like an art performance than a "music concert". So in a way, even the criticism in this review are spot on, but things I choose to do intentionally. Some cool pics though. :-D

Building Tech for Visuals versus Making Art

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 EST

Happy New Year 2013.

Next week synnack will be performing at Planet Myer Day in Leipzig, Germany. The set will feature 2 new, yet unreleased, tracks from the upcoming v3 release, and the next generation of live visual work by 0xf8 Studios for synnack live performances. I thought I'd spend a few minutes on the first day of the new year explaining a bit about this new video work. (more to come later on the new music!)

Upon the release of the init.system DVD in 2010, Jennifer and I turned our video sights towards building a custom VJ environment in Max/Jitter that leveraged Max for Live devices to send numerical representations of the music I play in Ableton Live in order to render one-of-a-kind live visuals for synnack shows. You can read all about this on the 0xf8 Phase 2 and 0xf8 Progress blog posts. I'm proud of all the work we did to create this massive Max patch to host the visuals but it was a ton of work that ultimately took way too much time from actually making art with it.

Recently, we realized that for the past 3 years, we've been spending way too much time building technology, and not nearly enough time actually making art with it. This must change in 2013. Some amount of technology-building is expected. You have to be willing to sink in enough time to learn the basics of a craft before you can use it. But we would actually spend a YEAR (it feels like) learning some new programming language or software environment and producing very little art as a result.

We've made some big changes to how we've been working to fix this. We are now using Resolume Arena to host the HD footage we shoot and Quartz Composer to render 3d transformations inside it. Max and Max for Live are still a big part of the setup, but QC and Arena instead of Jitter has a ton of advantages.

1. FPS (Frames Per Second) - Using the 1080p HD footage we shoot for cinema-like quality often brought Jitter to its knees with all the crazy effects we built. Even when using GL shaders on the GPU. We'd get ~10 fps in many cases. With the Resolume codec, with all sorts of insanity going on, the laptop sits at ~60 fps! Things are much faster and stable.

2. Image Quality - In Jitter, we'd spend days troubleshooting quality issues. Why did something look "jagged"? Why didn't things look as sharp as the original footage? Countless hours spent messing with Jitter object attributes, searching forums, and transcoding video clips to different sizes and codecs. All that effort is pretty much gone now. Quartz Composer 3d designs just look great by default in Resolume. Using their codec, footage looks killer. This is a huge help to stay focused on the art and not the technology as mentioned above.

3. Quartz Composer - I tried QC a while ago but never found much value in it. I was very wrong. In QC it's so easy to build complicated 3d animations and expose (or "publish") specific controls to OSC for real time manipulation by Max for Live. With just a few days of messing around and learning QC we are able to get some pretty cool results that give a whole new angle to the visual work but still allow for expressive, real-time syncing to the music.

4. Max for Live - all the time spent with Max and Max for Live is still needed. The same Max for Live devices we were using before are still used to turn sound and environmental factors of Ableton Live into numbers send the OSC data to a new "OSC2Resolume" max router patch. This allows us to save routings of specific M4L data to specific visual controls in Resolume so each song can be its own piece of art with specific visuals connected to specific sets of data.

The new architecture looks like this:

Well that's an overview of where we are with the 0xf8 visuals for synnack shows. In 2013 I will be much more prolific with music, starting with completing and releasing v3 in first half of the year. I've been using Ableton Live 9 exclusively for this. Stay tuned for another blog post detailing that work.

Welcome to synnack and 0xf8 2013. This year will be much less about building our own tools, and much more about making our own works of art.