synnack

creating by destroying

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

One of the fundamental things that drew me to "industrial" or experimental music when I was a teenager was the idea of taking something known, and transforming it into something else entirely. It was sort of like data encryption to me; creating little secret origins of sound that listeners will never know of.

It was the home for the sample culture inspire by early "cut up" techniques by William Burroughs and the chance methodologies of early 20th century Dada artists.

The sounds you'd hear in a track could have any number of secret origins. Kick drums actually originating as recordings of someone kicking a washing machine (Depeche Mode did this), or punching themselves in the chest (Einsturzende Neubauten did this). This whole process of creating something out of destroying something else has always attracted me.

This is also interesting to me with visuals. Taking recognizable images and transforming them into something totally different with little relation to the look of the original is making its way into the 0xf8 VJ work and has always been there in the CD/Release artwork for synnack.

Recently, a friend of mine on Facebook posted a simple request "send me a sound file and I'll make something with it". I hit record on my laptop and spoke into the microphone for 10 seconds or so, then sent it to him. Here's what he created out of it. I love it. Thanks Brian.

Have a listen: http://www.seeyouinsleep.com/post/15836996690

Check out the rest of his work: http://www.seeyouinsleep.com/listen

If you also enjoy this sort of thing, check out the "Iron Chef of Music". They post a new sample every sunday and give you two hours to make something with it and post the results. http://ironchefofmusic.protman.com/

maxforlive.com Terms of Service Updated

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

FYI. I have updated the user agreement on maxforlive.com to clarify a few things.

http://www.maxforlive.com/terms.php

First, I added an explicit rule that HTML in comments is not allowed. In attempt to control SPAM comments I started logging attempts to use HTML in comments and i've found a whole ton of accounts that basically just exist to post comment SPAM. This is now explicitly forbidden with proper expectation set. I don't delete anyones account for this the first time as many people may have innocent intentions or paste something in a comment with a valid reason and not notice there's html in it. But repeated errors will get you banned.

Device comments cannot include HTML. User accounts found attempting to repeatidly post HTML in comments will be deleted. 99.9999999% of these are SPAM. This is logged now and I WILL delete any account and ban that user's email address from registering again if repeated HTML comments are attempted.

Second, I clarified the site policy for posting devices that are not free. I had a user contact me about this and realized it probably wasn't clear.

In a nutshell, maxforlive.com is really 2 things. 1) A library of free maxforlive devices. 2) A database of maxforlive devices, both free and not, both hosted on the site itself and elsewhere. This was in part why I added the "reference" feature so that we could keep it such that any device you get from my site is free, but you could also find other things you might really want elsewhere if willing to pay a little bit.

Only free devices should be hosted on maxforlive.com. Do not post any device files that cannot be edited or that require payment to use or edit fully. You CAN still post about your device if you charge for it by using the "reference" feature to post a link to where your device can be purchased. In summary, if not free, post reference, if free, post device or reference.

I'm open to any other suggestions on this policy. I could easily add a "Paid Device" tag for example so that even for references you could "hide devices that are not free" when you browse or search.

I FULLY support the rights of device creators to charge for their work and advertise it by putting it on maxforlive.com as a reference, but would prefer to keep the actual devices themselves hosted on the site 100% free.

Any feedback on this policy?

Bitwig Studio Announced

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The Ableton Forums and blogosphere are full of discussion as of late on the recent announcement by Ableton spin-off company, Bitwig.

Announcing Bitwig Studio

What is exciting about it:

1) It could influence Ableton to announce what's next for Ableton LIve. And let's face it, anticipation is fun and all but, new stuff!

2) Ok so I am one of the users who have always wanted to be able to record automation for all devices in session view into the clip itself. Seems like you can do that in the Bitwig product.

3) I'm also one of the users who never got used to the placement of the track controls in Arrangement view being on the right. Too many years in Cubase for me I guess.

But thats pretty much it for me. There are still 100 things about Ableton Live that make it my tool of choice.

What's not so exciting:

1) I do not want yet another modular programing environment to learn. I want to have a standard environment with a vast user community to learn from with proven and advanced capabilities across audio and video. In other words I want Max for Live, not "reaktor lite".

2) Linux version? Sorry open source friends, this makes no sense OTHER than to throw sand at other vendors. This software may run on Linux, but none of the VST/VSTi devices people demand will... Audio interface drivers? Controller support? To have a startup that would waste any cycles at all on this would be ridiculous. You'd likely end up with some version that runs on linux but I doubt you'd have feature parity, even if you take the driver/vst augment aside. Either that, or they got some serious VC funding.

3) You only have to be one small step ahead of your competitors. The Bitwig announcement tips the hat to Ableton. If Ableton ever was concerned about what Bitwig was up to, they no longer have to be. They can focus on making sure the next version of Live remains ahead of the game and leverage a vast existing install base.

4) Rumors abound that Bitwig is actually Ableton and that "Bitwig Studio" is actually "Live 9". Um. lol.

Disclaimer: Because of my work on maxforlive.com I know many people at Ableton and am an officially sponsored artist by Ableton. However I have NEVER once discussed Bitwig with anyone at Ableton. Any opinion expressed here is my own and does not reflect any knowledge of Ableton strategy or roadmap. I'm just a regular user reading the forums like anyone else.

Sound Art for SENDAI Japan

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

As 2011 ends and 2012 begins I'm happy to announce that the music label I own has released the final 2 releases in a series of compilations focused on the 2011 natural disasters impacting Japan.

In March 2011, an 8.9 level earthquake triggered a tsunami and massive damage to crictial nuclear facilities along Japan's Pacific coast. Shortly after the tsunami struck I began discussions with other like minded folks like Bauke van der Wal of the [law-rah] collective and Shannon Malik of Signifier. Was there something we could do to help those affected? Bauke and I discussed the idea of leveraging the "Natural Disaster Series" that Force of Nature has been doing for years to create a series of releases that we'd sell and donate any profits to charity. In parallel, my work (as in day job) announced a program where they would match donations. So, If we could sell some original music and donate the profits, I could get the donation doubled. Seemed like a good idea so we went with it.

To help us scale and diversify the series, we offered friends and colleagues that ability to curate their own release in the series. Big thanks to Bauke, Dennis Verschoor, Miguel de Sousa, Kate Turgoose, and Marjolein van Elteren for all their work helping to curate these releases.

The series is now complete and is available for sale via Bandcamp. I chose Bandcamp because it has the most flexibility for customers and allows us to let them name a higher price than the $5 USD if they want to donate more to the cause.

I think it would be disingenuous for me to say we did this entirely to raise money for charity though. I mean, given the current climate against paying for music, selling music is a pretty stupid way to raise money for anything. Even a cause as good as this one. Raising money was certainly a goal of the project but this is also about a base, fundamental need to rationalize disaster and participate in a collective expression of humanity. We are artists, that's what we do and how we deal with things. We make art.

Last night as the year changed from 2011 to 2012 I listened to each comp again on headphones. There really is some amazing work here. Outside of the benefit to charity, we have a lot to be proud of from the material alone.

Help us make it a happier new year for the people in Japan still affected by this disaster. Have a listen, buy some art, and make a difference. From the looks of it they still need all the help they can get: Japan struck by another earthquake already in 2012

More info: Series Landing Page on forceofnature.cc, SENDAI Japan Series 1, SENDAI Japan Series 2, SENDAI Japan Series 3, SENDAI Japan Series 4

On DAW Audio Quality

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Erik from InnerPortal Studio recently did some testing comparing the summing bus of Ableton Live with Logic Pro.

The subsequent discussions about this test on various forums (net is that he didn't find there was a difference...) remind me of when people debate the relative merits of recording at bit depths higher than 16 bits (normally 24) and a sample rates higher than 44.1 kHz. (technical info)

Howso?

To me, proper use of simple tools like compressors and eqs have a far greater effect on the resulting sound quality, than wether or not someone uses ABC software or XYZ software, or 16, 24 or some other bit depth. It's not that there aren't technical reasons why a particular application or setting is better than another, but so many people who ask about these things seem to operate under a fundamentally flawed idea that this really matters if you haven't already mastered the basics.

I have heard production on releases that still to this day sound amazing that were produced long before there was digital recording at all, much less audio interfaces that support high bit depths and sample rates. A highly skilled producer can use even the cheapest or freeware EQ to a better result than a newbie can get with the most expensive wizbang protools plugin.

Some tools are better than others, but really any of the commercial DAWs work just fine. You've heard more CDs in your life at 44.1/16 that have blown you away with amazing production than you can count. If you haven't gotten that far, then you've got some ground to cover before wasting disk space with larger files.

If you really want to improve your mixes learn to use compression and eq and forget the rest.

</rant>

Announcing synnack Katrina

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Work is well underway on the next synnack release, Katrina, and should be complete by the end of 2011. This release will be a roughly 45 minute single track and released on Force of Nature as part of the Natural Disaster Series.

Explaining the narrative influences behind this release will be much easier than prior blog posts about other releases. I am from New Orleans. Though I had moved from New Orleans to Boston a few years before hurricane Katrina hit, my family and many of my friends lost pretty much everything, at least in terms of earthly possessions.

This release has been planned for years. I've been wanting to do this pretty much since the storm. I wanted a close connection between the events surrounding Katrina, my memories of dealing with that period of my life, and the music itself. To embed my personal narrative into the final result. With that said, it's not easy to get motivated to sit down and relive painful memories like that. It's taken me a while to really sit down and dig through the material the way I needed to realize the idea. So here I am, 6 years after the storm, finally getting close to finishing it.

Early synnack releases like v1, v1.5, and v.2 were done with a ton of sampling. There were instruments played but so much of the raw material originated as audio found on my hard drive or created in software that was then twisted and warped into soundscapes. With v2.5 I explored the opposite direction, making a release pretty much entirely of synths, and modular analog ones at that. From a technical perspective, Katrina is a merge of the two worlds. My growing modular synth certainly makes an appearance, but the addition of field recorded audio sets this release in a new direction from the prior work.

The field recordings are taken mostly from home recorded video taken during the actual storm itself. My father was into amateur video - before there was a YouTube. After Katrina, he would trade DVDs with people at work of footage they shot during the storm. Lots of disturbing footage. People showing cars and houses floating down the street as they rode out the storm. People showing the aftermath and describing in detail what the viewer was seeing. After my father's passing, I came into possession of all these DVDs he collected. I also had footage I took myself during the first Mardi Gras after Katrina while in New Orleans as video from a cheap Sony Cybershot camera. I even have footage I recorded in 2011 at a Red Sox game with my iPhone the night before hurricane Irene was to hit Boston where this psychotic nut job was ranting on and on, mocking anyone concerned or making preparations to ride out that storm. It was really close to the anniversary of Katrina and disturbing to sit and listen to just how clueless people can be when they don't experience something first-hand.

To create Katrina, I took all of this video footage, stripped the audio off, and busted it up into clips in Ableton Live. These "audio from video" clips were combined with synth recordings in much the same process used to create v2.5 where I sat down (today in fact) and recorded a live, 45 minute performance to create the resulting work.

Once final edits and mixing is done and the release is posted for download, I'll elaborate on the blog about exactly what was used in a play by play.

The official release page is being built at http://www.synnack.com/releases/katrina.php and on forceofnature.cc for the label.

Stay tuned.

maxforlive.com Comment Notification

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

I recently added a small feature to maxforlive.com where you can be notified of comments.

I posted here and the Ableton forums a while back looking for feedback on using 3rd party comment systems or just keeping what I had and adding basic notification. Though a few users spoke up wanting Disqus, they were less than 10 of the ~12,000 users of the site. I still may do that some day but 10 of 12k users didn't provide a conclusive consensus, and I really think having your identity in the maxforlive.com comments match your devices, and not your identity somewhere else, is important.

So I spent some time a few weeks ago and just went ahead and added some basic comment notification.

There are two options in a new "Settings" page accessible across the top. (Note: you must be logged in to use this page).

Check the box as appropriate to either:

Get notified when someone comments on a device YOU have posted

Get notified when someone replies on any device you have also commented on

I suspect most people will want that first option turned on by default, but I don't want to make that decision for the 12,000 accounts on the site. Feel free to give me your opinion on what the defaults should be as comments to this post.

It's been enabled on the site for about 3 weeks now and so far no complaints. Though only 16 users of 12,000 have actually turned the feature on. Most people may not have noticed it though, as I've only posted to the Ableton forums about this and tweeted it.

So there you go, an official announcement. Try it out and give me your feedback!

Maxforlive.com Comment Feedback Needed

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Today I implemented the DISQUS commenting system on this blog.

It always amuses me that I get very little comments directly on the blog, yet people will comment frequently on the Facebook/Tweets/Forum posts I do to advertise each blog post.

That has me curious, if you could just comment here using your Facebook or Twitter account, would you be more likely to do so?

Moving to DISQUS also means users can opt in to be notified when someone else comments on the same post. A definite plus to get conversations going.

If you wouldn't mind commenting on this here so I can test out the new system and make sure it works that would be very helpful.

This also has me thinking, what If I switched the maxforlive.com device comments to a system like DISQUS?

Advantages:

Users can use their Twitter/Facebook accounts to post

Users can be notified when other people comment on the same device. This is DEFINITELY a common feature request for authors at least to be notified when someone comments on their device. I just haven't had the time to implement it and this would take care of that pretty much.

Users no longer required to login to maxforlive.com to comment.

Disadvantages:

This actually means users will be commenting using DIFFERENT usernames than what they use on maxforlive.com. This is a big issue for me. Right now it's obvious when a device author is posting on their own device. You also currently know who the person is you're responding to based on their username on maxforlive.com. Changing to a 3rd party comment system would break the use of the usernames the current community is using.

What do you think? Should I keep it like it is and just one day add email notifications? Or consider moving to DISQUS?

LineFO update to 1.4

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

This weekend I updated one of my first Max for Live devices, LineFO to version 1.4.

When M4L first came out, there were quickly many devices shared to modulate parameters. In the most recent M4L update, Ableton even added their own standard LFO to the default content. Many other examples exist such as this one and this one you can download for free in the LFO Section of maxforlive.com.

But most of these LFO's are variations on what you would expect. They are oscillators used to modulate a parameter based on the wave form of the oscillator. LineFO is something different...

LineFO is a simulated LFO that uses the [line] object instead of an oscillator as the source of modulation. This method has some advantages and drawbacks.

Drawbacks: You cannot manipulate the parameters of the LFO in real time. With a normal LFO, you an slow down and speed up the rate, for example, and hear the effect immediately. LineFO triggers the shape according to the rate you set. So if you have the rate at 2n, your change will not take effect until the next half note.

Advantages: As LineFO does not actually use the audio engine required by Max/MSP to create oscillator signals, it should be lower CPU utilization. This doesn't really matter until you have many LFO's loaded but the impact is certainly measurable. With LineFO you can load many instances with little impact. Perhaps the best advantage though is the same one I list as a drawback. LineFO behaves similar to how clip quantization works in Ableton Live. when you fire a clip or scene it doesn't happen until the next downbeat determined by the Global Quantization setting (by default).

How is this similar to LinFO? Let's say you assign LineFO to the transpose knob of an Operator instance. and set it to 1n for rate with a triangle shape. If you then change that to a "ramp up" at 2n, the change does not take effect until the next measure. You'd have to try it to really get what I'm saying. It's unique and sometimes quirky behavior.

Version 1.4 takes advantage of the new "live_set view selected_parameter" path that allows you to implement your own "midi learn" to assign modulation to whatever parameter you want on any device. I removed the device select drop downs in favor of this approach where you easily "Learn" any parameter to create mappings. I also changed up the interface, added a Help window option, and fixed the random LFO types so they respect ranges just like the others.

One day I will post a video of youtube showing how to use the device but I think it's pretty obvious:

Add LineFO to a midi track

Click "Learn"

Browse to any track and click on a parameter you want it to control

Select the "shape"

Optionally, set speed and range

Press play (it doesn't do anything unless the global transport is running)

The toggle next to "Learn" determines how Learn behalves once you select the target parameter to modulate. If turned on, "Learn" will instantly turn off when select a parameter. If turned off, you can click around to find the target you want, then go back and turn off "Learn" mode.

Anyway.. enjoy! And report any bugs to me here or on the device page on maxforlive.com.

0xf8 Progress and Upcoming Shows

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

In November 2010 I wrote a detailed write-up about what new activity was planned for synnack+0xf8 since the DVD was done. (Read it here: 0xf8 Phase 2).

In preparing for two upcoming shows we really wanted to show some progress on the goals we set forth last year. Much work has been one over the past months to re-build the Jitter patch and create the Max for Live devices needed to interpret the live audio into data for Jitter to use. The show tomorrow will debut the first revision of the new setup.

We're now using M4L devices to send floats (numbers...) representing low-end data, and amplitude of various tracks via udpsend/udprecieve to Jennifer's laptop where they control different effects in realtime. Version 1 of the iPad TouchOSC interface is also complete for her to use to control the Jitter patch. Today we even added some nifty details to it I hadn't planned. Simple things that are highly useful. For example, I have a small M4L device using the API to get the clip name of the current playing clip in a given track and send it to her iPad patch so she knows exactly what stuff i'm messing with.

I was worried at first that switching from the MIDI over LAN to OSC would introduce too much latency. but by messing with the "Track Delay" feature in Ableton Live, I got it pretty much spot on. Looks damn cool I must say. Now instead of pre-determined outcomes specifically triggered at certain times along with the music, the music itself sort of "plays" the video effects.

Looking forward to the show tomorrow night to see how it all finally comes to life in front of an audience.