Category: Music Tech.

  • iPads are NOT Musical Instruments.

    iPads are NOT Musical Instruments.

    I find myself (again) debating the yawnsome “iPads aren’t musical instruments” narrative with a music service. But actually, they’re right. iPads aren’t (necessarily) musical instruments. And neither is anything else. Lots of pianos are just pieces of furniture to their owners. Vintage guitars make nice wall art for silicon valley CEOs. It’s what we do…

  • GGD + Logic Step Sequencer.

    I’m a big fan of GGD’s Modern & Massive. I use it both on stage and in the studio; it’s my go-to drum kit. My live show is powered by Ableton Live, but I often use Logic Pro X when recording. I do find programming drums in Logic’s Piano Roll to be fairly tedious. Thankfully,…

  • GGD Modern & Massive Ableton Live Template.

    I love Getgood drums’ Modern & Massive. I love Ableton live. Using the two together is almost perfection. The one feature I always wanted was to have Drum Rack style note naming when programming M and M. And now… I have it! I’ll explain how this was done in another post if people are interested…

  • Trent Reznor on Synth History.

    This is fascinating. TR didn’t get to be synth guru through happenstance; he had a really unique position to witness the development of synths in the late 70s and 80s. It’s really interesting to hear him poke at the popularity of the DX7; it’s influenced my use of software synths a lot with my use…

  • Nine Oh Nine!

    I love love LOVE 909s. I don’t own one obviously, but I’ve used so many hardware and software replications over the years. Something about that snare – punchy AND snappy – that gets me every time. Here’s a cool video by Doctor Mix showing some famous 909 patterns. Most are obvious, but at 1:23 –…

  • Perfume – Fusion: Hi-Tech Live Performance

    This I love. My peeps from the MTF crowd will too, I’m sure. J-Pop band Perfume performing live across 3 continents in a ridiculously tightly edited video. A triumph of art, choreography and technology. And Fusion is my favourite track off the album. YEAH.

  • Quote: How Music Works

    Quote: How Music Works

    I love facts like this. Mainly because they reframe concepts of what is “real” – something many musicians obsess over. There’s a popular idea that old recordings are more real, that modern recordings are full of tricks and cheats and it’s-all-done-with-computers to make them sound better. But of course; there’s nothing new about the thinking,…