Yesterday I was at the iTouch launching party at iShop(Singapore). Okay I know, you people must be asking, "what has iTouch got to do with this electronic/ dance music blog", right? Let me explain, iShop has invited 4 local DJs to spin and show off Rane Serato Scratch Live DJ Software. The DJs are DJ Andrew Chow, DJ Inquisitive, DJ Nano and DJ Ritz. Here is a short clip showing the DJs at work.



Here are some of the pictures I took at the event.





For the more pictures, please click HERE

Labels: DJs, ishop

Oxe FM Synth was created by Daniel Moura who is a Brazilian software engineer. Oxe FM Synth is a freeware software synthesizer for Windows, in two versions: VST Plug-in, and as standalone application.

Features:

- Multitimbral (16 MIDI channels);
- 8 operators (6 oscillators, 1 noise generator/limiter, 1 filter), all with envelope;
- 1 LFO per channel;
- modulation matrix with self-modulation;
- global reverb and delay;
- great general performance in low resources systems.

One of the few good synth I have use. And if you like this synth, please donate to the hardworking author.

To download Oxe FM Synth, please click HERE.

Labels: computer music, FM synthersizer, FM synthesis, free VST, software synthesizer

This is one of the most interesting books i have read. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession is written by Daniel J. Levitin, who is an American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer.The book start out with the first chapter, "What is Music?", this is a good 40 pages of simple explanation on music itself, like scales, pitch tones, etc etc. The rest of the book is about why we dance to certain music and why our brain like this and not the other kind of music.

I have to agree that this is a book for all electronic/ dance musician, sound designer, and anybody that want to know more on sound and music. One of the best so far.

To get this book, please visit your nearest bookstore.

Labels: books, computer music, Daniel J. Levitin, music psychology, music theory

Wheat's BassBook 5.1 is a resourceful website for bass guitar players. It has a whole lesson of "how to" with a bass guitar and has a good coverage on basic music theory. Beside all these good stuff, Wheat's BassBook 5.1 let you print all 3 books for future reference or if you are in a jungle and there is no Internet access and you need to teach the tribal of Wahtongfuko to play the bass guitar at least you have a hard copy.

For more information on Weat's BassBook, please visit http://wheatsbassbook.org/

Labels: bass guitar resource

No, its not Japanese Music, jMusic is Java Music (not the Indonesia island, but it is the computer language). It provides a solid framework for computer-assisted composition in Java™, and is also used for generative music, instrument building, interactive performance, and music analysis. jMusic supports musicians with its familiar music data structure based upon note/sound events, and provides methods for organising, manipulating and analysing that musical data.

For more information on the subject, please visit http://jmusic.ci.qut.edu.au/

Labels: computer music, jMusic, programming

Introducing VOCALOID's Hatsune Miku.

Hatsune Miku on Fly Me To The Moon


I think she sound better in Japanese.


For more information on Hatsune Miku, please click HERE

Labels: computer music, Hatsune Miku, robot, Singing Synthesizer

Mixx screenshot on Linux

Mixx screenshot on a Mac

Mixx is a free/ open source digital DJing console for the masses. This software is still in its early BETA state so don't expect too much form it. But don't worry, if you meet up with problems there is a forum in the support page to help you out. Mixx support most of the popular OSes like Window, Mac and Linux

Here are some of Mixx features
- Beat estimation
- Pitch independent time stretch
- Hardware support
- Waveform summary displays

To download Mixx, please visit http://mixxx.sourceforge.net/

Labels: computer music, digital DJ, Mixx

Andre Michelle Laboratory have got one of the most experimental audio virtual eyes candy. The audio and visual effect are very entertaining for anyone to just sit in front of his/ her computer and waste their life away. But of course these are the hard works of Andre Michelle. Very nice site, two thumb up!

Labels: Andre Michelle, computer music, Sound

If they can do it, so can I!!!!

Labels: DJ, kid

Like father...

...like son

Yes, i know that almost all of you out there have use this VSTi before. But I also know that there are people out there that don't even know that there is such a good, useful and free soft synth exist.

So here is Superwave P8, this software synthesizer is an emulation of the famous Roland JP-8000. Superwave P8 and Roland JP-8000 has a special waveform call The SuperSaw. It was actually created by Roland for JP8000. But since after JP-8000 stop its production some software writer pick up the architecture of JP-8000 and create Superwave P8.

SuperSaw waveform is a popular tool for trance producers all around the world. Some of the producers/ musicians that indulge in this technology are William Orbit, Ferry Corsten, ATB, Faithless, Groove Armada and many more.

To download Superwave P8, please click HERE

Labels: computer music, JP 8000, Roland, software synthesizer, Superwave P8

obsolete.com has lead me through the time line of electronic music. It has at least 120 years of synth history and has a handful of pictures of some very rare synths. Some of these synths in this website are totally unheard of. Great site for synthesizer enthusiasts and the history men.

Labels: analog synthesizer, electronic music, electronica, history synths, music synthesis

We have come across a lot of different kind of classical synth emulation. But have you come across a classic Soviet synth emulation before? This website give away free classic Soviet synth as VSTi. Some of them look and sound damn good. Seriously, I have never use a classic Soviet hardware synth, so i can't comment much on the subject. If you scroll all the way down to the last picture, there is a Reason SubTractor emulator. The website claim that it is 90% similar to the original SubTractor. So ladies and gentlemen, please start your download now!

To download those Soviet VSTi, please visit http://vst.smtp.ru/

Labels: computer music, Reason Subtractor emulation, Soviet Classic Synthersizer emulation, Soviet VSTi

Having problem looking for the right drum loops or you just need a new sound to jazz up that mix of yours but don't know where to get it? Try this website to keep your creativity running: http://www.findsounds.com/. Its like the normal search engine but what this search engine do is look for sound. That is all. Example: if you key in the words "drum loops" in the search box and hit Enter, findsounds.com will search the web for all file with the tag "drum loops". Try typing moog or fairlight in the search box and see what you get.

Labels: findsounds.com, loops, synth loops

Wikipedia state that Localization is how our ears find the direction of a sound source. So please sit back and relax, let me be the ears that seek out nice Singapore Ambient music for your hearing pleasure.

Tachyons-D is an experimentalist, mathematician and computer musician. He has come a long way from being a naval navigation specialist to a computer musician. It started out as an experiment with codes that lead him to create his first ambient music. He is greatly influence by early ambient producers like Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Robert Fripp and Pink Floyd.

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Darren AKA Sonicbrat is a Singapore-based sound artist and music composer whose Ethereal-Ethno-Electronic soundbites have established him as one of the most sort-after sound designer and music composer/arranger in the local theatre scene. His innovative use of microphones with a combination of effect processors brand him a unique designer whose sound is one that critiques described as part primordial and part industrial. Trained in classical piano, he has ventured into the digital realm of sampling, digital and analogue synthesis, bringing a new sonic experience for his listeners, proving himself as one of the new sound forces in the local scene.

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wearelostintranslation explores the words unspoken between broken relationships. sometimes, you find that there are no words to express, be it regrets, be it loss or even happy thoughts.

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Combine a solid musical intensity with potent melody. Blend the slickness, ambient, beats, marks out the sound of Deicoz for something new, bringing u to the outerspace..
Deicoz has been playing & creating music since 15yrs old & that was the first time being on stage playing for a band Strayvoice. Deicoz started to get hands-on solo in mid 2006.This creation goes around to suit the feeling & tunes of the surrounding.This is the place, an empty room for Deicoz to work on...emotions.

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What Alexient admire in others and in herself: producing great works and living life to its fullest in spite of being vividly aware of always standing over the gaping maw of Nihilism..... To look Nihilism straight in its face and laugh hard, because one has gotten beyond it, because one possesses the strength to get far, far beyond it.....To play the game of life on one's own terms, as creator, as divinity realized.

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a s p i d i s t r a f l y was formed by Ricks Ang and April Lee in late 2001 and based in Singapore, the duo emphasizes the interspersing of visual imagery together with sound, creating tracks that are either semi-improvised instrumentals or melodic songwriting.
Outside of their musical activities, they work actively in the domain of photography and interactive media as design unit Kitchen. , an imprint which is also synonymous with the artworks they produce for aspidistrafly. Not contented with working solely in the music scene, aspidistrafly has also contributed materials to the theatre and media art scene, most notably collaborating with highly acclaimed sound and visual programmer Daito Manabe and lighting designer Fujimoto Takayuki (member of renowned Japanese arts collective Dumbtype) on "Drift Net", a multisensory interactive installation/performance curated by Singapore-based international performance company TheatreWorks.

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MUON is a band that bridges the disparate gap between the worlds of explosive rock and dark electronica without falling prey to the trappings of either. Made up of guitarist/producer Nick Chan and drummer Edwin Leong, plus the reclusive Leopold von Berlin, the menage trois has individually been members in other notable acts such as Astreal, The Death of Cinema, I Am David Sparkle, The Pagans and Starr. MUON originally started as a solo project of Nick that revolved around electronic experimentation, fusing together influences from diverse genres such as IDM, ambient triphop, drum n bass, all within a backdrop of jazzy cinematic soundscapes. This period saw MUON performing gigs at venues such as Liquid Room, The Enroute Festival, Zouk, BayBeats Festival, to name a few.

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Life Without Dreams, is a result of three individuals who are searching for an outlet to develop ideas and concepts which do not fit in the context of their current bands. Consisting of members from IF / Phorous, The Death of Cinema and Documentary In Amber, the trio aims to deliver conceptually structured sounds painted on the canvas of silence.

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And They Whisper In Silence was formed earlier this year, around March 2007. Currently focusing on writing more material trying to beef up their inventory and playing gigs whenever they can. Taking influences from instrumental bands all over the world such as Explosion in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emporer, Mogwai, Kafabindunya, Toe, This Will Destroy You, I am David Sparkle and many more. They strongly belief that music can be a catalyst to evoke memories and emotions. The reason they decided on playing without a vocalist is to project a more ambigous state in the musics. As such, they hope that whoever listening to ATWIS can relate to the musics better using their own interpretations.

Labels: a s p i d i s t r a f l y, Alexient, And They Whisper In Silence, computer music, Deicoz, Life Without Dreams, Lost In Translation, Muon, myspace music, Singapore ambient music, Sonicbrat, Tachyons-D

These few short clips are good for beginner to understand the origin of electronic music. They are clearly explain by a few retro professors who, some, are the pioneers of modern dance/ electronic music. Check out all the synths in the clips and compare them to our VST. Imagine if you are a dance/ computer musician in the early 80s, how would all those synths and samplers going to fit into your room. Thank God for the engineers that create VST!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Labels: 1983, analog synthesizer, computer music, educational film, electronic music, fairlight, modular, moog

SOFT is one of Singapore most active music website. It doesn't matter if you are a trance-head, rock/ metal head, techno addict, sound engineer, big or small time producer or just a beginner who is trying to pick up some skills, SOFT is the place to be. It has a very friendly community of moderators and users and the people that use the forum are all too eager to help one another. To check out SOFT website, please click on the SOFT logo above. To visit its forum, please click HERE.

EML stands for Electronic Music Lab. It is a music group base at the Center for the Arts in National University of Singapore. This group of people will meet up every twice a week to discuss on electronic music and the use of various synths, samplers, computer music programme etc etc. The courses EML provide are free! They have even release a few CDs and have gig around Singapore for a number of times. For more information on the courses EML provide, please click on the EML logo above. To check out their forum, please click HERE.

Frontallabs is one of Singapore biggest forum for dance music. This forum is more suitable for DJs and club-heads. Frontallabs also has a huge number of fans who are famous Singapore clubs DJs. A cool place to hang out and check out the latest trend and happening around the clubs of Singapore. To visit the website, please click on the Frontallabs logo above.

Trance Republic was founded in 2001 by a group of Singapore trance fans who found that trance music was not well promoted within their local dance scene. What begin as a small group of trance fans attending trance gig has now become one of the biggest trance group in the Singapore cyberspace. On TR one can find out every single detail of up-coming trance events in this little island. TR is one of the most resourceful trance website in Singapore ...or should I say South-East Asia. Please click the logo above to visit Trance Republic. To visit their forum, please click HERE.

Exit Musik is a forum that has concentrate it resource to the Drum 'n' Bass scene in Singapore and around South-East Asia. In the forum one can find the latest happening in Singapore underground DnB scene and other topic of interest. For all who love DnB and Singapore, then you got to visit this site. To check out this site click on the above logo.

Labels: club, clubs, computer music, DJ, DJs, drum 'n' bass, electronic music, singapore music forum, trance

Yesterday I've introduce you guy to a website with basic music synthesis technic. But i have forgotten to give you the tool for practice. So today i will lead you to a website that offer a great VST synth modular.

Before that, I want to give you a brief intro on it. KarmaFX Synth Modular 0.99 BETA is a cut down version of the famous Native Instruments Reaktor. It serve the same propose for all of us to build a synth. An advice from me is, as a beginner, it's better to try on something cheap before you get your hands dirty with the expensive NI Reaktor. Here are some of the features of KarmaFX Synth Modular:

- Modular patching of synth components and controls.
- Internal high-frequency digital simulation of analogue voltage levels.
- Oscillator with phase, Detune and Pulsewidth that generates standard synth waveforms.
- Dual Oscillator with Detune, Hardsync and Ring modulation.
- Sampler, 16/24/32 bit Mono/Stereo multi sample player that imports WAV/SF2 files.
- 2/4 Pole Multimode Filters with Cutoff, Resonance (LP, HP, BP and BS filtertypes),
- SVF, Zolzer, Moog, 303like, EQ, Formant, Comb, Allpass, Parametric and Shelving Filters.
- Amplifier and Mixer with Panning, Volume and Velocity control.
- Delay, Reverb, Phaser, Chorus, Distortion and PitchShift Effects.
- Soft-knee Compressor with Peak/RMS detection and optional Sidechain.
- 10 Octave/12 Note Pitch control with Detune and Portamento.
- Controllers for frequency modulation (FM) and fast frequency sweeps.
- Up to 16 channel Unison controller with detune and stereo pan spread.
- 32 step, 4 octave pattern/arp controller with hold, loop, and legato support.
- Bipolar/Unipolar LFO, HFO, ADSR/Multipoint Envelopes and Step Sequencer.
- Output component with Panning, DC removal, Volume and Clip control.
- Noise generator, filtered Pink, White and Brown noise with freq. sync control.
- Input generator so synth can function as an insert effect.
- Full stereo support (selected components can run in mono to save CPU cycles).
- Instant visual feedback on all controls. Frequency, Time/Amplitude, Modulation, etc.
- Up to 128 assignable automation controls.
- 5 banks of 128 pre-made patches.
- Choose between Mono, Legato, or up to 16-voice true Polyphony.

By the way, KarmaFX Synth Modular 0.99 BETA is a donationware. Please support the author of KarmaFX and all the other authors who give us such good, cheap or free VST.

To download KarmaFX Synth Modular 0.99 BETA, please click HERE, scroll all the way down, and there you are. There are some good, free and nice VST effects on the page too.

Labels: Chorus, Delay, Distortion, free VST, Phaser, PitchShift, Reverb, Synth Modular

To all the would-be synthesist out there, this is a basic website for you to start out.

The Amateur Gentleman's Introduction to the Principles of Music Synthesis by Beau Sievers

This site explains the basic of simple waves like, sine, triangle, square and etc. There is a chapter on building a simple synthesizer, in this chapter, there are good amount of graphic to make any layman understand how a complex synth works. There are pictures and explanations of filtering with the addition of mp3 to guide you along. This is one of the most useful site for beginner.

Labels: Basic Waveforms, Building a Synthesizer, Control Signals, Filters, Frequency, music synthesis, Oscillators, Pitch, Sound Waves

U-NO-60 from Togu Audio Line is a free VST plugin that emulate the classical Roland vintage synthesizer, JUNO 60. It is almost similar to the real thing except that U-NO-60 is a software. The plugin is capable of self-resonance and thus could be used to some degree as a tone generator.

Here are some features of U-NO-60:
- Polyphonic (6 voices)
- Bandlimited oscillators
- One syncable LFO with five different waveforms
- 24 dB lowpass filter with self oscillation, non-resonant high-pass filter
- Fast ADSR envelopes
- Smooth cutoff changes (also with midi controllers)
- Velocity sensitive filter envelope
- Midi learn for all potis
- Supports all sample rates

For more information on U-NO-60, please click HERE

Labels: computer music, free VST, Juno-60, software synthesizer, VST

ixi audio is an experimental project concerned with the creation of digital musical instruments and environments for generative music. The good people of ixi audio use only open source software like, SuperCollider, ChucK and Pure Data, but their aim is to distribute their applications packaged in a way that allows everybody to use them.

Now, let's not be confuse with their software and our everyday VSTi. ixi audio software are not VSTi! They are for live performance artist who depends a lot on audio and visual art. But of course, if you are a home base computer musician, it doesn't hurt to install these great work of art into your computer and take them for a spin. These software that ixi audio provide are mostly for Mac and PC (sorry Linux user).

For more information on ixi audio, please visit www.ixi-software.net

Labels: ChucK, computer music, ixi audio, live performance art, music, Pure Data, SuperCollider, virtual software

Tenori-On is a weird looking electronic musical instrument design by Japanese artist, Toshio Iwaiin collaboration with Yamaha. It's a light and sound production unit with a 16 x 16 matrix of light emitting buttons. Those buttons act like the keys on our conventional black and white keyboards. The unit itself is build with aluminum frame, which has two inbuilt speakers, an SD card slot, LCD display, as well as a number of buttons and a dial, which control the type of sound produced. It can be power by either battery or a DC power supply.

For more information on this produce, please click HERE. To add Tenori-On on myspace.com, please visit www.myspace.com/tenorion/

Labels: electronic music instrument, tenori-on, yamaha

Joseph Rivers has "collected" some of the world most wanted vintage drum machines in his website. "These web base drum machine look and sound as close as the real thing.", that's what he claims. I do not dare to judge on it cause i haven't use a vintage drum machine before. But this page really give all modern dance musician a rough guide to vintage drum machines. For a taste of these drum machines, please click HERE

Labels: Drum machine, Virtual drum machine

Propellerheads Reason is one of the most useful DAW in the modern world and a well love software. It has assist many dance music artists complete their master piece since it first launch. Personally, I am a great fan of Reason and without Reason I don't think any of my works can be completed. Below are 10 Reason web recourses.

DORU MALAIA WORLD - Free Reason Refill and other wave samples

Peff - Lots of Reason and Rebirth Stuff.

Reason Fan - Refills and patches. This website is a little old. it is stuck at Reason 2.5.

Reason Freaks - A huge data base of Refill.

Reason Station - One of the biggest and and most comprehensive Reason Site with it own forum board.

337 Studio - Reason video tutorial

Combinator HQ - A website dedicated to Reason 3.0 Combinator.

Reason Why? - Japanese webby that is very useful, if you understand the language.

Reason's Blog - Propellerheads' blog.

Paranooyer - A page fill with Refill.

Labels: DAW, Propellerheads, Reason

The Internet never fail to amuse me. It is another dimension fill with the collective human conscience. It's often how we search to retrieve these hidden 'treasures'. Today i have found myself a Virtual Guitar. It is really useful for beginners who are trying to learn the instrument or for any guitar player who want to revive the chords . It also come with a set of guitar effects at the bottom right of the page. Cool stuff=)For a taste of the virtual guitar, please visit virtualguitar.net

Labels: computer music, Guitar Chords, Guitar Notes, Guitar tutorial, Internet, Virtual Guitar