JuanLittleDevil

Those of you going to burning man this year will have the wonderful opportunity to remix and perform my work hands on first hand. I’ve been asked to create music for the Syzygryd project, and thus far 2 of my project are going for sure, and some others are close to being ready to go.

The Syzygryd is this giant multimedia art piece consisting of lots of metal, arson art, audio, and a wonderful user interface so YOU can make the music. My part is well complicated, for this project I wore mostly my sound designer hat. 99% of the sounds you will hear were created by me either 100% using purely generated sound from synths and other sound design tools, or from basic harmonically rich waveforms like sine/saw hybrids. You may also hear some speak’n'spell samples in the form of easter eggs.

The projects have been heavily automated so even with a one bar sequencer, the sound generated will feel more like a complete song, with phrasing, buildups and breakdowns, even chord progressions.

If you are one of those lucky ones to play with it this year be sure to stop by and post a comment about your experience. Also contact me if you guys are interested in learning how this was all created, I’d be happy to break somethings down into some useful tutorials.

Lastly, I sadly will not be attending burning man this year but I have asked the Syzygryd crew to record the the set. If and when I get the project back I plan on recording the audio and posting it here for you to download your performance.

For more info on the Syzigryd project visit their site at:

http://www.syzygryd.com

The other day while in the studio working with a friend he said to me, “I just can’t work with Logic man, warping loops just sucks!”. I have to agree that to some extent other software might be better suited if working exclusively with loops, i.e, Ableton Live, or Fruity Loops, or Acid even. However, I’d like to give a few tips on how you could speed up your work flow working with loops in logic.

8. Clicking on the loop box located on the explorer bar will loop the selected region or regions until the end of your project.

7. You can loop any midi region, audio region, or folders even just by dragging the upper right corner of the selected region or regions.

6. If you repeat groups of regions over and over again, why not make them one loop? it makes your project much less cluttered and easier to manage. You can achieve this in two ways, one simply “glue” them together, or two, pack them into a folder. Folders are a great way of looping sections of audio which have been split up into regions.

5. You don’t HAVE to work with loops all the time, in fact one great trick to do is loop your region over the time of a phrase, then right-click and select “Convert loops to real copies”. By doing this you can chop up or modify which ever one of those copies you want in order to create fills, drop-outs, or simply add some movement to your phrases.

4. You can apply automation to regions by using the hyper-editor rather than track automation. Doing this is great for ensuring that you control changes are always carried with you when you copy or loop your regions.

3. Creating apple loops can be as easy as right clicking on a region and selecting “Open in Loop Utility”. The process is easy and self explanatory. One thing which sets Logic above Live, is the ability to keep your content organized. So be sure to enter/choose relevant information about the loops you create then add them to your library.

2. Apple Loops can be converted to real audio simply by right clicking on the region and selecting “convert to real audio”. This creates a new copy of the audio so you can modify as you please.

1. Dragging the right corner of a region while holding down option will will apply the time and pitch machine to the selected region. It will also snap to your grid. This to me is one of the most powerful tools yet. It means I can time stretch ANY audio.

Ok good! now go Loopy…

Those of you lucky enough to go to burningman this year will most likely run into my friends up there and have the chance to participate in this wonderful art installation. They still need funding please help, every penny counts.

More info here:

This is a remix I did for my buddy playdoughboy the track is available for download from various online shops. I’m really exited about this one as it’s my first commercial appearance!

Check out the full release:

I know it’s a bit premature, but it’s mostly functional and it IS my first maxpatch so… I figure some of you may benefit from it and some might even be able to help me improve it…

What it is:

LittleDevil -SEQ is a Roland style drum machine sequencer, thought don’t let this full you you can certainly use it for on synths as well. The concept is simple. there are 8 patterns represented by the orange round buttons. Each pattern controls a single drum or key which is assignable via the “Pitch” knob. This means you can put this in front of any drum machine you can control with a keyboard and and use this as a sequencer.

There is also a shuffle section which can setup the style of shuffle and amount all of which is mappable since I’m using M4L objects.

Each step has a velocity/volume knob which is used to set the level of each of the 16 steps. Additionally I’ve put some mute buttons for each step which are mappable also so you can potentially yam a sequence if you map each step mute to a keyboard whatever midi controller.

Overall it’s a simple interface with a simple concept in mind…

KNOWN BUGS: OK here is the catch. Only run one instance per session… it tends to act weird if you add a second instance don’t ask me why, it just does. For some reason if I map the pattern select buttons I have to hit them twice don’t know why it works well in Max but in live it’s all funky. And lastly this tho more of a design flaw (I’m new to this) muted parts reset to 0 value for the velocity/volume knobs if you reload or switch a pattern, while the un-muted steps are fine.

It is still a very useful tool and fun to play around with. I’ve made some really amazing sequences with this little thing and it’s definitely fun to play around with. If you are a Max guru and would like to help feel free to contact me.

– Juan

Download:  LittleDevil-SEQv0.8.zip

*** UPDATED! ***

* Cleaned up the interface up a bit to make it pretty -enjoy.

* The stop and play buttons under the arrow keys have to be mapped manually to the “Stop Clips” and “Launch Scene” buttons on the master track. If you know of a way to do it using just startup scripts please let me know.

Last weekend I found myself on flight to Seattle working on a track and wishing I had the same kind of control I get from my APC40 with my iphone. One of the great things about having a control surface that Live recognizes is that you don’t have to map your controls each time you load a new set. So I did some digging around and found some great articles on using user configuration script with Ableton.

The idea is simple really, since Live 6 Ableton has given users the ability to write configuration files for auto mapping devices to live. Though what you can auto-map is somewhat limited compared to my APC-40, it sure is a HUGE benefit when all you have is an iPhone or iPod touch and your laptop as I did. All you really have to do is edit one file… Well sorta. They trick is Ableton expects midi devices. Luckily for me I already owned a copy of TouchOSC for my iPhone and OSCulator so this was a no brainer.

I created a template for TouchOSC which takes advantage of most of the mappable controls in the UserConfiguration.txt file. The template consists of 5 panes, one for drum pads and transport, one for device control with up to 8 sets of 8 controls just like the APC-40, one for volume and arm buttons (unfortunately no mute or solo), the one for send1 and one for send2. The device control pane is dynamic and works with whatever device you have selected. I used sliders rather than rotary as I find that the sliders are easier to control with your fingers. So far I’m fairly happy with the results, and let me tell you I’m looking forward to my next trip

Drum Pads

Device Control

Mixer (Volume, Master, Arm Buttons)

Sends

Transport

Here is how to set it up!

What you need:

1. TouchOSC (iphone App)
2. TouchOSC Editor
3. OSCulator
4. AbletonLive 7 or higher. (I’m currently running Live 8 and it works fine)

Installing the TouchOSC template:

1. Using the TouchOSC Editor open the file LiveControl.touchosc. You’ll need to make sure that your iPod Touch or iPhone is on the same wireless network as the Editor.
2. One the template is loaded on the editor “Click the Sync Button”
3. Launch the TouchOSC app from your iPhone.
4. Go into “Layout” -> “Add” -> “Computer name” your computer will show up automatically. If it doesn’t then you are not on the same network.
5. Once it’s been copied to your iPod Touch make sure the layout is selected “LiveControl”

OSCulator:

1. Launch OSCulator.
2. Open the file “LiveControl.oscd” (You may want to copy the file to your OSCulator template folder)
3. ensure that OSCulator is working, green means it’s working red means it’s not.

Ableton Live:

The Live mappings live in a file called “UserConfiguration.txt”, the file must be placed in a folder with the name of your device. This device must be named with the same name as it is seen by Ableton Live. To install:

1. Place the folder named “OSCulator” to your “/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 8.0.5/User Remote Scripts” Note that there is a folder for each version of Live installed on your system, so make sure you place it in the correct location. At the time of writing this document I was on Live 8.0.5 so that is what I used.
2. Launch Ableton Live.
3. Open Preferences.
4. Click on the “MIDI Sync” tab.
5. On the control surface pane select your control surface “OSCulator”
6. Select “OSCulator Out” as your Input.
7. Select “OSCulator in (8000)” as your Output.

Download the supporting files:

LiveControl

Enjoy.

– JuanLittleDevil

Digitally Imported is playing my set last recorded set tomorrow Friday (4/24) at 4:25pm US EST (22:45 CET) in their Minimal Channel.

http://www.di.fm/mp3/minimal.pls

These kids have some other great minimal djs playing some great sets. Be sure to check them out!

Ensonic is airing my last recorded set as we speak. Be sure to check it out.

http://www.ensonic.fm/ensonic.m3u
Thusday 2pm EST

DJ Set
Style: Techno
Recorded: Friday 27, 2009

Dj Set – track listing…

01: Ruede Hagelstein Feat Naneci – Semikolon [Original Mix]
02: Ruede Hagelstein – The Modest Theme
03: Joey Beltram – Striking Distance [Original Mix]
04: Maxime Dangles – Geode
05: Linienstrasse – Blue Sky
06: Gui Boratto – Atomic Soda
07: Miguel Bastida – Sentido Italo Ispano
08: Alex Kenji – Adelante [Original mix]
09: Luomo – Tessio [Spektre Remix]
10: Justin Maxwell – The Long Mover
11: Mini Mode – Dirty Talk
12: Tadeo – Eclipse [Original Mix]
13: Noze – You Have To Dance [Lee Jones Remix]
14: Samuel L Session – Can you Relate [Steve Rachmad Remix]
15: Tiefschwarz – On and on
16: Juan Segovia – At The Well [Dry & Wet Mix]
17: Robin Hirte – Not Here [John Execx Puta Remix]
18: Avex Axiom – Thai Bathhouse [original mix]
19: The Elriks – H88
20: Martin Brodin – Galaxis [Tony Senghore Edit]
21: Pryda – Animal [Original Mix]
22: Juan Segovia – The Pest [Gold Code Remix]
23: Andrea Bertolini – Rolling [Skober Remix]
24: Christian Smith & John Selway – Swingworld [Paul Ritch Remix]
25: Nick & Danny Chatelain – Y Que Mas [Mastiksoul Remix]
26: Bini & Martini – Twisted Room [Microdinamic Remix]

For promotional use only….

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Hey, if you podcast or stream this set please let us know so we can check out other talented freaks on your site.

I’ve been very busy this year mostly rebuilding my studio, making some music, doing some collaborative works, and giving my site a face lift. All this work and for what? Well, the goad is to make myself more productive, spend some time getting my environment to run smooth and fast all the time so that the time I spend in the studio trying to be creative is not spent solving technical problems.

So new on the site, is a flash player, the site is backed by WordPress so there will be better blog and post management for me. But also it means that I can interact with you guys when you leave me comments. I’ve also added a break away player, was kinda filling in space but we’ll see what kind or reaction it gets.

Ok enough of the Blah Blah Blah. Please enjoy the new site, there will be new material coming up soon.