vvvv, the free-for-non-commercial-use patching environment on Windows, already has a cult following among visualists. Now, it’s looking more interesting for music, too, with the 4.0 beta 17 release.

• VST plug-in support for adding audio/music instruments and effects
• Multichannel waveplayer
• eCue Lighting Control Support

In case you haven’t worked this out yet, what this means is that you can now add powerful visual interaction with a VST plug-in. That could be a huge boon to audiovisual shows. Max and Pd (among others) have had this ability for some time, so it’s not revolutionary as an idea – but it is nice to get this feature in this powerful, eye-candylicious app. (Thanks to Bjorn from vvvv for the heads-up.)

I may have to try out Kore, since Kore runs easily as a VST and hosts other instruments / effects in a way that can work live. FL Studio could be interesting, too, for the same reason – and, like vvvv, has a solid following as a Windows exclusive.

Details:

http://vvvv.org/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=3&postId=256
http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php?page=Change+log
http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php?page=VST
http://www.ecue.de/products/interfaces/butler.html

vvvv Tag @ createdigitalmotion.com

vvvv also recently added the ability to develop your own objects (“nodes” in vvvv speak). Development looks unusually easy, with baked-in C# support, so there’s good stuff happening in vvvv-land in general.

Lots of people play violins. If you pick up a violin for the first time – whether it was an expensive instrument or not – it’ll sound really awful. So, given that music played on laptops is still music, it seems reasonable to assume that it’ll take practice, and that not everyone will do things the same way. There are technicalities to learn, of course – just as with a violin. But there’s also a combination of repetitive effort with originality. Your computer software may not be nearly as elegant a design as a centuries-old acoustic instrument, but some of this surely still applies.

Go out to clubs or concert halls now, and you’ll find musicians and DJs from a broad variety of genres playing live with software. Often, they’ll use Ableton Live, the one product that suggests live performance right in its name. Live is a good place to start, because its Session View is a kind of meta-view of music itself, with patterns, scenes, and interaction. Those clip slots can be played like a “sampling instrument,” and additional instruments can be added to channels. Playing the software requires a combination of performance and composition, even for DJs.

But the one elusive thing about Live is just how to deal with that Session View. There’s plenty of talk in the manual about how everything works, but not what that means musically. You can store clips in channels, but you can only play one clip per channel at once. How do you keep the number of resulting channels manageable? How do you control different musical changes? How do you avoid touching the mouse or squinting at the screen? And, at the simplest level, how do you manage the complexity of clips and channels so that you can perform a set from beginning to end and have a good time?

Bjorn Vayner is one of the world’s leading Live gurus and a master of Live tutorial writing. He’s been tackling this very problem on the Covert Operators blog. (Read parts 1, 2, 3.) It’s a good start, but it raises as many questions and answers, and by the third part he’s already reevaluating his whole approach. So while he sorts out his tutorial, I’ve been thinking.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking over people’s shoulders as they use Live, back to Live 1 when I first started using it. I’ve stood behind the much-hyped Sasha set back when he was still dragging a whole iMac around (before the Intel laptops), and I’ve also seen experimental violinists and modern dance performances. Part of what excites me about Live and what it means for music is that no one seems to use it the same way. There are tightly-organized sets of clips, particularly in DJ sets. There are DJs who drag clips in and out onstage. There are musicians who use Live more or less for backing tracks, or just as an effects hosts. There are people who can make a whole set out of one clip or one instrument rack. Some people have even grown frustrated with Session View and augmented it with an MPC or custom Reaktor patches – but then, that sort of makes all of this all the more interesting. We’ve even seen Live used for controlling visuals on our sister site, Create Digital Motion.

A Call to Action

Maybe there is no Ultimate Tutorial – or maybe, what we need before anyone can write that, is a look at the range of how people use the software in the real world, assembled in one place. In that spirit, I’d like to ask you for some help.

Live users, how do you use Live — live? Take a screenshot of one set that you feel best represents the way you work in performance or DJ sets. No need to be shy; part of the idea is to see how a range of people work in the real world, so it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Send it to us one of two ways:

1. Add it to our Flickr group, http://www.flickr.com/groups/cdmlivesets/ (Apply a Creative Commons license if you know how to do that, so it can be easily shared. Short videos are welcome, too, if you’re that ambitious!)

2. Email an image (JPG or PNG, please) to pictures (at) createdigitalmusic.com. (By doing so, you give us permission to reuse it.)

Most of these will be Session View, I imagine, but if you use Arrange View, send us a shot of that. If you do rely on a custom Max, Pd, Reaktor patch, etc. in conjunction with Live, go ahead and send us that, too. If you make use of Live’s new drum and instrument/effect racks, make sure you can see at least one of them in the shot. If you can, write a sentence or two describing how it works. And feel free to raise criticisms – we’re doing this independently of Ableton, so say whatever you like. Feel free to include a link back to your music site; I imagine your fellow readers would love to hear what others are doing.

You also might also take a look at the work that Puremagnetik has done, not only with their live-oriented sets but also the performance features of their drum machines and the like.

Now, I realize not everyone uses Live. I’ve recently been building sets in Kore, not only because we’re working on the Kore minisite but because, personally, I wanted to try breaking some habits I’ve acquired with Live. It lets me play without Live, but it also makes me a better Live user. Still, Live seems as good a place to start as any. (If this goes well and we survive, we’ll have to follow it up with a look at other tools.)

I’ll be very curious to see the results. Stay tuned, and we’ll do a roundup within a couple of weeks to see what you’ve shared.

CDM: What about MIDI export? A lot of us want to be able to compose something on the road, then save MIDI patterns for use on our main computer.

Mathieu: BeatMaker v1.0.0 (current AppStore release) does not supports MIDI. We have v1.0.1 almost ready which adds small features and some bug fixes. BeatMaker v1.0.2 will certainly includes MIDI export. Our audio framework is actually using MIDI [data], we’re just not saving them [at the moment]. Exporting the MIDI files will be done with BeatPack (coming very soon).

CDM: Would it be possible to add audio input / mic recording, to truly make this a sampler?

Mathieu: Audio recording is not yet possible. The only concern right now is the very poor quality of the iPhone microphone.

Mics out there?

Mathieu did add that he had seen some DIY mic and line connectors in the dock port. Anyone tried this on your own? How well does it work? It’d be great to see this added to iPhone apps – and I imagine if you pull it off nicely, it could compel Intua to release this feature.

We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Video review

iSmashPhone must have really been excited about this app, as they’ve posted a full review and video hands-on today:

You can see how elegant the design of the interface really is in a way screenshots don’t do justice. You can also, on the downside, see that touchscreens don’t always work as well as physical faders. Then again, I’m guessing you don’t have pockets large enough to carry step sequencers, drum pads, and effects units. (Well, maybe if you wear overalls or lederhosen or something.)

Nonetheless, the app really does look well done. It’s worth a look, if nothing else, to see how UIs are evolving for touchscreens, which we’re likely to see on notebook computers, too. Thanks to Mathieu and Intua for this!

The past few years, CDs and LPs are getting more and more rare. Everything's turning into digital format. iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic (and also Amazon & CDbaby) and many other sites are doing a great job presenting us with these digital MP3s, but sometimes I miss holding the CD in my hands, reading through the booklet and reading the liner notes. And I can appreciate some creative artwork too.

I'm a child of the CD age of course, and even though I like LP (vinyl) even better, I've adapted to CDs because they're just more practical. And I'm sure, eventually the same will happen with the digital format. I'll get used to it. And in a way I'm already adapting to it. Well, it's not like it's really a choice, and when possible and I can afford it, I still try to get the CD too. Though it might be even more as a nostalgic thing or as a collecter's item.

I'm curious as to where you stand on the hardcopy (vinyl, cd) vs. the digital music. Are you still buying CDs? Or did you convert to the digital age? All these things have pros and cons, I'm just curious as to what you like best.

For me it's probably CDs, since it's the middle way. It's still practicle and you still have the hardcopy music with artwork and booklets. And a CD in a CD case to put in your collection.

Joystiq has a post I expect will be updated; see also their joint Engadget liveblog.

More on this soon.

In other news, it looks like Nintendo is adding still more sensors to its Wiimote, in the form of the Wii MotionPlus add-on. Sounds like the Wii hackers will have more to do – and that the Wiimote will remain gestural computing’s most excellent bargain input device.

Intua is the first to get a full-fledged music creation app on the iTunes App Store, with an MPC-style sampler and step sequencer, plus effects, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This isn’t just a toy for triggering sounds or a useful utility like a guitar tuner; it’s an actual music app on which you can produce whole songs. As with any mobile app, there are tradeoffs versus a desktop tool – but its simplicity is likely to be part of its appeal. US$19.99.

Most importantly, it’s available now.

The basic features:

• 16-pad sample triggering. Drum kits and other samples, with “auto chop,” pitch, tuning, reverse, mute, and even a nice wave editor for touch-selecting where you want sample start and end points.
• Step and song sequencer: Create patterns with a touchable step sequencer, then arrange them into bigger songs using a multitrack editor.
• Live performance support: Pattern triggering and recording is live, so you could use this as a performance tool.
• 2 effects channels: Synchronized delay, 3-band EQ, bit-crusher capabilities
• Pre-loaded kits and samples
• Sync with desktop audio: Apple doesn’t provide music apps with easy ways of getting files in and out, so Intua has built one: a synchronization tool that lets you load in new audio kits and samples, and export audio back to your machine.

We can certainly see some of the strengths of the platform. The app looks absolutely gorgeous in screen shots; elements are big and friendly and don’t appear to strain the eyes. The touch capability works beautifully for pad triggering and step sequencing – there’s even a nice, draggable velocity and “groove” graph for the step sequencer.

So how does BeatMaker stand up to the competition, at least on paper?

On the upside, you get a fast, friendly, fun interface, and one that has looks befitting Apple’s beautiful gadget. And, notably, this is an official app you can use without hacking your device. But some power users may still opt for gaming devices for more advanced mobile editing and synthesis. BeatMaker lacks any synthesis features, as on tools like PSPSeq or the upcoming Korg DS-10. (Perhaps we will see some in the future, though, since they got effects working – a bassline synth, perhaps?) You also don’t get wireless MIDI control and sequencing, as on the Nintendo DS’ DSMIDIWiFi, so you can’t connect BeatMaker to a computer studio in the way you can with NitroTracker on DS or the touch controllers aka.iphone and i3L on the iPhone/Touch.

BeatMaker’s real nearest rival may be PSP Rhythm on the PSP. I’ll be interested to hear whether BeatMaker’s audio engine stands up to PSP Rhythm’s on quality. BeatMaker has its lovely interface and touch capabilities, but PSP Rhythm has a synth (bassline and a general purpose wave synth) and a hardware-style interface some may prefer.

These aren’t criticisms – on the contrary, I think differentiation is a good thing. I’ve been having a number of conversations with developers, and part of what I’m hearing is that certain platform features continue to direct developers to different mobile platforms. Not everyone is migrating to Apple – meaning Intua has a chance to stake out a real niche here.

BeatMaker is the serious music creation app the platform has been waiting for, and it app gives you way more power for your dollar than a lot of what I’ve seen on the iPhone. It’s real, worthy, powerful app. If you’ve got an iPod Touch or iPhone and would like to test drive the app for CDM and write up a review / video a review, let me know!

Intua BeatMaker

Direct iTunes Link

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in! That’s always a good indication there’s excitement in the digital musician community around the device and this specific app.)

Update:

Mathieu has some more details: MIDI export is coming very soon. (Mic recording could be possible if there’s a better input solution.)

And one site already has a video hands-on (though CDMers, I’m sure you can do even better – we’ll have one or two of you on this soon).

BeatMaker for iPhone: Upcoming Features Q&A, Video Review

Previously:

Big Updates for Handheld Homebrew Music: NitroTracker 0.4, PSPSeq 3, PSP Rhythm 8

Beyond Mobile Music Making: Organizational Musical Uses for iPhone, Other Smart Devices