Weekend tune

LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations

Making acid baseline tutorial

Following Dave's seven day tutorial on psytrance we have another video teaching us how to do an acid baseline. Yet again, this is not just for psytrance. Acid sounds can be found from acid jazz to house, techno, and other genres. I actually played with reason yesterday trying to get some sort of acid baseline using below techniques. Here's my loop.



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PsyTrance beat with Kong Tutorial

Boy in a band just posted a couple of nice tutorial videos on making PsyTrance beat with reason 5. Even if you're not interested in psytrance, watch this to explore reason's kong drum designer. Often times in music making techniques are universal to all genres and styles. This is no exception.

Psytrance Tutorial Day 1: Psytrance Beat

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Groove Armada Live Look Me In The Eye Sister (as seen by fans)

Daft Punk - Aerodynamic Cover

Daft Punk - Aerodynamic (Cover) from Carlo Castellano on Vimeo.

10 Must See Rock n Roll Documentaries

Thanks to Tim Handorf at bestcollegesonline.net I have this list of 10 must see rock'n'roll documentaries. Some movies are about rock giants like Metallica which i had pleasure of seeing live, some feature bands less know to myself.

As a musician i found this very interesting since my background in music is rock. Just watch the trailers and decide which movies you gonna get.

10 Documentaries Every Musician Must Own

The lives of most musicians would not make for good cinematic entertainment: there’s only so many ways to make endless hours of van trips and road food look like fun. But amid the seemingly endless number of music documentaries, there are some that stand out for their depth, energy, and sheer storytelling genius.

That’s where these documentaries rank. They’re about artists, groups, or events that helped define their culture and genres, if only for a moment. If there’s a broader or common moral among them for musicians, it’s probably this: don’t give up on your dreams, and be careful who gets to film you.

Some Kind of Monster: Drawing its title from a song off Metallica’s 2003 St. Anger, this 2004 documentary shows a side of the metal band most probably though they’d never see: introspective, middle-aged, and willing to try therapy. The project was conceived as a simple making-of for their album, which was their first since 1997, but it quickly became a much more intense and chaotic look at the ups and downs of the creative process and the complex relationships the band’s main members have forged with each other. When their bassist leaves, it throws the band into an existential crisis, and watching them sort it out is never less than riveting. A must for all metal-heads and a great flick for musicians in general.

DiG!: One of the many impressive things about 2004′s DiG! is that the 107-minute documentary was culled from seven years of footage that totaled more than 2,000 hours. The aptly sprawling doc follows the twin careers of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, led by erratic and contentious frontman Anton Newcombe, and The Dandy Warhols, steered by lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor. Newcombe may be the genius — the 1996 album Thank God for Mental Illness was recorded in just one day — but it’s Taylor-Taylor who finds bigger pop success, however briefly. A true-to-life look at the costs of rock stardom and the swaggering personalities behind it.

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco: Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a revolutionary record for the band at the time: a drastic departure from their pop and alt-country roots that was far more willing to just experiment sonically. Director Sam Jones’ insightful documentary captures the band as they deal with the politics of record labels and try to find the best way to stay true to themselves and still survive. A primer for anyone who wants to be a rock star, or just talk like one.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil: This is not a remake of This Is Spinal Tap. The Canada-based Anvil is a real heavy metal band, and this 2008 documentary is a rousing and moving look at a band that seemed to be destined for greatness but that never found the same level of success as their peers. It’s a reminder that not everyone can win the life of stadium tours, but more importantly, that you don’t need that type of career to be fulfilled.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston: Singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston’s lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder has lent his music and his persona an air of mystery and reclusiveness. This compelling documentary from 2006 details his childhood and mental illness with devotion and passion.

The Last Waltz: Arguably the best concert film ever made, director Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz is a loving ode to The Band during a show billed as their farewell performance. Packed with a stunning array of guest musicians including Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and so many more it would take too long to name, the wonderfully shot concert focuses on the band while almost entirely ignoring the crowd, giving the viewer the feeling of actually being there.

Runnin’ Down a Dream: You can’t accuse Peter Bogdanovich of scrimping: Runnin’ Down a Dream, his 2007 documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, runs for four hours as it traces the band’s history from its formation to a 30th-anniversary concert. He makes the argument that Petty’s one of the best rockers in recent history, and he doesn’t have to work hard to do it.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown: A great look behind the scenes of some of the biggest pop hits of the century, Standing in the Shadows of Motown tells the story of The Funk Brothers, a group of session musicians who played on such Motown classics as “My Girl,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” These unsung heroes formed the aural background to the songs everyone knows, but before this doc, almost no one knew their story.

Gimme Shelter: Directed by the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin, Gimme Shelter offers a dark flipside to the hippie optimism of the 1960s with its tale of the bloody Altamont Free Concert which featured, among others, the Rolling Stones. The show became infamous for its three accidental deaths and one homicide, as well as the violent security meted out by Hells Angels. If you can’t get a copy of Cocksucker Blues, this is the Stones doc to see.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: Another one from Scorsese: this 2005 documentary focuses on Bob Dylan’s life and music between 1961 and 1966, an era in which he rose to prominence and also began to explore what kind of artist he wished to be. The documentary originally aired on PBS and also featured a tie-in soundtrack as Volume 7 of Dylan’s official bootleg series. A captivating look at one of the best and most influential artists of the century, if not always the most lucid.

Original post: 10 Documentaries Every Musician Must Own

Static Wizzard

Groove Armada Live - Warsaw - O2 Academy Leeds

GA gave camera to fans to film Warsaw. Video aside amazing tune! GA, you're the best ensemble in the world!

Husky Dog Sings with iPAD - Better than Bieber! (now on iTunes!)

The Beatles Revolution

Revolutionary tune!

Free VST ARP plugin SimpArp

A nice find tonight! SimpArp is the free vst arpeggiator plugin for pc. Here's the description by the makers of this plug:

SimpArp is an easy to use MIDI-Arpeggiator plugin. Use it with any synth (-plugin) to create these well-known sequences. Special features: host-sync, shuffle, adjustable note length with overlap at max point (for mono glide sounds), velocity adjustable or input pass thru. No installer, copy-protection, adware, spyware or whatever !

Click to download

How to use it:

In Ableton Live:
1. Make a MIDI track for SimpArp
2. make a MIDI track for an instrument (e.g. Strobe)
3. set the "MIDI from" of the instrument track to "SimpArp" in both the MIDI input type and MIDI input channel.
4. Press "Run" in Ableton Live. For triggering with the keyboard switch to "Keypress" and select your keyboard in "MIDI from" in the SimpArp track

In Cubase, you need to instantiate SimpArp in the Instrument panel.

In FL Studio:
1. Make sure the plugin is in the VST plugin folder FL Studio is configured to use so that FL Studio sees it
2. Click the Channels > Add > More... menu item
3. In the Select generator plugin dialog box, scroll down to the VSTi catagory. Make sure the VSTi MIDI plugin you want to use is checked
4. Start a New Project
5. Click the Channels > Add menu item and choose the VSTi MIDI plugin you want to use
6. Click the Channels > Add menu item and choose the VSTi plugin you want to target, i.e. the plugin you want to receive MIDI events from the VSTi MIDI plugin
7. On the pattern grid, click on the button for the VSTi MIDI plugin
8. On the upper left corner of the UI window for the plugin, click the configuration button
9. In the Settings category, set the Output Port to the MIDI channel you want the MIDI VSTi plugin to send on
10. On the pattern grid, click on the button for the target VSTi MIDI plugin
11. On the upper left corner of the UI window for the plugin, click the configuration button
12. In the Settings category, set the Input Port to the MIDI channel you want the VSTi plugin to receive on. This should have the same value as the VSTi MIDI plugin Output Port.