electronic musicUniqueSquared Pro Audio Blog

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Paul
December 19, 2012

What Are You Making? Is It “Too Future?”

DJ Shadow was kicked off the decks this past weekend at Mansion in Miami while spinning live in support of his All Bases Covered tour. By all accounts, some of those who paid thirty dollars to get in the door to see him didn’t actually care to see him. Pigeons and Planes probably put it best when theorizing that “the crowd was either not into his set or the promoters were just so amped to get their resident back on to drop more Top 40-inspired tracks that one walked right up to the decks and apparently asked Shadow to stop.” The same thing happened to Dennis Ferrer earlier in the year, as has been mentioned by almost anyone talking about this. I’ll leave it to all those other sources to elaborate on the silliness of booking these DJs if all you need is someone to throw Guetta and the party …

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UniqueSquared
December 9, 2012

The Moog Factory

When I was a snotty kid in grade school, I had the pleasure of touring the Hostess factory – which, sadly does not exist anymore. For a kid no older than 9 years old, it was the closest I’d get to the fantasy of visiting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There were millions of baked goods produced each day, in a variety of appeasing colors such as pink, white, and blue. It was almost as if the Easter bunny was made of candy, and someone had chopped him up into small bite sized pieces. As I grew older, however, the thought of having the factory to myself became less and less of a fantasy.

Today, electronics are my “candy”, and there is a lot I would give to have the chance at entering one of these “factories”. The Moog Factory is something to be admired. Simply owning one piece of Moog …

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MOBILE STUDIO

Paul
November 1, 2012

Moogfest 2012- What We Saw

So, as it does, Moogfest 2012 has come and gone. Among the many treats that come with a trip to Asheville, N.C., and visits to the Moog Factory, we also got to catch a number of shows. Rather than telling you about all the great content we have coming from our time at the factory with artists like Orbital, Chad Hugo, and all the other goodies, today I am going to talk about the shows I got to catch in between running around from shoot to shoot.

Primus 3d

Full disclosure, we were a bit late getting into town and sorting out all our credentials, so the first show we really managed to make it in for was the highly anticipated Primus 3D. Primus, as many know, is a well loved band that is fronted by the enigmatic Les Claypool. Claypool is eccentric, visionary, and very accomplished as a bass …

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UniqueSquared
October 11, 2012

New iPad Piano App ‘Stands Up To The Most Powerful Virtual Instruments Available’

IK Multimedia, the humble iPad interface products maker who has been coming up with ways to connect your instruments with your iOS device, has just started to explore the world of iOS apps as well. Their newest app known as, “iGrand Piano”, was designed as a simple and straightforward piano program. The app lets you selected from 9 different studio grade pianos (upright, grand, etc.) – all of which are velocity sensitive, to give you a more authentic piano feeling.

Naturally, the app works well with their iRig Keys and iRig MIDI interface, for those who want to connect their iPad to their keyboards.…

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UniqueSquared
October 10, 2012

Samplemodeling Clarinets ‘Virtually Indistinguishable From The Real Thing’

Humanizing presets are something we’ve seen in later editions of popular DAWs like Ableton and Reason. The purpose is actually quite simple, although it might seem counterproductive. Computers are great at making exact calculations, tones, and rhythms – where as people are not; but humans like to listen to music that is subject to human error. It lets them believe that the music is real.

This was the idea behind Samplemodeling’s SWAM engine based Soprano & Bass Clarinets. Using advanced processing, clarinets can be micro-tuned (or detuned) allowing it sound as imperfect as the real deal, especially when using techniques like crescendo and trills.…