This weeks Free Ableton Live Rack, “The AfroDJMac FirecRACKer Synth, “ was made entirely from the sounds of the fireworks screaming through the sky over Long Island, New York on July 4, 2011. AfroDJMac recorded the sound of neighborhood firecrackers and brought them into The Granulator, a free granulating synthesizer that comes with Max for Live.

OUTPUT:NOISE PRESENTS AN
EVENING OF EXPLORATORY MUSIC

For our 2nd, official, event in Syracuse we are bringing in two very multi-dimensional, boundary forging artists; Work/Death, hailing from Providence, RI and Baltimore resident Elijah Forest (also known as Lolly Gesserit and formerly known as Terrors.) Of his sound, the man behind Work/Death enunciates his intention to "connect the dots along the path of music concrete, electro-acoustic improv, harsh noise and the pop song" through a sonic palette ranging from "crumbling distortion and dense synth textures to delicate melodies and empty field recordings."

New in the Maker Shed, the Redpark Breakout Pack for Arduino and iOS is the first general-purpose serial cable that Apple has approved for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. On one end, it’s got a dock connector to plug into your iOS device. On the other, it has an RS232 port that you can easily connect to Arduino or any other gadget that speaks a serial protocol.

Whereas Factor X was even bootlegged in recent years - always a mark of long lasting quality - Mystery Hearsay wasn't. No lesser quality however from this hometaper - as the lingo of the day was - also known as Mike Honeycutt. He went on to produce other things later on, such as Mystery X, Mystery Iguana, and part of Wilt, but Mystery Hearsay seemed to have gathered dust. This CD, in fact a re-issue of a tape release called 'Flesh Tomb' plus bonus material from a net release from 2007 (which is which is not clear from the cover). Without wanting to say much about the quality of the music, the quality of the recording is of an entirely nature than the Factor X one, i.e. something that seems at least more professional. One of those typical mid-80s things was the arrival of what was called 'ambient industrial': music that was too loud to fully downright ambient, but also not loud enough to be classified as industrial. Hence ambient industrial and that's exactly the field of Mystery Hearsay's music. Lots of guitar/synth manipulations, along with percussive, metallic sounds and tons of sound effects to manipulate them. Like with a lot of these 80s things its not the composition that counts but the mood created, so it sometimes gets off the rails and takes a bit too much time to be fully interesting. But this is another great reminder of the young FdW at home listening to tapes, and one who fully forgot that Mystery Hearsay was actually a great band. Long forgotten, but thankfully resurrected.

The Strange Agency, makers of interesting apps with a different take like Curtis, Slice, and Sound Scope Space among others, have announced a new looper app they're currently working on called Donut. Inspired by IBM tape loop machines circa 1960, the creators of Donut say that it can be thought of as a two dimensional record and playback looper. They're currently making the app more functional and fleshing out the UI. Check out the demo video below and get more info at http://thestrangeagency.com/...

kHs ONE is the first virtual synth to roll out from the flaming hot digital foundry kiloHearts. Look at all those knobs and sliders! What are you waiting for? They aren't going to tweak themselves. Unless you automate them. Which you can do. All of them.

Here's a real blast from the past thanks to Tom Hirschberg who posted about this far out custom designed Moog Modular 3C Synthesizer named AARCHY. Tom describes the system that was built for an electro-rock music project back in the early 80s. Enshrined in a strange case covered in mirrors. It has arching panels, a drum synth, sequencer, dual keyboards and more.

Thanks to a post on Echoes Blog, we have been informed of something quite interesting that I am not sure what to think about as I write this. In an article by the LA Times titled "A new age for New Age music", they are talking about a revival of the new age music genre / style. Arguably the best and worst thing to happen to electronic music genre. This isn't the case of mistaken association by the outsider journalist. The story is about new blood purposely paying homage to the likes of mantle piece new age artists like Enya, Paul Winter and Zamfir. Is this a good thing or bad thing? Share your thoughts on this interesting subject below.

Buffalo Drum Loops and Hits sample library from Bolder Sounds for Native Instruments Kontakt 3+, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX and REX format. Check out these detailed demonstrations of the powerful Hand Drum Loop Engine created for NI Kontakt.

YouTuber rezfilter has posted a rockin' video demo of the Analogue Solutions Telemetry (Mini Vostok) Analogue Synthesizer. Information on the clip from the description follows: Here's a look at the Analogue Solutions Telemetry (mini vostok) synthesizer. This video features various sound types from the Telemetry synthesizer, each within a musical context (beats added). All synthesizer sounds come from the Telemetry and all of the sounds were tweaked live in the video, and recorded direct.

Latency, or the delay between when you strike a key on your MIDI keyboard and when you hear the sound can be very frustrating. It can make it almost impossible to record into notation programs such as Finale, Sibelius, Print Music, MusicTime or others. It can also make it hard to use a software synth or VST instrument in live performances. Fortunately, there are two easy fixes - both are explained in this video, along with an overview or why latency or delays occur.

Fsynthz has released a few groove based VSTi plugins to help make your musical adventures, well more groovy. One of which is the Puncho Grooove :Anythings Art VSTi. Puncho Groove makes a groovy loop of anything you play and updates it on the fly. You may bring up grooves of enormous complexity.

Sonigen Modular is a modular software synthesizer which gives you the freedom and flexibility of classic modular synthesis with high quality sound and efficient cpu usage. Currently in Beta version it can be as modular as the user desires. You can even change the skin. DF Audio has kindly designed a cool new skin for Sonigen Modular.

With two shows sold out within days of their announcement and more shows rumored to be coming all one can say is Boing! Kraftwerk will play three exclusive 3 D shows October 12 and 13, 2011 at the Alte Kongresshalle in Munich for the opening of the art exhibition "Kraftwerk-3D-Video Installation“ at the Kunstbau-Lenbachhaus. For more than four decades Kraftwerk are recognised worldwide as inventors of various musical genres such as Electro, Industrial, Synthpop, Minimal and Techno.

Back in April we reported about Otomata Generative Sound Sequencer. Now you can enjoy the mobile version of the generative music application that millions enjoyed through the web, with your iOS device!

Join us by listening or participating on July 16th at 1200 GMT for a unique project in sound as artists from around the world stream the sounds outside their doors and windows. All streams will be combined by a main mixer into an overall stereo output and out to the main port at radio.electro-music. Being a global event, with numerous time zones, this will create a number of juxtapositions as some participants will be streaming in the day time and others at night at the same time. The event is ON THE AIR now, tune in at http://electro-music.com/radio/

Cement is a sequencer based pattern generator which is well suitable to enrich your music production and lend it a specific character. As the name suggests you can easily create cementing textures, crawling patterns or a fundament for your musical idea.

I was reading the latest issue of Sound On Sound and discovered this new unit from Kenton. Masters of the CV and MIDI gate universe. The Kenton MIDI USB Host allows the user to plug their USB device into the USB MIDI Host instead of a computer. It provides MIDI In & Out sockets for USB MIDI keyboards and controllers which have only a USB B type socket. MIDI data received at the MIDI In socket will be sent to the USB device. MIDI data received from the USB device will be sent to the MIDI Out socket. The attached USB MIDI device MUST be 'Class Compliant'. The MIDI USB HOST is powered by a regulated 5V mains adaptor (supplied), and can supply up to 500mA of buss power to the attached USB device.

Thank to Markus Reuter who's updated his facebook page with the current schedule and official poster for the 2 of a Perfect Trio tour 2011. This is one serious line up that is touring the USA including: Adrian Belew, Tony Leven, Pat Masteleto, Markus Reuter, Julie Slick and Tobia Ralph. The tour begins September 19th, 2011. Check out the dates and poster artwork by Denis Rodier after the jump for shows in your area.