Walking into the Light

New clip for Vigilante!  mmmmm…. lights.

The pretty colours are provided by a Novation Launchpad which is sequenced/animated in Ableton Live. This track and the rest of the album are still free. Go get it.

UPDATE:
I’ve uploaded the MIDI file used to run the clip.  If you have a Launchpad and want to see the clip in glorious real life download this MIDI file and play it in your DAW of choice with the Launchpad selected as your MIDI output.

shred undead

i’ve upped some video from last weeks birmingham gig.  i think this might be an internet debut for this track and one of the first examples of axis out in the wild!  much more coming up soon.

cheap beatz

I’ve been getting asked for this keypad to midi patch a lot recently so I thought I’d upload it.  You can get it here.  You’ll also need the free max/msp runtime from cycling74.com.  If you’re on windows you’ll need loopbe too.

and remember – Zeal’s live Melbourne debut this Friday!

virtual chordophone

I’ve had a few questions and comments regarding playing chords with axis.  Here’s how to do it in ableton:

This’ll only work in ableton but there might be ways to do this using comprable vst plugins etc.

The new Zeal set is coming together and the first of many Melbourne gigs is lined up for April.  Oh yeah, and did i mention I have a new album ready for release?  next few posts should be bigguns…

on sphere

zeal has been appearing in interesting corners of the blogosphere in the last couple of days.  there’s an interview at fiese falle about process and gear.  they’re the sort of things that interest me in interviews so maybe you’ll be into it.

also, there’s a write up about my guitar hero to midi app AXIS on one of my fav blogs – hack a day.

the post has drawn out some entertaining flames like: “Get a haircut and a real job.  Also, learn to play the real guitar. It’s a lot more fun, I promise.”

upon reading that i got a hair cut and a real job and learned to play the “real” guitar.  it’s not as fun.

speaking of fun – fun new things to buy appearing soon and even fun new ways to buy said fun new things.   but for now…

bob out.

AXIS

My Xbox Guitar Hero to MIDI application AXIS is available now!  The videos below explain all:



Mac users:

  • Get AXIS 1.0 HERE.
  • You’ll also need the Tattiebogle Xbox drivers from here.
  • If you get the dreaded blinking green light there’s now a solution!  Check here.

Windows users:

  • Get AXIS 1.0 HERE.
  • You’ll also need LoopBe from here.
  • If the Xbox drivers don’t install automatically try here.

AXIS was built in Max/MSP.  If you’d like to adapt it for a different guitar or anything just get in touch and I’ll send you the source.

mixed maxed

so it took almost exactly a year to write and record and now my next album “with the moon alongside racing us home” is mixed!  complete! done!  finito! pung! bahoogled!  i made a lot of those words up, feel free to use them (CC non-profit, attribution, share-alike).

now all this mixing’s done i’m focusing on my live show and getting axis out into the world.  i’m also enjoying playing with max for live as an audio visual environment.  getting sensors to the party is the next step i think… like some sort of reactive audio-visual “thingy”.

artwork for the album has to be done too… might start on that now.

bob out.

new live show. midi video.

this is the little video patch i’m working on for the new show.  eventually it will do more fancy stuff like multiple layers, zoom, rotate etc.   the live show will probably involve fewer aliens…. but more robots.

assembly line

jah feet

spent the last two weeks finishing my new album.  i don’t think i’ve mentioned what’s it’s going to be called yet…  i don’t think i will now either.  but i will moon soon.  a few tracks are mastered and i’m being a one man CD duplication factory this very second, pumping out a small pile of cd singles.  feels like we should have been done with these lumbering circular plastic things 5 years ago.  catch up radio! next step, artwork.  it’s quite exciting.  you’ll like the album, i promise.  it makes mention of robots a few times and there’s this three note refrain that’s sprinkled through out the 15 or so tracks which all weave together.  it’s almost a concept album… just with a poorly defined concept…  more of a unproven hypothesis album.

axis xp at work

also on the work bench, for all you unfortunate souls, i’m getting AXIS up and running on windows… i say that but really xp’s alright.  the windows versions going to be minus a few small features just because of the way the windows drivers interpret the guitar (or unless someone else can fix it).  this is one big step closer to release meaning it will be out before the years up.

robot rebellion

i’ve been making stickers too.  as i promised: robots and swear words.  if you want one you have two options.  the hard way: print out the above robot on sticker paper and cut it out.  or the super easy way: enter my EP + sticker give away! there’s four days left and it’s super easy.

back to the assembly line for me.

axe two through three

upped another vid demoing the Guitar Hero to MIDI app AXIS that i’ll be releasing soon. tilt sensors should be on everything! they make the world so much more fun.