Our Next Event!

27May – details coming.

Interested in Hacking a Launchpad?

by Admin on May.03, 2012, under Locally, Resources

Here’s a link to a Google form -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dFkwa3lZbU9mLUFSSU9tWEw2WTBFNWc6MQ

We might have access to some LP’s in open box format. First come / first serve. Details as we know them – Denver/Colorado people only (this is a local hack event).

 

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Ill Gates Workshop and Performance July 2011

by Admin on Jul.13, 2011, under Knowledge, Locally, Meet-Ups and Gatherings, News

Join The Meet Up Group (Free!) Get Tickets for the July 29th show a Cervantes Denver Euphonic Conceptions - Bringin the Best In Live Talent to Colorado and Beyond

14July2011 Update : $75 for both workshops has been added! Same links, now with more sugar, honey, and cooking oil!

http://illmethodologydenver-jul30.eventbrite.com/ and/or http://illmethodologycontrollerismworkshop.eventbrite.com/

Ill Gates is returning to Denver to play Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom on 29July2011. Super dooper thanks to our friends at Euphonic Conceptions for handling this event and adding so many great artists to the ticket. Facebook Link for this show.

 

We are proud to host another round of workshops here in the Denver area.

Special Bonus! We will install the Petting Zoo for increased interaction in the back room for both days.If you want to get up to speed consider attending our Warping Workshop
(continue reading…)

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July 13, 2010 – “I hear Your Signals” was heard

by Admin on Jul.13, 2011, under Documentation, Locally, Releases, Sounds

Mark Mosher - another visionaryOne of the primary goals in the Ableton Colorado User Group and all of my (Marc) activities is to raise awareness inside the growing genre of Electronic Music. I know that everyone gets more than their fair share of Facebook invites, Twitter messages offering a free iPad, and so on. This is very much a distraction when trying to find where the good work, innovative people, and real blood and sweat has been invested in music.

In my travels I see the best musicians often keep the smallest crowds. Some of them break (Bela Fleck for example), but this is rare.  The juggling of the true art form and promotion and marketing is difficult.

Mark Mosher continues to do an exceptional job at producing intelligent and valid music while maintaining a solid social and professional standing inside the realm of music, most particularly electronic music. I have had the opportunity to learn from him over and over again.

So it was one year ago today when Mark Mosher released his second album “I Hear Your Signals”, a follow up to “REBOOT”.

These are complimentary works in the science fiction Signals Universe concept album series. They are a story of alien invasion. “REBOOT” addressed this story line from the human point of view and the following album, “I Hear Your Signals” spoke form the alien perspective.

2 albums, 1 saga

I have frequently played both albums during our Meet Ups, as I keep these works on my portable devices.  His “Sounds from a Distant Outpost” Ableton Live pack is an exceptional work and has contributed to a few of my personal creations. All of these releases are of a similar theme and I have nothing but respect for people who create a vision and idea and then spend years, sometimes decades, creating the body of work.

Do not forget how Mark is an important blogger and resource in electronic music.  This genre is often considered the genre of [insert format you love or hate here]. House and Techno variants fill the large clubs,  Dub-Step is a current rage, Drum-n-Bass will always be around, people will continue to argue of what IDM constitutes, the dark and noise music will continue, and people such as myself will enjoy what technology has to offer and engage in pushing the envelope.

Mark Mosher on the other hand works as an electronic musician – a creator of sound and music.  His knowledge and love of sound and synthesis is coupled to a solid musical background and experience the predates laptops and computers as the Lingua franca* in music.

So we celebrate the Mark’s work and look forward to his next chapter.

I salute him and his dedication.I thank him for his knowledge and contributions to the greater environment. I am honored to have gotten to know Mark better over the recent years and I consider him a friend, resource, and dude who wears a cape (super hero).

More work is coming, I am sure of that – stay tuned. Until then, here’s where you can find Mark and his work:

* Lingua franca in the context of stretching the idea in this article  has been sheet music, the record, and word of mouth. Now we use computers as instruments, studios, communication portals and the internet is a big part of this shift in the sharing of ideas – all facilitated by computer technology.

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Meet the Makers – Alesis-Akai-Numark Free Event

by Admin on May.31, 2011, under Knowledge, Locally, Meet-Ups and Gatherings, News, Sounds

 

Sonic Sense Electronic Music Symposium

Featuring DJ, controller, and electronic music selections from:



Alesis, Numark, & Akai

RSVP LINK
When
: Tuesday June 7, 2011 6-9pm
Where: 1500 West Hampden Ave, Suite 3-H Sheridan, Colorado, 80110 (This location is a little tricky to find – take a look at the Google Map link)
Directions :
Coming from the North:
I-25 South to Sante Fe South to Dartmouth.
West (toward the mountains) on Dartmouth 1-2 blocks to Platte River Road (First Light).
South (left) on Platte River road.  6 blocks to curve under highway.
Pull into lot on right.  You’ll see our sign.
Coming From the South
Santa Fe north to Dartmouth.
See “From the North” above.
Coming form the East/West:
Hampden Ave (285) to Santa Fe
Santa Fe North to Dartmouth.
See “From the North” above.

Sonic Sense is a Denver based music equipment company that serves some of the most respected gear for audio perfection and modern music needs.

This is an ALL AGES event to meet, greet, and test out products form these manufacturers.

Evening highlights:

  • New Rack Serato Controller DMC2
  • Micron with I/O IO Dock for iPad & Ableton Live Light
  • DM8 Pro with TransActive Drummer Monitor
  • MPK49 and  QX49 49-key Controllers
  • Numark NS6 Controller

This FREE ALL AGES EVENT is a really fantastic crossover for the manufacturer representatives and the electronic music community.

DJs, controllerists, key players, and other aspects of the consumer electronic market will be at your fingertips!

I (Marc/DJSNM) will drop some demos using the Akai APC40 (featuring new my new template – simplified and stronger and re-released!!!) plus a final “full rig” demo using the Alesis Ion in conjunction with my scratch-box technology to close out the evening as a demonstration of livePA approach and post processing featuring the Scratch-Box.

I will also be available to answer any other questions regarding gear and Ableton through out the evening. If you have anything you want to know or check out come down and get in touch with the reps.

Please RSVP only if you are going – we ask this so we can not waste food and beverage and support the event as best as possible.

The schedule and stations:

DJ    Equipment:

  • Numark NS6 4-Channel Digital DJ Controller and Mixer
  • MixDeck All-in-One Controller
  • DMC2 Rack-mount Serato Controller

Electronic    Music    Production:

  • Akai APC40
  • Alesis Micron with I/O Express & Ableton Live Light
  • MPK49  and QX49  49-key Controllers

Electronic    Drums:

  • Alesis DM8 Pro with TransActive Drummer Monitor

Schedule:

  • 6:00: Introductions  – Meet and Greet
  • 6:30: General product overview
  • 7:15: Hands on with the gear
  • 8:20: Alesis    DM8    Pro    Demo
  • 8:30: APC-40    Demo by Marc    (aka    DJNSM)
  • 8:50+ Drawing and Wrap-up and Ion scratching

If you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me directly using marc [at] CreativeElectronica [dot] com

RSVP LINK

–M

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Ableton User Group Collective Patch Library downloads available on GitHub (free)

by Admin on May.16, 2011, under News, Releases, Resources

Ableton Colorado User Group in conjunction with DJNSM/Datamafia** are proud to implement a free and open source repository of Ableton patches!

For those who don’t want to read and only want the patches – click HERE and download a *.zip

I really am not clear on that GitHub logo yet... CLICK TO DOWNLOAD!

Is this a first? Hard to say – a search of the repo brings up results, all sorts!

So what is GitHub?

GitHub is a hosted SAAS based on Git. Git is a popular version control system for programming (or nearly any digital data). Git was written by Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) with the desire to increase the quality of version control software.

Version control is very common and popular in the programming arena. As software is created a “commit” action is performed where the current state of the software is placed into a repository (as a binary file typically). That “version” is now available for download. Later (minutes, hours, days, or weeks) another version is “committed”. This allows the user to retrieve the earlier version as well as the new version. Simple huh?

In other words, this is like saving before the mob boss in a video game. If you fail you just load up your earlier “save point” (aka commit) and start over again.

This is a very minimal explanation of Git and repositories. I have already seen people glaze over.  No need. Click here and “download” a *.zip.

A time moves on and new versions are added, old versions can be accessed (downloaded) and the full history is kept with the iterations.

 

Some other coolness on version control:

Binary differential : As you go from version A to Version B the repository (by nature) only “stores” the differential between the commits. An example:

File A contents “ABBA”

File B contents “ABBAC”

The commit for File B reads  “File A and add a C on the end”.

In the example that does not seem like an efficient way to go. When you have thousands of lines of code it is awesome. In this system are the tools to debug and improve code that a modern application can not live without!

Fork and parallel development : In many cases developers can fork a repository and develop independently.  These new developments can be merged back into the master trunk. This is how people build ideas into programs. I am not going to get too deep on the various minutia of version control. In short, everyone reading this article, as well as 99% of human existence uses something that is developed in version control.

Some links on GIT:

The benefits are grand for people who need to log and analyze software developments. I really don’t have enough time or patience to explain all of my love.

Drawbacks : There are a few – let’s focus on the general user who knows little on the topic:

  • Command Line Based : There are GUI’s, they are slower – better to learn commands and commit and manage directly
  • Way more friendly on Linux and Mac (*nix kernels)
  • Need to know how to manage your data very well.
  • Not for a casual user looking to create back-ups
  • Not a back up system

So far  we have patches from Mark Mosher, Chase Dobson, and me. They include some Deadmau5 Operator patches, some sound design patches for live performance, glitch effects, and more.

DOWNLOAD

Check out the wiki introduction, pages, and download.

** I credit myself as I keep the lights on (I pay for my accounts), write the wiki, test the patches, and maintain the repo. Help is welcome. Let me know!

 

 

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Tech-ish and then some edition.

by Admin on Apr.04, 2011, under Locally, News

Reminder : This Thursday Downtempo Returns to Denver as Red+Hot+Cool! I am putting a lot of work into this and appreciate all the support. Please stop by and say hi! This is my (marc) baby – one of the rare non-meet up events I am organizing!

The prime event to see DJ-Controllerists-Musicians come together

Micah Frank from Pure Magnetik has this great post/pack. “Dark Villosus – 10 Instruments made from one sample of white noise” – hell yeah! White noise can be a pain or fun. Micah made it fun!

Via Gear Junkies : RME releasing good stuff at the ‘messe. Here’s a remote control. Also – the break out boxes are coming (lol BOB). This is my (editors choice) for real studio action.

Hmm… check this out.

File under : Don’t get your hopes up – a new Roland JP. Gear Junkies reports on this item.

### begin editorial notes

Roland has some solid products. But they are guided, to a degree, by the large format printing business (that is what Roland does). The SH was recently revived, and it was a flop to anyone who knew the OG SH.  The JP series saw the 8080′s – they were good, but not a JP series. The original JP was/is a legendary synth. Fat pads and slow awesome sweeps were the strengths.  Those sweeps were easy to grab and set up. If the new JP gets close I would be happy. But the recent revivals in Roland and a certain niche disconnect is what they battle.  So here’s the breakdown by brand that I use:

  • Kurzweil : great sampling and programming
  • Roland : great feel and piano/electric piano model/sound interaction
  • Korg : makes crappy players sound good via tons of effects
  • Nord : live performance
  • Yamaha : good if you owned a Yamaha already
  • M-Audio : pass
  • Moog : pass
  • Dave Smith : pass
  • Alesis : pass
  • Akai : pass

### end editorial intersection

Thanks Oliver!

File Under : Will need one day. A mic booster.

And finally – Henke’s Granulator is live. Download the M4L patch here.

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Ableton 8.2.2 is kicking

by Admin on Mar.30, 2011, under News, Releases

Special thanks to Modulate This for bringing this to my attention. Ableton does not always have their finger on the email trigger (my main update notification).

And that is just fine – keep on rockin’ the quality. Glossy emails are way down on the list!

Download link (Ableton.com)

Things you need to know (thx Mark):

Please note that new Max for Live content requires both Live 8.2.2 and Max 5.1.8. You can download the latest version of Max

Release notes.

I am not going to re-post the change log, but Mark at Modulate This has the detail. Please give him your click.

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Tech Leaning on the wall update

by Admin on Mar.25, 2011, under Knowledge, Locally, News, Resources

Kickin’ it off – FREE drum pack – SOG has the details.

CDM points out a killer Max4Live granular editor. Here, listen:

Just a ton of Launchpad links over at Binary Alley.

Passing of a legend – Korg founder moves to next dimension. CDM covers the details.

photo via CDM

Still, Peter is KILLING it, here an article on Euclidean Rhythms in Ableton MIDI Clips. Based on the Euclidean Algorithm – fun stuff.

Umm…drool. Vermona releasing a new synth at the ‘Messe. Gear Junkies reports! A seeming follow up to the PerFourMer – a rare high quality consumer release of a 4 voice synth.  I always wanted one.

So, uhhh, what makes a new instrument? Again, CDM takes the big issues!

Cuteness from Focusright. – a small half rack USB breakout. Gear Junkies shows us the scoop!

Small reliable and affordable interfaces are hard to find. I would ove to explore this one more.

Finally, Mark Mosher paid a visit to the west coast via the Art Institute of California/Sunnyvale. Mark was visiting and performing with Robert Edgar. Here’s one of a few posts on the topic.


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Back From the SXSW – Thanks Austin!

by Admin on Mar.23, 2011, under News, Releases, Sounds

I will decompress on SXSW more soon, so let’s get into the happenings.

Local super hero Cache Flowe is part of the project Brim Liski and there is some new visual awesomeness abound. Take a look at this work:

Via GlitchDrop Bass From Above is released vie our good friend E at SubSynthesis -- here’s the Band Camp Page for the project. (lots of coverage out there Afromonk)

Denver Bass is still excited about the launch of the new site, and to celebrate their success here is EP 1 available for free download on Soundcloud (or megaupload)

More NitGrit stems are available, this time some legacy data -- here’s the nuts and bolts via Afromonk. Have fin, I just got my *.zip!

Via Gearjunkies.com Aquasky join forces with Loopmasters to launch Monster Sounds -- this is one of the better, cooler, and worthwhile sample companies out there (and I have used them all). Sorry for the editorial lean, but I chase results form companies who operate fairly in the marketplace.

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Ableton Colorado User Group by Ableton Colorado User Group is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at abltn.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://abltn.com.

Ableton, Ableton Live, Operator and Sampler are trademarks of Ableton AG. Ableton Colorado is a User Group run by local musicians and is in no way endorsed, affiliated, etc by Ableton or any other group. Our meet-ups, operation, events, and merchandise are produced by the users and funded by the users. We only endorse quality music and people. We are only interested in sharing and learning. There is no profit motive behind this group or site. Founded in 2009 we are still kicking it hard as explorers of the frontier of electronic music. We appreciate all the help and support form members and local business - but we are proud to maintain this effort through our own money and investments in the music scene. If you have questions or want to help please contact us.

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