Once a month, Christopher WIllits, the electronic musician and guitarist guides us through recording and production techniques, basic electronic programs and other technical skills that he uses to create music. In this episode, Willits explains automation clips—setting them up, as well as their role in recording and playing live. Past episodes have included techniques he’s used on his albums, like processing sounds through MIDI pick-ups and synthesizers.

Tune in once a month as Christopher shows us some of the ways he produces his own music, as well as the many cool things you can do with recording software. According to Christopher, “I simply want to excite people’s imaginations and creative process so they can more easily create the sounds and music and art they love.”

http://xlr8r.com/tv
http://christopherwIllits.com

KeyToSound, a designer, developer and manufacturer of digital audio technology, musical instruments, and audio signal processors has just released an upgrade to a free instrument plug-in called “Remedy”. Great presets, a bunch of knobs to sculpt, and a classy old school design.

Download Remedy 1.1r3 for Mac.
Supports VST (including 2.4), AU, RTAS 6 and RTAS 7

Download Remedy 1.1r3 for Windows XP.
Supports VST and RTAS on Windows XP

Download the botkiller Remedy preset pack by brian botkiller
Arps, drums, lots of sounds in this little package!

Download the Remedy Preset pack by Aaron Jasinski
Great sounds to get you going! Find more info on Aaron at www.AaronJasinski.com

Download the Remedy Preset Pack by Elwood

Today we are recording two tracks with local, up-and-coming Indy rock group, “The Blank Slates.” (Troy Lawton is lead engineering, with Jonathon Wong as assistant engineer.  All of the interns have been helping out this week and rotating responsibilities.) Featuring Andrea Iacopini on guitar and vocals, they produce a high-intensity, earthy nuance with a forward drive. According to Andrea, “The Blank Slates” is a “concept of ever-changing sound, where each song has space to develop into its own without allowing the band itself to be easily categorized.”

Andrea was joined by drummer Cochrane McMillan in January of this year, with bassist Martin Fowler adding to the mix later that month. Not only are they solid musicians, but their tracks are chock full of well-blended harmonies and tight fills.

In “My Only Regret,” Cochrane takes the lead on drums and has been playing solid all day, with Turkish hand-hammered cymbals adding nice texture and shimmer.  Martin has a solid ear in this tune with dead-on rhythm and innovative fills. Andrea is a natural songwriter, and struck gold with his addictive opening guitar and bass lines.

www.myspace.com/theblankslates

The goal of today’s session is to create the majority of a demo for distribution to local radio stations.

Good energy, good times, good clean fun.

-Emily Hendricks

BAVC Spot 1

BAVC Spot 2

BAVC plans to continue to host off-site Logic classes at Sound Arts along with a handful of other cool classes including a Sound Design Workshop on June 10th, 2008, with instructor and musician, Christopher Willits. To enroll in the next Logic class on July 28th – 30th, 2008, contact www.bavc.org

Here are some really cool, rhythmically pulsating frogs. This was recorded in my home town of Kansas City a couple of years ago. Using a French recording technique, O.R.T.F, these frogs were captured about 5 feet away from the pond where they were mating…
great to meditate to…
Enjoy!
Ryan

Check out these tracks in the works:

“Mean Song” – Zack Vieira

“Call it in the Air” – Sparklebritches