#tech-tips

[wikifeedz]

Ten basic tech tips you need to know

https://wikifeedz.com/technology/ten-basic-tech-tips-you-need-to-know/

[benslr]

Quick Tip: clearing out the drumloop (Shorten the hits)

Read more posts on my official website at: bensolar.be

[benslr]

Quick Tip: Chord sweeps with Sylenth 1 and Ableton

Read more posts on my official website at: bensolar.be

[benslr]

DIY Shakers with PVC

Shakers are commonly used percussive instruments to give you a more energetic feel to the rhythm you are playing. Most producers use samples from originals to do the job. With extra drum automation you can get the same result like a live recording.

I prefer a live recording because: More dynamics, more motion, more energy and better sounds.

In this short DIY tutorial I will show you how I made my own Shakers from PVC. A little video will be recorded also.

First things first.

You can make these shakers for about 5 bucks per shaker. I bought all my stuff at a plastics store.

- All pressure PVC glue. - PVC piping – you can choose your own diameter. We used 30mm - Connector parts to hold the top and bottom in place. - PVC ends which you can screw on. (In this way you can always choose to change the material inside the shakers)

  Cutting and Assembling

You can cut the pvc piping in any length you want. Depending on the sound you would like to create.

Choose your length. It doesn’t matter how short they are.

You can use a flat file to make the edges smooth and flat.

These are the caps I used to close my shakers.

Check if the PVC pipe has a straight edge on the top.

Glue all the parts together and let it dry for 20 minutes. Depending on the glue you used.

Final product. You can use sandpaper to get rid of the extra glue.

The materials (produces your sound)

Your shaker’s sound will depend mainly on what materials you choose to put inside it. Some good, basic materials to use include:

Polenta. This will deliver a very soft, light sound and may not be loud enough for live performances.

Rice. Slightly louder than polenta, the sound of a rice shaker will be sharper and more of a rattle.

Lentil. A shaker filled with lentils will sound rough and loud.

Bean. For a harsh, loud rattling sound similar to that of maracas, use beans in your shaker.

Your variables will be:

The material of the container.

The material of the filling and.

The size of the container.

Two guiding principles:

Don’t mix fillings of different sizes in the same container. The sound will be hard to control that way.

Don’t overfill or underfill.

On the internet I found other articles regarding these DIY shakers, so here’s a short list:

Make an Egg Shaker

DIY Rattles, Maracas

Thanks for reading!

DIY Shakers with PVC – Thats all!

Read more posts on my official website at: bensolar.be

[benslr]

SYNC TRAKTOR SCRATCH PRO WITH ABLETON LIVE

For those who want to get expirimental with the Native instruments soundcards then these are some really good videos you have to watch. Dubspot tells us what we have to do in two easy video tutorials. In this way you can add more functionality to your set with ableton dummy clips, extra drumloops, effects and extra effects on the traktor decks with the external routing to ableton live. So far the short introduction… watch and enjoy!

  Read more posts on my official website at: bensolar.be

[yokimbo]

Tech Tips - Sunday, September 22, 2013

This is a test of an occasional email newsletter I might start sending out.  I'm doing this because I follow the tech industry and get asked questions about various technologies.  This is not meant to provide information about trading stocks, etc, it merely comes from a love of technology.  Please let me know if you do not want to receive this email any longer.  And, it’s been an interesting weekend, so please forgive any grammatical errors.

Tech Tips - Sunday, September 22, 2013

Apple had a few new releases this past week.  iOS 7 was released on Wednesday (9/18), while the iPhone 5c and 5s were released Friday (9/20), with the 5c having been available for pre-sale for the previous week (9/13).  If you bought a 5c or 5s, congratulations.  If you have already installed iOS 7 on an older device, there are quite a few changes.  I'll cover a few below.  If you haven't yet upgraded iOS to 7, there are a few steps you should follow to make sure things go as smooth as possible.

iOS 7 Installation

Follow these steps prior to installing updates to your iPhone / iPad (and do similar for your computer for that matter). Note: depending on how many apps you have on your device, this could take a couple of hours.

Plug your phone into a power source and make sure you are connected to your wifi network.

Back up your iPhone via iCloud (Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Back Up Now). Hint: you may also want to make sure the iCloud Backup option is enabled.

Install the software update (Settings > General > Software Update).

When you are configuring your device, do not enable the passcode unless you want one.  It’s not obvious that you can skip this step.

Launch the App Store app and update your apps.

Troubleshooting

If your update fails, restore your iPhone from your iCloud backup (instructions).

Pro Tip

If you want to backup everything, even wifi and email passwords, backup to iTunes and encrypt the backup.  To figure out what iCloud backs up, read this Apple article.  If you want everything backed up, do an encrypted backup to iTunes.

iOS 7 Features

Now that you have upgraded to iOS 7, there are a few changes you may like to know about.  There are also a few changes that have annoyed some users, and blogs all over the web are addressing these.

Control Center - swipe up from any screen (unless you only allow from home screen)

Notification Center - swipe down from any screen (now has a tabbed interface)

Folders - now no limit on the number of apps, so you can combine Games 1, Games 2, and Games 3 folders

Blocked numbers - you can now block spammers or any unwanted callers and texters (bottom of any contact OR Recent Calls > click the i > Block this Caller)

Automatic App Updates - will update your apps in the background so they don’t pile up. It tries to do this when you aren’t using the phone, but it will also update over your cellular network if you aren’t connected to wifi, so watch your data usage.

Background App Refresh - refreshes app data in the background. Useful for things like weather apps so you don’t have to wait for the data to load. Can disable totally or on a per-app basis.

AirDrop - convenient and fast way to share files, photos, and videos with nearby iPhones and iPads that are also running iOS 7.

iTunes Radio - nice competitor to services like Pandora, free with ads, or ad-free for iTunes Match subscribers.

Siri - includes a male voice, uses Bing, searches Twitter and Wikipedia (and still can’t tell Alli what polar bears eat)

Multipath TCP - for the nerds, a cool protocol that allows a more reliable TCP connection.  When your wifi connection gets slow, your iPhone will use your cellular data to try and maintain a fast connections.  Currently it seems to only be used with Siri.  But this is something that will be in all devices, and Apple has a head start.

Note on Battery Life

Due to the addition of new features, like Background App Refresh and Automatic App Updates, you should expect to lose battery life.  You can improve your battery life performance by disabling these options.  The other big battery drain that comes with every new major OS update and new phone release is usage.  When you have something new, you use it more.  Make sure you keep a charger in your purse or work bag.

Security Flaws

There is a current security flaw in iOS 7 that allows access to some of the phone’s functionality even if you enable the passcode.  The workaround is to disable Control Center access from your lock screen (Settings > Control Center > Access on Lock Screen).

There’s another flaw that allows someone to call anyone from your lock screen, not just emergency numbers.  We’ll have to wait for Apple to fix this one.

Other Changes

I’ve had a few repeat topics:

Text Size - this will help with readability (Settings > General > Text Size)

Bold Text - this will help with readability if you are having trouble (Settings > General > Accessibility > Bold Text). This will restart your phone.

Spotlight - pull down from any home screen

Calendar List/Agenda View - tap the magnifying glass in the upper right

Email / Contacts / Calendars - this is a big topic, and could be it’s own major topic.  Some people are having issues with their Google accounts.  Read this article about how to setup the various Google services.  Others are having issues with their Cox email.  For that I offer a few steps:

Backup your email to your home computer.

Delete your Cox account from your iDevice (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars), then click on your account, then click on Delete Account.

Shutdown your iDevice (hold the sleep button until you see the “Slide to Power Off” text, and slide it.

Wait 30-ish seconds, then hold your sleep button until you see an Apple logo appear.

Add your Cox account back (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account). Enter your Name, user name, password, then click Next (upper right).

If this fails, please call Cox.

I still don’t know how to make the keyboard text thicker.  From what I’ve read only, give the new OS 2 weeks to get used to and you’ll never look back.  

If you find other annoyances, Google is your friend.  It’s likely others have had similar issues.  And remember, you can always contact Apple.  They listen.  Just remember to be polite.

Just for Fun

This article has a cool video about how Siri is voiced.

Great article about the design genius of Apple, Jony Ive.

Apple iBeacons look to be a cool future technology.  It provides a way of detecting which iDevices are in close proximity. A few companies are already building things based on iBeacon.

Thank you for reading.

Kim Guerrette

Please let me know if you do not want to receive this email any longer and I will remove you from the list.

[benslr]

Tech Tip #3 - Make your own Ableton drum racks fast and easy

Custom drum racks, some love them and some hate them. Some artists love the way their custom rack sounds so they stick with this setup.

Most of the time I try new kickdrums, claps and snare sounds. I use a custom rack but I replace some of the sounds from time to time. In this post I’ll show you how to import, configure and save these custom drum racks fast and easy.

Opening a new Drum Rack

Simple as it is. Drag and drop the drum rack from the instruments sidebar in Ableton live. Another way to put the drum rack in a new track is by double clicking on the drum rack.

Selecting what drums you will use.

There are a lot of free drum packs online. In this section I will provide you with the most common racks out there. This package consists TR-909, TR-808, TR-606 and more from Korg and Boss

Packages:

Roland TR-909

Roland TR-808

Roland TR-606

Roland TR-707

Roland TR-727

Roland TR-505

Roland CompuRhythm

Boss DR-110

Boss DR-55

Korg KRP-77

Korg KR-55

Extract all the favorite content to your personal sample folder and select them within Ableton Live. Dragging the samples into Ableton’s Drum Rack. I usually like to order my drum machines like so: kick, snare, closed hat, open hat, toms, cymbals.

Configuring your drum rack

Once all of your hits are loaded, click on the “Show/Hide Devices” button on Drum Rack.

Opening the Show/Hide Devices panel will allow for better control over our drum machine samples.

On the main sampler panel, make sure you have the first sample selected (1) (in my case, the kick sample) and bring the “Release” (2) and “Velocity” (3) sections all the way up.

Bringing the release up to 60s gets the full tail of the drum sample, bringing the velocity up to 100% gives you full control over the velocity of the MIDI data when programming your drum parts in Ableton’s Sequencer.

“You can copy the release and velocity values easily to all other pads by right clicking on them and selecting ‘copy value to siblings’. No need to set them up separately!”

Saving the custom drum rack

Once you’re done setting up drum rack, locate Ableton’s device browser and drag the entire drum rack into the “Drum Rack” folder located in the device browser. Rename it to something appropriate (ie “Roland TR-606″).

A quick and simple way to save out our newly created Roland TR-606 drum machine.

Now, anytime, you can drag out your new drum machine into any empty MIDI channel, and it’s ready to go. Also, if you want to create a new drum machine, I would recommend using a pre existing setup (our 606 for example) so you don’t have to redo all of the Release and Velocity settings.

If you still have questions, of you know other places to download drum kits, then let me know. Cheers!