Roland’s new R_MIX audio editing software centers around a real-time visualization of the sound, or what Roland calls “color coded clouds of energy and harmonic matter.”

But lets put aside corporate concocted buzz phrases for the moment. The Roland demo video above is full of them, but starting around 1:40 you will find some impressive demonstrations of the programs power and ease of use. Just drag a box over an energy cloud and start manipulating that part of the audio mix. You can quickly find and isolate instruments, changing pitch and speed for learning a complex guitar lead for example, and even creating minus one, vocal-free songs.

Want to pan the recorded singer left while you harmonize in the right channel? No problem. Draw a box around her undulating harmonic matter (!) and you can drag her around to stereo field as you like.

A “simplified version” called R_MIX Tab is available for iPad in the App Store. So far it is gathering mixed reviews.

Beckinfield Live is also a fun meeting place thanks to the live chat feature. You can chat with other Beckinfield viewers, Fans and Actors in real time while watching the show.

Beckinfield Live uses a proprietary video streaming technology to present a hand-picked assortment of Beckinfield videos in a television-like experience. The show schedule repeats every hour and new shows go up every week.

The Lean Back vs. the Lean Forward Experience

Beckinfield is a unique work of interactive fiction where viewers can watch and explore the story, the videos and the characters. Now beckinfield offers both the lean back and the lean forward experience (or, as we like to think of them, “munch” vs. “click”).

Beckinfield Live is a “lean back” experience, which means it is more like traditional TV watching – turn it on, lean back, and relax with a bag of chips. Exploring the interactive fiction of Beckinfield is a “lean forward” experience. This involves choosing story paths to explore, visiting Actor pages, and rating and commenting on videos. Click or munch. You choose.

Wikipedia credits Szalay with designing several electronic instruments including the Wersi Electronic Grand Piano; the AKAI DuoBuddy (right) and DecaBuddy Vocal Harmonizers; the AKAI EWI 4000s and EWIUSB Electronic Wind Instruments.

He is also responsible for three generations of guitar synthesizers: Shadow GTM-6 and SH-075 in 1986, the legendary Axon series in 1997 and most recently the upcoming wireless Fishman Triple Play. Below is a video clip of Szalay playing an early prototype and Bence Bécsy demonstrating the amazing tracking capabilities of the Triple Play

Whatever creative endeavor you are involved in, this seminar on music production can help. Ill Gates is a very motivating speaker as well as an experienced music producer. Here he talks about the creative process of keeping deadlines, “keeping the two halves of your brain working in harmony ” and avoiding the overwhelming and stagnating dilemma of too many technological tools and choices in creating digital media.

This first free chapter of his live seminar addresses the psychological and workflow problem inherent in digital production. His concepts of daytime and nighttime creative sessions are worth the price of admission. A few other gems of advice come at these marks:

8:33 – Don’t try to do every part of the process at once. Your brain will go “50 million directions at once, and nowhere at the same time.”

14:20 – During creative sessions, unplug your computer from the internet. Put your cellphone at the opposite end of your house. “You do not need to have that information.”

16:00 –  The fear of being wrong. “An expert is defined as someone who has made every mistake there is to make within a limited domain. The only mistake you can make is hesitation.”

23:00 – One of greatest known predictors of success in life: “Written goal setting with a pen and paper.” And use an expensive book, like a Moliskine so you will “feel like an idiot if you waste it.

And for some super practical advice on how to get guys from Guitar Center to set up your computer sound card check out 6:35.

We tune because we care. Guitar tuning has gone through a bit of a renaissance in the last few years. State of the art tuning gear has leaped ahead in both form and function. Modern devices such as TC Electornics Polytune looks like a prop from 2001 A Space Odyssey and acts like an appliance Elroy Jetson might use on his Space Strat. Alternatively, the Jetsons might rely on robotic maid Rosie to tune the family axes, and there are several non-fictional approaches to this type of tuning as well.

Impressive and expensive devices have been around for a while now for deep-pocketed pickers who didn’t mind selecting a guitar just for the tuners. A few retrofitted, and even non fitted solutions have come and gone, but the latest from Tronical could be a game changer, or at least a Gibson alternative … depending on the as yet unannounced price. Time will tell, so stay tuned (sorry, couldn’t resist.)

This tutorial describes how to recreate David Gilmour’s “Sound on Sound” effect. David uses a dual amp setup on Shine On you Crazy Diamond to achieve an infinite sustain over which he can play solos. Check out this article for a more detailed explanation and a video of the effect as used in concert.

Download the Ableton Live set here, MIDI map an expression pedal to the same controls as shown in the tutorial video, plug in a guitar and “shine on you crazy diamond.”

As Synthtopia.com points out, this effect is not just for guitarists. Keyboard players, electric violinists and even solar powered banjo players can easily add this to their sonic arsenal.

For more info on my Ableton Live centric guitar rig, here is the series and collected articles.

Beckinfield is the worlds first Mass Participation web series. Every week hundreds of actors, professional and amateur, participate in the story by upland videos they create. Here is episode 74 for the week of April 23rd.

Black suited figures continue to harass the people of Beckinfield about the mysterious events of April 1st. Unravel the mystery for yourself at theatrics.com. You can watch the videos, interact with the story and the actors, or even become an actor yourself. It’s fun, easy and free. See you in Beckinfield.

Near final hardware and work-in-progress software were the feature of the Fishman stand at this years NAMM conference in Anaheim. Live demos wowed the crowds and YouTube videos have keep the virtual buzz going online for a few months. Previously announced shipping dates have slipped and the company has virtually gone dark with info on the Triple Play.

Available for Preorder?

At least one online retailer has taken the initiative to accept preorders on the unit. ExpressMusicInc.com is featuring the Triple Play on their site with a retail price of $299 and a delivery date of  ”August/September ” although further down the page it states the unit is “slated to release in June.” which is incorrect according to Fishman sources.

It looks like ExpressMusicInc cut-and-pasted old information for their advert. As of this writing the Triple Play has yet to show up on sites of any of the larger online retailers such as Musicians Friend, Sweetwater or Guitar Center, although two of the three do offer the Harmon Triple Play Trumpet Mute.

Certainly Ableton Live’s very capable loopers play well with this concept, but exploring ways to get large live sound beyond looping is a particular interest of mine. Plugins like Roger Linn’s AdrenaLinn Sync add layers of clock-synced effects and syncopated rhythms that add space, depth and an aural complexity to a single instrument. I am also experimenting with CamelSpace, the over-the-top rhythmic multi-effects plug in from Camel Audio. Another approach I have been playing with is recreating David Gilmour’s “sound-on-sound” technique in Ableton Live.

David Gilmour – Sound on Sound

When David was playing a series of acoustic concerts in 2001 he wanted to open the show with what many consider to be the quintessential Pink Floyd work, Shine On You Crazy Diamond. He pictured himself on a bare stage, acoustic guitar in hand, unaccompanied by other instrumentalists.

He developed a “sound on sound” approach using a dual amp setup with a digital delay to sustain chords on one amp while he soloed over the chords on the other amp, giving the song a rich and evolving backing track. Below is a video of a performance from 2002.

From gilmoursh.com:

The Sound on Sound effect, isn’t an effect from of a pedal but rather the effect achieved when splitting the signal in two with a long delay assigned to one channel. David strums a chord and makes a volume swell with the volume pedal assigned for the Sound on Sound channel. The signal travels to the Sound on Sound unit (basically a A/B router unit made by Pete Cornish) and into the Roland digital delay, which is set to 1500ms lasting about 20 seconds. The signal then travels into a Hiwatt and WEM cabinet used only for this effect. Gilmour lowers the volume pedal and plays a solo fed through the “normal” signal path, while the Sound on Sound pad is sustained by the long delay. The pattern is repeated for each chord.

This beautiful and deceptively simple approach is an elegant solution – when it works. Again, from gilmourish.com:

David struggled a lot with the Sound on Sound effect. Some times it worked and some times it didn’t and if it didn’t he got all sorts of feedback and ringing notes.

Sound on Sound in Ableton Live

I can relate to David’s frustrations as I endeavor to recreate this setup “in the box” within Ableton Live. I have made some progress using AdrenaLinn Sync as the delay and a SoftStep foot controller manipulating plugin parameters, sends and volumes in Ableton. I am still tweaking it, but once I crack the technique, I will post the results along with a demo here.

Sound on Sound Pedals

If I were still into hardware and pedals I would go the far easier route with the Hold – Delay – Chorus stomp box from ZCAT, or the Electro-Harmonix Freeze Sound Retainer . Both look to be a very clean way to achieve this effect. Just hold down the button and boom – instant backing. Check out the video demo below of the Freeze to see what else can be done with this type of setup.

The standalone software is still cloaked in secrecy as negotiations continue behind the scenes with undisclosed vendors and partners. Fishman is determined to ship the unit with Mac and PC software that includes a library of sounds and effects for DAWless customers. It is expected to include all the effects and editors of its more interesting software plugin brother. Software for iOS is also expected.

Fishman showed off the current state of the software at the 2012 NAMM conference in Anaheim. In addition to patch selection, tuner and other expected elements, it includes an elegant graphic interface for setting up split configurations over the fret board and a display with real-time visual feedback on notes as they are fretted. A Fishaman representative recently told me (while reiterating that all is still in development and subject to change) that configuring split setups will be as easy as dragging a selection across the screen to assign different instruments to different strings or sections of the fretboard.

Recent online discussions have questioned the Triple Play’s ability to track slides, string bends and other staples of guitar playing. Fishman assures me that all this and more is supported by the Triple Play. Bend parameters will be as configurable and flexible as any MIDI instrument, allowing the user to control the range and extremities of pitch bends based on individual patches. For example, you probably want your Synth sound to bend more than your Piano patch. (Or maybe not. You choose.)

Some of the greatest minds in MIDI guitar are working on this product (more on that in a future article) and it appears at this stage the Triple Play will equal or surpass any other existing guitar MIDI product. If Fishman can ship a simple graphic interface for setting parameters and patch settings, this should help propel them miles ahead of the currently cumbersom Roland competition and their nonexistent software editor. Actually there is an excellent software editor for the Roland GR-55 created by a skilled and dedicated user. Apparently Roland Corporation could not be bothered to provide such an essential tool.

Exciting times await the patient MIDI guitar enthusiasts out there.