Yesterday, Bert was invited for an interview at the Time Drone show, a weekly radio show at electro-music radio hosted by Jack Hertz.
During one hour Jack asked Bert, the designer of the AudioCubes, questions about his background, how the idea of making the AudioCubes started, as well as questions about all the applications he made for the AudioCubes.
Besides answering Jack’s questions, Bert did a live demo of EVOLVOR, the latest sound design application which was released for the AudioCubes.
The audience also had the opportunity to ask questions to Bert via chat. Every question which popped up the electro-music radio chat window was discussed during the radio show.
Check out the pictures which were taken during the interview
Jack announcing the AudioCubes Interview at electro-music-radio
Jack Hertz made a great video with EVOLVOR, the latest sound design application which we’ve released for AudioCubes. EVOLVOR is a sound design application where you can program up to 4 user-definable MIDI LFOs.
In the video below, Jack is modulating the pitch of three of the operators and the time delay of the chorus effect. He is using EVOLVOR together with his own VSTs.
You don’t need to have the AudioCubes per se to use EVOLVOR as the video shows, but the advantages of EVOLVOR are much higher when using it together with the AudioCubes. The AudioCubes allow you to experiment very fast using different combinations of LFOs.
Based in San Francisco Bay Area, Jack’s focus is on exploring innovation ways to create music as electronic music was meant to do. Today, he’s working to creating new, amalgamated sounds and ways to control them. Taking queues from classic electronic and popular music. His approach is basic, yet robust. Perform on vintage hardware that is processed and controlled with cutting edge technology. In this way he can celebrate the past and introduce the future to young and old alike.
Saturday January 28th, Bert is invited for an interview at Time Drone. Time Drone is a weekly show at electro-music radio featuring two hours of ambient music by Jack Hertz. Bert will be live in the studio with Jack Hertz to talk about the Percussa AudioCubes, and he’ll do some live demonstrations of the AudioCubes.
If you’d like to ask some questions yourself, join the chatroom. You can tune in to the live show at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT streaming live over the Internet at http://electro-music.com/radio/
About Time Drone
Time Drone is a weekly show featuring two hours of ambient music by Jack Hertz and guests. Time Drone is focused on experimenting with very long forms of live improvisation that are meant to slow or extend the listeners’ perception of time.
About Jack Hertz
Based in San Francisco Bay Area, Jack’s focus is on exploring innovation ways to create music as electronic music was meant to do. Today, he’s working to creating new, amalgamated sounds and ways to control them. Taking queues from classic electronic and popular music. His approach is basic, yet robust. Perform on vintage hardware that is processed and controlled with cutting edge technology. In this way he can celebrate the past and introduce the future to young and old alike.
EVOLVOR is a new app which we’ve created to link AudioCubes to Low Frequency Oscillators or LFOs. When you put the AudioCubes together the associated LFOs will interact to create 4 continuously changing signals which can be sent as MIDI CCs to any synth or effect, hardware or software. By changing the placement of AudioCubes and number of AudioCubes in the cube network, you can influence the resulting MIDI CC signals.
To have a complete overview of what you can do with EVOLVOR, check out the manual for EVOLVOR
The Analog Girl at the FILTER Magazine's Culture Collide Festival in Echopark, Los Angeles) by Kian-peng Ong
In 2008 Time Magazine named “The Analog Girl” as one of the 5 Music Acts To Watch in 2008. She was born in Singapore, and recorded her first song on a cassette at age 7.
The Analog Girl describes her music on her website as:
“It is the analog feeling, sprinkled with electronic noises and fairy dust, that creates The Analog Girl sound. Her unique application of the laptop, vocal, effects boxes and odd synths can be heard on her albums she likes to call collectively as the Pink Bento Boutique. “
Songs on The Analog Girl’s new album Tonight Your Love sound like a cosmic synthesis of the future with the hauntingly vintage. They were recorded over the course of 3 years and mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering in Brooklyn, New York, who’s previously worked with LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective and Washed Out. The Analog Girl played at a couple of well-known venues such as New York’s Knitting Factory and Paris’ avant-garde Cirque Electrique.
The Analog Girl bought the AudioCubes about two years ago, and has integrated the AudioCubes into her live performances:
“The AudioCubes are like magical boxes that send signals to my laptop to fire up the music and its colours pulsate to the beat of my songs. The sensors inside them react to my hand movements and manipulate effects real-time. I feel like I am conjuring up musical gods that participate in my performance as I spin these cubes around. And that is what I love about them – their mystical ability to transport my performance to a higher state of aural freedom and visual expression.”
The Analog Girl at the the FILTER Magazine's Culture Collide Festival in Echopark, Los Angeles (picture by TinyMixtapes http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/culture-collide-2011)
Saturday the 5th of November The Analog Girl played a live set at mixtape + confessions in Singapore using the AudioCubes, a Tenori-on, and some other gear. Check out the video which was made during the live performance below.
The lastest album of the Analog Girl “Tonight Your Love” is now available at bandcamp via her website www.analog-girl.net.
Bio of The Analog Girl
Named by TIME magazine as one of 5 Music Acts To Watch in 2008 alongside Japanese multi-instrumentalist Cornelius is Singapore-based electro-rock chanteuse The Analog Girl.
A pioneer in the regional scene who helped define the genre that is laptop rock, The Analog Girl first sprung into the international spotlight when American sportswear giant Nike featured a track off her debut self-released, self-produced album The TV Is On on their European ad campaign Changing The Game in 2005.
Since then her unique yet catchy brand of electro pop has been featured on NYLON TV for episodes featuring Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Ladytron, been on award-winning creator of graphic novels Warren Ellis’ recommended playlist, landed her a support slot for German-Norwegian musical group The Whitest Boy Alive in Hong Kong, and a series of live shows around the world.
Armed with her sexy MacBook Air and slew of fascinating machines, The Analog Girl has taken her music to a variety of venues ranging from clubs to concert halls to art spaces, having headlined The Knitting Factory in New York, performed for top British photographer Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio in London, Worldtronics Festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the Cirque Electrique in Paris, gift_lab in Tokyo, Labella in Shanghai and at the MTV Asia Awards Voting Party in Singapore.
As you all know Mark Mosher is a very active AudioCubes user from the US. “I Can See Them” is one of the tracks of the album “I Hear Your Signals” which is 100% played on AudioCubes.
You can order the CD’s online the Reverbnation shop. Each CD comes with a 4-panel booklet with original artwork and photography including liner notes and credits.
Mark Mosher's albums "I hear your signals" and "REBOOT" now available as audio CDs
Mark Mosher’s music is still available for digital download here.
We’ve received a great video from Dr. Gregg Cannady, music teacher at the STEM Magnet Lab School at Colorado. Since almost one year, Gregg is using the Percussa AudioCubes and Mark Mosher’s 9BOX methodology in his music class. The students are thrilled about the AudioCubes, as Dr. Gregg Cannady explains in the video:
“We program the AudioCubes to let them do what we want, and that can be to kick off sound clips…It is definitely problem-based learning. It can be very high tech, if the kids are ready for that, or it can be very simple.”
“The kids can go with their phones and record something, and email me a sound clip, and I can drop it into this computer program, and we can build a composition around it. They seem to be very drawn to this technology. It somehow peeks their interest.”
For those of you who don’t know what STEM schools are, STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. STEM schools are public schools which are becoming more and more popular in the US. The focus of the school is on experiential learning, problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, and expanding cross-curricular skills. They want to challenge the students, system and the methods, like Dr. Gregg Cannady says in the video.
It is a public school where children are selected based on a lottery system. Students are not tested, they’re just “drawn” as one of the teachers explains in the video.
Check out the video, and listen to what teachers and parents are saying about the STEM Magnet Lab School. The Percussa AudioCubes are shown throughout the whole video, and in detail at 8:51.
More information about the STEM Magnet Lab School:
website: stem.adams12.org
Percussa is a small company, but our main motto is to give our users the best service as possible. This week, we received a very kind message from a very happy user from LA. Bert and I were really touched by it, and decided to share it with you
“About those cubes – my buddy took them away from me and have been using them ever since =) Apparently he is having tons of fun with them and says that they are great. I have been very busy with work and recently I have moved to Los Angeles so I haven’t had enough time to completely master the cubes but from what I’ve done so far I can easily say that I spent my money for something that is 100% worth every cent. Thank you for making this product!” (Nikolay Kuzovkov)
Never hesitate to contact me or Bert in case of any questions. We’d love to hear your feedback on the cubes, as well as answer all your questions
Thursday, the 15th of December, a showcase of the current research at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (Syndey, Australia) will take place. During the showcase several presentations will be given about the use of interactive art and design in health care and rehabilitation settings. One of the presentations will be given by Samantha Ewart.
Samantha Ewart (supervisors Associate Professor Garth Paine and Dr Amanda Third) is a PhD student from the University of Western Sydney (Australia). She researches how new forms of interactive music technology can distract teenage patients from boredom within hospital to help promote wellbeing, and the AudioCubes are part of her PhD research. During the showcase, Samantha will give a presentation about “Interactive Music for Distraction”.
If you want to have an overview of all the other presentations and speakers, have a look at the flyer below. Special guests are Vickie Sowry, from the Australian Network for Art and Technology, and Helen Zigmond, from the Arts and Health Foundation, Australia.
Interactive Art and Design in Health & Rehabilitation @ Children’s Hospital at Westmead (15th December 2011)
When: Thursday 15th December 2011, 5pm-7pm
Where: The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Ground Floor, Function Room, next to staff canteen
Tralala Blip at Liquid Architecture 12 (Brisbane, Australia)
Lydian, Leanne, Mathew, Randolf, and Zac from Tralala blip, or the “Blippers” as they call themselves, are very busy as usual. The end of november they were invited to do a performance at the Apple University Consortium in Brisbane.
For those of you who don’t know Apple University Consortium, it is a consortium which was created when Apple first released the Apple Macintosh in 1984. Apple entered into a partnership with nine Australian Universities to create the Apple University Consortium. The goal of the consortium consists of supporting Apple technology in higher education through a fund that offers several grants.
The consortium also hosts the Create World Conference 2011. It is a “3 day performance, presentation, and professional development event, specifically for academic and higher-education technical staff in the digital arts disciplines.” This year the conference took place in Brisbane, and Tralala Blip was invited for a live performance during the conference.
This week, Tralala Blip did a gig with Sky Needle (from Brisbane) and Mad Nanna (from Melbourne) at the Lismore Regional Gallery.
Even though the holiday season is almost there, Tralala Blip keeps on working very hard. Next week, they’re doing a live performing for the opening of “Not What They Appear” exhibition together with their friends at Red Inc.
Of course, we’d like to congratulate the “Blippers”. Again they’ve been granted funding and support for 2012 from the Regional Arts Fund NSW!
To view the manual click here: 
