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.

Check out his video below:

More information about EVOLVOR:
http://land.percussa.com/audiocubes-evolvor

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.

Web Site: http://jackhertz.com/

This week we received a video from Marcelo, musician and sound engineer from Chile and one of our newest members of the AudioCubist community. He was so excited when receiving his set of 4 AudioCubes, he immediately downloaded the software, and made this amazing video with his camera.

In this video Marcelo uses Steinberg’s Nuendo 5.5 and the VST LoopMash 2 together with MidiBridge. In MIDIBridge Marcelo mapped two faces of the AudioCubes to trigger the loops, and the two other faces as a trigger for the effects. As you can see in the video one of the effects was the mute function, to stop the loops (0:48).

Since some of you might be interested to learn more about his setup, we asked him for some more information about his set-up.

First, Marcelo installed MIDIBridge and LoopBe1 for MIDI loopback, from the Percussa download page. In MIDIBridge he assigned LoopBe1 as the MIDI output. He then created a MIDI track in Nuendo 5.5 and used LoopBe1 as input and LoopMash 2 as output.

In the first screenshot you can see how Marcelo created the loops in Loopmash 2. The MIDI keyboard is at the bottom of the screenshot. Each number corresponds to notes values in a MIDI controller. To create the loops you can arrange the notes the way you want.

Loopmash 2: Build the loops (screenshot taken by Marcelo)

In the second screenshot the numbers of the MIDI keyboard is visualized with numbers and symbols. Instead of changing the loops you’re changing the effects applied to the loops.

Loopmash 2: Add effects to the loops (screenshot taken by Marcelo)

More information about Marcelo:
http://www.bongman.cl

As you all know the AudioCubes work with any other software or hardware which is MIDI compatible.

We’ve already covered a couple of blog posts about how you can use MIDIBridge and IMPROVISOR together with other software such as Ableton, Logic Studio, Garage Band, Harmor from Image-Line. An overview of a couple of other interesting blog posts:

Featured question: does AudioCubes work with Logic
Composition using AudioCubes, Improvisor and Apple GarageBand
Composing using Fl Studio, Harmor, Improvisor and AudioCubes

Last week, we announced the upcoming interactive light and sound installation with 12 AudioCubes of Kim Pedersen. We could already see a preview of the installation. This week Kim Pedersen made a new video where he revealed some more information about his installation.

Check out his new video:

About Kim Pedersen:

Kim Pedersen is a visual artist as well as a composer and performer from Copenhagen, Denmark. Dreamhub is his main electronic project where he composes and performs ambient, space music and chillout. He was invited to perform live on TV at the Official climate conference COP15 Ecumenical service in the Cathedral of Copenhagen in December 2009.

Kim is now working on an interactive live and sound installation with 12 AudioCubes.

Someone wrote to me a few weeks ago in reaction to previous posts about our new MIDI generative software for AudioCubes, asking if it was possible to use the software to create polyrhythms.

A simple example of a polyrhythm is a rhythm in which 3 beats are played against 2 beats, within the same amount of time. Why are Polyrhythms of interest to musicians? Because they are used in African music, and can be of great beauty. They are also not very easy to play according to Wikipedia:

Cross rhythms can easily be produced by two or more musicians, however producing this effect on one instrument by one musician can be very challenging. Not many western instruments are capable of easily doing this. Because of the great importance of cross rhythms in African music several instruments have evolved there that are especially adaptive for accomplishing this. The structure of these instruments are made to facilitate the creation of cross rhythms.

Let’s see if experimenting with polyrhythms might be easier using our new software for AudioCubes? As an experiment, I set up the Impulse drum machine in Ableton Live 8 (backbeat room preset) as a sound source, and connected this via MIDI to our software, which uses the position of the AudioCubes to start and stop patterns, and the orientation to change patterns being played back.

Ableton Impulse Backbeat Room controlled by AudioCubes

Each of the cubes is attached automatically to a drum sound, so one cube does the kickdrum, one the snare and another one the closed hihat. The patterns used are the following:

AudioCubes Polyrhythm Sequence 4

AudioCubes Polyrhythm Sequence 3

AudioCubes Polyrhythm Sequence 2

AudioCubes Polyrhythm Sequence 1

The patterns are all 32 steps in length and are played back in sync, by each of the cubes. The software was playing back the patterns at 70 BPM (beats per minute).

Each of the cubes can play any of the patterns, on any of the sounds, simply by turning each individual cube. Enjoy what happens and notice how easy it is to combine these various patterns to create very interesting rhythms, which can then be sampled or recorded back into Ableton as MIDI, to be used in the production of a song.

Of course, if you don’t have Ableton Live you can also use any other MIDI compatible drum machine, software or hardware (such as the Elektron Machinedrum for example).

Previous related posts:

http://www.percussa.com/2011/06/10/four-hand-piano-music-using-audiocubes/

http://www.percussa.com/2011/06/04/generative-music-in-the-blues-scale-using-audiocubes/

More info about polyrhythms:

Polyrhythm on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrhythm

Polyrhythm Drum Beat Ideas With “Schroeder” (Live Broadcast #18)

Polyrhytms on AudioTuts+

http://audio.tutsplus.com/articles/general/introduction-to-polyrhythms/

In this short demo video, Percussa AudioCubes is used to automatically generate multiple piano melodies, using the new generative music software created for the AudioCubes by Percussa. Keep an eye on this blog for the official release of the software.

Each cube uses a different groove and a limited number of notes to play its melody. All notes are in the same scale, so you don’t need to know the details of the scale to create music in harmony.

Cubes are placed next to the green PLAY cube to start playback. By turning a cube you can choose a different groove. By placing cubes next to each other, you can make them adapt to each other’s melody automatically.

The notes generated by the AudioCubes and software is sent via MIDI to the General MIDI synthesizer available for free with Windows or Mac OSX.

Because every AudioCube plays a different melody and they are all related in tempo and in key, the result is “four hand piano music”.

As a side node for the geeks: the software was built in Max/MSP using the free OSC (open sound control) server for AudioCubes.

Don’t forget to watch the other 3 videos in this series. Let us know what you think by posting a reply below?

All software for AudioCubes is free, for users who bought the AudioCubes hardware. Contact us if you have any questions about AudioCubes, this video or the software used. Always happy to help!

We’re always impressed how people use the AudioCubes for different kinds of live performances. Last week, music composer Antonio Machado told us how he’s using the AudioCubes in a live theater show for kids: Ti-To-Tis.

The theater show is a combination of light, sound and dance especially created to entertain kids, from 0 till 36months. The theater show is produced by DançArte and Aria de Musica.

The next performance of the show is taking place 14th of May in Teatro D. Pedro V (Macau, Portugal). For more information about this show: http://titotis.passosecompassos.pt/ (website is in Portugese)

Check out the promo video below.

Still not convinced you can do some great stuff with only one AudioCube? In that case, you should definitely watch these two new videos. It was uploaded last month (March 2011) on YouTube by one of our customers, and yes it rocks! In the video the AudioCube is used as a “sensor cube” where each of the four sides are used to control a parameter in the music.

PM Emissions pack for AudioCubes updated to v2.0

Since MIDIBridge for AudioCubes was recently updated and people are now using Ableton Live version 8, we decided to update the programming of the Live Set of our FREE puremagnetik emissions pack for AudioCubes.

Besides new programming the pack features an extensive manual on how the live set works, how it was programmed and how the new mappings work in Ableton Live.

Although the pack works best with 2 or more AudioCubes, it also works even if you don’t have the AudioCubes yet. Pick it up at http://land.percussa.com/pack-emissions/ and let us know what you think!

Planning to do a live performance with Percussa AudioCubes and looking for some interesting ideas for your setup? Here’s the perfect answer: 9BOX methodology created by Mark Mosher. We already wrote a short blog post on this two weeks ago (Mark Mosher’s 9BOX System for AudioCubes a hit in local school), but now we provide you with some more information regarding the installation.

9BOX Methodology (Mark Mosher)

Mark Mosher is an electronic music artist from Boulder (CO, US) and a very active Percussa AudioCubes user. He created the 9BOX methodology which he describes as “a system for performance, improvisation, and spontaneous tribal jams with music, sound, and light“. The system is based on Percussa AudioCubes and Ableton Live.

Not only did he make a manual where he explains this set-up, but he also created templates and patches that, as Mark describes “will allow players to spend more time making music and sound than configuring hardware and software“. All this information and much more is also available on this website http://9box.modulatethis.com: a website especially created for the 9BOX methodology.

At the moment 9BOX methodology is based on a set-up of 6 AudioCubes and it only takes a couple of minutes to set-up, as shown in the video below.

More information about Mark Mosher’s work: http://www.markmoshermusic.com/

Shin Nishimura is a well-know Japanese DJ who performs techno music using the AudioCubes. He performed with the AudioCubes at the Reason Producers Conference at the Super Club in Tokyo (2008), the Awakenings in Amsterdam (2009), Tattingers in Malta (2010), and many other places around the world. If you want to see him in live action with the AudioCubes, check out his website (http://www.shinnishimura.com/) to find out about his next performance in Europe, because he’s always taking the AudioCubes with him.

Check out the video made at the Reason Producer conference (2008).

You can even spot the cubes in this video taken at Tattingers in Malta (2010)