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Here is a video of a little tune I had going the other night.  Everything is inside Ableton Live, including the monome patches.  VERY fun to use.

I have a track on a netlabel release.  Download it for free...
 
Release Summary | PS015 Various Artists – Number Stations | Curated by Jon Sykes for PublicSpaces Lab | | Total Running Time 01:12:53 | 16 Tracks | Available in mp3 320 or FLAC (zip format) | | Individual mp3 files also available here | Cover Art by Rita Monteiro @ PublicSpaces Lab |
 
Release Details
 
This is a compilation album based around the theme of Numbers Stations samples.
Number Stations if you are unfamiliar are shortwave radio stations that broadcast strange and cryptic content, often ordered or seemingly random series of numbers repeated over and over again. Other stations played weird music, and other still just repeated tones over an over. They were all the rage back in the Coldwar era and are often thought to have been spying agencies means of communication.

Probably the most famous Number Station sample is from the Wilco album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, partly due to the album being named after it but maybe more so because it lead to complex legal wrangles over who “owned” the recording, eventually settled out of court.
The most authoritative collection of Numbers Stations recordings is the Conet Project by Irdial Records, who make available the entire collection under their Free Music Philosophy. There are also plenty of other places online to find other samples that can be used in recordings as samples.
The challenge was issued to an international assortment of artists, with genres ranging from Ambient, to Dub Step to Interpretive. This compilation of tracks is the result. We hope you enjoy.
Curated by Jon Sykes for PublicSpaces Lab Release Art by Rita Monteiro @ PublicSpaces Lab Cover Photo by Slightly North via Flickr under a CC License by-nc-sa Mastering and encoding by Jordi @ PublicSpaces Lab
 Source: http://lab.pubspaces.com/2010/01/ps015-va-number-stations/

You could do this with most any external midi module/synth/drum machine.  The nice thing about harware is that you don't have to worry about it not working with the latest OS or not being patched by the manufacturer or having to buy an upgrade license every flipping year. 

In this video, I hook up the Alesis Micron to Ableton Live and control it with the MicronAU plugin.  I also drop some stuff and make alot of mistakes, so you should enjoy it. 

Many moons ago I made this video using sooperlooper in mainstage. I worked up the first few parts and then layed them down and improvised the rest.

I was then contacted by colossaldj who wanted to do a remix of it.  I humbly accepted - it being my first remix offer, I was quite excited.  Here is the result!!

Be sure to check out his soundcloud - colossaldj

Max is a visual environment for making your own MIDI, audio and video contraptions.  I've been learning how to use it since I got my early present last week - Max for Ableton Live.  

Using Max, you can now interact with Ableton in ways that were either not possible, or only possible using python - a programming language for people who like to concern themselves with whitespace.

So I've been bugged that there is no way to map a MIDI message to trigger the currently selected Ableton clip.  Done.

I'd also like to be able to record enable the currently selected track.  Done. 

Map Undo and Redo to a MIDI message.  Done and done!

I had more wishes and managed to bang them out in one night by building on the Live API abstraction examples.  The result is a little max device than can navigate around the session view and record and play clips and also control volume.  The most challenging part was creating a subpatch which did a volume level 'pickup mode', so that switching between tracks and touching the volume pedal doesn't make the level jump from 0 to where the pedal is.  You need to bring the pedal down to the level of the track to 'pick it up'. 

Here's how it looks.

And the main patch - All the crap at the top is due to the mapping not working, so I had to make a big mess of connecting my midi notes from the FCB1010 to my Ableton buttons until they make the buttons work with midi notes and cc.  Makes me wonder if they actually use this stuff.

So I created a few M4L Abstractions of my own for use in this device, based on the abstractions included with the M4L product.  I present them here, zipped for your enjoyment.  Place them in a folder on your computer and in MaxMSP go to Options>File Preferences and add the directory.  You should then be able to type the name in a new object and it will be usable in your project.

Be warned, there's nothing advanced in here.

• M4L.api.ArmSelectedTrack.maxpat
• M4L.api.DisarmSelectedTrack.maxpat
• M4L.api.SetTrackVolume.maxpat
• M4L.api.ToggleArmSelectedTrack.maxpat
• M4L.api.Undo.maxpat
• M4L.api.Redo.maxpat

Here's a kit recorded by miaoux miaoux which I saw on the monome forums here

Once again, two versions: simpler and sampler. The simpler version has been been put into an instrument rack and the macro knobs are mapped to some effects. Have fun with those knobs.

Miaoux Miaoux has some music up here: http://www.myspace.com/miaouxmiaoux

I'm particularly enjoying the first track right now - hrvatski.

He also has a video up on vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com/1269911 .

Thanks for the samples mr. MM!

So you're creating a sampled and layered instrument. Maybe it's a drumkit or a set of bells.

In my case I sat at my drumkit and recorded all microphones. I hit the snare from very soft to very loud. I then did the same for every other drum.

To make things easy, I mixed down all my mics to one track. You could mix subgroups or get very complicated depending on what your end goal is and what your sampler software is capable of - but I like to keep it simple. The downside to mixing all mics down this way is that you'll have 6 tracks of noise for every drum sound - so if you hit 4 cymbals you'll have 24 mics playing back. If you have noisy preamps this can be a problem. Back to the process!

I renamed the regions so they would make sense later. You can separate them to different tracks and then in the arrange window use Right-click>Name and Color>Name Regions by tracks.

In logic you can use the Audio>Strip Silence function to split an audio file at the transients - it will slice the file at each location where you hit a drum.

You'll be able to reduce that super long audio file down to many smaller audio files in no time.

There are some controls on the Strip Silence window that you will want to adjust.

You may need to adjust the Threshold. If the sound is very quiet - set it lower. If your recording is very noisy then you may need to set it higher so it doesn't create a new region in random spots.

You'll probably want a very small amount of Pre Attack-Time. This will let the strip silence function grab that very small amount of audio at the beginning of your drum hit that was below the threshold amount.

Post-Release time will preserve the tail of your audio. I like to crank this up to 10 seconds and run through all my samples with the same settings.

Now you have many audio regions that have been created out of your long recordings. You'll want to take advantage of another logic command - Convert Regions to New Audio Files.

Go to your keyboard shortcuts (alt-k) and search for the command. Map it to a key that you are not using.

Highlight your audio files and choose a folder for them. Logic will process the file and create new files using the names you provided.

Now you're ready to get started with the next task of getting them into your favorite sampler!

Around 2003 I bought my first mac, a G5 dual 2GHZ

One year later a processor burnt out on it.
Two years after that it likes to shut down randomly and spin the fans up like mad.

Soon after I bought a g4 laptop.

Three years later the logic board burnt out on it.
One year after that was fixed, the battery no longer charges and disconnecting it from the battery shuts it down.

My first IPhone died 4 months after buying it.

3 pairs of IPhone headphones all gradually lost sound in one earbud.

My 1 year old macbook pro now has problems with the AirPort connection. All signs are pointing to it being a hardware problem. I haven't found a single forum post with a resolution that is permanent. The apple care expired a month ago and I forgot to extend it.

My point? I have bad luck and Apple hardware may look nice, but it is worse than some other manufacturers. Yet it can cost a few 10 percentages more.

Is it worth it? I like not installing OS X every year or two to keep it running, although my bad windows experience was with win 2000. I like not getting viruses. I like the audio/video performance. I like Logic, which is why I switched in the first place.

But to be honest, the Apple hardware experience is getting me down. Nothing but failure after failure. And to make a repair will cost $300, due to the closed nature of the hardware. If I were on Windows I could at least pop a new CPU in myself for less than the cost of $350 Apple Care or the $300 flat bench fee.

Apple hardware is just like everything else I guess.

It just works, until it doesn't.

I've converted my EXS24 Sonor drum kit into an Ableton Live Instrument rack which uses the Sampler instrument. You'll need to own that plugin.

There are several chains holding samplers. After you've installed and opened the pack, click the downward pointing arrow next to "SamsSonor" on the SamsSonor track. You'll see the subgroups where you can mix and add effects. Enjoy!

Update: I've also added the simpler version.

My drum samples for logic have been downloaded 1000 times. I'm glad people are enjoying them!