TekMonki Remixes – including @baircave – @MiikeSnow – @MissyElliott – @imogenheap and more, (and free downloads)!

tekmonki_remixes_2016Hi everybody, hope you’re good.

First, just wanted to thank all of you that liked and voted for my latest remix – baircave “Is Everything Okay?”.  Very much appreciated!!  And hopefully I tear that contest up!  This Monki needs a new bunch of bananas to share around!!

Also wanted to let you know, in case you didn’t already, that I have a long list of remixes I’ve done over the years that you can listen to and download here.

And soon soon enough, shall have some more stuff up on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, etc;  – more on that later though.  😉

For now, enjoy!

Ableton Musical Gold Dust Indeed! @AskAudioMag @NI_News

headline-gold-dust-ableton

 

 

 

 

Recently got my hands on Komplete Ultimate 10 (http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-10-ultimate/), but work’s been kicking my ass so I haven’t had a ton of time to take it out on the track and tear around the studio in it (and update my Ableton/Maschine template, but in the meantime check out this musical gold dust post about Ableton (too true!) from Ask Audio Mag!

http://askaudiomag.com/articles/ableton-live-how-to-turn-mistakes-into-musical-gold-dust

Reason 8, And It Looks Great!

I got my start (working “In The Box”) with Reason waaaaay back in the day.  Well, technically it was ReBirth, but I digress.  Anyway, every so often I’m verrrry tempted to get the upgrade at that price point – but I need another technical rabbit hole to disappear into, thereby giving me another excuse not to write a damn tune, like a need a . . .

One day, one day . . .

That said, this update looks HUGE, and very cool!

Reason 8 introduces a redesigned user interface with a whole new look and even smoother creative flow, while the new browser and search window provides immediate drag-and-drop access to inspiring samples, loops, and patches. Expanding on Reason’s included collection of instruments and effects are the new amps from Softube, bringing a variety of first-class guitar and bass tones to the rack. Countless workflow improvements make for a more streamlined music creation experience, allowing musicians and producers to move quickly from initial idea to a completed song. And with an ever-expanding selection of Rack Extension plug-ins available in the Propellerhead shop, Reason 8 provides everything users will ever need to make music.

Sequencing Maschine Drum Tracks with Ableton Push Controller Update

Mid-summer I got my hands on Ableton Push and was floored.  So. Much. Damn. Awesome. Instrument. (obligatory overused doge meme image here).  I had been using NI Maschine for a while, which is pretty cool in it’s own right, but I never loved it’s built-in sequencer.  The workflow and sounds though . . . if only I could easily sequence them in Ableton Live somehow!

Ultimately after much trial and error, I came up with a workflow that worked.  I documented it on the Live forums, and then blend.io (great service, I’ve been slacking!) picked up on it and I guest blogged there about it.

Anyway, fast forward several months and Native Instruments released v2 of Maschine’s software.  Great update, but in doing so, they broke a few workflow things, which sent me back to the drawing board.  Annoyingly I had to wait for a few sub-updates first, but now it’s all back in action.

So, here’s the update to how to set it up with v2:

In Live:

  • Create a Midi track and name it Maschine A.
  • Put  an instance of Maschine on the Maschine A track, right click on the instrument and select Group to Drum Rack in the menu.

image

  • Set Maschine receive in drum rack to All (click on the I-O button on the bottom left of the Drum Rack to expand to see this menu).

           image

 

In Maschine:

  • Click the group A1, then click Group, then click Input.  It should look like the below (specific items highlighted in white).maschine2-1
  • In the MIDI section, turn “Active” on and set the Channel to 1 ( as seen below).

maschine2-2

You can now trigger and sequence that group using the Ableton Drum Rack and Ableton’s clips!

If you want to have multiple groups triggered independently each from their own Ableton Drum Racks on dedicated tracks, this is also possible using these additional steps:

In Live:

  • Create 7 additional Midi tracks and name them Maschine B, Maschine C, Maschine D, etc;, The letter is to reference the Maschine group.
  • Select all 8 tracks and group them (Command-G). Name the group Maschine.
  • Add an Ext Instrument to B, C, D, Etc.
  • Set each Ext Instrument MIDI To: Maschine A and then the associated Maschine output – for example doing this for Maschine B, the 2nd dropdown in the external instrument should read 2 – Maschine. Do the same for C (would be MIDI to: Maschine A and 3 – Maschine), and D, and how many other Maschine groups you plan on using.
  • Set the Audio From in the external instrument to the corresponding Maschine external output. For simplicity this should be the same number as the midi channel for that group: Maschine B’s external instrument will read Audio From – Out 2/-Maschine. Therefore Maschine B will be on Midi channel 2, AND audio from Out 2/-Maschine.

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  • To make each Ext Instrument function as a Drum Rack (note this is with using Push’s drum rack mode in mind), right click on each Ext Instrument and select Group to Drum Rack. Follow the same steps as in Maschine A with regards to the receive in the Drum Rack (all).

    image

In Maschine:

  • Starting with Group B, click the Group section in Maschine and then the Output button. Under Audio, set the Dest. to the associated channel. E.g. B would be Ext 1, C would be Ext 2, D would be Ext 3, etc.

maschine2-3

 

  • If you want to use a VST/synth (e.g. Massive which now comes with Maschine for free), there’s a slight change to the MIDI routing.  Instead of making MIDI under the Group active as you did above, leave that off, and under Sound make that active.  Like so:

maschine2-4

 

Now you can have potentially 8 separate Ableton drum racks, each controlling their own group in Maschine controlling everything with just the Push! 

Good luck and hopefully you’ll find this technique helpful in some way, even if it’s just a jump off point for your own setup.

I reached out to blend.io a bit ago about updating their blog, but no word back.  Will try to get an updated template up as well so you can just pull it down, save it as your own, and roll.

Happy Beatmakin’!

-TekMonki