In spite of all the smart, multifunctional and state-of-the-art controllers that are commercially available today, there has always been demand for custom physical interfaces and specialized controllers. That's why we have developed a modular prototyping platform. The prototyping modules are aimed at researchers, artists, musicians, circuitbenders and performers who want to use high quality controls without spending too much time on manufacturing or trying to find a suitable enclosure.

Radio:
I've tidied up the news section a bit and added thickbox functionality to allow for more control over content layout with infringing on the minute console size.

Meanwhile I've down a huge amount of tagging so hopefully the request pages are getting that little bit easier.

And I've added my updated Chaos Theory dub plates. These will be used as source for gig and radio mixing but you can also request them and hear them in their raw form.

They will be constantly tweaked to perfecting so there will always be something new.

Ive also added a huge library of midi loops to my Ableton setup, routed both to VSTs and my outboard gear. I'm still tweaking the control setup,making presets, cabling and such like. But the time spent mixing live without stopping to fix something is getting longer and more enjoyable.

 Now that all the main prep work is done, both thge organinsing of sets, samples and loops, and the actual physical setup, I'm hoping to collab with a few local galway DJ's musicains, drummers and Rappers. Galway is Full of em :).  I just need a better mixer to plug a set of decks into.

RADIO:
The radio set is progressing, slowly, but progressing nonetheless. Unlike the Mobile set, the radio set involves much more long term experimenting using anything that I come across. This stuff can then be recorded and used as loops etc.

 I've spent a few days travelling around galway city with a small tape recorder, Shop street is especially cool for finding sounds. I'm hoping touse these samples on a small homemade 8 bit sampler that I'm currently designing and building.

My main focus is experimenting with synth both virtual and real.

That was then, now things have changed.

The biggest change for me has been the upgrade to Ableton Live 7. Although this new feature was actually introduced in version 6. I simply couldn't afford the upgrade 'til now.

This new feature is the ability to load a set while another set is playing. This negates the need for a second laptop and means that the entire gig need not be as predefined as before. I have about 100 minisets writen at this stage and any one of them can be called at any moment. Once a sample from the new set is activated the set will auto adjust to its bpm If I so wish.

Mobile:
Now obviously the first few stages involve getting to know your weapons of choice and actually writing your toons. I'm not going to bother writing about that. There are plenty of sources out there on the net should you need to brush up on your music theory or get bogged down in discussions on mastering techniques. But I would like to share two things which would get me shot by any pro's out there, aassuming of course they had a gun and I was standing in their line of sight.

Firstly as a beginner I recommend you choose one or two bpms and stick with them. I chose 100 and 120 originally. Now after 5-6 years of decent success

I've expanded to included 80,90,110,115 and 130. Why? As a beginner how do you intend to mix your 117 bpm tune with your 120 bpm one. It is very very fulfilling to write 3 or 4 110 bpm tunes then hear them mixed into one seamless set. Only then do you get a decent grasp of what your tunes sound like in their proper context.

1. Set processor scheduling to background services rather than programs.

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services

This is a very important tip and could make a significant difference to how low you can set your samples per buffer for your soundcard. A lower samples per buffer setting means lower latency, which is better for vsti's and ASIO monitoring (if you use it).

Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.

This has the effect of switching from more frequent and smaller CPU time slices (applications), to less frequent and longer CPU time slices (background services). This allows the audio application or driver to "hang on" to the CPU for longer without interruption.

In addition, the background services setting also reduces the amount of "priority boost" that foreground window's threads receive.

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services

Further reading - http://service.steinberg.net/knowled...uling_win2k_xp

FROM KVR

HighLife is a VSTi freezer and Sampler. It loads into your VST Host as a VSTi but it also allows you to load another VSTi into it and then "Freeze" the current preset and save this as its own preset. You can then unload the hosted VSTi to free up resources.