Picture found at: www.dancetracksdigital.com

Let’s do something different this week! Instead of explaining things over and over again, why not turning the story upside down? I’ll provide a new TNA file - right, that’s a block file! - and you just explore the track on your own. Good idea? You probably know the TO better than I anyways,…

The track of the week is Fake City, the last of the four tracks on Living Near The Valley. The sample bank is the same as in the last 3 episodes [load it into TO sample bank 1!]. You see, everything should be very straightforward. Here you go:

Block File: FAKECITY——–.TNA
Sample Bank: NORMANFAIRBANKS.TNW
Don’t forget the credits, if you release music using this sample file. Thank you.

Any question? Feel free to send me an email or to leave a comment.
L A S T part, L A S T track - next week!

PS: Sorry for I don’t do the TO video special many of you’re waiting for. Guess I’m too shy.

“I remembered when the Tenori-On launched in the UK. I was desperate to see videos of people performing with them and showing them off. Not too long after the launch Norman Fairbanks released an album that was made with just the Tenori-On called 7 Days Microsleep. The album was free surprisingly, so I went to Norman’s site and downloaded it and gave it a listen. Slow Motion was the song that hit me the most. There is something so nice and delicate about that track, the melody would get stuck inside my head for days. I was anxious to remix it, not only to see where I could take some of the elements, but to infuse my own work into it as if I was playing with the Tenori-On.”

- Scott Worley
Jatun | Jatun MySpace

Thank you Scott for this wonderful genre-crossing remix!
Free mp3 download: Slow Motion [Jatun Crush]

Looking forward to your comments on Scott’s track!

Picture found at: www.wiretotheear.com

Time for part 6. Al, can you please play the jingle? Thanks Al, you’re great. We’re staying with Living Near The Valley - and this week’s feature is Your Glossy Flesh. Actually, a nice title, isn’t it?

Forget everything I’ve said about structuring your blocks to keep control. This track is an example how you should NOT do it. The blocks are not ordered at all which is a problem for your live performance. We all have moments in our life where strange circumstances just keep us away from fixing things. I guess I have programmed this track exactly in such a moment. The only orientation [for me] when playing live provides the ‘clear’ button because the R [from CLEAR] ends exactly one block after the middle of the grid - which is obviously block 9. This is helpful when you need to go from block 3 to 9 in a fraction of a second.

Why all the hassle? You need to do this block switching orgy in order to produce the main harmony of the track which does not fit into the 16 steps of the sequencer. This applies for the verse as well as the chorus. It’s comparable a bit with The Freedom Loop but you’ll definitely need to be a bit … more » »

Is everything ok? (Picture found at: www.imao.us)

Mental and physical fitness are important key factors if you want to become President. That’s a simple rule. If Presidential candidates can’t get enough sleep in their sponsored election campaign motorhome on the way from Pickerington to Quaker City or maybe Normalville, even primitive phone calls can turn out to be a major problem [look at the picture above].

But it can get worse, because there is another danger: fucked-up teleprompters. If they don’t work properly [and become horrible speech traps], the candidate is most likely fucked-up as well. That’s another simple rule.

Listen to this soundfile and you’ll know why.

Are things always what they seem to be?…

That’s indeed an interesting question! Have a look at Gale & Dale. Look at their faces, look at their smile. You may say, they’re just friendly singers from next door, people not to worry about. You may say, they’re harmless, they can’t even sing. All this might be the case and maybe you’re right. Come on, be realistic! Don’t you think your perception of Gale & Dale is just a bit too obvious?

We all know evil comes in many forms and the following video proves this general theory perfectly. Sit back and watch something completely unexpected! Watch the sad truth. Gale & Dale are not just the friendly singers from next door you thought they would be. Though they can’t sing, they’re not harmless at all. Attention! This couple is a personified musical ambush, performed in ’shiny happy people’ outfits!

Quality assurance and golf are big in Japan. [Picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rupertslunch]

Sorry folks for I did not manage to post part 4 last week,… which is the reason why you will get a ‘2 in 1′ edition today. We’ll leave 7 Days Microsleep behind and move on to another pure TO release: Living Near The Valley.

Biggest difference to 7 Days Microsleep is the usage of the TO sample playback function. The TO is not a sampler per se but you can upload your own samples into one of the three sample banks. Each of these provides space for 16 samples = 48 samples. Not too crazy - but better than nothing. The TO sample editor allows easy editing and compiling of your sample banks [only WAV and AIFF samples can be used] to be loaded into your TO via SD card. The sample upload can actually take quite a bit [up to 2-3 minutes] and turned out to be slightly more power consuming than ‘normal’ TO use. Only god knows why.

Now, a real challenge is the limitation to 1 second samples, which naturally makes the sample option perfect for drum samples or just any other one-shot sound, but playing serious pad sounds can be very tricky. When you edit your samples before compiling in a sample bank, make sure all loop points are absolutely accurate in order to avoid clicks. But even clicks can be cool for … more » »