and download either or both of these wonderful free soft synths. The real beauty of these synths is that they are lightweight by todays standards and can be run standalone.
With the software downloaded and extracted all you need to do is set up your ASIO device (ASIO4ALL seems to work pretty well in this instance) and MIDI settings. I personally have tested this with my Novation X-Station and can report latency free playing with the CPU meter maxing at around 20% and averages at around 9-13%.
Out of the two instruments the MiniMogueVA works slightly better with the limitations of the Netbook screen resolution. To get the most out of it you should turn off the on screen keyboard so that you can see all of the parameters.
Above is a screen grab from my Netbook running Windows 7 and MiniMogueVA.
With my Muvi digital camcorder I decided to capture some footage on the London Underground with the intention of maybe taking some of the interesting elements and using them within a video to accompany an existing piece of music. However when I started importing the clips into Ableton Live I quickly realised that it is possible to edit the video like audio clips. This then got me thinking that I could create a piece of music inspired by the video clips and using the sound as a musique concrète source. Here is the video of said experiment:
What I learned from this experiment was:
The music and video components need to be edited independently of one another so that they stand up on their own
Composing visual elements helped me to build a basic structure to the music a lot quicker than starting with a blank arrange window
Ableton Live can stretch video easily to get things in time
Using the source audio from the video with added FX adds another layer of detail to the music
I really love my netbook. Its tiny, powerful enough to run Windows XP well and can run various music programs well enough to enjoy whilst travelling. I thought I would put together some pointers for getting Rebirth 383 to run on your Windows XP netbook, being as it may not be be entirely obvious how to get it to install and run (especially if you do not have a cd drive attached at all times).
This little utility enables you to run an ISO image as if it were a physical CD. A reboot will be required during the installation, so do that when prompted to.
Once downloaded right click on the Daemon Tools icon in the system tray and mount a drive. Select the ISO file and then look in My Computer where you should have the Rebirth CD loaded. Install Rebirth following the on screen steps (a bunch of Nexts from memory). The last thing you need to remember is that the virtual CD needs to be loaded when attempting to run the application, otherwise you will be asked to insert the disc.
Here is evidence that with some music you believe in and a credit card anyone can set up their own label. Klunk Records now has a presence in all of the itunes stores. This has been made possible by using tunecore music distribution web service which for a low fee per song uploads your material and makes it live within around 8 weeks.
I have dabbled in the past with cdr production, but was never that satisfied with the results. The process of putting together your own cds for sale whilst possible is very labour intensive and not very environmentally friendly (especially if you do not shift them all). With itunes and tunecore I have been able to do away with this process and reach many more people along the way.
I put together this video to demonstrate Ableton Live 7 running on an Acer Aspire One netbook. As you can see from the video the screen is a little cramped but totally workable.
