A Pint of Beer and a New Tattoo: Audio Damage Tattoo Reviewed

(picture stolen from createdigitalmusic.com)

They say (or somebody does anyway) that drum machines have no soul but who's to say that? And Roger Linn lols @ u. Soul is a subjective, unquantifiable concept. And its not about "live" You can't tell me that every single hip-hop tune made with machines like the TR-808 or MPC is soulless. The same goes for any electronic beats. Sure, many are but that's the fault of the composer/producer.

I was still wanting NI Maschine and still peeved by the fact that it'd require me to get a new computer when I ran across Tattoo. Seems to have just come out and it does look promising. TR-styled 12 channel drum synth with nice step sequencer and randomization functions? Will control other midi instruments? And demos sound nice. Audio Damage doesn't offer demo versions but they will refund your money. So it seems like a sure thing... more review and audio examples after the jump...

( Screenshot swiped from Audio Damage. But that's what it looks like!)

The soul of a new machine?

Steppy Lite

Steppy Lite works with any version of Live Lite 7.0.18 or higher.

It  uses Impulse instead of Drum Racks to trigger samples and uses 8 midi tracks instead of 9.

Notes triggered are C3-D-E-F-G-A-B-C4 ...this maps to Impulse, its also maybe a more useful range than that used in original Steppy (designed for Drum Racks) though it includes no black keys. A midi pitch effect on each track will let one finetune notes.

Read the blog post below this to learn more about Steppy. Next up is to make a 16 step version and maybe one designed around APC40 instead of Launchpad. (Though it works great with both.) And some videos.

Download Steppy Lite here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?itzfnnouegn

Steppy! A Step Sequencer for Launchpad+Live

(also works with Akai APC40)
I had some articles lined up but its very unlikely I'll get anything done until after New Year's.

In the meantime, though I came up with Steppy! (not the most original name I know) I just wanted a basic step sequencer I could control with my Launchpad or APC40, so I made one! Consider it a late Hanukkah/Early Xmas present, maybe its better than a lump of coal.

Steppy is an 8x8 monophonic step sequencer for Live. It was designed around Launchpad but works great with APC40 too. It's quite basic, I wanted something that would let me rearrange cut-up breaks on the fly, using Drum Racks and it was tested with Ableton's 808 preset for that. Steppy is simply an Ableton Live set. There are no midi effects (or effects @ all) and it doesn't need MAX for Live or anything. Works straight away with Launchpad in Session mode. It *does* need Live 8 to run, LiveLite 8.06 for Launchpad will work, that's what came w/my Launchpad. LiveLite 8.09 for Launchpad will not as Steppy uses 9 midi tracks. (I don't know about Mac versions) Am working on an 8-track version that will run on any LiveLite 7 or higher.


Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?yunioohdlaj


See how it works... it's a massive kludge but it didn't take very long...