stefkeB

After struggling with finding a reasonable way to combine Ableton Live loop recording, my Marshall amplifier and my POD X3 Live floorboard, I found a way of controlling it all, without (too much) additional hardware or pedals. In fact, I can diminish the amount of pedals considerably, as I don't have to use the Marshall pedal switchboard. I did had to buy a MIDI-2-USB connector, since the X3 Live connection through USB to the laptop does not send MIDI signals, only audio.

Control the Marshall Amp with the X3 Live floorboard

Beware, long intro. Like a good Pink Floyd song. When browsing the http://homerecording.be forum I've seen two nice gems inside the "downloads" section: autotalent and a Yamaha C7 grand piano.

I have talked about software for musical scores before. Last time, I was getting a feel for LilyPond, a LaTeX-like formatting system.

Now I discovered, by accident, an Open Source Qt-based project, called MuseScore.
I is comparable to the Finale in that it lets you create a score as you do with a Wysiwyg document editor.

More info and downloads on http://musescore.org/

At http://togeostudios.com/category/downloads/ you can download several free packs for Ableton Live, mostly as prepared settings for the included Simpler instrument. Check it out.

Check http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/gifting-season-linux-audio-holidays

They give a nice overview on different possible applications you could use if you are on the Linux platform. From free and open source to commercial and proprietary, there are choices for everyone.

Especially Ardour seems to be getting bigger and bigger, certainly when they finally will handle MIDI in release 3 (not available at the moment). But also MusE, Denemo, FluidSynth and others seem interesting.

I've started thinking lately to get up to grips with performing alone with more than simply a guitar. I have most of the hardware and software I need (I think), but to link it all together takes some planning.

One of the tricky things is the lack of hands you have when playing guitar. And the fact that even though you have two feet, you need at least one to stand up. So only a foot controller seems reasonable.

But I have too many buttons to push:

This is a recording of Silver Droplets to reflect how the song was when played live, as discussed here. Although the sound is different. This is a Marshall amp emulation from the POD X3 Live recorded in Ableton Live. The actual performance was my real Marshall and the Digitech Jamman Looper pedal (which can not do direct sound-on-sound after the first recording starts looping).

But this version reflects the mood and feel of the way it was performed.

Last weekend, I borrowed a Digitech Jamman from a friend to use during the upcoming wedding celebration. Take a peek at http://www.digitech.com/products/Pedals/JamMan.php. It seems easier then to carry a laptop with Ableton Live and my keyboard on USB and the foot pedal mapped to the looper-plugin button.

Another note, I upgraded my laptop to Snow Leopard and the Line6 drivers and the Soundflowerbed extensions give problems. That's for updating too soon... Well, my iMac will stay a little longer on Leopard in that case, till I know the drivers work fine.

Yesterday, I played some pieces for my brother-in-law, who is getting married this month. He asked me to play some interludes on his wedding.

When my father-in-law was planning his retirement from the University where he was working, he asked us to play at his celebration.

I was to play the guitar, Marnix (the other son-in-law) also played guitar, my father played the piccolo and (originally) nephew Jan was to play the violin, but due to work obligations he was replaced by Hilde, who was a friend of the family.

After some thinking, we decided on three songs.