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December 24, 2004
hey you! yes you!
Well the year is drawing to a close and those us who are lucky enough to be at work watch the clock like a hawk, yes a hawk! Will know that Christmas is almost apon us. I wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who's been involved with the site this year, and we've seen some quite large changes. I feel like things are going in a really good direction, traffic is steadily picking up - we're getting 3-4 times as many visitors on a daily basis compared to earlier in the year.
Next year I have plans to continue with the daily news posts and want to see a whole lot more new Aussie music to review. I'm trying to organise a regular stream of music cds to review and giveaway. Also i'm planning to buy the full version of the software that the main part of the site runs on so that I can setup some news posting accounts for anyone who wants to post the occasional news article to teh site. I've also got some plans for getting some new stickers, t-shirts and badges to be made up in the new year. My end of year goal was to get traffic up higher and that's certainly happened, but not as much as I'd like. So as the site creeps towards it's birthday I'd like to renew my efforts to providing a fun and useful resource and community.
Thanks to everyone who has participated, forumed, chatted, sent me encouraging emails, and made this site what it is today. Merry Christmas and and a Happy New Year. Stay safe folks :)
-Funnel
Posted by funnelbc at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
sick
Hallo kids. Just a short note to say that i'm at home busy being ill. That's not liscensed to ill, i'm just freestyle ill. I would post news and stuff, but im too busy watching bad weekly action movies and trying not to swallow. Argh.
On that note, down to the video shoppe to find me some bruce willis action! (You know that im getting the 6 3hour VHS set of pride and predjudice now don't you?! Damn.
Posted by funnelbc at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2004
winston giles comp winner!.
And the winnner of the copy of Soundtracks for Sunrise by the Winston Giles Orchestra is jbeard! You'll get an email from me shortly. Thanks to the WGO for supplying the review CD.
Will be away from the net during the next two workdays. Have fun kids!
Just a reminder to say that the Winston Giles Comp will be closing today, so check out the Winston Giles Album review for how to bag yourself a copy of this fine recording.
Also, if you are in Melbourne and interested, there's the actual album launch for Soundtracks for Sunrise at onesixone from 8pm onwards. Tonight! Hurrah!
Posted by funnelbc at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2004
audiopad
I was out a little while ago and saw something that looks a lot like this. It's called audiopad and its a rather fetching control system for live performance. Or just plain control. Right now it looks quite early in terms of functionality, but it does look very cool. You project the overlay onto a table top and you have physical controllers which have attributes within software. Looks VERY cool. I'd love to find out some more about this, and anyone who sends me email on info at ausmusican dot com with things like this with some more info wins a shiny penny!
Audiopad's home on the interweb
Posted by funnelbc at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
make your very own moog modular!
This is just plain awesome. I love the idea that somebody actually took this right through to completion. You can download a rather cool PDF template (4 pages) and make your very own (paper) moog modular. This is the website and I might see if I can dredge up a japanese/english translator so i can find out about why they actually did it. Its still awesome, and Ive printed my moog out and I'll make it as soon as I get a spare moment at work. Yay! Totally moogular man!
If you happen to come across any more classic music equipment origami/papercraft. I need to know, I just NEED to know.
This musical awesomeness comes via Music thing You can download your moog Here.
Edit - Wicked machine translation of the article after the jump!
"Moog Modular V/モーグ modular V papercraft download
Last year (2003), at the musical instrument fair this corporation booth it was popular, it reached the point where it can download the data of that "Moog Modular V" papercraft! !
Because the data has become printing possible at A4 size, when it prints that way and assembles, it is lovely, - the box like the Moog Modular V saving box completes. Downloading by all means, please enjoy.
* Download & compilation method
The data has become the PDF data (high picture quality) with. Description below compared to download is possible. For A4 size print (the high picture quality data) with we have become, but as for print at large size such as A3 size, please expand the printer paper setting which you have and print.
There is page (4 aspects) 4 at all. Please cut off the margin part of the respective page and assemble. You abbreviated the statement of the margin to paste and the like. Please try drawing up on the basis of the as-built drawing the right.
Moog Modular V which was seen from オモテ
* In regard to the papercraft it does not support technically altogether acceptance.
Papercraft PDF data download (approximately 3M)
[ Moog Modular V - Papercraft download ] (PDF)"
Posted by funnelbc at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)
zvex nano head
At the risk of regurgitating news content from several other fine blog sites, I would like to attract your attention to this. It's a zvex nano amp. It's a tiny little tube amp that sounds very nice. They are hand made and put out enough to drive a 100w speaker cab. Oh my! It's main use to get that amazing overdriven to distortion guitar sound at volume levels you can usually still hear all that nice stuff happening. This has been done by a few companies in different ways, but this by far the most handpainted that I've seen! It's also definately the smallest - including things like the Hughs & Kettner tone boosting pedals - the redbox didn't have a valve in it did it? Mind you while that thought crosses my head, I remember the Tubeman to be a mighty fine piece of kit. (End mindless advertorial ...here) They also make the rather amusingly named Super hard-on which got very positive reviews a year or so back.
If you can handle the half watt of pure fury this little puppy puts out then I advise you to check out the zvex website Via Engadget.com
Posted by funnelbc at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
acoustical art pvc speakers..
Hey isn't that pvc drain pipe style material? These have been showing up all over the net in the last few days, and I'd been tossing up whether they actually need another site talking about them. It's a speaker mounted in what looks suspiciously like PVC pipe. Except these cost a mint. But they're apparently quite good. You can however get the model pictured above for around $150USD if you need speakers that are compatible with your household plumbing this may well be just the ticket for you!
Regardless, I think the idea of putting speakers in everything possible is a good idea. And the sooner we start seeing them installed as standard with your fowlerware toilet bowl the better. Or maybe not.
Acoustical Art Via every tech nerd audio website on the net.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
top of the pops gets the can...
And The Age has a wake. Not even a very enjoyable one. But they do title the article "The Day Music Died" with a picture of Enrique Iglesias - quite amusing for that alone. And I've only admittedly seen a little of the top of the pops - but mostly its fairly insipid fair these days. The writer laments the end of a show that has lasted so long and seen so much inflentual music. I think that it's been watered down and watered down and it has been fading away for a very long time. Perhaps I would be upset if I thought there was anything genuine lost, but it's really the extension of the logic which produces mainstream commerical music. If the show doesn't make plenty of bank then they haven't got a reason to run it - certainly nothing like musical integrity or nostalgia here anyway.
Age Article - The Day Music Died Via themusic.com.au
Posted by funnelbc at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
looking for melbourne electronica and dnb artists
A good mate of mine is on the lookout for Melbourne based musicians that create electronica, techno, drum n bass etc for a project hopefully for next year's fringe festival. You would be interested in creating music for an interactive exhibition. If you know anyone or their dog, or pet seamonkey who would be interested in such a venture, drop me an email on info at ausmusician dot com and I'll hook you up!
Check out thisisnotlondon.com to see some of dylan's work. Mmmm tasty!
Posted by funnelbc at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
ipod flash rumours spread.. in a.. err.. flash
As the Macword expo creeps slower, there seems to be quite a bit of conjecture as to whether Apple intends to release a flash version of the iPod. Cult of the Mac (they're a bit keen on apples) have slobberingly announced that the above mockup by Isamu Sanada of applele.com fame as convincing enough for them. They also link to John Gruber's excellent reasoned piece about why apple are not going to release a flash player over at Daring Fireball. Personally I'm siding with the guy with the numbers - to dilute the ipod by giving it substantially less storage would damage the brand, and any short term boost Apple got in terms of sales for a cheaper flash based ipod would be offset by releasing an iPod style product that simply didnt do the name justice.
As a later update and for added bonus speculumulation, the mac mind features another mockup and seem very certain that its going to be a happening thing. I still have my doubts and wouldnt go hanging my credibility on such a thing unless I knew for certain this is the way that things are going to go. themacmind.com article.
Cult of the Mac Via the excellent Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
mackie tracktion
Some exciting news. Right now and for a limited time (sound like a used car dealer sheesh) you can download a free copy of Mackie's new audio sequencing software, Tracktion. All you need to do is register and you can download it for Mac or PC. It's even a small download (6mb for PC and half that for Mac). I'd be very interested to have a tinker and I intend to as soon as I get five spare minutes. Looks very promising though!
Get it here (free registration required) Via the new and somewhat shiny Createdigitalmusic
Posted by funnelbc at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2004
winston giles orchestra - soundtracks for sunrise
How appropriate that I should meet Winston from the Winston Giles Orchestra sitting in the sunshine drinking wine. So much sunshine and so much wine... I'm surprised that I was even able to speak in any form of coherence at all - maybe Winston was just giving me a CD to fend me off. I think this is well within the acceptable list of things that I can be fended off with. That and large wads of rolled up fifty dollar notes, preferably of a size large enough to choke a cow with.
At any rate, Winston very kindly supplied onetonne with a copy his new album Soundtracks for Sunrise. I had a listen to the promo EP and managed to cobble together a few sentences here.
Read this review and you could WIN a copy of Soundtracks for Sunrise!
So in my initial piece about the promo EP I raised the point that I was a bit concerned about the music’s similarity to that of Lemon Jelly's work - which isn't really a complaint so much as an observation. I'm happy to say that the entire album lays that concern to rest. It's good stuff and it wanders musically but it's a nice collection of psychedelic groove tunes. The looping acoustic guitar on a lot of the tracks adds a nice texture and organic-ness to a quite electronic sounding record.
A lot of the album has some really nice stereo effects - it's really hard to do that rotating cabinet stereo sound nicely, but I think that a little song is really nice example of this. It's a really dense lush sound with lots of other sounds hidden inside the mix. I love that there’s so a wide variety of instrumentation on this album, there’s horns and guitar sitting quite happily next to really densely filtered electronic tomfoolery. It's an overwhelmingly sunny record, and if you don't like the more upbeat and groove orientated stuff you might not like it so much, but if you do, you'll probably think all your Christmases have come at once.
There's a lot to like about Soundtracks for Sunrise, and Golden was a real highlight for me - it features crazy reverse samples and really deep sounding reverb. I kept on wanting the understated arpeggiated synth guitar to really break through into the main mix - and as soon as it did it turns into something else. I really want to see the track Revenge with a film clip with 1970's style James Bond style action - It's that kind of track. I mean that in a nice way. It's hard to write about this kind of album as it wanders all over the musical spectrum. It ends on such an upbeat ecstatic note you end up wanting to play it all over again.
You can preview/listen to the tracks on the website, but it's the sort of music which really benefits from decent quality speakers - the preview tracks don't do it much justice. It's a small wonder Soundtracks for Sunrise is getting some airplay - it's an excellent album and well worth tracking down. I like it a lot and I think you will too.
Send onetonnemusic an email with the subject "Winston Giles comp" in the heading and we'll randomly pick out a winner in the next week or so!
Winston Giles Orchestra -Soundtracks for Sunrise
File Under: Surreal positive beats.
Website:Winstongilesorchestra.com
Track Listing
1. We Wait for Sunrise
2. Welcome to the Hotel
3. A Little Song
4. Revenge
5. Mercy for the Wicked
6. Morning Shine
7. All Come Together
8. Golden
9. The Banished Matadors
10. The Hostess
Posted by funnelbc at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
digitalis are good.
Hi Kids. This is a bit of an abberation for me, It's not often you get such good quality service and support from a business - you don't expect it these days, and when a company goes consistently above and beyond I think they deserve a mention. onetonnemusic.com has been hosted by Digitalis for nearly 3 years now, and I'm always surprised by the quality of the support I get from Digitalis. I don't pay a stack for my hosting but I still get great support. So if you are looking for good aussie host I can't reccomend Digitalis enough. They're great!
This isn't a paid notice you suspicious bastards! They're just that good!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
reason three point oh my!
The old adage of the watched pot never boiling is true my friends and friendettes. I have been semi-religiously checking the Propellerheads website waiting for version 3 of the excellent Reason. And so on the very same day as my birth Propellerheads have delivered a rather cool present the world in general. Reason 3.0.
This time out it features "the Combinator" (the swedish alternative to the Governator) which allows for chaining together several reason instruments and saving them as presets. This is a nice addition, as sometimes you want to hang onto the elaborate signal chain you've made previously but dont want to do the "save as..." thing as you tend to not make sounds afresh. Also getting a lookin is a new mastering suit going by the name MSuite - I know that with my tracks reason's line level is at least 2-3 db lower than what I'd call acceptable even driving the volume right up - and they require mastering. Nice to add a more finished sound to the mix without having to boot up any other program. I for one welcome our new sweedish programmer overlords and look forward to the day that Propellerheads release their very own version of Windows.
I love Reason for so many reasons... (no pun intended) it really is quite amazing, its fast, stable, intuitive, great fun - it even runs on very low spec machines (think Pentium 200) for basic composition. Oh and 3.0 features improved out of the box presets for control interfaces, simultaneous automation and lots of other great stuff. Oh my! I must have.
Just sublime.. best soft synth ever - Comic Book Guy
Posted by funnelbc at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
byron bay blues festival - artists announced
I've been dying to get along to the Byron Bay Blues Festival for years. It's just a wee bit of a pain in the arse to get to from where I live. If you are however located in NSW or just have the time and money to spare, I couldn't imagine a better way to spend Easter holidays. One of these days I'm gunna get on a motorbike and ride up there and party like it's 2009 (Which it probably will be by the time I get the time off work and have the cash to go).
At any rate, this article from smh.com.au has the jump on some of the acts who will be along to the blues fest in 2005. Internationally, Bo Diddly, Janis Ian, Luka Bloom & George Thorogood, George Clinton Parliament, Solomon Burke, Michael Franti & Spearhead & the sad folk fun that is The Frames. Locally, The Whitlams, Casey Chambers & The Cat Empire are also confirmed.
It's all happenin' over at Bluesfest.com.au
Posted by funnelbc at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
neKo LE Audioworkstation
I associate the letters "LE" with Light Edition, but I'm surmising that there's nothing light about the NeKo LE Audio Workstation. I'm surprised why there's not more of this sort of thing on the market - it's a synth keyboard music workstation with a fully fledged PC inside - complete with full height PCI cards for expansion. With the advent of the mini ITX form factor it all makes pefect sense. It's packing hardware DSP and inbuilt keyboard. What would perplex someone who was.. err.. me however, is the inclusion of the horizontal screen - rather than having the option to tilt it up - it would then stand to reason that you'd have to really literally be working right on top of this to get the most out of it. Also it would want to be the sort that would be easy to read on an angle for fairly obvious reasons.
Transport control and a screen built into a keyboard is a nice idea, and I think what would be nice would be a similar setup so that you can bring your own pc to the party and plug the monitor input into the back. Some people will dig this whole integrated thing, and some... won't. Points to Openlabs for even doing such a thing. It's so 'futurey' and that's enough for me to want it to add to my gadget pile.
Source: Gizmodo Openlabs' product page for the Neko LE
Posted by funnelbc at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)