Here’s a new improvised Bill Van Loo ambient guitar piece, inspired by & using the dust breeding granular delay plugin by Marcus Fischer. Many thanks to Marcus for making this plugin available!
announcing CTRL4 + CTRL8: MIDI Control for Griffin PowerMate + PureData
Joshua Schnable has been working on a new controller idea, and chromedecay is proud to announce its availability.
CTRL4 & CTRL8: MIDI Control for the Griffin PowerMate + PureData lets you turn a Griffin Powermate into a flexible MIDI controller. The video below gives a very brief introduction to how this software works:
FIRST LOOK: Joshua Schnable’s CTRL8 Powermate/PD control software from chromedecay on Vimeo.
In short, this setup allows you to use a Griffin PowerMate (the aluminum knob that glows blue and outputs keystrokes/key commands) with the free, open-source PureData software in order to turn it into a 4- or 8-channel MIDI knob controller. More detailed videos will be coming soon, or you can check out the manual for more information.
city photos: detroit, chicago
some recent photographic work:
detroit
see the full set on flickr.
chicago
see the full set on flickr.
studio production update
Here’s an update on the studio production side of things.
Slow but steady progress is being made on upcoming Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable material. Still undecided whether it will be released as several EPs or one full-length album, but the music is coming together nicely. Tracks keep getting handed back & forth via the power of the interwebs, with new pieces slowly taking shape.
Bill Van Loo solo material is also coming along, albeit at an even slower pace. Here’s a sneak peek at a new track that’s made almost entirely with iPod Touch applications as the sound sources; this (very rough) track uses SynthPond and BeBot Robot Synth as the primary sound sources, with additional post-production & arrangement in Ableton Live.
BeatMaker on the iPod Touch is also getting used, along with a new ThumbTacks mic; here’s a (also extremely rough) snippet using only sounds recorded in the car, garage & front porch:
Monday, February 16, 2009: Joshua Schnable at ffmup
On Monday, February 16, Joshua Schnable will be presenting a set of new music at free_form_mash_up in Princeton, NJ. The show starts at 9:00PM and is free.
The set will be based on Joshua’s new material for an upcoming release on chromedecay, and will also feature new video from Bill Van Loo.
For more information:
Rob Theakston / Christopher McNamara track on Affin
On January 8, 2009, chromedecay contributors Rob Theakston and Christopher McNamara got wider exposure via the label Affin. Rob’s track “Trimalchio”, as remixed by Chris, is part of the Joachim Spieth Presents Ambient Edition Volume 1 compilation on Affin.
Congratulations, guys!
a look back at 2008
Here we are at the start of a new year, so it seems worth taking a look back at the events of 2008. The next blog post will be a look forward at what to expect from chromedecay in 2009.
2008 was an extremely visuals-oriented year for chromedecay. Besides one digital release (Bubblegone’s excellent “Record of Memory (Live)“) and the Sync08 performance from Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable (see photos, video), the public output of chromedecay was otherwise visual.
Here’s a quick look back at the chromedecay year for 2008:
January 2008
January 2008 started off strong on the visual front, taking lots of photos.
above: first photo of 2008
Another big development was the beginning of explorations in Processing, the fantastic visual programming environment.
above: processing sketch: many circles v1 (reds)
February 2008
Bill Van Loo contributed the “chicago slow down (el trains remix)” for Canasta’s “We Were Mixed Up” remix album.
above: Bill Van Loo programming drums for the Canasta remix
above: a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah yielded an excellent photo-walk!
March 2008
On Friday, March 14, 2008, Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable performed at the Sync08 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can see photos and video from this performance.
above: Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable perform at Sync08
April 2008
Bubblegone’s excellent “Record of Memory (Live)” was released in April 2008, marking this talented artist’s first release on chromedecay. Bubblegone has performed at events with Bill Van Loo solo and the duo of Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable several times, so it was particularly exciting to have him join up!
above: artwork for Bubblegone’s “Record of Memory (Live)”
May 2008
May saw a studio session with Joshua Schnable, working on new material for future release.
above: Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schnable in the chromedecay studio
June 2008
Continuing the visual domination of 2008, June 2008 marked the arrival of a new camera! Bill Van Loo took delivery of a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, and quickly began putting it to good use.
above: one of the first shots with the new DMC-FZ18
The real news for June, however, was the wedding of Joshua Schnable! Congratulations, Josh! See photos here and here
above: Bill Van Loo & Joshua Schable at Josh’s wedding
July 2008
A day trip to Chicago yielded a new chromedecay video, with black & white footage set to moody beats.
above: “chicago (as seen by car)” video
August 2008
There was lots of photo-taking during the summer months, including more experiments in long exposures.
above: I-94 lightstream
September 2008
Just a few short months after Joshua Schnable got married, longtime chromedecay contributor and supporter Rob Theakston got married in scenic Lexington, Kentucky. Congratulations, Rob!
above: tablecloth (wedding abstract)
October 2008
Photographic experiments continued, as material was gathered for upcoming chromedecay photo and video releases.
above: a section of Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti
November 2008
Here’s a favorite photo from November.
above: morning commute
December 2008
December ended with more Processing work and photography.
rndm4 – processing sketch from chromedecay on Vimeo.
above: rndm4, made in Processing
above: gym mat abstract
Looking foward…
Next up: looking forward to 2009!
chromedecay studio look: TouchOSC with Ableton Live and BigSeq
I recently recorded a video that demonstrates using TouchOSC, OSCulator, Ableton Live and AudioDamage’s BigSeq plugin. TouchOSC is an interactive control surface that outputs OSC messages, which can then be converted to MIDI notes and CC data by OSCulator and other programs.
In this video, check out how much fun it is to control BigSeq with TouchOSC!
chromedecay studio look: TouchOSC with Ableton Live and BigSeq from chromedecay on Vimeo.
Links:
TouchOSC
http://hexler.net/touchosc
OSCulator (for converting OSC to MIDI)
http://www.osculator.net/
Ableton Live
http://www.ableton.com
AudioDamage BigSeq
http://www.audiodamage.com/effects/product.php?pid=AD009
Technical Information:
Screen recording was done with iShowU HD. This is my first time using it, and I’m quite pleased so far.
http://www.shinywhitebox.com/ishowuhd/main.html
The audio recording during the screen recording wasn’t so good because I was using the MacBook’s built-in mic. Attempts to get my external Firewire audio interface routed into iShowU HD through Soundflower were unsuccessful at first, but I’ll make sure I get that working for future videos.
The iPod Touch was recorded with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 camera.
another great Charlie McCarthy video on Vimeo
Charlie McCarthy’s “brushfire”, featuring “these dubious movements” by Bill Van Loo & J. Schnable, from the record “raindays“.
Simply stunning.
brushfire from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.
chromedecay music on Vimeo
I’m pleased to present a nice piece of art from the Vimeo community. Charlie McCarthy, whose videos we’ve been enjoying for some months now, has used an excerpt from Bill Van Loo & J. Schnable’s “Raindays” in one of his latest videos on Vimeo.
Last Sunday around 10am from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.
Charlie’s been producing gorgeous slabs of color and texture on Vimeo for a while now, blowing us away each time. Thanks for including us, Charlie!
Also, there’s a nice little moody piece of downtown instrumental hip-hop video from the chromedecay sketchbooks:
chicago (as seen by car) from chromedecay on Vimeo.