A listener asked me for a run-down of the software I use and what I use it for. So here it is in short:

Propellerhead Reason 4: my first stop when I work on a new track. I’ll generally take a song to about 70% completed before bouncing individual tracks into Sonar for additional arrangement, mixing and mastering. I use Reason to create most of the original loops you hear in the MLO podcast. Reason is also the only tone generator I use with the WX-5 midi wondcontroller that’s heard all over MLO.

Cakewalk Sonar 8.5: all of my tracks pass trough Sonar for mixing – it’s a superb environment, offering a slick, customizable workflow. Unlike Reason it allows me to record live audio and to make use of scores of VST plugins to get tracks to sit just right. It’s my primary tool for doing remixes (when doing remixes, I’ll work in Sonar from the start and use Reason to add elements). Generally I’ll mix with mastering plug-ins enabled, so that a track is finished and mastered by the time it leaves Sonar.

Ableton Live 7.0.16 (Lite – M-Audio enhanced edition): my main tool for performing/mixing live – the episodes of the MLO podcast are all mixed in Ableton. I have it set up with 8 tracks named as follows: Music 1 (music loops), Music 2 (music loops), CrowdSourced (non-musical elements), Perc (percussion elements), Bass, Drums 1, Drums 2, WX-5 (windcontroller rewired from Reason). During performances, I drag loops from my sample pool into the appropriate track’s clips and take it from there. It pays to stay organized ;^)

Sony Sound Forge 9: editing of completed mixes, or micro-editing, restoration of individual samples, culling loops.

Sony CD Architect 5: creating replication ready CD masters.

Enjoy Live Online #34: Breathing

This recording was made at Substance (Second Life) on November 8th, 2009.

Alternatively, listen to Live Online #34 via play.fm (128kbps mp3 – medium quality).

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This mix is made available under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Taiwan (more details)

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Ha, got caught out by the change to winter time in the US and arrived at Substance an hour early for the show today (no change in Taiwan) – and to think I’ve been expecting the change-over for weeks.

Had a great session with Louis Minnaar yesterday and work on the Afrikaans industrial/experimental album Eentonig is going really well. Louis has been working on minimalist experimental electronica as Coded Sleep for the last couple of years. Working on this album is turning out to be a real ear-opener.

Enjoy Live Online #33: Super Chilled

This recording was made at Substance (Second Life) on November 1st, 2009.

Alternatively, listen to Live Online #32 via play.fm (128kbps mp3 – medium quality).

Download this mix for US$ 1.33 (256kbps mp3 – highest quality):

This mix is made available under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Taiwan (more details)

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