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Ableton Live/Novation Launchpad - Progtronica weekly Dj Performance series Part 2 from Nigel Sifantus on Vimeo.

The more I see the launchpad in action the more you see the fact that this is going to be a big part of the future of live performances. So cool!

What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with its stupidity.

REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.

Humor Mondays - Band Reunion At The Wedding

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How Jay-Z Sampled Justice Subtley

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"Let's Get Down To Business" by Gossip Grows On Trees from Gossip Grows On Trees on Vimeo.

Musformation reader Tyler Drake of the band Gossip Grows on Trees, wrote us with a great story of how his band has been using an esoteric promotion method to get more people to check out their music. Here is what they have been doing -

"We were giving out our music for free in exchange for the listener's email address.  It was hosted at our Bandcamp site and we would use our social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., to try and drive traffic to it.  That was working pretty well, but when we played live, there was no way to get the music into people's hands (or in their iPods) because we had no physical product.  During and after our set, we would give the sales pitch and tell people to go and download the songs. It didn't seem to be working, so we came up with a more exciting approach. First, we set up download page of our own which required to email address for the listener. We then had custom fortune cookies made, printed with the url of the download page and a short message from us.  At shows, we would then walk around and hand out the cookies, which gave us an excuse to talk to fans one on one, and get them to sign up for our mailing list.  People were much more receptive and it worked great."

Jack Joseph Puig On Mixing

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TuneCore Now Servicing The Zune Store

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zunestore.pngLast week TuneCure announced news that they will be servicing the Zune Store. While they have definitely turned out much more exciting things in the past, for those of you who can't wait to get your music on tomorrow's jurassic technology, it is now easy to do!


An amazing peek into the man, his studio, his philosophy and his process as a musician. Absolute required watching.

Via Synthtopia

Watch MidiFighter In Action With Traktor

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History Of The Boombox From NPR

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4319530939_c9bd980444.jpgIn what is by far the first truly essential read of 2010 for anyone who is looking to sell music, TopSpin have posted a blog about many of their findings about how to effectively sell music in 2010. Whether is is explaining how premium offers drive sales or the succes rate of sales conversion through various social networks, this blog post is one you should read twice. 

Inside Gotta Groove Record Pressing

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What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with its stupidity.



REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.
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Recording Tip - Fix It Now, Not Later

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chimneys-almost-closed-steve-santa-albini-and-wife-whinna-christmas_top.jpgAbout a decade ago I can remember reading an interview with god of recording Steve Albini, in which he dispensed the advice "fix it now, not later", when making a record. Ten years or more later I think of that saying on a nearly daily basis. With years of thought I realize this may be one of the most important philosophies in making a good record and the more I get better with it, the better my records become.

In time I have realized when I haven't followed this mantra there has been times when I have thought about the mistake I heard in a song for more time then it takes to fix it. Not good. As an added need to fix it as soon as possible, is it is usually easier to fix any mistake right when it happens, rather than later on. We all know that the idea of fixing things in the mix is the saying of an amateur, but the real reality is the faster you fix every flaw the easier it is to work and the happier you are with each and every record you make. Isn't that what it's all about?
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The guys at Pro Tools Dudes continue to kill it with insightful tips. This new one is a live saver for anytime you want to open a session very fast just to grab a file from it or take a look around, without waiting for plug-ins to load. Simply use the open session function and shift+click the file when you open it. For more details and other tricks using this function head here.


What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with its stupidity.


REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.


Looking for something more from your distortion/overdrive pedal?  How 'bout a bit crushing, tone bending, synth-like, 8-bit sound emulator?  WMD's new Geiger Counter Civilian Issue is a more compact version of their larger pedal and brings all the flexibility of it's larger brother.  There are 32 presets that can send you into some seriously insane territories.  There's a lot of output in this little box, so you've been warned - this pedal is certainly not for the faint of heart or those unwiling to explore the extremes of tone.  The pedal comes in at just under $200 and seems almost worth it just for those 8-bit blips you can achieve.    
mzi.ityxvrmx.170x170-75.jpgOne of my favorite things about doing Musformation is hearing real world stories of bands actually being adventurous in their marketing and doing new and interesting things to sell their music. One such case is the band Legitimate Business who was kind enough to detail their experience of releasing their LP for free.

After meeting the band when they recorded the LP with my co-producer Mike Oettinger, I was glad we stayed in touch since they have gone on to make one of the better web designs I have seen and it has been great to watch them achieve growth in their music by being smart. It is great to see bands have a clear strategy on how to grow their fanbase and go about executing it in a smart way. Go download their record and give it a listen while you follow us to the jump and read a great story on the power of free music in today's punk scene and some real number and techniques about what made it work.




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The Musformation Guide To Online Radio



It is no secret that online radio is one of the best ways to promote your music. With services like Pandora, Last.FM, Jango, Blip.FM and other services not only can you get your music before the ears of listeners who like the type of music you make, but you can also get paid for your plays as you begin to dominate the online radio airwaves.


The Musformation Guide To Taking Your Band To The Studio



It all comes down to this. As you come down to entering the studio and then recording your songs you are now tasked with one of the most difficult balancing acts ever known to man (ok... well maybe to musicians). We have written countless articles on how to avoid many of the pitfalls many musicians fall into when they go to capture their material. Read on and make something great for us all to hear.


The Musformation Guide To Writing Better Songs



With everyday, as the gatekeepers die and the major labels lose power it becomes more and more about just having a great song. This being the case you better start brushing up on your skills! We have assembled a lot of advice and tools for you to use to write better songs on the other side of this link.


The Musformation Guide To
Getting Publicity For Your Music




When trying to break your music out of your circle of friends and out to the whole world, you are inevitably going to have to take on the hat of doing some publicity for your own music. As you begin to take on this large task there is numerous bits of advice that you may have overlooked on how to do this effectively. We have assembled numerous articles on how to take over the world of music and get it out there.


The Musformation Guide To
Distributing Your Music




Now that you actually have songs recorded you need to get them out to the world to be heard. With every day that passes more and more amazing tools become available for artists to do this without the help of a label. We keep an up to date guide of everything you could ever want to know about what you should do in order to make the right choice on how to get your music out to the world.


The Musformation Guide To Social Networks



Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, YouTube all become more and more important everyday (well maybe not Myspace, but contrary to much chatter it is still important to know the most up to date ways to make Myspace feed your other pages). We keep musicians up to date with the most current ways to use all of these social networks to promote your music. If you are not reading our guides to social networks you are missing out on the crucial knowledge of how to promote your music with the most up to date techniques.


The Musformation Guide To
Playing Live And Touring




What separates the winners and losers is how well you handle playing live and then getting your show on the road. Playing live and touring may seem easy but there are countless pitfalls that one can encounted over time. We show you all the new tricks of the trade as well as wise advice that has been passed down over the years.


The Musformation Guide To
Managing Your Band




Managing a group of people and keeping everyone on the same page and motivated is one of the biggest make or break factors of any sucessful group. There are many emerging tools that can make this easier and we sort through them, all the while dispensing valuable advice on how to deal with your members with minimal chaos.


The Musformation Guide To
Getting Covered By Blogs




Getting covered by blogs is fast becoming one of the things that everyone wants to figure out. Sadly, there is not a lot of information out there on how to do just this. We have quite a few articles with the techniques we use to get the bands we work with on to some of the top blogs out there.


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