William A: Alpha - Now available at Beatport.com

In case you missed it last week, my label - Academik Records - just released its first EP: William A's new single, "Alpha", which is now available at Beatport.com

Here's what some of the world's top DJs are saying about "Alpha":

Ableton Preset: Wavescraper

A few weeks back, I got a request to post a tutorial and/or tips piece on Saturator. Since there's already a lot of coverage for Ableton's nifty digital distortion device, I decided to go one better and create a preset that utilizes a more exotic attribute of Saturator: Waveshaping.

An interesting detail about waveshaping is that it works best on audio with very little harmonic content, like sine or triangle waves - or strongly lowpass filtered source material.

A few years back, I did an Instrument Rack for Live 6 that used this technique as a synthesis tool. Of course, that was ages ago and I've refined the technique a bit more, so I decided to revisit the production methods and whip up a new patch: Wavescraper.

AbletonOp.com Launches

A former student of mine - and genuine Ableton whiz - Kendall Clark, just launched his very own Ableton tips and tutorials site.

The first post is a nice little tutorial on using Auto Pan for gating effects - and if I know Kendall, things are going to get really deep in no time.

Bookmark AbletonOp.com and visit often. I promise it will be worth your while.

Academik - Exclusive Preview: William A - "Alpha"

Academik Records posted an exclusive preview of our first release.

We're getting support from an amazing array of the world's top DJs.

Really proud of this package. So if you dig it too, please spread the word!

Magic New Wave Time Machine #4

Instead of an awkward, craptastic traipse through down the dark alleys of vintage New Wave videos, this week we'll take a look at an obscure classic from Thomas Dolby's early years.

Prior to the "Blinded Me With Science" debacle, Dolby made some really great electropop - much of which was accompanied by (for their time) cutting edge video and images.

One of those vids was for a track called "Radio Silence".

Chock full of imagery that predates the Steampunk movement by about 20 years, "Radio Silence" also includes a cameo by Lene Lovich, who is a story unto herself.

Here's the vid.

Free Bootleg: Cowbell Matters

One of my first tracks on Different Pieces/Armada was a deep techno groover called "Less Cowbell". Earlier this year, I fluffed it by mating it with the drums from Mark Knight's dub of Faithless' "Music Matters".

This month, I included the "Cowbell Matters" reboot in my May podcast - as well as posting the original Ableton Operator 808 Cowbell preset to my blog as a download.

Makes sense to post the bootleg to my Soundcloud page too, so here it is.

Enjoy!

Download "Cowbell Matters" - Francis Preve 2011 Reboot - Prève vs Faithless vs Knight

Less Cowbell Operator Patch

Back in 2009, I released a track on Different Pieces/Armada called Less Cowbell

Earlier this month, I rebooted the track with updated drums and used it in my May podcast. [Update: I've since posted the full reboot as a free download.]

The core sound in Less Cowbell is based on an custom Ableton Live Operator patch that deconstructs the original TR-808 analog cowbell sound.

To commemorate the original release in 2009, Peter Kirn's Create Digital Music blog posted a piece on the making of the track - along with a downloadable version of the Operator patch - so producers could see how it was done and tinker with the sound itself.

I was going to post a link to the original article here, but I've since made a few revisions to the info and download, so I'm posting a new Live Set that includes the patch - and a sequence to get you started with the macros.

The set is compatible with Live 7.0.18 or higher - and requires Operator (but it will still work in demo mode, even if you don't own this little wündersynth).

Got MeeBlip?

Just got my MeeBlip last week and I'm in loooooove.

Peter Kirn (from Create Digital Music) and James Grahame (of Retro Thing fame) have a winner on their hands with this affordable, hackable digital synth. It's a duuuurty little guy and you can expect to see some loops from this in the coming weeks.

It's got a very cool, unique, edgy sound... And at a price of less than $200, I'm certain that the MeeBlip is gonna be a massive hit.

The MeeBlip blog can be found here. Check it.