Silly News & Observer...

This is an excellent response I found to the News & Observer of the Cary-Apex-Raleigh area's misleading reports of a high school student dying from "LSD."  Read on below...

As usual, the media misreports things they don't understand and as a result mass misinformation and misunderstanding run rampant, in this case slamming the reputation of one of the most physiologically harmless recreational drugs known to man.  The idea that this kid died from an "LSD Overdose" is beyond ridiculous, and yet it's plastered all over every headline in town.  The true issue here - or one of them, anyway - is that the kids were naive enough to believe one can actually order LSD online or that anyone would be dumb enough to attempt to sell it that way, assuming the kid who sold it wasn't already aware it wasn't the real thing.  That's just foolish, and the fact that that's where this substance came from almost certainly points to some unknown research chemical, potentially being falsely promoted as actual LSD.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with experimentation in moderation (Steve Jobs, anyone?) and I truly believe that this was a good kid given a terrible hand by an incredibly stupid classmate, but one absolutely needs to conduct thorough research of one's source and substance beforehand.

For all you parents who will now consider taking LSD on par with injecting oneself with Drano thanks to the imbeciles who rush to make any headline they can with zero knowledge of their topic:

"There have been no documented human deaths from an LSD overdose. Eight individuals who accidentally consumed a very high dose of LSD intranasally (mistaking it for cocaine) had plasma levels of 1000–7000 μg per 100 mL blood plasma and suffered from comatose states, hyperthermia, vomiting, light gastric bleeding, and respiratory problems. However, all survived with hospital treatment
and without residual effects."

BTW: 1000-7000 micrograms is the equivalent of approximately 25 to as much as 90 modern-day hits of LSD, not to mention that the 1000-7000 μg mentioned was per every 100 mL blood plasma (the average adult has 2750 mL of blood plasma!) as well as the fact that in these cases the substance was snorted!!!!

Taken from: The Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: A Review
Torsten, Passie; John H. Halpern; Dirk O. Stichtenoth; Hinderk M. Emrich; Annelie Hintzen

PDF Link: http://www.maps.org/research/cluster/psilo-lsd/cns neuroscience+therapeutics_2008-passie.pdf

A Lethal Dose ratio chart for many common psychoactives.

It was one Google search and a click away, idiots.  Try spending literally 30 seconds researching your topic.

*NEW* Debut Mixtape - Fields - Dreams To Reality

 My man Rock Fields has just dropped his debut mixtape, Dreams To Reality!  This stuff is dope, he's been working real hard to get it finished so everyone show him some love and go check it out!  Spread the word if you're feelin' it!



Here's the link:

Fields - Dreams To Reality Mixtape


This man has put in some work!  Spread the word and help him get his art out there!

-- THE ORIGINAL Roland TR-808 Samples -- Classic Essentials for ANY producer

Michael Fischer of Technopolis Presents:

Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer
Sound Sample Set 1.0.0 (09/08/94)

DOWNLOAD >>> http://adf.ly/2dLWk <<< DOWNLOAD

The Roland TR-808 (popularly known as the "808") is, perhaps, the most popular analogue electronic drum machine of all time. Since its debut in 1982, it has been the drum machine used the most by dance, pop, rap, and rhythm and blues artists to produce the drum rhythm tracks for their songs. (The famous cowbell sound at the beginning of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna' Dance with Somebody", or the famous bass drum sound that vibrates the ground when a car playing loud rap music drives by) Without a doubt, the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is a "classic beat box".

In recent years, many electronic musical instrument companies (Roland and many others...) and studio engineer types have attempted to capture its timeless sound through the use of sampling. This has however, proven to be an often disappointing endeavour, due the the analogue nature of the "808". Because the "808" is a truly "analogue" drum machine, with very many (22 to be exact) knobs for the settings for its drum sounds, sampling the unit often yields sample sets which are too discrete (i.e. too "static" and too "limited" in variation) and simply do not do justice to the wide sound range the "808" can produce. As a result, people still, to this day, are in hot pursuit of real "808"'s, and its U.S. dollar resale value today ($250 - $1,000) is often not too far off from its U.S. dollar retail price at its introduction more than a decade ago ($1,000).

I sincerely believe I have made major progress in narrowing the difference between owning a real "808" and owning samples of one. When put to proper use, these samples can be considered better than using a real "808". Unlike a real "808", with these samples one can have the certain drum sounds playing simultaneously that cannot do so on a real "808", (Hand Claps and Maracas, for example.) as well as scale the velocities of the sounds, and even apply grooves and timing to the beat in a manner much more sophisticated and clearly beyond the capabilities of a real "808". With the right sampler, these "808" samples can, for all practical purposes, make a real "808" obsolete. I feel these samples are of higher quality than those found in current commercial drum machines. I feel these "808" samples are of higher quality than any currently offered by commercial sample vendors. Quite frankly, I feel this is the best overall sound sample set of the TR-808 to date. And best of all, and very unlike many of the "competiting" samples, these samples are ABSOLUTELY FREE!

What I have attempted to do is create a high quality sound sample set of the "808" that is so comprehensive in sample range, that even the "analogue purist" (the types who are actively pursing real "808"'s still today...) would be satisfied. I have, through very time consuming, painstaking sampling and sample editing work, using professional grade equipment, sampled the "808" at five (see "FILENAME INFO" near the end of this text file...) uniformly spaced positions for each sound modifier knob. ("LEVEL" being the only exception---as I always kept "LEVEL" at full to maintain the best signal to noise ratio.) As a result, this rather comprehensive "808" sound sample set has the following:

25 Bass Drum sounds
25 Snare Drum sounds
5 Low Tom sounds
5 Mid Tom sounds
5 Hi Tom sounds
5 Low Conga sounds
5 Mid Conga sounds
5 Hi Conga sounds
1 Rim Shot sound
1 Claves sound
1 Hand Clap sound
1 Maracas sound
1 Cow Bell sound
25 Cymbal sounds
5 Open Hi Hat sounds
1 Closed Hi Hat sound

...making for a grand total of 116 sound samples of the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer!

These samples were taken _DIRECTLY_ from a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (SERIAL NO. 103852). They are _NOT_ samples of samples (i.e. sampled from a recent drum machine, such as the Boss DR-660, Roland R-8, R-8MkII, etc...) In other words, these samples were taken from a REAL TR-808. All samples were recorded from the individual sound outputs (I did NOT use the "HI" or "LO" "LEVEL" "MASTER OUT"puts!). While being recorded, each sound (on the TR-808) was at highest volume level (with all other volume levels set to the lowest possible setting), and the master volume (on the TR-808) was always at the lowest setting. All samples were made using SoundEdit 16 1.0.0 on a Macintosh Quadra 660AV.

EACH and EVERY sample is at 16-Bit, 44.1kHz resolution and was CAREFULLY generated, sampled, selected (I recorded many hits of the same sound, and picked the one that I felt best represented the average of that particular sound) and edited.

Please enjoy this timeless sample set, and feel free to send me your comments (positive or negative).

Most Sincerely,

Michael Fischer
Technopolis
(810) 650-6396
fischer1@student.msu.edu


FILENAME INFO:


Bass Drum sounds start with "BD".
Snare Drum sounds start with "SD".
Low Tom sounds start with "LT".
Mid Tom sounds start with "MT".
Hi Tom sounds start with "HT".
Low Conga sounds start with "LC".
Mid Conga sounds start with "MC".
Hi Conga sounds start with "HC".
Rim Shot sound starts with "RS".
Claves sounds starts with "CL".
Hand Clap sound starts with "CP".
Maracas sound starts with "MA".
Cowbell sound starts with "CB".
Cymbal sounds start with "CY".
Open Hi Hat sounds start with "OH".
Closed Hi Hat sound starts with "CH".

These two letter abbreviations which determine what the filename begins with are the exact ones used to abbreviate the sound names on the actual TR-808 instrument select dial.

The "LEVEL" knob does not count as a knob in filenames, as it was always at the maximum setting (to maintain the highest signal to noise ratio.)

On the TR-808, each knob involved in the composition/generation/synthesis of a particular drum sound has 11 uniformly spaced position marks on it (the positions on the dials are not numbered, however...and hopefully the synthesis variable they control is linearly distributed with respect to the knob position!) I consider these 11 marks to be "0" through "10". Due to the fact that the "0" position and the "10" position are the minimum (most counter-clockwise) and maximum (most clockwise) positions, one may consider "0" to be the minimum setting and "10" to be the maximum setting. I decided to use dial positions "0" (minimum), "2.5", "5.0" (middle), "7.5" and "10.0" (maximum) for my samples.  As a result, I decided upon the following naming convention :

"00." would be a file whose first (and only, in this case) knob was set to 0.0 (or the minimum position).

"25." would be a file whose first (and only, in this case) knob was set to 2.5.

"50." would be a file whose first (and only, in this case) knob was set to 5.0 (or the middle position).

"75." would be a file whose first (and only, in this case) knob was set to 7.5.

"10." would be a file whose first (and only, in this case) knob was set to 10.0 (or the maximum position). It does NOT mean the knob was set to 1.0!

Example : Low Tom with "TUNING" knob set to middle position would be "LT50.". If the file happened to be a ".WAV" ("WAVE") file, the name would be "LT50.WAV".

For sounds which had TWO knobs, such as the Bass Drum, Snare Drum, and Cymbal...

The naming convention is the same, but with two additional setting position numbers after the first two...

Example : Bass Drum with "TUNING" knob set between the minimum and middle position and "DECAY" set halfway between the middle and maximum position would be "BD2575.". If the file happened to be a ".WAV" ("WAVE") file, the name would be "BD2575.WAV".

Once again, this naming convention was used for ALL the samples.

Of importance is the following :

* In filenames, "TONE" and "TUNING" come before "DECAY" and "SNAPPY".

Once again, please enjoy, and please do send me feedback on what you think of these samples.

Sincerely,

Michael Fischer
Technopolis
(810) 650-6396
fischer1@student.msu.edu


Thanks to Micael Fischer

*NEW* -- DRAKE -- Best I Ever Had -- ACCURATE Remake! (Includes all samples, presets, and instruments)

From my boy Illmatic - thanks man.

An excellent FLP remake that is flawless save a few minor percussion differences, but will still give those new to the game (or FL Studio) a basic idea of how things are pieced together.


Here's the link to the download:

http://adf.ly/2cKv6

Happy producing!

I Don't Like The Look Of It (Willy Wonka) FLP Instrumental Remake

   Here it is, the FLP remake of a song that a few of you have been requesting, straight from my man Illmatik.

Enjoy

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O6BJ17AI

*NEW* - ATL KIT - From Young Jeezy to Gucci Mane to more - Includes airhorn and mastering VST

Awesome kit, includes many of the sounds you hear in today's music.  I can even give you references on specific sample use.  For example, sound 134 in the percussions folder (a clap) is used by Drumma Boy in the hit song "Atlanta GA" by Shawty Lo (Feat. Ludacris, Gucci Mane, and The Dream).

ATL Kit Part One - http://adf.ly/2cmsj
ATL Kit Part Two (Accidentally uploaded it as part 3) - http://adf.ly/2cmvK

A seasoned music afficionado gives his opinions on DAWs

Move to the Beat of a Different Drum Machine

By Alexis Simon AKA Printts A, as found on www.WarBeats.com

 As a music producer and an overall musical enthusiast, I dabble in many forms of composing and arranging music. From using software to compose songs on sheet music, to arranging hip hop and r&b instrumentals, I have had my hands on good musical software.

Software is obviously cheaper than any hard ware that would do the same job. However, some applications are better suited for certain type of work, or certain genres of music. Such as FLStudio, this has been said to be only for Hip hop, r&b, and electronic music.

Before I plunge you head first into the research results, knowing what to look for in a DAW, digital audio workstation, can greatly expedite your search for which is best for you. My paper will both explain and demystify Digital Music Production, while attempting to find the best all around software for creating it.

According to a Sweetwater article, when looking for a good DAW, an engineer is essentially looking for how well it can handle: MIDI Sequencing, Audio Recording, Audio and MIDI Editing, and Mixing (DAW Software). A great DAW would have all of these capabilities, but in most cases developers concentrate on one particular aspect.

Starting with MIDI Sequencing, which is playing and interpreting MIDI data, usually sent via a MIDI controller. People interested in MIDI Sequencing are most likely producers or composers. MIDI data is used with VST’s, which is an acronym for Virtual Studio Technology. Most of the songs you hear on the radio, have been composed, arranged or recorded with MIDI sequencing.

For this purpose I have always used FLStudio, because its interface is highly conducive to a beginner’s progress. The learning curve associated with FLStudio is relaxed. This DAW has the best of both worlds since beginners can learn from it and, intermediate and advanced users can use it for more complex projects. I have been using FLStudio for more than five years, so I would never change the DAW I use, even though it is not necessarily the best for my area of concentration.

Based on a Sweetwater poll, most music engineers said Cakewalk Sonar was the best DAW for this job. Originally, Sonar was only a MIDI VST, so as it progressed and became a DAW Sonar was ahead of the ball in that aspect. Step Sequencer 2.0, a feature in the newest Sonar model, lets you create drum tracks, beats, bass, and synth lines with a click of the mouse. Also, the new “Per-step Probability” feature lets you add automatic variations, which makes the song sound more human and not as robotic, a very important component of songs. Sonar is also the only DAW with a “Matrix Mode” for viewing the MIDI data simultaneously. With these key features, it’s easy to see why Sonar is the king of both MIDI and MIDI editing (Cakewalk.)

When it comes to Audio Recording, I use Adobe Audition 3.0, but it is far from the best DAW, only the cheapest. Adobe Audition is however a more than adequate audio recording DAW. It supports up to 128 audio tracks, and record in 44.1 KHz CD quality sample rate. Although, if your sound card permits, you can record up to 96 KHz. Audition also comes along with many factory preset effects to apply to the recordings during the mixing and mastering process.

Audition is a fine piece of software however; the best DAW in terms of audio recording is Steinberg Cubase Sx. In Steinberg Cubase Sx, there are an unlimited amount of tracks to record on, giving you more leeway to perfect a project. Also all recordings done in Cubase are of the highest quality. “The award-winning Steinberg audio engine delivers a crystal-clear 32-bit floating-point resolution and 96 kHz sample rate, with a pristine sound quality that is the hallmark of the Cubase 5 music production experience. The next-generation audio engine includes true surround capability throughout, with each track and channel offering up to six discreet channels, ready for 5.1 surround”( Peerless Recording). With this high capacity for clarity in audio recording, Cubase is easily the best audio recording DAW.

The next category is Audio and MIDI editing, and for this I use both Adobe Audition and Reason 4.0. Reason is software similar to FLStudio, except Reason has better audio effects and automation settings. Automation is exactly what it seems to be, a setting that makes different events happen automatically in during your song. Audition does an ok job at audio automation, sand Reason does a great job, but according to the Sweetwater polls, they simply aren’t the best.

This particular DAW has long been the industry standard, since audio recording made the jump from analog to digital. Pro Tools is more than just a name in the music recording industry, it is the favored DAW.

Since most people use Pro Tools, collaboration is much easier, because all projects created in Pro Tools are saved as the same file. “Edit in a single window environment and you’ll realize that Pro Tools became the industry standard not only because of its power, but also because it’s the easiest production environment to learn and use. Easily add crossfades between parts or edit points, make sample-accurate edits, tweak automation, rearrange entire sections, and more — all from within the Edit Window. Pro Tools offers editing modes and tools to accommodate nearly every editing task you throw at it. Various editing modes allow you to move audio and MIDI elements with complete precision, while key navigation and specialized editing tools help you quickly move around your session and execute tasks instantly. For the ultimate efficiency, the Smart Tool automatically switches between the multiple edit tools, allowing you to stay focused on the task at hand” ( Editing and Mixing). Oddly enough Sweetwater says that Pro Tools is the best in both editing and mixing, which is probably why it is the industry standard. This DAW is extremely expensive, because it only works when a special audio interface that is made by Digidesign is connected to the computer.

Reviewing the different aspects of a great DAW, I’ve come upon the conclusion that the best approach to having the ultimate DAW is to use a program called ReWired, which acts as a virtual patching bay. This allows the user to use different DAW’s within other DAW’s, thus making the search for the perfect software unnecessary. However if the choice had to be reached, Digidesign’s Pro Tools would be the best DAW.