News Round Up 2/7/15

Labels sign up to NI’s Stems format, James Holden live on Late Junction, Softube release drum synth and Pepe Bradock discusses ‘Deep Burnt’.

James Holden Live on Late Junction. Joined by Mark Holub on drums and Marcus Hamblett on electric guitar and cornet, James Holden used his modular synth to play a selection of tracks, one of which was based on a work by Ornette Coleman, live on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction show. Between tracks, Holden discussed how the collaboration functions, and how it worked with his Humaniser – a program he designed in MaxMSP to emulate the reactive responses of live musicianship and the inherent imperfections of human rhythm. “Timing becomes more natural,” says Holden. “It doesn’t feel like you’re playing with a robot who’s not listening to you. That’s the idea.” Stream the whole episode here.

Softube’s drum synth Heartbeat released. Heartbeat is an innovative software drum synth inspired by many of the classic Japanese analogue drum machines, with a familiar, yet unique, sound character. It combines modelled analogue synthesis with forward-thinking features, offering eight analogue drum synthesis channels, a fully featured mixer, a four channel Auto Layer Machine for layering sounds or triggering beat patterns, and adapted versions of Softube’s TSAR-1 Reverb and Valley People Dyna-mite plugins included, as well as Filter Echo and output saturation. Heartbeat costs $219 and is available now. More information in the promo video above, and here.

The Year British Dance Music Exploded. Sparked by a second consecutive sunny and idyllic Glastonbury, hedonism exploded in the fields and clubs as British dance music came of age 20 years ago, transforming how Britain thought, listened, partied and came down afterwards. 1995 was the year of Leftfield’s Leftism, Tricky’s Maxinquaye, Goldie’s Inner City Life and Coldcut’s Journeys By DJ. Major musicians and DJs involved, including Paul Hartnoll of Orbital, Neil Barnes of Leftfield, and Karl Hyde of Underworld share their memories of the explosive year with the Guardian here.

Labels sign up to Native Instruments’ Stems format. Stems is a new multi-track audio format, developed by Native Instruments as a high-quality open-source standard, which can be used by any compatible software or device to provide access to four separate parts of a full mix, opening up new creative possibilities for DJs, producers, and live performers. A number of notable labels have signed up to release stems, including R&S, 50 Weapons, Ovum, Ghostly, M-nus, Hypercolour and Hotflush. Find out more in the video above, and here.

UVI Announce Relayer Delay. UVI has announced a new creative multi-tap delay effect, available now at an introductory price of $79. Designed to provide an efficient and inspiring workflow, Relayer lets you dial in everything from basic delays to radical rhythmic multi-effects with speed, precision and natural musicality. The plugin is compatible with current versions of all major DAWs on both Mac and Windows platforms (VST, AU and AAX). Watch the video above for more info.

Ableton 9.2 Out Now. Ableton release the latest free update of Live. Version 9.2 brings improvements and additions to both Live and Push and is available for immediate download for all owners of Live 9. The update includes a number of latency-related improvements, improved warping, a new Tuner device, Max for Live is now based on Max 7, and more. The update also includes a firmware update to the Push, which introduces a 64-pad drum rack mode, improved aftertouch implementation, and the touchstrip can now be used for mod wheel control. Find out more and download the update via here.

TAL release Sampler and free Reverb. TAL have released their new TAL-Sampler – a full-featured synthesiser with a sampler engine as its sound source. The instrument allows you to choose between different sampling modes (Emu II, AM6070, and Sample Hold) to get the vintage sound of different hardware samplers inside your DAW. The TAL-Sampler‘s vintage modulated reverb is also available as a standalone plugin for free. Check out the TAL-Sampler here, and download the free TAL-Reverb-4 here.

The Chemical Brothers: “We’ve been together longer than a lot of marriages.” An interview with Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers on two decades of fame, the changing face of dance music – and why the time has come for them to pursue solo projects. Read the Guardian‘s insightful interview here.

Key Tracks: Pépé Bradock’s ‘Deep Burnt’. “How do you drop the name Pépé Bradock without summoning the almost inevitable association of ‘Deep Burnt,’ the notorious 11 minutes of time around which Pépé wound the inspired strings of a Freddie Hubbard classic around a propulsive house beat. Released as a mere B-side on Kif Recordings in 1999, ‘Burnt’ emerged as the melancholic hymn of choice for deep house disciples, selling out at top speed with lingering copies traded like gold dust. Some 16 years later, and in anticipation of a reedit, to be released on his Atavisme label, Pépé Bradock recounts the track’s story for the first time” for Red Bull Music Academy here.