Taupe Beats

Not much of a surprise, but most of the recent Frontline episodes have been great. The MBS episode, the Flint water crisis episode, and the Bork/Federalist Society episodes in particular. They recently licensed a doc made in the Philippines related to Duterte's drug war. As a massive Lav Diaz fan, the production style was kinda jarring but still an important subject and doc.

I'll add patient zero: one of the best basslines

Tried watching the first episode of the Ken Burns country music retrospective. Gave up after the overlong opening salvo of hagiography (while still making it clear that the hagiography is selective by era, classic Ken Burns). I agree with the earlier assertion about his Jazz equivalent being narrow minded (specifically with Fusion jazz). Sorry but the time that Louis Armstrong took a crap in 1931 does not hold as much importance as Bitches Brew. Basically every Ken Burns series always has this same habit of ranking eras of a particular subject and then essentially promoting generation gaps and supremacy. Nonsense.

Good material posted on this forum in the last week. This mix kicks ass.

This mix is awesome for the record.

I'll 2nd Rozeta suite for iOS MIDI sequencing, great value and feature sets Other good iOS MIDI sequencers: Xynthesizr (cool melodic sequencer with good probability features) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xynthesizr/id720810459 Atom (good direct piano roll style) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atom-piano-roll/id1455200044 Gestrument Pro (awesome for creating semi-generative stuff, bit of a learning curve and config time needed, but the results are awesome) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gestrument-pro/id1105890031 Patterning 2 (still the best MIDI drum sequencer I've ever used) - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/patterning-2/id1332154350 I've built and incredible Patterning 2 template to work with my MPC1000 where I can seamlessly switch between beats on 4 different hardware drum machines, and trigger any of 8 sequences between each (without Program Changes, just live pad triggers).

This forum gets surprisingly little feedback. I will check this mix soon!

As someone who's very familiar with both...Djay by a wide margin. Traktor DJ's only recently upgraded to what acts as even a halfway normal DJ setup. In the past there was no pitch fader, for instance. Traktor is great on a computer but has a ways to go on mobile devices. Djay also has the advantage of being able to mix from the Spotify library if you have a Spotify premium account. This advantage alone is enough for me to say Djay wins objectively. With that all said, if you don't care about manual beatmatching and just want the more modern accouterments (looping, sampling, auto-sync, key lock, etc.), there are better apps out there than either Djay or Traktor. DJDJ immediately comes to mind (the developer is awesome): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/djdj-mixing-app/id1093437440

If choosing the Manson clan murders is a vehicle for "entertainment", that's a shitty vehicle. Saying Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is solely (or even predominantly) entertainment is reductive. I also find Tarantino's insistence on an alternate narrative to this moment in history to be a weakness. To me, this film feels like conservative fantasy-fulfillment of what could have been in Hollywood, posing the Manson murders as a theft of Hollywood's collective innocence. It's a very narrow perspective and one I find no enjoyment or quarter.

To Korg Volca Drum owners, Korg posted a fix today for the MIDI Channel issue. 🥰

Had no idea they were so close in comparison. Thanks for sharing! I love Noir, and admittedly I hadn't heard any similarities in any DFAM videos I've seen (I haven't heard one in-person). The combo of modulation and the sequencer in Noir makes it really easy to get usable phrases quickly. A lot of the sounds I get out of Noir sound like Randomer to me.

Sergei Loznitsa's "Maidan" about the Maiden square protests and subsequent squashing in Kiev. Loznitsa's documentaries typically consist of archival footage brilliantly arranged to give context ("The Event", "The Trial", "Blokade", "State Funeral", etc.). However some of his newer work, including "Maidan" (and "Victory Day") actually have Loznitsa behind the camera. And just like his fiction films, the work is all the better for it. Documentaries typically have an aim to bring the viewer closer to the experience, or even try to bring a "you are there" type perspective. However, most fail miserably in achieving these goals (including good documentaries, Lav Diaz's "Storm Children Book 1" immediately springs to mind). "Maidan" is a rare exception, imo. Between the lack of narration, very little spatial awareness amidst the chaos, and ominous fatalism that captures every moment of this conflict, even in its earnest and optimistic beginnings. Highly recommended, along with literally anything else Loznitsa's done.

Going through Mindhunter. Very disappointing, imo. Interesting premise but way too stylized.

Really liked the Basic Rhythm 12" for Arcola, the "Can't You See" track

My picks per-the thread criteria: Roland Juno-106 (this still requires at least a willingness to become familiar with basic subtractive synthesis but imo, that should be a minimal threshold, even in this thread) Samplr for iOS IceGear synths for iOS (Lorentz, Laplace, Mersenne, Redshrike) I still think this is the best UI design for a music app on iOS. Very deep synths that are easy to grasp how they work, very little need for screen changes, and their feature sets are wonderful. I still haven't found a synth that really compares to Mersenne when it comes to bell stuff. And they all have these really great Resonators on them. Korg Volca Kick (I haven't used the Keys or Sample, the aesthetics of the Bass are dumb, the FM is actually not easy at all to use if you want to edit patches on-board, and the Drum also requires a lot of menu diving) Roland TR-8 (I understand going for the TR-8S for individual outputs and further parameter editing options, but the TR-8 with the 7x7 upgrade is super cheap these days 2nd hand and just makes sense)