#flavorlab

As an Austin, Texas native and lover of the Austin music scene, it’s always a joy to partake in the bustling, hectic, international, practically weeklong music and film festival known as South by South West (SXSW).  I’m sure you’re wondering, “what makes it so special?” And, “is it even worth trekking across the nation (or world) to go to, given the massive amount of people it now attracts?” The answers to both of these questions are yes. Yes, it is worth your time and I’ll tell you why it’s so successful and will continue to be.

Before we get to some important points, SXSW takes place in the city known as the live music capital of the world. The festival always takes place during the perfect time of year – in the middle of March where the weather in Austin isn’t blistering hot.

Now for a secret: you don’t really need a badge, or even a wristband (unless you plan to frequent panels and press-ridden, extremely hyped up nightly showcases.) However, the festival is not exactly “teenage friendly”; it’s much easier and cheaper to go as a 21+ year-old individual. All shows during the day are free to the public whereas the night showcases vary – you can pay a cheap fee as you go to each showcase, enter if 21 and older, or enter for free with a badge or wristband. All that being said, the majority of artists playing in the evening will most likely play a day show throughout the week, so plan to see them (for free!) then.

Aside from the widespread locally-supported eateries and food trucks, strange individuals perpetuating and spreading the “Keep Austin Weird” mantra through their appearance, and the marriage of outdoor and urban vibes the city creates, SXSW is a breeding ground for musical progression. Here’s a list of some things you will most likely encounter:

1)   You’ll likely run into the yuppie band member who is overly ecstatic about their release and/or show that week. Choose wisely which eager, young fellow you decide to lend your time and ears to.

2)   As the festival continues to grow each year, the crowds get larger and the lines get longer as the days turn into nights. So make sure to get to showcases early and stay put!

3)   Showcases will be based on a variety of things: a company or event party, a magazine, music pertaining to specific local and regional areas of the world, a particular genre, etc.

4)   The venues range from large-capacity, popular venues, like tents and outdoor lawns that host big name artists, to small, intimate dive bars and restaurant or store parking lots. However, the amount of concentrated venues lining the expansive downtown area that can house a live show makes it difficult to keep track of who’s playing, and at what time and where.

5)   The fact that there are over 2,000 bands practically guarantees that whatever kind of music lover you consider yourself, you’ll be able to find an artist that satisfies your particular musical palate.

6)   You’ll find an assortment bands and artists: some that are just starting out with solely local exposure, to those with international fame and decades of experience. So, if you’re looking for an up-and-coming artist showcase or something more familiar and predictible, both are available.

7)   Take the live experience with a grain of salt. Bands don’t always play their best at SXSW; they’re constantly on the go with little to no sleep and some are playing more than one show in the span of five days.

The future: It’s always a possibility that a festival becomes too popular and crowded, too commercialized, and too expensive. However, given that it’s a one-of-a-kind event with so many different pricing options and styles of music, it’s doubtful these will become true issues for SXSW. The film section of the festival seems to be the only concern.  Given the growth of the musical aspect of the festival, it’s tough to say if the film aspect will be overshadowed in years to come.

Bands - Oldies and Newbies that played SXSW 2012: The Shins and Counting Crows played a free, outdoor show at Auditorium Shores.

Jack White played two sets at The Stage on 6th, one set with an all guy band and the other being all girls.

Fiona Apple and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine brought back memories as they drew in dedicated, life-long fans.

Cage the Elephant, a band who signed with Relentless Records at SXSW in 2007, held a live online streaming show sponsored by Vans.

Some NYC and Brooklyn bands at SXSW: Bear in Heaven, Oberhofer, Hospitality, Grimes, Citizen Cope, and Cymbals Eat Guitars, to name a few.

Austin local artists to check out: David Ramirez, Bob Schneider, Alpha Rev, and Mother Falcon

Bruce Springsteen made the SXSW keynote speech to an audience of select Badge and Wristband Holders, and a few lucky ticket winners. Check out some footage below:

http://www.latimes.com/videogallery/68856841/Entertainment/We-Take-Care-of-Our-Own

                      The switch to digital television combined with the new CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) act, designed to regulate loudness levels in television, has created a transitional period in broadcast audio. These loudness laws and multi-channel 5.1 surround audio present new technical and creative challenges for many networks. These new regulations have prompted FlavorLab to take a forward thinking approach towards putting creativity back into the hands of content producers.

CALM has mandated that broadcasters enforce loudness regulations in a stringent manner. Enforcement of the new law goes beyond simply defining loudness through deliverable requirements and implements computerized systems to seize control of content and force its compliance. These systems measure loudness through a new standard known as LKFS (Loudness, K weighted, relative to Full Scale.) This measurement is taken over the length of the material and represents the average loudness of the content. Most networks have settled on a level of -24LKFS +/- 2db with the primary level focus being on human voice. This standard is still in its infancy and evolving as we speak.

By immersing itself in this emerging technology and conducting extensive research, FlavorLab has developed several products to put creative control back into the hands of our clients. Our team consists of broadcast audio experts, educators and engineers who are focused on this emerging issue. By sharing our capability and knowledge we can help quickly adapt your workflow and content to this changing landscape.

FlavorLab will provide its clients with CALM compliant mixes by developing extremely cost and time effective solutions to these problems. These solutions can be implemented in every situation and are an easy extension to your current workflow.

In addition to the loudness issue, the move from stereo to 5.1 surround for advertising and promotional content also presents several new hurdles. Consumer playback systems vary greatly in quality, configuration and consumer setup. FlavorLab can help with multiple solutions to these issues that will allow content to flow from producer to viewer in the most honest and untouched way.

Over the coming months, we will be launching this revolutionary approach to broadcast audio. Leading up to that launch, FlavorLab will make its consulting services available free of charge to help prepare your network and your workflow for the implementation of CALM. As creative entities we understand your ultimate goal is to convey your vision accurately to your viewers. We intend to give you the tools to do so.

               Build FlavorLab into your workflow:                          

Here at G&E Music, we are very lucky to have musicians and CEOs, Glenn and Erik, who knock the ball out of the park with their original tracks!

Whether you're a music supervisor, producer or just a die-hard music junkie, we have just the tracks that'll satisfy any mood you're in! You may have heard some of their tracks recently on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of An American Terrorist, The Assasination of Dr. Tiller and The Style Network's Brini Maxwell Show.

Check out their tunes at: 

Flatiron District, Manhattan: Driving into the city with my writing partner Erik, speeding through tons of traffic, I first laid my hands on Geist, the new drum machine sampler by FXpansion.

Sitting in the passenger seat, I loaded Geist onto my MacBook Pro and started playing with every single button on the interface. The beauty of Geist is that you don’t need a third party sequencer to play the machine. All you need is your laptop and the internal IO’s and off to the races you go.

Geist lets you cut up loops and breaks and send them to pads with a single click.

With Erik barking orders from the drivers seat, “Change the snare, Play a new kik, G!” I wanted to quickly start rocking beats and demonstrate how cool this app was.  Admittedly, I had no clue other than pressing space bar, how to get Geist up and running.

Fast forward a few hours…

When we parked the car and the dust settled, I relaxed for a moment and started to read through the manual. No longer scratching my head, I felt like a giddy little kid, learning about all the tips and tricks Geist had to offer.

For all the beatmakers out there, survey says…Geist ROCKS!!

There are so many cool features packed into this drum machine sampler.  I was incredibly amped to start writing and recording tracks.  A word of advice, READ THE MANUAL.  It is straight-forward and will definitely get you out of the gate, up and running. There are also great tutorial videos on the FXpansion website.

Conceptually the layout is super intuitive, as the 16 pads on the front panel correlate to 8 independent audio engines that run across the bottom of the sequencer. As I started to dig in and really figure things out, I was blown away at all the creative beat making possibilities. Endless Grooves

When you’re in the zone creating beats, the last thing you want to do is slow down and press stop. Geist makes it easy to audition sounds live — in real time, without stopping. Your process continues to flow as you audition library sounds and enhance your grooves.

While you’re tweaking and arranging drum grooves, click on the insert feature, a super cool, creative tool. The Insert pop down menu has a list of patterns that you can instantly apply to any pad in pattern mode. When you scroll down on the various patterns, it provides a random sequence of notes on your selected pad.  It’s almost too easy…

The automation EQ, compression and reverb features are also mind boggling, as you have total control over every single parameter within each sound on the 16 pads. Depending on your computer’s processing speed, you really have the ability to manipulate every little sound coming out of this machine. You can also tweak and EQ the stems globally giving you greater control over your entire mix.

Pattern Mode

From a workflow perspective, I highly recommend using the steps feature within pattern mode. This is an amazing way to build beats. As you start constructing patterns in real time, you can keep tweaking the number of steps, essentially building and growing the size of the arrangement.

Geist in Pattern mode

When you’re happy with your groove, just copy and paste the pattern number into the next available pattern slot and keep evolving and evolving. It’s amazing how far you can take the pattern arrangement. (And that’s before you ever slide into Song Mode!)

Drums For Days

Geist comes fully loaded with amazing templates and drum sounds, so it provides a great starting point for any track. I was immediately inspired by a samba swing four-on-the-floor groove while auditioning the different artist templates. Once I had my basic drum groove in line, it was time to shape and craft the groove into an arrangement.

Conceptually, Audio Engine 1 becomes my drum stem. As I start building this groove, I can cut and paste these grooves into 26 additional patterns within a single audio engine. Multiply 24 patterns by 8 audio engines and you’ve got some serious creative juice.

Non-Drum Hits, Bass, Guitars

Geist also comes fully loaded with bass, guitar and sound design samples, so you can have fun importing and twisting these sounds on top of your drum grooves. You can also import your own samples. Geist will import both Wav and Aiff files. This is beautiful because now you have total control over your personal library of sounds, as well as thousands of sounds that come with Geist.

Sampler Action

Geist Sampler is a great tool to bring some of the live feel back to the grid  / stepwrite recording process. I would recommend using and abusing this sampler as much as possible. After I crafted my arrangement in song mode, I recorded live drums, percussion and beatbox with the sampler feature. Geist then allows you chop up and slice your recording back into your 16-step matrix.  This is awe-inspiring, as you can now sample your own playing on the grid and manipulate these 16 pads with maximum flexibility and control.

Note: Pay close attention when exporting your recorded sample. You may accidently export your sample onto pads (already containing voices). I did this several times, without realizing that you need to free up the pad space before exporting your sample. Otherwise, it will overwrite onto your existing sound.  Another way to avoid sample over-writing is to pad-lock all of your sounds on the 16 pad matrix.

Scene Mode

Often times, you have great ideas in pattern mode as you juggle and listen to the different combination of audio engines.  Scene mode allows you to capture these moments into a single snapshot and retain these different combinations of settings.  This feature is a lot of fun, especially for playing live with a MIDI controller. I plan to use this mode on some live shows.

Pattern Mode Vs  Song Mode

After you’ve built up your patterns, its time to jump into Song Mode and start creating the arrangement. Song Mode is a nifty little sequencer when you combine it with Pattern Mode. It may take a moment to get used to the different modes, but they compliment each other really well.

In Song mode

I found myself jumping back and forth between these two modes tweaking the patterns and then flying them back in to the arrangement window. You can access the different pattern numbers within the arrangement by simply dragging a pencil tool into the arrangement, creating the pattern region, and then clicking on the pattern number of choice.

Features I would love to see in the next version

1)   A magnifying glass that enables you to zoom into the entire song arrangement from one viewpoint. It’s frustrating when you have to keep scrolling back and forth to find that exact point your looking for.

2)   Visual locater points within the song view would be great, so you can see your verse, chorus, bridge ideas clearly labeled.

3)   I would also like to have independent volume control access on the main page for the 8 audio engines.

In Conclusion…

Geist is a serious, serious beat making machine that is going to turn heads in 2011.  It is so much more than just a drum sampler. You can create deep compositions within Geist without ever leaving the interface. (You can also access Geist through Pro Tools, and other third party sequencers.)

People are starting to hear about this machine and I will continue to wave the Geist flag, as well.  Do yourself a favor and check it out!!