Camille, the programmer of OSCulator, got his program working with the Velocity-sensitive Guitar Hero drums. Download OSCulator here:
http://www.osculator.net/wp/

I’m still using JunXion to receive MIDI from the Rock Band Drums. Check out my other tutorial for setting JunXion up.

I created a Logic environment with a switch that is triggered by the MIDI note that the Rock Band pedal is sending via JunXion. It transforms the closed high hat to the open one when the pedal is released. I’m also using another transformer to amplify the velocity of the MIDI drums by 30, because the GH drums are pretty quiet otherwise.

Download the Osculator file, the JunXion file, and the Logic file here: gh_rb_setup.zip

Props to Camille for his help, Maeve for me stealing back a loop from her song, and Samantha and Fred Tesche for Dark Matter.

iGog is developed by Wave Machine Labs, the same people who created the flagship drum replacement program, Drumagog. It is $5 and available in the iTunes store and also here.

I downloaded the demo and tried it out. The mic trigger mode is amazing! I made a demo of it on youtube:

It goes crazy when you sing into the mic too, which I forgot to demonstrate. The program saves MIDI, WAVs, and allows you to loop and sequence, so it’s a great program to have on the road or to create realistic sounding drum loops.

The only drawback with this app is that it requires headphones for mic triggering mode, and performance degrades in pad mode if you use speakers, which limits the possibilities for live performance. Mic triggering only works with one instrument at a time – it would be nice if, like Drumagog, it used frequency analysis to trigger multiple samples at once. Still though, for now the sequencing and looping make up for that.

With sequencing, I would like to see an undo function, or a track editor – once you’ve recorded, it’s added permanently, so it’s easy to mess up a good sequence with a bad take. If you’re recording on different instruments, then this is easy to fix later in the MIDI file with a piano roll, but it would be a handy feature on the road.

I always wanted to create a similar drum pad app using the iPhone’s accelerometers. I would have used the three axises to trigger different samples, so that you tap on the top for bass, side for snare, and back for hi hat. I’m pretty sure this app works better than my app ever would – it also works if you tap on the iPhone body. If they could combine accelerometer data into this app though and separate samples per axis, and also allow you to transit MIDI or OSC over WIFI, this would be the ideal drum trigger.

Still though, what an incredible app, and a great value for $5! In-app purchase of free and pay per download drum kits are also available.

Here is a slideshow of photos I took on the trip. Much love to all of you wonderful people I met on the road and on the playa!

-edit-
Now with 25 videos at the end of the slideshow. You can click on this link and click on “info on” to view the slide show in full screen and with captions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordan314/sets/72157607134070713/show/

Today I figured out how to easily turn the rock band drum set for Wii into a MIDI drum controller:

I did this with Junxion, a program that allows you to transform USB and wireless game controller input into MIDI data. I’ve seen demos of other MIDI rock band instruments online, but with the Wii instruments already in USB form this has to be the easiest setup yet. This also seems to have the lowest latency. Junxion is not free but a demo can be downloaded here:

http://www.steim.org/steim/junxion_v3.html

I’ve also used Junxion to turn other game controllers such as DDR dance pads into instruments. I’m using the old PowerPC version 1.4, but version 3 should work fine. Junxion 3 also now works with Wii remotes.

I just used the Studio Tight Kit preset in Ultrabeat in Logic for the drum sounds. Junxion automatically makes an input port which Logic recognizes and listens to.

My setup for this demo was this:

The steps are basically this:

• Plug in the drum controller.
• Launch Junxion.
• Turn off the other devices (USB Optical Mouse, Apple Keyboard, and Apple IR default to enabled at startup)
• Start hitting the pads and watch which sensor status is triggered. Your MIDI app should be sounding or at least receiving input. If not, select Junxion Port 1 as a MIDI input.
• Drag the value of the sensor’s “Dat1″ up or down to change it to the note value you want; for example I set the bass drum to 36 (C2) which triggers the bass drum in Ultrabeat.
• I muted sensor 8 because it was always sounding on any hit.

That’s it! Details may have changed in the new versions. If you have the full version you can save your configuration.

The Rock Band guitar works with Junxion as well! Just plug the USB receiver into the computer, turn on the guitar and follow the same steps. Now I’m even happier that I bought Rock Band!

Here is a great video of Chucho Valdes playing one of my all time favorite songs, Ponle La Clave. Here is the second half:

I skipped to that so you wouldn’t miss the awesome drumming. But here is the first half:

It looks like that is not my favorite drummer Raul Pineda, but this drummer is still very good. They changed the underlying ostinato though to a slow merengue which I don’t like as much. But that is Roberto Vizcaino Guillot on congas, he was on the Live from the Village Vanguard recording.

The sound quality in these videos doesn’t do the song justice. The original album (amazon link) is amazing.

Here seems to be a full version of the track: Megaupload link

Here is my analysis of the Vanguard version:

7/4 A Intro (piano only)
7/4 (repeat all instruments)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8 (repeat)
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Parallel 4ths B – down
4/4
7/4 Intro
7/4
7/4 Piano Solo
—
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 Crazy Drum Solo – Amazing multimeter patterns and double kick
—
7/4 Crazy Conga Solo with Bass & Piano unison ostinato
—
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
1/4 1 beat rest
7/4 A Intro (piano only)
7/4 (repeat all instruments)
4/4 B Parallel 4ths up
4/4
6/8 C Syncopated Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
6/8 (repeat)
5/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
4/4 D Alternate Triplets – Sync with percussion & drums
5/8
7/8
4/4 B Resolving Parallel 4ths
4/4
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
7/4 A Intro
7/4 (repeat)
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4 Jam with Descending quarters
—
4/4 E Salsa pattern solo over descending quarters
—
4/4 E Descending quarters, all instruments
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4
4/4 (repeat)
4/4 Ending

If you want to follow along, the Intro starts after Valdes’s extended piano solo in the second video. In all the meter changes the eighth note remains constant.

I love Ponle La Clave because it’s so complex and has such intricate sync between the instruments. It’s a heavily percussive piece that demonstrates rhythmic mastery between all the players. It’s in one of my favorite meters, 7/4, for the majority of the piece, but Pineda and Guillot divide that a thousand different ways. Both of them use an African technique of cycling through a shorter meter pattern in 7/4 making the song sound momentarily in a different meter, and then jump back into the 7/4 meter easily. It’s a hard task to even play another instrument along with them and keep count, let alone execute. Valdes takes a delicious quarter note pause after the solos are over to bring the intro back again. The pause both gives a nice breath from the overstimulation of the solos but also gives you a sense of rhythmic displacement, as if the rest of the song were played on the off beat instead of the down beat.

The jam at the end is incredible. It has the intensity of the climax of a Phish song, a Bela Fleck solo or a Fela Kuti groove but is wildly embellished with jazz hits, drum solos and piano riffs. I have a long time goal of transcribing this song and learning to play it on every instrument in the quartet, for even being able to play it (let alone compose the improvisations on the spot) in my book would be a demonstration of mastery.

I played drums in the Explanation from 2003-2005 and recorded the first five tracks of this album.

Now that The Explanation’s over I’m in a new band, Samantha with former Exp guitarist Mikey Borchardt. We don’t have any tracks up but make friends with us to find out about upcoming shows.

I’ve been obsessed with Chucho Valdes’s track Ponle La Clave from Live at the Village Vanguard ever since I first heard an MP3 of it in college (mislabeled as ‘ponte la clave’). I later bought the album Live at the Village Vanguard, which is great, and so is Valdes’s similar album Bele Bele en la Habana, which I purchased off of itunes.

Ponle La Clave is one of the most enjoyable and complex pieces of music I’ve ever heard. It’s energetic, it’s amazingly fast, it’s syncopated, most of it is in 7/4 but it changes meter constantly, and the piano, conga and drum solos are brilliant. My goal is to someday transcribe this piece and play the piano or drum solos because I believe it would make me a better musician to understand what they’re doing.

Raul’s masterful drum solo in 7/4 is mind-blowing. So is his use of double bass drum pedals and rolls. I was intrigued by him and sought out other music of his, finding this page:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=13929

That page mentions he recorded an album, Bembe En Mi Casa, with Nachito Herrera. I made a Pandora Station with “Nachito Herrera” and was wildly pleased with the results. I found a new favorite song of mine, Song in F, and made a pandora station with it as the seed (Song in F) which is even better. I’m finding great music by Tito Puente, Francisco Aquabella, Bebo Valdes (Chucho’s father, sweet), Willie Colon, and Orchestra Harlow on it.

Song in F is remarkably similar to Ponle La Clave, featuring virtusosic solos, a killer chorus, and an amazing sync between the congas and drums. Pineda has to be the link between these phenomenal songs. Raul Pineda / Nachito Herrera / Song in F gets a five star rating from me, shared in iTunes only with artists Chucho Valdes, Freakpower, Stanton Moore, Mos Def, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tommy Flanagan, and Zero 7.