Here is a new Lairds track. It was primarily recorded using Maschine, then beaten into shape with various production baseball bats in Logic.

The Electrify interface. Confusing for about 30 seconds then as easy to use as can be.

For a while there it was touch and go. The iPad looked like being a super fancy consumer device, perfect for on sofa web browsing, game playing and one finger emailing, but not a patch on real Old Skool computers for doing anything remotely creative like image manipulation or music making.

Well that lasted about 6 months or so, at least until the likes of Photogene, Camerabag and Colorsplash (along with tons of others) redefined image editing and Garageband kicked off a new breed of music creation tools, which moved things beyond the simple instrument replication and into the realms of real digital music creation.

Initially these were fine, but confusing. Either trying to be digital versions of real life drum machines, pianos and, er, guitars or trying to be the one size fits all, digital audio workstation. The main issues with the former being that the touchscreen wasn’t a real keyboard, drum pad or guitar string, so it didn’t have any physical response or its interface didn’t take advantage of the iPad’s potential. Worst, by a mile, was ReBirth, which totally ruined the presence of two 303s, an 808 and a 909 with the kind of interface that was ponderous and over complicated. The main issues with the latter was also interface related and pointed to rushed development times and a lack of understanding of the audio creation process.

The two interfaces for iElectribe apps. While the original interface, below, may resemble the real world machine, it looks far less fun than the Gorillaz version above.

Now that Garageband has set the basic standard, there has been a massive jump in quality of genuinely great music making apps. Two of them  in particular have really grabbed my attention, the Gorillaz’s version of the iElectribe and Electrify. The Gorillaz’s version of iElectribe really illustrates the value of great interface/skin design as it’s essentially exactly the same app as the Korg iElectribe (albeit with different samples), but looks way more fun and easier to use.

And the Gorillaz version is super fun to use, allowing you to play about with 64 samples from the Gorillaz’s The Fall album and giving you a host of options to make the sounds your own while creating your own patterns. And it moves beyond simply being a glorified drum machine by having a variety of instrumental and vocal samples. Still it’s irritating in two key ways. First, changing the pitch of individual sounds is controlled using a dial and is almost impossible to get right. Second, and far more irritating, you can’t load in your own samples. This massively reduces the creative potential of the app as a genuine music making application more than anything else, not least because all the sounds are still copyrighted by Gorillaz making release of any tunes you create all but impossible. Still it’s excellent fun and really easy to use.

Standing head and shoulders above all the other DAWs I have used on the iPad (among them Music Studio, Beatmaker and Garageband) is Electrify. It shares a similar interface style with the excellent TouchOSC, which I use as a controller for Logic, and most importantly allows you to import your own samples.

Initially confusing, it’s a bit like an iPad version of one of those square Ableton controllers. But once you’ve played with it for a bit, it’s astonishingly easy, while the 8 x 8 main matrix allows you to develop interesting pattern sets using a variety of instruments and sounds. Using it as a drum machine is simplicity itself, but it really comes into its own when you move beyond the use of simple drum samples and start using a greater variety of samples, and this is where the ability to use your own samples comes into its own.

I’ve only been playing with it for a couple of days, but here are two tunes I’ve banged out already.

Another new tune from the upcoming Lairds album.

[mp3player width=460 height=140 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=the_wire_v3.xml]

[mp3player width=460 height=140 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=the_wire.xml]

[mp3player width=460 height=80 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=the_wire.xml file=The Wire]

[mp3player width=460 height=80 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=hooligan_superstar.xml]

It’s a mixture of experimental keyboard/sampling/beats and guitar. Here, hopefully, are a couple of examples.

Beats v1.0

Human League (Not)

Very, very blue. Roger Hiorns' Seizure.

Having managed to be nominated for a Turner Prize, or at least being responsible for having its creator Roger Hiorns nominated, it’s no surprise that the council who wanted to demolish this old council house block somehow haven’t quite got around to breaking it up. In fact you get the feeling that if they could only find a way to levy a charge on this it would cover the building of a few new decent homes.

Still, Hiorns’ Seizure, a copper sulphate encrusted house that’s well worth seeing, has been reopened (until October 18 2009). It does make you wonder what they’ve been doing with it since they closed it at the tail end of last year. Anyway, it’s great and you all should go and stand in line to get your feet into the now probably very scabby festival gumboots you have to wear to get inside. You won’t be disappointed (foot infections aside). More info on Shapeandcolour and here, oh and here too.

Frankly if Hiorns doesn’t win the Turner Prize, then the art people need their heads examined.

Squire Jules in his new headgear

Went out to see the medieval jousting at Arundel Castle, where the Boon were able to equip themselves in a style they could only previously have dreamed about – real swords, super-vicious gauntlets and some quality headgear such as this forward thinking child encasing unit – simply place the unit on child and watch them bimble about merrily for the next ten minutes heroically bumping into stuff left right and center. For double amusement equip child with a finely made longsword and back off quickly. We thought the Boon would be enthralled by the fine exhibition of olde worlde sword fighting and jousting, but it turns out they really raved over the castle, which was “A proper castle just like I wanted”. Best bit obviously being the Tower Guards’ outdoor toilet.

Meanwhile, the Lairds of Scunthorpe album has been developing at a pace over the summer. Currently there are 10 – 12 tracks being worked on, from material developed solely on the fantastic Beatmaker on the iPhone, to fully Logiced up songs with some neat beats. I want to get it to about double that before I start working out which ones to focus on.

As if this wasn’t enough I’ve been rewatching The Wire (like anything else is worth rewatching alright). Only this time I’ve added a new twist. I’m watching it in French with English subtitles. That way when I go over to France I’ll be able to talk in authentic Baltimore French, which I guess is a bit like McNulty’s genuine English. Spot On eh.