http://www.crushediceband.com/blog/music/

or on BandCamp:

http://crushedice.bandcamp.com

Even better… the entire album is only $5 on BandCamp. Happy downloading.

This quick demonstration shows how I can control the settings and parameters of plugins in Ableton Live with a Kinect. The basic idea is that I am using “Synapse for Kinect” to generate left and right hand positions relative to my body, normalizing the positions from Synapse to the midi controller range (0 to 127), generating a MIDI continuous controller (CC) command, and mapping the MIDI CC command to knobs and parameters in Ableton Live. In this example, I map my left hand Z-position to the Dry/Wet knob on a Ping-Pong delay plugin. Thus, when I put my hand closest to the sensor (in front of me) the delay shows maximum effect and when I put my hand behind my body (away from the sensor), the delay is almost non-existent. I also mapped my right hand Y-position to the Rate knob on a flanger plugin. When my right hand moves away from my body (and perpendicular to the Kinect sensor) this increases the flanger Rate. When my hand is close to my body, the flanger rate is zero. Playing with these effects while playing guitar was a very satisfying experience and it gives me a reason to actually move around when I’m playing guitar. Also, its really interesting how the Kinect skeleton detection sees the head of the guitar as my hand, you can see this if you pay close attention in the video.


Synapse for Kinect:
http://synapsekinect.tumblr.com/post/6307790318/synapse-for-kinect

I put together a quick demo today of using the Kinect sensor with Max / MSP 5. Thanks to the great software by Ryan Challinor (Synapse) I was able to get the Kinect sensor working with Max / MSP within an hour without ever having worked with the Kinect sensor before.

After retrieving the left and right hand position data from the Synapse software in Max / MSP, I have the left and right hand y-positions drive the frequencies of two separate oscillators. Then I just add them together and send them to the audio card. While simple, the effect is pretty interesting. I plan on using this for a number of my Crushed Ice’s live performances to control various synth parameters.

Here is a screen shot of the basic Max / MSP patch…

Synapse software:
http://synapsekinect.tumblr.com/post/6307790318/synapse-for-kinect

Box O' CDs

Disc Surface

That one's mine. Plastic off.

For now, you can find our music on a ton of major music distribution sites:

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/over-the-wall/id463802102

Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Over-the-Wall/dp/B005LYQG4Y

CDBaby : https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/crushedice1

last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Crushed+Ice/Over+the+Wall

Rhapsody : http://www.rhapsody.com/album/Alb.49829799

And other sites as well…
Emusic
Napster
GreatIndieMusic
Verizon
iHeart Radio
MySpace Music
MediaNet
Tradebit
Zune
Nokia

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202274453153331

*Disclaimer: This will probably void your warranty, so don’t do it =)

I actually took the APC20 completely apart before taking a photos, so even though I am going to display the photos backwards, as if I am taking it apart. Time warp.

AKAI APC20 – Before Tear Apart

First, remove the 12 visible screws on the back of the APC20.  Then, the 4 rubber feet have to be removed.  The rubber feet are held onto the APC20 with a combination of two-sided tape and the rubber stoppers have little plastic pieces that fit into holes.  Thus, you can remove the rubber stoppers without having to re-glue them back on later. I like these rubber feet.  Remove the screws under the rubber feet as well.  You DO NOT have to remove the silver hex screws that are visible from the front.

The Rubber Feet pop off just nicely.

The APC20 cover will then come apart quite easily from the back of the APC20, BUT! be careful you don’t break any cables that are connected between the front and back panels as shown in the next image.

After removing the cover.

At this point, you have to remove the screws that connect the PCB to the back panel.  There  are quite a lot.  Most chips these days have great ESD (electro-static discharge) protection, but make sure not to run around a carpeted room while pushing your finger onto any of the parts.  Also, there are two screws that are slightly hidden under the ribbon cables.  These are used to remove mechanical stress on the ribbon cables.  Next, you will have to remove the Cue Level potentiometer and level selector knobs.  These pop off really easily.

Pop 'em off!

Also, you will have to remove the washer under the Cue Level potentiometer.

Remove the washer!

At this point, you should be able to remove the PCB from the back panel.  If the PCB gives you any resistance, then you probably missed a screw.  Be careful.  Once the PCB is out, the pad is now visible.

The AKAI PAD in all its glory.

Very Bendy!

Front side of PCB

After I had taken the APC20 apart, I discovered that the capacitor displayed in the next photo (the larger left one) was the offending part.  It was interfering with the operation of the pad.  To fix this, all I did was move the capacitor slightly away from the pad, problem fixed!

The capactor was the problem!

When replacing the pad, take the time to really smooth it out!

APC20 Front Panel Only

USB Chip, power regulators, & microcontroller to process button presses.

1. Tan Cargo pants and shirt
2. Dirty brown skin
3. Dreadlocks
4. Dog-on-a-leash

The dog aspect was by far the strangest to me.  A few had tiny little puppies and the rest had medium-sized dogs.  I managed to snap a quick photo of the tribe on my way out.

Nomadic Hippy Tribe

Has anyone else seen this group of people in Atlanta?