Teaching Electronic Music on a 21″ Tablet (Lenovo Yoga Home 500)

Recently when I conducted the two day workshop on Producing Electronic Music for School of Music Arts (SOMA), I decided to use the Yoga Home 500 PC/Tablet for teaching. In the process, I discovered 3 benefits:

1. Using the same computer for production and performance is more efficient

Until now, we’ve been making music in our personal studio on a heavy duty desktop computer (Lenovo A720) with a large screen. The powerful CPU enabled us to experiment with multiple instruments and effects, and the large screen enabled us to see many channels of music, instruments and effects at the same time. We even performed with it at the Esplanade Waterfront.

Cosmic Armchair playing touchscreen at Esplanade Waterfront

But that desktop was not only heavy duty, it was also heavy. So for many live performances, we had to duplicate our files onto our IdeaPad ultrabook instead. And if we made any new changes during the rehearsal or performance, we had to duplicate them back to the desktop. This led to messy duplicates and sometimes versions went missing or were over written.

   Now our Yoga Home 500 not only has all the CPU power and screen size of a desktop PC, but is also portable enough to be brought out to the performance (or in this case, the lesson). The foldable stand turns it into a tablet that can be carried in a tote bag, and the wireless keyboard and mouse mean there are less messy cables.

2. Teaching by touchscreen is easier than teaching by mouse

My students used to have to strain their eyes to see where my mouse pointer was clicking on screen, even after increasing screen size and pointer size. Now that I use the touchscreen of the Yoga Home 500 to teach, students can see exactly where my fingers are pressing, and follow along on their own computers.

3. Performing live on the touchscreen is intuitive and fun

The multi-touch touchscreen of the Yoga Home 500 allows my students to experience hands on the ability to play live on the Ableton Live software, triggering and manipulating music with their fingers (see below) without requiring additional hardware or configuration.

Playing Ableton Live on touchscreen

   We pioneered playing the touchscreen PC as a musical instrument with our Lenovo A720 at larger shows like our Esplanade Waterfront show (see first photo above). The Yoga Home 500 is more portable which means we can bring it for almost any performance.  This versatility is a great benefit for teaching electronic music, and I’m looking forward to playing it in live performances as well.

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LANDR or EMastered – which online mastering is better? Hear and decide for yourself

We recently uploaded our current single, I DON’T BELONG HERE, to the two leading online mastering sites, LANDR and EMastered, to see which one would do a better job of mastering* our music. Both sites  use proprietary artificial intelligence and algorithms to do the job automatically, at a fraction of the time and cost of human beings. Ideally we prefer to give our music to a good (human) mastering engineer with experience in our genre, but we wanted to explore if these automated sites could do the job for a quick demo.

(* ‘mastering’ is the final part of audio post production before releasing the song, where the final mix is processed with EQ, compression, limiting and other enhancements, and makes it sound professional)

The results between the sites are close, so you should listen to the examples and decide for yourself, preferably on good headphones or speakers (not earbuds). You may also want to compare the loudest parts where the beats kick in.

What you hear below is the original WAV file without mastering, as a baseline.

 

What you hear next is the result of uploading the WAV file to LANDR.com

 

Compare it with the result of uploading the WAV file to EMastered.com

 

Finally, here is the version that is available for you to buy in the Alfa Matrix store (hint, hint)

 

So , which one do you prefer? Please tell us in the comments.

 

 

 

Back in the Studio with an #Electro #Synthpop #EBM Mixtape

We’re back in the studio after a long hiatus and our first recording of 2016 is this mixtape of our favourite synthpop / electro / EBM tracks from the Matrix Downloaded 4 compilation by Alfa Matrix, the top international alternative electro / synthpop / EBM label.

Yes we had our hands full with other matters in 2015 – new addition to family, new full time job, new live Peranakan electropop show – and we’re very sorry to our label mates whom we were unable to remix in time for your great EP and album releases (they sound great!) – but we’re back in action producing and remixing and ready to go!

You’ll find our favourite synthpop / electropop / alternative tracks from the Matrix Downloaded 4 (available at http://alfa-matrix-store.com/ ) featuring PSY’AVIAH feat. MARI KATTMAN, AYRIA, COSMIC ARMCHAIR (ourselves!), ESSENCE OF MIND, UNTER NULL, METROLAND, DIFFUZION, ENTRZELLE, SUICIDAL ROMANCE, AESTHETISCHE, STUDIO-X vs. SIMON CARTER, DREAM RECALL, and AVARICE IN AUDIO.

 

 

The making of Digital Dondang Sayang #Peranakan #Electropop (Continued)

This is a series of video interviews that the NUS Centre of the  Arts team recorded during our photo shoot for the show.  Over the next few weeks we’ll be  sharing more of our adventure, in creating our first Digital Dondang Sayang show, with you.

What is Cosmic Armchair?

What is Digital Dondang Sayang about?

Why do you enjoy working with the NUS Electronic Music Lab?

How is it performing at the NUS Baba House?

 

 

How to get tickets for Digital Dondang Sayang

Fri & Sat 18 & 19 March 2016
Time: 8pm (doors open at 6pm if you would like to tour the Baba House
Venue: NUS Baba House, 157 Neil Road (click on link for map)
Tickets at $12 – Discounts & concessions available at bit.ly/CFATIX

Facebook event page
https://www.facebook.com/events/1847086882184695/?active_tab=highlights

E-mail us cosmicarmchair@gmail.com if you need any info or have difficulty with the ticket system

Traditional Peranakan poetry meets electronic pop at our Digital Dondang Sayang

For the first time ever, on 18 and 19 March we’re presenting Digital Dondang Sayang, the first performance of its kind combining traditional Dondang Sayang performers from the Gunong Sayang Association,  electronic pop from us {Cosmic Armchair), and experimental electronica from the NUS Electronic Music Lab, in the NUS Baba House, a heritage house recreating the ancestral home of a 1920s Straits Chinese family.

Event: Benjamin Ang and Cosmic Armchair present Digital Dondang Sayang
Date/Time: Friday 18 March and Saturday 19 March, 8 pm
Venue: NUS Baba House, 157 Neil Road

The songs are based on a selection of traditional Peranakan pantun (poems written in the Baba Malay language) written by Ang Kay Teong in the early 20th century, and handed down to his great grandson, our very own Cosmic Ben.

The show begins with a classic Dondang Sayang rendition of the poems by the Gunong Sayang Association, in the traditional style. This is followed by our Cosmic Armchair electronic pop interpretation and original new songs inspired by the poems. The show concludes with new experimental electronic works created and performed by the NUS Electronic Music Lab, that take the words of the poems into the next century.

All of this takes place in the most appropriate setting for a Dondang Sayang house party – the NUS Baba House, a restored Peranakan family home from the era of the poems.

In addition to being an artistic adventure of old and new music for all ages, Digital Dondang Sayang also follows Ben’s exploration of his musical roots, as he tries to discover who his mysterious ancestor was, and what inspired him to write more than 500 poems. Watch this space over the coming days as we follow him through that journey.

ABOUT GUNONG SAYANG ASSOCIATION

Gunong Sayang Association is the Peranakan social club that has been performing dondang sayang (traditional Peranakan song form) regularly in Singapore.

ABOUT NUS ELECTRONIC MUSIC LAB

NUS EML is a performing group based at the NUS Centre for the Arts, which creates, records, performs and promotes original electronic music of all genres.

ABOUT NUS BABA HOUSE

National University of Singapore restored the traditional family home of a wealthy Peranakan (Straits Chinese) family in Singapore, recreating what it was like in the early 20th century, and now this heritage house is open to visitors to explore the history and culture of this ethnic group that is unique to this region of Asia.

Meeeting the next generation of electronic musicians in Singapore

NUS Electronic Music Lab (at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts) is a special place for us, because we first started collaborating on music there. To this day, Ben continues to teach there on weekends, and recently he conducted a two day workshop on Ableton Live for beginners. Participants came from all over campus and even beyond, and the most unique participant was Dr Pete Kellock, a veteran electronic musician who had been our tutor! He had decided to make the move from Logic to Ableton, and in the spirit of learning, chose to go back to school again! Very inspiring for EML students, to see that learning never stops, and making electronic music never stops either.

A few weeks after the workshop, participants and current EML members met at NUS CFA for a barbeque and EML PLUGIN session – EML’s regular electronic music open mic where we present our new works and tracks that are work in progress. Everyone had a great time with the food, music and good company

The best part of keeping in touch with this community is that we are constantly meeting new electronic musicians, and hearing the work of up and coming artists is inspiring and sparks off new ideas. For the upcoming album, you’ll also hear some of our tracks being remixed by these new artists, so watch this space.

A Happy New Year for Electronic Music from Singapore

Club E, Singapore’s pioneering electronic pop music act of the 1990s, are reuniting for a new release in 2016. This is great news for the electronic pop scene here and especially for us, because members of Club E have been instrumental in supporting and helping our own music. Leonard Tan featured our Cosmic Armchair songs in several EQMusic compilations, and Geoffrey Low will mixing the songs for our upcoming 2016 Cosmic Armchair album CONTACT. We’re very glad to see them back together and making Club E music again – happy, catchy, upbeat, dance-able electronic pop.

So we’re looking forward to having more made-in-Singapore electronic music in the air and on the air in 2016. You can read the full interview here on TODAY Online 

In the meantime, enjoy this new song from Club E as a preview of their upcoming album!

 

We listen to @Lush995FM #ilistentolush

When we released our first EP in 2009, it was Lush 99.5 FM that first played our song Marching of the Days on air, and it was the lovely DJ Kate Reyes who interviewed us and played our songs for a full half hour.

Since then, we’ve been grateful to hear our songs Marching of the Days, Just One Look, and our current single I Don’t Belong Here, not only being played on Lush 99.5 FM, but also tweeted with the hashtag #lushloveslocal (see https://twitter.com/hashtag/lushloveslocal?src=hash).

And that – besides their awesome playlist that is a rich source of discovering new and interesting music especially electronic – is a key reason why so many of us in the Singapore music scene love Lush. Because Lush loves us and helps us spread our music.

So we too want to show our support for this excellent radio station by posting with the hashtag #ilistentolush – and if you enjoy good music, we hope you will do the same too.

Our Take You Home is in Deezer’s #SG50 Playlist

When we were living overseas, we wrote this synthpop song about coming home, and we later published it on our 2nd local EP. This year we’re honoured that Deezer has included it in their SG50 Past and Present Playlist to “Celebrate the nation’s Jubilee year with the best local tunes from the 60’s till today”. So we hope you enjoy your National Day celebration with our lyric video for Take You Home