Room 211: The Mike Charles Blog » Music Production

Two Original Tracks From Mike Charles

Mike Charles — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:23:07 +0000

This is a day I’ve been both looking forward to and dreading for a long time but knew would eventually come when I decided to set out on making my own music. Looks like today is the day. Below you’ll find two tracks I’ve decided to finally release out into the wild. I think you’ll find they might not exactly be what you would expect from me. Its not what i was expecting either, but its what ended up coming out and I went with.

Please give them a listen when you have a chance. Feedback and comments are welcome. If anyone is interested in a free promo copy of either track, email me and I’ll send you a high quality mp3 version.

Enjoy.
-Mike Charles

Equilibrium Concept by Mike_Charles

Aceldama by Mike_Charles

Elysium – Midi Sequencing Madness

Mike Charles — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:00:36 +0000

I love piano rolls and step sequencers as much as the next guy, but Elysium adds a new dimension and inspiration to MIDI sequencing. Its a hex grid of notes using the harmonic table, and it allows you to do crazy things like generate a token shoot it across the table, and have it refract in a whole bunch of different places.

Check out CDM for a description from someone who can explain better, or a video after the jump.

Elysium is basically a software version of reacTogon. This video shows the kind of stuff it is capable of.

Its currently in Beta version 0.9. Its available for OS X 10.5 only, and best of all its free.

Winter NAMM 2009 Round Up

Mike Charles — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:19:57 +0000

So winter NAMM brought some new electronic music toys into the world, but for the most part I wasn’t really wowed. If you want a full round up I suggest heading over to CDM, where they do a fine job. This post is just about the stuff that I found interesting, and you may too.

Pictured above is the new MOTU BPM soft beat machine. That was the most interesting that came out of NAMM for me, and I will certainly be checking it out in the future.

Akai unleashed a fancy ableton live controller that is custom tailored for the software. Live 8 was also unveiled. I guess if i was into Ableton, I’d be a little more excited.

Native Instruments brought out Maschine, yet another drum machine. Its pretty cool though, it can work standalone or as a softsynth. NI also came out with the “Audio 4″ audio interface for Traktor, to which i immediately exclaimed “Big F’in Deal”

M-Audio now has an Axiom Pro line which to me just looks like an updated white Axiom. I already have a regular Axiom 25 and can’t figure out why this thing is better or worth more money. Maybe justifying details will come out soon?

And Finally, Jazzmutant updated the Lemur to v2 and announced price cuts. Don’t get excited though, its still way too expensive for us common folk. Let me put it this way, for the same price as a lemur, you could buy 8 iPod Touches, put Touch OSC on all of them, and buy an ice cream.

Project 001

Mike Charles — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:31:01 +0000

I’m currently working on my first track. Like most things I do, I don’t name it till the end, so right now it is being referred to as “Project 001.” I’m not really sure how to classify what it is that I’m working on, as it keeps changing w/ each incarnation. I can tell you its house-like, assertive, and bit ethereal. More on this one as it develops.