Creative Edge Music

This past Saturday night I had the opportunity to celebrate 420 with one the greatest reggae bands to come out of Fallbrook, California: Raiz Muzik . Photograph: David Cruz (WOR) Their name defines exactly what they’re all about. Raiz which literally means “root” in Spanish along with the uniquely written “muzik” imply a simplistic reggae, the original reggae.   Raiz Muzik’s so far seven year career, consists of one full length released album ( Reelection) and a recently released single ( Calloused Hands ). They are gradually proving to all of southern California that they are one of the best local reggae bands around and that roots reggae is ready to make a comeback. Their sound is nothing like the current mainstream reggae that we’ve grown accustomed to hearing on the radio. The brothers Sonny Romero on vocals/drums and Sergio Gonzalez on keys along with band mate Jerome Cruz on guitar/vocals use their clean beats, ingenious melodies and smooth licks to cr...

A few weeks ago, DJ/musician/programmer/producer, AfroDJMac, uploaded an article about his Ableton Live Push emulator here, later he did a followup article: http://tinyurl.com/bvch2c6.   This Live set allowed the user to turn their Launchpad, one of the most popular pieces of hardware for Ableton Live, into a keyboard for any virtual instrument. As some of you may know, Ableton is coming out with a new product with Akai: the Ableton Push. This product is going to retail for $600 alone. A little out of some people's price ranges, especially when many will be just starting out with Ableton and will not necessarily know their way around the new live 9 interface. Some of the new functions that the Akai Push gives its user over what I consider its predecessor, the Novation Launchpad ($150 initially ~$100 now), is it's step sequencer, drum rack layout, and a Keyboard Layout, which AfroDJMac created in his post which I have listed above. Though all three of thes...