The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

A cool, easy to use application to those who like their music electronic, pulsating (and optionally bleepy ).

© Arguru

By adjusting sliders with complex names like VCF Env Inertia and Oscillating Mix, you get to create a myriad of electronic sounds that range from acidic (my 15 seconds sample with settings shown above - max out the resonance for an acid trip) to trancey stuff (my 15 seconds sample using settings below).

© Arguru

© Arguru

My favourite settings involve heavy basslines (my 15 seconds sample with above configuration).

The download below is the last publicly released version of Saiko - version 1.0 R9. The author, Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius (Arguru), stopped development back in 2003 and will never complete since he unfortunately passed away in a traffic accident last June RIP Arguru.

Download Saiko 1.0 R9 from Aodix Arguru Software (the FMOD.dll in this package seems to be of an incorrect version - try downloading from here if it doesn’t work for you).

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Orange Mixer - Create your own Electronic Tracks Online

Found a legal direct download link recently for one of Jay Chou (周杰倫)’s older tracks - Orc (半獸人 - literally translated as Half-Beast Man) released in 2002. It’s available for download from Blizzard Entertainment’s (yes, Blizzard as in Warcraft) site. The reason it’s hosted there for download is because the MV for this song splices in footage of the Warcraft 3 cinematics, which you can view on Youtube.

© Blizzard Entertainment

Jay Chou fans and Chinese Warcraft III fans will probably yawn at this old news but I guess this is still relatively new stuff for non-Chinese Warcraft 3 gamers.

I love the orchestral and horn parts in there but your mileage may vary depending on your taste for Chinese hip-hop/rap :P. Chinese lyrics are available at Jay Chou Studio.

Download Jay Chou - Orc (3.74 MB - 4:05 mins) from Blizzard.

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Appleseed - Ex Machina HD DVD Music, Wallpapers & High Res Artwork
Blazing Angels & Ace Combat 6 Instrumental Score Downloads

An additional 3 wallpapers for the John Woo produced anime Appleseed :Ex Machina from the official Warner Videos’ Appleseed : Ex Machina HD DVD site in 1024×768, 1280×1024 and 1900×1200 resolutions.

© Warner Video

While the first wallpaper of the duo Deunan Knute & Briareos Hecatonchires is definitely my favourite, what’s interesting is the third wallpaper featuring a new character in the Appleseed sequel - Tereus, a Bioroid (artificial human) E.S.W.A.T member created with Briareos’ DNA resulting in him resembling the latter before he was transformed into a cyborg after sustaining severe war injuries in World War Three. On top of that, Tereus has inherited Briareos’ excellent combat skills as well as his personality (including his attraction to Deunan).

Three high resolution artworks for the fans below. Click on the images to view the full versions - detailed enough to see the brand on the hubcap of Deunan’s bike

© Warner Video

Many thanks to Fred from M80 / Warner Brothers for the links to the artworks above and informing me of the existence of the official site (the intro video contains the some of the best action sequences of the 2:18 teaser - also available on MySpaceTv) . Below’s two captures from the teaser. Click for high resolution versions.

© Warner Video

Fred also notified me of a Appleseed : Ex Machina trailer remix contest for US residents. While non-US residents can of course register to play around with the nifty trailer remixer, they are ineligible for the grand prize for an all expenses paid trip for 2 to WonderCon 2008 in San Francisco to meet the makers of Appleseed : Ex Machina As a concession, non-US registrants like me get to watch a few extra clips from the film not seen in the teaser video.

Below is a screenshot of what you can expect to play with at the trailer remix site - 15 video clips and 6 MP3s in total for you to mash-up and express your creativity.

My favourite video clips are: Clip 9 where Briareos tackles the target range with dual SMGs (Seburo MN-23s?) firing and Clip 12 where the acrobatic Deunan singlehandedly takes out a minigun-toting foe. And Clip 8 is just plain cool - ejected brass cartridges and empty magazines falling in slow motion and slick action sequences - pure style in this one

© Warner Video

The 1 min soundtrack snippets are pretty listenable too - love the soaring instrumentation of Tetsuya Takahashi’s Synchronicity and the manic breakbeats of Shogo Ohnishi’s Speed Star. Preview the tracks below.

Ex Machina
Mission
Speed Star
Synchronicity
Sortie
Buddy

Download the wallpapers at the official Warner Videos’ Appleseed : Ex Machina HD DVD site or create your trailer remix @ www.appleseedtrailerremix.com. The contest ends on 07 February 2008 so check out www.appleseedtrailerremix.com if you’re interested.

© Warner Video

I’m pretty hyped up about Appleseed : Ex Machina right now, hope it’s as good as the lovely Deunan says it is

Oh yeah, this is the last post for this month (and this year) - going to be on holiday till next year so posting will resume on 8 Jan 2008

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Official Japanese Appleseed : Ex Machina Wallpapers
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The Best John Woo’s Stranglehold Trailer - The E3 2005 Trailer.
Stranglehold Wallpapers

I always felt that the instrumental scores of flight sims and other air combat games were a perfect complement to the idea of graceful yet deadly knights dueling in the blue skies high above.

© Ubisoft

Two of my favourite downloadable (legal, of course ) game scores - one from Blazing Angels : Squadrons of WWII and the other from the more recent game Ace Combat 6 : Fires of Liberation.

© Bandai Namco

Ace Combat 6’s ‘M13A’ score starts slow but builds up to a very beautiful melody around 3:15 mins. Blazing Angels’ more energetic ‘End Credits Theme’ employs a different approach with its emotionally stirring tune. While both scores convey the same sense of epic majesty, I much prefer Blazing Angels’ score composed by Rednote Audio (credits which include work on Heroes of Might and Magic V and Blacksite Area 51) for its more memorable tune. I believe the version on Rednote Audio’s site is a shortened version of the music that plays at the Blazing Angels website.

Download and listen to Rednote Audio’s End Theme (2.63 MB - 1.:54 mins) and other works for Blazing Angels - on their official page or the Ace Combat 6 ‘M13A’ MP3 (3.9 MB - 4:13 mins) from the official site. (direct MP3 link)

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Drivey - Relaxing Screensaver

Juno Records, one of my favourite online record stores for electronic music, has finally made its entire back catalogue searchable. Previously, users could only search for out of stock records and CDs released in the previous one or two years.

With the newly opened back catalogue, I can now preview and positively identify tracks of older releases that I hear in downloaded mixes as well as complete my wishlist of the classic tracks in genres like drum & bass that I’ve only recently began to listen to. Unforunately, some of these tracks are only available on permanently out-of-print vinyl athough some tracks still have digital downloads

Most online record stores use streaming audio for preview but Juno Records allows users to directly download MP3 or WMA samples before previewing, which is perfect for users with slower connections or for offline preview.

Thanks to its pleasing and extremely user-friendly interface as well as its efficient search feature, I use it regularly together with Last.fm and Discogs to discover and identify electronic music tracks. I have downloaded MP3 samples of most of the tracks on my wishlist so it’s easy for me to decide what to buy when I save enough

Although their prices are very competitive, their shipping charges for vinyl to SG are slightly higher than the other online record stores like SoulSeduction and Chemical Records that I have shopped before. The CDs (including shipping) are usually cheaper than HMV at Heeren though.

Some of my favourite tracks from a few years back with links to 1 min samples at Juno Records . Take a listen, you may find something nice in the following lists

Progressive
Cass & Slide - Opera (Phantoms Mix)
Way Out West - Mindcircus
Gus Gus - Believe

Drum & Bass
Uncut - Fallin’ (Total Science Dub)
LTJ Bukem - Suspended Space
LTJ Bukem - Watercolours
4 Hero - 9 by 9 (Remix)
Technozoide - Esfera
Big Bud - Indian Summer

House
Laurent Garnier - Greed (Fabric Lig Remix)
Ken Ishii - Iceblink (Beat The Strings Attack Mix)
Cricco Castelli - Buena Vista (Audio Drive’s Formula 1 Remix)
Alan Barratt - The End (The Witch Doctor Remix)
Green Velvet - Flash (Danny Tenaglia’s Nitrous Oxide mix)

Techno
Jay Denham - Smoker’s Delight
Redhead vs Alexander Koning - Redhead vs Alexander Koning (Redhead Remix)
Richard Bartz - Subway
Technasia - Evergreen III
Gary Martin - Cosa Cougat (Original Mix)
E-Dancer - Pump The Move

Haven’t been listening to breaks and breakbeat stuff for a while but here’s some of my old favourites.

Breaks
Fatboy Slim - Retox (Freq Nasty Remix)
BLIM - Dust
Leftfield - Afrika Shox

Breakbeat
Keith Tucker - Alien Radio
Chaos - Afrogermanic
Dopplereffekt - Speak & Spell

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