It’s here: on Saturday 2, on the second month of 2008, at 2pm (see, easy to remember) we open the doors to registered visitors, ex students, friends and guests, to celebrate the release of the most exciting piece of software in a long while.
If you've heard about Ableton, if you use version 6 and wonder whether you should upgrade or not, or if you don’t even know what Live is, we will be conducting a short demo/tutorial to answer most of your questions. In addition you will be able to visit the school, try the software yourself, and if you are lucky, bring home a copy of Live 7 Suite and other prizes offered by Ableton, M-Audio and London School of Sound.
The event is free but you MUST register online to gain admission.

If you haven't seen it yet, Current TV has a one hour long video of Radiohead performing their latest album live in studio. The film is called ‘Scotch Mist’ (see link below) and proves among other things that even without multitracking and additional production the songs work perfectly and the guys can play. Something to think about.
But going back to geeky sillyness, the video features ‘live’ tweaking of a beautiful vintage Roland TR909. While the tweaking itself is actually limited to changing patterns, level and a bit of decay on the hats, this video alone brings 909 madness to a new generation. The upside, our own loved one is getting again the respect it deserves from visitors and students; the downside is very likely to be another season of totally stupid prices on ebay.

To watch Scotch Mist: http://current.com/items/88803042_radiohead_s_scotch_mist

Osculator is an open-source application that runs on Mac computers and allows you to use all sorts of inputs (joysticks, scripts, keyboard combos and of course the Nintendo Wii infra-red controller) to generate midi data for your favourite synthesizer.
It costs just $29 and is supported natively by Reaktor and Max/MSP but can be made ot work with almost anything else if you have the patience to figure out the midi routing.
http://www.osculator.net/wiki/Main/HomePage

These two have been going hand in hand for a while, with Cakewalk being offered as a bundle with almost every Roland and Edirol interface, but it’s still slightly shocking. It feels strange to see all these great Japanese synth-makers half-heartedly buying exisiting software instead of developing something really new. And it’s equally weird to see all these glorious music applications going corporate. Here is the picture so far:
Emagic > bought by Apple
Digidesign > bought by Avid
Steinberg > bought by Yamaha
Cakewalk > bought by Roland
Cool Edit Pro> bought by Adobe

Still independent:
Ableton, Propellerheads, FruityLoops (leaving aside all the small synth and effects companies)...

So who’s left? Korg? Considering that they have been responsible for almost every one of the most gorgeous and stilish instruments to hit the market in the last few years, we really hope that they’ll think of doing something along those lines in software.

Well, maybe you won't be able to play with the London Philharmonic, but you will learn more than you would staying at home, guaranteed.

If you attended the Piano Boot Camp course or the lecture on music theory that is part of the Music Production 101 course you have already experienced Phil Ramocon's hands-on approach to music theory.

On Saturday 9th of February, for one day only, you'll have the chance to refresh your scales and skills, or if you have never played a piano to get started in a painless and fun way: the number of participants is limited to six as usual and admission is £80. Book now or wait a few months before the next one.

The Music Production Essentials (MP101), Sound Engineering (MP261), Form-Structure-Creativity (MP151) modules have filled very quickly and the classes are now closed for the coming term. At the time of writing there are still a few places available on the following courses: Evening Music Production (MP104), Advanced Mixing (MP324), Sound Design & Synthesis (MP181), but you are advised to call as early as possible when interested in a course. The next term will start in September, and we are already accepting applications.

As you can see the newsletter looks different: it’s not just the graphics, we are going to try to squeeze a little more content in here, aside from course dates and all.
We hope you will find it a good read, and in the coming weeks some minor improvement will find its way to the website too, as we respond to your feedback and make LSS easier to navigate and find stuff.

In the real world of brick and mortar we are glad to announce that the Soundwave class is now fitted with a very useful soundproof door and some fancy lights of absolutely no practical use, and therefore totally cool.

Er... the new Weekend Courses, that is.

Starting in January we are rolling out a new series of intensive crash courses to offer LSS quality in a more convenient format.
Classes will start at 11 and terminate at 5pm and at just £300 this is the best value for money we have ever seen.

Here is a list of what’s available now and in the coming months:

Creating Music with Reason 4
Advanced Reason 4
Ableton Live level one
Ableton Live level two
Pro Tools 701 (coming in May)

We have a limited number of rather cool LSS-branded USB Memory Sticks.

The capacity is a generous 2Gb and they are perfect to move files between computers, being compatible with both Mac and PCs.

What's more these come with a keyring attached so it's easier to carry them always with you.

How much? £15,99 plus delivery.

To get yours come to the LSS or email.