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Mali is the Philippines’ only captive elephant—and perhaps one of the world’s saddest. In the wild, elephants roam territories of up to 50 kilometers every day, but Mali is confined to a very small enclosure at the Manila Zoo, which is only 0.055 square kilometers in total.

Every minute of every day, Mali is confined to a barren, concrete enclosure. She has lived this way for more than 36 years. She had been denied veterinary care and the company of other elephants.

But Mali has an opportunity for a second chance at life. A sanctuary can provide Mali with all the things that the Manila Zoo cannot. Despite a directive from the Office of the President stating that Mali’s health must be examined and that she must be considered for transfer to a sanctuary, Manila Zoo authorities are doing everything they can to delay her transfer. Take action now!

http://action.petaasiapacific.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=110&ea.campaign.id=18058

The post Join Me in Helping to Save Lonely, Miserable Elephant appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

Smokeless Image Coupon Code MYVOLT74

I’ve done a review of the Smokeless Image Volt electronic cigarette kit, and I have a Smokeless Image Coupon Code for 10% off your order with them. The code is MYVOLT74, and you can visit http://www.brianbotkiller.com/smokelessimage.html to get this deal.

I’m a big fan of vaping, electronic cigarettes, and just about anything electronic cigarette, so I was really grateful when Smokeless Image sent me a VOLT electronic cigarette kit to review on Youtube.  They also gave me a Smokeless Image Coupon Code to offer discounts to those who watch my video.

If you want to save money on a new electronic cigarette kit, the VOLT electronic cigarette  is a great way to go.  I was pretty impressed with this kit.  It came with a full set of Cartomizers, two batteries, and a personal charging case that lets me charge my VOLT.  My Smokeless Image Coupon Code is a good way to save money on one of these kits.

Vaping and electronic cigarettes are still new, so you might want to read up on how they work when you buy one.  I can tell you that as a smoker, I have found electronic cigarettes to be quite helpful in smoking less.

The VOLT electronic cigarette kit is still one of the best that I’ve used, and I’ve used a lot of electronic cigarette kits.

The flavor of the VOLT electronic cigarette liquid and cartomizers is pretty impressive.  I don’t like fruity flavors much, but their Tobacco flavor juice is some of my favorite.  If you use my Smokeless Image Coupon Code, MYVOLT74,  you’ll save 10% off your entire order when you click  http://www.brianbotkiller.com/smokelessimage.html

My video review is below.  I hope you find it useful for all your VOLT Electronic Cigarette coupon needs! Use the Smokeless Image Coupon Code, MYVOLT74, to save 10% off your order when you order from http://www.brianbotkiller.com/smokelessimage.html

Smokeless Image Coupon Code with video review:

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The BOT BOX

THE GREAT BOT BOX GIVEAWAY

I’m going to give away a BOT BOX. Want to win? Tell me on this blog post.  That’s all.  It’s worth over $100, and it contains everything I’ve done in the past 12 or so years, including:

Welcome to Postwar USA CD

The post THE GREAT BOT BOX GIVEAWAY appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

http://www.thetwitten.com/products/texting-mittens.html

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Voting has begun for the burlesque top 50 of 2012, and I would very much appreciate your voting for my fiancé, Joy Coy, burlesque noir, myself (this also includes industry figures in burlesque, which, believe it or not, I am), and any other performers or troupes you’ve enjoyed this year (there are many!). If you need some ideas, feel free to browse thru the many great events I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of.

I very much enjoy the art of burlesque, and if you do too, I highly suggest you support it!

The post 2012 top 50 of Burlesque voting is open appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

Educate yourself. Stop believing that anything will be handed to you. It won’t ever be handed to you. Nothing that this country was founded on was handed to anyone. It was created, from the ground up, from working hard and believing in yourself.

Work hard. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. Make it happen with the power of YOU, and the rest follows. Or, sit on your hands, whine, complain, and act like you deserve something without working, and watch nothing change.

Share if you agree.

- brian botkiller

The post The future of America appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

Ableton has announced Live 9, and I’ll be on the beta list for the new arrival, which makes me happy.  I’m a pretty avid Ableton user, so I’m excited to see the new features.   In addition to the new software, there is a new hardware addition, called “Push”.

What’s new in Ableton Live 9?

Session Automation – You can now record automation into your session clips – this is a long awaited feature.  You can also move these clips between session and arrange view.

Browser and sounds –  There is a new browser, allowing for faster searching for devices, sounds, and etc.  Speaking of sounds, Live Suite includes 3500 new sounds. The browser now allows you to customize your browsing experience; gone are the three folders which relegated you to browsing your sounds and library via only those sources.  There are drums by Sonic Couture, as well as new sounds from other artists and sound designers.  Previewing devices is also said to be easier, which should improve workflow.

Convert audio to MIDI – This is  a big one, as it’s something we get asked about a lot here at OBEDIA.  You can now convert audio into editable MIDI clips, which can be used in your sessions.  This is a feature much like that found in Melodyne software, although the features are different.  You can’t convert audio to MIDI and then edit its pitch, which is something which Celemony’s Melodyne will allow you to do. We’ll be interested to see how this works, as it has always been a tricky process; no one piece of software has managed to do it in a perfect way, will Ableton be the one?

Max4Live devices – There’s a host of new Max4Live devices, such as new effects, instruments, and other bits to make noise with.  To get access to them, though, you’ll need the more expensive Live Suite.

New Glue Compressor – Modeled after analog hardware, the Glue Compressor is going to be popular with those of you who like to use parallel compression in your productions (Check out our video on that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaHV_6eZjkA)

Improved EQ 8 –  The EQ 8 has been improved with a new interface, allowing you to select and edit multiple frequencies at once. The filter quality is said to be improved, as well.

New Push hardware

Ableton has announced Push, an integrated, Ableton-branded piece of hardware which they state will help in the process of “starting a song from scratch”.  Some of the features of Push are:

- Touch strip/ribbon for expression (such as filter control)
- Navigation LEDs at the top of the hardware
- 64 backlit and touch sensitive pads for playing melodies and programming MIDI (such as those on the Launchpad by Novation)
- Touch-sensitive encoders

Ableton says Push will be able to play melodies and chords by wrapping a keyboard’s worth of notes into the 64 pads. It is also stated that the hardware is very much meant for starting a song from nothing, playing and programming as you go along. When you’ve laid down the parts you want to work with, you can move to Live to start arranging and organizing your track.

Ableton Push will work with all versions of Ableton Live 9.

When is Ableton Live 9 available?  

As we had mentioned in our previous post, we think it’s likely that Live 9 will be released around Winter NAMM 2013, as Ableton states that Live 9 will be available “First quarter 2013″.  Beta testing is said to start in the next week or so (first week of November 2012). The cost will be:

Intro (without many bells and whistles) – $99 US
Standard (with some of the bells and whistles) – $449 US
Suite (with all the bells and whistles) – $749 US

These are all download prices, I’m  not sure about boxed versions just yet.  If you buy Live 8 right now, though, you can get 25% off of it, and get Live 9 for free.  As for upgrading from older versions, Ableton hasn’t been clear on that just yet.

What are you excited about in Ableton Live 9?

Oh, and, here’s some videos for you to check out:

Thank you for reading!

The post Ableton Live 9 announced – what’s new appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

So Ableton apparently leaked a video of new devices in Ableton Live 9, and then promptly pulled the video down from their Youtube channel.  The video has been reposted quite a few times, you’ll find it below.  Users like myself have been waiting for Ableton 9 for quite some time, so the possibility of a new update, likely to come (I would guess) at winter NAMM 2013, is pretty interesting.

The devices shown in the video don’t offer a whole lot, so far; mostly new designs to the compressor, a new compressor, and re-vamped EQ eight.

I’ve been thinking for awhile what I want in Ableton 9; Ableton had said some time ago that they weren’t planing any major updates for the workstation for awhile, so I’d resigned myself to using what I was given.  I’d have to say that what I’d really like is multiple screen view for those of us who work on multi-monitor setups.  I’d also like to see the grid revamped a bit, with the ability to auto-mark a certain number of bars, such as being able to see every fourth bar highlighted – this would be really useful for arranging tracks.  I don’t have much else that I’d wish for, but it will be interesting to see what else Ableton has up their sleeve.

So, what do you think about a new Ableton version?

The post Ableton 9 leaked video appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.

I do my best to tell these folks; it’s ok; you don’t have to buy a mac to make great music.

Conversely, I have a lot of folks who call, frustrated about music making on mac; I tell them the same thing.

There’s a lot of misinformation in the digital audio world.  You’re lead to believe that shinier = better sound, that one OS “sounds” better than another, and that the summing bus of one program is “vastly superior” to another.

I’m here to tell you today that this isn’t true.  The only truth in digital audio, and in audio in general, is the talent of the person making that music, and their ability to do so with passsion.

While there are some applications that only run on a PC (Cakewalk’s Sonar, for instance), and some that only run on a mac (Apple’s Logic), the truth is that this is the only major limitation in digital audio; software which is dependent on the OS.  Nothing about a piece of software makes it “better” than another based solely on the OS it runs on.  Now, we may feel this way, thanks to the almost placebo-effects of many factors in how we work with software, but if we step outside of ourselves, we’ll see that the tool is just a tool; it is how the user uses it that makes it great.

Many pieces of software work on both mac and PC – this includes most all the major DAWs and their plugins.  Both PCs and Macs allow for 64 bit functionality.  A well-tuned, well-treated machine will operate great and allow you make great music, regardless of the OS on it.  Macs and PCs can get bogged down with junk programs, memory hogging applications, and lack of resources.  This can be fixed by optimizing your machine.  It does not mean that one will be better than another simply based on whom it was created by.

Yes, some tools have features that others don’t have; but this is always the way.  One car might be more suited to the winter than another, but this doesn’t mean that the driver of that vehicle can’t be more suited to drive any vehicle in the winter, thanks to their skills.

Bottom line; the tool cannot do a thing without the user.  You must take the time to get to know the tool.  Then, you will find that your skills will allow you to move between any Operating system, DAW, or piece fo hardware.

Obviously this is based on the user; if you feel more suited to one OS, that’s fine!  My messge here is simply this; music knows no bounds, whether it be the technology used to make it, or the person who operates that technology.  Enjoy making music – that’s why you do it, right?

The post Making music on mac vs. PC – why neither is better appeared first on brianbotkiller.com.