March 23, 2008
guitar hero on tour
On one hand, this promo video makes Guitar Hero On Tour look absolutely horribly shit awful. On the other hand, the video makes Guitar Hero On Tour shit awful.
I digress. I'd want to try it before I wrote it off, but I'm pretty sure whoever they paid to make that clip is the same guys responsible for the advert for the Nintendo Powerglove. (video after jump for your reference)
I love Guitar Hero on Wii and I love my DS. Will I be getting GH:OT? I don't know. Hopefully it's more fun than it looks in that clip.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2008
AU Vistors: Pre-Sonus Firebox For Sale
A good friend to the onetonne establishment is Dylan, He's got a Pre-Sonus firebox for sale for cheap. If you're located in Australia and are in need of excellent quality firewire based I/O for your machine, you should get in touch!
Posted by funnelbc at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2008
Korg DS-10
I love my DS, it's fun and easy to open up anywhere and have a quick play. It's just about the perfect portable gaming device, and accordingly, I also think it has the potential to be the perfect portable music creation platform.
And then, there's the very new, Japan Only (won't be letting that affect me) DS title announced called DS-10. It looks hot. You can see for yourself here.
Did you see that? We get to draw the patch cords on the touch screen. LOVELY STUFF. It's cool for a bunch of reasons. Firstly it sounds good, it's a licensed Korg product so that means it should be quality, and it's cool because it's a fairly serious looking setup on a portable gaming device. I'm sure there will be limitations, as there always are, but I'm irrationally excited about this and will be importing as soon as it's available to buy.
Specs:
Two synths, with dual oscillators, that is patchable (as seen on video), 4 part drum machine that you can create sounds for using the synths. Six track sequencer, (synth x 2 and drums x 4). Delay, Chorus and Flanger sound effects included. Note entry via the touch-screen (hooray - the arpeggio stylus input reminded straight away of the Axe DS freeware.), keyboard onscreen & matrix.
And the kicker: Exchange songs wirelessly, and play together with other units via wireless as well!
A thoroughly decent offering in terms of functionality and the addition of wireless group composition is perfect. As Peter Kirn from CDM eruditely points out, the addition of MIDI support would round this out to be essential purchase.
Available from July onwards.
Developer Blog here, via well, just about every music nerd blog on the intertron, but let's say Peter got there first, cause he usually does :)
Posted by funnelbc at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
Pocket Guitar for iPod Touch & iPhone
The creator says: "PocketGuitar is a virtual guitar for iPhone and iPod touch. You can even have guitar sessions with the songs in your iPod!"
I'd be a bit careful about using the word "Sessions" lest a certain other copyright holder came crashing down on one's head
Download Pocket Guitar Via
Posted by funnelbc at 01:05 PM
| Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Percussa Audiocubes @ NAMM
Previously on onetonne: Percussa Audiocubes youtube Clip
Posted by funnelbc at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Bubblegum Sequencer
Niceness!
Bubblegum Sequencer via gizmodo.com
Posted by funnelbc at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2008
Wii Music Details Emerge
Some details are starting to emerge regarding Wii Music, it sounds a little convoluted, but I'm sure that it will be quite intuitive in terms of gameplay, given that this will be pitched at the non-gamer casual market as much as the gamers.
-Wii Musics Gamplay is based around Play Sessions
- You will have various songs from the Nintendo Sound Team.. Expect OLD BGMs to brand new ones.
- You will have different parts.. meaning Folk Guitars, Base Guitars, Trumpets, Maracas, Marimbas etc. over 40 parts will be available.. You can also be the conductor.. Each Part has different controls..
- For example the Trumpet will make strong sounds if you keep the wii mote at a high angle and weak sounds if the angle is low.. If you play drums you can use two wii motes.. If you are playing guitar you will use the C button as a pick. It does not limit itself in chords but you can play single sounds too.
- You can play 6 parts together.. Up to 4 parts can be played by humans..the others will be played by the CPU..
- Replay options
- Release date in 2008 TBA
Quote taken from NeoGAF Forums Post.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2008
Nodal 1.0 - Generative Software for Music Composition
...a generative software application for composing music. It uses a novel method for the notation and playing of MIDI based music. This method is based around the concept of a user-defined graph. The graph consists of nodes (musical events) and edges (connections between events). You interactively define the graph, which is then traversed by any number of players who play the musical events as they encounter them on the graph. The time taken to travel from one node to another is based on the length of the edges that connect the nodes.
And it's also a lovely idea. The space between the points on the grid defines the time between notes. It outputs midi so you just have to voice it using whatever you happen to have, but this is perfect. From my perspective this is a great fit for the monome/tenori-on crowd who are on a budget (but still have a mac lying around - I mean who doesn't these days?)
Grid based music systems are fascinating, and seem to be experiencing some sort of renaissance at the moment.
Nodal is a research project from Monash Universities Centre for Electronic Media Art.
Thanks dylan!
Thoughts after playing with it for a little while: It's a lot of fun, and pretty cool. It only takes a moment to setup with simple synth, and I'm thinking not a bad way to get some interesting MIDI with which to work with. I like that it's quite polished in terms of interface and and sometimes it's a little counter intuitive, I think that's because I'm learning it rather than because it's massively flawed. I want to run it into Abelton Live and see how that works for me next, I suspect that I'll be able to make it sound a lot better again. Highly recommended for (a free) download.
Posted by funnelbc at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2007
Wearable MIDI trigger devices: Drum Pants
I see your wah wah boots and raise you with Drum Pants! This are apparently the creation of Tyler Freeman, a new wave artist working with code and techno-tomfooler instead of paint. (loosely lifted from his site: odbol.com
Basically it's a cheap MIDI keyboard (in this case a PSR-200) gutted and the keys replaced with little piezo trigger patches which are then sewn into the pants. The triggering of the piezo transducer is then voiced through the midi device and speaker of your choice.
The future of drum pants:
It would also be fun to employ a set of drumsticks for more precise drumming, but unless you're going to surgically attach them to your hands, you won't be a true cyborg.
More clips after the jump.
Via Gizmodo.com
This clip features Tyler combining the drum pants with a Loopstation
Crazy Brazilian clip featuring a band with more obvious triggers on pants. Not a bad old groove happening actually.
Posted by funnelbc at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2007
Percussa Audio Cubes
You know me. I loves my you-tubin'. But look! more tangible interfaces and they look like fun. Plus lights!
See more on their you-tube user page or at percussa.com
Via Matrix-Synth
Posted by funnelbc at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2007
Tenori-On Prototype in Development Flickr Set
Tenori-On Prototype in Development Flickr Set
Posted by funnelbc at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)
Jam Sessions for DS
Rounding out this evening's you-tube festival, here's a lovely quick explanation of Jam Sessions DS.
I think this is the English Version of the japanses title Hiite Utaeru DS previously blogged here .
I forgot to follow this up, and now I must! More videos after the jump.
You get the idea. Nice.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
Tenori-On Price and another video
So apparently launch price is going to be 599 Pounds Sterling. The high price is mostly due to almost completely hand made production process.
It's still the hotness, and I still want one.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2007
Tenori-On = GO!
I kinda missed the launch announcement on this one, but I still think it's worth a link because you know that it's just plain beautiful. It looks like fun, and goddamn it, I still want one.
Coverage par excellence (as per usual) is available at CDM.
But just in-case you get lost in the link love, Sonic-State discusses the Tenori-on in a video called
Chris from Pixel-Sumo also has his thoughts on it.
I still wait in anticipation to get my hands on one to try.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
Tenori-On development finished???
Every now and again I check in on the Tenori-On Yamaha site to see if there have been any developments. Because that's the sort of person I am. In the news section it listed the Tenori on blog being live. (Which as followers of the Tenori-On will have been aware of for some time). But I checked in, and lo & behold all the content was missing and there is a single post dated from two days ago.
It says:
We have done the live performance! I wanted to say it was perfect...but we had many little troubles just before and during the performance. However we did it. I think it was okay for the audience. Here I uploaded the photos of our live stage. Anyway it's finished! Thank you! (TI)
I hope this means it's actually ready because I'm absolutely dying to try one of these. If you happen to work for Yamaha in some capacity and are willing to send one for a review I'd jump at the chance!
Will keep you posted!
Visit the new Tenori-On blog.
Edit: Headline edited for clarity!
Posted by funnelbc at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2007
diyaudioprojects.com is cool
diyaudioprojects.com looks pretty cool. You can download schematics and specs for building your own audio gear. There's an aussie designed 12AX7 pre-amp which even looks like I could put together. Hopefully, without sticking the soldering iron into my knee. Too deeply.
There's a small, but good collection of instructions for pre-amps, speaker enclosures and transistor based amps, and more.
On a similar note, I remember my father rebuilding a set of old studio monitor speakers (he used to work at a radio station) with a pair of generic drivers from Jaycar (a cheap electronics store here in Australia), and the sound was very nearly as good, if not as good as the original drivers. I think for a relatively small sum, replacing drivers in a good enclosure can be a great way to save money and get a great sound.
diyaudioprojects.com via the outstanding Make:Blog
Posted by funnelbc at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2007
NI Traktor Controller jammed in a C-64 case
This is old (at least in internet terms - June last year), but it's a beautiful bit of work. Really lovely looking bit of kit. Well done to the creator!
This is homebuilt MIDI controller for NI Traktor. The panel is made of laser cut / engraved, scratch-acid-UV-resistant, very durable plastic. Everything is built into black painted C64 case which was absolutely perfect for this use.
Home made Traktor controller on flickr Via Gear Junkies
Posted by funnelbc at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2007
Ukelele DS Homebrew + Soundcells 1.0
I think the world will keep turning even if you don't have the ukelele installed on your homebrew compatible Nintendo DS. But I think you should have it anyway. I am intending to give this a bash tonight. I mentioned this in an passing in an earlier post, but I think it deserves some lovin' given the recent coverage of other DS guitar software.
Concept seems to be similar to m-06 DS guitar, although interface looks a bit more primitive. Still. You can't beat the price!
Download from NDS Homebrew or from Patryk's website
In other follow news, Soundcells 1.00 is now ready for download also (and has been for some time) and looks like quite a bit of fun. Yay for DS Music homebrew.
Previously on onetonne: Soundcells for DS
Posted by funnelbc at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)
Kenton Killamax Mini - Small, Sexy, Expensive.
There's no doubt in my mind that this little midi controller is an absolute beauty. Really nicely designed, sleek and classy. I could see it being absolutely fantastic positioned just above my keyboard for that extra bit of control where you need it. I know that my Microkontrol sometimes is a bit unweildy when all I want is basic fader control, especially when just doing automation for volume etc.
What I can't understand is why it's so expensive? At 229 Pounds sterling or $571Australian Dollars, you're certainly paying for the privelage. Still. Small, Sexy, and Expensive is how I would best describe it.
It does look hot though, and I do love a good MIDI controller...
Posted by funnelbc at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
HitStix and Wii remote separated at birth?
With all this talk about re-purposing the Wii remote and using it for triggering music gear, retro thing reminds us of of the illegitimate half sister of the Wii remote, Hit Stix!
See video for... well... 80's neon craziness.
Via Retro-Thing
Posted by funnelbc at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
Native Instruments Massive hits v1.1
Apparently Native Instrument's MASSIVE synthesizer has gone to version 1.1. I hadn't even heard of it until about 20 minutes ago. Looks good though. Anyone know if in fact, it is good? Commenters?
Via gear junkies
Posted by funnelbc at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Guitar Wii-ro SOLO!
I'm irrationally excited about the possibility of having Guitar Hero on Wii. It saves me from having to buy a PS2 and I'm sure that the Wii remote's motion sensors offers some great possibilities for theatrics and messing about.
AAAAND... Why not guitar hero multiplayer with Drumming backup? Why the hell not!? (Apart from vastly increased cost and development time. But still, with guitar hero 2, you can play as rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, why not drums? Can you imagine a more crazy party game? Oh make it be so.
Via the whole internet but also Gizmodo
Related: DS Solooooo
Posted by funnelbc at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2007
No circuitbent stuff? I'll have to fix that!
I was poking around on Casper Electonics and I thought to myself how great is all this stuff? Too bad I've already blogged it. Apparently I haven't. Sorry. That happens to me quite a bit, I assume I've written about something and it turns out, I only thought about posting it. Weaksauce.
Anyway. If you need convincing of just how cool circuit bent gear (or perhaps need to challenge the idea that it's all static and glitches) then I strongly recommend checking out the video after the jump. It features the incredible looking bit of kit above.
Also they have a logo design competition where you can win an Echobender FX Console. I might just throw my hat into the ring for that one!
Posted by funnelbc at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
DS Guitar.... DS SOLOOOOOOO! \m/
This is insane. I will have to track down a copy to give it a go, but here's a bit of guitar for your DS. It's called Hiite Utaeru DS, and it looks groovin. By the look of the NSCX description, you only have access to chords rather than single string plucks, but it does work with upward and downward stylus (and presumably pick) movement.
Apparently the d-pad buttons and the a/b/x/y buttons all denote a key and then you also have the L and R shoulder buttons which function as modifiers. Fantastic.
Meet the strangest axe ever in the annals of guitar technology. With 16 chords to use at any time from a library of 120, users may strum out a song relatively easily if you're familiar with basic guitar playing. We were able to play the Main Riff I for "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman and "Torn" from Natalie Imbruglia this morning by following guitar tabs found on the web. In addition to its function as a guitar, the software also includes a library of 20 songs and a listening-then-repeating exercise.
Nice. Although I'm a bit suss on anyone playing Torn for any other value than comedy. The cover backshot explains things a little better, also check out the great little illustration down in the corner!
Your DS is now a guitar - Game Set Watch!
Posted by funnelbc at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2007
Tangible Sequencer Update with GUI & new site
I was very excited when I first saw Jeffrey Traer Bernstein's tangible sequencer. Jeffrey has put up a website at tangiblesequencer.com where you can read a little bit more about how the project works, and tantalizingly, see the GUI for loading up the cubes with samples.
Here's a quote from the site
Inside each box there's a Freescale HCS08 low-power microcontroller; a low-power 2.4 GHz zigbee radio; a CR2032 coin cell; some infra-red communications electronics; and a big white LED. The white hub is the same as the boxes with some additional USB hardware.
The software that runs on the computer uses OpenGL, GLUT, and STK for the audio. Earlier software protoypes were made in Processing.
The boxes are made of laser-cut colored acrylic, sanded to be matte and then assembled by hand.
Now we just need a price & availability! It's a really simple, elegant and appealing way to mess around with music, and I'm very keen to see what happens next with these! The potential beyond simple knob twiddling audio-nerdology is obvious to me.
Visit TangibleSequencer.com to stay up to date on the tangible sequencer.
Posted by funnelbc at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2006
Tangible sequencer blocks from youtube -Update!
A big hello to any boing boing readers! Right. On with the show!
Here's something tasty and fun. It's an interactive step sequencer. That allows you to pick up and manipulate and re-order the steps as you go. Each "pad" has a trigger like normal, but it allows you to do all sorts of fun stuff with them.
Update: With the help of Peter from CDM we've been able to track down who is responsible for these. It's Jeffrey Bernstein of Princeton. They were his masters project in grad school. And excitingly, he's working on building a mass production version! There will be an article in the excellent Make in the February issue.
Jeffrey has the following to say about how they work: They each have an 8-bit microcontroller, a 2.4 GHz zigbee radio and an IR transmitter and receiver. There's also a GUI on the computer that lets you drag and drop sounds to the boxes.
Sounding very exciting, and when there's more information on these, you can be sure I'll be covering it!
The samples play in the order that the arrows point, and when a block receives the trigger from the previous block it plays the sound. And it's all wireless. It would be great to know more about this project and how it works. I'm assuming that it's some sort of simple trigger transmitted via bluetooth. Maybe the max/msp posse will be able to shed some light on this, as it looks right up their alley.
Beat Juggling - this is just fantastic. I would spend all day just doing this, possibly driving my better half nuts. In fact, given a table full of these, I would go absolutely nuts.
More (slightly less exciting) videos after the jump.
Posted by funnelbc at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2006
Reactable = more interactive interface goodness
Interactive surfaces/tabletops are just fascinating. Who wouldn't want to able to compose music, alter filters and just PLAY with this stuff? It's a really exciting face of the future of music and it reeks cool. I wonder how long it will take for something like this to actually make it as a affordable & relatively easy home solution? Whether as a diy kitform or as a retail product. To the matter at hand. It's more designed open source framework for the development of more tangible user interfaces, here's what the reactable team have to say:
reacTIVision is an open source, cross-platform computer vision framework for the fast and robust tracking of fiducial markers in a real-time video stream. It was mainly designed as a toolkit for the rapid development of table-based tangible user interfaces
This video covers the basics of how Reactable works. The way the actual interaction works is really appealing too. Simple iconic items, with really well thought out & simple interface for each object. Changing samples is as simple as rotating the real world item with the sounds attached.
Via the handsome and dapper Music Thing
Webzen: Audiopad & Multi-Touch
Previously: Phillips Entertaible & Interfacin' like it's 2005
There is more video to be had after the jump.
This video goes into more depth....
And this just plain old fashioned, kicks ass. It quite possibly takes names too.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2006
Pedalboard Trainspotting: John Frusciante
Non trainspotters may want to tune out now but... here's John Frusciante's pedalboard!
The three Moogerfooger MF-101 Low-Pass Filters, the MF-105 MuRF, the MF-105B Bass MuRF, and a MF-102 Ring Modulator are arrayed along the upper right. Two Moog Expression Pedals—used for realtime parameter control—are located just below them on the right. A third Expression Pedal, an MF-103 12-Stage Phaser, and the two CP-251 Control Processors are located on the left side of the bottom tier.
Visit Visit GuitarPlayer.com for the full article: "Murfs, Muff'ns, and Modular Synths"
I got this heads-up the other day, but the might internet failed me, and I couldn't visit the guitar player site to write the bit! Thanks again Roger from Viper Fantastic
Posted by funnelbc at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2006
DIY Synth: Avrsynth
This is basically a kit for DIY Virtual Analogue Synth. For $18AUD you can get the breadboard, or $86AUD gets you the component kit. Sounds like a pretty accessible way to get into building your own little virtual hardware synth. The idea of homebrew hardware that exists soley to recreate vintage hardware that's handcrafted by music nerds has a really nice underlying appeal.
The sound samples seem pretty convincing too! Pixie is another project from the same folks that looks really intersting. The Pixie is their attempt to recreate the WASP;
The Wasp was a quirky little synthesizer that, despite its toyish look was quite capable of funky analog types of sounds. Under the hood the Wasp was a real surprise! It was actually a very early DIGITAL synth that also happens to sound great! With ANALOG filters, envelopes and controls, the Wasp offered flexible and traditional synthesis of cool bass, synth, and other useful monophonic sounds. It was used by 808 State, Dave Holmes, Vince Clarke, WhiteHouse and Add N to (X).
Love it!
Related: DIY Modular Synth Group in Melbourne
Posted by funnelbc at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Akai Announces the MPC500
It's been a while, but Akai have finally announced the MPC500 with full details. It's a good size 26.6cm x 17.5cm x 4.4cm and weighs in at 1.34kg, which qualifies as a truly portable workstation.
Retails at $1299USD, which is a bit more than I think anyone was hoping it to be, but there you go. Looking like a rather lovely bit of kit though.
There's more info at the Akai site for MPC500
Thanks to Roger @ XLR8
Related: MPC1000 Plays Pong
Full specs after the jump:
General
Display: 2 x 16 character LCD w/back light
Memory card slot:Compact Flash (The size of the compact flash card that MPC500 can handle is from32MB to 2GB)
Dimensions: 266mm x 175mm x 44mm
Weight: 1.34 kg
Power requirement: 12v DC 600mA (negative tip)
Battery life: Approximately 4.5 hours of continuous use with LCD backlight ON.
Sound Generator
Sampling rate: 44.1kHz
Memory capacity: 16MB standard (11.5MB for sound memory), expandable to 128MB
Recording time: 136sec. (16MB, MONO) or 24m28sec. (128MB, MONO)
Memory expansion slot: 1 x for optional EXM128
Data format: 16-bit linear
Polyphony: up to 32 (dependent on processing)
Dynamic filtering: 2-pole lowpass filter per voice
Preset sound memory: 5MB
Number of programs: 24
Effects
Effects: 2 stereo effects and Master effect
Effect type: Chorus, Flanger, Bit grunger, 4 band EQ, Compressor, Phase shifter, Tremolo,
Flying pan, Reverb, Delay
Master effect: 4 band EQ, Compressor
Sequencer
Maximum events: 100,000 notes
Resolution: 96 parts per 1/4-note
Sequences: 99
Tracks per sequence: 48
MIDI output channels: 16
Song mode: 20 songs, 250 steps per song
Drum pad: 12 (velocity and pressure sensitive)
Drum pad banks: 4
Sync mode: MIDI clock
Inputs/Outputs
Record input (L and R): 1/4-inch stereo phone x 2, pseudo balanced -40dBu, input impedance 9k ohm
Max. Input level: +10dBu
Stereo output (L and R): 1/4-inch phone x 2 pseudo balanced +11dBu, output impedance 1k Ohms,
Max. Output level: +5 dBu
Phones output: 1/4-inch stereo phone x 1, 200mW / 100 ohms
MIDI inputs: 1 x 5-pin DIN
MIDI outputs: 1 x 5-pin DIN
USB: Slave connector x 1, USB MASS STORAGE CLASS support (Windows 2000/ME/XP or later version, or Mac OS 9.x/10.x or later version.)
Data Compatibility
MPC1000: SEQ, WAV, PGM
MPC2000/2000XL: SEQ, WAV, SND, PGM (Most parameters of PGM file can be loaded.)
MPC2500: SEQ, WAV, PGM
MPC4000: SEQ, WAV, PGM (DRUM program only. Only note assign and tune are loaded.)
MPC3000: SND (THRU Computer)
Z4/Z8: WAV, PGM (DRUM program only. Only note assign and tune are loaded.)
S5000/6000: WAV only (THRU Computer)
Posted by funnelbc at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2006
Phillips Entertaible, really interesting interactive surface..
Oh lordy lord. If there ever was a device that was ready for adaption to multi-touch music composition and experimental interfaces action. This. Is. It. The Entertaible is designed as a collaborative & social gaming device, mixing up the board game experience with electronic gaming.
However, a quick look at the pictures has captured my imagination and reminded me of my excitement on seeing things like this. I'm understand that some of the max/msp crowd fiddle around with projection and touch interfaces, and I'm sure if these came to market at a reasonable price they would sell like hotcakes to the indy electronic folks.
Phillips Site Entertaible Via Joystiq.com
A couple more pics after the jump.
Posted by funnelbc at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
Styletap Means Palm Apps (Bhaji's Loops!) on PPC
Styletap allows you to run Palm OS apps on a Pocket PC. Why this is of interest to me, is that I have been looking for a cheap palm pilot so I can try out Bhaji's Loops and some of the other interesting music software for palm.
I love all these small music applications, I think its a obsession with bonsai style miniaturization.
Which is really rather good news for stingy PPC owners who want to try out Palm software!
This information comes to you courtesy of the excellent Palm Sounds
Checkout Styletap now.
Posted by funnelbc at 04:58 PM | Comments (1)
August 24, 2006
Nitrotracker 0.2
On the topic of Homebrew, Nintendo DS and general excellence, there is a new version of NitroTracker out. I have to get away from the computer lest my partner kill me for my collection of hellboy comic books (and not coming to bed when asked to) but it includes a Sample Editor. (Pictured above)
I will have to get off my bum and do a proper review on Nitrotracker. Because it's excellent, and Tobias (Nitrotracker's programming genius) seems like an a great guy from his interaction with Nitrotracker users on other forums, and therefore we should celebrate his excellent software!
Expect more information & coverage on this topic as soon as possible.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:49 PM | Comments (3)
August 22, 2006
Creative Release HQ-2300D Surround Sound Headphones
New to the (Australian) market is the HQ-2300D. The cans come with their own little teeny weeny Dolby Digital & DTS decoder. I'm assuming that's what the lumpy thing (not the headphones) in the above shot is. I may well be a dancin' fool but what exactly is the benefit of:
giving expanded and natural playback from DVD players, MP3 players and game consoles.
Maybe the Dolby decoder can transmogrify your mp3's into an amazing surround sound experience. Maybe there's some format which supports this. Or maybe they're trying to pull a swifty. Who knows? Not me, that's for sure. I trust Sim Wong Hoo and I'm sure he wouldn't do such a thing.
At any rate, when you are next mastering a surround sound mix on the fly... but err... don't have cash for surround reference speakers... Er no scratch that. Here's some interesting headphones which will probably sound okay. Check them out if you have an urgent Dolby Digital or DTS need on the move, or in the privacy of a pair of headphones.
Creative Page for HQ-2300D Headphones
Posted by funnelbc at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
Native Instruments Kontrol 1
Peter over at the mighty CDM has put together a really nice overview of the new Native Instruments Kontrol 1. One observation that has been made elsewhere, but I find personally fascinating is the concept that Native Instruments, essentially a software company have released some rather decent looking hardware.
I think this is a really slick looking piece of kit, and it's entering a hyper competitive space in the market. But it looks the jazz, and that knob.... It's a biggun. However, I think it is a bit disingenuous for NI to state that:
Also included are 3 full versions of Native Instruments software – ensuring you can start creating sounds and mixing tracks instantly.
When further reading reveals that:
the full versions of XPRESS KEYBOARDS, GUITAR COMBOS and TRAKTOR 3 LE guarantee its universal appeal:
The full version of Traktor 3 LE. While I'm sure Traktor 3 LE is indeed a fully fledged peice of software and not crippled in several major ways so that you end up buying the full version out of frustration, because I'm sure that NI are nicer than that... I can't help but feel my scepticism sense starting to kick in. At any rate, I would be a bit wary of any piece of "LE" bundle software being classed as "Full versions" but that's just me.
At any rate, it's equipped with a decent array of knobs and i/o, although the lack of digital i/o is a bit of a stinker. Even if cheap effective digital i/o can be had on a variety of cheap (and not so cheap) cards and breakout boxes on the market. Still, it does look nice though...
Posted by funnelbc at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2006
Minimusic notepad 1.4 is out.
Palm based composers/musicians might be interested to know that miniMusic have released version 1.4 of NotePad. It's a rather groovy little notation program for Palm OS.
You can check it out here.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2006
Commodore 64 Sequencer is GO!
I was frankly amazed when I first wrote about this, and I still am. The Prophet 64 has arrived and you can pick it up for $39 Euro. Excellent.
The Sound samples on the website really do sound quite good, and you know you can pickup a commodore 64 for virtually nothing these days. It's not all retro mind you, the Prophet 64 folks have built it for ease of use. You can preview the chip by downloading rom file and checking it out on a Commodore 64 Emulator if you can't wait.
Buy it, or try the rom file in your emulator: Prophet 64 Home page
Previously: Preview: Prophet 64 Cart & the Commodore 64 SID Music Scene
Via the mighty CDM!
Posted by funnelbc at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2006
iScratch
The ipod sillyness continues. Using iPod linux you can now scratch your busta rhymes and foster & allen mashups.
iScratch Via: Pixel-Sumo (which is an excellent source of miscellaneous musical / experimental nerdery)
Posted by funnelbc at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Prophet 64 Cart for Commodore 64
Astounding is probably how to best put this. Not only are these guys making software for the commodore 64 SID scene. They're releasing it in a genuine commodore 64 cartridge. Lovely!
Prophet 64 includes a sequencer, which apparently "If you find past C64 music programs incomprehensible or you never quite grasped the concept of "trackers", this software will open up a new world for you!". It also includes a mono synth, a bassline program (in a similar vein to the 303 - but not) and a TR style "Prophet 64 Drummer".
The fact that they've recognised that the tracker scene isn't the easiest to get into - and the lengths they've gone to make the c64 (with the addition of the cartridge) a viable platform (once again) for sequencing is just amazing. The feature set sounds very tasty indeed. You can download the disk image file (free) if you don't want to get the cartridge, although it looks like the money would be quite well spent on this music nerd oddity. The sound samples are pretty convincing and if you're into that acid sound you'll go right in for this.
Preorders are available from Prophet 64.com and they've slated an April release. Soon, basically. Launch price is slated at 39 euro. Bargain! Via retro-thing
Posted by funnelbc at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2006
More Nintendo DS homebrew lovin'
Tobias Weyland (as featured prominently from yesterdays post regarding Nitrotracker) also put together a Sampling Keyboard for the DS.
You simply record the samples and use the stylus on the onscreen keyboard to trigger the sounds. This guy is a gun, I love that he was inspired by Ferris Buellers Day Off.
Meanwhile I'm waiting impatiently for my superpass2 to come in the mail so I can get into all this homebrew on my DS. I'm convinced that the DS has fantastic potential for portable music composition, and I'm looking forward to seeing more stuff developed for the platform.
Free TobW.net - Sampling Keyboard for DS
Once again, I am indebted to CDM for this tidbit of news.
Posted by funnelbc at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2006
Nitrotracker - tracker for Nintendo DS
I'm perhaps a little too excited about this. I've been very keen to see music software evolve for the Nintendo DS - I have recently purchased Electroplankton which is lovely fun, but pretty much just that - lovely fun.
But what I'm really into as a concept, is independent music software for portable devices. I think there's plenty of potential for these powerful gaming and processing devices to be used as the logical successor to some of the music hardware out there.
Without further ado: Tobias Weyand has released a tracker for Nintendo DS. You're going to need a Nintendo DS that can run homebrew - that basically means a flash card adapter for the GBA cartridge slot, and passme or passme 2 for the DS slot. That'll set you back around $100AUD delivered (or $71.50 USD or $781.64 Mexican Pesos). I'm very excited about this, it seems like a fantastic extension of the Nintendo DS's strengths.
What Nitrotracker can do is pretty impressive. First up it makes use of the touch screen, allowing you to input using the touchscreen - and as well as that, you can swap around screens so that both main screens can utilize touchscreen input. This includes selecting, copying and pasting using the stylus. Yum.
Nitrotracker can load samples off your flash cart (in WAV format in any sampling rate as well as 8 or 16bit quality). In addition to this, it allows sampling via the inbuilt microphone which is logical and along with the touchscreen vindicates Nintendo for their wacky product design. The quality might not be astounding, but good enough for jazz. Regardless the ugly duckling of portable gaming is looking pretty compelling these days.
It allows you to view samples, 16 hardware channels, automatic standby when the lid is closed - very nice. Just like a normal DS cartridge, and a really good feature to have for the musician on the go.
Planned/Upcoming features include 32 or even more channels, and excitingly sample post processing - effects basically. Excellent. It's already looking really polished, and I cannot wait to see this develop. I can certainly see this unit attaining a cult following of the like that nanoloop and little sound dj currently enjoy. And the potential here is clearly beyond chiptunes and appeal to a wider music making audience is also clear.
I received my Supercard in the post last night which is a pretty good coincidence, however I'm waiting on a Superpass2 so that I can actually run this, but the moment it arrives in the post, I will post up my thoughts on Nitrotracker.
You can download Nitro Tracker v0.11 and read more about it here. via Create Digital Music - check out the comments as Tobias comments on his recommended flash kits for the DS.
Related Portable Music:
PSP Seq 1.00
Phoenix Studio
little sound dj homepage
nanoloop homepage
Posted by funnelbc at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2006
creative zen vision:m
Here's the new player from Creative. These things are starting to look pretty slick actually, finally Sim-Wong Hoo's smacktalk is starting to look a little bit more solid.
It's 30gb, got a 2.5 inch 262,144 colour screen and shows video, pictures and plays music. It's going to be available in black, white or green (odd choice of colours). It's won "Best in CES" at the recent uber gadget show in the MP3 player category. Infact in the press release I'm reading here they go to say that it has 4 times the colour and twice the battery life of 30gb iPod. They've definately taken design cues from Apple, and made a pretty compelling looking player. It also supports xvid so I'll be able to watch all my legally backed up episodes of the Family Guy Season 5 err... movie trailers. Does anyone know if the format video downloads from iTunes works on these things? Or are we expected to pirate content until the tv/movie industry works out how computers work?
Posted by funnelbc at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2005
red mic sweepstakes, win 1 of 5 mics!
There's a competition happening over on vintagemicrophone.com where you can take home one of 5(!) a rather tasty Red mic packages including shockmount, the actual mic capsule and lead. Valued at $700USD. Apparently if you buy one of these and you win the comp you can choose to have another sent out or the amount for the first one credited back to you. It's microphone russian roulette! But with fewer pistols... and more red microphones. But you get the general idea.
Can't go wrong with that. Looks like there doesn't appear to be any of the usual exclusions for the Australian onetonnemusic visitors, and for those of you stateside shouldn't have a problem at all.
Cheap as in free! Win ye a mic Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005
free vst effect: chrissy free
It's for Windows only at this point in time, but it.. "gives you lo-fi audio processing for a variety of modern sounds.." translation: it makes with the funky sound. Is it Chrissy Amphlett i see there? I think it might be. And I think i'm clearly in Janky territory with the design of the interface, but you can't argue with that price. (Mostly because if you do, Chrissy will come around and beat you with a kettle cord). I particularly like the purple lightning bolt.
Here's a feature list.
* Lo-fi-section allows user to downgrade audio-fidelity
* "Catfight" feature creates digital aliasing effects ranging from mild to wild
* "Sweep" section for smoothing out the lo-fi edge
* "Touch" voice-saturation
* Adjustable low-cut
* Mono or stereo operation
Get it free from zensoundcheck.com Via harmony central
Posted by funnelbc at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
mi audio blues pro pedal
This just sounds amazing. MI Audio are a Sydney based company and they're making some nice gear. The sound sample is of their new Blues Pro pedal, which incidentally sports the biggest knob to pedal proportion - this year.
Anyway. It just sounds blistering and it holds tone so well, if you're into blues guitar check out the other samples this thing seems so cheap for what it is - a handmade boutique stompbox. Retails for $89.95USD - or $139.95 INC GST here in Australia.
MI Audio makin' some nice gear.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2005
go for that real analogue err.. look?
Behringer make some reasonably priced gear and it stands up pretty well to musical use and the scrutiny of the budget driven but still quality conscious musician. Often you hear the cry of "how do they do it so cheap?" when every other mainstream brand costs much more.
Obviously some corners are cut, and also they just make an absolute shitload of gear and theres gotta be some economies of scale that come into play here. The article that spawned this line of thinking is over on David Mellor's Record Producer. Basically he pulled apart an Behringer ultragain mic pre to see 3 LEDs mounted behind the tube which slowly get brighter after you turn it on which is supposed to simulate valve glow. I feel this is a bit disingenuous, even if the valve is still wired in there. I was surpised but not disheartened, i mean after all this is Behringer, the cheapest of the cheap (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
What stunned me was the follow up posts where folks wrote in citing two examples of other high quality music brands indulging in the same practice. The examples listed were the Crate Blue Voodoo and the Korg Electribe EMX1.
Which frankly, shocked me. It's just a bit tawdry and silly, especially for products which stand on their own as good sounding gear. It's window dressing for products which don't need it, or alternatively they're marketing to folks who put more stock in how something looks rather than how it sounds and how it is to actually use.
Working (now part time thankfully) in a corporate business I can sadly see how this sort of thing gets through - design by committee, where the actual nuts and bolts essentials of the product (sound, usability) are just as important as packaging and the look of it. It's bloody disgusting and another sign that the end times are coming and you should send me all your gear as you won't need it during the apocralypse anyway ;-)
Record Producer.com article Will you ever buy behringer gear again after reading this? Answer: Probably, but i'll be thinking a little bit harder about its supposed features before i decide if it is the good buy it's supposed to be.
Thanks Terry for link!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
traktor 3 released
Native Instruments have got the details up for Traktor 3 on their website. Amongst other things the new version comes packing 4 virtual turntables, built in accesss to Beatport online music store, inline strip (5 per channel) effects and lfo based filter called beat master. It also looks like the handling of live editing of waveforms has been improved and making realtime changes to upcoming sections of the songs has been made easier with improved interaction on the waveform displays.
As an added bonus it appears they've improved the user interface, making it fully modular meaning that you can minimize unused palettes and get extra screen realestate for what you're working on. This is good news for dual screen fans. You can also record a set with all your traktor program changes as a non destructive file. Excellent.
Traktor 3 - Native Instruments is looking nice.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
tc electronics vintage pedal lineup
TC Electronics makers of quite sexy outboard gear have gone back to their guitar stompbox makin' roots and released a bucket of new pedals. Pictured on the right is the new overdrive pedal with with retro style and is described by like this:
The velvety yet crusty and crunchy sound that comes from the Vintage Overdrive will make your guitar sing. Normally you would have to use an old tube amp to acquire the balmy and poignant overdrive that this pedal delivers.
Velvety yet crusty? Balmy and poignant? Well. Okay then. Still they make nice gear so i'm going to have to take them on faith regarding the relative poignancy of the pedals. Still, is it just me or is there a big trend towards ganky 70's & 80's transistor styling?
TC Electronics dot com where you can check out the rest of the range, totalling 7 new pedals. Balminess guaranteed my friends. Guaranteed.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
indyguitarist releases new pedal
Indy guitarist.com have released a new pedal called the Pinnacle.
It has two overdrive circuits in one pedal, and when both are on at the same time (depending on the pedal's settings) an aggressive distortion screams at you. OR - Keep on overdrive on at your rhythm volume, and use the other as a lead boost OR gain boost! Want crunch? Not a problem -- turn up the tone knob a hair -- it WILL NOT get brittle, but it will crunch like you wouldn't believe!
Stays crunchy - even in milk. 2 overdrive circuits. Sounds pretty nice. The guys over there also mod your exisiting pedals if you wanna hot up your ts9 they might just be good folks to talk to.
IndyGuitarist.com - Pinnacle Pedal via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2005
ipod nano announced
Overnight in the states, Apple has announced a few new things. The RCKR iTunes music phone (nobody cares about that one), iTunes 5 (at least a few people care about that) and the ipod nano (which everyone cares about.) Basically it's replacing the ipod mini and it's teeny tiny, has a colour screen, flash based storage, uses the same connectors as the standard ipod (which means most accessories should work for it) and comes in capacities of 2 & 4gb. And glory be, it also comes in black. Thankyou apple.
14 hour battery life and a click wheel. Does most of the stuff that the ipod photo (or just ipod colour as they're called now) does in a teeny tiny package. One thing that all the other mp3 players are doing and I wish apple would add is a radio. I know its all like the future and stuff, but goddamn it, sometimes espescially on a limited capacity player you get sick of the music and want to listen to something different.
It looks pretty damn tiny, and I think as if anything they released wasn't going to sell its arse off, anyway, but this looks like its going to be a massive hit. Most of the nerd websites are crowing about how cool this is, and that's because it kinda is cool.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
mbox 2 update - now without handle!
CDM has the scoop with fresh info on the Mbox2, including details on the new pre-amps in the new box and what happened to the 3/4" jacks and the gank-tastic handle.
Posted by funnelbc at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
d-lusion releases drumstation and rubberduck for free
D-lusion have released their Drumstation and Rubberduck software for free. Can't argue with that. Apparently pre-dating Rebirth - they're standalone TB303 (Rubberduck) and TR909 (Drumstation) style standalone programs. My download of Rebirth has finished so i'm going to fire up the nostalgia machine over here and have trip down amnesia lane, I shall have to give the Rubberduck and Drumstation a red hot and see which tickles my fancy.
The feature set of Rubberduck and Drumstation certainly seems very respectable - it's nice to see all this older stuff being re-released as free software. It might give for example, my K62-450 sitting in the corner a new lease on life.
Drumstation & Rubberduck Via Matrix Synth
Posted by funnelbc at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2005
updated! 6/9 torrent link for rebirth download
Now please excuse me if I'm on the wrong side of the law, but basically it did say as long as you weren't selling it you could re-distribute rebirth i'm pretty sure. At any rate, all it took in the end was a quick google when I knew what i was looking for.
And remember kids, sharing is caring, so save a swede a dollar on their bandwidth bill and demonstrate the value of distribution via torrents. See, business and fun can play happily together.
Official Rebirth Torrent (Mac)
(edited to update with the "official" offical link. The file is now also only 215mb)
Edit. The scandal continues at Music Thing wher you find out the majority of the massive download is, infact, copy protection. Heh. Gotta Laugh.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
mbox 2 announced - industrial designer may have been drunk
Digidesign have announced the new and improved err new Mbox2. Apart from removing digital i/o apparently it also is limited to 2 tracks of simultaneous recording. Plus, it appears that Digi have taken a design lead from some of the more ganky m-audio gear.
CDM Cover it and they also as a bonus, don't use the words ganky, so bully for them!
Posted by funnelbc at 11:35 PM | Comments (2)
August 05, 2005
creative zen vision launch reviews
There's stacks of fresh reviews for the Creative Zen Vision. The Vision is creatives new player that plays back MP3 and WMA/WMA-DRM, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, MJPEG and TivoToGo video file playback, JPEG, FM radio with recording. It's also got a Compact Flash slot which is a pretty compelling addition for digital photgraphy junkies, the 3.7" screen looks like it might be quite nice.
Theres seems to be quite a bit of buzz on the gadget blogs about this one, and I think it's because it's got the right mix of size, functionality & style. Love to take a look at this in the flesh, just quietly I think it might be a bit of a hit in the making. Maybe this will be the PMP player that really sets the pace for models to come. Or it could bomb like a datsun 120Y in a paddock. You be the judge.
ZDnet Review, El-Reg, Design Technica
Posted by funnelbc at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2005
widget update on CDM
Update: Peter "if it ain't a silly middle name I don't want to know about it" Kirn over the rather fancy CDM has put the call out, and has dug up some rather nice Dashboard based audio widgets, some of which actually look useful! CDM Widget Roundup 1 and the followup CDM Widget Roundup 2 - the readers respond!
Posted by funnelbc at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
numark iDJ mixer debuts
The Numark iDJ Mixer has been officially announced - As mentioned earlier here. It'll be on the market in Q3 this year, and will retail for $399USD - pretty reasonable all things considered. Although, a copy of Final Scratch and Traktor looks better for my Simoleons (once you've forked out for 2 ipods plus the mixer).
At any rate... check out the details on Harmony Central.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2005
sonia midi control interface
Another day, another control interface. Reflex Audio makers of products such as the entirely awesome and still not quite on the market - HardSID Quattro PCI synthcard... (its a clone commmodore 64 synth engine) hotness.
New from them and working as basic midi controller is the Sonia. Features 12 knobs, with 22 user memories for $109USD or $129 for 44 memories. I like the look of it, it doesn't look cheap and nasty and thats a big bonus considering its gotta sit along side the nice gear and not make my knitted speaker cosies look unfashionable...
Just kidding. How could anything make speaker cosies look unfashionable?
Sonia from Reflex Audio Via the mighty CDM Related: B-Control Interface from Behringer.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
b-control nano control surface
Behringer have announced a few new things, of particular note is their B-Control Nano midi controller. It's packing 4 knobs, 4 programmable buttons, and patch change buttons to give you 99 presets for the aforementioned knobs & buttons. Simple, and rather understated classy industrial design make this a very attractive package for $99AUD. Pretty damn good I think for the money. I'd be interested to see if you could gang 3 of them up to make rack width!
Also coming from Uli B's mad phat electronics crew, is the Tweakalizer DFX69. Which to be frank, is a counterpoint to the b-control nano's understated looks. Personally, I think it looks tacky as. Basically a digital scratch surface - should work pretty well with Traktor, but geeze, it does look pretty shoddy, even if it is a grat product.
Our friends over at Create Digital Music brought us this news of new hotness. Behringer's page for the B-Control 44
Posted by funnelbc at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
new iriver gear
New iRiver gear. Interesting looking products at the end of the rainbow link. Mystic River Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)
new johnson all tube amp
Johnson makers of some rather fabulous modelling amps have just released their first all tube amp. I had a tinker with one of thier amps ages ago, and they were in there before modelling amps went crazy.
The Loredo is the name of the name amp and it comes equipped with a 10" Alphatone driver with 25 watts RMS. It's got a pair of 12AX7 in the pre section and two EL84's in the power amp section. Pretty standard stuff. Wonder what brand tubes they'll be using.
Looks like it's also packing digital reverb, 3-band EQ and an additional XLR output to hook straight into your mixer.
This looks like it might be a very nice option for a studio / small performance space from what I can gather, these slightly smaller amps don't have to be up quite so loud to get the amazing overdriven sound happening.
Johnson's Page for the amp Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2005
version 5 reaktor available
Native Instruments' Reaktor 5 has now shipped, so you should be seeing copies in music shops shortly. Theres a lot of good looking gear in the new version, as I wrote earlier. Nice.
NI's Reaktor 5 web page Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2005
el tasting music table
Michihito Mizutani, has invented/conceptulized a table that if you bring the cd near the table top, it shows the tracklist - and then if that wasn't good enough, you can then play the songs using a custom cursor device.
Which is kinda of cool, but CDs are rapidly becoming a bit of a waste of space - don't get me wrong, I like them like I love my somewhat redundant dead-tree based publications, but if you removed the automatic CD scanning from the equation and you pretty much get a media PC. Still, i do dig on the idea.
Tasting Music Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
soundpad 1.0 and notepad 1.3 for palm released
I've got a bit of a thing for applications for PDA's that allow you to make music on the move. If you are a palm user you might be interested to know that Minimusic have released Soundpad 1.0 and Notepad 1.3 for the palm devices. Notepad is a notation program that allows you to compose tunes, and soundpad allows you to create "rich sounds" on the fly using the processor power of the palm alone.
"We designed the Krikit Synth specifically for handheld computers and the Palm OS. We used FM synthesis techniques to keep our sound files extremely small and kept optimizing the synth until it ran well on even the slowest CPUs," says Chad Mealey, President of miniMusic. "It's like having the best synth keyboard from the 80s in your pocket"
Sounds pretty cool. I don't have a palm device but if anyone checks this out and has some thoughts about it, bung me an email or post it in the forums and I'll post it up here.
Minimusic.com Via Harmony-Central Related: Phoenix Studio for Pocket PC folks
Posted by funnelbc at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
vestax vrx2000
This is pretty funky. Vestax makers of fine turntablist gear have announced the VRX2000. The 2000 bit makes it sound faster for sure yeah? For sure. Makes a lot of sense if you gotsa have that tangible vinyl thing happening. I don't dig on that so much as it tends to take the focus away from the music away and focus on a really abitrary aspect of the live performance. I do get into turntablists but I don't think it's the be all and end all.
At any rate you can cut your own vinyl using this puppy - looks pretty nice. I wonder how expensive the blanks are?
Via engadget. Check out vestax.com for more info.
Edit - according to at least one blog commentor, this isn't new. No idea if that's true or not. It's cool and probably fabulously unaffordable so on that face I'm happy to post it anyhow!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:36 PM | Comments (1)
May 14, 2005
free sampletank 2 se upgrade
It's becoming rapidly apparent to me that IK Multimedia actually care about the customers who keep them in the style to which they have become accustomed. If you have SampleTank 1SE as a Digidesign bundle, you can get a free upgrade to SampleTank2 SE. It's a bit refreshing from an industry that has been known in the past to make you pay for point upgrades to find a company who is willing to give something away even if it does possibly bag them more upgrades from the SE version. Nice work IK, you are in my bag of companies that I think are quite nice (for whatever that's worth).
Posted by funnelbc at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
new creative zen neeon
Creative have released some snaps of the new Zen Neeon, featuruing 10 different colours, 7 different screen colours and also as pictured right - a bunch of Stik-ons (that's marketing speak for stickers I believe). As Gizmodo rightly points it out, it's probably worth waiting around for the photo version, with OLED display. Once you get past the fact that these are probably a little smaller and functionally identical to other devices then it's really down to the silly add-ons like the Stik-ons that will sell these things. Still 16 hours battery time, voice recording and FM radio are nice features I wish my iPod had. I'm sure they'll be surfacing here in Australia very soon. These are in the same market as the iPod mini so it's fairly safe to assume that they'll be in the sub $400AUD price bracket.
Akihabra news Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
ping pong as control interface
This one is too weird to miss. Some NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program's New Interfaces for Musical Expression class folks have made with ping pong paddles as sample triggers. I love that theres now a class at university dedicated to new interfaces - there was this guy at my arts school who spent a lot of time collecting old keyboards to pull apart and use for this kind of stuff that would be a gold at this sort of thing. I wonder if I can track him down? Lets see. Hey you, yes you the guy from the University of Tasmania who lives in the sculpture department who is into interface design (in 2001 you were there)... bung me an email! Now to wait...
Via Music Thing New interfaces for music expression 2005
Posted by funnelbc at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2005
protools goes to v6.9
ProTools has seen a point upgrade to 6.9. It's been better integrated to work with Avid's video post production gear, improved mixing with D-command and D-control. I'd be interested to see what kind of real world improvement this is to the existing mixer as the one that used to be there was pretty good. It's a free upgrade for owners with qualifying PT sofware.
Visit digidesign.com for more info.
Posted by funnelbc at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
mawzer: a modular control surface
I drew a product like this on paper ages ago, and I'm so happy that the tin foil hat failed and the good folks at Mawzer were able to read my mind and make this thing a reality. It's a really good idea, lots of mixer functions and discrete control functions of mixing desks and other interfaces are modular in nature, and this takes it to the next step. This has applications for anyone who can work with MIDI compatable devices. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of Mawzer in the future.
If Behringer get in and do something cheaper I wouldn't be surprised. This could be a real area of growth for hardware & software controllers.
Mawzer.com via Create Digital Music.
Posted by funnelbc at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2005
numark ipod mixer
I think the picture probably explains the concept better than I could, but here's a bit of a concept of a mixer that Numark are apprently working on. It'd be interesting to see what this'd be like to actually use, but for the cost of 2 ipods plus the mixer you could purchase a cheaplaptop and a copy of the very fine Traktor from Native-Instruments. Still it's a fun looking concept and I think there's a genuine market for this.
The good folks from CDM cover the numark ipod mixer in far greater depth than I can manage while I'm sneakily posting this at work... Thanks Ben!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
midines - midi cart for nes systems
I don't think this is a new thing (as in like 4 months old) but here's a quick heads up on something cool. It's a cart for NES systems that basically takes advantage of the onboard soundchip to generate music.
I've had a listen to some of the preview tracks, and there's a very hardcore mod sounding gear here. It's the sound you want if you're into lo-fi 80 beats. Theres a lot of sounds that will bring tears to the eyes of anyone who is a child of the 80's.
Visit wayfar.net and check out the midines.
Posted by funnelbc at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2005
new peer2peer app - grouper
This sounds a bit interesting. There's a new P2P kid on the block, and it's called Grouper. It allows you to setup a smaller p2p network. It's private and can contain 30 people maximum. It doesn't allow you to copy music, it only allows you to stream from your friends computer. It does however allow copying of pictures and movie files due to the nature of the media. I think this is a really interesting and noble (if you can use that term) attempt at legal file sharing.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:05 PM | Comments (0)
mp3elf - nerdy but cool!
The mp3elf is a mp3 player that connects to your computer via ethernet cable - it can play mp3s from your local server, or even stream internet radio. It features 24bit DAC and plays mp3s up to 320kbps quality. Quite a fun idea, and the guys who run the project make it available in 3 ways, as a completely assembled unit, as a kit with all the parts supplied or you can ge the plans for free - it has been released under the open source BSD liscense. Excellent!
Mp3elf.net Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)
ashdown superfly lightweight bass amp
Ashdown make some very sexy gear. They usually go in for the full analogue style with very hot backlit analogue VU meters, retro styling and well.. usually very heavy bass gear. I know, I used to have to move them around, and by bass amp standards, they're certainly up there as far as weight goes.
At this year's Musikmesse they've announced the Superfly Lighweight Bass amp. Basically its a digital bass amp that puts out 500watts in a magnesium alloy body. It really looks the goods. And it only weighs 4.5 Kilos! (10 pounds for the Amerikans). Only bummer of course being that you'll still have your cabinet to move about, but still this is a pretty signifigant breakthrough, and makes good ergonomic sense.
Go check out the ergonomically sensible press release or live life on the edge and check out the rest of ashtons's hotness. Via Harmony Central.
Posted by funnelbc at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
tc electronics g-system
I think that the guitar hotness from Musikmesse has landed. The G-system is floor based system that allows you to manage your effects pedals from the one interface. It also provides 2 Digital Signal Processing sections, giving you access to Filter (as in envelope), Compression & post effects such as Noise Gate, Modulation, Pitch, Delay, Reverb & EQ. It's got a chromatic tuner as well. You can also plug your amp or effects inline and have access to all your gear via the g-systems interface. It's not cheap, coming in at a rrp of $1395 Euros, and about a zillion dollars by the time it makes it way over here. But it really is a beautiful thing, and looks like a really nice unit if you've got cash to spare and bucks of pedals you want to get under control.
Posted by funnelbc at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
soundblaster with video editing built in
Some interesting news from the good folks over at Creative. They've revamped the Audigy 2 ZS, and added the Audigy 2 ZS Video. Basically they've added DV inputs, onboard hardware encoding/decoding for writing to mpeg and DV formats easily - plus all the normal Soundblaster Audigy good gear. The video processing comes courtesy of the rather amusingly alt-capped 'LSI Logic DoMiNo' processor. Could be a great little option for the bedroom music twiddler who wants to put together their own videos.
Also of note to the non-music market is the fact that the bundled software will allow the end user to record from a tv source down to DVD complete with a dvd style menu. Another nail in the coffin for VHS.
Posted by funnelbc at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
untitled box with lights meets man
This looks like fun. It's a live performance device which triggers loops. This is the work of Brian Crabtree. Each row is a sample and as the light progresses along the row you can see where through the loop the sound is at any time. Which allows you to retrigger it a little way in, or late into the sample.
I just liked the little video and I think it's pretty solid effort as far as homebrew boxes go. I think it'd be fun to play with. There's a point about 40 seconds into the video in which this really begins to shine.
Via Pixel Sumo
Posted by funnelbc at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2005
cheaper entry level sennheiser headphones
Sennheiser - makers of headphones to the stars & music nerds like me - have released some new budget headphones under the "entry-high-end" moniker. The models are named HD201 and HD215 (pictured). Some of Sennheisers cheaper headphones aren't much to write home about, but I think lots of folks will dig being able to get a set of headphones with the Sennheiser logo on them regardless of the sound quality. Probably a good idea to try before you buy, which is good advice for anyone looking to buy headpones.
Both are noise reducing designs with complete over-the-ear pads. The HD215 is better at blocking out outside noise, and features a rotating earcup so that you can rotate your ears. Maybe that would be handy for the DJ set as well. The US RRP is $24.95USD for the HD201 & and $149.95USD for the HD215.
Via Harmony-Central or visit Sennheiser.com
Posted by funnelbc at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2005
terratec ax-100
Just a quick one on this - it's a rackmount guitar to midi convertor. Unlike the Roland Midi option, this puppy converts the actual sounds to midi via a 32bit RISC processor (like the Apple G4 processor - only not really at all). I wonder what the latency is like? Hopefully not as awful as the gr-33 and it's ilk.
Check out Harmony Central's coverage on this one
Posted by funnelbc at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)
m-audio trigger finger
Now this is more like it. Good going Product Namey guy, henceforth known as Ted the Guy who Makes up Product names. Triggerfinger not only has good name it also mimicks the famous akai SPC look with the 4x4 grid of pads. 16 pad midi drum control surface, with 4 sliders and 8 knobs, and what looks to be tempo and patch control. Pressure sensitive as you would like with this sort of thing. Athough how pressure sensitive will be the life and death of this thing - I know on the last few el-cheapo keyboards I've had the pressure sensitivity is pretty awful. Gotta stop jamming in my mittens too. I wish - I wish that they would make more material in aluminium - or saints preserve us - steel. I'm pegging that this is made out of that godawful silver plastic which just screams fragile. It does. I hear it's cries. I had an oxygen 8 that apart from being quite a bit of fun, had a nasty tendancy of the slider covers falling off at unfortunate times. I shouldn't have to get the superglue out on a product when I'm using it at home - god knows what would happen if you tried to take this plastic gear out into the real world.
Check out m-audio's page for the trigger pad and Ted, the guy who makes up product names, you can have the afternoon off, well done!
Posted by funnelbc at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
m-audio icontrol
I bet they're loving the name, iControl. Heh. Up all night thinking that one up Mr Product Namer Guy. I bet their copywriter comes in at 9am and leaves at 9.02am. Filthy copywriters. You can't trust em. Okay enough of that. M-audio has released a dedicated controller for Apple's Garageband and it doesn't look half bad. 8 knobs, a shuffle wheel, transport control, a volume control and what looks to be solo, record arm and mute and headphone sends for each fo the 8 tracks. Fancy dan. It also has a wood veneer, which I don't think that there's nearly enough of these days.
Pretty much everyone seems to be thinking the same thing which is that - I want to be able to use this for other programs. Which shouldn't be an issue, as it not only works via USB but also via MIDI, so if your software can learn from MIDI you're in business. Apparently will be retailing for $141.99 Euro. Nice. I predict this will be a pretty big seller with it's intended audience.
Visit Gear Junkies bit on it or check out m-audio's page for it or visit Create Digital Music for their take on it!
Posted by funnelbc at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2005
icombi wireless bluetooth headphones
I like the idea of bluetooth headphones, even though in reality I think that the battery factor might be a tad fiddly. Still the icombi bluetooth headphones for ipod from thanko seems to solve that with 11 hours battery time (more than enough for the ipod which this set is meant to be paired with) and you rechard via USB. Am I the only one who thinks that current technology is badly hobbled by poor battery life? Yeah. I thought so. Still it's a nice idea - and this reminds me that theres some bluetooth headphones I looked at a little while ago from HP that work with their PDAs which I might check out too.
Via Gizmodo check out thanko.jp some translation required (if you don't read kanji).
Posted by funnelbc at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2005
reaktor 5 announced at musikmesse
Reaktor is the beating bleeding heart of hardcore (or should that be hardkore?) soft synth programming. Everywhere else lets you tinker with the effects, but Reaktor is the one if you want to get into the nuts and bolts and really change that sound. For better or worse! Reaktor 5 from Native Instruments has just been announced at Musikmesse. Reaktor 5 is coming out with a new feature called Core technology (as pictured above) that allows "true low level signal processing design". The potential with Reaktor has always been pretty much limitless - and with the new version it looks very positive for a slightly more accessible program as a whole. Native Instruments have also added easier skinning of the instruments and a improved user interface.
Via Harmony Central check out NI's page for Reaktor 5
Posted by funnelbc at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
pro tools with m-audio hardware.
Funny how things go like this. I was just making insightful type comments on why on earth Digidesign hadn't seen fit to update protools free in some shape or form. And here arrives a good reason why they wouldn't. Pro-Tools software with M-Audio hardware. Hrm....
Posted by funnelbc at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2005
phoenix studio - how did I not know about this sooner?
I just stumbled across Phoenix Studio 1.1. I was actually looking to see if hope against hope if some ubernerd in a bunker had put together a VST host for the Pocket PC platform. Which admittedly was pretty unlikely, but you never know what you might turn up if you don't look for it. But instead I found Meloditronic software and what looks to be very exciting piece of Pocket PC software - Phoenix Studio. The demo is unputdownable. Infact, i'm off to lay down the $30USD for the full version so I can really start to play with this sucker and write a few words about this. I'm actually really excited about Phoenix Studio. I found the Griff Pocket Studio unintuitive and a bit sluggish (mind you that was mind you on my older PDA which I have since replaced). I'm going to be taking the train to work tomorrow kids!
It's early days yet, but a really simple and fun interface, easy step pattern editing, 3 synths, a drum machine and a bunch of other fun stuff in my pocket! If you've got a Pocket PC check out the demo
Posted by funnelbc at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
sampletank for free? sounds good to me!
IK Multimedia have a pretty funky promotion going on. If you purchase either SampleTank 2 or AmpliTube you can recieve the other product for free! So you buy Amplitube and you get SampleTank. Fancy! This promotion runs till the end of April, so get in there quick!
IK's page for the promo Via Harmony Central
Posted by funnelbc at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
interfacin' like it's 2005
Create Digital Music were kind enough to do some of the fancy google footwork for us all and have got some tasty links on the subject of new user interfaces. I saw something like this a while ago, and even had a little drool myself over audiopad. I'm certain that it's going to be in this field that the next real generational leap will be for user interfaces in general, not just for audio.
Go visit CDM and be enlightened.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2005
tx-2 buttprobe. i'm a little scared.
Metasonix are a bit funny. But that's okay. I'm not quite sure where to start with this one, but they've sent me a picture and some info on their new pedal as announced at the last NAMM. It's made entirely out of vacuum tubes, or at least allegedly, I think theres at least a little poor taste and some chunky steel casing to go with those sweet sweet tubes. One thing which may be of interest is that to modulate the distortion even further is that there's an LFO (envelope filter) built into the tx-2 to give even more extreme and wild distortion.
I think as niche handmade style pedals go, this is brimming with more than enough to justify the curiosity purchase - they called it the tx-2 Buttprobe, I mean how can you go wrong?
metasonix.com scroll down for perhaps the most awesome flash animation (including the elevator disco) I saw all day! Here in Australia you can purchase them from Skullshoe Audio
Posted by funnelbc at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
creamware to release digital models of classic synths
CreamWare makers of nice software have just announced some rather fancy new things. It works as follows, the box is all digital, but looks like a complete replica of the Minimoog - which becomes the Minimax ASB, and the Prophet 5 becomes the Profit-5 ASB. They come packing USB which by all accounts exists to allow for working with presets on your computer. I'm sure Creamware must of worked out the legal technicalities, so it'd be nice to see even more of this style of thing - it doesn't take away from the appeal of the original item, but it does also make those amazing sounds more accessible for those of us without gold toilet seats.
Source: Harmony Central Via CreateDigitalMusic
Posted by funnelbc at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
extra presets for abelton operator for free
Abelton Live ships with a demo of the new modular FM synth by the very same - it comes with 145 presets. Should this not be enough for you, you can get your mits apon 255 extra custom patches direct from other Operator users from the Abelton forums. This is cool. Source: Create DigitalMusic
Posted by funnelbc at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2005
reason 3.0
Ah so hot. So very hot. Reason 3.0. I dont know if i need to say any more to convince you, but if you havent had a tinker with this program you don't know what you're missing out on. New version includes complex chaining of instruments and effects with the "The Combinator", it also has a mastering suite called M-class Which is a really nice addition to Reason, i found the levels when dropping mixes into abelton live were a little flat and I was actually putting sessions into Live to give them a bit more punch. It also features improved remote control support - also badly needed. So hot.
Go visit the swedes de jour - propellerhead
Posted by funnelbc at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2005
moollon pretty pedals
Thanks again to the MusicThing massive for their tireless linking to cool products I can by association, bring you pictures and some randomly selected words (they came out of a large hat) about the rather fancy Moolloon pedals. I can tell you the following, apart from the zvex style pedals, which apart from having killer tone, are just plain awesome, these are the most visually appealing pedals I have ever seen. I love the engraving on these. Also, I can tell you that they are sold by the Bad Cat amplification people in the US, which means that they should have the sound to match their AMAZING looks. It's all about the engraving kids. Put me down for one of each!
Moollon Pedals - Words fail me
Posted by funnelbc at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
abelton operator
Abelton Live is one of the best new (or newish these days) bits of software on the market. It did for live sound and electronic music performance what roller skates did for stripey multicolour socks. Okay maybe not stripey socks, but the above screen cap is certainly closer to my 80's vision of a dystopian future where we are all ruled by little green squares. It's a stand alone FM synthesis engine with a bunch of Live style controls. It of course integrates with Live seamlessly. I look forward to checking this out and writing back with some more info. It really does look like a really fun little program to use, and it looks like it offers some really nice methods for creating nice FM synthesis based tunes - or instruments.
Should you wish to find out more... Abelton's page for Operator
Posted by funnelbc at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2005
gibson releases digital guitars...
Now it depends what you think of Roland's GR-33 & 20 Guitar synths. If you've had a chance to fiddle with it you'll know that you end up not playing it like a guitar for most of the very interesting sounds. You'll also know that latency is a big issue with it and makes it very disconcerting to play. They've improved that issue with each new version but it still aint fixed by a long shot. Mac Central brings us news of the new Gibson digital guitars. They feature digital hex pickups in the standard Les Paul body shape. They have 2 outputs, one regular 3/4" jack and the digital output. I had a bit of a listen to the testimonials on the Gibson Digital site and it sounds like it actually ofers quite a bit tonally above and beyond just digital recording options.
What I'd like to see is a cheap digital guitar that can help people learn the guitar. With sofware that coaches you based on the mistakes you make. It obvioulsly couldn't correct your fingering position issues but could maybe detect common mistakes based on the fret buzz and the like. I'm sure that there' massive potential for Gibson to really do something special here - they could use a cut down version of this learning version digital guitar and sell it under the Epiphone name to boot. I want a cut if this actually happens!
Posted by funnelbc at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
m-audio black box
Another guitar effects box. Yay! Cause we desperately need one of those! Well, m-audio make some okay gear, but are not really known for their guitar accessories so much as their hightech bits and pieces. Regardless this features a cut down version of the very famous and very shiny Roger Linn "Adrenalinn" guitar pedal so it might just be rather good.
See what harmony central think about it. Via the awesome and incredibly low in sugar Music Thing
Posted by funnelbc at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
kubrick ipod mini bear
God I love this kind of stuff. Totally useless - but very cool. It's a little holder thingmajig for an ipod mini. It comes in the same colours as the ipod mini and is quite cool. I wanted so very badly the full sized ipod version from last year but couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I've betrayed my undeniable stupid gear fetish, enuff said I think.
Go check it out at Giz modo
Posted by funnelbc at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
creative ships zen micro in australia
Creative will be shipping the zen micro in Australia from the first of february. It comes in 10 colours and sports a removable battery, and has 12 hours of playback from the one battery. Oh and a FM radio. For comparisons sake, an extra $29 AUD you get an extra gig of storage, FM tuner and longer battery life over the ipod mini. Nice.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2005
new ipod, new small form factor mac
I think this is really important news - so we've got 2 apple gear posts in as many days. Sorry kids. It's very early days yet, with no-one getting their hands on these to test them, but I think this will be the future for Apple to really get into the desktop market in a big way. But for us audio lovin folks - I think these will be viable little audio boxes, cheap and easy to expand. Can't wait to find out more about these. They'll be shipping in the states by January 20th apparently (!) and hopefully not long before we see them here. Apple Mac mini Update: Apple.com.au listing starting price as $799 & $949 for the 80gb here in Aus
And as if that wasn't enough Gizmodo has a stack of pictures of the Mac Mini here
This my friends is the ipod shuffle. Its a teeny tiny flash based mp3 player that will come out in 512mb & 1gb configuration. Really simple design, and has no screen. (!) Be interesting to see how the ipod branding pushes this little unit along in sales. The player has a standard USB plug on the end allowing really easy access to upload stuff onto it - but it does come with a cap for the end. I suspect Apple will do a roaring trade in replacement caps for these! There will be plenty of people buying these as a second audio player. And plenty of hapless shoppers buying them instead of normal ipods, and casually saying - yeah I've got an ipod... SHAM! Heh. It also can automagically fill itself from the itunes library with a random selection of music - quite a nice feature and really simple idea too... Ipod Shuffle
So it looks like some very nice stuff is on the way from Apple and being a long time mac user (for work etc), but highly disparaging of the outrageous price for their hardware I can certainly see a change in the wind for me.
"Inside its petite 2-inch tall, 6.5-inch square anodized aluminum enclosure, Mac mini houses a 1.25 or 1.42GHz G4 processor, 40 or 80GB hard drive, a slot-loading CD-R/DVD-ROM optical drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip with 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM — all whisper-quiet."
I'll be buying a mac mini to use as a test box for my design work, and as a really simple audio system as well I think. Processor power is there for synth work, and hdd storage is there for well.. storage. And firewire for external devices. I hope these sell like hotcakes for Apple, I think they've got everything right with these. Good on em!
Posted by funnelbc at 07:12 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2005
carillon free synth
What better than a free VST synth to start the day? Well probably a bowl of weeties and some fresh strawberries, but failing that i'm going to go with this - its called Carillon and it's a VST synth that models bells and chimes. Sounds like fun to me. Tweakbench do some other free VST instruments and are well worth checking out.
Thanks to the good folks of tweakbench for this one. Via Createdigitalmusic. Infact you should visit createdigitalmusic now so an angel can get his wings.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)
January 04, 2005
what's that in your pocket?
Why it's a pocket dock! Here's a rather fancy pants little addon for your ipod should you posess one - it's a little adapter that goes in the dock connector that gives you not only standard firewire connectivity - but in this new and improved version of the Pocketdock - also high quality line out. Very cool jerome. Looks like a decent buy if you do a bit of live sound type stuff and want to put the right line signal down the line.
Sendstation's website - Tiny, Light Indespensible - Guffaw Thanks Mikinoz
In other ipod related news, the rather geek chic infested Phil Torrone of engdadget.com fame has documented a hack for the ipod that allows you to bump up the recording quality from 8khz to the mighty 96khz mark. Requires you to install a free version of Linux on your ipod, which doesn't look too scary and will also means you have instant sucess with the laydees!
Hack-a-day ipod article Via half the internet.
Posted by funnelbc at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2004
audiopad
I was out a little while ago and saw something that looks a lot like this. It's called audiopad and its a rather fetching control system for live performance. Or just plain control. Right now it looks quite early in terms of functionality, but it does look very cool. You project the overlay onto a table top and you have physical controllers which have attributes within software. Looks VERY cool. I'd love to find out some more about this, and anyone who sends me email on info at ausmusican dot com with things like this with some more info wins a shiny penny!
Audiopad's home on the interweb
Posted by funnelbc at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
make your very own moog modular!
This is just plain awesome. I love the idea that somebody actually took this right through to completion. You can download a rather cool PDF template (4 pages) and make your very own (paper) moog modular. This is the website and I might see if I can dredge up a japanese/english translator so i can find out about why they actually did it. Its still awesome, and Ive printed my moog out and I'll make it as soon as I get a spare moment at work. Yay! Totally moogular man!
If you happen to come across any more classic music equipment origami/papercraft. I need to know, I just NEED to know.
This musical awesomeness comes via Music thing You can download your moog Here.
Edit - Wicked machine translation of the article after the jump!
"Moog Modular V/モーグ modular V papercraft download
Last year (2003), at the musical instrument fair this corporation booth it was popular, it reached the point where it can download the data of that "Moog Modular V" papercraft! !
Because the data has become printing possible at A4 size, when it prints that way and assembles, it is lovely, - the box like the Moog Modular V saving box completes. Downloading by all means, please enjoy.
* Download & compilation method
The data has become the PDF data (high picture quality) with. Description below compared to download is possible. For A4 size print (the high picture quality data) with we have become, but as for print at large size such as A3 size, please expand the printer paper setting which you have and print.
There is page (4 aspects) 4 at all. Please cut off the margin part of the respective page and assemble. You abbreviated the statement of the margin to paste and the like. Please try drawing up on the basis of the as-built drawing the right.
Moog Modular V which was seen from オモテ
* In regard to the papercraft it does not support technically altogether acceptance.
Papercraft PDF data download (approximately 3M)
[ Moog Modular V - Papercraft download ] (PDF)"
Posted by funnelbc at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)
zvex nano head
At the risk of regurgitating news content from several other fine blog sites, I would like to attract your attention to this. It's a zvex nano amp. It's a tiny little tube amp that sounds very nice. They are hand made and put out enough to drive a 100w speaker cab. Oh my! It's main use to get that amazing overdriven to distortion guitar sound at volume levels you can usually still hear all that nice stuff happening. This has been done by a few companies in different ways, but this by far the most handpainted that I've seen! It's also definately the smallest - including things like the Hughs & Kettner tone boosting pedals - the redbox didn't have a valve in it did it? Mind you while that thought crosses my head, I remember the Tubeman to be a mighty fine piece of kit. (End mindless advertorial ...here) They also make the rather amusingly named Super hard-on which got very positive reviews a year or so back.
If you can handle the half watt of pure fury this little puppy puts out then I advise you to check out the zvex website Via Engadget.com
Posted by funnelbc at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
acoustical art pvc speakers..
Hey isn't that pvc drain pipe style material? These have been showing up all over the net in the last few days, and I'd been tossing up whether they actually need another site talking about them. It's a speaker mounted in what looks suspiciously like PVC pipe. Except these cost a mint. But they're apparently quite good. You can however get the model pictured above for around $150USD if you need speakers that are compatible with your household plumbing this may well be just the ticket for you!
Regardless, I think the idea of putting speakers in everything possible is a good idea. And the sooner we start seeing them installed as standard with your fowlerware toilet bowl the better. Or maybe not.
Acoustical Art Via every tech nerd audio website on the net.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
ipod flash rumours spread.. in a.. err.. flash
As the Macword expo creeps slower, there seems to be quite a bit of conjecture as to whether Apple intends to release a flash version of the iPod. Cult of the Mac (they're a bit keen on apples) have slobberingly announced that the above mockup by Isamu Sanada of applele.com fame as convincing enough for them. They also link to John Gruber's excellent reasoned piece about why apple are not going to release a flash player over at Daring Fireball. Personally I'm siding with the guy with the numbers - to dilute the ipod by giving it substantially less storage would damage the brand, and any short term boost Apple got in terms of sales for a cheaper flash based ipod would be offset by releasing an iPod style product that simply didnt do the name justice.
As a later update and for added bonus speculumulation, the mac mind features another mockup and seem very certain that its going to be a happening thing. I still have my doubts and wouldnt go hanging my credibility on such a thing unless I knew for certain this is the way that things are going to go. themacmind.com article.
Cult of the Mac Via the excellent Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
neKo LE Audioworkstation
I associate the letters "LE" with Light Edition, but I'm surmising that there's nothing light about the NeKo LE Audio Workstation. I'm surprised why there's not more of this sort of thing on the market - it's a synth keyboard music workstation with a fully fledged PC inside - complete with full height PCI cards for expansion. With the advent of the mini ITX form factor it all makes pefect sense. It's packing hardware DSP and inbuilt keyboard. What would perplex someone who was.. err.. me however, is the inclusion of the horizontal screen - rather than having the option to tilt it up - it would then stand to reason that you'd have to really literally be working right on top of this to get the most out of it. Also it would want to be the sort that would be easy to read on an angle for fairly obvious reasons.
Transport control and a screen built into a keyboard is a nice idea, and I think what would be nice would be a similar setup so that you can bring your own pc to the party and plug the monitor input into the back. Some people will dig this whole integrated thing, and some... won't. Points to Openlabs for even doing such a thing. It's so 'futurey' and that's enough for me to want it to add to my gadget pile.
Source: Gizmodo Openlabs' product page for the Neko LE
Posted by funnelbc at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2004
preview: creative cardbus soundblaster card...
The PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is without doubt one of the most absurd product names cottoned, so I'm probably going to refer to it as the ZS Notebook from here on in. Laptops are becoming increasingly popular, and from my own recent investigations prices seem to be dropping right across the board. Even a moderately specced laptop equipped with a fast external HDD would make a pretty decent mobile audio workstation.
There aren't so many options for improving the sound capabilties of the laptop though - a few years ago slow processor speeds, slow hard disks made it just about pointless to bother with a laptop for music purposes. Moving along though - a couple of years ago Creative released the Audigy EX which was a USB external soundcard - and there has been a few other companies who have come to the table with an internal PCMCIA card soundcard. It's logical that creative have released the ZS Notebook about now - lest their competition get in there with a killer product first.
They claim once again 24 bit audio for the ZS Notebook - which as always I'm a bit dubious about. But enough of that kind of talk. I'm sure the well meaning people in marketing land have checked with legal and it's okay for them to use 24bit in very much the same way cheap stereo makers use the term P.M.P.O instead of watts RMS. It comes with a breakout cable so that you can plug into a 5.1 or 7.1 audio system - obviously for when you're not on the move. It also features support for DTS-EX and Dolby Digital EX decoding. I get the feeling that apart from offering improved sound handling capabilties for the music user, they're pitching this to the laptop user who wants to watch movies with pristine sound at home. Although I imagine if you were that picky about your sound quality, wouldnt you be watching on a bigger screen than that of your standard notebook?
They claim a improvement in the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio)saying that the noisefloor is much higher with inferior integrated audio - hard to substantiate one way or another, but I'd be inclined to believe them in this particular case - for the ZS Notebook they're speccing a SNR of 104dB. It also features CMSS 3D technology for "a full cinematic experience over headphones or over a multi channel speaker system..." Presumably this means theres a little cannon that comes with this that pelts jaffas and popcorn at the back of your head. Capital!
It'll retail $369 and will be shipping December - that's very soon kids! If you're in need of improved sound on your lappy or just the occasional jaffa pelted at your head drop into your local retailer to check it out.
Posted by funnelbc at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2004
apple rumour - firewire based i/o interface coming
Update: apple insider has this slightly more realistic looking rendition of what you'd be getting from apple for sub $200AUD. They've supplied some fairly compelling reasons to believe in this puppy, not the least which being, that in the 10.3.7 OSX update (earlier versions) Apple included firewire audio interface drivers. Handy. Apple swallowed up Emagic - makers of the supurb Logic Audio - and have used that nouse to produce this... so it should be a reasonable quality product. I think one of these, an ibook and a copy of just about any music package would make a quite decent portable music workstation - if you were say buy, this if/when it eventuates, an ibook and use garagband, you've have a rather cute audio setup. Certainly not the most amazingly powerful setup, but for the money - not too shabby either.
/update
Wel well well, what do we have here then? The image is a artists impression of what Apple might be making. They're rumoured to be launching a firewire based audio breakout box code name "Asteroid". The basics are as follows. 4 inputs, limited to any 2 active simultaneously - it has XLR and 1/4" Tip Ring Sleeve Jacks (2 of each) phantom power, 2 analogue channels for output and also 1 digital.
It'll be designed to work with garage band, and they intend to launch it at the San Francisco Macworld expo in January 2005. If it surfaces - cool. If not.... well.. I'm still having trouble coming to grips with the US retail price being bandied about $129USD - as a rather witty commentator points out on the powerpage.org website, "150? Come on! Apple sells socks for 40 USD..."
Source: powerpage.org Via Gizmodo.com
Posted by funnelbc at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2004
jbl onstage ipod accessory
The ipod's popularity is spawning accessories left right and centre. And from the good folks at JBL we have the JBL onstage ipod speaker system. Not quite sure why it has to be in the funny ring shape as the speakers are only at the front, but none the less it looks like you perch a beer or something in the middle. Presumably to make the shitty music you're listening to more bearable. Teach you to download hanson my friends.
Still, looks nice, and I'd love to hear one in person. It allows a pass through connectivity the computer so you can sync it to itunes (or your ipod sync software of choice) instead of perching it in the dock. Which if you like me, happen to own a basic 15Gig that didn't come standard with the dock mind find appealing.
JBL's Product Page Via Gizmodo
Posted by funnelbc at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
Jesusonic CrusFX1000
Coming to a church fete near you - Jesusonic CrusFX1000. Sounds like a member of the God Squad renamed his Harley, but it is far, far cooler than that.
This is a fully programmable computer based effects processer that runs complicated customisable fx's with no latency. Working for guitar, bass and vocals the unit is shaped in the form of a crusafix and has on board a 8" screen and a qwerty keyboard for programming your effects arrangements, or creating new ones on the fly.
I am not a user of such devices, so I am not able to comment on what there is currently in the market, but it is a very cool looking thing. Jesusonic also has a download of their software that runs on the device (for free) and are in the process of developing a resources page for people to share their customised effects.
Check it out at their Project Page Gizmodo
-Mikinoz
Posted by funnelbc at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2004
creative zen micro jukebox reviews...
By way of the very excellent Gizmodo I'd like to point you in the general direction of these first reviews of the new shiny and above all.. shiny... Creative Zen Micro Jukebox. Hi-Fi.org Forums have a nice user review of the jukebox, and there's an interesting size comparison to be made between the zen and the ipod mini. That is to say, the Zen is thicker, but smaller in terms of height and width. Next up, There's this rather cluttered c.net review. Goddamn hard to read with all that clutter and crap on the page. And finally, extremetech.com take a look at the zen also.
My take? Well obviously I haven't got one to tinker with, but gathering from the reviews, it seems creative have taken note of what makes the ipod a joy to use, like the touch strip (instead of the wheel) - they've even put in a clicker speaker like the ipods. Battery life is improved, extra gig of storage and the screen is apparently better. I don't think it will be enough to call the masses away from the ipod, but it's a good effort by Creative, and I think they deserve to sell quite a few of these.
Posted by funnelbc at 08:49 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2004
preview: creative to deliver hot new emu based hardware
Some time ago, I found out that EMU - maker of all things nice and synthy had been bought by Creative, and that was why the main chip on the soundblaster live series card was the EMU10K. Logical that they put EMU's best foot forward and put their hardware in sub $100 soundcards(!). It did however give the early soundblasters real clout in the audio market as well as the home market, and they went on to sell 1 squillion cards. EMU haven't been as high profile as many of the other audio companies that are kicking about but I was delighted to find out that creative are continuing to support EMU as a brand unto itself and are helping them deliver some rather tasty new gear to the consumer, quite possibly at a starting price point that I would have expected to fall strictly within the soundblaster domain.
They've pitched the new range for the "Desktop Professional and Home Studio Musicians" which seems like the right spot given the price points and feature sets. It's a difficult market to enter, as there's already several companies who do similar things with little to distinguish each product. I think what's unique or at least helps the new EMU gear stand above the crowd is that they also happend to boast hardware accelerated effects - as well as the sundry I/O featuring hardware digital signal processing (DSP), that's certainly something to notice.
On the topic of onboard DSP I have no reason to suspect that the quality will be anything short of excellent, my experience of EMU hardware to date has been universally positive. Without hearing them I can't personally vouch for the quality, but I would bet should one magically appear in my greasy paws, I wouldn't be dissapointed. EMU has a strong history of producing studio quality hardware and they're chasing hard to catchup with whats happening with software synths. Zero processor overhead is what you get from onboard DSP (at least if the inbuilt effects are what you want to use) and at this price, there's not many cards that have this kind of processing firepower. There's a few cards floating about that have exciting DSP capabilities but none have the the pedigree these have and none that I know of are available with DSP and effects under $299AUD. Sadly there seems to be the usual price hike that we experience with technology gear down under and the EMU 0404 has an estimated street price of $99 in the states, I'm not so good with the maths (or the book learnin') but that price conversion doesn't quite work out. Still that's only RRP and even at that price I venture that it is indeed a reasonable price to pay.
Theres a lot to like about the new gear, but of note from the press release it states that the 1820M ($1199 AUD) (has a) "half-rackspace breakout box that features premium 24-bit/192kHz converters - the same A/D converters used in Digidesign's high-end ProTools HD interface. " Holy crap man! If this isn't even half true, this is damn fine news. I'd be very interested to see DigiDesign's response to that. Pro-Tools HD rigs are well in excess of 20,000AUD for the unititiated. The prescense of Neutrik pro-grade connectors also indicates to me that EMU are taking this very seriously, and personally, I cannot wait to check these out for real.
There's lots of other juicy information, and I've included a copy of the press release for your very own eyes below. Enough of the me, and more with the Specs!
Visit EMU Online or Creative.com
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E-MU 1820M, 1820 and 1212M Digital Audio Systems deliver professional I/O, Hardware-Accelerated, Effects and Sync on your PC from AU$299
SYDNEY - November 10, 2004 - Creative Labs Pty Ltd, a local subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd (NASDAQ: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC users, today announced Creative Professional E-MU Digital Audio Systems - 24-bit/192kHz PCI audio interfaces that deliver everything musicians need to produce audio on a PC with professional results, including mastering-grade converters (the same A/D converters used in Digidesign®'s flagship ProTools® HD 192 I/O interface), hardware-accelerated effects and mixing, and seamless compatibility with all major PC audio/MIDI software. There are three Digital Audio Systems: the E-MU 1820M, 1820 and 1212M, each matched with I/O and sync options to suit the specific needs of musicians, recording engineers and sound designers, and ship with comprehensive WDM, DirectSound® and ASIOT 2.0 drivers for Windows® 2000 and XP. E-MU's Digital Audio Systems has started shipping at recommended retail price of AU$1199inc GST for the E-MU 1820M, AU$949 inc GST for the E-MU 1820 and AU$499 inc GST for the E-MU 1212M.
"Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro with the I/O hub has been the choice of music hobbyists to produce music. With this exciting range of Creative Professional E-MU Digital Audio Systems, we are able to extend on the Sound Blaster to deliver more professional solutions for the hobbyists and even the professional musicians," said Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd.
Hardware-accelerated Effects, Mixing and Monitoring
All three Digital Audio Systems feature E-MU's powerful E-DSP chip, an effects processor that can deliver over 16 simultaneous hardware-accelerated effects, freeing your computer from running CPU-intensive plug-ins that limit your audio performance- a feature only offered by the most high-priced DAWs on the market. E-MU's Digital Audio Systems ship with over 500 effects presets, and the effects architecture is fully expandable, allowing you to add more effect plug-ins to your system as needed. The E-DSP chip also provides zero-latency, hardware-based mixing and monitoring via the included PatchMix DSP mixer, delivering unmatched flexibility in routing audio between all of your physical and virtual (ASIO/WDM) inputs and outputs- no external mixer needed.
Total Analog, Digital and Sync Connectivity
E-MU's Digital Audio Systems all feature ADAT, S/PDIF and FireWire® interfaces, as well as connectivity to a family of internal and external I/O and sync options.
The E-MU 1820 Digital Audio System ships with a 24-bit/192kHz half-rackspace breakout box that offers I/O expansion with everything from pristine 1/4" balanced inputs and outputs to specialized I/O like turntable inputs (with ground lug and hardware RIAA preamp), dedicated speaker outputs and two studio-grade TFProT preamps with 48V phantom power and 40dB of gain. These preamps feature Neutrik® connectors and accept mic, line and Hi-Z level inputs for total flexibility in plugging any microphone or instrument straight into the system. This breakout box also provides two sets of MIDI I/O, and is powered over the EDI (E-MU Digital Interface) cable that connects it to E-MU's PCI card - no external power needed.
The E-MU 1820M Digital Audio System ships with a mastering-grade version of the half-rackspace breakout box that features premium 24-bit/192kHz converters - the same A/D converters used in Digidesign's high-end ProTools HD interface. These converters deliver an unbelievable 120dB SNR, an incredible audio spec at any price, but unbelievable for a system priced at less than AU$1500. No other audio solution available offers the performance, flexibility and value of the E-MU 1820M.
The E-MU 1212M Digital Audio System offers the same mastering-grade converters on a I/O daughter card, providing a pair of balanced inputs and outputs as well as MIDI I/O - the perfect solution for any application that only requires a couple channels of premium analog I/O (i.e. mastering, remixing and running virtual instruments).
The E-MU 1820M Digital Audio System also ships with a sync daughtercard that allows musicians to lock external analog and digital systems together with a stable, high-resolution time base. The sync daughtercard supports Word Clock Sync in/out for sample accurate phase-lock of your digital studio, SMPTE Sync in/out for stable synchronization of external analog tape and video, as well as MTC (MIDI Time Code) out. Together with the comprehensive analog and digital I/O options available, E-MU 1820M offers complete, professional-spec connectivity to your entire studio, at a fraction of the price of the competition.
E-MU 1820M I/O Configuration:
. Two TFPro Mic/Line/Hi-Z preamps (w/48V phantom power)
. Six 1/4" Balanced Inputs
. Eight 1/4" Balanced Outputs
. Turntable input (w/ground lug and hardware RIAA preamp)
. 24-bit/192kHz ADAT In/Out (switchable to S/PDIF)
. 24-bit/96kHz coaxial S/PDIF In/Out (switchable to AES/EBU)
. 24-bit/96kHz optical S/PDIF Out (switchable to AES/EBU)
. Two sets of MIDI In/Out
. Four stereo 1/8" Speaker Outputs (configurable from stereo to 7.1)
. Stereo Headphone Output
. Firewire® Interface
Sync:
. Word Clock In/Out
. SMPTE In/Out
. MTC Out
The E-MU 1820M also ships with a comprehensive audio software package that includes Steinberg Cubase VST 5.1, Steinberg Wavelab Lite 2.5 and SFX Machine LT.
E-MU 1820 I/O Configuration:
. Two TFPro Mic/Line/Hi-Z preamps (w/48V phantom power)
. Six 1/4" Balanced Inputs
. Eight 1/4" Balanced Outputs
. Turntable input (w/ground lug and hardware RIAA preamp)
. 24-bit/192kHz ADAT In/Out (switchable to S/PDIF)
. 24-bit/96kHz coaxial S/PDIF In/Out (switchable to AES/EBU)
. 24-bit/96kHz optical S/PDIF Out (switchable to AES/EBU)
. Two sets of MIDI In/Out
. Four stereo 1/8" Speaker Outputs (configurable from stereo to 7.1)
. Stereo Headphone Output
. Firewire® Interface
The E-MU 1820 also ships with a comprehensive audio software package that includes Steinberg Cubase VST 5.1, Steinberg Wavelab Lite 2.5 and SFX Machine LT.
E-MU 1212M I/O Configuration:
. Two 1/4" Balanced Inputs
. Two 1/4" Balanced Outputs
. 24-bit/192kHz ADAT In/Out (switchable to S/PDIF)
. 24-bit/96kHz S/PDIF In/Out (switchable to AES/EBU)
. MIDI In/Out
. Firewire® Interface
The E-MU 1212M also ships with a comprehensive audio software package that includes Steinberg Cubasis 4.0, Steinberg Wavelab Lite 2.5 and SFX Machine LT.
Pricing and Availability:
The Creative Professional E-MU 1820M has a recommended retail price of AU$1199 inc GST; Creative Professional E-MU 1820 has a recommended retail price of AU$949 inc GST and the Creative Professional E-MU 1212M has a recommended price of AU$499 inc GST. All Creative Professional products are now shipping in Australia and New Zealand. Also available is The Creative Professional EMU 0404 at a recommended retail price of $299 inc GST and the Emulator X at AUD$749 inc GST and the Emulator X Studio at $1399 inc GST.
Posted by funnelbc at 07:15 AM | Comments (2)
November 09, 2004
m-audio firewire solo it's full o' newness!
Good news singin' hobos! You too can record you latest song about stabbin' and all that good stuff with the rather shiny and nice M-Audio firewire solo. It's a self contained I/O box for recording that features 6x24bit/96kHz interface, mic, guitar and line inputs. It even has a 'real' XLR mic jack which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. It's got spdif so you could hook it up to cheap digital mixer and get some serious in/out action for relatively few dollars. It runs off bus power, which means that If you are on a bus... no it runs off the power that your firewire port supplies. This is a nice little self contained option and it is mac and pc compatible.
M-Audio's page for the FireWire Solo Via Synthtopia.com Via Gizmodo
As an added bonus, synthtopia.com also have a review of the Roland SP-606 Sampling workstation. Clicky!
Posted by funnelbc at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2004
hp bluetooth headphones
Man I love new technology, especially like those blue tooth moblile headsets, cos they dont make you look like a 1980's version of the future at all. No, not at all. Some technology products just look plain naff, and so too, have most Bluetooth headphones until now. The unlikeliest of saviours has stepped in on behalf of the Bluetooth wearin' hoverboard riding masses. They look rather understated and are available on the HP website. Gizmodo wonders whether they're going to work with anything apart from the ipaq PDA's and I would wager that some nerd in a basement is already beavering away making them work more universally.
Posted by funnelbc at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)