Sesame Street Rules!

Gearwire tracked this little nugget down.  Herbie plus a Fairlight.  What's not to love.

Petting the Lemur

From the "never thought I would get a chance in this lifetime" files:

Guitarist extraordinaire and (206) Lemur rep Ari swung through Tekgnosis Laboratories with the object of my desire and I got to take it for a spin. In an old post I was concerned about the Lemur's responsiveness but now that I got some face to face I have to say that is definitely not an issue.

Computer Music top 10 Soft Synths

Computer Music has posted on their blog a couple videos showcasing the top 10 Software Synths as voted on by their readers.  Whether or not you agree with the list order it does form a really cool overview of some of the smokiness soft synths on the planet today.  There were a few that I didn't know existed, a few old favorites that I now miss, a few that are in my arsenal that I can't live without, and a few I knew about but didn't KNOW about.  Ah, so many synths so little Benjamin's (er, time). 

10 - 6:

5 - 1:

Logic Pro/Express 8

Logic users don't have to feel neglected anymore. Apple released Logic Studio 1.0 (and Logic Express 8) this morning. Haven't had a chance to thumb through all the new features but right away I have to say it's very cool that they've included Soundtrack Pro with it. I was wondering what was the deal with Final Cut Studio people getting that bundle. The interface seems a lot more streamlined too and there something new called Main Stage which seems like an app for live performance and kinda interesting.  Hmmm, my curiosity has been perked.

Logic Studio 1

Logic Express 8

Disco Tesla

I just got through listening to this week's Sonic State Podcast and it turned me on to this youtube vid. The thing to remember as you watch this is that the tesla coil in the video is actually generating the music that you are hearing. I can't even imagine the db's this thing is pushing.

Video (OT): Wii Fit - from the makers of 'Big Ass Table'

Sarcastic Gamer strikes again with their follow up to "Big Ass Table". This time they've put the new Wii Fit in their cross hairs:

A free (Beta) Spectrum Analyser: bs-spectrum

Surfing around yesterday I found this @ macmusic. "bs-spectrum" is a freeware Spectrum analyzer for both Windows and Mac.  On the Mac it's available in both AU and VST flavors.  I had a chance to poke around with it a little and it's pretty straight forward.  As with all utility software nothing fancy is expected.  They just do what they do.  My only complaints are that I wish it had a higher frequency resolution and the redraw seems a bit sluggish but keep in mind that this is freeware.  It's CPU overhead is negligible and for some reason I like that way the level meters are laid out.  It's simple and really easy on the eyes.  Well suited for across the room viewing.   I think it's worth at least checking out.  

-Download page-

Spectrum analyzers are a great tool to have around for reference.  Especially, in apartment/bedroom situations where sometimes you don't get a true feel for what's going on in all the various frequencies.  Especially on the bottom end.  Remember this is beta software and although I haven't found any issues yet  use at your own peril.  While we are on the subject of Spectrum Analyzers, if you haven't tried out Inspector (PC and Mac) by Roger Nichol's Digital  I highly recomend it. It's great for when more detail is need.  It's free also.

A little gear pr0n, Elektron style

Okay so it's getting late and I can't think of anything clever to say.  So good night and enjoy.

OT: A Big Ass Table!

So this is a bit off topic but this week I seem to have multi-touch interfaces on the brain. I scraped this story from Engadget who in turn grabbed it from Sarcastic Gamer. It's a parody that poke a little bit of fun at the expense of Microsoft's recently announced Surface. For the record, I'm absolutely blown away by Surface and I can't wait for the technology (and price) to trickle down to us musician types.

Holy Glitchin' Lemurs

Found this on my youtube travels today. It's of interest to me because for some reason I had heard that the response time on the Lemur wasn't all that for rhythmic passages. In this vid it seems pretty responsive. Of course there's no real way of knowing until you actually get your hands on one. This was posted by Michael Forrest and he's using his Lemur to control Dblue Glitch.



Also, as a side note he shows of a little bit of sequencing with the Lemur. I'm definitely falling in love with the concept of graphical multi-touch beat making.

Harry Krishna

I've been eyeing the release date for Krishna ( a cool new soft-synth from the folks at Devine Machine) for some time and today it's here!:D

I'm definitely a fan of these guys ever since I picked up Lucifer a while back. When they announced Krishna earlier in the year it peaked my curiosity because it seemed to have a unique tonal character with its so called "Frame Oscillators". Although I've been setting aside some Benjamin's for it, last week I cracked and picked up the AKAI MPD24 instead (which I'm loving, btw) so I'll have to wait a little bit longer to pick it up. In the meantime there's a demo (PC/MAC) on the site that I'm downloading as I type this. I'll give it a whirl over the next few days and report back on my thoughts.-m

Top 20 Synths Continues

Yesterday SonicState put out the lastest episode of their countdown. I have to warn you that it spends the whole episode on #2. However, if you've been following it I think it's a safe bet what #1 is. That being said consider this episode a really cool mini-documentary on a really cool synth. After watching it I'm no longer on the fence about wanting to get the virtual version.

Episode 07: Position 2

Beat making worms

Really isn't much more to say:

Today's geekfest: Top 20 Synths

This week were are editing what will be our first official podcast which we recorded last week. So to kill some time here's a guilty pleasure. This IPTV series comes to you courtesy of Sonicstate. Easily one of my favorite Web spots for quite some time.



Have a good monday.

Episode 01: Positions 20-18
Episode 02: Positions 17-15
Episode 03: Postions 14-12
Episode 04: Positions 11-9
Episode 05: Positions 8-6
Episode 06: Positions 5-3

To be continued

A Driver's License + Ableton Live? Huh?

It never ceases to amaze how people come up with this stuff. Absolutely useless in real world live situations but way geeky cool nonetheless. So for today's little geekery, I present to you the Driver's License Ribbon Controller for Ableton Live. It would be a cool a Laptop Battle gimmick except for the fact that it's so small that people in the crowd would probably think you're just doing your nails or something.

We heart knobs

Found this on youtube by Latinsizer.
For a detail desciption you can jump here to the original posting.

Now this is a Piano

Talk about your weird coincidences. Last night I had this weird dream in which a I had this cool custom piano that included the guts of of a weighted Keyboard controller and a computer built in to it. Not so much for playing out but something to jam out on at home or for writing with without having worry about issues like tuning but also something with an infinite palette of sounds at my fingertips. Oh yeah, and of course there is the "coolness" factor. Well lo and behold I woke up and found this over at createdigitalmusic

As you'll see in the next pic it's more designed for dj/vj types but what I want to do seems like it would be a lot simpler to pull off (it probably even exists to some degree already). It get's bonus points for being white. White baby grands are the absolute coolest things in the world.
-m.0

Baby Grand Master