Key Of Grey

November 18th, 2008 - I'm not sure what it is these days, but people of my generation and younger expect things now. We're used to getting information, food, almost everything when we want it immediately; rarely do we have to wait for anything. Because everything is at our fingertips and technology affords us every convenience, we grasp things quickly. We can go online, and find out the tricks of the trade from experts that have been in a field for decades. We can ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Sound Skulptor November 17th, 2008 - Sound Skulptor believes that building your own gear leads to a better understanding of the gear itself. When you understand the gear, you can better exploit it. Also, it's just plain cool to build what you use. Sound Skulptor sells both completed and DIY kits for its products, and if you choose the DIY route, you save a large amount of cash. It's a win/win situation in my eyes. They've designed the gear to be ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Clavia November 16th, 2008 - Nord will be releasing its third iteration of the Electro series next month. Besides being slimmer, and lighter, it adds the abilities to read from the Nord sample libraries, and record new samples. This makes it an even more versatile stage instrument than before. Long lusted over for its fantastic classic organ sounds, the new sampling abilities make this keyboard even more desirable. Now a musician who wants to run his own samples and only wants ... Read More

November 15th, 2008 - Ok, the title may be technically incorrect; you blow the EWI. No, it's not a musical breathalyzer, it's a MIDI controller that works off the power of your lungs. This supposedly gives you better control of your synth and sampler instruments. I've seen someone play the "flute" using a Yamaha breath controller to recreate Bolero using an acoustic modeler, and while it sounded a lot better than most sampled wind-powered instruments I've heard, it still sounded a bit off. ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Michael Una November 14th, 2008 - There are so few causes that I can get behind these days; I'm just so conflicted with my Gen-Y sensibilities. A cause I can really get behind, though, is handmade instruments. Not only do they look cool, but you can get some totally unique sounds that are somewhat exclusive. You might make your own instruments, or support the little guy (or gal) behind the scenes that is innovating in his spare bedroom. Take Michael Una's ... Read More

November 13th, 2008 - I'm not exactly a video expert, nor do I usually cut sound to video. I have, however, had fun playing around with sound for film by taking out all the audio from an action scene in Ang Lee's Hulk movie, and replacing it with foley and sound effects in Protools. If you've ever done anything like that before, you know that it certainly helps to have a large, and well-organized sound effects library at your disposal. As a huge ... Read More

November 12th, 2008 - Gibson is releasing the Dark Fire, a second generation "Robot Guitar". Not only does this guitar have a gorgeous finish, and Gibson's "Robot Guitar" tuning technology (supposedly it now makes the tuning changes in about a second), but it also features 3 pickups so you can make your ultimate blend of tone. Besides it being one of the most beautiful and lust-worthy guitars I've ever laid eyes upon, the "Robot Guitar" technology allows you to tune into alternate tunings ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Blue Microphone November 11th, 2008 - Last week, there was a lot of buzz around the Blue Microphone Icicle. Basically it's a USB audio interface that's super compact; there's a USB connector on one side and an XLR on the other. It "features" 16bit 44.1khz recording which is hardly the standard anymore. At $60, it's a great bargain though. On CreateDigitalMusic, Peter has put together a post with reviews on an Icicle competitor that's already in release, the CEntrance MicPortPro. For ... Read More

November 10th, 2008 - Lately, I've been on the look out for 8bit plug ins. While I'm not sure that I'm a complete chiptunes-o-phile, I do love the sounds and want to incorporate them into stuff I'm producing. GearWire recently posted about a SID emulator from audio developer de la Mancha. For those of you who don't know, the SID chip was the audio hardware integrated into the Commodore64. Along with the original Gameboy and NES sound chips, the SID is legendary in ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Korg November 9th, 2008 - It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about the Korg Nano series. If you recall, the Korg Nano series was designed to look great in front of your white Macbook. But how were you going to coordinate if you had a black Macbook? Well worry no more. Korg has released the Nano series in black. Still, if you are fortunate enough to have the new Macbook or MBPro, or have an older MBPro, you ... Read More