Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Marc Arsenault March 10th, 2010 - Yoshi Akai, who's apparently a steampunk aficionado, has created a sequencer that uses Lego to program 3 channels and 8 steps. Each coloured block has an embedded resistor, and stacking them controls effects. The website is sparse on details but it looks like the synthesizer is built into the unit, and it doesn't look like there's MIDI out. Still, very cool implementation and bonus points for bringing the original Lego pieces back. Who needs ... Read More

Photo courtesy of mattthegamer463 March 5th, 2010 - Have you ever wanted to ditch all the batteries in your guitar pedal rig? For someone like me that doesn't get out of the studio much, it seems like a waste to use up all those nine volt batteries when I don't really need the portability. Instructable user mattthegamer463, has created a $25 DIY power supply to daisy chain through all your pedals. Of course, dealing with all that electricity can potentially be dangerous, so ... Read More

Photo courtesy of frigante March 3rd, 2010 - One of the hardest thing to do in music production is record a drum set properly. A close second, is mixing that same drum set. Fortunately, AudioTuts has a great step-by-step series on how to accomplish just that. What I like about it in particular is that not only does the author tell you exactly the settings and plugins he's using, he tells you why he's using them so you can expand on what he's ... Read More

February 27th, 2010 - There are a lot of different types of jobs in the audio industry outside of music. One of the sectors that's rising in profile is sound design. Sound designers can work on movies and television, or on video games. They work with sounds they've recorded, or vast libraries that they maintain and apply effects to. It's their job to accurately aurally portray the speed of that Porsche, or the sub-woofer rattling roar of a gigantic octopus-faced sea monster. I've ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Brocco Lee February 26th, 2010 - With the strong growth in the population of DIY electronic wizards, it seems like almost everyday there's a new robot that can play music. Such roboticized musicians have served as more of a curiosity than anything; musicians haven't been threatened by robots taking their jobs just yet. So why is it that when Dave Cope unveiled Emmy, there were plenty of angry detractors, and even supporters were disturbed by the implications. Emmy (or EMI as ... Read More

Photo courtesy of davetron5000 February 25th, 2010 - Sam Greene over at AudioPropellor suggested I missed some points when writing the original "Minimum Gear, Maximum Impact" post almost 2 years ago, and he's definitely right. That article deserves a little refresh so I thought I'd post a few more ideas on the subject. Of course, the biggest improvement to any set up is you. This does not necessarily mean that you need to go to school and get a fancy engineering degree (although that ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Livid Instruments February 23rd, 2010 - Livid Instruments, maker of the Block, has teased us with the MIDI DIY for a while now. Well, it's finally here, but is now encompassed in the Builder series. Livid's Builder starts with the Brain (which replaces the MIDI DIY), and you add modular pieces to complete whatever controller you'd like from there. You can purchase specialized boards for push buttons, one for rotary knobs, and one for linear faders, as well as the associated ... Read More

February 22nd, 2010 - The digital recorder market is pretty saturated right now. From super high-end down to the lower end of the spectrum, it's hard to stand out. So how did Sanyo attempt to break from the tried and true stereo microphone pair? They added 4 more mics bringing the total to 6. The Xacti feature the traditional X-Y pair, an omnidirectional pair, and two other directional mics that are meant to capture sound above 20 kHz. Odd that they're made for ... Read More

February 21st, 2010 - I've been tooling around with Logic for almost 10 years now, and one of the additions in version 8 that I never really used was MainStage. MainStage is an application meant for performing live. You can use instruments and effects from Logic combined with live looping and MIDI triggering, to pull off Ableton-esque performances. With version 9 of Logic, MainStage was beefed up with better amp modeling, and better looping features making it more enticing for musicians. Since I ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Das Labor February 19th, 2010 - I'm sure that tuning a guitar by using a strobing light isn't a new concept, but the Stimmmopped is a cool DIY project nonetheless. Basically, by flashing an LED at exact frequencies and plucking the string with the device, will allow you to see if the string is out of tune or not. If the string is sharp or flat, the LED will still look like it's flashing, but when the frequency is right, ... Read More