Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Numark June 27th, 2010 - Numark has announced the impending arrival of the MixTrack DJ MIDI controller. Having reviewed the Vestax Spin and using it quite a bit, I can't help but see the similarities between them. Like the Spin, the MixTrack has a touch sensitive platter and like the Spin's twin brother the Typhoon, the MixTrack ships with Traktor LE. While the layout is similar, the platters on the MixTrack look to have the "vinyl feel" surface that most of ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Derek K. Miller June 26th, 2010 - Have you ever walked into a music store to buy guitar or microphone cables and been taken aback by the pricing on cables? What makes them so expensive? I think it's probably the time and care needed to properly solder connections more than the materials. So if you have some time on your hands, you can make your own high quality cables and save a tonne of cash. AudioTuts has a great primer ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Villinus June 25th, 2010 - Okay, now why didn't I think of this before? Following yesterday's post on hacking an SM57 for easy drum miking, comes another slap-on-the-forehead easy hack. I'm sure you've come across a broken set of headphones that sounded fine, but something broke like the strap, or a deteriorating foam ear cup. Last fall, I wrote about how my set of reliable headphones were deteriorating badly. It turns out that finding a cup in the correct size ... Read More

Xeraphine's DIY Laptop Stand June 15th, 2010 - I was out at a gig a couple weekends ago and although I brought a laptop stand, it didn't work out that well for the environment I was in. One of the problems with playing out is that you can't always control your environment. In this case, having a smaller footprint and having my laptop raised more would have helped out immensely. There are several companies that make good raised laptop stands (Stanton's Uberstand and Griffin's ... Read More

Photo courtesy of tnl June 14th, 2010 - If you have a set of earphones whose cord always seems to get tangled, you ought to take a look at this paracord sleeve mod. Basically, you will end up feeding your earphone wire through the core of the paracord, and use it as a sort of super sleeve. Not only will the cord be thicker, thereby reducing the chances of tangles, but it will also resist bending which can cause breaks in the delicate ... Read More

Photo courtesy of BobsDogHouse June 13th, 2010 - I've always been fascinated by thumb pianos. Probably because they sound so earthy, and they're so simple. When I pluck away at one, it's hard not to smile. If you've ever handled one, their construction is fairly simple, so why not make your own? Instructables user BobsDogHouse has written a DIY article on building one and the end result looks very polished. DIY Thumb Piano Read More

Photo courtesy of mistic June 6th, 2010 - User mistic on Instructables has posted a tutorial on creating a "mini-piano". Well it's actually more of a mini-harpsichord since the strings are plucked rather than struck. It's a pretty cool idea, and while it may not look so great, I'm sure you can get some pretty nifty sounds out of it. There's a video on the Instructable site that you can watch if you're a registered user (sign up is free), so you can ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Novation June 4th, 2010 - Novation, maker of the Launchpad and series of nifty MIDI keyboards, has just released the Dicer, a mini-MIDI controller that's designed to be a trigger for your DJ software. While it's Serato-certified, you can also map it to Traktor and others. The Dicer bridges the gap between the pure vinyl spinners, and the new cue-point juggling style of controllerists. The interesting part though is not necessarily the device itself which is admittedly nifty and affordable ($99 ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Livid Instruments June 3rd, 2010 - I've posted about Livid Instruments' Builders series before and now they have a design contest running. Design the perfect controller, upload your designs, and the Livid Instruments staff will vote on their favorite. The winning one will become a reality with all the parts, case, and faceplate (within reason) sent to you; you will still need to assemble it yourself though. There are design requirements, so check out the contest page linked below for more ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Samson June 1st, 2010 - Not content to rest on its Zoom H4 and H2 laurels, Samson has released the Zoom H1, a seriously small digital recorder capable of 24-bit 96 khz recording. While it's not going to be competing against Sanyo's six freaking microphones, it's still an impressive piece of kit. With the H1, it also looks like Samson has eschewed the utilitarian look of its siblings for a streamlined look. The Zoom H1 has dedicated buttons for most of ... Read More