Key Of Grey

December 28th, 2008 - I am now the proud owner of number 25 of Michael Una's Beep-It. I've been annoying people with it since I got it as a Christmas gift. It's a very simple device, but I love that about it. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, but it has a pretty fat sound for what it is. I haven't yet tried using a strobe light on it like Michael did in his demo video, but I ... Read More

Photo courtesy of MakerShed December 3rd, 2008 - As you know, I'm one of those geeks that loves the idea of playing music on home-made instruments. When it's something like an analog synthesizer, where cute little electrons (I imagine them to look like the sparks from Super Mario brothers) rattle around inside, and create awesome crunchy sounds, even better. This SX-150 synth from Gakken features a super simple, and easily controllable, design that even an electronics noob like myself could build. Not only that, but the ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Josh Boughey November 26th, 2008 - Josh Boughey has released the Stribe1, a touch sensitive, LED-metered "fader". While your first inclination might be to use this as a cool fader befitting of your next club set, Josh points out on CreateDigitalMusic that while it resembles a fader, it's in fact a controller that can be programmed to do whatever you want. While the LEDs may light bottom-up in this set up, I'm sure that it could be programmed to only light ... Read More

October 16th, 2008 - Ok, unless you've been under a rock for the past 2 days, and yet somehow still have the internet connection to visit this site, you have heard of Apple's new laptop releases. I didn't really see the need to report on it since Peter at CreateDigitalMusic, and MusicRadar had already posted the same concerns as I had, but i figured that if you didn't already know why you shouldn't buy one, you should. The new Macbook and MacbookPro laptops ... Read More

October 5th, 2008 - Just over a month ago, Andrew from AirDrives contacted me about my post about his product. He sent me over a few sets of AirDrives and, having used them for a fair amount of time, I can tell you about how it's like to use them daily. First off, Andrew sent me 3 versions: normal AirDrives, AirDrives for the iPhone, and pink ones. Since I don't have an iPhone, I gave them to a friend who's a web designer ... Read More

September 30th, 2008 - I have done work in a few studios that had Universal Audio gear. Universal Audio products are a little pricey, but well worth the money in my opinion. One of my favorite pieces of gear is the 2-610 which is a Class A pre-amp that includes some tube circuitry. Simply routing my sampled instruments through the 2-610 and back into my DAW has yielded a more natural analog tone, with a much fatter sound. The LA-610 is almost ... Read More

Photo courtesy of ComputerMusic blog September 12th, 2008 - There are many software titles out there that have affiliated hardware devices. Any version of Protools will only work with one of its own hardware interfaces (including those of M-Audio which they own). Logic has the Duet and Ensemble which are optional interfaces you can buy. Now Cubase has released its own interface and controller modules. I must say, it looks pretty slick. Both Protools' Mbox, and Logic's Ensemble, lack Cubase's hardware transport. Sure, you ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Sony August 25th, 2008 - Gearwire has a couple review videos of the Sony PCM-D50 of which I am a proud owner. Thankfully the comments are favourable. Regardless what other people think though, I've had a pretty positive experience. Great clarity from the built-in microphones, good battery life, rugged quality, and good design. There are only a few niggles I have with the PCM-D50. One weird thing is the folder structure. Everything goes in Folder 1 until you fill it up ... Read More