Key Of Grey

July 23rd, 2010 - A few days ago, I put out a call on my Twitter account for suggestions of mic preamps that would work well with an M-Audio Sputnik tube microphone. I got several great suggestions, and Randy Coppinger came to the rescue with an awesome Sputnik test he had posted on SoundCloud (embedded below). In the test audio, Randy uses an M-Audio Sputnik tube condenser on 6 mic preamps: Martech MSS-10, True Systems P-Solo, Millennia Media TD-1, Universal Audio Solo 610, ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Sanyo July 22nd, 2010 - Sanyo's Eneloop series is one of the best bets for rechargeable batteries. Thanks to 300Guitars (great site for guitar tech by the way), I found out that they've expanded to the very niche market of guitar pedals. The Pedal Juice, is a lithium ion rechargeable battery pack that will run 9v to all your guitar pedals. It has two output jacks that you can use to daisy chain power to all your pedals. Sanyo says ... Read More

Photo courtesy of ssp July 18th, 2010 - When Motu Released their Moto BPM software, a small contingent of fans were disappointed that Motu didn't also release a hardware interface that mirrored the software's computer-generated eye candy. An even smaller contingent went out and did something about it...well one person really. User ssp on the MotuNation forum created his own using the MIDIbox platform. From the layout, to the silk-screened graphics, the attention to detail is amazing. The Moto BPM software is a ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Mike Walters July 13th, 2010 - That awesome Superman-coloured device pictured above is the invention of mad-genius tinkerer Mike Walters. He sent me the link to his creation and it actually took me a while to figure out what was going on. The Drumssette is the result of a disassembled Tascam four-track recorder that's been repurposed as an "analog" drum machine. Each of the four tracks has a drum sound which is played on a continuous loop. It has a 16 ... Read More

July 7th, 2010 - Peter Cocteau over at nxtasy.org has posted the software he created for a sample-based drum machine hacked into a Lego Mindstorm NXT unit. Using the NXT brain and some rotary dials, you can program some pretty nice sounding drums. I'm pretty impressed by the sound quality from such a supposedly lo-fi device. Check out the link below for more information and to download the code. I might have to get a Mindstorm kit just to make this thing! nxtasy.org ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Ikea Hacker July 4th, 2010 - With Ikea's wide variety of products and comparatively affordable prices, it's no wonder that their products are ripe for the "hacking". Ikea Hacker has a tutorial for making your own speaker stand out of a table leg, and a shelf. I like the idea of using the leg for threading the cables through, but I'm not sure about the benefits of the shelf as the base. If you look at serious audiophile speakers, they usually ... Read More

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

Photo courtesy of Signal To Noise June 18th, 2010 - Signal to Noise has created something they're calling the Analogue Tape Wall which is a traveling installation. It consists of a glove that users can use to stroke over a wall of analogue tape. The glove contains a tape head on the finger tip which allows the tape to be played. In the video embedded below, it seems like the collection of tape doesn't have much to do with each other in a ... Read More