Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Synthesizers May 7th, 2009 - In the interests of increasing my productivity, I've been looking at pad-type controllers. Or at least that's how I justify it to myself. The two out there that I believe provide the best value for the money are Native Instrument's Maschine, and Akai/Ableton's APC40. (Read this Synthtopia post for release information on the APC40) The reason why I am looking at these two over say a Monome, is that I don't have a copy of Ableton ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Native Instruments March 22nd, 2009 - One of the big products to be revealed at NAMM was Native Instruments' Maschine. Basically it has its own hardware, 5 gigs of onboard samples, built-in effects, and transport controls. It can also be used as a MIDI controller for such software as Ableton. Of course, the feature everyone is most interested in, is the drum pads. Could this take over the MPC as the modern producer's go-to gear? The videos I've seen of it ... Read More