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Make a cool drum machine and have social interaction at the same time!
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If you own a PC, a webcam, and have access to a printer you could make yourself a cool little DIY hardware step sequencer. The D-Touch Synth and Drum Machine is a software-based, hardware-controlled system where the hardware is absolutely free (you build it with paper, which means no confusing soldering or wires). Just print out the paper control surface, form the cubic control pieces and set up your webcam accordingly. When you move the pieces of paper horizontally or vertically, it changes the timing and other control parameters of your drums and samples…or samples for that matter. Could be a great social interaction tool if someone was looking to get a lot of attention/promotion during second Saturday events here in Sacramento.
Sacramento, please take notice of what clubs could look like. Think outside the box.
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Don’t get me wrong, Sacramento has some fun nightclubs to go to. The new Venue (old Empire), Faces, new Badlands, etc. are all great places (sometimes some sound issues), but they all have a pretty safe design visually. Some are new or have undergone major face lifts that look to WOW the patrons, but nothing comes close to the visual appeal of the new ‘Sound’ in Phuket.
Setting up a home studio and want it to look Sexy?
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The computer of tomorrow is here today! It’s really, really…well, it’s what I want to look at for inspiration when I sit down to make a track or do some mastering. Yes, it might not be the most practical piece of hardware in terms of cost, but the loveliness alone is worth its weight in gold.
Orbital at the Warfield April 16th, 2010
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It’s been a long time coming, and thank God the time has come, as the amazing electronic duo Orbital is about to put on a great show before their Coachella outing. Coming this April 16th Orbital will be at the Warfield in San Francisco!
It’s going to be a great show at a fantastic up close and personal venue!
Numark NS7FX Motorized DJ Software Performance Controller
Posted by: | CommentsFor Sacramento club installations, or the casual bedroom DJ, there’s a cool new toy out. The Numark NS7FX comes out of the box with minimal hassle and is mapped with Serato’s ITCH. It has motorized platters, virtual needle dropping and many more cool features, but only time will tell if these can hold up to the rough conditions of nightly use and abuse.
Cool products to help the iPhone/ipod Touch producers
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The Sacramento club music scene might soon be using more and more of the new portable gadgetry coming out for iPhones and iPod touches. In addition to some already cool synth apps out there, there’s also two great products coming out from Akai and Alesis which allows a user to plug their device right into a keyboard so that there’s no more fumbling around on the tiny keys on the touchscreen! The Akai iPK25 transforms iPhone or iPod touch into a portable music production studio for mobile music creation. This MIDI keyboard controller gives your hand-held device a two-octave set of piano keys and professional audio outputs, and it works with the Akai Professional SynthStation Studio app.
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Now, the iDiscover keyboard, along with the companion iDiscover Keyboard app, has 25 keys and effectively turns your iPhone into a music studio complete with synth-action keys, and pitch and modulation wheels. It doubles as a MIDI controller also.
It will be interesting to see if these types of products catch on since the the main plus of an iPhone is its portability, but I really like how powerful and versatile things are remaining while shrinking.
[images from keyboard magazine]
Quick look for Sacramento producers: a notable piece of gear at Namm 2010
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Another year, another ton of good gear displayed at the NAMM show. Something that I always like to look for when this show comes around are the less known companies and what interesting things they come out with. It seems that these companies are a little more daring and can sometimes break into an aspect of hardware missed by some of the larger companies (roland, korg, yamaha, etc.).
The piece of gear this year that gets my nod is a piece of gear that I’ve actually been following for some time by a great team in Sweden. No, it’s not Elektron (who I think will probably be demoing a new sampler in the near future at one of the upcoming shows). The company is ‘teenage engineering’ and the great gadget coming out sometime this coming year is the OP-1.
The OP-1 comes with everything you can think of. Sampler, keyboard, sequencer, controller, efx, great interface, color coding so that you don’t get confused when you’re looking in a hurry during a set, and a whole lot more.
One of the main features demoed at NAMM was the newly announced tape recorder function. “It instantly lets you record anything you do on the OP-1 to any track of the built-in Tape feature. Record your sound tweaks or beats in real-time. Change speed during recording, or record backwards. Split, lift and join. Make a loop or record a section with Tape Step Recording. You have twelve minutes recording time in normal tape speed and 4 tracks to put your magic on.
