The best mixes in your iTunes

Kibag Session by Wolfgang Schubert - 2003

….the spirit of alternative electronic culture, the ‘Kibag Session’ hopes to fill your bleak autumn rooms with the sunrays of this memorable summer evening by the lake.

The Kibag Sesssion gives us some brilliant electronic music to listen to. This is my favourite electronic mix of all time. Wolfgang seems to have made all the music himself. I tried to contact this guy to see if he still playing, but there was no reply. His last entry on his website was in 2004. I will have to stay content that this Mp3 is in my itunes playlist and that I can keep listening to it.

Links: Wolfgang’s main site. To get the mp3 mix go here

Do you have any good mixes that you have listened to over the years and kept?? Click the title for more mixes, and then leave a comment!

Read more…

When you get a new car? Watcha gonna do?

YEAaahh! Get out of the way!

Found on this website.

Chip Links: January 29th 2007

Tons of animated videos to look at today! Check them out below. But first, a preview of Reason 4.0, from Matrix Synth!! Yeay! ——> Click here to watch.

A nice animated video on youtube - Architecture in Helsinki

Monkeymen.tv, another animated video with enjoyable techno sounds. Click on Brand new video on the site.

Royksopp video, from that tv commercial with the Cavemen guys. (no cavemen guys in it.)

Also, I have been finding alot of destruction of synths and hardware online, and it makes me sad. I saw someone smashing a DX7 synth with a sledgehammer on youtube. Not cool. They make great midi controllers even if they don’t work. I am not even going to post it. They are just showing off…

More fire videos: A frequency analyzer.

Building your own “Neko” PC keyboard with touchscreen

I’ve decided to come up with some designs, and at least a partial parts list for building your own keyboard with integrated computer and touchscreen. It seems like a good time to do it. LCD prices aren’t too bad, and we now have high powered computers that can fit almost anywhere, like the mac mini and those PC mini-itx cases. I don’t think you should have to pay over 2 thousand dollars for something similiar, and this would just be cool to make. The whole idea would to make something that is portable with all the controls in the same place.

Parts List

LCD Planar Touchscreen $300 - This one is kind of ugly due to the white frame, but the price is right for a 15 inch. Getting a good touchscreen / LCD with enough screen space for the right price would be pretty important. This Planar one goes for $440 and could be a hell of a lot better.

A small Midi keyboard + Keypad for only $44. I’m not going to bank on the construction quality of this one, but it looks really Neko-ish. If you added a small, in-car-style 8-10 inch size touch screen, which are even cheaper than the ones I mentioned it might be really cute. Other than that you’d be best to go with a USB midi keyboard for whatever you can get on ebay. Even better if it was one of those keyboards that had the audio interface built in.

This might be the grandaddy solution for picking out your computer…

intel imac with touchscreen or ibook touchscreen. On the intel mac, you could have your choice of running both windows and Mac OS X with the latest chip architecture. If you went with an iBook, you could carefully dissassemble it and mount it inside your case with the keyboard midi controller you picked out. Having the computer, Keypad / touchscreen all at the same time would be effecient, as then you wouldn’t have to worry about power supplies for each. I don’t know how much that costs to add on.

And then your audio interface, if you didn’t have it built in to your keyboard, probably get an Edirol self powered USB unit. That one is a little expensive at $240. You would probably want the built in audio interface type of midi controller, with knobs.

As you can see, I didn’t address the problems of having multiple power supplies…but if your like me, you’d just have the bundled cords wrapped up out the back and buy a power-squid. Maybe with enough space, you could shove the power-squid up inside the keyboard box, to trick people, like you actually know how to run all of that stuff off the same voltage.

Chip Collection Version 1.

Version 1:
Cost Estimate: $1,150 ish
(LCD Touchscreen, Cheap Prodikeys Midi Controller, Intel mac mini, Edirol USB/MIDI Audio interface, + random case parts)

Version 2:
Cost Estimate: 1,900 ish? ($1,500 Apple iBook bought on ebay with modified touchscreen by Troll Systems, $300 Midi keyboard with audio interface built in, +$100 worth of random parts)
This could version be flat and rectangular looking more like an Elektron machine. The flatscreen would be attached at the far left end, with various components inside the box underneath, then having the keyboard tacked on its side. You could also have the flatscreen attached like version one above if you didn’t like looking down.

Doing a keyboard like this would be an awesome project, and I bet you could do it for under 2000 dollars and have a pretty nice result. If you were able to use clear plexiglass as a box, you could even do etching across it and light it up from inside. Extra modifications would be knobs & such for midi control. Even sillier would be to add speakers. If you played on stage, it might be cool to have a mini lcds attached to your keyboard, facing the crowd, so you could put some kind of weird video on it. Also, no, this keyboard isn’t the solution I was talking about for my previous article.

Bloggers, Please read!

Do you have a blog where you talk mainly about electronic music, audio gear, synths, or just computer technology? I might want to include your blog in the new feature that is coming up on the right!

*update* I am experimenting with the double-decker sandwhich layout. Its really good for scanning, but It may be compressed soon for readability.

*update* I had to go back to the regular layout, and ditch the double decker size, because I couldnt read two blogs at the same time. Right now, everyone is in the sidebar. I will try to figure out a better way to feature your postings more prominently, and higher up on the page next week.

Leave your RSS feed in the comments please! Thanks.

Richard Divine Destroys $8,000 Neko Keyboard - Video

I knew there was something wrong with him. Now its on video.

Richard Devine, you’re on the Chip Collection Retard list.

Top Ten Video Game Soundtracks by Chip Collection (with Mp3s)

1. Streets of Rage 2 - Sega Genesis
Streets of Rage’s techno soundtrack pushed the genesis soundchip to its bare limits, both technically and musically. It is a masterpiece. I’m sure it must have been the first game to sample the Roland TR-909. Ahead of its time in 1992, and still heavily remixed on OCremix website to this day. Best boss music EVER. Mp3 or Download the Entire Soundtrack

2. Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2 is so good that they took all the music from the game and just dropped it into the Silent Hill movie. Pyramid Head (mp3)

3. Wip3out (Wipeout 3) / Wipeout 2
The last games that the Designer’s Republic actually worked on, the Wipeout series on Playstation has the most authentic electronic music. Wipeout Pure was almost there, while Wipeout Fusion was not even close. Listen to MKL Control (mp3) from Wip3out.

4. Rez - PS2
Not exactly the most challenging, but the soundtrack was integrated into the game. Very odd for a shooter. The person who programmed the graphics deserves an award too. Mp3

5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & Sonic Spinball - Sega Genesis
Classic game. Better than the original in every-way. The soundtrack is extremely addictive to the point of actually singing it. Chemical Plant Zone mp3 (Sonic 2) and Boss Music from Sonic Spinball

6. Baten Kaitos - GameCube
I love this game. An RPG on the Gamecube, which sadly not many people picked up, Baten Kaitos is completely inspiring. The texture of the instrumental composition, combined with the hand-drawn graphics on every level will hook you in. Strings MP3

7. Jet Grind Radio - Dreamcast
Rated Buy:. Jet Grind Radio is in a breakbeat style, but not in a depressing way. It sounds AWESOME. Its silly Japanese interpretation of american music. A weird note you should know about it: Flavor Flav’s “ROCK THAT SHIT HOMIE!” sample is played repeatedly, due to the fact that it was composed by a Japanese person who probably didn’t understand its translation. This is a general audience game. Many kids played it. Where was the ESRB?? Rock It Mp3

8. Metal Gear Solid 1 / 3
Jerry Goldsmith would be proud. Reminiscent of James bond and Rambo at the same-time, the end theme to Metal Gear Solid 3 just rocks!! Metal Gear Solid two had more memorable musical themes, so you should also check it out. You are almost better off playing the games than just listening to the music though. MGS 1 and MGS3 Debriefing

9. Contra Shattered Soldier
I might be the only person on the planet that played this game and actually beat it. Reviewed negatively by critics for being too hard to play, this Contra game on PS2 was completely forgotten. The soundtrack is hardcore wickedness. A mix of metal and techno, this game only sounds good on a big system, with a huge subwoofer thats turned up pretty good. Best subwoofer action in any game. You will need one thats at least 12″ and goes down to 32khz. I’m not joking about this recommendation. Intestines Mp3 (sweet!) and the Subwoofer Ripper Mp3. Full album is available at this site.

10. Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry is completely overproduced and action packed. Techno synths, guitar sounds, ladies chanting, and lots of reverb. I loved it. Mp3

Not quite a definitive list, but there are some you probably haven’t heard. All are extremely notable and listenable by themselves. If your favorite game isn’t on the list, it probably means I haven’t played it!

Chip Links: Monday Jan 22nd 2007

• The New York Times reports on the History of the Theremin and Ms. Rockmore, a former violin prodigy turned theremin master. Josh Jancourtz, over at Create Digital music also saw this one and has a good picture of japanese theremin performers at NAMM.
• These are the best new NAMM gear pictures I can find being displayed on Midizoo.com
• Need to know which schools have degrees in Audio Engineering? Go Here. (via Schools in the USA search results)
• An inflatable DX7 auction seen on MatrixSynth. Makes me wish I didn’t sell my real DX7.
• Arturia Origin Trailer Video from their main site. (loads slow, be patient)

Note: we moved our feeds over to Feedburner. If you have any issues, just use the new links. I think everything went smoothly though. Also, commenting doesn’t require you to register any longer for easier discussion. You can still register and submit articles to have them approved too.

The Twins - Face to Face

Just stay till the chorus comes on this video.

My friend: “Woah this is a sweet song”
Me: “hella ya”

This video should give you a refreshing start to your week. *Special points* if you can name the main synth being used.

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