Little-Scale’s Novation LaunchPad Controls a Sega

I must have missed this guy somehow. I didnt know it was possible to control a “megadrive” directly yet.

Check out this guy’s blog

Skin Your Gear!

With Styleflip.com’s flash editor I was able to make a star wars themed vinyl for an Electribe. The tool is pretty advanced, and you can order your creation. A wide selection of boxes are supported, like akai, and other DJ gear. I hope they make some more keyboard templates, beyond their midi controllers sometime!

LinnDrumm II Design

Looks like I didn’t see this yet. Its a cool 3d mockup. Looks a little like a mixing console. Everything is starting to take this shape lately.

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/linndrum2/index.shtml

New Version of OSCulator Released

Osculator works with obscure controllers, like the Wiimote, to help you control different Midi parameters for your performances.

Winter NAMM 2009 links

A new M50 by Korg with 76 keys.

http://www.korg.com/m50

Korg releases the Pink Kaossilator.

http://www.korgkaossilator.com/

http://www.korgnano.com
Korg releases the nano controllers in black.
Is all you could do was come up with new colors?

So far there is nothing too exciting to report about winter NAMM. Maybe everyone is buying guitars this year?

Nova Drive presented by Uffe Hansen at NAMM ‘09
This is kind of cool, a combination overdrive & distortion thats analog, with presets! Midi controlled too. Sounds like a premium pedal.

Kinda retarded but cool. The ultimate hacked TR707
Diabolical Devices TR-707 at NAMM 2009

More as I find it…

Christmas Wishlist

Don’t know what to buy yourself for christmas? Check out this toy list for some holiday ideas.

1. Roland SPD-20 Total Percussion Pad $650
Instead of getting a PS3 with Rock Band, why not grab a Roland 8 pad drum kit with 700 sounds loaded into it?

2. Korg Kaoscillator $200
100 of Korg’s world renowned synth sounds right at your finger tip.

3. Sterling Audio ST51 Large Diaphragm FET Condenser Microphone $99
This microphone is the top rated in the under 100 dollar range in a number of realworld tests. I would rather have this than an m-audio mic or any other costing 3 times its price.

4. Korg DS-10 For Nintendo DS $36
For only 36 dollars and Amazon delivery this video game / synth will be on everyone’s list.

5. Hal Leonard Rock Keyboard $12
Learn different Rock styles and chords to play along with the CD. If you are a beginner or intermediate I recommend this one as it helped my playing and improvising.

6. Stocking stuffer pick: Disney Hannah Montana Guitar with Bonus Amp



NO! Well if I’m not the grandaddy of all liars!

Alesis Fusion: Ultimate Heavy Metal Guitar FX

Upon plugging my guitar into the Alesis Fusion, I always wondered how to use it as a guitar fx processor. The fusion includes 8 inputs, and a variety of FX. Unfortunately it only lets you use bus effects on the audio inputs, which gets rid of all of the amp modeling, and overdrives by themselves. To get a great heavy metal sound from your guitar and alesis fusion, you will have to stretch the use of the bus effects without clipping and overloading it (which is easy to do). Here is a great patch that lets you use the Alesis fusion as heavy metal guitar FX processor.

Step 1. Create an audio track
Step 2. The fx bus settings:

Bus Send 1 = Wah Distortion + Delay @ 99%
Dry Level 0%
Bus Return 10%
Time: 0.1ms
Feedback, Attack, Release, Sensotivity, all @ 0%
Drive: 100%

Bus Send 2 = Plate Reverb @ 71% (Optional)
Dry Level 0%
Bus Return 9%
Decay, Diffusion 100%
Density 35%
Damping 30%

Be careful when setting this up as you will likely clip the internal circuit or your speakers if all the settings aren’t in yet. Pay attention to bus return levels.

Step 4. Plug your guitar into the Alesis Fusion’s audio in OR through an external amp FIRST (recommended).

Here are the settings on my practice amp which leads into the Alesis Fusion via Headphone-Out:
Input Gain 100%
Treble 100%
Mids: variable (50%)
Bass: 100%
Overdrive: ON
Adjust the output volume accordingly

After all this setup you will get a live guitar FX processor out of the Alesis fusion, and a patch that sounds AWESOME.
Its like Overdrived Metal-Wah from hell. Great for solos and some chords.

Fibra’s Custom Laser-Cut x0×0b0x

TB-303 emulation!

Fibra has many other custom synthesizer works on his Flickr stream.

Also check out his upcoming Divius (TR-808 clone)!

Divius – Roland TR808 clone

Digidesign and M-audio Drivers Lacking with Latest Operating System

From Create Digital Music

if you’re a user of Digidesign and M-Audio products and looking to use current operating systems, very often you’re out of luck.

Link to the article

I think that totally sucks. I’ve had this happen to me with an m-audio USB midi interface. They just never updated the driver on the switch from OS9 to OS X. All it was is a USB midi module. I had to sell it and switch to an anchient MOTU unicorn midi interface. Just go with MOTU. Their support is way better than both of these companies that are basically releasing gobs of products and not paying any attention to them at a later date.

Be careful who you buy from when you are getting computer-specific gear, even if it is USB, or plug and play.

The Declining Quality of Apple, Synthmania 4 Year Anniversary

Many laptop-based Mac OS X users are experiencing significant audio issues on Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. On Tiger, the culprit appears to be the AirPort Extreme Update 2008-001 released earlier this spring. One workaround on Tiger is to simply turn off AirPort.

From CDM

Do you think that Apple’s software and hardware quality have gone way down?? Every update they release seems untested nowadays. Programs also seem to crash more often, even with an increased overall stability of the system. Airport giving audio problems is insane, and evidence that they aren’t paying attention.

Link From Emusic

Beat Bearing!!!

Controlling a TR-808 with ball bearings! Looks like alot of people saw this one already. Eh, I’m slow.

Keytars and Controllerism From Lx7

Come Celebrate Synthmania’s 4 year anniversary with a Visit to their page on the Electrix Filter Factory!!
Mp3 Demo

Do you need a kick start in your garden?

Features 5 encoders (with button), an additional button and a display. Software is customizable (by me, hahahaha)…..But I use it to command my machinedrum effects over sysex

RuinWesen Midi Command Link @ EM411

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