Happy New Years!

Happy Holidays /New Years. Thanks for sticking with Chip Collection this entire year!! We'll still be here in 2008 and will continue to post updates & reviews. Thanks for your support!!

New Music, Singles by Stealthgear - Mini Gear Review

Please check out some new music I made!!

New Tracks by Stealthgear!

Nutty Factory - MP3 Download (4.21MB)

Rambus - Mp3 Download (2.56MB)

Sassy Snappers - Mp3 Download (2.06MB)



Please add me on myspace.....



I received some new gear so here is a Mini Gear Review.....




Tapco Mix100 Mixer - I bought it from musicians' friend. It Works decent sounds good. A little bit of noise at -50DB. Preamps are kinda noisy but work. Overall a B. I would buy this again just because its so cheap, but I almost wonder if the behringer is better. Note: I would send it back if you see a single thing wrong with it. The first Tapco Mix100 I had purchased had a defective master fader. I almost wonder if MF sent me a used one....fishy. I say go to your local music store so you don't get ripped off or time wasted. Happy with the replacement mixer. Still feels cheaper than I thought it would.





Onstage 3 tier Keyboard stand - Takes over an hour to setup, so its best for home use. Its black, and slightly ugly but not too bad. The components are top grade. The only complaint I can come up with is that has some side to side wobble if you load it with a heavy keyboard on top. There is absolutely no downward motion. The adjustable mounts for each keyboard are excellent. For $99 this is an awesome keyboard rack!! Would buy more Onstage brand gear.

UBUWEB :: SOUND

Download free mp3s that are in the public domain!

All MP3s served on UbuWeb are either out-of-print, incredibly difficult to find, or, in our opinion, absurdly overpriced.

Sound files are organized by artist, and encompass the spoken word, experimental audio, and music.

Go here to start browsing & downloading!

Mega Driver: Sonic the Hedgehog Guitar Band

(MegaDriver with their Sonic & Sega Genesis Guitars)



(Their 2004 CD, Metal Beast)

Listen to this awesome track from their latest album

Go and check them out!

http://www.megadriver.com.br/

Mega Flute Medley - 100% Alesis Fusion

Mega Flute Medley
This track was made on the Alesis Fusion using all stock sounds, and one official drum sample pack, from the Alesis Website. Lightly mastered using Logic 8. Just shows what you can do with a single piece of hardware.

Download it and check it out! ---> Mega Flute Medley, 4MB Mp3

Be sure to Add Stealthgear as your friend on myspace :)

Sing a Song in Midi - Vocal To Midi Convert & Utils

Want to sing your music into the computer instead of spending hours creating songs from scratch?
It looks like there are no commercial hardware to do this, but there are a few companies providing software. The best looks like Widisoft, who actually has both PC & Mac versions.

Your voice becomes a midi controller

WIDI Audio to MIDI is a realtime Audio to MIDI conversion plugin. The plugin receives input from an audio channel and performs realtime music recognition.

WIDISOFT

A "complete" list of Pitch to Midi Convertors can be found Here
Fun:


Midi makes Pictures with MSMidiPix.


Tutorials:
How to record vocals from MixBus

Herbie Hancock Talks Math, Music and Mastering the Tech Toolbox

From Wired: LINK

Pretty interesting article.

Propellerhead Reason 4 | Now Shipping

Propellerhead Reason 4 Now Shipping (and available on bittorrent sites with a serial keygen).

New features:
THOR - Polyphonic synth
loads of other cool stuff

Pricing on Reason version 4 will remain the same. MSRP EUR €449 / USD $499. Upgrades are cheaper.

It is noted that some people still wish it had VSTs and Linux support, and of course audio recording.


Reason 4 can be purchased directly from Propellerhead's Site

Almost missed that one!

Avoid the Destruction of Positive Web Culture (and your music).

How fear is destroying positive internet culture (and music).

I just wanted to take a second out of and point out all corrupt people using the net starting as recently as 3-4 years ago. MY internet has transformed into a complete nightmare. Why?

Common people came online with their FEAR.

I am going to start name dropping websites with poor informational control, and people (bloggers) who use fear tactics to gain attention and destroy peoples minds and make money.

DIGG.COM - Just browsing the front page will make you sick. Articles on the site always are posted to make you fear or hate something even if its benign, like a smart-phone, or a breed of dog. The posters here have a reputation for being educated and smart, but they are often the dumbest, most hypocritical people on the planet. Technology is not supposed to be like that. The internet is not supposed to be like that. Digg.com is like some kind of mind control for people who want to be upset all the time and love being that way. Its like stabbing yourself with a fork everytime you visit. Digg users are easily manipulated and controlled. Whats worse is that because of the way the system is setup can be easily exploited. Its hard for people to make rational opinions on over 20 headlines. Those headlines become fact in the mind of a digg user. Even on a site that has no pictures, these guys aren't really reading, or comprehending the information. As an alternative I'd recommend Slashdot. Stay away from digg if you want to keep a level head, feel positive, and make a difference. The people here are horrible. Block digg out of your router, or keep clicking their ads to waste advertiser's dollars please.

Keep reading, this post will be about music eventually.

Wired.com has shifted focus in a lame attempt to garner these readers. Often about japan, sex, or some evil threat virus is coming, the quality has shifted dramatically low. Its all garbage. I used to be inspired by Wired 7 years ago. They posted cutting edge news about A.I. and all kinds of new promising technologies. I can't find a single article on their site thats not connected to fear, greed, or plain garbage. Where's my internet culture? Its lost on wired.

Google is the most bland, barf inducing, company on the planet. They are destroying internet culture. Every move they make is to dominate information and to move their stock price higher. They pounce on internet startups, like Youtube, and destroy them (soon to be with ads). Google wants to own all of your information and monetize it. Google gives out your search activity to the government. Google does not respect your privacy. People are so dependent on this beast that its sick. Especially webmasters; google page rank or adsense. Now the worst thing that can happen to your website is that it gets "google-banned" and completely deleted from its directory. I will soon be removing myself from google on all my sites I run.

Weblogs INC Company. You have probably read their shit. A technology related blog network with absolutely no literary or news reporting integrity. They skim great writers, and take all the credit. They never write anything of quality. Its a junk-mill. You can go deeper and find the real sources of information and bloggers that work much harder than these hacks.

Wikipedia store's your culture's history on a database that could change everyday, and where the mod's are druggies and furries who took a philosophy class. This is so completely dangerous. Not a trusted source, since the people running it are not experts, and the people submitting information are nobodies. Wikipedia knows nothing. Their all encompassing knowledge system very close to the Metal Gear Solid 2 plot, where information is modified in realtime to conform to a political agenda. What a nightmare.

This post concerns your music making.

Make music you really care about please. Don't fall into the cultural contamination in the same way. Companies will come at you with corrupt tactics, marketing, and hype. They will make shitty electronics & software for you to buy. Information affects your brain forever. Pretty soon you could be thinking like them and make shitty music about it. To avoid all the BS in the world you just have to make your own path and don't look back. Just express yourself, and don't get hooked onto someone else's crap.

Take your culture back and start making positive music again!!

Examples of positive web culture:
icanhascheezburger.com
thepiratebay.com
SYNTHOPIA - FREE MUSIC

How to Set Up a Mac-Based Recording Studio

(without spending more than 1000 bucks)



You couuld definitely do this for like $500 if you wanted but check out THIS ARTICLE from Mac | LIfe, formerly MacAddict.

Realtime Video Synthesis

vvvv is free for non-commercial use.

vvvv is a toolkit for real time video synthesis. It is designed to facilitate the handling of large media environments with physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, audio and video that can interact with many users simultaneously.

Check out the website, and free windows download: Realtime video synthesis - VVVV





I have also discovered Processing which has a mac version.

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions Link

All discovered via - 2063music.de which has some great free music to download!

Free Software Sampler & 2GB sound library!!!

For mac & Windows!

Yellow tools is proud to release a powerful free version of Independence - the ultimate sampler workstation! Independence Free 2.0 is already based on the new Independence 2.0 version which will also be released during this months

The only downside is that it doesnt let you import files. I think they want you to get used to the software first and then upgrade to their pro models...but how can you turn down a VST with 2GB free sounds?!!

Link: Download Independence by Yellow Tools

Logic Studio 8 Cracked

With Apple's Logic Studio 8 just being released, it looks like the hackers have already gotten to it. A K'ed (or cracked) release of Logic Studio is already on the net.

Logic 7 Pro was notoriously hard to crack for hackers, and I hadn't seen reports of it being done at all. Apple's strategy this time around was to get rid of the XSKey dongle, to save on costs. They probably found that the people who pirate are going to do it anyway.

New features in logic:

No XSKey
Single Window Design. (looks more like Garageband)
and something called Quick Swipe Coming (I'm sure they made that up).

Worse is that they are getting very confusing on the naming of the software packages....

They now have this in the apple store:

Logic Studio
Logic Studio - Logic Pro 8
Logic Express
Logic Express 8

How is the consumer supposed to know what to get? I'm not going to even list the upgrade versions, not to mention garage band! Thats totally insane...

Its a good thing that this software is totally excellent and will continue to be.

Will you be buying Logic Studio Pro 8 Express Upgrade Box?

MV-8800 / 8000 Tutorials & Demos

Got some rips and raps tonight with some MV Tutorials for the Roland MV-8800. The Mv-8800 is a sampling production studio. The nice thing about this one is it comes with video out! Its like a computer thats been customized solely for audio production. Keep in mind you can make any type of music with any machine, especially one based on sampling.

----------MV Tutorial

Mike Acosta - Turbo Start MV-8800



----------MV Demo

Jay Jimaii Tears up the MV 8000


here is a link to part 1: LINK

----------------Music Production

Ski Beatz - Making of Dead Presidents for Jay-Z

This guy is really talented.




He gives you quite a few good production tips if your listening in on him.

Free Refills: Candy Land Volume 1.

This is free Reason Refill for Propellerhead Reason software. 50 high quality custom made NNXT patches based on 24-bit WAV samples, also custom made especially for the refill.

It sounds kind of like 90s rave music, but not too cheesy. This pack is good for drum n bass also. A must have free release.

You can get them here: Download Link

or check out the website audiodesign.st

Got Ableton? Learn how to Rewire it!

This tutorial shows you how to use Rewire to plug Reason channels into Ableton! Using Reason in combination with another sequencer is the ultimate in music production power on your computer.

From innerstatjt Thx!

More Rewire tutorials for almost every program:

Digidesign Pro Tools
Sonar 6
Fruity Loops 6


Sweet Track that was made using Reason & Cubase together.





Rewire & Logic Example:

Poll: What do you want to see more of on Chip Collection?

I thought I'd poll visitors coming to my site to see what they would like more of!

{democracy:2}

Sitemap

Mac Life Contest - Win a Line 6 Variax + Workbench Software

Rock!!!

This is probably one of Maclife's (formerly Macaddict) best contests I've seen so far. Requires you sending in a video of you playing air guitar, but there is not to much to lose...

Click here to check it out

Free Album Download

Stealthgear - Three Years

Three Years is a compilation album of techno and electronic music made from 2003 to 2006. It is a full 18 tracks and approximately 50 minutes long. Your welcome to distribute it for listening purposes only if you like any of the music. (Commercial or creative use not allowed without permission.)

It is free to download here in zip format. (MP3, 64MB)

Track List:

1. Intro
2. Burned Marshmallows
3. Grievous
4. Achieved Frequency
5. Saved by the Synth
6. Functional Elektronics
7. Club 1992 - Intermission Demo
8. Saturday Afternoon
9. The Growler - Original Mix
10. Account Terminated
11. Second Player (NES Chip Tune)
12. Powered Up
13. System7
14. Don't Eatout of THe Trash!
15. Bernies Dub
16. Nails
17. GIT2REVE
18. Lucky Shoes

Here is the link to download the album: Stealthgear.ZIP_(MP3, 64MB)

Friend Stealth on his myspace page.

Hair Care or Audio Company Logo? & Music Production Links 8/9/07

One the goals for this blog is to help people learn production techniques and to give away production material (loops, samples, kits, etc) - Teft's Blog.

Producing Reusable Loops With Pro and Various Plugins

Go check out Teft's blog, its really excellent.





Yamaha Bodibeat!

New yamaha offering that is similiar to the Nike / Apple running software.


For fun:
Hair Cair or Audio Logo?

DIY M SPACE INVADERS CONTROL

it takes awhile for the video to get going...be patient.
features a custom midi controller.





from this website

Buying an Electric guitar: How To

Yes, they have a certain cool factor. Its undeniable!

If the theremin can be an electronic instrument, then maybe an electric guitar is too. Well, at least quasi-electronic. The pickup converts the waves of the strings, into an electronic signal. They also sound very cool and might be worth putting into your production setup. Guitars actually sound great when played side by side with synthesizers.
With a guitar you will never have to worry about Polyphony, Midi (unless you bought those new USB ones), and using digital interfaces.

Let's find out more about them before we choose.

Pickups:
There are two main types of pickup: single coil and double coil (known as humbuckers), each of which can be passive or active. Single Coil have a brighter sound, whereas, double coil is known for its noise cancelling abilities.

Body Style:
Electric guitars can come in solid body or hollow body designs. Solid body has NO inner holes which would allow the strings to resonate further (like acoustic). Hollow bodies do have these inner holes.

Tremolo Arms:
Also called the Whammy bar. This device moves the bridge to alter the pitch during play.

Most electric guitars are completely passive. They require external amplification and effects! But you can jack them into an audio interface that supports phantom power and use plugin effects and guitar amp emulators! This is a great way to not clog up your studio and get any kind of guitar sound that you want for cheap. The effects you use on your guitar also can determine style of music you want to produce. Examples would be distortion, overdrive, chorus, etc.

Electric guitars come in many body styles for you to choose from. They also having varying degrees of quality. You must be considerate of price too, as you are just buying a piece of wood with strings attached to an electric pickup. A very expensive guitar might be close to that of a cheaper more affordable one. Other than actually going somewhere and just picking up and playing a guitar, you'll want to check out some guitar reviews:

Stick to what feels good, something in your price range, and what sounds good.

Guitar Reviews:
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar

I hope that helps you get started!! I think I will be buying my guitar soon.


Extra: Use your Guitar to trigger synth tones to differentiate your sound with this module Roland GR20

Below are some models of guitars I would check out!

Price Ranges

Under $200
Behringer V-Tone II & Amp $109 Cheap, and nicely rated.
Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar Classic looking.

Over $200
Fender Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar Nice!! I would get this or something similar.


There are alot of guitars out there and it will come down to personal choice! Find something you like!

Hammersound.net / Get Chip Collection Widget on your blog!

Need some sound patches for your sampler? Check out Hammersound.net It has been around for a very long time, but still delivers tons of kits. Many are in SoundFont (SF2) format, which can be converted to AKAI, REASON, etc. etc. with a translator program.


Chick Systems, has very good sample translation products, including one that will convert akai discs over to Alesis programs.
http://www.chickensys.com/

Also check out CDextract, which seems to be a very popular sampler format converter.

Their websites aren't very attractive but the products are excellent!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Get the entire Chip Collection blog site (including the entire "Collected" section and all my favourite music/synth blogs) with this sweet widget!! You can even customize the colors to match your blog! Click below.



It will show up like this on your page:



(Update: its working beautifully now! The widget has been updated, and I found a good RSS mixer! So add it!)


Droids - The force!

Franz Ferdinand, Next Album: Synthesized

Franz Ferdinand discuss new synth material

we've gone crazy buying old synths...

Link takes you to the full article on NME

Can't wait to hear how it sounds.

Roland Juno-G Keyboard Giveaway!

Guitar Center is giving away a Juno-G. keyboard. Ends Aug 7th.

Enter to win below!
Link: http://www.guitarcenter.com/contests/rolandgiveaway/

Note: I am not affiliated with GC at all.

Top 25 Electronic Albums & Renegade Theory Tribe

From here to eternity, thats where she takes me.

A top 25 of electronic music history with examples & video. I bet you haven't heard all these albums. Put them in your to buy/download/listen list! Link

via shoutmouth

------------------------------------------------------------> From youtube
Oberheim SX (OB-SX) Gutted & Played. THX Audio LEMON

"Sounds kinda crappy"

http://www.youtube.com/user/zamisers7k

"The RS7000 Destroys the MPC"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW5i_NUkZJw

AND
RS7000 Owner Creates a remix of P Lion's Happy Children.

From Noizone, in the Collected feed:

It looks like we are getting closer to star trek every day!


Vs. ?
JAZZ MUTANT


Also: Php Script AddLink, a basic link adding script that was coded for this site is available for Download. Customize it yourself. Seems to collect alot of spam though....
----------------------------------->

Electronic Music Theory

Renegade Theory on Tribe.



"This tribe is for music geeks of a more modern vein. If you produce or just like to listen critically, we would like to hear from you. Feel free to post questions and comments about Electronic Music production and theory. Stuck on that track you're working on? Ask advice. We're happy to help.

We'll keep it positive, you keep it flowing. Try to avoid elitism. We're not here to say what's wrong or right, but what is working right now. "

Go there and join in on the discussion.

Electronic Music Production Tips & Techniques July 7, 2007

Working with Noise Reduction - A tutorial from DigitalProSound.



How to sound like a transformer - From the transformers movie forum.


A very detailed guide to chord progressions - From Ultimate guitar



Recreate Daft Punk's outdoor club effect - From E-music Tips

Update: New link module added at the very bottom of the page for guests. Post links to mp3s, videos, your homepage, whatever!

 

What would you do with 12 oscillators?

DiscoDSP anounces Discovery Pro, with 12 oscillators, 12 filter types, and all kinds of craziness.



CHROMEO!!! article found with little quote-byes.

http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=13810

Yamaha Promo Starring Michel

I need more of these!

Korg TR: Third Opinions

I wanted to post some more on the Korg TR. You will always have a first impression of a keyboard which will be how it sounds and feels. Your second opinion will be based on how easily you can use the piece of gear. The Third opinion tells you if it will function for you or not. So I'd like to talk more about its sequencing as integrated with its sound creation, and also the big mistake I made mentioning that it only uses one insert effect.

The Korg TR's sound creation and knob settings have similar problems related to the Alesis Fusion! (they don't stay). It has a work around, but Its not 100% To keep voice parameters set you have to switch into Program mode, call up the program, and set its knob voice functions, then switch into song mode to see the changes take place. Or you can record voice parameters using the knobs with sequence mode using over dub. Thats not a good way to just "grab n go" when playing a sequence and creating your sound. If you don't save it that way, all the knobs get reset every time you start / stop the song. Note: YOU CANNOT save the entire B bank of knob settings in program mode. There is just no explanation for this! The A and C banks due however. So basically you will have your sound adjusted and it will reset back, at least on all the B settings with absolutely no way to save them in program mode or sequence mode (unless your recording the voice w/overdub). So the B-bank, and all your programming for it is worthless in program mode, and mostly in sequence mode. Thats kind of insane. So you just have to ignore the B bank of knob settings entirely on this board....like the Alesis fusion.

More on the Korg TR Effects:

The effects setup is complicated. But it suprised pleasantly when I found out I had more routing effect capabilities than I thought possible: You can use the mastering effects like instert effects. Korg has their terminology wrong, or at least not the way I would describe it. SO it has 3 distinct insert(y) type effects channels that you can put on any track, and you can have the bonus of routing one of the effects through the masters if you want. So if you want your drums to have alot of reverb, your synth to be chorused, and your piano to have a little bit of reverb and maybe full stereo compression...you can. You don't have to rely on a single effect for every track. You can have combinations and adjust the amount on each track, as long as you don't think of the mastering effects as actually mastering the final output of your mix (it sort of doesnt anyway). The Korg TR has tons more effects potential than you'd need!!! Its just hard to understand the way its set up in the menus, and not very fun to use when your sequencing something. You can't turn a knob and change your sound. Its alot of menu based hunting.

The effects menus and setup is probably the worst thing about this board. The second being that it will not save any B bank knob settings unless you sequence them. Another note: There is no way to stop it from sending program changes to your gear in sequence mode. You must save your sound settings on the piece of gear itself, because it will always reset to the specified program (and thank god you can specify it).

One last Gripe: I couldnt get it to save my global settings for the Velocity curve. It shouldnt be complicated but I gave up trying.

Overall, there are workarounds for this keyboard. The effects are more powerful than you've heard (think 3 effects on any channel), but its hard to use. The knob settings can be saved (only A and C banks), but with some work.

Its still a solid board, but there will be some frustration when setting up the rom's overall sound, when mixing a track created solely on the board itself....which sucks. I feel kind of tricked, because it seemed easy to adjust everything when I first got my hands on it. I am looking for a single piece of equipment that I can make complete mixes on. This isnt quite there.

If you sequence alot of gear, or just like to play very inspirational Combis its still worth checking out. Its solid and won't crash on you.

Listen to Booka Shade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booka_Shade

Listen to a really sweet electronic track by Booka Shade!

Korg TR Quick Review

After having the mixed feelings and ultimate sell off an Alesis Fusion HD6, I acquired the Korg TR to see how it stacks up in controlling my studio.
Its alot nicer than it looks in the pictures. People may complain of plastic construction, but thats only the end caps!!!! The front face is black metal & high quality knobs and buttons.

The Korg TR is very solid, but it's sounds won't inspire you by itself. You will probably want to connect it to a PC with a larger sound library, or some external gear. This board will serve as the basis for music creation & composition, however. Out of the box the knobs are set to control basic external gear parameters very well, like RES, CUTOFF. These control knobs even worked with Reason without any setup. Any time saved not setting up obscure midi parameters is a good thing. Once you get your channels, and programs set, you can save it as a song template and use it every time you start a new song.

The sounds of the Korg TR leave something to be desired. If your sound is completely electronic or sort like Jean Michael Jarre, then you will like it ALOT. It has amazing organs, and electronic strings, but you will be hard pressed to find any gritty guitars or other sounds onboard. Even through tweaking the rom it can be difficult to make it sound mean, unless you are going to be doing it with a synth program. The category button is set up nicely to find a particular sound you are looking for, although scrolling to select programs inside the sequencer mode is a mixed bag. It doesnt matter however, because you can use the category button inside Sequencer mode. This is unlike the Alesis Fusion's inability to do so, and its a good thing. The drums are pretty decent for hip hop and some electronic music. As far as rock, they come off as a little cheap. I am not sure Korg has ever been good at drums, so you will be better off loading up something in Reason again. Some of the kicks are very very nice and bassy though. Nothing faboulous, even though the sound quality is very high. The high point of the rom is its synth sounds. They sound better than older yamaha stuff, which always had a catlike meow sound to them. Overall the Korg has more of an "ahhhhh" type of quality to every sound. It is more soothing. I think this has to do with whoever was in charge of creating the rom, however long ago it was.

Sequencing is solid & very easy. You will be able to start making songs in no time. Loop features are very nice to set up. Menus are easy to navigate once you get the hang of it. It is a good compromise between touch screen, and an even smaller menu based screen. Combis are also flawlessly easy to put into sequencer mode!! You could probably create a keyboard split of all your gear, save it as a combi, then import it into sequencer mode and have easy control. With the TR88, this would be ideal!!

EFX: They sound amazing, but you only get a single effect to apply to ALL of the tracks. Not even per-track, so choose wisely. Let me specify this: You can only have one effect, and then have the ability to turn that effect off or on for each track. You also get mastering effects, but thats applied to your entire mix. SO if you want to add amp distortion to one sound, then add reverb to another...you cant. It is hard to change the quality of the onboard sounds too much, but most of them sound acceptable, and can be tweaked with the RES, HPF, and cutoff functions to make them blend in you mix. I think judging this board based on what effects it has is not a good idea since it does have assignable outs, and you can just set up something in your computer during monitor/mixing to apply effects.

The build of the board is way higher than it looks in any picture. Its actually very nice, and the buttons are nicer than I expected. The keys are a little nicer than an Alesis fusion, but are nothing special.

Overall this is an amazing piece of equipment to use in your studio for composing and controlling all your gear!! The USB to PC also makes it a good midi controller. I would recommend this board if you found it used and the price was right. Make sure you get an SD card (it has no internal memory for songs). You can use this to trigger samples on your computer, so if you don't gig, then the lack of sampling features is no big deal....even then the sampling upgrade option could be applied later if you feel you really need it.

Conclusion: Average sounds except for Synths & Organs, easy integration into your studio, and its fun to play. Great as a controller & techno machine. Worth the money.

Sound Quality: 9
Musical Expression & Voices: 6.5
Build: 8
Key Action: 6
Sequencer / Menus: 8

Glitch Drum Effect in Reason: Tutorial Video

Haven't uploaded a tutorial video in awhile, check this one out! Reason Glitch Drums using the factory sound bank.

Download the final creation as reason song file (you must have the factory sounds cd)

Alesis 6 HD Review

Update: You can purchase this one from me on ebay. Completely Tested & insured w/ case. Only $564

BUY IT NOW ON EBAY $564

Here is a picture of the case it comes with.




Yea its a little late! BUT the prices on ebay for these suckers are drifting sub $600 and so I got one. The full 88 key version is going for 700-800+ if your lucky.

Read my first and second impressions below. They were written at different times.

First impression:
I got my Alesis Fusion HD6 today. Thank god, because I'd be so bored on this saturday. Man this kicks ass! Most of preset roms are okay, and some are actually very good. The only bad thing is the drums on it are shit, and I'm not sure if you can put alot of filters on them. BONUS: The guy who I bought it from has the entire Mo Phatt Module sound collection loaded up LOL. So I have an entire hip hop module on there. Bad things: The keyboard is crap. Worse than my JX-8p if you can imagine. I should have gotten the 8 HD....although...the 6hd is majorly heavy. I can't imagine owning an 8 HD. I wouldnt be able to move it myself. As far as the known bugs about this machine: I think the technical issues won't bother me at all as long as it holds up. However, this is a players board. I just keep clicking into a new sound and get lost in playing melodies, when I forget I'm making a song. The sequencer is good for people who improvise. Like really good. It has this cool locator function so you can keep recording in the right spots. If you step sequence then you'll have a problem. The knobs on it are tall and silver smooth like a 70s hi-fi radio. Best knobs ever. The buttons are kinda calculator though. It has these awesome "tape flute" sounds, like a mellotron or something. Anyways, the sounds are good enough to make complete songs for me. Its like got alot of synthy stuff. Don't think you going to go on this board and create patches by hand. ....even though alot of guys are saying thats what the keyboard is for....It blows for that. you just gotta get presets and use those.

The keybed is kind of crappy.

Basic hard disc recording is very nice, and the quality is good enough.

Second Impression:
I think I am going to sell the keyboard I just got. Its a perfectly good board. I just can't find any darker or moody inspiration off it. Normally thats fine and I can work around it, but I can't even tweak it how I want in song mode to make it fit my mood. I can usually take bright or lifeless sounds and make them good (Like the Yamaha RM1x)....but the FX are buried, and its too slow to select voices (I probably have thousands on here). I spent like 20 minutes when I got stuck in the load screen trying find the right banks, then find a good sound that fit my mood. Its also extremely annoying that the presets are at widely varying sound levels. People are wrong about this board when they say it is for tweakers. The most important functions are buried, like track volume!!!, and half the buttons they put on there to control functions don't even get used. Its for pure playing performance and enjoyment. The voices are really fun and its fun to play. You can also record really good songs, really really fast, only if you don't care about getting the voices just right. Don't count on it for remembering ANY of your knob tweaks! I would be content if I just played it everyonce and awhile. Its not really the technical bugs that bothered me. Its just the sounds and how fast I can get to them, then modify them. Its really important to get the mix just right. So I should probably go for a MOTIF...or KORG Triton Extreme. I need something that will fit the mood I am in. I don't know if Korg has any darker sounds..... If I didnt want to make music I would keep this thing though. Its really fun, and I can't stop playing the presets. As soon as I step away from it I feel like going back on for another hour. Its addictive, but not good for unique artistic expression. I can't show anything off that I made on it, and if I really tried, really really hard, I might be able to...but I don't have enough time on the earth to go through its methodology and make myself 100% content on it.

CONCLUSION: Extremely Addictive. Sounds a great. I can play it for hours and hours. The sequencer is even a lot better than everyone is complaining about. BUT I can't get through the menus fast enough to tweak the sounds to fit my mood. You'd think it would be fun to tweak your mixes and sounds just right on this, but it can't do it. I don't have the time to mess with this board for tweaking sounds. The way they have it set up is not intuitive, and thats someone who knew the ins and outs of the yamaha RM1x sequencer.

Its a mix between being a specialty keyboard for people needing top notch sounding electronic sounds, and a super-advanced toy with more features than any board out there. You can't beat it for anything in or below its range and you can't go wrong to try it out. Electronic music producers should have one. It sounds really good.

Rating B+

Who is Bert Smorenburg?

I understand muzikantentaal!

Main site:
http://www.smoor.nl/

Wikipedia
Translated:
Bert Smorenburg are Dutch a producer/arranger of headstock - and child music. He is also live - and studio tests. He has had for some years a complete prerecording studio, where he composes the music numbers and takes. Also he looks after the mixage for several cd's. in 1997, made Bert Smorenburg, in association with Aad van Toor, the new background music for the Bassie and Adriaan serials. These replaced the music already existing of Aad Klaris. Smorenburg among other things Lee music has already looked after Towers, French Bauer, Kees prince, Herman bread, Total Touch and Yulduz.

A Happy Thingamagoop User

What is that thing!?

The Thingamagoops are really just simple, analog type synthesizers that you control in a different way.

Get your own @
http://bleeplabs.com/

Stay off the Coke

London Recording Studios - Part 2

Didn't get to posting the links to the second half...here you go. More London Recording studios with Joe Meek.

London Recording Studios in the 1960s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYn1wbj9Q1w

New Track: Morning Man!

Stealthgear - Morning Man 2007

MP3 Download LINK


MP3 Download LINK

FLAME: Midi-Talking-Synth

"The FLAME MIDI TALKING SYNTH is a small-sized MIDI-controlled sound module based on the analogue Speakjet ™ chip, produced by the U.S. company Magnevation LLC. Originally designed for basic artificially generated speech output...

....The internal sound is generated by the two independently controlled Speakjet ™ chips. Each of them provides a mono audio output (32 kHz PWM output) through a 6.3 mm stereo socket."



Midi-Talking-Synth is compatible with Pro-Wheelchair 2 for the Sega Dreamcast.

Go LISTEN
via MakeZine

The Bent Festival: NYC and Mineapolis

Lorin Parker, who "played" a blob of green Jell-O hooked up to a circuit board and amplifier at the festival, said circuit bending is about sonic exploration.

Haha sounds like a good use of time. Check dates & locations below.


Link: asap - story

Dates:
Minneapolis, April 19-21, and New York, April 26-28.

Space Shifter Casey

Space Shifter Casey is a Blogger's attempt to Make it onto the Big-Screen.




Working Title: Space Shifter Casey

Description:

Casey is pulled into mortal danger when his "greedy mad scientist" father, Storrga, creates a new power-suit that will take the occupant into another dimension. Casey must carry the burdens of his father and believe in his new friends while on the run in the post-apocalyptic society: The Fruit Core. A wave of darkness is on the horizon when brutal renegades emerge to try to unlock the power of that suit for themselves and a great nation is at risk. Can Casey stop them from gaining ultimate control? Sometimes the only thing you can do is run.



Every once and awhile I like to try something new. As you can see, I haven't been writing about synthesizers consistently. Thats because I've been working nonstop the past couple of days to finish this story that I had started almost 6 months ago. Space Shifter Casey, originally called "Space Shifters" is my first screenplay, and your seeing my first finished draft, errors and all. It is a political thriller set in the future with mild scifi elements. I intend to see this on the big screen or at least on the scifi channel very soon. For a 24 year old writer, this would be my dream. It is a movie about an idealistic young teen who ends up with a piece of high technology that disrupts the power balance of two nations. Throughout his journey, he finds love, new friends, and new beliefs that he protects with his life. The setting for the script, the Fruit Core, is not your everyday post-apocalyptic society. It is one that, while diminished in population size from disease and war, emerges out of the ashes to become a technological, political paradise of hope. I wrote this out of frustration with the current government, and hope someday that people will be able to believe again. Believe in people like Casey.

TB-303 Style music program released for PSP homebrew!

Thanks Matrix Synth!




The day of miracles has come!!
Yes, I am a PSP owner, and seeing this just made my day! I had no idea that there were people in the homebrew community that were into this type of thing! Note: You need to hack your PSP to get this running.

Website:
http://www.psprhythm.com/


If you don't mind the size, Sony PSP is the complete ipod killer. It just got a price drop to only $160 so If you own a Sony PSP, check out PSP Fanboy.