Of Recordings

5. Korg padKontrol. The bottom left pad occasionally fails to send a note off.  I usually map that pad to the kick drum, which fortunately is not important in electronic music.

4. Faderfox LC2. The channel 4/channel 10/solo button is gummed up.  The other controls just feel so damn nice, making the sticky one even worse in comparison.  It feels like the button might loosen up after pounding on it some more so I am optimistic.

3. M-Audio Keystation Pro. I had to wipe down the keys.  After bangin on low D a few times, it’s no worse for the wear.  One of the knobs is too loose but that predates the coffee.

2. NI Audio Kontrol 1. No noticeable ill effects, although I think this guy was pretty well out of the danger zone.

1. The plank that I put on my keyboard stand to hold my laptop. I just wiped it down and bam, good as new.

If you were curious about the dearth of updates recently, I was preoccupied with travel.  I just completed a move from Norfolk, VA to San Francisco.  For our European readers, that’s about as far as from Brussels to St. Petersburg, except it’s twice as far.

As nooj and I discussed recently, imposing limitations on yourself can paradoxically unlock creativity.  If that’s the case, then I’m about to produce the best music of my life, because this is all the kit I could squeeze into my suitcase:

However, I clearly moved to the right neighborhood: I spotted an HR824 in the back seat of someone’s car today.

I was flipping through some pornography the other day, admiring some pretty guitars.  Specifically, the maple-top Taylor T5 caught my eye.  Of course, Grl’s 614CE is not exactly an eyesore either.  Then I wondered: what gear do I have that’s nice to look at?  The yellow-cone KRKs?  The padKontrol?  I love my kit, but it’s not pretty.

Guitarists can find an axe with any body shape, color, finish, and wood they like.  Synthesizers, on the other hand, tend to look functional at best and butt-ugly at worst.

Sonically speaking, classics like the MS-20 or DX-7 were revolutionary.  Visually, they look more like appliances than instruments.  I would love to get my hands on an ARP Odyssey, but it’s pretty unattractive.  At least oddities like the Wasp and the Fizmo are so ugly they’re cute.

What synths are beautiful?  Pics and ramblings after the jump ..

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A tiny snippet from an experiment with running a bunch of outboard gear through Buzz. Recorded last summer, but I just recently found the recordings.  I am rocking the microKorg, Aaron is rocking the Electribe, and we are both rocking the Stoli.

What’s the deal with all these inverted keyboards?

Korg are developing an MS-10 based groovebox for the Nintendo DS.

Recently, Korg seem to have made a point of releasing small, fun musical gadgets in addition to their usual megabucks workstations. Perhaps they have discovered that this is an excellent way to separate me from my hard-earned cash.

(Thanks to Darius for the pointer.)

Update: video demo and more details here.  Two notes from the video:

1. You can apparently use the DS touchscreen as an XY controller, Kaoss pad style.  (Or really, Wavestation style.)

2. You can apparently draw patch cables with the stylus, which is just plain badass.