February, 2008 archive

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Image: ranjit
The Fish Organ is a electronic keyboard instrument made from a box that used to contain smoked fish.
The keyboard is copper tape cut to shape. It’s tuned (approximately) to the twelve […]

LastBeat.com (in German) takes a look at DJs living rooms.
Want to live large? All it takes is some well-placed gear and stacks and stacks of LPs.
Above, Richie Hawtin’s living room. Below, Ellen Allien’s living room.

Controllerism.com is a cool site that features videos and other information that helps explain how to use various types of control surfaces to create and manipulate electronic music. The website is a collection of information and resources for the controllerist community.
Controllerism - the art of manipulating sounds and creating music live using computer controllers and […]

Jon at Audio Geek Zine has released a new sample library, Toys Breaking, which offers 1,400 samples of circuit bent toys.
Contents:

Ass Intruder – A toy gun only labeled intruder. Pitch controls were added.
Casio SA-10 – a small toy keyboard with a tendency to glitch aggressively.
Casio SA-20 – a larger version of the SA-10, similar but […]

Dave Cornutt offers a nice overview of how a VCO works:
Synth circuit designers, starting with Moog and Buchla in the early 1960s, long ago turned to “artificial” oscillator circuits that do not rely on natural resonance. Rather, they rely on an analog implementation of a mathematical function that can be made to increase and decrease […]

DJ Tech Tools takes a look at the ground breaking MBRP-101 from Fisher Price. They call it the best all in one music playback solution for mobile and club djs that need affordable and reliable performance.

This is a demo video of virtual DJ decks test of VTS 3rd Generation.
It’s not a real product yet and the DJ’ing sucks. Here’s the confessions of VTS’s creator:

This video is a demo. I was trying to sell the idea to a small video game company in the UK. I did the demo in one […]

Beatport has introduced a new site, Beatsource, an online digital music store specializing in urban music.
Beatsource allows DJs and fans access to high quality downloads in MP3, MP4 and WAV formats on a pay per download basis from an impressive library of the world’s leading record labels. Catering to the performer, Beatsource sells DJ-friendly acappellas, […]

At the 2008 Winter NAMM Show, Analog Suicide’s Tara Busch talked to Peter Grenader and got the latest scoop on the Plan B modular synthesizer.

Jean Michel Jarre and 3 musicians will be touring, playing his classic Oxygene live on original vintage instruments for the 30th anniversary of the legendary album.
Sounds like it could be a great opportunity to take a trip back in time to the early days of electronica.
Tour Dates
16th March - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
18th […]

I’m starting to lean towards Barack Obama.
Here’s one reason why.
According to Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic, Barack Obama is a synthesizer:
A Synthesizer, Not A Divider
The rather banal view of “bringing people together” is such a cliche and so clumsy a phrase when describing Barack Obama’s history of coalition politics. Jeff Rosen, who seems almost as […]

Bighead Electronics is selling a limited edition pre-modded C64, the Bent64 (eBay).
The system comes completely loaded Paul Slocum’s Cynthcart, a custom program which helps the heavily modded Commodore produce a wild cacophony of retro noise as you press keys on the keyboard.
It’s still fully functional as a standard C64, too, with the flip of a […]

The iAno is - you guessed it - a virtual piano for the iPhone.
This is available now as a free download for jailbroken iPhones. Let’s hope that when Apple officially opens up the iPhone to developers that they let everybody get at this sort of delightful weirdness.
Features

A complete four octave keyboard.
Multi-touch. Up to 5 […]

Stephen Hobley has put together a collection of information on how to build a laser harp.
Here’s a video of the laser harp in action:

How to Build a Laser Harp

Hobley’s site has code samples and more.

Open Labs has introduced a companion to the Timbaland Special Edition MiKo.
The Timbaland Special Edition NeKo, an all-in-one production studio powered by Windows XP, is capable of running virtually any Windows XP compatible software including a variety of DAW software, virtual instruments (VSTi), virtual effects (VST) and other music applications.
“Timbaland wanted the ability to work […]