Gear Reviews

This 16 pad USB MIDI controller is an inexpensive way to add a ton of flexibility to your system.
The MPD16 is an MPC-style MIDI pad controller. It gives you 16 touch-sensitive pads that you can add to your computer music workstation by just hooking up a USB cable. Carrying on the style of the MPC [...]

Kurzweil has earned a reputation for producing some of the most capable and best-sounding keyboard workstations. Their K2500 and K2600 lines have become workhorses for professionals worldwide. Now, Kurzweil has announced the latest in its line of ultimate synth workstations, the Kurzweil K2661.
Fully compatible with all Kurzweil K2×00 models, musicians should be able to update [...]

As more and more people make music using laptop and desktop computers, they realize that using a mouse to make changes is a pain. As soon as you try and change several soft synth parameters, or make a mix, you find that using a mouse is slow, cumbersome, and stands in the way of you [...]

Roland released the TR-909 in 1983. Analog machines were beginning to be replaced by digital drum machines that featured more realistic-sounding samples. Roland’s TR-808 was being challenged by drum machines that didn’t sound so artificial in a mix.
For the TR-909, Roland responded to this by combining technologies, using analog sounds where they worked well, and [...]

In the late seventies and early eighties, Roland seemed specialize in electronic music instruments that were under appreciated while they were in production, but became quickly became classics.
The TR-808 was created originally as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. It was also used on some early R&B and hip-hop tunes. Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual [...]

Classic electronica from the 70’s and 80’s often featured the unique “swooshing” sound of analog phasers. The phased sounds found on Jean Michel Jarre’s Equinoxe album were the inspiration for Oakley Sounds‘ fantastic Equinoxe phaser.
Oakley Sound’s version was designed by Tony Allgood, the mastermind of Oakley Sound. Oakley makes a complete line of MOTM-compatible modules [...]

One of the most important musical instruments in recent music hitory, The Roland TB-303 was a failure at its intended purpose.
The 303 was designed to be an “automatic Bass machine”. It was introduced in the early 80’s along with the TR-606 Drumatix drum machine. The two were relatively inexpensive, and were intended to provide a [...]

One of the nicest things about the MOTM format is that it has become a de facto open standard for modern modular systems. Synthesis Technology’s high standards for their designs, and the way they’ve refined classic designs, has made the format the cadillac of analog synthesis.
Compatible module designs are being made by Oakley Sound, Wise [...]

The original Electribe line packs a lot of power into an inexpensive power. The EA-1 is an analog modelling synthesizer that’s designed for electronica. It is a two voice synth that lets you create and store patterns of up to 64 steps.
You can create 2-part sequences using the psuedo-keyboard, or play into the input using [...]

The MOTM-101 is multipurpose module for the Synthesis Technology MOTM system. It functions as a flexible noise generator, and it also has a powerful sample and hold section.
The benefit of combining these two functions in one module is that the noise generator is hard-wired into the sample and hold section. This lets you create classic [...]