This video documents a hack that turns a Stylophone into a basic MIDI controller, and using it to control Propellerheads Reason.

Details on the hack available at Jason Hotchkiss’ site.

via hotchk155:

The technicals… Soldered wires to Stylophone PCB to use its keypad / resistor ladder.. put 5V across it and read voltage at stylus by analog input pin on arduino clone (miduino).

Found out input value for each note and sent out MIDI note on/off messages thru serial connection when notes are detected. Simple.

Used Propellerheads reason to make the sounds.

With The Quantum Of Solace coming out this weekend, it’s a good time to take a look back at the electronica side of James Bond music.

Here are ten of the most interesting electronica takes on James Bond:

Duran Duran’s View To A Kill

Click here to view the embedded video.

Where else to start but with Duran Duran’s View To A Kill?

The James Bond series may have bottomed out in the eighties, but at least Duran Duran had a hit with the theme song. Just don’t think too much about the lyrics.

The World Is Not Enough By Garbage

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shirley Manson made the most of her chance to take on James Bond, with not just a killer theme, but a convincing performance as a killer fembot.

James Bond 007 – Die Another Day ( Madonna )

Click here to view the embedded video.

A lot of people hated Madonna’s AutoTune’d theme for Die Another Day, but it’s the most electronic Bond theme ever.

It worked well with the awesome credits sequence, above, and Madonna was at her peak in her version of the video, below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Propellerheads has announced a Percussa AudioCubes giveaway for Reason users.

To enter the contest, you need to be a Reason 4 owner.

Here’s how to enter:

• Record a video where you tell (in not so many words) us why you upgraded to Reason version 4 and how you feel about it.
• Send the video to Propellerheads as a video message on YouTube.
• When you send the message, add your username (in writing) and write what you think would be the killer use for Audio Cubes with Reason.

The full rules are available at the Propellerheads site.

The soundtrack is also exceptional. The Animatrix soundtrack features some great electronica that evokes the dark mood of the Matrix series. The Peace Orchestra starts it off with a moody cut that sounds superficially like a chill-out cut, but carries a darker message. Free*Land contributes “Big Wednesday”, another downtempo, moody cut. Layo & Bushwacka’s “Blind Tiger”, a cut that mixes lo-fi jazz samples with hip-hop grooves.

The Supreme Beings of Leisure kick it up a notch with “Under the Gun”. It starts with 60’s spy-flick guitar. Sexy processed vocals and vibes complete the retro feel and make this a standout cut.

Photek contributes a heavy “Ren 2″. It features processed guitars, mixed up beats, and filtered synths. It’s heavy and glitchy. Another heavy cut is Overseer’s “Supermoves”. This captures the Matrix feel perfectly, like Rage Against the Machine and Propellerheads did on the original Matrix album.

The last two cuts combine Don Davis’ soundtrack work with techno remixing. Junkie XL and Tech Itch do the remix work. Neither of these are actually in the Animatrix, and there’s good reason. Junkie XL’s “Red Pill//Blue Pill” is a good cut, but it suffers from the fact that we’ve heard too many Matrix samples mixed together with electronica already. Tech Itch’s “The Real”, has good hard beats and works better than the Junkie XL cut, but again, we’ve heard it before. Neither of these cuts take much away from the album as a whole, but they don’t add much either.

All in all, the Animatrix CD is a good collection of some darker electronica, with a range of down-tempo and fast numbers that sound good even if you haven’t seen the movie.