Now you can get the new Korg Kaossilator pocket synth for less than $200.
KORG KO1 KAOSSILATOR Pocket Sized Synthesizer
Rockout!
Archive for the ‘Audio and video’ Category
The fun way to learn more about Garageband
May 6, 2008Whether you are just starting or have already made music in Garageband, this book, GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual, by the irrepressible David Pogue, will be fun and funny and useful. Even though it is several years old, all the basics are still pertinent even if you have the very latest version of the Garageband software.
GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual
This experienced writer and musician not only teaches you the basics as well as tips and trick about Apple’s Garageband, he also talks about music theory, and making computer music in general.
Read it, and you’ll see why he’s now showing up in major print media and on TV.
The Theremin–Obscure? Or Underground?
May 5, 2008
Amazing Computer Music Magazine
May 4, 2008Computer Music: the Complete Guide for Mac and PC, is a great monthly magazine published in the UK, with clear tutorials, reviews of music equipment and software, and articles about the many aspects of making, sharing, and selling music, even a page on music theory. It also features interviews with band members and producers, focusing on how they work and the gear they use.
Computer Music : the Complete Guide for Mac and PC
But maybe the greatest thing about this magazine is the digital material that comes on the included DVD. Each month it contains samples, tutorials, reader-submitted music, videos, and free and demo software. Eagerly awaited each month, enjoy as much as you can use.
The Theramin
April 19, 2008The theremin may have been the first electronic instrument, and provides some of the most famous science fiction sounds, including the intro to the original Star Trek series. Unfortunately, it was not, as most people assume, used to play the “woohoo” beginning for the song “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys–that was a related instrument.
It’s the instrument you never touch–just move your hands in the fields, and it plays its spooky sounds. Another classic, Moog, makes and sells theramins. Moog credits his early experiments building theremins as a teenager for giving him the skills to create his famous Moog synthesizer.
Learn to play the theremin well, and you too can be on the Ed Sullivan Show
Samson G-Track, the talented USB microphone
April 4, 2008Some of us are suckers for do-everything devices. Here’s an interesting one. The Samson G-Track USB large diaphragm studio condenser microphone.
Samson G-Track USB Condenser Microphone and Audio Interface with Cakewalk Sonar LE
But it’s not just a microphone. It’s also an audio interface and mixer, so you can input a live vocal, plus a line-in from another instrument which has standard 1/4″ or RCA output, such as guitar, or bass, or keyboard. Or instead, two instruments. That’s two-two-two channels at once!
Not only that, you can adjust the gain for both instruments with the smallish knobs on the side of the mic.
And not only that, it has a built-in headphone jack, for no-latency monitoring. It comes with a desktop mic stand, swivel stand mount, USB cable and all the cables needed to connect any musical instrument with 1/4″ or RCA plug. It includes Cakewalk’s Sonar LE for Windows, and it just works with GarageBand. The ultra-cool shockmount is worth adding, for looks alone.
Some people complain about the sound quality of USB mics. While not equivalent to highpriced studio mics, they can actually sound better than some old fashioned mic/preamp/audio-into-the-computer setups. For songwriters, podcasters, everyday use, and sheer convenience they are terrific. And while the G-Track is somewhat heavy and unwieldy with all the cables and controls, probably not a stage mic, for laptop work on the road or for the studio, what a great idea. As long as (given all those features) it doesn’t also turn into an ironingboard or card table on stormy nights.
MacBook gets high user ratings
April 3, 2008The latest MacBook, the consumer Apple portable, gets extremely high user-ratings at Amazon.com, especially surprising since many of the people doing the ratings are moving over from Windows machines.
This is a fast sturdy lightweight little ‘book. Nicely loaded, with the added bonus of high quality audio and video creation software, and it can connect to a larger display monitor. And will also run Windows, if you want to buy the extra software.
There are several different editions on the Amazon site, so look around for the one you like best.
Korg KAOSSILATOR arriving soon!
March 20, 2008The latest buzz and rumors indicate that the Korg KAOSSILATOR portable mini-synthesizer will be available in the U.S. after March 31, 2008, woo hoo!!
The Kaossilator, a new touchpad synthesizer, controller, recorder
March 1, 2008Before it’s even released in all countries, the Kaossilator portable battery-operated synthesizer from Korg is already generating an enormous amount of buzz. It basically lets you draw music with your fingertip, live, on a small portable trackpad, which also has built in drums, beats, and many other sounds and sequences, supports overdubbing, and can also record what you do. You can even hook it up with a guitar strap and wear it while you play it.
The idea of a really solid gestural synthesizer has been a dream since the first thought of the Theremin. Some keyboards include an infrared beam-interrupt function, and there have been joysticks, and even music drawing functions in software, like in the old neXt machines. But this puts it all in one portable package.
It is basically a combination of radio dials and touchpad. The dial and gesture-drawing combination is a nice way to change a lot of inputs rapidly.
But the ergonomics seem awkward— it is designed as a one-hand-friendly device, but in a movie demo, the man using the synth keeps reaching over his gesturing hand to use the dials. Turning the pad sideways might this improve this situation.
It seems to have stereo line and mini-phone out, but not midi. For that you will need its awesome, but less portable, big brother, the $400 Kaoss Pad KP3.
Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad Dynamic Effects Sampler
The KP3 is a truly spectacular controller, effects-adder, recorder, and dj tool, which allows you to create and mix sounds and effects and samples, which can then be exported in midi or audio format, or saved to flash cards. It is AC, thus considerably less portable than the battery operated Kaossilator.
It seems like the Kaossilator would not be too hard for a beginner to learn. The demonstrators on utube put together some beats pretty fast. The opportunities for happy accidents and found-music abound—it will be interesting to see how easy it is to make deliberate beats and melodies. And what great opportunities for producing truly horrible sounds! $200 seems a small price to pay for so much fun.
Three “free” ways to digitize audio
February 25, 2008We talked earlier about high quality handheld audio recorders. Some people simply need to digitize audio. Another time we will consider less expensive audio recorders, but this time you can look in your own house or office for potential digitizers you may have not considered before.
Even though many people have these tools available, they were not free when purchased, hence the quotation marks in the title.
1. Your computer
Begin with what’s closest—if your computer is of recent vintage (most Macs and some PCs have had this feature for years) it may come with either a built in or plug in microphone. If it’s not immediately obvious how to use it to record, check for instructions on the web.
2. Digital Cameras
Many recent digital still cameras, even little snapshot cameras, have the capacity to either take movies with audio or record audio notes. These may be low quality, only good for very retro-sounding podcasts, but for simply recording notes they work fine.
3. Video cameras
Most new video cameras, as well as many older ones, connect to computers. Video cameras are more bulky than still cameras, but for the real M-M-Max Headroom style, point this one at your face and record away.
