Category: product reviews
As electronic music instruments get more complex,
they create workflow(s), psychology, and even handicaps
in our relationship to express music through them.
I lose sleep about what these toys really CAN or CANNOT do,
While I’ve studied operation manual and feature-sets of more music gear than I (will ever) afford,
I assert the most pointed scrutiny on what I (have) own(ed).
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GEAR: Akai XR-20
“the urban SR-16” Akai XR-20 : the “urban” SR16 Distinguishing Features pattern based real-time sequencer, with fluid movement between recording and performance. clear, bright blue light-up pads most-things on one-small LCD screen. distinctive and aggressive sound set, focused on modern rap/hip-hop/etc sounds Personal Perspective After Akai and Alesis went under ownership with Numark in the…
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Product Review for Future Artist’s MIDI Looper, part 1: “motivation”
German company Future Artists have been developing and advertising a an interesting product, their MIDI Looper. Let’s see what this bug-eyed brand is looking for in their progressive, minimal design. It is a new kind of MIDI sequencer (and cannot record sound directly), that records MIDI Notes and CCs from external gear, and plays it…
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exciting progress and prototype- demos of MIDI gear from German innovators Future Artist
Motivation The more I use and study MIDI (usually in that order), the more I enjoy it. A decade or so ago, it was THE way to streamline synthesis/processing/recording of music; not just because computers were too slow to do all that as raw audio, but also because working in symbolic performance data/notation allowed you new and…
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My OctaTrack ideas, after 2 years
after 2 years of flirtation and experimentation with the Elektron OctaTrack, I check in a to share my thoughts and ideas.
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Alesis SamplePad Pro: thoughts and application of features
Personal experience, feature comparison, and other product-review thoughts on the Alesis SamplePad Pro, the newest (and cheapest) self-contained electronic percussion pad that supports using your your own sound files.
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Review of Korg MS-1 “MicroSampler” for a tool for creative warfare
review of Korg MS-1 MicroSampler; exploring usability, some hidden features, and the psychology of a “secrete weapon” sampler.
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thoughts on looping with the RC-202
The following is derived from various posts I made over at Electronauts forum. Get Looping ! I bought the RC-202 this week, and here are my impressions from the first week of poking around. Seeking a complement to the deep-and-complex Octatrack, I sold my Pigtronix Infinity (which I was using with my hands, tabletop) to purchase/explore…
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Thoughts on the OctaTrack (after a year)
The OT’s place…within the larger evolution of the “live-groovebox” control Swedish electronic music-instrument maker Elektron gets (and deserves) a reputation for having uniquely powerful groove-boxes with a unique workflow. Classic groove-boxes worked by layers, specifically “tracks,” where a track was not just a unique sound (made from some synthesis or sample playback source), but also…
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Updated drum hardware (products) for cymbal mount toppers
I try various store-bought alternatives to the taped-together one-piece cymbal mounts explored in a previous post. Perhaps my idea made its way up the corporate ladder…
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THE PILE gets an OctaTrack
the PILE of rhythm robots now has an dedicated, even-more-powerful looper/sampler/effector, in the Elektron OctaTrack !