So my pal Aric was disappointed to report that the mini midi drum kit we reported on here had been removed from Youtube, and indeed I can’t find any info on it anywhere. When I was searching around I did discover this little gem of a video. This guy has a pretty fun little Dwarf Metal drum kit going and he rocks it out a full velocity!
Why do they do it? You open your bag to get set up on stage and it looks as it their is a cord orgy in progress, looped, tangled, bent into all sorts of knots previously unknown to man, adding an extra 5-10 minutes to set up, depending on the amount of patience you can maintain. Some days it will be enough to make you lose your shit! Ben and I had a few theories, and today he sent me a link which put my mind to ease a bit, alerting me that finally someone has begun research on the science of this phenomenon. We can send a man to space…and yet the technology of cords and electrical outlets seems to have been severely neglected. The only suggestions I personally have are to be sure to try to take some time, every time, you pack your cords, and wrap them in nice clean circles…supposedly if you do this always they will adjust, and behave less like the dirty mided buggers we know them to be if given free reign. I don’t always have time. Here is a short video with some options for clamping them down…I’ve tried the plastic adjustable clamps and they work pretty well.
Now you too can look suave as you create dance music for free spirited robots high on robot ecstasy. All kidding aside, this thing is pretty damn cool, and there are some great tools and toys coming along for creating music with the touch of your finger…hopefully it will also evolve past sounding like you’ve entered the death chamber of Logan’s Run. No info was available as to when you will be able to pick up one of these at Mal Wart or Guitarget, so don’t hold your breath.
Is this an optical illusion, is this a midget? NO! it’s a normal sized man attempting to rock out on a guitar designed specifically for Shaq! Well it COULD be designed for Shaq, however this guy does a good job of rockin’ it, despite being vertically challenged.
I have one of these air synths, and I sort of wrote it off as a bit too limited…of course due to my lack of imagination. Check out what Carlos did with his! He hard wired it to a custom built guitar body. Back in the day seeing some guitar players used duct tape to add effects pedals to guitars for easy hand access, but this really adds a variety of wahwah and other fun experimental sound options…watch out spinning corpse of Jimi Hendrix!
It is a pretty exciting time to be alive as a musician. there are some really fun software developments maturing into great potential instruments. The Nintendo DS game platform with it’s touch screen interface is a small yet potentially amazing gadget that is starting to offer a bunch of great music programs. Check out Electroplankton! This is an audio interface basically programmed with different species of Electroplanktons that you manipulate with the pen stylus to create different sound patterns. Second check out the new DS Jam Sessions from Ubisoft. This one lets you configure a guitar which you strum with the pen stylus…how fucking great is that for long plane rides!
Electroplankton demo video showing what each set of plankton do-
Electroplankton- Official Site
DS Jam Sessions Official Dorky Video-
Ubisoft- Jam Sessions Official Site
One more thing…just because these are cool it does NOT mean they are a rock n’ roll replacement for the guitar. I submit this as proof. Look how not cool you will look trying to play along with your bandmates. I assume the reason this guy did it was he was having a REAL hard time competing with the apparently band mandated facial hair his comrades are sporting.
Now you can finally pack all your drums into the compact car when you go on tour, and feel like a real live giant when you hit the stage. You can really turn the tables on Terry Bozzio and Neil Pert with these midi powered monsters, assuming you can actually PLAY. Check out this pretty realistic sounding tiny midi drum kit.
More Video and Info Here
Link via- AudioLemon
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds talks about modern recording on a laptop. Pretty cool interview with a real vet of the music industry, it’s always cool to see some of the old guard embrace technology. His point that resonated mostly with me was about the microphone…he’s got a fancy 4k microphone, and this still seems like the most important piece of equipment to me (along with placement, and room etc, things you can learn or pay a good engineer for). There have been improvements in recording, and it is more accessible, however you still need quality pre-amps and microphones, and you don’t really want to skimp on those. He talks a bit about mastering as well, sadly (for me anyway) he is windows based, obviously there are mac alternatives to all the programs he is talking about (or they are cross platform like the Adobe one…does ANYONE else use that program?).
This month’s issue of Make magazine has all the instructions you need to build an amp that fits nicely in a cracker box…or any box of your choosing. I scoured about a bit and found a pdf posted on WFMU if you are too cheap to buy the magazine. You really SHOULD buy it, it’s a great read every month, and touts quite a good roster of big name writers, along with all sorts of bizarre and fun projects. This amp can be constructed from parts you can get for $5 at Radio Shack (so they claim). I will endeavor to construct one and document my progress as I am a good example of a total electronics know nothing…so if I can do it, you should be able to. The amp even runs on battery power, so you can take it anywhere you go and rock out…just don’t bring it to the airport as you might end up with a good security buggering…and no one wants that.
Make Magazine: Official Website
WFMU: Pdf for Cracker Amp
They state on their website that you could sample all these pots and pans, but why bother…when it’s been done already, and is now being offered for free…I can’t think of a reason. Here are a few of the key selling points for the package directly from the mouth of the Welsh beast.
Learn more and download the samples here: Kitchen Kits
Link via: Rekkerd
