Nothing appeals to most electronic musicians more than a home studio filled with vintage instruments. But few of us stop to consider the responsibility we take on by purchasing an old Moog Memorymoog, Sequential Prophet-5 or even a mammoth E-mu Emulator II: They require constant care and attention. I’ve owned a number of classics and have become fairly used to popping them open from time to time for a bit of calibration or a quick fix.
To make matters worse, there’s a dark cloud looming on the horizon: Many electronic designs from the 1970s and 1980s don’t age well. If you’re not careful, your beloved vintage instrument can be seriously damaged by leakage from the battery that preserves its patch memory, or fall victim to chip or component failure. Here’s a quick look at some of the most common problems that can befall older instruments.
NewsFactor - Big news in digital media this week. Nokia launched a music store, while Sony closed one. NBC nixed its TV shows on iTunes, while YouTube signed royalty deals with UK artists. And the headlines roll on.
A glimpse into the creation of Tenori-On, Toshio Iwai’s new musical instrument to be produced by Yamaha, .
A Last.fm group posting has revealed the pricing of the upcoming Yamaha Tenori-On, an unusual grid-based instrument and MIDI controller, as well as how the product design came together and will be produced. Found , the posting has the following revelations:
Price will be GBP 599 in the initial run.
The initial run will have limited availability in UK record shops and online for the next few months. (This much we knew.)
Full production and a price cut are apparently due in the future, full production run, possibly some time next year (this is news).
AA batteries are all you need for power.
The price is likely to be a disappointment to many who had hoped for a more affordable product. Ironically, despite the Yamaha name, the initial production run is a practically hand-made affair. It sounds as though Yamaha is being rather conservative with this limited run before jumping in. Mind you, we don’t expect official announcements from Yamaha until next week’s launch event, so stay tuned. I doubt any of this will stop people from snapping up the first run, especially if its numbers are as limited as they sound.
Forget about the price for a moment: the best part of this post is the gallery of behind-the-scenes images from the Tenori-On’s design and production. The project remains a DIY affair at this point, and it reveals both the inner life of this instrument, and the potential for other unusual musical creations in the future.
[Flickr Set by Rupert’s Lunch]
The Flickr set also includes fascinating conceptual diagrams illustrating the Tenori-On concept.
Reuters - Bertelsmann AG settled a lawsuit filed
by the National Music Publishers' Association that charged the
media company's investment in file sharing service Napster
encouraged the abuse of copyrighted content.
Ed.: Our friend Wallace wanders in search of truly transcendent software use, and he’s taking the leap to GURU. Expect a review soon, but here’s why we’re interested — especially with a welcome update arriving free. -PK.
FXpansion , which fixes numerous outstanding bugs and incorporates almost 100 new features. What’s amazing is that they’re offering this update for free to existing users. Again, this is another case of a company that could have slapped a major new version number on it and charged at least a modest fee for the update to existing users, and it’s evidence of FXpansion’s generosity and commitment to their customers that this update is being offered for free.
Among the new features:
Expanded audio export options, with options to render pads, tracks, engines or full mixes, with drag n drop to the host application or even back inside Guru for further mangling. I can see this being seriously useful for loop slicing and mangling
Expanded slicer functionality with greater precision and a new velocity implementation
Adjustable randomizer with options to control the amount and depth of randomization
New sample options for reversing samples, new layer modes and pre delays for fine tuning
Improved file browser functionality
Expanded sample library
Windows Vista & multi-core support
Expanded keyboard support so every function in Guru can be almost completely controlled without the mouse
Widely expanded MIDI implementation, with much more control over UI elements
Drop-out free audio engine, allowing for seamless transitions between kits while previewing
In short, not a whole lot of radically new functionality, but the workflow enhancements and expansion of existing functionality make this update a must-have for existing users, and will likely be enough to tip the fence sitters. I’ve used Guru on a friends machine, and while I really dug it, it just seemed to be missing a few things here and there. With this update, they’ve addressed all those problems by listening to their users on what could (and needed to be) improved. Consider me officially off the fence. When Guru was first announced, it held the promise of becoming the ultimate software beatbox. With the 1.5 update, Guru has officially arrived.
Sampling and remix culture is the future, right? Not if you ask a lot of music lovers at the moment. The guest for the CDM Random Rant of the Week is our friend Liz. It’s an issue I suspect has troubled some readers here, especially as music technology is equated to the sample/remix culture (especially if you believe Wired Magazine and we’re in the age of mash-ups.) Sure, tracks sampling other tracks is nothing new, but the legal battles over hip-hop aside, is there a backlash brewing? Do people want to hear something original, after all? And can Kanye, erm, speak truth to power with both the President of the United States and mysterious French electro duos? -PK
…Do[es] anybody make real shit anymore?
Bow in the presence of greatness
Cause right now thou has forsaken us
You should be honored by my lateness
That I would even show up to this fake shit
So go ahead, go nuts, go ape-shit
Especially on my best stand, on my Bape shit
Act like you can’t tell who made this…
-Kanye West,
“Stronger,” ft. substantial elements of Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger”
Before I clicked on the link I’m about to share with you, I was a hardcore, devil-fist-throwing Daft Punk mega-fan. After the link jump at the end, I had to reluctantly join the melancholy ranks of jaded music fans who’ve seen through the hype to the source, eventually admitting that what I had admired was blatant plagiarism.
Reuters - Amazon.com Inc has tentatively set a
mid-September target for the launch of its music service, the
New York Post reported in its online edition on Friday, citing
sources familiar with the situation.
NewsFactor - Sony's music players are opening up, and its Connect digital music store is closing down. That's the word from the Japanese electronics giant, which said on Thursday that its newest digital media players would drop their proprietary format and be able to play music in popular MP3, AAC, and Windows Media formats.
Ed.: Our friend Wallace wanders in search of truly transcendent software use, and he’s taking the leap to GURU. Expect a review soon, but here’s why we’re interested — especially with a welcome update arriving free. -PK.