More and more things come up in the DIY area of electronic music that tend to make everything easier for the aspirant electronics experimenter (as noted in another post with the littleBits). Now a really interesting project comes from a collective, called the “machinecollective” . They present a prototype of a modular open source control surface. That means that you can (end of september) order different bare-bones control surfaces. I can already see my next circuit bending project with one of those control surfaces. You don´t have to find the casings, solder wires, fasten potis; everything is ready to be connected.
So here I found something really cool on www.engadget.com. Some prefabricated tiny circuits with different purposes like joystick, triggers and so on. They snap together through magnets, that´s also where the current goes through. This all seems pretty neat for some simple DIY-synth construction. I have put myself on their mailinglist to get updates an so on. More info in this video:
A youtube user made a pretty cool video about the thingamakit and his little brothers the thingamagoop. He simply recorded some thingamakit bleeps an blops and plays along with his battery:
So there are more news on the Chimera Synthesis Site (Chimera Synthesis). I still haven´t bought one of their synths, but the decision is nearing. Now they have released another synth, named bc08, which as they describe it is a “subminiature synthesizer” with an integrated simple sequenzer. There´s not much more info on their site, just two photos, where you can see the SMD (surface mount devices) technique that is used to produce their miniature synths, and which does also explain how they do it, to fit a synth into such a restricted space. So more info and videos coming soon.
So having read on several blogs (Trash_Audio) about the Thingamakit, somehow the big brother of the Thingamagoop with some additional features, I have ordered one. As it seems it will take some time before it arrives here at home. But as soon as I got it I´ll inform you about the construction process and if it will work afterwards ^^.
I´ve recently read on some blog (Create Digital Music), that last.fm is going to spend some royalities for trax that are played. How much that is still isn´t known, it will probably depend on the amount of traffic this generates. Well, so me being a fulfilled artist (has anybody noticed the joke in the last two words?!) I uploaded some tracks an so on. And I must say I am a bit confused and do not really understand how this thing works. First you have to upload your songs as an album… huh? Ok, well did that. Then your songs are on, and what next!? Well I suppose someone has to listen to them and tag them. That´s where you come in. So everybody (yes, that includes you of the million of people who read this blog :)) go listen to my songs on last.fm. There are only a few available by now. But I´ll put up more of them, as well as some pics and a bio. Who the fuck needs a bio, I want music! So if you already aren´t a member there, go here: last.fm and have fun!
UPDATE: I´ve just discovered how they would like to pay me: - If your track is played on our free radio service you will accrue a 10% of the Share of Last.fm’s Net Revenue (see the definition of “Share” and “Net Revenue” in the terms and conditions) from the free radio service.
So hope they do make a lots of revenue back there at last.fm!
UPDATE 2: or copy/paste this into the adress line of your browser:
www.readydot.net/BIN/READYdot_set.zip
Explanations tomorrow.
UPDATE: So here some explanations. The set was recorded last Friday. The d:qliq was half crowded and we were in a good mood. Could be that the download is slow, because of my provider. If it is, let me know and I´ll up it to another place. The download is 226 MB. The length is appr. 2h 40m. It´s a LAME encoded MP3, should work on every mp3-player. The materials used: Pioneer CDJ-200 and DJM-600 as provided by the d:qliq, a Mac with Rane Serato interface and software, KORG KP3 and Alesis Bitrman. Was recorded with an iKey plus to LaCie External HD.
Yeah! Finally! MS-10 on DS, that´s like, um.. Tina Turner on Justin Timberlake. The facts are here: 2 synth parts, 1 drum part, 16 beat patterns, very editable, very versatile and gooooood sounding! Lots of tweaking can be done, there is even a Kaoss pad included, not for effects but for live tweaking the different parameters. The drum part can only handle 4 instruments, but for some fat electro or retro electronica this is very much enough. The whole thing feels tight and well thought through, perhaps some minor issues with the tweaking of the knobs with the DS-stick. There´s also an effect section but it´s a bit limited; you get a delay, a flanger and a chorus. These can only be used alone, and then assigned to one part or all. But an overall solid presentation and very intuitive. So if you can get it and if you have a DS, you have no excuses.