NOVATION K Station

Just about the most versatile, programmable synth I ever owned. Even with a busted display I can pretty much come up with any synth sound I want just via some tweaks to the front panel knobs and sliders. Everything a modern synth should be really, even though its pushing twenty years old!

I don't even save patches anymore this baby is so simple to dial up sounds on.Connect this to the V-Station vst synth and it doubles as an excellent controller , seamlessly integrating into any daw based environment, you can even via the vst edit patches and save them on your synth. This thing is a brilliant, perfectly realized synthesis (heh,heh) of oldschool synth design and digital tech.EVERYTHING on this unit transmits/receives  midi- and its bristling with controls !

Honestly, if you need just one hardware synth to provide an exhaustive range of usable sounds, they don't come more versatile than this, pads,basses,lead synth sounds, drums, strings, its all in there!

Whats really cool is how easy the fx are to get to while tweaking/playing the synth and they really add to the scope of its abilities, Ive own quite a few synths over the years but this is the ONE I would hold onto even if I switched pretty much completely to an in-the-box style setup.You really can't go wrong with this thing-unless you need more keys-but at least they aren't mini keys!

Digitech iStomp! review.

okay, let me just qualify this review by stating that I did actually get it when MF was blowing these out for 35 bux or so. That being said, it's probably the best 35 bux I've spent in the studio! Crazy versatile for my needs. I mainly purchased it because I sold all my hardware delays a while back and was looking for some good 'ol  echo action that the apps/plugins/pedals I normally use pretty much sucked at providing in real time. I pretty much have the unit permanently attached to an effects send on the mixer and since it's a stereo box , I still have a free in/out to randomly plug into. I thought the ios thing might be a little clunky but I really don't mind as I rarely switch up the fx and when i do it only takes  about 30 seconds. This is integration done the right way IMO, a standalone box with its own power supply, processing hardware, interface, etc-I can't stress enough the advantage of offloading the effects to an external unit with realtime control.  this is basically like, 50 pedals in one. I actually recorded a track using the box itself as an instrument utilizing the old feedback trick wherein you just patch the out into the input and tweak knobs. There are also tons of choruses , phasers,flangers,reverbs,distortions, etc. but for me the basic delay is the tops-haven't changed it in about 3-4 months, actually but less than the price of most halfway decent pedals I got 50! Very useful , awesome pedal.

comment: not a review! Volca Sample and the "integration" trend

umm…so if you need an ios app to sample with this thing, then you need an iphone or ipad -so why do you need this thing? I mean, really, whats the point, besides spending extra money, that is? It reminds me a lot of the akai mpx16- just a really, really handicapped version of something that worked fine 10-15 years back. Its like they are intentionally being cheap about the audio stuff, wth? On what planet does it make sense to put out a hardware sampler that doesn’t sample? The electribe s is like, ancient . The mpc500 is pretty darn old, too. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? How can decades old technology (proven technology) actually be MORE useful than something that came out today? I have no problem with IOS integration, but this is simply handicapping the device and making the end user jump through a freaking hoop just to do a simple function I can pull off right now with OLDER technology-namely um…just playing a sound into the machine and then triggering the resultant recording as part of a midi sequence aka sampling with my sampler. Don’t worry guys, one of these days, if AKAI, Roland and Korg merge into one gigantic megacorp, combine all of the talented R&D staff they can muster, working grueling 14-16 hour days , only stopping to replenish the vital nutrients they need to stay alive, we can expect , one day , maybe 10-15 years from now……………a sampler with a line in jack and a record button! G’nite folks, thats my time!

CASIO CZ synths

Casio CZ1000:

This here folks, is a classic! The CZ series synths are  really just good, solid, befuddling, dense, articulate,strange,noisy,awesome instruments. At first I tried being all scientific but programming that way took a loooong time! Coming from a background in subtractive
(virtual , actually) synthesis and (hardware, actually ) romplers ,I was unprepared for the actual breadth of possibilities inherent in these crazy 80's style calculator retro-futura style synthesizers.Phase Distortion, or PD synthesis is what they use-taking a digital wave and um...distorting the phase..or something.. I finally figured out that I could even come up with decent patches just by jumping to random menu page and pressing stuff! definitely for my money a lead instrument but I also laid down some nice, spongey sounding pads as well. For all its early digital programming tedium, I still find it alot easier to deal with than the Yamaha DX series, but thats a lot like saying astrophysics is easier than quantum physics! All in all, these are (or should be) cheap as all heck and weigh just about nothing compared to the DX7, etc. and are actually great as toy, lead synths or bass machines/sfx generators. The ring mod is quite decent as is the noise gen and portamento feature.....I really can't come up with anything to knock it for and I've owned 2 cz101s, 2 cz1000s, and a cz230s. Currently I have a cz101 in the retail box witha ll the manuals, etc. and it still stands up quite well to the novations, yamaha, and arturia synths in my collection. Honestly, Its one of those really hard to replicate keyboards- I have heard and played  the "CZ Bass" patches on many a rompler/synth/plugin/app and NONE of them can compare, even in a mix, they really just lack something, and this is coming from a guy who will use a sampled 909 with no hesitation so, I'm not really what you'd call a purist when it comes to vintage gear ( not that I can afford to be)  but the cz synths are just a perfect combo of hard/software in a box, the pd synthesis just works so well with the kit its built into. Now, don't get me wrong, it is lo-fi,  and it sounds AWESOME!

BEATMAKER 2 - Oldschool sampling dude review

First off, as far as samplers go , I'm kind of hard to satisfy. It's not that I want much-I really just want to be able to sample like I did back in 2001!
I really couldn't fathom, after spending about 75-100 bucks on more apps than I can remember, why in thee heck nobody thought to write a sampling program/app that just freaking samples like my seriously "outdated" akai s20 did-I can't assign midi channels!-Really? No multi-sampling!-Really? NO MIDI at all?????????????

Seriously, WTH? who wrote all those apps? Is this what kids nowadays think sampling is? Most apps I tried were pretty okay in one area or another but still did not provide the basic functionality I got from my bottom-of-the-line Akai sampler. Dude, the closest I got was Sir Sampleton which is basically a Casio SK-1 but a lot less fun. I even downloaded garageband-REALLY!

  Anyhoo, this is about BEATMAKER 2 so , I'll lay off the other guys now. Basically, I should have spent 20 bucks (WORTH IT) for the app instead of wasting time/money with all the other junk filling up my cloud or whatever. I literally have only used this app since I got it. If unused apps gathered dust, my ipad would be crazy dusty right now-truthfully the most useful sampler I have ever owned. I sequence with hardware, MIDI hardware and BEATMAKER 2  fits in EXACTLY where I need it to. can't really say much about the internal sequencer since I only use it on my phone version but if your into sampling, especially if you have been for awhile...I'm gonna say it-It was worth buying the Ipad and that @#*&^%! IO Dock just because of this app! I can sample any sound and play it up/down on all keys,(with a nice set of synth controls, all midi controllable) I can have  multiple samplers operating on multiple midi channels, add great effects, it has midi learn- it's basically a full daw slaved to my hardware-its great! oh gosh, I'm gonna cry!Pretty much it comes down to freedom. I can use this app slaved to hardware or standalone. I can create playable instruments from pretty much any sound source. I can make beats. I can create pads, I can freak vocal samples. Its a hard disk recorder. Its an effects box. I have no qualms about recommending this app! Here are some things recorded using Beatmaker 2 for sampling :
Pskyemix

ARTURIA MINIBRUTE !

First off, I know I'm like, the last person on the web to write up a review on this thing, but so what.?-I sure wasn't gonna be the first!

  I actually got my minibrute awhile back, last year, maybe? It's all so fuzzy........I pre-ordered from JRRshop before it even came out so I could save about a hundred bucks-WOW!

 Anyhoo, I got my minibrute (True story: I actually moved out of my place before the thing arrived! I preordered in December and it got there in like, July) and aside from the rather surreal experience of having 400 bux floating around in cyberspace thing, I am pretty happy with it. I really did'nt get to use it for the first six months or so that I had it because I loaned it to a friend (who ended up doing some amazing stuff on it , btw) because by that time we'd had a baby (actually got pregnant and then had the baby AFTER I preordered the synth!) And moved so

 my sweet studio space magically morphed into a corner in the living room.
Finally though, upon hearing that my fellow muso was getting booted out of his place, I suddenly found space for the 'brute.

 This is one serious synth. At first I was trying to do standard issue subtractive synth stuff that I became accustomed to on my novation va synths, but thats really not where this baby is at. The arppegiator on this unit is so accessible , so user friendly, so tight, I would spend hours just letting it run while messing with the panel. The end result felt almost like a really good dj set where you are taken on a real journey and end up someplace else entirely by the time its done!(I'm pretty sure that reference is gonna go over the heads of most "edm" fans under 30!)
It sounds great dry, if you know your synthesis, if you need a little help, well, thats what outboard effects are for. Had alot of fun running it through a Rogue "analog"(?) delay pedal and a little reverb. One thing you have to get used to if your new to analog style synthesis but are working with an oldschool -styled non-preset instrument like this is never really being able to get the EXACT same sound twice. I have a Novation K-station with a busted display so I never saved very many presets anyhow, I just fire it up and tweak until I get what I'm looking for out of necessity. Its pretty much the same way I Approach the minibrute, I mean, it pretty much stays on the last thing you did with it anyways, right, but its easier to tweak because EVERYTHING , including the all-important arp settings are right there in steel/paint for you to see ( with the K-station , its in a sub-menu and , my display is ,y'know, kaput!)

The Sounds:
Okay , enough of my crap-here's the skinny on the sounds. In a word...HARD. The 'brute CAN be tweaked into a passable solo string/soft lead type sound but it really excels at percussive, attacky , thumpy jagged edged lead/bass sounds-so much so that I had quite a time setting proper record levels!I have, however gotten pretty much any type of sound I've wanted out if the MiniBrute, so, yeah its a great synth. My good friend, Marlo Reynolds pretty much exclusively left the "BruteFactor" knob cranked up but I use it sparingly and still its the hottest signal in my mixer, quite a beast. I have yet to use it on a bassline, as I have been mainly playing solos and sampling them into a great ios program called Beatmaker 2  . I reccomend this to EVERYBODY who makes electronic music. This is real analog democracy here, folks!

Roland TR505

Without a doubt the most fun I have ever had with a drum machine. The sounds are pretty much shite (imagine a mouse with a qtip tapping on the inside of a paper bag), unless run through a distortion pedal, in which case they get alot more agressive and lively. No, the sounds are not the issue here, its the sequencer-it rocks! No multipage menus and staring at displays all day long, just punch in your beats and go! In one mode , you program your beatsand in another, each pad triggers a different pattern-This is great for live use! Its so simple and intuitive and even though, step sequencing is all the rage, its good to not HAVE to sequence that way if you don't feel like it, but still have the option. What you get is a lovely little drum machine thats great for live beats and sample triggering with great midi implementation. Oh yeah and the tempo knob makes adjusting the tempo a lot easier than on most machines. I bought one of these for 15 bucks at a thrift store and sold it on ebay about a year later for 175 bucks, so a good investment and a cool machine.