So I’ve decided to lay off from buying anymore gear for awhile. Of course, that didn’t stop me from buying a new softsynth. Apple’s Logic Pro has some great instruments, but I needed something that had a little more “oomf”. I was looking at Stillwell Audio’s Olga softsynth which I thought sounded really great, but doing more research, I found Rob Papen’s Predator more my speed. I’m still learning all the bits and pieces on how to program synthesizers. Predator lent a more straightforward approach.

Head over to my music Myspace page to listen to a preview of “Sunlight”, my new song. All the instruments used with the exception of the drums, are Predator synths. I’m still learning how to properly master stuff in Logic, so forgive the quality (plus myspace mashes the file). Enjoy and give feedback!

This is Michael Schack on Roland’s V-Drums TD-4K, an electronic drum kit that is about $1000. If things turn into a blur for you, watch the higher framerate version on the Roland site, here.

This is my favorite version of CPE Bach’s Solfeggietto so far. Most YouTube videos feature players that just go balls out too fast. There is still an art and a rhythm to it. One day when I have some peace and solitude, I will learn this piece if it takes forever.

Mysto and Pizzi, two young producers from New York make the Geico’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” remake of Rockwell’s 1980′s song. The vocals are Renald Francoeur, doing both the Rockwell lyrics as well as the Michael Jackson hook line. It looks like they’re producing the entire song with an Open Labs NeKo, an insane piece of hardware (and insanely expensive). You can download the entire song over at the Geico website. While I dig the song and the way they lay it down, guerilla-style… Lose those stupid looking sunglasses while indoors, will ya?

I saw these back in November, but back then I was swimming in MIDI controllers and couldn’t justify another batch. But what drew me to these were their extremely small size and portability. I own a M-Audio Ozone 25 key controller, and that was considered fairly small, but it was still too big to be comfortably thrown into my laptop bag. The Korg Nano series are smaller than my computer keyboard.

I received the nanoPad from a friend for my birthday. I was surprised by the feel of the pads. They are vastly different in feel and action from my Akai MPD24. The pads are made from a solid clear rubber, unlike the MPD24′s hollow grey rubber. The action is far more sensitive, although the velocity of the strikes is narrower – soft strikes are near impossible to achieve. I like the Flam and Roll functions as well at the touch pad. The touch pad works in Reason as a nice Kaoss pad alternative (and far cheaper).

Since I now had the nanoPad, I went ahead and purchased the nanoKey. The nanoKey is kinda weird. The keys are more like computer keyboard keys, yet have some velocity sensitivity to it. Sometimes the keys do get caught on each other, and pressing the keys near the back will sometimes not register the note. My other other issue with it is the lack of a sustain pedal jack, but that’s small potatoes. I do wish the USB jack could be rotated on both so I could place them side by side, instead back and front. I do dig the portability. Since I have both now, I’ll probably finish off the series by buying the nanoKontrol – just because I could use the transport controls (and extra knobs and sliders never hurt). Best of all, all three fit nicely on my desk or in my laptop bag with room to spare.

Just when I thought I was about done with hardware controllers for my music making, this comes along:

Akai has released a hardware controller for the software application Ableton Live. Live is sort of a DJ/Live Music audio workstation – a lot of it’s functionality is geared towards live performances. I don’t gig, but my god, LOOK AT ALL THOSE BLINKY BUTTONS!

A lot of things are being released at Winter NAMM ’09. M-Audio has a new version of their Axiom controller line, the Axiom Pro. Good thing I read about this before I bought a plain-jane Axiom (on my future wish list). This one seems more advanced (hence the “Pro”) but I hope it doesn’t cost too much – otherwise I will be going with the Edirol PCR-800.

On a related note, I’m still saving up for my MacBook Pro – the good news is that I can custom order my laptop at Sweetwater.com (not the restaurant). I’m ordering through there because I have an undying loyalty to that place. Their sales engineers are the most helpful and well informed group of salespeople anywhere. So I buy through them whenever I can. I’m looking to take the top MacBook Pro model and upgrade the hard drive to 7200rpms (from the standard 5400rpms). That, along with everything else maxed out, should give me complete freedom with graphics, illustration, and music. The bad news is that I’m going to have to wait for my next paycheck cycle.

Last night I had Live open and had a simple software drumkit loaded. Granted, it was a synth drumkit using the Operator instrument, but playing a simple groove ate almost 50% of my CPU. That shouldn’t be happening. Yeah, I need more juice.

Ok, I’m pretty sure I have all the instruments one person will ever need. I’ve actually been trying to sell off some stuff – my banjo is about to go up on craigslist. I need to put my focus on saving up for a new laptop, then new house because I hate my upstairs neighbors, and then (and only then) can I think about getting this:

(This is the part where someone smacks me on the nose with a rolled up newspaper, “NO!”)

I’ve been studying drumming and dusted off my DR-880 with renewed interest. At first it was tough programming beats. Then I did a lot of reading and studying on how drums kits are used. I think I got a lot of the basics down, at least for 4/4 time. The basics meaning you have to approach the drum machine as if you approach a real life drum kit. You have two arms and two legs. One arm for the snare, one for the hi-hat, one leg for the kick and one leg for the hi-hat control. When you go for the toms or cymbals, you have to use a free arm to strike them – therefore, you will not be hitting anymore than two things at anytime with your arms. This gets missed when step programming a drum machine. You also lose the physicality of striking the drums, keeping with the rhythm.

What I’m studying now are rolls and fills. While the DR-880 makes it easy to plug these in, I’m still curious about the dynamics of it. I probably should take a stab at learning some bass basics. I’m also still trying to figure out the intricacies of mixing tracks and mastering. I think I need a good book on it as the online stuff seems device specific. I think it’s important to learn all the pieces of rock music, and I feel like I’m learning a lot. I’ve even been taking another stab at sight-reading music notation (I’ll post something on that soon). There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in a day for it all…

I’ve been moving some of my music equipment to my work office for the simple sake of being able to use speakers at night and not have to worry about bothering anyone. My new Edirol monitors and interface arrived today. I can’t wait to hook these suckers up tonight after work.

So, I got my 61 key Evolution MK-361c and Evolution UC-33e control surface along with my 25 key M-Audio Oxygen 8v2 keyboard. The Edirol UA-25EX is behind the Oxygen, and my new Edirol monitors are there but not yet hooked up. I ordered a cheap HOSA optical cable that didn’t fit either the monitors or the interface (grumble), so I’m going to have to use sub-standard RCA cables for now.

I can’t wait…

Ok, I haven’t posted in a while. For the three people that actually read this site, this is what’s going on. I’m still working on the songs, but as I’m recording I’m finding all sorts of inadequacies about my computer set-up. Right now, I’m mainly using Reason and Ableton Live to lay tracks and arrange stuff. The problem is that my computer is too slow to handle the stuff I want to do. I’ve also come to learn that I totally lack any sort of mastering capabilities. I can get a good mix, but it won’t sound great across different types of speakers.

Today I purchased a pair of audio monitors (Edirol’s MA-15D) and a new audio USB interface (also Edirol UA-25EX). The monitors are nowhere near the quality I’m trying to achieve, but they’re in my price range for now. I’ll upgrade later when I have the money and the economy improves. The audio interface is mainly for the monitors (both have S/PDIF optical) but it comes with a compressor/limiter that might allow me to grab some real-world sounds without crying. Ideally, I would have liked to have bought the Mbox 2 – along with it’s ProTools LE software and the Alesis M1 MkII monitors – but that would have shot me totally beyond my budget. So, baby steps…

I’m also at the point where I can start selling off my older equipment. Craigslist, you’re my hero. I’m sticking to my self-created rule that I can only buy something if I sell off something in return. I have a 49 key M-Audio Keystation, and my mobilePre audio interface listed currently. I’ll probably get rid of some more stuff too.

Eventually, I’m going to need a new laptop. My Powerbook has served me well over these years, but the screen is going dark and it just doesn’t have the horsepower to drive all my software synths and samplers. Also, I’m going to need some mastering plug-ins – I’m eyeing the IK T-Racks bundle, a VST plugin, but first the computer, then the stuff that can actually run on it.

So in the meantime, I’m still learning.

Somedays I just get bored. Other days I kick ass. You decide:

(This is from the awesome flickr group here)

And because I can: