by Lysander » Mon May 19, 2008 5:58 pm
Okay, so, this message is basically going to serve as a reposatory for all of the music-related products I find to be win.
I mentioned this to Robb earlier in IM but the
Haken Continuum Fingerboardis a keyboard... sans keys. So, you can sweep your finger back and forth and it will bend your note like a guitar. Or, it will change notes like a regular keyboard would ,depending on how you want it to act. If you press down harder, the sound gets louder. You can also move your fingers vertically on the keys to produce a filter sweep (AKA wah-type sound)... or if you want it ot change something else you can have it set to do that, as well. You can tell it to play in a certain scale so that whatever you play won't sound "wrong" with everything else you're playing. And it interfaces with any sound module you want--you can even hook two up at once and have one half of the keyboard playing on a completely different sound set from the other.
Electric lap Steel Guitar--this thing is kind of like a chapman stick for guitarests. As the strings are elevated from the fretboard it makes frets useless, so it's traditionally played by using a slide in the left hand and plucking the string with the right hand. Typically the strings are a lot longer than they would be on a regular guitar so you can hit many different notes. They are also traditionally tuned in an open tuning, as otherwise it would make playing chords near impossible. No link provided, as there are tons of manufacturers out there--not just electric, either.
2Box drumIt Five
This isn't out yet, but BOY do I want it. Combines all the advantages of an eKit--smaller, easier to setup, quieter, a better signal for a live sound guy to work with--and eliminates two two huge disadvantages: they sound like ass and they don't have a good feel. This one lets you use regular drum skins, or the Mesh/rubber heads, and they let you change it at will like you would change a real drum head. As for sounds, the module is coming pre-loaded with samples that are used on tons of top records for drum replacement *right now* (you've probably heard them already and not realized it) and if you don't like that particular soundset they let you load your own samples via USB. Comes with MIDI, too, if you need that.
Muse Receptor: This baby is just awesome. It lets you do everything you could do on an audio-editing computer except record and, er, edit (load VST plugins, mix multiple instruments, add your own effects to taste) without any of the disadvantages (inconvenient for gigs, requires someone who knows how to work a confusing program, can break, fucks the entire show if the thing crashes). So, you could have your drummer use an eKit and trigger his favorit samples through it (assuming he isn't using the Drumit five ;)), have your guitarest and bassist get their favorit amplification sounds from AmpFarm or whatever, have your keyboard player load up all of his favorit instrument samples, have each player adjust ambience and EQ and whatnot until they all have just the sound they want... then save all those settings, go to a show, take ten minutes to set everything up, do the concert, and take it all down in ten minutes again. Then the next night they already have their sounds preset so they just have to plug in and turn on. And of course since the sounds are all created on the receptor, your instruments plug right in so no more huge, unweildy rigs, and you can even rout everything to headphones so you can rehearse your entire rock band in an apartment someplace without getting yelled at and it will sound just like it will on stage. The receptor runs some version of Linux--I can't remember which one, Gnome I think?-- so it's designed to recover from crashes with a minimal of fuss. It's also housed in a stupid-strong case to withstand buffetting from a long tour.
If you want to get into entry-level music recording I would suggest the
Echo MiaMIDI sound card as it gives you a good balance of features VS. price point: one pair of inputs, one pair of outputs, MIDI I/O and S/PDIF I/O for $125. The one thing it totally won't do is multitrack but you can record one track at a time and then edit them in a multitrack editor as if you had recorded a bunch of things at once.
As for audio editors, take your pick; Cubase, Inuendo, LogicPro, ProTools, Audition, Sonar... Not cheap, and I wouldn't dare suggest anybody do anything as irresponsible and illegal as find a cracked version of the software on teh intarnet. But these are the options available. Interfacing with a multitrack editor with a keyboard and mouse really kind of sucks, though, but with Sonar at least you can assign USB or MIDI keyboards to act as a control surface. So rather than clicking around to turn the volume up on a track that's playing you just twist one of the knobs on your music keyboard. I'm assuming most other multitrack editors let you do this as well, and you'll wanna look around on their website to see what they'll let you get away with.
Okay, so, this message is basically going to serve as a reposatory for all of the music-related products I find to be win.
I mentioned this to Robb earlier in IM but the [url=www.cerlsoundgroup.org/Continuum]Haken Continuum Fingerboard[/url]is a keyboard... sans keys. So, you can sweep your finger back and forth and it will bend your note like a guitar. Or, it will change notes like a regular keyboard would ,depending on how you want it to act. If you press down harder, the sound gets louder. You can also move your fingers vertically on the keys to produce a filter sweep (AKA wah-type sound)... or if you want it ot change something else you can have it set to do that, as well. You can tell it to play in a certain scale so that whatever you play won't sound "wrong" with everything else you're playing. And it interfaces with any sound module you want--you can even hook two up at once and have one half of the keyboard playing on a completely different sound set from the other.
Electric lap Steel Guitar--this thing is kind of like a chapman stick for guitarests. As the strings are elevated from the fretboard it makes frets useless, so it's traditionally played by using a slide in the left hand and plucking the string with the right hand. Typically the strings are a lot longer than they would be on a regular guitar so you can hit many different notes. They are also traditionally tuned in an open tuning, as otherwise it would make playing chords near impossible. No link provided, as there are tons of manufacturers out there--not just electric, either.
[url=http://2box.se]2Box drumIt Five[/URL]
This isn't out yet, but BOY do I want it. Combines all the advantages of an eKit--smaller, easier to setup, quieter, a better signal for a live sound guy to work with--and eliminates two two huge disadvantages: they sound like ass and they don't have a good feel. This one lets you use regular drum skins, or the Mesh/rubber heads, and they let you change it at will like you would change a real drum head. As for sounds, the module is coming pre-loaded with samples that are used on tons of top records for drum replacement *right now* (you've probably heard them already and not realized it) and if you don't like that particular soundset they let you load your own samples via USB. Comes with MIDI, too, if you need that.
[URL=http://www.museresearch.com/receptor.php]Muse Receptor[/url]: This baby is just awesome. It lets you do everything you could do on an audio-editing computer except record and, er, edit (load VST plugins, mix multiple instruments, add your own effects to taste) without any of the disadvantages (inconvenient for gigs, requires someone who knows how to work a confusing program, can break, fucks the entire show if the thing crashes). So, you could have your drummer use an eKit and trigger his favorit samples through it (assuming he isn't using the Drumit five ;)), have your guitarest and bassist get their favorit amplification sounds from AmpFarm or whatever, have your keyboard player load up all of his favorit instrument samples, have each player adjust ambience and EQ and whatnot until they all have just the sound they want... then save all those settings, go to a show, take ten minutes to set everything up, do the concert, and take it all down in ten minutes again. Then the next night they already have their sounds preset so they just have to plug in and turn on. And of course since the sounds are all created on the receptor, your instruments plug right in so no more huge, unweildy rigs, and you can even rout everything to headphones so you can rehearse your entire rock band in an apartment someplace without getting yelled at and it will sound just like it will on stage. The receptor runs some version of Linux--I can't remember which one, Gnome I think?-- so it's designed to recover from crashes with a minimal of fuss. It's also housed in a stupid-strong case to withstand buffetting from a long tour.
If you want to get into entry-level music recording I would suggest the [url=http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/MiaMIDI/index.php]Echo MiaMIDI sound card[/url] as it gives you a good balance of features VS. price point: one pair of inputs, one pair of outputs, MIDI I/O and S/PDIF I/O for $125. The one thing it totally won't do is multitrack but you can record one track at a time and then edit them in a multitrack editor as if you had recorded a bunch of things at once.
As for audio editors, take your pick; Cubase, Inuendo, LogicPro, ProTools, Audition, Sonar... Not cheap, and I wouldn't dare suggest anybody do anything as irresponsible and illegal as find a cracked version of the software on teh intarnet. But these are the options available. Interfacing with a multitrack editor with a keyboard and mouse really kind of sucks, though, but with Sonar at least you can assign USB or MIDI keyboards to act as a control surface. So rather than clicking around to turn the volume up on a track that's playing you just twist one of the knobs on your music keyboard. I'm assuming most other multitrack editors let you do this as well, and you'll wanna look around on their website to see what they'll let you get away with.