Someone very kindly gifted me with a Korg Wavestation EX that had been languishing in their closet, and I’ve found myself gradually sinking deeper and deeper into the guts of the beast. Pads, sure, yes, it does great pads — everyone loves the pads; all the presets are pads. But, did you know that the […]
I have not written anything here in a while. Many reasons, really — lots going on with life, then not much to add, thanks anyways, then eventually wondering if a blog is even relevant anymore. I think people just have youtube channels now, or something? I guess a bigger part is that it’s weird to […]
Along with the release of my album Sampled Library, I wanted to write up some thoughts about sampling I’ve had kicking around my head. The sampler is a relatively recent invention: showed up in the late 60s, affordable by plonkers in the 80s, and gutted by legal nonsense the 90s. In between the last two […]
Watching unwieldy conglomerates on Twitter is like witnessing an elephant being harassed by a swarm of flies. Twitter belongs to the masses, and when Grocter-OmniLever, Inc. serves up one of its marketing droids to be sacrificed on the altar of consumer discontent, it’s satisfyingly messy — but also, more of a distraction than a solution. […]
Saying reverb is important to music production is like saying that Jesus is “kind of popular”: the level of passion can’t be stated plainly; it demands some sort of humorous understatement. So, as I’ve just finished a tune-up on my custom spring reverb, I figured I’d write about it! I previously covered Impulse Reverb (a.k.a. […]
As sure as rain will fall, stated tech specs invariably inflate what the product can do. Various features are fonted and gaslit with a knowing wink, then vaporize as soon as the rubber hits the road — Oh. That’s not what I thought that meant. Other woes belched from the from the technology horn include, […]
With all the groundwork laid out the previous time, ’twas time to actually start making things more useful! I decided to add a gate input, so I could sync the SK-1 to my other gear… and to build a breakout box for the port I added last time… click on for more.
Recently, I moved. Re-building my setup in a differently-shaped space has caused me to evaluate things much more consciously. I found myself coming back to an idea I’d had a year or two ago: Foot pedals for the computer. My wrists go carpal mashing the shift key while coding or playing games, while my feet […]
This is part of a series of posts about the Casio SK-1. For more, see the introduction page. Stage One: I Accidentally A Pattern (Intro) I’d had a long day at the office. I wanted to mess about with some music stuff, but I figured I was too wiped for any sort of serious effort. […]
The Casio SK-1 is a sampler. Press a button and yell into its mic, and it will staidly BLARP, indicating it has stored your exclamation. Either that, or it will crash and not BLARP. If it doesn’t crash, you can then play your voice on the keyboard: it shifts the pitch to match the notes. […]