Blackbird Rider carbon fiber acoustic has a hollow neck

This is the Blackbird Rider, a $1,599 travel acoustic guitar made from carbon fiber. They claim it's close to unbreakable: "You can play in a tropical rain storm and Rider will be fine. It can withstand a fall on a concrete floor without breaking.". The neck is just hollow carbon fiber, with no truss rod and a resin fingerboard. Even the headstock is hollow, so the whole thing is one resonant chamber. (via Uncrate)

Arturia Analog Factory Experience keyboard - first review

What is it? It's a hardware controller for Arturia's Analog Factory plugin, which emulates 7 classic vintage synths (Arp 2600, Mini Moog, Moog Modular, Prophet 5, Prophet VS, Jupiter 8, CS 80). £229 / $349. LINK

What's good? I love the idea - a piece of software made real.It's a great looking, great feeling little keyboard made in China by CME. The design ticks all the Music Thing boxes - it's (off) white, it has real wood end cheeks, a nice semi-weighted keyboard, really solid, heavy, all-metal chassis, 11 continuous knobs, 4 ADSR sliders (NICE TOUCH!) and a snapshot system pinched from the Nord G2. I like the idea of a tweakable preset machine, like a modern day Matrix 1000, but with 3,500 patches. On each preset, you can change the volume envelope (slightly frustrating if the filter envelope is fixed), the filter cutoff & resonance, LFO rate & amount, and four other pre-selected parameters. Arturia's emulations sound fantastic, though I'm not qualified enough to judge how accurate they are. The Arp sounds raw and clunky with a boingy spring reverb. The Prophet VS sounds gritty and digital. The Moog Modular sounds huge, etc. If you want to know about the software, Create Digital Music and Sound on Sound can help.

What's bad? Aaaaagh! It's software. Installing it had me typing a 32 digit number four or five times until it took. I installed it on my laptop, and it's now impossible to move to another PC, without (at least) contacting customer support and buying a Syncrosoft key for €14. Yes, if I'd paid £229 for it, rather than borrowing one to review, I'd have thought harder about where I installed it. But why should I have to? It's lame. For £250 you can buy a new XioSynth, MicroKorg, or Alesis Micron or a used Juno 6 or JP8000.
If you're a professional musician, or you're trying to get great sounds in a hurry, or you enjoy tidiness and efficiency, then Analog Factory is perfect. It's quick to use, far better sounding than those cheap hardware synths, and all your settings are saved automatically. If, like me, you're a no-talent tinkerer, who enjoys fiddling with gear and recording bits of music, then the Analog Factory Experience might be a disappointment. But that's just me. If you enjoy software synths, then there are a few relatively minor niggles. The keyboard will output midi, but the controller numbers are all fixed, so you'll have to teach other synths to understand it, rather than vice versa. And there's very audible stepping when you're tweaking some knobs, i.e when tweaking the cutoff frequency on a resonant filter.

So... If you get on with software synths, and you want a fantastically sexy little controller for a huge collection of great synth sounds, buy this now. If you want a sexy little synth, don't.

Ten man orchestra from Finland plays only 303s

Here's Jori Hulkkonen conducting his 303 orchestra at the UMF Festival in Turku, Finland in August. The sound is really awful, and you can't see what's going on, but it's a nice alternative to all those laptop orchestras. (Thanks, oerfil)

20 non-boring Christmas gifts for musicians which cost less than £100

See also: 11 crazy expensive Christmas gifts for musicians, and my 2005 Gift Guide, which still stands up OK.

1. TapeOp Magazine The coolest magazine about recording and excessively expensive music gear is now available free in the US, UK and Europe. Free

2. Akai E2 Headrush The awesome looper/delay pedal used by KT Tunstall in this ace clip (and by countless people in other YouTube clips) £95 UK|$199 US

3. Lap Steel My wife bought me a lap steel for my birthday this year, and it's awesome. They're cheap, easy to play and cool-sounding. Make sure it comes with a tone bar, or they won't be able to play it on Xmas day. £50-90 from eBay UK|$100+ from eBay US.

4. Spooky glass hand that plays Chopin. $16.95

5. Pocket Pod Powerful little headphone amp and effects box with sounds 'borrowed' from vintage gear. £65 UK|$130 US.

6. Oliver Sachs: Musicophilia Amazing book about how people become obsessed by music, which I wrote about here. Amazon UK|Amazon US

7. Something from BugBrand Tom Bugs (who I wrote about here) makes beautiful little noise boxes in his Bristol lab. He doesn't have much in stock at the moment, but it's worth checking back. £7 - £130

8. A print by James Joyce You can't buy any of his excellent music gear paintings but there's much to love in his shop. £75 and up.

9. Vox Amplug Tiny headphone amp which plugs directly into your guitar and looks like a teeny vintage amp. I'd buy the AC30 flavour. $40 US|£30 UK

10. Something from Liam Devowski Liam does awesome illustrations and graffiti of synths. Perhaps if you ask him nicely, he'll sell you something! $POA. Similarly Dan McPharlin makes incredible tiny cardboard synths, and takes commissions.

11. Artec Big Dots Most guitar tuners are incredibly boring, but this one, which looks like the floor of a '70s nightclub, will make any guitarist happy. £40 UK|$70 US

12. Hello Kitty guitar A custom Squier strat in black or in pink, it's not quite as cool as the Japanese original by Fernandes, but still fine. $150 US|£134 UK

13. Moog-inspired music Any of the CDs on this list would make any geek happy. Particularly 'Switched on Nashville'... Amazon US|UK

14. Vintage microphones Vintage microphones are surprisingly cheap (plenty go for well under £50) if a bit unhygenic. They're easy to buy: if they look cool, they are cool. Even if they don't sound so great, they're nice to have around. Avoid modern 'retro' Elvis microphones.Vintage mics from eBay UK|eBay US

15. Something from Etsy There are plenty of great homemade/one-off crafty gifts for music geeks at Etsy. Try some of these keywords: synth, Moog, boom box, cassette, and 83 pages of guitars.

16. Audio Damage Effects If the person you're buying for makes music on a computer, one of these will surprise and delight them. I'd recommend Dr Device, Replicant or Phase Two, but buy the one which you like the look of. $29-$49

17. Casio DG20 MIDI guitar Classic '80s techno kitsch revived by this Flight of the Conchords clip. Because the world is crazy, these actually go for up to £300... eBay UK|eBay US Oh, yes, there's also the Flight of the Conchords DVD: UK|US

18. Korg Mini Kaoss Pad Touch pad DJ effects box for glitchy electronic fun $199 US|£95 UK

19. Nanoloop 2.2 Is a cult homemade cartridge which turns the Nintendo Gameboy Advance (or DS) into an 8 channel synth and sequencer. GBAs now cost next to nothing on eBay. €65

20. Build your own guitar kit Not so much a present as a sentence to a January of tinkering and painting. £54 from Thomann. Alternatively, a generous Warmoth gift certificate would satisfy a more serious fiddler.

Dear reader, what do you want for Christmas. Leave an anonymous note in the comments, and maybe a loved one will be inspired...

YouTube Korg Kaossilator demos are funny

Korg's little Kaossilator touchpad synth came out in Japan last week, so a handful of demo videos have appeared on YouTube. White sunglasses baseball cap dude is definitely the funniest (he has more of the same) and Kaossilator blues is the most musically unlikely (harmonica blues solo). Meanwhile, American yellow glasses dude will make you never want to hear or make music ever again.

eBay of the day: The Ringflute. It's a flute. In a ring.

There's not much to the Ringflute (eBay link) that isn't in the subject line. It costs $39, is made of ABS plastic with ultrasonically welded seams and it was invented by James Johnson, who came up with the idea after, er, trying to demonstrate ocarina fingerings to a Chinese busker using a piece of hosepipe. You can find out more at ringflute.com, which includes this classic 'way to much reverb' sound clip. There's also a $500 wooden version, if you get into it...

War Machine! The VST plugin for... WAR!

The War Machine is a new plugin from PowerFX containing 87 samples of "Machine guns, Missile launchers, single shots, rocket blasts, cannons, flame throwers, tanks, jet fighters and earth shattering explosions" which come in a sample player, each mapped across the keyboard. What's stopping you buying it now? Well, it's $99, for a start. (via HC)

Christmas Gift Guide 2007 pt 1: Price No Object

Buying Christmas presents for music geeks must be a nightmare. If you're rich and generous, this list might help. The guide continues with more affordable bits later this week.

1. Elektron Monomachine MkII The ultimate all-in one boutique synth, and it will look great on any coffee table. $1440 / €1290 direct from Elektron.

2. Something from Vince Clarke's studio For a long time, Vince Clarke has had the most awesome looking studio in the world. Now he's moved to Maine, and is selling off all his gear. eBay link

3. Recording The Beatles This book is a vast, beautifully-produced labour of love. Comes in a slipcase that looks like a reel of tape. It's $100 plus $52 shipping to the UK (Ouch!). Recording the Beatles.

4. A synth subscription Every month, you'll get a new module to build into a midi-controlled analog synth. The addiction to new modules comes free. $120/month for 12 months from Synthesizers.com

5. DSI Prophet '08 It's black. It's knobby. It's analogue. It's got so many twinkly lights, you won't need a Christmas tree. US: $1999 from Analogue Haven Europe: £1412 from Thomann

6. Tenori On I was a bit underwhelmed, but as a Christmas gift, it's unbeatable... US: Not available. Europe: £599 from Dolphin Music or Rubadub.

7. Little Boy Blue Modular Synth Its a sexy little battery-powered synth built by Jessica Rylan. $395 direct from Flower Electronics.

8. Manikin Memotron A gloriously unnecessary digital Mellotron. Possibly the most stylish synth available (all white lacquer). US: $2,699 from AH Europe: £1412 from Thomann

9. Monome 128 It's a beautiful wooden box, with 128 light-up buttons on top. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. $800, shipping from 14th Dec, Monome.org

10. Dan Armstrong Plexiglass Guitar Imagine finding that under your tree... US $1,399 from Pedal Geek UK £1069 from Dolphin Music

11. Nord Wave Huge, awesome Swedish-made megasynth with wavetables, FM and analog modelling. £1395 from Dolphin Music

David Hasslehoff vs. Boards of Canada

Just so scary!

Anchorsong gigs in London, plus the amazing Jel looking for gigs in SF

I'm not sure how Music Thing became the clearing house for incredibly talented MPC beat-makers looking for gigs, but it's no bad thing.

The video above is Jel from Anticon, who plays his MPC live, with no sequencing. His new blog speaks for itself: JEL IN BEDROOM LOOKING FOR GIGS!!.

Meanwhile, Londoners now have no excuse for not seeing Anchorsong playing live. He's playing at Jimi Mistry's Sunday afternoon session at The Brickhouse in Brick Lane this Sunday, then doing two nights with The Woodentops at the Water Rats in Kings Cross on 10/11th December.

That's it for talented MPC folks looking for gigs for a little while...

A typical Music Thing reader relaxes at home

I love love love this painting by Chris Reccardi from his show at the M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs, California. According to Boing Boing: "Chris is a veteran of the animation world, having worked on classics like The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack as a designer, writer, director, and even musician." The painting is called "How about fiddling with these knobs for a change, Aldo Cosmo?" 'Polyfonik', which features an excellent keytar, is also rich in awesomeness, and Op 2 is a rather more affordable gift for the Rickenbacker-owning bass player in your life.

Village Voice on Public Enemy, the SP 1200 and the joy of old music gear

Ben Detrick writes in the Village Voice about the 20th anniversary of the venerable SP 1200. Here's Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee: "One day I was playing 'Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos' and it came out real muffled. I couldn't hear any of the high-end part of it. I found out that if you put the phono or quarter-inch jack halfway in, it filters the high frequency. Now I just got the bass part of the sample. I was like, 'Oh, shit, this is the craziest thing on the planet!'" (Picture shows KRS-One in the PE t-shirt at the SP 1200) (Thanks, Douglas)

How much energy is your music gear using?

Inspired by this post and an enthusiasm for gadgets, I just got an Efergy electricity meter. Among other things, I can find out how much my energy my 'studio' uses.

The mains powered bits of my 'studio' consist of: 1 tower PC, 2 LCD screens, 2 external drives, Pod XT, Nord G2, MPC1000, DSI Evolver, MFB Synth II, Emu Audiodock, Dynacord VRS23 delay, Roland TR-909 (thanks, Peter), an old hifi amp and a Anglepoise lamp with a low energy bulb (ha!).

The verdict: With everything on standby, it's drawing 0.035kwh. With everything on, it's drawing .660kwh. With the gear on, but the PC (and screens) on standby it's drawing .192kwh. No wonder it gets warm in there in summer.

The average cost of residential electricity in the US was 9.86¢/kWh in 2006 - let's call it 10¢ for ease of calculation (I couldn't find a sensible average rate for the UK, but this suggests 10p/kwh isn't unreasonable). That means: Keeping everything on standby for a year = $30. Keeping everything on for a year = $578. Keeping everything on for 3 hours, five days a week = $51 (+ standby).

My observations:

1) I thought all those horrible external PSUs would mean standby costing a fortune. It doesn't, really.

2) That computer does suck a lot of power. One more reason to love hardware over software.

3) If I was really worried about standby, an Intelliplug would pay for itself in six months.
4) I wonder how much big old analog synths or valve amps draw?

5) The Fit-PC is pretty sexy (draws 5w of power, no fan, smaller than a paperback, costs £150) but I'm not sure it will play nicely with Ableton...

Radiohead's awesome headcam music video

Got to love the video for Radiohead's Jigsaw falling into place, entirely filmed with five webcams mounted on bicycle helmets. It was 'directed' by Adam Buxton from Adam & Joe: "Anyway, there I am sat in Radiohead’s kitchen thinking “I’m in Radiohead’s kitchen!” and all around me are bits and pieces that I recognise or am curious about, but I’ve go to focus on the matter at hand, which is: what are we going to shoot in the next 30 hours." (Thanks Michael)

Laptop orchestras from around the world

A selection of laptop orchestras from around the globe:

1) PLOrk: The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (video)

2) The Tokyo Laptop Orchestra (video)

3) The London College of Communications Laptop Orchestra

4) The Seattle Laptop Orchestra

5) The Toshiba-funded virtual Laptop Orchestra (video)

6) The Moscow Laptop Orchestra (video)

7) The Berlin Laptoporchester (video)

Got any more? (Thanks, Josh!)

Pixelang: Programming language for audio, video, clever people

If you're the kind of person who enjoys coding on your way to work, you might want to try Pixelang, a new Palm OS / Windows / Linux programming language for video, which now has various sound synthesis possibilities. The always-excellent Palm Sounds blog has been playing with it for a while, and one of their readers posted a interesting/irritating Pixelang demo on YouTube. In short: Try this if you find Reaktor too simple to bother with.

Japanese melody road plays tunes through your tyres

Don't be distracted by the burst of DJ Mink's 'Hey Hey, can you relate?' at the start and keep watching. If you drive at 28mph along this road in Japan, the vibrations on your tyres play music. Presumably the next step is a duophonic version (different track on each side). Alternatively, here's how to mount a melodica in your car so it's played by the slipstream... (via Gizmodo, thanks to Steve and Martin)

Anchorsong is in London, looking for gigs

Ace live MPC dude Masaaki Yoshida, AKA Anchorsong, star of the Greatest beat-making videos ever, has moved to London, found a flat, and is now looking for gigs. If you're in London and have gigs, what are you waiting for? His email address is on his site.