Memory Madness
Posted: 16/05/08 06:58 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Last month i got a Kingston 8 GB usb stick for $30. I was amazed considering that last year I bought the 2 GB version for the same price, which I thought was a bargain at the time. Currently the price of the 8 GB stick has gone up a little bit since I purchased it from Future Shop, but regardless this is incredible how cheap flash memory is getting.
Also last month, I bought a 1 Terrabyte internal harddrive for around $220. Again, a complete shock that I could get so much data for such a low price. And it’s almost scary to think how much data someone like myself is consuming, making it nearly impossible to back everything up in the event of a disaster.
To complete the trilogy here, I also upgraded the RAM in my desktop. Trying to match the exact sticks which are already in the machine, I paid $50 for the same RAM chips which I paid $250 for last year when I originally built the PC. Amazing!
Anyways, I know this post isn’t really breaking any ground, and i’m sure many people are sort of over it that data is getting cheaper, but i’m in awe as to how much data we can buy for such a low price.
It seems like now is a great time to upgrade your memory and storage, but then again in three months everything will be double the memory for half the price of what it is today.
A Brush with Death
Posted: 13/05/08 12:03 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
It’s been an interesting project starting up a blog devoted to audio gear and the like. At first I signed up into the blogosphere since I believed that I could find a niche very easily. Then I got immersed into other blogs and started to get discouraged, thinking that every angle has been covered. I was prepared to shut the blog down and give up.
But recently I started to really understand the other blogs I was reading, and realized that sometimes a publication appears to be top-quality on the surface, and then you have that ugly epiphany that tells you something is horribly wrong here.
I think a big part of the problem is that overall, 2008 has been fairly uneventful in the tech world. We have a lot of tools at our disposal, which is fine, but we’re seeing a lot of blogs go off on to very strange tangents as a result. In my opinion, they could use this time to offer more educational information to their readers.
Disappointments abound, I decided I was on the right path and I will keep moving forward. I plan to post more frequently, as well, offer more educational articles and videos should there not be much going on in the news world.
I also plan to enlist more bloggers to write for us and really build up a nice community here. If you’re interested in contributing, please get in touch.
Stay tuned everyone!
Soniccouture releases the Scriptorium
Posted: 09/04/08 04:41 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
This is an interesting release from one of my favourite companies: Soniccouture has gone the route of releasing a script package called Scriptorium for Kontakt 2/3 rather than doing another soundware library(although there is about 300 MB of soundware in this one too).
The package includes:
- 35 Unique KSP Processors for Kontakt
- 60 Advanced Kontakt Instruments
- 4 Video Tutorials on Sound Design Using KSP Scripts
- Kontakt 2 / 3 Format
Scriptorium costs about $100 USD and is only available by download. The complete list of scripts can be found here
Korg unveils an MS-10 emulation for the Nintendo DS
Posted: 12/03/08 09:40 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Music Thing made a post today about Korg’s new DS-10 Synthesizer, being shown off at Musikmesse this week.
If they didn’t do enough with the Kaossilator already, they are just about to raise the bar once more in portable music.
It’s currently only available in Japan, but all I can say is, “Wow”.
You’ll be sure to hear more about this in the future from me.
d16 Group releases Devastor
Posted: 16/02/08 09:30 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
The innovative d16 group has released the Devastor plugin, which is derived from the distortion section in their Phoscyon 303 emulation.
In the words of the developer: “Devastor can used to distort and enhance a wide range of sounds – From full-on acid synth sounds to guitar fuzz or analogue amp with combo speaker.
It can even be used with drums to make them sound more dirty and dynamic!
Devastor isn’t just good at creating distorted monster sounds.
It can also be used subtlety to improve the timbre and character of more gentle sounds.
Reducing the preamp gain, increasing the threshold and selecting a soft-knee for the dynamics will bring out more warmth and detail in a sound without introducing distortion.”
Devastor is available for VST and AU on both the PC and Mac platforms.
It costs roughly $45 USD and there is a demo available.
Get hit with the Ricochet
Posted: 15/02/08 09:25 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Audio Damage have released the Ricochet delay plugin, which features five taps across a sixteen step grid.
This unit will surely satisfy the dub and techno crowds no doubt.
Ricochet features:
- Five independently controllable taps with individual multi-mode filter, panning, level, sync, mute, solo, and time.
- Unique dual-filter model for overall tone control.
- Two feedback modes (master and tap).
- A specially designed chorus that affects only the taps, for feedback smearing effects.
- Tempo-sync or free time operation per tap and overall.
- Full MIDI learn for CC control of every parameter (VST only)
Audio Damage, known for making some intense effects with nice GUIs have been releasing a slew of Flanger and Chorus effects lately, so a new delay is a welcome addition to their lineup.
But these folks are not new to the delay scene, their last delay is called Dr. Device and also their Replicant plugin has a sort of a delay sound to it, as well one of their first releases is called Dubstation.
Ricochet is available for the Windows and Mac platforms with AU and VST versions.
It will not work on anything below OSX 10.4.1 and costs $49.00 USD.
There is no demo available but the company offers a 30-day money back return policy if you are unsatisfied with your purchase.
M-Audio and its annoying quest for mobility
Posted: 11/02/08 11:38 AM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Near the end of 2007, M-Audio quietly added a new interface to their lineup, the Fast Track Ultra. It’s a USB 2.0 device and includes their Octane preamp technology in the four pres on the front panel. It looks good and I felt it was a clever addition to their line of mobile devices. Yes Firewire is nice, but it doesn’t have as wide support and reliability as USB does in my opinion. Then, at the Winter NAMM show, they unveiled some sort of super-interface called the ProFire 2626. It’s got eight Octane preamps, an onboard DSP Mixer and Router, can operate standalone, and has an array of features in the sync department. Overall it adds up to 26 in and 26 out, hence the title.
Read moreCareful with the Q-Tips
Posted: 06/02/08 11:32 AM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Here in Canada we have a news story that should send out a warning to people who like to jam Q-Tips up their ears really vigorously. An investigation into the death of Montrealer Daniel St-Pierre by Quebec coroner Dr. Jaques Ramsey has concluded that St-Pierre died as a result of swabbing his ear drum too hard.
I guess it’s a fair warning here because many musicians and sound engineers like to clean their ears frequently. The coroner is suggesting people use their pinky finger to clean their ears, and they want a diagram on all cotton swab boxes that warns consumers against inserting them in the ear. This comes as a big surprise to me cause growing up I thought that’s what these were made for. I’m sure they’re fine if you do a gentle cleaning but there were also warnings that they can lead to hearing loss as well.
Technical Maintenance Minute: Pro Tools
Posted: 01/02/08 06:01 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
The Technical Maintenance team over at the Late Show takes a moment to explain new upgrades to their Pro Tools rig:
Edit files in the Finder with Audioease Snapper
Posted: 28/01/08 11:19 AM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Shaping up to be one of the top audio software developers around, Audioease have now released a nifty tool for the Mac called Snapper . Here is a nice short video from the NAMM show care of SonicState:
So there you have it. This looks like it will become one of the most useful tools around. You can tell they are catering to sound effects editors more than anyone when you see the feature that drops the cut file onto the Pro Tools timeline. And notice they are giving you a 100 day demo so you can get absolutely hooked on it. Now we’d like to see something similar for the PC! As long as it’s very stable, $79 seems like a killer price for the utility you can get out of such a program.
What to look for in an equipment retailer
Posted: 27/01/08 09:13 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
After doing a bit of shopping this past holiday season, I wanted to write a bit about what to look for in a music equipment retailer. I’ve been to many stores over the past few years, spent lots of my hard earned money in them, so of course I tend to gravitate towards certain ones over others. Here are some things that i’ve observed over the years as to what makes a good spot to buy gear.
Read moreSpectrasonics reveals Omnisphere
Posted: 24/01/08 11:21 AM
By: Elliott Fienberg
After such a long time of speculation as to what their next flagship product will be, at this year’s NAMM show they revealed Omnisphere (the followup to Atmosphere). Here’s a video from SonicState featuring the company’s founder Eric Persing.
Ok so my question is what else does he have in his bag of props? And what other random combination of instrument and acoustic environments do they have in there? I think it’s great to see companies trying to do something new, and I feel that the hybrid of acoustic sampling and synthesis could lead to some interesting results, especially in the hands of these guys and their “Steam” technologies. MSRP is $499 USD and it’s not expected until September 2008. That’s right, almost another year from now.
Ugo releases Disturbance
Posted: 23/01/08 08:23 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Ugo has released a new sample chopper called Disturbance. It boasts a hefty set of features for cutting up sounds and mangling them to pure hell. The first demo song uploaded shows how nasty this thing can get. For $35 I don’t think there’s any way I can turn this offer down. Good boy Ugo – I look forward to giving this a whirl.
New offerings from Akai
Posted: 22/01/08 09:11 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
So Akai had some big announcements from this year’s namm show, most notably is the new MPC5000 and the MPD32. They also announced a new drum machine with internal sounds but we’ll leave that out in this update.
The MPC5000 is neat cause it shows that they’re willing to keep expanding on their ever so popular MPC line by adding a synth and more editing features, as well as an eight-track harddisk recorder. List is $3500 but i’ve seen $2500 reported in other places which makes no sense.
The MPD32 is interesting cause it’s acknowledging that many users are just after the MPCs for their feel and the way they sequence, so this hardware controller is offering the ability to send master clock sequences to other devices, giving the user the the freedom of the MPC without the built-in sample engine. List for this is $499 but i’ve seen reports of it going to cost $299.
I think both products are going to do well, and they’re going to be hitting both ends of the market here. The 5000 is sort of a niche market for diehard MPC users though, so I have a feeling the MPD32s are going to sell like hotcakes amongst the average consumer.
Prediction: we’re going to see a lot of mpc1000s and 2500s hit the used market. 2500 users are going to want the 5000 while many 1000 users are going to go after the MPD32.
Site updates just in time for NAMM
Posted: 17/01/08 01:11 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Well Winter NAMM 2008 is well under way and i’ve done a lot of work on the site just in time for it. This is the biggest conference of the year where manufacturers announce the latest products and the press gets a big heads up on what’s going to be released.
But more importantly it serves as a convenient tool for the manufacturers to strike deals with merchants so orders can be filled. An example is say Fender releases a new guitar, a rep from Guitar Center might come by the booth and see what’s going on, and then the two parties will have a discussion about how many units of the new model they want to order.
There’s a lot of hooplah and glitz, some hotshots might chose to endorse something or a booth might put on a bit show, but in essence it’s all about convenience having everyone in the same place and getting fresh business done after the Christmas season.
Crysonic to Release Hybrid Mastering Processor
Posted: 30/10/07 10:25 PM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Not very many details have been divulged, but in the October Crysonic newsletter sent out via email, the company mentions they are working on CryFusion which claims to be an, “amazing option to mix your tracks in a manner so natural and ‘Visual’ you will wonder why it has not been done before. Please note that this product is Hardware and Software combination involving 3D Tracking.”
I’m not really sure what this means, but I guess this interests me for sure. Crysonic have sort of taken a bit of a beating in recent years for offering plenty of thick jargon in their marketing literature, but I personally think their stuff has a really nice touch to it from what I own like SpectraLive and the others that i’ve had the chance to demo. I just can’t imagine what kind of hardware they are planning on integrating here. Well any option to help visualize your mixes would be of help to many engineers since it’s very hard to find a well treated room to work in. Visualizing the mix is just one tool to help with the frustration, enabling you to check out levels and frequencies that might be lost in your room. Typically this is useful for comparison against professionally mixed tracks.
Also of interest is their announcement of an upcoming vocoder named CryCoder which should be cool.
Welcome to The Bulk Dump
Posted: 22/10/07 04:07 AM
By: Elliott Fienberg
Hi. You might be wondering what The Bulk Dump is, and what’s in the name. Cause i’ll be the first to admit it’s a very strange title for a blog. But if you are really into synthesizers and audio technology this term shouldn’t need an explanation. So i’ll leave it at that.
The Bulk Dump is a new blog that I created to document all the information I take in each day combing the Interweb, and present you with the best modules of data that i’ve deemed important.
Who am I you ask? Well that’s not important at the moment. I’m just your Average Joe, sometimes a Doubting Thomas, but never a Practical Pete. I run another site called Mr. Tunes, and since the site serves as home base for my work, I didn’t want to pollute it with the industry news and gossip that’s laced with my patented cynical outlook. I decided to start another blog and now you’ve found it.