The Korg microKEY is Korg’s solution for a midi keyboard that falls somewhere in the middle ground between small and portable and large and usable. I bought one a few weeks ago (here) and so thought I’d put a review up since I’ve had a while to test it and play with it.

The microKEY is a rather simple affair, 37 velocity sensitive mini-keys, pitch and mod wheels, and octave buttons. It transmits midi data via USB, and also acts as a USB hub to connect other devices should you find yourself running low on open ports.

Korg microKEY vs. Akai LPK25

I started looking into a new portable midi keyboard after having the Akai LPK25 for about a year. While a decent little keyboard in its own right, I found myself consistently wishing I had more keys and a pitch and mod wheel. However, I really like the portable and streamlined nature of the LPK25, so I wanted to get something along the same lines. The first thing I noticed when I got my microKEY is how much nicer the keys feel. They really have that pro feel and are much less “spongy” than the Akai LPK25. And while it may not seem huge, the one extra octave is very significant for playability. The few things that the Akai have over the Korg are the arpeggiator and sustain buttons. But the playability and pitch and mod wheels more than make up for that for me.

microKEY hardware

The Korg microKEY is very streamlined, containing just the bare essentials. No knobs, sliders, or anything else. To me, this greatly aids my creative process, as I’m not distracted by anything else. It also makes the keyboard less bulky overall, so you save on space.

The keys are micro, very similar to Korg’s other “micro” products including the microKorg XL and microSampler. While this may be a downside to some, I find the keys rather nice. They are not so tiny as to be unplayable, and the feel is great to me. It certainly feels much more “pro” than other small and cheap keyboards.

The pitch and mod wheels are both nice, but I really like the octave buttons. They light up with different colors depending on how many octaves you are from the center, with green being one octave, orange being two, red three, and blinking red four. Its a simple touch but works and looks great.

As as added bonus, the microKEY comes with two additional usb ports, acting as a USB hub for other devices. Specifically Korg would like you to use their Nano-series of controllers alongside. This seems to make sense, and while I currently don’t have any of the Nano-controllers, I can see how the setup could be very nice. It should be noted however, that the functions of the usb port on the microKEY are a bit limited. First, it only acts as a bridge. No midi data flows between these ports so you can’t use it to control other midi enabled devices from your microKEY. Second, you can only use devices that draw a minimal amount of power. So you can plug in, say, a mouse without a problem, but my Presonus Audiobox interface would not work. Its a neat little function, but I wished it was a bit more versatile.

The whole package is definitely plasticky, but feels sturdy and has a nice size and feel to it.

Software bundled with the microKEY

If you buy the Korg microKEY new, it comes with some free software instruments that you can download. You get Korg’s own M1LE, and Lounge Lizard Session. The software, if you were to buy it on its own would end up costing over $100, which is the price of the microKEY itself, so this is a really fantastic deal. The M1LE is a really nice little piece with a lot of great sounds, but I was most surprised and impressed by the Lounge Lizard Session. It is an electric piano software instrument, and it just sounds really good. It has limited controls, so don’t expect anything too deep, but the rhodes and whirly sounds are all very nice.

Korg microKEY and iPad

I’m an iPad guy, and I used my Akai LPK25 with my iPad which was nice. Unfortunately, the microKEY draws too much power, and therefore cannot be directly plugged into the USB connection kit from Apple to be used with the iPad. You can, however, use a powered USB hub, but this is a big pain in my opinion. So if you wanted to buy this to use with your iPad, I’d go with some other keyboard.

Summary:

I got mine here on Amazon for a great price plus free shipping with Prime.

For me, it is the perfect little keyboard, with just the right size, feel, and form factor. It works extremely well with Logic and Renoise, and I would definitely buy another if this one was lost or stolen. The software is the icing on the cake, and definitely worth picking up one of these new to get.

I recently came across Renoise, which is a great modern DAW/tracker application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If only I had learned about it earlier! I’ve always been a fan of tracker-style music from early videogames and chiptunes, but they have always been rather intimidating to me. I’ve tried my hand at using LSDJ for the Gameboy and SunVox, but I never could really wrap my head around the concepts of tracking or manage to spend enough time learning how to use them properly.

Well Renoise is also a tracker, but it certainly takes a more modern approach. Its much more accessible, and I kind of just dove right in. And while I’m much more accustomed to Logic now (and still quite like it) using a tracker really changes the way you look at things and go about composing. Its been really fun so far, so I thought I’d journal a bit about my exploits using it from time to time.

Even though it uses a traditional tracker style pattern editor, it comes bundled with some really nice DSP effects, and can load third part VST or AU plugins as well. The sampling and instrument creation systems are done really well, and it makes me want to make all kinds of instruments. Maybe I’ll post some for others to play with too.

So far I’ve done a few fun things with Renoise, each much easier than I thought:

1. Loaded and used all kinds of different samples and loops
2. Made my own instruments from samples (both recorded live, and from sample sets)
3. Sliced drumbeats
4. Rendered a 3rd party plugin synth to use as a Renoise instrument
5. Tracked via computer keyboard and my Korg microKey
6. Used Renoise as a ReWire slave with Logic as master.

I’m working on doing a few Christmas songs for the heck of it right now. Its fun and nice to learn the software using songs that I already know and give them that electronic feel.

Though tracker music tends to have a certain feel to me, it seems very possible to use Renoise quite flexibly for all kinds of styles. It’s not going to replace Logic for me, but using it for certain things or in conjunction with other software is very cool.

There seems to be one really big hindrance in working with the iPad as an audio editing and producing platform. Yes there are all kinds of great apps. They are cheap and some are truly amazing. But they all seem to work in isolation from each other. You may make a great sounding synth part in Animoog or Sunrizer, a cool beat in FunkBox, Modrum, or iElectribe, and maybe some vocals or guitar in Garageband, but how do you get them all together? It’s a pain to record audio directly into another DAW or recording device when the the iPad should have some kind of solution. Even with audio copy/paste, which fortunately is included on many apps now, how to you use more than two of them together? Enter Multitrack DAW (App Store Link).

One app brings together many

Multitrack DAW is relatively simple, but what it does it does extremely well. It is an overlooked app that can add quite a bit of flexibility and power to any workflow situation when one is trying to work solely on your iOS device.

Though it has “DAW” in the title, Multitrack DAW is not a workstation in the sense of Garageband, FL Studio, or Nanostudio. It does not have any instruments, beat creation or sampling tools. However, you can record into it directly by using the internal mic, an audio interface, or something like the iRig. Where it really shines though is how it works with audio copy/paste, and how you can use it like a computer based workstation to chop up, arrange, balance, and mix audio from many different apps.

edit, copy, paste, and move around regions easily

Audio import

Multitrack DAW is able to import audio in multiple ways. The first way and that which seems the most flexible in context with other apps is Audio Copy and Paste. With many apps out there that support Audio Copy and Paste, it becomes a rather simple affair to record something and paste it into Multitrack DAW. This immediately makes interaction between many apps possible, and you can utilize the strengths of certain apps with each other to make a song.

Do you like the snare sound in Modrum, but want the hi-hats from FunkBox and the 909 kick from ReBirth? No problem, just make each pattern to the same bpm, and copy and paste each one to a new track in Multitrack DAW. You can loop the patterns, move them around and snap to the grid easily.

Multitrack DAW can also import files via email, opening any audio file directly in the app. It can pull files from your iPod/music app, and you can drop files into the app using iTunes sharing while your iOS device is synced as well. This makes getting music into the app a breeze and it is one of the few apps that offer this kind of versatility.

Audio here from apps: Modrum, Sunrizer, Addictive Synth, and Meeblip recorded straight in.

Audio export

Multitrack DAW makes it easy to get your files off, with the ability to export your mixdown to email, iTunes sync, or SoundCloud. This is doubly impressive because you can mixdown your track to either an m4a, ogg, or wav. The only thing that would make this even better (though I don’t know if it is possible) is if there was an option to bounce all the files individually to iTunes sync. Then you could import them into your computer DAW to really get serious. Even still though, the export options are quite good. You can also Audio Copy individual audio tracks as well.

Multitrack DAW mixing

You can even do some simple mixing within the app, with EQ and compression per track, and a newly added FX bus with basic reverb and delay. There is also a master bus with EQ and compression. All this makes for a pretty full featured app that you can start to get really creative with.

While the basic app is only 8 tracks, you can upgrade to a total of 24 tracks which seems like quite a lot. I haven’t personally tried anything so large, but it seems like the iPad 2 might be better suited for taking care of all those audio files at once. Multitrack DAW is also universal, so you can do all the same stuff on your iPhone if you don’t have an iPad.

Nice EQ

What about the “real” iPad DAWs?

There are so-called proper DAWs on the iPad, and I think they are each quite powerful, but they are each lacking in some significant way. In a nutshell, my thoughts on each:

Garageband is easiest to get rolling with, and the only one that really supports recording vocals and guitar.

Nanostudio has the best sound design capabilities with an extensive synth editor. It is probably the most powerful of the the 3 overall, but there is still not an iPad optimized version, so you have to run it in 2x mode which is less than ideal.

FL Studio is pretty easy to use, and creating drum tracks seems the easiest with it. But sound creation is nearly non-existant, so you’re stuck with the built in sounds. Also pretty crashy for me.

None of the three support importing audio from other apps though. You can export music from them, but not really get music into them, minus some sampling type of stuff. So really, Multitrack DAW can enable you to use the best parts of all of these three together, when you couldn’t do it otherwise.

Bottom Line

Get Multitrack DAW if you want to use a bunch of your audio apps together. As long as the app can do audio copy, you can slap it into Multitrack DAW and get rolling. Easy. And hey, maybe you’ll like it so much that you’ll start grabbing audio from your computer and putting it into your iPad to play with rather than the other way around.

You can grab it on the App Store for $9.99: MultiTrack DAW

One of the music apps (of which I am obsessed with many) that I have been using the most recently and having a ton of fun with is Nanoloop. Nanoloop was originally made by Oliver Wittchow for the Gameboy (1.x) and then the Gameboy Advance (2.x) and has seen some incredible work done by chiptune composers for many years. It is the most used chiptune tracker/sequencer in addition to LSDJ for sure. I don’t have the Gameboy or Advance version, as the cartridge is hard to find and actually pretty pricey, but fortunately Oliver wrote a new version for the iPhone (and Android too) for only $2.99 which is pretty awesome.

It takes the same basic form as the Gameboy versions, with a 16 square grid making up each bar of music that can then be sequenced in the song editor. But its not just a rehash either, it is its own beast with its own sounds. He has stated that it is not meant to emulate or sound “8-bit”, but you can still get some very chiptune sounding stuff out of it if you want…or not.

Anyway, its great fun. You have 3 basic synth engines: FM, square, and noise. Then you also can upload or record samples. You have 6 instruments you can use, with up to 16 patterns for each. It seems very basic, but I’ve found it to be a fantastic constraint to creative thinking and the songwriting process. As bizarre as the whole system seems at first, I learned to use this little sequencer pretty quickly.

Here’s a couple of very basic tracks that I put together using mostly Nanoloop. I’m not the most gifted composer, and I’m still learning quite a bit, but they were fun to do.

toaster awakens (FAWM 2011 song, very basic as I learned Nanoloop)
my robot mind (50/90 2011 song)
outupin (incomplete, still needs vocals and arranging)

Check out the Nanoloop for iPhone Website.
Check out sweet 8-bit tunes.
Buy Nanoloop for the iPhone (iTunes Link).

I got my Meeblip a few months ago, but have enjoyed it so much since then that I thought I would write a little review. Now just as a disclaimer, as a reviewer I have little experience, and I’m still quite a newbie to the synth scene as well. That being said, I’ll share my experiences and impressions so far, and perhaps they will be of some help to others considering picking up (or putting together) one of these cool little guys.

Of course in an ironic twist, I finally got around to writing this just as James Grahame has announced the Meeblip SE, which is the newest version of the Meeblip, with a newly programmed chip, different overlay, added patch saving feature, redesigned board, and more. I may update my chip and use the new overlay, but for now this review and post refer to the original Meeblip, not the Meeblip SE.

I don’t remember how I first came across the Meeblip, but it was only just a few months after the synth had been released. I managed to get one of the very first versions with a 9V power adaptor vs. the usb power, which was fortunate because of a lot of issues with noisey usb power.

Anyway, there were a few things that attracted me to the Meeblip. It was new, small, cheap, and had tons of knobs. No really, having a ton of knobs to turn and fiddle with was a huge plus. I’ve been interested in audio synthesis for a long time now, but every time I’ve gone to Guitar Center or some other music store, I’ve sat down at some synth and had no idea what was going on. Great little synths like the microkorg or alesis micron always seemed like they could be so cool, but not only did I not understand synthesis and how to tweak the sound that was coming out of the synth, but I couldn’t even figure out how to get to the different parameters to tweak anything.

With the Meeblip, just about all the basic synth parameters are right there at your fingertips, ready to turn and manipulate. This was great, because I could actually hear what was happening when I turned something, and I wasn’t having to dig through menus to try something new out. So it was good for a newbie to learn a bunch of stuff. James Grahame and Peter Kirn also posted a nice little synthesis reference guide specifically for the Meeblip which was invaluable as well. It was an extremely thoughtful and beneficial addition that I am very grateful for.

The Meeblip is a quirky little machine, drawing on influences of old analog subtractive synthesis, but also implementing some newer digital choices as well. It is monophonic, has MIDI in and sound out, and that’s about it. It is small, light, and plasticky, but doesn’t necessarily feel cheap. Because it is open source, you can change it, hack it, or throw it into your own case if you’d like, which makes it very flexible as well. My version doesn’t even have a power switch (they’re adding one in the SE.) But all these limitations really seem to add to the device overall somehow. Its just great fun and I have really enjoyed using and playing with it. You can get a nice variety of sounds out of it and the layout really is a throwback to the analog synths of old, really making you want to dig in and change your sound. The fact that there are no presets or storage function (on the original) makes this point stand out even more. Maybe a downside to some, but for me this synth is more about having fun and “play.” Not that you can’t use a lot of sounds this bad boy can produce, you certainly can. You may just never be able to get the exact sound you had before twice. Kinda cool.

I’m not really going to go into any details concerning the hardware and features, as they are laid out quite clearly over on the Meeblip website.

Here’s a couple of admittedly bad sound examples. Neither really show off the Meebip, but hey, I figured I’d post them anyway. “Charles” is a cover of a song my bro wrote that I put together really fast one evening, recording the vocals on my tin can mic. The Meeblip plays throughout and has a little solo section. My release was too sharp and it needs more volume. The other example is the middle part of a song I made that has the Meeblip playing both the bassline and the lead. I’m not really happy with the bass sound that I got (I needed to spend more time on it), but I enjoyed the lead part. I’m actually adjusting the LFO rate knob as I play manually, making for some fun warbles there. Also of note is that I played the parts directly into my iPad, and the drums are with Modrum, all mixed together with Multitrack DAW.

charles
meeblip bass and lead (example)

If I can save up, I’d like to get the hacker kit for the SE sometime down the line. I feel much more comfortable with my soldering and electronics knowledge now (the Drone Lab probably helped) than when I first got my Meeblip, so I’m looking forward to making a few tweaks, and maybe installing it into another device to give it keys… (bent Casio MT-240 perhaps?)

Anyway, its an awesome little synth! I’d recommend it to other newbies like myself, and I’m sure there are plenty of synth vets out there that can find a lot to like with it as well. If you have any questions, comments, (corrections), etc, let me know!

Not too long ago, I bought the kit for the Casper Electronics Drone Lab v2. I put it together a few weeks ago and I figured it was about time that I put some thoughts up about it.

I went ahead and bought the full kit, so PCB, components, and faceplate. I thought about just buying the housing and PCB and buying my own parts separately, but in the end I’m glad that I didn’t. I would have saved a little money, but I’m not sure if I would have the thing built yet. I still have a WSG (Weird Sound Generator) PCB waiting for me to get all the parts for, and it is simpler than the Drone Lab.

After getting my kit, it actually took me awhile to muster up the courage to try and put it together. I was just scared to death that I would mess something up and have no idea how to debug it. That is certainly an area that I’m not very confident in yet when it comes to electronics. When I finally got to it, I was surprised that it wasn’t as difficult or daunting as I had expected. It was a ton of parts to be sure, and it probably took me around 7-8 hours over the course of 2 days from my first resistor to screwing in the last stand-off. But because I was careful and took my time, it came together well and worked right away! No debugging!!

Because the assembly is all directly on one huge PCB, it went pretty smoothly. Panel mounting and wiring is a mess, and still pretty tough for me, so I was glad to not have to do any of that. The construction and layout is good, but it still feels very “DIY” to me. It is not in a standard enclosure, but rather has an acrylic faceplate that is screwed over the top with standoffs. The pots and switches are soldered directly to the board, so they don’t feel as solid as pots and switches mounted traditionally. I am probably not giving it as much credit as it deserves, but I treat the whole thing very carefully for fear of breaking something. But I’m glad it is built this way. No wiring.

The basics of what the Drone Lab can do are spelled out clearly over at Casper Electronics, but summarized rundown of the machine is this: 4 individual oscillators with a coarse/fine tuning and volume control, mixed together and run through effects. And then each oscillator has a switch and rate knob for the tremolo feature as well that can be turned on and off. There is also an input so you can run other sounds through the effects and mix it with your drone.

How does it sound? In a word, awesome. The drones you can blend with this baby are so thick and wonderful. The tuning controls work great, and it is not too hard to dial in your drones by ear (as long as you’re not tone deaf.) Having volume controls on each oscillator really makes building the drone great fun. The effects are great, and really what makes the thing playable on its own in my opinion. There is enough diversity and things you can do between the filters and distortion to build a drone and morph and alter it into a whole song. Then if you want, you can add in another synth, noisemaker, guitar, or whatever straight into the Drone Lab for all kinds of cool sonic interplay. And you can do all that without even touching the tremolo, which is a very cool feature and easy to play around with and tweak to come up with some great rhythms and pulses.

I’ve recorded a couple of tracks. They are all pretty lo-fi and raw, but I think that is the nature of this little beast anyway.
drone lab v2 + moog filtatron by backward binoculars
mountainfoot; ascending by backward binoculars
simple drone and pulse by backward binoculars

As a newbie to synthesizers and electronics both, it was a super rewarding kit to put together. I don’t know if it is necessarily a good first kit, but once you have some decent soldering skills under your belt, it shouldn’t be too hard. Peter Edwards and crew really did an amazing job and I’m super happy with my Drone Lab.

Using an electret microphone powered by 3 AAA batteries. Definitely a first try prototype, but it works!!

tin can mic

I was able to sit down yesterday and put together my first attempt at a matrix mixer. It’s a pretty cool little thing that has multiple inputs and outputs, so you can run some of the outputs back to an input for a feedback loop. It is a pretty simple project, but it made me remember how much of a novice I am in all of this. I didn’t realize the amount of holes I would have to drill and was surprised at how long and tricky it was to do all the wiring. I’m sure it is something that I’ll be able to do much better in the future, but as for now it was definitely a good learning experience. The only bad part of it all is that I’m not actually sure if I wired it correctly to the schematic (found in Handmade Electronic Music) and I don’t know if it is behaving correctly. Still, it was fun and I’ll try to make another one sometime down the road.

So I recently started doing some DIY stuff with electronics and music. I’m starting out by putting together some kits from various websites and going through Nicolas Collins’ book: Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. Once I got over the initial hesitation to just try and solder, its been really fun. I still have a long way to go with soldering, but I’m going to take it slow and not try anything too big too soon. Right now I’ve made a little passive mixer, a lo-fi amp (from getlofi.com), and an Atari Punk Console (APC, kit from Synthrotek).

Here’s a video of me playing with my APC using my lo-fi amp. The Atari Punk Console is also called a “Stepped Tone Generator” and was originally introduced by a dude named Forrest M. Mims III. It’s fun.

I was playing with this free little app the other day. It has a very cool presentation with little animations and a slick looking black and white interface. It is a (very) basic 16 step polyphonic sequencer with some drums and a “random” button. Unfortunately, the free price tag means that it is very simple with little customization or tweaking that can be done. You have four different screens, each with its own drum beat and synth sound. You cannot edit or mix and match these, and the drums are either on or off. There’s not even tempo control. However, its still a worthwhile download I think. It is fun to play around with, and if you time it right you can get two going at once. Here’s a short video of me using two of them with my lo-fi amp.