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links? what toys don't work with the iPad air?

The very first one I randomly chose:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com...

Yup, buy the kit and do it yourself. They made them for drummers, originally: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/search.jsp?sB=r&Ntt=buttkicker

There are now commercial "gaming chairs" with built-in subwoofers too, but I bet you the Buttkickers work better: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/game-room-bar-furniture/gaming-chairs/abcat0106021.c?id=abcat0106021

Not knowing the details of your video conferencing set-up, the very first thing that comes to mind is buying a USB-powered microphone (like one of these) and running Audacity or other recording software on a PC, which could save to a file on the network. However, I'd probably also take a good look at recording through the video conferencing equipment itself -- I'd imagine that it could do this natively.

I generally agree with you. My advice (as a musician) is to consider visiting a Guitar Center or Sam Ash and checking out the "pro-audio" headphones in their Recording section. The Sam Ash near me probably has around 30 to 40 different headphones that you can try on and listen to (they're all receiving the same music, so you really get to try them out). It's really great for contrasting and comparing. As you can see here , there are plenty to choose from in the $50 range.

Just to throw in my 2 cents, if you're willing to shell out $50 more these KRK headphones are fantastic. I use them in my home studio all the time. They're very comfortable and I find their response to be pretty impressive. I find them adequate for composing everything from orchestral scores to the craziest dub-step mashups you can find, so I think you'd be pretty happy with them.

I generally agree with you. My advice (as a musician) is to consider visiting a Guitar Center or Sam Ash and checking out the "pro-audio" headphones in their Recording section. The Sam Ash near me probably has around 30 to 40 different headphones that you can try on and listen to (they're all receiving the same music, so you really get to try them out). It's really great for contrasting and comparing. As you can see here , there are plenty to choose from in the $50 range.

Just to throw in my 2 cents, if you're willing to shell out $50 more these KRK headphones are fantastic. I use them in my home studio all the time. They're very comfortable and I find their response to be pretty impressive. I find them adequate for composing everything from orchestral scores to the craziest dub-step mashups you can find, so I think you'd be pretty happy with them.

Thermal imaging is probably a bit beyond your average hobbyist's means, yes. However, in the optical spectrum, a GoPro Hero HD provides much better resolution and clarity than anything small enough to fly on a drone that was available back in the '80s. As far as pulling audio through a wall...I've got a fairly low end studio condenser microphone that is amazingly sensitive. The size, weight and power requirements of my mic would certainly set a lower bound on the size of the drone you could use, but those aren't insurmountable problems, especially since there are smaller, lighter mics available for a little more money. There are even condensers that run on USB power. A mic like mine may not be quite sensitive enough to be able to listen through walls (then again, it might...I've never tried), but you could certainly eavesdrop on conversations outside or through an open window, especially if you were to mount the mic in a parabolic reflector to make it more directional.

Audio recording control surfaces already have the tactiles that you would want. All you would really need to do is to subvert its core purpose to your needs. This is a somewhat pricey but very popular device: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/mackie-control-universal-pro

I will go one step further and recommend the submitter visit Musician's Friend or Sweetwater Sound and check out any of a number of MIDI control surfaces. I am happy a few people have had good luck with Behringer gear, but based on my own experience I refuse to let another piece of it in my home. I can't speak regarding their MIDI gear, but their mixing/recording gear *sucks* - they can't design proper power supplies to save their lives, and in general their gear is designed with low cost as THE primary driving factor and IMO it can sometimes be a fire hazard. It's great fun when you fire up a mixer and smoke rolls out of the power supply, and then you open it up and find that the voltage regulators they used in the supply were rated for about half the current they needed to handle. I bought a Behringer patch bay thinking, "there's no way they could screw THAT up". I was wrong. Plastic parts where metal was needed, and low quality 1/4" jacks throughout.

I'd go with a more upscale manufacturer such as Korg, Yamaha, Roland, etc., or if it has to be low-cost, M-audio is not too bad.

I just spent $2150 for nothing...

Only $2150.00 to do it yourself.

... I'll just ask the audiophile if they know what kind of cables the recording studios uses for their mics. Like this one...

Try this one instead. Not all audio equipment gets better with price, but I have yet to see a low end turntable that worked worth its weight in lead. Also, make sure you get a good stylus. The ones that come with the players are usually pretty bad (the one with this table is okay, but if your records are in bad shape I recommend getting one by audio technica - they have been making them for a long time and it will help avoid skipping).

I use this thing, it works well for recording electric guitar http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/-LightSnake-GuitarKeyboard-USB-10ft-Cable?sku=332600

There are a ton of USB, Firewire and PCI audio interfaces on the market that do what you ask. You just have to move a little bit beyond consumer electronics stores such as BestBuy:

Bhahahah. Are you serious? For guitar amps, OK. For anything else? They're more useful as hammers than as microphones...

Serious mics start somewhere around here: http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/R0DE-NT2A-LargeCapsule-Studio-Condenser-Microphone?sku=271597

Sounds pretty good on guitars, as a secondary bass drum mic, and on vocals. But don't forget, this is pretty much entry level...

...you will be paying $6000 for an entry level Shure or Newmann, if sound quality is valued.

Ahem. Please to observe the industry-standard Shure SM58, used in studios and stages around the nation and around the world... $99.

I recommend you invest in one of these. You need to plug your amp in anyway, so it's not like you'll ever need to use the pedals somewhere you don't have power. You'll also never have to deal with changing batteries mid-session.

Also, for the record, the Guitar Hero guitars use AAs.

Build one:
Rackmount UPS
Shallow musician-style rack case
Shallow rackmount server case
Rackmount AC
Plus server components.

These are all just random 1st finds in each category so I have no idea if they're compatible, but assuming compatible variants of each part work, it seems feasible:
- Server is to whatever specs you want
- Assuming the A/C technology is decent (never heard of the company before) it should be enough for at least a single server & UPS
- Might need some kind of de-humidifier?
- Reasonably portable. By vehicle at least, since I'm assuming you're not lugging this thing by hand through the jungle

Not necessarily.
A lot of amps these days use DSPs to emulate the sound of famous tube amps of days gone by.

For about $5,000 you can buy a complete set of recording equipment - the necessary laptop, software, mics, etc. to go with your instruments. If you want to do it on the cheap, well... that's why recording studios exist.

5 Grand isn't needed. Using a laptop, free software (Ubuntu Studio) an inexpensive interface, small mixer, & mics can be done for about half that. It works fine for the band I record. Many small bands already have most of the supplies already such as a laptop, mixer and microphones. If these already exist, then free software and an under $300 interface will work nicely.

Cheap is the under $30 Berhinger which does CD or DAT sample rates and bits. In Linux Ubuntu Studio it it truly plug an play as a USB input/output device. Open Audacity and select the USB audio for the source and hit record.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHUCA202

Don't record off a Sound Blaster compatible card except for maybe webcasts and other lower quality work. The hardware has a fixed bitrate, regardless of what you set in software.

The next step up in hardware will give you 96K 24 bit recordings.

Many studios are finding competion from the inexpensive gear that just works.

My setup excluding the already purchased computer cost under $500 for the mixer, a couple mics, and the interface. I have the ability to record 4 tracks at once and and layer over 30 tracks for post processing and adding wet tracks.

A typical session is recording the 4 drun tracks to a click track which are then played back while recording the back-up vocals, bass, keyboard and lead guitar. These are synced (remove latency) and then the lead vocal is recorded while the prior 8 tracks are played back. This is followed with adding wet tracks with EQ, effects, delay, reverb, etc. prior to the final mixdown for the CD.
Under $200 4 channel interface able to do 96K 24 bit recording is here;
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&m=Y&IC=PRI1394&A=RetrieveSku&Q=

For a little more money, recording 8 tracks at once is the studio standard for PC based recording studios, but mics, mixer, and interface will run over $500 for that set-up.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Echo-AudioFire8-8-Channel-FireWire-Audio-Interface?sku=247003

The cost of the set-up is less than a typical studio session. This recording in your own studio is common now that the high cost has been eliminated.

ELEVEN?!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/DiMarzio-Bell-Replacement-Knob-111?sku=424664

I used to be able to get knobs that went to 12...

Maybe not at the consumer level, but there are plenty of Firewire at the amateur/semi-pro musician level. Check out http://www.musiciansfriend.com/, http://www.zzounds.com/ and http://www.sweetwater.com/ for examples.

What I find interesting is the contrast between your linux story and the rest of the "OMG, linux doesn't work on the desktop!" posts here. You're using linux for a pretty specialized task, that 99% of linux users will never use it for, and it works.

My laptop an ex-Windows 2K machine and my Win 98SE dual boot machines are traditional desktop configured. For the most part, they are plug and play. When I built the Core 2 Duo tm machine, I could have simply used it to replace the older machine, but for web surfing, typing documents and playing the extensive list of included games (vs the short MS included list of cards and minesweeper) the older hardware is just fine. Hardware compatibility was almost non-existant. I have an HP scanner that SANE didn't recognise, but a trip to Goodwill replaced it with a nice Cannon LED model for about $10. I knew to avoid Winmodems and multi-function printers, so these were never an issue. The flatbed scanner and my HP inkjet and laserjet worked out of the box. They are on stand alone printservers and do a fantastic job for my entire network. Only the Vista laptop had trouble connecting to the printers. The new network authentication standard as default in Vista is problematic in existing home LAN's. The MS solution is of course to upgrade your entire lan and toss the working hardware.

I wanted to get into hard disk recording, so I decided to try the free offerings. If they didn't work, I could drop a half grand or more in software. Fortunately, the free stuff works quite well. Ubuntu Studio using a low latency kernal and the AISO interface makes it easy to do multi-track recording in real time. Putting down a drum track and playing it back to add the lead and bass guitar is easy. (play and record at the same time with little delay) Then the 4 tracks can be again played back and the lead and backup vocals can be laid down. In post production a little reverb can be added to the backup vocal track as a new track, so if you don't like it, you can redo, adjust tweak, eq and such till it is just right. Normally this ability is a several grand expense. I use a small under $300 mixer with some good mics, the under $50 A/D Behringer U-Control for the hardware and free software. Other than the price of a good PC which can be dual booted if desired, the studio solution including the mixer, mics, and A/D converter for cutting demo CD's was under $500. Home recording doesn't have to be expensive even when the result sounds like it. The plug it in and it works is more the norm than the exception. The stuff that is hard to make work gets lots of attention and is often a well known issue.

Example hardware is here.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-UCONTROL-UCA202-USBAudio-Interface?sku=702540

http://www.americanmusical.com/item.aspx?i=YAM%20MG124C&src=D0407FG0HAMS0000YAM%20MG124C&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=feed&

http://www.zzounds.com/item--SHUPG48

Wouldn't one or two transformers with several standardized DC-out jacks be at least as efficient than 6 separate transformers? It sure would save plastic casing and cables and a lot of frustration on my part.

The short answer is yes. The music industry has already taken that path. The computer industry is kind of taking that path by combining a router with a network switch with a cable/DSL modem.

The music industry has powered backplanes for guitar stompboxes which tosses out the tangle of wall warts.

Here is an example. A pedal board with 8 DC jacks for effects boxes.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/SKB-PS45-Professional-Pedalboard?sku=544735

and an example of modem combined with switch, router and wireless;
http://www.superwarehouse.com/D-Link_Wireless_G_ADSL_Router_Modem/DSL-G604T/p/1488204

For some reason, a lot of PC manufacturers don't give the consumer an option for a pre-loaded OS.

This is true. In the past (DOS days) people would ask me regarding computer purchase selections. What I said then is just as true today. Find out what programs you need to run and then find the hardware which is capabile of running it.

Many people wanting to do multimedia, photography, video production, etc are needing something with realtime hardware support. Those people are moving to hardware and OS that support the required applications. Vista is not a real time OS and is unsuitable for many capture devices. Alternatives to fill the gap often include Apple and some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu Studio.

Nothing kills a live session more than a request for an Adobe PDF viewer update request in the middle of a session. I got this one during a live presentation while playing a DVD. The DVD on the projector simply stopped. Going to the laptop, we discovered that despite the fact were in the field with no internet connection, Adobe needed our permission to get an update. The fact a PDF viewer has permission to stop the show by having Windows Vista stop it to ask permission for an update without a net connection convinced me that Vista is unsuitable for presentation and digital audio workstation applications.

My Digital Audio Workstation is now Ubuntu Studio based with low latency and no interruptions of a live recording session. Some people prefer an Apple soulution.

Audacity is OSS and cross platform. It works fine on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Many capture devices have serious latency and breakup problems in Vista. Audacity works in Vista, but capturing sound should be done on another platform.

Many popular USB capture devices simply are not supported on Vista because of the non-real time nature of the OS. Here are a few popular interfaces without Vista support;
Roland http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=743&ParentId=114
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-101/specs.html
Beringer http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pdf/man/m_702540.pdf

I found some of the Yamaha mixers with built-in USB interfaces list Vista, but the manual was quick to point out problems are caused if it has too little memory, has a slower processor, or several other items that can cause problems with multi-track recordings.

For real-time capture, I prefer to use a hardware priority OS. I have used this instead of Vista for Digital Music Studio work.
http://ubuntustudio.org/

has only recently been virtually unavailable

MD isn't unavailable, virtually or actually. You can still buy new recorders and players as of right now, July '07. For instance Musician's Friend, Crutchfield, 42nd street photo, and so on. Would you want to? That's a different question. Personally, I think Sony is beating a very dead horse here.

The big hurdle I think with Linux music is - well, you guessed it - drivers. Most pro-quality PCI sound cards work easy, I'll give it that, but the USB2.0 (note the 2.0) and Firewire interfaces, not so much... yet.

This is an issue with laptop users who want their DAWs mobile. Right now there isn't that much choice in external interface products. Sure you can get ALSA-supported firewire audio interfaces, but chances are, they're one of the high end models (expensive).

USB1.1 device support is easier, but expect large latencies recording two tracks at a time. The E-MU 0404 USB2.0 interface is perfect for the amateur musician, and if only it opens itself up for Linux devs to write drivers for. (Dammit, Creative!)

I am too. I said society should bear the cost. Not the government. I meant to imply that perhaps the charging for recordings of live or studio entertainment isn't something we should support as a business model; this disenfranchises the entrenched interests such as the RIAA, but I believe their window has closed in any case, and the current copyright model is just beating a dead horse. Anyone can put a studio together in their basement.

Believe me, I know; I am a musician and I own a music studio, less than ten year old equipment and infrastructure capitalization at well over two million dollars, and I have astoundingly good equipment at home that didn't even run $2500.00; You can put the essence of 24-track recording on your desktop for under a grand by tomorrow. Just go to Musician's Friend or American Musical Supply and take a look at the Korg, Tascam and Yamaha recording products.

This means that the only remaining scarcity resides in performance. If a band chooses to perform in the studio, they are essentially giving away that performance. Not by law, not by intent, but nonetheless, in fact, they are. This was an inherent problem for recorded entertainment when studios cost what mine did, but those times are gone. Now the problem, if you can call it that, is that the niche the middlemen carved out - recording, mastering, replication - has closed just as surely as the niche for the horse carriage vanished with the advent of cars.

The implications for the film industry are quite serious; it may not survive in the form we know it today. Perhaps advertiser sponsoring via a television-like medium is all that is practical now.

But the Line 6 Pod's are pretty popular. The Line 6 PODXT Live Pedal (as seen here: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar/navigation?N =100001+304280 ), is the best selling Guitar Pedal and second best selling Guitar item on Musicians Friend, which is the largest and most popular online store for musical instruments and related gear.

I'll defer the Skype aspects of the question to the Skype-knowledgeable.

It is a smart idea to run recordings through something that gives good signal strength. (I'm sure your headset is great for real-time listenting, but voice mics are significantly better at recording good sound and ignoring noise.) If possible, using a true voice microphone (like a Shure SM58 (industry standard), or the Nady CM-100 (excellent value for the price))) will genuinely and dramatically improve the sound of voice. Also, using a microphone pre-amp will actually let you have more flexibility of tone and sound warmth. (I'm not associated with, nor do I have ties with Musician's Friend. I'm just using their links because they have good write-ups, good pictures, and the clientele usually writes good reviews. I also am not an affiliate.)

If you have recordings that have ambient noise, this is caused by a myriad of things. One of these is device self-noise, another is room noise, and another is microphonics, and another is line/proximity noise. If you spend a few minutes reading about these things, and get familiar with noise factors, your recording capability will improve dramatically - even with a small investment of time.

An excellent and easy-to-use sound cleaning (post-production) tool to remove tons of noises from your vocal recordings is Sound Soap. I can't begin to sing enough praises to this software for audio clean up. It has drastically improved many impromptu, non-studio recordings. The basic version of SoundSoap is great for the budget-minded or for the person who doesn't want to have huge, variable control of channels and frequencies for noise reduction (means: it's a great easy-button solution). The more advanced SoundSoap and suite is good for professional applications.

I'll defer the Skype aspects of the question to the Skype-knowledgeable.

It is a smart idea to run recordings through something that gives good signal strength. (I'm sure your headset is great for real-time listenting, but voice mics are significantly better at recording good sound and ignoring noise.) If possible, using a true voice microphone (like a Shure SM58 (industry standard), or the Nady CM-100 (excellent value for the price))) will genuinely and dramatically improve the sound of voice. Also, using a microphone pre-amp will actually let you have more flexibility of tone and sound warmth. (I'm not associated with, nor do I have ties with Musician's Friend. I'm just using their links because they have good write-ups, good pictures, and the clientele usually writes good reviews. I also am not an affiliate.)

If you have recordings that have ambient noise, this is caused by a myriad of things. One of these is device self-noise, another is room noise, and another is microphonics, and another is line/proximity noise. If you spend a few minutes reading about these things, and get familiar with noise factors, your recording capability will improve dramatically - even with a small investment of time.

An excellent and easy-to-use sound cleaning (post-production) tool to remove tons of noises from your vocal recordings is Sound Soap. I can't begin to sing enough praises to this software for audio clean up. It has drastically improved many impromptu, non-studio recordings. The basic version of SoundSoap is great for the budget-minded or for the person who doesn't want to have huge, variable control of channels and frequencies for noise reduction (means: it's a great easy-button solution). The more advanced SoundSoap and suite is good for professional applications.

I'll defer the Skype aspects of the question to the Skype-knowledgeable.

It is a smart idea to run recordings through something that gives good signal strength. (I'm sure your headset is great for real-time listenting, but voice mics are significantly better at recording good sound and ignoring noise.) If possible, using a true voice microphone (like a Shure SM58 (industry standard), or the Nady CM-100 (excellent value for the price))) will genuinely and dramatically improve the sound of voice. Also, using a microphone pre-amp will actually let you have more flexibility of tone and sound warmth. (I'm not associated with, nor do I have ties with Musician's Friend. I'm just using their links because they have good write-ups, good pictures, and the clientele usually writes good reviews. I also am not an affiliate.)

If you have recordings that have ambient noise, this is caused by a myriad of things. One of these is device self-noise, another is room noise, and another is microphonics, and another is line/proximity noise. If you spend a few minutes reading about these things, and get familiar with noise factors, your recording capability will improve dramatically - even with a small investment of time.

An excellent and easy-to-use sound cleaning (post-production) tool to remove tons of noises from your vocal recordings is Sound Soap. I can't begin to sing enough praises to this software for audio clean up. It has drastically improved many impromptu, non-studio recordings. The basic version of SoundSoap is great for the budget-minded or for the person who doesn't want to have huge, variable control of channels and frequencies for noise reduction (means: it's a great easy-button solution). The more advanced SoundSoap and suite is good for professional applications.

Besides, my local Guitar Center (same store, different name) requires me to give my address and phone if I want to use my debit card (for "security reasons"... yeah, right).

I also don't know how Linux compatible it is. It ships with a free copy of Audacity... A bit redundant, since Audacity's free software anyway.

Ah, well... I guess I'll have to borrow a friend's turntable and go direct to my audio card.

MOTU does indeed make interfaces that do just what you ask: LOTS of inputs, no required card, a pure A/D converter with niceties like built-in mixer and bundled software. However, their products are on the expensive side. MOTU 828mkII: $749 on Musician's friend PreSonus manufactures a competetive product (8 mic pre's, bundled Cubase LE, good support) called the FirePod ($599 on MF) that i've really heard great things about. I've been experimenting with digital multitracking as well, and the small two or four channel boxes are not going to cut it when you need to track the full band, or more. As with everything in the audio world, the more you pay, usually the better/more-featured product you will get. Good luck.

It does exist! I have it.
It only shipped with one Keyboard Model though. The Yamaha EZ250i USB keyboard.
It emulates the MIDI ports, so not quite as good as a real MIDI keyboard, but at least you can play the game. :)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Keyboards/M idi/Portable/Arrangers?sku=707430

First and foremost, it is a game controller, not a gig guitar... so I think it is important to separate two different "threads" of thought here...

As a guitar, well, it's not like a real guitar. That's OK, because if you'd like to learn guitar, you can get yourself an inexpensive set up like this or this, or for left-handed folks, this. I don't think comparing the controller to a real guitar or learning to a real guitar is relevant. Not everyone that has dreams of wailin' on a guitar or spankin' the plank with some down-home (your favorite kind of music here), but lots of folks would enjoy the fun of playing guitar without the trappings of learning two hands, many strings, and 18-24 frets.

Games are supposed to be entertaining - I don't think that the comparison to real-world instruments is relevant (beyond their entertainment value).

So far as the hack... It seems pretty neat to me. Doing hardware hacks is a lot like candy - it doesn't have to have a point - it's just fun.

First and foremost, it is a game controller, not a gig guitar... so I think it is important to separate two different "threads" of thought here...

As a guitar, well, it's not like a real guitar. That's OK, because if you'd like to learn guitar, you can get yourself an inexpensive set up like this or this, or for left-handed folks, this. I don't think comparing the controller to a real guitar or learning to a real guitar is relevant. Not everyone that has dreams of wailin' on a guitar or spankin' the plank with some down-home (your favorite kind of music here), but lots of folks would enjoy the fun of playing guitar without the trappings of learning two hands, many strings, and 18-24 frets.

Games are supposed to be entertaining - I don't think that the comparison to real-world instruments is relevant (beyond their entertainment value).

So far as the hack... It seems pretty neat to me. Doing hardware hacks is a lot like candy - it doesn't have to have a point - it's just fun.

Same for the pair of Sony MDR-7506 I got. They are durable, have the threaded 1/4" adapter, are collapsible, and have a convient storage bag. When I went to Musician's Friend to get a pair I brought a recording of some Rimsky-Korsakov since it is generally demanding on the playback medium for audio range and fidelity. These were better quality than almost every other pair in the store for response, range, and clarity. They don't leak much even at moderate listening volume since they are over-the-ear rather than on-top-of-the-ear phones but also allow reasonable hearing of external events. A lot of earphones I've used will start to hurt your ears over extended listening from constant pressure on the pina. These are much more comfortable. So, in short, the parent commentor is wise to reccommend earphones designed for people who must wear them professionally everyday.

What you want is a video mixer, like you might find at a TV station. Problem is, they're not cheap.

here's a 4 channel for about 1100$ US. And 8 channels for 2600$ US.
I don't know anything about this model, or really anything else. I suspect if you find something that does what you want, it will be far outside your budget.

MOTU, M-Audio, Digidesign, and many other companies make audio interfaces capable of 24 bit 96 Khz audio encoding and decoding, which is well above the 16 bit 44.1 Khz that CDs use. Any of them should do.

Exactly.
Want good sound....buy pro gear.

Consumer stuff you get at Best Buy is crap made for people who don't know what they're buying and "audiophile" stuff is snake oil. Pro audio gear from a respectable manufacturer (Mackie for example) will be much better and actually includes enough specs so that you can make informed buying desisions.

The nice thing is that pro gear really isn't that expensive any more. Sites like Musician's Friend give you a place to by gear that will might just last the rest of your life at very low prices.

Pro gear has better interfaces, better connectors, more honest specs, higher reliability and is targeted at people who have actual money riding on their audio system.

http://www.zzounds.com/cat--PCI-Audio-Interfaces-- 2421

or

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/s=comput er/search?c=9132

Choices galore.

Basically, the Keyboard People are fucked.

Strike that. They are FUCKED.

Why? As one poster noted above: Software.

Software synthesis already outstrips most anything you can do in a keyboard, and at a much lower cost.

Exhibit A:

REASON

I remember back i nthe ancient 1980s, when a cheezy ass sampler (by todays standards) cost $2000+. In Reason, which costs about $400, you can fill an entire virtual rack with samplers far in excess of what availed then. you want 11 samplers stacked? If you had $25,000 - SURE. In Reason, when you're done, you simply open up a new blank Rack, and fill it with more/other goodies from the drop down menu. Back then, you'd have to sell all those samplers...

It comes with drum machines, samplers, processors, mixers, synthesizers of several different stripes, and on and on.

Second Exhibit: ABLETON LIVE

This, in combination with Reason, offers truly terrifying amounts of musical development and creativity. Recently, Live was upgraded to include MIDI, and a basic drum machine, so now it is even more deadly as a combo with Reason. Live is a Loop based compositional system, but with its new MIDI capabilities, it is now a much more powerful beast. It costs about $350, IIRC.

Exhibit Three: Max/MSP

This, in combination with Live and Reason, makes ANYTHING coming out of Korg pretty much superfluous. With Live and Reason, you have composition systems and tonnes of "Gear". With Max/MSP you make your own gear, and it can be just as weird as you want it to be. Max/MSP isn't a synth, it's a software development environment that resembles an evil cross between Visual Basic and tinkertoys. It's available on Mac and (finally) Windows, and it totally fuckin' rocks. If you wondered how freeks like Autechre makes all that jiggety noise, look no further than:
Max/MSP.

so, lets run some totals:

My guess is the Oasys will likely come in around at a $2500 price point.

I often shop at Musicians Friend so my prices are from there as of today, Jan 20th. They aren't the best, or the worst. It's just a data point.

Reason: on sale: $199
Ableton Live: $399
Max/MSP with Jitter (video libraries): $799
Edirol PCRA-30 keyboard with Audio In: $299

And a computer I found at PC MALL - an IBM Thinkpad:

Intel P4, 2.8GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 40GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD Combo drive,15" XGA Display, XP-Pro, etc.

Which has PLENTY of power for audio. and it's on sale for $1,198.

So, throw in another hundred bucks for a kbd stand and what not and the total is around:

$2900

Which is probably a bit more than the OASYS will sell for. Since Max/MSP is for Advanced User GEEKS, and Jitter is even geekier, cut the $799 out and you have an entire electronic music studio that KICKS ASS for about $2200.

...for a system that will totally thrash the OASYS up and down the street. Cheerfully.

Now: will your system CRASH? Yes. Will the OASYS? Probably not. If you're worried about that, then get a Powerbook or a Linux Book or whatever-the-fuck-book that flips your crank. They don't Blue Screen as much as Windoze box, but there are other issues involved. All in all, unless you're planning to spend a lot of time on stage, you're better off with the compter based system.

In a few years you will have run through most of what the OASYS does. In a few years... I *shudder* to think what Reason and Live will be like...

Basically Hardware Synth manufactueres are doomed. The only ones who will survive are the ones making the uber-geek analogue gear, and they will basically be little more than boutique operations for purists.

RS

You mean like this? http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=key/s=midi/s earch/bigpid/base_id/110272/

Yes, it does sound like a commericial - misinforming and misleading.

First of all the MBox does 2 channels of recording. Something that can be had for products in the $150-$200 range. Take this for example Behringer BCA2000 has more features. Plus, those boxes have MIDI interfaces which the MBox does not.

They have been advertising the shit of it. Somehow somewhere someone managed to put Pro Tools as a magical word. It's all hype. Cheaper systems and software can be as much nowadays.

Personally, I think it's overpriced and overhyped - hmm, perfectly fits in the Mac user's world.

Yeah. MIDI controllers with many knobs is wonderful in music software. I used to have one of the MiniKORG controllers like the author has in the background of his project images.

What I'd like to do is figure out how to get one of these puppies set up to control various aspects things in Xwindows. Alternate mouse buttons, alt, ctrl keys, launch apps or scripts.. mmmmm.

There's a broad selection of musician's earplugs that preserve a select set of frequencies to aid in pitch transmission, while blocking the majority of the energy in the soundwaves.

I always keep a pair of regular hearos with me - you never know when you'll need em (for example, you end up having to spend more than a few hours servicing equipment in a noisy server room, you want to catch a nap and want to block out noise, you decide to take a trip out to the range and need hearing protection.)

Fostex MR-8

I got one for the same reason. It's very lovely, very feature rich, and still pretty simple to use. The only downside is the size (compared to an iPod). It's the same size as a 12" laptop, but thicker. With the manufacturer bag, it's easily portable (with mic, cable, and AC power supply). Of course it also runs on AA batteries, but it's hungry.

I first tried the iPod with the iTalk, but it couldn't auto-adjust the recording level quickly enough to keep from clipping horribly (a nasty digital trash clip) from piano and higher pitch voice.

Musician's Friend sells it for a good price, and they also sell some kits that include it, a mic, balanced cable, headphones, and other accessories. Just make sure you buy a Fostex certified memory card if you want to upgrade beyond the card they provide. It needs good, fast cards to do multi-track work.

You can even plug it into your monitor out and record crap at your shows. Korg Pandora PX-4: 299

The electric guitar should be there. Most electric guitar pickups do not receive acoustic vibrations to be sent to an amplifier. They receive electromagnetic vibrations from the strings. The sound is produced mechanically, but is not captured through a microphone. Some microphonic pickups do exist, but aren't as common.

There should at least be mention of the MIDI Guitar (Did it exist in their time frame?). It allows your guitar to sound like one of your many MIDI instruments...

MIDI Guitar

I recall Fender producing MIDI guitars. I couldn't seem to find them on their website.

It's because your favorite musician is probably using this effect.

Especially if your favorite musician is this guy.