Apple’s new piano app for the iPhone promises to… oh wait, pardon me? really? It’s NOT an iPhone app? It’s an actual piano?
OK, so the iPiano is Apple’s stab at an actual electronic piano. It has an LCD screen that displays your music, automatically turns the ‘pages’ for you, and has a built-in teaching system.

Maybe you have a song stuck in your head, or maybe you just like to hum songs to yourself. Thanks to MRI researchers, it’s now possible for everyone else to hear what that song in your head… well, sortof.    You could call what Dan Loyd and researchers at Trinity College have developed a media player for your brain.

I’m sure the title has got you wondering … well, the d-touch drum machine is a free piece of software that lets you make DIY beats and drum patterns using a piece of paper, a webcam, and … walnuts.
Actually, it doesn’t have to be walnuts, just about anything will do – the drum loop is controlled by arranging objects on an piece of paper. The paper is arranged in 11 rows, and works like a traditional x0x-style programming grid

My certifiable obsession for electronic music and electronic instruments in general, especially synthesizers, started in my elementary and middle school years, sometime in the 1980’s. Frequent trips to the library, an institution in which I am still indebted and have recently devoted my “career-life” to, enabled me the opportunity to browse many books on analog synthesizers and the like. Page after page and picture after picture of intriguing Buchla systems, lovely Serge modulars, and Moogs filled my mind with delight. However it was two units in particular that stuck out …

I have a box set of CD’s called “Synthesizer Hits’. It seemed like a good idea at the time to buy it (hey it was only $15 for a full box set!), and it was fun to be reminded of all those songs that I learned to play when I was in high school.
Well, James Cronin, Thomas Holden and Sam Binstead are teenagers from the UK who have put together this performance of 15 synth hits from the 80’s, all played live. Oh, the memories!

I’m a huge fan of analogue modular synthesizers. I used to have a big Moog, now I’ve got a MOTM and Doepfer modular. Other than the obvious sound generating madness, I also like how they look. Well, take a look at this more-retro-than-retro analogue sequencer.

This amazing sequencer has a huge amount of of dials and intricate brass etching throughout. Everything on the sequencer, including all of the buttons and knobs were lathed entirely by hand. It also includes a number of ‘real’ antique parts. …