Create Digital Music sent me and Jeremy Dickens to the Summer North American Music Manufacturers 2010 Expo here in Nashville to help put together a few articles. While there, I got a few scoops for Theatre Intangible too. Here are my reviews of Summer NAMM 2010 as they relate to experimental music production.
TC Helicon has long made VoiceLive vocal processing rack mount effects, but here we have a unit specifically designed for live use, to be controlled by the singer. In additional to vocal effects, you can loop your voice. I’ve always been leery of vocal effects units, preferring a more dry, realistic vocal sound. But this unit seems to perform well, and the looping feature is a nice bonus.
What makes this unit interesting to me are the experimental possibilities. How do other types of instruments and field recordings sound when put through the VoiceLive Touch? Would this be a workable looping/effects unit for a circuit bending or scoop & loop setup?
In the first video, TC-Helicon rep Laura Davidson gives us a hands on look at the device. In the second video, a singer-songwriter demonstrates one of the harmonization presets.
Numark Mixtrack DJ USB Controller
Actual record dj turntables spawned cd turntables and iPhone/flashcard turntables. The Numark Mixtrack is the next logical step: usb controller turntables for the easy price of $150. All of your music is stored on your laptop computer. The turntables are simple controllers, for which you would map to your favorite audio program. That’s all well and good for disc jockeys, but what about your average experimental musician?
I’ve been perfecting a scoop and loop project that involves recording samples, uploading to a computer, burning to cd-r’s, and manipulating those cd-r’s via cd turntables. The process would be much easier if I eliminated a few steps. The Mixtrack may be my answer, although it would be nice if I could eliminate the need for a laptop completely. The class compliant usb means that I can map all the buttons to anything I desire, which could yield some off-the-map results. Imagine mapping one turntable spinner to pitch and the other to volume. Instant theramin. The possibilities are limitless. In the video, Numark rep Eric McGregor gives CDM an in-depth look.
Beat Kangz is the Nashville-based self-described, “first hip-hop electronics company in history.” As far as I can tell, they make two beat production products: the Beat Thang Virtual and the Beat Thang Beat Machine, latter being a hardware version of the former. I can’t speak to the usability of either since I haven’t had a chance to play around with them, but the design of the Beat Machine is pretty awe inspiring in all of its tricked-out glory. (See video below.) The company recorded hundreds of hours of samples to make the library of sounds. As good as they are, I would probably hit the erase button and force myself to use my own. At $1000, I probably won’t be purchasing the Beat Machine anytime soon, but I can dream, can’t I?
While on WRVU, Theatre Intangible did an improv podcast made entirely with iPhone music aps. (We’ll release that episode soon.) One of the major limitations was the fact that we couldn’t use an external controller. Akai has addressed that with this 25-key keyboard that attaches to an iPhone and let’s you control any music software. I salivate over what I can do with this and Noise.io. Price will be somewhere between $100 to $150 with a release date of sometime in July.
Electro-Harmonix Freeze
Shipping in late June, The Electro-Harmonix Freeze sample-and-hold pedal may be my favorite effect unit at Summer NAMM. The concept is deceptively simple: press down on the footswitch and the unit sustains what you just played. Let go and the sustaining stops. In the meantime, you can layer over the frozen part with additional notes. See the video below for a great demonstration. The Freeze seems perfect for experimental music and non-guitar instruments. Homebrew modifications are inevitable.
EH showed off other new products, including the Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi (so named because of its 4 germanium transistors), the Neo Clone (smaller version of the Small Clone), and tiny Headphone Amp. In the video below, Larry with EH gave CDM a demonstration of these effects as well as the Ring-Thing Ring Modulator. The unique thing about the Ring-Thing is that you can tune it from an incoming signal and avoid the unwieldy dissonance that come from most ring mods. Of course, unwieldy dissonance is a ring mod’s main charm. But should you want it more musical, you have that option.
Pigtronix Keymaster
Guitar-pedal bad-boys Pigtronix debuted an innovate universal signal router at Summer NAMM called the Keymaster Re-Amp Effects Mixer. Unlike most loopers, the Keymaster has a plethora of input/output options, including xlr and 1/4” in/outs and two pedal-level effects loops. You can run the loops in series or parallel with the option to mix the two loops in parallel mode. The beauty of this pedal is the limitless ways you can use it. Power two amps at once, instantly switch between two amps on the fly, switch between two effects chains, blend two effects chains, put two instruments in the two return jacks and mix them together to a single amp, and any routing you can dream up.
In the video below, Pigtronix founder Dave Koltai gives Theatre Intangible & Create Digital Music an in-depth tour of the Keymaster. The second video shows Dave Koltai sampling a variety of Pigtronix’s other innovated pedals, including the Mothership Analog Synthesizer, Philosopher King polyphonic amplitude synthesizer, EP2 Envelop Phaser, and the Echolocution. Great sounds!
One product that I somehow overlooked but discovered after the show is the IK Multimedia iRig, an input/output hardware device for the iPhone. The company designed it for use with their Amplitube amp-modeling iPhone software. You plug your 1/4″ guitar cable into the input and your headphones into the output. The sound quality of said software is . . . if I may use an industry term . . . ass. What I find exciting is the possibility of using the iRig as an effects loop for iPhone software such as RjDj. I’ve long thought about taking a pair of iPhone earbuds and turning them into an iPhone in/out, but I’ve been too lazy. The iRig seems to be the very product I need. Has anyone used it for programs other than Amplitube?
Thus ends my Theatre Intangible NAMM showcase. For more coverage, check out the Create Digital Music article.
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