Nice to see enthusiasm for VU Meters and analog controls spreading to consumer goods, with this unlikely-looking Samsung TL9 camera, which has dials (more automotive than recording console, unfortunately) for battery life and memory capacity. Strange that they'd photograph the thing with a flat battery. While we're on the subject, here's a VU Meter in a Favicon. (Via Engadget)
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The world probably doesn't need any more USB audio interfaces (you could have this, this, this...) but Line 6's TonePort range sure looks nice, with a blobby black case and big VU meters. No prices yet. The software includes digital models of a range of vintage high-end studio gear, 'inspired' by the Neve 1073, API 512c Mic Pre and Avalon Vt737. Hurrah! Now studio engineers can go on forums and slag off Line 6 the way guitarists have been doing for years...
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So, yes, Messe is all over. Last year I was there, this year I was so busy and so generally uninspired with what I saw, that I'm only posting now. This is the Roland RE-20 Space Echo Pedal. I love the look (reminiscent of the Fender vs Boss mashups from Namm), although it's a shame they couldn't squeeze a VU meter in there (unlike this monster which my friend Neil just bought). Somehow, if Roland wants to pillage their past, this feels like the right way to do it. (UPDATE: They're now on sale)
Will you just look at this! 15 knobs, 16 switches, five classic fuzz circuits (including Fuzz Face, Big Muff Pi, Colorsound Tonebender), wooden panels and FIVE VU METERS! It's a thing of hideous beauty built by Dano, aka Beavis Audio Research, and there are rough instructions to build your own here. Be sure to check out the rest of the Beavis Audio site, for loads more projects, including DIY tube amps and rackmounting $10 Danelectro 'Fab' pedals.
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People talk about analogue synths all the time, but there is something spectacularly, primally analogue about eBay item #250038798544, an enormous, monolithic Otari MTR-90 24 track two inch tape recorder from 1987, complete with 24 VU meters and a beautiful NASA-style remote control unit. This one is on eBay for £2,900, which I suspect is
Yes, it looks like a photoshop prank, but this is Line6's new Toneport KB37. It's like a guitar amp designer* who'd never seen a MIDI keyboard decided to have a go anyway. It's nice that he couldn't resist throwing in some VU meters, next to those big silver amp knobs. He must have met Rick Wakeman sometime in the '70s, because there are some little Moog knobs in the middle, then maybe his son told him right at the end that keyboards have pitch/mod wheels, so he stuck them there at the back. Anyway, it's a Toneport interface, with a MIDI keyboard. No price yet, available in the autumn. Line6 have been very busy at Summer NAMM: Gearbox Plugin is a AU/VST version of the sounds from a PodXT, and the Floor Pod sounds like a cut-down PodXT Live - a little multi-effects pedal, sorry "Affordable Tone Solution".
eBay article #7379222081 is an impossibly cool Webcor Music Machine, not unreasonably billed as the first ever analogue workstation. It's a Japanese-made organ with a drum machine, built-in tape deck, mixer, VU meters, FM/AM tuner (insert geek joke about FM capabilities). Best of all, it has a microphone hidden in the tip of the aerial (like the listing says: "a super SPY accessorius") The Webcor brand has an interesting history, having been used on the first American wire recorders after WWII. This marvel has six days to go, and just $41... More pics of another Webcor at CDM, and previous keyboard hybrid delights here and here.
(Thanks, Thomas)
Will you just look at that. It's a flash recorder. It has built in stereo condenser mics. It records 24/96 wav files on 4gb internal, or memory sticks. It has analog VU meters. It runs off four AA batteries. It's made by Sony. Out of titanium. It looks like it was designed by Dieter Rams and Captain Nemo. Truly, it is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And at $2,000, it's a lot cheaper than the previous Best Thing Ever. If it was April 1st, I'd have made this up. Link to Harmony Central page. But of course, you might want to stick with your M-Audio Microtrack...
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Who in their right mind wouldn't want to buy item #7337110362 - a hand built, heavily engraved, Wiard modular system controlled with two joysticks and a VU meter? Sure, you could plug in a keyboard (it's modular, so you could probably plug in the Space Shuttle if you had enough patch leads), but isn't the dual-joystick setup so much more chic? Best of all, it's serial number 1, of a limited edition of five built in 2004. The only problem? Bidding is currently $2,100 with three days to go. (Thanks Peter)
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The product page is so badly written it's hard to know what it actually does: "a sound quality controller that filters the accurate digital signal of sound to a much more harmonic output in a classical way", but the Coolermaster
Musketeer 3 sure does look pretty, like a cheapo version of the Panasonic Tube Car Stereo.
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CASSETTE WEEK: Old 4-track portastudios are now very, very cheap on eBay, rarely selling for more than £50. Ancient 80s models are even cheaper. The Teac 144 was the first ever Portastudio, launched in 1979. It's a cool looking thing, with big analog VU meters and loads of knobs. But it is very old. The last three on eBay went for £16, £30 and £17. However, if the machine has a 'celebrity' past, it can be very different. this auction for a Portastudio owned by Martin Degville (seen here in the fur coat) from Sigue Sigue Sputnik (it "comes with a 4 track master of one of their sessions circa 1980") is currently selling for £162 - and it still hasn't beaten the reserve. I can only imagine how SSS must have sounded before Giorgio Moroder got hold of them. And yes, you read that right. £162!
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I've seen music jewellery before. Silver guitar picks, little stratocasters, perhaps a pair of saxophone earrings. But Tell Me Where On Earth has gone about a zillion steps further. They have tiny silver models of eleven different types of microphone. A Shure SM58, I can understand. Every wannabe rapper might want one, so they do it in five different finishes. But also a Shure Beta 58, which looks very, very subtly different. They even have one of those Sony C-800 valve mics that Dre uses. They have teeny-tiny VU meters, Mesa Boogie amps, a DX7, even a Roland D50. And in the picture above left? It's a kick-drum microphone. Why? Why? Why?Labels: xmas2007
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