Comments on: Reader Reviews Roland Handsonic HPD-10 Hand Percussion Controller; Tokyo Festival Report

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:12:10 +0000

My opinion of the Xaphoon is just spend the money and time learning to play a real instrument that can sounds like something you’d want to listen to rather than a sax mouthpiece tied to an exhaust pipe (with vibrato of course). Still I guess there’s no law about parting fools and their money in retail so it’s a great marketing strategy if you can get away with it.

Andy

By: richardn

richardn — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:39:47 +0000

am I the only one that thinks these turntables are “backwards”?

By: MetroSonus

MetroSonus — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 12:22:29 +0000

Does that mean alesis is maybe stopping the production of the ION? There were some rumors earlier this year that they were going to.

By: kokorozashi

kokorozashi — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 07:31:50 +0000

Sort of. Wikipedia says the xaphoon is similar to something called the chalumeau, which was the predecessor to the clarinet. If the xaphoon guy’s story is true, and Wikipedia can be trusted, he essentially re-invented this beast.

Please don’t imagine I have any idea what I’m talking about, and especially please don’t imagine I’m trying to be an authority on music history.

I’ve merely been enchanted by this thing and I’m finding out as much as I can about it at a time of day when I can’t trundle off to my local music shop and have a listen in person. (Yes, one of the few which carries the thing is down the street from me.)

My chief concern at this point is that it sounds a bit drifty. I’m spolied by digital perfection. Maybe I should just get a keytar … not.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 07:17:22 +0000

Yes, the bamboo instruments are really quite beautiful. I remember now a reed player who must have been playing one of these — about the right size and sound. It’s nice to think that acoustic instrumental innovations continue alongside the digital ones.

By: kokorozashi

kokorozashi — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 06:51:11 +0000

Xaphoon web site says it was invented 20 years ago and the guy has hand-made 15000 of them since then.

By: Damon

Damon — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 03:19:42 +0000

Those turn tables are amazing. I love that there is still room in the architecture of ye old turntable, for exciting designs like that. To me, those are as exciting as the UAD interface.

By: Olivier

Olivier — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:15:32 +0000

you can buy the vestax in France but it is expensive :
http://dj.playback.fr/produits.php?prodid=8704&partner=kelkoo_FR
and this shop delivrery in US ;-)