And nicely enough, there’s a strong emphasis on cheap and DIY projects, meaning these can be ideal even in tough economic times.

SX-150 button mod from Collin Cunningham on Vimeo.

MAKE: Blog > Music Makers’s Gift Guide

Assembled by our friend (and Handmade Music regular) Collin Cunningham, these are the geekiest DIY treasures you can find. I got hands-on with a couple of these recently. The plastic Theremin kit is fun, although you won’t get fantastic results out of it. My favorites: the awesome SX-150 synth kit (above), previously seen only in Japan, and the Thingamakit (which also got mentioned in our holiday guide). They’re both affordable and make some lovely sounds the moment you start using them, with hacks possible later.

For fans of the Arduino electronics/microcontroller platform, see Collin’s separate guide.

The monome didn’t make the guide this year, though it topped our list, but given that you have to basically preorder the moment a run is announced, that’s not exactly a slight.

wire to the ear > Five inexpensive Chistmas gifts for musicians

This small but neat selection is just perfect, I think, from the Moog schematic on a t-shirt (above) to flash memory earrings to Live sound packs from Puremagnetik.

Digital LoFi > The 2nd Annual Digital LoFi Holiday Gift Guide for the Disenfranchised

Digital LoFi has some fantastic selections: buy one, get-one-free offerings from Soniccouture (makers of fantastic Kontakt scripts, by the way), a pay-what-you-will EQ, and wonderful donationware plug-ins. The site also calls out CDM’s own Winter Guide print-on-demand – thanks!

Pt. I
Pt. II
Pt. III
Pt. IV

Honorable mention: The wacky scientists in residence at New York’s Eyebeam research center have introduced Hack Me Elmo. (Thanks, Chris Hahn!) That’s right: it’s a blockbuster holiday toy from years past, hacked into something very odd. Check out our own Mike Una’s how-to on circuit bending if you want to transform a toy into something musical and wonderful, also in our Winter ‘08 guide.

And yes, the rest is here:

It’s not animal-friendly, constructed of black leather and snakeskin, but it is fashion-forward. It’s Rucyl Mills’ over-the-shoulder, wearable MIDI controller, complete with pads, knobs and faders (looking mysteriously like they were liberated from an M-Audio Trigger Finger). Rucyl describes her creation:

I built the elektro-07 so I could control the sonic and visual parameters of my live performances without having to look deep into the eye of my laptop, hunched over in computer music stance. I’m still learning how to play it.. Software wise, it runs a maxMSP/Jitter patch smoothly, connected to my laptop by a long usb cable. Major thanks to Luke DuBois.

I have to agree: I’ve seen people with great stage presence hunched over laptops, but hunching is … well, uncomfortable. Note, by contrast, her relaxed pose.

Rucyl is a NY-based electronic musician and artist, with an impressive portfolio of interactive works.

Rucyl Mills site

As for the “Sexy Computer Nerd” reference, that’s a reference to Rucyl’s love ballad to you PHP-coding, blinking-LED-heart heartthrobs out there:

Sexy Computer Nerd from elektrocardio on Vimeo.

Thanks to Eric Dunlap for sending this our way. Other examples of wearable interfaces, anyone — or other ways you’ve made your gear strap-on-able?

Just in case you think you might extract any respectability from this $299 novelty guitar, there’s more: interchangeable face masks. Multiple colors for matching your favorite team (you’ll have to provide the logos — guess they didn’t pony up for a license). A built-in speaker, just in case an amp looks too, you know, professional. And the pièce de résistance, football-shaped guitar picks.

Helmet Guitars

Any pride left? Well, how about filming a demo video playing this,(inexplicably) shirtless. Hint: do not tell, say, potential dates or job interviews “Last night, I took off my shirt and started totally wailing on my helmet guitar!” That could be interpreted in way too many ways, none of them not wrong.

Hey, at least Miesel Stringed Instruments doesn’t have any illusions. They promise the guitar “will have you rockin’ all the way from your rec room at home, college dorm, tailgate party, to the Super Bowl after party!”

Will you see anything this fun at CES? I don’t think so.

But if I sound in any way critical, it’s only because I think the Helmet Guitar can’t begin to compare with the same builder’s aquarium acoustic guitar (among others).

Tune in January 17-20 for live coverage from the NAMM show in Los Angeles, from the awesome to the awesomely strange. And stock up on donuts, because you may start craving them.

Mike Una

Michael Una is an informant and writer for CDM on bent circuits, sound art, and electronic goodness; check out his interview last week with Beatrix*Jar and the results of the Circuit Bending Challenge.

Hip fashion for music geeks:

Moogs Not Missiles T-shirt, $20 from Etsy.com (above)

Synthi Blue Green T-shirt, $21.99 from Gear Addict @ Cafe Press

Bootsy Collins T-Shirts, $20.99 from rocktshirtspunk.com

Sun Ra Helios Tee, $15 from mrdwab.com (above)

Generate visuals for while you’re bleeping out:
Critter and Guitari Cellular Automata Video Kit $49.95 direct

Killin’ that hum during the staticky winter months:

Scosche Eso34 Ground Loop Isolator $17.61 from Amazon.com (above)

For turning your pad into the ultimate Space Disco haven:

K12 Audio to Light Modulator $13.25 direct from PAiA Corporation (above)

What’s that?

"This circuit controls the intensity of a light (incandescent bulb only, 200W max, not included) in response to the level of the audio input."

Still not sold?

"This kit should not be built by or for children!"

And the ultimate holiday gift for that person still seeking audio euphoria:

modPod Egg Chair $1899 direct from inmod

It vibrates the chair along with the Hi-Fi stereo output, and has .mp3 input. How can you go wrong?

Liz "Quantazelle" McLean Knight

Liz is a laptopist, producer, and independent businesswoman extraordinaire, as well as CDM’s Marketing Manager. Don’t miss her conversation with alternative controller-making Gustavo Bravetti, or tips on making demo discs and getting gigs.

For all those times you’ve shown up at a gig without the right (xx):

Electronic Musicians’ Emergency Adapters, $65 from FractalSpin

Ed.: I think this means you’re meant to slow down, or apply the emergency brake, or get some earplugs ready for some insane signal processing. Or something.

"Digital Signal Processing Ahead" Tshirt, $25 from FractalSpin.com (available as men’s, women’s, and tank)

This DJ: Does Not Take Requests.

DJ Request Policy T-Shirt, $25 from FractalSpin.com

I love these little things for keeping earbug cables and firewire cable out of jumbled mess:

Cable Turtle, $10 from Amazon.com; see cableturtles.co.uk for the full line and free UK delivery (above)

I love this bag-it has a nice padded laptop sleeve inside that’s removable as well as a padded strap. And there’s a lot of room inside for extra hard drives, a pair of headphones, some demo cds, vinyl if you need analog…etc. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

UDG CourierBag Deluxe, EUR59.99 direct from Ultimate-DJ-Gear.com or $59.99 from DJDeals.com (above)

And here are some nice, inexpensive VSTs. There are so many gems there.

Ohmforce Plug-ins, various, from ohmforce.com (above)

Daevlmakr Plug-ins, $36 from daevlmakr.com (see our previous review)

James Grahame

James Grahame runs the incredible Retro Thing blog, and aside from keeping us up to date on all things hardware did a terrific interview with Solaris creator John Bowen. I’m guessing these wishes are more practical than the DIY satellite, James?

My list is centered around building your own analog synth.

First up, the synthesizers.com ‘module a month’ system. $120 per month gets you a 22 space modular rack case, 8 modules and accessories. Receiving one part every 30 days gives you ample time to assemble and test the beast over the course of a year.

Entry System Purchase Plan, $120/mo from Synthesizers.com

The PAiA Fatman analog monosynth remains an unbeatable value. The kit is offered in rack-mount or table top versions for under $250. It has earned the honor of becoming the world’s most modded synth, and dozens of useful tweaks are available online for intrepid builders, including VCO hard sync and a subharmonic generator.

FatMan Analog MIDI Synth, $200.95 and up from PAiA Corporation

The Sound Lab Mini-Synth is a great bare-bones unit. You can purchase the PC Board for a mere $30, although you’ll need to scrounge up another $70 or so in parts to build your very own cv/gate controlled analog noisemaker.

Sound Lab Mini-Synth, ca. $100 from musicfromouterspace.com and self-bought from vendors

And, on the off chance that I win the lottery, here’s my dream synth for 2008…

John Bowen’s brand new Solaris keyboard synth offers a multitude of sound design possibilities. It’s now available for pre-order at $3399, with delivery starting in early 2008. The Solaris features vector synthesis, multiple filter models (Mini Moog ladder style, Prophet 5 SSM & Curtis emulations, comb filter), looping envelopes, six DADSRs per voice, effects unit, programmable espresso maker and so on. The initial production run will be a mere 100 units.

Solaris, $3399 direct from John Bowen Synth Design

And one more practical software selection…

How about Reaper 2? This little Windows sequencer is beginning to really grow on me. A non-commercial license costs only $50 and it even runs on Linux boxes using wineasio.

Reaper multitrack audio tool, $50 from Cockos Incorporated

W. Brent Latta

Brent does sound and music for games himself, but also stays on top of all things gaming for CDM. See his review of Audiofile Engineering’s Wave Editor, a tool he uses in his own work.

My wishlist, in no particular order…

Whether the $199 upgrade, or the $499 full version, this is bar-none my best value in high-end DAWs right now, and I’m dying to check out that new multi-delay!

Logic Pro Studio 8, $479 from Amazon.com, as seen regularly here on CDM

I wouldn’t have heard about this gizmo without Peter’s coverage, but now I totally want one…or four!

Mandala 2.0 Drum Pad, $349 direct from Synesthesia Corporation

When you want to play guitar without actually having a guitar … Check out the ‘No Surprises’ video on YouTube, shown above!

Jam Sessions, $19.99 from Amazon.com for Nintendo DS

Okay – it isn’t a musical instrument, but with a ‘Blade Runner’ inspired soundtrack, this is going to be one of my favorite games of the year!

Mass Effect, $59.99 from Amazon.com for Xbox 360

Designed by one of my college professors, Terry Setter, I had the chance to check out the TS-1 microphones during an orchestral recording not long ago, and they held their own against a matched pair of vintage B and K microphones. The TS-2 looks like a GREAT vocal mic for the studio.

Chameleon Labs TS-2, $799 list and available from lots of folks

Heck, as long as we’re going BIG: One of the finest audio interfaces available for Mac/Logic users, this thing is dripping with class…

Apogee Ensemble, $1995; various, for Mac only (see previously on CDM)

I’ve wanted a Prophet ever since I found out that it was a primary instrument on Peter Gabriel’s ‘Passion’. Now I can get one at an affordable price, and not have to worry about tracking down the MIDI-mod, or pay through the nose to get a vintage unit brought back to spec.

Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ‘08, $1999 (see Prophet coverage on CDM)

Lee Sherman

We haven’t heard from Lee Sherman as recently here on CDM, as he’s been busy with other tech journalism gigs, but he was one of our first contributors and is particularly dedicated to soft synths.

With Bob Moog sadly departed, someone has to fly the flag for analog and who better than co-traveler Dave Smith? It’s not surprising that it sounds amazing and offers tons of hands-on control. But a full-featured poly analog synth at a price comparable to a digital one? Priceless.

Dave Smith Instruments Prophet ‘08

As emulations go, this sample collection stands out for its comprehensive collection of Moog sounds, which includes nearly every product ever to bear the Moog moniker, not just lesser known synths like my beloved Rogue but the Moog Vocoder, and Etherwave Theremin, all the way up to the most recent Moog, the Little Phatty, over 1,700 basses, leads, pads and effects.

IK Multimedia SampleMoog, $239 from Amazon.com (see our coverage of the announcement and comparison with Arturia’s offering)

What could be more fun than a battery-powered synth that fits in a pocket and combines the touch interface of the Kaoss Pad with Korg synth sounds and effects? I’ll take this over a Nintendo DS any day. (Ed.: Wait a minute, Lee. Kaossilator is cool, but uh, don’t take away my DS!)

Korg Kaossilator, $235 est. (not yet shipping in the US; video above)

There are other digital emulations that accurately model the lovely tape flutter and crunchy magnetic head saturation of vintage tape echos, but you’d be hard pressed to find one that looks this cool. And the 70s nostalgia goes just far enough. The Space Echo has been reborn as a more stage-worthy pedal.

"Roland Space Echo" on eBay

… and Stylophones

mrMark came up with this groovy montage on Flickr.

Not entirely sure how it got started, but it seems all of us want a classic Dubreq Stylophone, the  vintage miniature, stylus-controlled instrument popularized by the likes of Kraftwerk ("Pocket Calculator") and Bowie ("Space Oddity").

As it happens, there are several ways to get one:

Stylophone.com has reconditioned 60s- and 70s-era Stylophones, though the price is rather steep: GBP55 / USD119.

Firebox.com has the original Stylophone for GBP14.95, though you’ll have to put an IOU in a Christmas box, etc.: they’re sold out until the beginning of 2008. (I’ll wait.)

And there’s always eBay.

"Stylophone" on eBay

Got Wishes of Your Own?

Practical or impractical, we’d love to hear them. Let us know in comments.

TurntablistPC is an ongoing art project coupling a vintage turntable with a vintage PC, creating a hybrid, record-playing server that can be controlled remotely by remote websites around the world. It’s the creation of artist Mogen Jacobsen, and it’s currently being exhibited as part of a show called Webscape at the Art Museum of West Sealand, Denmark. What? You’re not planning to pass through West Sealand this fall? The museum still wants your help: embed a piece of code, and visitors to your own website will trigger manipulations of the turntable based on geographic position.

TurntablistPC Project Page
The TurntablistPC spins again! [Networked Music Review, my new favorite source for artsy music tech!]

Thanks to our artist friend Michael Una for tipping us off. I’m not sure I’ll be building anything of this sort soon, but what I do like about it conceptually is that it returns playback devices — increasingly abstract and virtual in the age of the iPod — to the realm of mechanical instrument. I think we may see all sorts of strange, new, hybrid digital/mechanical instruments in the coming years.

Of course, if you can’t figure out how to turn a turntable into a hybrid server art installation, you can always just don your black vinyl jumpsuit and strap your turntable to your back. I think Numark’s idea here was to somehow promote their turntables, but to me, they may have stumbled onto a new, futuristic couture in which we wear heavy objects as fashion statements. And for whatever reason, I’m game! (People could, you know, come up to you … I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine sorta thing?)

Making_sound grabbed this shot and sent it to our Flickr group; thanks!

Daft Punk is on a mind-blowingly cool tour. Aside from, you know, being Daft Punk, they’ve assembled dazzling futuristic visuals, slick leather jumpsuits, and sophisticated, animated LED helmets.

What? You want to tour with LED helmets, too? It’s easy, outlined in a PDF by the creators. I can make the steps even more brief:

1. Cast your face and make a bust of the face and clay models of all the parts.
2. Modify a motorcycle helmet for the electronics.
3. Design your own LED display and controller board.
4. Glue in LEDs … one … at … a time … and connect three feet of wiring per LED.
5. Build another custom PC board for a control keypad on the armband. (Hey, step #3 was easy enough, right?)
6. Custom manufacture all the exterior plastic and finishing.
7. Paint

The best way to experience all of this is in person, naturally, but here’s a roundup of some terrific coverage.

Daft Punk Concert report and lots of technical details, via our friend Chris O’Shea / Pixelsumo (who points to all the details on the visuals and costumes)

Word of an Upcoming Daft Punk Movie, from our friend and CDM contributor Quantazelle (Liz McLean Knight)

Many, many, many Daft Punk videos on dailymotion.com

Brilliant black-and-white snaps backstage on Flickr from leather jumpsuit designer Hedi Slimane

Alien, futuristic action figures — because they can.

Gobs of videos of the pair in action:

The utter rockness of Daft Punk:

Want more style when dancing to Daft Punk? Just bend the fabric of space and time to warp your dancing moves. Or, um, video it and then do it in post, as this young woman does (via the lovely EtherBomb blog):

And the upcoming movie trailer:

No YouTube round-up of Daft Punk would be complete with out Music thing’s “visual aid” to the samples used in the songs:

See Tom’s blog entry for full discussion.

So, a Reaktor tattoo seems a little painful and permanent? Just in time, Native Instruments this week has a line of new t-shirts, and they actually look really great, which is good — branded swag is usually way lame.

Native Wear (not as racy as it sounds) [Native Instruments]

The designer is MIG75, aka Berlin’s Adrian Theiner, confirming my suspicions that Berlin is full of cool people.

Speaking of branded swag, without revealing too much, CDM is working on the issue. After all, you don’t want to show up at a gig wearing a Native Instruments or Ableton shirt — dude, people will know your secret sauce. (Okay, they might know that anyway if I give into temptation and put a recognizable instance of Resonator or Beat Repeat or use a Reaktor granular effect on a track. Or they look at my screen. Or they know me.) But not having the t-shirt could make it easier to say, “That? Oh, that’s something I just programmed. From scratch. Actually, I built that computer. And that keyboard. Out of soy products.”

And yeah, I’d still like a t-shirt. I have to cover up my chest while the tattoo heals.

Cassette-tape DJ battles are just one of TradeMark G.’s retro, regressive, subversive musical creations. He also likes to put on glasses, a white lab coat, and interactive sewing thimble gloves, in order to produce illegal, copyright-crushing musical performances.

Many of the techno-gimmicks seen here on CDM are one-offs and prototypes. The Evolution Control Committee, by contrast, has been producing “illegal art”, often with the aid of technology, for some 20 years. They’ve been “culture jamming”, dropping Napster bombs (remember Napster?), infamously attracting the ire of CBS, and dressing up as giant pairs of trousers and cans of Parmesan cheese ever since. (I’m especially fond of the giant pants costumes.)

For the last few years, they’ve been perfecting the Thimbletron, a glove with sewing thimbles attached to a hacked M-Audio Oxygen8. (I always knew those Oxygen keyboards would be good for something.) The interface gives them newly-expanded powers of sample triggering. Happily, unlike Wired Magazine, they don’t overuse the term “mash-ups” to describe what they’re doing. Try, instead, “plagiarhythm” or “plunderphonics”: “In the world of The ECC’s music, Public Enemy duke it out with Herb Alpert while TV news anchor Dan Rather is the new frontman for AC/DC.”

Thimbletronic Energy Technology Page (video link at the top)

TradeMark will be performing with the Thimbletron at the Maker Faire, as well as running the cassette tape DJ battle we saw earlier:

Call for Cassette Jockeys @ Maker Faire, Cassette Tech Roundup

CDM (meaning me) will be at Maker Faire all week, sending as much coverage and causing as much havoc as possible. I’m hoping Dan Rather shows up.

More glove music controllers:

Controlling Music with DIY Interactive Gloves

Continuing in the spirit of cassette tapes, here are two more cassette items.

Cassettes that Hold Your Change

Completely useless, but somewhat amusing: Designboom’s Cassette Wallet recycles old cassette shells into zippered money holders. If you’re looking to get your retro chic on, they’re $43. Or, if you find some lame tapes as you’re rooting throw your collection for the Cassette Jockey Competition at Maker Faire, you can try to figure out how to recycle it into something like this and sell it for $43. Via the Spanish-language JP-Geek, Sweden’s English-language Fosfor, and a site you already know about.

Cassettes for Analog Resampling

In the domain of the musically functional, Roland from Munich wonders if cassette players with pitch control could be the perfect addition to a digital studio.

Just saw your post about cassette players and wanted to ask if you know of any old commercially-available players that allow you to set the playback speed manually (maybe some professional model?).

Could really use that for sampling since I am not a big fan of the digital algorithms available.

I’d love to hear some reader thoughts on this.

I know of many cassette players that have pitch control. Most that I’ve seen that have a readily-accessible manual adjustment are portable players. The higher-end portable Marantz and Sony recorders I’ve seen all have pitch control. I’ve also seen them on some handheld recorders, like a US$60 Sony recorder I used for voice lessons in college. Sure enough, Sony still makes a complete line of what they call “standard cassette recorders” (as opposed to microcassette or flash memory-powered):

Sony Portable Electronics

… though it looks like they may have discontinued some of the nicer ones they used to make. Quality there is not the best, but most of the rack-mounted tape decks I’ve seen have only two speeds; i.e., 1 7/8 ips standard and 3 3/4 ips high speed. You can use these to achieve pitch changes, though, which I’ve also done on pro Tascam decks: record at high-speed and play back at standard to lower pitch. But it’s not really variable, because that control is usually designed for finer calibration. (In studios, what most people usually do is go out to a reel-to-reel, though that’s not space-practical in a home studio.)

Does this sound better than digitally changing the speed? Yes, it does — even on a cheap portable Sony, the added noise is still outweighed by a more accurate pitch shift when it comes to radical changes. There’s just not enough data in a standard-resolution audio files to effect big speed changes. Not to mention, there’s something satisfying about the ritual of working with tape, and you might want some of the coloration of tone your recorder provides.

I suspect your options are really wide open here, so let’s ask the readers: got a cassette recorder that’s handy for pitch changes?

And for the record (erm, tape?), yes, I do know some people who still listen to cassettes, without any pretentions of retro chic.

Here’s what looks like a great review in German, which comes conveniently two days before I have a doctoral German reading exam to take. Now I can study this, which is a great deal more fun:
M-Audio Conectiv & Torq Testbericht [Alex's Blog]

M-Audio are out on the road promoting their DJ stuff very heavily, too. First, they’ve toted the new kit to trade shows in Asia and Broadcast India (hey, I expect the Asian market will soon dwarf the North American and European markets). Second, they’re helping push Scarface: The Video Game. (Too bad; if they wanted to hit the coveted CDM market, they would have found some Zelda: Twilight Princess tie-in, but I digress.) And they’ve holding scratch competitions with Torq, as well, as seen here on YouTube. Computers, ending the age of turntablists? Quite the opposite, it would appear:

Video via Scratchworx, which also has a terrific hands-on report on new DJ gear from Music Live. (Not to be confused with the somewhat less-than-successful MusicPlayer Live from here in NY about a year ago.) And if you can’t get invited to an event with an M-Audio demo of the new stuff, here’s the next best thing — GearWire with the M-Audio demo:

M-Audio Torq Videos [GearWire, from Summer NAMM]

For more on Torq and Conectiv, see our earlier roundup of first impressions and resources; read through for comments with impressions from readers:

M-Audio Torq/Conectiv DJ Early Adopters Share Tips and Reviews

“Ah,” you say, “but what will I do after I’ve bought Torq and Conectiv, and I’m wildly rich and famous?” How about buy a $13,000 ring with a turntable on it?

_$13K TURNTABLE RING [DJ Amber, who is also a permanent fixture on Technorati]

Add that to our previously-covered collection of DJ/music-tech bling. Still waiting on the gold and diamond-encrusted Max/MSP jewelry, but I’m not giving up hope yet.