Moog made the scene, indeed. In this birthday week for Bob Moog, here’s a gallery looking back at the man and in advertisements, the Minimoog, the keyboard that shaped so much of synthesis to this day.

I could say more, but the images already say so much. Indeed, it seems we’re long overdue for a resurrection of this kind of romance with synthesis and electronic music technology. As I’m also editing remembrances of Max Mathews – a digital counterpart to Moog’s analog breakthroughs – I’d love to have someone do an image like the one on top for Max.

These images are also a reminder of how important the Bob Moog Foundation Archives are. Aside from being the source of these images, BMFA are working hard to get an accurate historical record of Moog and his circle. Moog’s legacy can easily be a catalyst for better understanding all early electronic music history, particularly in the US. Their work is essential and deserves our support:

The Bob Moog Foundation

The Foundation this week unearths an essay from 1951, as Moog writes – for college admission purposes – about what had already impacted his interest in science and learning, at age 17. Thank the Bronx High School of Science, for one.

I’ll let the rest of the images speak for themselves:

http://www.moogfoundation.org/
Supporting the Foundation

All photos courtesy the Bob Moog Foundation Archives, without whom so much of this history would simply be lost.

For more birthday wishes:

Synthtopia asks what you would tell Bob Moog if he were still alive.

Moog Music, via engineer Steve Dunnington, plays happy birthday for him on the instruments of his creation:

And here’s the history of the Minimoog I wrote for Keyboard Magazine last year, in which I sung one unsung hero at R.A. Moog, engineer Bill Hemsath.

Keyboard: The Minimoog at 40, and How A Legend Emerged from Spare Parts Bins

One keyboard, a mind-bending nine engines, lots of tech specs … now that we’ve lived in a world of impressive, technically-intimidating workstation keyboards for a couple of decades, it’s easy to imagine your eyes glazing over when there’s a new one, let alone the general public. So, what might get your attention? This.

“Workstation keyboard” is usually a phrase that sends me for the exits; my computer makes a perfectly good workstation, thanks. I’ve understood why people like them; I’ve just never seen one that could personally excite me. But now that the trade show hype has died down, it’s time to take a serious look at the Korg Kronos. This one is a bit different. It’s the first real integrated computer-in-a-keyboard workstation since the Korg OASYS – and it and the OASYS really do something no other integrated keyboards have. (Just sticking a PC in a keyboard shell doesn’t quite count; that’s almost more of a case mod than an integrated design.)

Now, imagine the OASYS in a completely new generation, and at half the price. The OASYS was priced so that it seemed like only rock stars need apply, however – US$8000. Kronos is US$3700 street, a price that has typically bought you an arranger keyboard, not something like this. Kronos, at that price, really does seem like a studio in a box. It’s certainly not cheap (not with very capable instruments under a grand), but it enters the realm where a musician could make an investment in a keyboard that’d outlast a couple of generations of computers and (ahem) computer repairs.

Underneath its shell, the Kronos is still based on the Linux kernel (via a custom OS), lots of Korg software, and an Intel processor.

Kronos is impressive enough that other, computer-loving fans I know are taking a look. So, I asked Korg if they could walk us through more of the technical details.

This isn’t a review. But while Korg’s Richard Formidoni is positively glowing about their new baby, I do listen to what he says. Rich is one of us – and having been to his home studio, I can tell you that while he may be a company man, he has a cherished place for some instruments from makers beginning with the letter ‘R’ and rhyming with Yoland, not just Ma Korg. And while his pride shows through, he also has some great details for us. (In the grand tradition of CDM, I’ve … not edited those answers. All the news fits, so we print.)

So, consider this a full, detailed preview. I actually think it benefits from some distance from the NAMM show, the week in which everything is unveiled at once. If you miss the din of NAMM, replace all the bulbs in your house with fluorescents, fire up some white noise generators and background crowd sound effects discs, and then buy yourself breakfast at IHOP before charging yourself $500 to sleep over. And stay tuned for when we get to try this thing first-hand.

What’s the relationship of Kronos to OASYS, technically or in terms of learned experience?

There’s absolutely a blood relation. Much of the technology that was originally developed for OASYS has made its way to KRONOS (sound engines, UI, etc). That being said, KRONOS has more than enough innovation to stand on its own. It has quite a few performance-oriented aspects that wouldn’t have been possible without new hardware. One example is the inclusion of a fast solid state drive with direct access to about 12gb of sample libraries, rendering the blanket spec of “ROM size” totally irrelevant. More on that later. In terms of compatibility, KRONOS can load OASYS Programs, Combis, and Sequences.

What’s the underlying hardware engine? (OASYS I know was a Pentium 4 with a custom embedded OS based on the Linux kernel.)

It’s a dual-core Atom processor, again running a custom OS atop a Linux kernel. This is a big deal for a few reasons… Read the next answer for details.

It’s very apparent how much the Kronos does, and I think typically we end the conversation that way — “look, it does this, this, and this.” But walk us through, if you will, how someone might typically uses all of these engines? It appears that there are some significant features there (like the ability to seamlessly change sounds, which certainly is non-trivial on a computer).

Strap in, this’ll be the long one…

A walk-through would definitely start with a description of the nine engines. I’ll try to differentiate a little than our marketing copy, which as you might imagine, I am starting to recite in my sleep.

1. SGX-1 Premium Piano: This lets you play and modify large acoustic grand piano sample libraries, directly from the internal solid state drive. There are two 4.7gb libraries, a German grand and a Japanese grand. We include 30 piano types based around these libraries, with different response and tonality. SGX-1 lets you interact with the pianos by adjusting lid position, damper resonance, note release (simulating old damper felts), adding mechanical noises (keys, damper rise/fall), and adjusting velocity intensity/bias. Obviously, the big deal here is the SSD playback. It lets us use more velocity layers, high quality, unlooped samples, and gives us huge polyphony (SGX-1 can sound 400 mono channels at once).

The whole point is that SGX-1 provides the most realistic, detailed, nuanced, and flexible collection of pianos that we’ve ever offered.

2. EP: This engine recreates six different models of electric piano: Four tine-based Eps (Mark I, Mark II, Mark V, and Dyno) and two Wurlys (200 and 200a). It uses a method called MDS (Multi-Dimensional Synthesis) which doesn’t have some of the more unnatural characteristics of looped samples, so it responds smoothly as you play harder. Any audible switching between soft/loud, and sweet/strong is gone. It also has the vintage effect models from the SV-1, without taking up any of the internal effect slots. Tremolo, vibrato, all the fixin’s from the classic EPs are there.

3. CX-3: This is the software version of our CX-3 tonewheel organ. It lets you use the physical sliders as you would drawbars, and accurately models the chorus/vibrato, percussion, overdrive, leakage, and amplifier/rotary speaker. The fun part for me is how ridiculously tweakable it is. For example, you can basically design your own rotary speaker, as well as the room it’s sitting in… And you can add four additional drawbars to the organ, with customizable pitches. I’ve logged a few gig/studio hours with this engine alone, and I’m pretty thrilled that Urban Sun finally has true drawbar organs to work with.

4. MS-20EX: Taken almost directly from our Legacy Collection software, this recreation of the MS-20 monosynth (now with 40 notes of polyphony) is a point-to-point model of every component from the original design. It was created by the same designers who made the original. You can even run audio input through the frequency-to-voltage converter, and have the synth sing along with you. You can create patches just as you would on the original, except instead of using actual cables, you just touch points on the display.

Put simply, it’s an MS-20 that would not pass a screening for performance-enhancing drugs.

Ed.: Careful, Rich, the iPad fans may chime in here … as may someone with some other drug reference, dunno. Readers, see image above.

5. PolysixEX: Along the same lines as the MS-20EX, it’s a recreation of the venerable Polysix (only now more like a Poly180). The display lets you touch a graphic representation of the Polysix, and we’ve also mapped all the controls to the KRONOS control surface for hands-on tweaking.

Just like the original Polysix, the PolysixEX is a great way to get into synthesis. It can be incredibly powerful, but it’s also really approachable. If you’re new to analog synthesis, it’s a wonderful place to start experimenting.

6. AL-1: A more futuristic look at analog modeling. We often describe AL-1 as “futuristic” because of its potential to go so far beyond classic analog synthesis. It’s a ground-up design, with massive capabilities. Each instance (two per Program) can have three oscillators, five envelopes, five LFOs, a step sequencer, and various filter types including a Multi Filter, which lets you blend together (and morph between) different filter shapes. One of its most notable features is the Ultra Low-Aliasing Oscillators, which sound pure throughout the audible frequency spectrum.

7. MOD-7: This is a frequency modulation synthesizer based on Korg’s VPM architecture. It can read SysEx from classic FM synths (you know the ones), and it lets you go beyond the traditional “choose an algorithm” format, and create your own using a patch panel system. You can also modulate using PCM samples, ring modulation, and waveshaping. All things considered, MOD-7 offers the most programming depth of all the engines in KRONOS.

8. STR-1: This is a plucked-string physical modeling engine. You can design a string, with specific properties like damping, dispersion, and nonlinearity, and then excite it at any given position with a pluck, strike, or scrape. It’s very good at replicating string-based instruments like harps, guitars, sitars, etc., but it’s also capable of percussion, bell, and wind sounds, plus some really haunting textures that wouldn’t be possible for a string to generate in the real world. There’s a lot of fun to be had by warping the string’s physical properties with the Vector Joystick as you play.

9. HD-1: Our all-purpose, high-definition sample playback engine. Eight stereo velocity layers with crossfading means we can into greater detail than we ever could before. As with SGX-1, we’re taking advantage of large sample libraries being played from the internal SSD. With access to nearly 12gb of sample data (remember what Korg did with only 4mb in the M1?), It is a huge Swiss army knife of sound. HD-1 also incorporates Wave Sequencing and Vector Synthesis, from the Wavestation.

One of the big themes of KRONOS is making sound design fun, varied, and inspiring. There is so often a divide between modeling synthesizers and sample-based instruments, so it’s pretty exciting to have one instrument that raises the bar in both areas. Having three different flavors of analog modeling is a great example of that. If you want quick and easy, go for the PolysixEX. If you want to experiment with a semi-modular patch panel, grab the MS-20EX. If you want to go beyond “classic” capabilities, fire up AL-1. I end up using the word “playground” very often while describing it.

There’s also onboard KARMA, a powerful sequencer with 16 MIDI tracks and 16 24-bit audio tracks, our Open Sampling System, and loads of effects… I don’t want to undervalue these aspects, but the fact that it’s nine complete synthesizers is definitely a paramount feature.

So, this is all well and good… It’s a synthesis monster. You can get lost for weeks, just programming sounds. The real beauty of it, though, is how all of them can work together and feed off of each other.

For instance, we now have a “Set List” mode that gives you immediate access to Programs, Combis, and Sequences from the same display. You can organize sounds and songs into groups of 16 slots. You don’t have to duplicate sounds in an empty bank any more, or waste a Combi location just to play a single Program. Now you can make quick shortcuts. This is a godsend when you’re playing live.

There are also some “under the hood” operations that really make all the difference in the world for live players as well as studio guys. For example, the smooth sound transitions are a vital new feature that the world has been waiting for. As you’re playing, you can now switch to a new sound (regardless of mode), and the last one decays naturally, as if you just reached for a different keyboard altogether. We’re able to do this without limiting the number of effects you can use, the number of timbres playing, or any of the other limitations that exist in other instruments.

Here’s another one: KRONOS is always performing dynamic allocation of CPU processing power. Each of these synth engines has its own polyphony spec, and when one engine is running low, it will steal voices from another engine that isn’t using it. The same is true of the effects, which are running on a separate processor core, unaffected by the synth engines’ performance. KRONOS also allocates voices depending on other factors, such as where on the keyboard you’re playing, how fast you play, etc.

The practical upshot of all these technologies is that there’s no disconnect between you and your music. You never have to think about polyphony, you don’t waste lots of time loading samples, you never have to worry about CPU overs. It’s just an immediate connection between you and your music. It’s what makes it an “instrument” rather than a “system.”

If we need to draw a comparison to the DAW world, think of it this way- When you’re changing from Combi to Combi, you could equate it to loading a DAW template with 16 CPU-gobbling softsynths and 16 effect plug-ins already assigned to tracks. Depending on your system, that template could take a little while to load. On KRONOS, you can dial through about six Combis per second, and start playing them immediately.

Speaking of DAWs, another great aspect of KRONOS is that it runs as a VST/AU plugin via a software editor. This opens up a whole series of doors for a studio musician… You can run all nine engines at once, 16 timbres total, controlled via the plug-in editor, without using your computer’s resources. Whenever you revisit a project within the DAW, the editor software will recall the appropriate settings, so it’s just the way you left it. It also has class-compliant USB MIDI and audio I/O capabilities. I’m actually listening to Pandora right now, being piped through via USB to KRONOS’s headphone jack.

Artist feedback was a part of this, I know — who did you work with (of those you could name) and what kind of feedback did they give?

We worked very closely with Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Lyle Mays, Jae Deal, Adam Blackstone, Tom Coster, Jordan Rudess, Frank McComb, Jeff Lorber John Novello, Eldar, David Haynes, and Russ Ferrante… Plus a few others. I don’t want to (mis)quote them directly, but we got plenty of positive feedback from all of them.

Most of these artists are mission-specific… Some wanted to focus on the EPs, some focused on organs, etc. As a result, KRONOS has lots of signature sounds, representing customizations we made with these artists to tailor the instrument to their needs. This includes key response, tonal changes, effect choices, EQ, etc. We encouraged them to be very specific about their tweaks, because we wanted the resulting sounds to feel like you’re borrowing the artist’s instrument, rather than just calling up a new Program.

I will say that all of these sound design sessions ended with some variation of “So, when can I get one?”

As you can see, it’s easy for me to start ranting… I’m genuinely thrilled to be a part of KRONOS’s development, and I can’t wait until the rest of the world gets to try it.

More information…

Like I said, this isn’t a review – so if you’ve got questions, fire away.

In the meantime:
http://www.korg.com/kronos

And for some history, here’s me writing about the making of the OASYS, way back in 2005 for O’Reilly:

Inside a Luxury Synth: Creating the Linux-Powered Korg OASYS

Do Androids Dream of Electric Synths?

Imagining an instrument from a clean sheet of paper is an essential part of the design process. It can remind us of the extent of possibilities – and, sometimes, why compromise is necessary. The German site Amazona.de this week unveiled mock-ups of an instrument conceived by their community. The design looks terrific, and the specs (below) do read like the sorts of things synthesists would want. My only concern is that the results could be very cost prohibitive; the obvious remedy it seems would be to use digital oscillators in place of the eight-voice “true analog” spec described here. (I’m of the “if it sounds good, it is good” school. And with that compromise, the rest of this becomes very feasible.)

Potential spec creep aside, I do love the layout and the mock-up designs, however. And that’s why this sort of exercise matters. Amazona.de are lucky to have a great designer to make those mock-ups seem real. Stephan Gries created the renders, working in the awesomely-powerful modeling tool Rhino 3D. His background is in construction in mechanical engineering, but he tells CDM he’d love to work in visualizing music hardware professionally.

One regularly-asked question is why hardware doesn’t take new forms. (The original Minimoog, while ultimately using a conventional design, even featured space-age, futuristic alternative versions.) With this kind of visualization in reach, I think it’s possible hardware designers will take more risks, partly because they’ll be able to better present their ideas to would-be users. So, with that spirit in mind, I’m pleased to share some of Stephan’s work, not only on the Amazona dream synth, but Doepfer and Cwejman models, too.

Virtual analog, indeed: it’s simulated, but gear pr0n nonetheless. Congrats to the Amazona.de community and to Stephan for the great work.

[Tyrell is an] experiment carried out by your colleagues from Germany from
the online magazine for musicians AMAZONA.de.

With a multitude of campaigns at various levels AMAZONA.de ran a one-year survey and together with their readers invented the dream synthesizer. This synthesizer promises huge market potential.

Its exciting features include:
· 8 voices / true analog
· 2 oscillators
· Oscillator sync, FM, ring modulation and pulseb modulation
· Wave-forms sinus, saw and two different noise waves (morphing from sinus to saw)
· Multimode filter and band-pass filters
· Arpeggiator
· Two ADSR envelopes
· Three LFOs
· Midi, midi-clock for ARP and CV/gate in/out

Detailed layout and technical plans are all complete. All we need now is a brave producer
to make the TYRELL dream come true.

As mentioned above, it is an experiment.

We certainly have faith in our idea – and as you know, faith can move mountains.

You will find the whole story here:
http://www.amazona.de/index.php?page=26&file=2&article_id=3191&page_num=1

And more renders, of real analog gear…

Summer has ended, but that leaves time to look back. Among the many parties around the world, Electric Zoo was New York’s biggest electronic festival, with headliners from Moby to Flying Lotus, descending on a dusty, sunny Randall’s Island just east of the island Manhattan.

At top, I took my new Diana mini (lo-fi film camera) out for a spin amongst the music lovers, who gravitated moth-like to the camera. Never let it be said that Americans don’t like electronic music; families and a new, young generation of ravers flooded into the park. Since Moby’s set was off-limits for photography, it seemed to me only appropriate to go hang out with the music fans. And it’s good to remember that, whatever your musical genre, there’s someone whom you can make happy with your work. (Having spent the same weekend on a rooftop and in a barn with monome practitioners and lovers, yes, there’s a place for everything.) Feel free to page through the sets, especially if it’s a rainy, cloudy day.

When you face a crowd of eager fans, the desire to deliver real performance becomes all the greater. In an age of pre-configured DJ sets, it’s a chance to have the same enthusiasm as those in the audience, and yes, to actually sweat a bit. As a study in what’s possible with computer performance, I took in live, non-DJ sets by Jon Hopkins and The Glitch Mob.

Both artists use touch in their performance. The interaction with the music is reasonably limited, but that means the effect is easy to read. As it happens, we’ve profiled the setups of each of these acts before. For Jon Hopkins, multiple KAOSS Pads facilitate quick access to dramatic effects. Ableton Live is just the sound-source; the outboard gear handles both touch control and signal processing. For The Glitch Mob, Lemur multi-touch displays, tilted toward the audience, control parameters in Ableton Live.

More details:
Behind the scenes of The Glitch Mob’s Lemur setup

Jon Hopkins tells CDM about his studio, live rigs and playing the KAOSS Pad

I have to notice that the KAOSS Pads fare a bit better than the Lemurs in regards to tactile access to what you’re doing. The Glitch Mob had to make its touch areas on the Lemur fairly large just to find them; because they’re all on an undifferentiated screen, you have to find the right location by feel. But for both acts, creating big gestures is important, partly so that it reads to the audience, I imagine, but also so that it’s the kinds of gestures that feels good as a player and are easily reproduced. And even with a touchscreen, it’s possible to begin to tap into muscle memory, as was clear as The Glitch Mob used their consistent control layout in their set.

Touch alone, in each case, is augmented by tactile controls. The Korgs have physical encoders and controls, and Hopkins uses MIDI input and computer control for tactile control over sets. The Glitch Mob use Akai drum pad controllers, as well. And fun as the touchscreens are, they can’t compete with good, old-fashioned drumming: the highlight of The Glitch Mob’s new set is when they break out drumsticks and explode into lines worthy of a drum corps. (The Glitch Mob need to meet Caity at Georgia Tech.) You can tell the guys are just having a great time doing it. We talk about all the ways computer performance can become more like instruments, but, of course, there’s no reason not to simply use the traditional instruments we love alongside computers.

There’s still a sense of a divide between the virtual and the physical, the digital interface and the kinetic gesture, and maybe that’s natural. Rather than try to entirely reconcile the two, they can sit side by side – just like my digital Olympus and analog Diana.

I could say more, but I think in this case, the pictures tell the story, a little microcosm of the many musical events of this summer.

Flying Lotus

There’s something to be said for the good, old-fashioned MIDI controlled and laptop combo. FlyLo makes an Akai MPD32 his axe of choice – and it makes it look damned good. Photos courtesy the festival.

The Gear

The Fans

All of this would be meaningless if fans only responded to DJ sets. On the contrary; live sets in electronic sound live and connect in a way that’s special.

All photos (CC-BY-SA) Peter Kirn, unless otherwise noted.

UK-based Novation are known these days mainly for making MIDI controller keyboards for computers, but the company first made its name in synths. Novation’s virtual analog synths were beloved for their distinctive sound, accessibility – both in price and ease, and compact design. And some of that legacy, frankly, has been missing in recent years, even with the fun Xio keyboard.

UltraNova could be the hardware that brings back Novation’s soul. And the timing couldn’t be better, with a rekindled love for hardware synths even among dedicated computer users.

As the name implies, the UltraNova recalls Novation’s best-loved synths, the SuperNova and SuperNova II. Novation have brought back some of the spirit of the previous synths quite literally, with the design work of Nick Bookman (more on that soon). They’ve hit an absurd price point for what they’re promising, with a street anticipated around $699 here in the US. The UltraNova combines the kinds of tasty features people like – single part virtual analog synth with wavetables, effects, bus-powered USB and USB audio, software editor, and built-in arpeggiator and vocoder. But it also has a novel, touch-sensitive set of rotaries for editing.

And while there’s plenty of competition in the entry-level synth category, from boutique offerings from Dave Smith to big-name entries from Korg (MicroKORG II) and Roland (GAIA SH-01), I think the UltraNova’s feature set could make it a major competitive force.

Below, check out a high-resolution (1920px) gallery of the new instrument. Spec breakdown and promo video after the jump.

The specs that look most compelling:

• Good-quality keybed: The UltraNova uses a 37-key, Fatar-made keybed. I think Fatar makes some of the best beds out there. (I need to check with them on which variety this is, but I believe it’s one of the semi-weighted synth actions.) And it has channel aftertouch.
• Wavetables plus subtractive synthesis: Virtual analog, as expected, but there’s a bonus – 36 wavetables, for additional sound design possibilities, which should appeal in particular to Novation’s dance music crowd. (18 voices / 14 filters / 5 effects slots.)
• FX: distortion, chorus/phaser, delay, reverb, and gator plus compression and EQ.
• USB, with bus power. Not only is there USB MIDI and two-in, four-out USB audio, but the entire keyboard runs (quite amazingly, I think) off bus power – no dongle needed. It’s also class-compliant, Linux users / people who hate drivers.
• Sensible I/O: Balanced line-level and stereo S/PDIF outputs, plus MIDI In, Out and Thru ports. Look for that on similarly-priced synths — and good luck.
• Vocoder and other goodies. Finally, someone other than KORG figures out you like gooseneck mics and vocoders. Other extras: an arpeggiator, three LFOs, six envelopes, a noise source, two ring modulators, three oscillators with density and detune controls…
• Those touchable rotary controllers. Perhaps learning from the kinds of controls available on MIDI controllers, editing is available via eight, instant-access “touch and tweak” controls. In a unique move, these rubber encoders are also touch-sensitive, which effectively makes them buttons as well as encoders. There’s also a big knob for fine control of any parameter. It’s a clever arrangement, and I’m eager to try it.
• Free software editor. If you like to be able to manage patch editing onscreen and not just on the front panel, free Mac/Windows editing software is available as an aid. It’s not necessary, but it does make use of your screen (as seen running on the MacBook Pro above).

Pricing:
UK: RRP £587.49. Estimated street price £499.99.
USA: SRP: $849.99. At dealers for $699.99.
DE: UPE €679.99. EST €599.99.

I must say, this is the most I’ve been excited by a Novation product in a long time. Stay tuned. The UltraNova ships in Q4.

Novation promo video below (and yes, this is some of the folks at Novation trying to show it off)!

Today’s reflections on the importance of album art:

1. Album art can be beautiful, whatever the recording medium. It can reflect great design, and extend the expression of the album itself (well, and it helps if the album is great). Justin and Colin have created the site Hardformat to celebrate design on everything from tapes and records to new releases. They have a gorgeous gallery of stuff, pictured above. I like what they have to say on their about page:

It seems like everybody’s talking about the end of physical music media. Who knows whether they’re right or not, but Hard Format is a little place we’ve set up to celebrate our love of brilliant music-related design. That means we’re going to focus on records, CDs, cassettes and their like. However, Hard Format isn’t intended to become a dusty museum devoted exclusively to past glories, though there’ll certainly be some of that, we also want to highlight the brilliant new design work being produced right now.

2. Physical objects could be a powerful force in the digital age. Digital downloads are wonderful. But there’s a coming renaissance in physical objects, premium album releases, and oddities. I’ve been talking with people about crazy ideas like DIY Blu-Ray discs or building custom MP3 player kits loaded with music. In the throw-away age of culture, it’s a chance to care about what an object is, who made it, how it got to you, and what it means in your life. And it’s a chance not just to bring back the goodness of the LP’s cover as artistic canvas, but to go beyond that to new expressive forms. Nostalgia is fine; making new things is better. Make the change you want to see. (Apologies to Ghandi.)

3. I really wish the album art on my digital downloads weren’t so $#(*& screwed up. I rip music from CDs, I download through promotions, I use eMusic, I buy from medium to obscure digital stores and digital labels and direct from the artist, and yes, very, very rarely from iTunes. Somehow, about half wind up without embedded album covers, and my iPod touch insists on syncing with iTunes. Has anyone found a good workflow for properly cleaning up your album tags, filling in the missing covers successfully, and syncing it to devices?

Comments welcome on my syncing woes. (Yes, even Winamp and Media Monkey aren’t able to clean it all up, though I do use the latter for clean-up.)

But in the meantime:

Hard Format: Reaching for the Sublime in Music Design

And for more album art collections, see their inspiration page

Or from vintage CDM and the opposite end of the spectrum, Terrible Album Covers, Fugly Bands

Barry writes to his fans:

This was the tenth year that I’ve put myself through the torture that is a NAMM Show in order to expose these specimens to the harsh light of day.

I hope you appreciate my sacrifice

We do, Barry, we do. We’ll sacrifice some productivity in your honor:

NAMM Oddities 2007

Delicious.