The Bleep Labs 198X, a mini analog synth co-designed with the band Neon Indian, is now here. It’s a pocketable three-oscillator synth – all triangle oscillators – that in addition to three knobs and light sensors lets you plug in control voltage or other devices and sensors in order to modulate its sound. That makes for some good, bleepy, party-clearingly noisy fun.

And then there’s the Neon Indian-produced promo video, which is … insane. So there’s that.

The synth itself you get as part of a $50 package that also includes vinyl, a CD, a t-shirt, and a poster. Hopefully you’re a Neon Indian fan.

If you’d like a slightly less-psychedelic look at what this synth does, Bleep Labs have produced some more down-to-earth samples and videos. Behold:

Instructions…

With a modular …

On SoundCloud …

PAL198X by Dr. Bleep

And one more from Johnny, combining a modular …

And if this all looks a little familiar, it’s because the Neon Indian custom synth is a new, improved, expanded instrument based on Bleep Lab’s Pico Paso, which is in turn inspired by Forrest Mims’ classic stepped tone generator “Atari Punk Synth.” I love the new variations.

PAL198x @ Bleep Labs

Open source hardware may not sound like something that would produce a huge musical hit – unless you’ve met the x0xb0x. A clone of Roland’s legendary TB-303 bassline generator, the open version offered not only greater afford-ability than the now-rare antique, but expanded possibilities for hacking the hardware into a musical device you could love as your own, all with the backing of an impassioned community. The gadget was designed by Limor Fried and an unidentified “crazy German engineer” who has kept his identity private. (I wish I had my own secret crazy German engineer. Darnit. Any volunteers?) The resulting design has been marketed by Limor’s adafruit shop. The only downside of the x0xb0x’s awesomeness? It was something of a victim of its own success, with rare parts a challenge to find and an ongoing waiting list of pent-up demand. After shipping 900 units from 2005 through the beginning of this year, adafruit announced it was dropping sales of the x0xb0x.

But the story doesn’t end there. Aside from ongoing efforts by the x0xb0x community in general, one figure has stepped forward to lead sales of the project and (most exciting to me) generate new projects that share its open license and build on some of its components. As announced on adafruit (via Synthtopia), x0xb0x community member James Wilsey is launching a new design and sales effort.

My goal with Willzyx Music is to keep supplying the x0xb0x community with Parts and Kits. I have spent the last year building up a stock pile of parts and will bring the Kits back at an affordable price. Any new projects that are produced from Willzyx will have the same MIT open source license, so you can hack, modify and commercialize any of Willzyx’s original designs.

James is no stranger to the x0xb0x community, having sold his own completed kits as bitcrusher76. But his vision is, refreshingly, even bigger than the x0xb0x: he hopes this could lead to other open projects with shared resources. With the growing quantity and quality of free hardware and software projects, many with shared goals and features, I think now could be a great moment for the larger open source music ecosystem.

The new store:
http://www.willzyx.com/collections/x0xb0x

Price for a kit is a very-reasonable $185.

And for more on the x0xb0x project:
x0xb0x Forum @ Adafruit

I asked James to answer a few questions about the project for CDM.

Peter: Looking back at the x0xb0x’s first half decade, obviously it hasn’t been an easy piece of gear to get. Was it just not a goal to make it more widely available?

James: I think this is a big misconception among a lot of people involved with the x0xb0x. Adafruit made something that had a huge want factor. If you were at all interested in synths, a TB-303 clone was something that you have been dreaming about for a long time. So in 2005 a huge flood of people come and there was just no way that they could keep up with demand. They killed themselves to get 1,000 kits out. The way I look at it is this: They made a TB-303 clone that kicked ass and everyone wanted it.

That’s where I came into this. For the last year I have been selling complete x0xb0x’s on eBay and was very successful with it. I was only able to do this because of the open source nature of the x0xb0x. I started talking to Adafruit and it became clear that I have the time and resources to get the x0xbox out to as many people as possible.

Peter: What does this mean for availability of the x0xb0x?

James: If we are talking about kits, they will be coming back very soon.

Will you be accepting preorders?

Perorders scare the crap out of me.

I think demand is manageable at this point and I am not the only one selling kits. If you really want a kit you can find one if you poke around on the adafurit forums. The kit will be coming very soon and I should be able to keep up with demand.

That sounds great. So you’re looking at working up new designs, as well?

Really all I want to do is expand the firmware, I want a few LFOs and some more CVs and gates. We need to look at a new microcontroler, but its all pretty doable. The only downside is we are going to be dealing with SMDs which can be really unpopular in the DIY world.

I see listed on the site a separate item that’s just the “rare parts.” Is that idea that people could source the more common parts, then get the rare ones from you?

That is correct, the rare parts have always been a road block if you wanted to self-source your own kit. There are quite a few situations where it doesn’t make sense to get a full kit.

What’s your own connection to the x0xb0x? Do you use it in your music?”

I have always wanted a TB-303. My first attempts at making music were with Re-Birth. So that sound has always been a part of my music. When the x0xb0x first came out I had to have it! I have been in love with it ever since.

Any plans for the future of the x0xb0x?
My first priority is to keep the kits available but I am looking at the x0xb0x as a open source hardware platform for other synths that are not necessary TB-303 related. The analog synth business is very grassroots. There has been a big boom with small synth makers that might only do a run of 50 or 100 synths. It would be cool if they could just copy and paste the digital section from the x0xb0x. I am not too sure what this is going to look like but that’s the direction that I will be pursuing. Of course any of my designs will have the same MIT open source license that the x0xb0x has.

If people want to help out, what can they do to get involved?
Make and sell kits, hack the firmware, do mods but make it available to every one. Transistorize The World!

But is it as good as a 303?

I like the fact that the x0xb0x could be hacked as an entire platform, but since I missed it when picked up by Synthtopia in February, here’s a shoot-out between the open hardware and the original Roland piece.

Austin is whirling with South by Southwest excitement, so why not make some swirly radio noises?

Yes, Handmade Music Austin does have a big blowout party in the midst of South by, with a huge music lineup. Wish I could be there, gang, but I’ll be staying here in NYC.

On the docket:

FREE performances starting at noon by Florene, The Hearts & the Minds, WHITE, The Loud Objects, Bodytronix

$10 for a workshop

Registration and details:
Handmade Music Austin #6 Super Show + update

Eric Archer writes:

I’m rolling out a new kit for HMA#6. Its called Tune In Tokyo and makes swirly noises like tuning an old fashioned short wave radio. Its just a cartoonish version of the real thing, but when I hear it I think OLD RADIO!! As some of the boys have pointed out, there was an .. um .. playground game by the same name, which is explained fully in urbandictionary for the curious. That’s Mt. Fuji on the board art.

The circuit has three square wave oscillators made from a 4584 (same as 40106), and an LFO. The LFO sweeps the frequency of a fourth oscillator made with 74HC4046. These frequencies drive the inputs of a 74HC594 shift register. Its outputs are sent thru a network of specially weighted resistors, which are designed to convert 1′s and 0′s into a sine wave. This digital sinewave generator recipe is an interesting shortcut to sine wave generation and I’ve only seen it in Don Lancaster’s CMOS cookbook (1977). The opamp at the end of the resistor net is just there as a buffer. This circuit gets its sound by abusing the properties of the digital sine wave generator via decimation and aliasing effects.

This is only one of the kits we’ll teach at HMA6; we decided to create a free-for-all where folks can select from a menu of kits and seat themselves at a table where others are building the same kit. We’ll also be offering the Autonomous Bassline, Nebulophone, and some of our beginner kits as well. Should be crazy enough to fit with the SXSW insanity that pervades Austin this time of year!

If you make it and record some of the action, do share!

Andromeda MK-1 and MK-2 from Eric Archer on Vimeo.

Thanks to the miracles of express shipping, there’s still time to give the gift of music technology for various holidays. (And I do mean the holiday season, not just Christmas – for me, it extends neatly to my birthday on January 13, which in turn falls before the music tech holiday NAMM.)

Geeky goodness

There are really wonderful sound makers out there to give to beginners and enthusiasts alike. MAKE:Magazine has done a fantastic job of covering terrific, affordable kits that anyone can use. I haven’t seen anyone – muscially inclined or otherwise – resist the charm of the Drawdio, a noisemaker mounted on a pen, or the more-sophisticated SX-150 synth. Our friend Collin Cunningham at MAKE has done a nice round-up of their various sound-making toys. Anyone who reads this site I’m sure would love to get one, but even people who’ve never messed around with electronics might find some of the basic kits fun, too.

And new this year are some of the wonderful creations of Eric Archer and company, which we’ve seen shown off at Handmade Music Austin.

Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Music Machines [Make:Blog]

Synthtopia did a nice line-up of instruments under US$100, too, from the mighty Game Boy to delicious noise instruments and Stylophone remakes. I couldn’t agree more (this is one of those stories I wish I had written, but – hey, nice, I didn’t actually have to write it this time)!

10 Cool Electronic Music Instruments Under $100 [Synthtopia]

One kit that I believe was left off these lists is the Loud Objects productions. They’re simple, elegant, but capable of making some fascinating sounds. Having tested them with attendees at Handmade Music events, I can say with confidence that they’re a great way for people to get started making electronics – and you can even have a couple of beers while doing it and pull it off. That could make them a nice way to hook someone you know who isn’t a dedicated electronic musician.

Loud Objects Kit [Loud Objects]

There’s so much goodness on all these lists, in fact, that we may just need:

1.) An ongoing guide to gifts, to help spread the electronic sound addiction to everyone we know, year-round, and…

2.) Some ideas post-holiday for all of us in the Northern Hemisphere to enjoy our winter hours inside, tinkering with strange sonic toys

Thoughts?

In the meantime, since I (cough) did a poor job this year putting together holiday shopping lists, any other blog lists you’d like to showcase? I’ll collect them all. Rush shipping is worth it, right?

Once upon a time, people made things from electronics. Boys, girls, laypeople made stuff. My Dad actually tinkered with Theremins growing up and subscribed to Popular Mechanics. Now, in an age of hyper-specialization, too many people assume that making sounds with geeky-looking, handmade electronics should be left to the pros. But give people some instruction and let them make some noise, and you might be surprised how eager people are to try something out. Noise making, it seems, is some sort of primeval human instinct.

So, it comes as little surprise that the wizards of Austin got lots of people into the act of electronic sonification. Led by Dr. Bleep, Eric Archer, and 8ms, they’ve kicked off the Texas iteration of Handmade Music Night, and send us the video to prove it.

There’s no reason you have to be left out of the fun, though – you can handmade some loud noises at home. Eric Archer has expanded the site for his freebie Mini Sound Rockers, the kit he used to get folks started at Handmade Music Austin:

http://ericarcher.net/devices/mini-space-rockers/

Check out the video below to see them in action. And I think we should definitely have, in addition to the schematics, a step-by-step tutorial. The gang in Austin also promises some ready-to-buy kits coming soon, so stay tuned.

More on the Handmade Music series around the world:
http://handmademusic.noisepages.com/

And for another video of the Mini Space Rockers circuit, here’s a terrific creation from Switzerland, as suggested by Eric in comments:

The work is by datenkrieger75, using both Eric’s circuit and a hacked Gakken SX-150 bassline.

The iPhone’s glass touchscreen may be a thing of beauty, but despite its multi-touch capabilities, it would seem this device is incapable of responding to how hard you tap it. But the developers at Wave Machines Labs apparently didn’t want to take no for an answer.

The iGOG drum suite for iPhone provides drum pads and sample triggering in unique ways, most notably in its velocity-sensitive VelAUcity. How do you get velocity response from a device that’s supposedly not pressure-sensitive? Presumably there’s additional data in the touch events that makes this possible, but for now Wave Labs aren’t saying:

iGOG’s proprietary VelAUcity technology does the unthinkable and turns the iPhone’s screen into touch sensitive drum pads. Play loud, play soft, or play a full-blown crescendo on a crash cymbal, iGOG will capture every nuance of your performance. Just plug in your headphones and start playing.

Here’s the interesting twist: generally, when any of us say “iPhone,” what we really mean is “iPhone or iPod touch.” That’s not true in this case: “NOTE: VelAUcity is only available on iPhone devices. if you’re using an iPod Touch, VelAUcity is disabled.” That seems to suggest that the trick is the built-in mic, or at the very least some private API that’s iPhone-specific. (Audio triggering is most likely, as this app comes from a developer with drum replacement experience.) That would also suggest to me that you might be able to pull this off with non-Apple mobile devices and controllers in the future.

As a result, though, I can’t test it – I have only the iPod touch.

Unconvinced or uninterested? iGOG has some other approaches to how the small Apple handheld can be made more useful as a set of pads:

• Multi-positional pads that assign articulation based on location
• A mic trigger mode — which may be more useful than the VelAUcity. This mode assigns any nearby sound (like rapping a table) as a trigger. (That’s possible, of course, with a variety of software, but having the device itself be portable could be handy, so to speak.)
• Multi-samples, file management, and sequencing for doing more with the samples.
• No, real multi-sampling — 384 multisamples per drum!

Even if you’re skeptical of yet another iPhone app, I think there are some great ideas here for music software (mobile and otherwise). Here’s a look at the mic trigger mode in action:

Oh yes, and speaking of all this audio triggering, the same developer makes the superb Drumagog drum replacing plug-in. With pricing at US$199-379, you have to be pretty serious about drum replacement, but I know people who are who swear by it. There’s really nothing stopping you from whipping up your own solution, but Drumagog has a lot of niceties that make the process easier, quicker, and more powerful.

http://www.drumagog.com

If you are a Drumagog user, you can bring those files into iGOG. That makes this app all the more interesting – it can be both a fun toy for someone new to the idea, and a companion to a more serious (and more expensive tool).

More on iGOG:
http://www.wavemachinelabs.com/igog/

Editing drum patterns in RjDj/Pd from Frank Barknecht on Vimeo.

If making your own musical tools seems like a lot of work, you’re not wrong. The beauty of making your own stuff is all about making your own reusable modules that help you build musical solutions more quickly. Finding those useful modules can also help people new to programming or patching.

In Pure Data, the free and open source cousin of Max/MSP, one form of these reusable modules is called the “abstraction.” It’s an object that you can stick into your creations to help build what you need without a lot of fuss.

Translation: even if you’ve never patched before, you can start making fun drum pattern makers quickly using all-free software. The folks at RjDj, who have been creating mobile interactive toys for the iPhone and iPod touch (see our interview, recent story) have also been building a library of useful abstractions. Because that library is also free and open source and built for Pd, it works with your Mac, Windows, or Linux machine.

Here’s a great starter tutorial, useful for even newcomers:
Editing Drum Patterns in RjDj

For more Pd learning (see additional tips in comments):
Be a Music Geek Ninja with Electronic Music Programming in Pd: New Book

If you create stuff with this, be sure to share with us! And it’s brand new, but feel free to come join our Pd group on the in-alpha/beta Noisepages:
Pd Group

I wish I could be in London in July, but since I can’t, hopefully some readers of this site can make it to the upcoming Music Hackday, which features RjDj and lots of other online music projects (Soundcloud, Last.fm, the music API for The Echo Nest, 7digital, more):
http://musichackday.org/

This Thursday night, if you’re in NYC, you’ll want to be in Brooklyn – and around the world, stay tuned as always to CDM.

Handmade Music projects will again explode into the nerdster party in Brooklyn, with more ways to get involved worldwide. The science fair-meets-music lounge event hits Thursday night, and this time, you can walk home with your very own noisemakers – no musical or electronic experience required.

Tristan Perich, composer, sound artist, inventor, and 1-bit music maker will be onhand from Loud Objects to share the Noise Toy kit. He’ll walk you through making one, talk about how it works, and we’ll make a little racket.

And once we get a few of those kits made, you’ll be welcome to join in an impromptu Noise Toy Ensemble!

If you fancy higher-fi, digital music and virtual reality, we’ve got you covered, too, with a whole bunch of software projects.

• Noise Toy workshop with Loud Objects / Tristan Perich: Learn how this cheap kit can make glitchy sounds like Bzzzzrrrreeeeepehkhkhkhhhhhhhk! Workshop + kits – make one for free, $10 suggested donation to take it home!
• Force fields: Pulsantes is pulsating musical sequencer software with interconnected rings and force fields generating rhythms, created by Spanish artist Jaime Munarriz. (Jaime can’t be there, so I’m bringing his work!)
• Nintendo instruments and organic musical chemistry: glitchDS is a free cellular autamaton-based musical sequencer, ported from Nintendo DS to PC/Mac – this and other sound toys by Bret Truchan.
• Artificial musical realities: jReality is a Java library for creating real-time interactive audiovisual apps in 3D, with fully three-dimensional sound and visuals, motion tracking, stereo projection, and more. Peter Brinkmann shows off the work of the jReality project, including his own sound components.
• Wireless Sound Objects by Eric Beug are the equivalent of a wire-free modular synthesizer, for improvisation, performance, and education.
• Free business-card kits for exploring basic sound circuitry from PAiA didn’t ship in time for last month’s event, but they’re here now — get your free kit while they last, then draw your own sound controllers with pencils!

Presented by createdigitalmusic.com with our friends at music trend-setters XLR8R.com, DIY bible makezine.com, and self-made marketplace Etsy.com

Hosted by artists’ facility and happening location 3rd Ward

7:30pm, Thursday, March 19 – FREE!
3rd Ward is located at 195 Morgan Ave., at the corner of Stagg St., in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
(near the Grand St L train)
Directions
RSVP: handmade@3rdward.com

More on the projects – and many of these are available online, so I’m still working on ways of holding virtual Handmade Music parties, too.

Noise Toy Kits

with Tristan Perich (Loud Objects)

Bzzzzrrrreeeeepehkhkhkhhhhhhhk! Build your own Noise Toy with this kit from electronic noise group the Loud Objects. Plug in your headphones and glitch out, or jack into an amp
and play it as an instrument. These kits come with a custom-printed circuit board, a noise generating microchip from their live performances, two buttons for modulating the sound, headphone jack and battery.

We’re asking for $10 parts if they keep the toy, and they’re welcome to just make them for free if they want.

We’ll jack in noise toys to the mixer for the end of the evening to make a Noise Toy Group Performance! Stick around (maybe have a couple of beers if that helps your Noise Toy technique).

Wireless Sound Objects

by Eric Beug

Wireless Sound Objects are like the modules of a modular synthesizer, exploded into individual physical objects that provide an engaging way to experience unique, collaborative, musical process. They exist as a variety of objects that either make sound or control the sound that other objects are making. These objects can interface with a computer, with other existing music hardware or be used as a stand alone system. They can be used for performance, recording composition, improvisation, and education.

Wireless Sound Objects

jReality: Virtual-Reality Audiovisuals

Sound for the jReality environment by Peter Brinkmann

jReality is a Java library for creating real-time interactive audiovisual applications with three-dimensional computer graphics and spatialized audio. Applications written for jReality will run unchanged on software and hardware platforms ranging from desktop machines with a single screen and stereo speakers to immersive virtual environments with motion tracking, multiple screens with 3D stereo projection, and multi-channel audio. I would like to present an overview of the capabilities of jReality as well as a discussion of its design, with an emphasis on audio.

jReality: http://www.jreality.de/

VisorLab: http://math.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/pages?name=VisorLab

GlitchDS to Roland TR-606 Sync Using Nintendo DS Trigger Mod from LifeInABox Productions on Vimeo.

glitchDS Comes to the PC + Mac

by Bret Truchan

This is Bret. ( I made glitchDS, repeaterDS, cellsDS, and Quotile-Sequencer). I’ve nearly complete with a cellular automaton MIDI sequencer written in Processing for the PC and Mac. It’s modeled after glitchDS. Same look, similar controls, etc. I made it mostly for myself but I’ll be releasing it free very soon. I read about your Handmade Music night and think it’s going to be great fun.

I’m bringing a netbook loaded with the new sequencer and a MachineDrum.

Pulsantes

by Jaime Munarriz

Pulsantes is a Processing work in progress. Simple pulsating objects generate rythms within their inner structure, visible by their coloured rings, and they are interconnected, sending messages to each other.

At the moment, messages stop/start other pulsantes. I’ve tried an slaving relationship, with a dominant imposing his own tempo to others when they move nearby.

The background acts as a force field. One idea, implemented at some of the sketches, is to alter the way the pulsantes react to this forces, being atracted or repelled. The performer can change this, converting the environment into an instrument. I plan to include wind, explosions, that you can control when performing with this system.

Check out this project (among others):
http://tagmagic.wordpress.com/

I love the idea of artists translating their work into interactive packs of sonic exploration – like releasing an album for fellow electronic musicians. If you’re enjoying our exclusive 808 “less cowbell” Live Pack for Ableton Live and want more sound goodness for free, good news. Puremagnetik has released a set of entirely free “artist packs” with drum kits, clips, and (from Neon Stereo) effect racks. Note that even if you don’t have Live or just want to use a different app, the audio contents of these packs will work anywhere.

In this lineup: Gregory Shiff, our friend Elijah B Torn, Paul Rose, Kalahari Surfers, Brian Best, Kamoni (Micah Frank), and Neon Stereo. You do need to sign up for a Puremagnetik account, but there’s no financial obligation.

For more tips and mad scientist antics from Elijah, see our previous story:
Elijah B Torn on Odd Sound Techniques, Ableton Live

And I got to drop by the DUMBO, Brooklyn studio of Puremagnetik’s own Micah Frank, as pictured here. It’s quite small and packed with fantastic gear in regular rotation. The good folks of TRASH_AUDIO had a nice interview spotlight on Micah late last year:
Workspace and Environment: Kamoni
You can also check out Kamoni’s new rig on his site.

All of this is well and good, but being, erm, me, I’d love to see more oddball stuff, too. How about a Pd Pack or Csound Kit – anyone?

Monolake as I’ve said before once released an album with a Max/MSP patch. In a way, this sort of release of sonic content could be a way of releasing music in a different way, one that assumes active participation by your listener. There was a time when people regularly passed around Max patches and sort of influenced each others’ music virally. I think there’s plenty more to explore in this category – and I’d happily buy sonic content alongside music releases, too, from folks I love.

Puremagnetik Artist Page

If you could have an ideal drum machine and sample-slicing workstation, taking the physical control of hardware but the flexibility of software, what would it look like? We talk a lot about hardware control of software, but hardware usually comes second – software gets designed first, and then either you have to figure out how to map hardware to it, or someone else comes along and designs gear. That means there’s usually a disconnect in the design and workflow of the two, and most of the time, you have to reach for the mouse to make up the difference.

Maschine (pronounced as the German, mah-SCHEE-neh) was developed at Native Instruments with the goal to design the hardware and software simultaneously, not separately. That’s not an easy goal, and I don’t expect Maschine to be perfect or please everyone. But I got to visit the prototype at NI while I was in Berlin in October and see it in action, and I can say at the very least, the folks who created feel the way many of us do – they love software, they love hardware drum machines like the Elektron, and this is an attempt to be a real hybrid.

So, while contrary to rumors, NI does not have a box that does any audio generation in the hardware, this is a real attempt to fuse the controller and software in terms of design and workflow. The idea is to use the screen for visual feedback (you do have this big, pretty monitor on your desk or notebook), but to be able to work without a mouse.

Maschine can also work as a plug-in as well as a standalone app, depending on how you like to work (or how you want to play live). That means if you’re already in love with something like Ableton Live, you ought to theoretically be able to put the two together. Unfortunately, you can’t yet use it as a sequencer to drive other software, which would be an ideal next step; sequencing is as big a part of what Maschine does as sampling and sample manipulation. (No official statement on MIDI output has been made yet.)

Maschine’s hardware also works as a controller. So, for those keeping score, you could put Maschine next to the just-announced Akai APC40 and use them both to control Live – or Maschine could compete with the APC for your Live-controlling dollar – even before you touch the Maschine drum machine software.

Here’s NI’s intro video, which gives you a sense of how this stuff ties together (and we are officially the first to post it).

We’ll naturally be looking more closely at Maschine soon (I’m going to buy a new espresso maker and not sleep for the next few months). Here’s a quick overview:

• 16 pressure-sensitive pads, which light up for visual feedback
• Step sequencing
• Polyphonic recording (so it is a real sequencer, too)
• All software features are available quickly “on the surface,” so not only do you not need the mouse, but unlike a lot of hardware and even controllers, you don’t have a bunch of submenus and buttons to press to do stuff. That includes tasks like automation editing and even sound editing
• Automatic sample mapping, beat slicing, note repeat
• Real-time audio recording and resampling – so you can not only record, but resample what you’re working on, MPC style
• Effects sends “from conventional to experimental” (basically, you can enjoy the kind of sound mangling goodness we’ve had on Kore and Reaktor lately)
• Kore-style sound browsing, with a multi-gig library to get you started

Availability: April 1

Pricing: US$669 list (EUR 599)

The hardware has a top-notch feel and metal casing; at least from what I could judge from the prototype, this should look and feel absolutely fantastic. My only real disappointment was that there’s no synth engine, but that’s just because I love drum synths. Then again, I love the simplicity of Maschine, so perhaps the best fix would be to add the ability to either host plug-ins, as Kore does, or to provide MIDI output capability to other software, so that you could drive synths and other creations. (Heck, you could even sequence visuals in that case.)

What’s unique to me about Maschine is that it isn’t simply an emulation of an MPC; it still takes a software approach to sequencing, it still supports plug-ins and the things you like about software, and it still has NI-style effects. By virtue of being software, in fact, you can really change how you use it relative to hardware. You can drop it in Live or even in a tracker like Renoise. You can use it not as a drum machine but a pattern-based effects unit and insert it after your voice or an instrument. Then you can switch to a VJ set, ignore the Maschine software, and use it as an intelligent plug-in for running live visuals for your friend’s band. None of this is nearly as practical with a conventional hardware drum machine – and this is a whole lot cheaper.

Also, unlike some attempts to unify hardware and software in the past, the visual relationship isn’t slavish. You see something that looks like it makes sense on a screen when you’re editing; it looks like software, but you can easily control it with hardware and not the mouse. (Nothing against the mouse – it’s fantastic for many jobs; sample slicing and music editing just happens not to be one of them.) When you’re ready to perform, the displays on the device mean you don’t have to look at the screen at all.

It’s also worth noting that this is very different from today’s Akai APC announcement. The Akai is clearly better suited to mixing and clip triggering, but the Maschine has velocity-sensitive pads the Akai lacks, and is better suited to hardware control of beat slicing and editing operations. (That said, someone may decide to use Max for Live to turn Maschine into a hybrid machine that also controls and edits Live itself, so everything is suddenly wide open.) And the APC is all about a host (Live), whereas Maschine is all about adding a drum machine / workstation to a host (which could be Live, or Renoise, or Pro Tools, or something else altogether).

In fact, to me, the real competition is Ableton Live’s Drum Racks, groove extract, and slice to rack features. It’s mouse-based, but it also integrates with a host and can host plug-ins itself. I’m personally excited about using both, so it’ll be interested to see which I wind up preferring for which tasks. And you can meanwhile bend your brain around the idea of Maschine instances running inside Ableton Live Drum Racks and other odd combinations.

If there’s any criticism of Maschine, my guess it that it’s likely to be criticized for over-simplicity: as opposed to the first release of Kore, the approach here is really minimalism; NI did less in the hopes that you’d get more out of hardware integration, and the rest you can make up by working with your favorite existing tools and plug-ins. That’s not to say it’s dumbed-down, from what I can see, though I just have to use it.

Whether NI has nailed this one is another question, of course, and one I’ll want to test vigorously. But I love the idea. Mainly, I just want to get my hands on one so we can try this out. You’ll definitely want to stay tuned.

http://www.native-instruments.com/maschine.info

Corrections: In the first draft of this story, I suggested that Maschine could output MIDI to other software instruments or host plug-ins; at least as of version 1.0, the software can’t. You can use it as a controller, though, and output MIDI to other hardware (so you could sequence hardware synths or even other drum machines). The thing I’d like to see there is MIDI output to other software; we certainly have enough hosts (NI’s Kore being one of those hosts). I also overstated the connection to Kore (which is why I was confused about plug-ins). Like Kore, Maschine is integrated hardware and software, it shares the Kore browser, and it shares some of the other design features of the current generation of NI software. But Maschine is its own creature – and honestly, that’s a good thing. Stay tuned for more details.