Amazing how time crawls when you’re eagerly awaiting something. Such is the case with the BoomChik: it seems like ages ago that drum machine legend Roger Linn and synth legend Dave Smith “pre-announced” this synth/drum machine. It was actually just this time last year. Unfortunately, you’re going to be waiting a little longer: feedback from musicians and the release of Linn’s AndrenaLinn III and Smith’s Prophet ‘08 (easily two of the biggest products of last year) has delayed the BoomChik.

Now the good news: in addition to a new name, the new design looks far more mature. And it’s going to be eminently affordable: street around US$1000 for a basic model, and $1500 for a fancier model with four analog voices as shared with the Prophet ‘08 and Evolver.

Full specs are available on the site and a bunch o’ other sites, so here’s the Cliff’s Notes version. (Kirn’s Notes?)

• Real-time, no-stop, no-drop OS for live performance
• Pressure-sensitive, backlit (with animation) pads
• Modulate, filter, and resonate everything, digital or analog voices
• Step record like an MPC and like an 808
• Compact Flash storage, USB for MIDI, audio, and sample transfer with a computer (plus real MIDI jacks, don’t worry)
• Ridiculous number of performance controls, simplified menus, plus foot/expression pedals. (Having seen how much menu jockeying the current Akai and Roland models have, this sounds great. When I want to use a computer, I’ll use a computer with a 23″ display, not a 1″ display.)
• Stereo inputs let you sample, process audio, or trigger sounds
• “Analog” version adds analog voices, 27 encoders for voicing, and four direct outputs — one for each voice.

I say, get a day job now so you can quit it when this comes out.

Now a bit more bad news: I hear a prototype may not actually make it to NAMM, which dashes my hopes of getting to show you an actual unit when we’re in Anaheim next week. But we will be talking to Dave and Roger, and hope to have more details soon. And if you focus really hard, maybe one will magically make it there. (Say it with me … ommmmmmm … booooooommmmmm … chikkkkkkk)

My friend Francis Preve has been working on Live 7 through its development, but he’s finally gotten a break long enough to talk about what’s new in this version:

Ableton Live 7 - sneak preview [Beatportal]

Being close to the development, what Fran says has some weight. The preview runs through the features one by one, as you’ve seen before. But there’s good reason Slice to MIDI is right on top.

With a single right-click on any loop in Live, you can automagically slice it into dozens of smaller segments — like individual kicks, snares and percussion — then import these slices into a Drum Rack, which is then played by its own unique MIDI sequence.

The sequences can then be reordered so that you can create entirely new grooves from a single drum loop.

It’s a huge feature. Slicing in this fashion is nothing new, particularly on beat workstation hardware. Doing it this easily — that’s new. On the record, Francis says “Fortunately, it’s so flexible that many producers will approach this tool from their own unique perspective.” And I believe that, yes; I’ve seen other features of Live warped (excuse the pun) to extremes by experimental Live users.

I like how Fran described this feature yesterday over IM, though: “Slice to MIDI will be the drop shadow of 2008.”

Hey, someone has to record this stuff for posterity. I’m working with the Live beta now, and it’s just getting to the point where I think it’s hands-on preview time, so stay tuned. See our previous preview:

Ableton Live 7, Ableton Live Suite: Quick Look at What’s New (and 90-odd comments from you good folks!)

MPC owners are definitely aficionados of their gear — but, be warned, Akai, they can be just as exacting with their MPC grievances as they are with their MPC love. The Cynic writes us with this news from the MPC community:

Not sure if you guys are aware, but Akai has done a really shady thing with the MPC1000.

If you didn’t know the MPC1000 uses individual pad sensors, unlike every other MPC in the range - which use interlink sensors.

The MPC1000 has had multiple problems with the pads, from them going out, double triggering while sequencing, to just not working.

Akai is now offering a $199 “upgrade” kit for owners of the original MPC. They no longer offer replacement parts for the individual pads to my knowledge.

The killer is this though - new MPCs are shipping with the “upgrade” at the same price.

MPC1k owners are going nuts, and have started an online petition to send to Akai.

You can find the petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mpc1000/

…And more information here:
http://mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=61159
http://mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=45209
http://mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=84272
http://mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=84741
GearSlutz thread

MPC1000 (or other MPC) owners with any opinions of your own on this matter, we’re happy to hear from you here, as well.

Dave Smith Instruments, the boutique synth shop responsible for the beloved real analog-meets-digital Evolver line, have been hard at work on new things. In February, we got to see details of their upcoming BoomChik drum machine. The BoomChik is a long way off, though. Now, they have something else that is apparently imminent, kept in absolute secrecy during development, with a moniker as legendary as “Moog Micromoog” — a new Prophet. (Hang on, I think I can write the cheeky Keyboard Magazine headlines now… “Second Coming”?)

It seems that DSI is very close to beginning production of an 8-voice Prophet, all analog. Matrixsynth absolutely gets the scoop on this one. Specs and links:

• Prophet ‘08. Eight voices, all analog. Shipping next week. Wait — next week, you say?
• Sequencer, arpeggiator, and “one or two more fun little functions”
• “It does use the same CEM chips as the Evo stuff, but they sound different because Dave tweaked them differently, and the system isn’t the same without the digital stuff in the signal path.”
  
• $2199 MSRP, $1999 MAP.
• Teaser video [AVI] by Stefan Trippler

Finally, an audio sample, with Spectrasonics Stylus for drums:
http://www.trippler.net/files/p8/p8k.mp3

And an all-Prophet sample:
http://www.trippler.net/files/p8/p8i.mp3

Tom at Music thing has some reflections on the value of Prophets, with obligatory YouTube link.

What about that drum machine?

Now is as good a time as any to check in on Dave Smith’s other current creation, the BoomChik, a collaboration between synth pioneer Dave Smith himself and Roger Linn, creator of the MPC (among various other great things). DSI let out a little update in June:

Dave and Roger are hard at work on BoomChik and it has—ahem—evolved considerably since making its limited and thoroughly virtual appearance at NAMM and online. There are still some major design decisions to be made and it won’t see the light of day until sometime next year, but we think it will be worth the wait. I’ve been privileged to see some of what they’re working on and, for whatever it’s worth, I’m excited by the possibilities.

Fair enough! 2008 … I’m sure I’ll be flush with cash by then and buying all new gear for my studio. So this works out perfectly! (Phew!)

And while we’re at it, there’s really no reason to look only at the new stuff. The best bargain buy remains Dave Smith’s US$1329, 3-octave, 1-voice Evolver keyboard, with both analog and digital oscillators, plenty of filters, four LFOs, a flexible sequencer, audio inputs, and analog delay. Its streamlined design and low price (for an analog synth, anyway) could make it an ideal companion to a computer. It’s funny, the name Moog tends to get all the attention, but I think the great thing is that there’s a whole little corner of the market for modern takes on analog synths.

Thanks to all three major synth-loving sites for this: Vintagesynth.org, Music thing, and Matrixsynth, all must-reads for synth fans.

I’m pleased to announce the first-ever CDM Giveaway. We’ve got over US$4,000 of hardware and software tools for music creation, and we’d like to give you the chance to win them. To do that, we’re holding a good, old-fashioned prize drawing — I’ve been warming up my true random number generator — so that all you have to do is enter for a chance to win. To better your odds, each prize will get a different winner.

CDM Giveaway Info Page; official rules (no purchase necessary).

Here’s what we’ve got:

Akai MPC500 mobile music workstation
Ableton Live 6 music production software
Alesis ControlPad drum pad controller
Glyph GT 050Q 250GB eSATA/USB/FW400/FW800 hard drive
Moog Music Moogerfooger FreqBox VCO effects box
Native Instruments Absynth 4 soft synth
Native Instruments Elektrik Piano soft synth
Numark Total Control DJ control surface
PreSonus FaderPort

…plus boxes of Ableton beanies and AudioMIDI.com Synth Legends DVDs. You can check everything out on the giveaway page.

And get some link love, too: Eligible residents of the United States can enter to win any one of these prizes. Unfortunately, for legal reasons we can’t extend the whole sweepstakes to international readers. To make up for it, we’ll be watching international entries for the best blogs, project pages, and music websites to feature on CDM, and we’ll send out Ableton beanies and/or DVDs to our favorite entries. (American readers, we’ll be watching your pages, too, so be sure to include your URLs when you enter.)

We’ve been putting this together for a while now and it’s been a lot of work, so I’m excited to be able to roll it out. We’ve hand-picked some of our favorite gear and software makers to partner with, or we wouldn’t be doing this.

Full details on the giveaway page. Enter now, because at the stroke of midnight following Monday, June 11, the contest is over. And I really want to get these boxes of gear and swag shipped. It’ll be a lot more fun out of the brown cardboard boxes, I’m sure.

Update: If you’re not from the US – please do fill out the form, if you include nothing other than your URL (so we can check out your site) and your country. (Nothing else is required.)

We’re really sorry we weren’t able to go global on this one for legal reasons (I try to explain why in comments). But that’s all the more reason to find out where you’re from. Server stats provide a very incomplete picture of what country people are from, and we would like to know. And if you include contact info, I might at least be able to get some of you some swag.

Me-too 49-key controllers have been mind-numbingly dull for the most part. The new Akai MPK49, revealed in Frankfurt at Messe, easily qualifies as different. Not only does it add trigger pads as found on the MPC line, but there’s an onboard arpeggiator, functionality borrowed from the MPC, and additional MIDI control options, as well.

1. It’s a control surface: 8 endless encoders, 8 sliders, and 8 backlit switches, each of which can be controlled via 3 selectable banks (8 x 3 = 24 “virtual” controls each, 72 controllers total).
2. It’s a transport control: Start/stop transport buttons that actually send MMC or MIDI start/stop messages. (I shouldn’t have to say that, but not all controllers’ transport buttons actually do.)
3. It’s an MPC-style controller: 12 pads, yes, but unlike the pads on the Korg Kontrol49 or the M-Audio Axiom, it actually functions like an MPC, with note repeat and swing functions. Hopefully the quality will be closer to a standalone unit, as well.
4. It’s an arpeggiator: Akai’s mum on the details, but there’s an onboard arpeggiator in the unit — a rarity in controllers.

And it’s got a full-sized, 49-key keyboard, expression input (thanks!), and a big LCD screen. Looks terrific, though my only question is the quality of the keyboard; I’ve been a bit disappointed with recent entries from Alesis on reliability and feel. (Alesis, Akai, and Numark are now made by the same company; you’ll notice the similarity of this to Alesis’ MIDI controller line.) No pricing or availability yet, but given this unique combination of features, we’ll definitely be watching.

First seen at VJ blogger S.O. Sample’s site, and I have to say, this could be an unbelievable VJ keyboard.

Dave Smith Instruments originally planned only to tease their upcoming drum machine exclusively in a banner at the NAMM show: no word outside the insider trade show. Not in the Internet age: word of a new product from synth legend Dave Smith and drum machine/MPC legend quickly had blogs and forums abuzz.

Dave Smith himself has decided to post official word on the topic. The company notes the comments are “deliberately sketchy”, but that makes sense — this product is in very early development. Here’s Dave on the upcoming BoomChik:

We’re about a year away from production, so it’s currently in the vaporware, uh, I mean, computer simulation stage. Below is the current vision, though it will likely go through a number of changes over the year. We will update the website every few months with the latest status, so in the meanwhile please don’t ask about features or specifics on the design - it’s all subject to change anyway! As far as price, best guess is $1000 - $1500 range. We’re shooting for the lower, but we all know how that can go.

Basically, it is meant to be a drum machine, not an MPC. It will have both real analog percussion and normal sample playback, plus a bunch of novel processing. The idea is to produce sounds with some real, unique personality, different from everything else out there. Those of you with Evolvers can likely imagine what sounds will be possible, but it should go beyond that also.

Personally, I’m delighted this is a drum machine and a new concept, rather than an MPC. And imagining sounds that start with the rich, analog timbres of the Evolver and grow from there sounds terrific. I’m just going to clear my schedule for a year from now … it’s been too long since we saw great new drum machines.

Dave Smith Instruments News

Love your audio gear so much you wish you could wear it around your neck, but a loudspeaker on your throat would a) strangle you and b) make you look like too much of a dork to attend high-society functions? Complete Technique jewelers feels you.

From sterling silver turntable cartridges plated in gold with embedded cubic zirconia to tiny silver pendants of speakers, CT manages to say both bling and audio geek at once. (Prices hover at just over US$200 to start.) Their custom pieces are when things start to get really interesting, however. Via the always-hilarious Don’t Believe the Hype Beast, we learn they’ve created a custom pendant of the Akai MPC 3000 sampler for producer Hi-Tek.

Complete Technique Custom Audio Jewelry

For a real custom job, I’d like a tiny pendant that actually functions as an audio device. In the meantime, you can part yourself with your hard-earned cash for non-functional personal adornment, if you feel so moved. (Sadly, the engagement ring does not keep with the audio theme — I was imagining two lovely young synth geeks, bound together in their eternal love of each other and the Minimoog.)

Along these same lines, don’t forget the brilliant MIDI bracelets, pictured here, by producer - Chicago music scenester - electronic musician - jeweler Liz McLean Knight, aka Quantazelle. Anyone got more resources? We could have a whole audio technology lover’s Tiffany’s.

More photos after the break, including my favorite which has nothing to do with music.

Real sequencers and drum machines force you to approach groovemaking with a different technique than software. I discovered this completely by accident when I invested a few hundred bucks in a tiny Alesis MMT-8 scratchpad sequencer. The Alesis and I got along famously, to the point that it became my songwriting tool of choice. It was only when I needed more than 8 tracks or fancy editing that I powered up a computer.

Few manufacturers are willing to invest in the development of a new hardware sequencer these days. That’s what makes Akai’s MPC500 special — it’s the latest (and smallest) incarnation of Akai’s renowned rhythm sequencer family.

Singer and electronic one-man band Jamie Lidell has a great interview from Belgium’s Domino Festival. Jamie speaks from the back seat of a Volvo station wagon to a phantom interviewer. He reflects on performance, trance states (people tell him he does weird things with his eyes onstage), and getting “deeper” live. There’s also some great footage of him illustrating his voice as an instrument and rocking out behind a table of electronic toys from Korg ElecTribes to MPCs to a PC laptop to a Theremin. That’s not strictly speaking the kind of Theremin technique some would endorse, but it’s sure fun to watch.

If you don’t know Jamie’s stuff, go check out this Warp Records artist at his site. (Thankfully, unlike some artist sites, you can actually navigate this one.) His tours are limited to Europe at the moment, so to our friends across the ocean, let us know if you make a gig, won’t you?

Thanks to Mark Strauss for this tip!