File these designs under “do want.” Some of your favorite gear is rendered in miniature: Roland’s TR-808, E-MU’s SP-1200 sampler, Akai’s MPC 2000XL, and (coming soon) even the Yamaha NS-10 near-field monitors. It occurs to me that someday soon, such tiny things might even work in some form as functioning music equipment. For now, you’ll have to settle for tiny classic gear that contains an 8 GB flash drive – enough to carry especially-precious samples or demos or backups.

The drives are US$39.99, but contain extraordinary levels of detail and use Toshiba flash memory (not something overly generic). They work with USB 2.0, too.

The project is the work of Alkota, a musician who also offers a boutique of drum samples, including some more unique hip-hop drum sets and such. Shop:
http://hiphopdrumsamples.com/category/flash-drives

Gallery:

More on the artist:
www.alkotabeats.com
www.hiphopdrumsamples.com
www.twitter.com/alkota

God bless you, 4/4. Yes, there’s still something about that four-beat, sixteen step bar that gets toes tapping and booties shaking and floors fouring on the… floor. So, when musician and maker Steve Cooley decided he wanted more physical control, he didn’t want some perfectly generic controls, and he didn’t want rows and columns. He wanted sixteen steps and faders alongside. The result is Beatseqr, an Arduino-powered hardware controller recently spotted at the Maker Faire outside San Francisco.

Because it’s just a controller, they’ve built Roxor, a Mac software step app that sends OSC, and Steppa, a Max/MSP patch, though other options would be viable. The idea is to combine software to make a productive “toolchain.” (I’m still surprised people don’t make more use of tools like Python for these sorts of tasks, not only for cross-platform compatibility, but even for ease. But the principle is the same.)

I like the idea and layout, and if you want one, you can even buy one for $299. (We’re talking extremely limited runs. Right now, there appears to be … one of them.) It’s a cool creation, though it makes me imagine this as a prototype for something else – something with onboard MIDI or possibly even basic onboard sound generation. I think we could be on the verge of a real explosion in new, hand-built devices of that sort. And that could mean layouts like the one found on Roland’s 808 are about to make a very big comeback, re-imagined for a new generation.

And the bottom line: it’s fun for its creator. It’s not only a solution to a problem from an engineering perspective; it represents bridging the gap from wanting something, and realizing exactly that thing you want by making it yourself. As Steve puts it:

The goal wasn’t to create a box that can do all things for all people. It’s a specific tool for a specific purpose. It is a very fun tool for improvising and performing.

If that isn’t the spirit of DIY, I don’t know what is.

http://www.beatseqr.com/blog/

Mike Payne sends this our way, from a blog post he just wrote: it’s a pillow rendition of the legendary Roland TR-808, courtesy Gwendolin Taegert of Berlin. (Being Berlin, I could imagine them soon having their own IKEA-style furniture store, exclusively for synth and music geeks.)

Now 808 fans have something on which to cry themselves to sleep each night after losing an eBay bidding war / realizing Roland still won’t reissue the original 808. (Roland? Please?)

Full post, and other pillow creations, on Stylecrave:

Softmachines: the Icons of Music Making Get Cuddly

Now, I’ve seen some synth-themed pillows before, including Francis Preve’s own DX7 pillow. Any others to add? (This one looks especially nice, and the 3D knob is certainly a bonus!)

Etsy.com, for their part, come through with this lovely keyboard zipper pouch. It’s not a rendition of a real design, but who cares – I love the layout on this keyboard even more. The heart is a lovely touch. (and is that a heart button, too?)

As we saw in CDM Winter 08, sometimes imaginary is better than real. Take that long winter’s nap and dream of synths.

Keyboard Zipper Pouch w/Detachable Ring- Pink, by TooToo [Etsy.com]