SONIC TALK - Inside Music Technology

After I gloat about the Olypmpic medals table, we talk about good working practices to make sure your ears stay healthy when wokring in the studio, then on to manuals paper and otherwise, followed by a spell on Alan Blumlein - grandaddy of stereo recording then the promising Girton Labs SenseSurface a sort of hybrid LCD/ hardware control system, then I wax lyrical about the iPod Touch and the pret...

Mark Tinley, PJ Tracy, Dave Spiers, Rich Hilton and host Nick Batt As well as the Olympic theme and singers and composers of Olympic theme songs, we linger in the backstage area to discuss band riders and unreasonable requests, a quick announcement for the B52's remix competition winner, GigaStudio to be no more, the enigmatic Studio Electronics Omega Orion - to Nelly Hooper and then 6 degrees of...

This week we think back to Thomas Dolby's Windpower which celebrates 26 years since it's release this week, then on to the latest iPhone apps - Beat Maker and a Tenori-on-a-like sequencer, MacBook Touch coming soon? Modular Synth beats, the Nevermind Baby is now 17 - what were we up to?

We take a look at the new Wii MotionPlus addition for the WiiMote which allegedly ads true 1:1 motion control and increases the accuracy of the 3D positioning and it's musical possibilities - it's demonstrated by the new WiiMusic titles with people "playing" various instruments at the recent E3 demo. Then we talk about virtuoso drummers - with plenty of drummer jokes, then on to famous sounds, gre...

This week we bask in the wonderful light shed by Grace Jones and her seminal Slave to The Rhythm album as well as taking a preview of her forthcoming release Hurricane, then we move on to the Nine Inch Nails Google Earth treasure hunt, of course we mention the recent 3G iPhone release then Crazy Coffins and the joy a man can find in choosing the right luggage, then we finish with the future of ret...

We first talk of plastic figurines and memorabilia as inspired by the Keith Emerson doll, then we're off on to Rich's work on Ramones album Subterranean Jungle, Devo take McDonalds to court, Jay Wasco's amazing rendition of Heart of Gold on the Swiss Army Bass and people who can play and sing one more instruments at a time, we then take the Audiocheck.net hearing challenge, then we discuss electro...

Sonic TALK -Sir Ken Robinson At LIMS

This week we talk of creativity, inspiration and divergent thinking thanks to Sir Ken Robinson - who I saw speak at the LIMS show on education day, then we put Rich Hilton on the spot with a legacy question from Dan Austin who wants to know whats the difference between Peak Limiting and Compression and how do you use it? Then the Korg Nano series controllers and we're done.

We skip through the mental futuristic photo browser that is Taggalaxy.de, then on to Krakli Software's rendition of Video Killed the Radio Star, then on to the Moog Guitar which gets it's official launch at Summer NAMM, the Electronic Music Guide, AES, Sonicstate. TV and Prince is 50.

I'd like to shout out a thank you to Dan Austin, who sent in a few topics for us to look at , the first of which is the classic New Order track Blue Monday, drummers who could play tight, then we're on to the reformation of Yazoo with Vince and Alison back on stage "like salmon", Robbie Ryan posts us a comment, the Wizard Master Control program- a funky sequencer, Melloman Walkman based Mellotron...

Starting out with the great Silibil n Brains hoax - two Scottish rappers who fooled the industry for 2 years, Noneric tells us about Snap, we cover Milli Vanilli, the Monkees and Audrey Hepburn too. Mark also has a theory about Pete Doherty and the KLF. Virus targets file sharers, Totally Wired - documentary of Schneiders Buero, Digidesigns' Transfuser grooves on and finally vegetable orchestra an...

Our topics this week range from a quick plug for the WNYC Radio Lab podcasts, intelligence and rhythmic accuracy proves drummers are clever (or does it?), in-ear monitor systems, Lipps Inc. Funkytown, and the largest UK music chain goes down. Finishing up we talk of the Moog guitar, which turns out to be real after all. Somehow from there we get to Toyah Wilcox and dis-lexia - who says we go off t...

We start by drooling over the wonderful treasure trove that is the rare gadgets at Wired.com, ponder Leon Theremins thrilling life and why no Gforce-o-mometer and Citroen DS? Then it's on to Metallica and downloads and of course Some Kind of Monster doc, the scary prospect of an MP3 tax in the UK, some real joy with the B52's remix competition and finally Apple clones on sale - good or no? A big t...

fter discussing the merits of Ostend we move on to the bizarre Beamz laser musical system, then talk boxes get some love - we missed them out last week due to time constraints, then a brief sojourn into music technology spotted at the fair (or carnival if you're US based), Garageband.com get some attention after last weeks Talking Heads topic, Mark's tinitus eq theory, a brief musical interlude fr...

Firstly we talk of old Mother Shipton, who may have forseen the collapse of the TC Electronic and Gibson merger, then we're on to Talking Heads - David Byrne spotted on the Heathrow Express, more on Jori Hulkkonen and his 303 orchestra, the Hobnox web browser 303/909 and fx environment, and finally the classic Oberheim OB2 and related synths.

Sonic TALK Interview - John Van Eaton

First, Mark tells us of a rather personal encounter with a vibrating chair, then we're on to the cute little drumming, sampling robot, Gibson gun for some of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band cash, then we all fess up on what our first record purchases were and get more than we bargained for, Rich is playing with Micky Dolenz, 128k or 320kbps MP3 test at mp3ornot.com, and at last Gary Kiblers Korg Kao...

A moment of silence for Mark's broken phone, the wonderfully pointless Furby Gurdy, a home made and as it turns out controversial, Laser Harp from Stephen Hobley, Waves and SSL, Jean Michel Jarre and his amazing series of Oxygene concerts with many of the original analogues, SSL and Waves plug-ins, Percussa Audio Cubes, and finally Dave Robinson tells us all about the Jean Michel Jarre gig in Dubl...

Sonic TALK 079 - It's The Work of the Devil I Tell You..

This week, we revisit a couple of topics from last week due to some additional correspondence - MIDI 2.0 is on the way and Shane King sends us an Ultravox inspired track to check out. We then move on to the rather amazing Microsoft MySong technology which allows you to sing in a melody then have the computer suggest the supporting chord - and tweak. We ponder why Apple can get away with some of th...

We talk this week of the demise of one of London's most prestigious studios the Townhouse, which will close its doors at the end of March 2008. Ray Kurzweil's futurism theories get us started on an esoteric thread, which is brought down to earth by Fade To Grey and talk of Billie Currie. And finally Happy Birthday MIDI.

This week we talk of Create Digital Music who are in fund-raising mode, Nick finally upgrades his Macbook Pro HD to a 250GB one, Noneric's visit to Ableton uncovers a whole mess of speculation about some new secret instrument for Live, vocoders in general, recording Bowie, copyright extension for performers, the Yamaha SPX90 effects unit, then in-ear monitoring and the technology of live performan...

First up, we congratulate Ms Amy Winehouse on her historic 5 Grammy awards romp - Dave Spiers' brother-in-law is bass player and MD for the band and has been round at his partying. Then we get stuck into the Hotz Box - a unique MIDI controller/instrument that was a hit amongst the bigwhigs in the 1980s - I'd never heard of this, but Chris Macleod, had the pleasure of staying with Jimmy Hotz and pr...

This week we talk of mergers and acquisitions, in the light of Roland taking a majority share in Cakewalk, Gibson and TC Electronic announcing a merger and of course Microsoft's bid for Yahoo, Helicon technology gets a look-in along the way, followed by Novation's Nocturn controller, Inside Synthesis, our latest IPTV series on FM synthesis and FM generally, then a bit of a Mac-fest with the new Ai...

Sonic TALK - 073 Post NAMM Post Mortem