SONIC TALK - Inside Music Technology

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

Sonic TALK - 072 PJ Tracy Reports

This week is a bumper, coming it at just over an hour, and to kick off the new year, we talk of Christmas past (noneric got an SP1200!), the pending NAMM future - including Linn Drum II, John Bowen's Solaris, the new Sharc based DSP synth Plugiator, new control surfaces from Euphonix, 8-core Mac Pros just announced too.

This week, Mark gets a haircut, we get deep with our proudest moments from 2007 and hopes for 2008, lighten up with what we want for Christmas,cloud-busting, ponder the promised FireWire speedbump, Garritans Xmas collection, Noatikl - the generative music plug-in and more. HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Sonic TALK 069 - Ah Blofeld, We've Been Expecting You..

This week, we briefly skim over the Apple ProAudio tour in Berlin, Crave Top 10 Terrible Gadgets, 303 Orchestra and 303s in general, Michael Jackson's Thriller is 25 years old, Quincy's swively chair, waiting for tape to rewind, Peter Grenader's Secret Life of Capacitors at Analog Live, Akai's and the Top Five Samplers number 1 spot, Workspace and Environment at AudioTrash.

Sonic TALK 067 -Dead Seagate Drives

Sonic TALK 066 - iSmell a Perfume from Apple?

Life on the road with Peter Gabriel. Richard Evans shares his experiences and tells us about the technology involved

We start with a trip down memory lane as our guests recollect their first synth experience, VEMIA, Youtube Synth Classics from DX5, the Japanese Matryomin/ Theremin ensemble, the Create Digital Music Circuit Bending Challenge and the fascinating Gracenote Music Map and breifly Achtung Baby

Sonic TALK 064 - Leopard Springs Digidesign Deviant

This week we discuss the merits of body modification, tatooos and the like, NIN name-check, Radiohead's 'pay what you like' new album, Madonna's $120 million deal and the future of music both live and recorded, Krakli Software's Ian Webster poses a question on virtual instruments which sends us off onto interface and innovation.

Sonic TALK 062 - AES Jet Lag

Mark's Nokia N95 is our first subject this week, as he's totally enamored with it - almost talking me into an immediate purchase. We then move on to Audio Ease's trip to India to capture the incredible reverb of the Gol Gumbaz temple for their Altiverb IR plugin, a brace of old ads for portable computers from the 1980s send us down memory lane, Nick introduces us to Flight of the Conchords - less...

This week we flesh out the the facts on the Logic 8 release, CakeWalk Sonar 7 is here, Reason 4, a little more, Kontakt 3 and world domination, happy birthday U87 - and other mics, Roland's new V-Mixer and finally - Do you sit or stand in the studio when performing?

This week, after recovering from my recording cock-up, we dive straight in with Logic Pro 8, then move on to Apogee's Duo and their interfaces, Joe Zawinul RIP, Not the BMF and virtual tradeshows, Scarbee's Black Bass and Bernard Edward's ancient strings, 30th anniversary of punk - we remember, some forget...