From the first time I saw it I knew I must have one. I posted about how great they looked and how much I wanted one. That urge to buy did not pass for months, until I finally succumbed and bought one. I put my old CME UF5 MIDI controller on craigslist  and ordered the Novation Nocturn 49.

Look what just arrived!

Expect a full review in the not too distant future.

For those not keeping score, that’s 2 gear lust articles that have led to me becoming obsessed and eventually buying one (the first was a Macbook pro).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some music to make.

What’s in common with the common boom mic stand made by countless brands? They all use rubber in the boom arm adjustment. The rubber dries out, slips or just doesn’t grip well enough.

Ya know what kind of stands don’t ever sag? Cymbal stands. Why? Because of the metal teeth that lock together. Mic stands should use this type of adjustment! But they don’t! Perhaps they do in very expensive designs, but the majority of stand designs use the stupid rubber junk that just does. not. work.

What the world needs is a revolution in affordable mic stand design. Metal Teeth!!

Does anyone have recommendations for great, affordable, and well designed stands? Please let me know.

PS. I honestly spent close to an hour looking for pictures for this post. I can not find a picture of the inside teeth of a cymbal tilt.

There’s lots to like about the P-Solo:

• Sturdy construction
• Large gain knob
• Lots of clean gain
• Simple Metering
• Full size IEC power supply
• Dual balanced output
• Instrument Input
• It’s shiny red!

If you’re a regular reader of AGZ you’ll know my interface is a Profire 2626, I’ve already got 8 decent preamps, from Ronan’s review and shootout it doesn’t seem like going with the RNP or Auteur would be much of a step up in quality, different colors but not universally better. The P-Solo seems to be  a well built, all-around quality piece of gear, a nice upgrade for my home studio.

More Info on the True Systems P-Solo

One problem…I can’t find any in Canada!

…Drool…. Video of the Mastering Compressor via Sonic State

…Drool… Overview of The Equinox via Musformation

Unfortunately looking at (and drooling) is all I can afford with these products, they’re quite expensive. On the other hand, they pack a bunch of features and use high quality components so they’re probably worth every penny.

You can buy Shadow Hills Industries products (and read all about what they actually do) @ Vintage King Audio (USA) and @ Studio Economik (Canada)

If you’ve used or own Shadow Hills gear I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Novation Nocturn 49

Nocturn Keyboard is an intelligent plug-in/sequencer controller. It has a high quality ‘Fatar’ keyboard, with 8 drum pads and a total of 33 assignable controls, which allow you to get hands-on control of your plug-in instruments, effects and sequencer.

Most keyboard controllers have two big problems: The idea of being able to control software parameters with knobs and buttons sounds great. However, the hassle of assigning them, and remembering what they are assigned to becomes so tedious that you always end up turning back to your mouse.

Nocturn Keyboard’s Automap control software solves both these problems. To assign controllers, simply click on the parameter, touch a knob or button, and it is assigned! It also enables you to keep track of what is assigned to what – instead of using a small monochrome LCD screen, Nocturn Keyboard displays control information where you really need it: on your computer monitor. The Automap software graphically displays Nocturn’s control surface. The controllers themselves also tell you what is going on: LED rings around the 8 encoders show their current settings, and LED’s behind the buttons tell you if they are on or off.

It looks to be a fantastic controller with everything right where you’d want it, and not a lot of extra junk, if Automap works like they claim and the keys feel good, it looks like a killer package.

What I like:

Buttons with lights underneath

Rotary encoders with value indicators rather than a potentiometer that most likely won’t show the correct value.

Not unnecessarily large (like the M-Audio Axiom series or many others)

Drum pads in the middle

No faders or keypads I would never actually use

The one thing I don’t like is the pink buttons, but I think I could like with it.

I’ve got to get my hands on one of these and see how it really is. If anyone has used one of these, I’ve asked a bunch of times on Twitter with no response, please let me know what you think of them.

Full Details here: Nocturn Keyboard

I never thought the day would come.

The End Is Near!

I’ve got major gear lust for a Mac.

Like an uncontrollable urge to buy one RIGHT NOW…but it’s late and tired and I figure it’s probably better to write about it instead.

These new June 2009 Mac Book Pro models look (almost) perfect. Firewire is back, useless audio input port is gone (on the 13″ model), SD card is in. 7hr battery life and 5 yr battery lifespan is pretty amazing. I’ve the new multi-touch Macbook touchpads a few times and they’re very impressive, better by far than any other pointing device built into a computer.

I’d most likely be getting the 13″  2.26 GHz model upgraded to 4GB RAM. It wouldn’t be my main computer, my Quad-Core PC will (likely) still be the core of my studio, but so many times I’ve wished for something more portable, but still powerful and reliable. The Macs just have always seemed a bit under powered especially at the cost, the base model 13″ MacBook Pro is just $1399 and that does not seem overpriced at all.

Dammit, I don’t even own a single Apple product (I don’t even use iTunes) and I already sound like a typical Mac Fanboy.

I think I’m going to take one for a test tomorrow at the Future Shop not far from here.

I’d like to see if it can record 10 tracks for over an hour continuously. I have a live recording coming up this month and a set and forget solution would be a dream. I’d likely use Reaper and my Profire 2626 for the gig rather than Pro Tools (another shocker!). It would really come in handy as a mobile rig for Epic Sounds.

It may be time to join the cult of MAC. I probably won’t be buying it tomorrow but probably by the end of summer.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, criticism, and encouragement on this.

Is the SD slot useful at all? Can you record to SD the same as a Firewire drive? Surely it’s better than recording to the internal drive.

Newest 13″ model vs late 2008 refurbished15″ model?

]]> http://audiogeekzine.com/2009/07/gear-lust-apple-macbook-pro/feed/ 13 http://audiogeekzine.com/2009/02/gear-lust-smart-av-tango/ http://audiogeekzine.com/2009/02/gear-lust-smart-av-tango/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:01:42 +0000 Jon http://www.audiogeekzine.com/?p=823 OMFG look at this thing!

That’s a 22″ widescreen touch LCD. Those are metal knobs, dedicated transport controls, mousepad, 8 channel strips, 100mm touch sensitive fader, touch sensitive rotary encoders.

Drool factor of 9.5

http://www.smartav.net/tango/index.php

Made for Logic, Cubase and Nuendo, but I hear it works pretty decent with Pro Tools too.

http://www.moogmusic.com/products/phattys/little-phatty-stage-ii

God’s guitar.

I figured I would share this recent piece of gear with the readers here at AudioGeekZine. This is one of the coolest things I have found in a long time. Does anyone remember that guitar from Line 6 that felt like a poorly set up Squire? Variax maybe? No…. I don’t either…. but this captures that technology, originally brought about by the crew over at Line 6, and amalgamates it with one of the greatest pieces of music history, the Fender Stratocaster.

The new VG Stratocaster is a plethora of incredible sounds just waiting to be unleashed. Other than looking cool like Strats always do (In my opinion) it has thirty-seven different pickup sounds to use. They are denominations of the five primary Modes: Normal Stratocaster (Magnetic pickups), virtual Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking pickup and acoustic. The guitar can be used like a normal strat by utilizing the stock magnetic pickups on the guitar or switch into one of the virtual modes and use classic strats, teles, and 5 different acoustics (from dreadnoughts to resonators).

Pretty sick eh? Well that’s not all this powerhouse boasts. Along with the virtual setups it has the ability to change between five different tunings….. Without ever touching a machine head…. what? Seriously. This allows alternate tunings without any change at all in string tension, consequently making it so that a person never again has to set up alternate guitars if they have a song that necessitates something other than standard tuning. The 5 tunings include all the most often used tunings, Standard tuning, Drop D, Open G, D modal (DADGAD), Baritone/Low B, and 12 string. Of course, by the sounds of it, this guitar appears better suited to live gigging or light studio work opposed to serious productions, but wow… what a toy.

The only negative aspect of this instrument I have come across in my travels is that it has an insatiable hunger for battery power. I could get over that. The only way they could make this guitar any better in my opinion would be to hijack the electronics from the Line 6 Variax which allows digital linking between it and their flagship amplifier The Vetta…. The Stratocaster VG and The Vetta would be UNSTOPPABLE.

Throw away your Variax… The Strat has evolved… and its hungry and sure to eat the competition.

http://www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html

“The TM-7 is basically a mean, angry guitar preamp made of three vacuum tubes. Plus a feedback loop which makes the preamp unstable. There is nothing else like it. No, it does not sound like a Death By Audio pedal. No, it won’t make you sound like Steve Vai. It is unsuitable for 80s nostalgia cover bands, unless they like to do industrial versions of Duran Duran. “

I don’t know why I want this, it just seems so cool, so offensive to ears and eyes. I love how it says “There is no bypass, only Zu’ul.”

$449.00 US

YouTube Video

Metasonix product info