Korg Micro X - new toy!

As fortune often favours the brave, or in my case the persistent and damned lucky, I happened to see a set of posts on Gumtree featuring audio gear, mixers and synthesizers late in the day on Monday. So far so normal, what was different here was that the seller was in the next town away and as I'm based fairly far out from central London I was unlikely to get the usual competition from other eagle-eyed users.

Yamaha ReFace - thoughts

Unfortunately this wasn't mine, but I think it works in this case. For a bit of background information, Yamaha have recently dropped the ball on their recent new range of ReFace synthesiser, piano and organ keyboards and announced them early by accident. Based on the in depth reviews from outlets like Sonic State and Doctor Mix, there have been some really strong reactions and this more or less sums up the popular opinion. I'm going to take a more measured approach and talk about them once I have listened to them all!

Standing on the shoulders of giants: top 10 house samples

House Music's Top 10 Most Sampled Sources mixed by Chris Read by Whosampled on Mixcloud

Getting the same sound as your musical heroes is tough; without having the same equipment, playing style and production techniques, that elusive sound is often too difficult to accurately reproduce, though I have found that it can be a satisfying experience to give it a try. Easier then is to sample your favourite artists to get a solid base to work with that you are happy with quickly and then clear the clips later.