No More Heroes Any More - Requiem pt 1

2016 has been a tough year in many respects; Brexit, Trump, Syria, terrorist bombings, Snooper's Charter. The same has been true for celebrities, with a large number of musicians in particular having been sent to the great gig in the sky this year. This post is not meant to state the obvious but to highlight some of the artists who perhaps didn't get as much screen time  as others and to remind us all of the losses of these cultural icons.

A guide to Second Hand Synths in UK - part 2

The internet is a great thing; connecting people with similar interests together in a meaningful way that allows for more collaboration and idea sharing as well as the buying and selling of goods. In some cases, second hand websites are the only way you can get hold of older equipment that isn't available through retail channels and there's a great number of them to check out that I have covered before.

The problem I have is over the bad rap that certain sites get when targeted by the criminal element in society who use these sites to lure victims into situations where they get robbed...or worse. In fact the impetus for these articles was a story about a court case where a 28 year old university graduate was stabbed trying to sell his Apple laptop via Gumtree (luckily he made a recovery, but I digress!)

So, I want to share some best practice tips for meeting up to do a swap or purchase. It makes a lot of sense for sellers to do face to face 

Monologue: too many mono synths?

After hyping up their November announcement with images of five different coloured bands, Korg unveiled their latest product; the Monologue, a dual oscillator monosynth from the same stable as the Minilogue, though sporting more than a few tricks under the hood.

As the colours seemed to echo those on older synths, the Mono/Poly and Polysix respectively, many fans felt that they were going to be looking forward to a new recreation of these classic synths. Korg’s partnership with ARP over the Odyssey had already born fruit, so there was plenty to suggest this may have been on the cards. That the new product was something completely new and the colours merely reflected the cosmetic choices available meant that some were understandably deflated by the Monologue's unveiling.

Put simply: do we really need another keyboard mono synth?