MyVolts Crazy Chain - reviewed!

MyVolts are no strangers to making power solutions and I make no secret that I get free samples from time to time to test out. Crazy Chain is their latest foray into powering multiple items with a twist; it's a fully modular power solution that you can mix and match equipment of different plug sizes and even polarities so you can add as many devices as you need.

Blog update 2020

Who would have thought having children would be such a busy experience? Between becoming a dad, moving house, a voluntary redundancy, COVID19 and all the other fun and games, there's not been much to report for some time. But things are finally settling down, so hopefully I can get back to more thoughts and ideas on music.

MyVolts mickXer - interview with Caroline Swords

As mentioned last week, I've been trying out a beta version of myVolts' latest product; a five input passive mixer. I was so impressed with the product so far that I fired some questions to Caroline Swords, Director of Operations at the company, to get a bit of an insight into the product and what they were aiming for here. Caroline was kind enough to come back to me with some detailed answers, plus a first look at the version 2 of the mickXer.

MyVolts mickXer - the Volca Mix killer

MyVolts are no stranger to electronics for musicians, having previously worked on iterations of their Volca power splitters for powering more than one Volca at a time. As mentioned in other posts, I've had quite a lot of respect for this for my growing collection of Korg's grooveboxes and Kaoss pads, however the subject of how to mix the audio out of so many devices working at once created a new problems.

Revenge of the clones

Uli Behringer has been stirring up the synthesiser fanbase but good of late. In numerous posts on the Gearslutz forum, he proclaims his love for vintage hardware synthesisers and, astonished at some of the prices that the second hand market commands, has taken it upon himself to mass produce low priced clones to make the hardware of yesteryear available to all. If the quality and price is right, this could be the most disruptive force in decades.

2018 - Unsealing the door on the bunker

It has been quite a long time since I posted on this music blog, but quite a lot has happened in the year since I have and I deserve to provide an update,

No More Heroes Any More - Requiem pt 2

Part two of all the deaths in 2016, the worse year for musicians in a long while - not to mention all the actors and comedians as well.

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.

7 things I learned about Korg from their AMA

Following a recent Reddit AMA on the r/synthesizers subreddit shortly after the announcement of the newly minted Monologue, Nick Kwas from Korg was on hand and able to answer questions from the synthesiser community and it was gratifying to see how many questions Nick was able to go through.

Having read the rather large post, I have collected some of the insights I found of interest from the AMA based on Nick’s responses in a short form version here.

MyVolts Splitter Version 2 - review

Thanks to MyVolts for supplying the review cable for this post. If you want to get your own with a discount, CAROLVOLCA2 on their website will get you £3 off before 14 October 2016.

As alluded to earlier in the week, the folks at MyVolts have just released version two of their power splitter cable for up to five Korg Volcas, and now that mine has arrived I thought I would take it for a quick spin.

MyVolts Power Splitter Version 2: Power Harder

Fresh from coverage and feedback from all the major synth sites including Synthtopia and SonicState, those geniuses at MyVolts have been busy updating their five-way Korg Volca power splitter for powering multiple Volcas through either one wall wart or a single USB charger. I have been a fan of this device ever since it was announced, so more updates are very much welcome.

From the looks of things, the cable seems to be the same length from the split point and the connectors are now right angled rather than upright/straight ones. I recall this was one of the main suggestions that Nick Batt had when they covered this via YouTube and when you're using Volcas in an upright rack or next to each other the upright connectors can obscure the controls of another Volca. With right angles I'm hopeful that the connector will be much more inconspicuous.

MyVolts have kindly provided me with one of the new splitter leads to try out, so as soon as I get it plugged in I'll let you know how it fares. In the meantime, if you have multiple Volcas and haven't sorted out a power solution, you can do a lot worse than picking up one of these, plus use code CAROVOLCA2 on the MyVolts website before 14 October 2016 and save yourself a few quid too.

Links:
http://myvolts.co.uk/product/18809/- New 5 way splitter

KMR Audio Synth Expo - May 13th

In an effort to get some interest in their new range of synthesisers, the good folks at KMR Audio in North London organised a little get together of synth makers last month. I popped up to a far off place at the end of the Northern line called Totteridge and Whetstone to see what all the fuss was about, chat with makers and have a few free beers.

Ripcord - USB flavoured power for music gear

As I have already made clear on this blog, I am a fan of sensible, no nonsense solutions for synthesiser power. With quite a few different products to power, it's not always convenient to run around with power supplies and multi-way adaptors - not to mention the ugly, bulky bricks that some come with.

Thankfully, there's a new project from the guys behind MyVolts that they are calling Ripcord, which they are touting as a a plug and play anywhere USB power cable. Powered either from a laptop, computer, phone charge or even a portable battery recharger or micro USB enabled phone, it's clear that this opens up more opportunities for playing with your gear on the go as well as making it easier to power things in a desktop scenario. I'm not entirely sure with the battery power I get out of my LG G4 that I would find this viable but I do like having the option!

From what I can see, Ripcord is clearly positioned as the next stage in the evolution of the USB splitter cable that powers the Volcas (which I had lovely things to say about here) and is currently available via a Kickstarter, which at the time of writing has just over 20K EUR to go. The video there explains everything more succinctly, so take a look and see what you think!

Jump on the kickstarter page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48955335/ripcord-the-plug-n-play-anywhere-usb-power-cable

Hiatus ended (hopefully)

I've been pretty busy with work and other projects, while being distracted by Reddit's r/synthesisers group and Twitter updates, but I'm hoping to get back into blogging again soon. 

Priorities for me:

• More Saturday soundtracks
• Modular DIY building
• Experiences with Bitwig
• KMR Audio's Synth Expo tomorrow
• Novation's XioSynth - new second hand hardware!
• Novation BassStation II - borrowing for a while
• Volca FM impressions
• Finally finishing some stuff for Soundcloud

MyVolts 5 way power splitter cable - Part 2

After the great reaction I got from my first article on MyVolts’ rather handy five way splitter cable I thought I would do some additional testing to see if it can play nicely with some other Korg gear that uses the same power connectors.

NAMM 2016 - rumour mill roundup

It's nearly here! Now that the New Year has been and gone, the Winter NAMM show will be returning to Anaheim, CA from 21-24 January 2016 and promises to showcase all the latest products that musicians will be lusting after over the next 12 months. Naturally this gets the gear geek in me incredibly excited!

As is customary, I usually scour the usual news sites about a couple of weeks before the event takes place for the inevitable product teasers and fakes that are running around that will interest me and some thoughts about other manufacturers that will be joining the show (so expect a subjective list full of synthesisers, drum machines and sound effect news - no guitars sadly). We certainly won't have to wait very long, as the Wednesday before the show is usually a press day, with videos starting to trickle out of conference rooms from the evening onwards.

So here's a collection of all the NAMM 2016 news that I have collected ahead of next week's convention!

Happy New Year & Resolutions

Photo courtesy of the awesome people at www.stocksnap.io

A very Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you enjoyed the break over the Christmas period. May 2016 bring you everything you are working for!

As is customary for the time of year, I have a few resolutions for the new year that I would like to stick to for music making and branch further out into a wider variety of music-related topics and coverage.

On "Fake Synthesis" and more

Something written on Twitter from a synthesist I admire for his in depth demos and rather spiffy narration style stuck with me recently. He was upset that someone had used the term fake synthesis in the context of a comment on Synthtopia when describing the new Roland Boutique synthesisers, which are finally getting some official (ie: not retailer) demo videos.

Roland CM-64

From some of the most recent Roland releases to something over 20 years old, this blog sees quite a lot of different things here. In this most recent case, my dad has given me his treasured Roland CM-64 synth module on extended loan and now that I have the necessary hardware and software to drive it, I thought I would share what it does and what you can do with it.

Alternatives to Soundcloud

A recent announcement heralded the news that after a supposed 5 years of negotiations, the PRS for Music in the UK (Performing Rights Society, collect revenues and royalties for artists) are to open legal action against Soundcloud for lack of paid revenues and licenses. Initially I was incredulous at the entire news, especially that Soundcloud had stuck to a single defence for over five years and my first thoughts contemplated the death of the service as it buckles under the weight of a lawsuit - something made more poignant as I have only just paid for another year's subscription. 

NB: Apparently PRS' official name is "PRS for Music", but it is rarely referred to as this in the news. In this article, PRS and PRS for Music refer to the same organisation.