“My buddy Colin posted a video of his band playing Aerodynamic by Daft Punk and it inspired me to fire up the old Triton and work the crunchy and dirty patches I had from years ago. I rarely uses the triton as a synth anymore, I rely on Logic and MIDI controllers, but I sometimes long for the not-so-pristine sound that some of my triton patches had.

That said, this is also partially inspired by Ronald Jenkees, who has made it cool to play the synth again!”

Uploaded by Gm7Cadd9 on Feb 19, 2012

What do we know about ONE? Nothing much except that it’s “Not Just Another DJ Software”. Presumably we’ll hear more about it in due course:

The One Teaser from The One on Vimeo.

Via Gear Junkies)

Got an interesting musical/synth use for old computer parts? Share in the comments!

It features Novation’s own Automap Universal 2.0 software, eight touch sensitive rotary encoders each featuring an eleven-LED ring making it easy to see their current position, eight user-assignable illuminated buttons and a smooth, professional 45mm cross-fader, plus a touch sensitive “speed dial” which takes control of whatever the computer’s mouse is focused on.

Probably coming in March, with a UK price of around £69.

Original story

iVideosongs is an on-demand, high-definition video service designed to teach aspiring musicians of all skill levels how to play their favourite songs on an instrument.

iVideosongs instruction is provided by the original artists who wrote and performed the songs and also by expert instructors.

“Aspiring musicians want to play complete songs accurately, and that’s exactly what we give them,” said Tim Huffman, CEO of iVideosongs. “We’ve recruited established artists, legendary sidemen and some of the best instructors on the planet to teach rock, pop, blues and country songs. With iVideosongs, aspiring musicians learn the songs at their pace, when and where they want.”

iVideosongs has licensed full rights to its songs from BMG Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music and also many secondary and tertiary publishers. This allows the company to provide complete and accurate instructional titles, presented exactly as they were originally written and performed. The iVideosongs titles are primarily for electric and acoustic guitarists, but titles for bass, keyboards and drums are also included in the launch.

Artists from The Doobie Brothers, The Allman Brothers Band, Sting’s band, 3 Doors Down, Switchfoot, Rush, 38 Special, Alter Bridge and Vertical Horizon are featured in the iVideosongs catalog. Other participating artists include Graham Nash, Jim Messina, Russ Kunkel, Scotty Moore and Giles Martin.

iVideosongs customers can choose a skill level and genre, and then download the high-def titles to their personal computer, iPod or other device. Each song title is presented in chapter format, so aspiring musicians learn the introduction, verse, chorus, bridge, outro and other elements in bite-size pieces and at their own pace. Each title also includes a master performance, so customers can compare their progress against the song, and tablature notation to aid in learning. Titles featuring artists also include an interview segment, where they reveal the inspiration and influences that went into the creation of the song.

The iVideosongs site also offers free tutorials to help aspiring musicians develop proficiency in techniques such as slide guitar, playing chordal fills and walking bass lines.

iVideosongs titles live on customers’ devices, so they can practice whenever and wherever they like, and cost $4.99 to own an instructor title and $9.99 to own an artist title.

iVideosongs.com

The service offers three levels of video: for £4 (around $8) you get a full ten- to fifteen-minute video featuring the artist explaining the track, working through the track on the instrument, and then showing the music video and note guides in split screen mode.

For £3 ($6) a non-celebrity tutor hosts the video, while the lite version (£2/$4) offers just the chords and video tutorial, with no other commentary.

Unsurprisingly, of the 300 video tutorials currently available, there’s not a huge number to choose from for pianists. That’s probably because the piano is not as prominent as guitar or bass, and a synth line would probably be too complicated to create a short tutorial for.

In general, it looks like a good site, and as they add more songs and artists, hopefully pianists will be a little better served.

Good potential.

Original review at VNUNet.com

NowPlayIt.com

In this half-hour video he talks to two pianists, Arnett Howard and Bradley Sowash, about various techniques for playing Amazing Grace, one of the most popular hymns.

It covers useful musical techniques like chord positioning, inversions, the pentatonic scale, and different styles of playing and embellishing the piece.