I’ve had my eye on the KORG ESX1 Electribe for years. No trip to Guitar Center was complete without stopping by their dusty floor model and punching buttons as the lights flashed and tubes glowed. But I never could bring myself to drop $500 on this sleek jamin’ sampler. My Tribelessness ends tomorrow morning with the launch of the iPad.

Way to go KORG for bringing it to the pad. iElectribe for iPad was released yesterday and is probably already in the iTunes library of thousands of fans of bleeps and bloops. It’s a no-brainer purchase at $9.99. In fact, one can snag this software and an iPad for about the same cost as the ESX1 hardware.

Digital knobs may be a drag (pun intended) but I am guessing it won’t be long before we see a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth control surface show up iPad ready. Are you listening Frontier Design Group?

Here is a link to the KORG web page on the iElectribe.

About eight years ago I bought a “dream car,” a 1982 Collectors Edition Corvette.

I have admired Corvettes since 1973 from watching Bill Bixby in a show called The Magician. He played a mystery-solving magi who lived on the top floor of the Hollywood Magic Castle. He would drive his white Corvette up a ramp to park in the back of his private 747. Gas was cheaper then.

Corvettes were well out of my price range in the ’80s. But I found that if you let them age for 20 years, they become quite affordable.

My ’82 Vette has been a fun car. It was once written up in Corvette Magazine, and I even built a little tribute web site for it. But it’s really about time I drove something built in the 21st century. I posted the Vette on CraigsList a few weeks ago.

My daughter was 5 years old when I bought the Vette. She loved playing with her dolls in the rear compartment when it was parked in the driveway. Here is a photo from the day I brought the car home:

Eight years later, on the eve of selling the car, I parked in approximately the same place, and crammed her into rear compartment to take another photo.

The 1982 Collector Edition Corvette is a unique vehicle. A special multicolored design called “Silver/Beige” incorporated decal graphics, multiple pin stripes, and custom interior leather, and the first ever Corvette hatchback. Chevrolet only made 6,759 of this special edition. Mine even has an 8-track tape rack in the glove box. Groovy.

The digital release was inevitable. The only remaining question was distribution; Apple, Amazon, EMI web site, or some new online upstart. Who would have guessed that the initial digital release of the Beatles catalog would arrive on physical media; a bulbous green USB memory stick that is as ugly as it is useless.

So the music gets put in silicon, the silicon into metal, the metal into plastic, plastic into boxes, boxes into trucks. The trucks are driven to giant brick and mortar buildings, then more trucks take them to smaller brick buildings. So thanks a bunch EMI. We would have loved to welcome you to the 21st century by cleanly zapping Beatle bits from there to here, but instead you hand us music with a carbon footprint as large as the device we use to listen.

Can this even be considered a true digital release? Technically yes, but it’s delivered in a physical enclosure, just like a CD and we already have those.

I have always been perplexed at the hubbub surrounding the eventual digital release of the Beatles catalog. Most fans have the material on CD and many have vinyl (I have both) and have already ripped them to various iDevices. Digital distribution would only bring a new level of purchasing convenience to those filling out their catalog or newly discovering the band … or so we thought.

Anyway, look for this sickly shiny green apple at a grocer near you on December 7, 2009 (Dec 8 in the states.) You know, this probably would have played out very differently, and year ago, had Steve Jobs just come up with a different name for his computer company.

I had been vacillating for weeks on replacing my aging Mackie 1202VLC mixer. The headphone jack died months ago, and several channels need periodic jiggling to make connection. When I ran across the Korg ZERO 8, it seemed to have everything one would want in a mixer, and so much more. Between the time I placed my order at Musicians Friend and the expected ship date, Korg killed the product line.

What a shame. This was an amazing piece of gear; 8 stereo channels, Firewire I/O, effects, a touch screen that doubles as a Kaoss Pad, lots of knobs, slider, and “blinken lights.” The ZERO consistently receive rave reviews. Why would Korg kill this dream machine, less than 2-years after its release? It could be any of many reasons. Here are two.

Price. All this digital power does not come cheap. With a list price of $2,450 it’s difficult to understand to whom this unit was targeted. The street price apparently quickly dropped and was currently hovering around $1,000. A few weeks ago, some retailers started clearing these out for about $850. That’s when I made my purchase.

Sound. While many ZERO 8 owners were quite happy with the sound quality, a small but vocal group of users groused about their units being crazy noisy for a fully digital mixer. Several months of no response from Korg only made this community louder and angrier. When a response finally came down from Korg many of these users took it as a denial of the issue. You can read all about it on the Korg Forum. I don’t have an opinion on this subject, but I was looking forward to forming one upon receiving my ZERO.

Which will now never arrive. So farewell ZERO 8. We hardly knew you. Does anyone have any recommendations for an alternative? My Mackie is ready for retirement.

Music making has involved button pressing since the 3rd century BC. Whether forcing air through tubes, banging hammers on strings or pushing voltage through USB cables, button manipulation is a classic interface between human and sound.

Push button music has evolved and exploded over the past few years. It’s history can be traced back to a number of arguable origins and originators. One of them is Brian Crabtree, who built his first prototype button matrix device in 2002. Inspired by Max, a visual programming language popular among musicians and multimedia artists, he built a “barely functional … constructed from parts found in an electronics salvage depot bin”  device that would eventually become the Monome.

Brian believed that adding visual feedback to a musical instrument would facilitate intuitive interaction. His device first grabbed the attention of musicians and performance artists when a small video clip of his performance virally circulated among music blogs around 2004

In 2006 his fledgling company released a 64 button matrix controller, the 40h. Although only 400 of these “adaptable, minimalist interfaces” were produced, these buttony boxes sent sound waves and shock waves through the music hardware industry. And as popularity grew, so did the number of buttons on the Monome.

Musicians, DJs and technogeeks embraced the concept. Square rubbery buttons would no longer be confined to rows on drum machines. They were now showing up on new instruments and in new forms. Molded silicon replaced the traditional black rubber. Velocity sensitivity was also jettisoned to make way for much more interesting electronics; lights.

The translucent silicon allowed for LED back-lighting. This added a dramatic visual aspect to this new genre of instruments, comically referred to as “blinken lights.” But the lighting was not just for show. A well programmed lighting system turns a matrix of 256 identical buttons into usable, even friendly, device. It also breaks the spacial limits of the device allowing for an unlimited number of virtual buttons and displays.

In the next installment of Welcome to the Button Matrix, we will look at more push button oddities, the Tenori-on, the new Eigenharp, the AKAI APC40, and the soon-to-be-released (and already pre-ordered) Novation Launchpad.

Richard Evans gives us a rare look behind the scenes at a Peter Gabriel tour preparation. The group spent four weeks preparing for the 8 show tour of Mexico and South America. Two weeks of music rehearsal will took place in the “grey and grotty” Millside rehearsal rooms at Real World, followed by two weeks of production rehearsal.

Richard plays a kit consisting of a MIDI MalletKat, a MIDI Parker Fly Guitar, Ableton Live and “various other bits and pieces.” He explains how he recently reworked his rig down from a ProTools HD system with two “huge, great desktop computers,” to a MOTU 896 and a single laptop running Ableton Live.

Richard also takes us on a walking tour through the technology labyrinth that is Gabriel’s Real World Studios, including the impressive, non-grotty Big Room. Many thanks to guys at SonicState for documenting this.

For a more detailed look at Peter Gabriel’s secret world of music production, watch the three-part guided video tour at SonicState.com.

How good can a $99 guitar sound? Very good according to Dave Criddle, co-host of the Home Made Hit Show podcast. Dave was referring to his new SST57, a Stratocaster knockoff from Rondo Music. Rondo has been importing Chinese and Korean built instruments since 1959.

While Rondo readily admits that these guitars are “great for beginners or novice players to learn on,” most experienced players like to have “beat up” guitar that they don’t have to worry about scratching or denting. And many pros will reserve their $10,000+ instruments for studio use, while gigging live with a sub-thousand dollar ax. Few sound systems can even effectively  reproduce the nuances of difference between these instruments in a live situation.

Although Dave prefers the feel of his $600 G&L ASAT, he finds no difference in the sound quality between his $99 SST and a friends borrowed $1,000 “real” Strat. The fit, finish and setup action of the Rondos may reveal thier price range, but co-HMHS host and co-Rondo enthusiast Tony Butterworth recommends a full fledged setup (rod adjust, fret filing, etc.) straight out of the box as an important step in Rondo ownership.

For months I’ve had a hankering for a Tele, but have been hesitant to drop six to ten bills on a real one. I wonder if a $109 STL50 3TS Sunburst would sufficiently scratch that itch? Hmmmm … you may be seeing a guitar review here soon.

What’s your opinion of cheap guitars? Have any experience with Rondo? Let me know through the comments here.

A friend recently told me he wished he had taken a picture of his wife’s TV setup back when they were dating. It would be fun to reminisce about her 12″ tube and VCR, and compare it to the technological terror that is their entertainment system today.

It’s a true gear junkie that can look back on their ancient piles of metal and plastic with a fondness typically reserved for baby pictures and graduation photos. In that spirit, I start this new series on my ever-evolving home studio conglomeration, affectionately known as The System.

The System is built around an Ikea Jerker desk, a very popular choice among gear guys and gals.

It is doubly appropriate to begin this documentation now as I am in the middle of a gear rotation; a periodic sell off and acquisition cycle that leaves my closet cleaner and my wallet relatively unscathed.

So here is a candid (meaning cluttered) photo of the system as it stood last week for a brief slice of time. It is already a bit different as I returned one piece (the Akai APC40 in the foreground) to Guitar Center yesterday, and impulse purchased an Akai LPK25, a very handy mini keyboard. But more details on the individual pieces will follow, along with higher quality photos, in future installments. In the meantime, can you spot any of your favorites?

It happens every few months. I rotate gear through my home studio. I get an itch for a new wizz bang piece of kit and dig through the closet to see what I can sell off to finance the new acquisition. Last weekend I got into a Craigslist sort of mood and posted several items for sale.

The Dr. Rhythm DR-3 was a favorite piece of gear for a few months. As I started doing more in Ableton Live I tended to use the DR-3 less and less.

The DR-3 is a drum machine with decent drum and bass samples. The sounds range from cheesy to awesome, but the best part is the song mode. The row of pads across the bottom double as drum pads and song section. Below is a quick YouTube video demo I posted for a friend showing how they work.

The most fun way to use this was to control these changes with a foot pedal while playing guitar. Instant one-man band! It was so cool to throw in a fill and change patterns with a kick of the pedal. Do I really want to sell this?

In my never-ending quest for technology solutions to compensate for my lack of real musical talent, I may have found my next digital crutch. DigiTech taunts me by introducing the TimeBender, a super tricked out digital delay/looper/harmonizer/make-your-guitar-sound-like-a-spaceship dual pedal at the 2009 NAMM show.

In additinon to the crazy echos and delays, I am looking forward to experimenting with the strum-programmable echo patterns, the ”intelligent harmonies” and “dynamic ducking”. The strum programability allow you to create patterns and set tempos by holding down a pedal and strumming the rhythm, recognizes it and lock its harmony selections to that scale. And the dynamic ducking will fill sonic holes with echo, waiting for you to play the next note before fading that passage away. Very nice.

The RE-20 is a modern digital version of a still coveted Roland analog tape echo from the late eighties, the RE-201. The original would be fun to have with all it’s grainy, fluttery tape-echoing goodness, but $1,000 e-Bay price is a bit over my budget. The digital RE-20 emulates the original’s audio and look. From its vintage green control panel design to the drift and unpredictability of its sound, it a sudo-analogish retrofest.

I have an affinity for analog tape. Although I missed most of the era where is ruled pro audio production, I did quite a bit of home recording, editing and experimentation with cassettes as a teen. And remind me sometime to post photos of the tape bow violin I built during my Lauri Anderson phase.

But along comes this squeaky-clean TimeBender. Decked out in sparkly silver, with more knobs, flashy lights and buttons than the old-school Boss unit, it seems to be ready to slug it out with the aging Roland pedal. The basic Boss vs DigiTech debate is never ending, and depending on who you ask, it usually comes down to Boss being the leader and DigiTech is the Me Too manufacturer. Many say that DigiTech products sound “too digital”. But its in the name of the company, so what are they expecting?

I hope to get my hands on one of these in the very near future to try out. When I do, you guys will hear about it almost as quickly as my neighbors will. But at a lower volume.