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Line 6 overhauls its legendary delay pedal with the DL4 MkII
Today, Line 6 announced that its iconic DL4 delay pedal was getting a sequel. The DL4 MkII is a total redesign that has the same essence as the original in a smaller package: it combines a wide variety of different delay / echo effects and a looper.
Mooer crams a drum machine, effects and a looper into a six-string guitar
Mooer Audio is readying a six-string guitar with a drum machine, 126 effects and a looper — you may not need much else to create music.
Hologram Electronics Microcosm: A cheat code for making ambient music
The Microcosm can be a rhythmic glitch machine, a top-notch loop pedal or a straightforward delay. It’s more than just a one-trick pony, which is important given the $449 price.
Artiphon Orba review: Much more than a musical fidget toy
Orba’s goal of lowering the barrier of entry to music creation is admirable. And it errs closer to a musical fidget toy than an intimidating and unusual instrument. But, those willing to push its limits will find surprising depth.
Chaos Audio's multieffects guitar pedal links to your smartphone
Chaos Audio has unveiled a digital multi-effects guitar pedal on Kickstarter that could be ideal for budget-minded beginners.
ZOIA review: A complex and rewarding modular effects pedal
Empress Effects ZOIA is unquestionably a one-of-a-kind effects pedal. Its interface can be daunting at times, but it puts an almost limitless number of sounds at your feet.
Orba is a tiny instrument that you shake, tap and twist
Artiphon first made a splash back in 2013 when it started showing off a rather rough prototype of a device that would eventually become the Instrument 1. By the time it hit Kickstarter in 2015 it had undergone a serious facelift. In its final version it was sleek and futuristic, with an almost minimal design. Now that company is back with it's second product, the Orba, and it takes many of the core concepts of the Instrument 1 to their logical extremes.
The Organelle is a music computer that can do almost anything
Not long ago, "portable" was basically a synonym for "toy" when it came to keyboards and synthesizers. Sure, a classic Casio like the VL-1 is not without its charms. But it's not exactly a serious musical instrument. That's changed a lot in recent years, partially due to miniaturization and clever engineering but mostly thanks to the relentless march forward of computing power. Perhaps no device is more emblematic of this than Critter & Guitari's Organelle. It is, at its core, a computer, and I don't mean that in the same broadly defined way that almost all electronics are computers. I mean that inside there's a Raspberry Pi running Linux. It's this fact that makes the Organelle so unique and flexible. Unlike other portable music gadgets, like the Pocket Operator, that focus on being a drum machine or a sampler, the Organelle tries to be all the things. It's a synthesizer, a sampler, a sequencer, an effects processor -- almost anything someone with the right coding skills can dream up. But there is a danger in trying to be a jack-of-all-trades: You often end up as a master of none.
Must See HDTV (December 31st - January 6th)
This week we say goodbye to 2012, and after the New Year's Eve festivities tonight we welcome not only college football bowl games and pro football playoffs, but also the return of many of our regularly scheduled TV shows. EHD podcast fave Justified also makes an appearance this week as season three comes to Blu-ray. Portlandia fans should be ready to put a bird on it, and all those who've remained Downton Abbey spoiler free can check out the series' return Sunday night. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Looper This time travel flick stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis playing a hitman that suddenly has the inconvenience of having both his present and future self existing at once, to the dismay of his employers. As with all movies that put time travel at their center it quickly gets more complicated, but there are some decent special effects scenes that make it well worth checking out in HD. ($19.99 on Amazon) College Football Bowls and bowls and bowls. While we're still awaiting the championship game, there are several big time games scattered throughout the week, plus a bevy of smaller bowls to keep things interesting. Check after the break for the dates, times and teams, and don't skip over the college football championship that will be played this week as Sam Houston State and North Dakota State vie for the FCS (aka DI-AA) crown Over/Under This USA show wasn't picked up for a series, but its two hour pilot will air Friday night. Its plot follows a fallen day trader / degenerate gambler that starts a high-end booking business. We highlight it because fans of Breaking Bad (and, we guess, Revolution, if it has fans) might want to check out Giancarlo Esposito popping up in a supporting role. (USA, January 4th, 10PM)
The DS Life: Shoreline
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com."And because they had once written themselves a beach, on which to dream themselves together, they decided that to celebrate they'd have another one of their rare days, and for it, they would go to a beach." - Looper, "Impossible Things"
Music Thing: Monome Controller
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: "The wonderful thing about this device is that is doesn't do anything really," say the developers of the Monome, a minimalist-but-clever button-covered box. "It wasn't intended for any specific application. We'll make several applications, and others will make more. We hope to share as many of these as possible. Drum machines, loopers, 1-bit video transformers, physics models, virtual sliders, math games, etc." Like all the best new interfaces, it’s pretty much impossible to describe, but once you watch the demo video, it seems to be surprisingly flexible and fast to use. I can’t help thinking that something this (or the similar, but different, Tenori On box developed for Yamaha) has huge commercial potential as a cheap and funky sound toy. At the moment, though, it’s a tool for high-end supergeeks, like the wonderful Jazz Mutant Lemur (which is now in production and sells for $2,495).
