Moog Music guitar

Moog Music has announced today its next product: an electric guitar.

Looks like an April's fool joke, but apparently it is not, according to hispasonic. It seems to be some kind of polyphonic sustainer guitar. It does not look too impressive to me, if moog had to make a guitar I would always think it would be a synth-guitar (roland GR-700 style). Anyway, let's wait to see the actual product details to judge.

You can see a teaser video in here and matrixsynth took the time to capture some of the frames of the video here.

El Columpio Asesino, new song

As mentioned here. There is a new album from "El Columpio Asesino" coming out in May, and they have just released a new song in myspace named "El Destacamento". Listen to it here.

It is a bit dark... I like it... We also have a name for the album: "la gallina".

El Destacamento

El fuego que te has inyectado
no lo apagará la muerte
El día pasa a fuego lento
y el diablo hierve dentro

Una campana fuerte suena
fuerte tras de tu sonrisa
hace bailar a tus dientes
hace temblar a los perros

El destacamento

Latigazos mañaneros
el hijo de Jesús sacude
familias de bien alerta
el nuevo redentor ha hablado

Engorda el cuervo en la bandera
gusanos comen al toro
bajo el oro de las campanas
rebelión piden los santos

Convocad a las calaveras
la eutanasia ha llegado

El destacamento
El destacamento…

De Viaje

I have been "De Viaje" enjoying southeast France, but now I am back...

El Columpio Asesino, new album in May

One of my current favourite spanish bands, "El Columpio Asesino" is releasing a new album in May and should be playing in a stage near you soon!!!

More info here: http://www.myspace.com/elcolumpioasesino

NIN new album "Ghosts I-IV"

NIN have just released a new album named "Ghosts I-IV". It has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license., It is very interesting to see that bands have started to realize the the whole CD business model is wrong and not ready for the "new" digital world and have started changing it... better late than never.

They offer different ways to get the album:

1. Download a set of samples (basically the first 9 songs) + the artwork in pdf and jpg files. For free.
   
2. Download all the songs + the artwork in pdf and jpg files. For $5.
3. Download all the songs + the artwork in pdf and jpg files + 2 CDs which will be shipped to you in April (I hope it is not an aprils fool joke). For $10.
4. Download all the songs + the artwork in pdf and jpg files + 2 CDs + 1 DVD + 1 BRDVD with lots of extras which will be shipped to you in April (again I hope it is not an aprils fool joke). For $75.
5. The ultra delux limited edition packagge, which I won't even say what it had since it is sold out and it could only cause anger in a NIN fan which could not get one.

Not being an ultra NIN fan (I have to admit I started listening to NIN when I heard "the hands that feeds", the single from "with teeth"), so I went for option #1, listened to the songs, had a look at the artwork and decided to go for option #3. The shipping rate was a bit expensive ($14) but it is still cheap, considering what you get: I was listening to the tracks 30 minutes after I bought the CD and I will still receive a "hard copy" of the album with its amazing artwork.

About the music, I have to say that I am enjoying it a lot (its my third listen to the whole album already), but I guess it might dissapoint some NIN fans. It is basically an instrumental album full of synth "noises", deep and obscure pads and some (not many) distorted guitars.
And about the artwork, it is great... download the free version and have a peek. There are some pictures or Reznor's studio, showing some of his gear, great for synth pr0n lovers.

Mogwai Big Muff DONE

My first Big Muff Pi clone is done!!! One more to go.

You can see here a picture of my take on the Mogwai reissue BMP. I decided not to change the knob names to Volume, Rock and Action as in the real Mogwai reissue BMP. Other differences from the original are: I added a switch to bypass the tone control circuit and I changed the order of the knobs (I have, from left to right, Sustain-Tone-Volume instead of Volume-Tone-Sustain). I went for the moog style (sort of) knobs, which I quite like.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, "the paint has been a pain", from the first layers of white paint until the last layers of laquer... I am considering not painting my stompboxes anymore... took me 1 weekend to finish the circuit, 2 months to finish the case.

UPDATE: I have uploaded the MOGWAI and the PI artwork here in case someone wants to do another clone.

Big Muff Pi clones update

Finishing my 2 "big muff pi" clones is taking me longer than I expected due to some problems with the paint and the technique to do the texts and images. I finally decided to do a regular big muff pi and something similar to a mogwai reissue big muff pi, like this one. Here you can see the results so far:

They are missing a couple of layers of lacquer and the electronics of one of them. I should have the other ready in a couple of days.

UPDATE: The mogwai clone is now finished, check it out here.

Freescale new DSP development platforms (Update)

Paul Maddox has created a web page with a blog describing his work with the Freescale Soundbite evaluation tool and a forum to describe other peoples progress. Can be found here.
His plan is to come up with a substitute to the now defunct (I think) chameleon.

Eminent Organ

I saw this piece of art in a cultural magazine in Madrid. The piece was made by "Os Gemeos" using an old Eminent organ and is being shown in a gallery named Pilar Parra Romero, in Madrid. It does not seem to be the popular Eminent 310 that Jean Michele Jarre uses (toghether with a EH SmallStone) and which features the same (or similar) sound engine of the Solina String ensemble. I wonder if this one also comes with the same engine...
Check out "Os Gemeos" work... it is not necessary music related but you will like it if you like urban art.
As usual, click the image for a bigger view... it is worth it.

Blue Monday Owners Club

The song "Blue Monday", from "New Order", is claimed to be the biggest selling 12 inch single of all time. The rumor says that its peculiar die cut sleeve was so expensive that Factory records did actually lose money from each copy sold.
A couple of years ago I managed to find a copy of the "FACTUS 10", the American 1983 version of the single. I found my copy in a second hand record store in Santa Cruz, California, that was just two days after I saw the film "24 hours party people", where they mention the story about the die cut sleeve price. Afterwards I found this site: http://www.bluemondayownersclub.com/ where owners of the single send a picture with their jewel. I am in the 5th page of owners.
Do you own a copy? Are you in the owners club?