Category Archives: Diario

Tell U.S. Congress: PROTECT NET NEUTRALITY

Dear Sound4Sina visitor,

Two years ago, on January 18th 2012, our website joined the SOPA strike to stop Internet censorship bills, SOPA and PIPA.

Today, on September 10th 2014, we are once again joining the battle for Net Neutrality. Don’t let the cable companies destroy the open Internet!

Cable companies want to slow down (and break!) your favorite sites, for profit. To fight back, let’s cover the web with symbolic “loading” icons, to remind everyone what an Internet without net neutrality would look like, and drive record numbers of emails and calls to lawmakers.
Are you in?

Join the battle for Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality

Tube & Berger, Juliet Sikora remodeling 80’s electro funk classic ‘Set It Off’ into Deep House

Tube & Berger, Juliet SikoraWhenever I come across a kickass track, I put it on replay and start analyzing the heck out of it. And Tube & Berger‘s latest release ‘Set It Off’ is one of those hard-to-let-go tracks. It is a solid deep house track. It really defines deep house, and the development of electro funk and house music. I just have to preoccupy my mind with it. And I love doing that.

I have little knowledge about Juliet Sikora and her role in this track, but I recall her as a line-up DJ, and less of a producer. Her SoundCloud page has a bunch of collaborative tracks and a few DJ sets, but her skills as a producer has been a bit unknown to me. Well, till I heard ‘Set It Off’, which is a collaboration with the German duo Tube & Berger (Arndt Roerig and Marko Vidovic). They seem to have worked together on several other tracks. ‘Set It Off’ was released in late December 2013 on Kittball Records and has been rocking the deep house list on Beatport ever since.
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Roland Corporation Turn 40 Thanks to Ikutaro Kakehashi

Roland Corporation 1972

Ikutaro Kakehashi was born in Osaka, Japan on February 7, 1930. The name might not ring a bell to most of you reading this blog post. But this man is the founder of the Roland Corporation, that brought us the first touch-sensitive electronic piano (Roland EP-30) in the world and the space echo machine (Roland RE-201). His company was one of the first to utilize a microprocessor in a digital sequencer (Roland MC-8), as well as the first to introduce MIDI in a drum machine (TR-909) which used digital sample playback along with analogue sound synthesis. Not to forget that the drum kits in the Roland TR-909 are still being used in studio productions around the world. Most musicians have interacted with some kind of Roland gear over the years.

There is a wide range of musical equipment that Roland has developed and shipped to musicians around the globe. Some of these instruments have been seen in my personal collection over the years, going back to the E-20 Synthesizer in the late 1980’s followed by the RC-7 MIDI module, MC303 Groovebox, (BOSS) SP303 Dr. Sampler, Roland SH-32 Synthesizer, Roland D2 Groovebox and a few other that I cannot recall at the moment. Thank you very much for your hard work, Roland!

Congratulations Roland! 40 years!

'I Believe in Music': The inspiring and heartfelt memoir of Ikutaro Kakehashi


The History of Roland Corp.

Interview with Ikutaro Kakehashi

Blue Microphones announces Tiki USB Mic

Blue Microphones truly make good consumer products. Blue Tiki is a microphone especially designed for users who do not want to bother with troublesome microphones, pop filter, and acoustic dampers just to make simple recordings with reasonable quality, such as for podcasting and VoIP through Skype. Just plug it in the USB drive. and you’re good to go.

What makes the Blue Tiki interesting is that it has two different modes. Intelligent Speech mode, focusing on the user’s voice which uses different techniques to minimize distracting background sounds such as fan noise and keyboard clicks from your computer. Natural Recording mode puts the microphone in the standard mode that records everything that is perceived by the microphone.

Read more at http://www.bluemic.com/

Alesis announces iPad Docks for drummers and guitarists at NAMM 2012

This year’s trend at NAMM was undoubtedly the iPad. In fact, most companies had either incorporated and adapted the functionality of the tablet device with their existing products, or found other innovative ways to make use of it. For instance, SyncKontrol for iOS (iPad & iPhone) which allows tempo control to Korg Monotribe and synchronization through WIST (Wireless Sync-Start Technology) to iElectribe for iPad. Alesis, on the other hand, continue making way for themselves by expanding their selection of iPad docks with two new models:

DM Dock and AmpDock, which are supposed to be used by drummers and guitarists.

The idea behind the original IO DOCK from Alesis is simple and inventive. Plug your iPhone into a hardware station, and it gives you all the connections that you would find on your musical instruments and devices. I am talking about MIDI, audio in and out, and microphone connections.

The new docking stations, however, differ in several ways from the original. First, they are made with purpose of only doing one thing. Second, the docking stations are now more robust and have a really good sturdy feeling to them.

AmpDock is a guitar pedal that utilizes iPad’s processor for creating powerful effects. It works with any audio applications and supports Core MIDI. The docking station comes with a pedal controller that allow the user to control effects, programs, volume and on/off. The  docking station has six quick knobs that can adjust various effect parameters. And for all drummers that make use of digital drums comes the DM Dock with the big touchscreen of the iPad for easy visual control. It has 13 built-in inputs for triggering, and it is possible to transform an iPad as a main device for the drums. In addition to connections for MIDI (both input and output), there is also an audio input for external signal mixing.

Read more at http://www.alesis.com/