Image: Dan McPharlin

Hand-made cardboard models by Dan McPharlin. Produced for Powershovel Japan.

View the full set at Flickr.

A couple of days ago, we posted a freakishly weird talking guitar video from 1962, because it demonstrated how guitarists were making vocoder-like talkbox sounds a long time before they had a mainstream electronic music context. 

Electronic music artist Richard Lainhart left a comment on that video, noting that Alvino Rey was doing crazy talkbox stuff back in 1939 - in a big band context. That’s thirty+ years before vocoder and talkbox effects were common in pop music and sixty years before Daft Punk. 

According to Big Band Library, “When Rey formed his own band in August 1939, his amplified pedal steel guitar was his featured instrument, and an off-stage vocal microphone plugged into it with a Sonovox made it seem as though the guitar could ‘talk’.”

Vocoder-like effects have a long history, and Alvino Rey’s take on the St Louis Blues, while dated, is still pretty awesome. 

If you’ve got any more info on this signal flow, leave a note in the comments.

GearLog reviews the FM3 Buddha Machine 2 ambient sound generator. 

If they put a USB connector on this and you could load up your own sounds, I’d be all over this. 

If you’ve got a Buddha Machine, leave a comment and let us know what you think of it.

Synth music label AD Music has several new releases that may interest fans of ambient, new age and space music:

• Bekki Williams will be releasing a trilogy of instrumental music albums based on Dante’s Inferno starting in 2009. Apparently there will be three albums released over a 12 month period, so one every 4 months, starting late in 2009, which means the releases will go on into 2010. 
• Electronic music composer David Wright will be performing in the USA in 2009 with guitarist Klaus Cosmic Hoffmann. The first concert will be at the Gathering concerts on Saturday April 18th. Although no further concerts have been announced yet, it is rumoured that a Wisconsin concert is being discussed. 
• The new Robert Fox studio album Evergreen is now available. They call the album a “Majestic tour de force”. Robert Fox is one of the leading UK electronic music composers and he also is -founder of the electronic rock band Code Indigo. 

As a part of the design event Urban Play 2, Droog Design and curator Scott Burnham asked NL Architects to bring in ideas for interactive urban interventions.

One of NL’s contributions is the Boom Bench. 

The Boom Bench features eight 60-watt co-axial speakers and two subwoofers that can be accessed by users through Bluetooth. Sit down on the bench, access the Boom Bench via Bluetooth, and you’ve got a monster size boom box playing your tunes at 95 dB.

Plus, a Bass Shaker in the seat transforms the deep sounds into vibrations to enhance the physical sensation of your tunes. 

The first Boom Bench was placed on the North bank of the River IJ, right in the physical center of Amsterdam. If any of our Amsterdam readers have a chance to check it out, leave a comment and let us know what you think. Read more…

All right you Freaxxx. If you’ve been waiting to make a crappy electronic music video, but you don’t have any money, it’s time to get your video on.

Brokencyde claims to have broken the code. They’ve figured out how to make crappy electronic music videos for $0.00!

Yep - they went DIY and made their video for Freaxxx for no money down!

This video has it all, too:

• nice acid bassline
• sexy scantily clad babes

What? You need more than that?

Here are Brokencyde’s electronic music video secrets:

We want to tell you some facts about our “gay” video:

• We shot this 100% on our own equipment.
• We shot this on a budget of $0.00.
• This was our first project since graduating film school.
• Everybody who worked on this shoot was unpaid therefore we respect EVERYBODY who featured in our video.
• We shot this video in four hours.
• There was no drinking of alcohol on set. The bottle you see seven drinking from….that’s apple juice believe it or not!

Sorry about the homophobic language - but that’s a quote from the Brokencyde guys.

Let me know what you think about Brokencyde’s Freaxxx. And if you’ve made a better electronic music video for $0.00, put a link to it in the comments!

via videogum

I don’t know what to say about this bizarre, not quite steampunk music sequencer! Let me know what you thinks!

SM Pro Audio has announced that the V-Machine hardware VST player is now shipping in the US.

The V-Machine is a compact VST/VSTi hardware playback module designed to take plug-ins on the road or into the studio and access them directly without a computer.

Multiple plug-ins can be loaded into bank/preset memories of the V-Machine for immediate access and combined into chains, splits, and layer. Full external MIDI controller support allows users access to available loaded plug-in parameter controls such as virtual dials, switches, and faders.

Audio is handled by stereo inputs and outputs and a headphone output with dedicated volume control. Three USB connections handle computer transfers of VST applications, streaming of sample content from external hard drives, connection of USB controllers, and copy protection dongles. A MIDI-in jack is also included for the connection of standard MIDI controllers.

V-Machine is available now with an MSRP of $599. Read more…