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The new Boss BR-600 is a compact, battery powered, 8 track digital recorder that records to compact flash.

The Boss BR-600 includes:

• Built in drum machine with velocity sensitive pads
• Built in stereo mics
• 64 Virtual tracks
• Variety of effects

The BR-600 comes with adapters for XLR mics to its 1/4" input. This unit is so small there's not even room for a standard XLR input.

The Boss BR-600 lists for around $450. You can get more info at the Roland website. Check it out.

Open Labs showed their prototype of the New MiKo at NAMM 2006.  The MiKo is a self contained workstation with a Windows PC, touchscreen, 37 note keyboard, 4 in/6out audio interface, DVD burner, firewire, USB, ethernet, and an optional 64 bit dual-core AMD CPU. What? No 4 wheel drive?

Jeeze, the Open Labs MiKo sounds like an amazing little whatchamacallit. So will it do Excel spreadsheets too? The MiKo starts at around $2000.  Read More »

I love the internet. With today's technology and some bandwidth you can have a band that includes you on guitar, a drummer in iceland, a bassplayer in L.A., a singer from Prague, and keyboards from Amsterdam.

eJamming allows musicians in different locations to jam together remotely in real time. eJamming uses live voice and video transmission so musicians can speak and see one another, and allows MP3 files of finished jams to be shared.  Read More »

Gramma is coming over for a visit, make sure you wash behind your ears. Not that kind of Gramma. Auralex has a product called the Gramma. Gramma stands for Gig and Recording, Amp and Monitor, Modulation Attenuator. Pretty impressive name for just a thing that goes under your amp.

The Auralex Gramma is an isolation riser created to float an amp or loudspeaker. The Gramma will hold up to 300 pounds and it yields nearly total acoustic isolation, resulting in a purity of tone.  Read More »

The new M-Audio ProjectMix I/O is a control surface with motorized faders and 18 x 14 audio interface, 8 preamps and a LCD display.

The ProjectMix I/O boasts seamless integration with all major DAW software. All software? Hmmm. I wonder? ProjectMix should be compatible with Pro Tools, Ableton Live 5, Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer and SONAR. Any software that supports Mackie Control, Logic Control or HUI protocol.  Read More »

If you are looking for an affordable piece of software for your home studio, try n-Track Studio. For the price this thing has everything.  Read More »

The PreSonus Inspire 1394 is another portable recording solution. Everyone and their brother seems to have a portable interface now. Long gone are the days when you need a desktop, everything can be done on your laptop now.

The Inpsire 1394 has microphone, instrument, keyboard and phono (turntable) inputs as well as a complete suite of recording software included.

PreSonus boasts that each member of the band can have an Inspire 1394 for personal recording, and then later they can daisy-chain up to four units together.  Read More »

Lexicon Omega Desktop Recording Studio is a completely integrated computer recording system that includes the Omega 8x4x2 USB I/O Mixer, Steinberg’s Cubase LE audio and MIDI recording software, and Lexicon’s Pantheon VST Reverb plug-in.

An 8-input, 4-Bus, 2-output USB I/O mixer with inserts, instrument input, MIDI I/O and complete metering and monitoring functions allows you to record up to 4 tracks at once and mix without additional mixing hardware.

The Lexicon Omega includes:  Read More »

Everyone spends thousands on recording gear and instruments but nobody ever thinks about acoustics. Sure you may be getting decent recordings in your concrete basement, but could it be better?

Yes, it can. Over the next few weeks I plan on covering some of the basics of acoustics. I'd like to take some of the mystery out of standing waves, flutter echo, reflections, bass issues and everything else that keeps you from getting that great mix.  Read More »