Novation are soon going to release a new range of compact USB MIDI controllers based on their more advanced (and expensive) ReMOTE Series. This is exciting — a really good controller keyboard should be all the hardware you need to make a lot of music (along with several gigs of appropriate software). And these look pretty good, especially with both a joystick and a touchpad as well as many knobs and a decent keyboard. As a bonus, you also get a copy of the Novation Bass Station soft synth. I remember the classic hardware Bass Station when it came out — beatifully designed, both in form (sexy blue keyboard) and function. I’d love a shiny new ReMOTE LE 25, but it looks as if I will have to wait till September. (more…)

The MZ-M100 and MZ-M10 Portable Audio Recorders breathe new life into an old format. Remember the MiniDisc? Me neither. I thought they had pretty much died, but Sony has resurrected the format by improving it (more storage, no lossy compression) and releasing some portable recorders. Perhaps they already have others in their range, but these two new ones may be worth a look when they are released next month. (more…)

M-Audio has announced shipment of their MicroTrack mobile digital recorder. Think of it as a recording iPod. It records 2 24-bit channels at 96kHz to CompactFlash aas WAV or MP3 files. It has the inputs you might expect, including phantom power for microphones. Looks interesting if you need this level of recording quality, but there are recording MP3 players out there that fulfil the basic function. (more…)

The R-1 Portable 24-Bit WAVE Recorder & Player looks like a very nice device for field or live recordings. The best thing is that is has almost everything you could want in one smallish box — it’s (just) small enough to fit in your hand. It has built in stereo mics, and onboard effects if you need to tweak the sound. (more…)

The USB Phono Plus is a USB audio interface with a standalone Phono preamplifier. This looks really useful for plugging your turntable into your computer, and since it’s also a regular audio interface it will have more general use too. I need one of these so I can finally do something digital with my small but perfectly formed 12″ vinyl collection. (more…)

Sometimes you hear (or write) a piece of music and think, “it’s good, but it just seems to lack a certain something.” Well, finally there is a clever piece of audio engineering that can add that “certain something” to your music! (more…)

Pocket Lint gave quite a positive review to the StikAx. However, this was mostly because they liked the TrakAx software that comes with it — they thought the controller itself didn’t really add much to the package. (more…)

“Mixing decent tunes with this is about as easy as mixing cement with a toothpick.”

T3 Magazine has reviewed the Ministry of Sound StikAx. Many people like the StikAx for its innovative styling and emphasis on simplicity. But not T3. They basically think it’s a piece of junk. They don’t like the hardware quality, the design, the software or even the samples, which they think are 15 years out of date. The end of the review sums it up: “It all adds up to a very disappointing experience.”

The Ministry of Sound StikAx is a handheld controller for live mixing of music and video. The concept is similar to the music mixing games available for various game consoles, except that it looks like a retro sci-fi ray gun. It’s obviously not a serious musician’s tool, but would be fun to have lying around. It might even be useful for musical brainstorming (more…)