Chad & Pharrell on how to spend $10k on music gear

Here is a nice clip of Chad Hugo & Pharrell Williams from the Neptunes talking about how to get started in music with 'only' $10,000. Their advice: Piano lessons, a ProTools rig and learning to DJ. Obviously, there are cheaper ways to start - like build a studio for $27 or $500 (Warning! Old, dusty links...)
More Neptunes on YouTube: Here is Chad showing you round his studio (Andromeda, Voyager, MicroKorg, and what might be a little Doepfer modular?) Here is Pharrell & Justin Timberlake's studio samba school. Here is a long, rambling studio session with Pharrel, a bored singer and a really irritating cameraman.

Like Waynes' World, but with synth geeks

Here is a video showing the good folk of Gearwire comparing an Roland SH-101 (cheap, plastic, classic collectable) with a Roland SH-201 (cheap, plastic, plain ugly). The good folk of EM411 have been having some fun with memorable phrases from the clip like: "And then you have yer pulsewidth.. it's.. how many times it.. goes back and forth" and "All this other stuff is affecting the signal to make this sound...um...generally the same." More rockin' Gearwire action here and here. (Thanks Steve, and astroid)

The Walkman that makes music from sounds around you

Noah Vawtner is a junior Music Thing hero. He was part of the team who created the Chiclet DSP synth, the PSP Kick drum machine and other cool stuff like the 1 Bit Groove Box. He's just finishing his masters at MIT, and his thesis project was Ambient Addition, a Walkman-sized box with headphones and a microphone. It takes the sound from the microphone and turns it into (roughly) music - putting all the background noise through a vocoder/resonator which is running a chord sequence, and sampling and looping percussive sounds to make drum tracks. Yes, you have to watch the video to make much sense of it, but it's a fantastic idea. (thanks Brian)

Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music

Jon writes: "Hi Tom. The other day, my girlfriend came home with a leaflet for 'Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music'

She knows me too well. We went on a trip to Northleach in the Cotswolds to have a look yesterday. I tell you, this place is fantastic!

Along with the little gift shop, there's a museum packed to the ceiling with all sorts of goodies. They do a tour for £6.50 which lasts an hour and is well worth the trip.

I've got a bit of a thing for music boxes, and there are more here than you can shake a stick at, along with huge beasts from German beer halls and all sorts. We even got to listen to a Steinway player piano, playing Wagner recorded by Rachmaninov. I was like a kid in a sweet shop, and didn't ask half the questions (or take half the photos) I should have, as I was a little bit in awe!.

Highlights include the Midi pipe organ, an early cylinder music box, an Ariston disc-playing symphonium, and the original disc created for the 'Labyrinth' soundtrack, recorded for the film on a player borrowed from the museum.

You've got to go, you'll love it (probably)!"

Guy with no arms plays the guitar

Can't argue with this, can you? And here is the one-armed guy from Def Leppard explaining how he plays the drums (warning: blurry) Meanwhile, here is the endlessly clever Michel Gondry doing a foot-related trick with a Rubiks' cube.
UPDATE: It looks like the guitarist is Mark Goffeney, bassist & singer with Big Toe, who are - by all accounts - excellent. (thanks Rob)

December... Time for Moog new product speculation

Good old Amos - he's the Moog tech support guy (and robot builder and musician) who first mentioned the Little Phatty on a message board. Now, in this interview on an official Moog website, he says:

What’s the most frequently asked question you get from users? “What MoogerFoogers do I need to make my guitar sound like a synthesizer?”

And the answer is… The answer is not any of our current ones, exactly, but we are working on some surprises in that regard...

Is there anything you can tell us about Moog’s next product? I can say it will defy expectations. It will be the most daring and boundary-defying Moog product to date!

What do you think? Moog fuzzbox/filter/envelope follower? Moog hexaphonic fuzz pickup with six-way polyphonic analog filters? A fantastically complicated, expensive and company-bankrupting guitar effect system like the EMS Synthi Hi-Fli (more) or the Arp Avatar? Something completely different? Maybe we'll find out at NAMM in January. (Thanks for the tips, John, get well soon!) (Image from alt-mode)

Dude builds guitar from Wacom tablet

Really nothing to add. It's an old but amazing video of Jon Cambeul's 'Speech Guitar' - basically a Wacom pad and a Max/MSP patch. Here is a nice shot of Jon busking at the Futuresonic festival in Manchester. (Thanks again to Steven, genius of Max geeking)