Gear lust is running rampid this holiday season, at least for editors of From the Patch Bay. While its typical to wish for the latest and greatest microphones, mixing consoles, and live sound reinforcement items, the child inside all of us can’t help but to want for anything with a thousand knobs, buttons, and faders - especially in the pursuit of tweaking a sound. Sorry, Neumann.

Synthesizers.com is offering a entry-level purchase plan for building your own modular synth system. For $120 a month for 12 months, the company will send you a 22-Space cabinet, power supply, cable harness, and eight modules, all timed to be delivered at the pace you build the foundation of your first modular cabinet system. Modules include power control, multiples, MIDI interface, oscillator, envelope, amplifier, state-variable filter (frequency and resonance), and 4-channel mixer and will accept MIDI commands from any MIDI keyboard or PC-based MIDI controller.

After you have completed the initial round of module installation, you still have 10 cabinet slots open for adding your choice of additional modules to satisfy the likely addiction you have now acquired.

The company has also release a beta version of SynthInvent, a free Windows-based program that allows users to experiment with drag-and-drop synthesizer system configurations.

The Texas Music Office will be holdin songwriters’ conference from January 4th thru Jan 6th in Austin, TX featuring panel discussions with artists and publishers including Bob Cheevers, Kimmie Rhodes, Brandi Warden, Ruth Ellsworth, and Cash Edwards. For more information visit www.austinsongwritersgroup.com.

From the Texas Music Office:
I thought you might be interested to know that there is a songwriters conference on Jan 4 thru 6. There will be classes on writing, rewriting, cowriting and every aspect of the business we can think of. There are panels with Bob Cheevers on connecting with Europe, a panel of artists and publishers on publishing, a panel on “women in the arts” with Kimmie Rhodes, Brandi Warden, Ruth Ellsworth,and Cash Edwards. We are supported by BMI and the Nashville Songwriting Assn. this year and they have sent publishers, pitchers, record company exec. and artists for us. We will have show cases in the evening on Friday and Sat night and there will be places to pitch to buyers all day Sat and Sun. We have mini concerts with the songwriter/instructors like Allen Shamblin, Sonny throckmorton, Monte Warden, Bill Carter, Kimmie Rhodes and more. We have picking rooms open at night that are hosted by the instructors who will be playing and singing along with your songs. …and networking of all kinds. We have publishers, song pitchers, record company owners and execs. , house concert owners, venue owners, bookers, media, and more there to see you and hear your songs. The whole event is 150 dollars for everything…plus 35 dollars if you want to have a twenty minute showcase. Please check out www.austinsongwritersgroup.com for more information. If you have any questions you can call 512-203-1972.

Most artists enlist animators, graphic designers, and lighting technicians to add visual depth to their live performances. Ben Lewry incorporates a bit of recycling mentality and innovative craftsmanship to create one of the most vivid guitar customizations I have seen to date.

Check out this video for a peek at the LCDetar - a guitar built around a recycled laptop computer monitor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMSlmB7bW_w]


I managed to make it through Black Friday without any incident. My credit card balances are still in check and there hasn’t been any miraculous must-have deals that would cause me to deplete my savings (yet). Wake up at 4:00 am to get $40 off the price of a TV? I think not. All was fine until a coworker walked in the office with a new personal digital recorder. A serious case of the wants immediately arrived after one look at the shiny gadget.

The shopping season is here. Let the iwannas, ineedas, and igotstahavas begin!

Samson’s Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. This portable stereo recorder is perfect for musicians seeking to monitor their live performance or electronica junkies on the lookout for a portable device to capture samples for quality playback. The H4 features 24-bit/96 kHz audio with MP3 formatting up to 320kbps. The built-in condenser microphones are configured for studio recording, or you can opt to utilize the two combination XLR-1/4-inch input jacks with phantom power for external microphones. The device records to an 128mb SD card (included with purchase) and can capture 360 minutes of audio recorded in CD quality. That is, if you opt to expand to a 2GB CD card. It can also operate as a 4-track recorder and audio interface. With all the included features, it can be a bit complicated to operate… but I’m not scared. Bring it on. The Zoom H4’s price ranges between $240 - $300.

Marantz PMD660 - Similar to the Zoom H4, Marantz Professional’s PMD660 sports 2 built-in condenser mics, XLR inputs with phantom power, and transfers files via USB. The device operates up to four hours on four AA batteries and records to compact flash media cards. The PMD660 can record up to “one-and-a-half CDs worth” of 16-bit linear audio at 44.1khz or 48khz on a 1GB card. Why they don’t just say, “100 minutes of recording time on a 1GB card,” is beyond me. The device also comes with a “virtual track” mode that lets you create up to 99 virtual tracks by playlisting audio segments without altering the original audio file. The PMD660’s price ranges between $470 - $550.

Edirol R-09 - Edirol’s 24-bit/48kHz portable recorder can be purchased in red, white, or black, and features built-in stereo condenser mic, mic and line audio inputs (no phantom power), file transfer via USB, and MP3 recording up to 320 kbps. The Edirol R-09’s price ranges between $350 and $450.