Drive By Snark...

Musikmesse starts on Wednesday, so naturally all the pre-announcements are rolling out, like they do. I was strongly considering going to Messe this year, but then we decided to go to Hawaii instead, for reasons that should be patently obvious. So like most of you, I admire from a distance. Here’s what we know so far:

1. ProTools 11: The shit I don’t give is apparently only equalled by the shit that Avid doesn’t give. I have to say, though, this is the first time I’ve seen “multiple meter modes” as a leading bullet point. So they’re groundbreaking in that, at least.

2. Nord Lead 4: This synth never did anything for me, and it continues to not do so. If I was in a Cars cover band, I might think differently. But I’m not.

3. MFB Dominion 1: MFB, laughing in the face of the 2-osc onslaught from Korg, Moog, and Arturia, explores the mythical land of the THIRD OSCILLATOR! Behold! All kidding aside, they shoehorned every feature ever in to this little analog. 3 oscs, 3 envs, 3 LFOs, sequencer, two ribbon controllers, aftertouch, full CV I/O. I suppose it could sound shitty, but on specs alone, if you like that sort of thing it is the sort of thing you’ll like.

4. GRP A4: And very similar in specs to the MFB box is the GRP Synthesizer A4. I absolutely love this bit of copy: The Loop EG function enables the conditioned and unconditioned repetition of the envelope, in order to reach particular and temporal articulated sonorities. All my articulated sonorities have been atemporal to this point, so this is a nice development.

5. New Roland Stuff: I was really hoping for a V-Hurdy Gurdy. No such luck. The RC-505 is kind of nifty, I guess. It is the first time someone has made one of these loopers specifically for Reggie Watts. But Mr. Watts seems to be a dyed-in-the-wool EH 2880 user, so good luck getting him to switch, Roland! I guess we’ll just end up with a lot more shaved-head white guys that beatbox, then sing like White Bob Marley over the top. Always a growth market, that.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned all week for more Drive By Snark from your hard-working music tech reporting team at Analog Industries!