A few months ago, the internet was blessed with MachineCollective's great idea of a modular MIDI controller. We were very excited at the concept of building our own MIDI controller from pre-prepared cubes of different aspects of live performance. It makes a lot of sense: adapt your controller as your live show/DJ gigs evolve, arrange them in your own personal way depending on how you work and split them up for easy transport to your gigs/shows. Sounds perfect, and they look great to boot.

But, before you smash your piggy bank, here's the real lowdown from Xander at MC:

"The idea behind the Machinecollective project is to help people that are into DIY, synths, physical computing and circuitbending with nice and flexible project enclosures. The modules can function as a modular control surface, but users will have to create the electronics themselves. People can collaborate on these types of projects, we would like to see our forums and wiki become the hub of these developments. Custom panels can be laser-cut on demand for a small extra fee, so nobody should have an excuse for building a nice circuit or synth into a cardboard box ever again

So to answer your question, we're not planning on directly supporting ableton or other DAW applications, but we will support user contributed projects with our prototyping, engineering and electronics knowledge."

Ah! So close! Of course, for those of you who are handy with a soldering iron, the dream described above could still be a reality, but for the rest of us, we'll have to wait until this awesome idea is brought to life on the shelves. It is still a great idea of course, and the units look fantastic, we just wish, for a little more of our cash, we could get everything pre-assembled and ready to control in our own unique way in no time. What do you think?

Once again it's time for us to deliver a sneak peak of Future Music's next 'In the Studio' video.

FM recently spent the day in the studio with The Wideboys – the kings of Bassline – who showed us how they produced their House track Snowflake and created the awesome Bassline version too.

In the next issue of FM you'll find a massive feature on the guys and their gear, plus a full video of them building both of the mixes mentioned above. To help yourself to a teaser of the video just click below, and don't forget you can get the whole thing along with all our great content by purchasing the latest issue of Future Music.

FM204 is on sale 01/08/08

We're about to head over to Finland to check out some of the musical delights at the awesomeIlosaarirock in Joensuu. If you're going also, then drop us an email at futuremusic@futurenet.co.uk. So far we're cuing up interviews with Common, Mogwai, Venetian Snares and Ozric Tentacles!

See you on the other side!

So, the lovely bass playing bear from Focusrite/Novation just popped in to our office and brought us some Ableton Beer!!!
This celebrates Focusrite/Novation's new distrobution of the popular DAW software. Nice!

Here is a sneak preview of this months 'In the Studio' video.
FM spent the day in the studio with Top Producer TommyD as he showed us the key to inspiration in your music and how to get that great vocal take. You can get the whole of this video along with all the usual great content by purchasing FM 203
On sale today!

FM 203 hits shelves on 4th July and, as always, it's packed with unmissable content. This month our main technique feature covers the elusive Mid/Side recording technique. Discover the theories and science behind this incredibly valuable technique before learning all the how-to's of mic placement and setup. Master the most effective stereo recording technique and listen to the results with our comprehensive DVD content, covering all angles of this unmissable method. Only in FM 203.

Our artist coverage is as cutting-edge as always. Interviews with Digitalism, Alex Patterson of the Orb, Junkie XL and big league super-producer Tommy D, who's worked with everyone from Kanye West, Jay-Z and Janet Jackson to Corinne Bailey Rae and KT Tunstall. FM 203 also comes loaded with our usual high-quality reviews and of course, the most up-to-date gear news and previews.

FM 203 – on sale July 4th.

LEIPZIG
This hot new synth from our friends at Analogue Solutions looks like it could be a corker. Rack mounted with lovely analogue circuits and wooden bits, it has everything we look for in retro-tastic synthesis, plus a few modern touches to boot!

Pure analogue voice circuitry.
Fat Moog style filter.
2 VCOs with Glide and Sub-VCOs.
Plenty of modulation routing possibilities.
Extra tone controls and circuits for more sound variety e.g. LFO, CrossMod.
Rugged steel construction and 'vintage' wood design.
MIDI In for software sequencer control.


At £549 (exc. tax and delivery) it could be a boutique bargain!

There's a full keyboard version coming soon aswell! Check out the pic of the Leipzig-k in progress below...

Future Music 202 hits your shelves tomorrow (6th June). This issue is jam packed full of our usual tutorials and reviews as well as artist interviews with Goldfrapp, Midnight Juggernauts and François K with House-master Matt Schwartz's comprehensive 10-part production tutorial on the DVD, one of our biggest and best to date. We also have an in-depth interview with Stock Aitken Waterman's secret weapon Phil 'Mixmaster' Harding, who talks about his 35 years experience in the music business.

Our reviews section is as jam-packed as ever, with the world exclusive review of Use Audio's Plugiator (more on that later), the comprehensive studio tool, Akai MPD32, the ultimate DJ gadget, Tonium's Pacemaker and the reworked classic, the Akai SR18 and much much more.

Also in FM202, we explore how to speed up your music making, and the make the most of your time in both the home and professional studio. Stop auditioning sounds, stop tweaking the same four-bar loop over and over and finish those tracks that have been gathering dust on your hard drive. Stop wasting time and start making great music.

Plugiator



Use Audio's Plugiator is the ultra-affordable, ultra-sleek hardware/software hybrid synth. Take these super-synth plug-ins on the road in a portable and controllable unit, or connect it into your studio and use the onboard DSP to run the classic synth emulations on board, without taxing your main machine. A very exciting product and you can read the full-scoop, and hear the reults on our DVD, only in Future Music.

If you haven't already seen this then you HAVE to investigate. This has to be one of the best online music apps we've ever seen! Play with all the drum machines and synths in real-time and patch them together through the available Boss-esque effects – genius! If the magazine comes out late this month, we place all the blame on this online app!!!

www.hobnox.com

The heading might sound like a scam by a particularly cruel spam bot, but the cruelest thing in all of this is that it seems to be very true. Freecycle London was bombarded over the weekend when a particularly generous chap posted an ad to "get rid of quite a bit of equipment suitable for budding musicans who do not mind if the stuff is quite old. I'm not too sure if anyone wants this antiqueted stuff... quite bashed yamaha CS-80 (though in need of a bit of restoration it works)minimoog, which seems better preserved".

Apprently the response was "amazing" but it still had to go for free. Right now, there's some very jammy folk playing their Minimoog and CS-80s with a huge grin on their face. Watch Freecycle's registration skyrocket, but unless you're willing to sit through 900 emails a week about toasters looking for a good home, I'm going to go all out and claim that this is never going to happen again. Pick up your jaw from the floor and move on...arrrrg!

via music thing

We've just shipped off a shortlist to the mighty Freemasons so they can choose a winner of the remix competition for their album track Pacific we ran back in December 2007 (FM195). As you can see, listening to hundereds of versions of the same track can be a bit of a mind-fryer – but nothing a few coffees and Red Bull couldn't iron out.
Thanks to everyone one that entered. The selection was of such a high standard you didn't make our jobs any easier. Official winner announcement in FM203, August.

Here's a peek at our next issue
On Sale 6th June

Here at FM we've just got back from the incredible Springfestival in Graz, Austria. We managed to speak to some incredible people and cue up some exiciting stuff for the future issues of FM! Expect to see Arabian Prince aka Professor X, Egyptian Lover, Busy P (head of Ed Banger Records and Daft Punk's Manager!) DJ Mehdi, Discocaine aka Marflow, Josh Wink, Robert Owens, Punks Jump Up!, Roni Size, plus so many more!



It has to be said that a personal FM highlight wasn't artist related at all, as every day we headed over to the Synthesizer Park where we spent hours jamming on the collection of rare analogue synths! With so many beautiful sounding instruments to play on there just want enough hours in the day! Over 3000 people past through Graz's Kunsthaus to try these beauties! Expect to see more detail on this incredible collection in the next FM!

For now, here's a YouTube Preview from the guys at Austria's RadioFM4

MySpace and Mars Planets are on the search for aspiring radio presenters, as they launch a brand new radio show entitled MySpace Mars Planets Radio. But Best of all for us Music Making bods, it could be a chance to get some exposure for your tunes. The weekly, hour-long show will start from Thursday 12th June at 7pm and will be hosted by DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane plus a a co-presenter chosen from the deepest depths of MySpace.

Bands and musicians are also asked to submit tracks to be considered for the weekly playlist – with the potential of being heard by some of the 9-million registered users in the UK. The show will feature music from MySpace bands, the latest news on what’s happening on the site and lots of banter between Mr Zane and that week’s co-presenter. How well they do will be crucial because at the end of each show users will vote whether they should ‘stay’ or ‘go’. head over to uk.myspace.com/myspacemarsplanetsradio for more info.

We've previously pestered you to get involved with Digidesign's Pro Tools Music Creation events but here's one last shot to make sure you don't miss out. The London event (on Wednesday 28th May) is all booked up but there's still a few places free at the...Read More