Category Archives: Electronic Music

Electronic Music, Guitar Effects, Home Studio

Dynacord Echocord Tape Echo Unit

1960s Dynacord Echocord Super Tape Echo Delay Unit Black S65 Video Demo.

Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super from the 1960s. Great vintage tape echo sounds. Custom DIN to 1/4″ adapter cables included. Due to the age and nature of tape units, it’s being sold as-is. I’ve tested it and it works. See the viedo below.

Comes with a reel of 1/4 inch tape (in good condition). It is provided with a solid wooden box with a carrying handle.

Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – It’s made in Germany.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – A view of the tape loop mechanism, heads and valves.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – It comes with a power cable and the output cable which is 1/4 inch to DIN plug. The power plug has a chip of plastic missing, but it works fine.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – The tape echo device comes with plenty of spare tape to make replacement loops.

This device is available for purchase now. Have a look at the video demo I made of it below.

If you want to buy it or know someone that would be interested, you can contact me here:

echo@zylascope.com

Thanks,

Geoff Williams

morphing animation fractal
Electronic Music, Psychedelic, Relaxation Music

Move To Peace by Zylascope

 

I’m trying to find the author of the animation in this video. The music is a Zylascope track “Move To Peace” off our soon to be released relaxation album New Life Magic Part 2, but I don’t know who made the animation.

I found the animation on Facebook and it didn’t have an author’s name attached. In the post where I found it, many people asked, “who made it?”, but no one knows who made it or how it was made. Well not yet.

Do you have some ideas on how it was made? How would you make it?

If you have any ideas please leave a post at #Zylascope on Facebook. If you like it, let me know.

I put it on my Youtube channel to see if someone can identify the author for me. Please help me to find the author by sharing it and please leave a like or some other reaction. Especially if you don’t like it. How does it make you feel? What does it remind you of?

Enjoy,

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal
Electronic Music, Guitar Effects, Home Studio, Music Gear

Boss SY-1 Guitar Synthesiser Pedal Review

 

The new (2019) Boss SY-1 Guitar Synthesiser Pedal turns your guitar into a synthesizer! No need for a special MIDI pickup and no for an external keyboard or sound module. You just plug your guitar in and turn a knob to select a sound from 11 sound banks. Inside each sound bank there are 11 different sounds (voices). So that’s what the two knobs on the right do.

On the far left is a double knob. It allows you to set the volume of your guitar and the volume of the synth. The second knob in from the left allows you to alter the synthesised sound by changing the depth and rate, also on a double concentric knob.

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal
Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal

As you can see, below the input, there is an input jack for an expression controller. You can add this to alter the effects while you play.

It also has a send and return channel so you can easily connect other effects processing.

There is a switch on the back so that you can use this for bass guitar or 6 string guitar.

The Boss SY-1, like other Roland Boss effects pedals, is made of cast metal and is very robust. It runs on a 9-volt battery and can also run from a 9-volt plug pack.

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal
Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal

When mine arrived recently I was surprised to discover that it came with a new 9-volt alkaline battery.

Thanks and well done Roland. The SY-1 gets 10 out of 10 from me!

I’ve had so much fun playing guitar with this pedal. If you’re going to be locked-down, be locked-down with this pedal.

Order one today, it’s a load of fun and gives you 121 sounds, plus variations, there are even some rhythm and percussive sounds and some arpeggio sequencer-type sounds to give your performance many more colours.

Article by Geoff Williams

edifier speakers black
Electronic Music, Home Studio, Reviews, Tech news

Edifier R1280DB 2.0 – Crystal Clear Home Studio HiFi Bluetooth Speakers

I recently purchased a pair of Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers for my . I bought them on eBay for around $140 AUD ($91 USD) with free delivery in Australia. They are impressive-sounding speakers and are quite small. The dimensions of the speaker boxes are 5.75in x 9.5in x 7in (WxHxD). They contain a 4-inch bass/woofer and 13mm silk dome tweeter. They have a claimed frequency response of 55Hz-20KHz, to my hear I’d say that’s accurate. The power output is 21 Watts per channel. With an excellent signal to noise ratio. I’m used to hearing hum and noise coming out of speakers when there is no music coming out of them, when they’re turned on, idle. But these speakers are perfectly silent at those times.

The Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers are great if you have a home studio or if you are building one.

They have an infrared remote so you can change volume,  switch between inputs conveniently or turn it on or off.

They can accept input from two separate stereo RCA line-in channels, Coax digital, Fibre Optic digital or Bluetooth. They come with a cable to convert from a 3.5-inch plug to RCA line input for smartphones. So they can be used to listen to just about anything from HiFi stereo systems, smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers and many other devices. I’ve been using them with my Microsoft Surface and my Android smartphone and they sound great. Good solid bass and crystal clear top end. And the boxes are decently heavy, in weight, for such a small box. They don’t cause any horrible vibration sounds that I’ve had with plastic PC computer speaker boxes in the past.

I bought them for the purpose of doing the mastering stage of my new album. Because I composed and recorded the album using a pair of PC speakers, that I bought second hand, and a pair of headphones. Neither if those give an accurate idea of how people will listen to it.  You really need good speakers with good frequency response for mastering.

I bought the black ones but they are also available in a wood finish version…

Edifier speakers wooden look
Edifier speakers wooden look

They have controls to adjust EQ. A treble and bass control on the speaker box and can also be adjusted on the remote.

The very best part of the Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers is that they connect to your device via Bluetooth. So no cables, except for the mains power cable of course. There’s also the speaker cable that connects the main powered speaker to the passive one. Bluetooth makes it simple to switch the speakers to another input. In the situation when friends gather for a party they can easily connect their phones and play their songs.

Get your own pair of Edifier R1280DB 2.0 bluetooth speakers from Amazon.

 

 

 

Electronic Music

Cakewalk by BandLab Free Professional DAW

 

Cakewalk is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

Cakewalk has been around a while and has changed owners several times. It was created originally for DOS, starting with version Cakewalk 1.0 in 1987, first developed by Twelve Tone Systems, Inc. Beginning in 1991 it was available on Windows 3.0. At one time it was owned and developed by Roland Corporation and was known as Roland Cakewalk Sonar.

Named after a dance “The cakewalk” or “cake walk”, a mid-19th century dance, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations, in the Southern United States.

The last version of the product featured a piano roll editor, support for limited music notation and a built-in scripting language called CAL (Cakewalk Application Language). Cakewalk was a predecessor of SONAR which had nearly all of the same features, including support for CAL, and was the only major DAW on the market supporting a scripting language.

It contains loads of plugins in for effects processing, soft synths and samplers.

After 30 years, Cakewalk, Inc. ceased operation, with only the company’s web forum and license authorization servers still being kept functional.

On February 23, 2018, Singapore-based BandLab Technologies announced its purchase of some of Cakewalk, Inc.’s assets and all of its intellectual property. BandLab’s stated goal was continued development of the former company’s flagship product, SONAR (now known as Cakewalk by BandLab) as part of its portfolio of freeware digital audio workstation software.

My song Gypsy was done entirely using SONAR. Have a listen and watch the music video here.

I downloaded Cakewalk by Bandlab and tried it out.  The user interface is more refined and easier to work with and overall this free version is much better than the version I paid for in the past.

Cakewalk by Bandlab has been released for free for Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only). Why isn’t it available on the Macintosh? I guess the Mac already has a plethora of digital audio software to choose from.

You can download it for free here.

Electronic Music

Music Production Machine – Make Beats at Home!

New producers-to-be may be constantly scanning the web for a music production machine suitable to their beat creating needs. With the advent of high technology over the past few years, music recording equipment has become increasingly advanced, as well as increasingly easier to use.

This makes things much more stress-free for the layman with no production experience, who just wants to make beats but has no idea where to start. All you need is a music production machine, or interface, that you can wrap your mind around and get used to rather quickly.

Here are some tips to make your introduction to the production interface even simpler:

Grasp the Instrument

If you are a creative person interested in producing hip hop instrumentals, chances are you get ideas for catchy songs in your head all the time. Now, the only problem here is translating what is in your head to the interface itself. 

One difficult hurdle that you are going to have to get past is learning an instrument. If your aim is producing hip hop, focus on learning the keyboard. You may have a sweet synth part playing in your head, but if you can’t translate it on the keyboard, you have nothing!

Learn the Terminology

Nothing makes an interface harder to navigate than not knowing the terminology. 

For example, you may think you have no use for quantization if you have no idea what that word means. However, quantizing your beats gives them proper timing, and keeps them programmed correctly with the song’s beats per minute. It is one of the most important elements to add to your beats!

With these concepts in mind, producing your own beats should now seem like a much smaller hurdle! With the right interface and the proper understanding, you should be well on your way!

Still in the dark about what interface might be right for you? If you are using a Windows-based computer, why not try Fruity Loops or Pro Tools? If you are a Mac user, GarageBand or Logic Studio may suit you perfectly.

Listen to free previews of Zylascope’s Electronic Music in our music store.

www.zylascope.com | Electronic Music

Electronic Music

Music Video Production Tips

1. Storyboard that bad boy, a music video, like a drama, should be planned, even scripted, before you shoot. Flying by the seat of your pants isn’t going to get you where you want to go. Do a little homework. Study music videos and performances featuring music of the same genre and note techniques that impress you. Try to figure out how and why the directors took the shots and made the cuts they did. You don’t have to duplicate what you see, but it won’t hurt to borrow some ideas from the pros.

2. Instruct the singer to sing properly – no half-hearted singing or, worse, miming. If they mumble or mime, it won’t look right when you lay the shots against the song, as the tension and movements of the face and body will not be consistent with the sound of the song. They must sing as if you were making a real recording.

3. Shoot plenty of angles, and make sure that most angles cover the entire song. If you do not shoot enough angles of the whole song, the final feel of your music video might be too slow.

4. One simple and good tip is having GREAT locations, obviously this can be dictated by budget, but sometimes a skyline view or a disused warehouse can give your music video production that big budget feel.

5. A very underrated tip is feeding your crew good food! This can be an easy and achievable way of really picking up everyone’s spirits halfway through a long shoot and getting the best out of them.

Those are my top tips on music video production; I hope they help you as much as they have me.

I’m Mark Wilson the Managing Director for London video production company Phink TV

www.phink.tv

www.twitter.com/phinktv

Related Music Production At Home Tips articles

Listen to free previews of Zylascope’s Electronic Music in our music store.

www.zylascope.com | Electronic Music