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About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Make Music on your iPad: Arturia iMini App


Just days ago the legendary saintjoe told us that his iPad was the one piece of hardware that he couldn't live without.  Well, fresh off the back of that revelation and recent releases including this and this, here's further proof - if any was needed - that the iPad is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to making music: Arturia's take on the iconic Minimoog.  

Arturia's Mike Hosker shows us what it can do:


From the guys themselves:
...iMini is based on the TAE® (True Analog Emulation) synthesis technology found in Arturia’s award-winning Mini V soft synth, meticulously modelling the distinctive tones and analogue nuances of the legendary Seventies-vintage Minimoog Model D monosynth. Moog changed the musical world with the Minimoog and Arturia helped change the music software world with the Mini V.
Arturia now brings the still-sought-after classic Minimoog sound to the musical masses, transforming any iPad mini, iPad 2, or iPad with Retina display into the ultimate analogue synth emulation! Those timeless three oscillators and that 24dB per octave fabled filter are all present and accounted for in iMini. It also successfully sports the look and feel of Dr Bob Moog’s namesake iconic synthesizer for all to see (and hear). But being a game-changing iPad app for 2013 and not an analogue synth design dating back to 1970 means there’s a whole lot more to iMini than first meets the eye...

Any serious synthesizer connoisseur will instantly recognise the MAIN mode screen as an eye-catching rendering of the Minimoog Model D front panel, albeit with welcome additional ‘analogue’ CHORUS AMT. and DELAY AMT. level controls, as well as a POLY switch for playing polyphonically — impossible in 1970, obviously! Other subtle supplements include a gearwheel icon above the keyboard — press to reveal GLIDE, DECAY, LEGATO, and SCROLL switches for performance keyboard control, plus a SCALE function to choose from no fewer than 26 different scales and modes. Meanwhile, iMini comes complete with hundreds of superb sounds showcasing its supreme sonic versatility; press LOAD from the menu bar and choose from sound designer or category — couldn’t be simpler!
In addtion, for every iMini sold, Arturia will make a donation to The Bob Moog Foundation.

Always on the ball, my friend Corry has already put the the app through its paces for bboytechreport.com.  Check out what he has to say here

So, what do you guys think of the iMini? What do you think of iPad music making apps in general? 



Popular posts from this blog

About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Learn How to Play D'Angelo's 'How Does it Feel': Piano Couture

Barely a week goes by without me playing 'Voodoo' at some point and with it, a desire to learn how to play 'How Does it Feel'.   This tutorial video by youtube user pianocouture is one of the best 'how to play' videos I have seen for the classic track.   I think that instructional videos like this are good for two main reasons.  Reason one: obviously, a learner player will gain confidence and enjoyment from learning a favourite song of theirs.   Reason two: Even if a beatmaker has no desire to learn to play the keyboard, but wants to create a loop or a riff (a feeling) similar to 'How Does it Feel', what better way to, than playing the song itself (or similar sounds), sampling it and chopping it up? Either way, this is a great tutorial video.  I've subscribed to Piano Couture's youtube page and, if you are looking to get your key game up, I suggest you do too ;) Related Posts: ?uestlove talks new D'Angelo, J Dilla Video: youtube.com/user/pian

Objects In Orbit 'Panoramas'

REVIEW :  The New Beatmaker favourite changes his name, hones his craft on potential best album of 2020 Producer, Sound Engineer, Musician and Videographer Objects In Orbit has been a favourite of the site since 2013. Whilst there is not a single bad project in the catalogue of the artist formerly known as Evil Alex, he has evolved and improved almost constantly from one project to the next. He is a master of sonic suspense with many of his projects sounding perfectly at home in an art installation or art-house cinema. His trademark style mixes hip hop born sample-based techniques and 4/4 beat composition along with jazz influenced time signatures and experimentation. He often incorporates eerie, industrial stylings and at times dissonant tones.  Whilst predominantly instrumental, Objects In Orbit finely weaves into layers of musical samples either long stretches of dialogue, which make the listener feel as though they are eavesdropping on private conversation, or snip