SynthWise

The Kircher Society report here about this alarming Victorian device, designed to stretch the hands of aspiring pianists: "According to one source, Robert Schumann permanently wrecked his right hand and ended his career using an early version of one of these contraptions. (Other sources blame a botched surgical procedure aimed at slicing the tendon between the third and fourth fingers)" It's good to know that finger stretching is still practised today, according to eBay item #7424167048.

So, the MPC-500 is now up on the Akai site with full specs, and Harmony Central, which drops the small bombshell of the price: $1,299 (see updates below). Yes, that's $300 more than the street price for a new MPC1000 (and just $200 less than the list price). If that price sticks (and HC aren't just wrong), you'll need to be either a) Really, really keen to carry your MPC about or b) Insane to buy one of these. And damn, that screen looks awful. In a world where you can buy mp3 players with full colour OLED screens for £25 on eBay, it's just embarrassing. (Thanks, Roger from Viper Fantastic)

Once again, Moogulator gets the scoop on Creamware's new Klangbox range, which are the essentially the ASB range of little hardware emulations of vintage synths (Pro 5, Arp 2600, MiniMoog, Hammond B3), in 1U boxes without any knobs. I'm not sure that doesn't completely defeat the object of these things (why not just use a VST?) but there's something imposing about those blank rack panels.

So here it is. The first shots of the MPC-500 pocket-sized sampler/drum machine have leaked to the MPC Forums. It has twelve pads. Runs off 6xAA batteries. Stereo ins and outs on 1/4" jacks. Nice MPC-2500 style cursors, which are missing from the MPC1000. No word yet on sample time, or storage, although a CF card seems likely.

Amin wrote to me about his friend Aboozar. Aboozar lives in Mashhad, Iran's second city, close to the borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. It's a pilgrimage centre, built around an enormous shrine.

Rumour mills are turning, and it looks pretty likely that Akai will be launching an MPC-500 in the not-to-distant future. It's not a new rumour - GearJunkies reckoned it would be announced at MusicMesse 2005, back before the MPC2500 was launched. The message board concensus seems to be that it will be smaller, cheaper, and less powerful than the MPC1000. There are certainly corners to be cut - the 1000 has six outputs, digital ins and outs, hard drive support, a chunky metal case with a built-in PSU - so it might be possible to produce a cheaper, maybe plastic, maybe DJ oriented unit. In March 2006, Numark/Akai registered MPC500.com, and last week Matrix reported that NovaMusic now have a product page saying: "BREAKING NEWS!!New ultra portable MPC available late October" and taking pre-orders, quoting a price of $1099, reduced to $799. This seems steep, considering used MPC1000s go for $600 on eBay US. If you know any more, please get in touch. And if you created this splendid MPC/PSP mashup, thank you!

Doug writes: "I liked the Kaoss Pad Guitar very much. I like complete control over my digital music and I have built two guitars that do just that. One controls midi parameters, the other uses a usb interface into max/msp." Doug's page is here, with some noise-tastic sound samples here.

This is the new thing from Frontier (the people behind the popular Tranzport wireless controller, who also designed Tascam's nicer recent interfaces). Alphatrack is a USB controller with a single motorised fader, 3 touch sensitive knobs, transport and other controls, and a ribbon controller for scrubbing back and forwards through the track ("Use one finger on it to move the scrub through your project's timeline, and two fingers to jump in and out of shuttle mode.").

Remember when Dr Ben discovered Radionics Machines - pseudoscience gizmos that looked like vintage syntns? Now Amos has found the software equivalent. Voice Sync is a $35 bundle of Radionics programs, which can do things like taking star patterns from Kitt Peak National Observatory and turning them into "ancient drum rhythms of different types".