Results for toys

Loopmasters has released Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3, a collection of twisted beats and deformed audio sickness guaranteed to deliver a fresh bout of insanity to any production.

Back once again from the electronic surgery of the Circuitbenders labs, the products of an unholy alliance between soldering iron and sampler return to unleash another unhealthy dose of audio terrorism upon your unsuspecting senses!

From a cut-price drum toy to the mighty Roland SH101, nothing is safe from circuitbenders.co.uk attentions, with every machine being treated with an equally relaxed concern for its basic rights to bring you this unique set of sounds.

Stepping outside of normal methods of synthesis and audio production to unlock the true potential of an otherwise ordinary bit of hardware is the circuitbenders technique, All the machines used on this release have been rewired and abused to operate far beyond their normal design limits, enabling them to produce all those sounds that the original designers either fought to avoid or just never dreamed possible.

Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3 features

• Over 650Mb of content, comprising of over 758 samples, 283 Loops and 475 Single Sounds.
• 209 Drum Loops, 74 Sound Loops, and 22 Sounds and FX from a simply huge collection of circuit bent toys, drum machines and instruments of all types:
  • Includes old school drum machines given a new lease of life in the form of the rare Akai XR10, the Yamaha RX7, Korg DDD1, Casio RZ1 sampling drum machine, Boss DR550 and the legendary Roland TR707, along with a host of esoteric electronic devices and toys supplying extra beats.
  • Modified keys and synths include the analogue Roland SH101, the MFOS weird sound generator, Yamaha PSS270, Casio SA5, Rocktek Delay pedal and the favourite of every lofi musician and circuit bender, the Casio SK1 sampler.
  • Rewired kids toys including Early Leaner shapes toy, Letterland toy, Bongon electronic bongos, VTech Talking Alfie teddy bear, Little Tykes guitar, Mix Me DJ toy and the classic Texas Instruments Speak & Read and Speak & Write toys amongst many others.
• 22 ready to play patches for all the most popular software samplers including Reason’s NNXT, Halion, Kontakt, EXS and SFZ.
• Acidised Wav, Rex2 and Apple Loop formats are all available.

Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3 is available to purchase for £19.95 GBP.

More information: Loopmasters / Circuit Bent Sounds Vol. 3

Audio Ease has updated released version 2.0.3 of the Mac version of Speakerphone, a speaker emulation effect plug-in for Windows and Mac.

A bad GSM connection on a busy sidewalk, a bullhorn with feedback and a helicopter overhead, or a 1952 rockabilly guitar amp in a recording studio live room: The Speakerphone audio plug-in gives you authentic speakers of any size together with their natural environments.

Changes in Speakerphone v2.0.3 (Mac)

• When “Mute on Stop” is on, the telecom module also mutes.
• Bypass not saved anymore in Automation Presets.
• [AU] MIDI works now.
• [AU] in Logic: Plugin windows sticks to its frame now.
• [Live] Presets window floats on top of the plugin window.
• [VST] offline processing window can access presets window.
• Avid Media Composer compatibility.
• [Cubase 5] sample bay works again.
• [PT] choosing a Pro Tools presets writes automation.
• [PT] Compare works again.
• [PT] adjustments of automation data is correct now.
• [Audiosuite] no remaining of previous preview in rendered audio.

Speakerphone 2.0.3 is now availabe to download for Mac. The Windows update will follow up soon.

More information: Audio Ease / Speakerphone

Mark Batty Publisher has announced Toy Instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music, a book written by the German author/toy instrument aficionado Eric Schneider.

Toy Instruments comprises an eye-popping collection of musical toys from around the world made between the 1950s and today. Culled from author Eric Schneider’s personal collection, Toy Instruments is the first book to explore this niche of the toy industry doing so with an informative and humorous approach. With an intro from the author and a foreword from world-renown experimental electronic and hip-hop musician Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, the book collects the toy instruments you may remember from your past, and the wacky ones you’ll find hard to believe ever existed.

From the late 70s to the early 80s, the heyday of these bleeping, chirping, thrumming and keening devices, while children were busy driving their parents crazy with battery-powered sounds, adults were incorporating the unique tones into the earliest samples of electronic music and techno. And, just as dazzling as the cacophony of sounds produced by these toys are the designs of the toys, as well as their packaging. Made all over the world, the predominately gender-neutral design applied to the products and packaging is at times more fascinating than the toys.

Toy Instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music is available to purchase for $19.95 USD.

More information: Mark Batty Publisher

Univers Sons / Ultimate Sound Bank has announced the release of Acoustic Toy Museum, a collection of sampled toy instruments.

For the first time, hundreds of musical toys were used to create a magical and unique sound library that will add innocence and freshness into your productions. Deeply multi-sampled in 24 bits / 96 kHz and meticulously recorded in the very best conditions using world-class microphones and Class-A equiment, each instrument sounds authentic and soulful.

Acoustic Toy Museum features

• Toy Pianos and Keys — By far, this is the most complete selection of Toy Pianos around the word, featuring the famous Michelsonne pianos, rare wood pianos and other keyboards.
• Xylo and Metal — A fair amount of xylophones and metallophones, sanza, and Clavi-Harp.
• Children Bells — Simple bells, key-triggered bells, and chimes.
• Toy Guitars — Two small guitars and two ukuleles. Multisamples, chords and loops expertly played in various tempo and for every key, so you can play riffs in any song.
• Music Boxes — An Aladdin’s cave of music boxes! From old and crispy models, to the most clean with typical tones. Presets with different samples randomly played for every note are included for the classic models.
• Baby Drums — Two different drum sets, a children school one and a very cheap cardboard one, both recorded in a professional studio and played with talent by a monster studio session drummer.
• Baby Percussions — More than a dozen different percussions to cover a wide-range of needs. Loops played by an excellent percussionist also included.
• Melodicas and co — Along with the prominent melodicas, you’ll find other reed instruments like accordions and harmonicas.
• Blow Toys — Recorders, whistles, tiny trumpets… basically anything that can be blown into.
• Musical Gadgets — Everything that couldn’t be sorted: from the giggle stick to the puzzling boom whackers.
• Ancient Automates — Animated plush animals with ancient looks.
• Kindergarten — Warning: you must at most be 36-month old to play with this category. Roly-poly toys, moo boxes, play centers, everything the youngests need.

Acoustic Toy Museum is now available to purchase for $349 USD (includes the full version of UVI Workstation).

More information: Ultimate Sound Bank / Acoustic Toy Museum

Some interesting things I found recently:

# MidiFighter Kit

Ean Golden at djtechtools writes:

I am pleased to announce that in 2 weeks time we will be selling DIY MidiFighter kits in the web-store. This kit will be the first incarnation of our brand new controller line that allows several different levels of customization. Everything from creating original color combos to adding more analog interfaces and customizing the open-source firmware is possible with this exciting new tool.

MidiFighter Kit

MidiFighter kit details

• Release Date: November 30th.
• Price: Aprox $125 for the Kit + Arcade Buttons ($2.50 each) optional wood case- $40.
• Plug and Play-compatible device, compliant MIDI controller.
• USB powered.
• Must be assembled (no expertise required).
• 16 programmable buttons.
• 16 programmable LEDs.
• Expandable to 20 programmable buttons and 4 analog controls.
• Limited-edition 200-piece run in this configuration (black PCB with blue LEDs).

… read more

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Toy Piano Rescue Project

Ranjit Bhatnager bought a toy piano on eBay, but it got damaged in transport.

For Awesome August I'm trying to make something of this ebay toy piano that got smashed by UPS. The music is Philip Glass's "Modern Love Waltz," inspired by toy pianist Margaret Leng Tan. (I used it previously)

More info: Ranjit Bhatnager / Awesome August

… read more