One of the things I helped "show off" at the Expo conference was a new controller that I ran across. Actually, *I* didn't run across it - my friend Gregory Taylor did, and had one sent to me. It is the Manta controller...

As I threatened in my last blog entry, I purchased the set of Korg Nano controllers and I shall expound upon them now; with three months of use under my belt, my feelings have changed somewhat, and I've shifted love affairs among them several times - leading to a lasting relationship in one case, and a bad break-up in another.

This article is about my new collection of Korg Nano devices - or it was going to be until my hard drive died.

Please excuse this title, but I need to convey a point: sometimes, it is too easy to be “computer clean” when it would be better to be “humanly messy.” In this case, I’m talking about track automation, and the fact that most people depend on mouse-driven automation curves - even when they don’t do justice to the music.

A quick overview revealed the size of the task: I would have to produce about 4 hours of music, skit material and ambient sound to properly set the mood. In five days. With no wiggle room.