With so many of your credit and debit cards available digitally these days, you might be wondering if you still need a physical wallet, but if anything’s going to convince us to hold on to ours, It is MakerProducts’ MIDICard.
MakerProducts makes tools for Makers based in Los Angeles, California, United States has introduced MidiCard, a credit card-sized USB C PCB Midi controller.
Said to be ‘the world’s smallest MIDI controller,’ this 18-note keyboard is barely any bigger than your Visa or Amex, but with its class-compliant USB-C connectivity, can be plugged into pretty much any device you like (iPad, iPhone, Android, PC and Mac) and play anywhere.
The tiny 3.5 x 2 x 0.25 inch footprint has been achieved by putting the keys and other controls directly onto a PCB board. As well as being able to play notes you can also trigger modulation and sustain, as well as choose from three different velocity levels. Should you need to extend the range, there are octave up/down buttons. This is truly a full MIDI keyboard in your wallet.
MIDICard V1 generates MIDI information to use with any DAW such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, or Garage Band. MIDICard V1 does not generate sound on its own.
The first batch of MIDICards has already sold out, but another batch is expected to land on 26 February. You can pre-order now for £50 (£60 if you want the Lightning cable version) via the MakerProducts Etsy page.
Sampling audio from your browser to use in your DAW is not as quick and easy as we would like.
SoundPaste offers an even easier way to sample from your browser than audio routing programs like Blackhole.
Now, a new macOS app called SoundPaste promises to streamline the process even further, making it possible to effectively copy and paste sound from any application and drop it directly into your DAW.
Once SoundPaste is installed, it sits in the background as a menu bar app. When you want to sample something, you can begin recording audio from applications like Safari or Spotify with a single keyboard shortcut. Once you’ve stopped recording using the same shortcut, simply open up your DAW and use another shortcut to ‘paste’ the sample to your DAW’s timeline.
This could be a time-saving game-changer for those who like to sample audio from social media platforms or sites like YouTube and Soundcloud, making a speedy alternative to the somewhat laborious process of copying a link to an MP3 conversion site, downloading the resulting file and opening it up in your DAW.
Samples recorded using SoundPaste can also be accessed via a menu screen which also offers the function to manually hit record or specify an additional input source such as your computer microphone. Here you can specify where your recordings will be stored and customize your keyboard shortcuts.
Priced at $9.99, KLOYTools SoundPaste is available now on the App Store. Find out more on KLOYTools website.
Future Retro has announced that their updated Vectra synthesizer, with firmware 2.0, is now available via dealers and their online store.
The Vectra is a unique digital-analog hybrid synthesizer that features four oscillators, white and pink noise sources, four ring modulators, a four-channel mixer, five LFO’s, six morphing envelopes, six primary multimode analog filter types, a main analog VCA, and numerous internal modulation routings and VCA’s controlling modulation amounts.
The Vectra’s synthesis architecture is designed to allow the greatest flexibility in recreating multiple synthesis techniques of the past, while introducing several new innovations and methods. According to the company, it’s like having a powerful self-contained semi-modular synthesizer, with approximately 500 internal signal routings and around 256 storable sound parameters.
New in Vectra Firmware 2.0:
Randomization over sequencer parameters.
Reset to step 1 of sequencer.
Midi cc control over sequencer parameters.
Midi cc in and out of joysticks.
Sequencer parameter improvement for more convenient usage of features during live performance including keyboard enhancements.
The update also includes bug fixes and a new sound library.
The Future Retro Vectra is available now for $1,599.95.
