Alesis Midi Trigger Delayed?

For all those musicians waiting for the much anticipated Alesis Midi trigger, it appears as if it has once again been delayed. According to Musician's Friend, this item should ship in February. The reason for much of the hype of this product lies in it's ultra low cost, and power (up to 10 triggers in this single unit). For musicians building their own version of Roland V Drums, this unit would bypass the need to buy two smaller Roland Triggers in order to activate most of your drum pieces. Stay tuned to see when this product actually ships. I find it a bit scary that the product image itself appears to be a computer generated image! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Professional Mixing and Editing in a Small Package

Are you a musician who has a nice collection of digital recording gear (computer, Pro Tools/Cubase, Nice Micophones) and you are sick and tired of using that old fashion and wrist breaking mouse to do all of your editing. This device (which ships in January of 2007) is right up your musical alley. Don't be deceived by it's small profile. The Alphatrack provides automated mixing with all of the most important recording controls at your fingertips. It is USB operated and needs no other power supply. Also the touch bar at the bottom of the unit allows you to scroll left and right through your recording software. See their page for some demos and a nice video.

Guitar Rig Delivers Big

Native Instruments Guitar Rig Program delivers in a big way. For those unfamiliar with this program, it is perhaps one of the most popular and respected guitar software processing programs around. I have been personally using this piece of software to recreate hundres of classic tones right on my computer for use with Cubase. This program has an advanced High Defination mode with hypersamples the frequency response providing the most realistic Amp modeling I have ever heard. The list of effects that this program includes is extensive and would not fit in this post. I strongly suggest that you check out a demo of this program which can be found at http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=guitarrig2_us. You have to hear this thing

Treble Boost Pedal With Bite, Classic Sounds

Check this out. The Java Boost from Keeley Electronics brings back the same incredible response and sound quality of the heralded late '60s treble boosters, and with more control over the output frequencies range and boost gain. Handcrafted with the finest components, including the NOS Mullard OC44 transistors used in the '60s original. Especially killer in front of a tube amp. Cream colored knobs and violet LEDs.

I just got this last week and have been playing it through my JCM-2000 TSL using a fender strat. I don't know if I can go back to NOT using this cool pedal. Check out the sounds at MusiciansFriend.com for a general idea of how this pedal works.

Digg Experiment- Can We Trick the Digg Team?

Sorry that your tech story is not here. However, you have the chance of helping out in an important digg experiment.

I want to see how thorough the digg team is at weeding out stories that are truly not tech related. My thought is that they simply look to the title of a story and determine if it is appropriate that way.

Well, I created a story with an appropriate tech title, but the substance is not tech related.

Let's see if this can get past the team and crawl up the ranks.

If you do not want to participate in this experiment I would appreciate if you did not notify digg that this posting was inaccurate.

-Thanks for the help.

Digg and Plant a Seed- My Argument for Expanding Digg.com

Here is my argument for why Digg.com needs to evlove into something greater than tech.

First of all, if you look at where the site is headed, it is definately not into technology. The most popular stories are lately very loosely related to technology. For example, "More Evidence that Sex is Good for You", "Ads Turn NY Manhole Covers into Coffee!", "The Ultimate Tax Shelter: Own your Own Business". How are any of these top rated stories tech related?

Basically, Digg is tranforming itself into the following: 1) A place to find very strange images, 2) A place to find odd web pages, 3) a site focused on POLITICS. As far as politics are concerned, I enjoy a good political debate. Yet every day politics is one of the most commonly submitted stories and often time makes the front page. Again, how is this tech related?

Digg.com was created with one mission: allow the users to have full control over editing and deciding what stories are submitted. By simply looking at what the vast majority of people are submitting, (Not tech related) it is obvious that people want to use digg for a greater purpose than just tech, global communication of ALL THINGS COOL. Every once and a while non-tech stories reach the front page and hint at something greater than just tech.

If the whole purpose of Digg.com is to give users total control, then let them have control. Instead, the control seems illusory. Users can submit anything they want, as long as it is tech related. This categorical exclusion denies stories which are as important as technology. Digg is still exerting powerful editorial control over all users.

While you may not agree with my desire to see Digg expand into other categies, you must admit, the site has a unique and powerful ability and finding ALL THINGS COOL and communicating them with others. We all see glimmers of Non-Tech reach the main page everyday. They are some of the best stories around. Digg is much more than tech and there is no logical reason to resist what its users are trying to communicate.

Let Digg evolve into whatever topics are socially relevant. Except of course, stories about animals.

-Ron Belluso, Digg Lover

Tune Guitar Using Your Pick?

Yes Folks. This tiny device will actually tune your guitar strings. How the fuck does it do that, you ask? Essentially the tiny pick has two multi-colored LED's. Pluck a string, shine the pick onto the string and tune until the colored lights appear stationary. At this point, you are in perfect standard tuning.

The beauty of this is that you can tune in loud places and it looks cool. Also, I give this company props for coming up with an innovative way to tune your guitar. I still prefer using a free tuner called my ears. If you want more info on this pick tuner and to check out a video of it, head over here.