Anyway… They make a lot of crazy-awesome effects at Dwarfcraft, and they’ve got something new in their catalog; it makes a lot of foul noise, which I’m definitely down with. Check out the Loop Mangler…

I’m afforded access to the show — which is trade only and not open to the general public — through the auspices of my day job, and I usually spend all four days of the show in the company of sales people and editors explaining to clients, prospective clients and instrument product managers the benefits of marketing musical instruments to buyers through the internet. This year, however, though I received a badge through work, I was not on the clock, and I was only there for two days, which, though I felt a bit of a rush to get through it all (it’s a big show), was nice because I’m usually ready to start killing people half way through the third day.

Since I was in it for strictly personal reasons this year, I spent my time hunting for stuff that I’m personally interested in: bass gear, effects pedals, drum machines and analog synths, and, to a lesser extent, software. I was hoping to have my mind blown by some of the new stuff at the show and that didn’t really happen, but through all the random silliness and standard faire, I did find a few things that I’d like to add to my collection of noise making devices…

MTD Kingston P-Style Bass. I noticed a show-wide design trend in most of the new basses on display: Body types are sleeker, thinner and narrower, lots of 5- and 6-, even 7- and 8-string basses, with lots of tone shaping options (i.e. a lotta knobs) — just a general move away from what constitutes the classic design and construction aesthetic. I’m all for progress and evolution, and to be fair, some of these new basses play really nicely, but personally, I just can’t get down with them. Call me a traditionalist, but I like four strings (in standard tuning), one or two pickups and one or two knobs. Simple. Which is why I sorta fell in love with a MTD Precision-style bass (top of the rack in the photo) that I saw at the booth of retail distributor Dana B. Good. The tobacco sunburst body, central humbucking pickup configuration and basic controls (volume / tone) is exactly what I like. Because this particular model was on display at the DBG distributor booth and not at the MTD booth, I assume this is one of Mike Tobias’ Korean-made models, but I don’t care. The action and intonation were spot-on, and Mike’s really high-end hand-made stuff isn’t my cup of tea anyway (too many strings, exotic woods, tone controls I don’t need / want, etc.). I’d like to spend a little more time test driving this bass, but I’m already considering picking one up.

Dwarfcraft Devices. One of the coolest manufacturers and displays of gear I encountered this year was downstairs in Hall E, the “Freak Hall” area of NAMM where the bootstrapping indie companies, mad scientists, left-of-center luthiers, and Chinese bulk manufacturers show off their wares. Colin (Ovipositor singer / guitarist) alerted me to the presence of Dwarfcraft Devices (via a post they made to the Electrical forums), and I made a point of checking them out. What I found was two guys, a bass and a guitar, a Fender Bassman amp, and a folding card table full of interesting effects pedals sporting cool art, nonstandard interfaces (like joysticks), and, most importantly, awesome sounds. We talked for a few minutes, I explained a little about my seemingly eternal struggle for the “right” distortion pedal, and they let come behind the table and plug the bass they had into a pedal called the Eau Claire Thunder. I was totally blown away. In fact, I’ve been obsessing on the pedal since I left Anaheim, and bought one the other day. I’ll try to post a full report on the device when I get it and can run my own bass through it into my own rig, but just to give you an idea of what it sounds like (awesomely fucked up), check out the demo on YouTube.

Some Other Effects Pedals. As far as effects go, I generally tried to avoid the usual suspects — Electro-Harmonix, Boss, etc. — in favor of more boutique manufacturers, or stuff I thought was weird / cool / extra special. The Z. Vex booth, for example, had a ton of really cool looking pedals on display (pictured), nothing I was personally interested in, but Zachary Vex was hunched over his work bench throughout the show, where he announced a new direction for this pedal shop: open source. He’s going to start selling the schematics with every pedal, and he introduced a pedal kit that allows tinkerers to get into and fiddle with his designs to come up with their own mods on these unique effects (which has been happening for years without his official consent, so…). And though they’re not a boutique manufacturer (they are, however, independent in every sense of the term), I was also pretty impressed by a new pedal that Tech21 will be releasing in May 2010, the Red Ripper: a distortion pedal with a built-in envelope-style filter that controls the amount distortion based on attack, and a low-pass filter to cut the annoying buzz that can accompany bass distortion in the higher register, especially in use with an amp that has a horn. Cool concept, nice execution, good dirty sounds, clean bypass — pretty much everything you want out of a distortion pedal, with a little something extra.

Teenage Engineering OP-1. Easily the most fun toy I played with at this year’s NAMM show, this little rectangular device is a sampler, looper, synth, drum machine and more, all housed in the frame of a digital four-track recorder. It’s got a mic, a line-in and a USB port, so there are a variety of ways to get samples in to it, and once they’re there, a variety of ways to manipulate the samples: change tempo and pitch, apply a number of effects, etc. Once everything sounds the way you want it to, simply hit the record button to capture loops one track at a time, bounce multiple tracks down to a single track and keep building — pretty much how an analog four-track works. I really had fun with this thing, and I’m going to have a hard time staying away from it once it’s released sometime closer to summer 2010. The guy at the booth told me the price point was going to be somewhere between $500 and $1000, and I think that if they can keep it closer to $500, it’s sure to be a hit.

Dave Smith Instruments. I love Dave, and — full disclosure here — my good friend Joanne and her awesome husband Andrew work at Dave Smith Instruments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m inclined to say nice things about their stuff (I can be a real asshole like that). However, as an owner of an original MoPho synth, which I love, I’m always interested in what’s next from Dave’s shop, and I’m never disappointed. This time, it was the Tetra synth, which was released a few months ago, but which I had not had the chance to get up-close and personal with; and the MoPho keyboard (pictured), which was unveiled at the show and has since caused quite a stir among synth nerds. The Tetra is a lot like the original Mopho — all analog, hand-made, and housed in a similarly sized small box with similar controls — but rather than a single voice (“MoPho” comes from “monophonic”) the Tetra has four voices. I played one hooked up to a Akai MPK25 MIDI controller keyboard, and it was everything I expected: Dope. The MoPho keyboard, as the name suggests, is a MoPho in keyboard form, with more dedicated controls, nicely weighted reactive keyboard interface, and a generally work-friendly control surface. Added bonus: chain up the Tetra and the MoPho keyboard as a controller and command a total of five synth voices. Polychained multitimbral madness! Synth-nerd-tastic!

There was a ton of other stuff at the show I was mildly interested in, slightly enamored by, or found downright stupid or ridiculous, so I took a bunch of photos…see if you can tell which is what (you can click over to the gallery on Flickr to see them in all their full-sized NAMM glory):

I used to have a pretty beefy record collection. It certainly wasn’t the kind of impressive mass of vinyl that some DJ friends of mine have — the kind that requires specific insurance or an additional room in my house — but it was a couple thousand pieces, a decent collection by non-DJ, everyday-music-fan standards.

A few years ago, I sold off most of it. I had a fair amount of doubles, and a lot of stuff that I had also managed to collect on CD or digitally, plus plenty of shit that I thought was cool when I bought it, or that was purchased for some long-forgotten specific reason. I finally hit a phase of my life where less was more and I was purging a lot, so I poured through all the records and set aside a couple hundred pieces that I swore I would take to my grave, and put the rest up for sale. I let some DJ friends have first pick of the for-sale batch, and dumped the rest on Amoeba. I walked away with a tidy little stack of cash, a huge weight lifted (figuratively and literally), and a slimmed down, quality controlled collection — a few crates of nothing but greats.

Sadly, my record collection has continued to collect dust due to several reasons: accommodations (no room for records in the living room where the nice record player and stereo system are), life situations (fatherhood, and a girlfriend and baby daughter who aren’t necessarily always as interested as I might be in sitting around and listening to records), and scheduling issues (I’m fucking busy). Then, a couple months ago, someone I follow on Twitter posted a link to Woot.com, where the deal of the day was an Ion iPTUSB, a.k.a. the “portable vinyl-archiving turntable,” for a mere $50 (MSRP is $120, you can find ‘em online for $80 to $100). ‘Shit, at that price,’ I thought, ‘I can’t afford NOT to get it!’ So I pulled the trigger.

Ion’s iPTUSB has a pretty basic feature set: The top face contains a switch for 33, 45 and 78 record speeds, a +/- 10% Pitch knob, Low / High Tone knob, and a knob marked Audio that controls the volume; there’s a single 2″ speaker for monitoring, as well as RCA audio outs, and 1/8″ and 1/4″ headphone jacks, plus the USB port with an accompanying Gain knob for fine control of the audio being sent out over the USB connection. There’s also a handy little Line In 1/8″ jack that allows or the piggybacking of another audio source — cassette, AM/FM radio, etc. — for digital conversion of additional media types. The unit’s top case attaches via two hooks on the back and a slide lock on the front; it’s not bullet proof, but it’s fine for basic turntable protection…as long as you don’t have to use the iPTUSB as a step-stool, or beat a potential crook off of your record collection with it.

The entire surface of the player measures just over 11″ x 11″, so with the lid on, it fits on a shelf designed to hold records. With the lid off, a playing record actually hangs off the side — due to the room taken up on the top face by the tone arm, the speaker and the audio controls — but is supported by soft felt covered bumpers that keep everything level and steady. The turntable’s main power source is an included DC plug, but it also runs on six D batteries, so if you’re one of those serious diggin’-in-the-crates guys, you can take the iPTUSB with you and try-before-you-buy at the record store.

Basic setup on the iPTUSB is bonehead easy: Plug in the turntable’s DC power supply, connect it to your computer (Mac or PC; in my case, it’s hooked up to the desktop PC in my modest home studio) via the included USB cable, and install one or both software options that come with the turntable: EZ Vinyl or Audacity. I already had Audacity on my PC, so I left it at that. Follow the setup and troubleshooting instructions — there’s an easy one-step fix to some common wonkiness with the audio codec / driver — and you’re off.

The only problem I had initially was that, while Audacity was picking up the audio input from the iPTUSB just fine, and the built-in speaker and/or headphone jack on the turntable allowed me to hear what I was recording, I was unable to monitor the true fidelity of mix from the PC. When I’m sampling or, in many cases straight-up ripping audio, I like to hear what I’m getting at the destination point. I couldn’t make that happen, but I found that the latency between the iPTUSB and Audacity is negligible, so I was willing to settle for a monitoring solution that at least gave me full sound AND the freedom of mobility as I converted records to digital…or at the very least, just a way to simply listen to records in the lab.

I hit up my local pro audio shop and picked up an RCA-to-quarter-inch cable, which I used to connect the RCA audio-outs on the iPTUSB to one of the quarter-inch stereo-in sets on my mixing board, a Phonic Helix 18 Firewire, which opened up a few nice options:

1. as I mentioned, the USB connection from the turntable to the computer does not allow me to monitor the mix at the destination point (i.e. the sound as it is being recorded on the PC), and the tiny built-in speaker is really flat- and small-sounding, so this setup allows me to hear the full spectrum of what I’m ripping without being tethered to the immediate area by headphones;
2. it also allows me to use the iPTUSB as a source for vinyl sampling, because the Helix 18 board also happens to be my PC’s default soundcard, so when I’m working in Ableton Live or Cubase (which, for whatever reason, will not recognize the iPTUSB’s USB connection as a valid Line In), I just set the DAW’s audio input to the stereo in channels from the mixing board and, voila, I’m jackin’ for beats;
3. and finally, because the studio monitors — a pair of Mackie MR-5s — are connected to the main audio outs on the Helix board, it allows me to just listen to records in the lab, even if the computer is off, because, though the mixing board is the computer’s default audio source, it can also run completely independently from the PC.

Ultimately, the iPTUSB is way more versatile than I expected it to be, and I can’t complain about the sound quality. What was initially a rash purchase intended only for the conversion of vinyl to a more portable and convenient digital format, has become a catalyst for renewed interest in my trusty dusty record collection…not to mention a wealth of new sampling opportunity.

Here are a few favorite gems I’ve rediscovered recently and ripped to digital so you can hear some examples of the iPTUSB’s output…

Bud Powell, “Idaho,” Bud! (Blue Note, 1957)

This record is among my most prized musical possessions. An original pressing bought brand new by my mom in 1957, it’s a bit scratchy, but still in great shape. Powell is on piano, with Curtis Fuller on trombone, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. This is easily my favorite release from one of my favorite jazz pianists, and though this record was a rarity for a long time, it was reissued on CD by Blue Note in 2002.

Golden, “Titeshock,” Super Original Movement (Slowdime, 1999)

I bought this record (and a few others) from the band at a show The Blue Room Theater in Chico, CA in 1999, and forgot how much I love it. Originally formed at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1993, Golden was a supergroup before any of the band members went on to big indie cred fame. Members included recording engineer and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans AM, The Fucking Champs) and drummer Jon Theodore (Royal Trux, The Mars Volta), as well as Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff who are now half of the band Extra Golden.

The Beatnuts, “40 Oz.” 12″ (n/a, 1995)

This track is off the B-side of a white label 12″ for the song “Fluid,” a sorta hard-to-find record that wasn’t officially released on any label. This poppin’ little ditty rides on a sample from “Ekim” by the Michal Urbaniak Group — made famous by A Tribe Called Quest on “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)” — backed by a big boombastic kick drum, and the whole thing is absolutely murdered by JuJu & Psycho Les on the mic. The “Fluid” 12″ ranks among my top favorite rap music 12″s.

*All audio files ripped straight from the iPTUSB into Audacity and exported to 192k mp3 files with no additional effects applied.