TI Dictée Magique (Speak & Spell freanch version)

OK, I like circuit bending as well as 8 bit / chip tune music.It took me over 1 year to finally find a functional unit, at my mother house, in her original box... A friend of mine brought me another unit found in a garage sale 2 weeks later! So within 2 weeks, I was the happy owner of 2 Dictées Magiques. I modified one unit using all the schematics developed by the bending guru known as Reed Ghazala. The other unit was modified both with Ghazala schematics mixed with personal ideas. I really enjoy the glitching noise going out of those machines. These are very powerful but the main pleasure remain they're unpredictability. A nice add on to any experimental music / sound design rig.

8/10

Ghazala web site

 

Hecq 0000 review

Hecq (AKA Ben Lukas Boysen) is a young german sound designer who works for a lot of advertising project including TV channels and various companies / brands. This background is audible all over is discography. Hecq is mostly considered as a IDM music artist, even if I personally don't think he could be categorized within a specific genre. I really enjoy 0000 since it was released, back in  2007. This album consist in 2 disks, the first one being original compositions and the second, remix works in collaboration with other artists including  Newt or Snog. I'm kinda jealous of Hecq talent regarding the creation of lush sounding landscapes who evolve and morph perfectly trough almost any song he produce. I like the way weird sounds are able to blend with each other and create a coherent and melodic package. Also, sampling his overused but in a manner that doesn't hurt my ears as everything layers perfectly. The second disk is awesome with some gems that unfortunately never reach the status it deserves... 

9/10

 Awesome short film with Hecq sound design:

 

Nanoloop 1.5 review

I really enjoy listening to chiptune. All the 8 bit musical movement is interesting, remembering old gaming souvenirs and raising a good dose of nostalgia. Elektron, the famous Swedish synth designer started this musical trend in 1999 with the release of the now famous Sid Station, a desktop synth wish is exploiting the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip commonly used as a sound generator for the Commodore 64 in the early 80's. As this device was hugely popular within the musical community, other manufacturer decided to offer similar product (Sid Station production stopped, units are rare and very expensive). Nanoloop was created by a German programmer known as Oliver Wittchow. This software is included on a typical Game Boy cartridge and enable the user to exploit the sound chip. The interface is pretty simple, working as a typical 16 step sequencer. It is also possible to build complete songs, arranging the sequences. The cartridge also feature some memory slot for songs and sequences. The sound of this chip is typically 8 bits, raw sounding. The Game Boy output (1/8 jack) is low quality and noisy. It is also possible with further mod to implement midi protocol in order to control the Nanoloop externally (check out the video). This device is really fun to use and inject a non subtle dose of lo-fi gritty sound in your music! 

7.5/10

Sound demo