And Now For Something Different

But strangely the same as before

Jan 20

One dumpster fire deserves another. After a 5-year hiatus, it's time to rejoin the world of tomorrow and fanboi over 30-year-old music technology.

New Year, New Sonik, Old Snark

Sonikmatter is the intersection of music and technology. Sometimes just one. Sometimes just the other. But always with an opinion. Originally a text-based mailing list on a college server in the early '90s and flaming out in pyretic Web 2.0 glory almost two decades later, we aim to correct past mistakes by bringing back said text-based mailing list.

Don't worry; we are also bringing back our community so that you too can join in with the snark. When this happens depends on your support. But for now, share this mailing list with friends and family, and subscribe. We encourage collaboration, so feel free to write back, and we will be happy to share our platform!

About Once A Week...

Give or take, expect to see a letter from your old pal Clif in your mailbox. Unless I forget. Or I get bored and give up the hope of reviving this brand. 'Brand'. Brand has a terrible connotation, but admit it; we are all terrible people anyway. Maybe a guest appearance from friends from the past, if you were around to remember them. Cap'n Zampino is busy licking stamps but ready to write again. And when our forums have been rebuilt, you can talk to one another so that you can expect less from us and more from you.

And now for this week's news.

January 19, 2021

NAMM is virtual; LA is still on lockdown; the pandemic is rampant. Is it fake? Is it man-made? Is there a China Conspiracy???

The answer: YES, YES, YES.

NAMM stands for North American Music Merchant Association, and for some reason, manufacturers from around the world exhibit there every year.
Of course, it is man-made. No seriously. NAMM is more of a bro-fest than any comic-con and just as smelly. Aging 70-year-old rockers in squeaky pleather splitting from the scenes comment on 'trim' and try to pick up booth babes that PR nerds mistakenly feel will attract nerds with money to buy from them. In the end, it is less man-made than it was when I first started attending, but the entertainment industry, despite their pleas, is not the most woke institution.
And yes, there is a China Conspiracy. Over half the products here are made in a Foxconn warehouse by 13-year-old kids by American companies upset that they couldn't find 11-year old kids that will work cheaper and faster while protesting "WE DIDN'T KNOW, WE DIDN'T KNOW." Those of us that have worked within the industry know the truth. Most Music Industry CEOs would gladly do the same to kids in America and cut out the middle man if they could get away with it. Do you know how much the average Guitar Center employee gets paid???

The 2600 is REAL (small)

Korg has released several 'new' products this year, including the ARP 2600m. It is a half-sized version of the original, bringing the 68 lbs. of weight down to just 13lb and updating this to utilize midi.

https://www.korg.com/us/products/synthesizers/arp2600_m/index.php

The 2700 is REAL (vast)

Once again, a manufacturer reaches into their back pocket to give fanservice to the fanbois. Kurzweil introduces the K2700, an extension of the V.A.S.T.-technologied synthesizers. Sonikmatter started as an excursion of the KurzList Mail List after two friends were kicked out for indecent behavior, joining me in my exile for previous bad behavior. We were Kurzweil fanatics, and the V.A.S.T. technology was as close to a patchbay as one could find in the '90s digital synthesizers.

256 Voices
4.5 GB of Sounds
3.5 GB of User Samples
6-OP FM
and much more...

We here ("we") at Sonikmatter love Kurzweil even if this seems like a step back. V.A.S.T. has always been a technology that feels like riding a bicycle where once you learn to do it, you will never forget. Let's hope that they've learned that users want a little more granularity than 7-bit math this time.

https://kurzweil.com/k2700/

In My Instagram Feed…

Years ago, I got a cease and desist with warnings not to disparage a cable company that was charging 10x the cost of other amazing cables. The worst part was, they were extremely fragile and honestly sounded like shit. But they still acted as if I were a real MONSTER for saying so and implored me to never talk about them again under penalty of law. And since then, I have been afraid to talk about cables online.

Until today! People will complain about big brother and the algorithms that are following us throughout the net, but dammit if the bots didn’t get it right this time. GLOW IN THE DARK CABLES!!!

Modbang brings ‘high quality’ cables to the studio. I don’t know if they are high quality or not, but I assume they at least glow! And for a price that is much lower than other beastly companies that have terrible lawyers!

In the interest of transparency, no they are no paying me. But if they want to slip me some cables I wouldn’t complain. I mean, I haven’t seen a single ‘artist-accommodation’ since I rage quit the music industry after realizing the Mouse-branded Starlett I had helped launch her album was actually 36!!!

https://www.modbang.com

And a LOT more...but you will have to search the web because ain't nobody needs to read a 10-page newsletter.

And Finally, Artist News

Murderer, and all-around crappy human being, Phil Spector is dead. The less said about this, the better. However, it is a great excuse to link to his ex-wife's work. Let's hope her legacy lives far longer than he did.