Category Archives: Home Studio

Meadow Argus – Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse

New EP: Meadow Argus – Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse

Jevan Cole’s new EP is here and it’s impressive. Singing, Guitars, A real band, real instruments, drums, plus synths, sampling, effects, modular synths, a plethora of post-apocalyptic sonic celebrations and emotions. If you are still able to enjoy music don’t miss this.

I love this EP and all of their albums. Have a listen with headphones on! The perfect fusion of Rock/band music and electronic/techno/dance/psychedelic.

I loved their last album Silverling, it was staggering. There are not too many artists in the music industry that can make a better follow-up album. But they did it. It makes me think that they may have the rare ability to keep this up for years. I’m hoping so. I’m inspired to do a new album myself now. Thanks, Jevan. Your music has always affected me deeply.

If you are starting to develop an allergy to autotune, this is the treatment your ears have been longing for. The singing on this album sounds so refreshing, nice and human.

Such great songs and soundscapes, so well performed and recorded. Listen very closely to it.

Read this great review about it from findnoenemy.com. An excerpt…

“You almost feel like you’re being transported into some other dimension, a whole other world to sink yourself in and immerse your existence within.”

That’s what I think too. I’m in a beautiful state after listening to it.

Listen to it here…

Meadow Argus – Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse
Meadow Argus – Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse

Meadow Argus – Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse 

TIP: Make sure to click this button and make sure it looks like this for the best listening experience 😉 …

Spotify Album Repeat Button

It helps you to hear the EP a few times without being interrupted by other albums. If you click it again you’ll see a number 1 in the center, that will loop one song. Click it until it lights up green and the 1 is not in the center, that will repeat the EP when the last track completes.

Meadow Argus Dancing Through A Slow Apocalypse Meadow Argus
Jevan Cole from Meadow Argus Playing Accoustic Guitar.

If you love this EP as I do please help them by Liking, Reacting, Loving and Sharing it on Spotify and your social media apps. Sharing is caring 🙂

You could call your local radio station and ask them to play this song ‘House Husband’ which I think so many people in the world would love to hear, coming out of this challenging time…

house-husband
house-husband

Please let me know if you do.

An actual work of love and healing. Well done, Jeven and Meadow Argus!

The lyrics for House Husband…

— House Husband by Meadow Argus —

Could’ve been a fire fighter
Or even an aeroplane pilot
Could’ve been a lab technician
Once I was a rock musician
I was a conspiracy theorist
Then an aspirational careerist
Could’ve been a psychic healer
Cos I was a blackjack dealer
But I’m living here with you
And it’s all I want to do
I’m your
House husband
House husband
House husband
House husband
Wash the dishes, feed the cat
Clean the windows, shake the mat
Make the lunches, sweep the floor
There’s the bus, get out the door!
I’m your
House husband
Could’ve been a field ecologist
Even a leading urologist
Could’ve been an archaeologist
Maybe a celebrity proctologist
Could’ve been an adult entertainer
You’d’ve had me on a retainer
Could’ve been an astrophysicist

Your personal la lalalala lyricist

You can get all the lyrics for free and you can also buy the digital download at…

https://meadowargus.bandcamp.com/album/dancing-through-a-slow-apocalypse-2

Worth every cent of the $7!

Dynacord Echocord Tape Echo Unit

1960s Dynacord Echocord Super Tape Echo Delay Unit Black S65 Video Demo.

Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super from the 1960s. Great vintage tape echo sounds. Custom DIN to 1/4″ adapter cables included. Due to the age and nature of tape units, it’s being sold as-is. I’ve tested it and it works. See the viedo below.

Comes with a reel of 1/4 inch tape (in good condition). It is provided with a solid wooden box with a carrying handle.

Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – It’s made in Germany.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – A view of the tape loop mechanism, heads and valves.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – It comes with a power cable and the output cable which is 1/4 inch to DIN plug. The power plug has a chip of plastic missing, but it works fine.
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super
Vintage Dynacord Echocord Super – The tape echo device comes with plenty of spare tape to make replacement loops.

This device is available for purchase now. Have a look at the video demo I made of it below.

If you want to buy it or know someone that would be interested, you can contact me here:

echo@zylascope.com

Thanks,

Geoff Williams

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal

Boss SY-1 Guitar Synthesiser Pedal Review

 

The new (2019) Boss SY-1 Guitar Synthesiser Pedal turns your guitar into a synthesizer! No need for a special MIDI pickup and no for an external keyboard or sound module. You just plug your guitar in and turn a knob to select a sound from 11 sound banks. Inside each sound bank there are 11 different sounds (voices). So that’s what the two knobs on the right do.

On the far left is a double knob. It allows you to set the volume of your guitar and the volume of the synth. The second knob in from the left allows you to alter the synthesised sound by changing the depth and rate, also on a double concentric knob.

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal
Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal

As you can see, below the input, there is an input jack for an expression controller. You can add this to alter the effects while you play.

It also has a send and return channel so you can easily connect other effects processing.

There is a switch on the back so that you can use this for bass guitar or 6 string guitar.

The Boss SY-1, like other Roland Boss effects pedals, is made of cast metal and is very robust. It runs on a 9-volt battery and can also run from a 9-volt plug pack.

Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal
Boss SY-1 Synthesiser Pedal

When mine arrived recently I was surprised to discover that it came with a new 9-volt alkaline battery.

Thanks and well done Roland. The SY-1 gets 10 out of 10 from me!

I’ve had so much fun playing guitar with this pedal. If you’re going to be locked-down, be locked-down with this pedal.

Order one today, it’s a load of fun and gives you 121 sounds, plus variations, there are even some rhythm and percussive sounds and some arpeggio sequencer-type sounds to give your performance many more colours.

Article by Geoff Williams

edifier speakers black

Edifier R1280DB 2.0 – Crystal Clear Home Studio HiFi Bluetooth Speakers

I recently purchased a pair of Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers for my . I bought them on eBay for around $140 AUD ($91 USD) with free delivery in Australia. They are impressive-sounding speakers and are quite small. The dimensions of the speaker boxes are 5.75in x 9.5in x 7in (WxHxD). They contain a 4-inch bass/woofer and 13mm silk dome tweeter. They have a claimed frequency response of 55Hz-20KHz, to my hear I’d say that’s accurate. The power output is 21 Watts per channel. With an excellent signal to noise ratio. I’m used to hearing hum and noise coming out of speakers when there is no music coming out of them, when they’re turned on, idle. But these speakers are perfectly silent at those times.

The Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers are great if you have a home studio or if you are building one.

They have an infrared remote so you can change volume,  switch between inputs conveniently or turn it on or off.

They can accept input from two separate stereo RCA line-in channels, Coax digital, Fibre Optic digital or Bluetooth. They come with a cable to convert from a 3.5-inch plug to RCA line input for smartphones. So they can be used to listen to just about anything from HiFi stereo systems, smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers and many other devices. I’ve been using them with my Microsoft Surface and my Android smartphone and they sound great. Good solid bass and crystal clear top end. And the boxes are decently heavy, in weight, for such a small box. They don’t cause any horrible vibration sounds that I’ve had with plastic PC computer speaker boxes in the past.

I bought them for the purpose of doing the mastering stage of my new album. Because I composed and recorded the album using a pair of PC speakers, that I bought second hand, and a pair of headphones. Neither if those give an accurate idea of how people will listen to it.  You really need good speakers with good frequency response for mastering.

I bought the black ones but they are also available in a wood finish version…

Edifier speakers wooden look
Edifier speakers wooden look

They have controls to adjust EQ. A treble and bass control on the speaker box and can also be adjusted on the remote.

The very best part of the Edifier R1280DB 2.0 speakers is that they connect to your device via Bluetooth. So no cables, except for the mains power cable of course. There’s also the speaker cable that connects the main powered speaker to the passive one. Bluetooth makes it simple to switch the speakers to another input. In the situation when friends gather for a party they can easily connect their phones and play their songs.

Get your own pair of Edifier R1280DB 2.0 bluetooth speakers from Amazon.