SONIC TALK Podcasts

We start with an homage to Oliver Postgate - the UK children's TV show creator who passed away this week, then we're on the Stylophone both real and iStylophone versions, then we're on to Christmas themes and No1 singles both UK and US - or rather lack of, then we preview the brilliant Sonic TALK remix from The Circuit Symphony which shows off the excellent VariPhrase technology of the Roland V-Synth GT - great work mate! Then we satisfy the curiosity of Kayle Clements who wants to know how we got together and how we got into our musical gigs. We finish with the perennial topic of messy workspaces or not. Caution, those of you with an obsessive need to tidy up may find this topic distressing...

PJ Tracy, Dave Spiers, Nick Batt. Our first moments are spent marveling in the wonders of Ad Jingles and their creation, with blasts from John Parr and Jonathan Hodge, then we discuss the recently announced Moog Taurus pedals reissue. Then a quote from Blixa Bergfeld on Disquiet gets us onto the topic of originality, then we talk about Raysgigs.com - a site where Ray Morrissey lists over 5000 gigs he has attended and made notes on many occasions - a real goldmine of information and impressions. And thats it for this week.

Dave tells us the latest installment from the weird world of hearing and balance tests and we ponder a positive word beginning with X, which takes us to Xanadu, Mark's theta wave podcast gets a mention, then we're on to the world's thinnest speakers, made of carbon nanotubes, Ray Kurzweil wonders if machines can have souls - discuss, then we're on to a topic sent in from Kayle Clements about replacing band members, the nifty Optogate triggers a discussion on must have gadgets and gizmos. And finally - Oliver Davis from the Circuit Symphony sent us in a demo of work in progress to play us out.

First PJ tells us all about his recent Emmy winning experience, Dave pines for his new Roland D550 and MKS70, then we move on to the WiiMote to MIDI, Jordan Rudess shreds on the nanoKeys, then we ponder the merits of Resort Studios - Nassau Compass Point especially, then we're on to rare synths we have played..

We talk of the ZX Spectrum sound chip, last weeks Music Live! show in Birmingham, and AudioNerd's new plug-in TemperTemper which is a Microdiatonically Equal Tempered Metronome - a click that can be in tune with your track. Then it's on to the new Bond movie and jack White's theme tune and drum sound, FourTrack for your phone - old school for today, long-term relationships with electronic musical instruments, Beardyman does Jazz - an amazing beatboxer and two KP3s, MTV Music and any old excuse for us to look back.

Electoral preamble aside, we move on to the subject of AsioHead's homework, who gamely rose to the challenge set last week to finish a track by this week - in fact we have two! Well done mate. Then we're on to the Yamaha Tyros 3 - the uber arranger keyboard as demonstrated by Martin Harris, which brings back memories of major chords for Dave Spiers, then more madcap research from those Microsoft boys and girls in the Cambridge Sensors and Devices department with the touch screen you don't touch, the new Fraunhofer HD-AAC mpeg encoding algorithm works on 24-bit 96kHz loss-less compression and what it might mean is next, followed by a discussion on how hard it is to learn a new DAW where I get some useful tips on Ableton Live.

After hellos and discussion of various ailments we move on to the current economic climate and what that might mean for music, as well as plucking a few artists from the charts in the last two Uk recessions, then we're on to Dr Pepper and Chinese Democracy - thats the new album/single from Axel Rose, the mesmerizing Daito Manabe's MAX/MSP twitch patch video is up next, followed by the forthcoming Vemia Auction - a great place to find all things electronic and vintage, Nick kicks off the movie soundtrack topic with a burst of John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13, after which the team tell us of their own favourites, then we finish with Asioheads' MIDI file spotting and also some advice on how to Get Stuff Done.

After Dave Spiers tells us about his hearing tests from earlier today, we talk of the iTunes Genius recommendation system and other similar services, then its the great Reason bassline challenge and the panels own favourite b-lines, Nick embarrasses himself with girls singing about synthesizers, then we ponder the 7 music trends whose return must be stopped, which takes us into the world of warbling divas.