ElectricSun

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I think I might have died and gone to heaven…

ReBirth, the classic Roland Synth emulator that was introduced in 1997, has now been (re)born again on the iPhone. Featuring TWO classic TB-303s, a TR-808 and a TR-909 with full pattern sequencer and effects units, it is possibly the closest you’ll ever get to the original hardware without shelling out a load of cash.

I am a great fan of the 303 (check out the ElectricSun T-shirt) and was surprised when Propellerheads gave up on ReBirth. My copy for Mac OS 9 couldn’t migrate to OS X, so I was left searching for an alternative. It has been available for free download for older operating systems (pre OS X and Vista) since 2005.

There have since been a few 303 emulators and I was delighted when Technobox was released for the iPhone, but this is the real deal. Yes it’s fiddly, but it won’t disappoint. This version will put a smile on your face for £3.99 on iTunes!

More details at Propellerheads.se

Lomo pay homage to the camera that started the lo-fi photography revolution by releasing a 24 carat gold version of the LC-A (Kompakt Automat). The Russian camera became popular for its rich colours, shadowed borders and light leaking and soon gathered a loyal following.
The gold casing is clad in brown leather and simply oozes seventies retro appeal. It will set you back £460 – that’s double the price of a standard black one – but it does come in a nice box! Get one quickly at the Lomo site, as there are only 130 being made.

This is an impressive 26 gigapixel image taken on the roof of the ‘Haus der Presse’ in Dresden.
If you go to the site, Gigapixel-Dresden, and click on one of the thumbnails below the main image – it will zoom in and locate a detail far away in the main picture. As of December 2009, this was the largest digital image in the world, allegedly. I expect that’s already been beaten by now.
Big Brother will be watching, as long as he has a Canon 5D Mark II camera (21 megapixels) with a 400mm-lens like the one used in this example. Scary!

There are a number of colour-based apps available for the iPhone and iPod touch, but it is myPantone that caught my eye.
As well as being able to view Pantone colour libraries, you can extract colours from pictures taken from your in-built camera. It can then calculate the nearest Pantone reference numbers, and allow you to email the colour palette to yourself or friends/colleagues as a .ase file. Import this into any Adobe Creative Suite package and away you go! It caters for those still using Quark Xpress too. Available for £5.99 from the iTunes store – where else?

Don’t say it with flowers, say it with a pink Lomo Fisheye 2 camera. Give the one you love the gift of fisheye photography this Valentines day, with this special edition pink Lomo 35mm Fisheye 2 camera.
All the same features as the original black version; 180 degree lens, ‘WYSIWYG’ bubble viewfinder, built in flash and multiple/long exposure function. And at around £65, it’s a great introduction to lo-fi photography and a joy to use (if you like pink). Available from the Lomo site. Check out our Lomo photography on Flickr.

If, like me, you are bored of your standard iPhone ringtones, here’s some simple steps to convert some of your favourite tunes into ringtones. OK, follow me…

1. Open iTunes and choose your track (you may want to duplicate it to avoid altering the original version)

2. Right-click (or maybe Control click, if you haven’t set up your Mac for this) to ‘Get Info’ on the song. The ringtone needs to be shorter than the original song, so adjust the stop time (and start time, if necessary) so the total length of the track is less than 30 seconds (see screenshot, below). You will find this under the ‘Options’ tab. Click OK

3. Right-click once again on the track and choose ‘Create AAC version’, if it isn’t already. If you can only see ‘Create mp3 version’, then alter your import settings in iTunes preferences and choose AAC Encoder (see screenshot, below). You will now see a shorter, AAC file underneath the original. It might be worth renaming the file at this point, eg. add ‘_ringtone’ before the file extension

4. Locate the file on your hard drive in your iTunes library. To do this easily, right click and choose ‘Reveal in Finder’ if you’re on a Mac (I think it is ‘Reveal in Windows Explorer’ on a PC). Keep this window open on your desktop. Click on the file in iTunes and press delete – when it asks to remove the file, choose ‘Keep File’

5. Change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r

6. If you haven’t already, tick ‘Ringtones’ under general preferences. Available ringtones will appear in the left-hand column in your iTunes window. Click ‘Ringtones’ and then drag your new ringtone file (.m4r) into this window

7. When you connect your iPhone to your computer, click on your phone icon, under devices and then Sync ringtones

8. Job done… you can now annoy your friends and colleagues with your unique taste in music every time your phone rings!

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These have been around a few months now, but have only just come to my attention (bit slow). Modeled on the retro classic ‘Rolf Harris’ Stylophone, this is a mini drum machine which has three different sounds; beatbox (with sounds recorded from beatboxer called MC Zani, apparently), drums and Stylophone bass. Those sounds are controlled by the 13 keys (or pads) with the use of the stylus, just like the original.

There’s also a hilarious video showcasing the this machine (linked above right), featuring former Britain’s Got Talent contestant, Brett Domino. Along with his friend, he cranks out Yorkshire-flavoured megamix of hip-hop classics. Proper Bo, I tell thee.

Everybody needs a 303…
If you’ve got an iPhone and are a fan of acid house and/or old school electro beats, then this is the application to get.
Audiorealism have managed to emulate three classic and influential Roland machines from the eighties; the TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines and the TB-303 bassline synthesizer.
Impressively, the app faithfully reproduces the sound of the originals, which would probably set you back a few thousand if you were to track them down in working condition.
Find out more at Audiorealism’s site, here.