One thing that can be tricky to figure out on a new blog is, well, what to actually blog about! Given there are 1,000s of pieces of Hardware, and Software popping up all over the place. Well, whilst I try to figure that out, here’s one thing I can talk about - my odd little Korg Micro Preset!

At first touch, The Korg Micro Preset synthesizer offers the world a bizarre matrix of pre-set sounds, ranging from 1970’s Dr Who effects, through to rather curious synthesizer noises and acoustic sounds. At its heart, it’s a 32-note monophonic preset synthesizer with 6 push-button presets including voice, synth1, synth2, brass, string, and wood.

On the technical front, it’s single-oscillator design has only rudimentary decay/release envelope controls and no access to the guts of the sound generation stuff. And, no MIDI or other method of external control - of course. Although, the manual does claim the Micro Preset can be used as a guitar-synth!

Our friends at Sound on Sound have given us a sneak preview of quite a novel idea …

On their blog, it says UK pro audio distributors Out Post Sound have announced that they will be distributing Punchlight’s Cue Light systems, which provide visual cue information for Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).

Products available include the Universal Studio Display — a large timecode readout with record indicator — the Recording Display, which illuminates differently when the DAW is in record and record-ready modes, and the Recording Lamp, a classy looking desk light (below), which glows different colours depending on the status of the DAW.

The products can be connected to DAWs such as Pro Tools (HD, LE and M-Powered systems), Logic, Sonar, Cubase and Nuendo, via special trigger boxes that connect to the MIDI outputs of the connected interface.

MIDI triggered lights? Sounds like a bright idea to me (apologies - Ed).

For more details on the range, head to Out Post Sound’s web site.