Okay, so you’ve probably seen the title, suspected it was empty clickbait, and taken a look just to marvel at the audacity of the post. Bu...

Before the market for music tuition was revolutionised by free options online, it was possible for many local and decidedly average musici...

Have you ever experienced a situation in which you’ve had a “flash of inspiration”, envisioned an almost complete musical idea out of now...

The electric guitar has been one stronghold of pre-digital technology which refuses to die. Just as video killed the radio star, digital ...

Over on Twirpz , I’ve done quite a few articles about Twitter and its out-of-control ‘marketing’, and Twirpz is where I normally keep my Twi...

We all get stuck in a rut at some time or other, and let’s face it, there’s a lot of advice on how to dig yourself out. Unfortunately tho...

This blog has specialised in unearthing facts about little-known, forgotten or misrepresented musical instruments from the pre-Internet age,...

Ask someone for the name of a 1980s home multi-track recorder brand, and chances are you’re going to get one of three answers: Tascam, F...

If you recorded on a PC in the 1990s and used a Sound Blaster sound card, you’ll probably remember very well the joy of SoundFonts . Whilst ...

Once upon a time, shock horror, there was no such thing as Google, and most people had no real concept of the Internet as it tentatively pro...

Lately I’ve been digging out a lot of my pre-digital recordings (pre-digital audio, that is, although some are even pre-MIDI!), and it’s pro...

Above: 1980s stuff. Some of it was quite good. What a decade it was. The period between 1980 and 1990 was full of so many great developm...

The thought of paying £450 for something with the capability of the Alesis HR-16 drum machine today would, I’m sure, raise a wry smile amon...

The Vintage Ultima is one of the Virtual musical instruments made for the VST environment by Planet Botch. Planet Botch is a blog/websit...

Having had a really exciting day, I wanted to post some photos of what I found whilst trying to tidy up a room full of old family parapherna...

You may already know that it’s possible to upload mp3 audio files directly to your WordPress.com blog by paying for an upgrade. But did...

Weather Girl is a commercial pop/ska track which was inspired by a particular TV weather presenter in the early noughties. This version, ...

In the golden age of analogue synthesis, mimicking a real piano had been an untenable proposition for an electronic keyboard. Manufacturer...

Spend More Time is an early '80s-style reggae track, which started as an exploration of our tendency to spend our lives doing things ...

Magic Words is pop track which mocks the fiasco of mid noughties recruitment. It was written in 2004, when I first perceived that corpora...