The Spank! Records Blog

Follow Us On Twitter!

Faster than email and less hassle than having to remember to check our blog, Twitter gives you immediate access to updates from us about what's going on here at Spank HQ. It could be to say that a particularly anticipated product is now in stock so you don't miss out, or a bit of news we just heard about, or anything else that we think you may find interesting that's not worth a full blog post.

If you're not already with Twitter, it's totally free to join up at www.twitter.com.

You can use the Twitter website to check up on us or send your own 'tweets', but I find that the easiest way is to use a desktop client like Twhirl. This is also free and sits on your desktop like any other instant messenger program, so you can see our tweets come up straight away without having to continually go back to the Twitter website. Twhirl works on both Mac & PC.

You can follow us at http://twitter.com/spankrecords.

Native Instruments Maschine Has Landed

Native Instruments new killer groove production studio has hit the floor in EXTREMELY limited supply, and by limited I mean we only received 3, 1 of which has already gone.

Be quick!

Click here to buy one online

Native Instruments MASCHINE arrives in March

One day Native Instruments are going to make an all-in-one music interface where you just have to WILL music to be so and it will do it for you. That's how good they're getting at making matched hardware/software products. The Kore 2 is an incredibly intelligent way of organizing/finding and modifying normally tricky soft-synth parameters that takes a hell of a lot of the pain out of the art in creating music from your home studio. With the MASCHINE interface NI has taken every thing they've learnt about work flow from making the Kore 2 and applied it to a groovebox that uses your laptops memory and screen for easy (and LARGE) storage and navigation. The resulting product looks like it could be a truly devastating piece of equipment, both live and in the studio. I mean this in the most positive of senses.

The MASCHINE ships with a 5gb sound library of samples the majority of which come pre-packaged into drum kit set-ups. Navigation, audition and arrangement of all these samples are made easy by the Native Instruments 'tag' system which organise all the pre-packed sounds within into reducible categories. You can easily import your own sound banks of samples, either from your computers hard disk or an external drive and apply the same tagging system so you can search through both your own and the MASCHINE samples simultaneously.

The pad bank can be used either as a live surface which can be recorded into loops and saved into the software or as a step-sequencer depending on what kind of looping/sound you're after. Flexible quantization options allow you to edit features timing in your loops without making this sound too mechanical.

The release date for this product is set for March, from which point it will be available in-store or online. If you're interesting in reserving a unit shoot as an e-mail at shop@spankrecords.com.au. You can also check out a number of informational videos at the Native Instruments website here.

Thanks,
Matt.
Spank! Records.

 

Check out our Korg products on SALE now!

 

The Korg line of products are undoubtedly one of the most highly regarded and popular choices in the cut-throat world of modern electronic music (...It’s a jungle out there...). But you don't get to be a heavyweight like this without good reason. Without excellent products and a focus on maintaining the highest standard of build quality in virtually every field from mixers, to synthesizers, to midi controllers and FX units - if you have the inspiration KORG really does provide the means to make it a reality.

Digital Producers/DJ's/Ableton freaks should be sure to check out the excellent Zero 4 and 8 (get in quick because the come with a free FULL version of ableton live 7 worth $659 before the end of December).

Looking for a synthesizer to add some fresh tone to your productions or a bit of something to your live performance? We stock the microKORG, the R3 and the microX all of which are excellent synths tailored to meet a variety of needs.

MidiController? No problem. Well built with superbly ‘understandable’ design features KORG have numerous models and sizes to fit the tiniest bedroom to the largest studio space. Only while stocks last, we're giving you a FREE Korg Legacy Collection - Digital Edition with every purchase of the Korg Kontrol 49, worth $299!

Check out all our sale products and more here.

Thanks Matt

New digital distributor online...finally!

The digitally inclined amongst you will have noticed that our releases have been somewhat lacking the last few weeks, despite our announcement about our new German digital distributor, Word And Sound.

Well, see what happened was this.

The content started to get delivered to us. Then more of it was delivered. And more. And more. And suddenly we realised that we wouldn't have enough room on our existing web server to hold it all!

After hitting the panic button for a bit, the decision was made to rewrite our delivery system and upgrade our server. All of which takes, well, a bit of time. Time to write it, time to test it, time to, er test it again.

Anyway, we are pleased to announce that as of this week we are up and running again. Part of the new catalogue has been uploaded and the rest of it will get released over the coming days. We also have a couple of new genres available - deep house and trance.

We now have over 30,000 DJ quality digital tracks available for download, with plenty more to come.

Enjoy!

The Mock & Toof Aftermath!

What a turnout! Just a big thanks to everyone who rocked up to catch Duncan from Mock & Toof do a little DJ set before his Future Classic gig tonight down at the Civic.

He pulled out some gems including the newie from Tame Impala on Perth label Hole In The Sky. And who should be standing around chatting when he dropped it - none other than Leo and Ryan from Hole In Sky. Moments like these are Kodak moments.

It was a great night and a big thanks also to Chad and Future Classic and also Millers for supplying the beer!

Stay tuned for more of these little intore shenanigans. And have a listen to the brand new Mock & Toof track called 'Brownbred' which has a great remix of 'K-Choppers' by Mark E. Duncan said that there was only 300 pressed so this is strictly limited edition.

Check out more photos here.

ARQ DJ Competition Winner

We are happy to announce that DJ Scotty (aka Scott Tanner) has won Sydney nightclub ARQ's DJ competition.

Scotty, who also works as a bartender at the Stonewall Hotel in Oxford St, entered the competition in May with his record box full of funky house, electro and progressive tunes.

He started DJing just over a year-and-a-half ago while working at Stonewall and now plays there every Thursday night. He has now scored a regular gig at ARQ as one of the prizes.

Spank was proud to be one of the supporters of the competition.

Congratulations Scotty!

Mock & Toof Exclusive Australian Instore DJ Set

Future Classic and Spank Records proudly present an Australian exclusive instore DJ set by Mock & Toof on Thursday, September 18 at Spank in Darlinghurst from 7pm-8pm.

 

They will be showcasing their own brand of psychedelic disco instore for an hour of mind-altering fun and games.

 

And, if that's not enough, there'll be free beer courtesy of Millers.

Mock & Toof are at the forefront of the disco re-evolution and are co-founders of the brilliant Tiny Sticks label and have had acclaimed productions on labels such as DFA, Gomma, Mule Musiq and M&T Inc. They are on tour in Australia for the first time as part of the Future Classic Label nights and play the Civic Underground on Friday, September 19.

If you have a Facebook account, you can RSVP here so we can get an idea of how many of you will be coming.

Hope you can make it!

FBI Radio is turning 5

Whoops, we're a bit late to let you know about this, but hopefully you've heard about it already.

Sydney's independent and not-for-profit radio station, FBI 94.5, is turning 5. To celebrate, they're running a supporter drive and are giving away stacks of luverly prizes. To get in with a chance, sign up as an FBI radio supporter by September 12th (only 3 days to go) and you'll be entered in the draw.

We love FBI, and again we're one of the major prize sponsers with a copy of Ableton Live PLUS a spot in our popular Introduction To Ableton Live course to give away. Other prizes include a Gibson guitar, a scooter, a year's supply of Converse shoes, a gold pass to Oxford Art Factory, and heaps more.

Everyone at FBI does an amazing job, and it's SO good to have an independent radio station that not only supports so much Australian music, but also doesn't walk the forumulaic path that all the commercial stations do. They're really in it for the love of music and for that reason alone they deserve all the support they can get.

Click here to head to the FBI website for more details

The 2008 Melbourne Reason Producers Conference

I think this may be a first of it's kind for Australia - a conference dedicated to the business & creativity of electronic & dance music...nice!

This is a 1 day conference in Melbourne, and will consist of discussions, creative clinics, demonstrations and interactive classes. Essentially, you're getting the inside scoop on how to both produce & sell your music, information that's not usually easy to get your hands on.

Confirmed panelists will include people from APRA & AMCOS, MySpace TV, Spark Media, One Love Music, Media Arts Lawyers, Beat Broker and EMI Music Australia. These discussions will involve your rights as an artist, how to market yourself, legal issues and so on.

There will also be product specialists running demos, including James Bernard from Propellerhead, Laz Harris from Mackie/Tapco, Anthony Garvin from SAE, DJ Kuya (who ran a great demo night for us here a couple of months ago), Jason Doonan (Propellerhead Australia Endorsee), and more.

There are also some great prizes to be won, including a mastering prize from Studio 301 in Sydney for 4 winners, including releasing the mastered tracks as an EP through Bellarine Recordings.

PLUS the first 200 ticket sales will include a free giftbag from Crumpler, containing a copy of the AT magazine's Guerilla Guide to Home Recording, the Musictech Focus on Reason Magazine, TRPC Notebook and Pen, mix CDs, and more.

And, lastly, there will be an after-party with sets from Beatnick (Live), DJ Kuya (Ableton/Korg remix set), Shamblz, James Bernard from Propellerhead (Live), Jono Fernandez (Ableton remix set), and Johnny Hooves & Friends, plus more special guests to be announced. Tickets are $15, but if you attend the conference then you'll get free entry.

If you're going to go and live in Sydney, I just booked my flights down on Virgin Blue and a lot of the cheapest sale fares have sold out unless you leave later in the night on Friday, so I'd recommend jumping online quickish.

There are so many good reasons to go to this, and I think it's great that we finally have an event of this calibre worth going to. It will also be a fantastic opportunity to hang out with like-minded producers, I'm really looking forward to it. Hope to meet up with some of you down there!

Tickets are $89 incl. bf, and are available through us either instore or online.