Dino Box

My thoughts about the Dino Park synth board:

Sounds great. The Minimoog (etc.) emulations just cut through the mix.
BUT VA emulations of classics are aplenty.
BUT it’s hardware!
BUT the technology is old.
BUT it is really faithful to the old classics!
BUT you haven’t got any controls – and it is above and all about workflow and usability, not about the sound. Otherwise use samples.
BUT I can build my own controllers!
BUT would you ever?
BUT I already DID create a controller you can actually touch.
BUT how could you package all that tech in a way that makes sense, is easy to do, and is actually (GASP) fun to play???

The last question kept on nagging me so I kind of dodged it and came up with the easyiest possible solution.

Watch this video on YouTube

Behold: The Dino Box.

I am very proud of the artwork – my kids did most of it. I have taken the box for a first test drive with my band, and it worked fine.

What you need:

Couple of notes:

I will possibly add a small back plate glued to the cardboard to give the Dino’s output sockets more stability.
If you use the USB bus master to connect to a powered hub, you could use a Lightning cable to charge the iPad while playing. (Well, technically you could also solder aforementioned cable to the +5V supply on the board, but is it really worth doing that?)
I DO like the TB Midi Stuff app, but as of this time of writing, it is almost abandonware. The author promised to do an iOS12/13 update, but I would not blame him if he didn’t.
Modstep is a great sequencer and beatbox with a more than passing resemblance to Live, but like Live, it is no simple tool. And there have been no updates for a while – once again, I do not blame the programmer. Do people realise that it is impossible to survive on writing special-interest apps?

untergeek