“Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keys. The foundation of rock music. Occasionally strings are used to give a lush, orchestral feel. But we all know when a song needs that extra oomph, that extra push over the top, there’s only one thing that will satisfy: The Cowbell.”

“It’s the cymbal’s evil third cousin. It’s the dark ring that pounds in the back of your brain and lets you know, it’s time to rock.”

More Cowbell! @ SNL (si encuentran el vídeo original avisen.)

“The reacTable is a round translucent table, used in a darkened room, and appears as a backlit display. By placing blocks called tangibles on the table, and interfacing with the visual display via the tangibles or fingertips, a virtual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music or sound effects.”
reacTable Project Website
reacTable Demo@YouTube

“He’d been listening nonstop to a new 8-track, Tales from Topographic Oceans; this was 1974, after all, when a Yes double album of four side-long songs could top the charts. Biro was a hopeful young musician in Connecticut; he’d already spent twelve hundred dollars on a Minimoog a few months earlier, only to find himself out of his day job now. But he still listened to that sound: phantom, hauntingly orchestral washes—and yet not quite an actual orchestra—sweeping like an undercurrent below the impenetrable lyrics of Tales. He had to get that sound.”

The History Of The Birotron@Believer Magazine
Mellotron@Wikipedia
Mellotron/Birotron Tape Library@Blackcat.com

The Infinite Guitar was created by Michael Brook, as a way of allowing an electric guitar note to be held with infinite sustain (hence the name). It consists of an electronic circuit that takes the signal from a standard guitar pickup, amplifies it, and feeds it back into a separate pickup coil. When set up and used correctly, the result is a continuous sustained note that can be used as is, or treated to create new sounds or emulate traditional instruments.

In addition to his own instrument, based on a Tokai Strat copy, Brook produced two Infinite Guitars, one of which belongs to Daniel Lanois. The other belongs to The Edge of U2, who famously used it on “With or Without You” from 1987′s The Joshua Tree.

Michael Brook Interview on SoundonSound
Michael Brook @ MySpace