If you fancy yourself as a bit of music composer or just feel like dabbling into the world of music making for fun then we bring you our list of top music making gadgets.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, what perfect gift to give your music loving partner. You never know…he or she could serenade you with some sweet music this Valentine’s day!
Korg Kaossilator
For those of you who haven't heard of the kaossilator, it's a portable, dynamic-phrase synthesiser from Korg, which gives you the power to compose your own music, anywhere you want and with practically no musical knowledge whatsoever required. With the intuitive X,Y pad, creating the next electronic masterpiece is as simple as pushing your finger down on the pad and hitting the record button. But it's also got the potential to be a serious musical tool, with whole albums being created from it.
Buy Now:
Play.com – £149.95
Amazon – £119.00
Firebox – £149.95
Korg Kaossilator Pro
And now, when everything else seems to be getting smaller Korg have released the Kaossilator Pro which compared to the original kaossilator is huge. In sacrifice of portability the Pro version comes with a new and improved gate appregiator, a new memory system for instant recall of your favourite sounds, extensively enhanced drum sounds, a mic input and vocoder programs (to make your voice sound like a robot) and full USB and MIDI capabilities.
So the Pro has some pretty powerful and extensive features, of course the £350 + price tag reflects the all new swanky additions. But to give credit to Korg, they haven't rushed out a second Kaossilator to simply ride on the popularity of the original, they have really thought about the flaws of the kaossilator and improved them.
The lack of connectivity and the lack of drum sounds were two of the main problems with the kaossilator, which Korg have took notice of. They have also taken some of the features of the KAOSS pad and integrated them into the new kaossilator Pro, which is great because it lessens the temptation to run out and buy a KP mini.
For those who want the next step up from a kaossilator, the Pro is great but it is much more of a serious and professional piece of equipment (as the name suggests), which is actually a shame because without the fun, the simplicity and portability Korg have taken away what made the Kaossilator great.
Music is something we all connect with in some form or other, but we rarely make it. Unless we're blessed enough to play guitar (I know I wish I was) or we were force fed piano lessons as a child. The Kaossilator gave us all the ability to relax and make some noise and in the process maybe a decent sounding track, were as the Pro is more of an accompaniment to the instrument collection of a musical genius. But don't despair there is some great music creation gadgets around to fill the whole left by the Kaossilator Pro.
Buy Now:
Amazon – £299.99
Probably my
favourite is Defly Creations; an independent toy store based in London that custom builds all sorts of crazy music making machines. They have a selection of 'Delfy Originals' that are always on sale (unless they have sold out) such as the SS-1 (below) but the really cool thing about Delfy is that they build and sell special one off creations, so you could pick up a unique synth that no one else in the world owns.
Stylophone
And of course who could forget the original music toy, for us non-musicals, the ole' stylophone. Not only has the original made reappearance but there's now a stylophone beat-box. All the monotone beeps you could want complete with the sound of a human beatbox. The cool thing about the new stylophones is that they can connect to other audio devices which means you can play with the sound and even record it. Imagine a stylophone through some guitar effects pedals or a set of surround sound speakers.
Buy Now:
Play.com – £16.99
MenKind – £17.99
Find Me a Gift – £19.90
Genie Gadget – £19.95
Prezzy Box – £19.95
Firebox – £19.99
Korg DS10 Software
In today's world you 
don't even need hardware anymore. There's tonnes of music creation software out there for PC's. But it doesn't stop there. There's iPhone apps which let you create music straight from your pocket like Bedrum (a vintage style drum machine) and minisynth (an erm.. mini synth) and for DS owners. The fantastic Korg DS-10 turns your nintentdo DS into a box of musical awesomeness. For the price of a normal Nintendo DS game cartridge you can have a fully fledged synthesiser/drum machine.
Buy Now:
Play.com – £49.99
Amazon – £49.95
So go and buy a music gadget and get out there and make some music for your lovely partner or just yourself!