Organ Emulation Keyboard
Joey Defrancesco has put his name on a new keyboard by Studiologic: the Numa Organ. (Studiologic is one of the brand names of the keyboard manufacturer Fatar).
All of the controls that the Hammond player would want are there, in the right places, including reverse-color preset keys, which provide a way to make quick changes during performance. This is significant, because until now, only organs with the Hammond name, specifically the XK-3, XK-3c and New B3 include the preset keys. In addition to the functionality they provide, they look really cool.
Now for a rundown of the features of the Numa Organ:
- Pitch and mod wheels – Provide extra functionality to use the Numa as a keyboard controller. The mod wheel doubles as a rotating speaker slow/fast switch, and because of the way it is oriented, switching from slow to fast requires a motion similar to using a traditional half-moon Leslie switch.
- Vibrato control – A rotary knob, just like on a vintage B-3, with switches to turn the vibrato effect on/off for the upper and lower manual.
- Drawbars – A set of nine drawbars are provided plus switches that specify which manual is affected by the current drawbar settings: upper, lower or bass pedals.
- Split and Transpose – The keyboard can be split so that the lower manual or bass pedal sounds are triggered from the left part of the keyboard and the upper manual sounds from the right. Transposition can be done in half steps.
- Percussion – four buttons control the percussion effect, like on a vintage Hammond: on/off, soft/normal, slow/fast, and 2nd/3rd harmonic.
- Effects – Rotary controls provide for adjustment of reverb, drive, key click and tonewheel leakage.
- Equalizer – bass and treble controls.
- Keyboard touch control – allows switching between organ mode and dynamic mode
At just 22 lbs., The Numa Organ is one of the most lightweight organ emulation keyboards on the market. What is missing – which I hope they include on a future model – is a second set of drawbars and a set of pedal drawbars.
VST emulator from Argentina
Argentina-based DJ Pablo Martin gives us some insight on his new Emulator software.
This are the first images i make public of my new touchscreen MIDI controller (now with mulitouch support). The older Monotouchlive is now discontinued and the new software born is called EMULATOR.
The first version i plan to launch very soon, including control for traktor on internal mode; the other interfaces are under development (traktor external ableton etc etc)
This software is designed to work with tablet PCs, the model i suggest for use with my software is the wonderful HP TM2, or the older model TM2Z. It also can be used with lenovo multitouch tablet and DELL XT tablet. All these tablets support multitouch, have capacitive digitizers, but again i suggest the HP TM2, due to it having a wonderful capacitive digitizer from WACOM; it’s really good quality tablet.
The CPU power of TM2 is perfect to run Traktor; I tested with Ableton without any troubles. Some guys think the CPU on HP TM2 doesn’t have enough power, but that is wrong.The major problem with present touchscreen controllers is that you don’t have tactile feedback (you can’t feel with your fingers knobs, buttons, sliders etc etc), for that reason you need put your eyes all time on the touchscreen device for use the controller, and lose the focus over music software.
Emulator is a software where you have all what you need on same screen and combine the power of multitouch, the useful standard mouse and the native interface of software to be controlled all in one nice and useful GUI.
This software runs under windows 7; the first version I plan to launch only works on tablet PCs with 12.1 inch screen (1280×800). I decided to do this because the big LCD multitouch screens available on the market aren’t really accurate and enough for pro usage; [optical sensors can] generate false touch, ghost touches, etc. and you lose portability [on larger screens].
Free Roland TR-808 emulation
Tactile Sounds has updated TS-808 to v1.0.0.2. There are now Mono and Stereo versions.
Changes: Both Versions
- Standard GM Voice Mapping.
- New GUI, designed by Limeflavour.
- LEDs indicating Voice Activity.
- Voice Mute Buttons.
- Compiled with the latest version of SynthEdit, reducing CPU consumption.
Changes: Stereo Version
- Panning for each voice.
TS-808 is a free software emulation of the Roland TR-808 hardware drum machine. It was created by reference to the TR-808 service notes and extensive analysis of samples.
Cool on-line sequencer tool from Hobnox
Here it is, it’ll supply you with an emulator of some famous little machines, used by DJs, producers and bands all over the planet. Right now, we can equip you with a rebuilt Roland TR-808, TR-909, TB-303 and some floorboards. Interested? Give it a try!
DATAMASKIN
