Teaser: MacBeth Mk1/X-series Touch Keyboard Proto
This Sunday has been fun. I have thought about this idea a lot. I’ve played with various ideas on this for a few years. Last week- I got the parts in for the last thoughts I had on it- the great news is – it works! This is a purely analogue design and it opens the door for new touch controlled stuff! I’m using this 5 note test device to play my Mk1 Syetem- Barabus! I fully intend to have a fully functioning synth out of this guy- micromaccers watch out!
Ken M
StudioBLADE – Best Keyboard Production Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnbmihJ0xr0
Well, whether it is the “best” remains to be seen, if you have tried please let us know what you think of it
This video shows the new Music Computing StudioBLADE(tm) 88-key keyboard production station. It is simply the most advanced, portable, upgradeable and least expensive keyboard production station available. $500 less than any other keyboard workstation and thousands less than any other keyboard production station, the StudioBLADE line of keyboard production stations aren’t just another generation ahead, they literally redefine the entire category.
Intimacy
Synthesist Martin Peters‘ demonstrates his take on Berlin School space music with this live modular + keyboard synth jam, Intimacy.
Here are the details:
Hello my YouTube and Modular synth friends. It’s been some weeks since I uploaded my last video. But I was looking for a way to record the music of my video’s in multitrack. Multitrack recording allows me to develop the live recorded music later on by adding, altering, removing individual audio tracks for each instrument and mixing the tracks properly. So I was busy investigating the various possibilities to do this. I ended up upgrading my Pro Tools LE 8 software, which I did not use much anymore, to version 9 to be able to broaden the scope for audio interfaces. Then I was lusted for a Mackie Onyx 1220i because this integrates a mixer and an audio interface for each channel. But the remaining budget was to tight for that. So then I bought a second hand Alesis MultiMix 16 FireWire which is capable of more or less the same for a smaller budget. Now I can record up to 16 channels and the stereo main mix in one go. I used the stereo main mix for this YouTube video so this is still a live recording. If I develop this recording further I will upload it to the music section of my website.
This improvisation is in essence somewhat minimal. There a four sequences going on. I manually alternate between rows 1 and 2 of the Synthesizers.com Q960 which is driving the Synthesizers.com Modular. I also use 2 presets on the Doepfer MAQ16/3 to alternate the sequences for the self-built Modular with a 4- and 6-step sequence and the Ian Fritz Teezer Through-Zero VCO with the Blacet MiniWave with two 8-step sequences. The Waldorf Q Keyboard does a 2-step sequence for the bass. Chords are played on the Roland XP-80 and the Waldorf Q Keyboard. The solo is performed on the Clavia Nord Lead 1. The MIDI clock for all this comes from Pro Tools 9 to keep it in sync with the Pro Tools bars and beats. Pro Tools also transposes the sequences on the Synthesizers.com Q960 and the Doepfer MAQ16/3.
You can download/see/hear the video and music from my website. I also provided a pre-recording made on the 24th of February.
Black Eyed Peas – secrets on stage
Black Eyed Peas Musical Director Printz Board takes us on a secret tour of his keyboard lair onstage during BEP’s 2010 E.N.D. Tour. He discusses keyboard setup (including a Novation, Moog, Roland Juno-G, and Yamaha Motif), mixer, stereo monitors, bass amp, trumpet, and all of the extra bells and whistles. He’s got a talk-back mic to communicate to Eric Harris during the show, the monitor engineers, or the whole crew in their in-ears. He also has a little TV screen that shows him any angle of the stage, and he can alert whomever necessary about potential problems, so that each cue happens at the right time and the show goes smoothly from song to song.
If you are really serious in your music production…
…then you definitely need these 
For Cubase
ProTools
Reason (stickers only)
Using something else then go here >>
+Editors Keys – Dedicated Editing Shortcuts Keyboards, Portable Vocal Booth, USB Studio Microphones, Recording Studio, Home Vocal Booths & Dual Layer Pop Filters / Pop Shields, whatever you need to improve your studio, we have it.
Increase productivity, discover all the tools and give your keyboard the recording studio work station look and learn the following: Digidesign Pro Tools Keyboard Shortcuts, Final Cut Pro Keyboard Shortcuts, Cubase Keyboard Shortcuts, Photoshop Keyboard, Logic Keyboard, as well as more for; Avid Xpress, Adobe Premiere, Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar, Propellerhead Reason, Adobe After Effects, Sony Vegas, Serato Scratch Live and many more!. Established in 2004 Editors Keys provides shortcuts keyboard sets for a wide range of audio, video and editing programs. Our revolutionary shortcuts keyboard are used by over 30,000 editors in over 180 countries and has been featured in leading magazines such as Sound On Sound and MusicTech Magazine. Check out the video above for a quick look at how they can fit onto your Mac or PC.
Fully-customizable multiple-layout isomorphic musical keyboard
Shiverware has released version 1.1 of Musix, an isomorphic musical keyboard for iOS.
Musix is a fully-customizable multiple-layout isomorphic musical keyboard. Each hexagon on the screen is a note, and surrounding hexagons are harmonically related. Songwriters benefit by discovering new melodies and musical relationships. Novices find it easy to learn to play. Experienced musicians are rewarded with an intuitive interface. Shiverware presents Musix: the definitive isomorphic keyboard. For beginners, for experts, for you!
Changes in Musix v1.1
- Musix now works the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3rd Gen and iPod Touch 4th Gen. All features except designing your own layout intervals are supported.
- The entire hexagon layout can be slide around on the screen so you can hit the notes you want quickly.
Musix for iOS 3.2 or later is available to purchase for $0.99 USD until 15 February, 2011.
More information: Shiverware / Musix
Radikal Technologies Accelerator
We said that Schaaf “introduced an entirely new form of wankery to the world of keyboard performance”, when he introduced the Radikal Accelerator and its 3D motion sensor. Fortunately, the Accelerator also offers a Radikal synth engine and performance controls….
This live performance synthesizer sounds really good, but it also has a few tricks we hadn’t seen before. Wait until you see how it bends pitch…
Features:
- 3 oscillators with sweepable waveforms, time linearity modulation, phasemodulation, ringmodulation between Oszillator 2+3
- oscillator synchronisation
- 6 envelope generators
- 4 LFOs (3 voice, 1p art LFO)
- noise with noise filter (multimode filter 12 / 24 dB)
- independent amp EG for noise
- 2 multimodefilter per voice
- LP, HP, BP and Notch with 12/24 dB per filter switchable
- independent oscillator to filter feeds
- serial and parallel filter configurations
- 8 voices (expandable per DSP upgrade)
- categorized randomize sound function
- monochrome graphic display with RGB backlight
- modulationmatrix – 2 FX – arpeggiator
- step sequencer
- split, dual, single and performance mode
- 3D positioning sensor for parameter control
- 61 lightweighted keys with channel aftertouch
- 512 sound memories
- floating point for enhanced dynamic range
- expression pedal input
- footswitch input
- USB (USB MIDI class device)
- two external inputs
- two outputs
- MIDI In, Out, Thru
- headphones output
Arturia Analog Experience Laboratory
Laboratory is the top of the line in Arturia’s Analog Experience software/hardware seies. The keyboard has 49 keys and aftertouch; the package comes with 3500 sounds, and you can even edit them using the GUI’s from Arturia’s line of software synthesizers.
Studiologic Acuna 88 @ NAMM 2011
The SL880 is an 88-note, full size keyboard with the authentic, “real piano” feel and look of velocity-sensitive Grand Hammer Action keys and after touch. You’ll find that you can put huge power into chord stabs and loud passages while the natural inertia of the hammer mechanism provides exactly the right kind of dynamic counterbalance that lets you massage real piano keys for expressive pianissimo. Equally important is the tiny bounce that a hammer gives to the key as it comes to rest. It’s this bounce that lets you play those two handed paradiddles, and gives you the accurate, expressive control you’re looking for over all your playing, whether it’s piano, string, horn or percussion parts. Two wheels provide pitch bend and modulations control. Controls include MIDI channel selection, bank selection, program change, transpose and more.
NOTE: Akai’s SynthStation 49 wasn’t the only keyboard with an iPad dock – check out the latest from Studiologic.
Demo of the StudioBLADE 88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnbmihJ0xr0
A new system that Wong calls “the most advanced, portable, upgradeable and least expensive keyboard production station available”
This video shows the new Music Computing StudioBLADE(tm) 88-key keyboard production station. It is simply the most advanced, portable, upgradeable and least expensive keyboard production station available. $500 less than any other keyboard workstation and thousands less than any other keyboard production station, the StudioBLADE line of keyboard production stations aren’t just another generation ahead, they literally redefine the entire category.
DATAMASKIN
