Arturia AstroLab announced

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Arturia have announced its new Arturia AstroLab featuring many (most?) of their AnalogLab instruments and presets: 34 instruments, 1,300 presets. You’ll find lots of pre-release demos on the Interwebs. I recommend the Arturia playthrough video which doesn’t have any yakking.

I’m excited by the AstroLab if, for no other reason, it’s the first significant alternative to the all-in-ones offered by the kaiju (Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Nord, etc.) The current sound set is very comprehensive even though a few Analog Lab instruments for AstroLab are still in development.

A few quick observations. The AstroLab is bi-timbral. That means splitting two independent voices or layering two voices. That might seem limiting, but I rarely use humungous stacks when playing live. The knobs (endless encoders) light up with the color matching the assigned layer or split voice. Neat. Piano and organ polyphony is 48; poly synth polyphony is 8.

There are four endless encoders to control voice parameters and four encoders to control the effects: effect A, effect B, delay and reverb. No sliders. The lack of sliders may raise eyebrows, but you can add a secondary MIDI controller through a USB-A port.

Speaking of encoders, you probably noticed that dial-like thingy in the middle of the front panel. Arturia have invented an innovative control which merges a big wheel with a high-resolution color display in the middle. The wheel turns left and right, and responds to clicks and pressure from the top. One may need to be a little careful so as to avoid inadvertent clicks while turning the wheel.

The keyboard is described as semi-weighted piano keys, channel aftertouch. Natch, one really needs to get the keys under the fingers to discover if the key-feel is really for you. In such a premium-level keyboard, I doubt if Arturia built in a cheapo keybed.

Internal storage is 22GBytes and only 7GBytes are used. That leaves plenty of room for expansion including the new instruments coming to AstroLab at some future date.

Sound editing is generally limited to what is assigned to the encoders. For deep sound editing, you’ll need a licensed copy of the relevant AnalogLab instrument (bundled or individually). In other words, separate software licenses are needed in order to deep-edit.

Physically, AstroLab is an attractive package weighing 22 pounds. That’s a little hefty for me, but is well within reason for a full 61-key instrument. The chassis is metal with molded end-cheeks. (That ain’t natural wood you’re seeing.) The goes-ins and goes-outs are well-provided for including 1/4 inch pedal jacks and 5-pin MIDI.

I see AstroLab priced at $1,600 USD (MAP or “street”) putting it up against Yamaha MODX, Korg Nautilus, Roland JUNO-X and Fantom-0, just to mention a few other products in this pricing tier.

I — for one — would like to try AstroLab and get a feel for the keybed. I’m also curious to hear and control the Hammond B-3 emulation. Would be nice to have sliders for drawbar control, but there is a nice, big flat area on the AstroLab front panel for my Crumar D9U.

A full demo on the new Arturia AstroLab with Bert Smorenburg — good to see and hear Bert!

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Ain’t no April Fool: piano evoce ß

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The Japanese Yamaha site posted information about a new app called “piano evoce ß”. I’m going to quote the site as translated by the Google:

This is an AI ensemble app that extracts the vocal part of your song and plays it back along with your performance. Feel free to enjoy playing together with your favorite songs!

Practicing the assigned songs alone will not increase your motivation. I want a session buddy who can arrange things freely! I want to be able to play my favorite songs with chords!

This software is a beta version service released primarily for technical verification and service experiments. We hope to continue to make improvements based on the opinions of our users.

piano evoce ß appears to be the next evolutionary step in the Chord Tracker family:

1. Connect your electronic piano/keyboard to your Mac via MIDI.
2. Analyze your own songs.
3. Start playing! When you play the chord displayed on the screen, the vocal part will follow your performance.

To use piano evoce ß, you need to register for a Yamaha Music ID account (free of charge).

Now, that’s pretty neat. Here’s my guess: Yamaha combined a vocal stem extractor with Chord Tracker. The screens look very similar to Chord Tracker. Given the reference to “service” and the need to have a Yamaha account, the heavy lifting (vocal stem extraction) is performed by Yamaha software running on one of its servers. There’s a bunch of terms and conditions to read and accept — Yamaha and its friggin’ lawyers.

The app has two ways of following the vocal part (quoting the usual minimalist manual):

  • Gentle tracking mode: This mode gently follows your playing. The high degree of freedom allows you to arrange and play chords. Even if the performance stops in the middle of a song, the tempo will slow down, but playback will not stop. The AI listens to your chords and sense of rhythm, understands your playing pace, and sings in a way that feels natural to the AI. Avoid sudden tempo changes, and try playing together to create an ensemble.
  • Perfect tracking mode: This mode waits and follows your performance. It will wait until you play at least one note that makes up the correct chord. AI will play according to the timing of your performance. Be sure to play in time with the chord changes.

Can’t wait to try this! I’m guessing it will be available for Clavinova digital pianos and Yamaha arranger keyboards. Bad news for Windows users: “piano evoce ß can be used with macOS 12.0 or higher”. Not a word about Windows.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Anavi Macropad8 for MIDI control

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Every now and again, ya need a simple, small device to send MIDI commands. The V3 Sound Yammex XXL sound module is one such use case. It requires full Bank Select plus Program Change message sequences to select a voice. You’d be surprised at how many MIDI controllers are incapable of sending a full three message selection sequence! [This is one of my pet peeves about some MIDI controllers,]

So-called “macro keypads” are one possible solution. Typically, macro keypads are used by gamers to send repeated, complicated key sequences. [Hadoken!] The trick is getting the macro keypad to send MIDI instead of ASCII or whatever.

I did a search last year and found the Anavi Macropad8. The Macropad8 has eight keys, a micro USB connector and an optional OLED display. I planned to plug it into the USB host port on the Yammex module and send voice selection messages to it over USB — while the Yammex 5-pin MIDI IN port handles notes from a brain-damaged MIDI keyboard controller.

Anavi’s fulfillment via Tindy.com was really fast. Then, I let the Macropad8 languish for almost a full year. Until now.

First off, I like the Anavi Macropad8 hardware. I bought the Developer Kit which requires some minor assembly. It’s no more complicated than assembling a KORG NTS-1 or NTS-2. Unlike the KORGs, the Macropad8 does not fully enclose the electronics. Still, the final assembly is decently robust. The OLED is probably the most vulnerable component as it sits on top of the plexi top cover. I’m good with this for home use.

After assembly, I wrangled with the QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) development environment. I figured a few bytes here and there, and the Macropad8 should be good to go. Ha! Two gigabytes of development environment later, I was ready to run the QMK compiler and flash software. Yikes, that is bloated. QMK downloads with the default keymap definitions, etc. for every QMK-compatible macro keypad known to man, woman and dog.

Plus, QMK is, at best, user-hostile for QMK n00bs. Even figuring out where source code goes is an adventure game. Then, the default Macropad8 keymap is too large to flash. QMK doesn’t offer any real hints about reducing code size and one is quickly in the deep water. I turned off tap dancing, N-key rollover and backlighting in order to get the code size down.

Fortunately, there is the shell of an “advanced” MIDI keymap.c file in the documentation from which I did extensive copy and modify. You’ll need to dive into the MIDI library source code to suss out the MIDI API. The API is complete, but it is undocumented.

At long last I had a QMK app ready to go. The concept of operation is pretty simple — respond to key codes and send Bank Select MSB, Bank Select LSB and Program Change for each key press. User code runs in the middle of an infinite loop provided by the QMK infrastructure. QMK calls process_record_user() when a key code is ready for processing. If the OLED is enabled, QMK calls oled_task_user(), so your code can update (redraw) the display.

I did a quick check out with MIDI-OX to make sure the MIDI messages were being sent correctly. The Macropad8 exposes two USB ports — one to send characters to the keyboard stream and one to send MIDI. Fortunately, both Windows (MIDI-OK) and the Yammex immediately recognized the MIDI port.

Hooked up to Yammex, the Macropad8 worked as expected. I couldn’t get the arrangement to glitch even once while practicing. Overall, I would call Anavi Macropad8 a success and I recommend it.

The Macropad8 can run Arduino sketches, too. My back-up plan, in case QMK failed, was to program the Macropad8 as an Arduino (Leonardo). As an Arduino, the Macropad8 makes a neat application-specific system. I wish there was direct hardware access to the Arduino pins, but that would push Macropad8 into a different product direction entirely. Would make an interesting hack, anyway…

I noticed that newer Anavi products have moved to the Raspberry Pi RP2040 Pico. So, exercise care when ordering if you want a Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

A few words about my new PSR/Genos styles

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I promised to say a few words about the new styles in my free Performance Style Collection (Version 2).

Motif/MOX, again

Five of the new styles are converted from Motif/MOX Performances:

Bubbly Dub         77  Dub reggae (Long live King Tubby!)
Dresden At Night   91  Chill
Poppyhanger        90  Mid-tempo electronica (minor key best)
See The Show      100  Prog rock (ELP, Yes, Emerson, Wakeman)
Ticking Away      120  Prog rock (Pink Floyd)

In case you’re not hip to Motif/MOX terminology, a Performance is a style-like group of voices and arpeggios (musical phrases). Most of these Performances are available for Montage and MODX, too — load the “MOTIF XF Performances for MONTAGE” library.

“Bubbly Dub” is my homage to King Tubby. Dub is totally under-represented in Yamaha styles. Reggae, yea, but give me those funky effects! If I have a slam on “Bubbly Dub,” it doesn’t go far enough.

“Dresden At Night” and “Poppyhanger” are upbeat electronica. Feel free to tear them apart and use the phrases.

“See The Show” and “Ticking Away” should tickle prog rock fans. “Ticking Away” is obviously based on “Time.” “See The Show” is a mash-up of ELP and Yes. If you figure out how to tame “See The Show,” please let me know.

Swizzle them phrases

Ableton Live always seemed like a natural tool for style assembly. Finally, this dreary winter, I gave Live a try in this role. The end result is six new downtempo and funk styles:

Cool Revibed      85  Downtempo
DownTime          71  Downtempo
Funkin Style     114  Jabo funk 
Slow Walker       75  Downtempo (minor key best)
Slow Walker DJ    75  Downtempo DJ style (chord progression built-in)
Street Genos      90  Hip-hop (needs Vocal Beat Box)

These styles are based on mixed and matched MIDI patterns from various collections. I want to shout out Groove Monkee, Apollo Sound and Equinox Sounds. If you want to do downtempo, chill or the hippity-hop, look at these brands.

Mostly, I banged MIDI loops together in Ableton and adjusted a few notes here and there to put melodic parts into the same scale. “Slow Walker” was a challenge in this regard. Pushing the notes into the same scale took character out of the sound. So, I did a “DJ” style with the original notes/changes cooked in. “Slow Walker DJ” follows the root note, but not the chord type.

“Cool Revibed” has a slightly different process. I started with the rhythm patterns in the Genos “CoolR&B” style and then hung phrases on it like Christmas tree ornaments. Having the rhythm down is a good way to start composition, if the rhythm is inspirational.

As to Live and sound generation, sometimes I started with Live software instruments, got the MIDI patterns going, and found sound-alike Genos patches for the final assembly. Other times, I drove Genos directly from Live, picking out voices and DSP effects by hand in the Genos mixer.

Jam away

I’m a long-time fan of Jean Luc Ponty’s “A Taste For Passion”. I caught Ponty live sometime around 1980 — great concert! Keyboardist Allan Zavod (RIP) was under-recognized for his contributions.

“Sunset Drive” is one of my favorite tracks from the album. The “Sunset Drive” style is a jam-along style with the bass and chords cooked in.

Sunset Drive     136  Jammin' jazz by Jean Luc Ponty (Cm scale)

The style will follow the root note. So, start out in Cm7 and modulate down to Am. Then, up to Cm7, again. Fun, fun, fun!

One of these days, I will give “Beach Girl” the same treatment. Beautiful tunes, all.

Don’t forget, I have additional free content for Yamaha PSR, Tyros and Genos:

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Free Performance Styles for PSR/Genos

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Been a while since I’ve posted. 🙂 That means I’ve been busy with a few hunker-down, wintertime projects.

At long last, I pulled together the second version of my “Performance Styles for PSR/Genos” collection. The second version has all of the V1 styles plus a dozen new V2 styles.

The V1 styles were translated from Motif XS/MOX Performances to Tyros/PSR. If you would like to read about the translation process, check these links:

These articles are still a good read if you are interested in creating original styles of your own. There is a short Getting Started With Style Files post, too.

The V1 style files target PSR-S950, which by now is old hat. So, the original V1 styles should be reasonably compatible with any post-S950 arranger.

The V2 style files take the collection into new territory. The V2 styles include contemporary genres like downtempo and make wide use of DSP insert effects. I developed the styles on Genos (gen 1) which supports a single insert effect on each style part. The V2 styles are compatible with Genos2. Some voices and DSP effects may not be supported by earlier arrangers. Genos1 still leads the pack in many dimensions!

Nonetheless, I encourage you to download the new collection. You might need to re-voice a style part or two and maybe redirect the DSP units which are available on your music machine. The styles are SFF1 even though a few new styles use Mega Voice. Being SFF1, you should be able to edit the styles with Mixmaster or any of the wonderful tools created by Jørgen Sørensen. I owe Jørgen a debt of gratitude since his CASM editor, OTS editor and Style Split/Splice programs are essential tools for any style developer.

Download Performance Styles for PSR/Genos (Version 2). The ZIP file includes a README text file. Be sure to check it out.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Yamaha Reface DX in the house

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UPS surprised me and delivered Yamaha Reface DX one day early. Hurray!

As I’ve mentioned before, I owned and played a Yamaha DX21 back in the late 80s and early 90s. (The 4-op, FM DX21 was released in 1985.) The DX21 was the first synth that I took to church. I remember playing string, brass and organ patches.

After I unboxed the Reface DX, my head was spinning. Did Rock Moranis’s mad-scientist dad hit my old DX21 with a shrinking ray? The styling and feel is so DX21 that it was a definite case of déjà vu.

The Reface DX has the same solid feel and build as my well-worn Reface YC. I bought Reface YC in 2017 and I’ve played the snot out of it. I take care of my tools and the Reface YC has held up pretty well. I expect the same from Reface DX.

One difference tho’, the Reface YC keys have become clacky (for lack of a better term). Playing the new Reface DX reminds me of how smooth the YC felt at first. The DX velocity response is nice. The DX is still three octaves, so my major complaint about mini-keyboards remains valid. The Reface HQ mini-keys have a more substantial feel than the Yamaha PSS-A50.

After turning this bugger on and playing — Wow, this is a real instrument, a real synthesizer. The DX stores patches unlike its Reface brethren. I went through the presets and found roughly 20 keepers. I’m not into aggressive so patches like “Wobble Bass” got the ax. I made a chart and took note of target memory locations.

Sound-wise, it’s a very nice 4-op implementation. Eight note polyphony is enough to be dangerous. In comparison, Modal Skukpt SE is four voice polyphonic and I always get frustrated when the fifth note causes note theft. I’m putting the Reface DX through a Yamaha Stagepas100 and it sounds great. The built-in speakers are the same old “courtesy speakers” and aren’t meant for serious use.

The effects section is strong. Reface DX implements two post effects in series. The workflow is simple and direct: Hit the EFFECT button and use the data entry strips/switches to make your choices. There is a lot you can do through effects alone without getting into FM programming.

You all might say, “Late to the party, PJ.” However, I made a conscious decision in 2017 to buy one Reface and the YC filled most of my needs. With YC, it’s organ or nothing and that has always felt limiting. Reface DX is a true synth and covers a lot of sonic territory. Maybe I would have been happier with Reface DX from the start? It just doesn’t matter…

Yamaha Soundmondo

Being late has one advantage, Yamaha’s Soundmondo patch-sharing site is full to the brim with Reface DX programs. I decided to start with Manny Fernandez’s patches — go pro. I honestly don’t have time to wade through a lot of, well, crap.

Speaking of which, there are so many DX programs that Yamaha’s tagging scheme is not sufficient to efficiently filter out irrelevant dreck. People can tick off as many tags as they like — inappropriately so. Worse, Soundmondo game-ified contributions, encouraging people to use more tags than necessary in order to win more ears and likes. These factors make efficient search impossible. Yamaha should limit the number of tags per sound to three, max.

Beyond those negatives, Soundmondo works like a charm with Reface DX. I never used Soundmondo with the YC since pulling drawbars is so natural and immediate. With Soundmondo, I quickly found useable string and brass patches. The workflow is smooth and it’s easy to store a new voice on the DX as long as you know which memory locations to sacrifice. No problem.

My only remaining quibble with Soundmondo is, again, due to scale. Soundmondo uses the scrolling reveal approach to search results and does not return to the last selected result. That means you have to re-scroll through search results all the way from the beginning! Since people over-tagged their entries, that makes for a lot of dreck to scan through over and over again. Tedious.

Quick summary

So, Reface DX is now on sale for $250 USD (MAP). I stayed good to my word and waited for close-out pricing before buying a second Reface. If you can find a Reface DX for $250, buy it. You won’t regret the decision.

What’s next? I’m going to try loading converted DX21 patches from the Reface DX Legacy Project. Soundmondo is a little short on FM woodwinds and I’m going to give the old DX21 sounds another shot at glory.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

More DX/FM learning resources

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While waiting and waiting for the Superbowl, I went on a treasure hunt through my archives. I found and scanned a few old Yamaha DX learning resources for people who want to learn FM programming.

Yamaha DX21 Play Book

The Yamaha DX21 Play Book is a more user friendly manual for the DX21. It’s closer to what we call a “user manual” than a stuffy reference manual.

The DX21 Play Book has a bright orange cover and takes the reader through the steps of using a DX21. It concludes with a very basic introduction to DX21 programming, including the FM voice data for Glockenspiel (seriously?) and brass.

The DX21 Play Book came with a cassette tape. Side A is audio covering basic operation and performance memory. Side B contains performance and voice data to load onto the DX21. Welcome to 1980’s technology — digital data encoded as audio. Modems, anyone?

FM preset charts

I hand-copied (!) patches for eight DX21 factory presets. Primitive, but I can still read the results today unlike my variable speed floppy disks for Mac SE. 🙂

Yamaha Aftertouch Magazine

Before YamahaSynth.com and forums, there was Yamaha Aftertouch Magazine. Aftertouch was edited by the talented Tom Darter of Keyboard Magazine fame. Yamaha dropped real money on Aftertouch. I loved that mini-magazine and read it religiously.

There is a great collection of Aftertouch magazines at Yates Family. In the January 1989 issue, you will find a brief bio and comments by a young guy named Phil Clendeninn. (Thanks, Phil!)

Here is the January 1986 issue of Aftertouch. Speaking of youth, our kid was six months old in January 1986. Time flies!

How to program the DX7

Back in the day, Keyboard Magazine published in-depth reviews and how-to articles. That’s why many of us mourn the loss of Keyboard Magazine.

Here is a scan of “How to Program the DX7” by Bo Tomlyn as told to Jim Aikin. Bo Tomlyn was a consultant and clinician for Yamaha. If you read this article and the series by Manny Fernandez, you’ll be ready to go.

Yamaha FM Essential app

Finally, the Yamaha FM Essential app is a quick and free way to check out 4-op FM programming. You need to connect your iPad to a Mark 2 MX series synthesizer to unlock all of its presets (including the DX100).

I unlocked the app — once. Unfortunately, if you archive the app to iCloud, it loses the unlock data. So, the FM Essential app is now locked again.

Hey, Yamaha! Maybe it’s time to fully unlock the FM Essential app for everybody? I can’t find an MX at a local store to do another unlock. Maybe unlock the app when its connected to any Yamaha synth?

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

Reface DX: No static at all

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If you’ve browsed Yamaha Reface at on-line retailers, you’ll know that Reface DX and Reface CS are currently on sale. The DX and CS are the two Katzenhammer kids which share the same internal design, using a Yamaha-proprietary SSP-2 processor as the central compute engine.

The Reface DX price is startling: $250 USD (MAP). Wow! That’s the price of a mid-range guitar pedal. Makes me wonder if the DX and CS are being closed out or if Mark 2 models are in the works. The venerable SSP-2 is supplanted by the SSP-3 and perhaps the inventory of SSP-2 is depleted.

The Reface CP and Reface YC MAP prices remain the same. I suspect that sales of these models remain solid as there always seems to be a need for good EP and organ sounds.

That DX price is a clearance price. When Reface was released, I vowed to buy at blow-out pricing. Yep, I put a Reface DX on order.

A few Reface DX programming links

First off, I’m amazed at the number of contributed DX patches at Yamaha’s Soundmondo sharing site. There are literally thousands of Reface DX patches. The Soundmondo tagging idea is good, but too many punters over-tagged their submissions. I’m looking for “orchestral” sounds and there are many tagged patches that are not remotely “orchestral”. A search system is only as good as the quality of its tagging.

If that’s not enough patches for you, try the Reface DX Legacy Project. Martin Tarenskeen maintains this vast library of Reface DX patches converted from old FM machines. I can’t vouch for the quality of the conversions (yet), but I’ll be heading there for old 4-op DX21 patches. I had a DX21 back in the day, and know the factory sound set quite well. I still have the original cassette tape with DX21 patches on it!

I also plan to do a little FM programming. This series of articles by Manny Fernandez is excellent:

Learn from the best in the field — that would be Manny. His articles have links to his example patches in the Soundmondo library.

You’ll need a Reface DX algorithms and envelope cheat-sheet (PDF), too.

Reface DX is old enough to be a grown up by now. So, there’s plenty of on-line support if you choose to jump into the Reface DX pool.

Yamaha SEQTRAK FM

I was curious to see how SEQTRAK FM stacks up against Reface DX. My conclusion — it’s the same FM engine:

  • 4-op, 12 algorithms, polyphony 8
  • Same algorithms and parameters
  • SEQTRAK includes many Reface DX patches

Looking beyond FM, SEQTRAK does AWM2, sampling and sequencing, and offers more effects. I’m more of a player than a button-pusher, so Reface DX is better for my personal needs.

Reflecting on the SEQTRAK FM and AWM2, I would expect to find a Yamaha proprietary SWX09 at its heart. The SWX09 core executes the Renesas SH architecture, same as SSP. Plus, SWX09 has an integrated AWM2 tone generation engine.

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2024: KORG Nu:tekt NTS-1 MkII and NTS-3 kaoss pad

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KORG NTS-1 MkII

If you’re like me, you don’t have time to watch a zillion product videos in order to learn even the most basic information about a shiny object. Here’s a quick take on the new KORG NTS-1 MkII programmable synthesizer kit. Check out my first look at the NTS-1 Mk1, too.

Let’s get the price out of the way, first. The MkII is $170, up from the Mk1’s $100 USD MAP. That’s a modest increase, but we better get something for the extra 70 bucks!

KORG upped the processor to an ST Microelectronics STM32H725IET6: ARM® Cortex®-M7 STM32H7 Microcontroller IC 32-Bit 550MHz 512KB (512K x 8) FLASH 176-LQFP. The original MkI uses an ST Microelectronics STM32F446ZET6, which is an ARM® Cortex®-M4 STM32F4 Microcontroller IC 32-Bit Single-Core 180MHz 512KB (512K x 8) FLASH 144-LQFP. The main difference is M7 vs. M4 and the higher CPU clock speed. Nice.

The downside: logue SDK MkII is not backward compatible to MkI NTS-1. The MkII SDK is reported to have new capabilities, but no one has seen the spec.

Below is a quick list of new features and enhancements:

  • 8 step sequencer
  • Arpeggiator with different chord scales
  • A new noise oscillator
  • USB-C and MIDI IN/OUT (TRS-A dongle)
  • Keyboard is multitouch and sends chords through MIDI OUT
  • Controls send MIDI CC through MIDI OUT
  • KORG Kontrol Editor support (librarian)
  • New effects: Soft Clip, Hard Clip, Fuzz, One Repeat Delay, Smooth reverb, Arena, Room, Early reflections, Horror
  • Tempo sync delay options
  • External audio can be used as a modulator
  • Built-in mini speaker

That’s worth the extra $70, I’d say. KORG have invested time and money on the logue SDK — a worthy trend — and that needs to be rolled into the asking price.

I thought about blowing off the NTS-1 MkII. Now I’m not so sure! The MkII has a number of useful refinements and I especially like the MIDI OUT capabilities.

KORG NTS-3 kaoss pad kit

The KORG NTS-3 really caught my attention as I always wished I had a kaoss pad!

Unfortunately, detailed information is sketchy at this stage. KORG claim four effect slots and deep editing. Features include:

  • XY pad (duh!)
  • FX depth touch slider/strip
  • Tap BPM and tempo sync
  • Filter, modulation, delay, reverb, lo-fi and mastering effects
  • 3 oscillator “effects”
  • 200 Performance program slots (100 preloaded, 100 user)
  • Dedicated librarian app (coming soon)
  • Sync IN/OUT re-assignable to MIDI IN/OUT
  • TRS-A MIDI convention
  • USB-C communication and power
  • KORG music software bundle

Guessing, the NTS-3 will probably require the MkII logueSDK. Judging from the KORG NTS-3 assembly video, the NTS-3 uses the same higher-spec STM32H725IET6 ARM processor.

Same $170 USD MAP asking price and same pre-order status as the NTS-1 MkII. KORG have sent out NTS-1 demo units, but no NTS-3 joy yet. Might have to wait a while for this one…

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski

NAMM 2024: Briefs

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Just “Meh”

So far, I’m feeling just “Meh” about NAMM 2024. Last year’s NAMM opened the floodgates of new, post-pandemic product. Among the daikaiju (大怪獣), KORG dominates with the most new releases.

We shouldn’t forget these new toys:

Both Nord and Casio are collaborating with partners to up the action game — Nord with KAWAI and Casio with C. Bechstein (video).

Studiologic have revamped the Numa Compact product line (new acoustic pianos, tonewheel modeled engine, new rotary effect, chorus and vibrato, new “virtual oscillators” synth engine). These all-rounders look to play against the Yamaha CK series stage instruments. Looks for incentive, clear-out pricing on the older Numa Compact 2 series instruments.

If you’ve been waiting for a new beginner’s keyboard, Yamaha have announced the PSR-E283. Will this appear on the Yamaha NAMM 2024 page later today? 410 instrument voices, 150 auto-accompaniment styles, duo mode for duets and the usual built-in speakers. Yamaha PSR-E283 video tutorial

Akai MPC Key 37?

The day is still young.

Yamaha Montage E.S.P.

I expected to see the Yamaha Montage M Expanded Softsynth Plugin (E.S.P.) today and wasn’t disappointed. There is a new Blake’s take about E.S.P. on the YamahaSynth.com site. Lots of screengrabs.

As this point, E.S.P. is for Montage M owners. You’ll need your coupon code and the Steinberg Download Assistant. E.S.P. requires 10GBytes of free space. Yikes, but it probably needs room for all of the waveforms.

We should start getting field reports about real-world polyphony and so forth. No information on pricing for non-Montage M customers. Here’s the E.S.P. Manual on the Yamaha USA site.

NAMM 2024 Montage M E.S.P. demo video (Blake Angelos) by Sonicstate. E.S.P. is only available to Montage M hardware owners — no software-only retail version. Sorry if you expected a full Montage M on the cheap.

Little things

Although pitched at drummers and percussionists, the No Better Option (NBO) Oneboard provides a way to stash your phone, mini-mixer, tablet and other gizmos while performing. NBO is a boutique vendor who have sold out their original round of Onboards. Register for the next round of pre-orders.

You’ve probably never heard of ROBKOO. They are a Shanghai-based company specializing in electronic wind instruments: the R1 Synthesizer and the Clarii mini digital wind instrument and controller.

The Clarii mini (#300/$400 USD) is about the same size as a clarinet. It fingers like a sax, but fingering can be customized. Synthesis is built-in along with a speaker, screen and Bluetooth MIDI. The Clarii mini has an accelerometer, too, so you can shake it.

The ROBKOO R1 synthesizer is sleeker and has similar specs. The R1 adds RGB lights for pizzazz. Instead of an accelerometer, R1 has an XYZ gyroscope to control expression. The R1 connects with the JamKoo performance app which gives access to internal functions. The R1 is $600 USD — not an impulse purchase, that’s for sure.

Stylophone are going upscale with the CPM DS-2 analog drone synthesizer ($260 USD). The CPM DS-2 will have 2 3340 oscillators, 2 3320 filters, 2 sub-oscillators, 2 LFOs, vintage delay and reverb, and 12 modular patch points. It will be Eurorack compatible. Pre-order at Stylophone.com.

If you ever wanted to strut your stuff like David Bourne and company, check out Walkabout Carriers. “Battery powered, wireless carriers for electronic musical instruments.” Their Web site is under construction, but check back…

Copyright © 2024 Paul J. Drongowski