NAMM 2023: Small stuff - Sand, software and sound

Instead of talking about the big kids, here are a few boutique, cottage industry MIDI gizmos. My current fixation is finding a fully programmable, tiny MIDI controller to send patch changes (Bank Select MSB, Bank Select LSB and Program Change messages).

If you’re ready to buy, try tindie.com — an Etsy for independent, boutique electronics. Tindie sells an incredibly wide variety of electronic goods. Keep those inventors and makers busy and happy!

Phantasmal Force

The Distropolis Goods Phantasmal Force is tiiiiinnnnyyyy. It has sixteen individually programmable buttons, a programmable knob and an OLED display. It’s bus-powered and sends MIDI over USB Type C and TRS-A serial ports.

Phantasmal Force sells for $125 USD on Tindie. There, you get to customize case and button colors.

The retro, pseudo-typewritten reference manual is a scream.

AMC3 MIDI Controller

The AMC3 MIDI Controller is back in stock. The AMC3 has three, fully programmable, 3x100mm faders (Bourns). The AMC3 is class-compliant, sending MIDI over USB. The AMC3 has a 3-digit LED display.

The AMC3 reminds me of the Sparkfun Danger Shield, which I used in my Danger Shield Drawbars project. Unlike the Danger Shield, the AMC3 lives in a rugged, dust-resistant ABS chassis. The chassis is 5 by 7 inches. If you’re looking for actual drawbars, try the Crumar D9U kit.

The AMC3 costs $149.99 and AMC3 are offering a 10% discount (good for the next two months).

The AMC3 is configured via tycocommander. Tycocommander is part of the Koromix Tytools package. Although the AMC3 folks don’t mention it, the AMC3 is Teensy-based, hence, tycocommander. Thus, it may be possible to overwrite the original AMC3 code with your own.

I would contact AMC3, however, before doing anything so drastic! Be sure to get a copy of the original factory code!

Anavi Macro Pad 8

Gamers are familiar with macro pad keyboards — small keypads capable of quickly sending multi-character sequences. Stands to reason, if a macro pad can send ASCII over USB, it can send MIDI, too.

Amazon is clogged with macro pads. The trick is finding a macro pad which is fully programmable (as opposed to being configured for ASCII key strokes).

The Anavi Macro Pad 8 fits the bill. It has eight mechanical key switches and an optional mini OLED display. Everything is mounted in a clear acrylic enclosure (optional). The Macro Pad 8 communicates through a Micro USB port.

According to Anavi:

Anavi Macro Pad 8 is powered by a Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller, so it is possible to use as an Arduino Leonardo-compatible development board and upload Arduino sketches through Arduino IDE or PlatformIO.

Now we’re talking!

The base Anavi Macro Pad 8 is $46 USD on Tindie. If you dress it up with the enclosure and OLED, it’s $69 USD, including shipping to the USA. I have one on order. Fulfillment is good and it’s on its way from Bulgaria.

If eight keys are too many, check out the other Anavi products on Tindie.

Random NAMM 2023 comments

In the old news department, Yamaha have released the CK stage keyboards and have given the YC organ-focused keyboard an update. The CKs are good value for the money and are better “all-rounders” than the YCs. The CKs even have pipe organ voices lifted from Genos™.

If this week’s postings are meager, I spent waaay too much time blasting Yamaha for the lack of pipe organ voices on the YC. Montage and MODX have two decent FM pipe organ performances and should have been included in the YC update. Presently, the CKs undercut Yamaha’s own YC as far as church music is concerned. If you have a Montage or MODX, sample Genos and add pipe organ voices of your own. YC is a closed system in that regard.

Meanwhile, Yamaha’s competition are not sitting still. Hammond are teasing the XK-4: 61 keys, pitch bend and mod wheels, color display, and assignable knobs. It follows in the footsteps of the lower-cost XK-1c model, having B-3, Farfisa, Vox and pipe organ (!) sounds. The XK-1c MSRP is $1,995 ($1,725 MAP). We await the official announcement for anything definitive. I’m curious to see how Hammond will price this puppy.

The Yamaha NAMM 2023 pages are active with placeholders for a few new products to be announced at the show. Hope for the golden magical unicorn is fading. Still, there is the princess.

Korg are finally shipping the Nu:Tekt NTS-2 oscilloscope in North America. Thank you, Korg!

Back to practicing for Easter Sunday…