johnchop

When you start dragging canals for synths… yikes.

Just a heads up that a certain “boutique” purveyor of plugins has the Universal Audio producer bundle on massive sale. This bundle has Ravel, Waterfall, Electra 88, Minimoog, and other synths and some nice effects at a significant discount. Snagged it yesterday after longing for Electra for a while but finding it hard to justify the price. It’s now in no-brainer territory. I was particularly surprised by Ravel. It may become my favorite natural sounding grand option out of the (too) many I have. I was also happy to see they support cloud iLok, so you don’t have to have the USB dongle. -John

https://rolandcloud.com/news/introducing-earth-piano I’ve got an Ultimate subscription at the moment, so I took the early access version for a spin. I’m not sure if it’s derived from V-Piano tech. It definitely has that modeled piano aftertaste. As such, it’s a bit hit or miss for me. I actually dig the upright more than anything else, and IMO it’s better than anything in Zenology, but I’m not sure I like it more than my FP30x’s grand. It’s still cool to see another tool in the Cloud toolbox, and I sense more potential in the Earth piano engine than the presets demonstrate. Thoughts? -John

Synchrony is the issuer for the Sweetwater credit card, so that’s not fishy. But it’s weird to see a mailing about it and to get prompted to specify your SSN. Our identities and SSNs are all out there now anyway due to the National Public Data hack. 😡 Freeze your credit, folks.

Maybe the mk3 88 just didn’t sell. I sure appreciated the extra real estate and better action. Going to dig into the manual later to see what else has changed. I know these are budget controllers, but they do just enough that spending twice or more gives me pause, especially if the action isn’t that much better.

There’s a mk3 88. I have it. I suspect the new action is derived from there.

Yeah, I hear that. I’m sure they are just hitting a price point, use case, and user base where expression pedals are just not a big concern. Look at all the attention to arps, chord/scale modes on controllers these days. -John

Still more MIDI controller news. https://us.novationmusic.com/launchkey I have a 61 and 88 mk3, and this looks like a worthy upgrade. I’m assuming the 61 mk4 is the same action that’s in the 88 key mk3, which I prefer. I’m seeing DAW support beyond Ableton and a better control layout for my needs. Still only one pedal input, but I have ways around that. No aftertouch but that’s expected for this price. I’ll sell my mk3 boards and get this one for sure.

Goodbye Moon sounds like a Liu Cixin novel. “Everything was fine until the moon disappeared…”

@analogika @U.Honey Your pics immediately sent my brain to https://www.catsonsynthesizersinspace.com

If the keyboard feel and Ableton integration is great, I could be down for it. The mkii action is way too light for me.

https://www.arturia.com/products/hybrid-synths/keylab-mk3/overview Looks like evolution, not revolution. If it ain’t broke…

Any interest in this cool little box? https://mayer-emi.at/products/vibes/ It’s reminiscent of the Waldorf Iridium series, with its knobbier brother vs little brother editions. -John

K2000 and a keyboard amp from my apartment in my early 20s. Door was kicked down by someone with a size 13 shoe. Glad I wasn’t home. That was such a cool board. The thief was likely a miserable bastard with an already poor life expectancy. Many lessons learned about renter’s insurance, safety, etc.

Awful news. I’ve been plonking my way through “The Yellowjacket” as of late. Such a tasteful player. Can’t believe it. https://youtu.be/XlcKiizWQVI?si=fK1GeL94u6MAClOD