Stephen Fortner

Since fall 2018 I’ve been back in my hometown of Burlington VT after 25 years in California. That was half and half between Santa Barbara first and Oakland second. Burlington is sort of a micro Portland OR, or at least it wants to be. We’re still milking being the home of Phish, Ben & Jerry’s, and Bernie Sanders. I grew up with Bernie as the mayor and getting ice cream cones handed to me by Ben or Jerry, and hearing Phish at UVM for free so I guess I’m kind of O.G. As with any small but hip city (pop. 45,000 in the city limits) it is what it is and it has what it has. Some of that is very cool, but if you know what you’re looking for and it’s not here, it’s REALLY not here. Want to compare an Aeron to an XChair to a few other things by sitting your butt in them? You’re driving to Concord NH. Want to compare a Montage to a Kronos to a Fantom to a K2700? Boston. There is almost NO money in gigging. You’re either doing the songwriter or indie band thing and showcasing, or if you want to do the weekend-but-pro cover band thing, you’d better be in a small clique of musicians who’ve had a death grip on that since like 1980. (I am, I guess. Returning as the former editor of Keyboard opened doors that never opened for me back in the day.) Farm-to-table dining is amazing, and though I no longer drink I’d put Vermont craft beer up against anything in the world. All in all there are frustrations and limits, but when I’m enjoying a cigar looking at a sunset over Lake Champlain and the leaves are all kinds of colors, I feel privileged to live here. Oh, and it’s a “Cree-mee” not soft serve ice cream and ours are the best in the world.

Saw this film with my girlfriend, who is an accomplished conductor. She thought it got an uncanny amount right about how brutal the classical music scene can be. Cate Blanchett was luminous and riveting. I kept expecting it to swerve into spookier Darren Aronofsky style territory — think Black Swan. Instead we got a drawn-out parable about ego and self-destruction. Ultimately it was boring. Worth the watch but I wouldn’t see it twice. Anyone else seen this movie? Thoughts?

Power up the MiniFreak, and the words “Welcome [your name here], we’ve been expecting you. Let’s get started” scroll across the display. I haven’t yet found the place where you enter your name and personalize it, but I do know this much: It may have been expecting me, but I wasn’t expecting it.(Full disclosure: I have worked on manuals and tutorials for Arturia. I did not work on nor receive compensation for anything related to the MiniFreak.) Arturia’s marketing characterizes the MiniFreak as experimental and unconventional. That it is, but that’s also like saying a Ferrari FF is “fast” and ignoring the fact you can stick a similarly-priced load from Whole Foods in the hatchback and that it has all-wheel drive. I don’t think $599 can buy you any more sonic flexibility and downright musical usefulness anywhere else. I’d even go so far as to say that for synths in this form factor, destined to occupy the second tier above a Nord whatever and looked at through unnecessarily thick-framed glasses over an ironic mustache, this thing is the new MicroKorg. In this thread I hope to explain why. Overview I have both a MicroFreak and MiniFreak in my studio currently. Simply put, the MicroFreak screams “Look at me, I’m weird!” and the MiniFreak does not. Maybe that’s because of the swapping of the Micro’s capacitive touch-keyboard for three octaves of mini-keys with aftertouch (!) but I think it’s more than that. The MiniFreak is a “hybrid synth,” meaning it marries digital sound sources to an analog filter. It offers six voices of polyphony. Those sound sources are two digital oscillators controlled from the section with the orange knobs. Each oscillator offers a number of algorithms, which are better described as oscillator types or methods of sound generation. There are basic waveforms, virtual analog, Karplus-Strong, two-operator FM, harmonic (additive, sorta), and many more, including an external audio input on oscillator 1 only. The filter is straightforward enough, with everything you need and nothing you don’t. There are lowpass, highpass, and bandpass modes, cutoff and resonance, and a clever dual-purpose knob that adjusts envelope amount before 12 o’clock and velocity-to-cutoff sensitivity after. The envelope section is a standard ADSR, but this is also where you switch between mono, poly, paraphonic, and unison modes. In addition, a “cycling envelope” offers independent rise and fall times and can be set to run one-shot or loop. On the left of the panel is an LED-festooned modulation matrix, allowing you to map seven sources to seven destinations — three of the latter are assignable. Since we don’t have room for all the buttons of a MatrixBrute or PolyBrute, there’s some scrolling with a knob involved, but it’s really pretty quick to make assignments. The sequencer-arpeggiator is wild and has more real-time control than any other mini-synth — heck, than most other full-sized keyboard slab synths — I’ve seen. Sixteen buttons access step control in sequencer mode, then select patterns and octave ranges in arpeggiator mode. You can set odd, proggy sequence lengths. Pitch-bend and mod are touch-strips, which have alternate modes accessed by buttons immediately above: Macros (programmable settings to sweep multiple parameters at once), and gate/splice time for the sequencer-arpeggiator. We’ll get into the details of all these sections in future posts, but at the outset I cannot emphasize this point enough: I would reach for the MiniFreak for almost any “synthy” sound for which I wouldn’t reach for a ROMpler or clonewheel organ. Really. Pads, leads, basses, synth strings and brass … it can do it all and sounds gorgeous doing it. I’m painting with very broad strokes here and bastardizing technical realities, but in terms of “vibe,” where the MicroFreak was like a Buchla for people afraid of Buchlas, the MiniFreak comes off like the amicable best friend of virtually any multi-keyboardist. It’s like a punk rocker with a very positive attitude — all those facial piercings can’t wipe the big bright smile off its face. Next, we’ll get into the multifarious dual-oscillator setup. There isn’t a lot it can’t do.

Sean M.H., I have both the Mini and Micro Freaks here. (Full disclosure: I sometimes create documentation and tutorials for Arturia on a freelance basis, so I get to play with a lot of their gear.) For my money, I would rather have the MiniFreak's aftertouch than the Micro's capacative Y-axis thingy — though that's pretty cool, too. Speaking of which, is anyone else aware of a synth with mini-keys like this, in this sort of form factor established by the microKORG, that senses aftertouch? Let alone one that comes in at $599? I may be having a middle-aged moment but I can't recall one.

What dB said. I won’t be at Synthplex in person due to family health issues. But I am currently in possession of a MiniFreak and will feature it in GearLab. Stay (de)tuned!

Curious, has anyone ever had a form of it that's at a low pitch? I hear a faint hum all the time (unless louder external sounds are drowning it out), I've matched it on a synth, and it comes in right around the notorious 250 Hz. The frequency that engineers notch out because it makes bass sound honky. Doctors haven't made sense of it other than to tell me that it's likely neurological but non-threatening. I've had it for about the past ten years and it's followed me from one coast to another so I know it's not something external or regional.

The OP, Shayo, asked me to delete the post, which I did.

I’m always of two minds with the patchbay issue. I have three of them: Neutrik 1/4-inch NYS-SPP-L units where you can change the routing by flipping a circuit card around for each channel. It is undoubtedly a time-saver to have a default signal path (plugged into the back) I can override by plugging something into the front. On the other hand, the audiophile in me wants the shortest possible synth between instrument/mic, any desired hardware processors, and recording input. Not that my current setup follows that principle to a tee. Keyboards are mainly plugged into a Crest XR-24 mixer, which serves as a traffic cop although I occasionally use a little of its EQ. Its eight subgroup outs feed the line ins on my UA Apollo. I also have an SSL SiX mixer for its pres and to handle my monitor control. The patch bays are currently not in use, but were when my main interfaces were MOTU HD192 and 2408mk3 boxes. Been thinking about going mixerless by adding more I/O (either an Apollo 16 or a couple of 8-channel pres with ADAT outs as my old Apollo has two ADAT ins) and reinstating the patch bays. Then again I really love being able to reach for the board to tweak gain or change routing. Did I tell you I sometimes have difficulty making decisions?

I finally got to see Nolan's "Tenet" on Prime Video. Visually stunning, great writing and acting, and a mind-bender of a time paradox puzzle that bears repeated watching to figure out. That said, never before has so much high-concept mileage been wrung out of such a straightforward visual device: playing stuff backwards.

Wanted to let you all know that American Music and Sound have kindly extended my loan of the K2700 until October 1. What topic, sound category, feature area, etc., would you like to know about next that we haven't covered so far?

My biggest regret in all my years at Keyboard Magazine was that the stars never aligned such that I could put Joe on the cover. I have some contacts though and maybe I can ask him to do a post or two here. If I could have a singing voice like anyone, it’d be him first and Fagen a close second.

Apropos of nothing, does anyone remember the “Rubber Electric Piano” patch from the DX7-II? It did not sound like a Doogie Howser EP. It was dope.

Just came across this video about how the K2700 loads DX7 sounds. The video maker is using a DX7-II interestingly.

So, it looks like I’m having trouble getting an HTML table to display as I want. I’ll ask Jim Quinn to help out. But you can basically see the information for now until I get this formatted properly: first line in each group is the Kurz program number, second is the Program name, and the third is the tune or riff I first played when I heard it. One non-FM program, “VoiceOfMoon” snuck into the search because of the f and M with no space between them in its name. And there may be some FM programs that don’t have it in the name that I haven’t excavated yet. Suffice to say the K2700 will do anything from our collective memory of better FM sounds, and a lot more.

FM Programs, take 2 Ok,let’s try this again. Off the bat I’ll admit to a bias: These days, I don’t see why some synth companies are as excited about including an FM engine as they are. Beyond analog, other technologies are better at doing most of what we want to hear, be they good old PCM multisampling, wavetable, or additive — which we now have the CPU cycles and memory to do without a six-figure Synclavier. When the DX7 took the ’80s by storm, it did so because the articulation and non-contiguous harmonics it could create were especially good at the struck and plucked sounds subtractive analog synthesis never quite got right. Did the infamous EP sound like a Rhodes? No, but it sounded enough more like a Rhodes than anything you could do on the Polysix or Juno you could afford that you had to have a DX7. Add to that the fact that in 1983 Yamaha basically needed enough memory for six single-cycle sine waves times 16 voices, plus the logic to handle the algorithms, and you have the reason they could bring the DX7 in at $1,999 — though a lot of us got one out the door for less. All this being said, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about some FM sounds, a certain way that they get expressive when you modulate one operator with another via velocity or some other physical input. And the K2700 has quite a few that I like. The FM Programs are distributed across multiple instrument categories but you can use the search function to get them all in one place since all have “FM” in their names. Hold enter and press one of the numbered buttons on the keypad to bring up a search screen where you can dial in characters with the data wheel or type them O.G. texting style on the keypad (e.g. press 2 once for the letter A but three times for C). Search for “FM,” hit OK, and the first sound will come up. Now, hold Enter while using the +/- buttons to browse through all Presets with “FM” in the name. After the snafu with my previous post, I thought it might be more efficient to list my favorite sounds in a table, so here it is. Again, this is not all of them, just the standouts on my first — make that second — pass. Ok,let’s try this again. Off the bat I’ll admit to a bias: These days, I don’t see why some synth companies are as excited about including an FM engine as they are. Beyond analog, other technologies are better at doing most of what we want to hear, be they good old PCM multisampling, wavetable, or additive — which we now have the CPU cycles and memory to do without a six-figure Synclavier. When the DX7 took the ’80s by storm, it did so because the articulation and non-contiguous harmonics it could create were especially good at the struck and plucked sounds subtractive analog synthesis never quite got right. Did the infamous EP sound like a Rhodes? No, but it sounded enough more like a Rhodes than anything you could do on the Polysix or Juno you could afford that you had to have a DX7. Add to that the fact that in 1983 Yamaha basically needed enough memory for six single-cycle sine waves times 16 voices, plus the logic to handle the algorithms, and you have the reason they could bring the DX7 in at $1,999 — though a lot of us got one out the door for less. All this being said, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about some FM sounds, a certain way that they get expressive when you modulate one operator with another via velocity or some other physical input. And the K2700 has quite a few that I like. The FM Programs are distributed across multiple instrument categories but you can use the search function to get them all in one place since all have “FM” in their names. Hold enter and press one of the numbered buttons on the keypad to bring up a search screen where you can dial in characters with the data wheel or type them O.G. texting style on the keypad (e.g. press 2 once for the letter A but three times for C). Search for “FM,” hit OK, and the first sound will come up. Now, hold Enter while using the +/- buttons to browse through all Presets with “FM” in the name. After the snafu with my previous post, I thought it might be more efficient to list my favorite sounds in a table, so here it is. Again, this is not all of them, just the standouts on my first — make that second — pass. <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Number</th> <th>Name</th> <th>Makes Me Want To Play</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>101</td> <td>Thick FM Digital</td> <td>“Law &amp; Order” theme</td> </tr> <tr> <td>612</td> <td>Treble FM Lead</td> <td>Chick Corea “Light Years” era stuff</td> </tr> <tr> <td>613</td> <td>Delicate FM Lead</td> <td>Like 612 but more George Duke than Chick</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1056</td> <td>FM Brass Temnplate</td> <td>EWF and TOP funk riffs; has that nice spit and octave spread</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1062</td> <td>Slap FM Keys</td> <td>Comping part to “Policy of Truth” by Depeche Mode</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1088</td> <td>Full FM Brass</td> <td>Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al”</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1095</td> <td>FM Warm SynBrass</td> <td>That vibrato pad that doubles the piano in Spandau Ballet’s “True”</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1104</td> <td>Moving FM Engine</td> <td>Nothing specific, but moves like a wavetable synth</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1109</td> <td>FM Hard Bowed</td> <td>“Under Ice” by Kate Bush</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1128</td> <td>Sync Sqr FM Lead</td> <td>“Hello Again” bassline by The Cars</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1134</td> <td>FM Classic Bass</td> <td>“When I Think of You” bassline, Janet Jackson</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1152</td> <td>CC FM Mayhen</td> <td>Aphex Twin; arpeggiated groove with lots of harmonic randomness</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1160</td> <td>FM Wirtualizer</td> <td>Supertramp — suprisingly good Wurly</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1174</td> <td>Soft Chill FM</td> <td>The descending arpeggio from Cyndi Lauper’s “All Through the Night”</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1188</td> <td>FM Fazed Square</td> <td>The keyboard break from The Tubes’ “She’s a Beauty” only in fourths</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

FM Prograns Ok, I’m going to try to get some new stuff into this thread as there is a LOT more to explore about the K2700. I’d like to look at the FM Programs next, as there are a decent number of them and they sound great overall. Actually, I just did that. Told you about a couple dozen of my favorites and how to use the search function to find all the FM stuff. Then I was trying to type a special character and mistakenly held down Command instead of Alt. This was a hotkey for the Back button in Firefox. “No problem,” I thought. “I'll just go forward because of course the browser will preserve the cache.” It preserved precisely the first sentence. ARRRRGH! Too fried to rewrite all this tonight but I’ll do it in the morning. And I ALWAYS write offline in a text editor then paste here for longer-format material. Except this time. Going to go soak my 💀 in some anti-stupid juice if I can find some. Delaware is right. Getting old does suck. Stay tuned, dear friends.

If the MODX is draining out of the retail channel, I am almost certain that it’s because Yamaha is working on an updated version like a MODX-S or something. Which implies they’re also working on an updated Montage. No inside information, just my longtime experience of how Yamaha’s product cycles work — If you look at Motif Classic, ES, XS, and XF, plus the lighter and more affordable derivatives like the MO-X and MX series, it scans. Of course there’s the caveat that supply chain issues have changed the rules for just about everyone, so that could be a factor. But I’d bet Yamaha is up to something new.

Submitted for discussion: https://www.chrismaene.be/the-maene-vinoly-concert-grand/ Aesthetically I love it and I'll bet it sounds tremendous. But radical rethinkings of the piano tend not to stick or ever trickle down to the mainstream of affordable instruments. I’ve always thought this is because Bartolomeo Cristofori got enough right the first time and, well, better can be the enemy of good. Would sure love to play this beast, though.

Delaware Dave, I believe you have the CD rocker switch backwards. I’ve always understood C to be single pickup and D to be both. Here is one source: https://chicagoelectricpiano.com/clavinet/clavinet-controls-and-settings/ I also have my vintage E7 here and it behaves as I described. So unless my mind has gone (a distinct possibility) I think the K2700 is doing it right.

Motif88, I was disappointed with the audio as well. I had in fact recorded most of the show using the very cool Rode Wireless Go II system, which includes two lapel transmitters with integrated mics. When Michael and I unofficially commandeered a hotel meeting room (part of the tradition!), my transmitters started having trouble pairing with the receiver, a problem I had not experienced in three days of filming on the NAMM show floor and haven’t since. We were under the gun for time and I was unable to run back to my room to grab my high-end Lectrosonics stuff. But as we all know from our gigs, the show must go on. So, the sound you hear was indeed recorded with a room mic, and I did what I could in post including a lot of EQ and turning up a de-reverb plug-in as much as I could without making things sound even more phasey. Believe me, I’m embarrassed by bad audio and certainly see the irony when the subject matter is audio gear. That said — and I say this with no pique — it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback things like this. If anyone ever wants to shadow me at NAMM and maybe run sound as I run around like a maniac, I’ll get you a badge. 😎

AL, that is the Nonlinear Labs C-15. It was designed by Stephan Schmitt, the original founder of Native Instruments. It’s a digital hardware synth, with an engine based on sine waves and phase modulation. I suppose it wouldn’t be unfair to think of it as something like a Casio CZ-series on massive steroids. IIIRC, the industrial design started out as something that would either cast Reaktor instruments in hardware or be a custom controller to play them, with overlays that would go over the panel for different control labeling. But it evolved into this. I didn't give it a lot of time or B-roll because it’s several years old now, but folks who have played it, myself included, have been impressed with its expressiveness and real-time control. To the chagrin of many, Schmitt was so committed to it being a live performance synth that he didn’t include MIDI.

Michael Lehmann Boddicker has become a dear friend over the years. About five NAMM shows before the pandemic hit, the Grammy-winning keyboardist/composer and I decided to do a quick video wrap about the most memorable gear we saw at the show, and it became a tradition. Since then, my video editing skills have evolved, (though they’ve got a long way to go to catch up to Mike Martin). Finally, we got to do it again at NAMM 2022. I’ve edited in footage from the show floor and some pan-n-scan stills so it’s not just two guys talking. Mike is a deep gear geek, as shown by the tour of his house he gave brother dB in this thread. Special shout out to Michael’s better half Edie for her perennial patience with being made DP and having to wrangle our rambling selves! Hope y’all enjoy!

Yeah, Allan, I have a Fantom 7 here as well and one of these days I’m going to update its review with stuff about the organ and wavetable modes. I like that its keyboard is quiet and fast. But the aftertouch is much closer to that all-or-nothing feel I was talking about.

zeronyne, sorry I missed your question earlier. I’m in agreement with ABECK that the aftertouch is very nice. You don’t have to tire out your fingers to hear just a little, but it increases proportionally from there. That is, it doesn’t go from nothing to full-blast too quickly. That said, for gigging I would welcome a semi-weighted version that still has piano-shaped keys with a lip, but a lighter action overall for playing all night. Like the 76-key K2600.

For the price this seems killer if it sounds good. Absence of faders seems odd given that it can mix 8 audio tracks. MPN GearLab may have to get its hands on one to figure all this out, mwah hah ha.