Stephen Fortner

Here’s the Casio CT-S1000V. The main attraction here is that it can sing lyrics input via a companion app, using natural or synthesized/vocoded sounds. It’s NOT a vocoder — you don’t sing into it. But it can sing an entire phrase when you strike a key, or take that phrase one syllable at a time with each subsequent key press. And because it’s a Casiotone, it has a ton of great sounds and auto-accompaniments.

Hi all! NAMM was a blast, and I just wanted to let you know that like brother dB’s teaser says, I do have more videos coming. I got home off a red-eye flight today and have been catching up on sleep and family. I’ll have another batch up for you tomorrow, including: Casio CT-S1000V talking/singing keyboard. Cool mics and a killer give-away from Audix. What’s new in drivers from famed speaker maker Celestion. A vlogcast wrap of everything acclaimed keyboardist Michael Lehmann Boddicker and I thought was cool at the show. When the two of us cut up on camera, it’s always a good time, so don’t miss this one! And maybe a little more. Thanks for your patience. The show was so fun and it was great to see everyone, but I was a lump of jello when I returned home.

Ayodyo also showed off a nifty desktop synth called the Anyma Phi (the Greek letter, but no way am I digging for that on my iPhone right now). Phi because physical modeling.

Next up is the Sylphyo electronic wind instrument from Aodyo. It features real airflow, detection of woodwind breath and tonguing techniques, and an accelerometer that can modulate the sound based on moving the instrument.

In part 2 of the 3rd Wave video, we’re treated to sound demos from sound designer Mattea Simovich.

Here’s the 3rd Wave from Groove Synthesis. They describe it as “what would have happened if PPG never went out of business.” It’s so much more than that. I admit I was kind of over the PPG redux thing until I heard and played this beast. In part 1, designer Bob Coover gives us a features overview.

Dr Nursers, how’s this for service with a smile? I actually wish I’d had more one-on-one interaction with Marco in this video, but several media folks were shooting at once and I had to move on right afterwards. But here's an overview of the Dexibell S10 and S10L digital pianos. There are also the H10 models, featuring identical tech in upright and mini-grand cabinets.

”Have you seen that synth with the motorized knobs?” After hearing that several times as I trolled the NAMM show floor, I found it right along the front wall of Hall A. Startup Melbourne Instruments has created the NINA 12, described as a hybrid synth. It features three oscillators: a true VCO, an FPGA-based virtual analog oscillator not unlike those in the UDO Super Six, and a digital wavetable oscillator. But what caught my attention was how incredibly responsive the motorized knobs are in response to, say, MIDI control. Check it out ... I'd love to get these up faster for you as there's more in my editing queue. Doing as best I can with lots of NAMM time demands, slow hotel WiFi, and a parallel 5G connection Xfinity Mobile seems to be throttling. Here's a preview of coming attractions: Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave — that's the modern PPG-like blue one and it's fantastic. A cool little electronic wind instrument and physical modeling synth from French developer Aodyo. Casio CT-S1000V, which turns typed lyrics into vocal phrases or syllables. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. A modular piano/controller whose keyboard breaks up into several sections, the Piano de Voyage. Since you can use up to four sections, it’s scaleable! Get it? Plus whatever I film tomorrow. Any requests?

Ok, now THIS is what I’m talking about. Marcus Ryle — who worked with Tom Oberheim on the OB-series synths and brought us the ADAT — and I geeked out about the new OB-X8. There are dozens of sound demos out there already, and you’ve probably watched a few. So, we decided to talk about hidden and less well-known features that serve the player and make this instrument a sound designer’s paradise. BTW, Tom O was at the booth but swamped with admirers and friends offering condolences for the passing of his friend and colleague Dave Smith, so although we said hello I didn’t want to stick a camera in his face. He much appreciates the support from members of these forums.

While my large Oberheim OB-X8 video is pushing itself through the hotel WiFi with Sisyphian persistence, I'll tease you with this one. Sometimes our organs need a little help. Booker Lab is here to save the day, with cool little boxes that bridge the vintage and contemporary tonewheel/rotary worlds. This is just a fraction of what they offer — go to their website and check out the slide-in Leslie replacement amps (because it's going to be hard to get Russian tubes for awhile) and other goodies.

Next up is the incredible Rhodes Mark 8. I had been on the mailing list for all the product announcements and pre-order pitches, and was initially a little skeptical, having seen the production challenges that kept the Mk. 7 in 2010 from being all it could be. This is different. They have slammed it out of the park. See and hear for yourselves!

I am roaming the entire show filming with a focus on keyboards, synths, and recording gear. I’ll be posting the videos on the MPN YouTube channel and embedding them in posts on this thread. After ironing out some equipment and upload speed issues, here’s the first. Brian Ho Demonstrates the Viscount Legend Soul 273 Organ — it is now hot on the heels of the XK5 in terms of simulating the subtle sound of the multiple key contacts and busbars of the vintage article.

I don’t normally cuss on this forum but I am fucking devastated. There are not words to describe the friend he was to Keyboard magazine and me personally. I thought I'd be shaking his hand again in a couple of days.

Also, predating FSG by decades is Herb Alpert. He was a kingpin of making jazz structures and world motifs user-friendly to - let’s put it bluntly - white heartland America. A popularizer and mainstreamer in the way Bob Ross was for painting.

My vote is with “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione. Which actually kind of slaps if you listen to that band, especially Grant Geissman’s guitar solo.

I just heard that Vangelis passed away on May 17. Source is a colleague of his whom I know from IRCAM in Paris. No official links or stories online yet as far as I can tell.

Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted in awhile. Welp, this is the first day I can actually sit in my studio chair and type as opposed to lying on my side with my phone. I took a stupid slip on my own stairs and landed squarely on my rear end. Doctors call it a seated fall. Hairline fractured my coccyx bone and there isn't much to do for it except take Tylenol and keep off it. Driving is still out of the question for awhile. Anyone ever have a similar experience? What did you do to stay comfortable?

Useful and enjoyable have two different meanings for me. The most useful was my first Kurzweil, a K2000 I bought in 1995 and still have. I say that because in terms of the number of different sounds I got out of it and ratio of paying gigs played to its cost, it has worked harder than anything I’ve owned since. That’s mainly because being a broke-ass grad student in the 1990s motivated me to squeeze every drop out of programming I could out of it, seek out aftermarket samples, etc. Enjoyable is a tougher call because I’ve enjoyed so many. The piece of gear I’ve gotten the most enjoyment out of is probably the Leslie 142 I acquired a few years later. Not a keyboard, but it adds such vibe and dimension to any organ sound put through it, even from a source like an old ROMpler or DX7. (I mainly used it with my Roland VK7 but now it sits connected to my XK-3C system.)

If you’d like an extra slab of keys with that without too much weight, consider one of the Fantom-06/07/08 keyboards Roland just released. They’ve got most (maybe all) of the Integra-7 sounds in there, and a lot of newer stuff as well. These are the “lite” versions of the big black-and-red Fantom workstation, aimed at live gigging.

Rod S said, It still pains me to hear stories like this. I was tech editor then, and being the faces of the magazine, editors were constantly fielding legit complaints like this from readers, only to have our emails largely go unanswered by the corporate mothership. Circ outside the U.S. was a mess and only got worse after that because I think even then management wanted to kill off the print product by slow starvation.

I had to dive and and double-check this because I was incredulous at first, but you are correct, Atomicsynth. You can import audio files as the basis of Keymaps, at 8 or 16 bits and up to 96kHz, but graphical editing is indeed absent. Perhaps the assumption is that everyone has a DAW and you’ll pre-edit your samples there. Still, I’m quite used to cursoring around and spinning the data wheel to edit my loop points and trims, and I’d like to be able to keep doing so. Still, a worthy question on its own is: Has workstation sampling and sample editing gone the way (or should it go the way) of the onboard multi-track sequencer? If you’re referring to the Key Track Start parameter on the K2600, yup, I don’t find it here. I need to dig a bit deeper to see if anything is functionally equivalent, i.e. acts like a “compressor” for key tracking at the extreme ends of the keyboard. I will test portamento and large sample load times, hopefully today. I will also see what can be backed up directly to the computer. The K2700 shows up as a disk volume on my Mac desktop when connected via USB, so that’s a good sign. I don’t think anything inherent about VAST limits how it can be updated. It’s a bunch of audio processors that can be arranged in different ways, and presumably ported to different platforms — whether that’s Kurzweil’s DSP chips, SHARCs, an embedded CPU running Linux, or anything else that might come along down the road. I’d say the more relevant issue about VAST is: How much longer will we need it? One of its original intentions was to get maximum sound design out of multi-samples that were limited in size. And in instruments like the K2000, it did that so well that it was mind-blowing at the time. But was also steep to learn, arguably more so than FM programming on a DX7. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is that we now have large and highly polished sample sets in every workstation, other synth engine modes that generate virtual analog waves, FM, tonewheel organs, etc. Heck, the K2700 itself boasts these things. So, while VAST may hold incredible appeal for deep sound design, I wonder if its future fan base looks more like that of Kyma or Max/MSP than mainstream musicians. Faith in development and updates is the $64 question, of course. I’m going to sound like I’m punting here, but to an extent this is an issue with any major keyboard brand. Everyone is trying to get the maximum product roadmap out of innovation that happened ten, 15, or even 20 years ago. They also balance that with new innovation and development, but it happens where and when business and allows. There’s not a lot of “startup mentality” as in, “Let’s sink a ton of R&D cost into this new thing because if we build it they will come.” (There is some, e.g. ROLI, which did exactly that, with mixed results.) But I digress. It’s a bit early for me to predict where Kurzweil will take the K2700, but I do believe they will add some updates and know that they pay attention to forum topics like this one. (Especially this one, because I sent them the link and they are definitely watching.) I think Roland is setting a nice example with the Fantom — they keep adding synth models and capability to make the thing an attractive studio hub and ecosystem, and it’s a lot further along then when it first came out. And if you consider the first iterations of the K2500 versus the final ones of the K2600, Kurzweil has a decent track record, too.

What does “all digital” mean in this case? As Jerry mentioned, the Keyboard and EM brands no longer have their own websites (everything redirects to MusicRadar). Will there be some kind of PDF-like digital edition of EM?

Hi Dave, It appears to be a double. Here is the first screen shown when you select the FX edit tab: Press edit again to get the FX chain, and you see this: More soon!

I’m in a weird position as my desk needs to do triple duty: music production, video editing, and writing. The design features I’ve isolated include: - Central bridge that can hold two 32" displays side by side. - Central bridge is no more than 2U or 3U high so that I’m looking at my displays at eye level. One of my peeves about studio desks is that many tend to place the monitors too high up. - Built-in sidecars on the desktop that are easy to get behind. - Possibly sidecars underneath for things like power conditioners. - Drawer to accommodate 76- or 88-key master keyboard. - No need for speaker placement as those go on separate stands. Over the years I’ve tried almost all the stuff marketed at studios and always found myself wanting. Until you get to the very high end, it’s inevitably a bunch of pre-cut MDF that assembles like Ikea furniture ... for $2k or more. Custom may be the way to go. As my clients want more and more video (that looks like it’s shot in a music guy’s batcave) I’m realizing that my room really needs to be a video studio containing a working set of a synth studio, which in turn functions as the post-production suite for those videos. So the desk needs to look good and convey that I actually know what I’m doing. (I know, tall order for a piece of furniture.)

Like Joe Walsh, I can’t complain but sometimes I still do. Gotta say the education discount seems puny. When I was an undergrad, my discount on a Mac LC II with color monitor was something like 40 percent.