Piano and Synth Blog

Roland has announced its new SA-1000 stage amplifier, a super-lightweight and portable stage amp customised for use with organs such as new ATELIER series and digital pianos.

Features include an Organ Enhance button which adds bass nuances to a sound, onboard Anti-feedback function to automatically cancels unpleasant howling from being placed too close to other sound sources, and Stereo Link which allows two SA-1000s to be cascaded into a PA system for small-scale performances and concerts.

The amp boasts 350W of output (75W x 2 plus a 200W subwoofer), and weighs 11.5kgs.

Product page

Purists should look away now.

A white lacquered baby grand piano shell that houses a projection surface and sound system.

Interesting, but… sorry… bizarre.

Via Create Digital Music

Right-Half Chow has found this amazing demo for Reactable:

The following film shows the first demo for Reactable, a new instrument that is being developed by the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. As some of you will know, I’m really interested in interfaces (and musical ones in particular) and this looks like it could be a big hit if it could become commercially viable:

“The reactable hardware is based on a translucent round table. A video camera situated beneath, continuously analyzes the table surface, tracking the nature, position and orientation of the objects that are distributed on its surface, representing the components of a classic modular synthesizer. These objects are passive without any sensors or actuators, users interact by moving them, changing their position, their orientation or their faces (in the case of volumetric objects). These actions directly control the topological structure and parameters of the sound synthesizer. A projector, also from underneath the table, draws dynamic animations on its surface, providing a visual feedback of the state, the activity and the main characteristics of the sounds produced by the audio synthesizer.”

Here’s a useful page with diagrams showing the best way of placing microphones around grand and upright pianos, and the Hammond Organ, depending on the setting: Recording pianos and organs

Dancetech have made an exclusive half-hour video preview of the new Liquidmix from Focusrite.

Liquidmix is a piece of hardware and associated synchronised software plugin that emulates a number of classic compressors and EQs using “impulse response handling”

It’s a big download but worth watching if you’re interested in this kind of sound production technology.

Visit the Dancetech site to read more and download the video.

Many moons ago Ray Wilson and Ron Romeo created a small company that sold PC boards and kits. We called it “Waveform Processing” The WP-20 Mini-Synth was our premier product. As I look back at it now I see many things I would do differently today but I wanted to leave it as it was 25 years ago. It’s a great project and it makes some very cool sounds. I hope you have fun if you decide to build it. This would make a great junior-high or high-school electronics project.

Link

Apple PR: Hi Bob. How would you like to be the first on your block to play with our new MacBook Pro?

Me: When can I have it and how long can I keep it?

Apple PR: We can have it on your desk tomorrow and you can keep it for at least a month.

Me: Sounds good to me. Send it on down and I’ll give it a try.

Apple PR: There is one last thing… Would you like a copy of Logic Pro 7.2, our first Pro application to go Universal?

Me: I don’t know… I’m not sure I’m qualified to review a thousand dollar professional audio production package…

Apple PR: Then don’t review it. Just check it out on the MacBook Pro. We think you’ll be impressed.

Me: O.K., if you insist…

Why don’t I get calls like this?

Actually, someone from Apple did call for me a few weeks back but I couldn’t take the call and she never phoned back. It was probably just a sales call…

Anyway, the article goes on to describe Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus’ experiences with Logic Pro 7.2 and a MacBook Pro.

If nothing else it proves that the MacBook Pro is blazingly fast, particularly on optimised applications.

Let me talk for a moment about performance. Here’s the deal… the program ships with a bunch of sample songs, some of which are labeled “for G5 only.” These “G5 only” songs bring my PowerBook G4 1.25GHz to its knees; its poor processor just can’t keep up. And while the “G5 only” songs play properly on my Power Mac G5 (with two processors), they use every resource available and still hiccup occasionally as shown in Figure 1.

On the MacBook Pro, however, a “G5 only” song not only played smoothly, but it didn’t even come close to swamping both processor cores

Oh yes, and on Logic?

Well, I think he’s droolin’…

• Guitar Amp Pro
• Sculpture ‘Component Modelling Synthesiser’
• Ultrabeat Plugin
• ES1 virtual analog synth
• EVP88 piano synth

Read the full article: Pretzel Logic with a MacBook Pro…

Gareth Edwards has written a good article on the Pet Shop Boys synthesizer history, charting the many pieces of musical equipment they have used over the years to get their distinctive sounds.

It includes the Fairlight CMI, EMU Emulator, Akai samplers, PPG Wave, various Yamaha’s (including the TG500 module which I have used extensively), Roland TR808, and many more (not surprisingly) They’ve also recently adopted soft-synths to a large degree.

I thought it was interesting that the PSB programmer Pete Gleadall seemed almost embarrassed to admit that he’d used a Yamaha TG33, as this module was considered to be a ‘home’ device. Hey, if the sound works, use it!

Interesting journey if you’re interested in the Pet Shop Boys music and synths from the 1980s and 1990s.

MidiStudio.com have a useful article aimed primarily at the beginning home/amateur musician who wants to understand MIDI and audio setups, and get a few MIDI synths and PC connected together.

Though it’s entitled The In’s and Out’s of MIDI it actually covers other principles such as PC cards, audio mixers, connection cables, and sequencing software.

It’s not an exhaustive introduction to MIDI but it’s a useful ‘hands-on’ guide to setting up a basic home studio, and there’s a link to a fairly active forum on the topic as well.

ExperimentalistAanonymous.com built an analog modular synthesizer in one month for a school project.

Read the detailed account and see pictures at the website. Very cool.