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Roland Jupiter 50

Here is a great surprise from Musikmesse 2012 at Frankfurt – the new Roland Jupiter 50 lightweight 73 note synth.

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Musikmesse 2012 – Clavia Nord Electro 4D

It is that time of year again where new products get announced. For us Europeans, we have the Musikmesse show held at Frankfurt. One such company who have been delighting us with their bright red products is Clavia. They launched the Nord Electro 10 years ago and have just announced the release of the new model called the Electro 4D.

This is a lightweight 7kg, 61-note keyboard that has that lovely semi-weighted waterfall key action also has excellent organ drawbars found on the very popular Nord C2D. They have updated the click modelling, added a brand new delay effect, given it a new rotary speaker simulation with a new drive feature and made it compatible with the fantastic Nord Sound Libraries collection

The Nord Electro 4D also supports Long Release which is suitable for legato playing and selectable String Resonance. To assist the handling of programs, there are four Program Banks and four Live Locations and the USB port now doubles as an USB-MIDI interface.

It should be shipping in May and cost is 1699 Euros – Can’t wait to hear it.

The Minimoog Sofa

Here is something a bit note-worthy – the Minimoog Sofa. They tell me it is nice to play on – it looks touch sensitive and has a good action but it is designed for you to make many bum-notes. I could go on but I am sure you get the picture. These are designed by Woouf who make a range of fun foam items including amplifiers and burgers.

Music Technology On Line are offering a free file created by the talented Dan Krisher which is a control surface for the iPad that adds extra control to your Roland JP-80. This “JP-80 Mixer” runs via the MIDI Touch app which can be found on the iTunes app store.

For more information go to jupiter80.music-technology-online.com. At the end of this Blog there is a You Tube clip that  demonstrates the functionality of the “JP-80 Mixer” control surface. The control surface offers the following control for your JP-80: Global control of Upper, Lower, Solo and Percussion parts, Independent On/Off control of tones for the Upper and Lower parts, Independent control of Cutoff and Resonance for the Upper and Lower parts, Independent Toneblender control for the Upper and Lower parts and Independent Matrix controls of the Cutoff and Resonance for the Upper and Lower Parts.

OK  before you start, make sure that your Roland Jupiter 80 is updated to Version 1.10 or later. OK follow these simple instructions:-

1. e-mail Music Technology On-Line at :- music.technology.online@gmail.com. They will send you a reply email with the attachment “controller.miditouchpreset”.

2. If you haven’t got the iPad App “the MIDI Touch control surface application by Domestic Cat”, go to the iTunes app store and download and install it.

3. Upload the controller.miditouchpreset file to MIDI Touch by syncing your iPad to iTunes and copying the controller.miditouchpreset file to the MIDI Touch app.

4. Make sure to set the JP-80?s USB driver to “Generic”. (This is found by going into the SYSTEM Menu, selecting “Beep/Misc” and changing the driver setting. Make sure you WRITE this change to the JP-80?s System settings.)

5. Connect the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit to your iPad and your JP-80.

6. Power down the JP-80 and power it back on and Reboot your iPad.

7. Launch the MIDI Touch application.

8. In MIDI Touch, touch the name of the default demo control surface “Drum Pads Small” to open the “Saved Controller Menus”.

9. Select the JP-80 Mixer and it will load into MIDI Touch.

Here is the You Tube clip:-

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Here is something special I seemed to have missed from the NAMM 2012 show – the announcement of Access Virus Ti O/S 5 which is going to bring us some great new filters. This Synth just grows and grows and gets better all of the time. Have a look at this:-

Namm 2012 and it is amazing how many small items sound so huge. Korg have a couple of updated items with so much more but they have become very small – The Korg Kaossilator 2 which is a palm-size phrase synthesizer and the Korg Mini Kaoss Pad 2 a great little effects processor. I think this You Tube Clip says it all. Have a blast with these:-

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Namm 2012 and Nord has launched the brand new streamlined and portable hammer-action 88-note digital piano – The Nord Piano 2 HA 88. Those great guys at Sound on Sound have recorded some footage with Nord at Namm:-

With extensive additional feature sets that bring the hardware bang up to date with competitive rival plug-ins and a player’s piano feel and new controls making it all the more authentic, it covers all your bases.

Perhaps the most important addition is one of sympathetic strings, or Acoustic Resonance as it’s called here, which replicates the sounds of strings other than the ones you’re playing very gently reverberating in the background – it’s the piano ‘jangle’ that occurs when you hit an acoustic instrument’s keys hard with the sustain on, and its inclusion here can only make for a more authentic playing experience.
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Well I am sure you are no stranger to the Korg SV-1 piano. At Namm 2012 they have presented a limited edition reversing the black and white keys. Don’t forget if you need some extra sounds for your SV-1 at an extreamely reasonable price – just go here:- http://www.tonylongmusic.co.uk/korg-sv1-sound-pack/

Namm 2012 – Day 3. Here is a World first – The very first USB Keytar Controller from Alesis – The Alesis Vortex USB-MIDI Keytar Controller using MIDI and USB and a MIDI assignable accelerometer to bring your performance to new heights of showmanship with a simple tilt of the neck. In addition the Alesis Vortex features 37 velocity keys with aftertouch offering a complete melodic range, but also 7 assignable pads to create your own beats on the fly or trigger sequences and clips. Additional features on the neck include, a finger controlled touchstrip assignable to any MIDI function, a sustain button, a pitch-bend wheel, a thumb-controlled volume slider and octave buttons. Here is a brief clip as to what to expect:-

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