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The famous and talented Scott Tibbs performs and shows off the The New Roland Jupiter 50. He makes it look so easy and demonstrates the need to be a technician and not solely a skillfull keyboard player. The sound of the Jupiter 50 sounds very 2012 as it combines synthesis and acoustic instruments with SuperNATURAL sound and Scott uses the on-the-fly controls to show its capabilities. I am looking forward to test drive one of these 76 note keyboards with its user-friendly interface with colour-coded buttons and sliders. I think cost-wise and weight-wise it may well do better than its bigger brother the Roland Jupiter 80. Hopefully we will not have to wait long now before they start showing up in the Music Stores. Excellent demo Scott.

INTRODUCING THE NORD ELECTO 3 FROM CLAVIA

I have been anxious to get my hands on a Nord keyboard and it is very strange that at the time Nord have just announced the release of the Electro 4D at Musikmesse in Frankfurt, I am about to look into the Nord Electro 3. This maybe the right time as there is a possibility that the Electro 3 will come down a little in price, with its successor just around the corner. Obviously the Electro 3 is the third incarnation of Clavia’s virtual electromechanical range of bright red wonders. The first is now over ten years old and Clavia have slowly updated the software and hardware.
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Korg Kronos O/S Update 1.6 , Editor and Plug-In Editor

Korg Kronos O/S Version 1.6 and The Editor/Plug-In Editor software for the Kronos are now available with effect from the 6th April 2012 for download at www.korg.com/kronos/support . All you need to do is select  “Software” for the editor and select Operating System for O/S 1.6. You will also need to visit the “Drivers” section to download the latest USB-MIDI driver.

Korg Kronos OS v1.6, which is required to run the Editor/Plug-In Editor. In addition to various bug fixes, this update also adds an “Uninstall EXs” command, which will completely remove selected EXs data from the internal SSD.

Thank you very much for this free update

New Synth App for the iPad desined by Waldorf and Rolf Wöhrmann

This has made my day – Waldorf who have made some great hardware synths like the Blofeld and the new Pulse 2 as well as Software Synths like the Largo and Lector have now joined up with Rolf Wöhrmann to make a fantastic App for Apple’s iPad, iPad 2 and now iPad3 that should be available to you this Summer.

The iPad is an ideal  platform for wavetable synthesis and will more than likely take it up a notch  to a new level. This will  make it possible to go deep into wavetables and show the sound in 3-D and offer completely new ways for sound creation and manipulation.

This new approach to wavetable synthesis allows for the transposition of the spectrum and the balance of periodic and sound spectra entirely independent from a wave’s position extending the wavetable technology  we have now by two new dimensions. It also allows for formant shifts as well as numerous other unheard sounds and as well as this the number and length of waves in a wavetable will no longer be restricted – Wow

Musicians are MIDI mad and this application will cater for many MIDI interfaces from IK Multimedia, iConnectMIDI, MIDI Mobilizer II by Line6, Alesis ioDock or the Camera Connection Kit by Apple and the SynthStation by Akai. App collaboration standards like Sonoma‘s Audio Copy/Paste, Intua‘s Audio Pasteboard and Virtual Core MIDI will also be supported like the upcoming AudioBus standard and KORG’s WIST synchronization technology.

I am really looking forward to trying this out as I am the Pulse 2 – keep an eye on http://www.waldorfmusic.de/for further information.

Tom Oberheim Two Voice Pro Synthesizer

Yes it looks like something from the 70s but infact it is new for 2012 from the legendary Synth pioneer Tom Oberheim. He has just announced the Oberheim Two Voice Pro Synthesizer, which is a 2012 recreation of the 1975 classic synthesizer.

It features a Mini-Sequencer which has been enhanced, two sequences can be played simultaneously, sequences can be chained into songs, and each step in a song can be programmed for sequence number, transpose amount and number of repeats, the Sequencer syncs to Midi Clock, keyboard outputs velocity and pressure and each module (both SEMs, Mini-Sequencer, Keyboard Control) has mini-jack patch points. You can get more info from Tom at http://www.tomoberheim.com/

Musikmesse Roland Jupiter 80 Version 2 and Jupiter 50 and iPad

Here is a great You Tube clip that achieves quite a bit. For a start it provides you with seeing the Jupiter 80 side by side with the new Jupiter 50. It explains what all the fuss is about with Version 2 which is a lovely free update for Jupiter 80 owners and it also highlight the editing capability of an iPad App for use with these monster synths. I must say that I got a feeling of how big the sound can be with these synths. I am looking forward to try out the Jupiter 50 and to see if it meets my live – playing requirements. The keyboard player from France in this clip is excellent, see what you think but I certainly enjoyed this one:-

At Musikmesse in Frankfurt  today, a Korg demonstrator explained  that in a few weeks there will be a new operating system 1.6 with editor software. This will make it very easy to edit eveything on a PC or MAC instead of staring at the small screen – Great News.

Alongside this today, Korg is also pleased to announce that KARO EXs Expansion Sample Series and KRS Professional Sound Series libraries are now available for the Kronos Music Workstation. KARO is a sound design team based in Germany, who have been producing high-quality sounds for Korg workstations for several years. Korg is pleased to welcome KARO as the first third-party KRONOS sound developer in their store.
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I now have the Roland Jupiter 50  keyboard specifications. It is a 76 note keyboard (with velocity) as follows:-

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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.