The Akai Max49 is a brand new MIDI controller keyboard with some unique features that we predict will make it a hugely popular product with both home and professional studio owners.
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In preparation for the upcoming NAMM show, Line 6 have announced a new gadget for iOS devices, called ‘Mobile Keys’. These new products are essentially portable controller keyboards that hook up to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad with a standard Apple connector and allow you to control your music apps in a lot more detail because let’s face it, as useful as touch screens are, they don’t exactly offer the most expressive means of playing a keyboard!
Continue reading “NAMM 2012: LINE 6 MOBILE KEYS” »
Novation have a new controller keyboard on the block and it’s called ‘Impulse’! Now, my keyboard of choice for my home studio is currently a Novation 61 SL MkII, so I’m very curious to find out how this new model shapes up. Will it convince me to upgrade from a keyboard that I am already very happy with? Does it improve on the SL MkII or is it simply a different range of keyboard to complement this series? I’m going to find out!
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Wow… what a product to be asked to play with… out of all the reviews that I have ever done before, this has got to be the highlight. Now, up until last month I hadn’t even heard of the Dave Smith Poly Evolver! In fact, it only came to my attention when I was recently searching through our product list for a true analogue synth keyboard – I still dream that one day I will have the budget to add a fully featured one to my home-studio set-up! For now I will just make do with the Korg Monotribe though, which incidentally is still extremely fun and can’t be sniffed at at less then £200 for some true analogue goodness!
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You know the synth, you’ve read the rave reviews, now it’s time to hear it for yourself. We now have a Korg Kronos 61 set-up on demo in our Poole store: 58 Nuffield Road, Poole, Dorset, BH17 0RT.Come on down and ask one of our experts for an in-store demo! 
The 88-note version, which used to be priced at £1599 has fallen to £1449 (a saving of 150), and the 73 note version has dropped from £1499 to £1299 – an even more amazing saving of £200!
Continue reading “KORG SV-1 PRICE DROP” »
You can read more reviews like this, along with Tony’s productions at his personal site -> Tony Long Music.
Here are two USB/MIDI controller keyboards that are small enough to take anywhere with you, fit into limited spaces in your setup or take on a plane and use on your lap. I thought I would do a comparison between the two and make up my own mind as to which one I would choose. There are however a good dozen or so 25 note controller keyboards on the current market (ranging from approx. £60 to £250), to cater for the growing number of people that are making music on the move. With such keyboards, the only other things that you need are a laptop and some appropriate software and you have a complete mobile production set-up.
Continue reading “M-AUDIO AXIOM 25 MKII VS AKAI MPK25 REVIEW” »
This highly entertaining review comes courtesy of Paul Syers…
Timing is everything they say… I mean, who could imagine now that when Frank Whittle built the first jet engine in 1937 it would be kind of overlooked for the first few years of its life… understandable you might say given that the World was a little preoccupied with other events at the time… but amazing nonetheless.
Fast-forward then to mid-late 2008. As the World packed its collective economies into a big box and sent them down the tip for recycling, amid this noise and fluster a little gem arrived quietly on our shores…
Continue reading “NORD WAVE REVIEW” »
You can read more reviews like this, along with Tony’s productions at his personal site -> Tony Long Music
For the synth players amongst us, 2011′s biggest highlight so far has got to be the release of the new Korg Kronos – a nine synth in one beast. In many ways it is an updated Korg Oasys but as I have discovered, it is much more besides. A synth of this much depth with its nine synth engines probably requires nine reviews, therefore, rather than overload you with information you can easily get elsewhere, I am going to take you through some of my personal experiences so far – some good, some great and some not quite what I had expected. Unfortunately this is still a big article and I have hardly even scratched the surface!
Novation have recently announced a new range of MIDI controller keyboards to go with their already impressive range… and they are called, ‘Impulse’…
Novation Impulse keyboards provide you with a semi-weighted keyboard, along with a host of hardware controls, which can be instantly (and extremely simply) mapped to your DAW and plug-in controls using Novation’s updated version of the amazing Automap software. With a selection of sliders, buttons, dials and pads, you will find that software control happens more fluidly than ever before!
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