Winter NAMM 2016: Early Peeks...

happyrat1

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While Casio is undoubtedly unveiling the MZ-X at next week's NAMM I'm wondering if the Minilogue from Korg will end up stealing the show.

This looks like one HELL of a synth with a street price of $499 USD.


It's the little touches like the built in oscilloscope on the OLED display that just blows me away.

AND SO MANY KNOBS AND SWITCHES!!!! DROOL!!!! :p

Looks to me like this year's NAMM might end up becoming a real streetfight if this is just the tip of the iceberg. :eek:

Gary ;)
 

happyrat1

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The new Yamaha Montage.

Apparently designed to be a Kronos killer....

Lotsa purty lights...



Gary ;)
 
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SeaGtGruff

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Yeah, the MONTAGE has been a hot topic of discussion for a week or more in some of the other forums I read. All I know is that I won't be able to afford one in the near future-- barring unforeseen lottery jackpots-- so I'm not going to torture myself by watching all of the videos and reading all of the information about it. :)

On the other hand, I'm disappointed that Yamaha didn't unveil the new PSR-E453 at NAMM (assuming the PSR-E453 is even a thing), since it would be more in my price range (not that I need another keyboard right now). I'm also somewhat interested in the new DGX-660, although even that is out of my price range.

But what I'm really interested in are Yamaha's new Bluetooth wireless MIDI adapters for USB-to-Host ports and traditional MIDI ports. Right now they're compatible with only iPhones, iPads, and Macs (if they're running a compatible OS version), but fortunately I do have an iPad 2 that's running iOS 9.2. And I imagine that support from Windows will come sooner or later.
 

Rayblewit

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All of these hi tech keyboard / moog machines make a lot of weird out of space noises. Seems to be a lot of button pushing and knob twirling. Not much melody or rhythm. I can't see that any skill is needed to play these things if you just want to hear weird noises. What is the point of having black and white piano keys?
I have probably just ruffled a few feathers now, but hey that is just my opinion. Hopefully some will agree with me.
 

SeaGtGruff

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I haven't watched all of the videos for all of the new keyboards and synths (why torment myself?), but I was watching a French(?) video about the MONTAGE the other night and I had a similar sort of reaction. As I recall, they were playing a piano sound that was pretty nice, then they turned a knob and added a bunch of noises that sounded, to me, like someone trying to tune an old-fashioned radio (ooo-wee-ooo-wiggawigga-ooo-wigga-weeeee), and I'm thinking "Huh?!?" I didn't see where it added anything of musical value or interest to the piano sound, and seemed to be purely for the sake of making a "cool noise"-- or at least what the demo guy thought was a cool noise. The problem with a lot of these sorts of demos is that they aren't being conducted by musicians who are any good at a particular musical genre, so a lot of times they fall into the category of "Listen to this, this patch sounds pretty cool! And listen to how the sound changes when I turn this knob this way!" Companies ought to enlist some actual musicians to compose something that uses the keyboard's features and then play it live during the demo.
 

happyrat1

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Oberheim OB-6


Roland A-01


The guy who sold me my minilogue told me that one of his customers once waited TWO YEARS for a preordered Oberheim to ship!!!!!

From what I've seen based on bang for buck I think I made a good purchase with the minilogue.

Gary ;)

BTW, did I mention that I pulled the trigger and preordered a minilogue?

As for musicality. The analog synths can produce bizarre spacey sound effects tis true. However, they can also produce extremely musical ones as well and with MIDI ports if you use them as a module you have a full 7b octaves with 88 keys to play with.

;)
 

SeaGtGruff

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Oh, I'm not anti-synth, by any means. I have a large number of soft synths, and I'm actually more interested in synths than in ROMplers. The only reason I don't have any hard synths is because they cost too much for me, plus I've got so many soft synths that I don't really need a hard synth-- which isn't to say I don't want one; "need" and "want" are not the same things. ;)

It just seems like the demo videos for a lot of new synths are conducted by guys who know how to turn some knobs and make a synth generate strange sounds, but who don't know how to use those sounds in a musically-interesting way. In some cases I think it's because the demos are by guys who work in a music store and have just gotten their hands on the synth for the first time (so they aren't that familiar with it yet), or they're engineers who work for the manufacturer.

Often you must wait for some young dude to post a YouTube video of himself playing the synth-- case in point, I saw an awesome video last year of some guy having an extended jam session with himself, combining music from some of the Korg Volca synths, other synths, and a guitar.
 

happyrat1

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Fair enough. The thing with demos is that there's no hard and fast rule about who performs them. Sometimes it's a musician. Other times it's an engineer. Sometimes if yer lucky it's a musical engineer.

A big limitation on some of these demos is the micro keyboard. Once you hook these up to a 5 or 7 octave controller these puppies fly!

BTW, Casio is streaming video live from their booth at NAMM right now.

I watched it yesterday as well.

There's some amazing talent test driving these boards right now.

http://www.ustream.tv/casiomusicgea...dium=visit-channel&utm_campaign=notifications

Gary ;)
 

Rayblewit

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I am also NOT anti synth. I was just making a point about the knob twirling and button pushing vs the piano playing amd you guys got onto it smartly.
Just to add another personal feeling. One of my all time fav musicians is eddie jobson. He can really make a synth send shivers down your spine. If you don't know him please google him on you tube. He played with jethro tull, frank zappa, roxey music and UKZ as well solo. If you have time google one of his solo albums "zinc".
He is pure talent and skill with the synth.
I did also see he was at NAMM last year doing a demo on a synth. Thats on you tube too.
Sorry I don't know how to cut and paste the links as i am typing this on my android phone.
Enjoy!
 

happyrat1

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He's alright, but I've heard better. Keith Emerson is a fantastic synth player. I'd have to say he outshines Jobson

Also a couple of Italian progressive rock groups come to mind such as Seventh Wave, Sensations Fix and PFM.








I listened to a few of Jobson's tunes earlier in the day, but he doesn't seem to do as much for me as he does for you.

And let's not forget other notables, like Jan Hammer and Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre and actually even Paul Schaeffer who used to play for Letterman is an utterly amazing keyboardist and synth player.

Not to be contentious or anything but compared to the names I just mentioned Jobson is pretty weak tea.

Gary ;)
 

happyrat1

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And I almost forgot to mention John Tout of Renaissance.

Bring up some videos from his price and prepare to be amazed :)

Gary ;)
 

Rayblewit

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Hey Gary, most likely you are right. But you are a synth fanatic.and you even just purchased a minilog. Well done man. Emerson is truly awesome. Lucky Man and Take a Pebble come to mind. I must admit those songs move me. I will have a look at john tout. Not familiar with him.
 

happyrat1

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I'm hardly a fanatic. But I'm well aware of the instrument and have been following it closely ever since Dick Hyman first introduced it on a commercial album and Walter/Wendy Carlos introduced the Switched on Bach and Switched on Brandenburgs Albums.






While Emerson was a strong force in popularizing the synth among youth culture these other pioneers were among the first to give synthesis true musical credibility.

Gary ;)
 

SeaGtGruff

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Regarding Emerson versus Jobson, different musicians have different styles, so it's hard and perhaps unfair to judge one against the other-- apples and oranges, as it were. For instance, I love both Wendy Carlos and Tomita, but their styles are too different for me to say which of them is "better"-- and better how? at designing sounds? at composing? at performing? at mixing tracks in a studio? etc. I haven't heard enough of Jobson yet to know how much I like his style, and watching him fiddling about on a synth at a NAMM show isn't hearing him at his best. But it was enough to tell me that he can play far better than I can! :)
 

happyrat1

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I was fair. I listened to parts of his Zinc Album available in its entirety on youtube as well as a solo rock video he released way back when, but the style really didn't do anything for me.

While I agree he's a better player than I'll ever probably be, I think there's a reason why I'd never heard his name mentioned before yesterday in this thread.

Gary ;)
 

Rayblewit

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Eddie Jobson first came to my attention when he joined jethro tull for a brief period. 1981 about. He played keyboards and violin an the album "A". The best song on that album is "Black Sunday" eddie features in that song. There are many youtube clips of this song live versions.You could say i am a jethro tull fanatic and been following them since their beginning 1968. Anyway eddie went on to king crimson after that. Love their work too.
I am about to look at the dick hyman link now thanks Gary.
 

happyrat1

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Bear in mind that Dick Hyman was a well established jazz pianist when he did the album and it was the first ever commercial release of an album featuring a Moog Synthesizer.

If you want to skip to one of the best tracks on the album go to 15:17 on the video.

Gary ;)

BTW, I was a big Tull fan as well back in the day, but I honestly don't recall too much synth work on most of their albums.

Great piano on Locomotive Breath though. And Thick as a Brick was a masterpiece. :)
 

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