The video, via ROLI, features Heen Wai performing a medley of some of the most iconic soundtrack themes of composer Hans Zimmer on the Seaboard RISE 2 MIDI controller.
Heen Wai’s medley features themes from Gladiator, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Sherlock Holmes and Dune. The performance does a good job of highlighting some of the unique expressive capabilities of the ROLI Seaboard RISE – especially the expressive pitch bends and modulation some of the leads – while also demonstrating that it can be used for standard piano performance.
Technical details:
The track is performed on Seaboard RISE 2, featuring SWAM Cello and Violin leads by Audio Modeling. The backing track was rearranged entirely with Equator2’s Orchestral Ensembles soundpack and Kontakt factory library percussion.
Teenage Engineering’s latest firmware update has added a vocoder to its OP-1 Field synth.
Available to anyone who installs the latest firmware – a previous update added velocity-sensitivity to the OP-1 Field’s keyboard – you can load the vocoder into any sound slot. After you have selected your input source – mic, headset, radio or USB – the audio (modulator) is run through a bank of 20 filters with controllable bandwidth and formant shift, with the carrier signal being a built-in 7-oscillator polyphonic synth.
The OP-1 Field’s encoders give you fast control over the synth engine, formant shifting, number of bands and dry/wet mix.
Find out more and download the firmware update on the Teenage Engineering website. The OP-1 Field costs $1,999/£1,999.
Organizers of ContinuuCon 2023, an international expressive instrument conference that focuses on the Haken Continuum and other EaganMatrix Instruments, have announced that this year’s conference will be held May 17–19 in Palmela, Portugal.
Previous Continuum conferences have been held at IRCAM in Paris and in Asheville, North Carolina.
The focus of this year’s conference is expanding to include all electronic musical instruments that feature the Continuum’s internal sound engine, the EaganMatrix. This includes:
The new Expressive E Osmose synthesizer;
The Continuum Fingerboard;
The ContinuuMini; and
The EaganMatrix Module for Eurorack modular systems.
As in previous years, the conference offers attendees a chance to explore these uniquely expressive electronic instruments through presentations, performances, and hands-on experience.
ContinuuCon 2023 is timed to start on May 17th, four days after Superbooth ends in Berlin. This will make it possible for musicians to extend their European trip and experience both the latest in electronic music gear and the state-of-the-art in expressive electronic instruments.
Over the following two days, Continuum and Osmose experts and master musicians will present lectures and demos at the Palmela Public Library.
University of Illinois professor Dr. Lippold Haken and Canadian film and TV composer Edmund Eagan – developers of the EaganMatrix and the Continuum family of instruments – will be on hand throughout the event, along with Expressive E and other experts on expressive instruments.
Haken Continuum players include Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi, Brazilian electro-acoustic musician Amon Tobin, film composer A.R. Rahman, Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and The Who’s Pete Townshend. “I absolutely adore it,” explains Townshend. “The Continuum is already inspiring me to new ideas.”
About Palmela, Portugal
Approximately 25 miles from Lisbon, the city of Palmela features art, nature, heritage, gastronomy, award-winning wines, arts and crafts, and nearby, the beautiful beaches of the Arrábida, making it an excellent location for ContinuuCon.
For tickets, more information, and videos of past events, visit the website continuucon.com.
