WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

The new Jam X will have guitarists experiencing their instruments in a whole new way, so says Apogee. It features a built-in compressor with three levels of gain and more tone-shaping than you should really expect from an interface of this size.

The original Jam was released as long ago as 2010, but so successful that the company has released several updates and additions to the Jam line, the collection of which should surely be called ‘jar’. Jam X is the latest and still manages to include something not done by its predecessors or, Apogee claims, anyone else.

Jam X squeezes an analogue compressor into its diminutive form which, after guitarists plug it into their iOS device or computer, will enable them to shape their tone. However, it also adds three presets – Smooth Leveler, Purple Squeeze, and Vintage Blue Stomp – to dictate how much you drive the input gain, from subtle to extreme.

This gives you extra shaping power over your sound before it’s even reached any virtual amp sims you might be sending it too. Apogee says that with this at the front of the signal chain, guitarists will experience added sustain and dynamics, or can use Jam X to fatten up weaker source sounds.

It is a layer of extra flexibility that should make Jam X stand out from quite a crowded sector of the market – the iOS and computer interface market is certainly a bustling place to be. And other features like Blend mode, which cuts out latency when recording, plus sample rates up to 96kHz and “ample headroom” – not to mention those cool, gold looks – should keep Jam line going strong.

Jam X works with PCs, Macs and iOS devices with type C ports. And you don’t have to use it just to record guitars. Plug in your bass, keyboard, synth, or any acoustic instrument with a pickup.

The Jam X retails for £/$199 and you can get more information from the Apogee website.

Ahead of the 2023 NAMM Show, Polish hardware developer Polyend has announced the Polyend Tracker Mini, a portable production workstation that builds on the success of their original Tracker.

Polyend says that the Tracker Mini is smaller, lighter, and more powerful than its predecessor. New features include stereo sample playback, audio over USB, a high-quality onboard microphone, and an onboard battery. The Mini also features lower latency and a faster CPU.

Polyend says that they listened to feedback from users of the original Tracker and incorporated popular feature requests into the Mini, including upgraded headroom, easier project management, and a refined signal path for more transparent audio playback.

“The Polyend Tracker Mini is the portable instrument that I’ve been dreaming of for years,” says Polyend CEO Piotr Raczynski. “I’ve been using trackers since I was eleven, and I’ve always thought the interface was perfect as a travel companion. Before the original tracker was created, we started developing the platform as a portable battery-powered unit. Part delays and sourcing issues made us switch gears, so we built the original tracker in desktop format. The original Tracker was received so well that we extended development time and upgraded the Mini. Now we have a portable tracker that is more powerful, with a lot of room for us to continue to develop the tracker and add new features well into the future. Mini is easy to use and suitable for both experienced and novice music producers”, and that, “its workflow is easy to pick up, allowing you to get creative in no time”.

Tracker Mini certainly looks the part, and even though it is designed to be a handheld device – to the point where it resembles a Game Boy-style video game – that large screen should make it great fun to work with. And as it is more mobile and powerful than the original, we can almost forgive the price hike.

The Polyend Tracker Mini is available for pre-order now, priced at $699/€699 , with orders shipping July 12, 2023.

Organizers of the New England Synth Fest, a free event for synthesists and electronic music fans, have announced plans for Spring 2023 event.

New England Synth Fest will be held Saturday, April 22, 12pm to 6pm, in Burlington, Massachusetts, and will feature a day of live music, video art, vendors, exhibitors, lectures, a jam room, and a ‘synthesizer petting zoo’.

The event will feature live music from Christina Shivers, Deftly Demolition, Jade Rose, Metal Tiger, Michael William Gilbert, Repairer of Reputations, Sean Stover, Sherisa Sterling, SHERMVN, s0ak, Thyme & Place, and Tom Eaton. They will be accompanied with live visualization art from Allison Tanenhaus, Anagram, coolpics.biz, Jame Coyne, SunJessie, Vidumami, and others.

Also featured will be lectures and talks from Piotr Rotkiewicz, Robyn Alman, Alex Bernhardt, Michael Bierylo, Collin Russell, Peter Raffensperger, Luke Stark, Gerry Bassermann, Joe Paradiso, and Randel Osborne.

There will be a “Jam Room” brought to you by Circuit Happy, using shared CV/MIDI clock on their Missing Link hardware.

Exhibitors include Circuit Happy, Cyran Makes Music, Sequential, Source Audio, Superlative, and Tall Dog Electronics and others.

Admission is free. Check the New England Synth Fest website for details.