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

Developers of the Zynthian – an open hardware platform that promises to be a ‘swiss army knife of synthesis’ – have announced Zynthian Kit V5.

Zynthian 5 is a standalone, open-source music-making device that contains 50 synth engines and 100s of effects.

ZynthianLabs has introduced Zynthian Kit V5, which they say offers more display, more buttons, more connectivity, more power, more usability, more design, more quality and more integration.

First seen back in 2016, Zynthian is a different kind of standalone music-making device in that it’s completely open-source. Built around a Raspberry Pi and Open Hardware, it’s upgradable, adaptable and repairable, and has now been updated to version 5.

The new version of Zynthian has a redesigned physical enclosure that contains a 5-inch multitouch display, a bank of buttons and four controller knobs. It contains a wealth of instrument and effect engines, all based on free Linux plugins.

The engines include emulations of essential instruments and synths (piano, Rhodes, Wurly, Minimoog, DX7, Oberheim OB-X, etc) and there’s also SoundFont support. In fact, a 4GB collection of SoundFonts comes pre-installed.

If you want to make music directly on the device, you can do so via the step sequencer. Additionally, there’s a live looping sampler and audio/MIDI recorder/player, plus support for multitrack audio recording.

Zynthian Kit V5 enables you to create up to 16 chains and has a built-in mixer. Connectivity options include audio, MIDI, USB and Ethernet, enabling you easily use it as a keyboard expander for live work, a standalone effects processor or a synth that you can incorporate into your existing DAW-based setup.

ZynthianLabs says that they are limiting purchases of the Zynthian Kit V5 to a small group, initially, so that they can validate both the Kit and the assembling instructions before opening sales to everyone.

The Zynthian Kit V5 costs €490 exclude VAT without a Raspberry Pi and €570 exclude VAT with one (version 4, 4GB). Find out more on the Zynthian website.

JMK Music Pedals, the makers of the CLOCKstep – a MIDI clock, transport control and metronome source pedal for live performance – has introduced a new member of their synchronization family: CLOCKstep:MULTI.

This new version of CLOCKstep tackles the complexities of bridging Sync and Transport communication between DAWs, MIDI Devices and Modular systems. It includes connections for 24 PPQN Audio In Sync, MIDI DIN, MIDI USB, MIDI TRS, and seven 0/+5 Volt outputs commonly used with Eurorack and analog synths.

A built-in Audio Metronome on board gives musicians an accurate Click Track for monitoring tempo.

Features:

• Internal Clock to drive MIDI, Voltage and Audio Sync Signals.
• Follow External Clock from a Sample Accurate Audio source or MIDI.
• MIDI DIN, TRS and USB Interfaces (including Soft Thru).
• 5mm Patch Bay on Top for +5 Volt Sync (x2) and various Play/Start/Stop/Reset Gate and Trigger methods.
• Independent Sync Trigger Rates, including Triplet Timings (non-whole value rates) for some interesting, musical results without having to change BPM or switch sequences.
• Five (5) Transport Modes that vary how the Transport and Clock interact.
• Tap Tempo and BPM Keypad for entering precise tempos and executing them at an exact instant. BPM Keypad can be used to view current BPM.
• Support for BPM values that include 1 decimal point.
• Audio Metronome Click with 16 sound options, dynamic volume settings between Quarter, 8th and 16th note, Triplet mode and Time Signatures.
• A full MIDI Implementation for controlling all aspects of the device with external MIDI.
• Preset Storage with instant save and recall.

The CLOCKstep: MULTI is available to pre-order now, with an intro price of $189. Shipping is expected to begin in August.

Synthesist Floyd Steinberg, in his latest video takes a look at the Alles mesh networking synthesizer for the Raspberry Pi – a many-speaker distributed music synthesizer, using UDP multicast over WiFi.

“In this video, I install the opensource software version of the “Alles” networking synthesizer on a Raspberry Pi,” notes Steinberg, “and do some Python programming to create a network of synthesizers, playing a very specific, well-known song.”

While Steinberg’s demo uses well-known song, he notes that the idea of a ‘mesh networking synthesizer’ could be ideal for creating original public music installations.

Source code and project details for Alles are available in Github.

Topics covered:

00:00 hello

00:30 what is the Alles mesh synth?

01:35 hardware needed

01:48 installing & compiling

02:28 programming in Python

03:12 sampled sounds and oscillator basics

04:12 playing back your music

04:31 quick and dirty sequencing using arrays and timers (not the recommended way* )

05:04 using the virtual analog synth to play back a bass line

06:14 some very important things & shoutouts

06:54 programming the chord progression

07:58 addressing individual synths to play back sounds on a certain speaker

09:01 conclusion

09:41 bye-bye