Archive for March, 2024

Roland Announces GO-KEYS 3 & GO-KEYS 5 Music Creation Keyboards


Fun, Powerful, and Portable Instruments with Engaging Features That Inspire Music Fans to Create Their Own Compositions.

It has been almost seven years since the release of the original GO:KEYS –and also its sister product, the GO:PIANO.

Roland today announces the GO:KEYS 3 and GO:KEYS 5 Music Creation Keyboards, two portable instruments filled with intuitive tools for learning and enjoying music. These fun modern keyboards unlock a simple new approach to making music, encouraging users to explore sounds and ideas in the moment, with no previous experience required. And as skills develop, deeper features allow them to travel as far as their ambition takes them.

The new GO:KEYS 3 and 5 ‘music creation’ keyboards are designed to be played by anyone. They can be played like any other keyboards, if you wish – each model contains more than 1,000 sounds – but there are also a variety of features that provide varying levels of musical assistance.

These include ready-made chord progressions in a variety of styles so that you can play over the top of them, plus the option to create your own. These backing parts can also be ‘remixed’, and you can apply effects.

There are also dynamic accompaniment options that can be controlled with one or two fingers in the left hand as you play chords, melodies and solos with your right; a contemporary twist on the auto-accompaniment features that were found in home keyboards of yesteryear, it seems.

The streamlined GO:KEYS 3 offers a Zen-Core feature set with a touch-sensitive 61-note keyboard and an onboard stereo speaker system. GO:KEYS 5 includes all the primary features of its sibling, plus a speaker system with extended bass response, a mic input with vocal effects, and enhanced audio connectivity.

The GO:KEYS 3 and GO:KEYS 5 have velocity-sensitive, 61-note keyboards and built-in speaker systems. They share the same core functionality, but the ‘passive radiator’ speaker system on the 5 promises extended bass response, and this model also comes with a mic input, vocal effects and enhanced audio connectivity.

Both models have Bluetooth support, though – for audio and MIDI – and both are compatible with the Roland Cloud subscription service, which serves as a portal to more sounds and accompaniment styles. There’s support for Roland Cloud Connect as well, a wireless adapter that enables you to browse, audition and download your content via a smartphone or tablet.

The Roland GO:KEYS 3 is available now in turquoise, dark red and midnight blue colour options, and costs $349.99. The GO:KEYS 5 is offered in graphite and white and costs $499.99. Find out more on the Roland website.

Synthfest Returns to Nantes, France, April 19 – 21 2024


Organizers of Synthfest France let us know that this year’s event will be held in Nantes on April 19/20/21, at the same location as last year.

The event features a trade show, presentations, tutorials, live performances and more. In addition, the event will again feature a Tombola (raffle), with some great prizes, including an Osmose, EssenceFM, Eagan Matrix Module, Wofi and more.

This year’s event will include a presentation by developer and inventor Christophe Duquesne, who will discuss the synths of Hans Zimmer’s Dune 2 soundtrack.

Preview of what you can expect to see at Synthfest:

Confirmed participants include:

1010music

Adam

Alexis Faucomprez

Algam

Arnold Turboust

Arturia

Axel Fischer

Baloran

BLL instruments

BVR instruments

Charlotte Dubois

Chris Calcutt

Christian Lamalle

Christophe Duquesne

CSFI

Cynthia Caubisens

Datafone Studio

DeLaurentis

Embodme

Enjoy Electronics

Eric Joly

Expressive E

Faselunare

Fcpro.Audio

Filling Distribution

Francis Rimbert

François Bréant

Frédéric Renaudin

Fred’s Lab

Fulgur audio

Guillaume Bonneau

Haken Audio

Heritage Synthesizers

HLabs

Jean-Claude Dubois

Jean-Marc Tournier

Jean-Yves D’Angelo

Jérôme Bridonneau

Joranalogue

Kaona

Kiviak Instruments

Kodamo

Korg

KR Home-Studio

Kurt Ader

L1V3

La Voix du Luthier

Larix-elektro

Laurent Evain

Laurent Juillet

Louis Penalva & Xavier Laufenberg

Man behind the machines

Marc Caro

Manfred Veber

Michael Geyre

Michel Deuchst

Michel Geiss

Morphor

Nanopolis

Nord

Nori Ubukata

Novation

NRSynth

Oberheim

Odalie

Olivier Delevingne

Olivier Grall

PH Modular

Philippe Brodu

Piano de Voyage

Piano LED

Process Formation

Projet Home Studio

PWM

SACEM

SawUp

Schmidt

Sequential

Shure

Sifasile

SoundMit

SSL

SynthFood

SynthR

Tao Boisserie & Maxime Thaveron

Theresyn

Thierry Demougin

Thierry Rochebois

This Is Not Rocket Science

Tinhu

Touellskouarn

TriaR-X Synth Project

UNAC

Université d’Angers

UVI

Vanessa Bertran

Vika Yermolyeva

Vintage Synth&Co

Wally Badarou

Wee Noise Makers

Woodbrass

Yves Usson

Details and a full schedule of events are available at the event website. Tickets are also now available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Hardwell Producer Pack For GarageBand & Logic Pro for iPad


Hardwell has become the latest artist to release a Producer Pack for the iOS versions of GarageBand and Logic Pro for iPad. His free content bundle includes more than 400 Apple Loops, five drum kits, more than 40 Alchemy synth patches and a Live Loops grid, all ready to be used in Apple’s mobile music-making apps.

“I’ve never shared my sound design secrets,” says Hardwell, but with his free Apple Producer Pack for GarageBand iOS and Logic Pro for iPad, he’s breaking that habit.

Dutch DJ/producer Hardwell has established himself as one of the biggest names in big-room EDM, collaborating with a slew of famous artists, remixing the likes of Rihanna and Coldplay and headlining festivals around the world.

“I’m obsessed with making kick drums,” says the Dutch EDM maven, and now he’s giving you a load of them to use in your own music.

Looking back across his career, Hardwell says: “When I started as a producer, the samples never sounded the way I heard them in my head, so from that point on I started developing my sound design skills. I just started to watch tutorials, read about it; how compressors work and all that, and making my own samples, especially kick drums. I’m obsessed with making kick drums.”

Hardwell goes on to explain that, in dance music, the kick drum is the “fundamental of the whole song,” adding that, “writing chords and melodies, I’m not thinking ‘oh, those chords should be really next level, something that people have never heard before’, so it can something really familiar or something really new, as long as the emotion is there.”

One his collaboration with Apple, Hardwell adds that “I’ve never shared my sound design secrets – this is the first time I’ve released a proper sample pack. If you’re a beginner and you download this pack, just start messing around with it. Everything is set to go – you can just drag and drop loops and use them in all your productions.”

You can download the hardwell Producer Pack from inside the iOS versions of GarageBand and Logic Pro for iPad. For more information visit this link.