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

Melbourne Instruments has announced a free update for its NINA synthesizer that adds a multi-track sequencer and more.

NINA’s major new firmware update introduces a new polyphonic, polymeter sequencer, with per-step parameter locking and front panel automation, powered by Melbourne Instrument’s motorized knob technology.

The update also adds 64 new noise sources to NINA’s synth engine, expanding the possibilities for greater sound design. The new noise sources include various percussion hits, digital, metal and assorted noise types, as one-shot or loops.

The new sequencer mode also adds time-based features like shuffle, micro-timing, clock multiplication, variable gate lengths, and probability options. The Multi-Track Sequencer mode is optimized for stand-alone use and as a powerful instrument when synchronized with other gear.

New Multi-Track Sequencer Features:

• 4-track sequencer, up to 64 steps available per track.
• Polymeter sequencing: each track can have different step lengths.
• Assignable polyphonic voices per track, up to 12 voices available.
• Polyphonic sequencing – allows for chords per step.
• Per-step front panel parameter locking with instant recall and motorized automation feedback.
• Live automation recording of front panel knobs.
• 64 new noise types for greater sound design possibilities. Includes various percussion hits, digital, metal and noise types for creating more percussive sounds.
• Different noise sources can be parameter locked per step.
• NINA’s powerful Morph feature available per step, providing more vast timbral possibilities.
• Timing options include shuffle, micro-timing, clock multiplication, gate length and probability (per step and per track).
• Internal storage for more than 4000 patterns.
• Perform and chain up to 16 patterns with user definable pattern lengths, up to 512 steps.

The firmware update is available now as a beta release at the MI site.

Ever want to make music making easier and more fun (while sounding great) Sugar Bytes has just announced their latest creation, Dialekt, a new music making platform for PC, Mac and iOS.

There are multiple sound engines inside, built-in effects and a flexible sequencer – everything you need, in other words, to make an entire track in one app without any other gear and wherever inspiration strikes.

And should that inspiration be giving you the slip, perhaps the most intriguing of Dialekt’s features is its Song Randomizer, which Sugar Bytes promises will generate sequences and sounds based on user-selected genre settings. There’s no mention of the magic ‘AI’ word here but it looks like those wishing to make music without having to do any of the fiddly heavy-lifting of playing or programming just got another string to their bow.

Sugar Bytes says that Dialekt will enable you to create unique and professional tracks “in seconds”, being “perfect for sketching, jamming, or performing live”.

Dialekt boasts an impressive 27 distinctive sound engines including synths, drum machines and samplers. The desktop version even features a sample slicer with recording capabilities.

There’s everything from classic oscillator-based synthesis to dynamic, physical tones – from the piano, organ, string, flute and vocal sounds – to percussive elements and drum sounds.

Hear examples of what Dialekt can do here:

And when you’ve got the bare bones together on your mobile you can then seamlessly transfer them to your studio computer for further refinement.

Dialekt’s 8-track sequencer features a “Sound per Step feature”, whereby each synth parameter can be assigned to individual sequencer steps, providing full control over every detail as your track plays and loops.

And that Randomizer can create single tracks, parts, or whole songs, conjuring up patterns, sounds, chord progressions, fills, mute and FX sequences in “various genres” which can be applied to individual elements like sounds, patterns, and pitches or to global parameters.

It’s all quite the bundle and all presented with an ease-of-use factor that we can’t wait to pick up and play.

Dialekt is $99 on desktop and free on mobile (with in-app purchases).

Find out more on Sugar Bytes site.

Ahead of Superbooth 2025, being held May 8-10 at the FEZ-Berlin, Tiptop Audio & Buchla USA have introduced two new modules in their line of Euro-format reissues of classic 200 series module designs.

The new modules include the Multiple Arbitrary Function Generator Model 248t & the Triple Envelope Follower Model 230t.

The Multiple Arbitrary Function Generator Model 248t or MARF has been described as “The Holy Grail of West Coast signal creation”.

It offers up to 32 stages of voltage storage, which can be used for many ‘arbitrary’ purposes. So you can use it as a sequencer, envelope generator, voltage processor and many other things.

The second module is the Triple Envelope Follower Model 230t, right, which produces three sets of control voltages and pulses, relative to amplitude of the signal inputs.

The 230t translates your input signal into control voltage and pulse outputs. Sensitivity and decay time can be adjusted per channel.

Buchla’s Series 200, “The Electric Music Box”, is a collection of modules, introduced in the early ’70s, that was designed to scale from portable systems, like the Music Easel, to very large modular systems. Tiptop Audio’s 200t series features recreations of the original designs, but adapted to Eurorack format.

Details on pricing and availability for the two new modules are to come at the Tiptop Audio site.